Pestilence
2BB
Enchantment
At end of turn, if no creatures are in play, sacrifice Pestilence.
B: Pestilence deals 1 damage to each creature and each player.

I love Pestilence.

When I play paper Magic, it's often around the kitchen table with my former college roommates and their collection of over-60-card, built-from-whatever-we-happened-to-open, sanctioned-formats-be-damned casual decks. One of the most feared decks in this metagame is a Black/White concoction that we refer to simply as "The Pestilence Deck". The Pestilence Deck contains four copies of Pestilence (remarkable in itself, considering that we hardly own playsets of anything), plus some of the most awful creatures you can imagine that just happen to be immune to Pestilence (like Disciple of Grace and Death Speakers -- look it up; I'll wait), plus some ways to stay on top of the life situation (like Drain Life). Find Pestilence, clear the board, attack for small amounts. Once you have the highest life total, you're in charge of the game.

Man, is that deck fun to play. I love Pestilence.

On Magic Online, we don't have Pestilence. It hasn't been reprinted since Urza's Saga. In light of this absence, and my own experience with the metagame-defining Pestilence Deck, you can probably understand why I assumed that Wizards of the Coast had judged the card to be too powerful. I figured we'd never see it reprinted, and I expected to have to wait for Urza's Saga to see it online.

But then they colorshifted it in Planar Chaos.

Pyrohemia isn't exactly Pestilence, I suppose. The name isn't quite as catchy. Don't get me wrong; I like a good Greek root as much as the next guy. (Pyro = fire; hemia = blood.) But "Pyrohemia"... it doesn't exactly roll off the tongue. But that's not important. What's important is that Pyrohemia does what Pestilence does. So it's not Black -- what's in a color? It's still got all the same potential.

What kind of potential is that? Well....

The first thing I tried, upon acquiring my Pyrohemia playset, was to adapt the original Pestilence Deck for Extended. Playing the role of "awful creatures that just happen to be immune to Pestilence" are Empty-Shrine Kannushi and Dromad Purebred. Though the Purebred isn't entirely immune, and is pretty expensive for what it does, through repeated revisions I've been unwilling to reduce its numbers. The best thing about it is that it protects your life total from Pyrohemia activations -- and if you have two in play, you can actually turn a profit.

Slightly less awful creatures that are also immune to Pyrohemia are Guardian of the Guildpact and Auriok Champion. The former is often a fine blocker or an evasive attacker, while the latter -- well, I mean, just read the card. It's a moderately high-ticket rare, for reasons I don't really understand, but I shelled out the funds for it anyway. It's such a perfect match for Pyrohemia that I think any Red/White build of the deck that didn't have Champion would have to be wrong.

Star Compass is perhaps one of the worst mana artifacts ever, but I also think it's the right call for this particular deck. It's the only option that can both help you cast an early Champion and be used for Pyrohemia activations later.

In practice, I found that the deck's biggest problem was, perhaps unsurprisingly, not drawing the signature enchantment often/quickly enough. Unfortunately, there's no good way for Red or White to tutor for a non-Aura enchantment. Golden Wish is the best option, but it's really best suited for the types of combos that win the game as soon as they're assembled. Pyrohemia doesn't win the game, it just helps establish board control. So, while running three Pyrohemias and four Golden Wishes maindeck effectively gives you seven copies of Pyrohemia in the deck, if you wish for the copy in the sideboard but lose it before the game ends, you're left with three other useless Wishes.

So, instead of tutoring, I decided to maximize the number of cycling effects in the deck. There are 12 cards in there that can draw you another one, and I'm reasonably happy with how that's working out.

I considered RW Pyrohemia a success. But why stop there? I was already thinking about another color....

Tamanoahemia
Legal in Extended
Land (22)	Creatures (16)
6 Forest 6 Mountain 4 Plains 2 Sacred Foundry 2 Stomping Ground 2 Temple Garden	4 Sakura-Tribe Elder 4 Gristleback 4 Tamanoa 4 Fungusaur
	Other Spells (22)
	2 Farseek 4 Lightning Helix 2 Orim's Thunder 3 Faith's Fetters 4 Harmonize 4 Pyrohemia 3 Privileged Position

The first advantage to adding Green is that it allows you to replace Dromad Purebred with the considerably less awful Tamanoa. With only a single Tamanoa in play, you already make a profit on Pyrohemia activations: one Red mana deals damage to you, your opponent, and the Tamanoa, and you gain "that much" life, i.e. three, which is two more than you lost. With more creatures in play, or better yet more copies of Tamanoa, it only gets more ridiculous.

Unfortunately, Tamanoa is not immune to Pyrohemia -- it's even less so than the Purebred, in fact -- which brings me to the second advantage of adding Green: Fungusaur. This 20-cent rare will never be killed by Pyrohemia, as long as you wait for its triggered ability to resolve between activations. It will only grow bigger and bigger each time. Between Pyrohemia and the enormous Fungusaur it creates, you shouldn't have much of a problem winning the game.

However, while Pyrohemia won't kill Fungusar, a mere Shock will do so easily. That's why I've added a few copies of Privileged Position. If you're worried about removal, accelerate into that enchantment first, then start playing out the rest of your combo.

The other things that Green brings to the table are Gristleback -- a creature I've long wanted to find a home for, which can show up Bloodthirsty after a Pyrohemia activation, and help keep you ahead on life totals -- and Harmonize, which is somewhat better at helping you draw into the many cards you need than the cyclers from the last deck.

I've really found Faith's Fetters to be indispensible in both of the decks we've seen so far. It plugs a serious hole by being able to deal with high-toughness creatures, in addition to handling non-creature permanents that have activated abilities. For this deck, I switched from Terashi's Grasp to Orim's Thunder. The latter can sometimes get you a two-for-one trade, and if Tamanoa is in play, you'll still gain the life.

You may notice that the deck is a little choked at the four-mana slot, so look for a two-mana accelerator to help you get there quickly. Though Sakura-Tribe Elder is among the first to die when you start burning everybody's blood, if you summon him afterwards he can also help keep the enchantment around. I should also mention those rare lands: not only are they expensive, but too many life payments could reduce your ability to use Pyrohemia effectively. If you don't want to pay for these lands -- in either sense of the word -- I'd suggest switching to Into the North and the Coldsnap snow duals.

Phytohydrahemia
Legal in Extended
Land (24)	Creatures (13)
5 Forest 5 Mountain 4 Plains 4 Terramorphic Expanse 2 Selesnya Sanctuary 4 Forbidden Orchard	4 Sakura-Tribe Elder 4 Bottle Gnomes 4 Phytohydra 1 Panglacial Wurm
Other Spells (23)
1 Sensei's Divining Top 2 Gaea's Blessing 2 Terashi's Grasp 2 Pure/Simple 4 Faith's Fetters 4 Reap and Sow 4 Harmonize 4 Pyrohemia

While I was brainstorming for ways to guarantee that there would always be a creature in play, I suddenly recalled one that's been used by Vintage players in Oath of Druids decks: Forbidden Orchard. To prevent the Orchard's Spirit tokens from being killed by Pyrohemia, tap it for mana first, then burn while the trigger is still on the stack. Do this on your opponent's turn, ideally, so they can't attack with the token. Of course, if there are other creatures around that will survive Pyrohemia, the tokens are easy enough to burn away.

This seemed like the kind of strategy a control deck would use, so I leaned more in that direction for this build. Faith's Fetters shows up again, with Terashi's Grasp for artifact or enchantment destruction that gains you life, and Pure/Simple for artifact or enchantment destruction that gains you card advantage. (Do be careful about the dissynergy between Faith's Fetters and Simple.) Sakura-Tribe Elder and Bottle Gnomes serve as chump-blockers with useful abilities.

When you think of Green-and-Red control, you probably think of land destruction, but we all know that doesn't go over too well in the casual room. It's just as well, anyway: what fun is Pyrohemia if your opponent can't cast any creatures? Still, I included a set of Reap and Sows in case the need arises, which it might if you face any utility lands. If not, just use it to find yourself an Orchard or a Selesnya Sanctuary.

Your kill cards are Pyrohemias and Phytohydras -- perhaps you noticed the synergy? Phytohydra is like Fungusaur, only better (no interaction with Tamanoa, though). If both of those get Extirpated, you'll need to go after your lone Panglacial Wurm. The deck has 12 library-searching effects to help you get it, although Reap and Sow requires four additional mana on the same turn, so maybe it shouldn't be counted. Gaea's Blessing, in addition to providing defense against milling decks or just being a regular old cantrip, can put the Wurm back in your library if need be.

I think this deck's biggest flaw is not having as much life-gain as the others, or perhaps just not having a repeatable source of it (unless you count re-shuffling Gnomes with the Blessings... which is a bit of a stretch). That means that you'll have to keep a closer eye on life totals. Be judicious in deciding when to burn, and don't miss any opportunities to send some Gnomes or Elders in for a point or two.

This deck, more than any of the others in this article, could really use Sterling Grove. It would protect the Pyrohemias, help you find them or a Fetters, and provide more opportunities to play the Wurm. If you're willing to pay nine tickets for an Invasion-block uncommon that's probably not tournament-worthy... hey, knock yourself out.

My original version of this deck featured Sprouting Phytohydra for more defensive fun. Let me be perfectly clear in warning you that under no circumstances should you actually play Sprouting Phytohydra and Pyrohemia in the same deck. I played it once, got the combo off, and immediately realized that I had created a monster. Every point of burn you do doubles the number of 'hydras in play. Do a little math and you can see where that goes after just a few Red mana. Fortunately, if you burn twice or more per turn, you'll start killing off some of the earlier 'hydras, but even so, let me assure you that the triggers get out of hand in short order. I soon started saying "No" to creating more tokens, just to get the number of mouse clicks under control. My opponent, who neither complained nor (as far as I know) blocked me, surely deserves a medal for his patience.

For those students of Greek following along at home, "Phytohydrahemia" = "Plant-Hydra blood", the "Hydra" of course being the mythical monster that would grow back two heads if one were cut off.

Sliverhemia
Legal in Standard Tribal Wars and Time Spiral Block Constructed
	Creatures (20)
	4 Gemhide Sliver 2 Two-Headed Sliver 4 Darkheart Sliver 4 Sedge Sliver 4 Fungus Sliver 2 Might Sliver
Land (22)	Other Spells (18)
8 Forest 8 Mountain 4 Swamp 2 Terramorphic Expanse	4 Avoid Fate 4 Search for Tomorrow 4 Harmonize 4 Pyrohemia 2 Molder

You get bonus points if you made it this far without rushing to the comments section to tell me that the Fungusaur from the Tamanoahemia deck was all but obsoleted with the printing of Fungus Sliver in Time Spiral.

Let me say up front that, ordinarily, I hate Slivers. I hate playing against them, and I avoid building Constructed decks with them. But damned if Time Spiral block doesn't have some interesting Slivers to build around... and while I may hate Slivers, I love interesting cards to build decks around.

You know, like Pestilence. I mean Pyrohemia.

Anyway, one of the best things about the Fungus Sliver/Pyrohemia combo is that it's in Time Spiral Block. And while there may be some Slivers in Onslaught Block that could fit in a Pyrohemia deck, I like to make my decks legal in more restrictive formats whenever possible. If you can lower the power level of the environment without lowering the power level of your deck -- or at least not as much -- then your chances for winning games improve. Besides, we just finished building three Extended decks.

So, we have to play Green and Red for the essential parts of this combo. If we're playing Green Slivers, and need a lot of mana, then including Gemhide Sliver is pretty much automatic. Unfortunately, an unassisted Gemhide Sliver won't survive a single Pyrohemia activation, which means it will never get its counter from the Fungus Sliver's ability. It needs help. Might Sliver is an obvious choice... but Might Sliver is expensive. And, to tell the truth, it's overkill. +0/+1 would be sufficient for our purposes. Can we get the effect more cheaply?

The obvious place to look is to White for one of the best new Slivers, Sinew Sliver, which gives +1/+1 for a very reasonable price. White also offers Watcher Sliver, which gives +0/+2 for a slightly less reasonable price, and Essence Sliver, which addresses our life-gaining needs. But I don't like this path, and not just because I'm trying not to build another Green/Red/White deck. The mana costs are high, and you need your Slivers to deal damage in order to gain the life. This probably has to happen in combat, which is a little unwieldy, and may cause you to incur some unfavorable trades.

If we look to Black instead, we get Sedge Sliver, which offers +1/+1 and a useful ability for a reasonable price, and Darkheart Sliver, which provides our life gain, again for a lower price, and lets us choose who and when we sacrifice to get it.

Having identified four Slivers that need to be in the deck, I looked about for a fifth, because I don't usually like to run fewer than 20 creatures in a supposedly creature-based deck. When those creatures are Slivers, which want as many bonus abilities as they can get, this is even more of a concern. (Plus, we need at least 20 for Tribal Wars legality.) I ended up splitting the slot between Might Sliver and Two-Headed Sliver, both of which are passable but not great. Might has a useful ability but is expensive, while Two-Headed is a fine finisher, but useless early or alone.

Avoid Fate takes over for Privileged Position in this build; while you can only use each copy once, it's quite cost-efficient, and your opponent will have spent resources that they wouldn't have if Position were in play. Just don't forget that you need to leave Green mana open for it. I can tell you that there's definitely a temptation, when playing Pyrohemia decks, to leave only Red mana open.

However, not having Faith's Fetters in this format has a noticeable effect on the deck's performance -- Stronghold Overseer has been one of my biggest problems so far -- and if you wanted to try adding a replacement, taking out Avoid Fate is probably the place to start. If you're building the White version, Temporal Isolation is an obvious choice. In the Black version, I might suggest Assassinate or perhaps Enslave.

This deck is as mana-hungry as the rest, but mercifully, the accelerators and fixers are all common. Thanks to the restrictive format, this is probably the cheapest deck in this article, and I'd recommend starting here if you're keeping an eye on your budget.

There's one more interesting Pyrohemia combo I want to cover. I'm not sure how well it works, but it deserves mention, at least:

Pyroffliction
Legal in Extended
Land (24)	Creatures (4)
6 Mountain 8 Swamp 2 Rakdos Carnarium 2 Terramorphic Expanse 2 Rix Maadi, Dungeon Palace 4 Forbidden Orchard	4 Nether Traitor
Other Spells (32)
1 Shattering Spree 3 Star Compass 3 Rakdos Signet 4 Circle of Affliction 3 Douse in Gloom 2 Nihilistic Glee 4 Diabolic Tutor 4 Pyrohemia 2 Gauntlet of Power 2 Soul Spike 4 Soul Burn

The main combo here is Pyrohemia + Circle of Affliction. With a Circle in play, naming Red, you can recoup your losses on each point of Pyrohemia burn, and hit your opponent for another point besides.

To keep Pyrohemia in play, we're re-using the Forbidden Orchard trick, and adding Nether Traitors, a pair of which can be juggled between your graveyard and in-play zone. (Burn once to kill the in-play Traitor, then, with the buried one's trigger on the stack, burn as many additional times as you need, then let the original trigger resolve, putting the Traitor into play, thus saving the enchantment.)

To help with life totals, we have a handful of Black's draining effects, plus the awful Necropotence imitation Nihilistic Glee, which is another card I've been wanting to find a deck for. Glee can also help with putting Traitors in the grave and drawing into a Pyrohemia or Circle.

Unfortunately, in the end, a two-card combo that does two damage to our opponent for two mana isn't really spectacular, even if it does help with board control. I played this deck a couple of times (and even won once, partly thanks to a play error by my opponent), but it felt really weak. I never felt like I had any really "good" play to make, or like I had the tools to win against diverse strategies.

On top of that, there's another glaring problem with this deck -- maybe you've noticed it already. Aside from Pyrohemia, this deck doesn't really need Red mana. In fact, this is a deck that could really use Pestilence instead. It could get rid of the awkward color-fixing, replace Soul Burn with Consume Spirit, and get a lot more mileage out of Gauntlet of Power.

Ben Bleiweiss had a poll in his most recent (as of this writing) Building on a Budget column, in which one of the options was to have him build a deck around the Pyrohemia/Circle of Affliction combo. I hope it wins, because I'd like to see his take on it -- plus I'd just be happy to see anybody building a Pyrohemia deck.

As for me, I could build Pyrohemia decks all day, but this article has to end sometime. So I'm going to make you build the rest yourself. That's right; I'm assigning homework. Turn in your answers in the comments section below.

• Build the GRW Sliverhemia deck with Sinew Sliver, Essence Sliver, and maybe Watcher Sliver. Consider Harmonic Sliver for utility, but remember that you don't want to be forced to destroy your own Pyrohemia. Extra credit for staying Time Spiral Block Constructed and/or Standard Tribal Wars legal.
• Replace the Extended cards in the Tamanoahemia build to make it Standard-legal. Fungus Sliver replaces Fungusaur quite easily, and is even better in multiples, but be careful of running into other Sliver decks. (Hint: activate Pyrohemia on their turn, and let your Slivers' triggered abilities resolve before theirs.) For extra credit, add Hivestone to make Tamanoa a Sliver too.
• Build a Red/White Sliverhemia deck that uses Sinew Sliver, Hunter Sliver, Ward Sliver, and Cautery Sliver. No reason for that last one except that it's a great card and in-color. Extra credit for making it legal in Classic Tribal Wars.
• Build a Sliver deck for Classic Tribal Wars that doesn't use Ward Sliver. This doesn't have to have anything to do with Pyrohemia. I just hate Ward Sliver.
• Build a deck that combines Pyrohemia with Ravnica junk rare Light of Sanction.
• Build a Pyrohemia deck that uses Blue cards.

Pyrohemia is going for 40 cents apiece at MTGO Traders right now, and is great in both duels and multiplayer games, so you have no excuse for not picking up a playset. Get cracking!

Good luck and have fun,

--Evu

P.S.: Here's a bonus deck for the Paupers in the audience. Pyrohemia is uncommon, and Pestilence, though usually printed at common, isn't online yet. But when Visions was released online, we got something close: a common printing of Crypt Rats. Naturally my first thought was to somehow make a Pestilence Deck using the Rats. Here's what I came up with:

Crypt Rats Control
Legal in Pauper Classic
Land (23)	Creatures (14)
9 Snow-Covered Swamp 5 Snow-Covered Plains 3 Snow-Covered Island 2 Secluded Steppe 1 Lonely Sandbar 3 Azorius Chancery	4 Crypt Rats 4 Drift of Phantasms 3 Teroh's Faithful 3 Guardian of the Guildpact
Sideboard (15)	Other Spells (23)
4 Benevolent Bodyguard 4 Disenchant 4 Castigate 3 Shielding Plax	4 Wayfarer's Bauble 4 Crown of Awe 3 Muddle the Mixture 4 Renewed Faith 4 Soul Link 4 Faith's Fetters

Spend the first few turns slowing creature rushes and transmuting for your combo pieces. When you see an opportunity, play Crypt Rats and enchant it with Crown of Awe. With the Rats immune to their own ability, they become just like Pestilence -- without the drawback! In the creature-heavy Pauper environment, this is often sufficient to establish control and eventually win the game.

The combo is fragile, of course, and I don't mean to suggest that the deck is a tournament contender. It's done okay for me in the tournaments I've brought it to, but mostly I play it in casual games.

If you want to see this deck, or any of the above, in action, feel free to PM me online!