Phyrexia: All Will Be One Top 10 Budget Commander Cards

Kristen returns hot off the heels of her Commander Set Review to bring you a rundown of the top, budget, Commander cards from Phyrexia: All Will Be One. 

Our Phyrexia: All Will Be One coverage continues with a recap of the top budget cards that’ll make some real impact on your deckbuilding. For our other content, including our Commander Set Review, check below:

• Commander Set Review
• Best New Cards from the Precons
• Rebellion Rising Upgrade & Review
• Corrupting Influence Upgrade & Review
• Modern Updates
• Pioneer Updates
• Standard Updates

10. Vat of Rebirth

Let’s kick things off with Vat of Rebirth. Vat is pretty low investment to begin with, and only asks that you’re playing treasures, blood, clues or making tokens. Either that or playing Aristocrats decks with plenty of sacrifice outlets. 

Or maybe you’re doing both? Either way, four mana for a reanimate effect isn’t bad, especially when you can keep reusing it. I’m going to jam this straight into Burakos/Guild Artisan, and I know there are plenty of decks this fits into. It’s also pretty easy to Proliferate, if that’s your thing. 

9. Armored Scrapgorger

Armored Scrapgorger has quickly moved up the list to become the mana dork of choice at two mana in green decks. While you can make arguments for Paradise Druid or any number of other elves, it’s the incidental graveyard munching that takes this thing up a level. 

It eventually becomes a 3/3, too, which is a good size for attacks and blocks. This is a cheap way to include some extra graveyard hate for dealing with a playgroup uses a lot of reanimator strategies.

8. Tvyar’s Stand

Tamiyo’s Safekeeping was good, but I’d argue this is better. Green now has a peak density of this kind of spell, so protecting key creatures has never been easier. What I think takes this up another level is the ease of access to Hexproof in green decks in the first place — making this a modal spell, in many ways. 

The other mode is a large pump of power/toughness, which is perfect for Voltron builds or those running chonky creatures. No blocks? OK, sure, I’ll pump my creature to kill you. Definitely going in my Sigarda, Host of Herons Enchantress deck. 

7. Serum Sovereign

Serum Sovereign is good, reliable, repeatable card draw. Many decks in the format care about noncreature spells, from Spellslinger, to Artifacts, to Enchantress, to Control. 

Getting to cast Serum Visions at instant speed, repeatedly, will do a lot to smooth your draws. I particularly like how this is eminently splashable, asking only a single blue pip.

6. Necrogen Rotpriest

Necrogen Rotpriest is, in my opinion, one of the sleeper uncommons of the set. Toxic 2 on a creature that survives most attempts at blocking is great. As a 1/5, it also blocks like a champ. It can threaten blockers by granting Deathtouch to your Toxic creatures, and it ticks up that poison clock by double dipping on Toxic. 

What’s not to love? Well, it’s also a Zombie Cleric, two of the most ubiquitous creature types, which might lead to some cute interactions. I see Rotpriest as a cornerstone of Toxic decks, and I’d be picking up a foil or an alternate art treatment while the going’s good. 

5. Kaito, Dancing Shadow

I think Kaito is currently very underrated. I’ve waxed lyrical about how great The Restoration of Eiganjo has been for me, particularly in how it is greater than the sum of its parts. Kaito is similar, so let me break it down. 

First up, he protects himself with a deathtouch drone, meaning all you have to worry about is flyers. Second, he can stop a creature from attacking or blocking until your next turn. This isn’t only involving you — it means any opponent also gets to attack them for free, or is safe from a potential huge swing. Most importantly, he can draw cards.

Now, all of those things are good in a vacuum, but Kaito lets us choose two abilities per turn if we deal combat damage. The cost for this bonus value is bouncing a creature to our hand that dealt damage this turn. But is it truly a cost? Perhaps not. 

Blue and black have an abundance of excellent EtB creatures, and getting to rebuy those effects is some insane value. What’s more, even if you can’t activate Kaito’s abilities more than twice, you can still bounce one creature per player hit, which might come in handy if you want to board wipe.

Kaito is the best parts of cards like Coastal Piracy, Maze of Ith, Cunning Evasion and Erratic Portal, all rolled into one, versatile package. 

4. Glissa Sunslayer

Much like Kaito, Glissa offers a toolbox approach to value. A First Strike, Deathtouch body is always good in Commander, especially when it’s a 3/3, which makes double blocks terrible. 

Glissa guarantees you’re getting to draw at least one extra card each turn, and she’s better late than format mainstay Phyrexian Arena. She also destroys enchantments, but don’t sleep on the virtual card advantage you gain from having a Glissa in play. If players can’t chump block her, they will just refuse to play out enchantments until they can deal with her. This is huge.

Oh, and sometimes she can reset Sagas, remove Planeswalkers, or nerf creatures with ability/shield/+1/+1 counters. Glissa is solid.

3. Ezuri, Stalker of Spheres

Decks that Proliferate want to draw cards. Scratch that, all decks love to draw cards. But they especially want to draw them, though, for completing game actions they would already want to be doing. 

Ezuri rewards Proliferate decks with a sweet speed boost. Dropping an Ezuri feels like hitting the turbo pad in Crash Team Racing — you get a sudden surge of momentum and hopefully it carries you home (sorry Mario Kart fans, your game is less good). 

Ezuri fits in general +1/+1 counter synergies, too, and thankfully blue has plenty of ways to flicker him (while green has ways to get him back from the yard). 

2. Red Sun’s Twilight

Red Sun’s Twilight is probably my favorite card in the cycle. Vandalblast is already a great card to play, and RST is going to be better a large proportion of the time. 

For two more mana than an overloaded vandalblast, you exchange getting rid of every artifact your opponent controls for the chance to copy five targets you choose to destroy. If you like, X can be more, and it can always be less — though you won’t get the copies. RST can also be used in pseudo-storm sequences to blow up your own mana rocks to get a bump in mana. 

Above all, if I’m heavy into artifacts in my deck, I’m much more enthused about an opponent exiling this from the top of the library than Vandalblast. 

1. The Eternal Wanderer

The Eternal Wanderer has been slicing up prerelease tables like nobody’s business — so much so that players have wondered whether she should be at mythic instead of rare. Thankfully, this is great for Commander players, as we get the chance to pick up a copy while she’s cheap.

Wanderer this time round is a board wipe first and foremost, but one of the most powerful kinds: letting you select which creatures stay in play. After the dust clears, she can only be attacked by one creature, and she makes 2/2 blockers with Double Strike. With this kind of defense, she can threaten to tick up again, which is a scary thought.

Her +1 is great when you’re ahead; removing a blocker for the turn or flickering one of your ETB creatures (or artifacts!) for value plays. I already love resetting my Archaomancer’s Map with Teleportation Circle, and I’m hyped to add her to many of my decks. 

Bonus Pick: Skyhunter Strike Force

There are some sweet new cards in the ONE precons too, and I have a review of the best ones over here. If I had to pick one, it would be Skyhunter Strike Force. It’s an amazing anthem for combat decks. 

In short, as long as you attack each opponent, melee will trigger, giving each creature you control +3/+3 as long as you control your Commander. That’s pretty hefty, and considering you can grab this one for less than a dollar? White and Boros decks will love it (looking at you, Adeline). 

And there you have it: my picks for the Top 10 Budget Commander Cards from Phyrexia: All Will Be One. What budget cards are you excited about? Let me know on Twitter.