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.

MELLT on Licia Commander

1 week ago

I would suggest switching out some of the cards that are a bit too focused, if that makes sense. For example Soothing Balm for Exsanguinate or Bishop's Soldier for Gifted Aetherborn. Otherwise this looks great! I included a few suggestions for mana fixing and protections. Need to keep your commander alive! Some of these are a bit expensive so they can be substituted later if you end up liking the deck and want to upgrade it.

Michigone on Isshin Assault

1 week ago

Hi lyconnn! Glad to see another Isshin initiate on here. I took a very quick cursory glance over the deck, and I had a few recommendations. Some of your cards lean into the solo attacker style (and I've seen some very cool deck builds in that space), while a lot of your creature cards make tons more tokens on attack. I feel like most of the time you're drawing Angelic Benediction, Angelic Exaltation, etc. you're probably wanting to attack multiple opponents or at least with multiple creatures, which might make those cards dead draws. Those slots might be better served with things that give your creatures the melee ability, which I find to be phenomenal in my Isshin build. Something like Skyhunter Strike Force is absolutely bananas, as melee is an attack trigger. So if you attack 3 opponents with Isshin and Skyhunter out, each of your creatures would get +3/+3 twice, or +6/+6 overall, which is an incredible boost. Hammers of Moradin is also a great potential replacement for something like Angelic Benediction, as myriad is a combat trigger (so you'll make two tokens attacking the opponent you didn't originally choose with Hammers), and you'll get to tap down two creatures for each opponent, clearing the way a little better for an attack. Finally, I eventually got rid of Audacious Thief, because without Isshin on the field, it is a worse Phyrexian Arena, a card which has become slightly deprecated because the format has better options now. If you want the card draw, I really like Chivalric Alliance, as it provides draw and potential token production.

Anyway, that's just a few suggestions. Thanks, and have fun kicking butt with Isshin!

Azoth2099 on [KCKB] Kaalia Casual & Kind of Budget

2 weeks ago

jameswarlord

No problem dude! Glad to help, truly.

As a longtime brewer of this particular Commander, I'm definitely seeing a few cards here that I would cut in favor of more card draw, Ramp, Tutors, & Interaction to get you to your power pieces like Vilis, Broker of Blood. Please don't take this the wrong way, but it will be a shorter list to include the things that I would personally keep in the list, sans Lands. Here we go:

Creatures: Vilis, Broker of Blood, Rune-Scarred Demon, Burning-Rune Demon, Ancient Gold Dragon, Drana and Linvala, Mother of Runes, Giver of Runes, Grand Abolisher & Serra's Emissary

Artifacts: All Mana Rocks CMC 2 or less, Swiftfoot Boots & Lightning Greaves.

Enchantments: Dragon Tempest, Phyrexian Arena & Phyrexian Reclamation.

Instants: Boros Charm, Swords to Plowshares, h Path to Exile.

Sorceries: Damn, Diabolic Tutor & Seize the Spoils.

Everything outside of these ones should be replaced with value pieces imo! I'd also heavily recommend that you pick up a copy of Razaketh, the Foulblooded. It was just reprinted in Commander Masters, and is hovering around ~$8 at the time of this post! It was just like $25-$30 a little while ago. Insane. I'd also recommend looking through the Dominaria Remastered set, lots of spicy reprints in there that have taken a price plunge & could be great here like Sneak Attack & Gamble.

treeforcorvus on Mardu Vehicles Commander

1 month ago

This deck looks really cool! I really love how incredibly affordable your deck is. For a few more dollars you can add amazing improvements that will significantly improve your deck's power. There's two cards, however, that are a must:

First, Sunforger will cast ANY instant you run, allowing answers straight from your deck AND enables Vial Smasher the Fierce if used outside your turn. Path of Mettle  Flip is a decent repellant, but only if you flip it. More likely it will be an inconsistent killer or chip damage, which will only antagonize your foes, and worse it doesn't synergize with either Partner. Sunforger also makes Akiri and Jor kadeen happy, and its versatility will serve you more accurately.

Second, Mistveil Plains (searchable by Oreskos Explorer btw) pairs spectacularly with Sunforger, allowing you to recycle spent instants. Spectacular.

I recommend these replacements, which give big improvements:

*First of all, Sun Titan and Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle will almost always better targets to reanimate. Second, compare Pyre Zombie to Torment of Hailfire: For 7BB (the cost of return/cast/sac), you'd get 7 instances of "Each opponent loses 3 life unless that player sacrifices a nonland permanent or discards a card". While Hailfire is a prohibitively expensive card, it still highlights how inefficient Pyre Zombie is without your reanimators. Considering the # of vehicles you run, Greasefang is much better.

legendofa on Golgari Skelly Bobs

1 month ago

Welcome to the club, Nezkul! I always get excited when I see a Skeleton deck.

To offer some specifics on wallisface's tips, the planeswalkers don't offer too much to your plan. Garruk, Cursed Huntsman in particular doesn't pull his weight in this deck, at 6 mana for either a couple of expendable bodies or some removal and draw. (Don't rely on a planeswalker's ultimate; unless your deck is loaded with proliferate effects or very hard control, more often than not you're not going to reach it.) Lolth, Spider Queen is a little better, since your Skeletons can be easily reclaimed. Still, though, it's primary function is as a draw engine, so maybe Phyrexian Arena or some "burst" draw like Village Rites would work better.

For removal, Hero's Downfall is more flexible than Murder, and has been reprinted enough that it's very affordable. I don't see your creatures getting more than maybe 3-4 toughness on a good day, so Grim Contest might not be the best option. There's lots of pretty good removal at 2 mana, so that is a potential switch. Prey Upon needs either Skeletal Swarming or Death Baron to be fully useful, so switching it for Bone Shards might work better.

Persistent Specimen is a decent 1-mana skeleton, as is Rimebound Dead if you can find some Snow lands.

Above all, have fun!

DreadKhan on Power Word Death

1 month ago

Phyrexian Totem isn't the easiest card to use, but most deck don't use a lot of instant speed burn spells or Flash creatures so as long as you've killed off their blockers it's a solid attacker. It can also force the opponent to keep blockers home. In practice, since it swings for 5 it can be fine to lose a few things to it in my experience (provided you're already ahead that game), and in situations where you can't use it to attack it's still a mana source that helps you cast your Obliterators.

Haha, yeah, I don't know if there is anywhere local I can buy cards, it's such a niche interest here, but online stores can make it easy to find cheaper versions of cards, though you have to do online shopping (which I wasn't eager to do). I know of a few European and North American companies who sell tons of stuff, and I think TCGPlayer.com has sellers from all over, and you can set the site to restrict sellers to ones that will ship to your area (it used to be pretty buggy, I have less trouble with it now).

The nice thing about 1 drops is that they allow you to start pressuring the board early, and some of them have useful abilities like Deathtouch, which let them trade with your opponent's better creatures. If you're not sure that Deathtouch creatures are good enough (or evasive lifelink creatures, like Cutthroat and Vault Skirge), you can also try out cards like Duress, Inquisition of Kozilek, or Ostracize, since you get to pick what they discard these can be incredibly useful for only B mana. The best of these is probably Thoughtseize, followed by Grief and Unmask, but Inquisition usually works well in a format where people hate using cards with MV higher than 3. Some more 1 drops you can consider are Cryptbreaker, which is a zombie tribal card that can make tokens and draw cards eventually, and Foulmire Knight, this has Adventure and can draw a card if you draw it later in the game, and a 1/1 Deathtouch can block fairly well.

Dark Ritual isn't quite an auto-include in every deck, but it's one of the best cards that's legal in Legacy, it's especially useful if you can use all 3 mana and can play it turn 1. In your deck as is, if you have Ritual you can play a Gatekeeper or Messenger turn 1, either of those is a fair bit of value that early, and Vampire Nighthawk is really good with Dark Ritual since you can start gaining life turn 2. It turns a Grave Titan in a turn 4 play, at which point it's a very strong creature when you're sneaking it out so early, and while it's unlikely, you can end up with 2 Rituals in your opening hand and play Titan turn 2. If you use 1 mana discard spells as well as Hymn to Tourach, you can cast both (for the record you should cast the Duress type effect before Hymn) turn 1 which should decide most games on turn 1. Dark Ritual is a key card in decks that are trying to be fairly competitive, so if you want to make your deck stronger it's a great card to consider.

With all your removal (and the discard you've got), have you thought about x1 or x2 Sangromancer? It's a 3/3 flyer for 4, which isn't terrible, but it can gain quite a bit of life while still threatening your opponent. I guess it'd be a creature version of your Incursion, it won't gain as much life but it'll deal more damage.

If you want something to accelerate your games there is Phyrexian Arena, which was printed into Standard again, so it's extremely cheap compared to a few years back. It's not the best draw effect out there, but drawing a card each upkeep is pretty good value if you're not playing the fastest games, this card is also good with Dark Ritual, but it will cost a bit of life over time.

Crow_Umbra on Isshin for a Fight

1 month ago

If you're looking for more draw without sacrificing a creature slot, there's also Firemane Commando from March of the Machine. It's kinda like Breena, so could potentially work in tandem with, or in replacement. Still, I wouldn't pass up on Breena's ability to buff up your team.

Glimmer Lens and Call of the Ring are both also newer options. I'm currently using Call of the Ring in a couple of decks. Pacing-wise, it is comparable also to Phyrexian Arena, but The Ring Tempts You offers some additional bonuses which reward aggro play patterns, one of which being to draw then discard a card on attack.

Crow_Umbra on Isshin for a Fight

1 month ago

I cut both Audacious Thief and Etali, Primal Storm a while ago and haven't really looked back or missed either. That's my personal taste though.

When I played Audacious Thief, I realized that it's basically a slower Phyrexian Arena without Isshin on the table; another card I don't really play much of any more. Etali is fun, but it's also very boom or bust. I've had some explosive plays with Etali, and I've had some whiffs. The lack of consistency, and vulnerability to removal for a turn rotation without haste was why I eventually cut Etali.

I've had Horn of the Mark on my radar, but haven't been in a rush to add it. There are definitely times where I'd rather be drawing into removal or protection effects more than I want more creatures. Regardless, digging through 10 cards to re-up on 2 creatures isn't too bad, but can be feels bad if you filter out other spells you may need at that point in the game.

Personally, I would keep Breena. I am biased because she's helped me close out a few games with her +1/+1 counters. My meta leans aggro, so my opponents more often than not let her stick around because they benefit, meanwhile I'm spreading counters out over my board, or stacking them up on Breena. Due to this benefit, people may aim whatever they draw into at each other instead of you. I've had games where she's reached 20+ power and proceeded to snipe other players once their life was low enough.

If anything, I'd replace Audacious Thief with Goldspan Dragon. It has Haste and Flying, it makes your treasures tap for 2 mana instead, and you're already running Professional Face-Breaker and Lannery Storm. The treasure support between those 3 is nothing to scoff at, especially if you can get at least 2 of them on the board in tandem.

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