Players ofMagic: The Gatheringcan bring more excitement to the Commander format by introducingAtraxa, Grand Unifierherself. She is the more evolved form of “Atraxa, Praetor’s Voice” that represents Mirrodin’s fall to the Phyrexian threat and the sheer horrific beauty of “compleation.” A Phyrexian Angel, Atraxa brings the threat of fetch cards in a powerful vessel, allowing players to make special draws that may control the match and lead to more victory conditions.
At first glance, Atraxa seems like an extremely powerfulMagic: The GatheringCommander, but her steep cost may make her less than ideal in situations where players don’t have control over their deck. Not only that, the threat of three other players stopping Atraxa from pulling off her skills may ruin a player’s chances at victory. Here’s how maximize the Phyrexian Angel’s threat in the table.
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The Lore: Who Is Atraxa?
In the lore ofMagic: The Gathering,Atraxa was once an angel in Mirrodinwho helped Mirran resist Phyrexia’s corruption. Unfortunately, her success in helping a Mirran retreat led to her capture by the Phyrexians. Praetor Elesh Norn, Mother of the Machines and leader of New Phyrexia, was awestruck by the angel’s vigor and chose to “compleate” her instead of destroying her. This eventually led to Mirrodin’s conquest.
After the process of Phyrexian compleation, the angel became Atraxa and served as one of Elesh Norn’s fiercest generals. Atraxa led the efforts to assimilate the crime plane of Capenna, protected by the divine Halo that proved damaging to Phyrexians. While Atraxa’s angelic history proved resistant to the Halo’s effects, trying to corrupt the beauty-focused Maestros family made Atraxa obsessed with the same concept. With Atraxa’s newfound fascination, the Capellan crime families united to make an entire neighborhood drop on Atraxa, resulting in her death.
Grand Unifier Atraxa’s Key Characteristics
As the embodiment of Phyrexia’s successful conquests, the Grand Unifier has the following characteristics:
Strengths: Multicolor Powerhouse
When using “Atraxa, Grand Unifier” as the centerpiece of aCommander Deck inMagic: The Gathering, players must learn of her core strengths as a unit. Compared to “Atraxa, Praetor’s Voice,” the “Grand Unifier” variant is a more straightforward beast to handle. Here are certain strengths that players can capitalize on:
Weaknesses: Expensively Generic
Unfortunately, despite how useful “Atraxa, Grand Unifier” seems inMagic: The Gatheringgameplay, she does have flaws as a Commander. Strategic players can find Atraxa a hassle to use, especially if they don’t have the cards to make a deck that works around these disadvantages.
Grand Unifier Strategies: Versatility
Understanding the key approaches to take combat can help players capitalizes on Atraxa’s key abilities. Asa card-drawer that packs a punch, Atraxa can become a juggernaut that facilitates multiple effects at once. This makes her an ideal creature for the following strategies.
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Deck 1: Poisonous Phyrexian Tribal
Fans ofMagic: The Gatheringlore would likely build “Atraxa, Grand Unifier” in a deck that fits her origins as a compleated Phyrexian Angel. While not as thematic as her “Praetors’ Voice” variant, thisPoisonous Phyrexian Tribalcapitalizes on “Grand Unifier” as a card-fetcher to secure staple Phyrexian Tribal effects such as Infect, Proliferate, and Toxic.
In thePoisonous Phyrexian Tribal, Atraxa gives players access to cards such as “Venerated Rotpriest” and “Contaminant Grafter” that gives opponent Poison counters, forcing them to lose the game upon reaching 10 counters. This is a victory condition that players can easily achieve with “Evolution Sage” that Proliferates during Landfall, adding one more counter of every kind of counter whenever Lands appear.
Deck 2: Budget Copy Blink
One strategy players can use with “Atraxa, Grand Unifier” involves tapping into her fetching talents.Magic: The Gatheringplayers can easily build a deck that uses Atraxa to facilitate Blink and Copy with a relatively cheapBudget Copy Blinksetup. This Commander Deck relies on proccing Atraxa’s ETB effect at least once. This allows players to secure cards that can Copy cards, which secure more Blink effects upon ETB.
Budget Copy Blinkrelies on Blink cards such as “Planar Incision” and “Momentary Blink” to Exile and then forcibly return cards to the field, triggering their ETB. Other cards such as “Croaking Counterpart” and “Spitting Image” also use Copy to proc ETBs, spamming the field with various effects. While Budget Copy Blink generally resorts to standard aggro to eliminate foes through numbers, players can customize this further to fit ETB effects of their choice.
Deck 3: Practical Mana Spread
Maximizing a high-cost fetch card like “Atraxa, Grand Unifier” can force aplayer to secure her Mana cost first before building a deck strategy around her. This is whatPractical Mana Spreaddoes, as it prioritizes spreading the deck into 40 Lands and 10 of each card type (with 9 Planeswalkers). For starters,Practical Mana Spreadtries to kick things up a notch with ramp cards like “Cultivate” and “Circuitous Route,” which give players access to multiple Mana sources without needingrareMagic: The Gatheringcards. Cards like “Cloudblazer” then give extra draw options.
This deck should also include generic card removal options to remove threats on the opponent’s side, such as “Utter End” and “Damn.” Improving Atraxa’s fetching could be done by knowing which cards she draws in advance via “Sensei’s Divining Top” and protecting her via “Whispersilk Cloak.” This deck makes for a decent sampler of Atraxa’s potential before players dabble into more complicated synergies.
Deck 4: Mill And Reanimate
WhileBlue (U) control decks inMagic: The Gatheringcan make solid mill decks, players who want to add extra viciousness can resort toMill and Reanimate. This deck not only maximizes Atraxa’s fetch mechanic, but also taps on her Black color coding to insert annoying Reanimate mechanics.Mill and Reanimateexemplifies the potential of a Blue-Black (UB) Mill. Players not only force enemies to destroy their cards (Mill), but also ensure that creatures get back in the field (Reanimate) when enemies are still able to make summons.
For instance, “Doomed Necromancer” and “Eternal Witness” can transport creatures from the grave back to the hand or the field. However, self-mills such as “Nyx Weaver” can make a measly 1/4 “Graveblade Marauder” into a juggernaut, as the latter forces an enemy to lose life equal to the number of cards in the player’s graveyard. Thanks to Atraxa, players no longer need extra fetch cards, as her ETB can reveal any of these cards to help set up combos.
Deck 5: Anti-Card Mayhem
Thanks to Atraxa’s card-fetching ability, players ofMagic: The Gatheringshould secure their win-cons easily provided she picks up the right cards. And since Atraxa has a powerful stat block on her own, she can lead the charge in an aggressive assault. In turn, players only have to ensure that enemies don’t get a chance to secure their own win-cons.
That’s whereAnti-Card Mayhemcomes in. WithAnti-Card Mayhem, players heavily focus on Atraxa drawing multiple blockers to hinder the enemy’s advance while slowly killing them via Atraxa’s sheercombat prowess similar to a Red deck. This deck focuses on countering any advantage on the opponent’s side of the field. Searches and fetches become useless with mills from “Ashiok, Dream Render.” Meanwhile, while “Narset, Parter of Veils” and “Spirit of the Labyrinth” locks card-draw limit for all parties. “Collector Ouphe” stops artifacts from working, while “Ground Seal” stops movement from the grave entirely.
Enemies even get punished for playing as “Thalia, Guardian of Thraben,” who boosts the cost of casting spells, and “Teferi, Time Raveler” stops counterspells. Even if it takes time for Atraxa to enter the field, the sheer amount of interference with this deck can give players all the time they need to get their Commander in the field.
