Phyrexian Etchings

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Legality

Format Legality
1v1 Commander Legal
Archenemy Legal
Block Constructed Legal
Canadian Highlander Legal
Casual Legal
Commander / EDH Legal
Commander: Rule 0 Legal
Custom Legal
Duel Commander Legal
Highlander Legal
Legacy Legal
Leviathan Legal
Limited Legal
Modern Legal
Oathbreaker Legal
Planechase Legal
Quest Magic Legal
Tiny Leaders Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

Phyrexian Etchings

Enchantment

Cumulative upkeep (At the beginning of your upkeep, put an age counter on this permanent, then sacrifice it unless you pay its upkeep cost for each age counter on it.)

At the end of your turn, draw a card for each age counter on Phyrexian Etchings.

When Phyrexian Etchings is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, you lose 2 life for each age counter on it.

TitaniumTP on K'rrick Kobain and his Monster Mash

4 years ago

Let's get down to business, shall we?

DELETE THIS

Venser's Journal , Mindcrank , Armillary Sphere , Dash Hopes , Doomblade, Street Wraith , Leshrac's Sigil ,

QUESTIONABLE

Noosegraf Mob , Phyrexian Reclamation , Kaya's Ghostform , Blood Tribute , Whip of Erebos , Armillary Sphere , Reiver Demon , Pestilence Demon , Magus of the Mirror , Endling , Bloodthirsty Aerialist

At first glance these are what I think you should delete and think about deleting.


COMBO TIME

I notice that you have combo potential with Mikaeus, the Unhallowed . The only 2 card combo with him is Mikaeus, the Unhallowed and Triskelion . All other combos with him require 4 pieces.

  1. The man (zombie?) himself: Mikaeus, the Unhallowed

  2. Sac outlet - Viscera Seer , - Ashnod's Altar , - Carrion Feeder ,

  3. The Sacrifice (something with persist, or that can somehow remove the +1/+1 counter from Mikaeus, the Unhallowed ) - Lesser Masticore , - Putrid Goblin , - Skinrender if you put the 3 -1/-1 counters on itself each time it enters, - Puppeteer Clique , - Lingering Tormentor ,

  4. ALL THESE TRIGGERS - Bitter Ordeal for infinite exiling of decks, - Falkenrath Noble for infinite damage, - Vindictive Vampire for infinite damage, - Zulaport Cutthroat for infinite damage, - Vengeful Dead for infinite damage, only if sacrificed creature is a zombie, - Blood Artist for infinite damage, - Pitiless Plunderer for infinite mana, - Pawn of Ulamog for infinite colorless mana, - Deathgreeter for infinite life, - Smothering Abomination for infinite card draw,

MORE COMBO

You also have the 3 piece combo of

  1. Sanguine Bond
  2. Exquisite Blood
  3. Anything that either causes you to gain life, or an opponent to lose life - Leechridden Swamp , - Ebony Charm , - Death Cultist , - Nightmare's Thirst

I recommend using instant speed interaction for the 3rd piece of the combo, so you can respond to removal by winning

If you decide to follow The Way of The Combo, you should also add library searching effectz to help make sure you always find your pieces.


LIBRARY SEARCHIN EFFECTZ

Expedition Map for finding lands for ramp, or combo pieces if you go for the aforementioned Leechridden Swamp combo Scheming Symmetry , Behold the Beyond , Demonic Collusion , Diabolic Tutor , Final Parting , Mastermind's Acquisition , Doomsday , Demonic Collusion , Dark Petition

The more combo and storm heavy your deck is, the more search library cards you will want to add.

EXTORT OP

Basilica Screecher , Thrull Parasite , Syndicate Enforcer

Nothing much to add here, but extort is so broken in this deck. Extort will be extra powerful in storm builds.


Okay, it's Mana Time

Caged Sun

COOL LANDS

Castle Locthwain , swamp with benefits, Thespian's Stage , can become a copy of other dank lands like Temple of the False God and Cabal Stronghold , Crystal Vein , pop it on the turn where you're going to try and win, Westvale Abbey  Flip, potential wincon, Leechridden Swamp , potential combo piece and also fun to use with leftover mana, Bottomless Vault , probably sucks but you could use it in a storm deck, Memorial to Folly , Mortuary Mire , Temple of the False God , Myriad Landscape , ramp that looks like a land

Mana Rocks

Cryptolith Fragment  Flip probably not good, Thran Dynamo , super epic, Hedron Archive , Prismatic Lens , Fractured Powerstone , you know you want this for the planeschase ability, Sisay's Ring , Ur-Golem's Eye , Liliana of the Dark Realms , Nirkana Revenant , Paradise Plume , Magus of the Coffers , Black Market

For mana rocks you want the best bang for your buck, since you can just pay life instead of {B}. I like the mana rocks that cost {4} but tap for {2}, and the ones that cost {2} and tap for {1}. The more control heavy your deck is, the more rocks you want.

Ramp

Wayfarer's Bauble , Burnished Hart

Lots of Mana Fast

Cabal Ritual , Bubbling Muck , Spoils of Evil , Culling the Weak , Sacrifice , Dark Ritual , Songs of the Damned

Getting giant bursts of mana is good in any mono Black deck, but you should invest more heavily the more combo and storm themed your deck is, since you want to pop off in a single turn and cast 1,000 spells.

Investments

Basal Sliver , Blood Pet , Bog Witch , Overeager Apprentice , Basal Thrull , Priest of Yawgmoth , Blood Vassal , Soldevi Adnate

A lot of these cards that are single time use mana sources would be great in a storm deck where you would just build up your load until you bust damage all over the faces of those unfortunate enough to be within 50m of you. They're also good in reanimation decks, which could utilize Phyrexian Reclamation to keep getting them back.

Summary:

The more control heavy your deck is, the more mana rocks you want. If you're going for combos then you want more quick mana. The only land I'm gonna have to 100% recommend is Thespian's Stage . Keep in mind that the more nonbasic lands you have in your deck, the less useful cards like Crypt Ghast and Cabal Stronghold will be.


TRIBAL

Zombie Tribal

Corpse Harvester , library search, Cemetery Reaper , lord, Undead Warchief , epic lord, Josu Vess, Lich Knight , wincon, Endless Ranks of the Dead , wincon, Death Baron , lord, Liliana's Mastery , lord, Graveborn Muse , card draw, Zombie Master , protection, Graf Harvest , team evasion, Fleshbag Marauder , saccy, Phyrexian Delver , recovery, Cryptbreaker , card draw, Lord of the Accursed , lord, Shepherd of Rot , hurty everyone, Stronghold Assassin , funny removal, Loyal Subordinate , Liliana, Death's Majesty , potential finisher, Grave Titan , Open the Graves , board wipe protection, especially good if you're going all in on creature aggro, Curse of Disturbance , Awaken the Erstwhile , once you're in an advantageous position just cast this and watch your opponents cry, Tombstone Stairwell , this would be especially epic if you have cards to buff your boys, Risen Executioner , lord

Some cards that could be spicy in zombie tribal. Epic combos would be lords such as Cemetery Reaper and Lord of the Accursed , and fatties such as Army of the Damned and Josu Vess, Lich Knight . Having tons of zombies also combos with Pontiff of Blight . I think that Eldrazi Monument in a zombie build is nightmare fuel.

Vampire Tribal

Sanctum Seeker , Kalastria Highborn , Blade of the Bloodchief , Bloodlord of Vaasgoth , Malakir Bloodwitch , Bloodline Keeper  Flip, Gatekeeper of Malakir , Nirkana Revenant , Drana, Liberator of Malakir , Sadistic Skymarcher , Defiant Bloodlord , Yahenni, Undying Partisan , Butcher of Malakir , Cordial Vampire , Bloodtracker ,

If you decide vampire tribal is better, here are some options. I would only play cards like Blood Tribute if you're going vampire tribal, I don't think it's worth to play unless you can get more value than just chopping 1 player's life in half.

To Go with Your Creature Spam, Sir...

Dowsing Dagger  Flip, Mask of Memory , Necropolis Regent , Bloodforged Battle-Axe , Explorer's Scope , Throne of the God-Pharaoh , Whip of Erebos

Buff My Team!

Sword of the Paruns , Intimidation , Death Pit Offering , Eldrazi Monument , Obelisk of Urd

Summary:

The more of one tribe you have, the more synergy you have. Only include lords if you're all in on that tribe.


REMOVAL

Targeted Removal

Hero's Downfall , Vraska's Contempt , Murder , Murderous Rider , Noxious Gearhulk , Malicious Affliction , New Blood , Ruinous Path , Tendrils of Corruption , Bone Splinters , Liturgy of Blood

Epic Board Wipes

Decree of Pain , Crux of Fate , Kindred Dominance , Bontu's Last Reckoning , Do or Die , Hellfire , Necromantic Selection

Summary: Use more board wipes the more control heavy you want your deck to be. Try to choose targeted removal such that the end cost will only be {1} and some life, so that it will be as cheap as possible. This is especially important in storm builds. Since we play multiplayer quite a bit, you'll probably want to add extra board wipes, especially the ones that draw you cards or come bundled with reanimation.


Wow, I Hate Minorities

Wow, I hate tokens

Ritual of Soot , Force of Despair

Wow, Green is Cancer

Perish

Wow, I hate when other people play spells

Painful Quandary

Wow, I hate when other people attack me

No Mercy , Dread , Koskun Falls

Wow, I hate myself

Season of the Witch (okay, maybe not that much Revenge of Ravens )

Wow, I hate lifegain

Tainted Remedy , False Cure

Wow, I hate real board wipes

Sudden Spoiling , Mutilate , Languish , Massacre Girl , Golden Demise

Wow, I hate burst damage

Palace Siege , Polluted Bonds

Wow, I hate my opponents having creatures

Dictate of Erebos , Grave Pact , Butcher of Malakir

Wow, I hate this one person in particular

Curse of Vengeance , Trespasser's Curse , Curse of Fool's Wisdom


Lifegain

Profane Memento , Crypt Incursion , Vampiric Link , Loxodon Warhammer , Kokusho, the Evening Star , Cavalier of Night , Whip of Erebos

Protection

Rush of Vitality

Benefit from Death

Ogre Slumlord , Shadows of the Past

Cool Card Draw

Moonlight Bargain , Promise of Power , Succumb to Temptation , Ransack the Lab , Infernal Contract , Necrologia , Carnival of Souls , Grim Haruspex , Night's Whisper , Succumb to Temptation , Phyrexian Etchings , Cruel Bargain , Dark Deal , Foreboding Fruit , Live Fast , Painful Lesson , Necropotence

Add more card draw the more stormy you want your deck to be. Also try to add ones that will cost the least amount of mana if you take your commander's ability into account.

Card Draw Requiring Sacrifice

Altar's Reap , Costly Plunder , Morbid Curiosity , Bankrupt in Blood , Skulltap , Merciless Resolve

These will be better in decks where you're sure you'll have tons of creatures. So adding these into zombie tribal would probably be a good idea, since you have things like Army of the Damned and Josu Vess, Lich Knight that produce a million tokens.


Storm Build Cards

Aphotic Wisps , Cremate , Succumb to Temptation , Yawgmoth's Will , Ill-Gotten Gains , Priest of Forgotten Gods , Skirge Familiar , Rain of Filth , Dredge , Gravebind , Nighthaze , Street Wraith

The idea of a storm deck is to cast as many spells in one turn as possible, building up a fat storm counter to execute all who oppose us with our 3 finishers, which are Aetherflux Reservoir , Tendrils of Agony and perhaps Empty the Pits . You'll want lots of cheap spells that only cost {B} mana and replace themselves, such as Aphotic Wisps . One time use mana is also dank here, such as Dark Ritual and Cabal Ritual , and creatures like Basal Thrull and Soldevi Adnate .


Win Cons to think about

SideBae on Aminatou in Progress

4 years ago
  1. So Preordain is awesome for the same reasons your Brainstorm and Ponder are... I suggest running it.

  2. Narset, Parter of Veils is a great way to limit your competitive opponents. Especially if you pair her with a well-timed Windfall . Ashiok, Dream Render happens to be another way to punish people for playing tutor-tribal kinds of strategies.

  3. Another hallmark of competitive decks is their ramp, especially zero and two-mana. In your description, you say you want to stay budget -- unfortunately, that rules out about all of the good zero mana ramp. ( Mox Tantalite is bad, and Mox Amber is hardly better most of the time.) So I suggest increasing your two-mana ramp, and maybe including Ancient Tomb if at all possible to speed up their presence on the board. Some to consider: Talisman of Progress , Talisman of Hierarchy , Talisman of Dominance , Coldsteel Heart , Fellwar Stone , Mind Stone , Everflowing Chalice , Prismatic Lens , etc. None of these should be more than a few bucks.

  4. Concerning your lands: I think you're running too many, especially if you add some of the ramp mentioned in (3). I'd cut four-ish, maybe five. Generally, once you have a few (3 - 4) lands, you'd rather have a rock and a land in hand than just two lands, since you can cast the rock without using your land-drop. I'm not sure HOW budget you want to keep this deck, but Mana Confluence and City of Brass are each around $10, and they're great in any three or more color deck. Pain lands ( Caves of Koilos , Adarkar Wastes and Underground River ) are better than your tapped lands like Sejiri Refuge , as far as I can tell.

  5. I think a reanimation package is probably better than running Show and Tell . Show and Tell is symmetrical, and is often actively dangerous to resolve in EDH, when everyone is trying to do busted stuff. I'm much more a fan of Buried Alive and Entomb to get your fatties in the bin, and then using Animate Dead , Dance of the Dead , Reanimate and/or Necromancy (which is $$$ for some reason) to get them back.

  6. Tutors like your Demonic Tutor are good, but like zero mana rocks they tend to be pricy (see Vampiric Tutor and Enlightened Tutor ). One I do suggest is Lim-Dul's Vault , which is only a couple dollars these days. It also happens to be instant speed, which is kinda dumb-powerful, if you ask me.

  7. Cumulative upkeep was designed to make powerful effects transient; however, Aminatou, the Fateshifter sorta changes that equation with her -1. Consider cards like Mystic Remora , which you can blink to keep around relatively indefinitely. Similar cards to consider are: Musician , Phyrexian Etchings , Tidal Control and Infernal Darkness (if you're particularly mean).

  8. Divining Witch is interesting -- I'd actually never seen that card before. If you're trying to exile your deck and win with your Jace, Wielder of Mysteries , I think Demonic Consultation is probably a better way... though you might want to keep both. Another method (that I think is worse) is to use the card Doomsday , which is only a few dollars. The problem is that if you run Doomsday , you'd likely want to run a Doomsday -package, so you could win by just casting it and drawing into your top card... For that, I'd suggest talking to someone smarter than me, as I've never been able to get the hang of what the hell is going on with that strategy. All I know is that the package usually has something like Gitaxian Probe and Lotus Petal and ends with me being dead.

  9. You may have good luck with card draw spells. Repeatable effects, like Phyrexian Arena and/or Dark Confidant , tend to be expensive; luckily, the spell versions are often decidedly less so. I suggest running a few or more of the following: Painful Truths , Night's Whisper , Treasure Cruise or Dig Through Time (running both can be tough since delve can get in its own way), Fact or Fiction , Thirst for Knowledge , Concentrate , Chemister's Insight , Oona's Grace (questionable, due to the high mana requirement), Ancient Excavation (good with the reanimation mentioned in (5)), Archmage's Charm , Chart a Course , Syphon Mind , Deep Analysis and/or Words of Wisdom -- pay extra attention to the instants you can cast on an opponents end step. Another way to do this is simply to steal your opponents' card draw with Notion Thief or Plagiarize .

  10. Lastly, I know its around $11 these days, but I think Counterbalance would be dumb in this deck. Using your general's +1 will let you stack whatever you want on top, which can be especially devastating if you can keep an opponent's general off the board that way.

Good luck man! Love this deck.

burferking on Phylactery Broker

4 years ago

I forgot to suggest: The Immortal Sun (since you don't play Planeswalkers). Spine of Ish Sah and Meteor Golem particularly to destroy permanents like artifacts or enchantments. Infernal Darkness is Contamination 's lil brother.
Phyrexian Etchings either way your opponents are fucked. Hall of the Bandit Lord Ifnir Deadlands Mischievous Poltergeist Soul Channeling Bloodgift Demon Demonlord Belzenlok Archfiend of Despair Darkness

dingusdingo on Vilis, The Edge Lord

4 years ago

Ad Naus with the commander out it doesn't matter if the average CMC is high, you're still getting as many life points as you lose from your commander, plus the ones you get from Ad Naus. A lower average CMC will give more cards, but just consider that Ad Naus gets so much extra mileage anyways with this commander.

Lower CMC will make more explosive early plays, which is important when you can't reliably get your commander for the first couple turns. I would swap spells for permanents, and add more engine cards to help ensure the commander comes out.

Suggested Swaps

And if budget allows

Mindblade grinds value and can block/swing better than Read da Bonez. Etchings draws you the same amount of cards as Ancient Cravings after 2 turns but gives more the longer it stays and causes combotastic lifeloss. Shriekmaw is removal on an evasive creature if you want it, and it ups creature density while keeping a removal slot. Hatred is a nice burst card, but leaves you vulnerable after using it and is expensive to cast and easy to interrupt via counters/combat tricks/blocking, reclamation will let you grind value in longer games and has more of an impact earlier. Medallion outpaces the vesper ghoul immediately, coming out cheaper and being more useful with more spells per turn, and no summoning sickness. Temporal Extortion isn't great because it gives your opponents the choice, and they will always choose the better one for their situation. An extra turn is great, but half life of one player isn't all that important in combo-driven EDH. The rock changes come out earlier and help you dump your hand faster, meaning you have stronger presence sooner in the game, pretty standard in most serious decks.

Also worth checking out Loxodon Warhammer in tandem with with swamp equippers to add some life gain back in. You should also consider having a go-infinite combo for winning once you've drawn your deck. Paradox Engine fits in extremely well with Citadel or Ad Naus, and a Sensei's Divining Top + Voltaic Key gives another way to draw through the deck with Paradox. Use with a mana sink like Torment of Hailfire and you're golden

Monomanamaniac on Sharing is caring

5 years ago

Just so you know, 2 rust elementals cancel each other out, you can sac each with the other one and avoid losing life. Its because their effect just says you can't sac him, it's not referring to other creatures with the same name. Abyssal Persecutor just saying lol. Phyrexian Etchings you can benefit from it for awhile, then dump it on an opponent once it reaches a high enough number of age counters.

magus_oblivion on Mono black deckbuilder's toolbox

5 years ago

I'd add Vampire Hexmage, Dread Shade, and maybe Erebos, God of the Dead. Bridge from Below is good too. Phyrexian Etchings is good against flavors of U/W control (an archetype that happens to be a struggle for mono-black) because you can just out-gun your opponent with brute force card draw. Potentially more heat than you want to pack though; running hexmages gives you a reset button to make sure you don't blow your toes off while trying to close out the game.

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