Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon

Legendary Creature — Phyrexian Dragon Skeleton

Flying

Infect (This creature deals damage to creatures in the form of -1/-1 counters and to players in the form of poison counters.)

{B}: This gains haste until end of turn.

{B}{B}: Regenerate this. (The next time this creature would be destroyed, instead tap this, remove this from combat and heal all damage on this.)

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Arena	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
Modern Beyond Horizons	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Planar Constructed	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Pre-release	Legal
PreDH	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (51)

SaberTech on mimeo

1 month ago

I saw your post asking for help with cuts to the deck. Mimeoplasm decks are fun and there's all sorts of interactions to play around with so I get how it's tough to trim the list down.

I don't know what exactly you personally consider fun to play and what cards you are more inclined to keep in, so I think that it might be easier to just highlight what looks to be the core of the deck and try to build outwards from there.

Win-Cons:

• Necrotic Ooze + Phyrexian Devourer: I'm not sure when the change happened, but on Oracle the errata's text for the Devourer's activated exile ability now reads "Remove the top card of your library from the game: Put X +1/+1 counters on Phyrexian Devourer, where X is the removed card's converted mana cost. If Phyrexian Devourer's power is 7 or greater, sacrifice it." Before, you never had to worry about the sacrifice part because it was a triggered ability so the Ooze didn't copy it. Now that the self-sacrifice effect is built into the activated ability it means that the Ooze will kill itself if it activates the ability and ends up going to 7+ power. I don't think this combo is feasible anymore and that you can cut it.

• Blightsteel Colossus: You don't have a way to reanimate or copy this at instant speed in response to its shuffle trigger when it is put in your graveyard, so your only way for it to stick on the board is if you hard-cast it. I don't think that it's worth the effort. And I think that most games will end before you risk decking yourself and needing the Colossus to keep shuffling itself into your library. I'd cut it from the deck.

• Blighted Agent/Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon + big creatures under Mimeoplasm: This is what I would consider your main means of knocking players out. Death's Shadow, Impervious Greatwurm, Lord of Extinction, Titanoth Rex, and Yargle and Multani are your main targets to remove for counters on Mimeoplasm, so these are 7 cards that should definitely be staying.

• Jin-Gitaxias, Core AugurGC: Reanimating this early in the game and getting it to stick is a backup win condition. Buried Alive, Entomb, Fauna Shaman, and Frantic Search are your best ways to try to get Jin into the graveyard. Animate Dead, Necromancy, Reanimate are your best ways to reanimate Jin early. So that's 8 cards you should definitely keep. Victimize helps too but it is a little unreliable early due to needing 2 targets in your graveyard. Still worth running in my opinion.

So that's 16 card + your commander that you know that you want to run to help you win. From there you can mark out the slots for land, ramp, draw, and interaction. What slots are left goes to what best supports you reaching your win conditions. You'll need to really consider which cards help you reach your win conditions and which are there more for fun.

Looking at your list, some things that I can note are:

• You shouldn't count thinks like Conduit of Worlds as ramp since they don't help you get ahead in mana. They just help make your land drop each turn. Matzalantli, the Great Door  ^Flip and Aftermath Analyst also don't help ramp you in the early game. So on the whole your deck is actually suffering from a pretty notable lack of cheap ramp.

• Cards that mill opponents but not you like Mindcrank, Psychic Corrosion, and Ruin Crab do technically help you by getting cards into your opponent's graveyards that you can reanimate or exile with Mimeoplasm. However, they are less useful to you overall than cards that can also mill you because you know that milling yourself helps you reach your deck's build-in win conditions while milling opponents is a gamble.

• Memory Plunder can be fun but you might be better off running a card you are pretty certain that you can use than gamble on useful opponents' cards ending up in the graveyard in a timely manner.

• Archon of Cruelty isn't as impactful in multiplayer games as it is in 1v1. It's still an ok reanimation target if you don't currently have anything better.

TypicalTimmy on Card creation challenge

8 months ago

Tarkir: Dragonstorm Show

So the new card for Sarkhan, Dragon Ascendant really pisses me off because a Druid is a mage who practices plant based magic, and a shaman is a mage who practices animal based (as well as ancestral) magic. Means they typed him incorrectly.

Also he failed in his mission to become a Dragon God so that's what I'll be making.

I have a sneaky suspension he will assist Bolas in his escape from The Meditation Realm but you'll have to read the story for that one ;)

But TLDR Sarkhan wanted to become a Dragon God and wanted to convert the multiverse into one realm for the Dragons. I could see him aligning with Bolas to make that happen.

---

Sarkhan, Draconic Bloodline {4}{B}{R}

Legendary Creature - Human Shaman Warrior

Haste

Whenever Sarkhan attacks, you may put a non-legendary dragon from your hand onto the battlefield tapped and attacking the same player or permanent. Sacrifice it at the end of combat.

Sacrifice a legendary Dragon, {T}: Transform Sarkhan.

4/4

---

Sarkhan, Dragon God

Legendary Creature - Dragon God

Sarkhan, Dragon God is all colors

Flying, vigilance, haste

Sarkhan has each keyword ability among Dragons you control. If an ability has a cost associated with it such as ward, use the highest value among similar ward costs, and combine different ward costs.

Whenever Sarkhan attacks, reveal a Dragon card you own from any zone and put it onto the battlefield tapped and attacking. If it's not legendary, make a token copy of it as it enters. Shuffle your library if you searched it.

8/7

---

This means if you have Atarka, World Render he has trample. Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon gives him infect. Archive Dragon gives him ward {2}. Dromoka, the Eternal gives him bolster 2.

As for Ward, let's say you have a Ward {2} from Miirym, Sentinel Wyrm, Ward {4} from Iymrith, Desert Doom and let's assume there's an Aura that says something like "Ward - Pay 4 life"

He would have the higher {4} as well as pay 4 life in order to target.

---

Bleh I feel better and have 1 minute before I clock back in for lunch so..

Wild!!

Or, actually you know what?

If you have a card that annoys you that you wish was "better" or "different" or "lore accurate", make it.

Only caveat is you can't just make it cost less mana. That's cheating.

leovolt884_ on Rotpriest Infection

1 year ago

Definitely Does not need as many pump spells. Keep the Vines of Vastwood for protection and maybe a Snakeskin Veil or two if you want to argue for that. Heroic Intervention is a good alternative as always but doesn't have pump capabilities. I think it would be decent as mass removal is pretty common especially with -x/-x to all creatures being a common effect on black cards and your deck is very susceptible to that kind of removal. Most mass removal doesn't target so you wont even get Venerated Rotpriest triggers so some board wide protection seems necessary. Might of the Masses seems like a good cut because only 16 creatures with very limited card draw won't end up pumping more than other spells too often. Groundswell and Might of Old Krosa seem pretty redundant so picking one or the other would be best.

Depending on how you feel about splashing, maybe consider red for something like Rhythm of the Wild for protection and better aggro. Something to provide trample can be found here as well. Temur Battle Rage is an okay option and can be deadly but requires an additional pump spell to be at full potential. Can't think of any other cards like it off the top of my head but they definitely exist. If staying in two colors, consider 3-4 Vexing Shusher to simulate Rhythm and serve as removal bait in which case Triumph of the Hordes can maybe be justified as a boardwide buff and trample enabler, also giving shusher infect. In terms of creatures, running a few more may perform well, possibly a few copies of Flensermite and I would highly recommend Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon to close out games if you can't take them early. It would be a good idea to at least sideboard it against control or burn. Some of your current sideboard cards should be run mainboard like Dismember, a Force of Despair, and some Thoughtseize to disable your opponent.

I understand running Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth especially with the Inkmoth Nexus but it feels a bit pricey and could be replaced with an Overgrown Tomb since your mana ratio is already pretty good. A few lands may also be cut, considering 1.4 average cmc is very low and with limited card draw you really don't want to get mana flooded.

The deck feels almost like a "one trick" kind of deal and would be pretty easy to work around. You have to play really well to force your opponent into numerous combat tricks so maybe take it easier on yourself by running more removal and card draw. Dumping your hand then drawing 1 to 2 combat tricks per turn may not work against control decks or even aggro decks that can afford to chump block. Unearth is a good idea, consider running 1 less in favor of a mass recursion effect or something that lets you access multiple cards from the graveyard later in the game when you've run out of resources.

Mattio38 on ABZAN HOUSES

1 year ago

Thanks a lot austintayshus and Exoflo, your comments were both very helpful!
I've ended up removing Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon and Thalia and The Gitrog Monster.

About some of the other cards mentioned: I'd like to keep Smothering Tithe in the deck because it's just bonkers. It also works well with Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest and Doubling Season. I think Toxic Deluge is a very flexible cards. And if my creatures got higher toughness because of the counters I'm able to duck the Deluge just under that for a one sided boardwipe.

I think you're right about Flare of Malice. The idea was to somehow sac a creature after casting Skithiryx, put the counters on it and give it haste. And no matter how much of a cool win that would be, those might just be too many hoops to jump through.

I don't play tutors anymore. I know it'd increase the powerlevel of my deck but just as you said I rather play cards I like vs cards just strong ones.

Again, thanks a lot for your thoughts!

Exoflo on ABZAN HOUSES

1 year ago

Forgotten Ancient needs one full turn to trigger and the reward is not that great

Smothering Tithe has no synergy with your deck, you just become the archenemy instantly

Thalia and The Gitrog Monster is not a good card for your deck imo

Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon brings no synergy to the deck but is a strong kill. This is better than Thalia and gitrog however

Toxic Deluge is a very good card but is anti-synergistic with your deck because it goes over indestructible (so you can't protect you board and then wrath). Consider Damning Verdict if your are the only counter-matter player in your playgroup

Abzan Battle Priest is a strong card because lifelink is a powerful mechanic, even more when you keep your creature in defence

Keep in mind you only have 8 black creature + your commandant for Flare of Malice

You have very strong creature cards in deck like Sovereign Okinec Ahau. If members of your playgroup play tutors, you can improve your deck by adding Eladamri's Call and others

Anyway, this is a very good brew for sure and never forget to play the cards you like rather than the strong ones.

austintayshus on ABZAN HOUSES

1 year ago

I think you could probably cut Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon as it doesn't really make fit with the overall theme of +1/+1 counters, though I can definitely see why you included him, he can be a a tough threat with a few counters on him.

Otherwise this list looks nice, idk what else to cut. Hope this helps :)

Belfore on

1 year ago

strong textAny price cap per card cause Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider is a bit pricey but fits very well into your deck. You might also consider Evolution Sage and also doing a text search on the gatherer for infect. You might also consider Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon, Sheoldred  ^Flip, and Phyrexian Reclamation. that is just for starters.

Apollo_Paladin on Oh Rotty

1 year ago

+1 just for seeing another Arena player on this site honestly, but you deserve it just for sticking out Timeless format. I hung in for a while, but the meta was just too stale for my tastes. I had a couple card suggestions for your build here, but then noticed your pretty extensive Maybeboard & they're already on it so just cheers I guess (hah)

Really though Poison counter decks live on in my heart going all the way back to the days of Marsh Viper, well through the Infect era(s), and now back onto the older-style mechanic with Toxic. In fact, one of my Timeless decks a while back was a mono-black Poison build ramp/cheating out Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon & hitting him with pump spells specifically because he's the only Infect creature currently on Arena.

Cool build you have here, hope it keeps doing well for you