Reconstruct History — Phyrexian Arena

<h6 style="text-align: right;">(<a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Time Ebb" href="#" target="_blank">Time Ebb</a> | Art by <a href="https://mtg.gamepedia.com/Alan_Rabinowitz">Alan Rabinowitz</a>)</h6>
<h1>Introduction</h1>
Welcome back to Dual Shot, the strange place where we brew two decks at the same time... in one deck.
This time, the old familiar space has changed - is still changing. It was never not in flux, like anything. Before things get too Heraclitean, let's try to capture an image, a snapshot of an idea, to try and preserve it - if only for a moment - against the fate of change.
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Inexorable Tide"></div></div>
The weft, warp, and ripple sends us down the stream to this: a <a href="https://edhrec.com/themes/lifegain">lifegain</a> deck overtop a <a href="https://edhrec.com/themes/voltron">Voltron</a> deck. But nothing's ever that simple, even on the shore. There's safety there, sure, and more certainty than in the riffling deep, the rapids, the waves. Instead, our supertheme here presents as loss of life. There are no infinite lifegain combos, no <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Felidar Sovereign" href="#" target="_blank">Felidar Sovereign</a>, no <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Aetherflux Resevoir" href="#" target="_blank">Aetherflux Resevoir</a>. Instead, we're swimming with <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Deathgreeter" href="#" target="_blank">Deathgreeter</a> and a sparse few instances of lifelink - to scarcely mitigate our <a href="https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CastFromHitPoints">blood magic</a>.
With <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Greven, Predator Captain" href="#" target="_blank">Greven, Predator Captain</a> at the helm, as he was meant to be, we'll be recklessly fueling our life-engines, creating towering, combative win conditions, betting everything on the connection.
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Greven, Predator Captain"></div></div>
If we can avoid the ever-looming bad luck of the rip current, we should see our life total circle around widely and wildly. Get him wielding <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Loxodon Warhammer" href="#" target="_blank">Loxodon Warhammer</a>, and turn an opponent's loss to commander damage into a dramatic shift in our own life total.
And hey, enchant yourself with <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Curse of Fool&#039;s Wisdom" href="#" target="_blank">Curse of Fool&#039;s Wisdom</a>, why not.
<hr />
<h2>Water, Fire, Flux</h2>
Ebb: Life is paid, the cost for continuation. The risk of diminishing to nothing, but nothing's ever nothing.
Flow: That's the truest swing of all, that change of life from something to nothing, to less than nothing, to a new game, back to full.
This is a brew about movement. <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Firewing Phoenix" href="#" target="_blank">Firewing Phoenix</a> flies from the graveyard to your hand, to the battlefield, and dead again in the whorl. <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Revenge of Ravens" href="#" target="_blank">Revenge of Ravens</a> turns combat into a dance of life totals. <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Relentless Assault" href="#" target="_blank">Relentless Assault</a> beats at the beach with endless-seeming waves.
Ebb: The water recedes, shies from shore. Your body thins, determination wavers, hope slips beneath water.
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Moltensteel Dragon"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Slash Panther"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Vault Skirge"></div></div>
Flow: The snows melt, the floods rear, the river swells, surges, knells.
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Rush of Vitality"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Ghitu War Cry"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Furnace Whelp"></div></div>
You get the idea.
Ebb: Maybe <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Syphon Flesh" href="#" target="_blank">Syphon Flesh</a>, <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Stinkweed Imp" href="#" target="_blank">Stinkweed Imp</a>, or <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Withering Boon" href="#" target="_blank">Withering Boon</a> will save us. Reactive, punitive, teetering.
Flow: More like <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Vampire Nighthawk" href="#" target="_blank">Vampire Nighthawk</a>, <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Murderous Rider" href="#" target="_blank">Murderous Rider</a>, or <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Butcher&#039;s Glee" href="#" target="_blank">Butcher&#039;s Glee</a>. Ambitious, resourceful, springing.
If the conversation ends in compromise, what cards are required to make that clear?
<div class="edhrecp__deck mtgh"><span class="edhrecp__deck-s" name="Greven, Tide Strider" site="edhrec" archidekt_link="" cards="[Commander]
*1 Greven, Predator Captain
[/Commander]
[Creatures]
*1 Agent of Erebos
*1 Ahn-Crop Crasher
*1 Angrath&#039;s Marauders
*1 Blood Celebrant
*1 Chancellor of the Dross
*1 Deathgreeter
*1 Dire Fleet Hoarder
*1 Firewing Phoenix
*1 Furnace Whelp
*1 Gutterbones
*1 Immolating Souleater
*1 Indulgent Tormentor
*1 Iron Myr
*1 Kari Zev, Skyship Raider
*1 Knight of Infamy
*1 Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin
*1 Leaden Myr
*1 Loyal Apprentice
*1 Loyal Subordinate
*1 Mardu Strike Leader
*1 Mogg War Marshal
*1 Moltensteel Dragon
*1 Murderous Rider // Swift End
*1 Organ Grinder
*1 Piper of the Swarm
*1 Puppeteer Clique
*1 Scrapheap Scrounger
*1 Slash Panther
*1 Sorcerer&#039;s Broom
*1 Stinkweed Imp
*1 Tenacious Dead
*1 Urborg Syphon-Mage
*1 Valakut Fireboar
*1 Vampire Nighthawk
*1 Vault Skirge
[/Creatures]
[Instants]
*1 Butcher&#039;s Glee
*1 Crypt Incursion
*1 Dark Bargain
*1 Ghoul&#039;s Feast
*1 Mercadia&#039;s Downfall
*1 Necrologia
*1 Rack and Ruin
*1 Rush of Vitality
*1 Withering Boon
[/Instants]
[Sorceries]
*1 Forever Young
*1 Fumarole
*1 Infernal Contract
*1 Relentless Assault
*1 Syphon Flesh
[/Sorceries]
[Artifacts]
*1 Commander&#039;s Sphere
*1 Loxodon Warhammer
*1 Rakdos Signet
*1 Ring of Xathrid
*1 Sol Ring
*1 Swiftfoot Boots
*1 Whispersilk Cloak
[/Artifacts]
[Enchantments]
*1 Curse of Fool&#039;s Wisdom
*1 Ghitu War Cry
*1 Phyrexian Reclamation
*1 Revenge of Ravens
*1 Shadows of the Past
*1 Unspeakable Symbol
[/Enchantments]
[Planeswalkers]
*1 Tibalt, Rakish Instigator
[/Planeswalkers]
[Lands]
*1 Barren Moor
*1 Blood Crypt
*1 Bloodfell Caves
*1 Command Tower
*1 Dragonskull Summit
*1 Foreboding Ruins
*1 Forgotten Cave
*1 Graven Cairns
*1 Kher Keep
*1 Luxury Suite
*1 Memorial to Folly
*10 Mountain
*1 Rakdos Carnarium
*1 Reliquary Tower
*1 Rogue&#039;s Passage
*1 Spinerock Knoll
*10 Swamp
*1 Tainted Peak
[/Lands]"></div>

<hr />
In truest Dual Shot fashion, there's a tertiary component of <a href="https://edhrec.com/themes/sacrifice">sacrifice</a> at play here. <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Shadows of the Past" href="#" target="_blank">Shadows of the Past</a>, <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Sorcerer&#039;s Broom" href="#" target="_blank">Sorcerer&#039;s Broom</a>, and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Phyrexian Reclamation" href="#" target="_blank">Phyrexian Reclamation</a> all play nicely with cheap, recursive drowners.
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Gutterbones"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Scrapheap Scrounger"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Mogg War Marshal"></div></div>
Ebb: You could lean into this more heavily; it's risky going in with Greven alone, and there's not overmuch protection for the captain.
Flow: Or you could commit to it. <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Butcher&#039;s Glee" href="#" target="_blank">Butcher&#039;s Glee</a>, <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Rush of Vitality" href="#" target="_blank">Rush of Vitality</a>, <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Swiftfoot Boots" href="#" target="_blank">Swiftfoot Boots</a>, and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Whispersilk Cloak" href="#" target="_blank">Whispersilk Cloak</a> (mind your ordering on that one - hammer, then cloak). These all work well enough to, well... well.
Ebb: These water puns are weakening.
Flow: So too your resolve.
<hr />
<h2>Conclusion</h2>
<a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Crypt Ghast" href="#" target="_blank">Crypt Ghast</a> would be a good swap-in if we're not feeling enough acceleration - <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Blood Celebrant" href="#" target="_blank">Blood Celebrant</a> only provides fixing (that is, in this context - it's also an unlimited source of loss of life). <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Vilis, Broker of Blood" href="#" target="_blank">Vilis, Broker of Blood</a> is terribly on-theme, and worth experimenting with, but generally too top-heavy here - <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Angrath&#039;s Marauders" href="#" target="_blank">Angrath&#039;s Marauders</a> is tricky enough to cast. And sure, you're already spending five mana to get Greven out, but you'll more likely want to spend the turns after that curving into the mana you need to deal lethal commander damage. As well, consider things like <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Shadowspear" href="#" target="_blank">Shadowspear</a> for added redundancy, and some extra utility. Perhaps the most obvious alternate inclusion is <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="K&#039;rrik, Son of Yawgmoth" href="#" target="_blank">K&#039;rrik, Son of Yawgmoth</a>, turning all of your black pips into Phyrexian mana, and having three of them in his own casting cost.
Ebb: Needs <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Damnation" href="#" target="_blank">Damnation</a>.
Flow: Or <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Dark Ritual" href="#" target="_blank">Dark Ritual</a>.
And while this is a lifegain deck only in a painfully ironic sense, the presentation of the concept was pretty hipster too. That makes it all right.
Ebb: Let the current of pretentiousness pull you down. There is comfort in the deep.
Flow: Come on, this deck's not that weird. I can get way more obtuse with the brew. <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Temporal Extortion" href="#" target="_blank">Temporal Extortion</a>? <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Cauldron Dance" href="#" target="_blank">Cauldron Dance</a>?
Ebb: I meant in the writing.
Flow: Oh.
Before we let ourselves wade too far into the deep end, that's all for this experiment. We all have stories about securing victory from the nearest jaws of defeat. What about intentionally wandering into near-death to grab a win out of nowhere? What decks have you used to bloodbend your way to the top? Send us your <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="One with Nothing" href="#" target="_blank">One with Nothing</a> win cons, please.
Till next time.

necrologia

Reconstruct History — Phyrexian Arena

Dual Shot - Ebb and Flow