[COM] Phenax, God of Durdle

[FTW]

As janky as mill sounds, I just have to say this:
it's janky.

But seriously. In EDH life total scales up by 2 but library size only by 10/6, so it should theoretically be "more easier" to mill someone out than kill them than it would be in 60-card constructed.

This is also just a great excuse to play a ton of cards that no one ever wants to play

Phenax, God of Deception+Consuming Aberration = LOLOL

EDITED:

//Commander: 1
Phenax, God of Deception

//Walls: 14
Shield Sphere
Wall of Junk
Wall of Souls
Wall of Tears
Doorkeeper
Ludevic's Test Subject
Omenspeaker
Glacial Wall
Wall of Frost
Guardians of Meletis
Drift of Phantasms
Hover Barrier
Mnemonic Wall
Drift of the Dead

//Gods: 2
Thassa, God of the Sea
Erebos, God of the Dead

//Planeswalkers: 6
Jace, the Mind Sculptor
Liliana Vess
Jace, Memory Adept
Tamiyo, the Moon Sage
Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver
Karn Liberated

//Tutors/Draw: 10
Sensei's Divining Top
Vampiric Tutor
Imperial Seal
Mystical Tutor
Demonic Tutor
Shred Memory
Grim Tutor
Diabolic Tutor
Phyrexian Arena
Underworld Connections

//Removal: 9
Cyclonic Rift
Damnation
Decree of Pain
Oblivion Stone
Curse of the Swine
Ashes to Ashes
Hero's Downfall
Mana Drain
Cryptic Command

//Yoink: 9
Diluvian Primordial
Sepulchral Primordial
Bribery
Chancellor of the Spires
Reanimate
Beacon of Unrest
Animate Dead
Dance of the Dead
Geth, Lord of the Vault

//Other Grave-Loving Stuff: 5
Consuming Aberration
Bonehoard
Nighthowler
Mortivore
Bloodchief Ascension
Duskmantle Guildmage

//Good Stuff: 3
Thousand-Year Elixir
Arbiter of the Ideal
Oona, Queen of Fae

//Ramp: 7
Sol Ring
Mana Crypt
Dimir Signet
Talisman of Dominance
Darksteel Ingot
Thran Dynamo
Gilded Lotus

//Lands: 37
Scrying Sheets
Mouth of Ronom
7 fetchland
Creeping Tar Pit
Underground Sea
Watery Grave
River of Tears
Drowned Catacomb
Underground River
Sunken Ruins
9 Snow-Covered Island
9 Snow-Covered Swamp
Nephalia Drownyard
Temple of Deceit
Bojuka Bog



It's 2 things you never get to play well in magic: a Wall deck and a Mill deck!

Walls serve multi-duty in this deck:
-protect your planeswalkers
-protect your face
-permanents that innocently add to your devotion while being too janky to bother to kill
-efficient toughness-to-mana ratio for maximum Phenax destruction

While you EOT mill people, creatures like Consuming Abberation and Mortivore just get bigger and bigger (in turn milling for more and more each turn). They scale well with the game plan.

The downside to milling is letting opponents abuse graveyard shenanigans. So you might as well abuse their graveyards too! Creature and spell stealing bombs mean you can EOT mill them, untap and then Reanimate the best fatty before they can.

EDIT: The point of this deck is to do silly durdly things and to be the strongest 3rd-5th. Let the titans clash while you hide behind your walls. No one will bother to waste effort attacking into your jumble of walls.

[Davran]

What about Shred Memory and/or Nihil Spellbomb? As it stands, you fold to a single Eldrazi flipped out of your opponent's deck.

Also, is Keening Stone better than Traumatize? Or maybe Increasing Confusion?

[FTW]

Good point.

Although milling isn't the only way the deck can win. It's the most straightforward engine. But you can also just:

-beat down with very large creatures (any of the X/X guys gets ginormous as you mill people and as people play spells/kill things)
-steal bombs from opponents and go to town
-win off life drain from Duskmantle/Bloodchief
-go ultimate with planeswalkers

That doesn't mean those are amazing win conditions. But at least the deck doesn't completely fold if the opponent runs a Ulamog/Kozilek

Added Shred Memory and Bojuka Bog. Reluctant to add too much more because of anti-synergy with the whole stealing stuff for profit plan.

Yeah, I decided even [insert card here] was better than Traumatize and just cut it.

Keening Stone is much worse in this deck than say Consuming Aberration or Nighthowler, which also mill for X and scale as you mill more, but count each graveyard and have bodies and don't take up your mana.

[TsumiBand]

Where is your goddamned Guiltfeeder.

[Amon Amarth]

Where is your goddamned Guiltfeeder.

Confirmed. Guiltfeeder is my shit.

[kombatkiwi]

I built a deck with the same general, gameplan is very similar.
A couple of cards I have found to be pretty cool:

-Wall of Blood: Paying life to make your defender bigger normally isn't something worth doing but with Phenax it's gravy. My deck has a few untap effects too so you can make wall of blood like 30/32 then kill someone by untapping it a couple of times.

-Necropolis: Gives all the creatures in your graveyard a weird kind of 0-mana toughness-scavenge (I've been playing a few cards that mill everybody like Dreamborn Muse and Mesmeric Orb so I get creatures in my graveyard pretty easily without having to target myself with Phenax activations or anything like that)

-Morphling: U - untap this, lets you sink mana from swamps into making it have more toughness

-Yixlid Jailer: Disables Eldrazi without exiling stuff so it doesn't shrink your Mortivores or clash with your reanimate spells

-Mind over Matter and Intruder Alarm have a lot of synergy with the deck but they're hella cheesy so I can understand not wanting to play them



I really like this commander, it's super satisfying to kill people by decking them. I guess I understand why it's such a popular casual strategy

[Bed Decks Palyer]

Is Hedron Crab useful?