Oracle text
At the beginning of your upkeep, you draw a card and you lose 1 life.
Mox strategy
Phyrexian Arena is a strong, steady source of card advantage for black decks, especially in slower midrange or control shells that can afford the life loss. Its best use case is in grindy games where drawing an extra card each turn outweighs the 1 life payment.
It pairs well with lifegain, efficient removal, and attrition plans that aim to out-resource the opponent. It’s especially good alongside cards that care about life total as a resource, like pay-life draw or black recursion engines, because the extra cards help you keep up while the life loss is usually manageable.
Key mechanic: repeatable upkeep-based card draw. It’s strongest when cast early and protected by a stable board, but it’s weaker in fast formats or against aggressive decks that punish the life drain.
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Prices
$2.94market (USD)
USD$2.94
USD Foil$3.67
EUR€3.29
EUR Foil€3.61
MTGO Tix0.02 Tix
Format legality
- standardLegal
- pioneerLegal
- modernLegal
- legacyLegal
- vintageLegal
- commanderLegal
- pauper—
- brawlLegal
- historicLegal
- alchemyLegal
- oathbreakerLegal