MTG Salvation

The Deck:

Shauku's Masquerade v1.4Magic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards
1 Shauku, Endbringer 2 Avatar of Woe 3 Bloodline Keeper 4 Myojin of Night's Reach 5 Dimir House Guard 6 Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief 7 Fleshbag Marauder 8 Graveborn Muse 9 Kozilek, Butcher of Truth 10 Liliana's Shade 11 Magus of the Coffers 12 Necropolis Regent 13 Nezumi Graverobber 14 Nirkana Revenant 15 Solemn Simulacrum 16 Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre 17 Vampire Nighthawk 18 Chill to the Bone 19 Dismember 20 Murder 21 Necrologia 22 Skeletal Scrying 23 Snuff Out 24 Vampiric Tutor	25 Barter in Blood 26 Beacon of Unrest 27 Chainer's Edict 28 Consume Spirit 29 Cruel Tutor 30 Damnation 31 Decree of Pain 32 Demonic Tutor 33 Diabolic Tutor 34 Exsanguinate 35 Increasing Ambition 36 Rise of the Dark Realms 37 Nightmare Incursion 38 Praetor's Grasp 39 Sever the Bloodline 40 Yawgmoth's Will 41 Animate Dead 42 Grave Betrayal 43 Necropotence 44 Phyrexian Arena 45 Caged Sun 46 Coalition Relic 47 Expedition Map 48 Gilded Lotus 49 Illusionist's Bracers 50 Lashwrithe 51 Lightning Greaves 52 Mana Vault 53 Oblivion Stone 54 Rings of Brighthearth 55 Sol Ring 56 Staff of Domination 57 Thousand-Year Elixir 58 Tower of Fortunes 59 Umbral Mantle 60 Vedalken Orrery 61 Wayfarer's Bauble	62 Karn Liberated 63 Liliana of the Dark Realms 64 Liliana Vess 65 Bojuka Bog 66 Cabal Coffers 67 Mouth of Ronom 68 Reliquary Tower 69 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth 70 Volrath's Stronghold 71 - 100 Snow-Covered Swamp

Changelog:

Mind Sludge -> Rise of the Dark Realms
Desecration Demon -> Myojin of Night's Reach

Overwhelming Forces -> Illusionist's Bracers
Rune-Scarred Demon -> Bloodline Keeper

Ancient Craving -> Skeletal Scrying
Ambition's Cost -> Staff of Domination
Vesuva -> Mouth of Ronom
Harvester of Souls -> Beacon of Unrest
Journeyer's Kite -> Animate Dead

Past versions:

Shauku's Masquerade v1.3Magic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards
1 Shauku, Endbringer 2 Avatar of Woe 3 Bloodline Keeper 4 Desecration Demon 5 Dimir House Guard 6 Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief 7 Fleshbag Marauder 8 Graveborn Muse 9 Kozilek, Butcher of Truth 10 Liliana's Shade 11 Magus of the Coffers 12 Necropolis Regent 13 Nezumi Graverobber 14 Nirkana Revenant 15 Solemn Simulacrum 16 Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre 17 Vampire Nighthawk 18 Chill to the Bone 19 Dismember 20 Murder 21 Necrologia 22 Skeletal Scrying 23 Snuff Out 24 Vampiric Tutor	25 Barter in Blood 26 Beacon of Unrest 27 Chainer's Edict 28 Consume Spirit 29 Cruel Tutor 30 Damnation 31 Decree of Pain 32 Demonic Tutor 33 Diabolic Tutor 34 Exsanguinate 35 Increasing Ambition 36 Mind Sludge 37 Nightmare Incursion 38 Praetor's Grasp 39 Sever the Bloodline 40 Yawgmoth's Will 41 Animate Dead 42 Grave Betrayal 43 Necropotence 44 Phyrexian Arena 45 Caged Sun 46 Coalition Relic 47 Expedition Map 48 Gilded Lotus 49 Illusionist's Bracers 50 Lashwrithe 51 Lightning Greaves 52 Mana Vault 53 Oblivion Stone 54 Rings of Brighthearth 55 Sol Ring 56 Staff of Domination 57 Thousand-Year Elixir 58 Tower of Fortunes 59 Umbral Mantle 60 Vedalken Orrery 61 Wayfarer's Bauble	62 Karn Liberated 63 Liliana of the Dark Realms 64 Liliana Vess 65 Bojuka Bog 66 Cabal Coffers 67 Mouth of Ronom 68 Reliquary Tower 69 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth 70 Volrath's Stronghold 71 - 100 Snow-Covered Swamp

Shauku's Masquerade v1.2Magic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards
1 Shauku, Endbringer 2 Avatar of Woe 3 Desecration Demon 4 Dimir House Guard 5 Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief 6 Fleshbag Marauder 7 Graveborn Muse 8 Kozilek, Butcher of Truth 9 Liliana's Shade 10 Magus of the Coffers 11 Necropolis Regent 12 Nezumi Graverobber 13 Nirkana Revenant 14 Rune-Scarred Demon 15 Solemn Simulacrum 16 Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre 17 Vampire Nighthawk 18 Chill to the Bone 19 Dismember 20 Murder 21 Necrologia 22 Skeletal Scrying 23 Snuff Out 24 Vampiric Tutor	25 Barter in Blood 26 Beacon of Unrest 27 Chainer's Edict 28 Consume Spirit 29 Cruel Tutor 30 Damnation 31 Decree of Pain 32 Demonic Tutor 33 Diabolic Tutor 34 Exsanguinate 35 Increasing Ambition 36 Mind Sludge 37 Nightmare Incursion 38 Overwhelming Forces 39 Praetor's Grasp 40 Sever the Bloodline 41 Yawgmoth's Will 42 Animate Dead 43 Grave Betrayal 44 Necropotence 45 Phyrexian Arena 46 Caged Sun 47 Coalition Relic 48 Expedition Map 49 Gilded Lotus 50 Lashwrithe 51 Lightning Greaves 52 Mana Vault 53 Oblivion Stone 54 Rings of Brighthearth 55 Sol Ring 56 Staff of Domination 57 Thousand-Year Elixir 58 Tower of Fortunes 59 Umbral Mantle 60 Vedalken Orrery 61 Wayfarer's Bauble	62 Karn Liberated 63 Liliana of the Dark Realms 64 Liliana Vess 65 Bojuka Bog 66 Cabal Coffers 67 Mouth of Ronom 68 Reliquary Tower 69 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth 70 Volrath's Stronghold 71 - 100 Snow-Covered Swamp

Shauku's Masquerade v.1Magic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards
1 Shauku, Endbringer 2 Avatar of Woe 3 Desecration Demon 4 Dimir House Guard 5 Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief 6 Fleshbag Marauder 7 Graveborn Muse 8 Harvester of Souls 9 Kozilek, Butcher of Truth 10 Liliana's Shade 11 Magus of the Coffers 12 Necropolis Regent 13 Nezumi Graverobber 14 Nirkana Revenant 15 Rune-Scarred Demon 16 Solemn Simulacrum 17 Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre 18 Vampire Nighthawk 19 Chill to the Bone 20 Dismember 21 Murder 22 Necrologia 23 Snuff Out 24 Vampiric Tutor	25 Ambition's Cost 26 Ancient Craving 27 Barter in Blood 28 Chainer's Edict 29 Consume Spirit 30 Cruel Tutor 31 Damnation 32 Decree of Pain 33 Demonic Tutor 34 Diabolic Tutor 35 Exsanguinate 36 Increasing Ambition 37 Mind Sludge 38 Nightmare Incursion 39 Overwhelming Forces 40 Praetor's Grasp 41 Sever the Bloodline 42 Yawgmoth's Will 43 Grave Betrayal 44 Necropotence 45 Phyrexian Arena 46 Karn Liberated 47 Liliana of the Dark Realms 48 Liliana Vess	49 Caged Sun 50 Coalition Relic 51 Expedition Map 52 Gilded Lotus 53 Journeyer's Kite 54 Lashwrithe 55 Lightning Greaves 56 Mana Vault 57 Oblivion Stone 58 Rings of Brighthearth 59 Sol Ring 60 Thousand-Year Elixir 61 Tower of Fortunes 62 Umbral Mantle 63 Vedalken Orrery 64 Wayfarer's Bauble 65 Bojuka Bog 66 Cabal Coffers 67 Reliquary Tower 68 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth 69 Vesuva 70 Volrath's Stronghold 71 - 100 Snow-Covered Swamp

Q & A:

Q. What is this deck meant to do? Break it down for me.

A. It's basically a mono-black control deck, complete with fast mana, edicts, tutors, and a little bit of discard. There's also a ramp/big mana/Swamps Matter sub-theme, because black is good at that. There's also a few vampires.

Q. What's the kicker?

A. Umbral Mantle. You can exile everyone's creatures and then attack for a million with Shauku, destroy all of those creatures with Avatar of Woe, make infinite mana with Magus of the Coffers, or just be a dick with Desecration Demon. Got any suggestions for something else I can do with it?

Q. How are you winning?

A. Beatdowns or Magus/Exsanguinate.

Q. What's with Vampire Nighthawk?

A. Well, mostly, I just like having him/her around. It's one of the better vampires printed. Think of Nighthawk as my "style" slot. Also, it chumpkills quite a lot of things. Namely Sigarda. And it can gain quite a lot life when carrying a Lashwrithe.

Q. Is this deck meant to be competitive?

A. I'd like it to be very good, if that's what you mean. I enjoy winning, after all.

Q. What budget are you working with?

A. I'm a fry cook at Waffle House. If you can work around me paying a maximum or thirty or forty dollars for a single card, then I'd be grateful. But I'm also fine with a few things in here to be more expensive than that. I can space out my purchases to make it work.

So that's Shauku. Comments, complaints, concerns? Speak up. Point out anything I seemingly did wrong, ask about my card choices to find flaws in my logic, and so on. Or try to make me get rid of Nighthawk (as if). I like this deck a lot, and I like the general quite a lot, too. It's just good enough to function like a Commander deck reasonably should but Shauku and Umbral Mantle give it just enough uniqueness to where I can stand it to be a pretty generic MBC beyond that. So tell me what you think, everyone!

What a cool legend, and sweet art to boot.

First suggestion that comes to mind is Disciple of Bolas. You're playing suicide black, it's right in the text box of your general. Being able to sac something, gain some life, and draw some cards seems good.

Quote from kraus911

What a cool legend, and sweet art to boot.

First suggestion that comes to mind is Disciple of Bolas. You're playing suicide black, it's right in the text box of your general. Being able to sac something, gain some life, and draw some cards seems good.

I don't seem to have much chaff to throw away, though. Although I do have Stronghold.

Maybe a little more creature recursion is a good idea, though?

Skeletal Scrying! This is the card that you're really missing! Not only it is great instant-speed card draw, but it is completely on-flavor.

Also, Blood Tribute is ridiculous with Vampires.

Since you're running snow basics, have you considered Mouth of Ronom? It gives you a way around a lot of things that mono-black just can't deal with short of board wipes, such as Animar before he gets too big, or pretty much any other pro-black creature when there are other dudes on the board, which can be nice.

EDIT: And I just noticed you aren't running Sorin Markov, who's kind of a shoe-in given how powerful all three of his abilities are in this format and that he very much fits your deck's flavor.

Quote from Samarkand

Skeletal Scrying! This is the card that you're really missing! Not only it is great instant-speed card draw, but it is completely on-flavor.

Also, Blood Tribute is ridiculous with Vampires.

Reckon I have enough chaff to exile to Scrying? Seems like I do.

And I dunno about Blood Tribute. That's an awful lot of mana to not really do much. Plus I have two Drain Lifes already.

Quote from AzureShadow

Since you're running snow basics, have you considered Mouth of Ronom? It gives you a way around a lot of things that mono-black just can't deal with short of board wipes, such as Animar before he gets too big, or pretty much any other pro-black creature when there are other dudes on the board, which can be nice.

Dig it.

Queue:

• Stromgald Cabal
  
• Staff of Domination
  
• Skeletal Scrying
  
• Mouth of Ronom
  
• Sorin Markov

Maybes:

• Skirsdag High Priest
  
• Bloodline Keeper
  
• Disciple of Bolas

Yeah, creature density maybe low for Disciple of Bolas... though you could certainly use him on your general if she was fat and you needed to draw into a different win con aside from Shauku beats.

Maybe instead of cluttering it up with more critters, you could add some Reanimate Animate Dead Necromancy which are flavorful to the vampire theme and can give you sac fodder from other people's yards.

Quote from kraus911

Yeah, creature density maybe low for Disciple of Bolas... though you could certainly use him on your general if she was fat and you needed to draw into a different win con aside from Shauku beats.

Maybe instead of cluttering it up with more critters, you could add some Reanimate Animate Dead Necromancy which are flavorful to the vampire theme and can give you sac fodder from other people's yards.

Seems good. If only because I have so many methods of killing creatures, so following that up with reanimating them for myself seems logical.

Which cards are the absolute best?

Quote from The Dead Weatherman

Seems good. If only because I have so many methods of killing creatures, so following that up with reanimating them for myself seems logical.

Which cards are the absolute best?

All three of those are great with slight situational differences. Reanimate is good for earlygame cheese plays using entomb, but the drawback is pretty significant if you don't absolutely need to cut the one or two extra mana for the others. It also isn't vulnerable to enchantment removal, which is a plus. Animate Dead is usually better than Necromancy unless you need a surprise blocker.

You also might want to look at Beacon of Unrest which, while more expensive, can also hit artifacts AND is reusable.

Beacon is a shoe-in. Want one more, though. Probably Animate Dead.

Not really feeling Disciple at all, though.

Queue:

• Staff of Domination
  
• Skeletal Scrying
  
• Mouth of Ronom
  
• Sorin Markov
  
• Beacon of Unrest
  
• Animate Dead

Maybes:

• Stromgald Cabal
  
• Skirsdag High Priest
  
• Bloodline Keeper

Changes made:

Ancient Craving -> Skeletal Scrying
Ambition's Cost -> Staff of Domination
Vesuva -> Mouth of Ronom
Harvester of Souls -> Beacon of Unrest
Journeyer's Kite -> Animate Dead

OP updated.

Quote from The Dead Weatherman

Vampires, man. I really like them. I don't mean just the Magic tribe. I mean the entire concept of a vampire has been something I've been really interested in for a long time. I think it's a very interesting concept, and I enjoy exploring and reinterpreting that concept in off-site roleplaying. But what about Magic? Well, you can play Vampire tribal decks in Magic. Not really anywhere competitive, but in a generally casual format like Commander you can play with vampires to your heart's content.

I didn't know that about you. Vampires have been a similar interest for me, and your point about the "competitiveness" (ugh) of them made me realize that that's probably why Drana has felt kind of lackluster lately. It doesn't need to be Hermit Druid level obviously, but I'd like to see vampires grow some more.

Quote from Sanity"s_Eclipse

I didn't know that about you. Vampires have been a similar interest for me, and your point about the "competitiveness" (ugh) of them made me realize that that's probably why Drana has felt kind of lackluster lately. It doesn't need to be Hermit Druid level obviously, but I'd like to see vampires grow some more.

Yeah. But sadly we're past the days of tribes really being pushed, which means anything that isn't a Merfolk, Goblin, or Elf isn't going to get much better.

But, hey, vampires are still cool regardless.

I noticed the Tzimisce clan symbol up top of the OP, and I would suggest for flavor reasons the combo of Wall of Blood + Rite of Consumption and/or Essence Harvest.

Quote from jakalova

I noticed the Tzimisce clan symbol up top of the OP, and I would suggest for flavor reasons the combo of Wall of Blood + Rite of Consumption and/or Essence Harvest.

Unfortunately this combo isn't very good and doesn't really do much of anything with the rest of the deck.

Quote from Khepera

I also share a love of vampires. As an old time WoD player, your thread brought back some nostalgia.

As for suggestions, maybe Quietus Spike just for a bit of old school flavor. Semi-competitive and its comes with a couple of cool points.

Problem with that is I have very, very little evasion.

i have a version of shauku, but i run with artifacts that untap her, making her or visara, a killing machine!

Shaku would love Illusionist's Bracers. There are a few ways you could take this deck. Setting up to abuse a general as powerful as Shaku (seriously, "T: exile" is strong) would be good. Untap effects like Puppet Strings also do heavy lifting with Magus of the Coffer. Proliferation engines let you accumulate value over time and grows your genral.

Quote from Hunding Gjornersen

Shaku would love Illusionist's Bracers.

Indeed. I'll queue it up.

Updates:

Overwhelming Forces -> Illusionist's Bracers
Rune-Scarred Demon -> Bloodline Keeper

I won't be able to ever afford a copy of Forces (which is a pity, it's my favorite Wrath) so for the sake of consistency I'm not going to play one in the online version of my deck either.

And Bracers gives me a really, really good reason to just go ahead and play Bloodline Keeper. He was in the first version of this deck but was cut for some reason. I think the vampire subtheme was a lot more pronounced back then and I decided to cut it down. But I want him back now.

What confuses me about this deck is the general choice. I understand Shauku can do silly things with Umbral Mantle, but wouldn't he deck be better served by running either Anowon the Ruin Sage or Ascendent Evincar are the general?

Quote from Mathochism

What confuses me about this deck is the general choice. I understand Shauku can do silly things with Umbral Mantle, but wouldn't he deck be better served by running either Anowon the Ruin Sage or Ascendent Evincar are the general?

Maybe in your opinion.

Desecration Demon -> Myojin of Night's Reach
Mind Sludge -> Rise of the Dark Realms

I don't even like the idea of Demon anymore, so now he's a Myojin. Myojin is pretty much just a better Mind Sludge, so now that's going to be Rise of the Dark Realms.