Vishgraz, the Doomhive: Toxic Tokens Primer

Commander / EDH Aristocrats BGW (Abzan, Junk) Blink Infect Infinite Combo Primer Tokens Tokens

Bread-and-Butter-EDH

Land (35)

• 1x Bountiful Promenade
• 1x Cabal Coffers
• 1x Canopy Vista
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Deathcap Glade
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 1x Fabled Passage
• 3x Forest
• 1x Godless Shrine
• 1x Indatha Triome
• 1x Inkmoth Nexus
• 1x Isolated Chapel
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Overgrown Farmland
• 1x Overgrown Tomb
• 3x Plains
• 1x Reflecting Pool
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Rogue's Passage
• 1x Sandsteppe Citadel
• 1x Shattered Sanctum
• 1x Sunpetal Grove
• 2x Swamp
• 1x Temple Garden
• 1x The Seedcore
• 1x Undergrowth Stadium
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Vault of Champions
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x Woodland Cemetery

Infect token (5)

• 1x Basilica Shepherd
• 1x Blade of Selves
• 1x Helm of the Host
• 1x Mite Overseer
• 1x White Sun's Twilight

Doubler (4)

• 1x Anointed Procession
• 1x Doubling Season
• 1x Mondrak, Glory Dominus
• 1x Parallel Lives

Wincon (4)

• 1x Beastmaster Ascension
• 1x Craterhoof Behemoth
• 1x Divine Visitation
• 1x Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite

Combo (3)

• 1x Basilica Shepherd
• 1x Eldrazi Displacer
• 1x Emiel the Blessed

Sac outlet (2)

• 1x Ashnod's Altar
• 1x Commissar Severina Raine

Blink (12)

• 1x Acrobatic Maneuver
• 1x Charming Prince
• 1x Conjurer's Closet
• 1x Distinguished Conjurer
• 1x Eerie Interlude
• 1x Eldrazi Displacer
• 1x Emiel the Blessed
• 1x Ephemerate
• 1x Flickerwisp
• 1x Restoration Angel
• 1x Sword of Hearth and Home
• 1x Teleportation Circle

Ramp (10)

• 1x Ashnod's Altar
• 1x Cabal Coffers
• 1x Cryptolith Rite
• 1x Cultivate
• 1x Farseek
• 1x Kodama's Reach
• 1x Smothering Tithe
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Sword of Hearth and Home
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

Protection (6)

• 1x Acrobatic Maneuver
• 1x Clever Concealment
• 1x Eerie Interlude
• 1x Ephemerate
• 1x Flawless Maneuver
• 1x Sword of Hearth and Home

Blink payoff (5)

• 1x Ichor Rats
• 1x Inspiring Overseer
• 1x Spirited Companion
• 1x Venerated Rotpriest
• 1x Welcoming Vampire

Token generator (5)

• 1x Avenger of Zendikar
• 1x Basilica Shepherd
• 1x Company Commander
• 1x Mite Overseer
• 1x White Sun's Twilight

Tutor (4)

• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Enlightened Tutor
• 1x Vampiric Tutor
• 1x Worldly Tutor

Etb (3)

• 1x Basilica Shepherd
• 1x Company Commander
• 1x Craterhoof Behemoth

Commander (1)

Card advantage (11)

• 1x Acrobatic Maneuver
• 1x Commissar Severina Raine
• 1x Infectious Inquiry
• 1x Inspiring Overseer
• 1x Moldervine Reclamation
• 1x Night's Whisper
• 1x Ohran Frostfang
• 1x Phyrexian Arena
• 1x Skullclamp
• 1x Spirited Companion
• 1x Welcoming Vampire

Token buff (9)

• 1x Champion of Lambholt
• 1x Commissar Severina Raine
• 1x Cryptolith Rite
• 1x Mite Overseer
• 1x Odric, Lunarch Marshal
• 1x Ohran Frostfang
• 1x Rogue's Passage
• 1x Skrelv, Defector Mite
• 1x The Seedcore

Removal (5)

• 1x Anguished Unmaking
• 1x Aura Shards
• 1x Beast Within
• 1x Generous Gift
• 1x Swords to Plowshares

Infect (4)

• 1x Infectious Inquiry
• 1x Inkmoth Nexus
• 1x Mite Overseer
• 1x Skrelv, Defector Mite

Boardwipe (3)

• 1x Farewell
• 1x Hour of Reckoning
• 1x White Sun's Twilight

Blink buff (2)

• 1x Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines
• 1x Panharmonicon

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Sideboard

Token generator (13)

• 1x Adeline, Resplendent Cathar
• 1x Bitterblossom
• 1x Black Market Connections
• 1x Chatterfang, Squirrel General
• 1x Elenda, the Dusk Rose
• 1x Liliana, Dreadhorde General
• 1x Mirrex
• 1x Ophiomancer
• 1x Phyrexian Swarmlord
• 1x Rhys the Redeemed
• 1x Scute Swarm
• 1x Skrelv's Hive
• 1x Woe Strider

Infect token (3)

• 1x Mirrex
• 1x Phyrexian Swarmlord
• 1x Skrelv's Hive

Recursion (3)

• 1x Luminous Broodmoth
• 1x Phyrexian Reclamation
• 1x Sun Titan

Blink (1)

• 1x Flicker of Fate

Boardwipe (1)

• 1x Phyresis Outbreak

Doubler (1)

• 1x Rhys the Redeemed

Infect buff (1)

• 1x Skrelv's Hive

Card advantage (9)

• 1x Black Market Connections
• 1x Braids, Arisen Nightmare
• 1x Idol of Oblivion
• 1x Liliana, Dreadhorde General
• 1x Species Specialist
• 1x Viscera Seer
• 1x Vraska, Betrayal's Sting
• 1x Woe Strider
• 1x Yawgmoth, Thran Physician

Wincon (4)

• 1x Elas il-Kor, Sadistic Pilgrim
• 1x Poison-Tip Archer
• 1x Syr Konrad, the Grim
• 1x Yawgmoth, Thran Physician

Proliferate (3)

• 1x Karn's Bastion
• 1x Vraska, Betrayal's Sting
• 1x Yawgmoth, Thran Physician

Other (2)

• 1x Druid of Purification
• 1x Shadrix Silverquill

Land (2)

• 1x Karn's Bastion
• 1x Mirrex

Infect (1)

• 1x Phyresis Outbreak

Token buff (1)

• 1x Heliod, God of the Sun

Sac outlet (6)

• 1x Braids, Arisen Nightmare
• 1x Chatterfang, Squirrel General
• 1x Phyrexian Altar
• 1x Viscera Seer
• 1x Woe Strider
• 1x Yawgmoth, Thran Physician

Ramp (4)

• 1x Black Market Connections
• 1x Mirari's Wake
• 1x Phyrexian Altar
• 1x Pitiless Plunderer

Combo (3)

• 1x Chatterfang, Squirrel General
• 1x Nim Deathmantle
• 1x Pitiless Plunderer

Protection (3)

• 1x Flicker of Fate
• 1x Heroic Intervention
• 1x Teferi's Protection

Etb (2)

• 1x Sun Titan
• 1x Woe Strider

Removal (2)

• 1x Liliana, Dreadhorde General
• 1x Vraska, Betrayal's Sting

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Maybeboard

Card advantage (6)

• 1x Contaminant Grafter
• 1x Deadly Dispute
• 1x Goliath Hatchery
• 1x Norn's Decree
• 1x Species Specialist
• 1x Staff of Compleation

Infect token (3)

• 1x Goliath Hatchery
• 1x Kinzu of the Bleak Coven
• 1x Ria Ivor, Bane of Bladehold

Ramp (3)

• 1x Glistening Sphere
• 1x Myr Convert
• 1x Staff of Compleation

Wincon (2)

• 1x Blood Artist
• 1x Noxious Assault

Infect (6)

• 1x Contaminant Grafter
• 1x Ichor Rats
• 1x Ixhel, Scion of Atraxa
• 1x Necrogen Rotpriest
• 1x Norn's Decree
• 1x Noxious Assault

Protection (3)

• 1x Ghostly Prison
• 1x Norn's Decree
• 1x Sword of Truth and Justice

Other (2)

• 1x Undying Malice
• 1x Urza's Incubator

Recursion (1)

• 1x Unnatural Restoration

Infect buff (5)

• 1x Grafted Exoskeleton
• 1x Necrogen Rotpriest
• 1x Sidar Kondo of Jamuraa *f-etch*
• 1x Trailblazer's Boots
• 1x Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider

Proliferate (5)

• 1x Contaminant Grafter
• 1x Glistening Sphere
• 1x Staff of Compleation
• 1x Sword of Truth and Justice
• 1x Unnatural Restoration

Steals cards (1)

• 1x Ixhel, Scion of Atraxa

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Abandoning Deck for a few reasons. Please read below. Thanks for all the support everyone!

The first reason is that the commander if I wanted to build him solely focused on mite tokens is not great. You take too much heat cause you're playing infect and you can't block lol. The second reason is if I want to focus on general tokens then there's better commanders for that i.e.: Jetmir, Nexus of Revels. So where does that leave us? Blink effects for vishgraz. Which isn't a terrible idea but if I'm going to do that I might as well just play Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines as a commander. Well guess who just pulled an oil slick raised foil version of Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines. This guy. So I am going to abandon this deck salvage what I can from it and build a high tiered Elesh norn.

If you like my content please upvote :) thanks!

Message to my Readers

This deck is made to play with my friends for fun casual commander. I wanted to go big and wide with multiple options to win. The goal was to make a deck that is as strong as humanly possible without going infinitum. That being said, I decided to add an infinite combo section in case I decide I want to take this deck in another direction or incase someone else wants to build it. Unfortunately, I wanted a toxic / infect token theme and to stick with that however, it's just not supported well enough yet. The cards that do generate toxic tokens aside from Vishgraz are pretty trash. Therefore, while you will mostly be generating mite tokens others are mixed in just to not gimp your play.

Change of Deck Theme After Play Testing

After a lot of play testing the biggest recurring theme I have noticed with this deck is Vishgraz, the Doomhive feels fucking awesome when you have Helm of the Host, Blade of Selves, or any other blink mechanic that's repeatable on the field. Helm of host is especially deadly because of the multiple menace Vishgraz copies that have +1/+1 for each poison counter your opponents have. They really get out of hand fast. However the biggest thing I noticed is mites fucking suck as tokens. They're easily chump blocked or I never had the sac outlet I needed in the deck to make them worth while. They would sit on my side of the board and not do anything because they'd just die to blockers. And if someone would swing at you, you'd be fucking eating it every time because you cant block because all you had on the board was a weak Vishgraz, the Doomhive. So you'd sit around all game and wait until you get something really good.

Therefore, I added more of different types of tokens to make the deck have the capability of having chump blockers if needed. This frees up your mites to just swing with wildly if you need to so you're getting use of them. Additionally, if they die there's three cards that will trigger card draw in this deck for each time they die. I also added pingers to give them even more value and finally combat support for your tokens such as Champion of Lambholt. Also added Luminous Broodmoth so you can double up on your token value. Added some more etb triggers such as Sun Titan because recurring 3 cost repeatedly can be great, more token support / ramp through Cryptolith Rite, Divine Visitation etc., more sac outlets so we can get value out of our tokens in multiple different ways. Also added Nim Deathmantle on the side board incase you want to get nasty with some combos. Vishgraz goes infinite incredibly easy.

Maybes Includes

Cloudshift

Flickerwisp

Necrogen Communion

Card Advantage

this is going to revolve mostly around upkeep triggers from Phyrexian Arena or sacrificing your tokens to cards such as Skullclamp or Phyrexian Altar + Species Specialist . There will be plenty of token fodder being generated.

Best Cards to Lookout for (no particular order)

1. 1 mana 1 token draw Skullclamp - This combos off extremely well with Cryptolith Rite. You can tap the creature you're able to sac to Skullclamp for the 1 mana you need. Basically making free 2 card draw.
2. Death Trigger Liliana, Dreadhorde General
3. Death Trigger Species Specialist
4. Death Trigger Moldervine Reclamation
5. Combat Damage to Player Trigger Ohran Frostfang
6. Upkeep Trigger Phyrexian Arena
7. Upkeep Trigger Black Market Connections
8. Sac Trigger Viscera Seer - I know Seer and Strider technically aren't card advantage. However, they're card selection which can be extremely powerful if you can do it multiple times in a row.
9. Sac Trigger Woe Strider

Ramp

The most important pieces for ramp in this deck are going to be our tokens. Whether it's treasure tokens or creature tokens I have multiple ways of supporting ramp through the use of tokens. However there will be a few main ways of ramping in this deck:

1. Standard spells like Rampant Growth, Kodama's Reach, Far Seek, Sol Ring. While these spells are effective i've yet to be excited to use them or even draw into them that frequently in the early game when they actually matter.

2. Using your tokens as sac fodder. Sacing your tokens to Phrexian Altar or Ashnod's Altar have huge potential to generate you mana. Especially if you have a Pitiless Plunderer on the board.

3. Using passive generation Smothering Tithe, Black Market Connections, and a token doubler such as Parallel Lives are EXTREMELY effective and will generate a shit ton of heat just forewarning.

4. Finally, we have Cryptolith Rite I just found out about this card and I am extremely excited to use it. It will likely be one of the most effective ways for us to ramp since it's low to ground cost and we can use it throughout the whole game. Additionally, if we want to sac our tokens to an altar why not tap it for floating mana first? Double up on the gain and use Luminous Broodmoth for even more usage of our tokens.

Tutors

My thinking for the tutors is thus, Worldly Tutor for Craterhoof Behemoth, Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite, Syr Konrad, the Grim or Yawgmoth, Thran Physician if we could use any of them to win the game. If not, then Worldly Tutor can grab Pitiless Plunderer or Species Specialist to increase our ramp or card draw engine.

For Enlightened Tutor you will almost always grab a token doubler with either Doubling Season, Parallel Lives, or Anointed Procession. However, if it's still very early game you'd want to use Enlightened Tutor to grab a card draw engine such as Phyrexian Arena. If you already have a token doubler or don't need the card draw engine, you can use Enlightened Tutor to grab a cards such as Conjurer's Closet, Teleportation Circle, Sword of Hearth and Home, Helm of the Host, or Blade of Selves for Vishgraz || Mite Token Generation.

The black tutors can be used for any cards in any situation. Therefore, you're more than likely going to follow out the previous two scenarios when you get them instead of using Enlightened Tutor or Worldly Tutor to stick to the game plan. However, there will be times you want to save these cards. For example, let's say you've just amassed a board presence and you have a Vampiric Tutor or Demonic Tutor in your hand. You can use either tutor to grab an instant speed protection spell such as Teferi's Protection, Eerie Interlude, Ephemerate or Heroic Intervention.

TL;DR: The black tutor cards are meant to be there for flexibility while the white / green tutor are there to create game plan consistency.

Game Plan

Odric, Lunarch Marshal is in the deck because if Vishgraz, the Doomhive, mites, and odric are on the board, everything has menace during combat. The same is true for the other keywords. This will allow your mites to easily sneak past defenses. If Odric, Lunarch Marshal, some mites,Elas il-Kor, Sadistic Pilgrim and Mite Overseer are on the board, everything has first strike and death touch, meaning anything that is blocked is auto killed.

I removed a lot of the toxic / infect support cards like Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider because while most of the deck was focusing on token generation I just had these random infect support cards which didn't really make any sense to play ever. Most of the time I was sitting there thinking, "wow If only I had a sac outlet and a card draw engine like Phyrexian Altar + Species Specialist ". Therefore I added more sac outlets / pingers / general good token generators / and token support like Champion of Lambholt to buff our token usage.

Phyresis Outbreak - Only play as a board wipe don't play just to get a poison counter on opponents. At least use it as a removal spell.

There are 5 main win conditions in this deck. There are no infinite combos because my play group does not like to use them. However, I will probably add some later if I decide to make this deck competitive or just build a competitive Atraxa deck.

1. Commander damage: because Vishgraz, the Doomhive gets +1/+1 for each poison counter an opponent has. It's pretty easy to get Vishgraz, the Doomhive high enough to one shot or two shot opponents. Cards like Rogue's Passage, Odric, Lunarch Marshal, Sword of Hearth and Home, Skrelv, Defector Mite, will help Vishgraz sneak through.

2. Overwhelm with mite token: This is pretty self explanatory. Cards like Teleportation Circle, Sword of Hearth and Home, Eerie Interlude, Helm of the Host, Ephemerate, Conjurer's Closet, and Blade of Selves, allow us to blink Vishgraz or create new Vishgraz, and swarm our enemies with toxic tokens. Once you've got enough mites on the board hit your enemies fat with a Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite. Additional ways to win this way would be to use Noxious Assault. If they block or don't block they die, it's a great card. Odric, Lunarch Marshal is a huge buff when you have any mites and Vishgraz alone or with any other keyword. Additional token support to swarm your enemies comes from Chatterfang, Squirrel General and others.

3. Overwhelm with trample damage: This will rely on Craterhoof Behemoth and a bunch of mites.

4. Proliferate: Once you've got a few poison counters on your opponents Yawgmoth, Thran Physician becomes a big dick swinger in this deck. As long as you have a few mites on the board, you can use Yawg daddy to sac a few of them to draw as many cards as you need. Then discard them all and proliferate your opponents into the fucking netherworld. This is the card I am most excited about in this deck because i've been wanting to use him for a while. If you're lacking on the black pips to use his proliferate ability make sure you have Phyrexian Altar on the field to give yourself easy win access.

5. Pingers: Once people get low enough throughout the game you'll be able to ping them down. I mean Syr Konrad, the Grim being out on the board will have him be able to ping people down throughout the course of the game whether your creatures die or theirs which is awesome. Once you have enough mites on the board you can just use Phyrexian Altar to close the game out. Could also use Phyrexian Altar to create mana if it's necessary.

Phyrexian Altar is a fantastic card in this deck. It's incredibly flexible and allows us to use our token generators as payoffs in combination with spells such as Pitiless Plunderer, Species Specialist, Moldervine Reclamation, Skullclamp, Syr Konrad, the Grim, etc. As much as you want to swarm your opponents don't forget to be flexible with your game plan. The Altar is an all round excellent addition.

Infinite Combo

Easy to Perform:

Ashnod's Altar + Nim Deathmantle + Vishgraz, the Doomhive = Infinite Colorless Mana / Infinite Creature Tokens. Vishgraz, the Doomhive can be replaced with Basilica Shepherd.

1. Sacrifice two mite tokens to the Ashnod's Altar
2. Sacrifice Vishgraz, the Doomhive to Ashnod's Altar
3. Activate the Nim's deathmantle. This will net you with 4 tokens and 2 colorless mana. Repeat steps 1-3.

Chatterfang, Squirrel General + Phyrexian Altar + Pitiless Plunderer = Infinite Mana. Phyrexian Altar can be traded for any instant speed sac outlet.

Pitiless Plunderer + Chatterfang, Squirrel General + Phyrexian Altar + Parallel Lives = Infinite Mana + Infinite Squirrel tokens. Parallel Lives can be traded for any other doubler. Phyrexian Altar can be traded for any instant speed sac outlet.

1. Sac any token to Phyrexian Altar.
2. Pitiless Plunderer Triggers, causing Chatterfang, Squirrel General to also trigger. Creating a treasure token and a Squirrel.
3. Sac the Squirrel token to repeated steps 2-3 for infinite mana. If a doubler is in play you also get infinite squirrels.

Enjoy! Any tips would be appreciated.

Top Ranked	Achieved #6 position overall 1 year ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH Aristocrats 1 year ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH BGW (Abzan, Junk) 1 year ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH Infinite Combo 1 year ago
Date added	1 year
Last updated	1 year
Key combos	Chatterfang, Squirrel General + Phyrexian Altar + Pitiless Plunderer Ashnod's Altar + Nim Deathmantle + Vishgraz, the Doomhive Phyrexian Altar + Species Specialist
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	14 - 11 Mythic Rares 52 - 19 Rares 16 - 5 Uncommons 10 - 2 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.34
Tokens	Angel 4/4 W, Angel 4/4 W w/ Vigilance, Beast 3/3 G, Copy Clone, Eldrazi 10/10 C, Elephant 3-3 G, Elf Warrior 1/1 GW, Enchantment Cleric 2/1 W, Faerie Rogue 1/1 B, Goat 0/1 W, Human 1/1 W, Inkling 2/1 WB, Insect 1/1 G, Phyrexian Insect 1/1 G, Phyrexian Mite 1/1 C, Plant 0/1 G, Shapeshifter 3/2 C, Snake 1/1 B, Squirrel 1/1 G, Treasure, Vampire 1/1 W, Zombie 2/2 B
Folders	Commander decks, Deck Ideas, vishgraz ideal deck, Tabletop Decks, stuff i wanna play or build