This isn't even a "I died, but at least I got some!" situation. If you tried to bang Phage, you would die before you even got it inside, so you wouldn't even live long enough to enjoy it. She wouldn't enjoy it either; your flesh would immediately putrefy, so she couldn't even get off with your corpse. Only the Cabal Patriarch was able to get it from Phage, because he was immune to her powers. But he had similar powers to her, and she got her deathtouch powers from him in the first place, so there's probably some reverse polarity bullshit going on there that lets them not kill each other. The two also had a kid, weirdly. Various precautions had to be taken so that Phage's body wouldn't kill the baby during childbirth, and even then, it's implied that it mostly survived because it was the physical avatar of an ancient god-king. And, yes, that does mean that Jeska/Phage is officially a milf.
I love the art bc of the way her hand is reaching out, so you can slowly slide her forward with her hand aimed forward and go "i'm gonna get ya! Iiiiim gonnagetcha! Look out!!!" Its like playing Armageddon and saying "Armageddon outta here." Youre going to get your ass beat in the parking lot but at least you'll die having truly lived.
I had a funny moment like this one time while I was playing my Teysa, Orzhov Scion aristocrats deck in a situation where everyone else was one turn from winning. All I had was a bunch of zombie and spirit tokens that I had to keep using as blockers and my Zulaport Cutthroat. I was hoping to draw a sac outlet so I could sneak in a surprise victory by saccing my entire board for a lethal number of Zulaport triggers. I topdecked Damn. I tapped 4 mana and told the table, "Damn... you guys were so close."
I had the pleasure of casting Fractured Identity on this once. I killed myself in the process but took out 4 other players. The laughs didnt stop for an hour.
We were playing a 6 person game and the Phage player was using Sundial of the Infinite so Phage could be their commander. When I used F.I. on their commander it gave the other 5 of us a Phage, killing us all.
Funniest part is that Kayas Ghostform kills the user immediately because if Phage is resurrected by it, that means she entered the battlefield without being cast from hand ;)
If they got Phage out they got one of the several ways ot not die to that effect out already so Ghostform wouldn't kill them unless you deal with that first
My brother in Christ, if they manage to get Phage down from the Command zone without dying, they can ressurect her without dying. Think, SirZerous! Think! Lines of thinking like yours are the reason Phage players are able to win in the first place. Destroy their Platinum Angel/Lich's Mastery, when Phage's ETB trigger gets on the stack or destroy Sundial of the Infinite, if the Phage player plays it.
Only played against this once. A guy rocked up to my pod one night at the lgs, we were missing a player so we were cool letting him join. He was kinda annoying but it was whatever. My deck started to pop off and my two friends realized I was the threat so they worked together to deal with me. Meanwhile the Phage player is just kinda hanging out, doing his own weird thing. I get killed by the other two players, I start shuffling up my next deck and zone out. All of a sudden Phage is on the board and both my friends died to it. I don't even know what happened but we've never played with this person again. We see him all the time but my friends refuse to play him.
I actually lost to a Phage deck once. He got shut down early, and me and the other guy were trading punches like Goku and Vegeta. Finally swung at the other guy with my 40/40 suited up commander and dented his head in before the Phage player tapped two mana, played False Cure, and pointed at my Loxodon Warhammer. Man let everyone else unalive one another before he rolled over the finish line with starbucks in hand 30 minutes late to the party. What a guy.
@@floridaman6982 thats what im fucking saying and they just stuff them bitches with board wipes and stax pieces. Dog i swear to big g, the sweetest words i can possibly imagine are, "pay 4 mana and activate rouge's passage targeting phage".
@@Eagle0600thank you for clarifying, I was thinking they were mad because their opponents were playing the og MOM (Mother of Runes) who could in fact stop a Phage. Most of the players at my lgs call norn by her other nickname “panharmonmycon”
Phage is awesome. I won against a Zombie Deck, because they resurrected my entire grave. And my Phage had just been milled the turn prior. No win has topped that since. I've always wanted to pair Phage with Fractured Identity, but I haven't played enough to get that combo off.
That's funny. I like pulling off janky combos in multi-player for funsies. So, I'd imprint something like Phage or a Leveler in my Summoner's Egg and give it to somebody to make them squirm. And, then, I'd throw in something like Blightsteel Colossus the next game with the expectation that they'd try to destroy my egg before I could pass the hot potato. Then, I'm like, "thank you very much." Couldn't do it reliably, of course, but the look on their face after doing it just once was worth it.
I don’t want to burst your bubble, but wouldn’t having your Phage being resurrected from the graveyard instantly kill you? Oh wait they resurrected your graveyard onto their battlefield?
@@Drahjan_BeginDownload That's what my initial thought was, too. Then, I realized they must’ve used an ability like Grimoire of the Dead's to reanimate Phage under their control. Given that it was milled, I'm guessing there may have been an Undead Alchemiat involved..?
@Kevin.berger I believe it was Rise of the Dark Realms. I was the one who ran a Mill deck. I think I was trying to increase my graveyard to empower my Psychic Spiral.
My "lose-the-game-tribal" deck annoys the whole table when I get one of my "I don't die to my abilities that say I die" tricks and then rip Phage out of my graveyard like a boss. And they can't let me untap with her because they don't know if I'm holding the Fractured Identity...
So commander wise, Phage is to darn expensive early game and is just a lightning rod for removal even if you some how ramp up in black. But in a Lazav, the Multifarious deck... it is fire because your opponents can't see it coming or they forgot that you buried alived it with invisible stalker on turn 3 and no one is playing bajoka bog. If they have nine mana up, you are about to die because they are shapeshifting past your blocker AND removal... with a smallpox stained knife with your name on it.
Oh black can ramp, let me assure you. Nirkana Revenant, Crypt Ghast (which can be played in mono black btw, the white mana symbol in extort is on the reminder text not the card proper), dark ritual, bog witch, alongside the many mana rocks, caged sun...Last time I played with my friends I managed to ult Liliana of the Dark Realms, now all my swamps tap for 4 each. I think black has the second best ramp after green.
Phage is wild dude, I’ve played against her a few times and it’s always crazy seeing how it plays out and interacts, they spend half the game playing the most niche cards you’ve ever seen and then boom they win
My favorite part about this is that I was the person who straight up rolled into a commander game with Phage at the head of the 99. I never won in our 4 way games but I made damn sure other people lost first, suicide black just has a power other colors can't compete with. You bring me down to eleven life? That's fine, I can still draw five cards with Greed, say hi to Gary for me. Black isn't even my favorite color in MTG but disrespect is colorblind and my favorite deck archetype is Mono BM
See, I'm a pretty chill player. I play lots of izzet and temur and gruul with random interactions, dumb copying, and timmy fun. On occasion, I build orzhov or esper and I haven't figured out why yet, but when I do that my chill gets lefts behind somewhere around figuring out the mana curve because that deck is here to destroy everything you care about before it sends you to join them. I built Kambal, Consul of Allocation. Game 1 win. Game 2 I'm playing Archenemy. I won anyway because their life total is *our* life total now. There was no game 3 because my pod unanimously banned the deck.
My favourite deck for the past year or so has been a mostly Commander agnostic mono-B ramp deck. The 3rd out of 4 commanders I tried for it (so far) was Phage. I ended up moving on to Tergrid’s Lantern because Phage felt too fragile, but man, untapping, looking someone in the eye, and saying “crack Command Beacon cast Phage give shadow equip Greaves kill you” feels incredible.
I respect it. Super deathtouch is a little too much. That said, I also gave a fluttering faerie a vorpal sword and said "go forth, my child! Commit all the warcrimes!"
@@MidgarMercher and whispers is an iconic combo, Sheldon (RIP) even mentioned it when talking about loving Endless Whispers. She is secretly cracked when it comes to ways of killing people. You can snipe her with the ETB on the stack for them after they get her to avoid having to recast her to take out another player.
Phage and Akroma were my first legendary creatures back in the day and I really love them. It‘s heartwarming to still see content and conversations happening about those cards ☺️
:) my favorite commander I prefer to use effects that add her to hand instead of some way to turn off her ETB. mostly because then you literally die to instant speed removal. also yes, she cannot get it, in the lore itself her literal touch spreads a flesh eating disease.
I had Phage when I was a teenager. Someone from my class stole it from my backpack! Thats how ridiculous this card was. Someone literally comitted a crime just to get rid of this on our games. Losing this card was the main reason I stopped playing Magic. Not just for the card... I felt sicken that one of my so called "friends" would do that and stopped talking to them.
Describing shadow as its a little bit to dark, hurts my soul. The pour creatures with shadow cant interact with other creatures because when once to planes collided they were sucked into the blind eternaties and and can therefore only fight with other creatures that also live outside of any plane. Its a really sad story 🥲
I feel like endless whispers should have been mentioned here, it’s a card that basically says “if you fuck with me I will haunt your dreams for the rest of your life”
I had one of these decks. Could get phage out 2nd or 3rd turn from the graveyard with haste and trample. Platinum angel was my protection which I get out right before it
The REALIST shit I've EVER heard. Phage came out at my heyday of playing MTG in high school, long before Commander was even a wet dream in somebody's boxers, and this is still the most accurate shit I've ever heard Why yes I ran a Phage -> Donate deck, why do you ask?
My friend was always the archenemy whenever he played Phage, so he took the deck apart and sold me the pieces. Half of it is unusable outside that exact deck, though I do have a Cabal Coffers now, which is nice!
Funny thing is, Phage getting it is lore-accurate. Granted, it was with the ugly bastard Cabal Patriarch Virot Maglan and she gave birth to Scion of Darkness Kuberr, but it happened.
Thing is, I could see some psycho using Phage in a Black and Green deck and add trample to her series of effects when the other guy is just pulling 1/1s to basically keep on living on borrowed time. I’ve never seen this, but I have always played this scenario in my head
Welcome back! Fuck covid! Bonus suggestion: Please for the love of God do a video about Koll, the forgemaster. This Cedh level commander is silly levels of broken. For the low low price of 25 cents
