March of the Machine previews are all done, and we now know all the new cards that will be hitting our Commander card pool during this weekend’s Prerelease events. As a big fan of Glissa cards, I was pleasantly surprised to see yet another version of this character show up here: Glissa, Herald of Predation!
Glissa has gone through quite a journey over the years. We first saw her as Glissa Sunseeker in Mirrodin, then in Mirrodin Besieged our poor Elf had been compleated and turned into a Phyrexian Zombie Elf. Years later, when we come back to the plane in Phyrexia: All Will Be One, we get Glissa Sunslayer.
Now, in the very next set we get another version in Glissa, Herald of Predation.
The Herald
This new spin doesn’t have the inherent first strike that all versions have had, or the deathtouch that the last two versions of Glissa had, but rather can give those abilities to all Phyrexian creatures as a choice during the beginning of combat trigger.
The first two choices on the ability deal with the new incubate mechanic; you can either incubate 2 twice, creating two artifacts with two +1/+1 counters on them that can potentially become creatures later, or you can transform all Incubator tokens you control.
I imagine the play pattern for Glissa will generally be casting Glissa pre-combat, and then during combat incubate 2 twice. On the following turn your choices open up; you can use the trigger to transform the Incubator tokens for free and attack, or you could spend four mana to transform both of them, and then use Glissa’s last trigger to give all Phyrexians first strike and deathtouch until end of turn.
The Path
So how are we building around Glissa? Well, I imagine the best approach is to be mostly or totally Phyrexian tribal, and what’s awesome about this approach is that Wizards of the Coast (WotC) in recent years retrofitted a bunch of cards with the Phyrexian creature type. If you search your favorite Magic card database, you might be surprised to find just how many there are now.
Another thing to keep in mind: artifact synergies, since the Incubator tokens are artifacts. Let’s dive in!
Incubate Cards
The harder we lean into the new incubate mechanic, the stronger the second choice of Glissa’s trigger becomes. Some of the cards are better than others, but I would strongly consider all of these above, even the ones that are clearly designed for Limited. Blight Titan is particularly exciting as a follow-up to a battlefield sweeper, churning out Incubator tokens of potentially huge size.
If you want a wildcard choice, limit the number of artifacts in your deck and run Titania’s Song. Not only does it negate the need to transform the Incubator tokens, since they become 0/0 artifacts with a number of +1/+1 counters on them, but it also hoses Treasure tokens that so many people love to abuse in Commander.
Next up, let’s take a look at Phyrexians we might want to include in the deck. I’m going to break out those with infect from those without infect, since you’ll probably want to mostly be one or the other with your creatures. I personally would avoid infect, as most casual pods get really riled up over infect creatures since ten poison just ends a player’s game, but if your playgroup is cool with infect creatures, go for it!
Low-Curve Phyrexians with Infect
Glissa’s ability to give Phyrexians you control first strike and deathtouch make all the little infect creatures quite problematic for your opponents to block, but obviously even more problematic not to block. If I’m going the infect route, I’d likely add ways to pump the power of creatures to get the surprise poison victory; Invigorate and Hatred are two good choices here.
Other Low-Curve Phyrexians
There are a bunch of good non-infect Phyrexian choices, and some of them have the much more Commander-friendly toxic ability, which encourages slowly distributing poison around the table rather than focusing on taking out one player at a time that infect encourages.
I was surprised to find that Myr Sire is now a Phyrexian Myr, and naturally the token creature it makes when it dies is also a Phyrexian Myr. Perilous Myr is another card that’s been officially compleated.
Later-Game Phyrexians with Infect
Higher up the curve we have some big infect guns, with Blightsteel Colossus at the top of the heap and likely requiring some way to cheat it out or mana ramp to be feasible in the deck. Phyrexian Swarmlord spitting out 1/1 Phyrexian Insect creatures with infect gets quite threatening when Glissa can give them first strike and deathtouch!
Other Later-Game Phyrexians
So many of these cards are high-quality creatures we might want to play in any Commander deck, but the fact that they’re Phyrexians makes them even better. In particular, I love Defiler of Vigor, Vorinclex, Tyrranax Rex, and Contaminant Grafter since they inherently have trample, which combines quite nicely with the deathtouch that Glissa will be giving them when they attack.
Phyrexians for High-Powered Pods
I wanted to mention these Phyrexians in their own section. They tend to be quite oppressive to play against, and if you put them in your deck, you’ll want to make sure your Commander pod is okay with that. Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger is the worst of the bunch, since it severely restricts everyone else’s mana while also doubling your own.
Proliferate
Glissa’s incubate tokens make great targets for proliferate effects, and if you’re playing Phyrexians with infect or toxic, you might as well pepper in some proliferate cards. Throne of Geth is a good one since it doesn’t require any mana to use, and you can sacrifice Incubate tokens to activate it. I also like Vraska, Betrayal’s Sting since it ties proliferate with card draw.
+1/+1 Counters Matter
It might be worth peppering in some cards that care about +1/+1 counters, and if you have a copy of Doubling Season looking for a deck, this could fit right in; how nice would it be to have Glissa make four Incubate tokens with four +1/+1 counters? Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider fits right in since it’s a Phyrexian with trample! The Ozolith is a little tricky since it will only recover +1/+1 counters from creatures, so if the Incubate tokens get destroyed, the counters will just go away. The March of the Machines update – Ozolith, the Shattered Spire – is purposefully worded to work nicely with the Incubate tokens.
Artifacts Matter
Nettlecyst is great here, since the token it makes with living weapon is a Phyrexian Germ and will benefit from Glissa’s combat boost, and each time you incubate it makes the boost from the Equipment bigger and bigger. Similarly, I’d definitely slap a Cranial Plating in the deck as an awesome power boost.
The Incubate tokens make decent fodder for sacrifice, from Deadly Dispute to Braids, Arisen Nightmare. You can even choose your own adventure with Trading Post, sacrificing the Incubate token as an artifact to draw a card, or transform it into an artifact creature to return target artifact card from your graveyard to your hand.
Trample
Lastly, I’d consider ways to give Phyrexians trample that don’t already have the ability. Rancor is a great way to do this, and I also love Glorious Sunrise and Garruk’s Uprising since they can provide extra card advantage. Shadowspear is expensive, but definitely worth a slot if you have one.
Rhonas’s Monument discounts your green creatures and also provides a nice size boost and trample to a creature each time you cast a creature. And let’s not overlook the simple beating that is Overrun: five mana, and all your creatures get +3/+3 and trample until the end of turn. Depending on your forces, this could just end the game, especially if you’re running on the infect plan.
What are you planning on doing with Glissa, Herald of Predation once March of the Machine is available? Are there any awesome cards I overlooked that you think are slam dunk includes? Do you think there might be any cool Phyrexian creatures in March of the Machine: The Aftermath?
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