MTG Salvation

A few years ago, I used to have a Lyzolda, the Blood Witch deck that was heavily dependant upon Lyzolda herself. I love playing with commanders that are card advantage engines that force some sort of unusual deckbuilding restrictions, and I tend to gravitate towards the weaker color combinations in commander, so Lyzolda was a natural fit for me. The deck was fun when it was running smoothly, but Lyzolda's fragility meant that she frequently ended up back in the command zone, and recasting her became prohibitive due to Rakdos colors' inability to ramp. Paying 5 or 7 mana for a 3/1 that requires me to leave up 2 mana to get any value turned out to be too demanding on the deck's resources in many games, and eventually Lyzolda got the bench.

Then one day I opened up a foil copy of Tymaret, the Murder King in a Theros block draft and I was reminded of my long ago love for my Lyzolda deck. On the surface, Tymaret looks like a worse version of Lyzolda because you're forced to pay colored mana to activate his abilities and his "shock" only goes to our opponents' faces, and the only card he can "draw" is himself. However, after playing with Tymaret at the helm of a deck, I've found him to be powerful in different ways from Lyzolda. The main strength that Tymaret has over Lyzolda is that you don't ever care if he dies. Tymaret offers a persistent sacrifice outlet that works from the battlefield or the graveyard. It's also rare that you'll ever need to pay commander tax on Tymaret because of his ability to resurrect himself. In fact, the ease at which Tymaret comes back serves as a deterrent to killing him in the first place. I've found that my opponents never want to spend their resources to get rid of Tymaret because between Gravecrawler, Bloodghast, Reassembling Skeleton, Bloodsoaked Champion, Oversold Cemetery, and Phyrexian Reclamation, it never costs me a full card to bring him back when I need him. Tymaret also has the added bonus of being a zombie, which is just a more relevant tribe in Rakdos than Human. Having a commander that's a zombie makes Gravecrawler a wonderfully consistent source of cheap repeatable sacrifice fodder.

Anyway, Here's the deck:



I intentionally avoided free sacrifice outlets, especially egregious combo-enablers like Phyrexian Altar, and Ashnod's Altar. I'm not interested in combo killing my opponents; My goal with this deck is to play a long grindy game of magic where I win with tons of Blood Artist, Falkenrath Noble (Note: These ended up being a little too long and grindy. I've since cut them for Impact Tremors and Purphoros), and Outpost Siege triggers in combination with repeated activations of Tymaret's face shock ability. Also, I am running multiple Grave Pact effects, which are already pretty oppressive without the ability to sacrifice creatures for free, which is why I even avoided including some of the more innocuous free sacrifice outlets like Goblin Bombardment and Carrion Feeder. That's not to say that the deck is underpowered -- It is capable of some truly backbreaking plays. Many decks have a difficult time dealing with Mindslicer or Sire of Insanity. Mind Slash is also an incredibly brutal card in concert with any of the creatures that reanimate themselves, and there are a large number of reanimation and draw engines that tack on extra value with Grave Pact or Dictate of Erebos. The deck also has a low curve that lends itself well to applying some quick pressure to opponents that want to turtle up and play mana rocks or something on the first few turns of the game.

I just Favorited this post. I can totally get behind a commander like tymaret or Lyzolda. One thing I would add is Murderous Redcap. It shocks and then lava darts.

Thanks! I think Redcap is probably much better for Lyzolda than for Tymaret. Though I'd consider him for an include if I had a configuration that was more focused around reanimation engines like Hell's Caretaker and Coffin Queen. Two bodies for one card is good, but I'm more inclined towards lower CMC cards that count as multiple creatures, like Gravecrawler.

New sets! I haven't updated this list with Magic Origins or Battle For Zendikar yet. I'll start with cards that I'm looking to cut.

Cuts:

Gempalm Polluter - I haven't ever had enough zombies in play to make this consistently take away more than two life from anyone. It's cute with an active Oversold Cemetery as a way to draw an extra card per turn while chipping away at someone's life total, but it hasn't been anywhere near what I'd hoped when I put it in the deck. It'd be much stronger as a Gray Merchant of Asphodel, but I don't like the way he tends to abruptly end games.

Rakshasa Gravecaller - I pretty much always have better things to do with 5 mana than play this guy. Exploit is neat with a Grave Pact effect, but the Rakshasa feels weak and is only a one-shot sacrifice outlet. Additionally, he's one of only a few cards that generate tokens in the deck, which is a nombo with Grim Haruspex and Harvester of Souls.

Skirsdag High Priest - Another token generator. Sort of plays into the game plan of getting value off of death triggers. He's another dude that I like more in theory than in practice.

Undead Gladiator - The upkeep restriction makes this guy just way too slow and bad as a draw engine. He makes zombies and loots with Necromancer's Stockpile once per turn cycle for 2BB. I thought I'd like him more, but really all he does is get cycled away to sit in the graveyard. I guess he also sort of fuels Oversold Cemetery, but I put him in the deck as a redundant draw engine and he doesn't do that job well enough.

Necromancer's Stockpile - It's kind of a cute combo with Tymaret and a Grave Pact. I might actually end up keeping it.

Swamp - Need to make room for Smoldering Marsh.


Origins Adds:

Blazing Hellhound - To replace the gravecaller as a sacrifice outlet. The hellhound might take out a utility creature here and there, and he can also go to the face which is great and fits with the theme of doing lots of incremental damage.

Liliana, Heretical Healer/Liliana, Defiant Necromancer - My guys die all of the time and they're mostly low-CMC creatures that Liliana's planeswalker side can immediately resurrect. Also, Liliana is BFFs with Crypt Champion.

Battle for Zendikar Adds:

Smoldering Marsh - Fetchable dual lands are sweet. I'll take slightly better mana fixing every time it's available.

Smothering Abomination - I haven't determined whether or not I can actually support this card's upkeep cost. I like drawing cards every time I sacrifice a creature, though. If this doesn't work out, I think I'll try Kothophed, Soul Hoarder in its place.

Vampiric Rites - I think this is better than Necromancer's Stockpile by a lot.

Zulaport Cutthroat - He doesn't trigger nearly as often as Blood Artist, but he hits everyone when he does trigger. I expect him to do significantly more work than Skirsdag High Priest.

Haven't updated in a while. There's a change I've made and some changes I'm considering.

Out:
Encroaching Wastes - This was kind of arbitrary because I had a promo copy and I wanted a "fair" way to deal with nonbasic lands. Activating this almost always ate my turn and I pretty much only ever used it to kill busted stuff like Cradle or Coffers. I don't want to throw my whole turn away to save the table from nonsense, so this is out.

In:
Wasteland - Expeditions are cool.

Strongly Considering:
Cryptbreaker - Pretty easy swap for the fairly underwhelming Hex Parasite. I'm unsure as to why I even put it in the deck in the first place. I think it was because the C14 planeswalker commanders were so popular. Tymaret is fine at dealing with planeswalkers anyway. Adding Cryptbreaker makes me lean towards wanting more zombies in the deck.

Relentless Dead - This is much slower than recycling Reassembling Skeleton but it comes with a very strong upside of bringing back Graveborn Muse, Sidisi, Undead Vizier, Fleshbag Marauder, or Crypt Champion (which opens up the doors to bringing back most of the other creatures in the deck, and is generally sweet with a Grave Pact effect in play). I'd probably cut Smallpox for this. The deck wants a high density of creature spells, and as much as I love Smallpox, it's fairly low-impact in commander.

Phyrexian Delver - In the vein of wanting more zombies in the deck, I think Phyrexian Delver makes a solid replacement for Chainer, Dementia Master. Chainer has a high ceiling, but he dies a lot, and I've been dissatisfied with having to make an initial investment of 8 mana and 3 life before I get to start reanimating things. Also, I don't have a lot of large things to reanimate, which diminishes Chainer's utility, and makes Phyrexian Delver's (already very low) downside less bad for me.

Geier Reach Sanitarium - I want to fill my graveyard, and looting is sweet. This has synergy with my recursive creatures, my creatures that force mass discard, and Big Game Hunter. I can even loot away Tymaret for repeatable value. I could probably afford to cut a basic Mountain for this, but I could also see myself cutting Rix Maadi, Dungeon Palace if I'm worried about not being able to meet color requirements.

Mortuary Mire - Mostly freeroll single-shot Volrath's Stronghold seems decent.

Considering: I'm unsure what to cut for these.
Sifter of Skulls - Man, Pawn of Ulamog got swole. I want this effect in the deck.

Blood Scrivener - Probably not good enough. Synergizes with mass discard, is a cheap zombie for other cards that care about that sort of thing.

Purphoros, God of the Forge - Would considerably increase the speed at which I kill my opponents. I could plain cut Falkenrath Noble for this and my deck would be better for it, but I'm attached to the vampire man.

Impact Tremors - Same as above except I'd cut Blood Artist. I like having something to mitigate all of the life loss from Dark Prophecy, Graveborn Muse, Phyrexian Arena, Phyrexian Reclamation, and Mana Crypt. I probably don't need the lifegain if I'm just winning faster, though.

So I ordered some cards and made some cuts.

Out:
Swamp - Needed room for Mortuary Mire
Mountain - I have more red sources than I need in the deck, and I wanted to make room for Sea Gate Wreckage
Smallpox - Not a creature, minor impact in this deck. Needed room for Relentless Dead
Ill-Gotten Gains - Generally never found myself wanting to cast this. It's one of the only ways in the deck outside of Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed and Yawgmoth's Will to get my noncreatures back, but I'm cutting more and more of those.
Blood Artist - Heresy, but Impact Tremors is likely the more impactful card.
Falkenrath Noble - Too slow for a fragile card.

In:
Mortuary Mire - I have a foil and I like getting spell effects on lands.
Sea Gate Wreckage - Sometimes I'm hellbent. I might not actually have enough colorless sources to use this, so it could come back out.
Relentless Dead - Cool recursion zombie.
Sifter of Skulls - Found space. Wanted another Pawn of Ulamog effect in the deck.
Purphoros, God of the Forge - Faster clock than Falkenrath Noble.
Impact Tremors - Faster clock than Blood Artist.

More edits. I picked up some sweet foils this past weekend and here are the changes I made.

Out:
Igneous Pouncer - This and Monstrous Carabid were in that initial vein of cards that could combine with Oversold Cemetery and Phyrexian Rebirth to assemble a draw engine. I let my johnny get in the way of running a card that would draw more cards by itself.
Monstrous Carabid - See above
Blazing Hellhound - This did minimal damage to people's faces and didn't control the board well.
Mountain - The curve of this deck is pretty low, I just lowered it even more with these most recent cuts, and I added some card draw

In:
Necropotence - This is probably the best black card ever and EMA made foils easy to find. Slight nombo with some of the discard outlets, but I probably don't care because I'll have all the cards I ever want forever.
Wheel of Fortune - Bins my recursive dudes while refilling my hand. Obviously an excellent card.
Damnation - Better board control.
Toxic Deluge - Foils of this didn't even exist prior to EMA. Also strong board control.