Emperors in New Phyrexia

By Roberto Castro-Mahoney

Have you ever had a EUREKA! moment?  If you haven’t had the pleasure, let me tell you, they’re fantastic.  This past weekend I got a ride out to Amherst (thanks Marlon!) because it’s that magical time of the year: Pre-Release time.  A few hours spent idling on Friday night was all that lingered before the phenomenon that was the Mirrodin Besieged Pre-Release.

If you weren’t aware, Wizards of the coast decided to make this Mirrodin Besieged Pre-Release a little bit different. Instead of integrated Besieged packs, the players signed up for a faction. Phyrexia vs. Mirran. With three packs of the old Scars of Mirrodin packs and three of the chosen faction, the robots of Mirrodin battled the infections Phyrexians. At the end of the day, prizes (more MBS Faction-packs) were awarded and players looked at them like “WTF?!”  What are you supposed to do with these packs that are not draftable?  Many of the packs were cracked immediately, many revealing Mythic Rares like Tezzeret, Servant of Bolas (have you noticed that the Mirran have 77 water-marked cards, as do the Phyrexian?  Tezz is the only non-factioned card in the set.) while others gave us the lonesome Galvanoth.

And then it hit us: EMPEROR!!

The emblem of war-ish Magic, Emperor provided us with a way to continue the war – Phyrexian vs. Mirran. We bought four packs of Scars and combined eight Phyrexia faction-packs and opened all twelve, manufacturing three decks.  The Generals wielded strong Infect decks: a Black-White featuring Elspeth Tirel and all the flying Infect creatures, and a Green-Black with Glissa, the Traitor and a slew of artifact infectors.  In the middle of them, the general, with every counterspell, removal, trick, and a certain Consecrated Sphinx.
We battled against the onslaught of Battle Cry attackers from our Mirran enemies, who summoned a token army to strike back at us.  On one side a Blue-White deck with FIVE Ardent Recruits and strong Metalcraft, mirrored by more tokens and a Thrun, the Last Troll in the other general’s army.  In the middle a Blue-Red deck featuring tricks and Battle Cry. Every time they attacked they threatened as many as three Battle-Cry triggers that would pump almost the entire team!
Both sides battered with their right flanks and held on as staunchly as possible on the left.  Eventually, with a little Proliferate from the Emperor, we broke through their flank and shortly after their Emperor conceded.  Victory was ours and the spoils of war (the cards) were divied up amongst the Generals and myself. Phyrexia had won.

Do you have any faction-packs championed at your Pre-Release?  Now you know what to do with them!  Here’s the format:

3v3 Magic- Share your turns/phases, including the attack.
Multi-player mulligans- One free mulligan to seven.
40-card minimum for decks.  No sideboarding.
Sealed Deck- 12 packs. We recommend 8 Phyrexian/Mirran + 4 Scars packs.
From the twelve packs build three decks. Two Generals, one Emperor.  Deckbuilding is a thought-intensive process, so make sure you get a full hour to build.

To play:  Seat your team on one side of a table with the opponent opposite you (Emperors in the middle).
X1    Y    X2    (X= General, Y= Emperor) Phyrexian
A1    B    A2    (A= General, B= Emperor) Mirran
Roll a die to choose going first or second.  As team you resolve all of your mulligans (remeber the first one is free).  Once both team are ready the lead team plays their lands and cards, and you play a normal game of Magic.  You SHARE YOUR TURN with your teammates.  That means one attack step, one draw step, etc.
What makes Emperor a unique format is the sphere of influence each commander has.  The Generals have influence of ONE while the Emperor has influence of TWO.  This means that the General A2 can see and influence his Emperor “B” and his nearest opponent “X2.”  AKA he sees players within one seat of him.  If player X2 is eliminated then A2 can see/influence his Emperor AND the enemy Emperor.  Emperors have influence over TWO players (at the beginning of the game they see all players except the opposing Emperor).
What implications does influence have?  If player A1 cast Rally the Troops in his team’s attack step, then attacking creatures A1 and B controls with get +1/+0 and First Strike.  If, however, the Emperor casts the same spell (with influence:2), the entire Mirran team will get the bonus.  If Emperor Y plays Black Suns Zenith, then all creatures A1, X1, Y, X2, A2 control will get the X -1/-1 counters.  If a player gets eliminated then a General will start seeing the Emperor and the Emperors will see each other.
Example:
X1    Y    (dead)
A1    B    A2
If player X2 dies then A2 (influence:1) can now see Y, B can see Y, and Y can see B.

What are you playing for?  THE SPOILS OF WAR!  Play for all the cards!  The winner of this epic battle takes it all home.

Strategy of Emperor:

The sight of each player drastically dictates the sort of cards they should play.  Before I delve deeply into this, I’ll give examples from our battle:
X1: BG Infect creatures with Glissa.  We stuffed as many threats in as possible and synergies with Glissa.
X2: BW Inrfect with Tine Shrike and Flesh-Eater Imp.  As many evasive threats as possible and the cheaper Black Infect creatures (they ahd to share).
Y: Corrupted Conscience, Proliferate cards, Pistus Strikes, Unnatural Predations, and counterspells.
A1: UW metalcraft and Battle Cry with a handful of Masters Call to fuel the army.
A2: Sphere of the Suns with a mixture of powerful cards based mostly in green.  Several 3/4 Tramplers to get the effects of Battle Cry.
B: Shatter, Burn the Impure, more Battle Cryers, bounce spells, and Rally the Troops [I'm not sure what card he's referring to here. - ed].
Notice that many “Are-of-Effect” cards were in the Emperors’ deck.  When I cast Spread the Sickness on B1’s creature, I Proliferated my Tumble Magnet, gave poison to both opposing Generals, and killed a bear that had a -1/-1 counter on it.  When I cast Consecrated Sphinx I was drawing FOUR cards on their turn (and none of them could see me to kill the Sphinx.  The Emperor deck plays as a support strategy and builds up for late-game bombs.  With all my pump-spells and tricks I could save my teammates and influence their battles (note: I could not Stoic Rebuttal a removal spell cast by B because I, as Y, could not “see” his spell.)  Notice on their side how Red gave Rally the Troops and Battle Cry to the Emperor.  Those effects pump both of his teammate’s troops.  Build your Emperor deck to support your teammates.  Forego 5-mana defensive 4/4s for bigger bombs since it’ll be a while before you have to defend.
Make sure that there are no gaping holes in either of your General’s deck.  If one of them falls quickly (they can attack him with two players at once) then you’ll be a sitting duck.  Both General deck should have a low curve and should have the capacity to win the game fairly quickly.  breaking through one side means 3v2:  More card-advantage and pressure from two sides means you can threaten to win that much easier.

Hopefully this makes sense and inspires you to try this awesome format out!  I’ve always enjoyed playing an Emperor game and we generally only muster up one or two per year, but these faction-packs are the gift that Emperor needed desperately.  I’ve already emailed Wizards of the Coast, suggesting the format be advertised (after all, it does give everyone a great use for these packs besides opening them!)  Join our forums and tell us how it went, what spoils your team won, and any cool changes/suggestions you made for the format!