[Single Card Discussion] Phyrexian Etchings

[netherspirit]

Hey, I was looking through Coldsnap and stumbled across this little beauty, before I start allow me to explain one small thing - I know that unless you're playing mono black or black with a small splash of something else this card is complete trash, however, that doesn't mean it is unplayable. Well here it is, Phyrexian Etchings:

Phyrexian Etchings
 
Enchantment
Cumulative upkeep  (At the beginning of your upkeep, put an age counter on this permanent, then sacrifice it unless you pay its upkeep cost for each age counter on it.)
At the end of your turn, draw a card for each age counter on Phyrexian Etchings.
When Phyrexian Etchings is put into a graveyard from play, you lose 2 life for each age counter on it.


Right, there it is (I tried to put a picture but failed . Could someone please tell me how to put one in?)

I've been toying with this using proxies and it nearly always ends up insane, especially when you drop something such as Necro or Bargain, but then again those 2 don't need any help in completely slaughtering your opponent . The current deck I'm using is:

Mana Base
1 Mox Jet
1 Lotus
1 Sol Ring
1 Petal
1 Crypt
1 Strip Mine
17 Swamp

Anti-Creature
1 Silent Arbiter
4 Diabolic Edict
3 Innocent Blood

Draw/Search
4 Phyrexian Etchings
1 Bargain
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Imperial Seal

Kill
4 Zombie Infestation
4 Hecatomb

Others
4 Duress
4 Dark Ritual
4 Ivory Tower
1 Feldon's Cane

Right, there's my deck, as you can see it uses Ivory Tower to protect you while you set up, and the kill (which is really bad, I just couldn't think of anything other than that or Juzam Djinn) is Hecatomb, which is obviously brought in using Zombie Infestation.

Anyway, the deck's not the point, this card, it's been quite often for me to drop it on turn 1, then it doesn't do much except get you a few early draws, but unless you pull a non-land mana source it just eats away at your mana. Turn 2 or 3 is usually the best time to drop it, beings this deck in particular only really needs 1 or 2 mana to keep going, but that's obviously just what I've found, the best turn to drop it will obviously vary depending on your mana curve and what cards in particular you rely on.

Here's the pretty common situation I find myself in at the moment with this card.
Turn 1: Land, pass
Turn 2: Land, lotus/mox/ritual, Etchings
Turn 3: Land, random card (usually tower or tutor by now), draw.

And so it goes for another few turns until I am drawing a ridiculous amount of cards and have masses of zombies out.

This card gives you an almost ridiculous amount of card advantage as long as you can keep the upkeep cost under control, but it could be very fun with Power Conduit or Eon Hub actually .

The tempo kill is very annoying, hence why I've found you need to be mono black in general, but, the card draw is nearly on par with Necro and Bargain, but let's be honest, in this format you find little that you desperately need to play beyond 3 or 4 mana. And with moxen etc it's not all that hard to get that sort of mana going by turn 2 or 3 at the latest.

Well I hope I wrote enough convincing evidence, any thoughts on the card would be appreciated (and any ideas on the deck would be cool, but that's not the point of this thread).

[Illissius]

You get your first card at the end of your next turn, and it takes three turns to acheive parity with Phyrexian Arena, which is already not the fastest card around. That's very, very slow. And you've spent six mana by that point, to Arena's three. If you keep it in play longer than that, manage to pay the upkeeps while having mana left for spells, and don't randomly die to a Disenchant, then it might potentially be useful. This won't happen very often, so you're better off with Arenas, tutoring for Necro, or Rectoring for Bargain.

This is the sort of card where I'd say it could have potential for block constructed, but as block constructed in this case happens to have the original Necro, it's pretty hopeless.

[unknown.root]

this card is really too slow for vintage, and the mana requirements are a bit too high.

paying mana and life each turn for a few extra cards is worse than casting grim tutor into necro.

remember the rule of vintage that something new HAS to replace or remain even with cards of equal ability already in existance.
so that said...

Necro > Yawg. Bargain > Phyrexian Etchings

~Kevin

[netherspirit]

The life loss is only at failure to pay upkeep, but with this the amount of cards drawn often outweighs the life loss.

[Guli]

The life loss is irrelivant. You need to find better cards to back this card up. I see too much creature protection in this deck. Too many slots dedicated.. You can always put some in the SB if you fear aggro...

The good thing about this card is that it can be cat turn 1 with ritual (its ritauble)

4 Dark Ritual
1 Black lotus

1 Necro
4 Phyrexian Etchings

that is a start, from there i would start all over and also think about the card synergy. What does this card do and how can i abuse it?

Duress is auto 4 include aswell ... with rituals Y.Will is also advisable

I also think you should include blue. The power is always welcome it will speed up the deck.

I would include Dark Confidants aswell to make your draw engine REALLY powerfull, but if you go with this plan the life loss WILL be a problem.

Draw

1 Ancestral Recall
1 Necropotence
4 Dark Confidant
4 Phyrexian Etchings

4 Ivory Tower

I never liked Ivory Tower but maybe in this deck it would be a good idea. (Personally i would not play the card but since you are trying it i would like to encourage the card and not break it down). It is also good against aggro because aggro has to beat you to death. And if you have 2 Towers in play and massive card drawing even big creatures won't be able to keep up. Sure it is not infinite life but if the life gaining is too much it simpy is too much forcing the opponent to win in another fashion. So the other card that should be added could fill up this hole.

[Draven]

As been stated, I think Phyrexian Arena is was better than this card. The problem with with Etchings is not the life loss, it is the upkeep. What are you going to be doing with all those cards if you can't cast any of them? The deck would have to be mono-black or run all duals because you can't pay the upkeep on mox mana.

[ELD]

No Yawgmoth's Will and no Necropotence?  Aside from that, it's a 3 mana spell that does not win the game.  I miss Oscar Tan's guidelines for determining if new cards are worth investigating.   

[Binary]

Any deck that's playing this and not playing Necro can't possibly be correct.

Honestly I can't see any real justification for this card in this format. Reading over the Coldsnap spoiler, it didn't even get me to stop for a second reading of the text.

[parallax]

Isn't this card worse than Greed?

[DoubleDrain]

this seems cute in type 2 in some sort of UB control (think bouncing the etchings) but other than that, it seems too narrow to see any serious t1 play.

[TimeWizzle]

On the plus side you can Stifle the life loss.  But who cares?  Any card that draws multiple cards is worth a glance, but I can't imagine a deck that plays enough black mana to make this worthwhile being able to survive long enough to draw or use the cards drawn.

That being said, it seems like a very good card in Standard, when games last 20 turns anyways.  And life gain is actually relavent and viable in type 2.  Probably too slow for Extended also.

And yes, this card is probably worse than greed.  Better than Oath of Lim-Dul though.

[Yare]

Isn't this card worse than Greed?

This card borders on strictly worse than Greed, with the only saving grace being that you don't pay the life until this card goes by the wayside.

This card is just too slow for Vintage, not to mention it requires mana to draw the cards, rather than just life.  This card is unplayable.