Atraxa, Praetors' Voice - Commander Deck Tech

Atraxa, Praetors' Voice

by Justin Hernandez & Alexis Hernandez

Hey friends, Beth here with another Commander Deck Tech. This deck tech comes just in time for you to build right before the Praetors For Pride charity event in June. Even if you're not participating in this event, Phyrexians are here to stay (even if they were defeated in March against the Machines last year).

Though this commander might have met her fate on a beam in New Capenna, she makes for an extremely spicy commander. You might be familiar with Atraxa, Grand Unifier

This deck is toxic, with the goal of keeping your opponents' boards in check thanks to none other than the Slug herself, Toxrill, the Corrosive

A Little Infect Goes a Long Way

I am a strong believer that 10 poison counters is too little compared to 21 commander damage and 40 life. However, because poisoning your enemies... I mean "opponents"... is such a short goalpost, it tends to be one of the most hated ways to play. Have you ever tried to win with infect, poison, toxic, etc.? I'm betting you got one or two opponents down and then you were quickly ganged up on. If you win, I'm betting it was with proliferation in play, but we'll talk more about that later.

The goal of this deck is to get that first poison counter on each opponent, and one of the original ways to do this is with infect creatures. I've added a mix of small creatures that can come in early, like Blighted Agent

She's a Tiny Bit Toxic

Toxic was introduced in Phyrexia: All Will Be One and has been used instead of infect in recent sets. Instead of being dealt damage via poison counters to the player and -1/-1 counters to creatures like infect, toxic deals combat damage normally while also giving a poison counter to the player should it do damage. The amount is normally one but has been printed as high as four, giving four poison counters when you're able to hit a player with that creature.

The reason I included these creatures instead of all infect creatures is because I like the variety, and some of the creatures with toxic have additional abilities that really help the deck shine. Venerated Rotpriest

Another powerhouse comes from Contaminant Grafter

Poison the Well

If you're not able to get a poison counter in with the infect or toxic creature package, there are a few spells that your opponents won't be able to evade. Norn's Decree

Especially as players start to get to seven to eight poison, you'll want to give them every reason not to focus on you for as long as possible. This deck features card draw and poison with both Prologue to Phyresis

Proliferate Your Way to Victory

Generally speaking, the more poison counters they have, the more twitchy your opponents are going to be. The ultimate goal of this deck is to put one to two poison counters on each opponent and then in one turn proliferate all three to ten poison counters, ending the game before they have a chance to whittle down your life total. This deck contains 26 different pieces of proliferation, including the commander, Atraxa, Praetors' Voice

From the Fallout set release comes Agent Frank Horrigan

With such a huge proliferation package, you'll need to be extremely careful because the protection in this deck is light. You might have a very glass cannon build, but there are important inclusions, like Teferi's Protection

While this deck doesn't include the Praetors that most people prefer in a Phyrexian deck, you can easily make some switches if you'd like a flavorful build. Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider

What would you include in this spicy Atraxa build, and who are you playing it with? Let me know in the comments below.