M11 Rare Phylactery Lich – It sure ain’t a Role Player.

In the unlikely case you haven’t seen it:

Phylactery Lich

Phylactery Lich is certainly powerful. It is like a Phyrexian Negator… But instead of tearing apart your board when he tussles, Phylactery Lich annihilates eradicates anything that gets into the Arena with it. Not even a first striking Baneslayer Angel can walk away from a brawl with this indestructible Zombie.

And what a cut of Zombie it is!

Phylactery Lich is absolutely gorgeous. Usually I don’t cotton to Black cards’ art, but this painting is just perfect. It evokes the fear and flavor of the old AD&D Liches; great light; great variation of detail; great power-to-casting cost ratio.

Okay, back to the Magic: The Gathering strategy.

A 5/5 indestructible creature for only three mana is a near no-brainer in terms of playability… Only there is that whole:

As Phylactery Lich enters the battlefield, put a phylactery counter on an artifact you control.

…

When you control no permanents with phylactery counters on them, sacrifice Phylactery Lich.

Basically:

1. You need to have an artifact in play when you play Phylactery Lich.
2. You need to have enough cheap artifacts in your deck to have an artifact in play when you play Phylactery Lich… and they have to be good enough to play in Constructed even if you don’t have Phylactery Lich in your opening hand.

That is the problem.

There are plenty of reasons to play a 5/5 for three mana… The question is if there are enough artifacts to play in Standard to play this particular 5/5 for three.

Blast from the Past:

Covetous Wildfire – Kai Budde

4 Cursed Scroll
4 Fire Diamond
4 Grim Monolith
2 Mishra’s Helix
4 Temporal Aperture
4 Voltaic Key
2 Worn Powerstone

1 Karn, Silver Golem
3 Masticore

4 Covetous Dragon
4 Wildfire

3 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors
13 Mountain

sb:
1 Mishra’s Helix
1 Phyrexian Processor
2 Boil
3 Earthquake
2 Rack and Ruin
2 Shattering Pulse
4 Spellshock

Kai Budde won his first Pro Tour — if you can even count the 1999 World Championships as a Pro Tour — with the card Covetous Dragon; which is kind of like a Red parallel to Phylactery Lich. You had to have an artifact in play for Covetous Dragon — not a particular artifact mind you — but even that card (arguably less powerful than Phylactery Lich) was good enough to build around.

Some notes:

A well-placed bounce spell is going to kill Phylactery Lich. To death.

Multiple Phylactery Liches can all jump on the same phylactery counter-wearing artifact. That means if you run it on a Relic of Progenitous or Armillary Sphere (and you have to spend it), np.

Some artifacts that are cheaper than Phylactery Lich and might be worth playing:

Everflowing Chalice *
Basilisk Collar *
Executioner’s Capsule
Expedition Map
Pithing Needle *
Relic of Progenitus *
Armillary Sphere *
Dragon’s Claw
Prophetic Prism *
Scepter of Fugue
Mistvein Borderpost *
Veinfire Borderpost *

Phylactery Lich isn’t a Staple; it doesn’t “go in decks” (unless they are Black artifact decks!) … You have to build around it.

Phylactery Lich isn’t a Role Player; as above.

It’s really a question of Flagship or Constructed Unplayable.

Why it might be Flagship
Phylactery Lich is just TDG. Relic of Progenitus is good enough against Vengevine and Bloodghast, Scepter of Fugue is good enough against Mana Leak, and Phylactery Lich is good enough at rasslin’

Pepper with Consume the Meek, Consuming Vapors, and All is Dust.

Potential Problem – All is Dust doesn’t care that Phylactery Lich is indestructible.

Why it is probably Constructed Unplayable
You can make a deck… It just isn’t good enough.

We shall see.

I think that the presence of Nantuko Shade in M11 is a good omen for this cool new card. I’m pulling for you Phylactery Lich!

LOVE
MIKE

* Probably playable main deck.