Finally,Magic: The Gatheringhas a brought a pre-constructed Phyrexian-themed Commander deck to the game with the release of Growing Threat. This white and black deck comes loaded with all sorts of powerful sacrifice effects, twisted creatures, and evil spells to take control of the battlefield.
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Among the armies of Phyrexia come several familiar faces, lost to the glorious whispers of New Phyrexia. Cards like the once noble Brimaz from Theros, Moria and Teshar from Dominaria, and the fearsome Grave Titan in their Compleated forms sit among some of the best cards from the Growing Threat deck.
10Path Of The Schemer
Stealing from the grave seems to be one of Phyrexia’s favorite things to do but this time it’s Tezzeret who is graverobbing with Path of the Schemer. For five mana you get to fill up each player’s graveyard with an extra two cards, then pick one creature from a single graveyard and bring it under your control.
Path of the Schemer is a solid reanimation spell andif you’re playing with Planeschase cards, you get the choice to either planeswalk away or attempt to activate the chaos ability. Even if you aren’t playing a Planeschase match, stealing your opponent’s best creature from the graveyard is a solid play.
9Phyrexian Triniform
A 9/9 for nine mana is a hefty commitment, even in the most mana intensive Commander decks, but Phyrexian Triniform is worth the cost. When Phyrexian Triniform dies, you create three 3/3 Phyrexian Golem tokens, splitting the Triniform’s power across three creatures but ensuring you don’t actually lose your board presence when it goes away - it just changes.
The real power comes from its encore ability. For an imposing twelve mana you get to exile Phyrexian Triniform from your graveyard, creating a copy of it for each of your opponents. You do have to sacrifice it at the end of your turn, but in return you get up to nine more 3/3 Phyrexian Golem tokens for your trouble.
8Soul Of New Phyrexia
A sort of forgotten gem in Commander, Soul of New Phyrexia is a powerhouse if you have the extra mana to commit to it. For five mana, you can activate its ability to make all your permanents indestructible for a turn.
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This ability can help you dodge a board wipe or two, or can be used proactively to give your board indestructible, and then cast a board wipe of your own. Your cards can still be exiled, but against most conventional Wrath effects, your cards will be safe. Even if Soul of New Phyrexia is destroyed in some way, you can give it one last activation from the graveyard.
7Vulpine Harvester
A fascinating effect for Commander, Vulpine Harvester lets youscavenge your graveyard for destroyed artifactsto bring them back to play for another chance for usefulness. Whenever a Phyrexian you control attacks, you get to return an artifact from your graveyard back to play, so long as its mana value is less than or equal to the total power of your attacking Phyrexians.
It’s important to note that you do not need to attack with Vulpine Harvester to return your artifact, letting you get immediate value out of the Phyrexian Fox the turn you play it. With cards like Soul of New Phyrexia and Phyrexian Triniform, you’ll likely be able to bring back any card you want.
6Blight Titan
Nothing is safe from New Phyrexia’s invasion, not even the dead as Grave Titan quickly discovered. Now as the Blight Titan, the Phyrexianized version no longer creates Zombie tokens but instead Incubator tokens equal to the number of creatures in your graveyard after milling two cards.
Since this is tied to an enter the battlefield trigger too, you’re almost always guaranteed to create at least some number of Incubator tokens. If left around too long you’ll quickly have a small army of tokens just waiting to transform. When combined with some other effect that can mass transform them, you’re able to have an instant army in one turn.
5Darksteel Splicer
Despite its high mana cost Darksteel Splicer has the potential to cause big problems for your opponents if left unchecked. When it or another nontoken Phyrexian enters the battlefield under your control you get a 3/3 Phyrexian Golem for each opponent you have.
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The other key part of Darksteel Splicer is that it gives other Golems you control indestructible. Pair Darksteel Splicer with other Phyrexian Golems like Phyrexian Triniform and you could find yourself at the helm of an unstoppable force.
4Brimaz, Blight Of Oreskos
The legendary creature heading the Growing Threat Commander is Brimaz, Blight of Oreskos. Brimaz cares all about casting as many Phyrexian or artifact creatures to create swarms of Incubator tokens equal to the mana value of the spell you cast.
Brimaz doesn’t stop there, he continues to grow your evolving threat by proliferating at the beginning of each end step, so long as a Phyrexian died under your control that turn. Pair Brimaz up with lots of instant speed sacrifice effects and ways to make more Phyrexians, and you’ll have a proliferated force very quickly.
3Bitterthorn, Nissa’s Animus
Poor Nissa, even her swordhas been corrupted by the eternal might of New Phyrexia. Bitterthorn, Nissa’s Animus is an equipment that comes into play already attached to a little Phyrexian Germ token, though it still has to wait a turn before attacking.
Once it does attack though, you get a powerful effect. Every time the equipped creature attacks, you get to search your library for a basic land and put it directly into play tapped. Bitterthorn works best in a mono-colored or two-colored deck where there’s a good chance that the number of basic lands is going to be higher.
2Moira And Teshar
The combined might of two Dominarian legendary creatures are united in the card Moira and Teshar. Whenever you cast an artifact, legendary, or saga spell you get to return a nonland permanent to the battlefield. That card gains haste and is exiled at the beginning of your next end step.
This loads your deck up with cards that have either repeatable effects when they enter the battlefield or can impact the board in a major way is ideal with these two. While Moria and Teshar have a clause that sends the permanent to exile if it would leave the battlefield, you can still blink permanents to reset them and prevent them from the forced and permanent exile.
1Excise The Imperfect
Excise the Imperfect is an instant speed removal spell that matches the intensity of New Phyrexia. For just three mana you can exile any nonland permanent in play. In exchange, the owner of the permanent gets to incubate equal to the permanents mana value
While it can result in your opponent getting a larger Incubator token than you really want them to have, you did just get rid of the immediate issue. Excise the Imperfect can deal with an early combo piece or to save you from a single hard hitting creature.
