Phylactery Dick

First deck post of the new year, and I misspell the title? Nah, totally intentional.

Here's a deck I've been playing around with since roughly mid-October. Started with me looking at a Phylactery Lich and thinking, "Gee, there sure are a lot of artifacts in the new set." First iteration came about around the same time Liquimetal Coating was popular. While people built destructive decks around it, my mindset was more towards aiming the effect at a Land or existing Lich before dropping a second one. Darksteel Axe seemed to be an obligatory include, considering it nearly erased the Lich's main weakness. And Prophetic Prism gave me mana fixing with the added bonus of filling up the hole it left in my hand. Early versions also played with Darksteel Juggernaut for both the amount of artifacts in the deck (A few myr and vampire-favoring equipment can boost numbers) and my inclusion of a certain white spell.

Anyways, here's what it looks like at the moment;


Phylactery Dickery
---Land (23)---
x3 Marsh Flats
x4 Plains
x12 Swamp
x4 Terramorphic Expanse

---Creatures (17)---
x2 Abyssal Persecutor
x3 Baneslayer Angel
x2 Darksteel Myr
x4 Leaden Myr
x4 Phylactery Lich
x2 Wall of Omens

---Artifacts (8)---
x4 Darksteel Axe
x4 Prophetic Prism

---Spells (12)---
x4 Day of Judgment
x4 Dispense Justice
x4 Journey to Nowhere


---Sideboard(15)---
x3 Kor Firewalker
x4 Leyline of Sanctity
x4 Memoricide
x4 Sadistic Sacrament


Breakdown:
- Marsh Flats / Terramorphic Expanse: I'd up one and lower the other, but one must have before one can do. Anyways, they fix up the mana base quite well, considering how important it can be to have that third swamp or that first plains.
- Abyssal Persecutor: Another thing I'd probably play four of. This demon's downside is rarely an issue when 20% of my deck is capable of buggering off the minion when he's no longer needed.
- Darksteel Myr: Indestructible artifacts are great with Phylactery Lich, and this one makes a great wall. Not as good as the Axe, considering the expanded selection of vulnerabilities.
- Leaden Myr: Ramp! I'd rather not risk sticking a Phylactery counter on him, but he fixes black as well as help with a turn three Persecutor.
- Phylactery Lich: The main attraction. 5/5 Indestructible is rather awesome, particularly when most methods of dealing with him aren't too mainstr- metastream? Eh, um... yeah. And with a deck packing maximum Day of Judgment, it can spell "direct damage" to an opponent. As it hits it. Preferably repeatedly. With an Axe. Moving on <.<
- Wall of Omens: I'd replace the Darksteel Myr with two more of these cantrips, if only I took the time to acquire two more. With Besieged coming out, 0/1 buy less time to infect than a 0/4.
- Darksteel Axe: Suck on this, Liquimetal Naturalize decks! Also, a more effective weapon than a Bone-Wand.
- Prophetic Prism: My first non-Darksteel choice for the Lich's weakness. It cantrips, and it filters in ways I could only have dreamed of if only I weren't playing since, ever. But for Standard, it's the only mana filter I have available, and fortunately it rarely lets me down. As a turn two play, it can allow for a turn three Lich and turn four DoJ without annoying things like mana-Myr or say, green. All in all keeps the chroma in check. That metaphor works, right?
- Dispense Justice: Catches offensive creatures off-guard. Metalcraft isn't too important, but can happen. Honestly, the card I'm most displeased with. Used to be Sunspear Shikari's back when there were more equipment. I'm thinking about changing them to Reassembling Skeleton, considering my lack of Bloodghasts and love of post-wrath board recovery. What do you think?

Sideboard:
- Firewalkers: Actually thinking about taking them out, but Red Aggro seems a tad high in the current meta.
- Leyline of Sanctity: Can severely hinder mill, direct damage (including Valakut), discard, and other random shenanigans. A shame it can't deal with Venser.
- Sadistic Sacrament, Memoricide: Almost obligatory includes in games two and three. Basically takes potshots at my opponent's strategy, particularly Valakut and Relic Weenie. And in my opinion, this is where a consistent solid turn three black mana pays off the most.

So, that's about it. There's little doubt in my mind that it'll need some adjusting before using it after Besieged. Industructible more useful for surviving wrath effects than it is at enduring -1/-1 counters, afterall...

Update

So it's been a little over five months since my last update. My bad.

Time can go quickly, and laziness can be a factor. And honestly, I've had a lull in crazy ideas. September was a mixture of anguish and anticipation. For the former, I had to part with my Warp World deck on the months end. I'll admit I'm rather fond of the deck; a rare trait that only two of my Standard decks had managed to possess until that point (A Mirrodon/Kamigawa block Leveler deck, and a consistant top 8ing Ravnica/Time Spiral block "Zombify" deck). As with the previous two, a new block was arriving, hence the anticipation. When Mirrodin (my first block being a competitive player) left I was introduced with Ravnica, reveling the Golgari guild. I moved on fairly easy, and hardly missed the artifact-heavy sets when the Orzhov came around. Hell, even Dissension's Nephilim kept me entertained. When the time came for Lorwyn to kick out all my fun creatures in Ravnica, I don't feel like I was compensated for the loss. To this day I keep bitter feelings towards those storybook sets. And then came Scars of Mirrodin.

I savored the final FNM before the transition. Warp World almost possessed a will of it's own, giving me good draws the whole night. Even legitimately massacring the rare Valukut match I encountered. It was good times to Top 8 once again; the last time being the first time I tried out the deck.

As for Scars itself, it was good to see Mirrodin again. Old friends. Like Time Spiral was for me. I won't go into an in-depth review of the set; too late in the game I'd say, but also because critique of it can easily be found in abundance elsewhere. I will say though, as someone who never saw Affinity as an actual threat back in the day, I found Metalcraft to be quite underwhelming.

So I've been here and there, mostly playing with one deck that I've tinkered with on and off. I'll post it a bit later. Tempted to play it again tonight, but I'm considering another deck to try toying with before MtG goes full WoW and Besieged brings about the Infected Horde.

Here I'm almost on the eve of another set release, and I'm surprised to see myself dreading Infect's spotlight. Mayhaps the Phyrexians are coming back to their old selves. We'll see.