Quick Summary: Originally I was trying to build a janky modern deck with Shadowborn Apostles and even in the casual environment that I play in, it was just too slow and inconsistent. I dropped the deck for awhile until I realized one day it could make a very fun EDH build. Picking a general proved to be difficult. At first I looked at Savra, Queen of the Golgari which could be played as, sacrifice six Shadowborns, pay 12 life each opponent sacs 6 creatures and put a Rune Scarred Demon into play. In my deck testing I found I was missing enough satisfying free sac outlets and decided to add red. Sek'Kuar, Deathkeeper has been testing beautifully! I am not just looking to improve deck consistency and any good ideas I may have missed.
The idea is to get a lot of value out of the shadowborn Apostles. The most difficult thing about building this deck is having the right balance of card draw, winning synergies, and apostles. I found 35 to be the perfect amount and I haven't hit a dud Thrumming Stone yet. I would love suggestions!
Xathrid Necromancer and Rotlung Reanimator was in the original list with Savra. Part of the reason why I like Sek'Kuar so much is it completely eliminates the need for either of those 2 cards. I think with this deck you have to be careful to include as few of non apostle cards as possible. What's great about Sek'Kuar is that once you get a good Thrumming Stone or Bloodbond March cycle going, Sek'Kuar lets you attempt a win, or at least knock an opponent or two out that very turn. Extractor Demon would be an auto include if it milled all opponents and not just target opponent. I just don't know if it is strong enough in multiplayer. Great 1v1 of course.
Here, it might be helpful for me to outline a typical solitaire game right now, this isn't a best situation mind you, just an average game.
T1: Play Swamp, Play Apostle
T2: Play Swamp, Play 2 Apostles
T3: Transmute or play other tutor and grab either Bloodbond March or Thrumming Stone depending on whats in hand. If nothing is in hand, but a hand cylcing card is, I would cast wheel of fortune or shattered perception and likely reach a tutor or one of the cards I need.
T4: Cast bloodbond march, altar, some other utility in my hand.
T5: Cast general or if win con is already on BF go for win with thrumming stone or bloodbond.
T6: Win with bloodbond or Thrumming Stone.
This has been fairly consistent as I have solitaired matches + or - a turn or 2. A slower game is usually due to the need to sac 6 apostles to grab Rune Scarred Demon.
Glimpse of Nature >> Fecundity - I was not profiting enough from glimpse of nature. Fecundity has a lot more potential for some outrageous drawing in this deck. without producing extra, glimpse of nature just typically runs out of steam for me after 2 or 3 draws.
Patriarch's Bidding and Repopulate >> Eternal Witness and Nature's Spiral There hasn't been a single game where I wished to recur my clerics with either of these cards. I would rather have the ability to save a destroyed thrumming stone if necessary.
In my testing this deck has been clocking out with T7 wins very consistently. Using sek'Kuar, Deathkeeper was definitely the right move for this deck. Even though he eats up turn 5 and pushes the win back a turn, he has been very consistent for me and adds a lot more value to cards like blasting station or phyrexian Arena.
A lot of his greatest cards are white, but here are a couple suggestions that I bet you'll love: Coat of Arms = GG. It might be "win more" in your deck, since the graveborns are already 3/1s, but maybe if you try it out you'll find its very valuable. Lifeline = This card is phenomenal, and relatively unknown. You can sac all your Apostles, and then they'll come back at the end of turn, so you can sac them during each players turn. Even if lifeline gets destroyed, the ability triggers when the creatures die, not at the end of turn, so they'll still come back that turn. Careful, because the ability applies to everyone, but you're deck should be able to abuse it much more than your opponents.
Hmm I never actually considered Teysa has a general for this deck. I'll have to play with her for a bit and see what I think. White's support for clerics is a definite bonus. I still think for this deck to have any bit of consistency it needs to run more apostles. For a thrumming stone to really work consistently 35 has been the sweet number in all my testing. I'll post an update as I mess with Teysa for a bit and see what I come up with. Your brother and I basically have the same deck built in different colors, him using the extra cleric support that exists in white.
Lifeline is an awesome card!
I think what this deck needs to be careful not to do is run redundancy where it is not needed. Ie: imo there is no need for Grave Pact or any of the other token generators when Teysa achieves those things on her own. Instead, more apostles or necessary protection can be ran.
Also I noticed his deck is missing one of blacks greatest strengths which is its tutors. It could easily be running more apostles and less recursion for some black tutors.
Edit: So I watched the youtube video, and played the deck basically as is except I cut the worse recursion cards for black tutors and didn't include some of the token and grave pact redundancy and solitaire about 10 matches. I still feel like playing mass recursion is just really slow or too often unnecessary. The angel is way too much mana, and second sunrise and like are very situational. I found myself using them only when I already had an obviously dominant board state.
The cards that really make white tempting are Edgewalker, Teysa of course for her removal package, and most of all remembrance. With an phyrexian altar or edgewalker out remembrance was better than any Thrumming stone. I found I did not hit Akroma's Memorail consistently enough unless I was playing til I hit an crazy draw combo.
Teysa
Pros: 3 Mana, Creature removal, Flying evasive tokens, Access to Remembrance
Cons: Spirits don't have haste and can't win same turn without Akroma's Memorial
Sek'Kuar, Deathkeeper
Pros: Access to Bloodbond March, Haste tokens with 3 power, can in with nothing but thrumming stone and apostles, more consistent turn 6-7 wins because less pieces are necessary.
Cons: 5 mana is sloooow, loses whites cleric support
I will keep testing and tweaking, but I am finding that Sek'Kuar is just way more consistent. Bloodbond march and necessary tutors eliminates the need for any other recursions, and it is much more effective then anything like patriarchs bidding, hence why I cut it for more tutors in my initial build.
Lifeline is an incredible card btw, especially with goblin bombardment and blasting station.
Quick Summary: Originally I was trying to build a janky modern deck with Shadowborn Apostles and even in the casual environment that I play in, it was just too slow and inconsistent. I dropped the deck for awhile until I realized one day it could make a very fun EDH build. Picking a general proved to be difficult. At first I looked at Savra, Queen of the Golgari which could be played as, sacrifice six Shadowborns, pay 12 life each opponent sacs 6 creatures and put a Rune Scarred Demon into play. In my deck testing I found I was missing enough satisfying free sac outlets and decided to add red. Sek'Kuar, Deathkeeper has been testing beautifully! I am not just looking to improve deck consistency and any good ideas I may have missed.
3 Ashnod's Altar
3 Blasting Station
1 Viscera Seer
2 Goblin Bombardment
3 Phyrexian Arena
Winning Synergies
5 Thrumming Stone
5 Sek'Kuar, Deathkeeper
4 Bloodbond March
1 Skullclamp
6 Harvester of Souls
3 Phyrexian Arena
5 Ad Nauseam
3 Dark Tutelage
5 Reforge the Soul
3 Shattered Perception
3 Wheel of Fortune
3 Fecundity
7 Rune-Scarred Demon
3 Beseech the Queen
2 Diabolic Intent
4 Diabolic Tutor
3 Dimir Machinations
2 Infernal Tutor
Grave Recur
2 Nature's Spiral
3 Eternal Witness
The idea is to get a lot of value out of the shadowborn Apostles. The most difficult thing about building this deck is having the right balance of card draw, winning synergies, and apostles. I found 35 to be the perfect amount and I haven't hit a dud Thrumming Stone yet. I would love suggestions!
Also, since the Apostle is a Human Cleric, it works with both Xathrid Necromancer and Rotlung Reanimator for even more tokens.
Here, it might be helpful for me to outline a typical solitaire game right now, this isn't a best situation mind you, just an average game.
T1: Play Swamp, Play Apostle
T2: Play Swamp, Play 2 Apostles
T3: Transmute or play other tutor and grab either Bloodbond March or Thrumming Stone depending on whats in hand. If nothing is in hand, but a hand cylcing card is, I would cast wheel of fortune or shattered perception and likely reach a tutor or one of the cards I need.
T4: Cast bloodbond march, altar, some other utility in my hand.
T5: Cast general or if win con is already on BF go for win with thrumming stone or bloodbond.
T6: Win with bloodbond or Thrumming Stone.
This has been fairly consistent as I have solitaired matches + or - a turn or 2. A slower game is usually due to the need to sac 6 apostles to grab Rune Scarred Demon.
Glimpse of Nature >> Fecundity - I was not profiting enough from glimpse of nature. Fecundity has a lot more potential for some outrageous drawing in this deck. without producing extra, glimpse of nature just typically runs out of steam for me after 2 or 3 draws.
Patriarch's Bidding and Repopulate >> Eternal Witness and Nature's Spiral There hasn't been a single game where I wished to recur my clerics with either of these cards. I would rather have the ability to save a destroyed thrumming stone if necessary.
In my testing this deck has been clocking out with T7 wins very consistently. Using sek'Kuar, Deathkeeper was definitely the right move for this deck. Even though he eats up turn 5 and pushes the win back a turn, he has been very consistent for me and adds a lot more value to cards like blasting station or phyrexian Arena.
A lot of his greatest cards are white, but here are a couple suggestions that I bet you'll love:
Coat of Arms = GG. It might be "win more" in your deck, since the graveborns are already 3/1s, but maybe if you try it out you'll find its very valuable.
Lifeline = This card is phenomenal, and relatively unknown. You can sac all your Apostles, and then they'll come back at the end of turn, so you can sac them during each players turn. Even if lifeline gets destroyed, the ability triggers when the creatures die, not at the end of turn, so they'll still come back that turn. Careful, because the ability applies to everyone, but you're deck should be able to abuse it much more than your opponents.
Good luck!
Lifeline is an awesome card!
I think what this deck needs to be careful not to do is run redundancy where it is not needed. Ie: imo there is no need for Grave Pact or any of the other token generators when Teysa achieves those things on her own. Instead, more apostles or necessary protection can be ran.
Also I noticed his deck is missing one of blacks greatest strengths which is its tutors. It could easily be running more apostles and less recursion for some black tutors.
Edit: So I watched the youtube video, and played the deck basically as is except I cut the worse recursion cards for black tutors and didn't include some of the token and grave pact redundancy and solitaire about 10 matches. I still feel like playing mass recursion is just really slow or too often unnecessary. The angel is way too much mana, and second sunrise and like are very situational. I found myself using them only when I already had an obviously dominant board state.
The cards that really make white tempting are Edgewalker, Teysa of course for her removal package, and most of all remembrance. With an phyrexian altar or edgewalker out remembrance was better than any Thrumming stone. I found I did not hit Akroma's Memorail consistently enough unless I was playing til I hit an crazy draw combo.
Teysa
Pros: 3 Mana, Creature removal, Flying evasive tokens, Access to Remembrance
Cons: Spirits don't have haste and can't win same turn without Akroma's Memorial
Sek'Kuar, Deathkeeper
Pros: Access to Bloodbond March, Haste tokens with 3 power, can in with nothing but thrumming stone and apostles, more consistent turn 6-7 wins because less pieces are necessary.
Cons: 5 mana is sloooow, loses whites cleric support
I will keep testing and tweaking, but I am finding that Sek'Kuar is just way more consistent. Bloodbond march and necessary tutors eliminates the need for any other recursions, and it is much more effective then anything like patriarchs bidding, hence why I cut it for more tutors in my initial build.
Lifeline is an incredible card btw, especially with goblin bombardment and blasting station.