So I think I understand why there is so many board wipes/effects to stop attacks. If you focus on Ixhel the deck isn't so much a aggro or midrange stratagy. The concept there is to try and get the 3 poison counters on your opponutes and then outvalue them long term. Use proliferate/spell effects to increase the # of poison counters and then knock them out late game. While using the board wipes/not beinng able to be attacked effects to avoid being the target until you can do that. This contrasts Vishgraz which is a much more traditional infect aggressive stratagy.
@@controlaltdeleteish I recently was able to kill someone with commander damage with vishgraz. didnt end up winning but it was an interesting way to kill someone.
@@795reaper well... then maybe wotc should make the face commander the best commander in the deck. It takes five seconds of reading to know that Vishgraz is the better card to run as your commander.
Points to consider. 1. The mites can't block, and with how hated poison is, some of the defence is definitely needed 2. Chromatic Lantern is there for Ixhel. It lets you use the abilities of cards you steal
@@thismanadork but is it even worth casting at that point, that just sounds so specific and most of the time u wont care about playing those cards, u can just be happy that they get exiled and ur opponent cant play them
@@DioBrando-iq9no sure. But that doesn't change the reason why the card would be there. Is it worth it, 99% of the time probably not, that's it's place in the precon though
@@jumanjiman86 yes but you need to remember to play around it, like including "Behind the Scenes" a 3 mana enchantment that gives your creatures "skulk", dictate of erabos, or grave pact.
Bruh you don't defend with those mites anyway, that was one of the whole reasons they added in more deathtouch & evasion, to make your opponent blocking something you have to swing with every turn that much more of a hassle
I think this deck could use "Behind the Scenes" Behind the Scenes 2B Creatures you control have skulk. (They can't be blocked by creatures with greater power.) 4W: Creatures you control get +1/+1 until end of turn. It only cost a few cents and can help all the small toxic creatures get in especially late game when every one is dropping massive creatures.
"I wonder about defensive infect strategies." in my experience, people who play the deck wide and try to aggro people down at best kill one person before the pod then kills them. the deck's much stronger imo when the objective is to get 1-2 poison counters on each player and weave the proliferate effects in while essentially stalling the game out defensively. especially when there are so many cards that can proliferate more than once
@@Xx_floogull_xX At least as far as their argument though, it does. At 54:52 Craig calls the mites "ground blockers which take away the needs for ghostly prison effects" which just isn't true.
Ixhel, Scion of Atraxa as commander Budget Upgrade. I'm sure a vast majority of us are looking forward to it and would really appreciate having it. Thanks for your fun videos and Great work
Another nice universal evasion card to think about: Behind the Scenes. Enchantment 2B: creatures you control have Skulk and and activate of 4W give all your creatures +1/+1 for the turn. So Pseudo-unlockable and an anthem for if you can just murder with combat damage. Not a bad card and your friends will say "Skulk!? Seriously?".
I lowkey think that Ixhel is the stronger commander. Toxic strategies fold to boardwipes and Vishgraz is no exception. Vishgraz being a 5 CMC commander and your deck is going to commit offensively to the board rather than ramp and draw cards. It's a stretch to get to 5 mana in the first place. If your commander gets wiped or countered, getting to 7 mana to recast it is unlikely. Ixhel on the other hand lets you play your opponents lands in addition to the spells you rip off the top of their decks. Recasting your commander using your opponents ramp, card draw, and lands is much less of an issue. Your opponents creatures can still assist you in closing out games through effects such as triumph of the hordes, craterhoof behemoth, akroma's will, and true conviction and those affects also greatly improve the potentcy of infect/toxic creatures. And of course all the proliferate support further helps you close out the game killing all your opponents at once, rather than pitbulling one poor soul only to get owned by the other two at the table.
The problem is Ixhel is very passive: it doesn't actually do anything UNTIL your opponents have a certain number of poison counters, so it requires setup. Even if you cheat it out, you can't do much with it. Vishgraz, at least, is more proactive: it immediately makes tokens when it enters, and those tokens can help it get bigger. The latter is much easier to abuse than the former. Plus, it enables draw spells like stinging study and return of the wildspeaker better than Ixhel.
@@erubin100 Ixhel has toxic 2 itself and it has evasion. Ixhel's ability to enable itself should not be slept on. Giving it double strike, infect, another instance of toxic, or proliferating after hitting someone with Ixhel turns Ixhel on. Give it haste and it could be enabling itself from nowhere the turn it hits play. There are enough cards to fill your ninety nine that can make Ixhel enable herself. Let alone all the additional poison counter support that was given. Saying this commander doesn't do anything on its own is absurd.
@@andrewpeli9019 all good things, but they still kinda prove my point though: that ixel requires extra setup in order to do anything. Vishraz doesn't. I don't think either are bad choices, just think vishgraz is somewhat easier to abuse.
I think the energy got better as the episode went along. The beginning felt very different from the end, and I think that's a good thing. Both hosts definitely had a lot to say about the deck's mechanics, and it was great to see how those ideas flowed with one another.
really shocked they didn't include Vorinclex Monstrous Raider in the honorable mentions section. Perfectly themed both in flavor and mechanics (if not a bit on the pricey side)
I haven't seen enough people suggest planewide celebration but with this added toxic infect cards, 4 proliferates for 7 seems like a possible game ender style card in green
This might be one of the only times so far, where I have the impression that the upgraded deck is in fact much weaker than the basic one. You guys tried to make an infect deck out of a toxic control precon. You can't do it with new commander and 50$ because it was not an infect deck in the beginning. When you want to switch from a strategy based on lowering your threat level by even distribution of poison counters to direct infect focusing on single player as victim, you need more than dropping all defence cards and shouting "yolo" but should first focus on the foundations of the deck.
Agreed. They kept saying "infect strategy" ignoring what toxic is. You got the nail on the head. No doubt he's amazing at infect. I would say he's using his bias of infect to negatively and incorrectly label what this deck really is
You could think of it that way. You could also think of it as "At 10 poison counters, you're dead." Even if your body is animate, you, the person in there, are gone.
@@andrewroy5677 I jokingly refer to Champion of Lambholt as "The Third Roommate" because of the incredulously broken synergy between it and Halana and Alena.
IDEA: Do a show that features both commander's builds. Not just these commanders, but somewhere down the line when you at The Command Zone feel that both precon commanders are absolute bombs and if time permits. Great job everyone!
Instead of frostfang, I would have gone with bow of nylea and beast whisperer. Then you could fit contagion engine in it instead and save more money, or just add all of it 😄
I agree. It feels more like Rachel's deck than Craig's. I think he wanted to build around the face commander more, which I wanted. I guess I'll be ignoring this upgrade.
I out-of-the-box, no changes, won my first game with this precon; one of my opponents was under Teferi's protection at the time as well. It was a good day.
Really bummed this is an upgrade guide for Vishgraz rather than Ixhel. Great recommendations for him, but as someone who's very excited to play Ixhel I feel a bit left in the dust.
Ixhel is a little harder to build around. With either commander, you need to give out poison counters. The difference is Vishgraz is amn etb that makes tokens, so there are lots of cards that work with him. Not really sure how you would make Ixhel work more effectively.
Nice adds guys! When I saw this deck I thought to add Fynn, Saryth and ohran right away as well as Bow of Nylea. Blade of selves could be interesting as well. Great video!
I feel like I'd you are building around ilex I think is her name the main commander of the deck, toxic might be better than infect simply due to your opponents being more willing to get hit with a toxic creature than an infect creature
it is ixhel but very close :) i think infect is harder to block since it puts -1/-1 counters on creatures but that is a good point. toxic is also good because you can put infect on it as well to do even more with it which is very powerful
I think there i several oversights with this episode. Sadly. I had been looking forward to this episode. Firstly as several has mentioned the tokens can't blok so you need some kind of defence that is why those Ghostly Prison effects are in the deck. Not the first think I would remove. With a card like this with so much text. It is important to break down the card sentence for sentence. Make sure you understand all the nuances of the card. Second Phyrexian is a creature type. This gives certain possibilities both upgrading your mana base (Cavern of souls, Secluded Courtyard and Unclaimed Territory). However more importantly it gives you certain possibilities when it comes to card selection. You can view this as a tribal deck. Pact of the Serpent will draw you are insane amount of cards with those tokens. Recursion effects like Haunting Voyage and Patriarch's Bidding (which only cost about a dollar). Kindred Summons can cheat in a lot of creatures. Metallic Mimic gives +1/+1 counters you can the proliferate. Protection like And They Shall Know No Fear only cost 1W (cost a bit more from your wallet - a budget option is Unbreakable Formation which works great with proliferate).Cards like these should at the very least be mentioned. It is a whole set of cards and strategy not mentioned or recognised that is a pretty big oversight.
all these cards are going to make superfriends more dangerous than they already are. of the cards I think the one I may like the most is actually noxious revival. . . 1 phyrexian green to put a card on top of your library from grave at instant speed? that's just dumb. . someones board got out of control? bring back one of your board wipes. . . want some more proliferates? bring back any of those sources especially repeatable ones like the arti. . . it's just so versatile, and costs basically nothing. Unnatural restoration is also good for similar reasons, as it also bypasses someone responding with a mill after you tutor up a card from grave. but since it's only sorcery speed and limited to your turn. you'd need to have ramped up enough to cast both spells back to back.
I think that Bilious Skulldweller's Deathtouch is quite a deterrent towards blocking it so more often than not it might be enought to START poison damage on players. Although I see that in the late game it might be just rotting in hand (pun somewhat intended). I'd personally keep it for now and until I get my hands on Venerated Rotpreist. Meanwhile I'll test if it or Pestilent Syphoner should make room for it. And RE: cutting Blightbelly Rat... TBH, after getting at least one poison counter on each player I'd start recklessly attacking with it in order to: A) Be chump blocked, thus making my opponent lose a creature B) Trade or let Rat die in order to get that sweet proliferate trigger C) Bump someone, giving them 1 more poison counter due to Toxic 1 (which kinda counts as proliferate for 1 player?) Mycosynth Fiend is a cool reprint because it has newly added "Phyrexian" creature type... Other than that I think it is meant to be swapped for Bloated Contaminator (4/4 Trample and Toxic 1) This deck also needs both Tainted Strike (5 poison counters with Ixhel on contact) and Triump of the Hordes (same as before Toxic and Infect STACK with each other). Other addition would be Phyrexian Scriptures for a thematic boardwipe - give +1/+1 counter to e.g. Ixhel and proliferate (which this deck has tons of) and immediately boardwipe EXCEPT for that 1 creature that got +1/+1 counter - way more powerful due to having ANY chance for being one-sided that cut Fumigate. EDIT: Recently spoiled Infectious Bite is a 2 mana effect that guarantees poison counters for opponents... ON INSTANT SPEED! I think this further incentifies running 1 CMC creatures, which also could kill some X/1 creatures (like opponents' mana dorks) on top of giving each opponent poison counter.
Atraxa is my favorite character and my first commander I built for, so imagine my surprise seeing the Ixhel spoiler and hearing a new Atraxa was coming. New Atraxa severely disappointing but all my hype for Atraxa is on Ixhel now, really love the mechanic and the precon! Can’t wait
Love the show. You guys should consider doing a review of the precon prices 12 months later to see how the market reacts etc. Would be super interesting. :) Keep up the good work
Personally I may go with ixhel because I prefer the flavor of taking your opponents things and making them yours. Very phyrexia. I also don't love that vishgraz gets less swole as you kill people.
Some of these cards definitely feel like you strategically build up poison ,to best lethal for everyone and then try to burst multiple people down. This makes you a huge threat though. Also, interesting lore is that ixhel made the other commander, against his will.
im brand new to MTG. I've played about a dozen times over the last month. This poison/toxic dynamic looked interesting, bought the precon and used it for the first time yesterday. I actually held my own. Was exciting to actually feel like a legitimate threat against my friends for the first time LOL. Probably would have won if it weren't for the Eldrazi deck the other guy was running. Anyway. Great content. Looking forward to spicing up the deck with your suggestions.
54:49 So I think they forgot how NONE of the bodies Vishgraz makes can block like YOU NEED the pillow fort because you make lots of dudes THAT CANT BLOCK that is a really big oversight with how this is going to work for anyone
Everyone who’s taking out your Chromatic Lanterns, give them to me XD I’m only glad that JLK is getting people down on it so that hopefully I can afford to put one in all my 3+ color decks. It’s amazing at what it does for how low it costs.
chromatic lantern is only good if your mana sucks balls xD Great for budget decks, but a 3 mana rock that doesnt do anything besides make a mana is just not good enough anymore
@@ich3730 It makes all your lands tap for a mana of any color. I would put it in all my 3, 4, and 5 color decks for that fact alone. The fact that it also taps for a mana of any color is gravy on top.
Did y’all upload the Boros Precon upgrade instead of the Boros reveal by accident. Usually you do a review then an upgrade. Either way, I love all your videos!
Norns annex is good against anyone who can get 20+ creatures out by round 6. Hit me for 20 and die cause you spent 40 life to do it. But other than that it doesn't do much against other commander decks
A lot of the cards they put in this precon are kinds of poppy but the commander’s themselves are neat. Ixhel isn’t your typical infect commander, but it think that plays to its strength. The commander wants you to get a couple of infect counters on and then proliferate your way to victory, not race your opponents down. I think this means you aren’t going to get hated off the table as badly and I also think it means you aren’t as easy to shut down because you can spell sling you way to victory if you can’t get creatures to stick.
Agreed. My issue with the insect commander is people keep saying "look at all the value" but hes basically a mycosynth fiend with some 1/1's that cannot block. He is a big idiot thats going to attract all of the removal while ixhel even if removed you keep that card advantage
I'm sure this has been noted before, but toxic is not a triggered ability like poisonous was. Toxic acts such as lifelink and it is alongside the damage without going on the stack, so it can't be copied with Strionic Resonator or countered by Tale's End/Stifle spells
Toxic isn't a trigger it works like any other static ability that relates with combat such as lifelink I'm pretty sure. Read in some comment thread bout something can't remember what but misleading at the start of this with it being a "trigger" seems bad.
Understand wanting to take out toxic creatures for infect creatures, but KEEP IN MIND, the whole point of toxic is that it's a weaker version of infect so that you won't become instantly targeted. Not that it wouldn't happen anyway, but I would tread lightly with putting in every infect creature under the sun.
I think it would be interesting to take advantage of menace with Vishgraz. Cards like Alpha Authority or Familiar Ground. Make it unblockable. Which grows it as it applies Poison. So could be a fun Voltron strategy because you still have to dish out the counters. So it leads away from taking out one person ASAP because they are your fuel to take the others out.
Hey, thanks for mentioning familiar ground. I'd never heard of it before, but it goes perfectly in like 5 of my decks. I can't believe nobody mentioned it for the chishiro deck upgrades.
Tbh, I think our little angel is a better commander for this deck. It’s oriented to take the long way, abusing the value that Ixhel gives. A lot of board wipes but not alot value is what indicates Ixhel
I'm surprised for the honorable mentions yes it's a more expensive card but why not put Skittles in it a flying 4/4 with infect that can give itself haste and regenerate is nothing to sneeze at
I don't believe it's a replacement effect as you still deal damage to life unlike infect you deal damage and apply poison counters equal to the toxic value. But they did mess up by calling it a trigger you could resonator , that's also just incorrect. Also just random note , infect creatures can still work with lifelink tho the damage is a replacement effect with infect , it's whacky.
@@zackwilcox3183 So, toxic says "players dealt combat damage by this creature also get X poison counters". By saying "also" it is saying to replace "deals damage" with "deals damage and give poison counters". Replacement effects can add things and still do the base thing. That said Toxic can still stack with additional instances of toxic, which is weird but it works.
@@hellehundt1 it's not a replacement effect tho it's a static ability ? And yeah toxic does stack both in number and multiple instances of toxic if I recall from what I heard/read. But new set and wht not ofc I could be wrong.
My upgrade is abt 200 dollars so far but it’s themed around getting one poison counter on my opponents then proliferating them to death with cards like inexorable tide. I also have vraska, betrayals sting and vorinclex, monstrous raider to finish out opponents FAST
I ended up building ixhel And giving it a lot of upgrades, It's one of those decks that you just don't get to play , everybody looks at it gets afraid and then targets everything on your board Just a reminder to everybody looking to build this deck, infect puts a target on your back every time You're not playing a game of commander you're playing a game of Arch enemy
I honestly used to hate playing against infect but I really feel like toxic fixed the problems of had with it. No more growth spells on a random infect out of no where sniping games waaaaaaay too soon. Now even with it being only 10 poison counters still the fact that it has to build at a slower rate makes it to the fun sphere of mtg
Hi Command Zone! I’m an avid watcher of your content and have only been playing magic for about a year now. I’m not very well versed in building decks so I honestly just buy a lot of precons. I haven’t upgraded a single deck yet but I’ve honestly really enjoyed playing this deck so I would like to upgrade it. I have a genuine question with some cards I would like to add, on the off chance I might actually get a response😅, I was wondering if adding Zopandrel, hunger dominus and Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider and Mondrak, Glory Dominus and Drivnod, Carnage Dominus would be good changes? I was quite fortunate to get those cards and I would like to keep a phyrexian theme within the infect deck so would they be good additions or would they not work well? I would really love to hear back from y’all even if this video was posted awhile ago
Hullo from Italy. Love your precon update videos but would suggest to illustrate how to fix mana sources when replacing cards. How many lands to replace in other words. Thanks guys, terrific job!
Dude, I’m so scared that I’m missing out on the ultrapro stuff, I don’t see any 😔 Also how was Throne of Geth not added to budget upgrade, sack and mite, make more counters 👀
I guess these decks are not infect decks, but "Corrupted" decks. Vishgraz is a voltron commander, while ixhel is playing for the long term value. Otherwise, you would not remove some cards like Grateful Apparition that is MVP in my atraxa infect deck (Thrummingbird too)... 2 manas evasion that proliferate each turn... I want to win with infect, not with damage. Each infect point is basically 4 damage. I just need a single opponent that don't have a flyer to proliferate the whole table.
TLDR:
Cards to Add:
Ohran Frostfang - $17
Saryth, the Viper's Fang - $2.5
Sidar Kondo of Jamuraa - $3
Champion of Lambholt - $.70
Losheel, Clockwork Scholar -$.35
Far Traveler - $.35
Ephemerate - $1.30
Reveillark - $.35
Eerie Ultimatum - $4.00
Fynn, the Fangbearer - $.35
Honorable Mention
Toski, Bearer of Secrets - $13.00
Teleportation Circle - $5.00
Cards to take out
Fumigate
Culling Ritual
Mycosynth Fiend
Contagion Clasp
Grateful Apparition
Bilious Skulldweller
Blightbelly Rat
Norn's Annex
Wildborn Muse
Chromatic Lantern
Welp, if I'm removing chromatic lantern, I can slap that into my WUBRG dragon deck.
Doing the lord's work
28:00
Toxic isn't a trigger. It's applied instantaneously with combat damage, similar to lifelink.
I learned that the old mechanic, poisonous DOES use the stack. What a day!
This is basically the reason they created a new mechanic instead of just using poisonous.
Does this mean toxic is a counter like lifelink can be since ikoria?
Thanks for this!
@@lcpsteel Since it's a keyword ability, we may get something like that in the future. Right now, though, I don't believe there's anything like that
So I think I understand why there is so many board wipes/effects to stop attacks. If you focus on Ixhel the deck isn't so much a aggro or midrange stratagy. The concept there is to try and get the 3 poison counters on your opponutes and then outvalue them long term. Use proliferate/spell effects to increase the # of poison counters and then knock them out late game. While using the board wipes/not beinng able to be attacked effects to avoid being the target until you can do that. This contrasts Vishgraz which is a much more traditional infect aggressive stratagy.
Ultimate Vishgraz Challenge: Get two opponents to 9 poison counters. Kill the other opponent with 21 commander damage.
And then proliferate...
That sounds like a super fun challenge lol
I was going to attack with my vishgraz with a myriad sword equipped with mondrak out but got shut down before lol
@@controlaltdeleteish I recently was able to kill someone with commander damage with vishgraz. didnt end up winning but it was an interesting way to kill someone.
Aw, i really wanted to see Ixhel as the commander, toxic and control together really is what got me into this one
agreed. I'm interested to see how they'd build it
I had to dislike. Tired of them not building the face commander in these.
@@795reaper well... then maybe wotc should make the face commander the best commander in the deck. It takes five seconds of reading to know that Vishgraz is the better card to run as your commander.
You can tell the dude was annoyed they didn't
Totally
Points to consider.
1. The mites can't block, and with how hated poison is, some of the defence is definitely needed
2. Chromatic Lantern is there for Ixhel. It lets you use the abilities of cards you steal
ixhel says on the card u can use mana of any color to cast the exiled spells
@@DioBrando-iq9no yes, but not activate their abilities
@@thismanadork but is it even worth casting at that point, that just sounds so specific and most of the time u wont care about playing those cards, u can just be happy that they get exiled and ur opponent cant play them
@@DioBrando-iq9no sure. But that doesn't change the reason why the card would be there. Is it worth it, 99% of the time probably not, that's it's place in the precon though
I think you are all forgetting that the tokens have "THIS CREATURE CAN"T BLOCK"
The Command Zone not reading cards? _never_
Honestly the toxic tokens are still really good despite that.
@@jumanjiman86 yes but you need to remember to play around it, like including "Behind the Scenes" a 3 mana enchantment that gives your creatures "skulk", dictate of erabos, or grave pact.
Bruh you don't defend with those mites anyway, that was one of the whole reasons they added in more deathtouch & evasion, to make your opponent blocking something you have to swing with every turn that much more of a hassle
I think this deck could use "Behind the Scenes"
Behind the Scenes 2B
Creatures you control have skulk. (They can't be blocked by creatures with greater power.)
4W: Creatures you control get +1/+1 until end of turn.
It only cost a few cents and can help all the small toxic creatures get in especially late game when every one is dropping massive creatures.
This is a great one that we definitely missed.
Which card should I remove to my deck to add Behind the Scenes ? Ghostly Prison ?
Rachel: “what’s your advice on how to play infect?”
Craig, who’s only known for playing infect: “ahhh ummm I don’t know”
"I wonder about defensive infect strategies." in my experience, people who play the deck wide and try to aggro people down at best kill one person before the pod then kills them. the deck's much stronger imo when the objective is to get 1-2 poison counters on each player and weave the proliferate effects in while essentially stalling the game out defensively. especially when there are so many cards that can proliferate more than once
Stronger but man do I hate proliferate 😆
Don’t forget that the mites can’t block, I feel like they missed that part in this episode
Does it really matter tho?
Maybe run architect of finality?
@@Xx_floogull_xX At least as far as their argument though, it does. At 54:52 Craig calls the mites "ground blockers which take away the needs for ghostly prison effects" which just isn't true.
@@salem326 funny because they kept reading the effect out loud multiple times, but completely forgot it as they were talking.
@@salem326 ok, I missed that, thanks
Ixhel, Scion of Atraxa as commander Budget Upgrade. I'm sure a vast majority of us are looking forward to it and would really appreciate having it. Thanks for your fun videos and Great work
Rachel: says anything
Craig: totally
Craig's face when Rachel said Champaign of Lambholt's price was only 69 cents
Nice
I think you guys are underestimating how few people run flying creatures. That apparition is solid imo
Another nice universal evasion card to think about: Behind the Scenes. Enchantment 2B: creatures you control have Skulk and and activate of 4W give all your creatures +1/+1 for the turn. So Pseudo-unlockable and an anthem for if you can just murder with combat damage. Not a bad card and your friends will say "Skulk!? Seriously?".
That’s not a real card is it?
@@jumanjiman86 look it up, Shadows Over Innistrad. Skulk is a bit narrow but it has its homes in stuff like Doran the Siege Tower and Wall Tribal.
Budget alternative to Ohran Frostfang: Archetype of Finality. Gives deathtouch without the card draw, but costs about a dollar.
There's also a 1g uncommon 2/2 from capenna that gives deathtouch to the board if you had 2 creatures enter your vattlefield this turn.
Also Bow of Nylea would be a good budget replacement
One card that can be a star here is Throne of Geth. Those mites are artifacts.
I lowkey think that Ixhel is the stronger commander. Toxic strategies fold to boardwipes and Vishgraz is no exception. Vishgraz being a 5 CMC commander and your deck is going to commit offensively to the board rather than ramp and draw cards. It's a stretch to get to 5 mana in the first place. If your commander gets wiped or countered, getting to 7 mana to recast it is unlikely.
Ixhel on the other hand lets you play your opponents lands in addition to the spells you rip off the top of their decks. Recasting your commander using your opponents ramp, card draw, and lands is much less of an issue. Your opponents creatures can still assist you in closing out games through effects such as triumph of the hordes, craterhoof behemoth, akroma's will, and true conviction and those affects also greatly improve the potentcy of infect/toxic creatures. And of course all the proliferate support further helps you close out the game killing all your opponents at once, rather than pitbulling one poor soul only to get owned by the other two at the table.
The problem is Ixhel is very passive: it doesn't actually do anything UNTIL your opponents have a certain number of poison counters, so it requires setup. Even if you cheat it out, you can't do much with it. Vishgraz, at least, is more proactive: it immediately makes tokens when it enters, and those tokens can help it get bigger. The latter is much easier to abuse than the former. Plus, it enables draw spells like stinging study and return of the wildspeaker better than Ixhel.
@@erubin100 Ixhel has toxic 2 itself and it has evasion. Ixhel's ability to enable itself should not be slept on. Giving it double strike, infect, another instance of toxic, or proliferating after hitting someone with Ixhel turns Ixhel on. Give it haste and it could be enabling itself from nowhere the turn it hits play. There are enough cards to fill your ninety nine that can make Ixhel enable herself. Let alone all the additional poison counter support that was given. Saying this commander doesn't do anything on its own is absurd.
@@andrewpeli9019 all good things, but they still kinda prove my point though: that ixel requires extra setup in order to do anything. Vishraz doesn't. I don't think either are bad choices, just think vishgraz is somewhat easier to abuse.
@@erubin100 just wanna add, ixhel DOES help on her own, she adds 2 poison every turn, with evasion and vigilance to make it more comfy.
@@ich3730 she adds two poison IF SHE GETS THROUGH, and after summoningsickness. There's still effort involved. Flying certainty helps, but still.
I think the energy got better as the episode went along. The beginning felt very different from the end, and I think that's a good thing. Both hosts definitely had a lot to say about the deck's mechanics, and it was great to see how those ideas flowed with one another.
really shocked they didn't include Vorinclex Monstrous Raider in the honorable mentions section. Perfectly themed both in flavor and mechanics (if not a bit on the pricey side)
I haven't seen enough people suggest planewide celebration but with this added toxic infect cards, 4 proliferates for 7 seems like a possible game ender style card in green
This might be one of the only times so far, where I have the impression that the upgraded deck is in fact much weaker than the basic one. You guys tried to make an infect deck out of a toxic control precon. You can't do it with new commander and 50$ because it was not an infect deck in the beginning. When you want to switch from a strategy based on lowering your threat level by even distribution of poison counters to direct infect focusing on single player as victim, you need more than dropping all defence cards and shouting "yolo" but should first focus on the foundations of the deck.
Agreed. They kept saying "infect strategy" ignoring what toxic is. You got the nail on the head. No doubt he's amazing at infect. I would say he's using his bias of infect to negatively and incorrectly label what this deck really is
So if 3 poison counters make you corrupted, does that mean at 10 you are compleated
You could think of it that way. You could also think of it as "At 10 poison counters, you're dead." Even if your body is animate, you, the person in there, are gone.
…… you compleate me.
I’ll see myself out.😂
sadly no i think. Poison as a win con exists outside and before phyrexia. So its just a generic "if u get 10 poison u choke"
Champion of Lambholt is beyond underrated.
In a lot of deck styles man.
That card goes insane quickly!
@@andrewroy5677 I jokingly refer to Champion of Lambholt as "The Third Roommate" because of the incredulously broken synergy between it and Halana and Alena.
its really not, its in many precons and has been very popular for years...
Rachel's "Stats" drums can feel it coming in the air tonight.
I am really excited for this precon it looks really cool!
This episode could not be done without Craig in it, the legendary poison counter in the group!!
in which episode does he infect someone?
Budget aside, Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider seems good in this.
Ofc.
True
IDEA: Do a show that features both commander's builds. Not just these commanders, but somewhere down the line when you at The Command Zone feel that both precon commanders are absolute bombs and if time permits.
Great job everyone!
Instead of frostfang, I would have gone with bow of nylea and beast whisperer. Then you could fit contagion engine in it instead and save more money, or just add all of it 😄
feels like Rachel did the upgrade to me. Craig's here for the hype 😂
I agree. It feels more like Rachel's deck than Craig's. I think he wanted to build around the face commander more, which I wanted. I guess I'll be ignoring this upgrade.
He even said he likes Ixhel more and then Rachel was like anyways here’s the other guy
Throne of geth is a solid budget upgrade they didnt mention
Does this deck have alot of artifacts?
@@nicksternyr8728 what? The commander is creating 3 artifacts on etb. Hello?
Didn't check its price, but true conviction seems like a grand slam of a card. Lifelink and Double Strike, which should combo with toxic.
I out-of-the-box, no changes, won my first game with this precon; one of my opponents was under Teferi's protection at the time as well. It was a good day.
I won on my first public play as well! Norn's Decree stalled the game out and I eventually won :D
I’m only down here to look for the “Totally” counter… 👀
Really bummed this is an upgrade guide for Vishgraz rather than Ixhel. Great recommendations for him, but as someone who's very excited to play Ixhel I feel a bit left in the dust.
Ixhel is a little harder to build around. With either commander, you need to give out poison counters. The difference is Vishgraz is amn etb that makes tokens, so there are lots of cards that work with him. Not really sure how you would make Ixhel work more effectively.
Nice adds guys! When I saw this deck I thought to add Fynn, Saryth and ohran right away as well as Bow of Nylea. Blade of selves could be interesting as well. Great video!
Oh yes ! I've been waiting for this deck upgrade. Especially with Mr Infect
in which episode does Craig infect someone?
I feel like I'd you are building around ilex I think is her name the main commander of the deck, toxic might be better than infect simply due to your opponents being more willing to get hit with a toxic creature than an infect creature
it is ixhel but very close :) i think infect is harder to block since it puts -1/-1 counters on creatures but that is a good point. toxic is also good because you can put infect on it as well to do even more with it which is very powerful
Out of all the advertisements I’ve seen for Factor Foods, hands down this is the best one. ❤
I think there i several oversights with this episode. Sadly. I had been looking forward to this episode.
Firstly as several has mentioned the tokens can't blok so you need some kind of defence that is why those Ghostly Prison effects are in the deck. Not the first think I would remove. With a card like this with so much text. It is important to break down the card sentence for sentence. Make sure you understand all the nuances of the card.
Second Phyrexian is a creature type. This gives certain possibilities both upgrading your mana base (Cavern of souls, Secluded Courtyard and Unclaimed Territory). However more importantly it gives you certain possibilities when it comes to card selection. You can view this as a tribal deck. Pact of the Serpent will draw you are insane amount of cards with those tokens. Recursion effects like Haunting Voyage and Patriarch's Bidding (which only cost about a dollar). Kindred Summons can cheat in a lot of creatures. Metallic Mimic gives +1/+1 counters you can the proliferate. Protection like And They Shall Know No Fear only cost 1W (cost a bit more from your wallet - a budget option is Unbreakable Formation which works great with proliferate).Cards like these should at the very least be mentioned. It is a whole set of cards and strategy not mentioned or recognised that is a pretty big oversight.
Bow of Nylea great add in this deck if you want death touch save money to be spent else where.
all these cards are going to make superfriends more dangerous than they already are.
of the cards I think the one I may like the most is actually noxious revival. . . 1 phyrexian green to put a card on top of your library from grave at instant speed? that's just dumb. . someones board got out of control? bring back one of your board wipes. . . want some more proliferates? bring back any of those sources especially repeatable ones like the arti. . . it's just so versatile, and costs basically nothing.
Unnatural restoration is also good for similar reasons, as it also bypasses someone responding with a mill after you tutor up a card from grave. but since it's only sorcery speed and limited to your turn. you'd need to have ramped up enough to cast both spells back to back.
Always love hearing from Craig, as a fellow follower of Phyrexia! Would love to play him one day. I’d even deal with all the “totally” for it 😂
I think that Bilious Skulldweller's Deathtouch is quite a deterrent towards blocking it so more often than not it might be enought to START poison damage on players. Although I see that in the late game it might be just rotting in hand (pun somewhat intended). I'd personally keep it for now and until I get my hands on Venerated Rotpreist. Meanwhile I'll test if it or Pestilent Syphoner should make room for it.
And RE: cutting Blightbelly Rat... TBH, after getting at least one poison counter on each player I'd start recklessly attacking with it in order to:
A) Be chump blocked, thus making my opponent lose a creature
B) Trade or let Rat die in order to get that sweet proliferate trigger
C) Bump someone, giving them 1 more poison counter due to Toxic 1 (which kinda counts as proliferate for 1 player?)
Mycosynth Fiend is a cool reprint because it has newly added "Phyrexian" creature type... Other than that I think it is meant to be swapped for Bloated Contaminator (4/4 Trample and Toxic 1)
This deck also needs both Tainted Strike (5 poison counters with Ixhel on contact) and Triump of the Hordes (same as before Toxic and Infect STACK with each other).
Other addition would be Phyrexian Scriptures for a thematic boardwipe - give +1/+1 counter to e.g. Ixhel and proliferate (which this deck has tons of) and immediately boardwipe EXCEPT for that 1 creature that got +1/+1 counter - way more powerful due to having ANY chance for being one-sided that cut Fumigate.
EDIT: Recently spoiled Infectious Bite is a 2 mana effect that guarantees poison counters for opponents... ON INSTANT SPEED! I think this further incentifies running 1 CMC creatures, which also could kill some X/1 creatures (like opponents' mana dorks) on top of giving each opponent poison counter.
Atraxa is my favorite character and my first commander I built for, so imagine my surprise seeing the Ixhel spoiler and hearing a new Atraxa was coming.
New Atraxa severely disappointing but all my hype for Atraxa is on Ixhel now, really love the mechanic and the precon! Can’t wait
They added a lot of deathtouch and evasion, but if you're running Vishgraz I'd want trample, too.
Vishgraz is gonna love Blade of Selves and Helm of the Host.
Love the show. You guys should consider doing a review of the precon prices 12 months later to see how the market reacts etc. Would be super interesting. :) Keep up the good work
Personally I may go with ixhel because I prefer the flavor of taking your opponents things and making them yours. Very phyrexia.
I also don't love that vishgraz gets less swole as you kill people.
Some of these cards definitely feel like you strategically build up poison ,to best lethal for everyone and then try to burst multiple people down. This makes you a huge threat though.
Also, interesting lore is that ixhel made the other commander, against his will.
Cutting Chromatic Lantern doesn’t seem smart after adding Eerie Ultimatum, but hey what do I know
if you can afford urborg and yavimaya, along with some decent dual and tri lands, chromatic doesn't help much.
im brand new to MTG. I've played about a dozen times over the last month. This poison/toxic dynamic looked interesting, bought the precon and used it for the first time yesterday. I actually held my own. Was exciting to actually feel like a legitimate threat against my friends for the first time LOL. Probably would have won if it weren't for the Eldrazi deck the other guy was running. Anyway. Great content. Looking forward to spicing up the deck with your suggestions.
What I missed in this video is adding dubbelstrike, maybe something to consider
54:49 So I think they forgot how NONE of the bodies Vishgraz makes can block like YOU NEED the pillow fort because you make lots of dudes THAT CANT BLOCK that is a really big oversight with how this is going to work for anyone
Rachel is such a great addition to The Command Zone!
Everyone who’s taking out your Chromatic Lanterns, give them to me XD I’m only glad that JLK is getting people down on it so that hopefully I can afford to put one in all my 3+ color decks. It’s amazing at what it does for how low it costs.
I'm still scratching my head at his " reasons " for this argument. It's a great card.
chromatic lantern is only good if your mana sucks balls xD Great for budget decks, but a 3 mana rock that doesnt do anything besides make a mana is just not good enough anymore
@@ich3730 It makes all your lands tap for a mana of any color. I would put it in all my 3, 4, and 5 color decks for that fact alone. The fact that it also taps for a mana of any color is gravy on top.
Great video, I love this deck.
Best regards from Florence🇮🇹
“Yaknow, get the Josh of your group knocked out”
😂😂😂
This advice should extend beyond evaluating this infect shell.
It should just apply 😂😂😂
Honestly the biggest card this deck needs is blade of selves. And along that thought process, legion loyalty.
Wow yeah Legion Loyalty would be insanely effective in this deck
Absolutely amazing includes.
He's right toxic is not a trigger it's a built-in ability
I love how much love Rachel has for Baldur's Gate. Such a fun set.
What!? No triumph of the hordes for the deck tech 🤔
Losheel also came in the Urza Brother's War precon. ♥️
Now we need a slivers precon
its def enroute
Secret Lair for 1000 dollars and then deliver over a year later as Pringles maybe
Did y’all upload the Boros Precon upgrade instead of the Boros reveal by accident. Usually you do a review then an upgrade.
Either way, I love all your videos!
8:29 🎶 I can feel it coming in the air tonight, oh Lord 🎶
I know this was a budget upgrade video but what do you all think about adding Vraska to the deck?
I keep going into these upgrade videos with no intention of buying the precon, and by halfway through I’ve ordered the precon and a handful of cards…
It took me some time to understand that he was saying “menace”.😅
Ixhel can help facilitate your strategy, while Vish can be part of your combo. Both are great.
Yes, Fynn the Fingerbanger is a great include, well done!!!
Norns annex is good against anyone who can get 20+ creatures out by round 6. Hit me for 20 and die cause you spent 40 life to do it. But other than that it doesn't do much against other commander decks
A lot of the cards they put in this precon are kinds of poppy but the commander’s themselves are neat. Ixhel isn’t your typical infect commander, but it think that plays to its strength. The commander wants you to get a couple of infect counters on and then proliferate your way to victory, not race your opponents down. I think this means you aren’t going to get hated off the table as badly and I also think it means you aren’t as easy to shut down because you can spell sling you way to victory if you can’t get creatures to stick.
Agreed. My issue with the insect commander is people keep saying "look at all the value" but hes basically a mycosynth fiend with some 1/1's that cannot block. He is a big idiot thats going to attract all of the removal while ixhel even if removed you keep that card advantage
I feel the same way about Ixhel and was a little disappointed that this episode went straight for Infect instead of slow and steady.
Same here. I prefer commanders that don't put a lot of pressure on quick. Ixhel is perfect for going under the radar.
I'm sure this has been noted before, but toxic is not a triggered ability like poisonous was. Toxic acts such as lifelink and it is alongside the damage without going on the stack, so it can't be copied with Strionic Resonator or countered by Tale's End/Stifle spells
Crown molding ain't no joke. It takes more skill than most expect.
Toxic isn't a trigger it works like any other static ability that relates with combat such as lifelink I'm pretty sure. Read in some comment thread bout something can't remember what but misleading at the start of this with it being a "trigger" seems bad.
Understand wanting to take out toxic creatures for infect creatures, but KEEP IN MIND, the whole point of toxic is that it's a weaker version of infect so that you won't become instantly targeted. Not that it wouldn't happen anyway, but I would tread lightly with putting in every infect creature under the sun.
Excellent video glad Craig was doing the upgrades
How do you know, it was released 8 minutes ago lol
@Jeffrey Long the first 13 minutes were very good
Dragon Throne of Tarkir is good for all the mites too
I think it would be interesting to take advantage of menace with Vishgraz. Cards like Alpha Authority or Familiar Ground. Make it unblockable. Which grows it as it applies Poison. So could be a fun Voltron strategy because you still have to dish out the counters. So it leads away from taking out one person ASAP because they are your fuel to take the others out.
Vorrac battlehorns too, by the way. It's my favorite voltron card.
Hey, thanks for mentioning familiar ground. I'd never heard of it before, but it goes perfectly in like 5 of my decks. I can't believe nobody mentioned it for the chishiro deck upgrades.
culling ritual is imo really good with the effect of ixhel to play into a more theftbased component
This was fun, totally.
Tbh, I think our little angel is a better commander for this deck. It’s oriented to take the long way, abusing the value that Ixhel gives. A lot of board wipes but not alot value is what indicates Ixhel
I'm surprised for the honorable mentions yes it's a more expensive card but why not put Skittles in it a flying 4/4 with infect that can give itself haste and regenerate is nothing to sneeze at
Poison mechanic was a trigger. Toxic is a replacement effect.
I don't believe it's a replacement effect as you still deal damage to life unlike infect you deal damage and apply poison counters equal to the toxic value. But they did mess up by calling it a trigger you could resonator , that's also just incorrect. Also just random note , infect creatures can still work with lifelink tho the damage is a replacement effect with infect , it's whacky.
@@zackwilcox3183 So, toxic says "players dealt combat damage by this creature also get X poison counters". By saying "also" it is saying to replace "deals damage" with "deals damage and give poison counters". Replacement effects can add things and still do the base thing. That said Toxic can still stack with additional instances of toxic, which is weird but it works.
@@hellehundt1 it's not a replacement effect tho it's a static ability ? And yeah toxic does stack both in number and multiple instances of toxic if I recall from what I heard/read. But new set and wht not ofc I could be wrong.
My upgrade is abt 200 dollars so far but it’s themed around getting one poison counter on my opponents then proliferating them to death with cards like inexorable tide. I also have vraska, betrayals sting and vorinclex, monstrous raider to finish out opponents FAST
Do you have a deck list? I have some cards from PHYREXIA but I don't know what to take out
Totally gobba be fun adding my Praetors and Doubling Season in this.
I ended up building ixhel And giving it a lot of upgrades, It's one of those decks that you just don't get to play , everybody looks at it gets afraid and then targets everything on your board
Just a reminder to everybody looking to build this deck, infect puts a target on your back every time You're not playing a game of commander you're playing a game of Arch enemy
I'm getting this and definitely going Vishgraz
I honestly used to hate playing against infect but I really feel like toxic fixed the problems of had with it. No more growth spells on a random infect out of no where sniping games waaaaaaay too soon. Now even with it being only 10 poison counters still the fact that it has to build at a slower rate makes it to the fun sphere of mtg
i think making the old atraxa the commander with this deck and adding blue proliferate spells from the set could make this pretty broken
Hi Command Zone! I’m an avid watcher of your content and have only been playing magic for about a year now. I’m not very well versed in building decks so I honestly just buy a lot of precons. I haven’t upgraded a single deck yet but I’ve honestly really enjoyed playing this deck so I would like to upgrade it. I have a genuine question with some cards I would like to add, on the off chance I might actually get a response😅, I was wondering if adding Zopandrel, hunger dominus and Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider and Mondrak, Glory Dominus and Drivnod, Carnage Dominus would be good changes? I was quite fortunate to get those cards and I would like to keep a phyrexian theme within the infect deck so would they be good additions or would they not work well? I would really love to hear back from y’all even if this video was posted awhile ago
Hullo from Italy. Love your precon update videos but would suggest to illustrate how to fix mana sources when replacing cards. How many lands to replace in other words.
Thanks guys, terrific job!
Josh voice work as Isu is the top!
Dude, I’m so scared that I’m missing out on the ultrapro stuff, I don’t see any 😔
Also how was Throne of Geth not added to budget upgrade, sack and mite, make more counters 👀
I guess these decks are not infect decks, but "Corrupted" decks. Vishgraz is a voltron commander, while ixhel is playing for the long term value.
Otherwise, you would not remove some cards like Grateful Apparition that is MVP in my atraxa infect deck (Thrummingbird too)... 2 manas evasion that proliferate each turn... I want to win with infect, not with damage. Each infect point is basically 4 damage.
I just need a single opponent that don't have a flyer to proliferate the whole table.
Abzan lacked a strategy that goes beyond Graveyard, +1/1 counters or “Counters”, here it’s the ladder but hey, it’s refreshing enough! I like it!
That is called color identity. Or do you expect a Abzan spells linger deck?
Video I was waiting for. Glad Mr Infect is doing it.
Definitely picking this up