Introduction
This deck is part of the Two-Headed Giant Commander decks, these are designed to be played 2v2 or 3v3 in the Commander format, but can also be played 1v1.
Certain decks have certain themes, and will pair better with other decks, which decks work best have been listed below. These decks are on a higher skill level than most of the other decks in the club, with a lot of interacting mechanics. This can be overwhelming to learn and master but it is a whole lot of fun when you do.
The theme of the Villains box is Villains that have teamed up throughout the Multiverse to take down the heroes of the Realm. From Slivers to Phyrexians and Gods, there tactic is to empower each other and poison their way to victory.In a world teetering on the edge of chaos, the malevolent forces of the multiverse gather. Atraxa, the harbinger of Phyrexian perfection, leads an unholy crusade, seeking to spread her corrupted influence across the planes. Meanwhile, the Sliver Overlord, an ancient and cunning entity, awakens from its slumber, rallying its brood to assimilate all living creatures. These dark forces, along with ancient, malevolent gods, conspire to bring about the end of all that is good and just, plunging the world into an eternal darkness.
Ixhel is a Phyrexian angel from New Phyrexia, made by Atraxa as a weapon. In turn, she was the creator of Vishgraz. Ixhel, similar to her creator, has four arms, wings covered in veins, and a whiplike tail. As a Phyrexian of the Machine Orthodoxy, parts of her body display exposed muscle fibers, while the rest is covered in ossified plates. Ixhel's greatest desire is to see the glory of Phyrexia propagated across the Multiverse. However, she is plagued by other independent sentiments, which formed a rift between herself and Atraxa.
Key Strategy
The key strategy for the deck is to win via Poison counters. There are creatures with Infect which deal damage in the for of poison counters, and Toxic, which deals damage to the opponent and also gives them poison counters equal to its toxic number. When an opponent has 10 poison counters (or the team has 15 in two-headed giant) then they lose the game, no matter how much life they have.
The deck has cards with the ability Proliferate, which lets you target any amount of targets, and add one kind of counter that they have on there already, whether its a +1/+1 counter, -1/-1 counter, Poison counter etc. This helps a lot with the Poison strategy, and helps you buff your team mates creatures if they have useful counters on them. If its a Two-Headed giant game and both opponents have at least a Poison counter each, then proliferate will add a poison counter for each opponent, adding two to the team for each proliferate.
The deck runs a lot of the Toxic and Infect creatures, along with Proliferators to ramp up the poison counters on your opponents, if your teammate also happens to be putting +1/+1 counters on their creatures then you can also add more to theirs. Ixhel does well to support other Poison counter decks through its ability, as it will start exiling cards from your opponents decks, which can help disrupt their plans and get some free card advantage, and possibly getting removal or good spells.
Deck Theme and Pairings
Themes:
Poison Damage
Proliferate
-1/-1 Counters
Infect / Toxic Cards
Proliferate Cards