Axis of Mortality

Enchantment

At the beginning of your upkeep, you may have two target players exchange life totals.

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Arena	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Gladiator	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Historic	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Pioneer	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (45)

hheraa on lonely goth girl

10 hours ago

Also Axis of Mortality has a weird interaction with Aegis of the Gods that should be considered.

DreadKhan on lonely goth girl

11 hours ago

I'm not sure if Teysa would even want a friend, but Michiko Konda, Truth Seeker is a bit of a kindred, maybe they could hang for tea?

If you want people to attack a lot there is Angel's Trumpet, very handy that your Spirits have flying! Exquisite Blood is a combo piece, but it's also a strong card on it's own, it synergizes with your Commander very powerfully I'd say, if people come at you their creature's die, and if they go at each other then you gain life. Breena, the Demagogue can be used to make your stuff better. Shadrix Silverquill has a really good interaction with your Commander, if you give someone an Inkling and they come at you it dies and you get a 1/1, and if you give your board +1 counters twice than your 1/1s clobber inklings. I would run Transmogrifying Wand over Murder, it's 4 mana for the first creature but only 1 more for the next 2. You could also try something like Reckless Spite. I am a big fan of True Conviction, very good with a big token army.

It's a pretty janky card but I often enjoy using Axis of Mortality in White decks that are trying to stay on budget, you can punish or reward people as you see fit, it's a very strong political effect, and if people are losing creatures to your ability to lower your life total (while giving you evasive attackers) then you're probably gaining ground.

It's up to you obviously if you don't want to run more lands, but have you thought about including some MDFCs? I use Hagra Mauling  ^Flip and am happy to see it now and then, ETB tapped lands aren't great, but if the spell effect is also a playable effect their value is incredible. I'm sure you could find a use for Malakir Rebirth  ^Flip too, though that is less budget.

In the time that I've played Commander I've come to the conclusion that one of the hallmarks of a good deck is card draw, especially low to the ground effects. Stuff like Sign in Blood and Night's Whisper are very good in practice, there are also things like Village Rites, Corrupted Conviction, Plumb the Forbidden, and Reckoner's Bargain, these are all handy with your tokens, but also if you can't protect your Commander and they're getting blown up anyways, this can also prevent effects like Oubliette from working (which can be VERY helpful if your deck depends on your Commander, you might want a couple in the deck in case). If you think your tokens might stay 1/1s, or that you can get them to die with consistency then Skullclamp draws a lot of cards. Stinging Study draws a whopping 7 cards in this deck, for only 5 mana, I'd say that'd be handy late game.

Made_Compleat on Something for Nothing

4 months ago

Axis of Mortality?

jarncards on WALL STALL

5 months ago

If you're dead set on Celestial Convergence, Axis of Mortality, Mirror Universe, or the much worse Soul Conduit are probably entirely essential to your gameplan. They are also searchable with your signature spell

Moat, Magus of the Moat, and Blazing Archon, Mystic Barrier and Ensnaring Bridge are also good ideas for your pillow fort. Ghostly Prison is nice, but these effects are always better when multiplied. Windborn Muse and Norn's Annex are also good ones.

Cosmic Intervention and similar spells are probably good ideas too.

Relic Barrier and Icy Manipulator are best friends with Winter Orb and Static Orb

Solemnity instakills

Ferropede?

Nyx-Fleece Ram is better than some of your walls, Daxos, Blessed by the Sun probably is too.

Dusk / Dawn is your best board wipe in my opinion. Also reanimates almost every card in your deck.

Renounce and Zuran Orb are good ideas to dodge mass removal or suddenly gain the life you need to win.

Add Reprieve. it is temporary, but it will allow you to dodge a counter, or you could use it to bounce your own about-to-be-countered spell back to your hand before the counter resolves.

Elixir of Immortality? might help against mill. not great though.

The One Ring costs life if you need it to draw, but pro everything is probably more than worth it, and the extra cards are likely to be as well.

DreadKhan on BBEG Deck Ideas

7 months ago

Out of curiosity, what did you find clunky about Kresh? it does require your opponents to have creatures, but most decks have at least a Commander out, and many have way more creatures. There is an endless number of ways to kill a bunch of creatures, and once Kresh has survived a few you can use almost any wipe that is -X/-X or deals damage, meaning he can swing vs a cleared board with some regularity. Jund has a lot of great wipes in it that can be one-sided, and even if all you give Kresh is Trample he's suddenly an actual threat, one that requires an answer or people will start losing. I've recently put together a list, so I'm curious for myself as well the issues you've identified. Is the 'Achilles Heel' that people just remove Kresh?

Queen Marchesa's tokens are useful, but I think Sauron's army will be a more impactful threat, the Assassins are mostly blockers in practice, the army can swing very hard, and Sauron is much stickier once he's out (both bigger and with that sweet, sweet Ward). I think Mardu has a lot of crazy effects that can make for a memorable game. There are few cards funnier for an Archenemy to use than stuff like Axis of Mortality, this not only can make the most dangerous threat the easiest to kill, it can also pump your own life total while tanking an opponent's, it's hilarious with stuff like Exquisite Blood or Sanguine Bond, since changing life totals counts as life gain or loss. White has some really great shenanigan cards for an Archenemy, though Blue offers fun surprises like Mass Diminish (which lasts until your next turn, which always struck me as absurd), so I think either could work well.

I just had a thought from thinking about how good both White and Blue can be for this, are ghosts iconic enough for you? One of the nastiest Commanders that has ever been printed is Brago, King Eternal, he's from the same setting as Marchesa I think. Brago is incredible with stuff like Meekstone, Static Orb, Stasis, etc etc, I'm not sure if that's too 'unfun', but since Brago can also run counters in Blue it's a very valid 'archenemy', representing a villain in the form of a monarch that refuses to give up power. Azorius conveniently is very good at not losing, but is also not very good at actually winning, meaning it can survive for awhile even with a lot of attention, and might kill off a player or two before they can beat him. I can think of very few decks that are better at forcing the table to work together to fight the archenemy than Brago, if they don't follow the plan to deal with him first he'll become a true menace, but if they gang up on him Brago should fold quickly enough.

DreadKhan on You're Doing That in WHAT …

1 year ago

If you're willing to live dangerously, you could use Evra's ability early, so that you can use the trigger from Axis of Mortality to switch your very low life total with someone's really high one, then you can still kill a player with Evra, very possible to eliminate 2 players and have a sky-high life total (and a gargantuan creature).

DreadKhan on Bohemian Rhapsody

1 year ago

Black Market Connections can do a lot of work for a 3 drop, and you've got access to White for random life gain to make it less of a problem. It's clunky but Axis of Mortality is a really fun/interesting card that can make it an asset to pay life, and you can also use it to just switch two opponent's life totals if yours is the highest. If you want something lower to the ground, there are also the Soul Sisters, Soul Warden and Soul's Attendant, or Lunarch Veteran  ^Flip. One or two of those coming out early can mean a ton of life if nobody is wiping.

I think Welcoming Vampire might work, but you probably want to have tokens enter on other people's turns, not sure if you can pull that off readily. There is also Bennie Bracks, Zoologist, which doesn't care what kind of token you're making and can be cheap to cast, he's really nice with Pitiless Plunderer and a sac outlet or Smothering Tithe.

Not sure if you get walled very often, but if you're usually going wide Angel's Trumpet can create a ton of chaos for unprepared decks.

DreadKhan on Ken You Feel The Love Tonight (Input pls, rookie)

1 year ago

It's a clunky card, but Axis of Mortality can be a be swing of life each upkeep, and if you make an opponent's life go up, it counts as life gain. You can just move the lowest life total to the strongest opponent on each upkeep. It can also be used to protect yourself, since you can also exchange your own life.