Phyrexian Arena

Enchantment

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

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Arena	Legal
Block Constructed	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
Premodern	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (50)

Caerwyn on How Good is the Immortal …

1 day ago

I think it is very much a jack of all trades, master of none card. Each thing it does is okay (though I'd maintain Phyrexian Arena effects are pretty bad on their own) and together they do a lot of things one might want... the problem is that you often will be better off using a focused card that significantly advances your deck, rather than a catch-all card that incrementally advances different things simultaneously. That it sits at the top of your curve and three of its four abilities are things you would want early in the game (card draw--the longer before you get once-per-turn card draw, the fewer cards it draws you; ramp; a hatebears piece to stop opponent threats) is also not a great feature.

DreadKhan on Sacrifices Must Be Made

1 week ago

If nothing else, Make an Example is a shockingly good card in Rakdos as removal that dodges almost any form of protection, and it hits all opponents at once. Do or Die is also worth a look, but it never hits your opponent's best stuff with any reliability. Final sorcery that's really good in Rakdos is Phyrexian Purge, which is a very one-sided wipe that only costs 4 mana.

I feel repetitive at this point, but Rite of the Raging Storm is very much worth a look in Juri, it gives a sac every turn and it also just generates chaos. It also synergizes with great stuff like Mask of Griselbrand and Exquisite Blood, which also loves Citadel of Pain (and Protection Racket, which is like Phyrexian Arena did a giant bag of steroids as long as you're not on obvious combo).

I feel like Agitator Ant is a solid card here, Ogre Slumlord is also very good with lots of removal/sacrifice effects, Mayhem Devil is probably an auto-include unless I'm missing something, not sure if it's relevant, but Infernal Tribute can both let you sac any non-token and draw cards at the same time, it's like really wonky Necropotence Plus with your Commander, only you pay mana and permanents to draw cards and deal damage. Very weird but Whip of Erebos would let Juri (and everything else) have Lifelink, which can be handy, it can also bring something back if you want.

Housegheist on Sheoldred spell-Slinger

1 week ago

Plumb the Forbidden seems to fit perfectly.

Phyrexian Arena, Black Market Connections, Tevesh Szat, Doom of Fools?

Cunning Rhetoric could provide some valuable protection. Bolas's Citadel to play spell from top?

Housegheist on Imotekhs eternal Artifacts

1 week ago

multimedia

The discussion with you is very enlightened :o)

While playtesting, i noticed Batterskull a dead card in hand more often than not. I always wanted to play another card -> cut. As well as Ghouls' Night Out. I think the rate (4 reanimations for 5 mana - 4-1 exchange) is a extremely good rate… but it fits my Zombie deck better, i guess. I like this card, cutting it hurts :D

Myr Retriever was a great suggestion, which is already in my collection. Should provide more synergy than the cuts. Open my eyes for a Workshop Assistant, not in my collection yet. As for Mirrorworks, i hope thst this can provide huge value as it can copy almost 3/4 of my deck. I already thought about adding Lithoform Engine but mirrorworks will do, i think.

The idea of Mind's Eye is to draw consistently. Of course, there are burst-draw options, but most of them rely on life… which i already abuse a lot in this deck, do i? I could use Phyrexian Arena which is rather slow and relies one life, too (and mirrorworks draws more cards potentially.

I have 10 options to return Canoptek Tomb Sentinel from GY to play. You think these are enough out to abuse/use it‘s effect and therefore exchange against Overwhelming Remorse?

Sad Robot was never a disappointing draw because if combining etb and ltb.

Crow-Umbra on Dihada of the Multiverse

1 week ago

It's not the most budget suggestion, but Black Market Connections could be a potential upgrade to Phyrexian Arena. It gives you more options to work with, and is slightly easier to cast on color investment compared to Arena.

You could also stand to add a bit more ramp to your deck. Mardu needs all the help it can get in that department. Any of the two mana rocks are your friends: Talisman of Conviction and the others in that cycle, Rakdos Signet and crew, Mind Stone, and maybe Liquimetal Torque.

Leonantti on Call of Souls

2 weeks ago

KibaAlpha Thanks for your comment! I admit, I did misremember (and then misread again) Black Market Connections . In my head I was comparing it to Phyrexian Arena and remembering that it had a different timing when the effect triggers (Connections' trigger happens in beginning of precombat main phase and Arena's happens in the upkeep but all in all I think the timing is pretty much similar in most cases in the end that would matter to the player). Connections is Arena on steroids though and I would play it over the Arena.

Reason why I am not replacing Black Market Connections with Smothering Tithe is because I like the options Connections give me and the ability to choose what triggers I want, and with Connections I don't have to rely on what opponents might choose to do: if opponents are not drawing much cards or have enough mana to keep paying for the 2, it does nothing to me, and in my experience Thalisse relies on keeping turning out tokens that start to add up eventually. Black Market Connections ALWAYS does something to me if I choose so AND it does not just give me manaramp in exchange for life but card draw and extra creature token as well (the Treasure token and creature token then generate even more creature tokens with Thalisse!). All in all, Smothering Tithe might give a bigger payout in some situations but I like more Black Market Connections reliability to work as I want and flexibility to choose what I want. The only thing that I am worried with playing with Connections is that I might get greedy and end up spending too much life at wrong time and it comes back to bite me in the butt, but with all the pingers that make opponents lose life and me gain life I feel confident that it will get evened out and/or I will come on top with life total situation.

Body Count and Plumb the Forbidden could be fun inclusions, I can see situations where they could be really strong and draw me so many cards! Out of the two to play I think I would consider Plump the Forbidden since it could work as a additional sac engine and it does allow me to choose how many creatures I wanna sack (flexibility ftw!). I could add the card to the deck if I am able to figure out what to take away from the deck to add room for the card.

azarate88 on Rakdos, Lord of Greed, Cheats, and Riots

2 weeks ago

I would replace Stormfist Crusader with Phyrexian Arena so you're not providing your opponents with that advantage as well

GorramScoundrel on Antivax Dragon

3 weeks ago

@Andramalech I think I’ll take you up on the Phyrexian Arena cut, I absolutely love Black Market Connections and as much as I like the arena it’s not as versatile. I love Kaya's Ghostform, I just haven’t seen a chance to add that card to this or Skullbriar, the Walking Moshpit, even though it’d fit in both. Thanks again bud!