Eckat, thanks for the compliment. My goal with this deck is to push Infect as far as I can with the restriction of maintaining a Phyrexian aesthetic and flavor, for the most part anyway. Some concessions have to be made in that regard as Infect is a parasitic mechanic that doesn't have that much support. My hope is that the upcoming Commander Legends will have some good Infect permanents I can swap in to improve the deck's functionality. Or, even better we actually return to New Phyrexia in an upcoming set and Infect returns with an even higher power level. One can only dream.

Thanks again for the nice words, I'm honored you'd use my deck as a reference. I'm taking a look at your Sen Triplets deck, and will definitely give my own two cents. Good luck with your upcoming games.

Yop, the Sen Triplets deck will need to get updates, since I went to the tournament and it lacked interactions. I need to put back more black removals and blue counter spells.

In the meantime I am focused on my THE Praetor deck where I splashed some green, this one is more similar to yours :)

hi Mortlocke hows it going? I am sure you have seen the possible spoiler from Kaldheim that the Phyrexians are coming back. Vorinclex, Monsterous Raider has been apparently leaked... Could we have a whole new cycle of Praetors returning to invade the snowy peaks of Kaldheim

Hey Doombeard1984, yes i've seen the confirmed non-official spoiler that is the uh...previously mentioned card. I don't want to say it's name because long story short - I made a forums post about it and an admin locked the thread because the card wasn't an official spoiler. The verbiage used by the admin was as follows:

Per TappedOut's policy that there is to be no discussion of cards that have not been officially spoiled--in this case, the card was allegedly inadvertently spoiled because the printer accidently slipped it into Commander Legends. Pursuant to this policy, I am going to lock this thread--I will try to remember to reopen it if this gets spoiled as a real card (if I do not, just leave a note on my wall to remind me).

As for what do I think about the card? It's weaker than the original Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger but gears itself more toward an Infect playstyle as it doubles the "damage" output from infect creatures, and doubles every proliferation on the stack giving some insane value - doubling +1/+1 and fading counters as well. Additionally that which shall not be named becomes instantly lethal once it gains infect ala Tainted Strike. The added bonus of potentially denying opponents counters is also nice. Again, it's definitely not as disruptive and overall powerful as the original, but with it's more narrow focus can be really devastating under the right conditions. I definitely plan on getting a copy of said card when it's officially available for purchase. From my understanding it's one Preator "invader" per plane. It seems that Phyrexia has cast a very wide net and is carefully laying out it's plans. Papa Yawgmoth would be proud, I sure am! What're your thoughts on the card that shall not be named?

I think it has some possibilities in a super friends strategy as well as infect, but also just kinda works in a kind of hatebears/stax/control type style where you are stiffling your opponents. Think, he who shall not be mentioned, is 100% more of an in the 99

Doombeard1984, agreed. My plan initially was to replace the original Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger already in the deck with the new instance but upon second glance I don't think that move would be wise. Instead i'm going to replace Inexorable Tide. That card i've never felt was particularly strong, as the pay off always felt a bit minimal once it hit the board. For it to really become useful, I needed a full grip of cards, infect counters on players and/or permanents with counters already on the board in the first place.

The new unofficial card I plan on including functions somewhat similarly to Inexorable Tide, in the sense that it contributes to proliferation triggers - but it does so much more. Like I said before, it's an excellent target for Tainted Strike, increases the lethality of Infect overall, and increases the value of all counters on permanents I control. The only downside is that i'm increasing the average CMC of the deck. But that's my plan - what're your thoughts?

I think all things considered, the deck has a good mana ramp/rock package and the deck could probably soak up the additional average CMC. When put in relation to the pay off if what is being included and replaced (Inexorable Tide I think is a good card to replace), the upside way outweighs the increase in average cost in the deck

Doombeard1984, following the same tangent I have another question to ask - would Corrupted Conscience be a better candidate for replacement over Inexorable Tide? Or am I just overthinking? Tide does have more synergy with the unofficially spoiled card we've been discussing.

I personally don't like Corrupted Conscience as much. Whilst steal a creature and giving it infect is fun, it's just not as synergistic as an Inexorable Tide or the card which has been the subject of this discussion. Also, Corrupted Conscience is limited in its effect dependent on what is on the Battlefield. Its one of those cards that I could see myself pulling and thinking often "well, that doesn't help". Hope that makes sense

You also have to think about the timing of the game. Its very unlikely either Corrupted Conscience or Inexorable Tide is going to be cast within the first four or five turns. So those cards are likely to be cast mid-game. At that time for 5cmc, Corrupted Conscience is far more likely to be useful than Inexorable Tide.

Think of this way:

1. You cast Inexorable Tide for 5cmc and it does absolutely nothing that turn.

2. You cast Corrupted Conscience and you can eliminate a threat by stealing the most troublesome creature. Its has infect and you can swing with it that turn if you have a way to give haste.

Corrupted Conscience is also more synergistic than Inexorable Tide. Pertaining to the commander, Inexorable Tide is less synergistic because it doesn't give your commander anything to do. Corrupted Conscience can potentially give your opponents counters for your commander to proliferate.

I think either way, new Vorinclex (if it is real) makes more sense than either of these cards, and so much more value for only 1 more CMC

Thank you both AscendedLandfalls and Doombeard1984 for your discussion regarding Inexorable Tide and Corrupted Conscience. Personally I've had limited success with Corrupted Conscience. Most of the time i'd just use it on another players' commander. Inexorable Tide actually won me a game on the other hand - I was fortunate enough to have poison counters on all my opponents and Tide already on the field and a full grip of cards. I simply cast enough cards to secure the "W" at the critical moment. I'm definitely on the fence between which card to substitute out for the unofficially-spoiled-card-thatwontbenamed and will simply give each a try to see what works.

AscendedLandfalls, Doombeard1984, I think i'm going to cut both Inexorable Tide and Corrupted Conscience in favor of the new unofficially spoiled card and Dovin's Veto. Tide and Conscience were always very underwhelming cards in my opinion - only performing well in a handful of situations. I wish wizards printed something like " - instant - counter target non-creature spell, proliferate" - and have it praetor themed. Well, one can dream at least. For now, these are my planned changes. What do you all think?

Sounds good Mortlocke. I think they are a good choice for replacement

Wait for the new set to come out before making any official changes because there will probably more things to help infect besides the unofficial card.

I think I'm obligated to upvote for the animated background alone. Well done

Hey, I was so excited when I saw the new Vorinclex but the phyrexian text addition is beautiful!

WaveHarp I too am excited for the very flavorful new smallclex. I intend on slotting him in for Corrupted Conscience. I'm also thinking of trying out Dovin's Veto in Inexorable Tide's slot as well. What changes would you make to your own Atraxa infect deck with the new smallclex in mind?

So I slowly want to build this deck. Honestly wish I ran into this page sooner because I just got into magic last month and went a lil deep a lil quick lol! But thjs definitely a deck i want to make as when I first tried magic in like 2012 it was with phyrexian stuff, but just couldn't get into it.

Question, I just pulled doubling season from a pack, does it not have a use in this deck?

Zephel693, thank you for the very nice compliment. I remember when New Phyrexia had first dropped and I had a playset of Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon because for some reason I thought I wanted to play standard. But I lost interest, sold the Skittles and didn't revisit Infect until I managed to get my hands on a Atraxa pre-con a year later after they were all bought up. I honestly can't recall another Commander pre-con being nearly as popular as Atraxa. Moving on to your question about Doubling Season - i've definitely considered it but quickly determined it not being optimal for Infect. Why?

1. The first half of the card (If an effect would create one or more tokens under your control, it creates twice that many of those tokens instead) is completely irrelevant to the deck unless i'm running Phyrexian Swarmlord. I did give swarmlord a shot, but I quickly found the constraints for it's token spwaning to be too restrictive to be considered useful - it's just a "win more" card in my opinion.

2. The 2nd half of the card (If an effect would put one or more counters on a permanent you control, it puts twice that many of those counters on that permanent instead.) isn't worth the CMC. While +1/+1, and Fading counters are definitely part of the sub-theme of this deck to have to pay to get to double the number of counters I get to put on a permanent is far too taxing and slow.

I say that the doubling season (but for infect) was officially spoiled in Kaldheim - yes, i'm talking about Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider or as I like to refer to him (and hopefully everyone else will) - smallclex. He doubles the number of poison counters placed on opponents and doubles the combat damage output from infect creatures. If smallclex were to receive infect (ala Tainted Strike) one swing of combat damage from him would be lethal. The fact that smallclex can slow or deny the progression of loyalty counters on enemy planeswalkers (while doubling yours) is simply icing on the cake. Yes, the denial of counters could be problematic when facing creatures with Undying effects - but I think the pros outweigh the cons.

To summarize - Doubling Season is not good for Infect decks as it only has a marginal boon for the wincon - getting poison counters on players. Doubling Season is more suited to Superfriends or Atraxa builds that have +1/+1 counters and tokens as the primary themes.

Zephel693 - quick correction. I mean to say that Doubling Season doesn't provide a boon to the deck's wincon - getting poison counters on players. All it does is provide a marginal boon to the deck overall.

Mortlocke, ooooh okay! Thanks for the info! I'ma see about trading it then at my LGS as they had a blightsteel up seems worth the exchange.

I'm sure you may have seen this proxy, but in case you haven't...

https://magicproxyalters.com/product/sol-ring-phyrexian/

And I thought I had a decent Atraxa deck...