Lost and Found in Phyrexia

Commander / EDH Aggro BR (Rakdos) Budget Casual Encore Group Slug Multiplayer Myriad Reanimator Tokens

EscapingBurger

Army (34)

• 1x Barad-dur
• 1x Call for Aid
• 1x Case of the Stashed Skeleton
• 1x Daring Piracy
• 1x Death Tyrant
• 1x Dragonmaster Outcast
• 1x Elturel Survivors
• 1x Furnace Reins
• 1x Garna, Bloodfist of Keld
• 1x Ghoulcaller Gisa
• 1x Gnoll War Band
• 1x Gothmog, Morgul Lieutenant
• 1x Grave Titan
• 1x Hanweir Garrison  ^Meld
• 1x Impulsive Pilferer
• 1x Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs
• 1x Kher Keep
• 1x Lagomos, Hand of Hatred
• 1x Loyal Apprentice
• 1x Massacre Girl, Known Killer
• 1x Mishra's Factory
• 1x Mishra's Foundry
• 1x Phyrexian Triniform
• 1x Pilgrim's Eye
• 1x Rakka Mar
• 1x Rakshasa Debaser
• 1x Song of Totentanz
• 1x Syr Konrad, the Grim
• 1x The Master, Multiplied
• 1x Tilonalli's Summoner
• 1x Tivash, Gloom Summoner
• 1x Urabrask the Hidden
• 1x Urabrask's Forge
• 1x Wurmcoil Engine

Recursion (8)

• 1x Black Sun's Twilight
• 1x Buried Ruin
• 1x Death Tyrant
• 1x Dread Return
• 1x Phyrexian Dragon Engine  ^Meld
• 1x Rakshasa Debaser
• 1x Vat of Rebirth
• 1x Victimize

Meld (3)

• 1x Hanweir Battlements  ^Meld
• 1x Hanweir Garrison  ^Meld
• 1x Phyrexian Dragon Engine  ^Meld

Land (38)

• 1x Ash Barrens
• 1x Barad-dur
• 1x Blackcleave Cliffs
• 1x Bloodfell Caves
• 1x Bojuka Bog
• 1x Buried Ruin
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Drossforge Bridge
• 1x Evolving Wilds
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 1x Foreboding Ruins
• 1x Geothermal Bog
• 1x Hanweir Battlements  ^Meld
• 1x Kher Keep
• 1x Mishra's Factory
• 1x Mishra's Foundry
• 7x Mountain
• 1x Myriad Landscape
• 1x Path of Ancestry
• 1x Rogue's Passage
• 1x Shadowblood Ridge
• 1x Smoldering Marsh
• 1x Sulfurous Mire
• 1x Sulfurous Springs
• 2x Swamp
• 1x Temple of Malice
• 1x Terramorphic Expanse
• 1x The Dross Pits
• 1x Valakut Stoneforge  ^Flip
• 1x Vault of Whispers
• 1x Witch's Clinic

Buffs (8)

• 1x Anger
• 1x Blade of Selves
• 1x Gothmog, Morgul Lieutenant
• 1x Hanweir Battlements  ^Meld
• 1x Massacre Girl, Known Killer
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots
• 1x Urabrask the Hidden
• 1x Whispersilk Cloak

Group Slug (4)

• 1x Garna, Bloodfist of Keld
• 1x Mirkwood Bats
• 1x Syr Konrad, the Grim
• 1x Zulaport Cutthroat

Commander (1)

 ^Meld

Get Cards (12)

• 1x Case of the Stashed Skeleton
• 1x Commander's Sphere
• 1x Entomb
• 1x Garna, Bloodfist of Keld
• 1x Lagomos, Hand of Hatred
• 1x Massacre Girl, Known Killer
• 1x Phyrexian Dragon Engine  ^Meld
• 1x Profane Tutor
• 1x Reckless Handling
• 1x Unmarked Grave
• 1x Valakut Stoneforge  ^Flip
• 1x Witch's Cauldron

Ramp (11)

• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Ashnod's Altar
• 1x Commander's Sphere
• 1x Darksteel Ingot
• 1x Furnace Reins
• 1x Impulsive Pilferer
• 1x Pilgrim's Eye
• 1x Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer
• 1x Rakdos Signet
• 1x Ruby Medallion
• 1x Sol Ring

Removal (8)

• 1x Bedevil
• 1x Black Sun's Twilight
• 1x Blasphemous Act
• 1x Chaos Warp
• 1x Deadly Tempest
• 1x Meteor Golem
• 1x Shatter the Oath
• 1x Tragic Slip

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Maybeboard

Army (35)

• 1x Anax, Hardened in the Forge
• 1x Ardoz, Cobbler of War
• 1x Army of the Damned
• 1x Banshee of the Dread Choir
• 1x Boltwing Marauder
• 1x Coastline Marauders
• 1x Compleated Huntmaster
• 1x Delina, Wild Mage
• 1x Determined Iteration
• 1x Dreadhorde Invasion
• 1x Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder
• 1x Exquisite Huntmaster
• 1x Flameshadow Conjuring
• 1x Genasi Enforcers
• 1x Great Unclean One
• 1x Helm of the Host
• 1x Jaxis, the Troublemaker
• 1x Kari Zev, Skyship Raider
• 1x Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin
• 1x Legion Warboss
• 1x Loyal Subordinate
• 1x Mirrex
• 1x Mishra's Juggernaut
• 1x Nadier's Nightblade
• 1x Open the Graves
• 1x Ophiomancer
• 1x Orthion, Hero of Lavabrink
• 1x Portent of Betrayal
• 1x Rapacious One
• 1x Razorlash Transmogrant
• 1x Silversmote Ghoul
• 1x Spawning Pit
• 1x Tiamat's Fanatics
• 1x Transmogrant Altar
• 1x Warchief Giant

Get Cards (13)

• 1x Blood for the Blood God!
• 1x Buried Alive
• 1x Disciples of Gix
• 1x Faithless Looting
• 1x Gamble
• 1x Increasing Ambition
• 1x Jaxis, the Troublemaker
• 1x Mishra, Excavation Prodigy
• 1x Planar Bridge
• 1x Planar Portal
• 1x Rune-Scarred Demon
• 1x Silversmote Ghoul
• 1x Varragoth, Bloodsky Sire

Group Slug (6)

• 1x Blood for the Blood God!
• 1x Great Unclean One
• 1x Judith, the Scourge Diva
• 1x Loyal Subordinate
• 1x Nadier's Nightblade
• 1x Warstorm Surge

Ramp (6)

• 1x Fellwar Stone
• 1x Mahadi, Emporium Master
• 1x Rapacious One
• 1x Talisman of Indulgence
• 1x Transmogrant Altar
• 1x Wayfarer's Bauble

Land (1)

• 1x Mirrex

Buffs (11)

• 1x Ardoz, Cobbler of War
• 1x Boltwing Marauder
• 1x Frontier Warmonger
• 1x Goblin Oriflamme
• 1x Goblin War Drums
• 1x Hazardous Blast
• 1x Helm of the Host
• 1x Judith, the Scourge Diva
• 1x Tectonic Rift
• 1x Trailblazing Historian
• 1x Vorrac Battlehorns

Recursion (10)

• 1x Feldon's Cane
• 1x Gravedigger
• 1x Mishra's Juggernaut
• 1x Phyrexian Reclamation
• 1x Razorlash Transmogrant
• 1x Rise from the Grave
• 1x Sauron, the Necromancer
• 1x Silversmote Ghoul
• 1x Victimize
• 1x Whisper, Blood Liturgist

Removal (6)

• 1x Feed the Swarm
• 1x Hazardous Blast
• 1x Pyrrhic Blast
• 1x Tectonic Rift
• 1x Terminate
• 1x Warstorm Surge

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Better Together

This deck has been a long time coming. I picked up Mishra, Claimed by Gix   and Phyrexian Dragon Engine   out of sheer luck during a Brothers' War draft late last year, and figured I should probably make something with them, but it took until now to finally get this deck put together. Part of the trouble was that it really wants to do two things: Melding into Mishra, Lost to Phyrexia     is of course the primary goal, but you can't count on always having the dragon engine around, so it needs a backup plan. Deciding what exactly that should be, and how to balance between the two, took a lot of thought and adjustment.

Melding makes for a fun challenge in a Commander deck, since the Phyrexian Dragon Engine itself isn't allowed in the command zone. There are several tutors to help find it, including some that tutor directly to the graveyard (e.g. Entomb) since you can bring it back with Unearth to attack (and meld) right away. The dragon engine is also relatively fragile, since if it (or the melded creature!) gets exiled it's gone for good. This means there are some redundant ways to get it out of the graveyard (e.g. Buried Ruin, Dread Return) in case you aren't ready to unearth it and fear a Bojuka Bog, and a few sacrifice outlets (such as Witch's Cauldron) you can use in response to on-battlefield exile effects as well.

If you do make the meld happen, it's great! Mishra, Lost to Phyrexia enters attacking and does a bunch of nasty stuff all at once, on ETB and every other time you attack. He hits hard and is pretty good at getting through blockers, so commander damage is a viable path to victory. Note that commander damage counts across both sides of the card, so if you hit with regular Mishra once for 3 damage and Meld Mishra once for 9 damage, that counts as 12 damage from a single commander. He does make a pretty big target, but as long as he doesn't get exiled (which, as mentioned, takes out the dragon engine half), you can still replay him from the command zone, unearth the dragon, and get right back to it.

All that being said, the rest of this deck is designed to function without melding, making use of the first half of Mishra's ability. In particular, he drains opponents based on the number of creatures attacking--regardless of whether they're blocked or even survive--so the other strategy is to just send out the hordes without particular regard to their safety. Many cards create disposable tokens every turn (Urabrask's Forge is a fun one), and a number of Myriad and Encore creatures like Elturel Survivors create duplicates that up your creature count during combat, when it matters. (This deck does work best with multiple opponents.) Cards like Razorlash Transmogrant can attack, die, and come back to do it again, and the aforementioned graveyard tutors and recursion cards help out here too.

One other trick: Blade of Selves is mostly there to give you a few more attacking creatures each turn, but you can also equip it on a melded Mishra, Lost to Phyrexia. The copies will immediately die to the Legend Rule, but they still get their ETB triggers, which means you get to "choose three" once for each opponent.

Improvements

There's a lot going on with this deck, but so far I feel like it comes together pretty well, with the two distinct strategies largely complementing each other. The biggest weakness is probably a lack of ways to protect Mishra, given the attention he'll draw once melded. On some level, this is supposed to be such an aggressive deck that it kind of feels appropriate to just throw him out there and not worry about it, but I'll have to see how that goes as I play more.

I have a few other tweaks in mind, and I'm sure I'll continue adjusting as I play. I do have my eye on The Master, Multiplied as that makes its way into circulation, which should make a number of cards in this deck a whole lot better very quickly. In particular, myriad (and Blade of Selves) starts making permanent copies every turn, even of legendary creatures. Maybe I want four melded Mishras! To start!

Date added	9 months
Last updated	2 months
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	9 - 0 Mythic Rares 36 - 0 Rares 25 - 0 Uncommons 18 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.46
Tokens	City's Blessing, Copy Clone, Demon X/X B, Dragon 5/5 R, Elemental 1/1 R, Elemental 2/1 R, Elemental 3/1 R, Human 1/1 R, Kobolds of Kher Keep 0/1 R, Ogre 3/3 R, Orc Army, Phyrexian Golem 3/3 C, Phyrexian Horror X/1 R, Rat 1/1 B w/ Can't Block, Skeleton 2/1 B, Thopter 1/1 C, Treasure, Wicked, Wurm 3/3 C w/ Deathtouch, Wurm 3/3 C w/ Lifelink, Zombie 2/2 B
Folders	Commander Ideas, cool, My Commander Decks