Phageswat

Commander / EDH* Budget Combo Jank Mono-Black Voltron

darkPrince010

Land (38)

• 1x Arch of Orazca
• 1x Ash Barrens
• 1x Barren Moor
• 1x Blasted Landscape
• 1x Bottomless Vault
• 1x Buried Ruin
• 1x Cabal Stronghold
• 1x Command Beacon
• 1x Crystal Vein
• 1x Ebon Stronghold
• 1x Emergence Zone
• 1x Everglades
• 1x Forge of Heroes
• 1x Haunted Fengraf
• 1x Mortuary Mire
• 1x Myriad Landscape
• 1x Mystifying Maze
• 1x Peat Bog
• 1x Polluted Mire
• 1x Rogue's Passage
• 1x Sequestered Stash
• 1x Spawning Bed
• 1x Subterranean Hangar
• 14x Swamp
• 1x Temple of the False God

Instant (9)

• 1x Culling the Weak
• 1x Dark Ritual
• 1x Fated Return
• 1x Grave Birthing
• 1x Sacrifice
• 1x Silence the Believers
• 1x Stunning Reversal
• 1x Warping Wail
• 1x Withering Boon

Artifact (21)

• 1x Altar of Shadows
• 1x Astrolabe
• 1x Dowsing Dagger  ^Flip
• 1x Dreamstone Hedron
• 1x Hedron Archive
• 1x Key to the City
• 1x Kyren Toy
• 1x Lotus Blossom
• 1x Mask of Avacyn
• 1x Mind Stone
• 1x Prowler's Helm
• 1x Prying Blade
• 1x Sisay's Ring
• 1x Skull of Ramos
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Sundial of the Infinite
• 1x Torpor Orb
• 1x Unstable Obelisk
• 1x Ventifact Bottle
• 1x Whispersilk Cloak
• 1x Worn Powerstone

Creature (12)

• 1x Archfiend of Depravity
• 1x Basal Thrull
• 1x Blood Pet
• 1x King Macar, the Gold-Cursed
• 1x Palladium Myr
• 1x Pitiless Plunderer
• 1x Plague Myr
• 1x Platinum Angel
• 1x Royal Assassin
• 1x Sifter of Skulls
• 1x Soldevi Adnate
• 1x Thrull Wizard

Commander (1)

Sorcery (14)

• 1x Behold the Beyond
• 1x Bubbling Muck
• 1x Contract Killing
• 1x Corpsehatch
• 1x Dark Petition
• 1x Demonic Collusion
• 1x Diabolic Revelation
• 1x Diabolic Tutor
• 1x Fortuitous Find
• 1x Gild
• 1x In Garruk's Wake
• 1x Increasing Ambition
• 1x Killing Wave
• 1x Mutilate

Enchantment (5)

• 1x Dauthi Embrace
• 1x Dragon Shadow
• 1x Endless Whispers
• 1x Lich's Mastery
• 1x Palace Siege

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Maybeboard

Artifact (39)

• 1x Astral Cornucopia
• 1x Azor's Gateway  ^Flip
• 1x Basalt Monolith
• 1x Blade of Selves
• 1x Caged Sun
• 1x Charcoal Diamond
• 1x Chariot of Victory
• 1x Darksteel Plate
• 1x Doubling Cube
• 1x Dowsing Dagger  ^Flip
• 1x Dreamstone Hedron
• 1x Elbrus, the Binding Blade  ^Flip
• 1x Everflowing Chalice
• 1x Firemind Vessel
• 1x Gauntlet of Power
• 1x Gilded Lotus
• 1x Grim Monolith
• 1x Hammer of Nazahn
• 1x Haunted Cloak
• 1x Helm of the Host
• 1x Lich's Mirror
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Lotus Bloom
• 1x Lotus Petal
• 1x Loxodon Warhammer
• 1x Mind Stone
• 1x Minion Reflector
• 1x Mirage Mirror
• 1x Mirror of the Forebears
• 1x Orazca Relic
• 1x Paradise Mantle
• 1x Pyramid of the Pantheon
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots
• 1x Sword of Vengeance
• 1x Thran Turbine
• 1x Trailblazer's Boots
• 1x Treasure Map  ^Flip
• 1x Ur-Golem's Eye
• 1x Worn Powerstone

Sorcery (6)

• 1x Dirge of Dread
• 1x Liturgy of Blood
• 1x Read the Bones
• 1x Sign in Blood
• 1x Skittering Invasion
• 1x Syphon Mind

Land (37)

• 1x Azorius Guildgate
• 1x Boros Guildgate
• 1x Boseiju, Who Shelters All
• 1x Cabal Coffers
• 1x Cathedral of War
• 1x City of Shadows
• 1x Crypt of Agadeem
• 1x Dimir Guildgate
• 1x Golgari Guildgate
• 1x Gruul Guildgate
• 1x Hall of the Bandit Lord
• 1x Homeward Path
• 1x Isolated Watchtower
• 1x Izzet Guildgate
• 1x Lotus Vale
• 1x Maze's End
• 1x Mirrorpool
• 1x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• 1x Orzhov Guildgate
• 1x Phyrexian Tower
• 1x Rakdos Guildgate
• 1x Selesnya Guildgate
• 1x Sequestered Stash
• 1x Shizo, Death's Storehouse
• 1x Simic Guildgate
• 2x Terrain Generator
• 1x Tower of the Magistrate
• 1x Untaidake, the Cloud Keeper
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 2x Urza's Mine
• 2x Urza's Power Plant
• 2x Urza's Tower
• 1x Westvale Abbey  ^Flip

Instant (12)

• 1x Cabal Ritual
• 1x Dark Ritual
• 1x Doom Blade
• 1x Murder
• 1x Rain of Filth
• 1x Renegade's Getaway
• 1x Rush of Vitality
• 1x Songs of the Damned
• 1x Spoils of Evil
• 1x Succumb to Temptation
• 1x Sudden Spoiling
• 1x Unlikely Aid

Creature (32)

• 1x Avatar of Woe
• 1x Banshee of the Dread Choir
• 1x Basal Sliver
• 1x Blood Vassal
• 1x Bloodgift Demon
• 1x Bog Witch
• 1x Burnished Hart
• 1x Carrier Thrall
• 1x Cathodion
• 1x Crypt Ghast
• 1x Dire Fleet Hoarder
• 1x Dreamstealer
• 1x Gonti, Lord of Luxury
• 1x Gray Merchant of Asphodel
• 1x Harvester of Souls
• 1x Hedron Crawler
• 1x Kozilek's Channeler
• 1x Leaden Myr
• 1x Magus of the Coffers
• 1x Manakin
• 1x Nirkana Revenant
• 1x Opaline Unicorn
• 1x Overeager Apprentice
• 1x Pawn of Ulamog
• 1x Priest of Gix
• 1x Priest of Yawgmoth
• 1x Ruthless Knave
• 1x Su-Chi
• 1x Tree of Perdition
• 1x Vampire Nighthawk
• 1x Visara the Dreadful
• 1x Workhorse

Enchantment (7)

• 1x Black Market
• 1x Curse of Vengeance
• 1x Grave Betrayal
• 1x Measure of Wickedness
• 1x Revel in Riches
• 1x Triskaidekaphobia
• 1x Underworld Connections

Planeswalker (2)

• 1x Liliana of the Dark Realms
• 1x Vraska, Scheming Gorgon

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An attempt to sketch out a somewhat budget-friendly Phage deck, focused around trying to fudge her into play ASAP and swat everyone for a janky victory. Deck originally adapted from

10 deck strategies:

1. Win Condition: Getting A) Phage onto the battlefield, probably from my command zone, and B) Not losing horribly and immediately as a result. While expensive, it means Torpor Orb , Platinum Angel , and Command Beacon are unavoidable costs for this deck and account for ~$33 of what could otherwise be a $100ish deck

2. Mana Ramp: Self-explanatory, and easier to do in monoblack. Phage is an expensive missus, and the deck has enough moving parts that a heavy dollop of black mana should help grease the wheels nicely.

3. Tutor: Self-explanatory. This is a combo deck, so we need all our bits in order.

4. Insurance: Should Phage do the unthinkable and kick the bucket before she's swatted everyone (or, more likely, one of the important CYA artifacts is smoked), these help us get her into hand to cast the old-fashioned way.

5. Backup Win Condition: If the further unthinkable should happen and Phage is A) on the stack and B) our CYA artifacts are otherwise indisposed, these offer some options to not instantly need to scoop. This includes Endless Whispers , to make sure anyone aiming to kill Phage suffers for the offense.

6. Protection: Everyone and their cousin will be trying to reduce Phage to ash before she can commence Swatageddon, so hexproof and/or shroud and/or indestructability will be invaluable. This includes Homeward Path to prevent rudeness like control spells.

7. Evasion: While she can smush anything she fights, a 4/4 isn't the greatest of statlines, and the longer she's swinging to clear one mook at a time, the longer everyone has to fish kill spells to deal with her. Giving her unblockability helps make sure she's effective right off the bat.

8. Kill: Sometimes someone else will do something mean and play a creature we dislike. Rather than sully Phage herself with dealing with it, we've brought a swiss army knife variety of kill and exile options.

9. Wave Clear: For when there's lots of junk in the way, and Phage is in danger or our evasion just isn't making itself known.

10. Dupes: If we went to all the above effort to make sure Phage is in play despite the seeming impossibility as a commander, we might as well make use of our efforts and make lots of copies of her as often as possible to hit everyone else with. As an added bonus, these are so pants-soilingly terrifying with Phage's abilities that they'll likely draw artifact-killing heat away from the essential don't-lose-instantly cogs of this combo.

11. Misc: A whole fat stack of swamps, and a Dreamstealer for some combat damage fun, a Banshee of the Dread Choir for some myriad fun, and a Gonti, Lord of Luxury to take some advantage of the huge stack of mana we'll likely have ready to use in the turns before Phage is ready to enter herself.

Maybeboard highlights:

• Card Draw as an alternate deck strategy. Probably not as valuable as tutor and making the most of protecting phage, but could potentially replace something like Wave Clear and supplement the deck's Tutoring while also making use of the ginormous mana base.

• More Evasion strategy options, these mostly relating to trample or Fear. Still, it's better to not allow the opportunity to be blocked at all, so they're out in favor of shadow and traditional unblockability.

• Alternate Win Conditions include Withengar Unbound , taking advantage of killing numerous players to make him a huge scary monster. Still, in Commander a single non-hexproofed creature is an easy kill spell target and he's not a lynchpin to any deck strats so out he goes. Tree of Perdition plus Triskaidekaphobia seemed like a hilarious opportunity, but not a must-have combo and an additional $7 that the deck doesn't need necessarily. These might go in to replace some or all of the Misc cards though, along with Vraska to provide all my creatures opportunities to OHKO my foes.

• Some more Protection options, of the flavor of instant-speed indestructibility until end of turn. These are nice, but I wanted to favor stuff that stuck around longer, since Phage will probably have to weather multiple turns of concentrated hate as soon as she hits the table.

• The Mana Ramp cards not included in the main deck are mainly due to either not being as ridiculously-optimal for monoblack, or not being as ideal of a fit for the overall mana curve as some other options I added instead.

Date added	5 years
Last updated	4 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	5 - 0 Mythic Rares 29 - 0 Rares 32 - 0 Uncommons 20 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.47
Tokens	City's Blessing, Eldrazi Scion 1/1 C, Eldrazi Spawn 0/1 C, Gold, Plant 0/2 G, Treasure
Folders	Wants