Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon is one of the many infect commanders available in Magic: The Gathering. It is one of the strongest cards that have infect, and thanks to its legendary status, makes for a great commander.
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A Skithiryx deck is a hybrid deck of infect and voltron (a deck that stacks Equipment and Auras onto a singular creature to attack). A player loses the game if they ever have ten or more poison counters (which can almost never be removed), so if you want to shortcut the needed damage in order to win the game, Skithiryx is a great choice of commander.
Decklist
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Commander: Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon |
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Vraska, Betrayal’s Sting |
Bilious Skulldweller |
Blackcleave Goblin |
Blightbelly Rat |
Blightsteel Colossus |
Contagious Nim |
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Core Prowler |
Corpse Cur |
Crypt Ghast |
Flesh-Eater Imp |
Gray Merchant of Asphodel |
Gulping Scraptrap |
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Hand of the Praetors |
Ichorclaw Myr |
Ichor Rats |
Leaden Myr |
Magus of the Coffers |
Myr Convert |
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Pestilent Syphoner |
Phyrexian Crusader |
Plague Myr |
Plague Stinger |
Reaper of Sheoldred |
Silent Arbiter |
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Toxic Nim |
Whispering Specter |
Caress of Phyrexia |
Drown in Ichor |
Infectious Inquiry |
Mutilate |
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Phyresis Outbreak |
Toxic Deluge |
Vat Emergence |
Astarion’s Thirst |
Defile |
Grim Affliction |
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Howl from Beyond |
Vraska’s Fall |
Whisper of the Dross |
Arcane Signet |
Blackblade Reforged |
Brotherhood Regalia |
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Champion’s Helm |
Commander’s Plate |
Contagion Clasp |
Contagion Engine |
Fireshrieker |
Glistening Sphere |
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Jet Medallion |
Lashwrithe |
Lightning Greaves |
Mind Stone |
Nightmare Lash |
Prowler’s Helm |
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Sol Ring |
Staff of Compleation |
Swiftfoot Boots |
Trailblazer’s Boots |
Whispersilk Cloak |
Necrogen Communion |
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Phyrexian Arena |
Shade’s Form |
Snake Cult Initiation |
Unspeakable Symbol |
Buried Ruin |
Castle Locthwain |
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Cathedral of War |
Inkmoth Nexus |
Karn’s Basiton |
Minas Morgul, Dark Fortress |
Mirrex |
Myriad Landscape |
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Rogue’s Passage |
Shizo, Death’s Storehouse |
x20 Swamp |
The Black Gate |
Urza’s Cave |
War Room |
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Witch’s Cottage |
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The decklist contains one planeswalker, 26 creatures, seven sorceries, six instants, 20 artifacts, five enchantments, and 34 lands. While you often want to go all-in on Skithiryx, you can utilize other creatures and spells to close out those last few poison counters you need to give your opponents.
Key Cards
Skithiryx, The Blight Dragon
Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon is the main source of infect. Since it has flying, it’s naturally harder to block, which can be made impossible to block with various pieces of Equipment. The ability to give itself haste is great too, allowing for a swing the turn you cast it at an opponent without creatures with flying or reach on the battlefield.
Skithiryx can be protected with the Equipment put on it, but it can also protect itself by its ability to regenerate. This makes it much harder to deal with through most traditional means. Unless your opponent can exile or for you to sacrifice Skithiryx, it’ll likely stay on the battlefield.
Regenerating is an ability that will cause a creature to be tapped as opposed to being destroyed. This can be done even if a creature is tapped and the protection will still work.
Contagion Engine
Contagion Engine isn’t the most flashy card in the deck, but it is one of the best. For just four mana you can profilerate twice. Since infect provides poison counters, when you proliferate, you essentially get to add two more.
Contagion Engine does cost a hefty bit of mana to cast, but it’s more than worth it. Closing out the last few poison counters can be harder in the late-game once your opponents have more established battlefields. However, double proliferation is a great way to get those last few you need.
Staff Of Compleation
Staff of Compleation lets you trade life for a variety of effects. Primarily, you want to use Staff of Compleation to proliferate at the cost of three life. If need be, you can use it as a mana rock and in desperate need, you can draw a card. You almost never want to use it to destroy a permanent you own.
The strength of Staff of Compleation is it is very good late-game when you have a ton of excess mana. You can invest five mana to keep untapping it, which will give you multiple proliferate triggers in just one turn.
Hand Of The Praetors
The main lord of creatures with infect, Hand of the Praetors is your best non-commander creature in the deck. Almost every creature in your deck has infect, which makes Hand of the Praetors turn every creature being cast into a poison counter on an opponent.
You generally want to spread poison counters evenly to make it easier to take everyone out at once through proliferate triggers. If someone is a bigger threat than others, however, you should focus on getting them to ten poison counters before turning your attention to your other opponents.
The stat boost is nice, but largely unimpactful. The ability to easily add poison counters is the main attraction. Being able to passively apply pressure in the form of poison counters is excellent, as your opponents can do very little about the effect.
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How To Play The Deck
A Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon Commander deck is based on spreading as many poison counters as you can to your opponents to get them to ten as quickly as possible. Your commander Skithiryx is the easiest way to get a ton of counters quickly, with proliferate effects closing in the gaps.
The deck is mono-black, so you are light on ramp. You have a few mana dorks to help cast Skithiryx quicker such as Plague Myr and Myr Convert, along with Jet Medallion to discount all your black spells.
There are a ton of effects that proliferate to add more poison counters to your opponents. You want to make sure to save these proliferate effects until every one of your opponents have a poison counter so you’re not wasting a powerful ability. Permanents that can proliferate are the best since they are re-useable such as Karn’s Bastion and Contagion Clasp/Engine.
Since Skithiryx is so important, the deck also incorporates a Voltron strategy. Whispersilk Cloak, Trailblazer Boots, and Brotherhood Regalia all help to make Skithiryx unblockable, with Unspeakable Symbol, Nightmare Lash, and Lashwrithe all giving stat boosts that can allow Skithiryx to give ten poison counters with just one turn.
If a card has infect and is given the toxic ability (or vice versa), both abilities will trigger. So if a creature has infect with a 4/4 statline and toxic 2, the player getting damaged will get six poison counters.
The primary win condition of the deck is winning through giving your opponent ten poison counters. Since creatures with infect have their combat damage turned into poison counters, you will not actually be damaging your opponents’ life totals. As such, your only route to victory is through poison counters, since you can’t actually win through traditional combat.
The biggest weakness of the deck is its speed. Mono black isn’t known for its ability to ramp, and you are likely going to be targeted as soon as you reveal your commander. Infect decks are known to win quickly and often can’t be interacted with, so you’ll become public enemy very early. Cards like Silent Arbiter can help to slow the game down, but you’ll need to rely on removal and board wipes early in the game in order to stay in long enough to start making your battlefield. Gray Merchant of Asphodel also helps to make up for lost life.
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