vividox

Phage went 3 for 3 against an Ur-dragon deck last night. And none of those games were particularly close. Almost felt like I was cheating at times, as I always had a handful of outs and more than one way to take out the next dragon to hit the battlefield.

I'm kind of amazed at how well this deck is doing, overall. I'm winning probably 70-80% of 1v1 games with her. Her biggest weaknesses seem to be swarm decks, counter decks, and multiplayer games where everyone gangs up on you from the start.

And crazily enough, even after playing a dozen games or so, I still haven't died because of Phage. Most of that is luck, but being careful about when you bring her out and relying heavily on Command Beacon is a pretty safe strategy, all things considered. That being said, I have yet to run into a deck that uses blink or slide...

After a few more plays:

Life gain (Gray Merchant of Asphodel and Exsanguinate) is almost completely worthless. By the time Phage becomes an option, my opponent is swarming me with everything they have and I'm taking 10+ damage per turn. The life gain is good for an extra turn at best (and usually not even that), so it's just keeping me from drawing a better card.

Making a couple of replacements:

Gray Merchant of Asphodel -> Solemn Simulacrum
Exsanguinate -> Crucible of Worlds
Armillary Sphere -> Phyrexian Arena

Finally got to break it out last night.

Game 1 (1v1): Got a pretty much perfect draw. Liliana, Command Beacon, Caged Sun, Magus of the Coffers, lots of mana ramp. It was crazy. I got Phage out early, she was killed, and I already had Grim Discovery so I immediately pulled Beacon and Phage back to my hand. At this point I had Caged Sun, Staff of Nin, Key to the City, and Endless Whispers all out in play. I played Phage again and basically checkmated the guy. He was playing a big creature deck and had around six 5/5 creatures in play and couldn't attack me because Phage + Endless Whispers would kill him. On the next turn, I was planning on killing him with Key to the City, but I drew In Garruk's Wake and decided that would be more fun. This was a slaughter. I still had 40 life at the end of the game. Glorious victory.

Game 2 (1v1v1v1): I drew a bad hand and should have mulligan'd. I didn't. I paid for it. I only had 3 lands in play by the time I died. I got a couple of shots in with Curtain's Call and Hero's Downfall, but couldn't get any kind of a foothold.

Game 3 (1v1v1): Not the best draw, which led to a slow start. Both opponents targeted me heavily and I was down to <20 life pretty quickly. I had Graveborn Muse and Jet Medallion in play, which kept the cards coming and allowed me to use my mana efficiently. I also got Sundial down, and was able to put Phage in. When the turn got back to me I had 6 life left. I played and equipped Whispersilk Cloak and took out one opponent, but had to pass the turn and died to the other. If I'd had Sudden Spoiling in my hand instead of Malicious Affliction, I would have won it. I was so close to pulling that out, despite the slow start.

Overall really satisfied with it so far. I mostly played against creature-heavy decks last night and that required a lot of kill spell management. Despite all the ways to wipe a board or take out Commanders easily, dealing with waves and waves of creatures is difficult, and you're going to end up taking quite a bit of damage before you can get Phage to do her thing. Early impression is that Graveborn Muse was an extremely valuable card to have in play, which makes me think I need to find room for Phyrexian Arena (or other ways to draw) as well. I never saw the Avatar of Woe, Visara, or Royal Assassin, which would have been really helpful against the decks I was playing last night. But yeah, this is definitely workable and I think with a few more mana ramps, draw cards, and tutors this could be insane.