MTG Salvation

This is my Sek'Kuar, Deathkeeper deck. It is largely a combo deck, carrying many turn 3-6 wins. There are some changes I am looking to make, mainly for cards I do not own anymore after trades, or will just improve it if I can get my hands on them.

The premise of the deck is to load it with as many combos as possible, dropping threat after threat, all low cost, and refilling the hand when needed. I recently rebuilt this deck after taking it apart, largely to see what it would be like with Mikaeus, however he didn't speed up the potential as his combo's all require more mana to pull off.




Combos
Recommended Changes:
Blasting Station -> Goblin Bombardment
Mountain -> Taiga
Any Signet -> Mana Crypt

I'm not sure if you would want to include this because I'm not much of a combo player, but since Melira, Sylvok Outcast is in your list, have you thought of adding Cauldron of Souls?

Quote from Target Player

I'm not sure if you would want to include this because I'm not much of a combo player, but since Melira, Sylvok Outcast is in your list, have you thought of adding Cauldron of Souls?

I haven't added Cauldron because I find it expensive and slower. With Melira, if she hits the field, the next immediate goal is to just find an appropriate creature to combo off with her.

As an update I got to play Sek'Kuar again and he performed well. Dropped some token makers early, Mogg War Marshall and Marsh Flitter, waited for one of the players to tap themselves out, then went for the win. I believe it was turn 7 that he finally went off. I was able to get to Genesis Chamber onto the field with Phyrexian Altar, luckily I remembered I had discarded Nether Traitor earlier to a Wheel of Fortune, and I was able to get infinite mana off of this. My favorite part of this deck of course is that Sek'Kuar himself is the outlet for infinite mana. Dropped Sek'Kuar into play to create infinite hasted tokens and everyone scooped.

Changes:

Nice fast win. My non-combo Sek'Kuar deck isn't used to such fast wins.

Granted i didnt look at every single card, but from first glance your average cc looks low enough to run Ad Nauseum. Or possibly Necrologia for more card draw.

Is there a particular reason you dont run Survival of the Fittest or Birthing Pod? most of yoru combos are creature heavy and could probably use the extra search.

Survival would open you up to be able to use Necrotic Ooze and all of the infinite shenanigans that come with it.

I just took my Azusa deck apart and do have my Survival of the Fittest to put in here now. I can't believe I missed that. Def useful, even if its just to chuck Nether Traitor to shorten some of the combo's. Great suggestion.

Not as big a fan of Birthing Pod because it is slower, and the curve is going to stop at 4 for real usefulness. I run Necrotic Ooze in my The Mimeoplasm deck, but I wouldn't want to add the ooze + 2 - 4 cards to support it. Especially since only Viscera Seer works with it as the deck is now.

I don't play Necrologia, only because I play Necropotence, its cheaper and the same effect largely.

Birthing Pod has been fast for me whenever it comes out. Imagine sac-ing an Acidic Slime to fetch Primeval Titan which goes directly into play. Then again, you don't have too many higher casting cost creatures. Most of your cards are lower than mine.

Redundancy in EDH is good, is all im saying.

Im not sure im sold on Credit Voucher, when you could play Night's Whisper or Ambition's Cost in its place.

if i were in your place, i'd choose goblin bombardment over blasting station since i have access to red.

and why not use woodfall primus?

I am not sure whether using another Jund general is just better than Sek'kuar since all your combos don't utilize your general.

For instance, adding Kresh + a fling effect would give you other avenues of killing your opponent.

Quote from nathones

I am not sure whether using another Jund general is just better than Sek'kuar since all your combos don't utilize your general.

For instance, adding Kresh + a fling effect would give you other avenues of killing your opponent.

The reason Sek'Kuar is a great general is because he actual fills in for other pieces on the combo's and turns infinite grave triggers into infinite hasted tokens, leading to a same turn win. So Sek'Kuar fills in as a Genesis Chamber / Pawn of Ulamog replacement, and an outlet for infinite mana / grave triggers. Also no one really cares about Sek'Kuar I noticed, he is very unassuming, he doesn't have the rep of Kresh and sometimes that allows him to work as a combo piece without attracting any attention until it goes off.

Quote from dondee

if i were in your place, i'd choose goblin bombardment over blasting station since i have access to red.

and why not use woodfall primus?

Woodfall Primus is so expensive and I feel like its a win-more card. With all of that mana out, I have so many cheaper outlets, so many cheaper Persist creatures. I have been trying to stay away from expensive cards because I don't like assembling pieces turn by turn where it becomes obvious what I am doing either.

As for Goblin Bombardment, I am desperately searching for one, its in my list of recommended changes. I don't want the Blasting Station, its just a filler until I get the Bombardment sadly.

Quote from Throst54

Redundancy in EDH is good, is all im saying.

Im not sure im sold on Credit Voucher, when you could play Night's Whisper or Ambition's Cost in its place.

I am not sold on Credit Voucher either yet. I stole the tech from a friend of mine who was using it very well in his deck. I recently picked up a Scroll Rack, but the benefit to Credit Voucher is I can get a new hand if I have been drawing useless pieces, or worse a patch of lands. I grabbed a Liliana Vess and a Phyrexian Arena, to hopefully also help out.

Quote from Target Player

Birthing Pod has been fast for me whenever it comes out. Imagine sac-ing an Acidic Slime to fetch Primeval Titan which goes directly into play. Then again, you don't have too many higher casting cost creatures. Most of your cards are lower than mine.

I actually, sadly and oddly, couldn't get my hands on a Birthing Pod yesterday to actually see the difference. I am going to give it a try, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I don't mind shelling out some life to get the "right" creature for what is assembling at the moment. So once I can get my hands on one, it will go right in.

In other news, I only got to play Sek'Kuar in one game and he went off again around turn 6. I was waiting on people to tap out, and was on last play, and luckily enough the whole table tapped out. I dropped Priest of Gix -> Phyrexian Altar, played Genesis Chamber, then played Nether Traitor and went infinite. This was off a starting hand that had a Eternal Witness and an first draw of a Demonic Tutor, so the tutor actually got played early for the Phyrexian Altar then returned to my hand and used again for the Traitor. Interestingly enough I got Force of Will'd off an Exsanguinate, but with the infinite mana I just drew up some cards off Fecundity which was out from turn 3, grabbed a Regrowth, then played it again.

This is another reason I like to stick to cheaper costing combo pieces typically, don't want to get stuck with too expensive stuff and no outlet or dead cards.

I made some changes after this game with some trades:

+Phyrexian Arena
+Scroll Rack
+Liliana Vess

-Aluren
-Cloudstone Curio
-Sign in Blood

I was tempting pulling Recycle instead of Sign in Blood, obviously because of the cost, but I love this card and am dying to actually do something with it, and I think this deck would work well with it. Have to see how it pans out. Right now I like the idea of the Night's Whisper, especially since it should have went in before Sign in Blood. If Credit Voucher doesn't work out, I think Whisper will go in. The reason I removed the Curio and Aluren stuff is because I never actually combo'd out with it, ever ... and Aluren is rather dangerous, so without getting more use for it, its just a risk.

Wow. Credit Voucher seems stupid good in this deck. I play Night's Whisper. It is a nice draw spell for black, but the voucher looks as if it garners you some hefty card advantage. I may have to test that out.

Also, good call on Scroll Rack. I'm trying to find one for a few of my decks, too. I've never owned one, but always wanted to since I began playing around that Tempest time.

Quote from Target Player

Wow. Credit Voucher seems stupid good in this deck. I play Night's Whisper. It is a nice draw spell for black, but the voucher looks as if it garners you some hefty card advantage. I may have to test that out.

Also, good call on Scroll Rack. I'm trying to find one for a few of my decks, too. I've never owned one, but always wanted to since I began playing around that Tempest time.

I haven't gotten to play with them too much, so hoping they work out good.

Changes:
Reassembling Skeleton -> Geralf's Messenger

Messenger is a self-finisher with Deathmantle and Altar, might re-add the skeletons if I can find something different to swap out, they are useful for clamping and Victimize hits.

So I got to play Sek'Kuar again. I was able to secure an early Recycle which helped me cycle my hand quite a bit. One player dropped an early Mimic Vat, which I hadn't realized how much that can screw with the combo's in this deck, at least if I try to go off on my own turn.

So I spent the game taking the long way around, attempting to assemble two combo's on the board at once, Myr Retriever / Junk Diver and Grave Titan / Nim Deathmantle. I got pretty much everything onto the field and started to go to work. The Vat player said they had a response, so I went through the Junk Diver combo slowly, they killed off Sek'Kuar, and I had enough mana working to continue on with the Junk Diver / My Retriever loop thanks to Pawn of Ulamog and then hard casting Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder. Apparently they didn't notice they could have aggravated the combo at all, even though I could have still went off, they misplayed.

So Recycle was good but it is risky. Without alternate draw, some discarding can put a hurt on you, luckily you can always play your general for a draw and start working from at least one card again. This works fine in Toshiro, but I don't know if it would work as easily in Sek'Kuar who costs more. Might end up removing it, its on the fence until next week.

Changes:
- Shivan Oasis
+ Yavimaya Hollow

- Urborg Volcano
+ Auntie's Hovel

Hi there, I am currently assembling a Sek'Kuar Deck for a competitive EDH tournament. May I recommend the following:

Falkenrath Noble
Blood Artist
Furystroke Giant

The first two work with pretty much any other combo and work as alternate win conditions if you can't attack for some reason or other wierd interaction. I got around a worship during play testing using this guy. Plus they are more fuel for Survival of the Fittest.

The Furystroke Giant has won me a surprising number of games too. Killed a player with an Ensnaring bridge out by zapping him with Sek'Kuar tokens. Killed another player with Anger in the graveyard by just zapping with the giant each time he came back from the sac so he acts like a murderous redcap.

Check em out and see what you think and thanks for some additional ideas!