Phyrexian Tower

Legendary Land

{T}: Add {C}.

{T}, Sacrifice a creature: Add {B}{B}.

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Arena	Legal
Big Apple Highlander	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Freeform	Legal
Gladiator	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Historic	Legal
Historic Brawl	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Planar Constructed	Legal
Planechase	Legal
PreDH	Legal
Premodern	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (50)

Veethevvitch on Dr. Thran-tastic

1 week ago

If I may, I also have a few suggestion to make from fellow mono black player to another !

I would like you to consider Filth since you are already running Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth and you also already have a sacking option with your Phyrexian Tower.

Also i would suggest Mirrex and Rogue's Passage / Access Tunnel since it does help you ramp up the infect effect like your Inkmoth Nexus if its something that you'd be into.

And lastly since you have some expensive mana cost spells maybe it wouldnt hurt you to run some fast mana ritual like Dark Ritual, Culling the Weak or Cabal Ritual.

And not sure what the game plan is with the deck like if you play against more casual or optimized pods but i could suggest a few infinite combos in mono black if ever you are interested in having an alternative wincon besides creatures beatdown of infect/poison counters!

jethstriker on Unbalanced Cycles in MtG

4 months ago

The original boon cycle was designed by Richard Garfield himself, and he was aware that Ancestral Recall was significantly more powerful than the rest. That's why he put it at rare while the rest are at common. So right from the beginning the creator of the game himself already set the tone that cycles aren't meant to be created equal. What I don't like in cycles is almost always red gets the short end:

The color-aligned legendary lands of Urza's Saga. Tolarian Academy is broken, followed by powerhouses Gaea's CradleGC and Serra's SanctumGC, followed far down the line is the decent Phyrexian Tower, then at the very bottom is Shivan Gorge.

In more recent times they created another "force" cycle in Modern Horizons. Again blue is on top with Force of Negation, followed by Force of Vigor and Force of Despair. Then once again red is at the bottom with white with Force of Rage and Force of Virtue.

The worst I can remember is they omitted red entirely in a cycle. In Mirage they printed 3 tutors: Enlightened TutorGC, Mystical TutorGC, and Worldly TutorGC. The following set came Vampiric TutorGC. Then Weatherlight came and there was no red tutor on it. I just personally imagine that GambleGC is the unofficial red member of the tutor cycle to clear my mind on this.

StYY on Insidious Graveyard

6 months ago

zapyourtumor Some really great suggestions here! I absolutely love Phyrexian Tower and Spymaster's Vault. Those additions open up some really fun early game interactions! I feel like I'll need at least one Bojuka Bog in the sideboard. If the primary color for Wastewood Verge weren't {G} I could see myself running it, but more of deck requires {B} to cast. The reason I like Darkbore Pathway  ^Flip is because the main thing I care about is having {B}{G} on board and {3} untapped mana on turn 3. Darkbore Pathway  ^Flip has no check to entering untapped and lets me choose what color I need based on what else is in my hand.

I have taken a look through hollowvine and crabvine looking for inspiration while building this list, but I'm aiming for something a little different with this deck. I can certainly see that those decks have the ability to cheat Vengevine out a little bit faster, but they rely on the randomness of mill and looting. The mantra I had going through my head putting this list together was "Every strat looks great until your opponent top decks every piece of removal they could possibly ask for". So if everything were to die, how well can you re-establish? Tenacious recurrence is what I want. I wanna kill my own stuff and bring it back so often that removal can have plenty of targets but still feel dead in my opponents hand.

zapyourtumor on Insidious Graveyard

6 months ago

Insidious roots has been one of my pet cards since it released so always nice to see more decks with it. Some initial impressions I get:

Manabase is not quite optimal. Pathway lands are not necessary in a fetchland format. Checklands and fastlands are alright if you are worried about your life total, but vergelands are a bit better now. for BG the primary color is G which isn't the best but it is still better than checklands (Wastewood Verge). Golgari rot farm is just straight up bad, the only time I run one is a single copy in Wight decks in order to bounce urza's saga to my hand to replay it. Lastly, you probably want some utility lands to tutor with wight or lands that are just good in general. Spymaster's Vault and Phyrexian Tower come to mind. If you increase wight count then Bojuka Bog.

I would do -2 cemetery -1 marsh -1 pathway -3 rot farm -1 temple garden +2 verdant catacombs +1 forest +1 godless shrine +2 wastewood verge +1 Phyrexian Tower +1 Spymaster's Vault

Now about the deck itself. Buried alive is a really slow card where just using it for value isn't enough usually. It is much better when you are using it to tutor some sort of combo or if you have reanimation spells in your deck. I don't think it is the right choice for this deck.

About roots, it might be possible to be an aggressive deck with roots as a backup grindy plan but I still dont think Vengevine is very good in this shell. You can't consistently discard it or mill it over (and as I said buried aliving for vengevine is not enough payoff and slow), so its way worse than in crabvine or hollowvine or preban bridgevine decks.

Interaction wise I think the deck wants maindeck Thoughtseize but maybe you don't need it. Also Fatal Push. Then you can bring in duress from sb in relevant matchups. All in all I'm not really sure what to suggest because right now the deck feels a bit in the middle of a few things, and I think it could become much more streamlined and efficient depending on how you decide to change it. Like you could move more towards an aggressive rootvine deck with 4 vengevines, looting, and more stuff like that. Or you could go from 2->4 wights, maybe urza's saga, and play a more midrange gameplan. Or you could run stitcher's supplier and chthonian nightmare. Lots of directions to take it.

Phule451 on Swamps Matter

8 months ago

Thank you for the upvote indieinside. I actually tried Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth but found most often it was just a swamp so just swapped it out for a basic swamp since I’m not running too many utility lands. I’m kinda priced out of Lake of the Dead and Phyrexian Tower. I can’t believe I’d missed Jet Medallion so thanks for helping me catch that!!!

theNeroTurtle on Swamps Matter

8 months ago

Obviously these totally come down to budget, but here are a few.

Because you are playing Cabal Coffers you should totally be playing Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth.

Phyrexian Tower – Mana Ramp

Lake of the Dead – Mana Ramp

Since you are playing Animate Dead you should also consider Dance of the Dead and Necromancy. They do the same thing. Gives you more consistency.

Other ramp:

Cabal Ritual

Culling the Weak

Dark Ritual

Jet Medallion

Rain of Filth

theNeroTurtle on Phage one shot, one kill

8 months ago

Minas Morgul, Dark Fortress gives her permeant shadow.

Lake of the Dead - Mana Ramp

Phyrexian Tower - Mana Ramp

Vorpal Sword - Alt-Win

Crow_Umbra on Ratica Apocalyptica

1 year ago

Based off your most recent update, would Warren Soultrader and/or Phyrexian Tower be options you'd consider? They both compete with your commander a bit for sac fodder, but could help with mana acceleration.