Viral Drake

Creature — Phyrexian Drake

Flying

Infect (This creature deals damage to creatures in the form of -1/-1 counters and to players in the form of poison counters.)

{3}{U}: Proliferate. (You choose any number of permanents and/or players with counters on them, then give each another counter of a kind already there.)

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
Modern Beyond Horizons	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Planar Constructed	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (49)

king-saproling on Phyrexian

1 month ago

Personally I would make these swaps:

1x Vat Emergence -> Well of Lost Dreams
Eye of Malcator -> Contentious Plan
Tamiyo's Immobilizer -> Core Prowler
Synthesis Pod -> Ichorclaw Myr
Spy Network -> Vector Asp
Mindstatic -> Plague Myr
Power Taint -> Grim Affliction
Escaped Experiment -> Guildpact Informant
Ambulatory Edifice -> Inexorable Tide
Mindsplice Apparatus -> Necropede
Testament Bearer -> Steady Progress
The Filigree Sylex -> Plague Stinger
Font of Progress -> Throne of Geth
glistener seer -> Viral Drake
Ravenous Necrotitan -> Ichor Rats
Phyrexian Atlas -> Staff of Compleation

leon_bulminot on We're All Friends Here

11 months ago

Okay so couple cards to consider, specifically for planeswalkers.

First off, activating MULTIPLE planeswalker abilities of a single planeswalker in a single turn: The Chain Veil. And if you have Teferi, Temporal Archmage out with Chain Veil, and a few mana producing artifacts and a Proliferate effect from say Viral Drake or something, infinite counters on your walkers. I usually did it with Gilded Lotus, Thran Dynamo and a Sol Ring, with Chain Veil being the fourth untapped artifact. Proliferate with Viral Drake and you negate Temporal Archmage losing counters.

Next up is additional Counters. Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider and Doubling Season. Enough said right? Contagion Engine is a tad expensive to get online but, double proliferate. And if you had a Tekuthal, Inquiry Dominus on board, quadruple proliferate for 4 mana. So starting out, with everything on the field, Ugin, the Spirit Dragon enters the battlefield with 28 counters from just from Vorinclex and Doubling season. Add in the quadruple proliferate and it just gets dumb. Generally once Doubling Season hits, you can ult your planeswalkers THAT turn. Also, Nesting Grounds pairs well with Tekuthal to move indestructible counters onto other permanents.

Best five color mana searcher ever that is expensive but at one extra above Migration path, especially since planeswalker decks are more mid game, Shard Convergence is like a mega Expedition Map but in green.

A walker that’s good for searching anything, Liliana Vess.

If you want solid searching combo that also lets you untap artifacts as well as hunt for whatever you want is Tezzeret the Seeker and Mycosynth Lattice. And if you want to shut the game down for a win, so long as you have enough creatures to protect him, Karn, the Great Creator and Mycosynth shuts down ALL opponents mana flow. Wanna blow it up? Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, Kormus Bell, and then some blanket -1 toughness effect.

There are so many ways you can go with walker decks. But those are some things I use and still use.

SaberTech on Atraxa Stax

1 year ago

I think that this deck list is still a bit unfocused. It is basically saying that it wants to stall things out and win with poison counters, and it has the Magistrate's Scepter + Coretapper + Atraxa, Praetors' Voice combo for infinite turns, but there are a number of cards included that will only do synergistic things some of the time that will water down your meaningful draws.

Some cards to consider to increase your potential to kill with poison counters include Evolution Sage, Tekuthal, Inquiry Dominus, Inexorable Tide, and Phyresis Outbreak. I'm also kind of partial to Viral Drake. Tekuthal can act as an alternative to Coretapper for your Magistrate's Scepter combo.

I think that a lot of your STAX stuff will often feel lackluster since you aren't running any support to help you break parity on them. To get the most out of Winter Orb and Stasis it helps to have cards such as Nature's Will or Sword of Feast and Famine. There are also cards that tap down permanents/artifacts that you can use to tap down the Orbs at the end of your opponent's turn so that you can untap all your lands on your turn.

Cards that drain life like Scheming Aspirant and Bloodchief Ascension probably aren't worth it if you are trying to kill with poison counters. The life gain that you get off them is also pretty negligible. Although, if you had Mindcrank to combo with the Ascension it could function as a backup win condition.

You don't actually run that many cards that put counters on themselves or other cards you control, so Power Conduit and Soul Diviner look pretty lackluster on the basis of them not likely being consistent value when you draw into them.

I don't know what your commander meta is like, but in general there isn't a lot of targeted land destruction in casual games. Tomik, Distinguished Advokist will rarely be of any worth in most casual groups unless you regularly play against someone who uses cards like Crucible of Worlds to net value off of fetch lands and utility lands.

You have very few artifacts that send themselves to the graveyard. I think there is an argument to be made that you will rarely get much value out of Glissa, the Traitor's ability, even taking into consideration the possibility of getting back artifacts that opponents destroy. Still a decent blocker I guess. A more general effect like Eternal Witness in that slot may provide more consistent value though.

Those are just a few suggestions. I could think of more once I have a better idea of how you are looking to develop the deck further.

Squidcod on BerryCounters

1 year ago

Totally seeing that, there's actually probably even some easier ways with some of the cards I'm seeing that have reusable proliferate, just losing that first turn is a thing that will probably get you focused to death.

My workspace is over here Theorycrafting counter deck But, Karn's Bastion would probably work for yours, or your Flux Channeler. Guildpact Informant, Inexorable Tide, Thrummingbird, or Viral Drake are also good candidates.

That said you filled out a lot of my blue cards.

I think I'm shifting to Atraxa, Praetors' Voice which is an expensive card, but I splurge when it comes to lynchpins for a deck.

Azoth2099 on Green/Black toxic/proliferate need recommendations

1 year ago

Balvron Welcome back to the game! As I'm sure you know, a lot has changed.

So, my personal deck building philosophy these days is to decide how the deck is going to win with specific cards and work backwards from there, filling in the rest of the deck with the means to win with those specific cards (ramp, draw, tutors, etc.)

I'll get straight to the point, I think a better approach would be to use your access to 4 colors to quickly Tutor up gear for Atraxa, Praetors' Voice such as Phyresis, Grafted Exoskeleton and Swiftfoot Boots as the backbone of your infect strategy. Cards like Enlightened Tutor, Steelshaper's Gift & Open the Armory can help with that. There are also a lot of tutors in Black like Diabolic Tutor and Grim Tutor that can get you where you're trying to go.

I'd also Include a high density of mana dorks like Bloom Tender & Llanowar Elves since you're in Green. That, along with a decent number of mana rocks like Sol Ring & Arcane Signet will help you get your commander out in the early game, as well as allow you to cut down on lands to between 29-35, depending on the numbers.

Blue cantrips like Ponder, Brainstorm & Preordain are great. Enchantments or Artifacts like Dark Tutelage, Phyrexian Arena & Scroll Rack could also work here.

As for proliferation, I'd recommend cards like Flux Channeler, Inexorable Tide, Tekuthal, Inquiry Dominus, Viral Drake & Thrummingbird. There are also control options like Serum Snare, Reject Imperfection & Brokers Confluence.

Strionic Resonator & Lithoform Engine might pass playtesting, but maybe not idk!

Cheers!

Mortlocke on The Song of Phyresis

1 year ago

Vlasiax,

Blightsteel Colossus as hard as it is to believe it can be regularly cast between turns 5 and 8 but no sooner. Between getting out the right mana rocks and Urza's Incubator (more on that in a bit) Blightsteel does see the board and can make a significant impact. On the otherhand, Sensei's Divining Top is a straight up pet card of mine and is in almost all of my decks. Between this and Scroll Rack I just feel reassured knowing that I can rely on this card to dig deep and ensure I can manipulate my next draws. When in a bind and am about to miss my land drop I've used this card with great efficacy to fix things. Then when I feel i'm in the clear, I just draw a fetchland or mana ramp and shuffle the top into my library. I really want to keep it in, but if I were to cut it, what would I cut it for?

Now, as for Urza's Incubator, could you please elaborate on what exactly do you mean by it only affecting a small number of my creatures? Because I don't think you're aware of this, but back when Modern Horizons 2 was released (in 2021) a list of roughly 225 creatures were all revised to have the "Phyrexian" subtype (if you want a full list go to my previous deck update titled The "New" Phyrexian Tribe). Yes, every single creature in this deck was on that list - if it doesn't already have the Phyrexian subtype officially printed on it. Every creature in this deck benefits from the Incubator, and in the case of each Myr in the list makes them cost {0}.

I decided to cut the Venerated Rotpriest from the decklist - Toxic is far inferior to Infect as it simply doesn't scale - a Glistener Elf is far more dangerous with Sword of Feast and Famine than a rotpriest. Additionally, this deck doesn't have a lot of spells that I would want to target my own creatures with. Pestilent Syphoner isn't something that pinged across my radar - but I do see what you mean about creatures with evasion. As for Viral Drake, it's a magnificent card - evasion, infect, a big butt, and repeatable proliferation - what is there not to love? It has traditionally performed very well in this deck and has always maintained a decent asking price. Currently the non-foil is around $5 - and the foil print is $11. For an uncommmon, I think the pricing and demand speaks for itself, no?

SirHipHopHippo on Ewwww Kros, infect

1 year ago

Possible cuts Necropede, Viral Drake, Sublime Archangel

ChandraVess on Prismatic Planeswalkers

3 years ago

orenrahat: i actually took Viral Drake out to make room for other stuff. both cards have activated abilities. i don't want my loyalty generating spells to be reliant on an opponent attacking me.