Monday MtG: Phenax, God of Deception

 Phenax, God of Deception

This deck builds itself - Black and Blue critters with big butts, backed by solid cards that support a milling theme.  Note that milling out multiple opponents, one player at a time, is a dangerous, slow strategy and requires solid threat assessment of opposing decks.  In a vacuum, this can be an utter crapshoot.  

Milling is very much an 'all-in' strategy.  To be honest, Phenax isn't even the best choice for a milling commander.  Objectively, Phenax is slow and demands other creatures in play to be useful, and even then only hits one opponent at a time.

So I decided to emphasize the Deception part of the title and focus on 'deceitful' type spells, notably combat instants.

Basically, the deck sits and waits behind walls.  I won't lie, some of the walls are chosen for art over toughness.  This makes it slow-ish.

Effectively, the deck is Wall Tribal, which isn't as bad as it sounds, unless in a meta where everyone races to combo, and frankly, I'd rather sit those games out. In fact, that is a major reason I stopped visiting my FLGS pre-COVID: the vast majority of regulars raced to combo with $$$-mana.  More power to them, I guess, but it is so dull.

Despite my flavor-over-efficiency approach to this deck, some cards are a must for a milling strategy in Commander, or at least a must for a Phenax deck, so these cards are found within.

Consuming Aberration and Mind Grind among them.  Being Phenax, Eater of the Dead is there, too.  It could be argued that without these, a Phenax deck isn't a proper Phenax deck.

So these cards, surrounded by walls and tricks - to include all the mass untapping I own.  I'm running other tricks, of course.  Colossus of Akros is my favorite - if I am not milling you for 10, I am punching you for 20.  Win/win, as far as I am concerned.

The best part for me is that Cody at the Saturday game regularly asks to borrow this deck, so I must have done something right with it.  I imagine he'll be surprised when next we play, because the last round of single purchases have me leaning into the mill theme, on top of wall tribal.  There is one last one of purchases I will make, and that one will include the standard rocks for a deck, because I am running none of them.

It is slow, though. When first built, I utterly ignored even the affordable mana rocks and nonbasic lands. No Sol Ring, no Dimir Signet, no Commander's Sphere, no Arcane Signet, or even Command Tower.  Kaldheim provides Ice Tunnel and new Snow-Covered basic land art.  Maybe that is the solution - lean into the snow aspect: Graven Lore, Marit Lage's Slumber, Rimefeather Owl, Rime Transfusion, Chilling Shade, Phyrexian Ironfoot, Hailstorm Valkyrie, and Blood on the Snow all look fun, and since I already have the snow-covered lands, why not?  Embracing Snow means I can run Heidar, Rimewind Master without actually making a deck with him at the helm (granted, it would probably just be a Blue goodstuff deck with a Snow theme).

I'm guessing Cody will be pleasantly surprised when next we play.  I might even upgrade the sleeves to my standard Dragonshield Fusion.

Decklist.

Play update: we got in several 3 and 5 person games, with Phenax in at least 2 3-person games.  Maddening Cacophony earned its keep.  Increasing Ambition, as it only hits one player, is already on the out list.  "When did Phenax get good?" was asked aloud, so I did something right.