Maybeboard


While a lot of Atraxa decks tend to go deep on one theme and load up on relevant tutors or other support cards, that isn't super budget friendly and also doesn't really result in the sorts of games we're aiming at in our playgroup. So instead, this build uses three related main themes:

  • +1/+1 counters
  • Charge counter combos
  • Planeswalkers
There are a handful of generically counter-relevant cards in here. Winding Constrictor, Deepglow Skate, Contagion Clasp, Contagion Engine, Inexorable Tide and Viral Drake are all useful for all of the deck's subthemes. Many of them also help ensure that you can keep pushing counters when Atraxa is off of the board.
While many creatures in the deck can acquire a lot of +1/+1 counters and beat down on their own. The hydras and Chasm Skulker are generally pretty good on their own.

However, many of the creatures, such as Reyhan, Last of the Abzan, Ezuri, Claw of Progress, Forgotten Ancient, Master Biomancer, Juniper Order Ranger and Zameck Guildmage can put counters on Atraxa, who can then get terrifying on her own. Gavony Township, Opal Palace, Oath of Ajani, Citadel Siege and Cathars' Crusade can also help seed initial counters on Atraxa.

Cathars' Crusade has two big synergies. Cathars' Crusade + Cauldron of Souls wipes out the -1/-1 persist counters. Cathars' Crusade + Ghave, Guru of Spores can generate a ton of huge saprolings. If you have a lot of mana, Ghave also synergizes nicely with other counter amps like Hardened Scales.

Anafenza, the Foremost can't put counters on Atraxa, but she can still put counters on creatures like Master Biomancer while giving a little extra graveyard hate other than Scavenging Ooze.

Odric, Lunarch Marshal shares Atraxa's ridiculous keyword soup with the rest of your creatures.

Viral Drake is in the deck purely for the proliferate effect. Some tables panic when they see the "Infect" keyword. It may be good politics to promise not to attack with it and make sure everyone knows there's no other infect in the deck.

Reveillark can actually bring back most of the creatures in the deck. While very few creatures in the deck actually enter with or stay at 2 power for long, a lot of the creatures have low base power and come in with or acquire counters quickly. Returning things like Ghave, Guru of Spores or Khalonion Hydra is really good value. In a pinch, you might be able to return Filigree Sages to combo off.

There are three big charge-counter based artifact payoff cards: Magistrate's Scepter, Titan Forge and Lux Cannon. Scepter can generate infinite turns with a couple of counter amp or proliferate effects.

The big payoff for forge or cannon is Astral Cornucopia + Filigree Sages . Cornucopia on 4+ counters generates infinite mana and artifact untaps with sages. Even without cornucopia, being able to untap the charge counter artifacts with spare mana can be extremely powerful, making sages still useful without the infinite combo.

The main focus for plansewalkers in this deck is inexpensive planeswalkers with a removal mode and/or the ability to draw cards. Proliferate allows you to activate removal modes that cost loyalty most turns.

Liliana Vess has no removal mode and doesn't directly draw any cards. However, the ability to fix your draw every turn is very powerful. Vraska the Unseen can't draw cards, but is able to blow up arbitrary permanents. That's important since she is the only form of land hate in the deck.

The build does not run The Chain Veil simply because I don't think the planeswalker density is high enough to justify it.

Duneblast is useful in that it can save Atraxa. Black Sun's Zenith with the correct setup can be a one-sided wipe (if nothing else after a few proliferates). Merciless Eviction may seem awkward in a deck with so many creatures. However, in most cases where eviction on creatures is going to hurt, it's not necessary. It's possible that Cyclonic Rift would be better, but I omitted it for budget reasons.

List of adds as list for price check: Atraxa Precon Upgrades

Suggestions

Updates Add

This was one of the first decks that I upgraded. As a result, There are some things about it that are a little sloppy relative to my newer decks where I'd gotten a better sense of how to balance it. As such, I'm making a few tweaks to streamline it.

Out:

  • Azorius Chancery / Golgari Rot Farm: Bounce lands are bad in this deck
  • Anafenza, the Foremost: I like the graveyard hate, but the fact that she can't put counters on Atraxa is just too big of a downside.
  • Protean Hydra: Doesn't do enough to justify something that also can't be brought back by Reveillark
  • Inspiring Call: This card has really never done work for me and I have plenty of other card draw. Even in cases that the indestructible matters, recovering from board wipes is just not hard in this deck anyway.

In:

Under Consideration:

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Revision 10 See all

(3 years ago)

+1 Conclave Mentor maybe
+1 Eerie Ultimatum maybe
+1 Hadana's Climb  Flip maybe
+1 Herald of Secret Streams maybe
+1 Loyal Guardian maybe
+1 Shalai, Voice of Plenty maybe
+1 Simic Ascendancy maybe
Date added 6 years
Last updated 3 years
Key combos
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.

Rarity (main - side)

14 - 0 Mythic Rares

34 - 0 Rares

20 - 0 Uncommons

13 - 0 Commons

Cards 100
Avg. CMC 3.62
Tokens Assassin 1/1 B w/ Player Killer, Emblem Ob Nixilis Reignited, Emblem Tamiyo, Field Researcher, Experience Token, Golem 9/9 C, Plant 0/1 G, Saproling 1/1 G, Squid 1/1 U, Vampire Knight 1/1 B
Folders EDH, Atraxa
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