New Decks Bringing the Power with Phyrexia All Will Be One
Hello everyone! Welcome to standard weekly!
Phyrexia All Will Be One is here.
With prerelease and the streamer event behind us, it is time to examine a few of the decks that look like they could play a role in Phyrexia All Will Be One standard season. The versions of the decks I will introduce today will only have a main deck because the streamer event did not play best-of-three during the event.
One of the big themes of Phyrexia All Will Be One is the return of poison counters through the mechanic toxic. For those of you who are not familiar with poison counters, when a player has 10 poison counters, they lose the game. There are a variety of cards that have toxic that can quickly lead to the accumulation of poison counters. Two interesting versions of Toxic decks saw significant play during the streamer event on Arena. One used Venerated Rotpriest as the key card in the deck and the other focused on creating tokens.
Venerated Rotpriest costs one green mana for a 1/2 Phyrexian Druid with toxic 1 and has “Whenever a creature you control becomes the target of a spell, target opponent gets a poison counter.” Standard current has a group of quality spells that target your own creatures.
This plus a somewhat forgotten creature, Ivy, Gleeful Spellthief, make an interesting take on Toxic.
What makes Ivy the perfect card for the deck is her ability. Whenever a player casts a spell that targets only a single creature other than Ivy, Gleeful Spellthief, you may copy that spell. The copy targets Ivy. This means that any time you have Venerated Rotpriest and Ivy in play together, Ivy gets to copy any spell that targets Venerated Rotpriest or another creature. When this occurs, your opponent will get two poison counters.
The Ultimate Rotpriest Meme Deck
by SaffronOlive
CREATURES: (10)
3 Crawling Chorus
2 Jadar, Ghoulcaller of Nephalia
3 Mondrak, Glory Dominus
2 Resolute Reinforcements
INSTANTS: (6)
2 Charge of the Mites
2 Destroy Evil
2 Go for the Throat
SORCERIES: (2)
2 Eaten Alive
2 Rite of Oblivion
1 White Sun’s Twilight
ENCHANTMENTS: (5)
4 Combat Research (dmu) 44
1 Vesuvan Duplimancy (dmu) 73
PLANESWALKERS: (7)
2 Kaya, Geist Hunter
1 Kaya, Intangible Slayer
2 Sorin the Mirthless
2 The Wandering Emperor
LANDS: (20)
1 Boseiju, Who Endures (neo) 266
4 Dreamroot Cascade (vow) 262
4 Forest (one) 276
4 Island (one) 273
1 Otawara, Soaring City (neo) 271
2 Thran Portal (dmu) 259
4 Yavimaya Coast (dmu) 261
SaffronOlive’s version of the deck is dedicated to getting a poison counter kill. The instants and sorceries included in the deck are designed to target your creatures and use the ability of Venerated Rotpriest to give your opponent poison counters. In the video footage of SaffronOlive playing the deck, he successful poisoned his opponent out of the game as early as turn three when he went first and had Venerated Rotpriest and Ivy, Gleeful Spellthief in play.
The deck also had the ability to win a game with poison counters in a more traditional way. Bloated Contaminator and Tainted Observer offer the deck additional ways to get poison counters on an opponent to advance the deck’s game plan.
SIMIC INFECT
by CovertGoBlue
CREATURES: (12)
4 Ivy, Gleeful Spellthief (dmu) 201
4 Stormchaser Drake (vow) 82
4 Venerated Rotpriest (one) 192
INSTANTS: (19)
4 Fading Hope (mid) 51
4 March of Burgeoning Life (neo) 201
3 March of Swirling Mist (neo) 61
2 Shore Up (dmu) 64
2 Slip Out the Back (snc) 62
2 Tamiyo’s Safekeeping (neo) 211
2 Tyvar’s Stand (one) 190
SORCERIES: (4)
4 Bushwhack (bro) 174
ENCHANTMENTS: (5)
4 Combat Research (dmu) 44
1 Vesuvan Duplimancy (dmu) 73
LANDS: (26)
4 Caves of Koilos
1 Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire
2 Mirrex
6 Plains
4 Shattered Sanctum
6 Swamp
1 Takenuma, Abandoned Mire
CGB’s version of the deck utilizes many of the same cards as SaffronOlive’s version. The biggest difference is the number of creatures. SaffronOlive’s version has 18 while CGB’s only has 12. With five of these spots, CGB included 5 enchantments, 4 Combat Research and 1 Vesuvan Duplimancy. Based on the gameplay footage from CGB, the enchantments did not perform well, so I think they are not the right cards for the deck.
One of the top-performing spells in the deck was March of Burgeoning Life. This forgotten march from Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty enables the deck to get additional copies of Venerated Rotpriest from the deck to increase the chances of getting a poison kill.
I think if this version of the deck has a chance to be successful in both best-of-one and best-of-three standard, but the lack of removal and the dependence on Venerated Rotpriest to win matches leaves the deck missing a key piece or two that will make the deck more consistent. When the deck does its thing, it looks very unbeatable, but when it does not get its combo pieces the deck lacks the resiliency to win consistently.
Our next set of decks are built around Skrelv’s Hive.
Skrelv’s Hive is a token engine. At the beginning of your upkeeps, you lose 1 life and create a 1/1 Phyrexian Mite artifact creature token with toxic 1 and “This creature can’t block.” Skrelv’s Hive also has corrupted. If an opponent has three or more poison counters, creatures you control with toxic have lifelink.
BOROS TOKENS
by Crokeyz
CREATURES: (6)
2 Lumarch Veteran
4 Vindictive Flamestoker
PLANESWALKERS: (4)
4 The Wandering Emperor
SORCERIES: (4)
4 Banishing Slash
ARTIFACTS: (4)
4 Reckoner Bankbusters
ENCHANTMENTS: (16)
4 Skrelv’s Hive
4 Wedding Announcements
4 Fable of the Mirror-Breaker
4 All Will Be One
LANDS: (26)
1 Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire
11 Plains
5 Mountains
1 Sokenzan, Crucibles of Defiance
4 Battlefield Forge
4 Sundown Pass
PowrDragn’s version of the deck goes all in on creatures with toxic. His deck is built around Skrelv, Defector Mite and its ability to give another creature protection from a color. It also employs Jawbone Duelist as a creature that has double strike and toxic 1. This should consistently give poison counters to your opponent, so you can get a poison kill.
Another strong card in the deck is Slaughter Singer. It gives creatures with toxic +1/+1 and toxic 1 when they attack. The creatures that it helps the most are the Phyrexian Mite artifact tokens created by Skrelv’s Hive. This combination can lead to powerful attacks that can deal four or more poison counters on a single attack.
Mondrak, Glory Dominus Orzhov Tokens
by Hello Good Game
CREATURES: (10)
3 Crawling Chorus
2 Jadar, Ghoulcaller of Nephalia
3 Mondrak, Glory Dominus
2 Resolute Reinforcements
PLANESWALKERS: (7)
2 Kaya, Geist Hunter
1 Kaya, Intangible Slayer
2 Sorin the Mirthless
2 The Wandering Emperor
INSTANTS: (6)
2 Charge of the Mites
2 Destroy Evil
2 Go for the Throat
SORCERIES: (5)
2 Eaten Alive
2 Rite of Oblivion
1 White Sun’s Twilight
ENCHANTMENTS: (8)
4 Skrelv’s Hive
4 Wedding Announcements
LANDS: (26)
4 Caves of Koilos
1 Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire
2 Mirrex
6 Plains
4 Shattered Sanctum
6 Swamp
1 Takenuma, Abandoned Mire
Hello Good Game’s version of the deck goes all in on token creation with Mondrak, Glory Dominus.
Mondrak’s ability doubles the number of tokens created. Each other creature in the deck creates a creature token either when it enters play, on your end step, or when it dies. Each of the planeswalkers in the deck can create a creature token. Skrelv’s Hive and Wedding Announcement also create tokens. Overall, the deck has 23 spells that create a creature token. When you couple these abilities with Mondrak, you get a token army that can kill an opponent quickly and efficiently.
The removal package is the last piece to the deck. This is different from all the other poison decks discussed. Hello Good Game’s version utilizes removal to clear a path for his tokens to do damage and add poison counters. The deck’s planeswalkers’ other abilities add additional value.
Overall, I think toxic is a strong ability that will have a couple of competitive versions. Mostly, one will be around Venerated Rotpriest and the other around Skrelv’s Hive. Which will become the most powerful in standard has yet to be determined.
That’s it for this week. I’ll see you next time!
Leave A Comment