That_RaginG_Homo
08-29-2011, 01:05 AM
So something or another (probably an article or a casual deck with an interesting concept) reminded me that Phyrexian Etchings exsisted, and I thought that it could be a really powerful draw engine. The deck originally was a mono black aggro deck in standard that used Etchings as a refuel card, but mono black aggro sucks in legacy. The deck as it is now is more comparable to The Gate or possibly MBC. The deck isnt so reliant upon the Etchings now, but its been quite powerful in testing, and I've been having a very high win rate with it on Cockatrice against established decks.
Creatures:
4 Gatekeeper of Malikar
4 Vampire Hexmage
3 Phyrexian Obliterator
Enchantments:
4 Phyrexian Arena
3 Phyrexian Etchings
Instants:
3 Dark Ritual
3 Dismember
2 Go for the Throat
3 Mental Misstep
3 Soul Spike
Sorcerys:
4 Hymn to Tourach
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
Lands:
15 Swamp
2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
3 Dark Depths
1 Volrath's Stronghold
Hopefully I got all the tags right.
So, to go over card choices:
As a general rule, this deck doesnt want 4 drops, cuz If you drop an Etchings with 3 lands, and hit a land drop every turn, you'd only have 3 mana each turn. Obliterator is the sole exception to this, as the raw power of it has been worth it most of the time. I also just needed another win condition other than Marit Lage xD. If necessary, Dark Ritual can be used to go over the 3 mana limit for a turn. I originally also had Chrome mox for this, but It just didnt seem worth it.
Lands: Fairly self explanatory I think, although it could be arguably better to run all basics and the Depths, I havent had any problems with it. The deck isnt really all that reliant on the Depths combo, and Hexmage is pretty useful on its own against tribal decks and Jace, So I dont mind seeing the Hexmage without the Depths. Seeing the Depths without the Hexmage, on the other hand...
Gatekeeper and Obliterator: Gatekeeper generates card advantage, Obliterator is just plain powerful, both help to control the board.
Hexmage: Surprisingly effective at buying a few turns against Tribal decks, and deals with Jace, two things this deck doesnt like too much. With Etchings, the Depths combo provides a quick, mana efficient win, given that I wont have very much mana. Although the combo can give me a quick win, for example against combo, against aggro and control, I usually find it to be not worth the risk, since the deck can grind out games fairly well. You could also sac Hexmage to reset Etchings counters, but I've never really found that to be necessary.
Mental Misstep: Can protect the Marit Lage/Obliterator, helps the combo matchup, and deals with Lackey/Mother of Runes, which this deck has no other other way of dealing with on the draw besides Soul Spike or Rit into removal xD
Dark Ritual: Only a three of, I usually find that Id rather have another land than a second Rit. Usually the only things I really want to accel into are Arena and Obliterator anyways. Its pretty helpful post Etchings.
Phyrexian Etchings: Namesake card, powerful draw engine. Its comparable to Greed, but to draw 10 cards Greed would cost 20 life, whereas Etchings costs 10 that you may not even have to pay.
Phyrexian Arena: I'm running this over Dark Confidant for a multitude of reasons. Firstly, the curve of this deck is kinda high, and there are already a lot of life loss cards. Theres also Soul Spike. Secondly, this deck runs very few creatures that can be burned, so Confidants tend not to live long. Thirdly Rit into Arena is a fairly common play against decks that dont run Daze. But mostly the first reason. Although I id have Snuff out in the deck at the time, so maybe it should be retested.. The body isnt that useful in this deck anyways, though.
Inquisition of Kozilek: Pretty interchangeable with Thoughtsieze, but I find that the life is worth mroe than the option to take a Force or a Batterskull, and that the deck can just power through those cards.
Soul Spike: It looks kinda bad, and it's kinda hard to make it sound not bad, but its been pretty good in testing. Life gain helps, free removal/reach if your beating down, messes with combat/combo math, and its free, which is great since mana is the issue, not cards after an Etchings. I've cut these before, but always kinda missed them.
I dont have a sideboard at the moment, but it would probably just be discard, gravehate, and Dystopias. Maybe a few Grim Discoveries.
The general gameplan of the deck is to trade 1 for 1 or 2 for 1, and at some point play a Arena or Etchings, and ride the CA to a win, although dropping a fast Marit Lage or Arena are acceptable as well.
The large amounts of removal and CA make the NO RUG matchup and Team America pretty favorable. For the same reasons, Merfolk is pretty good too. Plus, their Missteps dont really do anything :P
Control matchups are pretty good, just play a lot of discard and threats one at a time, and try to bait counters until you can land a Arena or Etchings.
The Maverick matchup is fairly even, you really need a Etchings or Arena to win a longer game against them, but they have Pridemages. They cant really deal with an Obliterator other than their 4 swords, but you have discard and Missteps, and they need the swords for Marit Lage as well. Moms are a pain. You really have to land a big threat quickly and ride it to a win, or land and hope they cant kill a CA engine and grind it out.
Combo in general is unfavorable, although not unwinable. You have a decent amount of discard, and missteps, and can potentially race them with a Marit Lage.
Faster variations of Zoo is a matchup Im more concerned with. The lifeloss from your CA engines are a liability here, and the curve is too high to efficiently trade with them before you lose half your life. You just have to draw Rits, get an Etchings down, and draw 2 or 3 Soul Spikes : P
So, what do you guys think? Any suggestions or questions on my card choices? Maybe my formatting is terrible and thoughts are too scattered so you couldnt follow? I would suggest you test a few quick games with the deck before you bash it though, it looks a lot weaker on paper than it plays out. Although perhaps its just a worse version of The Gate xD
Edit: Ok so apparently I suck at card tags, could I get a little help? its [ card ] [ /card ] and [ deck ] [ /deck ] without the spaces right? xD
Creatures:
4 Gatekeeper of Malikar
4 Vampire Hexmage
3 Phyrexian Obliterator
Enchantments:
4 Phyrexian Arena
3 Phyrexian Etchings
Instants:
3 Dark Ritual
3 Dismember
2 Go for the Throat
3 Mental Misstep
3 Soul Spike
Sorcerys:
4 Hymn to Tourach
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
Lands:
15 Swamp
2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
3 Dark Depths
1 Volrath's Stronghold
Hopefully I got all the tags right.
So, to go over card choices:
As a general rule, this deck doesnt want 4 drops, cuz If you drop an Etchings with 3 lands, and hit a land drop every turn, you'd only have 3 mana each turn. Obliterator is the sole exception to this, as the raw power of it has been worth it most of the time. I also just needed another win condition other than Marit Lage xD. If necessary, Dark Ritual can be used to go over the 3 mana limit for a turn. I originally also had Chrome mox for this, but It just didnt seem worth it.
Lands: Fairly self explanatory I think, although it could be arguably better to run all basics and the Depths, I havent had any problems with it. The deck isnt really all that reliant on the Depths combo, and Hexmage is pretty useful on its own against tribal decks and Jace, So I dont mind seeing the Hexmage without the Depths. Seeing the Depths without the Hexmage, on the other hand...
Gatekeeper and Obliterator: Gatekeeper generates card advantage, Obliterator is just plain powerful, both help to control the board.
Hexmage: Surprisingly effective at buying a few turns against Tribal decks, and deals with Jace, two things this deck doesnt like too much. With Etchings, the Depths combo provides a quick, mana efficient win, given that I wont have very much mana. Although the combo can give me a quick win, for example against combo, against aggro and control, I usually find it to be not worth the risk, since the deck can grind out games fairly well. You could also sac Hexmage to reset Etchings counters, but I've never really found that to be necessary.
Mental Misstep: Can protect the Marit Lage/Obliterator, helps the combo matchup, and deals with Lackey/Mother of Runes, which this deck has no other other way of dealing with on the draw besides Soul Spike or Rit into removal xD
Dark Ritual: Only a three of, I usually find that Id rather have another land than a second Rit. Usually the only things I really want to accel into are Arena and Obliterator anyways. Its pretty helpful post Etchings.
Phyrexian Etchings: Namesake card, powerful draw engine. Its comparable to Greed, but to draw 10 cards Greed would cost 20 life, whereas Etchings costs 10 that you may not even have to pay.
Phyrexian Arena: I'm running this over Dark Confidant for a multitude of reasons. Firstly, the curve of this deck is kinda high, and there are already a lot of life loss cards. Theres also Soul Spike. Secondly, this deck runs very few creatures that can be burned, so Confidants tend not to live long. Thirdly Rit into Arena is a fairly common play against decks that dont run Daze. But mostly the first reason. Although I id have Snuff out in the deck at the time, so maybe it should be retested.. The body isnt that useful in this deck anyways, though.
Inquisition of Kozilek: Pretty interchangeable with Thoughtsieze, but I find that the life is worth mroe than the option to take a Force or a Batterskull, and that the deck can just power through those cards.
Soul Spike: It looks kinda bad, and it's kinda hard to make it sound not bad, but its been pretty good in testing. Life gain helps, free removal/reach if your beating down, messes with combat/combo math, and its free, which is great since mana is the issue, not cards after an Etchings. I've cut these before, but always kinda missed them.
I dont have a sideboard at the moment, but it would probably just be discard, gravehate, and Dystopias. Maybe a few Grim Discoveries.
The general gameplan of the deck is to trade 1 for 1 or 2 for 1, and at some point play a Arena or Etchings, and ride the CA to a win, although dropping a fast Marit Lage or Arena are acceptable as well.
The large amounts of removal and CA make the NO RUG matchup and Team America pretty favorable. For the same reasons, Merfolk is pretty good too. Plus, their Missteps dont really do anything :P
Control matchups are pretty good, just play a lot of discard and threats one at a time, and try to bait counters until you can land a Arena or Etchings.
The Maverick matchup is fairly even, you really need a Etchings or Arena to win a longer game against them, but they have Pridemages. They cant really deal with an Obliterator other than their 4 swords, but you have discard and Missteps, and they need the swords for Marit Lage as well. Moms are a pain. You really have to land a big threat quickly and ride it to a win, or land and hope they cant kill a CA engine and grind it out.
Combo in general is unfavorable, although not unwinable. You have a decent amount of discard, and missteps, and can potentially race them with a Marit Lage.
Faster variations of Zoo is a matchup Im more concerned with. The lifeloss from your CA engines are a liability here, and the curve is too high to efficiently trade with them before you lose half your life. You just have to draw Rits, get an Etchings down, and draw 2 or 3 Soul Spikes : P
So, what do you guys think? Any suggestions or questions on my card choices? Maybe my formatting is terrible and thoughts are too scattered so you couldnt follow? I would suggest you test a few quick games with the deck before you bash it though, it looks a lot weaker on paper than it plays out. Although perhaps its just a worse version of The Gate xD
Edit: Ok so apparently I suck at card tags, could I get a little help? its [ card ] [ /card ] and [ deck ] [ /deck ] without the spaces right? xD