The Grand Evolution (Phyrexian Primer v1.0)

Commander / EDH Artifact GWUB Infect Multiplayer Phyrexian Praetor Theme/Gimmick

philsonwilson

Creature (36)

• 1x Blight Mamba
• 1x Blighted Agent
• 1x Blightsteel Colossus
• 1x Core Prowler
• 1x Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
• 1x Geth, Lord of the Vault
• 1x Glissa, the Traitor *oversized*
• 1x Glistener Elf
• 1x Hand of the Praetors
• 1x Ichor Rats
• 1x Ichorclaw Myr
• 1x Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur
• 1x Jin-Gitaxias, Progress Tyrant
• 1x Massacre Wurm
• 1x Necropede
• 1x Phyrexian Crusader
• 1x Phyrexian Delver
• 1x Phyrexian Gargantua
• 1x Phyrexian Juggernaut
• 1x Phyrexian Metamorph
• 1x Phyrexian Obliterator
• 1x Phyrexian Rager
• 1x Phyrexian Swarmlord
• 1x Plague Myr
• 1x Plague Stinger
• 1x Putrefax
• 1x Reaper of Sheoldred
• 1x Sheoldred, Whispering One
• 1x Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon
• 1x Soul of New Phyrexia
• 1x Spellskite
• 1x Viral Drake
• 1x Viridian Corrupter
• 1x Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider
• 1x Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger
• 1x Yawgmoth, Thran Physician

Land (34)

• 1x Arcane Sanctum
• 1x Blooming Marsh
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Concealed Courtyard
• 1x Deserted Beach
• 3x Forest
• 1x Glacial Fortress
• 1x Hinterland Harbor
• 3x Island
• 1x Isolated Chapel
• 1x Opulent Palace
• 1x Phyrexian Tower
• 1x Plains
• 1x Rupture Spire
• 1x Sandsteppe Citadel
• 1x Seaside Citadel
• 1x Shipwreck Marsh
• 8x Swamp
• 1x Temple of Deceit
• 1x Temple of Enlightenment
• 1x Temple of Malady
• 1x Temple of Mystery
• 1x Woodland Cemetery

Enchantment (7)

• 1x Corrupted Conscience
• 1x Glistening Oil
• 1x Inexorable Tide
• 1x Phyresis
• 1x Phyrexian Arena
• 1x Phyrexian Unlife
• 1x Yawgmoth's Agenda

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Tamiyo, Compleated Sage

Commander (1)

Artifact (8)

• 1x Commander's Sphere
• 1x Contagion Engine
• 1x Darksteel Ingot
• 1x Grafted Exoskeleton
• 1x Norn's Annex
• 1x Phyrexian Processor
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Thran Temporal Gateway

Sorcery (8)

• 1x Black Sun's Zenith
• 1x Caress of Phyrexia
• 1x Gruesome Encore
• 1x Phyrexian Rebirth
• 1x Tezzeret's Gambit
• 1x Toxic Deluge
• 1x Triumph of the Hordes
• 1x Yawgmoth's Vile Offering

Instant (5)

• 1x Beast Within
• 1x Dismember
• 1x Noxious Revival
• 1x Tainted Strike
• 1x Weather the Storm

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Sideboard

Creature (12)

• 1x Armored Scrapgorger
• 1x Bloated Contaminator
• 1x Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines
• 1x Glissa Sunslayer
• 1x Grafted Butcher
• 1x Kinzu of the Bleak Coven
• 1x Phyrexian Vindicator
• 1x Rona, Herald of Invasion  ^Flip
• 1x Sheoldred  ^Flip
• 1x Skrelv, Defector Mite
• 1x Tyrranax Rex
• 1x Venerated Rotpriest

Planeswalker (2)

• 1x Nissa, Ascended Animist
• 1x Vraska, Betrayal's Sting

Enchantment (2)

• 1x Gift of Compleation
• 1x Skrelv's Hive

Artifact (1)

• 1x Realmbreaker, the Invasion Tree

Land (2)

• 1x Mirrex
• 1x The Mycosynth Gardens

Sorcery (2)

• 1x Breach the Multiverse
• 1x White Sun's Twilight

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Maybeboard

Creature (12)

• 1x Aron, Benalia's Ruin
• 1x Elas il-Kor, Sadistic Pilgrim
• 1x Ertai Resurrected
• 1x First-Sphere Gargantua
• 1x Gix, Yawgmoth Praetor
• 1x Heliod, the Radiant Dawn  ^Flip
• 1x Phyrexian Fleshgorger
• 1x Phyrexian Vivisector
• 1x Ria Ivor, Bane of Bladehold
• 1x Sheoldred, the Apocalypse
• 1x Vorinclex  ^Flip
• 1x Zopandrel, Hunger Dominus

Enchantment (4)

• 1x Phyrexian Awakening
• 1x Phyrexian Reclamation
• 1x The Cruelty of Gix
• 1x Thran Vigil

Planeswalker (2)

• 1x Ajani, Sleeper Agent
• 1x Jace, the Perfected Mind

Artifact (4)

• 1x Mindsplice Apparatus
• 1x Norn's Wellspring
• 1x Portal to Phyrexia
• 1x Weatherlight Compleated

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Phyrexia Invades the Multiverse

With the ever growing threat of New Phyrexia, I wanted to create a deck leaning heavy into the flavour and theme of Yawgmoth's favourites.

If you're a lore nerd like me, check out my other flavour-first deck In Defence of Halcyon, a deck lead by Rebbec and Glacian imitating the city they built together.

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Introduction

From void evolved Phyrexia. Great Yawgmoth, Father of Machines, saw its perfection. Thus the Grand Evolution began.

-Phyrexian Scriptures.

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The Deck

As mentioned, this is a thematic deck with flavour at the forefront - but that isn't to say it is pure casual without any chance of a win. Infect is clearly a subtheme, and I wanted to included every version of the Praetors (this might change however, as having all 8 might not be viable in either money or deckbuilding).

There's a few cards that are inlcuded for budget that I plan to replace further down the line - though I'll go into specifics later, specifically the Temple's and other cheaper lands in the mana base are first in lin to be removed.

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The Gameplay

The groups I usually play with prefer longer games, a few beers and chit chat throughout, so I don't actively try to make a deck that will pop off and win by turn 5 (which also plays well with the notion of flavour-first). We usually end up with silly board states, convoluted politics and many missed triggers, so the decks are usually crammed with fun cards.

Win Cons

In a turn of events surprising no one, Infect is our main win condition. There are other ways to win outside of that, the first doesn’t stray far though… Triumph of the Hordes - arguably the best sorcery every printed for creature decks. Many of ours already have infect, but now they all do, as well as the +1/+1 and Trample to really push us over the edge. Some would say a win-more card, I say - yes?

Phyrexian Swarmlord will win you a surprising amount of games. Actually, is it surprising? I have no idea. Anyway - if it isn't dealt with immediately and you can untap it spirals very, very quickly. If it is dealt with, the rest of your big threats have less to worry about

Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger, Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur, Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite all have similar effects that can make opponents scoop, or just put them too far behind/you too far ahead to catch up. Whilst not as win right now as Triumph, they still completely warp games.

Blightsteel Colossus I mean read the card, how couldn’t it win you the game? Lots of ways I guess… but at 12cmc it takes a while to get out. We have mana rocks and ways to flood mana, but it’s also a big target, generally it serves best to take attention away from the previous win cons.

Inexorable Tide being quite a creature heavy deck with infect, this is a wonderful way to keep pumping those poison counters onto the opponents. It works well with Yawgmoth's Agenda to end the game pretty quick, any cards that would be exiled doesn’t become an issue as you suddenly flood the board with every spell ever.

Phyrexian Unlife difficult to place this in a category, it’s not exactly a win condition but more like an anti-lose one. Just remember to not Proliferate yourself.

Unsurprisingly, there are plenty of other powerful Phyrexian cards, but those are the main ones that secure us the phat W.

Board Wipes

A few board wipes? This might seem odd, not all EDH decks are creature based, and you’re not sure if they will all come in handy, but it’s actually more flavour than practicality. Phyrexian invasion techniques have usually revolved around spreading plagues and annihilating the current inhabitants – sounds like a board wipe to me!

If the stars line up correctly and you have the mana, Soul of New Phyrexia has a great ability that makes all of these one sided too.

Phyrexian Rebirth whilst not as powerful as it used to be is still a great card, giving you that heavy hitter straight after.

Toxic Deluge has a great new art with Yawgmoth flavour text, but is a great way around things like Indestructible and Hexproof.

Black Sun's Zenith all of the Zenith cards are worth considering, this pairs nicely with the Proliferate ability from our commander, if you can’t/don’t want to pay a ton of life, you can just keep adding on those -1/-1 counters until the bloody thing dies.

Contagion Engine is a little obnoxious, but is such a flavour win that I had to include it.

Praetors

This is an interesting dichotomy – I could run all 7 (with another Norn likely on it’s way soon), and have all the flavour in the world, or just run the appropriate ones but feel like it’s lacking that fun top end. The solution does clearly lie somewhere in the middle, and here’s my current thoughts before a full revision happens:

Must Keeps – Just too powerful to lose Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger, Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur, Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite, and to be honest I would consider Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider up there too.

Likely to Keep – Very good, just not a need Sheoldred, Whispering One, though a powerful resurrecting card, the negative effect it has on the opponents is usually minimal.

Likely to Remove – Either too situational, not powerful enough or just not right for this deck. Sheoldred, the Apocalypse the art and name are better than the card sadly, and currently sat in the maybe pile. I wanted to see how it runs before including it in the deck. Jin-Gitaxias, Progress Tyrant is a decent card but we’re not a instant/sorcery heavy deck, and the once-per-turn counter is so-so as well.

Removal

Apart from the aforementioned board wipes, there is a bit of spot removal.

Dismember, I’m a big advocate for this card, especially in EDH. You have enough life to cast this for one mana and 4 life, and it get’s around Indestructible etc.

Beast Within is great for anything. Just a versatile card, easy inclusion.

Tainted Strike Whilst not quite a direct removal is a great combat trick to either fully remove or at least put enough -1/-1 counters on to make it a lot less useful.

Phyresis is a similar effect and both are good at putting Infect onto our non-infected creatures. Let’s through Glistening Oil into the mix here too, though less effective as it slowly kills our own creature (on the flip side, put it on an opponents to kill it with -1/-1 if you can).

Big Threats

As this isn’t a cEDH deck with carefully crafted synergies and specific strategies towards the win, it’s easily to place the things my opponents are likely to focus on under one roof. They’re useful for a variety of reasons, and usually losing some won’t be the end of the game for you.

The previously mentioned Praetors come under this too, and I’ve spoken about why they’re beneficial as well.

Phyrexian Obliterator is very strong. BBBB means it’s not always the easiest to cast, but even using it to chump block a big threat is devastating to our enemies. Usually they don’t want to sacrifice anything, so it’s a easy 5dmg a turn if you want it too.

Thran Temporal Gateway flavour wise, here’s my unnecessary explanation as to why this could work: it’s the portal that Dyfed creates for Yawgmoth to travel to Phyrexia, the one Urza and Mishra accidentally open, and all the other uses it’s had in other stories. Gameplay wise, it cheats in the Praetors, Blightsteel Colossus, etc.

Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon even if this card wasn’t relevant anymore (which it is), people would still target old Skrr Skrr. Flying, Infect, potential Haste and Regeneration – very strong.

Yawgmoth, Thran Physician big daddy Yawg himself is a drawing machine, -1/-1 counters to just kill everything, and the Proliferate ability is a nice plus too.

Phyrexian Crusader First Strike with Infect is unbelievable really. Always sucks a massive amount of attention (except from Red and White lol).

Hand of the Praetors maybe this should be included in wincons with Inexorable Tide as it not only buffs our infect creatures, but adds thee poison counters when casting our many creature spells. Not the strongest body though, as 2 Toughness is easily dealt with.

Blighted Agent sure I could have made a Agent-Tron deck, but I didn’t want on. Unblockable Infect is busted, that’s all.

Phyrexian Arena seems to garner a lot of attention. It draws you many cards, so I don’t blame them.

Norn's Annex I’m not a massive fan of hunkering down and locking the opponent out, but it really slows down those creature decks that can outpace you.

Phyrexian Processor doesn’t bring as much attention as the others, until you tap it multiple times to create more than one big ass chonker.

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The Future

Budget Friendly Options

As mentioned, the Temple's are included in the mana base purely because I have them and they're cheap. The Scry is nice, but with the reprinted Pain lands and other options, the lands will be replaced to be better over time.

New Cards

With Dominaria United there's obviously a selection of new cards, these are currently the Maybeboard. Over time this will change and other cards will be added, but for now check there for cards I'm considering.

Date added	3 years
Last updated	1 year
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	18 - 6 Mythic Rares 31 - 13 Rares 23 - 2 Uncommons 13 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	4.14
Tokens	Beast 3/3 G, Copy Clone, Incubator, Minion X/X B, Phyrexian 0/0 C, Phyrexian Horror X/X C, Phyrexian Horror X/X G, Phyrexian Insect 1/1 G, Phyrexian Mite 1/1 C, Tamiyo's Notebook, Treasure
Folders	Other Decks, EDH Decks, wishlist
Based on	Phyrexia Tribal Joewell EDH