Phyrexian Arena

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Legality

Format Legality
1v1 Commander Legal
Alchemy Legal
Archenemy Legal
Arena Legal
Block Constructed Legal
Brawl Legal
Canadian Highlander Legal
Casual Legal
Commander / EDH Legal
Commander: Rule 0 Legal
Custom Legal
Duel Commander Legal
Gladiator Legal
Highlander Legal
Historic Legal
Legacy Legal
Leviathan Legal
Limited Legal
Modern Legal
Oathbreaker Legal
Pioneer Legal
Planechase Legal
Pre-release Legal
Premodern Legal
Quest Magic Legal
Standard Legal
Tiny Leaders Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

Phyrexian Arena

Enchantment

At the beginning of your upkeep, you draw a card and you lose 1 life.

shadow63 on How Good is Temple Bell?

1 week ago

I say Phyrexian Arena and Outpost Siege are both much better options unless your deck wants to give your opponents resources

Profet93 on Tergrid removal pants

1 week ago

Chainedbygod567

I wasn't sure what your budget per card is but this should hopefully not break the bank. I can recommend cuts should you wish

Feed the Swarm - Enchantment removal

Mind Twist - Note it states random, especially effective if ramped into in the early game. Also useful as counterspell bait.

Night's Whisper - Draw

Nightmare Unmaking - Versatile wipe

Sheoldred's Edict/Hero's Downfall - PW Removal

Bubbling Muck - Ramp! Highly recommended. Especially because you're not running urborg

Ill-Gotten Gains - Up to you, could be useful, could backfire.

Barter in Blood - Mass sacrifice

wallisface on How Good is the Immortal …

1 week ago

I agree with everything Caerwyn has illustrated. All the effects of this card just feel super “meh”, which is not the kindof feeling you want to have from a card at any cost, let-alone a whopping .

I feel like even in the casual-world of commander, i’d be struggling to justify running this if it only cost . I’d only seriously consider this card at the 3-mana mark, and even then only if my deck cared about most of its effects (yes at 3-mana it would just be a better Phyrexian Arena, but that card is hardly an auto-include as-is).

Caerwyn on How Good is the Immortal …

1 week ago

I gave my basic thoughts on your other thread, but I will expand upon them here.

Everything The Immortal Sun does is pretty mediocre.

The planeswalker stax ability? Nifty if your opponents are running enough planeswalkers that a general response is useful, but it is not overly great otherwise (and might be completely meaningless in some games.

The Phyrexian Arena effect? Not a great effect given how slow it is; even worse at six mana. After all, that means this will often drop later, which means fewer turns left in the game to take advantage of those extra draws.

The spell cost reduction? Again, not bad, but reducing by one untyped mana when you already have the ability to generate six mana is less impactful.

The Anthem effect? In the modern game, even a two-mana Anthem without an additional upside is not great; six mana is a big ask.

At six mana, I want something that is going to redefine the game and drastically advance my victory; I do not want a bunch of mediocre abilities with little synergy between them.

legendofa on The Baron's Coterie

2 weeks ago

Buried Alive is 3 mana, Demonic Tutor is 2 mana, and Bloodghast is 2 mana. If you cast Buried to dump a Bloodghast, it's still going to take another land play to get the same value as playing Bloodghast directly. I would cut Buried and just add another Bloodghast.

There aren't many repeatable sac outlets that draw cards, but Village Rites and Corrupted Conviction are solid, along with Deadly Dispute. I think these will help you more than long-term draw, but for the sake of completion Phyrexian Arena and Black Market Connections are the standard and top end, respectively.

Next thought is, you have a lot of potential finishers. The Exquisite Bond combo is the most generally useful, in my opinion, and you can get some redundancy with Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose. I would cut Mind Twist and two Exsanguinates for a couple Vitos and a couple more Thoughtseizes for more early advantage. Discard that you choose > random discard > discard that they choose.

Falkenrath Forebear can also work as Vampire-centric sacrifice fodder, especially alongside Voldaren Bloodcaster  Flip if you go hard in this direction, but it's a little less reliable. Maybe just break away from vampires and use another recursive creature.

How much does Surgical Extraction help you? If you're against graveyard decks or combo decks regularly, keep it in main deck. Otherwise, it's sideboard material. As I write that, I realize there's no sideboard listed--do you use sideboards?

Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth is very good with Cabal Coffers, so keep those together. But how do you use the fetchlands? If it's only to find another basic Swamp, there's no reason not to just use more basic Swamps.

legendofa on

3 weeks ago

Welcome to the club, Kershin36!

I'm not a Commander expert, but there's a couple of cards here I'd like to poke at.

You don't have a lot of self-damaging effects to take advantage of Rowan, Scion of War--in fact, I only really see Blood Crypt and Bloodgift Demon that would reliably hit you. There are plenty of "damage target player" effects, but I assume you would want to use those on your opponents. There's also not really enough instants to use her ability on opponents' turns, either. I would cut her, or at least add more self-damage effects. Depending on budget and focus, Sulfuric Vortex, Phyrexian Arena, or Black Market Connections are all very good options, and Raphael, Fiendish Savior lets you recover the life loss easily enough.

Everlasting Torment is a very good card, but here it directly clashes with Raphael. I would simply cut it, unless you don't mind losing the lifelink or are willing to use a different commander.

There's no way to spread +1/+1 counters for Exava, Rakdos Blood Witch, and less than five creatures that use them at all. A 4/4 hasty first striker is pretty good as an attacker, but you're usually going to want more utility than that.

Here, I'm going to get into my personal tastes, so if these suggestions aren't what you're looking for with this deck, feel free to skip over them. I would add more sacrifice effects to control when your creatures die and help ensure you gain some advantage from it. Mayhem Devil will thank you. I would also add more mass removal and destroy effects. A lot of your removal options are single target and based on damage or toughness reduction, which isn't bad in moderation but won't help much against a token deck going off or a creature with double digit power/toughness, both of which happen pretty regularly. I'm a fan of discard, but choose your targets well.

And above all, have fun!

wallisface on Dark Rituals

1 month ago

Your mana curve is pretty high, and you’re pretty low on board-interaction. I’d suggest dropping Grimdancer and Grave Pact in favour of low mana killspells like Fatal Push and Infernal Grasp.

You can probably go down to running just 3 copies of Phyrexian Arena aswell, as it’s not something you particularly want to draw multiples of.

I’m not sure what the purpose of your sideboard cards are here- they don’t look like they’re helping your bad matchups, they’re just “other cards”?

Profet93 on Haunted Shadowheart

2 months ago

Vessiliana

To deal with stalling out, more draw can't hurt. Syphon Mind, Phyrexian Arena, Read the Bones, Sign in Blood, Night's Whisper, Ambition's Cost and Ancient Craving are all decent ideas.

I would add some more interaction as a preventative measure for staying power such as Contamination and/or Infernal Darkness. How are they gonna wipe if they can't cast spells? Swapping out your 4cmc lili for Karn, the Great Creator could be worth considering as well. Having one of the above enchantments + karn = fun times.

I personally disagree with insidious dreams because 1) It's an additional cost to cast. Without any anti-blue measures in the deck, this would be strongly meta dependent IMO. 2) It doesn't bring the cards to hand. Even ignoring mill, you have to wait to draw them or cast an additional draw spell just to get them. Why not add a more expensive CMC card that can accomplish what you're looking for? Your avg cmc is low enough to support it. Something like Peer into the Abyss (synergy with Archfiend of Despair) or Diabolic Revelation might work for you. Never hurts to try insidious though.

While not necessary, have you considered an alternate wincon? Rings of Brighthearth + cabal coffers + Deserted Temple = . You have a lot of flexibility in your landbase, Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth can reduce the amount of swamps you need. Temple can be used for politics and ramp with coffers on it's own. Rings synergizes with your commander, your shadowborn apostyles and several other cards. Adding in fetches could allow you to ramp. All depends on your goals + budget.

You have no instants. While I'm personally biased, Imp's Mischief can "counter" counterspells and redirect targeted removal, draw and extra turns! You definitely need an instant or two to bluff.

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