MTG Salvation

My list for Balthor the Defiled. It's your standard mono-black reanimator deck, though I've put a lot of my focus on using Balthor's ability.

Suggestions are appreciated, but please keep in mind that I'm not interested in changing my general or the overall theme of the list.

I always love seeing obscure legends being used as commanders. You could even take advantage of his innate ability and include Conspiracy in your deck. That could make all your creatures Minion just for the hell of it, lol.

Aye She's making Monoblack finally. Im glad to see the direction you seem to be going with Balthor. I have some cards that I use in my He who hungers that may help your deck like they helped mine:

Sacrifice: Nothing worse than being mana screwwed but this allows us to sac a fatty for more B to our pool than Phyrexian altar does.
Songs of the damned: very similar to sacrifice other than it just counts creature cards in the graveyard.
Victimize: you missed my favorite reanimation spell... You sac the reassembling skeleton to bring back Harvester of Souls and Massacre Wurm. the fact you get two creatures back means you can stack abilities to make for a lot of fun times.
and finally Black market: I know it has a bit of a price tag attached to it but it is fantastic especially when you start saccing creatures more and more.

Now that I'm done suggesting cards I wanted to see is Sacrificing creatures with stuff like Grave Pact part of your game plan for board control you are you just using it for synergy? If you are I may have more suggestions but I wanted to check first.

Quote from DementedKirby »

I always love seeing obscure legends being used as commanders. You could even take advantage of his innate ability and include Conspiracy in your deck. That could make all your creatures Minion just for the hell of it, lol.

Thanks you! I do enjoy playing weird commanders.

At the moment, I haven't had to actually attack for the win, so I'm not sure that Conspiracy is necessary, though I do enjoy the card. ^.^

Quote from Ulka »

Aye She's making Monoblack finally. Im glad to see the direction you seem to be going with Balthor. I have some cards that I use in my He who hungers that may help your deck like they helped mine:

Sacrifice: Nothing worse than being mana screwwed but this allows us to sac a fatty for more B to our pool than Phyrexian altar does.
Songs of the damned: very similar to sacrifice other than it just counts creature cards in the graveyard.
Victimize: you missed my favorite reanimation spell... You sac the reassembling skeleton to bring back Harvester of Souls and Massacre Wurm. the fact you get two creatures back means you can stack abilities to make for a lot of fun times.
and finally Black market: I know it has a bit of a price tag attached to it but it is fantastic especially when you start saccing creatures more and more.

To be fair, this is my third mono black deck. ^.^

I like Black Market a lot, it's currently sitting in my maybe board for this deck, I've just been waiting to see if there's a card that isn't working for me to swap out for it (I've only played this deck a few of times so far). Victimize has potential as well, though I'm not sure how I feel about the other two.

I'll probably need to get a feel for how mana intensive this deck really is before I make changes to compensate. I've only had to cast Balthor twice maximum in a single game so far, and the other three games only took one activation.

Now that I'm done suggesting cards I wanted to see is Sacrificing creatures with stuff like Grave Pact part of your game plan for board control you are you just using it for synergy? If you are I may have more suggestions but I wanted to check first.

It's both. It is just really good synergy, but it also messes worth other decks in my group quite effectively.

Thank you both for the suggestions!

Falkenrath Noble acts as an extra Blood Artist. When I played Balthor I killed a lot of people using the two of them. Splash in Mikaeus, the Unhallowed + a sac outlet and you can generally kill someone on a Balthor cast.

Dimir House Guard is a monster considering he gives you a tutor and then comes back on every balthor trigger as a free sac outlet. I highly recommend adding him.

Stinkweed Imp he does work and holds your opponents at bay. Personally I don't really like Bitterblossom here and I feel like he fits a similar role but better for this deck. The idea behind bitterblossom is more or less just creatures to sac where as the imp will dig you to lots more threats rather than be sac effect value.

Mindslicer make everyone's hands go away makes it hard for someone to answer a mass balthor rez.

Okay since you are using the grave pact effect for both: I'm going to recommend Abyssal Gatekeeper. It triggers when it dies so can force some ugly situations but further has a nice 2 cmc.

Quote from ISBPathfinder »

Falkenrath Noble acts as an extra Blood Artist. When I played Balthor I killed a lot of people using the two of them. Splash in Mikaeus, the Unhallowed + a sac outlet and you can generally kill someone on a Balthor cast.

Dimir House Guard is a monster considering he gives you a tutor and then comes back on every balthor trigger as a free sac outlet. I highly recommend adding him.

Stinkweed Imp he does work and holds your opponents at bay. Personally I don't really like Bitterblossom here and I feel like he fits a similar role but better for this deck. The idea behind bitterblossom is more or less just creatures to sac where as the imp will dig you to lots more threats rather than be sac effect value.

Mindslicer make everyone's hands go away makes it hard for someone to answer a mass balthor rez.

Thank you for the suggestions ISB. I'm trading Ill-Gotten Gains for Mindslicer, everything else will take some time for me to mess with.

Quote from Ulka »

Okay since you are using the grave pact effect for both: I'm going to recommend Abyssal Gatekeeper. It triggers when it dies so can force some ugly situations but further has a nice 2 cmc.

I am currently running both Fleshbag Marauder and Merciless Executioner for similar reasons, though with all of the other suggestions I've been getting, I'm starting to get spey on room for potential cuts.

Quote from Airithne »

Suggestions are appreciated, but please keep in mind that I'm not interested in changing my general or the overall theme of the list.

You should change your general to Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed...

On a more serious note...

Mutilate is a decently good wrath that you can probably pick up for cheapish.

Are you trying to avoid going infinite? Otherwise, I'd get Corpse Dance action in here. If you are, you could still go hilariously ham without infinites using Rings of Brighthearth. You sacrifice all your dudes to whatever altar you have out or their own abilities, then bring them back with undying, then sacrifice them, then bring them back with a copy of Balthor's ability, then in response to the original ability you sacrifice again, bringing them back with undying, then sacrifice a fourth time, then bring them back with the ability. It will take a lot of set-up or ritual mana for this to actually go infinite, but not too crazy an amount of set-up to win on the spot. Keep in mind that Myriad Landscape is also fantastic there, as well as some of those enchantments and Sadistic Hypnotist (shudder). You can avoid the Deserted Temple interaction most of the time...

I've found Sepulchral Primordial to be pretty underwhelming for its cmc.

I like Agent of Erebos, though it's sometimes a little slow.

Quote from osieorb18 »

Quote from Airithne »

Suggestions are appreciated, but please keep in mind that I'm not interested in changing my general or the overall theme of the list.

You should change your general to Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed...

On a more serious note...

Never!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mutilate is a decently good wrath that you can probably pick up for cheapish.

I'll definitely have to look in to picking up a copy and finding a spot for it.

Are you trying to avoid going infinite? Otherwise, I'd get Corpse Dance action in here. If you are, you could still go hilariously ham without infinites using Rings of Brighthearth. You sacrifice all your dudes to whatever altar you have out or their own abilities, then bring them back with undying, then sacrifice them, then bring them back with a copy of Balthor's ability, then in response to the original ability you sacrifice again, bringing them back with undying, then sacrifice a fourth time, then bring them back with the ability. It will take a lot of set-up or ritual mana for this to actually go infinite, but not too crazy an amount of set-up to win on the spot. Keep in mind that Myriad Landscape is also fantastic there, as well as some of those enchantments and Sadistic Hypnotist (shudder). You can avoid the Deserted Temple interaction most of the time...

I'm not avoiding it, but I'm not going to pursue putting combos together either. If it happens it happens. I have more fun just messing around with my graveyard and sometimes exploding with Balthor. I'll think about adding in combos, but they take away deck space that I could otherwise use for silly things (I'm a filthy casual, I know), especially since I just built an Animar combo deck.

I've found Sepulchral Primordial to be pretty underwhelming for its cmc.

It's most a silly card. As I said, I'm not super focused on being competitive, I really just want to durdle, and sometimes have a really explosive reanimation via Balthor. We also usually play larger games (4+ people), so it can do work in those situations.

I like Agent of Erebos, though it's sometimes a little slow.

Yeah, but it really helps against decks like Feldon of the Third Path, Tariel, Reckoner of Souls, etc. decks in my group that also really benefit from Balthor's ability.

Edit: To clarify, I really like to have the repeatable removal from Agent in addition to Withered Wretch.

Quote from Airithne »

It's most a silly card. As I said, I'm not super focused on being competitive, I really just want to durdle, and sometimes have a really explosive reanimation via Balthor. We also usually play larger games (4+ people), so it can do work in those situations.

Have you considered Geth, Lord of the Vault?

Quote from osieorb18 »

You should change your general to Toshiro Umezawa...

I joke of course. Balthor has some really cool flavor of his own.

Dread Return strikes me as a bit of an odd choice of rez effect to be honest. It is a little narrow in that it can only rez your own creatures when you have a mass rezing commander it seems like an odd choice of reanimation effect. I personally really like Necromancy instead but its interesting with the flashback but I dont know if I would run it personally.

If you add another wrath I feel like I would want it to be Oblivion Stone or All is Dust personally for the sweeper to other effects. As a whole you dont seem to have much for answers to noncreature effects. Karn Liberated could also be useful. You might even be able to get away with Ugin, the Spirit Dragon if your sac outlet count is high enough to reliably be able to have one to dump your creatures to. There are also the more budget friendly Unstable Obelisk / Spine of Ish Sah options too.

Quote from osieorb18 »

Quote from Airithne »

It's most a silly card. As I said, I'm not super focused on being competitive, I really just want to durdle, and sometimes have a really explosive reanimation via Balthor. We also usually play larger games (4+ people), so it can do work in those situations.

Have you considered Geth, Lord of the Vault?

That seems... More inefficient than the Primordial. Unless there's something I'm missing?

That said, it would be on a 'if I can find room for it' basis more than anything. I'm still trying to fit in some of ISB's suggestions.

Quote from ISBPathfinder »

Quote from osieorb18 »

You should change your general to Toshiro Umezawa...

I joke of course. Balthor has some really cool flavor of his own.

Funny story, I actually considered Toshiro. It's not my style though.

Dread Return strikes me as a bit of an odd choice of rez effect to be honest. It is a little narrow in that it can only rez your own creatures when you have a mass rezing commander it seems like an odd choice of reanimation effect. I personally really like Necromancy instead but its interesting with the flashback but I dont know if I would run it personally.

My earliest drafts of the deck had a lot more discard/self mill. It just never got removed. It's actually a Dimir House Guard right now, until I decide if I like it or not.

If you add another wrath I feel like I would want it to be Oblivion Stone or All is Dust personally for the sweeper to other effects. As a whole you dont seem to have much for answers to noncreature effects. Karn Liberated could also be useful. You might even be able to get away with Ugin, the Spirit Dragon if your sac outlet count is high enough to reliably be able to have one to dump your creatures to. There are also the more budget friendly Unstable Obelisk / Spine of Ish Sah options too.

Fair point, All is Dust is probably the most likely to be added out of all of those.

Quote from Macabre »

How does your life total fair during the game for your meta?

If you can get balthor out and on the following turn have access to 8 mana, I think you might enjoy Necrologia.

The plan is to cast it for as much life as you can tolerate loosing while staying alive for one turn, discarding all the juicy meat, and then at the end of the left opponents turn pop Balthor.

It sounds a bit whimsical... well, I suppose "ballsy" is a better term here. But if you can Necrologia for 30 and the opponents can't kill or interrupt your plan, then the game will change very quickly.

I run it in a bladewing deck to great effect, typically drawing into one of many mass reanimation spells and hopefully a Whip of Erebos (or a tutor to fetch it with) so I can recover the hit as a back-up plan. Having your general be the reanimation effect makes this play sound much more reliable.

My life total tends to be pretty swingy, and it really depends on what other decks are at the table. There are decks like Titania or Feldon that can do a pretty significant chunk of damage at once.

If like a little while to see how this deck goes on my group (I do have eight decks, so I've only played this a few times so far) before I decide on high risk cards like this.

Quote from Macabre »

I run it in a bladewing deck to great effect, typically drawing into one of many mass reanimation spells and hopefully a Whip of Erebos (or a tutor to fetch it with) so I can recover the hit as a back-up plan. Having your general be the reanimation effect makes this play sound much more reliable.

Balthor the Defiled exiles himself as part of his resolution and generally speaking you wont cast him if you cant activate his ability from my own experiences. I can think of very few times if ever that I had my own Balthor have the option of going to the grave.

Update:

Out
Dread Return

In
Dimir House Guard

Still not a fan of Trasmute but being a multipurpose card won it the spot.

Update:

Out
Read the Bones
Harvester of Souls

In
Liliana, Heretical Healer
Dark Petition

I'm swapping Harvester of Souls for Dark Petition. After a few months of playing this deck, I think that the Harvester would work better in a list that wasn't trying to pull everything out of the graveyard at once, and focused more on sacrificing and reanimating it's creatures for value (the back up plan of this deck). I'm also switching Read the Bones for Liliana, Heretical Healer, as it's been a fun card, and she's not too difficult to flip. Her planeswalker side is also useful when it comes to discarding creatures for Balthor to bring back.

Quote from bobthefunny »

Black Market and Grave Betrayal could be fun. I ran my Chainer list as balthor for a while, and it was quite scary.

Kagemaro, First to Suffer would be a good addition, he's a controllable, reanimatable mutilate. Also great beatstick and good with Disciple of Bolas.

Grave Sifter as a new addition would be good too.

I actually retired this deck (title updated yup avoid further confusion ^.^) when I built Meren because I didn't have the cards to sustain both decks. I will definitely consider your suggestions if I come back to the deck though.