Phyrexian Arena

Enchantment

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

Discussion (48)

Davinoth on Saskia the Contagious : STD commander

12 hours ago

     I used to have a deck list, but took that deck apart some time ago I'm afraid!

     Another couple of suggestions! Grothama, All-Devouring & Phyrexian Arena. =)

SirHipHopHippo on "At the beginning of your upkeep" Tribal

2 days ago

Gontilordofmtg Thanks for commenting! I feel the life gain card are pretty important in this deck as Phyrexian Arena, Bitterblossom, Ancient Tomb, City of Brass, Mana Confluence, Spire of Industry, and Tarnished Citadel all do damage to me or make me lose life, and having that life gain cushion is important.

As for removal, a friend of mine always says "A fun commander deck is all questions and no answers", so all of my decks tend to just be very selfish and try to get ahead as quick as possible rather than worrying about other players decks.

However, I do have two ways of removing things, Capricious Efreet and also Dominus of Fealty + World Queller let me do this fun thing where I take any permanent and then immediately sacrifice what I took with the World Queller trigger.

I've considered adding the red siege enchantment, but I typically rely on Golos and hardly cast cards from my hand, nor top of the deck.

smilodex on Ishkanah, Grafwidow Commander COMBO Deck

2 days ago

Thanks for your comment. I am very happy about such comments, as it is difficult to keep an eye on every possible combination with over a thousand commanders, especially with such a commander like Ishkanah, which you don't meet in your LGS every day. Thanks to your comment, I can see more of the potential of Ishkanah. I you want to tune up your deck, I have some recommendations for that:

I would exchange:

• Panharmonicon has only 3 targets + your commander... I think that's not efficien enough I would rather play this beast of a card: Ohran Frostfang because this card converts your spiders into carddrawing killer spiders.
• Far Wanderings for Cultivate because it's more reliable and effective
• Vessel of Nascency for Jarad's Orders because this card is just a perfect tutor for decks like this
• Blood for Bones for Victimize
• Is Witchbane Orb one of your meta picks, because a lot of your opponents play curses or burn? If not, I would rather play more carddraw because you have to less of it in your deck. Play Sylvan Library (or Phyrexian Arena) instead
• Drown in Filth with either another good removal like Abrupt Decay; Caustic Caterpillar; Plaguecrafter (Force of Despair, Darkblast, Snuff Out, Force of Vigor, Tragic Slip etc.)
• Cut 2 Forests and a Swamp for Bala Ged Recovery  ^Flip, Khalni Ambush  ^Flip & Hagra Mauling  ^Flip
• Grapple with the Past for Fiend Artisan/Phyrexian Arena/Opposition Agent
• Entomb for any other tutor like Demonic, Vampiric, Grim Worldly Tutor etc. or Buried Alive

I would play as many cool utility lands with a sacrifice effect and as many fetch lands as possible because they're needed for Delirium and have also great potential with the MVP in every graveyard deck Life from the Loam:

• Evolving Wilds/Terramorphic Expanse/Ash Barrens/Jund Panorama
• Prismatic Vista/Verdant Catacombs; Windswept Heath/Wooded Foothills/Bloodstained Mire etc. (If they're out of budget, you just can play the cool and cheaper utility lands and you'll be fine) Other cool lands: Grim Backwoods!!; Geier Reach Sanitarium, Drownyard Temple Phyrexian Tower, Emergence Zone, Haunted Fengraf, Buried Ruin I would also add Deserted Temple because it can produce together with Cabal Coffers + Rings of Brighthearth infinite black mana.

Carddraw or Cardadvantage:

• Ohran Frostfang!!
• Driven / Despair!!
• Sylvan Library!!
• Night's Whisper
• Lifecrafter's Bestiary
• Phyrexian Arena!!
• Journey to Eternity  ^Flip
• Phyrexian Reclamation
• Genesis
• Fauna Shaman/Birthing Pod/Fiend Artisan/Survival of the Fittest/Yisan, the Wanderer Bard

Other good finishers/ combo pieces:

• Altar of the Brood / Blood Artist / Zulaport Cutthroat
• Craterhoof Behemoth or the budget version: End-Raze Forerunners / Overrun
• Triumph of the Hordes

Well, I'm sure that you already know what other options there are to tune up the deck. If you want to win consitenly I would add more ways to produce infinte mana like Nim Deathmantle + Priest of Gix + Ashnod's Altar or Magus of the Coffers + Staff of Domination OR another unigue and complicated way to filter infinite colorless mana with Basalt Monolith + Rings of Brighthearth is together with Mirage Mirror and a Swamp...

To make the whole thing more consistent you have play all green and black tutors, play fast mana like the Moxes, Mana Crypt/-Vault, Manadorks (Elvish Mystic/Elves of Deep Shadow/Llanowar Elves etc. and pack some premium removal in the deck to raise the power level. If you're interested we can brew a fringe competetive list together.

Optimator on Giant's Deck

1 week ago

The amount of utility cards that facilitates for a large-creature/stompy deck (like giant tribal) is completely unparalleled and unrivaled. There are things--both budget and expensive--like Garruk's Uprising, Soul's Majesty, Hunter's Insight, Snake Umbra, Triumph of Ferocity, Lead the Stampede, Garruk, Primal Hunter, Return of the Wildspeaker, Abundance, Rhythm of the Wild, Selvala's Stampede, Shamanic Revelation, Elemental Bond, Colossal Majesty, Guardian Project, Rancor, Primal Rage, Heroic Intervention, Wrap in Vigor, Golgari Charm, Lifecrafter's Bestiary, Canopy Cover, Aspect of Mongoose, Alpha Authority, Asceticism, Defense of the Heart, Lignify, Lurking Predators, Bow of Nylea, The Great Henge, Eerie Ultimatum, Reap, Creeping Renaissance, Seasons Past, Reap the Past, Genesis Ultimatum, Beastmaster Ascension, Overwhelming Stampede...

The list is huge, and it grows every year.

This is on top of the superior ramping ability of Green and it's above-average removal options. One big advantage of Green's land-based ramp is things like Planar Cleansing, Hour of Revelation, Play of the Game, Bane of Progress, Creeping Corrosion, and Merciless Eviction can't send you back to the stone age by destroying all your mana rocks.

Everything you will want to be doing with Giant Tribal, Green supports and supports well. I cannot stress this enough. Not to mention the good green giants that keep getting printed.

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Black doesn't provide too much in the way of utility specific to giant tribal or stompy decks other than recursion and good card draw like Greed, Phyrexian Arena, and Erebos, God of the Dead. Personally I like cards like Damnable Pact, Read the Bones, Ancient Craving and Ambition's Cost but if you're running Green and/or Blue you shouldn't need to lose life to draw cards. Painful Truths might still be useful due to it's great rate (three cards for three mana is good). Syphon Mind is a great rate and has the upside of making your opponents discard.

Obviously Black specializes in removal (but so does White!) so you could run things like Mortify, Despark, Utter End, Vindicate, Anguished Unmaking, Dreadbore, Terminate, Bedevil and Ruinous Ultimatum. In Garruk's Wake and Decree of Pain are probably good in your giant deck since you're ramping so hard. Since you're running White you shouldn't need Black's wraths, but those two stood out.

Things like Phyrexian Reclamation, Animate Dead, and Reanimate are great for creature decks. Palace Siege is all right on a budget. So is Twilight's Call. It's no Oversold Cemetery or Meren of Clan Nel Toth or Rise of the Dark Realms but those are pricey. Recovering from boardwipes will be important.

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Blue has some interesting removal options like Curse of the Swine, Pongify, Rapid Hybridization, and Reality Shift. You have some Cyclonic Rifts in your trade binder, right? That alone is a great reason to run Blue in your deck (it's literally one of the best cards in EDH straight-up). Do it!

Blue also has all the card-draw--from per-turn stuff like Kumena's Awakening and Mind Unbound; chunks of cards like Concentrate, Treasure Cruise, Fact or Fiction, Fathom Trawl, and Tidings; huge hand-refillers like Overflowing Insight, Mind Spring, Stroke of Genius, and Pull from Tomorrow; and some sneaky stuff like Windfall, Keep Watch, Drawn from Dreams, Verity Circle, and Insight. Green has some amazing card-draw already but it wouldn't be a terrible idea to supplement it with Blue cards. Rush of Knowledge would be REALLY good in a giant-tribal deck--especially with Morophon, the Boundless at the helm.

Counterspells are very much not Giant/Stompy but I have a few aggro decks that run a silver-bullet copy of Negate or Swan Song just as anti-boardwipe tech. Not necessary though. Boros Charm, Golgari Charm, and Wrap in Vigor work well in that capacity. There are lots of 3-cmc options too but the mana difference between 2 and 3 is huge.

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You could even run some interesting charms like Abzan Charm or Esper Charm. There are some surprisingly potent options. Some are stinkers of course.

Temur Ascendancy would be reason alone to run five colors and be utterly fantastic in this deck.

Garruk's Uprising alone is reason to run at least Green.

Merciless Eviction is one of the best removal spells in the game. Four or five colors would allow you to run that.

Urban Evolution would be good in a big-mana deck like this. Inspired Ultimatum, while not amazing, is playable.

You get the idea.

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As you can see, there is a myriad of reasons to run more colors. Honestly, I really can't recommend it enough if true Giant-Tribal is the goal--whether Naya giants or five-color giants.

One extremely important thing for large-creature decks is to consider how you're going to recover from board wipes. Superior card-draw from Green, Black, and Blue cards will help immensely. Card advantage like Phyrexian Reclamation, Palace Siege, Seasons Past, All Suns' Dawn, Reap the Past, Reap, Creeping Renaissance, Eerie Ultimatum, and abilities like Mayael the Anima's, Golos, Tireless Pilgrim's, and Kenrith, the Returned King's reanimate ability will help you recover. These are things that Red and White simply can't do well. Sure there's Resurrection and Reya Dawnbringer, but they aren't great.

Brion Stoutarm is a legitimately good general--he really is!--but not for giant tribal. He brings nothing to the table for giant tribal other than being a decently-statted Giant himself and pigeonholes you into the worst color pair in EDH for essentially no benefit. As I mentioned, Iroas, God of Victory and, to a lesser extent, Kalemne, Disciple of Iroas would make better commanders if you are dead-set on Boros colors (which I do not recommend if you want to play maximum giants). If you were building around Brion's ability and had some giants around as support that would be one thing, but it seems that's not the goal. As such, please consider switching commanders :) I think that if you want Brion Stoutarm as the commander, you should make a Brion deck.

I really do think you'll be happier in the long run with a different commander It doesn't have to be expensive. Most of what you would need I can trade to you, including Morophon, the Boundless, and most supplemental cards I don't have are in the 25-cent to $1 range (Realm-Cloaked Giant, Mayael the Anima, etc). I actually have a shitload of this utility stuff on-hand, and you have some great staples like Cyclonic Rift on-hand--and probably more! I want you to be satisfied with your deck! It doesn't have to be competitive to be fun, but it doesn't have to be expensive to work better and smoother and be more competitive.

colieqqqq on infected with Atraxa

2 weeks ago

you need more interactions. and draw. Beast Whisperer, Phyrexian Rebirth, Smothering Tithe, Rhystic Study, Simic Ascendancy, Phyrexian Arena, Empowered Autogenerator, Cleansing Nova, Krosan Grip, Evolution Sage, Forgotten Ancient, Kodama's Reach, and Farseek, Herald of Secret Streams, and Fathom Mage need to go in. maybe Rampant Growth. maybe Pyramid of the Pantheon or Chromatic Orrery this speeds and mana fixes you. draws you cards, helps speed the game up for you. gives you some artifact and enchantment destruction. because you will need it. add in Peregrine Drake and Temur Sabertooth for infinite colored mana? take out Tezzeret's Gambit, Chord of Calling, Howl from Beyond.

MrKillStar on

2 weeks ago

With so many Rat Colony, you could add Thrumming Stone - its not so cheap, but you could get much more rats into play so much faster.
Mortuary / Haunted Crossroads - to put back rats that died back on top of your library. Some card draw like Necropotence, Phyrexian Arena, Dark Prophecy as enchantment card draws. Skullclamp since Rat Colony is 1 life anyway; Village Rites instant card draw for only for 2 cards.
Ayara, First of Locthwain - Ayara works really well with Rat Colony decks for card draw and pinging opponents down :D
Rise of the Dark Realms - to bring all the rats into play :D
Grimoire of the Dead - another big reanimator artifact.
The Cauldron of Eternity - could be pretty interesting in a deck full of creatures.
Victimize - sacrifice 1 rat to bring 2 rats back into play? Sounds like a good deal! :D Also, Blood for Bones is pretty decent.
Plunge into Darkness - sacrifice rats to gain some life, would work well with Mortuary/Haunted Crossroads to get rats out of the graveyard later.
Crypt of Agadeem, Songs of the Damned - could both give you a lot of mana into some card draws and/or more rats.
Cavern of Souls - probably not so needed, just a luxury to make your rats uncounterable.
Nightmare Shepherd - if you wont care about reanimating rats and your graveyard, why not make 1/1 rat colony token anytime when original Rat Colony dies? Sounds like fun! :D
Mortal Combat - not a fan of this card, but could be an easy win with so many cheap rats.
Dawn of the Dead - could be also pretty decent reanimator to bring a creature back, give it haste a swing for big damage.

DadHumanPraetor on Meren toolbox Deck

2 weeks ago

The new Demon's Disciple is better than Fleshbag Marauder I personally prefer Heart Warden or Llanowar Visionary over Birds of Paradise, since the interact with Meren more effectively and can do something the turn they are played.

I also personally think Phyrexian Arena and other slow draw cards (such as Underworld Connections or Dread Presence ) are unreliable. I consider them to be inferior to Ancient Craving Sign in Blood or Ambition's Cost, but there is a case for playing arena, so make whatever preference or meta call you like, I just think definitely getting 3 cards right away is better than hoping to net 3 cards over 3 turns.

Interesting build, some unusual Meren choices, but some clever interactions too. I like how many different Meren shells there are, she is a very versatile commander.

Eckat on THE Praetor

3 weeks ago

I was moving to my new place.. Finally could unpack cards and get back to tunning this deck :) (Unfortunately thanks to Covid situation here, won't be able to play it anytime soon :()

Drolas , thanks for your comment. The Neoform combo is interesting, I will get the card soon from my friend and will be able to try.

In the meantime, I have removed what is now placed in sideboard and added. Going MOAR creatures.

Putrefax

Phyrexian Hydra

Hand of the Praetors

Ichor Rats

Phyrexian Vatmother

Phyrexian Swarmlord

Toxic Deluge

Oracle of Mul Daya

Phyrexian Arena

Fact or Fiction

Skeletal Scrying