The Phasing of Zhalfir

Enchantment — Saga

Read ahead (As this Saga enters the battlefield, choose a chapter and start with that many lore counters. Add one after your draw step. Activate and/or enable the ability of tied to the required number of counters. Sacrifice it after you put a third lore counter on it.)

/ — Another target permanent phases out. It can't phase in for as long as you control The Phasing of Zhalfir. (Treat them and anything attached to them as though they don't exist.)

— Destroy all creatures. For each creature destroyed this way, its controller creatures a 2/2 black Phyrexian creature token.

Tokens

• Phyrexian 2/2 B

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Alchemy	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
Pioneer	Legal
Planar Constructed	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Pre-release	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Standard	Legal
Standard Brawl	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (13)

Baron777 on Is my deck off putting …

11 months ago

So I recently modified a content creator's older deck. An Xavier Sal, Infested Captain Saga deck.

Deck here: Xavier Sal, Infested Captain (Sagas)

It's pretty slow due to requiring specific pips for my drawing/searching, so I rarely have more then my commander, a creature, and maybe a saga by turn 4-5 (and that's if I am lucky).

I don't think most random people know this deck, but do seem to target me when I play stuff. They typically target Gadwick's First Duel, Song of Earendil, est. Mostly my, very limited, resource cards.

Some I understand, yeah Bitterblossom, Eidolon of Blossoms, Quest for Renewal. Big value engine pieces, they probably would be targeted in any deck.

But meanwhile cards like The Phasing of Zhalfir, Death in Heaven, Genesis of the Daleks, Kiora Bests the Sea God, One Ring to Rule Them All, the big bombs haven't even seen the light of day cause I'm normally either so far behind in mana compared to everyone else or am already dead before I could even play them.

Have I misread the room here about this commander and it's an Sen Triplets level of scorn people have for the card where I becoming the archenemy at my 6-7 power tables for just having the commander, do I need to dial back the power (even though I've always gotten last place in every game I've played with it), or am I missing something else entirely?

Foxigami on Spiteful Avatar

1 year ago

wow these are awesome suggestions!

first. i totally misread Spiteful Banditry, thought it could make a treasure token for each token killed. BirdieGirlie while some of the suggestions for cards are not modern legal (Grismold, the Dreadsower, Varchild, Betrayer of Kjeldor, and Sylvan Offering); thank you for the suggestions! legendofa your deck looks very fun, gave me some fun ideas as well as got me into a rabbit hole of finding even more cards to consider.

first the land base was copied from another deck that is another variation of this idea. I already have some ideas on how to change it.

i would have to agree that we have too many pieces doing the same thing. while it does help with make the deck more consistent with damaging the opponents for having creatures, this deck needs more token generation. i am leaning at Slaughter Specialist and Tribute to Horobi  ^Flip. Slaughter Specialist in this deck can be a wincon on its own with how much mass creature removal this deck has; Tribute to Horobi  ^Flip for generating tokens and the flipside is also neat if the opponent still has the rat tokens.

i think removal wise, i would be keen on removing one of the creatures as Blood Artist is can be a wincon on its own with the mass creature removal we have. Suture Priest is also way too good to not include as mentioned before, so i think removing Blood Seeker is the call, though there is a world were you could keep it. that world is if we want to cut out out white from this deck and add Slaughter Specialist and Cavern of Souls for the vampire tribal action. something i will have to consider.

Mercy Killing looks soo good on paper, but in practice it is a dead card against non-creature decks. it could work if we consider Hunted Horror, but it is a sideboard piece for sure though.

Hunted Troll is very fun, but also very slow. but the regeneration ability does give it potential. probably replace 2 copies of Avatar of Might with it.

Hunted Phantasm is too good for this deck to be considered for removal. the amount of damage it could dish when we have our game plan online is a wincon on its own and its stats and unblockable ability can close out games too. however it will depend on what color direction i go with this deck. more about that later on.

i would agree that ramp and card draw is very important and this deck needs some. Sylvan Scrying would be such a great card in this deck. it being able to find Forbidden Orchard is too valuable as well as fixing mana problems.

now there is one thing i have found that no one suggested, that would be The Phasing of Zhalfir. at first this card seems to be a slow token generator as it is a saga, however the read ahead ability gives makes it even better. we can board wipe and generate tons of tokens on both sides of the field for 4 mana. the possibilities are very high for this card: first if we have a lot of tokens on the board with Blood Artist out, that will be a lot of damage and life gained. second if we have Trespasser's Curse out, that is even more damage. finally you have the option to phase out an important piece that would be wiped by this card at the cost of tempo. good for if the opponent has a big creature to answer Avatar of Might or if you need to protect something at sorcery speed. def going to replace Spiteful Banditry with it. another

now for color directions this deck can go. boy there is a lot. first lets talk about the colors we cant remove. black should never be removed, too many synergy pieces are in black. green also is paramount with Avatar of Might, Sylvan Scrying, and Golgari Charm. every other color could be removed in favor of making this deck 3 or 4 colors. if we include white, we would be considering Suture Priest, Ghostly Prison, Authority of the Consuls, and Parting Gust. this makes the deck more controlling. adding blue gives us Hunted Phantasm, Swan Song, Strix Serenade, The Phasing of Zhalfir, and Into the Flood Maw. adding red gives us Spiteful Banditry (even if it isnt good), Rakdos Charm and Sazacap's Brew. we have a lot of flexibility to even splash colors. overall we have some pretty good options. i apreciate all the help so far and cant wait to see how this deck will end up looking like!

GrimlockVIII on Simic Primal Surge Eldrazi. Help, please!

1 year ago

I can list some good pieces of removal in the form of permanents if you wish.

Amphin Mutineer straight-up exiles a creature on etb, and you can do it again through his encore effect once he hits the yard.

Kitesail Larcenist turns 3 artifacts/creatures into useless treasures (one for each opponent), and he can technically hit something of yours like a Fierce Empath or a Reclamation Sage after you're done with their etb effects but need a little extra mana to cast something big.

Amphibian Downpour is basically an instant speed Imprisoned in the Moon that can copy itself depending on how much you or an opponent storms off.

Sapphire Dragon's adventure half is a neat counterspell option in the early game, and you can cast him later as a seven mana dragon to still trigger Imoti later on. Same principle applies to Emerald Dragon, Stormkeld Vanguard, Sword Coast Serpent, and Horned Loch-Whale. Galvanic Giant is also kind of nuts since you're effectively locking down something your opponent controls every time you cast a big spell while also having the option to have a massive draw spell on the side should you need it.

The Phasing of Zhalfir is such a good blue "boardwipe", especially since you can choose to protect one or two of your creatures before the third chapter goes off, or you can immediately skip to the third chapter if you really need the boardwipe to happen the turn you cast it.

Bane of Progress is a good boardwipe against artifact/enchantment-centric decks.

Kenrith's Transformation is a lignify/imprisoned in the moon that replaces itself on etb.

There's of course removal in the form of colorless artifacts. You got Meteor Golem, Cityscape Leveler, Portal to Phyrexia (which also acts as reanimation), and boardwipes like Nevinyrral's Disk and Perilous Vault. If you can wait till your stuff is untapped then False Floor has the potential to be a one-sided wipe that also slows down opponents with hastier decks.

Otawara, Soaring City and Boseiju, Who Endures are interaction in the form of lands. They're also generally harder to counter given that you're activating them as abilities rather than casting their channel effects as spells.

There's also ways to force your opponents to block one of your big guys with all of their creatures so you can let through all of your other big guys through and also kill off some chump fodder in the process. Something like Taunting Arbormage or Shinen of Life's Roar come to mind.

That's all I got for now, but good luck upgrading your deck!

legendofa on Mark Rosewater's Comment on Blue …

1 year ago

wallisface Not that I really disagree, but I have to poke at your wording there. The Phasing of Zhalfir is recent enough to still be in Standard, so is that long enough of a while to be obvious?

Gidgetimer on Does Tom Bombadil see the …

1 year ago

Abilities that trigger when something resolves trigger after the spell/ability is done resolving. So Tom Bombadil will not trigger off of The Phasing of Zhalfir, but will trigger off of an Elspeth Conquers Death that returns Tom as its third chapter ability.

608.2n Once all possible steps described in 608.2c–m are completed, any abilities that trigger when that spell or ability resolves trigger.

JoMu87 on Does Tom Bombadil see the …

1 year ago

For example: Tom Bombadil is on the battlefield and the third chapter of The Phasing of Zhalfir triggers and resolves, does Tom Bombadil see the ability resolve or not? i.e does his ability trigger?

jawz on UBg You Lose Combo

1 year ago

It doesn't count as a sweeper, so you have it right, but it's basically taking up the sweeper slot. She does set up a repeatable removal like I need from a sweeper, but in the most janky way to think about it.

I need a sweeper that is one-sided so that I don't lose my key disguised creatures, since the critical core of the deck is hinged on the action of flipping the disguise creatures at the right time. Something straightforward like Deadly Cover-Up or Path of Peril that could be in that slot is just killing my own stuff and making it much harder to win even if I get to stall the opponent. My deck doesn't rebuild very well after sweeping my own stuff.

I don't see anything in Standard in Sultai colors that can really play that role the way I need. So I gotta try something jank. March of Swirling Mist maybe. The Phasing of Zhalfir maybe can preserve one of my key creatures from the jank sweep. But Massacre Girl, Known Killer does work with what this deck is doing. This deck gets an extra few creatures on the board on average than the opponent, and each of those creatures are Wither blockers where the opponent's creatures take on accumulating damage over time. The opponent's creatures don't get swept immediately, but eventually they get picked off by the plentiful 2/2s I can afford to chump with, and when they do I get to draw bonus cards.

It doesn't seem great at all, but then again I get to play with Massacre Girl, Known Killer which by itself is fun anyway.

Necrosis24 on What's your dream play?

2 years ago

I think the most recent one I'd like to make happen would be Crafty Cutpurse + Mystic Reflection + The Phasing of Zhalfir.