If you're planning to poison and proliferate your way through your Mirrodin Besieged prerelease events with the forces of Phyrexia this weekend, it's good thing to take a quick inventory of what tools you'll want to have at your disposal and which commons and uncommons stand out to back up your ichorous ideology. Let's take a look.
You're stuck with those three 80%-20% Scars of Mirrodin packs to go along with your Phyrexian faction packs, but don't despair - There's plenty of removal and other staple goods within the preferred Phyrexian colors for you to work with in those packs. Be on the lookout for stuff that shines regardless of affiliation, like Perilous Myr and Arrest, various Trigons, Contagion Clasp, etc. Thrummingbird and some of the other pieces that might have felt a little disjointed in Scars of Mirrodin now have a chance to shine.
Now let's look over some of Phyrexia's finest:
Tine Shrike, Priests of Norn, and Choking Fumes are all perfectly permissible white additions to your sealed deck. Tine Shrike may be a little expensive and vulnerable, but two points of infect in the air is devastating. Priests of Norn provide much needed early ground defense from Mirran forces, and Choking Fumes will absolutely ruin that Mirran player's battle cried assault (and likely win games outright!).
Corrupted Conscience, our infectious Mind Control, is just ridiculous. Imagine slapping this on a Hoard-Smelter Dragon or any other bomb. You'll be able to run both Corrupted Conscience and Volition Reins and have a field day stealing your opponents best stuff and massacring him or her with it. Maybe steal a little battle cry for your infect creatures to attack with!
Don't underestimate Vivisection - Trading in a Myr Sire or token creature is really good for three cards.
Flesh-Eater Imp is an evasive terror and can scale to a murdering blow at any point you feel you're ready to pull the trigger. On the ground, Phyrexian Juggernaut can end the game very fast if not answered.
Septic Rats can be 3/3 infect for just three mana. Scourge Servant may cost a significant amount more, but still provides a much larger infectious body than Mirrans are used to dealing with from Scars of Mirrodin.
Possibly the best of the common slot infect creatures is the Blightwidow. Multiple copies of these Giant Spiders gone wrong set you up for a great Phyrexian run, as they can handle a wide variety of Mirran threats and slowly digest the bigger ones.
Viridian Corrupter and Core Prowler are both amazing infect options as well. In fact, most of the infect cards in Mirrodin Besieged are top notch, with the notable exception being Flensermite - avoid giving it the deckspace if possible.
Spread the Sickness is an obvious removal must play, and don't make the mistake of passing up your Virulent Wounds. They'll kill any of the smiths and many other great 1 toughness targets at instant speed and also zap the opponent for a point of poison, it's a fantastic common.
Pistus Strike is a lifesaver, it's along the same vein as Plummet from M11. You'll find a target and get a free point of poison out of the deal.
One of the best features of going Phyrexian at the Mirrodin Besieged is that you'll have access to living weapon - all of them. Mirrans can't even hope to achieve the efficiency of this equipment, and Limited is where these geared-to-go offerings are ready to cause some germ warfare.
Don't miss the Mirrodin Besieged prerelease on January 29-30. All will be one.
Check out the latest Magic: The Gathering news, spoilers, and strategy!
Get the best news and spiciest editorials on Magic: The Gathering - Subscribe to get updates and follow the action on Twitter! You can also follow updates on Facebook!
Comments