Phage the Untouchable

Commander / EDH* Mono-Black

nzcanuckbrewer

Land (38)

• 1x Bojuka Bog
• 1x Buried Ruin
• 1x Cabal Coffers
• 1x Castle Locthwain
• 1x Command Beacon
• 1x Field of Ruin
• 1x Geier Reach Sanitarium
• 1x High Market
• 1x Homeward Path
• 1x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• 1x Phyrexian Tower
• 1x Rogue's Passage
• 1x Scavenger Grounds
• 1x Shizo, Death's Storehouse
• 21x Swamp
• 1x Thespian's Stage
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Volrath's Stronghold

Enchantment (12)

• 1x Bitterblossom
• 1x Black Market
• 1x Call the Bloodline
• 1x Dark Prophecy
• 1x Dauthi Embrace
• 1x Endless Whispers
• 1x Heartless Summoning
• 1x Night Dealings
• 1x Phyrexian Reclamation
• 1x Phyrexian Scriptures
• 1x Vampiric Rites
• 1x Words of Waste

Sorcery (14)

• 1x Army of the Damned
• 1x Beseech the Queen
• 1x Damnation
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Exsanguinate
• 1x Final Parting
• 1x Fortuitous Find
• 1x From Under the Floorboards
• 1x Mutilate
• 1x Night's Whisper
• 1x Profane Command
• 1x Scheming Symmetry
• 1x Torment of Hailfire
• 1x Toxic Deluge

Creature (13)

• 1x Clackbridge Troll
• 1x Eater of Days
• 1x Erebos, Bleak-Hearted
• 1x Hunted Horror
• 1x Junk Diver
• 1x K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth
• 1x Murderous Rider
• 1x Phyrexian Dreadnought
• 1x Platinum Angel
• 1x Skirge Familiar
• 1x Vilis, Broker of Blood
• 1x Wurmcoil Engine
• 1x Yahenni, Undying Partisan

Commander (1)

Instant (13)

• 1x Blood Curdle
• 1x Costly Plunder
• 1x Culling the Weak
• 1x Dark Ritual
• 1x Force of Despair
• 1x Imp's Mischief
• 1x Scour from Existence
• 1x Skeletal Scrying
• 1x Stunning Reversal
• 1x Tendrils of Corruption
• 1x Vampiric Tutor
• 1x Vraska's Contempt
• 1x Withering Boon

Artifact (9)

• 1x Ashnod's Altar
• 1x Crucible of Worlds
• 1x Expedition Map
• 1x Jet Medallion
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Sundial of the Infinite
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots
• 1x Torpor Orb
• 1x Whip of Erebos

---

Trying to make a Phage the Untouchable deck work with two deck building restrictions from a list of ten:

Number 1) The deck must contain equal numbers of non-land, non-Planeswalker card types (a card with multiple types will count for both);

Number 2) All Creature cards must naturally have an evergreen keyword (Haste, Trample, Flying, Menace, First Strike, Double Strike, Deathtouch, Vigilance, Lifelink, Reach, Hexproof, Shroud, Indestructible).

I'm expanding on Phage's negative ETB trigger (protected by Torpor Orb, Sundial of the Infinite, Platinum Angel...) by including other negative ETB trigger cards like Eater of Days. These are often cheaper to cast due to their drawbacks, giving the deck a lower curve for threats. Also, if Torpor Orb leaves play after one of these creatures is on the battlefield, Endless Whispers combines with a sacrifice outlet and Homeward Path to give an opponent the negative ETB trigger at the next end step and grab my creature back without triggering the ETB for me. This can be especially good when used with Phage as reclaiming her with her ETB on the stack for my opponent means they still lose, but Phage will not be placed in the command zone/graveyard, so she is ready to go again the following turn.

There are a bunch of tutors to get pieces you need to negate ETB triggers, as well as a few token makers for various sacrifice effects or death triggers, and of course removal/board wipes.

Vilis, Broker of Blood does some heavy lifting with K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth for mana-less card draw, or with Skirge Familiar to steadily gain card advantage and actually produce mana while drawing through your deck. If you already have one of the graveyard recursion elements (Phyrexian Reclamation or Volrath's Stronghold, even Whip of Erebos with the Sundial in play to nullify the delayed trigger), Final Parting can fetch Vilis and either of the other two cards to prepare for a massive turn.

The restriction of balancing all card-types made for some tough choices, but also a great incentive to find interesting cards that I hadn't looked at before. I would've loved to include Leveler in this deck as another powerful creature and potential opponent killer, but sadly it has no keyword abilities.

Date added	3 years
Last updated	3 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	8 - 0 Mythic Rares 44 - 0 Rares 18 - 0 Uncommons 9 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.31
Tokens	Centaur 3/3 G w/ Pro Black, Faerie Rogue 1/1 B, Goat 0/1 W, Vampire Knight 1/1 B, Wurm 3/3 C w/ Deathtouch, Wurm 3/3 C w/ Lifelink, Zombie 2/2 B