For those who don’t know, Wizards ran a contest where you could design decklists for a Mirrodin Pure vs. New Phyrexia Duel Deck set. Now that the contest is closed, I figured I’d share what I came up with to see what people think. The descriptions we had to write are kinda weird and I’m not overly thrilled with those, but I did what I could with the guidelines we were given. Also, for the record, I’m much happier with the New Phyrexia deck, though I like both of them. For anyone wondering why Mirrodin Pure is an all artifact deck, the face cards for the two decks were Phyrexian Plaguelord and Platinum Angel, which were to be the only mythic rares in the decks. Why Plaguelord is mythic since it was a regular rare in Phyrexia vs. The Coalition (Negator was the mythic) is beyond me, but whatever. Anyway, no duel deck has ever had a card that was not either colourless or the colour of the face card, so I continued the trend. Seemed like the way to go.

That all being said, here’s what I came up with:

New Phyrexia
2x Blood Pet
2x Blood Vassal
1x Contagious Nim
2x Corpse Cur
1x Flensermite
2x Fume Spitter
1x Ichor Rats
1x Midnight Banshee
1x Necropede
1x Necroskitter
1x Nested Ghoul
1x Phyrexian Juggernaut
1x Phyrexian Plaguelord
2x Plague Stinger
1x Plague Myr
1x Septic Rats
1x Skinrender

1x Contagion Clasp
1x Contagion Engine
2x Dark Ritual
1x Incremental Blight
1x Oversold Cemetery
2x Phyresis
1x Plague Wind
1x Spread the Sickness
2x Virulent Wound

24x Swamp
1x Cabal Coffers
1x Peat Bog

Led by their master of death and disease, the Phyrexian Plaguelord, the Phyrexians continue to spread their infection across the plane of Mirrodin. With an army of expendable disease carriers that just won’t stay dead, the Plaguelord will sacrifice anyone to ensure that all will be one.

One-drops like Fume Spitter and Blood Pet slow down the opponent while helping you accelerate into your more expensive spells. A host of infect creatures threaten to poison your opponent as well as negating Mirrodin’s most powerful form of defense: darksteel. With Corpse Cur and Oversold Cemetery to recur your creatures, there is no end to the Phyrexian invasion. Even if the Mirrans can find a way to blunt the assault, the disease’s ability to proliferate will surely end them.

One of the most important cards in this deck is the dreaded Necroskitter. For only three mana, this hard-to-kill creature allows you to not only eliminate the Mirran forces, but to assimilate them into the army of New Phyrexia.

Mirrodin Pure
1x Auriok Replica
2x Chrome Steed
1x Golem Artisan
1x Gold Myr
1x Grim Poppet
1x Myr Battlesphere
1x Myr Galvanizer
1x Myr Retriever
1x Neurok Replica
1x Palladium Myr
1x Platinum Angel
1x Rusted Relic
1x Silver Myr
1x Soliton
2x Tatterkite
1x Wizard Replica

1x Bladed Pinions
1x Bonesplitter
2x Energy Chamber
1x Glint-Hawk Idol
2x Golem Foundry
1x Heavy Arbalist
2x Moonglove Extract
1x Oblivion Stone
1x Origin Spellbomb
2x Power Conduit
1x Prototype Portal
1x Sculpting Steel

11x Plains
11x Islands
2x Glimmerpost
2x Cloudpost

With the Platinum Angel soaring overheard, the Mirrans charge into battle fearless to purge Mirrodin of the Phyrexian scourge. Using powerful artifacts to purify Mirrodin and counteract the effects of the Phyrexian plague, they will endure.
Early game Myr creatures and spellbombs defend you from becoming poisoned as well as helping to cast expensive creatures to devastate the Phyrexian forces.
Golem Foundry and Prototype Portal are your most powerful tools offensively, providing a renewable source of creatures to overwhelm your opponent. Defensively, Power Conduit, Energy Chamber, and Grim Poppet allow you to not only remove the-1/-1 counters from your creatures, but to even turn them against your opponent.
Be it on the attack or defense, Tatterkite is one of your most important tools against the Phyrexians because it cannot be infected. When equipped with a Heavy Arbalest, Soliton can be used to singlehandedly wipe out much of the oncoming plague and leave Mirrodin Pure.