Table of Contents
Phyrexia: All Will Be One is upon us and with it we are getting a cycle of mythic Horrors. Let’s delve deeper into their functions and see what kind of shells might emerge out of it.
Mondrak, Glory Dominus
Boros Tokens
by Skura
Historic
best of 3
3 mythic
27 rare
14 uncommon
16 common
0
1
2
3
4
5
6+
Creatures (3)
Sorceries (12)
Lands (23)
60 Cards
$308.5
Sideboard
15 Cards
$20.45
Mondrak, Glory Dominus’s use is very apparent – you want to play it in some kind of tokens strategy. They don’t necessarily have to be creatures, but the color White really pushes you into that direction. In Historic, there is a Boros tokens deck floating around that could get a nice boost with Mondrak. Most effects in the deck creature two tokens which now would become four. Mondrak itself is a 4/4 with the potential to become indestructible so it is quite a threat on its own.
Another advantage of Mondark is it;s also a great way to rebuild after a sweeper. On turn six, you can drop Mondrak, play Raise the Alarm, and you are back in the game. There could be some super niche scenarios where you exile your own creatures with Declaration in Stone to get multiple Clue tokens and multiply it by two with Mondrak. This way you ensure that you never run out of gas for the rest of the game.
Two cards that really reward you for going wide are Paladin Class‘s second level and Intangible Virtue. While a board of five-ish tokens might not be that scary, if they all suddenly become 2/2s with vigilance, it’s a different conversation. You See a Pair of Goblins is particularly tricky to play around as it is instant speed as it makes it very tough to block for the opponent as they may get totally blown out; if they are not expecting it, then they might die.
This deck would be an excellent choice in a meta full of removal spells. Nobody wants to have to play Fatal Push or Unholy Heat on a 1/1 token which feels super expendable.
Bant Tokens
by Skura
Standard
best of 3
7 mythic
38 rare
8 uncommon
7 common
0
1
2
3
4
5
6+
Planeswalkers (4)
Creatures (16)
Sorceries (4)
Lands (24)
60 Cards
$589.96
Sideboard
15 Cards
$9.17
In Standard, it is also possible to create a tokens deck. You can get two Samurais off The Wandering Emperor, two Treasures off Gala Greeters, or two attacking Humans off Adeline, Resplendent Cathar. Pairing the tokens with Make Disappear gives you even more value as casualty 1 is barely a cost when your battlefield is already flooded with stuff.
Thanks to Treasures off Gala Greeters, you can deploy Mondrak on turn four and immediately give it indestructibility.
The big reward for going wide is Brokers Ascendancy that pumps up each creature. What’s key to notice is that the buff is permanent as these are +1/+1 counters, as opposed to ‘until the end of turn’ effects. Multiple Ascendancies stack, so you would be getting double the trigger and hence double the pump. The flipside of Wedding Announcement is another way to provide a buff for your creatures. King Darien XLVIII is both a creature and a pump spell which means it vulnerable to removal but actually itself adds power to the board. Its activated ability is great in longer games where a lot of resources are traded or when you are simply mana flooded. The last ability is game-changing. The fact that you can at any point give all the tokens indestructible makes you trade profitably in combat and are insulated against a potential sweeper.
Adeline, Resplendent Cathar is a sort-of payoff as it does not interact with the tokens, but it itself benefits a lot from having them. Adeline could be attacking for 10+ damage, all while creating another token (possibly two with Mondrak), and getting all of those buffed with Ascendancy later.
Mondrak has got multi-format applications, but they all will be confined to token strategies. Thankfully, most formats have the tools to support such a shell. Don’t be surprised if you see Mondrak floating around in Standard, Explorer, Pioneer, Alchemy, or Historic.
Tekuthal, Inquiry Dominus
Dimir Toxic Control
by Skura
Standard
Control
best of 3
7 mythic
25 rare
12 uncommon
16 common
0
1
2
3
4
5
6+
Planeswalkers (4)
Creatures (10)
Lands (26)
60 Cards
$246.9
Tekuthal is a strong flying threat that for one mana, can get indestructible. All of that already make it quite formidable in its own right. To make it better, the passive works great with, predictably, cards that proliferate. Tekuthal, Inquiry Dominus really wants you to play a proliferate deck in Blue as it itself is Blue, so what would the secondary colour be? In my opinion, the color that might pair the best with Blue in this department is Black. Phyrexia brings a true ton of very constructed playable proliferate cards and most of those cards which be fine even if they didn’t have proliferate. Drown in Ichor would be okay-ish on its own, so would Experimental Augury (remember Anticipate?) or
Proliferate, as a mechanic, is in this deck mainly to take up the poison count and kill the opponent in the process. However, there other other non-posion uses such as upping the number of counters on Vraska, allowing it to ultimate as soon as the next turn after you play it. You can also change the number of counters on Blast Zone which the opponents won’t see coming. Nevertheless, the main focus shall be poison.
The idea behind this Dimir Control shell is that you play your control game as intended, dealing the opponent maybe one or two toxic damage, and then getting all the incidental proliferate in which can take up the poison count eventually to 10. I can envision games where you don’t even need to win the game via combat once you have dealt that first toxic damage. With our star in question, Tekuthal, you can get a sort of a combo kill where on one turn you play the Horror, one or two proliferate spells and toxic the opponent out for lethal.
The best way to give your opponent poison is Voidwing Hybrid. Thanks to its evasion, it is very easy to connect at least once with it, from which point, you can get proliferating. However, it does not mean that it won’t connect multiple times or that you haven’t played more copies. If two Hybrids are going at it, the opponent might find themselves in a real pickle as they have to expend resources to deal with those pesky 2/1 flyers that you don’t really care about in the long run. With 16 proliferate spells in the deck, you are sure to quickly uptick that poison count. What’s key to notice is that Hybrid also has a trigger which returns it back to hand when you proliferate – they’re disposable as you can very easily recur it so you can chump block with it freely or the opponent will feel awful using removal on it. I do think this seemingly innocuous uncommon is going to play a huge part in the overall plan.
It’s also worth remembering that with Drown in Ichor and Whisper of the Dross, you have to have a target in order to get the proliferation effect, however what you can do sometimes is target your own threat, just to get the proliferate. When it comes to proliferate in general, always be mindful of other potential interactions such as proliferating -1/-1 counters on opposing creatures.
Out of all the decks out there, this is the one that I want to play drawn-out games with. The fact that just a few toxic hits are a ticking time bomb gives you true inevitability. Your opponents won’t really be able to stop that either as proliferate is on spells – they’d have to counterspell absolutely everything on sight and never let another toxic creature hit them. I could also easily imagine a deck like that also emerging in other formats like Explorer.
Drivnod, Carnage Dominus
Abzan Legends
by Skura
Standard
best of 3
12 mythic
40 rare
6 uncommon
2 common
0
1
2
3
4
5
6+
Creatures (38)
Lands (22)
60 Cards
$329.76
Drivnod, Carnage Dominus is a huge 8-power threat that has an interesting replacement effect – it doubles triggers when creatures die. It is meant to be played in a deck that has a lot of creatures dying and preferably they’d have some meaningful effects. From the most recent sets, there was a cycle of Dragons in Kamigawa that all triggered when they died, and those effects can really affect the game. In Standard, I’d be looking at Ao, the Dawn Sky and Junji, the Midnight Sky.
In order to make a competitive shell, we need not to die before deploying the big threats, so a way we can go about this is to accelerate our plan through ramp. Llanowar Loamspeaker, Reclusive Taxidermist, Gwenna, Eyes of Gaea, and Katilda, Dawnhart Prime all allow you to ramp very easily so that you can play Kamigawa Dragons ahead of schedule. Ao, the Dawn Sky and Junji, the Midnight Sky are huge, beefy, evasive threats that demand an answer on their own as they will end the game fast in the air. However, when that answer comes, you are getting more value off their death triggers. Drivnod comes here all smiling as it can give you twice that many death triggers on those. Junji’s trigger can even recur Drivnod later.
Another new addition, Melira, the Living Cure, can enable plays when you get the death trigger (or even two!) and get the creature right back with Melira’s activated ability.
As you have a ton of top end, you need to ensure that you stay alive somehow. Thalia, Guardian of Thraben is both a way to slow down opposing spells but also just profitably engage in combat thanks to first strike, Llanowar Loamspeaker is a 1/3 so it can block all the 2/x threats all day, and Melira’s stats are in general above rate. There might even be games where you will be the one attacking early with Thalia and Melira, making the opponent have to react to the damage flowing in.
Drivnod will be useful as an 8-power creature in a lot of games, but the passive is what truly distinguishes him. There might be some combo-esque shells under the surface just waiting to take the Horror on board. Carnage shall truly be caused by Drivnod.
Solphim, Mayhem Dominus
Mono Red Aggro
by Skura
Standard
best of 3
10 mythic
14 rare
14 uncommon
22 common
0
1
2
3
4
5
6+
Planeswalkers (4)
Creatures (21)
Enchantments (4)
60 Cards
$145.54
Sideboard
15 Cards
$94.39
You may already be familiar with Solphim, Mayhem Dominus from this news piece. It’s a 5/4 red creature that can be unkillable in a pinch. This itself reminds me of Hazoret the Fervent, but without the limitations on whether it can attack. We can then discover that it has Torbran, Thane of Red Fell-esque passive ability with the restriction that it only applies to noncreatures. While it is a huge difference, it is going to be tough to top Torbran. Without him in the format, currently Solphim might be the best curve-topper for Red right now. The fact that your Lightning Strike would deal 6 damage is game-ending. Furthermore, there are numerous noncombat damage sources which are not direct burn spells. Kumano Faces Kakkazan would deal 2 damage upon entry and Chandra, Dressed to Kill‘s plus would deal 2 as well. While Solphim works great with damage-dealing spells, there is no rule against playing creatures. Threats act as a recurring source of damage so it is best not to leave them out of the equation.
To speak more of Solphim’s ability and utility, when you are going to post-board games there are even more uses that can be found. Abrade and Brotherhood's End would both deal 6 damage with Solphim on the field which might be relevant, especially when it comes to dealing with annoying threats like Sheoldred, the Apocalypse. While you may not want to play End to deal 6 as it would kill Solphim, you can always give it indestructible, thus saving it from dying.
This specific shell is a classic example of Red Deck Wins. Even the ratio reminds me of red decks with 20/20/20 creatures, spells, lands split. We are almost nailing it here as well! This simple recipe might be the golden formula for low-to-the-ground red aggro decks.
Zopandrel, Hunger Dominus
Mono Green Stompy
by Skura
Explorer
best of 3
5 mythic
35 rare
4 uncommon
16 common
0
1
2
3
4
5
6+
Planeswalkers (3)
Creatures (29)
Instants (4)
Sorceries (3)
Lands (21)
60 Cards
$327.06
Sideboard
15 Cards
$51.83
Zopandrel, Hunger Dominus might be the toughest to find home for. Whenever you have decks that have the possibility to ramp up, there are usually better options at this spot on the curve. However, I reckon that a stompy deck with Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx might be the one type of shell that could be happy to play it. In a green stompy strategy, it is going to act as Craterhoof Behemoth, but actually legal in Explorer! It doubles the power and toughness of *each* creature and it does so *each* combat, so it is going to shine on the defensive as well if you don’t have the means to close the game then and there. While it might not be a deal-breaker by any means, as a nice cherry on top it also doubles its own stats.
The opponent cannot kill it before you move to combat either as you can pay four life and use its ability to protect it. However, I think that once it has been played, the game is over anyways. Can you imagine 8/8 an Old-Growth Troll?
End Step
Phyrexia is giving us a lot of new toys. While most will affect Standard, there are some nice gems that can upgrade your Explorer and even Historic decks.
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Skura
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