I very recently got into the commander format and I absolutely love it. However, it took me a fair bit of time before I found a general and color combination that I really enjoyed, until now. With that said, this deck is very much so a work in progress, but I would like the assistance of folks from MTG Salvation in regards to how I should improve this deck. Now, the deck list:
This deck is a straight forward board control deck that attempts to force and win a war of attrition. Many of the sac outlets in this deck are useful on their own with tokens and recursive creatures, so Savra is utilized to tear apart my opponent's creatures while gaining huge advantages. The other side of Savra is used to fuel the whole "life for card advantage" that black has going in addition to her grave pact effect. While more of the deck is dedicated to making everyone sac their critters, cards such as Mitotic Slime and Imperious Perfect are life savers and far from useless.
Acidic Slime: Very useful creature that can hit problematic land, enchantments, or artifacts. Can also be sacced and recurred via Phyrexian Reclamation and Malevolent Awakening, and provides a nice blocker on the ground if need be.
Anowon, the Ruin Sage: Sac effect on a body that's pretty one-sided with all of the recursion and tokens in this deck. It becomes ridiculously one-sided with Savra out, and he doesn't eat himself which is very useful.
Blood Artist: This little critter is just amazing. Not only does she make Savra even more one-sided, Blood Artist can help fuel Savra and Necropotence while acting as a win condition.
Bloodghast: A body with built in recursion. I hear that's pretty good in a deck where you're general is a grave pact (ish).
Bloodline Keeper: He produces a steady stream of flying black tokens. So, not only does he provide sac fodder, he provides chumps for days, and he can win games by making the surprising amount of vampires in this deck huge.
Bone Shredder: He kills a dude, and then he either sacs himself for another Savra trigger, chumps a flyer, or gets eaten by Skullclamp. Not exactly flashy, but pretty solid.
Creakwood Liege: He may be slow, but he buffs all of the creatures in this deck and pumps out g/b worms to trigger both sides of Savra. It's definitely not an all-star, but he's worth a slot (I feel).
Disciple of Griselbrand: Cheap sac outlet on a stick that has saved my life on a couple of occasions, and he can be activated multiple times in a turn. Plus, it's pretty fun to sac Mitotic slime and its spawn to this guy to screw with people's combat math.
Eternal Witness: Recursion on a body that can be clamped and recurred itself. Yeah, that's pretty good.
Fleshbag Marauder: Edict effect on a body that I can choose to sac as well to make it even more one-sided. I love this guy.
Graveborn Muse: Phyrexian Arena on a stick, that's pretty much it. Yet again, not super amazing but it's solid.
Imperious Perfect: Produces a constant stream of tokens to pitch to some of the more fun sac outlets. In addition, she can gain me life with savra out or just beat some face.
Kuon, Ascendant Ogre: This deck has a tendency to kill off a lot of things in one turn, so Kuon gets flipped often. Kuon's Essence is pretty amazing since it makes folks sac on their own upkeep and doesn't consume itself. Huge fan of this guy.
Mitotic Slime: Complete life saver and somewhat wrath proof. Also provides a nice chunk of fodder to pitch to the more fun sac outlets.
Nath of the Gilt-Leaf: Provides much needed hand distruption, combos with some of the nastier pieces of this deck and can flat out win games. Definitely a great card.
Nether Traitor: This guy is fantastic with Savra and a sac outlet out. Barring that, he has built in recursion whenever anything else dies so that's kind of amazing in this deck.
Oracle of Mul Daya: She accelerates my mana and allows me to make sure I don't shuffle away something awesome.
Shriekmaw: Cheap removal that triggers savra (or doesn't if I happen to need a body). Solid.
Solemn Simulacrum: This guy is colorless, and thus doesn't exactly synergize with savra, but he's just so much value for one card. I have some sort of irrational love for him.
Spawnwrithe: This thing is just too much fun not to include in this deck. Plus, he gets out of control fast if not dealt with.
Vampire Nighthawk: Super solid beater that can act as a rattlesnake or gain me some life for more savra shenanigans. Plus, I can sac her if I really need to trigger savra's grave pact side.
Viscera Seer: Cheap multiple-use sac outlet. He really shines in this deck.
Wickerbough Elder: Artifact and enchantment hate on a beater. Not bad at all.
Oblivion Stone: This guy is very versatile and has gotten me out of some really sticky situations. While this is a board control deck, sometimes the board gets out of hand and you need to start fresh.
Phyrexian Altar: Useful sac outlet that enables some shenanigans with reassembling skeleton and allows me to make some explosive plays.
Scrabbling Claw: Reusable graveyard hate that may be a bit slow, but it does its job.
Skullclamp: This guy may not be a sac outlet, but it is damn useful. This deck has so many one toughness creatures and tokens that I can't not include this card.
Tormod's Crypt: Free graveyard hate that doesn't take any mana to activate. Definitely useful.
Attrition: Sac outlet, and it lets me use my tokens and recurable creatures to control the board without Savra online.
Bitterblossom: 2cmc enchantment that produces flying, clampable sac fodder. It's done a lot of work in this deck.
Doubling Season: While I don't have an absurd amount of token producers or things that use counters, this thing is pretty fun with either of them. Especially stupid with Liliana.
Grave Pact: A large portion of my deck is dedicated to getting Savra online. At the same cmc, it's less vulnerable to removal, and it triggers off of any creature dying. Kind of amazing in this deck.
Malevolent Awakening: A sac outlet that also lets me trade my sac fodder in for utility creatures of all sorts.
Mind Slash: More sac outlets, and this one even does fun things like tearing people's hands apart.
Perilous Forays: My meta has actually shifted away from Armageddon effects recently, so this guy is kind of silly in this deck. Also combos hilariously with Bloodghast.
Phyrexian Reclamation: It's an all around cheap creature recursion engine. I have no idea why this card doesn't see more play in my meta.
INSTANTS: Beast Within: Instant speed vindicate in green is pretty good, and the only downside is that it leaves a creature behind. That's not bad considering this deck can easily deal with creatures.
I managed to get a hold of Cabal Coffers, so I decided to also nab a copy of Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth in a trade. In addition, I drifted away from the small stax engine in favor of "on command" sac outlets (and because people whine). Also, my meta drifted away from geddon effects, so I removed the Golgari Signet in favor of straight ramp.
Savra has been my favorite deck for years, and i invite you to peruse my own list, linked in my sig below.
Regarding yours: There are a number of other, extremely powerful sac outlet cards i would recommend.
Greater Good: a static sac outlet with no mana requirement to activate. It generates card advantage and helps you fill up your graveyard if you need to.
Phyrexian Plaguelord: I see this one being especially powerful in your deck considering how many tokens you seem to make. It can take down smaller creatures and mess with combat math, and like the House Guard it is a black creature with a static sac effect.
I see you already play Phyrexian Tower. Lands as sac outlets are extremely powerful. On turns you don't need them they make mana, and people might overlook them and make a move not realizing you have a sac outlet. This one has no extra cost to sac and even gives you extra mana if you need it (and has a cute interaction with Reassembling Skeleton).
You cut Mimic Vat?!? Maybe it doesn't do much in your deck, but personally I enjoy making my opponent sacrifice their Titans and then stealing them to beat them in the face later.
I have a number of other suggestions, perhaps a look at my own deck and card choices and we can bounce ideas off each other.
Savra has been my favorite deck for years, and i invite you to peruse my own list, linked in my sig below.
Regarding yours: There are a number of other, extremely powerful sac outlet cards i would recommend.
Greater Good: a static sac outlet with no mana requirement to activate. It generates card advantage and helps you fill up your graveyard if you need to.
Phyrexian Plaguelord: I see this one being especially powerful in your deck considering how many tokens you seem to make. It can take down smaller creatures and mess with combat math, and like the House Guard it is a black creature with a static sac effect.
I see you already play Phyrexian Tower. Lands as sac outlets are extremely powerful. On turns you don't need them they make mana, and people might overlook them and make a move not realizing you have a sac outlet. This one has no extra cost to sac and even gives you extra mana if you need it (and has a cute interaction with Reassembling Skeleton).
You cut Mimic Vat?!? Maybe it doesn't do much in your deck, but personally I enjoy making my opponent sacrifice their Titans and then stealing them to beat them in the face later.
I have a number of other suggestions, perhaps a look at my own deck and card choices and we can bounce ideas off each other.
Thanks for all of the suggestions, and yeah skullclamp is such an awesome piece in this deck. Also, I can't believe I blanked on Greater Good...I even own a copy of it >_<.
Mimic Vat was a really iffy cut, but I never felt it did enough. Then again, that may be my bias talking since my meta has graveyard hate galore (since there's a sharuum deck and a mimeo deck that make regular appearances). When I get the chance I'll certainly look over your decklist for some ideas, thanks again.
@Stefan: He's actually pretty sweet in multiplayer in this deck since Savra coming online almost guarantees him to flip. Granted, he has a tendency to be completely dead if I have no action in hand or on the board, but he's done some work in the games I've gotten him.
@Bismuth Von Pherson: I can't believe I blanked Sheoldred, thanks for mentioning her.
I think I'm gonna take the deck apart and reassemble it with all of this in mind this weekend (when I finally get a day off in a fair bit). Thanks for the help.
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1 Savra, Queen of the Golgari
CREATURES:
1 Acidic Slime
1 Anowon, the Ruin Sage
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Blood Artist
1 Bloodghast
1 Bloodline Keeper
1 Bone Shredder
1 Creakwood Liege
1 Disciple of Griselbrand
1 Eternal Witness
1 Fleshbag Marauder
1 Graveborn Muse
1 Imperious Perfect
1 Kuon, Ascendant Ogre
1 Llanowar Elves
1 Mitotic Slime
1 Nath of the Gilt-Leaf
1 Nether Traitor
1 Oracle of Mul Daya
1 Primeval Titan
1 Reassembling Skeleton
1 Sadistic Hypnotist
1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
1 Shriekmaw
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Spawnwrithe
1 Vampire Nighthawk
1 Viscera Seer
1 Wickerbough Elder
1 Wood Elves
1 Liliana of the Veil
ARTIFACTS:
1 Birthing Pod
1 Darksteel Ingot
1 Golgari Signet
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Oblivion Stone
1 Phyrexian Altar
1 Scrabbling Claw
1 Skullclamp
1 Sol Ring
1 Tormod's Crypt
ENCHANTMENTS:
1 Attrition
1 Bitterblossom
1 Doubling Season
1 Grave Pact
1 Malevolent Awakening
1 Mind Slash
1 Necropotence
1 Parallel Lives
1 Perilous Forays
1 Phyrexian Arena
1 Phyrexian Reclamation
INSTANTS:
1 Beast Within
1 Krosan Grip
1 Putrefy
1 Worldly Tutor
1 Black Sun's Zenith
1 Death Cloud
1 Exsanguinate
1 Farseek
1 Kodama's Reach
1 Sever the Bloodline
LANDS:
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Buried Ruin
1 Cabal Coffers
1 Command Tower
1 Gilt-Leaf Palace
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Phyrexian Tower
1 Tectonic Edge
1 Twilight Mire
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Woodland Cemetery
13 Forest
13 Swamp
The idea behind the deck:
This deck is a straight forward board control deck that attempts to force and win a war of attrition. Many of the sac outlets in this deck are useful on their own with tokens and recursive creatures, so Savra is utilized to tear apart my opponent's creatures while gaining huge advantages. The other side of Savra is used to fuel the whole "life for card advantage" that black has going in addition to her grave pact effect. While more of the deck is dedicated to making everyone sac their critters, cards such as Mitotic Slime and Imperious Perfect are life savers and far from useless.
This deck also has some silly synergies like Bloodghast + Perilous Forays to get a load of lands, Nether Traitor + Attrition to eat the board, and Nath of the Gilt-Leaf + Mind Slash/Sadistic Hypnotist to destroy people's hands. The deck attempts to win by a huge Exsanguinate or Death Clouding with Nath on the board. Generally though, I'll end up connecting with tiny beaters on a clear board.
Cards to nab:
1 Damnation
1 Diabolic Intent
1 Bayou
Card Choices:
Acidic Slime: Very useful creature that can hit problematic land, enchantments, or artifacts. Can also be sacced and recurred via Phyrexian Reclamation and Malevolent Awakening, and provides a nice blocker on the ground if need be.
Anowon, the Ruin Sage: Sac effect on a body that's pretty one-sided with all of the recursion and tokens in this deck. It becomes ridiculously one-sided with Savra out, and he doesn't eat himself which is very useful.
Birds of Paradise: Pretty solid creature-based ramp.
Blood Artist: This little critter is just amazing. Not only does she make Savra even more one-sided, Blood Artist can help fuel Savra and Necropotence while acting as a win condition.
Bloodghast: A body with built in recursion. I hear that's pretty good in a deck where you're general is a grave pact (ish).
Bloodline Keeper: He produces a steady stream of flying black tokens. So, not only does he provide sac fodder, he provides chumps for days, and he can win games by making the surprising amount of vampires in this deck huge.
Bone Shredder: He kills a dude, and then he either sacs himself for another Savra trigger, chumps a flyer, or gets eaten by Skullclamp. Not exactly flashy, but pretty solid.
Creakwood Liege: He may be slow, but he buffs all of the creatures in this deck and pumps out g/b worms to trigger both sides of Savra. It's definitely not an all-star, but he's worth a slot (I feel).
Disciple of Griselbrand: Cheap sac outlet on a stick that has saved my life on a couple of occasions, and he can be activated multiple times in a turn. Plus, it's pretty fun to sac Mitotic slime and its spawn to this guy to screw with people's combat math.
Eternal Witness: Recursion on a body that can be clamped and recurred itself. Yeah, that's pretty good.
Fleshbag Marauder: Edict effect on a body that I can choose to sac as well to make it even more one-sided. I love this guy.
Graveborn Muse: Phyrexian Arena on a stick, that's pretty much it. Yet again, not super amazing but it's solid.
Imperious Perfect: Produces a constant stream of tokens to pitch to some of the more fun sac outlets. In addition, she can gain me life with savra out or just beat some face.
Kuon, Ascendant Ogre: This deck has a tendency to kill off a lot of things in one turn, so Kuon gets flipped often. Kuon's Essence is pretty amazing since it makes folks sac on their own upkeep and doesn't consume itself. Huge fan of this guy.
Llanowar Elves: More creature based ramp.
Mitotic Slime: Complete life saver and somewhat wrath proof. Also provides a nice chunk of fodder to pitch to the more fun sac outlets.
Nath of the Gilt-Leaf: Provides much needed hand distruption, combos with some of the nastier pieces of this deck and can flat out win games. Definitely a great card.
Nether Traitor: This guy is fantastic with Savra and a sac outlet out. Barring that, he has built in recursion whenever anything else dies so that's kind of amazing in this deck.
Oracle of Mul Daya: She accelerates my mana and allows me to make sure I don't shuffle away something awesome.
Primeval Titan: He's kind of silly.
Reassembling Skeleton: Another body with recursion built in and probably one of the best creatures in this deck since he's so damn easy to recur.
Sadistic Hypnotist: Repeatable sac outlet that can be really devastating, even without Nath to make him absurd.
Sakura-Tribe Elder: Solid ramp on a stick.
Shriekmaw: Cheap removal that triggers savra (or doesn't if I happen to need a body). Solid.
Solemn Simulacrum: This guy is colorless, and thus doesn't exactly synergize with savra, but he's just so much value for one card. I have some sort of irrational love for him.
Spawnwrithe: This thing is just too much fun not to include in this deck. Plus, he gets out of control fast if not dealt with.
Vampire Nighthawk: Super solid beater that can act as a rattlesnake or gain me some life for more savra shenanigans. Plus, I can sac her if I really need to trigger savra's grave pact side.
Viscera Seer: Cheap multiple-use sac outlet. He really shines in this deck.
Wickerbough Elder: Artifact and enchantment hate on a beater. Not bad at all.
Wood Elves: Clampable ramp that can fetch Overgrown Tomb. I like it.
Liliana of the Veil: At worst she's a sorcery speed edict, which isn't terrible. However, if she sticks around, she has done some serious damage.
Birthing Pod: This guy is not around to win me games, but to turn bodies into other, more useful bodies (at the time). It gets stupid with Savra out.
Darksteel Ingot: Indestructible ramp. Pretty much about it.
Nihil Spellbomb: Solid graveyard hate.
Oblivion Stone: This guy is very versatile and has gotten me out of some really sticky situations. While this is a board control deck, sometimes the board gets out of hand and you need to start fresh.
Phyrexian Altar: Useful sac outlet that enables some shenanigans with reassembling skeleton and allows me to make some explosive plays.
Scrabbling Claw: Reusable graveyard hate that may be a bit slow, but it does its job.
Skullclamp: This guy may not be a sac outlet, but it is damn useful. This deck has so many one toughness creatures and tokens that I can't not include this card.
Sol Ring: Stupid good.
Tormod's Crypt: Free graveyard hate that doesn't take any mana to activate. Definitely useful.
Attrition: Sac outlet, and it lets me use my tokens and recurable creatures to control the board without Savra online.
Bitterblossom: 2cmc enchantment that produces flying, clampable sac fodder. It's done a lot of work in this deck.
Doubling Season: While I don't have an absurd amount of token producers or things that use counters, this thing is pretty fun with either of them. Especially stupid with Liliana.
Grave Pact: A large portion of my deck is dedicated to getting Savra online. At the same cmc, it's less vulnerable to removal, and it triggers off of any creature dying. Kind of amazing in this deck.
Malevolent Awakening: A sac outlet that also lets me trade my sac fodder in for utility creatures of all sorts.
Mind Slash: More sac outlets, and this one even does fun things like tearing people's hands apart.
Necropotence: Yes please.
Parallel Lives: More tokens, and my copy is shiny.
Perilous Forays: My meta has actually shifted away from Armageddon effects recently, so this guy is kind of silly in this deck. Also combos hilariously with Bloodghast.
Phyrexian Arena: Cards for life? Sign me up.
Phyrexian Reclamation: It's an all around cheap creature recursion engine. I have no idea why this card doesn't see more play in my meta.
INSTANTS:
Beast Within: Instant speed vindicate in green is pretty good, and the only downside is that it leaves a creature behind. That's not bad considering this deck can easily deal with creatures.
Krosan Grip: Yeah this guy is just good.
Putrefy: Versatile instant speed removal.
Worldly Tutor: Tutor for a creature answer at instant speed for one is good.
Black Sun's Zenith: It's a board wipe that hits indestrucible creatures and shuffles back into my deck.
Death Cloud: This guy helps a lot if the game gets a bit out of hand, and it sets up wins with nath or loads of token producers/recurrable dudes.
Exsanguinate: It can be used as a win condition or as a way to hurt everyone a bit and gain a crapton of life.
Farseek: I like it better than rampant growth because it can grab Overgrown tomb, even though it can't get a forest.
Kodama's Reach: Solid ramp.
Sever the Bloodline: Removal that exiles and has flashback in black. That definitely makes up for the fact that it's a little on the slow side.
I managed to get a hold of Cabal Coffers, so I decided to also nab a copy of Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth in a trade. In addition, I drifted away from the small stax engine in favor of "on command" sac outlets (and because people whine). Also, my meta drifted away from geddon effects, so I removed the Golgari Signet in favor of straight ramp.
OUT:
-Golgari Signet
-Viridian Zealot
-Braids, Cabal Minion
-Smokestack
-Trading Post
-Mimic Vat
-Magus of the Abyss
-High Market
-Llanowar Wastes
IN:
+Farseek
+Exsanguinate
+Perilous Forays
+Sadistic Hypnotist
+Malevolent Awakening
+Phyrexian Reclamation
+Kuon, Ogre Ascendant
+Cabal Coffers
+Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
In addition, I cleaned up the first post and added a section on card choices.
Regarding yours: There are a number of other, extremely powerful sac outlet cards i would recommend.
Greater Good: a static sac outlet with no mana requirement to activate. It generates card advantage and helps you fill up your graveyard if you need to.
Dimir House Guard: A resilient blocker and a black creature himself, he can also tutor for a number of good cards e.g. Greater Good, Damnation, Oracle of Mul-Daya, Grave Pact, or your general if she gets tucked.
Phyrexian Plaguelord: I see this one being especially powerful in your deck considering how many tokens you seem to make. It can take down smaller creatures and mess with combat math, and like the House Guard it is a black creature with a static sac effect.
I see you already play Phyrexian Tower. Lands as sac outlets are extremely powerful. On turns you don't need them they make mana, and people might overlook them and make a move not realizing you have a sac outlet. This one has no extra cost to sac and even gives you extra mana if you need it (and has a cute interaction with Reassembling Skeleton).
Miren, the Moaning Well: Another sac outlet on a land, for sneaky moves. Gains you life.
Grim Backwoods: A little pricy on the activation cost but another sac outlet that only takes the place of a land.
Diabolic Intent: Of course, I recommend Demonic Tutor as well, but this one is cheaper ($ wise) and is also a sac outlet.
Skullclamp with Reassembling Skeleton you get 2B: Draw two cards.
You cut Mimic Vat?!? Maybe it doesn't do much in your deck, but personally I enjoy making my opponent sacrifice their Titans and then stealing them to beat them in the face later.
I have a number of other suggestions, perhaps a look at my own deck and card choices and we can bounce ideas off each other.
:symg::symb: Savra, Queen of the Golgari:symb::symg:
:symr::symw::symu:Ruhan of the Fomori :symr::symw::symu:
stuff
Thanks for all of the suggestions, and yeah skullclamp is such an awesome piece in this deck. Also, I can't believe I blanked on Greater Good...I even own a copy of it >_<.
Mimic Vat was a really iffy cut, but I never felt it did enough. Then again, that may be my bias talking since my meta has graveyard hate galore (since there's a sharuum deck and a mimeo deck that make regular appearances). When I get the chance I'll certainly look over your decklist for some ideas, thanks again.
@Stefan: He's actually pretty sweet in multiplayer in this deck since Savra coming online almost guarantees him to flip. Granted, he has a tendency to be completely dead if I have no action in hand or on the board, but he's done some work in the games I've gotten him.
@Bismuth Von Pherson: I can't believe I blanked Sheoldred, thanks for mentioning her.
I think I'm gonna take the deck apart and reassemble it with all of this in mind this weekend (when I finally get a day off in a fair bit). Thanks for the help.