Yo yo yo! Both Jin-Gitaxias, Progress Tyrant and Tamiyo, Compleated Sage are in. I was also holding out for a Reality Hacker Jin, but the new title was nowhere near as suprising as the Tamiyo reveal. I jumped up and down like a kid at christmas!

I'm working on a Progress Tyrant combo deck, would love any feedback you can provide. :]

Neon Gitaxias Evangelion

Commander / EDH* ganchy

SCORE: 12 | 10 COMMENTS | 195 VIEWS | IN 5 FOLDERS

Glory to phyrexia gamers

Blessings of perfection to you,

Have you considered swapping Breeding Pool for Secret lair Breeding Pool, which mentions Praetors?

Vlasiax, I've been meaning to respond to this comment, but I continually forget to - I absolutely swapped in Breeding Pool. What made me wait for so long was the hope that it might come in foil, I have a magpie brain sometimes.

Hey! Love the deck and am thinking of building it, though I personally care more about efficiency than theme (cutthroat meta). What would you replace Phyrexian Scriptures and Priests of Norn for?

Sterling0528, thanks for commenting on the page and sharing your thoughts. My logic for running Phyrexian Scriptures is between flavor and having a proliferation target in addition to a semi-one sided boardwipe. But to answer your question there is only one choice for what card I select to replace it: Toxic Deluge. Getting around Indestructible, and not having to wait on the saga to get to II to get your wrath effect already make the previously mentioned a superior choice. Also, the life loss can be somewhat mitigated by Atraxa, Praetors' Voice under the right circumstances. You also reminded me that there was a reprint that has flavor text from Papa Yawgmoth, so I decided to swap in that instance of Toxic Deluge in for Phyrexian Scriptures as it maintains my flavor requirements.

There are however some honorable mentions I thought of in case Deluge isn't to your taste:

• Culling Ritual in a more competitive meta can do wonders. I've seen this spell ramp a player in excess of 6 or 7 mana on a good turn. Depending on the shifts in my own meta I'm considering running this spell as well.

• Black Sun's Zenith is a card I find genuinely interesting, one that I experimented with in an earlier iteration of the deck that I think deserves a revisit.

What I would replace Priests of Norn with? No idea. Honestly it's just a placeholder for a better infect creature who will hopefully be printed in the near future. I'm really holding my breath for a for a mono-white color shifted Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon like creature. Given that infect is parasitic, the slot needs to be reserved for an infect creature. On that same note both Grateful Apparition and Spike Weaver are slated to be replaced when better options are printed. My wishlist would be a monowhite creature with infect and proliferate, and another new infect creature that doubles as a stax piece that breaks parity through the proliferation of counters (like Tangle Wire on a body). One can dream though.

What other changes would you make with the deck? Thanks for commenting.

Thank you for the detailed response! I used to have an Atraxa infect deck that also aimed to be maximally ideal within the infect gameplan. I lost the list a long time ago, but it utilized a lot of combat spells like Berserk, Might of Old Krosa, etc. to try to eliminate people as fast as possible. It didn't have a very good win rate, and I think your list is much better!

Scriptures is great if you're gameplan centers on one creature, but I think you need Atraxa and at least 1 creature with infect to start taking people out. You could consider adding Phyresis and/or Grafted Exoskeleton to make Atraxa both your source of infect and proliferation, which makes Scriptures much better. Both also allow you to give your praetors infect if needed. Since you're introducing a new source of infect, you could probably cut Priests of Norn for one. Otherwise, I can't think of anything that could need replacing. Love the list!

Sterling0528, it's funny that you mentioned Might of Old Krosa - the earlier iteration of this deck was very much like your Atraxa Infect deck. Did you also run Become Immense, Rancor, and Stonewood Invocation? I had a similar win rate to yours - my game plan was just "make infect creatures go brrrrr". I assure you it took a lot of trial and error to make this list to what it is today, thanks for the compliment. The deck has come far, but it's not quite "compleat" yet - I really hope Wizards beefs up Infect with some new creatures that are just absurd.

I really do enjoy scriptures but our discussion has made me revisit it. Also, when I did run Toxic Deluge in an earlier iteration Jin-Gitaxias, Progress Tyrant did not exist. Both spells have their strengths, but stand alone Deluge stands to be a bit stronger. I can also potentially "save" more of my own board state if I can get enough +1/+1 counters on creatures. I did use Phyresis in this deck and never found it a worthwhile inclusion - the -1/-1 counters for just infect is just sub-par. I keep an original print Grafted Exoskeleton in foil in my no-trade binder just in case I get the itch to experiment with it again but that itch hasn't come. I honestly think the future (aka WOTC) will provide the solutions I seek for this deck. My vision for Atraxa is so close I can feel it. With the recent narrative of the game shifting to Phyrexians it's only a matter of time.

Do you think Sheoldred will make a return as a new card? What do you think Elesh Norn's new card would do?

I would suggest we slot in Black Market Connections over Sylvan Library

kpmate,

Please elaborate - why would you cut Sylvan Library for Black Market Connections?

This will be abit of an essay but if we look at Sylvan Library, Phyrexian Arena and Black Market Connections there are obvious parallels.

• Sylan Library can be seen as reorder the top 3 cards + optional pay 4 life for card draw
• Phyrexian Arena can be seen as pay 1 life for card draw
• Black Market Connections can be seen as pay 1/2/3 life for ramp, card draw, ramp+card draw

Your phyrexian tribal deck lacks good ramp or colour fixing (thematic?) in addition to consistent card draw.

So phyrexian arena is a flavour win and gives a good rate for card draw while Black Market Connections give a good rate acts as both a free Strike it Rich and a phyrexian arena.

The situation in which SL is better than BMC is:

a) I am looking to draw 0 extra cards and reorder the top 3 of my library, and I have no need for ramp/colour fixing

• If we look at these two situations reordering the top 3 of the deck overlaps with Sensei's Divining Top, and this effect isn't great without any synergy at all. If this is valuable to the deck it would make sense to pivot to Herald's Horn to get some free draws but the expected value with only 22 creatures is pretty low. In my version of your list I cut both cards due to the fact we really would rather be spending mana/slots to be drawing bangers than scrying and spinning our wheels.

b) I am looking to pay 8 life to draw 2 cards, and I have no need for ramp/colour fixing

• This deck lacks strong lifegain, we could slot in a Serra Ascendant (would be on theme since atraxa is a fallen angel) but as it stands our health is a valuable resource. How many rounds in a game do we draw 2 extra and pay the 8 life, best case scenario 3 rounds for a total of 6 cards and 24 life. On the other hand with BMC I have never turned down paying 3 life for ramp+1 extra draw. The rate is just so much better, even when comparing to Phyrx arena would I pay 1 extra life for the ability to ramp instead of draw? Yes.

I really like your list and primer but there are some adjustments like SL/SDT that I think could make it more consistent and impactful.

kpmate, Sorry it's been awhile, life just keeps me busy sometimes. I just want to say that i'm always grateful for good criticism. Thank you for taking the time to look at my list and give it an honest critique. I should add that this decklist is far from finished. I have an idealized vision of this deck, and it likely won't be even close to being realized until Wizards prints some new and impactful Phyrexians who have the Infect keyword ability. I'm holding my breath for a few archetypes but that's besides the point.

From my experience the deck has fairly good rocks in the form of Astral Cornucopia, Everflowing Chalice and the like. Sure, the deck could always use some more ramp, but i'm overall pretty satisfied with Three Visits and Nature's Lore. If anything, I would say it's the draw options that need the most help which is why I do like the suggestion of Black Market Connections, but for some reason I just don't feel completely sold on it. It always demands life loss, it doesn't proc the turn it ETBs, and is one of the more expensive options when compared to Sensei's Divining Top and Sylvan Library. Also the crazed vorthos in my head keeps screaming about it lacking flavor.

Serra Ascendant won't ever make it to this list. This deck is very much dedicated to the flavor of phyrexian tribal - while maintaining it's stax and infect strategies. Herald's Horn would be nice if the deck was more creature oriented, but alas it just won't provide much value. Honestly, for now i'm just waiting for spoilers from Dominaria United/Brother's War - hoping that if not for new Infect creatures - just better Phyrexians to include. I've seen "Potato Cam" pictures of a rumored Sheoldred that will supposedly be released in Dominiaria united - but it looks deeply underwhelming. I can't go into too much detail about it though, as it's TappedOut's policy to not discuss leaks.

Thanks again for your input - I truly hope my wants will be met in the near future so I can show you what i'm trying to achieve with this deck.