Competitive Primer for Skullbriar, the Walking Grave in the 1v1 French Ban List format
Introduction
Recently I’ve been trying new generals out in the competitive scene with some success and some failures. One of my new favorite generals in EDH is Skullbriar, an aggro centric general that wins most games off of general damage and is fairly resilient due to his low mana cost. I like him because the games are quick and the deck is fairly straight forward to play. This deck is a brew of my multiplayer deck minus all the goodies like Mana Crypt/Vault, Sol Ring, Strip Mine etc. I play a completely beater set of cards aimed at getting Skullbriar damage through, making him bigger and outpacing my opponents answers to Skullbriar through the large amount of ramp and draw cards in the deck. The deck however has many flaws and as such, there is a wide variety of changes that I can make to get this deck much more lean and faster.
Choosing your General
Why Play Skullbriar?
Because...
+You like winning on general damage with a hard hitting creature and you like aggressive, fast decks
+He has good color combination in G/B which gives him access to steady ramp and good removal spells
+He is resilient because of his low mana cost and because he gets scary big the more damage he does. Even types of removal can be played around because you’ll be constantly be reviving him and letting him swing every turn with his Haste
+Watching your general get pumped to 7/7 on turn 4-5 is always funny and sometimes you can have quick wins depending on your opening hands
Why You Wouldn’t Play Skullbriar
Because...
-The deck is super easy mode. Really, you don’t have many hard decisions to make and if you make a mistake, there are so many goldfish answers in the deck you can recover despite bad plays
-You can usually see the outcome of games early. If your hand is bad and you lack mana/pump cards, you probably aren’t going to win and will get overrun in the mid to late game
-You lack access to Blue. Most decks in the French Ban List run multiple counters and depending if you’re playing first or second, you can get locked out of games fairly early. (But on the flip side, once you get Skullbriar out on usually your 1st or 2nd turn, Blue decks need a quick answer as many don’t run very many creatures to deal with Skullbriar)
If this deck had a motto it would be: PRESSURE, PRESSURE, PRESSURE. Like I mentioned in the intro, you main goal is winning off of general damage. We want to get Skullbriar out Turn 1-2, pump him Turn 3-5 and hopefully have the game sealed by Turn 6. I run a lot of mana for such a small general so even if Skullbriar is getting bounced, you should be able to keep the pressure on. Once Skullbriar is on the field we are ramping to make sure that we have enough mana for draw cards, equipment cards to play and equip as they come into play, and a few of our 6 drop cards that are in the deck. With your large amount of Auras and Equipment you really should never have a hand that doesn’t have: some mana, some ramp, some equipment or some sort of tutor/draw cards to fetch stuff that you need.
All Star Cards in the Deck you should try and tutor for
Berserk, Shizo, Death's Storehouse, Sword of Feast and Famine, Unspeakable Symbol, Whispersilk Cloak
Breakdown of card types
Artifacts and Auras
The other important part about the deck is making sure that even if he is getting blocked each turn, he is hitting your opponent for damage each turn. We want those counters to add up fast so that our games finish fast. That is why we are running cards like Loxodon Warhammer, all Swords of …. equipments, Sword of Vengeance, Trailblazer’s Boots, Whispersilk Cloak, Canopy Cover, Cover of Darkness, and Shizo, Death’s Storehouse. These cards whether through trample, Fear or Protection from... effects will allow Skullbriar to constantly ping your opponent.
Some of the most important cards of the deck are the equipment cards due to a lot of the cool procs that come with them. Trample, Lifelink, Hexproof, Pump, First Strike and Un-blockable allow Skullbriar to damage, keep us alive and makes sure Skullbriar stays on the field. Even if some of these equipments are lost, we have Glissa, Regrowth and Eternal Witness to fetch stuff from the graveyard.
Creatures
Every creature in this deck has the sole purpose of supporting Skullbriar. Creatures that give us ramp (Sakura and Yavimaya Elder, Primeval Titan, and Lotus Cobra); creatures that are nice utility with comes into play effects (Fleshbag, Eternal Witness, Jungan, Acidic Slime); creatures that give us card advantage (Dark Confident and Glissa). And creatures that pump Skullbriar (Jugan and Creakwood Leige). Each is a support card but gives us a body to help maintain board position.
Land
We’re running 38 lands in this deck which is quiet a lot for such a low mana curve general. This is probably the place that I want to tinker around with the most. I want to ramp up quickly and outpace my opponent as much as possible in case Skullbriar is getting denied. While my mana curve is fairly low for the deck, my draw spells and add counter spells are expensive and I want to be dropping those as early as possible on Skullbriar. As for the rest of the non-basic lands, they are there to support getting Skullbriar bigger and digging things out of my graveyard. I think that dropping my mana ramp down to 35 or 36 and adding in disruption spells might be a good step forward for this deck.
Enchantments
I wanted enchantments that, again, focus on Skullbriar’s general damage. These are letting me get damage through, pumping Skullbriar, or drawing me cards. Not sure I would change much here besides maybe Doubling Season because its ramp is high, but that would need more playtesting. One of the all star cards in this deck is Unspeakable Symbol. If you can sneak this into play and unload your entire health, you can often score a quick KO on unaware opponents.
Instants
Your standard Black, Green instants. Tutors, removal, and pump. Currently, I think that I lack enough removal and I may play test to see if adding more creature removal would help. Berserk is an all-star in this deck. It is easy to tutor for, easy to cast and can end a game almost instantly if your opponent is tapped out and hes free to swing in.
Planeswalkers
These guys were leftovers from the multiplayer EDH deck that this deck was originally crafted from and I couldn’t really think of anything that would replace them well. Both are great utility cards despite their high mana cost. Sorin removes potential blockers and can ping my opponent for a large amount of damage. Garruk keeps my hand healthy and can spit out tokens in case I am getting overrun. These cards are disposable though and will most likely get phased out (especially Sorin).
Sorcery
Again, the run of the mill Green, Black Sorceries in 1v1. Draw, tutor, ramp, board and spot removal. Green Sun’s Zenith is probably first on the chopping block however as it really doesn’t fetch me things that I need. It’s basically another mana ramp card, but I can easily see this dropped from the deck. The only thing I’ve considered adding to these sorceries are discard disruption to deny my opponents cards that will slow down Skullbriar.
Changes I'd like to Consider
Right now, the biggest change I can see is hand disruption. Cheap, discard spells will probably be the best additions to the deck letting me fish out counters from my opponent along with checking to make sure the coast is clear before I drop Skullbriar into play. Duress, Hymn To Tourach and Thoughseize are cards I’d like to play test. Another card I’ve thought about is Sinkhole since I want to put my opponent behind as much as possible after I get Skullbriar out and often this card is useful throughout a game. More tutors is another possibility letting me goldfish any card that can instantly end a game.
I’ll probably need more graveyard hate (with Bojuka Bog being the only card that removes things currently), since Karador decks are becoming increasingly popular in the metagame. Leyline of the Void, Nihil Spellbomb, and Tormod’s Crypt are all cards I’ve considered. Especially Nihil because it draws me a card in case my opponent isn’t doing much with his graveyard.
-Drop my mana base to 36
-Drop Sorin the planeswalker
-Drop some of my mana ramp (especially some of the clunky ones like Primeval which is a Top 5 card in EDH, but might not fit with this deck at all)
-Drop some of the equipment that I normally don’t like seeing (Sword of Veagance)
-Drop Shape of the Wiitigo, to mana intensive and not enough payoff.
-Drop Seedtime, a very circumstantial card that can be deadweight. But with my extreme dislike for Blue control decks, I often find that it should still stay in the deck
1/14
-Sword of Vengeance - to clunky and circumstantial
+ Sword of Light and Shadow - another "protection" from proc that gets damage through and gives me card advantage and a mini life-link
I appreciate you looking at this decklist and I hope that with your comments we can tune the deck into a quick, killing machine.
French EDH BRGW Saskia the Unyielding BRGW GUWB Thrasios, Triton Hero // Tymna the Weaver GUWB B Braids, Cabal Minion B G Titania, Protector of Argoth G R Zurgo Bellstriker R
Founding Father of [Team Stepfathers]: We beat you and you hate us My Street Art
this is the beauty of EDH!!!
even if we are playing the same general and even the same strategy the deck it's different
I've been brainstorming with some friends with skullbriar and ways to make it a competitive general, I could suggest dropping most equipment and run cards like avoid fate, vines of vastwood, imp's mischief and the like (basically low mana protection for skullbriar)
and prison elements like tangle wire and winter orb, I say this because you're dealing here with a fast general, so if you're denying resources they have less answers for your general
I can't really share a list, since our meta/playgroup doesn't support the french banlist and we have the deck in a pretty theorical phase
I'm curious to know your opinion on my suggestions
Ya I like those suggestions and I was thinking on a similar path today while testing. I'm trying to think of ways that I can speed up the average kill time without losing consistency. I'll need to fool around with balancing the Instant pumps and Equipment pumps. I've played a few more games tonight and realized that I just have way to much "stuff" that sometimes sits in my hand or on the battlefield and doesn't do much. I think that Vines of Vastwood and Mutagenic Growth can easily have spots in the deck. As for protecting Skullbriar, I'm going to continue testing hand disruption. I think that it may be a little stronger than the pseudo-counters you suggested because you draw out their counters and also deny important cards for their strategy. Again, at this point, I'm just tinkering and mixing and matching card combinations at this point.
As for the Tangle Wire and Winter Orb, I definitely can see me playing tangle wire (especially with all the equipment I'm running). Winter Orb though has the problem of locking me out of situations I might not want to be in. Unfortunately, I'm not the most competent player and I often misplay Orb so that might be just a pilot error.
Let me test Tangle Wire and the Instant Pump cards tomorrow and I'll let you know how it goes. Also feel free to test it yourself. If you think that there are cards that can be worked in, I'd love to hear first hand experience.
Thanks for the suggestions!
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French EDH BRGW Saskia the Unyielding BRGW GUWB Thrasios, Triton Hero // Tymna the Weaver GUWB B Braids, Cabal Minion B G Titania, Protector of Argoth G R Zurgo Bellstriker R
Founding Father of [Team Stepfathers]: We beat you and you hate us My Street Art
This is a friend of mine's Skullbriar list, also made for the French metagame, and very competitive/consistent. The key to Skullbriar, IMHO, is to be able to get him out on turn 1. There is currently about six cards that enable this; 2 Moxen, Petal, Spirit Guide, Gemstone Cave, and G Chancellor.
Those are great suggestions. So the thing I noticed was that I need to severely reduce my mana curve. Like 3drinks said, you want to get Skullbriar out as fast as possible. Today I had a turn 4 game because I had a Chrome Mox, Mox Diamond, Land start and I absolutely crushed the other guy. I've literally taken out all of 5+ mana guys in the deck because they were absolute dead weight. Instead I've added an entire removal package and protection package like Marek said earlier (thanks again btw, Vines of Vastwood has been a lifesaver so far. Saved me in 2 games).
I've also changed the equipment more similarly to the deck 3drinks posted. I haven't tested it out yet, but I feel like it will be much faster kills. I've also added in two Leyline's (both for Black and Green). I ran into a lot of problems with Skullbriar getting constantly countered which is very frustrating. Hopefully this will patch it up.
I've also changed the mana base to a 35 lands, I took out the cycling lands and also cabal coffers which I never used and was terrible to draw. I've left in some of my land fetching though because I don't want to run out of gas and have kept a majority of my card draws.
Here is the updated deck list. Once I get a chance, I'll re-do the op
I'll continue testing the new deck today. I feel like it got significantly stronger after just a few changes recently, so thanks again for your help guys.
French EDH BRGW Saskia the Unyielding BRGW GUWB Thrasios, Triton Hero // Tymna the Weaver GUWB B Braids, Cabal Minion B G Titania, Protector of Argoth G R Zurgo Bellstriker R
Founding Father of [Team Stepfathers]: We beat you and you hate us My Street Art
Likewise, I think the Leylines are generally weak, unless you're going for the Leyline of the Void/Helm of Obedience combo, which sucks because Helm doesn't do much on it's own, and Leylines aren't exactly the kinds of cards you want to be hardcasting at four mana. Which is probably hard to get to on 35 lands. If counterspells got you down, play more of those aggressive creatures in the link I posted, either they will bait the counters to let Skullbriar come down safely, or they won't, which gives you more damage on board.
Why Ambition's Cost(which you have listed as an enchantment btw) and Ancient Craving? Harmonize is better, as is Skeletal Scrying. Cut Cover of Darkness(it's kind of janky) for Dark Tutelage(you're running Bob already, no reason to not run the enchantment version of him, this is a suicide aggro deck). If you're worried about not being able to off it when you need to, Nature's Claim is an option you should be playing anyway, one mana answer to someone's Sylvan Library, or what have you.
A lot of your equips are kind of janky, like Cloak, Helm, and the auras, and the Lox Hammer will take an eternity to equip on 35 lands. These could perhaps be more targeted discard or, again, more of those cheap aggressive dorks in my link. Doubling Season doesn't do much in this list, and it costs five mana. This will also hurt a bit off of Bob, so I'm pretty sure it's a cut too. The only thing in this style of deck I would be okay with Bob slicing the hell out of my life total for, is something like a Tombstalker. That guy is a big threat, with evasion, for potentially only BB.
I really don't know why you are ramping when you're trying to run a 35 land deck, these can be some reanimate spells to get Skullbriar's arse out of the grave, cards like Reanimate, Unearth, and Animate Dead. If you really want a four drop spell, try Vigor Mortis(which I feel will be too slow at four mana). These let you pull his arse out of the grave, so you can avoid putting his arse in the command zone and paying the extra tax on him sometimes.
Ya the deck is still morphing. Today I had good win percentages against non-blue decks, but those that run a lot of removal (Swords, Exile) and counters have crushed me. Before your comments 3drinks, I removed Doubling Season which was dumb and also took a majority of my ramp out. I added in Xantid Swarm to get rid of Blue countering me. The discard and more destruction spells have been much better in the deck and have helped me instantly speed up my killing clock.
Leyline of the Void has been a good card, saving me in 2 games so far. I'm going to let that stay for now. I've changed out the draw spells because you are right, they are better. I also added in Nature's claim for more removal.
I haven't really considered the re-animate aspect so I'll test that right now. I'll also look at Tombstalker right now
PS - If you're on Cockatrice, my name on there is perfekt if you want to talk and discuss the deck with me
French EDH BRGW Saskia the Unyielding BRGW GUWB Thrasios, Triton Hero // Tymna the Weaver GUWB B Braids, Cabal Minion B G Titania, Protector of Argoth G R Zurgo Bellstriker R
Founding Father of [Team Stepfathers]: We beat you and you hate us My Street Art
I actually have a version of the Skullbriar in the link made on cockatrice as we speak was testing it a couple months ago. Mine had the added reanimation, and a sword package, but was otherwise the same as the link.
Nice call on Xantid Swarm, that guy is awesome. I should probably adopt him for my own French Stonebrow list.
Invigorate is nice, since they're gaining life, not Commander life.
When I was playing my Skullbriar deck, I focused almost exclusively on pumping spells and disruption (much of what you have, but also including land destruction, and even something like Naturalize).
Cards like Lotus Cobra and Sakura-Tribe Elder seem out of place. That's mana and tempo you should be spending to pump Skullbriar, remove enemy blockers, or disrupt your opponent.
I found that I was better off focusing all of my energy on Skullbriar... there is some nice redundancy with equipment and some other critters, but I found that equipment was generally too slow for this type of deck, and trying to deal 30 or 40 with my other creatures was absolutely a losing battle.
I would try Chain of smog and Braids, cabal minion for further resources denial
I don't really like snuff out, doesn't kill big things like doran or wydwen, I would run Devour in shadow, but maybe that's just me
I really like the xantid swarm/leyline package versus control, It has worked for you?; would you run autumn's veil for the purpose of anticontrol/protection?
French EDH BRGW Saskia the Unyielding BRGW GUWB Thrasios, Triton Hero // Tymna the Weaver GUWB B Braids, Cabal Minion B G Titania, Protector of Argoth G R Zurgo Bellstriker R
Founding Father of [Team Stepfathers]: We beat you and you hate us My Street Art
Competitive Primer for Skullbriar, the Walking Grave in the 1v1 French Ban List format
Introduction
Recently I’ve been trying new generals out in the competitive scene with some success and some failures. One of my new favorite generals in EDH is Skullbriar, an aggro centric general that wins most games off of general damage and is fairly resilient due to his low mana cost. I like him because the games are quick and the deck is fairly straight forward to play. This deck is a brew of my multiplayer deck minus all the goodies like Mana Crypt/Vault, Sol Ring, Strip Mine etc. I play a completely beater set of cards aimed at getting Skullbriar damage through, making him bigger and outpacing my opponents answers to Skullbriar through the large amount of ramp and draw cards in the deck. The deck however has many flaws and as such, there is a wide variety of changes that I can make to get this deck much more lean and faster.
Choosing your General
Why Play Skullbriar?
+You like winning on general damage with a hard hitting creature and you like aggressive, fast decks
+He has good color combination in G/B which gives him access to steady ramp and good removal spells
+He is resilient because of his low mana cost and because he gets scary big the more damage he does. Even types of removal can be played around because you’ll be constantly be reviving him and letting him swing every turn with his Haste
+Watching your general get pumped to 7/7 on turn 4-5 is always funny and sometimes you can have quick wins depending on your opening hands
Why You Wouldn’t Play Skullbriar
-The deck is super easy mode. Really, you don’t have many hard decisions to make and if you make a mistake, there are so many goldfish answers in the deck you can recover despite bad plays
-You can usually see the outcome of games early. If your hand is bad and you lack mana/pump cards, you probably aren’t going to win and will get overrun in the mid to late game
-You lack access to Blue. Most decks in the French Ban List run multiple counters and depending if you’re playing first or second, you can get locked out of games fairly early. (But on the flip side, once you get Skullbriar out on usually your 1st or 2nd turn, Blue decks need a quick answer as many don’t run very many creatures to deal with Skullbriar)
Decklist
1 Skullbriar, the Walking Grave
Creatures
1 Creakwood Liege
1 Eternal Witness
1 Yavimaya Elder
1 Fleshbag Marauder
1 Glissa, the Traitor
1 Acidic Slime
1 Jugan, the Rising Star
1 Dark Confidant
1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
1 Primeval Titan
1 Lotus Cobra
Artifacts
1 Trailblazer's Boots
1 Mox Diamond
1 Lotus Bloom
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
1 Loxodon Warhammer
1 Darksteel Plate
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Champion's Helm
1 Grafted Exoskeleton
1 Batterskull
1 Whispersilk Cloak
1 Golgari Signet
1 Mind's Eye
1 Darksteel Ingot
1 Expedition Map
1 Chrome Mox
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Sword of Body and Mind
1 Cover of Darkness
1 Shape of the Wiitigo
1 Canopy Cover
1 Snake Umbra
1 Bear Umbra
1 Phyrexian Arena
1 Doubling Season
1 Unspeakable Symbol
Sorcery
1 Regrowth
1 Cultivate
1 Night's Whisper
1 Sylvan Scrying
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Green Sun's Zenith
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Damnation
1 Kodama's Reach
1 Beseech the Queen
1 Skyshroud Claim
1 Ambition's Cost
1 Ancient Craving
Instant
1 Berserk
1 Grim Tutor
1 Beast Within
1 Putrefy
1 Noxious Revival
1 Seedtime
1 Worldly Tutor
1 Decree of Savagery
1 Garruk, Primal Hunter
1 Sorin Markov
Lands
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Temple of the False God
1 Buried Ruin
1 Golgari Rot Farm
1 Woodland Cemetery
1 Llanowar Reborn
1 Barren Moor
1 Tranquil Thicket
1 Vivid Grove
1 Vivid Marsh
1 Command Tower
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Twilight Mire
1 Llanowar Wastes
1 Bayou
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Oran-Rief, the Vastwood
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Wasteland
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Shizo, Death's Storehouse
1 Okina, Temple to the Grandfathers
7 Forest
8 Swamp
1 Cabal Coffers
How to Play Skullbriar
All Star Cards in the Deck you should try and tutor for
Breakdown of card types
Artifacts and Auras
Some of the most important cards of the deck are the equipment cards due to a lot of the cool procs that come with them. Trample, Lifelink, Hexproof, Pump, First Strike and Un-blockable allow Skullbriar to damage, keep us alive and makes sure Skullbriar stays on the field. Even if some of these equipments are lost, we have Glissa, Regrowth and Eternal Witness to fetch stuff from the graveyard.
Creatures
Land
Enchantments
Instants
Planeswalkers
These guys were leftovers from the multiplayer EDH deck that this deck was originally crafted from and I couldn’t really think of anything that would replace them well. Both are great utility cards despite their high mana cost. Sorin removes potential blockers and can ping my opponent for a large amount of damage. Garruk keeps my hand healthy and can spit out tokens in case I am getting overrun. These cards are disposable though and will most likely get phased out (especially Sorin).
Sorcery
Again, the run of the mill Green, Black Sorceries in 1v1. Draw, tutor, ramp, board and spot removal. Green Sun’s Zenith is probably first on the chopping block however as it really doesn’t fetch me things that I need. It’s basically another mana ramp card, but I can easily see this dropped from the deck. The only thing I’ve considered adding to these sorceries are discard disruption to deny my opponents cards that will slow down Skullbriar.
Changes I'd like to Consider
I’ll probably need more graveyard hate (with Bojuka Bog being the only card that removes things currently), since Karador decks are becoming increasingly popular in the metagame. Leyline of the Void, Nihil Spellbomb, and Tormod’s Crypt are all cards I’ve considered. Especially Nihil because it draws me a card in case my opponent isn’t doing much with his graveyard.
Lastly, Instant speed pump cards like Vines of Vastwood or Mutagenic growth can end games faster.
Cards to test
Cuts
-Drop Sorin the planeswalker
-Drop some of my mana ramp (especially some of the clunky ones like Primeval which is a Top 5 card in EDH, but might not fit with this deck at all)
-Drop some of the equipment that I normally don’t like seeing (Sword of Veagance)
-Drop Shape of the Wiitigo, to mana intensive and not enough payoff.
-Drop Seedtime, a very circumstantial card that can be deadweight. But with my extreme dislike for Blue control decks, I often find that it should still stay in the deck
+Hymn to Tourach
+Duress
+Nihil Spellbomb
+Silent Arbiter (Great card for this deck in that it allows Skullbriar to run rampant and shuts down Eldric decks)
Change Log
-Sword of Vengeance - to clunky and circumstantial
+ Sword of Light and Shadow - another "protection" from proc that gets damage through and gives me card advantage and a mini life-link
I appreciate you looking at this decklist and I hope that with your comments we can tune the deck into a quick, killing machine.
BRGW Saskia the Unyielding BRGW
GUWB Thrasios, Triton Hero // Tymna the Weaver GUWB
B Braids, Cabal Minion B
G Titania, Protector of Argoth G
R Zurgo Bellstriker R
Founding Father of [Team Stepfathers]: We beat you and you hate us
My Street Art
even if we are playing the same general and even the same strategy the deck it's different
I've been brainstorming with some friends with skullbriar and ways to make it a competitive general, I could suggest dropping most equipment and run cards like avoid fate, vines of vastwood, imp's mischief and the like (basically low mana protection for skullbriar)
and prison elements like tangle wire and winter orb, I say this because you're dealing here with a fast general, so if you're denying resources they have less answers for your general
I can't really share a list, since our meta/playgroup doesn't support the french banlist and we have the deck in a pretty theorical phase
I'm curious to know your opinion on my suggestions
As for the Tangle Wire and Winter Orb, I definitely can see me playing tangle wire (especially with all the equipment I'm running). Winter Orb though has the problem of locking me out of situations I might not want to be in. Unfortunately, I'm not the most competent player and I often misplay Orb so that might be just a pilot error.
Let me test Tangle Wire and the Instant Pump cards tomorrow and I'll let you know how it goes. Also feel free to test it yourself. If you think that there are cards that can be worked in, I'd love to hear first hand experience.
Thanks for the suggestions!
BRGW Saskia the Unyielding BRGW
GUWB Thrasios, Triton Hero // Tymna the Weaver GUWB
B Braids, Cabal Minion B
G Titania, Protector of Argoth G
R Zurgo Bellstriker R
Founding Father of [Team Stepfathers]: We beat you and you hate us
My Street Art
This is a friend of mine's Skullbriar list, also made for the French metagame, and very competitive/consistent. The key to Skullbriar, IMHO, is to be able to get him out on turn 1. There is currently about six cards that enable this; 2 Moxen, Petal, Spirit Guide, Gemstone Cave, and G Chancellor.
Hope this helps you.
Steel Sabotage'ng Orbs of Mellowness since 2011.
I've also changed the equipment more similarly to the deck 3drinks posted. I haven't tested it out yet, but I feel like it will be much faster kills. I've also added in two Leyline's (both for Black and Green). I ran into a lot of problems with Skullbriar getting constantly countered which is very frustrating. Hopefully this will patch it up.
I've also changed the mana base to a 35 lands, I took out the cycling lands and also cabal coffers which I never used and was terrible to draw. I've left in some of my land fetching though because I don't want to run out of gas and have kept a majority of my card draws.
Here is the updated deck list. Once I get a chance, I'll re-do the op
1 Skullbriar, the Walking Grave
Creatures
1 Hypnotic Specter
1 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Elvish Spirit Guide
1 Creakwood Liege
1 Eternal Witness
1 Yavimaya Elder
1 Glissa, the Traitor
1 Acidic Slime
1 Dark Confidant
1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
1 Lotus Cobra
Artifacts
1 Lotus Petal
1 Tangle Wire
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Champion's Helm
1 Whispersilk Cloak
1 Golgari Signet
1 Expedition Map
1 Chrome Mox
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Loxodon Warhammer
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Grafted Wargear
1 Bonesplitter
1 Winter Orb
1 Trailblazer's Boots
1 Mox Diamond
Enchantments
1 Doubling Season
1 Snake Umbra
1 Phyrexian Arena
1 Unspeakable Symbol
1 Ambition's Cost
1 Leyline of Lifeforce
1 Canopy Cover
1 Rancor
1 Sylvan Library
1 Cover of Darkness
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Damnation
1 Beseech the Queen
1 Grim Tutor
1 Sylvan Scrying
1 Cultivate
1 Regrowth
1 Night's Whisper
1 Inquisition of Kozilek
1 Hymn to Tourach
1 Duress
1 Thoughtseize
1 Sinkhole
1 Ancient Craving
Instants
1 Putrefy
1 Noxious Revival
1 Seedtime
1 Beast Within
1 Berserk
1 Go for the Throat
1 Victim of Night
1 Vines of Vastwood
1 Mutagenic Growth
1 Imp's Mischief
1 Dismember
1 Snuff Out
Lands
1 Temple of the False God
1 Buried Ruin
1 Golgari Rot Farm
1 Woodland Cemetery
1 Llanowar Reborn
1 Vivid Grove
1 Vivid Marsh
1 Command Tower
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Twilight Mire
1 Llanowar Wastes
1 Bayou
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Oran-Rief, the Vastwood
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Wasteland
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Shizo, Death's Storehouse
1 Okina, Temple to the Grandfathers
7 Forest
7 Swamp
1 City of Brass
1 Ancient Tomb
I'll continue testing the new deck today. I feel like it got significantly stronger after just a few changes recently, so thanks again for your help guys.
BRGW Saskia the Unyielding BRGW
GUWB Thrasios, Triton Hero // Tymna the Weaver GUWB
B Braids, Cabal Minion B
G Titania, Protector of Argoth G
R Zurgo Bellstriker R
Founding Father of [Team Stepfathers]: We beat you and you hate us
My Street Art
Likewise, I think the Leylines are generally weak, unless you're going for the Leyline of the Void/Helm of Obedience combo, which sucks because Helm doesn't do much on it's own, and Leylines aren't exactly the kinds of cards you want to be hardcasting at four mana. Which is probably hard to get to on 35 lands. If counterspells got you down, play more of those aggressive creatures in the link I posted, either they will bait the counters to let Skullbriar come down safely, or they won't, which gives you more damage on board.
Why Ambition's Cost(which you have listed as an enchantment btw) and Ancient Craving? Harmonize is better, as is Skeletal Scrying. Cut Cover of Darkness(it's kind of janky) for Dark Tutelage(you're running Bob already, no reason to not run the enchantment version of him, this is a suicide aggro deck). If you're worried about not being able to off it when you need to, Nature's Claim is an option you should be playing anyway, one mana answer to someone's Sylvan Library, or what have you.
A lot of your equips are kind of janky, like Cloak, Helm, and the auras, and the Lox Hammer will take an eternity to equip on 35 lands. These could perhaps be more targeted discard or, again, more of those cheap aggressive dorks in my link. Doubling Season doesn't do much in this list, and it costs five mana. This will also hurt a bit off of Bob, so I'm pretty sure it's a cut too. The only thing in this style of deck I would be okay with Bob slicing the hell out of my life total for, is something like a Tombstalker. That guy is a big threat, with evasion, for potentially only BB.
I really don't know why you are ramping when you're trying to run a 35 land deck, these can be some reanimate spells to get Skullbriar's arse out of the grave, cards like Reanimate, Unearth, and Animate Dead. If you really want a four drop spell, try Vigor Mortis(which I feel will be too slow at four mana). These let you pull his arse out of the grave, so you can avoid putting his arse in the command zone and paying the extra tax on him sometimes.
Steel Sabotage'ng Orbs of Mellowness since 2011.
Leyline of the Void has been a good card, saving me in 2 games so far. I'm going to let that stay for now. I've changed out the draw spells because you are right, they are better. I also added in Nature's claim for more removal.
I haven't really considered the re-animate aspect so I'll test that right now. I'll also look at Tombstalker right now
PS - If you're on Cockatrice, my name on there is perfekt if you want to talk and discuss the deck with me
BRGW Saskia the Unyielding BRGW
GUWB Thrasios, Triton Hero // Tymna the Weaver GUWB
B Braids, Cabal Minion B
G Titania, Protector of Argoth G
R Zurgo Bellstriker R
Founding Father of [Team Stepfathers]: We beat you and you hate us
My Street Art
Nice call on Xantid Swarm, that guy is awesome. I should probably adopt him for my own French Stonebrow list.
Steel Sabotage'ng Orbs of Mellowness since 2011.
When I was playing my Skullbriar deck, I focused almost exclusively on pumping spells and disruption (much of what you have, but also including land destruction, and even something like Naturalize).
Cards like Lotus Cobra and Sakura-Tribe Elder seem out of place. That's mana and tempo you should be spending to pump Skullbriar, remove enemy blockers, or disrupt your opponent.
Doubling Season looks really slow and superfluous.
I found that I was better off focusing all of my energy on Skullbriar... there is some nice redundancy with equipment and some other critters, but I found that equipment was generally too slow for this type of deck, and trying to deal 30 or 40 with my other creatures was absolutely a losing battle.
I don't really like snuff out, doesn't kill big things like doran or wydwen, I would run Devour in shadow, but maybe that's just me
I really like the xantid swarm/leyline package versus control, It has worked for you?; would you run autumn's veil for the purpose of anticontrol/protection?
maybe i would run Sylvan safekeeper, avoid fate and ranger's guile to add more protection to skullbriar, i think it adds to redundancy
...Is there a reason why you necro'd a two year old thread to say this?
http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/commander-edh/forum-1-vs-1-commander-decklists/206288-duel-commander-skullbriar-the-walking-beatstick
A second, incredibly strong Skullbriar list for Duel-Commander. May be dated though.
Steel Sabotage'ng Orbs of Mellowness since 2011.
BRGW Saskia the Unyielding BRGW
GUWB Thrasios, Triton Hero // Tymna the Weaver GUWB
B Braids, Cabal Minion B
G Titania, Protector of Argoth G
R Zurgo Bellstriker R
Founding Father of [Team Stepfathers]: We beat you and you hate us
My Street Art
I know right? It's hilarious to go back and read our deck concepts from years past.
Steel Sabotage'ng Orbs of Mellowness since 2011.