I'm wondering if there is any value in creating a deck based around having Phyrexian unlife and Form of the Dragon. I've yet to come up with a list I like as I always try to make things "Competitive Casual" if that makes any sense to anyone.
I like the idea because you are at a perpetually at 15 life, and each turn are able to spend those five extra life points on extra spells. Phyrexian mana, Life Payment, Universal Burn, Bargain, etc.
Just setting out my line for ideas right now. Most predominantly in finding ways to ramp up to Form of the Dragon effectively. I'd like to avoid the usual red-rituals as one counter spell or enchantment removal and you just got 6-for-1ed. Also if you manage to burn through all the rituals and land the two cards, I find myself at a huge card disadvantage with nothing on the field. So my current line of crazy thinking is using Dream halls and lots of Draw / Draw&Burn effects. Turn all the extra drawn cards into new spell resources, and your lands to fuel whatever you might have on the table, or other spells. The idea is awesome because it's incredibly powerful!, the ideal is also terrible because it relies on a tri colour deck pivoting on three enchantments. Needless to say, I'm still researching. Thus I've come to the boards.
ideas, suggestions, or even why this doesn't work. SVP.
- Will be editing this post if I feel the need to post a list.
- Hey is it possible to create a Hyperlink to a card without using the card name? ex. Write burn but link it to Lightning Bolt
Note that you can only Pay Life, if you actually have life to pay (more than 0)...
Yep, and Form of the Dragon sets your life to 5 at the end of every turn. That's 5 life you can pay every turn, your turn, your opponents turn etc. So you'll have plenty to burn through.
On that note cards that make you "lose" life or damage you, instead of "pay" (like ad nauseam) if used all at once from a single source can reduce your life total by as much as you want so long as it's all in on go, and will not trigger Unlife due to it's wording, and as long as you started above Zero.
Between form and unlife one could capsized on effects like suicide black, but nega the down side of burning through your life in the end.
So my current line of crazy thinking is using Dream halls and lots of Draw / Draw&Burn effects. Turn all the extra drawn cards into new spell resources, and your lands to fuel whatever you might have on the table, or other spells. The idea is awesome because it's incredibly powerful!, the ideal is also terrible because it relies on a tri colour deck pivoting on three enchantments.
Form of the dragon is super expensive, though, and even if you get the combo, you're playing through most of the game without it in play. A combo with a 7 mana card in it should generally pretty much auto-win when it triggers, not just make you slightly better off.
She's even cheaper than unlife, as long as you keep her alive, you're bulletproof at 0 health, and nothing bad happens when she dies - all that happens is that you return to the phyrexian unlife status quo. Giving you a full 10 poison counter buffer still to work with, which should buy enough time to resurrect melira or find/play another melira, or whatever.
And definitely +1 on the greater auramancy suggestion. Works really well even with the above and no form of dragon.
ooh delaying shield is very clever. It is also in the same color as unlife.
No reason actually why you couldn't run BOTH as redundant combos, unless you really don't want green (perhaps if planning on repay in kind, for example). It would even go 2-3-4 in drops (melira, unlife, shield), conveniently.
If you resolve Dream Halls, you should win on the spot. There are various combinations involving Conflux grabbing another Conflux and four copies of Progenitus that lead to an instawin.
I see. Maybe Dream Halls isn't what I should be looking at then, and meeting pretty heavy resistance against Form of the Dragon over-all.
Perhaps she is just not that playable, but at least this has spun some neat Unlife ideas.
I like the idea because you are at a perpetually at 15 life
That'd only be true if somehow, one could say magically, any poison counters you receive are reset to zero at one point during each turn. That not being possible - even Leeches would be problematic (dealing damage) - Unlife gives you a cushion, but not in the way the aforementioned Melira & Unlife do. On one hand this might not be that important, as Form is usually a four turn clock. On the other, it might be important if you plan on using these 5 life at the wrong time.
The way I'd set this up has already been mentioned, Ideal is ... ideal to tutor up multiple enchantments, and there is enough artificial or red ramp to speed things up.
As others mostly focused on 'what cards can do Form's job better' / 'Unlife', I'd like to mention a couple of cards that might do Unlife's job better. A little old whacky card that covers two weak spots of Form is Energy Storm. Nevermind the cumulative upkeep, you most likely already have seven mana and if you used Ideal, there's not much spells needing mana afterwards. Along the same line would be Gravity Sphere, Mystic Decree & Katabatic Winds. Less obscure but more effective is good old Solitary Confinement, so long you hold enough cards to have Form win you the game, the drawbacks are not really that harsh - or you can just play more than one copy and maybe have Ideal fetch them consecutively (Wheel of Sun and Moon could help you loop one, but leaves open a tiny window to target you).
I'm wondering if there is any value in creating a deck based around having Phyrexian unlife and Form of the Dragon. I've yet to come up with a list I like as I always try to make things "Competitive Casual" if that makes any sense to anyone.
I like the idea because you are at a perpetually at 15 life, and each turn are able to spend those five extra life points on extra spells. Phyrexian mana, Life Payment, Universal Burn, Bargain, etc.
Just setting out my line for ideas right now. Most predominantly in finding ways to ramp up to Form of the Dragon effectively. I'd like to avoid the usual red-rituals as one counter spell or enchantment removal and you just got 6-for-1ed. Also if you manage to burn through all the rituals and land the two cards, I find myself at a huge card disadvantage with nothing on the field. So my current line of crazy thinking is using Dream halls and lots of Draw / Draw&Burn effects. Turn all the extra drawn cards into new spell resources, and your lands to fuel whatever you might have on the table, or other spells. The idea is awesome because it's incredibly powerful!, the ideal is also terrible because it relies on a tri colour deck pivoting on three enchantments. Needless to say, I'm still researching. Thus I've come to the boards.
ideas, suggestions, or even why this doesn't work. SVP.
- Will be editing this post if I feel the need to post a list.
- Hey is it possible to create a Hyperlink to a card without using the card name? ex. Write burn but link it to Lightning Bolt
Yep, and Form of the Dragon sets your life to 5 at the end of every turn. That's 5 life you can pay every turn, your turn, your opponents turn etc. So you'll have plenty to burn through.
On that note cards that make you "lose" life or damage you, instead of "pay" (like ad nauseam) if used all at once from a single source can reduce your life total by as much as you want so long as it's all in on go, and will not trigger Unlife due to it's wording, and as long as you started above Zero.
Between form and unlife one could capsized on effects like suicide black, but nega the down side of burning through your life in the end.
Prefect! Linking works, thank you.
If you're playing Dream Halls you don't need to actually play 3 colors; you can go mostly mono-blue. Once you get Dream Halls out you can:
1. play Conflux discarding a blue card (eg. Brainstorm)
2. grab 5 cards, (2 Confluxes + 1 Form of the Dragon + 1 Phyrexian Unlife + 1 extra card)
3. play Form discarding Conflux
4. play Unlife discarding another Conflux
and now you have your soft lock set up.
If you want a cheap combo with Phyrexian Unlife, I'd suggest Melira, Sylvok Outcast
She's even cheaper than unlife, as long as you keep her alive, you're bulletproof at 0 health, and nothing bad happens when she dies - all that happens is that you return to the phyrexian unlife status quo. Giving you a full 10 poison counter buffer still to work with, which should buy enough time to resurrect melira or find/play another melira, or whatever.
And definitely +1 on the greater auramancy suggestion. Works really well even with the above and no form of dragon.
No reason actually why you couldn't run BOTH as redundant combos, unless you really don't want green (perhaps if planning on repay in kind, for example). It would even go 2-3-4 in drops (melira, unlife, shield), conveniently.
I see. Maybe Dream Halls isn't what I should be looking at then, and meeting pretty heavy resistance against Form of the Dragon over-all.
Perhaps she is just not that playable, but at least this has spun some neat Unlife ideas.
That'd only be true if somehow, one could say magically, any poison counters you receive are reset to zero at one point during each turn. That not being possible - even Leeches would be problematic (dealing damage) - Unlife gives you a cushion, but not in the way the aforementioned Melira & Unlife do. On one hand this might not be that important, as Form is usually a four turn clock. On the other, it might be important if you plan on using these 5 life at the wrong time.
The way I'd set this up has already been mentioned, Ideal is ... ideal to tutor up multiple enchantments, and there is enough artificial or red ramp to speed things up.
As others mostly focused on 'what cards can do Form's job better' / 'Unlife', I'd like to mention a couple of cards that might do Unlife's job better. A little old whacky card that covers two weak spots of Form is Energy Storm. Nevermind the cumulative upkeep, you most likely already have seven mana and if you used Ideal, there's not much spells needing mana afterwards. Along the same line would be Gravity Sphere, Mystic Decree & Katabatic Winds. Less obscure but more effective is good old Solitary Confinement, so long you hold enough cards to have Form win you the game, the drawbacks are not really that harsh - or you can just play more than one copy and maybe have Ideal fetch them consecutively (Wheel of Sun and Moon could help you loop one, but leaves open a tiny window to target you).