There's a cycle of allied color creatures, Valley Rannet and friends, who can landcycle for each of their colors. It's not *strictly* ramping, but they are cards Niv can catch that you can turn into duals or shocks in hand.
I also agree with lowering your average cmc. I just put my own version of this together, and I tried to keep things cmc 4 or less for the most part (powerhouses like Aurelia we're not excluded for cmc). It works fairly well for a first draft, but if I weren't playing two or more cards a turn I'd be discarding too much stuff.
OG Omnath is my oldest deck still running, so I will offer my opinions on your specific questions at least.
First, ramp style. In my experience lands > creatures for Omnath. Most metas aren't filled with mass LD, but board wipes are everywhere. You can also tutor for them in bulk and its fairly easy to get more than one mana out of them.
Memorial vs Chieftan is harder. I run both, but if I had to pick just one I'd run the Chieftan. Much easier to tutor and recur a creature.
Asceticism vs Archetype is another hard one. Again I run both. And despite my above statement about Chieftan, here I'd pick Asceticism. This type because, in my experience, enchantments are the least destroyed permanenet type. People usually pack very little targeted removal and sweepers that catch enchantments are even less common. As always, YMMV.
Queen/Spider/Hydra - Once again I run them all (what I notably don't run out of your deck are the *terrifying* creatures like Blightsteel, Vorinclex, and Eldrazi. I'm hardly saying you are wrong, I've just specifically tuned mine down for my LGS. Just wanted to explain where all my card slots are coming from). Queen and Spider are the best air defences green can get. I'd likely take Spider over Queen, since a repeatable sweeper (that you are almost immune to without Memorial out) is a rare find.
The Hydra is great, imo. I might actually run every card I can that lets me search for any land, since the best lands are even better in this deck. The fact that he gets huge is just gravy.
Heroic Intervention is a must have. I also like Wrap in Vigor. Its not as good, but there are only so many outs green has.
Then the tutors. I prefer to draw a lot in this style of deck rather than run a bunch of tutors. Partly as a preference to variety, and partly because I run the extra land drop cards and want to have more lands to play. You've got the good burst draw spells, but I also like a little steady draw. I run Mind's Eye (amazing with Omnath) and Lifecrafter's Beastiary. Good eye for getting Mirri's Guile, that card is so underused.
Last comment is about your lands. You definitely don't want too many colorless lands, so they have to be great. With only one landfall dude, I think the fetches are unnecessary. The LD lands you have are too meta dependant for me to judge. I do recommend looking into Deserted Temple and Rogue's Passage.
One last thing. If you find yourself generally going more tall than wide, Pathbreaker Ibex could be much stronger than Craterhoof.
I run Reliquary Monk in my list, and I've had good success with him. YMMV, but in my meta I have yet to find, and feel I am unlikely to do so, a situation where I didn't have one or two (with Teysa) targets that weren't mine. They aren't always super impactful to remove, but I'd rather blow up an enemy signet than my own Grave Pact.
Greetings. I'm also working on a Teysa deck, and while I haven't read everything above, I did skim for comments on mana/ramp. Since you like to run as much land-based ramp as possible (something I agree with in any deck that allows it), I wanted to suggest some cards that I didn't notice being mentioned. Tithe and Land Tax have been staples of white ramp for years. Tithe will even find typed duals for you. I'm very much looking forward to testing out the new Smothering Tithe, which I know is going to work well for me in my meta. And while you did correctly point out that Teysa will not double the effects of any of the altars, there is a ramp-y card that she *will* contribute to: Black Market.
One other comment I'd like to make. I did catch somewhere that you mentioned Blood Artist and his ilk may be cut because their effect is minor (if you subsequently changed that opinion, I apologize). I would like to point out that with Teysa on the field, that whole crew, except Blood Artist himself actually, behave like an Orzhov Purphoros, God of the Forge, a card that everyone recognizes as a threat. And if you wanted to add in some Extort cards you could work in a whole "slow bleed" style of play. But that, of course, is all up to your play style.
As a proud Orzhov supporter since the original Ravnica block, I'm thrilled to see such an awesome legend be printed for them, and am glad I'm not the only one excited to put her at the helm of a deck.
Is there a synergy I'm missing with the artifact lands? I don't see Trinket Mage or Tezzeret the Seeker, which are the usual synergies for the artifact lands outside of dedicated artifact decks. If you just like them, then more power to you, I just fear randomly losing my lands to an artifact wipe if I'm not getting some real payoff for running them.
Hey guys. I've been thinking about building a version of this deck, and this thread has been super helpful, being so chock full of suggestions and theory crafting. I don't have a decklist finalized yet, but I will share it with the group when I get that far. One thing I will throw out up front is that I plan on running a much less consistent, combo-centric version, as the meta at my LGS leans much heavier into the casual side of things, as easily half of the players have gotten into the game since Theros (and some much more recently than that). Basically I'll go heavier on the tribal synergies and rely much more on bulk card draw than tutors. When the grizzled old timers want a crazy matchup, I bust out either Mizzix or Sisay
Anyway, the reason I'm chiming in before I've got a list together is to ask for actual thoughts on Impact Tremors and Purphoros, God of the Forge. It's likely a meta thing, but a lot of the people I play with are big fans of Cyclonic Rift and Aetherspouts to keep themselves alive once they are declared the attack target, or Fog effects to do the same. I'm thinking that Tremors and Purphoros give me some game in those regards, especially since Aetherspouts and Fog *have* to let me attack, which is of course when the triggers start rolling in. Thoughts?
I run a non-combo Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker deck, and it's honestly one of my favorites. Since I don't run any combos, the deck wins by just generating an avalanche of value off of etb triggers and death/ltb triggers. All the fun toys to increase the impact of etbs are in there, of course. I like that without any tutors and with what little card draw I can squeeze out, every game plays out very differently. Most of the players at my shop don't have top-tier decks, so playing something like this just makes it more fun for everybody involved.
Greetings! I've been thinking about building a Grenzo list for a while, as he's pretty spicy in my Alesha, Who Smiles at Death list. It was certainly worth reading the opinions of someone who's already put so much thought into it. My comments/questions are:
You state that you're only running Ravenous Baboons because you don't want to drop the cash on Goblin Settler, a position I totally understand. I assume the desire for the Settler is his Goblin synergy, but if it's the power upgrade you covet, have you considered Avalanche Riders? He's got the same mana cost and etb, but he's kind enough to sac himself in case you're missing an outlet. He's also got haste, but from your description of how you play the deck, I doubt that's relevant. On a personal note, I actually run the Baboons in Alesha specifically because they're not as strong as the Rider. Lots of the players at my LGS are at a medium level, or lower, of play experience and I don't want them to even fear that I'm coming for all their lands. They do accept that there are some lands powerful enough to warrant destruction though, so I find the Baboons a happy middle ground.
Is there a reason you run Myr Retriever over Junk Diver? Since your strategy makes the 1 extra mana cost moot, isn't a flying chump blocker just better?
And my final comment is actually a rules correction for you regarding Corpse Connoisseur. You state that "you can also sac him and Unearth him as many times as you can pay in the turn", but this is incorrect. If you use his Unearth ability, he will indeed exile himself at eot, but the rules for Unearth also include "If it would leave the battlefield, exile it instead of putting it anywhere else." This clause exists specifically to thwart these types of shennanigans. The only way around that text is to either counter the delayed trigger (with something like Stifle), flicker it (with something like Conjurer's Closet), phase it out (with something like Teferi's Veil), or end the turn and clear the stack (with something like Sundial of the Infinite). When I built my Sedris, the Traitor King deck I made sure to master the rules of Unearth, as well as how to break them. It's an easy enough detail to gloss over, especially for just one card in your deck. Any normal graveyard looping engine works the same as for any other creature, you've just got to keep Unearth out of it.
But please don't think the above rules lawyering in any way detracts from my appreciation of the deck you've built. It's a masterpiece, and is a great write up for anyone who's interested in giving the slot machine a pull!
Thank you for your kind words. As I said, trawling through all those old cards was more fun than I'd anticipated. I'm *constantly* building Commander decks, but it's been a long time since I've browsed the old cards through a lens that is both so focused yet so expansive.
You are right that, as it stands, your curve is high. You're also a bit light on ramp. I've had great success following the basic recipe that I got from the Command Zone podcast, which is as follows:
8-10 ramp and/or color fixing cards
5-7 card draw and/or card selection cards
5-7 targeted removal cards
3-5 board wipes/sweepers
Fill the rest with the cards relevant to your mechanical or flavor goals.
In a four color deck, I would definitely start with 10 ramp/fixing cards. You can always cut one or two later if it turns out to be too much. Shocklands and fetchlands are obviously the gold standard when it comes to fixing, but I'm sure you already knew that, so I won't bother mentioning it beyond this point. With the rare exception of lands that actually ramp (like Krosan Verge) or fix colors for more than one land (like Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth) I don't usually count lands in this category. Looking at your current list, I would classify the following cards as at least nominally in this category:
Of these, most of the cards have actually already been mentioned earlier for at least flavor concerns, and those comments, as well as the substitutions I suggested, still stand. Altar of Shadows is indeed a powerful card, but asks quite the mana investment to get rolling. If you want to run it as a repeatable source of removal, go right ahead, but I would classify it's mana as a bonus rather than a core ramp effect. Even with the synergy it gets from proliferate, you're still investing a whopping 14 mana to get that first charge counter! I'll also take a moment to expound upon my earlier comments regarding Evil Presence. It can certainly work as soft land hate (as opposed to hard hate, like destroying), and there's no shortage of powerful lands in Commander. It can also act as redundancy for Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth if you do wind up running Sheoldred, Whispering One or, better yet for your strategy, Filth. So I don't think it's a terrible card here, but I wouldn't consider it color fixing for your own needs.
With all that said, as well as factoring in earlier suggested swaps, we wind up with a ramp/fixing package containing:
That's only five cards, and as I said regarding four color decks, I'd definitely start with 10 and go from there. We do run into the issue of Phyrexia having very little to offer this category, so we'll shoot for flavor neutral cards to fill out the list. To fill out the list, I'd suggest the following:
Sol Ring (this card is in almost every deck for a reason) Chromatic Lantern (this card should pretty much be an auto-include for any deck with 3+ colors) Cultivate (*very* popular in green decks, and a strong friend to a land base full of basics) Explosive Vegetation (for one more colorless mana, we get a slightly more powerful card) Sylvan Scrying (finds Urborg, and any other utility lands you wind up running)
Now, if you are willing to stretch into non-Phyrexian, non-neutral flavor cards (but still not Mirran, never Mirran) then I would run Kodama's Reach instead of Explosive Vegetation. Yes, it's a functional reprint of Cultivate, but sometimes getting your ramp cast at 3 mana versus 4 can make a big difference. And while not *specifically* flavored for Zendikar (though it's pretty close) Expedition Map could replace Sylvan Scrying if you wanted the same effect with no color requirements.
Finally, I'd be remiss to not discuss Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger. He's 110% on flavor, and he's *super* powerful. I didn't include him in the list of 10 because of his price tag and your previous comment about not being sure you wanted to run the other Praetors. But if there's just one more Praetor you'd consider running, I'd make it him. He actually gives you the Caged Sun effect for your four color deck, and basically halving your opponent's mana can be backbreaking. He does draw a lot of hate, but it's hardly undeserved. If you do decide to run him, I wouldn't take out one of the other ramp cards for him. At 8 mana he's not really going to help you "get there", he's much more of a closer.
I'll end my ramp discussion here and give you some more time to mull things over. I'd strongly recommend this be the category of cards you sort out first, since it doesn't matter how awesome the rest of your deck is if you never have the mana to play those cards
Lumovanis, good catch on the sword. I wasn't thinking about their watermarks, and that one in particular out of the cycle just doesn't *feel* very Mirran. Also, Phyrexian Scriptures was basically going to be first on my list of general suggestions, once we'd gotten the deck's theme and goals established. And yes, it does work quite well with Hex Parasite.
Kingtuf, yes, I am quite passionate about the lore of this game. I started playing way back in 1994, and the story behind the game has always captured my attention at least as much as the cards themselves, sometimes more. I always thought the Phyrexians were highly intriguing, and their evolution on New Phyrexia has been even more so. Anyway, on to some cards (as a note, any time I am talking about a card's art, I am referring to the art of the card's first printing, unless otherwise noted)!
Ezuri, Claw of Progress, seems like a pretty solid inclusion. Your current list has 11 creatures that would trigger his experience gain, which isn't a ton, but every point of power you can add to an infect creature is worth it. Also, his synergy with proliferate is amazing. Not only can you ratchet up the creatures he's already given counters to, but you can also proliferate the experience counters themselves, since *you* have those counters. Also, as a Mirran hero who has been blessed with compleation, he's quite the flavor win.
Since we're reaching into every nook and cranny of Phyrexian involvement, Volrath's Stronghold can come to the party, as the one-time seat of power on Rath. It's quite the solid piece of recursion. This structure was brought to Dominaria during the planar overlay stage of the Invasion, and later became the base of operations for the Cabal, as seen in the brand new Cabal Stronghold. While Cabal Stronghold isn't recommended for a four-color deck, the card that its a "fixed" version of, Cabal Coffers, would be another great piece of synergy with Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth. I can't recall if the novels ever specifically stated that the Coffers were in the Stronghold, but where else would they be? A word of advice though: while Coffers is insanely powerful with Urborg, it won't be stellar in this deck without it. So unless you are going to include a few ways to search out any land, it might be better to pass on this one.
Ritual of the Machine is a cool old card, and no one ever sees this effect coming from black. It's similar to the already called out Gate to Phyrexia in that regard, though since you have access to green you can easily remove artifacts. Running Gate would be a very Vorthos decision, though. Anyway, Ritual of the Machine references the cultists in the city of Soldev, which was the home to one Arcum Dagsson during the final days of the Ice Age. He had dug up and rebuilt or repurposed a number of things from the time of the Brother's War, but he was completely ignorant to the fact that Mishra's side of that war was guided by the Phyrexians. Thus, as is the way with any place Phyrexia finds a foothold, a certain section of the populace fell into unsavory practices.
Sleeper's Robe can give some much needed evasion to your little infect guys, though it does of course have the standard potential for card disadvantage when someone kills your aura-wearing creature. The card is referencing the Sleeper Agents, which Phyrexia always sent as the first wave when invading a new plane. Sleeper's Guile plays in the same space as Sleeper's Robe, though you'd trade card draw for the aura recurring itself. Guile would likely be preferable in a format as riddled with removal and board wipes as EDH is.
Phyrexian Rager is the little brother to the aforementioned Phyrexian Gargantua, and has all the same benefits as were mentioned there. Abyssal Horror and Cackling Fiend are sort of the inverse of the Gargantua and the Rager, though they're really only useful if you've got a direct-to-battlefield reanimation engine running. Otherwise they're rather expensive for what they do.
Stronghold Assassin and Attrition are pretty much the same card, just that one is a creature, and therefor easier to recover from the graveyard, and the other is an enchantment, which does have the benefit of multiple uses in one turn. In my opinion Attrition is clearly stronger, though the Assassin is superior flavor. Not only can you tell he's Phyrexian just by looking at him, but Attrition actually depicts one of our own being stuffed into a fire by some stinking, dirty elves. Rathi Assassin is Stronghold Assassin's dramatically weaker cousin, and Tsabo's Assassin is the math nerd of the family. Eastern Paladin and Western Paladin are likely too niche unless your meta is heavily color-skewed, but they are pretty bad ass depictions of Phyrexian knights.
In the line of instant/sorcery removal, Befoul can also hit a land, and the art depicts the corrupting influence of Phyrexia on Serra's Realm. Phyrexia never actually invaded that loathsome white mana paradise, but when Urza fled there after his failed attempt at a solo raid on our home plane, the taint he carried away with him was too much for those pansies to handle. As always, the smallest drop of Oil is all it takes. Eradicate is an exile removal spell, but you won't get to use its full text box outside of weird corner cases with token copies of creatures, unless someone has animated a basic land. And yes, that works, I was actually doing that in standard all those years ago. (By this point I'm sure you've noticed, if you weren't already aware, that the majority of black's removal back in the day had that annoying "nonblack, nonartifact" clause to it. It was a flavor choice for the Alpha card Terror that meddled in black's affairs *WAY* longer than it should have.) Vile Requiem could have some interesting interplay with proliferate, and the art is almost certainly representative of the organ in Elesh Norn's church. Annihilate is not spectacular, but it is on-flavor removal at instant speed.
Beast Within, on the other hand, is an on-flavor format staple because it can hit any permanent at instant speed. You should absolutely be running this card.
Lobotomy and Praetor's Grasp can both function as preemptive removal, particularly useful if there are combo decks in your meta. For EDH, Grasp is the better card since you'll never hit the multiple copies that Lobotomy grabs and, assuming you aren't using it as a combo buster, you can just plain steal a card from an opponent's deck for your own devious purposes. If you are using it to block a combo though, you're better off never playing the card unless it will allow you to win the game, because then you're just giving your opponent the chance to get their combo piece back. If you do decide to use Lobotomy, this is a case where both printings have on-flavor art. The Tempest printing is clearly some poor bastard hooked up to a Phyrexian torture device that you just know Jin-Gitaxias has a version of, and the Invasion printing depicts Tsabo Tavoc, the front-line general for Phyrexia during the Invasion.
Order of Yawgmoth comes with evasion as well as makes your opponent discard when it connects. This is a prime candidate for Grafted Exoskeleton, and a fantastic piece of art.
There are a number of reanimation spells from some old sets where, by and large, black cards were connected to Phyrexia. Reanimate is a staple for reanimator decks, Unearth is good if your creatures skew towards little guys, Exhume is cheap but you have to be mindful of what your opponent's have access to, and Victimize is just a ton of value. From a flavor perspective, I'd rank the "Phyrexian-ness" of the art in the following order, from least to most: Reanimate (hooks and chains are hardly exclusive to Phyrexia), Unearth (the style of the claws on the hand suggest, at least to me, that this is some kind of compleated creature rising from a grave), Exhume (no lore-wise person could mistake who's taking action in that image), and Victimize (this literally depicts Xantcha, a known Sleeper Agent, being cast down by other Phyrexians, which is the only reason I have to give it the edge over Exhume. That said, I personally think the art of Exhume *feels* much more Phyrexian). As I was proofreading this before posting, I remembered that the Masters 25 printing of Unearth has actually upset this order by moving into the most flavorful position. This new art depicts a Phyrexian Negator climbing out of a crack in the ground, which I have to assume is one of the fissures on Tolaria that the Phyrexians were occupying during the events of Urza's Legacy. That would put this art, chronologically, just before (or, I suppose, during) the art for No Mercy.
Diabolic Servitude is in the other class of reanimation "spells", auras. They don't make cards like this, Animate Dead, or Necromancy any more because while they are easy enough for a player to understand, the wall of rules text required to make it technically function is daunting. Just look at the Eternal Masters printing of Animate Dead if you haven't seen it yet. Anyway, this is another card with clear, strong Phyrexian elements in the art, and also has the built-in recursion that Sleeper's Guile does (it was something they played with in the block to overcome the inherent card disadvantage of auras, with Rancor being by far the most famous of them).
Yawgmoth's Will is not only one of the best graveyard recovery spells every printed, but you don't get much more Phyrexian than the name of this card.
Given what you said about loving Phyrexian angels, I wanted to list the others I'm aware of. I don't know that any of them are really a good fit for the deck, but I thought you'd want to know about Crypt Angel, Selenia, Dark Angel, and Desolation Angel. Desolation Angel *is* Selenia, she just got an armor upgrade for the Invasion. My inclusion of Crypt Angel in the list is based on inference rather than obvious art. The flavor text is a strong clue, and blue and red were the only colors Phyrexia dabbled in before their glorious rebirth.
Entropic Specter is more interesting in multiplayer EDH games than it ever was in Standard. You'll want to choose the opponent who's always got a full grip (read: the blue player) as the one giving it power, and then you can make your other opponents discard when you hit them.
Ertai, the Corrupted is another example of a hero turned Phyrexian disciple, and he also acts as a bit of defense against game-ending, or at least game-warping, spells.
This seems like a good place to stop for now, as these are the cards I felt worth mentioning that are pre-Modern. I'm sorry if this post is a lot longer than anything you were expecting, but once I started down memory lane I found it quite difficult to stop. I acknowledge that only a few of these suggestions really play into the mechanical themes of your deck, but I'll try to make that more of a focus when I get to trawling through Modern-legal cards. To be frank, though, mechanical themes just weren't as tight back in the day. It might be until the start of next week until I have the time to get back to this, just letting you know so that you don't think I've walked away. The nostalgia this is drumming up is even more fun than I was expecting!
I'll have to get my Marchesa list up on TappedOut, then I can easily share it.
One of the nice points about digging into Phyrexia's past is that the Oil never forgets. It basically has perfect genetic memory. After all, there were only a few drops present when Karn first created Mirrodin, and look how far we've come
So, before I just go rattling off objectively interesting cards that tie to Phyrexia in some way, I'm curious as to your primary objective for the deck. There's certainly a fair bit of infect in your deck, so I'm guessing that's your ideal route to victory. With that in mind, I'm curious about the presence of a few cards (and don't shy away from "I just love <thing x> about the card" as a reason for including it):
Shattered Angel: Is the intent to offset the life payments for Phyrexian Delver, Reclamation, and Lens? If so, I can see the value in that, though perhaps just making Atraxa stronger, given her lifelink, would be more in tune with your moderately aggressive goal.
Tanglewalker: This card seems quite niche, unless your meta is chock full of artifact lands.
Evil Presence: Is this here to combat powerful lands in your meta?
Aether Snap: Even if this is powerful in your meta, it will still undo any work you've done putting -1/-1 counters on your opponent's creatures.
Caged Sun: While this is certainly a powerful card, it doesn't exactly shine in a four-color deck. Also, revering the suns is something those pathetic Mirrans do (The original printing carries the Mirran watermark)
Coldsteel Heart: In a four-color deck, you really want your mana rocks to provide multiple colors. Also, why invest in cheap Dominarian metal when some locally sourced Darksteel costs just a little more? Read: Darksteel Ingot
Sphere of the Suns: While it's decent fixing for the deck, it reeks of the same Mirran weakness as Caged Sun. (Again, the original card bears the Mirran watermark) A roughly equivalent card would be Pentad Prism. It provides one less mana overall, but it can deliver two at once, which can be a boon to playing Atraxa.
So, those are the cards I'm questioning in your current list. I'm also wondering where the other Praetors are. I admit that Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur can be tough to manage in a deck not prepared for massive grips of cards, but Sheoldred, Whispering One and Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger are just pure value. Sheoldred even becomes unblockable with Urborg or Evil Presence.
Speaking of Urborg synergy, and also as a means to power up Atraxa and the little infect guys, you could look into Lashwrithe and/or Nightmare Lash. If you do want to lean on Urborg a little harder, don't forget that Sylvan Scrying was originally printed in Mirrodin. Along the same vein of empowering Atraxa, you could consider Grafted Exoskeleton to give her permanent infect rather than a one shot deal.
I'll wait for your response before pressing forward. One other thing that would be useful to know is your budget for suggestions. I don't want to rattle off a bunch of expensive old cards if they're just out of the question.
First, I'd like to commend you on applying the ways of Vorthos to a commander deck. It reminds me of my Marchesa, the Black Rose deck where every creature is either a Rogue or Assassin. Far from optimized, but that's not even close to the point. In other words, I'm quite happy to help you get the deck to be as good as possible without disrupting that sweet, sweet flavor.
However, before I start digging for cards to suggest, I need to know the scope of the viable cards. From your linked list, it seems that cards from either Mirrodin block or cards that directly say "Phyrexian" in their name are on the table, as they should be. But how far are you willing to reach? What about cards that feature Phyrexians in the art, such as No Mercy (well, the original art, I can't remember how to force which image these links display...)? To go another step deeper, what about cards set on the plane of Rath, which was artificially created by Yawgmoth to be a staging ground for the Invasion? I always think bigger pools are better when trying to build to flavor, but it's obviously your call. Once I know the parameters, I'll dig around and see what's worth suggesting.
I believe the partners were suggested mostly as another way to get Jeskai in the command zone. Kraum would at least draw you some cards, which helps your plan more than anything Ruhan does. Also, Ruhan could make unintentional enemies out of someone, which doesn't help when trying to assemble a combo.
My first thought is you need a few more lands. In a non-green tri-color deck, you probably want 37-38 to help with having good starting hands. I'm sure Sacred Foundry is on your want list, and I'd also suggest at least Tithe and Gift of Estates as ways to search up your dual lands. Fetches also help, but that's hardly breaking news
I also agree with lowering your average cmc. I just put my own version of this together, and I tried to keep things cmc 4 or less for the most part (powerhouses like Aurelia we're not excluded for cmc). It works fairly well for a first draft, but if I weren't playing two or more cards a turn I'd be discarding too much stuff.
First, ramp style. In my experience lands > creatures for Omnath. Most metas aren't filled with mass LD, but board wipes are everywhere. You can also tutor for them in bulk and its fairly easy to get more than one mana out of them.
Memorial vs Chieftan is harder. I run both, but if I had to pick just one I'd run the Chieftan. Much easier to tutor and recur a creature.
Asceticism vs Archetype is another hard one. Again I run both. And despite my above statement about Chieftan, here I'd pick Asceticism. This type because, in my experience, enchantments are the least destroyed permanenet type. People usually pack very little targeted removal and sweepers that catch enchantments are even less common. As always, YMMV.
Queen/Spider/Hydra - Once again I run them all (what I notably don't run out of your deck are the *terrifying* creatures like Blightsteel, Vorinclex, and Eldrazi. I'm hardly saying you are wrong, I've just specifically tuned mine down for my LGS. Just wanted to explain where all my card slots are coming from). Queen and Spider are the best air defences green can get. I'd likely take Spider over Queen, since a repeatable sweeper (that you are almost immune to without Memorial out) is a rare find.
The Hydra is great, imo. I might actually run every card I can that lets me search for any land, since the best lands are even better in this deck. The fact that he gets huge is just gravy.
Heroic Intervention is a must have. I also like Wrap in Vigor. Its not as good, but there are only so many outs green has.
Then the tutors. I prefer to draw a lot in this style of deck rather than run a bunch of tutors. Partly as a preference to variety, and partly because I run the extra land drop cards and want to have more lands to play. You've got the good burst draw spells, but I also like a little steady draw. I run Mind's Eye (amazing with Omnath) and Lifecrafter's Beastiary. Good eye for getting Mirri's Guile, that card is so underused.
Last comment is about your lands. You definitely don't want too many colorless lands, so they have to be great. With only one landfall dude, I think the fetches are unnecessary. The LD lands you have are too meta dependant for me to judge. I do recommend looking into Deserted Temple and Rogue's Passage.
One last thing. If you find yourself generally going more tall than wide, Pathbreaker Ibex could be much stronger than Craterhoof.
One other comment I'd like to make. I did catch somewhere that you mentioned Blood Artist and his ilk may be cut because their effect is minor (if you subsequently changed that opinion, I apologize). I would like to point out that with Teysa on the field, that whole crew, except Blood Artist himself actually, behave like an Orzhov Purphoros, God of the Forge, a card that everyone recognizes as a threat. And if you wanted to add in some Extort cards you could work in a whole "slow bleed" style of play. But that, of course, is all up to your play style.
As a proud Orzhov supporter since the original Ravnica block, I'm thrilled to see such an awesome legend be printed for them, and am glad I'm not the only one excited to put her at the helm of a deck.
Anyway, the reason I'm chiming in before I've got a list together is to ask for actual thoughts on Impact Tremors and Purphoros, God of the Forge. It's likely a meta thing, but a lot of the people I play with are big fans of Cyclonic Rift and Aetherspouts to keep themselves alive once they are declared the attack target, or Fog effects to do the same. I'm thinking that Tremors and Purphoros give me some game in those regards, especially since Aetherspouts and Fog *have* to let me attack, which is of course when the triggers start rolling in. Thoughts?
You state that you're only running Ravenous Baboons because you don't want to drop the cash on Goblin Settler, a position I totally understand. I assume the desire for the Settler is his Goblin synergy, but if it's the power upgrade you covet, have you considered Avalanche Riders? He's got the same mana cost and etb, but he's kind enough to sac himself in case you're missing an outlet. He's also got haste, but from your description of how you play the deck, I doubt that's relevant. On a personal note, I actually run the Baboons in Alesha specifically because they're not as strong as the Rider. Lots of the players at my LGS are at a medium level, or lower, of play experience and I don't want them to even fear that I'm coming for all their lands. They do accept that there are some lands powerful enough to warrant destruction though, so I find the Baboons a happy middle ground.
Is there a reason you run Myr Retriever over Junk Diver? Since your strategy makes the 1 extra mana cost moot, isn't a flying chump blocker just better?
And my final comment is actually a rules correction for you regarding Corpse Connoisseur. You state that "you can also sac him and Unearth him as many times as you can pay in the turn", but this is incorrect. If you use his Unearth ability, he will indeed exile himself at eot, but the rules for Unearth also include "If it would leave the battlefield, exile it instead of putting it anywhere else." This clause exists specifically to thwart these types of shennanigans. The only way around that text is to either counter the delayed trigger (with something like Stifle), flicker it (with something like Conjurer's Closet), phase it out (with something like Teferi's Veil), or end the turn and clear the stack (with something like Sundial of the Infinite). When I built my Sedris, the Traitor King deck I made sure to master the rules of Unearth, as well as how to break them. It's an easy enough detail to gloss over, especially for just one card in your deck. Any normal graveyard looping engine works the same as for any other creature, you've just got to keep Unearth out of it.
But please don't think the above rules lawyering in any way detracts from my appreciation of the deck you've built. It's a masterpiece, and is a great write up for anyone who's interested in giving the slot machine a pull!
You are right that, as it stands, your curve is high. You're also a bit light on ramp. I've had great success following the basic recipe that I got from the Command Zone podcast, which is as follows:
8-10 ramp and/or color fixing cards
5-7 card draw and/or card selection cards
5-7 targeted removal cards
3-5 board wipes/sweepers
Fill the rest with the cards relevant to your mechanical or flavor goals.
In a four color deck, I would definitely start with 10 ramp/fixing cards. You can always cut one or two later if it turns out to be too much. Shocklands and fetchlands are obviously the gold standard when it comes to fixing, but I'm sure you already knew that, so I won't bother mentioning it beyond this point. With the rare exception of lands that actually ramp (like Krosan Verge) or fix colors for more than one land (like Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth) I don't usually count lands in this category. Looking at your current list, I would classify the following cards as at least nominally in this category:
Viridian Emissary
Evil Presence
Altar of Shadows
Caged Sun
Coldsteel Heart
Mycosynth Wellspring
Phyrexian Lens
Sphere of the Suns
Sword of Feast and Famine
Of these, most of the cards have actually already been mentioned earlier for at least flavor concerns, and those comments, as well as the substitutions I suggested, still stand. Altar of Shadows is indeed a powerful card, but asks quite the mana investment to get rolling. If you want to run it as a repeatable source of removal, go right ahead, but I would classify it's mana as a bonus rather than a core ramp effect. Even with the synergy it gets from proliferate, you're still investing a whopping 14 mana to get that first charge counter! I'll also take a moment to expound upon my earlier comments regarding Evil Presence. It can certainly work as soft land hate (as opposed to hard hate, like destroying), and there's no shortage of powerful lands in Commander. It can also act as redundancy for Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth if you do wind up running Sheoldred, Whispering One or, better yet for your strategy, Filth. So I don't think it's a terrible card here, but I wouldn't consider it color fixing for your own needs.
With all that said, as well as factoring in earlier suggested swaps, we wind up with a ramp/fixing package containing:
Viridian Emissary (he's on flavor and perfectly functional)
Darksteel Ingot (replacing Coldsteel Heart)
Mycosynth Wellspring (also on flavor and perfectly functional)
Phyrexian Lens (not exactly a top tier card for this category, but very flavorful)
Pentad Prism (replacing Sphere of the Suns, assuming you want an equivalent)
That's only five cards, and as I said regarding four color decks, I'd definitely start with 10 and go from there. We do run into the issue of Phyrexia having very little to offer this category, so we'll shoot for flavor neutral cards to fill out the list. To fill out the list, I'd suggest the following:
Sol Ring (this card is in almost every deck for a reason)
Chromatic Lantern (this card should pretty much be an auto-include for any deck with 3+ colors)
Cultivate (*very* popular in green decks, and a strong friend to a land base full of basics)
Explosive Vegetation (for one more colorless mana, we get a slightly more powerful card)
Sylvan Scrying (finds Urborg, and any other utility lands you wind up running)
Now, if you are willing to stretch into non-Phyrexian, non-neutral flavor cards (but still not Mirran, never Mirran) then I would run Kodama's Reach instead of Explosive Vegetation. Yes, it's a functional reprint of Cultivate, but sometimes getting your ramp cast at 3 mana versus 4 can make a big difference. And while not *specifically* flavored for Zendikar (though it's pretty close) Expedition Map could replace Sylvan Scrying if you wanted the same effect with no color requirements.
Finally, I'd be remiss to not discuss Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger. He's 110% on flavor, and he's *super* powerful. I didn't include him in the list of 10 because of his price tag and your previous comment about not being sure you wanted to run the other Praetors. But if there's just one more Praetor you'd consider running, I'd make it him. He actually gives you the Caged Sun effect for your four color deck, and basically halving your opponent's mana can be backbreaking. He does draw a lot of hate, but it's hardly undeserved. If you do decide to run him, I wouldn't take out one of the other ramp cards for him. At 8 mana he's not really going to help you "get there", he's much more of a closer.
I'll end my ramp discussion here and give you some more time to mull things over. I'd strongly recommend this be the category of cards you sort out first, since it doesn't matter how awesome the rest of your deck is if you never have the mana to play those cards
Kingtuf, yes, I am quite passionate about the lore of this game. I started playing way back in 1994, and the story behind the game has always captured my attention at least as much as the cards themselves, sometimes more. I always thought the Phyrexians were highly intriguing, and their evolution on New Phyrexia has been even more so. Anyway, on to some cards (as a note, any time I am talking about a card's art, I am referring to the art of the card's first printing, unless otherwise noted)!
Ezuri, Claw of Progress, seems like a pretty solid inclusion. Your current list has 11 creatures that would trigger his experience gain, which isn't a ton, but every point of power you can add to an infect creature is worth it. Also, his synergy with proliferate is amazing. Not only can you ratchet up the creatures he's already given counters to, but you can also proliferate the experience counters themselves, since *you* have those counters. Also, as a Mirran hero who has been blessed with compleation, he's quite the flavor win.
Since we're reaching into every nook and cranny of Phyrexian involvement, Volrath's Stronghold can come to the party, as the one-time seat of power on Rath. It's quite the solid piece of recursion. This structure was brought to Dominaria during the planar overlay stage of the Invasion, and later became the base of operations for the Cabal, as seen in the brand new Cabal Stronghold. While Cabal Stronghold isn't recommended for a four-color deck, the card that its a "fixed" version of, Cabal Coffers, would be another great piece of synergy with Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth. I can't recall if the novels ever specifically stated that the Coffers were in the Stronghold, but where else would they be? A word of advice though: while Coffers is insanely powerful with Urborg, it won't be stellar in this deck without it. So unless you are going to include a few ways to search out any land, it might be better to pass on this one.
Ritual of the Machine is a cool old card, and no one ever sees this effect coming from black. It's similar to the already called out Gate to Phyrexia in that regard, though since you have access to green you can easily remove artifacts. Running Gate would be a very Vorthos decision, though. Anyway, Ritual of the Machine references the cultists in the city of Soldev, which was the home to one Arcum Dagsson during the final days of the Ice Age. He had dug up and rebuilt or repurposed a number of things from the time of the Brother's War, but he was completely ignorant to the fact that Mishra's side of that war was guided by the Phyrexians. Thus, as is the way with any place Phyrexia finds a foothold, a certain section of the populace fell into unsavory practices.
Sleeper's Robe can give some much needed evasion to your little infect guys, though it does of course have the standard potential for card disadvantage when someone kills your aura-wearing creature. The card is referencing the Sleeper Agents, which Phyrexia always sent as the first wave when invading a new plane. Sleeper's Guile plays in the same space as Sleeper's Robe, though you'd trade card draw for the aura recurring itself. Guile would likely be preferable in a format as riddled with removal and board wipes as EDH is.
Phyrexian Rager is the little brother to the aforementioned Phyrexian Gargantua, and has all the same benefits as were mentioned there. Abyssal Horror and Cackling Fiend are sort of the inverse of the Gargantua and the Rager, though they're really only useful if you've got a direct-to-battlefield reanimation engine running. Otherwise they're rather expensive for what they do.
Stronghold Assassin and Attrition are pretty much the same card, just that one is a creature, and therefor easier to recover from the graveyard, and the other is an enchantment, which does have the benefit of multiple uses in one turn. In my opinion Attrition is clearly stronger, though the Assassin is superior flavor. Not only can you tell he's Phyrexian just by looking at him, but Attrition actually depicts one of our own being stuffed into a fire by some stinking, dirty elves. Rathi Assassin is Stronghold Assassin's dramatically weaker cousin, and Tsabo's Assassin is the math nerd of the family. Eastern Paladin and Western Paladin are likely too niche unless your meta is heavily color-skewed, but they are pretty bad ass depictions of Phyrexian knights.
In the line of instant/sorcery removal, Befoul can also hit a land, and the art depicts the corrupting influence of Phyrexia on Serra's Realm. Phyrexia never actually invaded that loathsome white mana paradise, but when Urza fled there after his failed attempt at a solo raid on our home plane, the taint he carried away with him was too much for those pansies to handle. As always, the smallest drop of Oil is all it takes. Eradicate is an exile removal spell, but you won't get to use its full text box outside of weird corner cases with token copies of creatures, unless someone has animated a basic land. And yes, that works, I was actually doing that in standard all those years ago. (By this point I'm sure you've noticed, if you weren't already aware, that the majority of black's removal back in the day had that annoying "nonblack, nonartifact" clause to it. It was a flavor choice for the Alpha card Terror that meddled in black's affairs *WAY* longer than it should have.) Vile Requiem could have some interesting interplay with proliferate, and the art is almost certainly representative of the organ in Elesh Norn's church. Annihilate is not spectacular, but it is on-flavor removal at instant speed.
Beast Within, on the other hand, is an on-flavor format staple because it can hit any permanent at instant speed. You should absolutely be running this card.
Lobotomy and Praetor's Grasp can both function as preemptive removal, particularly useful if there are combo decks in your meta. For EDH, Grasp is the better card since you'll never hit the multiple copies that Lobotomy grabs and, assuming you aren't using it as a combo buster, you can just plain steal a card from an opponent's deck for your own devious purposes. If you are using it to block a combo though, you're better off never playing the card unless it will allow you to win the game, because then you're just giving your opponent the chance to get their combo piece back. If you do decide to use Lobotomy, this is a case where both printings have on-flavor art. The Tempest printing is clearly some poor bastard hooked up to a Phyrexian torture device that you just know Jin-Gitaxias has a version of, and the Invasion printing depicts Tsabo Tavoc, the front-line general for Phyrexia during the Invasion.
Order of Yawgmoth comes with evasion as well as makes your opponent discard when it connects. This is a prime candidate for Grafted Exoskeleton, and a fantastic piece of art.
There are a number of reanimation spells from some old sets where, by and large, black cards were connected to Phyrexia. Reanimate is a staple for reanimator decks, Unearth is good if your creatures skew towards little guys, Exhume is cheap but you have to be mindful of what your opponent's have access to, and Victimize is just a ton of value. From a flavor perspective, I'd rank the "Phyrexian-ness" of the art in the following order, from least to most: Reanimate (hooks and chains are hardly exclusive to Phyrexia), Unearth (the style of the claws on the hand suggest, at least to me, that this is some kind of compleated creature rising from a grave), Exhume (no lore-wise person could mistake who's taking action in that image), and Victimize (this literally depicts Xantcha, a known Sleeper Agent, being cast down by other Phyrexians, which is the only reason I have to give it the edge over Exhume. That said, I personally think the art of Exhume *feels* much more Phyrexian). As I was proofreading this before posting, I remembered that the Masters 25 printing of Unearth has actually upset this order by moving into the most flavorful position. This new art depicts a Phyrexian Negator climbing out of a crack in the ground, which I have to assume is one of the fissures on Tolaria that the Phyrexians were occupying during the events of Urza's Legacy. That would put this art, chronologically, just before (or, I suppose, during) the art for No Mercy.
Diabolic Servitude is in the other class of reanimation "spells", auras. They don't make cards like this, Animate Dead, or Necromancy any more because while they are easy enough for a player to understand, the wall of rules text required to make it technically function is daunting. Just look at the Eternal Masters printing of Animate Dead if you haven't seen it yet. Anyway, this is another card with clear, strong Phyrexian elements in the art, and also has the built-in recursion that Sleeper's Guile does (it was something they played with in the block to overcome the inherent card disadvantage of auras, with Rancor being by far the most famous of them).
Yawgmoth's Will is not only one of the best graveyard recovery spells every printed, but you don't get much more Phyrexian than the name of this card.
Given what you said about loving Phyrexian angels, I wanted to list the others I'm aware of. I don't know that any of them are really a good fit for the deck, but I thought you'd want to know about Crypt Angel, Selenia, Dark Angel, and Desolation Angel. Desolation Angel *is* Selenia, she just got an armor upgrade for the Invasion. My inclusion of Crypt Angel in the list is based on inference rather than obvious art. The flavor text is a strong clue, and blue and red were the only colors Phyrexia dabbled in before their glorious rebirth.
Entropic Specter is more interesting in multiplayer EDH games than it ever was in Standard. You'll want to choose the opponent who's always got a full grip (read: the blue player) as the one giving it power, and then you can make your other opponents discard when you hit them.
Ertai, the Corrupted is another example of a hero turned Phyrexian disciple, and he also acts as a bit of defense against game-ending, or at least game-warping, spells.
This seems like a good place to stop for now, as these are the cards I felt worth mentioning that are pre-Modern. I'm sorry if this post is a lot longer than anything you were expecting, but once I started down memory lane I found it quite difficult to stop. I acknowledge that only a few of these suggestions really play into the mechanical themes of your deck, but I'll try to make that more of a focus when I get to trawling through Modern-legal cards. To be frank, though, mechanical themes just weren't as tight back in the day. It might be until the start of next week until I have the time to get back to this, just letting you know so that you don't think I've walked away. The nostalgia this is drumming up is even more fun than I was expecting!
One of the nice points about digging into Phyrexia's past is that the Oil never forgets. It basically has perfect genetic memory. After all, there were only a few drops present when Karn first created Mirrodin, and look how far we've come
So, before I just go rattling off objectively interesting cards that tie to Phyrexia in some way, I'm curious as to your primary objective for the deck. There's certainly a fair bit of infect in your deck, so I'm guessing that's your ideal route to victory. With that in mind, I'm curious about the presence of a few cards (and don't shy away from "I just love <thing x> about the card" as a reason for including it):
Shattered Angel: Is the intent to offset the life payments for Phyrexian Delver, Reclamation, and Lens? If so, I can see the value in that, though perhaps just making Atraxa stronger, given her lifelink, would be more in tune with your moderately aggressive goal.
Tanglewalker: This card seems quite niche, unless your meta is chock full of artifact lands.
Evil Presence: Is this here to combat powerful lands in your meta?
Aether Snap: Even if this is powerful in your meta, it will still undo any work you've done putting -1/-1 counters on your opponent's creatures.
Caged Sun: While this is certainly a powerful card, it doesn't exactly shine in a four-color deck. Also, revering the suns is something those pathetic Mirrans do
Coldsteel Heart: In a four-color deck, you really want your mana rocks to provide multiple colors. Also, why invest in cheap Dominarian metal when some locally sourced Darksteel costs just a little more? Read: Darksteel Ingot
Sphere of the Suns: While it's decent fixing for the deck, it reeks of the same Mirran weakness as Caged Sun. (Again, the original card bears the Mirran watermark) A roughly equivalent card would be Pentad Prism. It provides one less mana overall, but it can deliver two at once, which can be a boon to playing Atraxa.
So, those are the cards I'm questioning in your current list. I'm also wondering where the other Praetors are. I admit that Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur can be tough to manage in a deck not prepared for massive grips of cards, but Sheoldred, Whispering One and Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger are just pure value. Sheoldred even becomes unblockable with Urborg or Evil Presence.
Speaking of Urborg synergy, and also as a means to power up Atraxa and the little infect guys, you could look into Lashwrithe and/or Nightmare Lash. If you do want to lean on Urborg a little harder, don't forget that Sylvan Scrying was originally printed in Mirrodin. Along the same vein of empowering Atraxa, you could consider Grafted Exoskeleton to give her permanent infect rather than a one shot deal.
I'll wait for your response before pressing forward. One other thing that would be useful to know is your budget for suggestions. I don't want to rattle off a bunch of expensive old cards if they're just out of the question.
However, before I start digging for cards to suggest, I need to know the scope of the viable cards. From your linked list, it seems that cards from either Mirrodin block or cards that directly say "Phyrexian" in their name are on the table, as they should be. But how far are you willing to reach? What about cards that feature Phyrexians in the art, such as No Mercy (well, the original art, I can't remember how to force which image these links display...)? To go another step deeper, what about cards set on the plane of Rath, which was artificially created by Yawgmoth to be a staging ground for the Invasion? I always think bigger pools are better when trying to build to flavor, but it's obviously your call. Once I know the parameters, I'll dig around and see what's worth suggesting.
My first thought is you need a few more lands. In a non-green tri-color deck, you probably want 37-38 to help with having good starting hands. I'm sure Sacred Foundry is on your want list, and I'd also suggest at least Tithe and Gift of Estates as ways to search up your dual lands. Fetches also help, but that's hardly breaking news