If you like small parasitic arachnids that may infest your enemies and poison them to death, then Phyrexian Mite Tribal is the right deck for you. Let’s see how you can unleash a toxic swarm of Phyrexian Mites that will spread the infection and lead you to victory!
I love tribal decks because they combine synergy and flavor and of course power. On top of that you can find many unique cards that support a tribe and can be great budget options as those cards work only on a specific tribal deck and are bad to unplayable to any other deck. That’s why I will try building and presenting a series of decks for all those who share the love for tribal decks.
In 2023 with the with the coming of Phyrexia: All Will Be One, the new Phyrexian invasion gave birth to a new creature type: Mites. Mites are always Phyrexian Artifact creatures with toxic, that can’t block. Although there is only one card in MtG with that creature type, there are some great Mite creation cards. Still, they doesn’t sound enough for building a dedicated tribal deck. But here is the catch, this deck is not only a creature type tribal, but since all Mites have Toxic, it is secretly a Toxic tribal too. And that’s not all of it! Toxic adds to our weaponry synergy with strategies like poison counters, poisonous, infect, corrupted and proliferate.
The commander of our Mite army is a legendary Phyrexian Insect, Vishgraz, the Doomhive that has menace, toxic 1, creates three 1/1 coloreless Pyrexian Mite Artifact tokens on EtB and gets +1/+1 for each poison counter our opponents have. Vishgraz is an amazing Mite producer and can quickly grow into a huge threat when our Mites spread the poison around the table. We can further amplify the Mite creation potential with strategies that synergize with EtB effects like Blink. That way, we can summon a swarm of Phyrexian Mites without the need to have actual Mite cards in the deck. If we give them evasion, they can become a living nightmare for our opponents. For New Phyrexia!
Vishgraz, the Doomhive is the alternate commander of the Corrupting Influence Commander precon, which is a very good starting point for building the deck, but you can always buy singles. All depend on availability and prices at the time. In my opinion, upgrading the precon might be the best if you can find it at a good price.
Reminder: Corrupted is an ability word that gives a card different or additional characteristics if an opponent has three or more Poison counters.
Synergy Diagram
I always like to make a simple synergy diagram in order to deeply comprehend the potential and the strategy areas that are supported by the commander when I choose top-down building.
Let’s analyze the main goals of the deck:
- Add the best Phyrexian Mite generators. Our priority is to add the ones that create Mites on EtB.
- Add
MiteToxic support. All Phyrexian Mites have Toxic, so Toxic support is like Mite support. - Add cards with proliferate, since proliferate can multiply poison counters that are our main way to win the game.
- Add cards that synergize with our strategies. To make the best out of our strategies, we can further amplify them by adding cards with Blink so we can multiply EtB effects like poison counters, Mite creation and proliferate. Our commander, Vishgraz, the Doomhive is a great Blink target and can create a swarm of toxic Mites. Moreover, cards with Poison Counters, Poisonous, Infect and Corrupted, they can all help spread the poison.
- Add cards that grand our Mites mass evasion so they can bypass enemy defences and poison the heart of the enemy. Mites are small and we can create enough of them so if they are left unblocked they can quickly poison the enemy to death.
- Add Phyrexian tribal support. In March of the Machine Phyrexian tribe got creature type support so Phyrexian Mite tribal deck is now supported even more. Not all Phyrexian support cards are optimal for our build, but there are some great upgrades.
For the sake of flavor some of the choices are not optimal, but are (usually budget friendly) alternatives that fit greatly the Phyrexian Mite tribal theme.
The deck:
Phyrexian Mite Tribal
Comparative Analysis
Let’s see how the deck compares to the general ratios of my deckbuilding guide.
35 Lands
12 Ramp: Binding the Old Gods , Vraska, Betrayal’s Sting , Arcane Signet , Sol Ring , Golgari Signet , Commander’s Sphere , Contaminant Grafter , Springbloom Druid , Wood Elves, Ashnod’s Altar, Glistening Sphere , Myriad Landscape
9 Target Removal: Kabira Takedown , Binding the Old Gods , Cankerbloom , Infectious Bite , Charge of the Mites , Vivisection Evangelist , Viridian Corrupter , Vraska, Betrayal’s Sting , Khalni Ambush
4 Board Wipes: Vraska’s Fall (weak), Merciless Eviction , White Sun’s Twilight, Phyresis Outbreak
5 Graveyard Recursion: Planewide Celebration , Unnatural Restoration , Glissa’s Retriever, Nim Deathmantle, Grafted Butcher (self recursion)
1 Graveyard Hate: Bojuka Bog
0 Tutors:
6 Protection: Losheel, Clockwork Scholar , Skrelv, Defector Mite , Cloudshift, Flicker of Fate, Ephemerate, Saryth, the Viper’s Fang
10,5 Card Draw: Infectious Inquiry , Feed the Infection , Caress of Phyrexia , Moldervine Reclamation , Losheel, Clockwork Scholar , Vraska, Betrayal’s Sting , Contaminant Grafter , Ixhel, Scion of Atraxa , Commander’s Sphere (1/2), Norn’s Decree , Goliath Hatchery
10 Finishers/ Surprise /Alternate win conditions: Caress of Phyrexia , Tyrranax Rex , Plague Nurse (1/2), Necrogen Rotpriest (1/2), Fynn, the Fangbearer , Planewide Celebration , Noxious Assault , Grafted Exoskeleton , Glissa’s Retriever, Wurmquake, Glissa, Herald of Predation
As we see form the comparative analysis, the rates per category are very good. With the exception of tutors category, there is no score below the optimal low average and we see 2-3 categories that are above the optimal max average. Finishers are much more than usual at 10 and that is important because our deck needs to be able to quickly finish the games. Protection at 6 is also a highlight of the deck and it is merely a result of the blink strategy which also boost our EtB effects.
Deck Highlights, synergy and flavor options:
Glistening Sphere is a great mana rock that works wonders in poison counter decks. Although it enters tapped, it has proliferate on EtB and with its Corrupted ability it can become a great mana fixer and ramp engine at the same time.
Contaminant Grafter works great with most of our deck strategies. With trample and toxic 1, it can easily apply poison counters to players and then proliferate for extra value. With its Corrupted ability, we draw a card and then we can put a land from our hand onto the battlefild. A great all-around card.
Wood Elves and Springbloom Druid are choosen because of the synergy with our blink strategy as their EtB ramp effects makes them great blink targets.
Ashnod’s Altar is a great ramp source in any deck that can create many creatures and our Phyrexian Mite tribal is build to provide a swarm of Mites. In addition, it is part of an infinite combo with Vishgraz, the Doomhive and Nim Deathmantle which results in infinite creature tokens, infinite colorless mana, infinite ETB, infinite LTB, infinite death triggers and infinite sacrifice triggers. The combo can be explained here (EDHREC)
Binding the Old Gods is an all-around card that offers flexible removal, ramp and mass deathtouch for a turn (which is always nice, but can also make a great combo with Fynn, the Fangbearer becoming a potential hidden finisher). It can also be blinked for extra removal and ramp!
Cankerbloom is also a flexible card that can be used either for artifact/enchantment removal or for proliferate.
Infectious Bite works greatly with Vishgraz, the Doomhive since our commander grows big with spreading of poison counters and Infectious Bite both benefits from his stats and spreads more poison counters to empower him more.
Charge of the Mites is not the optimal removal spell, but its power lies in its flexibility as it can be either a removal spell or a Phyrexian Mite producer. Fits the flavor of the deck too!
Vivisection Evangelist is a bit expensive for his mana cost but has a Corrupted ability that destroys target creature or planeswalker on EtB and is a great blink target for repeatable removal.
Viridian Corrupter has infect and destroys target artifact on EtB so it is also a great blink target for repeatable removal.
White Sun’s Twilight is almost always going to be cast for 
in order to wipe the board, give us 5 life and create five 1/1 Phyrexian Mites for us. It is a perfect board wipe for our build that give us clear advantage and fits our Mite tribal theme.
Phyresis Outbreak is going to be an one-sided board wipe and in commander it scales easily into a great one.
Vraska’s Fall is too situational and kinda weak for a board wipe, but it spreads poison counters among the board and gives our commnader a potential buff of +3/+3 so its synergy makes it a good inclusion.
Merciless Eviction is a great flexible board wipe that can hit almost everything.
Unnatural Restoration has low mana cost for a grave recursion spell and the fact that it also has proliferate makes it a very good inclusion.
Glissa’s Retriever is both a finisher (since is has haste, toxic 3 and evasion from creatures with power 2 or less) and a grave recursion tool on death trigger with the potential to return up to 3 target cards (if we spread enough poison counters among players, which is not hard for our deck)
Nim Deathmantle is a part of the infinite combo described above, but even alone, it is a nice grave recursion tool that gives +2/+2 and intimidate which is very powerful on a deck with creatures with infect and powerful EtB’s.
Skrelv, Defector Mite is a legendary Phyrexian Mite that gives toxic 1 and hexproof from the color of our choice for 
and 
which is great for protection and it even greatly helps our poison strategy with the evasion and toxic 1 it provides (reminder: toxic stacks).
Losheel, Clockwork Scholar protects our Mites from combat damage when they attack and acts as a repeatable card draw source. Great utility card.
Saryth, the Viper’s Fang gives our creatures hexproof while they are untapped and deathtouch when they are tapped. Great utility and in combination with Fynn, the Fangbearer it may act as a finisher combo piece.
Cloudshift, Flicker of Fate and Ephemerate are cheap blink strategy cards that help us both protect our key cards and with our EtB strategies.
Infectious Inquiry, Feed the Infection and Caress of Phyrexia are spells that help us with card draw and have poison counter synergy. Caress of Phyrexia can also be a finisher as 3 poison counters is a great amount of poison.
Moldervine Reclamation is great in a deck like ours that has many small Mites that can be sacrificed for card draw.
Vraska, Betrayal’s Sting is the compleat star of the deck! It helps with card draw and proliferate with 0, it can turn any Mite into a treasure for -2, but also can turn any enemy creature into a treasure (so it’s a great removal too). Her ultimate at -9 is insane as it gets any enemy to 9 poison counters, a breath away from death. Amazing synergy with our deck. Easily one of the best cards for our build.
Ixhel, Scion of Atraxa with flying, vigilance and toxic 2 can be reliable in spreading the poison and with its corrupted ability it exiles the top card of our opponents library and let us cast it for as long as they remain exiled speading mana of any color to cast them. It is a very strong ability and that’s why she was the face commander of the Corrupted Infuence precon. She still works great in the 99 of our build.
Norn’s Decree is a great card both for card draw and for its poison counter synergy and even for playing politics. It spreads poison counters to the opponents that deal damage to us and rewards players (including us) who attack poisoned players (our opponents). A win-win case.
Goliath Hatchery creates on EtB two 3/3 green Phyrexian Beast creature tokens with toxic 1, but the most important part is its Corrupted ability that can provide us with card draw equal to the toxic value of a creature we control at the beggining of our upkeep. Repeatable card draw is very strong. It can even become a blink target for getting extra value!
Tyrranax Rex is an amazing finisher. It can’t be countered, it has trample, ward 
, haste and toxic 4 which is a deadly combination.
Fynn, the Fangbearer is not bad alone but his true potential is unlocked with giving mass deathtouch effects to our creatures. Given the fact that our Mites already have toxic 1, giving them deathtouch means that our opponents have to choose either to loose their blockers by 1/1 tokens or to get hit and get 3 poison counters by every Mite! Sounds a win-win condition for us! As mentioned above, cards that combo with Fynn are Saryth, the Viper’s Fang and Binding the Old Gods . Necrogen Rotpriest also works well with Fynn.
Plague Nurse has toxic 2 by herself but for 
it can give each other creature we control toxic 1 until end of turn and since toxic stacks, our Mites spread 2 poison counters each which is a big deal. Necrogen Rotpriest also has toxic 2 and his ability is a bit different but they result in kinda the same way, it makes players get an additional poison counter by our toxic creatures (but for free). They can act like small finishers in a board full of Mites.
Planewide Celebration costs a lot of mana, but is flexible and can do many things. It is great for grave recursion but its amazing for its proliferate that can be choosen 4 times which is insane for poison counters. Other options are not terrible either (depending on the situation).
Noxious Assault is a great finisher as it both buffs our Mites and punishes blocking players with a poison counter for each blocking creature. Cool synergy!
Grafted Exoskeleton is a oneshot finisher when equiped on any of our big creatures.
Wurmquake has a powerful Corrupted ability that scales wonderfully in commander. In a deck such as ours that is build to spread poison around the table, it means it has the potential to summon four 6/6 Phyrexian Wurms with trample and toxic 1 for which is insane! On top of that, it has Flashback and can summon 4 10/10 Wurms for 
! My Wurm Tribal deck is very jealous that Wurmquake reaches its full potential only in a poison counter deck!
Glissa, Herald of Predation is a card that can work as a great Incubator token producer and transforms them for free, but most of the time in Phyrexian Mite tribal, we will use her third ability. Giving our Phyrexian Mites first strike and deathtouch until end of turn, not only it makes them able to kill everything, but in fact it makes the oppponent choose, either to block and loose his creatures or to get hit and get poison counters. It’s a win-win condition for us! Moreover, deathtouch enables a combo with Fynn, the Fangbearer that can make our Mites finishers. Last but not least, Glissa interacts greatly with Brimaz, Blight of Oreskos as she can transform the Incubators for free.
Other synergy pieces
As we see, proliferate is an essential part of our strategy. Among them, Norn’s Choirmaster works greatly with our blink strategy that mostly targets our commander. Moreover, Plaguemaw Beast and Throne of Geth can be amazing repeatable proliferate sources as our Mites are both creatures and artifacts and we should have a swarm of them available.
Champion of Lambholt, Sidar Kondo of Jamuraa and Behind the Scenes are amazing mass evasion givers that greatly synergize with our Phyrexian Mites since they are 1/1’s. Skrelv and Nim Deathmantle are great choices for giving evasion to a single target. Nim Deathmantle is also a part of an infinite combo described above. Grafted Butcher gives Menace on EtB, but with his self-recursion ability he can provide a consistent evasion for our Phyrexian Mites.
Running the best Phyrexian Mite producers is essential for our build. Vishgraz, the Doomhive and Basilica Shepherd are perfect blink targets. Ria Ivor, Bane of Bladehold can produce a swarm of Mites after each combat and has a battlecry that gives our Mites +1/+0, Mite Overseer gives our Mites +1/+0 and first strike and produce at instant speed Mites for 
and Skrev’s Hive is reapeatedly creating Mites at the beggining of our upkeep. All our other strategies multiply Mite effectiveness. Our deck is named Phyrexian Mite tribal for a good reason!
Toxic support cards are in fact Mite support cards for our build since all Mites have Toxic 1. Necrogen Rotpriest and Plague Nurse multiply the poison by +1 and Skrelv’s Hive with its Corrupted ability gives our toxic creatures lifelink. Another worthy mention is Goliath Hatchery which is a toxic matters card.
Glissa, Herald of Predation is already analized above. Brimaz, Blight of Oreskos can be an amazing source of proliferate in our deck. His Incubator creation can add more depth to our deck and with the help of Glissa, Herald of Predation we can build an army easily and fast which is not bad for an alternate secondary strategy. Grafted Butcher is an amazing Phyrexian lord that buffs our Mites with +1/+1 and gives them Menace on EtB which is very powerful as evasion is extra deadly in our deck. On top of that, with 
and sacrificing an artifact or creature he has self-recursion (that also means new EtB that trigger Menace on our Mites). A really powerful card with great synergy with Phyrexian Mite tribal. The Seedcore is a great land for Phyrexian Tribal support. Moreover, it supports our Mites with its Corrupted ability, as they are 1/1’s.
Blink strategy is another core strategy of our deck for reasons we have already analized. Reapeatable blink offers us repeatable EtB effects and our deck have many targets but above all is our commander in order to create a massive army of Mites. On the other hand, instant speed one-time blink spells act also as protection so they are also valuable. Add to the cards above Ephemerate that for some unknown reason it does not display correctly as a static image.
Ichor Rats is a great addition to the deck because it spreads a poison counter on EtB and it has great synergy with our blink strategy (and of course poison counters strategies).
Phyrexian Swarmlord is a great token generator since at the beginning of our upkeep, it creates a 1/1 green Phyrexian Insect creature token with infect for each poison counter your opponents have. Unfortunately the tokens are no Mites, but still they have infect so they synergize with poison counter strategies and they also synergize with proliferate strategy as they synergize with Plaguemaw Beast and Contaminant Grafter. Being 1/1’s mean they synergize with Sidar Kondo of Jamuraa and the swarm summoning fits the theme of the deck too.
Let’s see some more statistics about our deck. Some important info to care about is the mana curve and the card type distribution, as it can help us understand better our deck and may indicate where there is space for improving it.
Mana Curve
The mana curve seems normal, there seems to be a bit more middle-range drops than usual, with a spike at 3 drops and an absence of 8+ drops, but with our poison strategy and our many finishers I guess there is no need for mana heavy drops.
Card Type Distribution
The Phyrexian Mite Tribal Card Type Distribution shows the dominant tribal creature-heavy theme with 31 creatures, with all other categories to be somewhat balanced. Vraska, Betrayal’s Sting is the only planeswalker and she greatly supports our poison counter strategies.
Of course statistics and comparative analysis are great tools but they don’t always tell the whole truth, since many factors like synergy and combo pieces are hard to be measured numerically. For example in this deck, with all the deck build around Vishgraz, the Doomhive and the swarm of Mites we can summon combined with our support strategies, our best and most consistent way to finish the game is with our army of Phyrexian Mites, something that is not reflected in the finishers section.
Update v1 (March of the Machine) 9 May 2023
If you liked the deck, don’t forget to revisit the article after every major new release as I will try to keep my decks updated and examine any potential upgrades. If you want to keep being updated, you can follow mtgbudgetcommander.com on social media (facebook, twitter, instagram, pinterest, linkedin, reddit, tumblr, medium).
If you like my tribal series, you can check my other tribal decks.
