I have no idea what's happening in that art, nor
do I want to. Syphon Flesh is a little
overcosted for a one-on-one game, being
basically a Cruel Edict and a Grizzly Bear in
one card. In a duel, Gatekeeper of Malakir
serves that purpose much better. But in
multiplayer, this becomes an effective way to
keep all your other player's armies from
amassing too many recruits as well as filling
your own out nicely. In a 4-player game, if
everybody at the table has a creature, this
becomes a fairly efficient token generator even
before you consider that everybody else just
lost a creature. And in bigger games, this could
be a backbreaking move.
I'm going to take another controversial position
and state that I find this to be the best
encapsulation of zombie flavor in Magic so far.
Remember what we learned from Resident Evil:
zombies travel in swarms, and anyone they kill
might rise again on their team. Btter give Jill
Valentine a call! Five mana is probably a fair
cost for this type of effect (cf. Mind Control),
especially when you consider that the card
advantage increases exponentially the more
players are involved in the game. I'm not sure
if constructed formats need this right now, but
it's definitely worth keeping an eye on.
Today's card of the day is Syphon Flesh which
is a five mana Black sorcery that has each other
player sacrifice a creature to give you a
2/2 zombie for each creature sacrificed.
Legal only in Commander, Vintage, and Legacy
this card is a bit too high in cost for a one on
one game, but in a larger multiplayer game can
potentially make an impact.
If each opponent has only larger or useful
effect creatures to choose from and you wind up
with a swarm of tokens, especially with a zombie
theme to support them, it works quite well.
Overall this isn't really a game winning play as
2/2 isn't large by that stage and the opponents
can choose, so this should be seen as
multiplayer removal, such as a mono-Black
sacrifice build, with no real drawback.
Welcome to today’s card of
the day here at Pojo.com. This time around we
take a look at Syphon Flesh from Commander!
Syphon Flesh is a black sorcery that costs four
generic and one black mana. Syphon Flesh says
each opponent sacrifices a creature, then you
get a 2/2 Black Zombie creature token for each
creature sacrificed this way.
Such a fun and amazing card for just five mana. The
ability to force every opponent to lose a
creature while you gain one 2/2 for each
creature they sacrificed is just such a handy
ability. Combining this card with other spells
that will help it have a better effect is a no
brainer. If running this, it would be a great
idea to run more Zombie related cards, such as
Cemetery Reaper, or Undead Warchief. It would
also be advisable to run this guy with
Pandemonium. Then each creature you drop will
also be slinging some damage wherever you need
it to go. Of course Pandemonium can backfire.
But using Syphon Flesh could easily get you out
a Demon of Death’s Gate quite easily. But then,
five mana is kind of slow you may say, however,
you have the advantage if done this way, since
they would be losing creatures allowing you to
drop a bruiser.
No matter the way you use it, or the combos you may think
work great, there is no denying that such
massive card advantage is present in Syphon
Flesh.
