Phage the Untouchable as a Commander?

Question

I was looking through the Black Legends with thoughts of building a mono-black EDH deck, when I came across Phage the Untouchable. Am I right in assuming that if she is cast from the command zone, you lose the game? (As the command zone is not considered your hand.) Is there any way to get her from the command zone into your hard or graveyard so you could cast her without losing the game? The only one I can come up with is having a Platinum Angel in play, so you don't lose the game when you cast her.

Answer 1

You're correct in assuming that you would lose the game. Casting Phage the Untouchable from the command zone would be a sorcery-speed "Summon Game Loss" spell.

Edit: As Affe points out, she could be countered when you play her, which would put her in your graveyard (or library, depending on the countermagic). You'd still need to get her back to your hand to cast her, though.

Answer 2

Casting her from your command zone results with a resounding you lose the game, if she enters play. There are several ways to still use her effectively.

I will list a few ways below that will help you to "Make it Work". It is not the strongest style, but black has the tutors to pull it off if you really want to do it. It is funny to see the look on people's face when you reveal Phage as your commander. They don't know whether or not to take you seriously at first, but some might realize how big of a threat you are when you throw down a pair of Lightning Greaves.

A few ways that prevent the loss are (there may be a few others, but this is all I can think of off the top of my head and I can't look through my deck at the moment):

• Having Platinum Angel in play (You can not lose)
• Giving one of your opponents Abyssal Persecutor (keeps their opponents, you, from losing)
• Having a Torpor Orb in play (Phage's enter the battlefield ability does not trigger)
• Having a Sundial of the Infinite in play (End you turn in response to her ability going on the stack
• Having Phage countered by an effect, such as Nether Void or Withering Boon/Dash Hope so she goes to graveyard (choose to let her go to graveyard and use one of black's many ways to get her back into your hand to hard cast from there)

Answer 3

Torpor Orb should work. You could make the deck have a minor focus on creatures that normally are a pain to get out, like Leveler...

Answer 4

Hyppy's exactly right: the command zone isn't your hand, so casting Phage the Untouchable will cause you to lose the game.

Unfortunately, there's no way to get around Phage's drawback in a mono-black deck, besides Platinum Angel or some truly awkard counter-your-own-spells-and-then-Disemtomb-her shenanigans (if you could use other colors, you could just Stifle the trigger).

The easiest way to play Phage in Commander is to use an alternative general and just dig her out. Your options include:

• Griselbrand and Maralen give you the built-in ability to dig for Phage, though the big downside of running them is that your opponents will tend to immediately assume your deck is an "unfair" combo deck before the game even begins.
• Cards like Sheoldred, Whispering One and Geth, Lord of the Vault are less threatening but still thoroughly powerful mono-black generals.
• The black legends from Odyssey and Onslaught blocks are the closest "flavor" fit. Going whole-hog "Vorthos" here probably means playing Cabal Patriarch as your general with Phage, Chainer, Dementia Master, Braids, Cabal Minion, and Balthor the Defiled in the deck. With cards like Cabal Coffers and Mirari, you can still make a pretty powerful deck despite any flavor constraints. (Alternatively, you could use Karona as your general and play Phage and Akroma within the deck in reference to her individual parts.)