MTG Salvation

My buddy has challenged me with a task. Make a Wall/Defender tribal-Mill EDH deck with the new U/B God: Phenax, God of Decpetion I currently run a Lazav, Dimir Master Mind-Mill deck that I am partial to. But I am willing to break it up and try this challege. I think it will be fun.

His stipulations we to have a mostly wall tribal deck. A few non-defender cards can be played.

Current Wall/Defenders

Colossus of Akros
Crenellated Wall
Doorkeeper
Fog Bank
Guard of Gomazoa
Ludevic's Test Subject
Minamo Scrollkeeper
Mnemonic Wall
Necropolis
Shield Sphere
Shifting Wall
Snow Fortress
Steel Wall
Thunder Wall
Wall of Blood
Wall of Deceit
Wall of Frost
Wall of Junk
Wall of Kelp
Wall of Shadows
Wall of Tombstones


Right now I have a few non-defender creatures

Consuming Aberration
Eater of the Dead
Morphling


I would like any help. I am currently looking for permanents that help pump my toughness (preferably only my toughness-to stay on flavor)

Favorable sorcery cards would be welcomed as well. Thank you

No Clone effects in the deck to target your stuff?

Quote from Prometheus5429

My buddy has challenged me with a task. Make a Wall/Defender tribal-Mill EDH deck with the new U/B God: Phenax, God of Decpetion I currently run a Lazav, Dimir Master Mind-Mill deck that I am partial to. But I am willing to break it up and try this challege. I think it will be fun.

His stipulations we to have a mostly wall tribal deck. A few non-defender cards can be played.

Current Wall/Defenders

Ken Carson's DeckMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards

Right now I have a few non-defender creatures

Ken Carson's DeckMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards

I would like any help. I am currently looking for permanents that help pump my toughness (preferably only my toughness-to stay on flavor)

Favorable sorcery cards would be welcomed as well. Thank you

Run both Hinder and Spell Crumple+ Tunnel Vision. I played a 4 man table with a Phenax proxy and was able to Hinder/Tunnel Vision 86 cards into an opponents graveyard and mill out another with my then 122/122 Consuming Aberration with the tap ability. Also, he's not a Wall/Defender, but Sewer Nemesis should get a look, especially in a 1v1 deck.

So I'm the one who actually posed the challenge :p. Non-walls are totally fine as long as they have a big butt (P<T).

You definitely want to run Jester's Cap, Praetor's Grasp and Sadistic Sacrament IMO. That strategy will get totally hosed when you mill someone's Eldrazi so the best thing will be to nail them before the mill engine really gets going.

EDIT: as for walls, Hover Barrier and Living Wall seem pretty solid.

EDIT2: Oona, Queen of the Fae should also be a definite include. She exile mills as a mana sink, creates flying blockers (and more mill at EOT) along with more devotion to Phenax.

Quote from Zero_MH

No Clone effects in the deck to target your stuff?

Never gave clone effects a thought. I might throw in Clone himself. But I dont want to get to far off flavor.

Quote from Ken Carson

Run both Hinder and Spell Crumple+ Tunnel Vision. I played a 4 man table with a Phenax proxy and was able to Hinder/Tunnel Vision 86 cards into an opponents graveyard and mill out another with my then 122/122 Consuming Aberration with the tap ability. Also, he's not a Wall/Defender, but Sewer Nemesis should get a look, especially in a 1v1 deck.

I play the Tunnel Vision combo in Lazav. I do plan on keeping it. Even though it makes me feel dirty afterwards.

I like Sewer Nemesis even if its not 1v1. Thank you.

• Wrexial, the Risen Deep
  
• Nemesis of Reason
  
• Consuming Abberation
  
• Mortivore
  
• Szadek, Lord of Secrets (gets there. lol with vigilance)
  
• Sewer Nemesis
  
• Sentinel
  

These (barring sentinel) are mostly on theme too.

Quote from artaud

Interesting idea. Pontiff of Blight will let you live longer, Hythonia the Cruel will destroy opposition and Nightveil Specter can be used as devotion enabler if needed. I would steer away from generic creatures with high toughness though, as if they die they don't bring any value to cover the loss.

Rise of the Dark Realms is a must here, you may also try Intruder Alarm as combo enabler.

EDIT: Don't forget Merchant of Asphodel.

I find rise to be far to hard to fit into most curves, so unless your playing jank and don't care about the quality of your deck, it's hard to fit in really.

• Intruder Alarm
  
• Pemmin's Aura
  
• Freed from the Real
  
• Thousand-Year Elixir
  
• Eater of the Dead
  
• Staff of Domination
  

Just another batch of tech for him.

Quote from ilovesaprolings

after phenax's spoiler, someone pointed out an almost-combo with eater of the dead. also i think that body double could work nicely in a deck like that

If you play enough creatures, you can kill your entire deck with some degree of certainty. I am sure you can figure you something from there.

Slagwurm Armor helps to get a big butt going and Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker makes your walls hard to remove.

Eater of the Dead is epic. Against any deck with 25+ creatures, it could be an instant win! (less creatures required if you have any in your GY or they have less then 100 cards in their library)

i want to build a defender/wall deck, but green has so many good guys! i cant run it without it Wall of Mulch!

include untap creature effects. or untap equips

Its a cute idea. ill probably want to build it

But blue and black kinda annoy me, give us a 5 color or 4 color wall/defender

i guess that's as close as it gets, phenax, decepting walls since 2014.

checking my defender deck

Shield Sphere Bubble Matrix Colfenor's Urn the rest are out of colors :X

Bonehoard and Nighthowler both provide large +X/+X to use with him, and you could throw in Mirko Vosk, Mind Drinker and Sword of Body and Mind to attack one person while you're milling out another with the walls.

Why not try Keening Stone too?

Undead Alchemist and Thousand-Year Elixir can potentially win you the game too.

You need to have some way to exile cards from your opponents graveyard in case you hit an Eldrazi, I would recommend Withered Wretch and/or Leyline of the Void in addition to Eater of the dead. If you want to instantly win via mill you could also run Necrotic Ooze and Phyrexian Devourer for the huge Necrotic Ooze.

Undead Alchemist is definitely a useful inclusion against reanimator decks because they lose value on their mills. Also, I believe Withered Wretch can help remove Eldrazi that hit the graveyard from the game. They still get the shuffle though.

Instead of focusing on having tons of walls, maybe just try to land one or two walls + some good untap effects?

Cards like Triton Tactics, umbral mantle, or turnabout with wall of frost or something.

Also, horseshoe crab lets you leave countermagic open, then mill someone for a bunch before your turn starts.

Tombstone Stairwell is a card I'd like to see in this deck. Even with a modest number of creatures in the graveyard it will mill for quite a bit. Don't let the upkeep cost scare you off, if it isn't dealt with quickly it will close out the game.

Altar of Dementia is great for doubling the amount of mill you'll get out of your zombie tokens. It is a good mill card on its own, and having a repeatable sac engine can be useful.

Undead Alchemist has some nice interactions with the stairwell, as well as the milling strategy in general. It is actually fairly good graveyard hate as well.

I was considering a zombie tribal theme and including cards like Grimgrin, Corpse-Born and Gravecrawler. Grimgrin is another way to double dip with your Tombstone Stairwell tokens. You'll be able to tap the tokens and mill for 2, then sac them to Grimgrin to allow you to mill for ever increasing amounts.

I'm currently running a Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge symmetrical mill deck and the card that consistently mills for the most is Mesmeric Orb. I would suggest including it even if you don't plan on supporting it with artifact copy effects. It is hilarious with prototype portal.

You also might want to stall the board without wrathing so that you can keep your walls and zombies alive longer. It can be helpful to run defense cards like Ensnaring Bridge, Crawl Space, No Mercy, and Dread.

There are some great ideas in this thread!

Quote from Griff

You also might want to stall the board without wrathing so that you can keep your walls and zombies alive longer. It can be helpful to run defense cards like Ensnaring Bridge, Crawl Space, No Mercy, and Dread.

Ensnaring Bridge gets cute with Bottled Cloister in play as well.

Riptide Chronologist Faces of the PastReins of Power Breaking Wave

I think trinket mage and as many graveyard exile effects you can think of is going to be necessary. relic of progenitus, nihil spellbomb, tormod's crypt... You might even want to find some ways of getting lands into play at instant speed to get extra use from bojuka bog, like walking atlas.

This is not just because of Eldrazi (though ideally, if you mill one out, you will want to exile the entire graveyard in response to the shuffle), but other cards that might be equally annoying such as elixir of immortality and time spiral.

if it hasn't been said, gavantic alchemist, axebane guardian, and door keeper make great infa. combos in defenders, my best friend runs them.

As soon as the spoiler came out and I read this card its screamed at me to make a mill EDH deck. I have always been a fan of mill but never really found a general worth building around until Phenax. I really had no idea where to start with this deck so I decied to look on gatherer for fatties and decieded to go with a Defender/ wall for low cost high toughness creatures and Kraken, Leviathan, Octopus, or Serpent/ Quest for Ula's Temple for late game fatties. I have got a ton of great ideas from this post and some from others. A few cards I found that have gone unmentioned here are: Fendeep Summoner, Guiltfeeder, Knacksaw Clique, This card is NUTS!! Bitter Ordeal, Extract.

Helm of Obedience should be included, along with Leyline of the void. With Leyline out, Helm will mill someones deck in one shot.