Phyrexian Arena
Modern forum
Posted on April 2, 2015, 1:50 p.m. by wnorris17
With Abzan decks bailing on Dark Confidant due to seige rhino's cost, is Phyrexian Arena a viable card for reliable card advantage?
I realize that:
it costs more
it gets hit by the enchantment hate already being payed for twin
If a deck needs card draw though abzan doesn't really need it because of all the value card like souls, rhino and lili, Even then Abzan Charm is a far better option.
April 2, 2015 1:59 p.m.
Abzan is ok at the moment due to the fact that Lingering Souls can chump blocker and essentially buy you time. You also have a lot of flexible creatures like Kitchen Finks or Siege Rhino that do more than one thing. Therefore you often find you can kill two birds with one stone - you won't need to draw more cards.
Phyrexian arena is ok but it's slow. Not drawing a single card until T4 is a bit useless because some decks have won by that point. Also 3 mana is a lot in modern. I don't even like casting Maelstrom Pulse and that's one of the most powerful effects in the game. It's just such a lot to play out in a single card.
April 2, 2015 2:09 p.m.
wwhitegoldd says... #6
if you have a problem casting 3+ mana spells you probably shouldn't play modern. lol Cryptic Command,Maelstrom Pulse,Liliana of the Veil,Deceiver Exarch,Splinter Twin,Primeval Titan. The list goes on and on and on..... I do agree, that areana is just to much mana to commit to something that does nothing for an entire turn.
April 2, 2015 2:24 p.m.
GlistenerAgent says... #7
The format is fast. You can't play too many three-mana spells. Souls, Rhino and Liliana take up those slots in Abzan.
April 2, 2015 2:28 p.m.
Uhh.... notice how those cards are in the minority and cards that cost less are in the majority.
The top played cards in the format are all two mana - Snappy, remand, lightning bolt, abrupt decay, path to exile, tarmogoyf.
There are far more 1-2 mana spells than 3-4 mana.
Also notice how a lot of the cards you listed have been seeing decreased play recently (lili, cryptic command, pulse). AND notice how one of the ones you came up with requires a combo to be played earlier in the game because you know.... casting high mana cost cards is a bad thing in modern.
Modern does not revolve around 3 to 4 mana spells.
April 2, 2015 2:31 p.m.
wwhitegoldd says... #10
I'm not trying to start a fight.
junk doesn't play pulse/lili because it relies on getting more value from it's creatures than its opponent. i.e. souls and rhino. if people started to play jund lili and pulse would see a lot more play. cryptic isn't played because the deck that's it's played in most (R/W/U or jeskai control)isn't played because it has a bad match up vs 2 of the top 3 most played decks in the format. yes, titan needs the combo however the combo needs titan just as much. as for twin, well, there is a deck based around those 3 and 4 mana cmc spells.
April 2, 2015 3:31 p.m.
I'm saying the MAJORITY of modern is around 1-2 mana. There's certainly 3-4 mana stuff around but it's not as prevalent. You're going to find yourself casting 3-4 mana stuff a lot less than 1-2 mana spells.
April 2, 2015 3:36 p.m.
For reference. My Abzan deck (which is considered to have a higher than average curve) has 9 1-drops, and 10 2-drops. That's 19 total 1 and 2 drops. I run 11 3-drops, and 4 4-drops. Therefore 15 of my 60 cards cost 3 or 4 mana.
19 1 and 2 mana cards. 15 3 and 4 mana cards.
I also run 2 Taz who I never cast for more than 2 mana.
My split therefore is in reality around 21 to 15. Some decks would swap Kitchen Finks for Noble Hierarch which would result in a 23 to 13 split, or perhaps even 25 to 11.
Worth remembering that Abzan is considered to have a HIGH curve.
April 2, 2015 3:58 p.m.
VampireArmy says... #17
Without diving into the current debate, I'll say this as a player of rogue cards
Phyrexian Arena suffers more from life loss it does to you than it's unfortunate curve spot. You are basically putting yourself on the clock. It might seem small but in the end, you're lowering your chance of beating opposing bgx decks.
I use Outpost Siege in my Mardu deck for this reason. It's even worse on the curve but It's multi-modal. How does that compare to arena and bob? If you think about it, bob is also multi modal. He's an enchantment when you want cards and a creature when you need it to do combat. Arena is only an enchantment ever that costs you an extra card when you need life
April 2, 2015 4:16 p.m.
IMO, the life loss Phyrexian Arena causes is negligible in any matchup that isn't vs Burn. I had Bob kill me a couple times in the past, despite being in a low curve deck, but I never had any problems with Arena. Then again, that's probably because I always run some sort of lifegain spell in my B/W/x decks (my current Abzan tokens deck has Timely Reinforcements on the side, and I'm thinking of adding in some Auriok Champions for the Burn matchup) - and between Kitchen Finks and Siege Rhino, Abzan decks shouldn't really have to worry about losing 1 life every turn.
The CMC is the real problem. If only it had flash...
April 2, 2015 4:34 p.m.
VampireArmy says... #19
Fair enough. We all have our own experience with these things. It's just been my experience in a deck such as bgx, your spells need to be very flexible
April 2, 2015 4:40 p.m.
APPLE01DOJ says... #20
I like it as a 1 of. It's not a t3 play for sure but does give quite an advantage in grinder games. Sword of Fire and Ice is where it's at though...
GlistenerAgent says... #2
The card draw just isn't necessary. Lingering Souls and Siege Rhino do all the card drawing you need.
April 2, 2015 1:57 p.m.