Lelouch32
02-08-2011, 09:21 PM
Mirrodin Besieged War League: Phyrexia
By: Corlando
Hello and welcome ladies and gentlemen to another wonderful edition of a few people’s kind of liked Magic the Gathering article series, Cards n’Flux. My name is Corlando and today I am going to be severing up something seriously fun. With the actual release of Mirrodin Besieged, Wizards has decied to give the war for Mirrodin to the players. With the introduction of the new War League, players will have to choose sides and battle it out for victory. What are the requirements for the league? How will it all work? Well why don’t we hop right in and find out.
The Mirrodin Besieged War League is a simple way to show your love for one of the factions, but how exactly do you do it? First you have to build a deck with at least ten cards of one faction and zero cards of the other. Then battle every time you can to earn victory points for your chosen faction. And what form do these victory points take? Well stickers of course. Yes because when I think of planar invasion, I always want to notate my victories by putting stickers on my shield. Quick question: Am I the only one that sees something wrong with displaying victories with stickers? In my opinion you should be able to show off victories by carving them into a staff or sword maybe. I would suggest being able to slash your number of victories into your opponent, but something tells me I would not last long in that vicious of a league. Anyway, you’ve chosen your side, built your deck, and you’ve battled. What now? Keep on battling and fighting. The league will run through the third set “action” so to insure your factions victory it is best to fight long, hard, and well.
So you now know how to fulfil the requirement of building a deck for the War League, but how exactly do you go about choosing a side? Well that’s what this article is all about… at least the Phyrexian half. Next week I’ll give you the Mirrodin side of the argument. When allying with the Phyrexians, a player must realize that they are at a slight disadvantage. Having only about hundred, hundred thirty, cards or so, a Phrexian player is no doubt limited to their over all strategy. However there are a few strong positives for choosing the Phyrexian side. First up, you have proliferate a fun mechanic that will no doubt be useful as you multiply your opponent’s -1/-1 counters until their creatures just waste away. You have living weapon, quite a powerful mechanic that gives you moving metal to kill your opponents with. And finally and definitely the most magnetizing is the Infect mechanic, the ability to at the very start of the game, reduce your opponent’s life total to ten. I say this ability is rather polarizing because… well it is. Some Phyrexians love infect, some find it cheap and annoying. In an effort to please both sides I have constructed for you, my readers, two decks. The first deck is a more casual, fun deck based around Glissa, the Traitor. The second is a straight up, awesomely efficient Infect deck.
The first deck I’ve built for the Phyrexians is creatively named Fun with Glissa… yeah I need a little work on that. Anyway, the over all concept of the deck is to have several little artifact creatures you can get back with Glissa’s ability plus a few fun tricks to help get in extra indirect damage which will help kill off those Mirran meddlers. Here’s the deck:
Fun With Glissa:
Creatures:
3x Wurmcoil Engine
4x Myr Sire
4x Perilous Myr
2x Pierce Strider
3x Rusted Slasher
4x Glissa, the Traitor
Artifacts:
3x Bonehoard
4x Ichor Wellspring
Spells:
3x Giant Growth
3x Gruesome Encore
4x Doom Blade
Lands:
4x Evolving Wilds
8x Forest
8x Swamp
3x Verdant Catacombs
http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/fun-with-glissa/
The main idea behind this deck is to essentially create a cycle of artifacts being brought back from the graveyard to be used again either for their come into play ability or for they’re enter the graveyard effects. The three cards that really exemplify this are Ichor Wellspring, a :mana2: artifact that gives you a card when it enters the battlefield and when it leaves; Myr Sire, another :mana2: artifact that when killed gets you a 1/1 myr; and Perilous Myr which deals 2 damage to target creature or player when it dies. However, one of the problems for this deck is that it does not have an outlet for sacrifices. You have to have a reason to sacrifice your artifacts otherwise you cannot do it. The ability to sacrifice these little artifacts is given to us through Rusted Slasher a :mana4:, 4/1 that can be regenerated by sacrificing an artifact. Now we have a way to not only deal some good damage, but continually activate our artifacts abilities. This means we can have a steady stream of indirect damage, unkillable creatures, and card advantage that will leave our opponents with a serious lack of stickers on their win sheets. Throw in a few staples such as Doom Blade for removal, Giant Growth for extra damage, Gruesome Encore for some surprise damage, and everyone's titan Wurmcoil Engine and you have yourself a truly fun deck to play.
Now this deck, like many of my others, probably needs some work and general tweaking. One of the cards in the deck that probably does not belong is Bonehoard, the :mana4: Living Weapon that gives the equipped creature +X/+X where X is the number of creatures in all graveyards. It’s not a bad addition seeing as many of our little artifacts will be hitting the graveyard, but with the overall goal of the deck being able to retrieve these little artifact guys, a player using this deck might end up playing Bonehoard and only getting a +2/+2 advantage depending on what kind of deck their opponent is playing. I still think the deck has potential and if you do decide to try it out, tell me how it played for you and how it worked. Oh and one quick idea, anyone think of how fun it would be to play Wurmcoil Engine, sack it to Rusted Slasher, retrieve it with Glissa, and play it again next turn. Yes, I’ll now swing at you with my ARMY OF MECHANICAL WURMS! Muhahahahahhaa.. ahem… moving on.
The next deck I put together for the Phyrexians revolves around the Infect mechanic. With little creatures inflicting damage and poison every which way, this deck is literally made for those who like to watch their opponent slowly begin to lose hope as their defenses grow weaker and weaker before failing entirely, leading to their end. Here is the deck:
Besieged Plague:
Creatures:
4x Hand of the Praetors
4x Necropede
3x Phyrexian Crusader
2x Phyrexian Vatmother
4x Plague Myr
4x Plague Stinger
3x Septic Rats
3x Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon
Lands:
18x Swamp
4x Inkmoth Nexus
Spells:
4x Duress
3x Virulent Swipe
4x Virulent Wound
Sideboard:
4x Go for the Throat
3x Memoricide
3x Morbid Plunder
2x Phyrexian Vatmother
3x Vampire's Bite
http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/besieged-plague/
This deck works very well at doing one thing, swinging at opponents for multiple bits of poison damage. Every single creature in this deck does something to aid in the adding on of many poison counters to the opponent. Plague Stinger and Inkmoth Nexus give you the fast flyers you need to get in the early damage. Necropede, Plague Myr, Phyrexian Crusader, and Septic Rats are the middle soldiers, the guys that will be doing most of the work. Then you have Phyrexian Vatmother and Skithiryx to finish the job. Other fun spells like Duress keep the Mana Leaks away, Virulent Swipe boosts your creatures for extra damage and gives them serious evasion with deathtouch, and Virulent Wound kills the chump blockers and possibly gives your opponent yet another poison counter. This deck is pretty vicious and is easy to use because you do not have to worry about having the wrong mana. The sideboard is for a standard tournament outside of the War League, just in case someone wants to take this to a serious tournament.
Again, I just want to be cautious, this deck probably needs some work. It definitely is running a lot of two drops which can be good… but also leads to the possibility of having some fail draws. The mana might be a little low, and a lack of answers (outside of the sideboard) leaves it vulnerable to decks who have many answers. I still think the deck is good and I would say it is definitely the closest I have come to a tournament level deck. Again if someone does decide to play this deck, please tell me how it turns out, I cannot wait for feedback.
Now we come to everyone’s favorite section, the Closing Questions section:
1. In your opinion, is Infect cheap? Is it not really an honorable way to fight, striking your opponent to ten before the game even begins?
2. What fun Phyrexian cards have you already started to build around and why?
3. What will be the results if Phyrexia wins the war on Mirrodin?
Ladies and gentlemen it has been a pleasure to write for you again. Stay tuned for next week when we take a look at the Mirran side and see what we can do with that little Battlecry Mechanic. And always remember, “Etherium is limited. Innovation is not.” This is Corlando signing out.
By: Corlando
Hello and welcome ladies and gentlemen to another wonderful edition of a few people’s kind of liked Magic the Gathering article series, Cards n’Flux. My name is Corlando and today I am going to be severing up something seriously fun. With the actual release of Mirrodin Besieged, Wizards has decied to give the war for Mirrodin to the players. With the introduction of the new War League, players will have to choose sides and battle it out for victory. What are the requirements for the league? How will it all work? Well why don’t we hop right in and find out.
The Mirrodin Besieged War League is a simple way to show your love for one of the factions, but how exactly do you do it? First you have to build a deck with at least ten cards of one faction and zero cards of the other. Then battle every time you can to earn victory points for your chosen faction. And what form do these victory points take? Well stickers of course. Yes because when I think of planar invasion, I always want to notate my victories by putting stickers on my shield. Quick question: Am I the only one that sees something wrong with displaying victories with stickers? In my opinion you should be able to show off victories by carving them into a staff or sword maybe. I would suggest being able to slash your number of victories into your opponent, but something tells me I would not last long in that vicious of a league. Anyway, you’ve chosen your side, built your deck, and you’ve battled. What now? Keep on battling and fighting. The league will run through the third set “action” so to insure your factions victory it is best to fight long, hard, and well.
So you now know how to fulfil the requirement of building a deck for the War League, but how exactly do you go about choosing a side? Well that’s what this article is all about… at least the Phyrexian half. Next week I’ll give you the Mirrodin side of the argument. When allying with the Phyrexians, a player must realize that they are at a slight disadvantage. Having only about hundred, hundred thirty, cards or so, a Phrexian player is no doubt limited to their over all strategy. However there are a few strong positives for choosing the Phyrexian side. First up, you have proliferate a fun mechanic that will no doubt be useful as you multiply your opponent’s -1/-1 counters until their creatures just waste away. You have living weapon, quite a powerful mechanic that gives you moving metal to kill your opponents with. And finally and definitely the most magnetizing is the Infect mechanic, the ability to at the very start of the game, reduce your opponent’s life total to ten. I say this ability is rather polarizing because… well it is. Some Phyrexians love infect, some find it cheap and annoying. In an effort to please both sides I have constructed for you, my readers, two decks. The first deck is a more casual, fun deck based around Glissa, the Traitor. The second is a straight up, awesomely efficient Infect deck.
The first deck I’ve built for the Phyrexians is creatively named Fun with Glissa… yeah I need a little work on that. Anyway, the over all concept of the deck is to have several little artifact creatures you can get back with Glissa’s ability plus a few fun tricks to help get in extra indirect damage which will help kill off those Mirran meddlers. Here’s the deck:
Fun With Glissa:
Creatures:
3x Wurmcoil Engine
4x Myr Sire
4x Perilous Myr
2x Pierce Strider
3x Rusted Slasher
4x Glissa, the Traitor
Artifacts:
3x Bonehoard
4x Ichor Wellspring
Spells:
3x Giant Growth
3x Gruesome Encore
4x Doom Blade
Lands:
4x Evolving Wilds
8x Forest
8x Swamp
3x Verdant Catacombs
http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/fun-with-glissa/
The main idea behind this deck is to essentially create a cycle of artifacts being brought back from the graveyard to be used again either for their come into play ability or for they’re enter the graveyard effects. The three cards that really exemplify this are Ichor Wellspring, a :mana2: artifact that gives you a card when it enters the battlefield and when it leaves; Myr Sire, another :mana2: artifact that when killed gets you a 1/1 myr; and Perilous Myr which deals 2 damage to target creature or player when it dies. However, one of the problems for this deck is that it does not have an outlet for sacrifices. You have to have a reason to sacrifice your artifacts otherwise you cannot do it. The ability to sacrifice these little artifacts is given to us through Rusted Slasher a :mana4:, 4/1 that can be regenerated by sacrificing an artifact. Now we have a way to not only deal some good damage, but continually activate our artifacts abilities. This means we can have a steady stream of indirect damage, unkillable creatures, and card advantage that will leave our opponents with a serious lack of stickers on their win sheets. Throw in a few staples such as Doom Blade for removal, Giant Growth for extra damage, Gruesome Encore for some surprise damage, and everyone's titan Wurmcoil Engine and you have yourself a truly fun deck to play.
Now this deck, like many of my others, probably needs some work and general tweaking. One of the cards in the deck that probably does not belong is Bonehoard, the :mana4: Living Weapon that gives the equipped creature +X/+X where X is the number of creatures in all graveyards. It’s not a bad addition seeing as many of our little artifacts will be hitting the graveyard, but with the overall goal of the deck being able to retrieve these little artifact guys, a player using this deck might end up playing Bonehoard and only getting a +2/+2 advantage depending on what kind of deck their opponent is playing. I still think the deck has potential and if you do decide to try it out, tell me how it played for you and how it worked. Oh and one quick idea, anyone think of how fun it would be to play Wurmcoil Engine, sack it to Rusted Slasher, retrieve it with Glissa, and play it again next turn. Yes, I’ll now swing at you with my ARMY OF MECHANICAL WURMS! Muhahahahahhaa.. ahem… moving on.
The next deck I put together for the Phyrexians revolves around the Infect mechanic. With little creatures inflicting damage and poison every which way, this deck is literally made for those who like to watch their opponent slowly begin to lose hope as their defenses grow weaker and weaker before failing entirely, leading to their end. Here is the deck:
Besieged Plague:
Creatures:
4x Hand of the Praetors
4x Necropede
3x Phyrexian Crusader
2x Phyrexian Vatmother
4x Plague Myr
4x Plague Stinger
3x Septic Rats
3x Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon
Lands:
18x Swamp
4x Inkmoth Nexus
Spells:
4x Duress
3x Virulent Swipe
4x Virulent Wound
Sideboard:
4x Go for the Throat
3x Memoricide
3x Morbid Plunder
2x Phyrexian Vatmother
3x Vampire's Bite
http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/besieged-plague/
This deck works very well at doing one thing, swinging at opponents for multiple bits of poison damage. Every single creature in this deck does something to aid in the adding on of many poison counters to the opponent. Plague Stinger and Inkmoth Nexus give you the fast flyers you need to get in the early damage. Necropede, Plague Myr, Phyrexian Crusader, and Septic Rats are the middle soldiers, the guys that will be doing most of the work. Then you have Phyrexian Vatmother and Skithiryx to finish the job. Other fun spells like Duress keep the Mana Leaks away, Virulent Swipe boosts your creatures for extra damage and gives them serious evasion with deathtouch, and Virulent Wound kills the chump blockers and possibly gives your opponent yet another poison counter. This deck is pretty vicious and is easy to use because you do not have to worry about having the wrong mana. The sideboard is for a standard tournament outside of the War League, just in case someone wants to take this to a serious tournament.
Again, I just want to be cautious, this deck probably needs some work. It definitely is running a lot of two drops which can be good… but also leads to the possibility of having some fail draws. The mana might be a little low, and a lack of answers (outside of the sideboard) leaves it vulnerable to decks who have many answers. I still think the deck is good and I would say it is definitely the closest I have come to a tournament level deck. Again if someone does decide to play this deck, please tell me how it turns out, I cannot wait for feedback.
Now we come to everyone’s favorite section, the Closing Questions section:
1. In your opinion, is Infect cheap? Is it not really an honorable way to fight, striking your opponent to ten before the game even begins?
2. What fun Phyrexian cards have you already started to build around and why?
3. What will be the results if Phyrexia wins the war on Mirrodin?
Ladies and gentlemen it has been a pleasure to write for you again. Stay tuned for next week when we take a look at the Mirran side and see what we can do with that little Battlecry Mechanic. And always remember, “Etherium is limited. Innovation is not.” This is Corlando signing out.