#Would love some help focusing my Phage list

196 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

lusty tide
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@vital basin here's what I've got:

https://www.moxfield.com/decks/-m657kf4CkGs_eLAkmGweA

Theres a bunch ot cards in considering. In the sideboard you can see things that got cut already.

Whats the plan? Multiple! First I set up stupid mana with Cabal Coffers/Crypt Ghast/Basalt Monolith+Rings of Brighthearth.

Get Phage to hand with Netherborn Altar/Campfire/Command Beacon, oooor make sure I don't die when she ETBs from Command Zone via Plat Angel, Torpor Orb or Sundial.

From this point we have the nuclear option to sac her with Endless Whispers on the board, or get her swinging.

There's also Archfiend + Heartless Act in the same headspace to OTK someone with but it might be too cute.

Moxfield
Phage the Touchable - Commander (Phage the Untouchable)

A deck created using the deck building website, Moxfield.

bitter lance
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So [[master of dark rites]]

spiral patioBOT
bitter lance
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[[Phyrexian altar]]

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bitter lance
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[[Blade of selves]]

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bitter lance
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[[Defiler of flesh]]

spiral patioBOT
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https://scryfall.com/card/dmu/90/defiler-of-flesh

Defiler of Flesh <:mana2:292901509060886528><:manab:292901508872273920><:manab:292901508872273920>

Creature — Phyrexian Horror
Menace
As an additional cost to cast black permanent spells, you may pay 2 life. Those spells cost manab less to cast if you paid life this way. This effect reduces only the amount of black mana you pay.
Whenever you cast a black permanent spell, target creature you control gets +1/+1 and gains menace until end of turn.
4/4

bitter lance
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[[Chrome mox]] [[bog witch]]

spiral patioBOT
bitter lance
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[[Bilbos ring]]

spiral patioBOT
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https://scryfall.com/card/ltr/298/bilbos-ring

Bilbo's Ring <:mana3:292901508771610624>

Legendary Artifact — Equipment
As long as it's your turn, equipped creature has hexproof and can't be blocked.
Whenever equipped creature attacks alone, you draw a card and you lose 1 life.
Equip Halfling mana1 (mana1: Attach to target Halfling you control. Equip only as a sorcery.)
Equip mana4 (mana4: Attach to target creature you control. Equip only as a sorcery.)

bitter lance
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[[The black gate]]

spiral patioBOT
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https://scryfall.com/card/ltc/80/the-black-gate

The Black Gate

Legendary Land — Gate
As The Black Gate enters the battlefield, you may pay 3 life. If you don't, it enters the battlefield tapped.
manat: Add manab.
mana1manab, manat: Choose a player with the most life or tied for most life. Target creature can't be blocked by creatures that player controls this turn.

bitter lance
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[[Whisper silk cloak]]

spiral patioBOT
bitter lance
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[[Temporal extortion]]

spiral patioBOT
bitter lance
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[[Ugin's nexus]]

spiral patioBOT
bitter lance
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Cut:
Abbysal persecutor
Carrion feeder
Avatar of WOE
Dimir house guard
Dusk legion zealot
Muliate
Sheodlreads edict
Expedition map
Sundial of the infinite (what is the meaning of this in this deck???)
Torpor orb(you want to get targeted?? It is a bad filler)

Endless whispers

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One more to add: [[back market]]

spiral patioBOT
bitter lance
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Any questions -> ping me

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(Sry if I sound harsh I am just confused by some things)

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[[Lich's mastery]]

spiral patioBOT
bitter lance
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Here's what I think: Sundial orb bad cause you want to get to like 10-12 mana(actually easy with those cards) tutor your platinum angel get cmd out give hasty boots give unblockability give myriad maybe an extra turn and win the game with one swing

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Torpor orb: causes tooooo much attention

lusty tide
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@bitter lance Wowie that's a lot of feedback :D
Thanks!
Is Persecutor as a backup to not die to Phage ETB too narrow?
I used to run Fateful handoff to help distribute him and Archfiend but it ultimately never had a slot, even Goldfishing.

Some clarifications on the cuts and includes:
Whispersilk Cloak is in already, unless I messed up the link :'D
Phyrexian Altar - Do you think I should run it over Ashnod's Altar? I had both but I cut a bunch of SacOutlets since I don't have many sac Targets
Blade of Selves kills me. The tokens ETB not from hand -> I die.
Temporal, Bog Witch, Master and Defiler are sweet!

Oh and Dimir House Guard is honestly a house, no? He fetches a lot of stuff including key combo piece Endless Whispers.

Sundial is another way to make sure I don't die to Phage ETB if I can't fetch her to hand
Torpor Orb, same thing. If I lose Endless Whispers for the nuke combo, I use Torpor to safely recast. I don't rely much on ETB and that shuts down a lot of other opponent's effects.

Exped Map fetches Cabal Coffers/Urborg, I don't have other land tutors :/
The rest I absolutely see, though I have very few Enchantment and Planeswalker removal / interaction and early plays

bitter lance
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And you want to simply ramp

lusty tide
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I had Lich's Mastery in but it does more harm than good if opponents have boards.

bitter lance
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Yup just showing other ways of don't losing

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And can you explain that combo to me?

lusty tide
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Yep gotcha. I also had stunning reversal on there but a friend convinced me it's too cute

lusty tide
bitter lance
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Oh ok

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So it can stay

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But Torpor orb blocks it😜

lusty tide
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Yep! It does.. it just feels silly to put everything on one card. If Whispers dies, or I can't find it I need other avenues no?
Suppose that's why I'm struggling with putting together a focused list :'D

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And without Orb myriad is insanely risky

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or i'm too much of a coward :D

bitter lance
lusty tide
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btw is there some interaction I'm missing with [[Ugin's Nexus]]?
The suggestion confuses me, how would I sac it?

spiral patioBOT
bitter lance
bitter lance
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[[Phyrexian altar]]

spiral patioBOT
bitter lance
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[(Ashnod altar]]

lusty tide
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creature

bitter lance
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[[Ashnod altar]]

spiral patioBOT
bitter lance
lusty tide
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that explains it, no worries :D

bitter lance
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Though artifacts too

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As for altars I'd run both

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Pretty good sac engine for your combo

lusty tide
bitter lance
bitter lance
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So myriad allows you to take everything down

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With one swing

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Sundial cuts you your combo and/or combat if you don't play it correctly so opponents gain one more turn each to kill you, your cmd, your combo pice

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And if you recast it they gain another and another and another while you do basically nothing

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Your actions with your cmd must be explosive, unexpected etc. So you do the most dmg you can

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Instead u can also put more tutoring/ card draw

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Some goes for map

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Just put more tutoring

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Instead of it

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You can always tutor lands if needed

lusty tide
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Gotcha, I think I agree about Sundial. Not woth the slot to be an "oh shit" button

bitter lance
lusty tide
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Thank you, I got (now even more) a lot of cards to think about then :D

bitter lance
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Hehehe you can always ping mr

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Me'

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Hope I've helped?

lusty tide
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Thanks snapCool

bitter lance
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So I'll be waiting for your later concerns 😜

lusty tide
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After Goldfishing for a while i'm in the same boat as before my last round of swaps: Fragile early game, zero sac targets for my mana generators.
If I go the Sac line with the altars, witch and master, I need sth. like bitterblossom and bowmasters / cheap recursive creatures.
Defiler is definitely an MVP though

bitter lance
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Ok we can work with that

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What's wrong with early game? Why die you lose it?

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Are those creatures?

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Bitterblossom and bowmasters are both good ideas

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So send me your current list

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(Btw what do you guys all have with that "goldfishing"?)

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Also [[asnod flesh]]

spiral patioBOT
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No card found for “asnod flesh”

bitter lance
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[[Ashnod flesh]]

spiral patioBOT
bitter lance
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You are not interested in this sac ability only that it is a 1 drop with deathtouch and can make you 3/3 tokens

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If you like defiler you can also try [[son of yawgmoth]]

spiral patioBOT
lusty tide
bitter lance
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Oh kk

lusty tide
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Goldfish = playing the deck by yourself without an opponent interacting with it

bitter lance
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When you make changes?

lusty tide
# bitter lance It changes automatically?

I think so. Below the list you also find "Considering" where you can see a bunch of cards that I am thinking about, including some of your suggestions.
I know it's a bit chaotic having some cut cards in the sideboard but it helps me keep track.
Since testing i've moved some stuff back around, like Dusk Legion Zealot is back in.

Issues I was having: Lots of dead turns early on.
When drawing altars or Master, they just sit around at least until turn 4 or so.
Later on it really picks up speed and I got Phage swinging by turn 6-8 reliably

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(or comboing with Whisper for that matter)

bitter lance
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Making space for early game:

Filth
Gray merchant
Dusk legion zealot
Defile
Sudden Spoiling
Basalt monolith
Rings of brighthearth
Torpor orb
Dimir house guard
Dread presence

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Not worth I guess

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To add for sure:
[[Bitterblossom]]
[[Orcish bowmasters]]
[[Carrier thrall]]
[[Voracious Vermin]]
[[Synapse necromage]]
[[Pawn of Ulamog]]

spiral patioBOT
lusty tide
bitter lance
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[[Basal thrull]]/[[blood pet]]

spiral patioBOT
bitter lance
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It is all a lot of sac fuel

lusty tide
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for going full ham on sac/aristocrats?

bitter lance
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[[Blood celebrant]]

spiral patioBOT
lusty tide
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at that point i don't think phage goes in anymore haha

bitter lance
bitter lance
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Just to have some altar fuel

lusty tide
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i suppose so yeah

bitter lance
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So you play : carrier thrall for example turn 2, altar turn 3 and you get mana+ body that can be saced for mana

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And if you played blood pet turn 1 you can play kirrik pay 2 life

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(Or smth else) anyways it is turn 3 six-seven Mana (depends on altar)

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Is it good enough?

lusty tide
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Generally yeah, feels a bit rough to cut an infinite mana combo and dread presence so far :P
I'll experiment with the list

bitter lance
bitter lance
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It is too expensive

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Not worth it

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Usually you get one trigger per turn not big in cmd

lusty tide
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[[Basalt Monolith]] + [[Rings of Brighthearth]] + 2 mana = ♾️
tap monolith -> 3 mana floating
use the 3 to untap monolith. pay 2 form other sources to copy untap ability with Rings
resolve first untap, tap basalt -> tap -> resolve second untap
Nets 1 mana and goes infinite from here

spiral patioBOT
bitter lance
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Oh yea ok

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Two pice combo is ok

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Leave it

lusty tide
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it's a neat little finisher with exsanguinate or torment of hailfire

bitter lance
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Yup

vital basin
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Wow! I didn’t check till after work. Much discussion! Gotta catch up 🙂

vital basin
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I know you're not currently built for it... but I always felt a self-mill strategy and then using Aphetto Dredging (which, flavor wise has Phage in the art) to bring her to hand is a good strat. Also Songs of the Damned is easily the best ritual for casting Phage if you have a yard full of creatures from milling using Altar of the Dementia

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Basically Phage as "secret" commander, instead of in the command zone.

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But with your current build [[Emergency Weld]] may be a good support piece, flexibly bring back an artifact someone nuked (since Phage is going to be very telegraphed) or bring back Phage after she's nuked..

spiral patioBOT
lusty tide
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with the amount of suggestions above, the linked list is a bit chaotic, but I think the idea is clear still :D

bitter lance
lusty tide
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I appreciate the enthusiasm

bitter lance
lusty tide
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If you end up making one from scratch i'll gladly take a look at it, but don't do it for my sake.
I was looking for suggestions not full rebuild and I got plenty of those :D

lusty tide
lusty tide
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So all it does is potentially nuke myself more :D

bitter lance
lusty tide
# bitter lance Oh yea forgot bout that

Another thing to keep in mind if you try to work it out is that [[Master of Dark Rites]] only gives mana for certain creature types - after your suggested cuts not many demons or Vamps would be left XD
I removed it for now but could work in a very different list

spiral patioBOT
bitter lance
lusty tide
vital basin
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[[Demonlord Belzenlok]]

spiral patioBOT
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https://scryfall.com/card/cmm/151/demonlord-belzenlok

Demonlord Belzenlok <:mana4:292901508712890379><:manab:292901508872273920><:manab:292901508872273920>

Legendary Creature — Elder Demon
Flying, trample
When Demonlord Belzenlok enters the battlefield, exile cards from the top of your library until you exile a nonland card, then put that card into your hand. If the card's mana value is 4 or greater, repeat this process. Demonlord Belzenlok deals 1 damage to you for each card put into your hand this way.
6/6

lusty tide
vital basin
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Yeah you’d have to do some top deck shenanigans but it could be fun to try.

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The big problem with Phage is her CMC…

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Hmm… similar to Belzenlok you could do…. [[Razaketh, the Foulblooded]] with lots of low cmc weenies and your core Phage suite. You’d just hold your ground in the early game with a solid board of weenies, swing freely and block freely. Do some pillow fort stuff, then drop Razaketh, sac as many creatures as you need for your Phage suite and rituals to cast her.

spiral patioBOT
vital basin
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I just think instead of using card slots on Tutors, if you put a tutor in the command zone you can use those slots for more protection and ramp.

lusty tide
lusty tide
# vital basin The big problem with Phage is her CMC…

kinda yeah. If i'm on bad draws, i think there's little to do but die slowly.
If I get to the point where I can cast her though, I had basically silly amounts of mana already. Like [[Crypt Ghast]] [[Cabal Coffers]] [[Nirkana Revenant]] [[K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth]] just goes absolutely silly

spiral patioBOT
bitter lance
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[[Helm of the host]]

spiral patioBOT
lusty tide
lusty tide
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@bitter lance I played her a bit (modified from the linked list to play more paper and less proxy) the other day with two friends, and she's going pretty well. Scored second place twice, once died to a massive [[Wilson]] due to a misplay on my end, and once stomped over a [[Vizzini, Inconceivable Master]] but ended up drawing 4 swamps when I had the [[Niv-Mizzet Reborn]] player on 1 hp. Got him down there twice but then he stabilized.
Will end up moving back in a few instant speed removal spells, as I was barely interacting outside of my turn.
We got the deck to a really fun spot so thanks for the help!

spiral patioBOT
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No card found for “Vizzini, Inconceivable Master”

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https://scryfall.com/card/war/208/niv-mizzet-reborn

Niv-Mizzet Reborn <:manaw:1007102126813610074><:manau:292901508754702338><:manab:292901508872273920><:manar:292901508796645397><:manag:292901508654301185>

Legendary Creature — Dragon Avatar
Flying
When Niv-Mizzet Reborn enters the battlefield, reveal the top ten cards of your library. For each color pair, choose a card that's exactly those colors from among them. Put the chosen cards into your hand and the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order.
6/6

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Multiple cards match “Baral”, can you be more specific?

lusty tide
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[[Baral, Chief]] aka Vizzini

spiral patioBOT
bitter lance
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I had to look up vizini and ☠️wth is that thing?(for context calmly speaking I am not a fan of secret lair)

drifting sundial
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I see that this thread has received alot of love. Is the deck mostly there now?

lusty tide
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It's aaalmost the same paper to moxfield, minus some stuff i just didn't order since opening the thread.
- mox, bitterblossom, phyrex altar, defiler,
+mimic vat, gray merchant, massacre girl, Avatar of Woe

also mox is 50 bucks lmao. prioritizing the cards i have over going for super silly efficient mana rocks

drifting sundial
drifting sundial
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torpor orb—great inclusion

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stops so many combos