I had two mono-black decks, one with Nest of Scarabs hijinks, one with Dark Depths/Vampire Hexmage, both had problems and both also had Gray Merchant of Asphodel. I decided to combine both, and this is the result. Let me know what you think.
After thinking about this for a while, I remembered I’ve wanted to play Yahenni-related cards for some time and get my Demigod of Revenge playset back into business. Not a tribal vamp deck, not a zombie deck, not just a Dark Depths deck. It’s a mess, but cults usually are.
The idea of Yahenni’s Expertise slamming my group’s horde decks and then free-casting Fleshbag Marauder as a clean-up hitter for bigs is one of the lures here. And if Yahenni is in play and large enough to survive and get even bigger, so much the better. Gary with the demigods sending devotion through the roof is also pretty exciting. Plus, Marit Lage is always fun. Sac’ing the Bloodghasts to ensure Yahenni survives increases the chance of one of his copies being out all game, and they can also give me sac targets to keep demigods on the table with Recurring Nightmare.. So many synergies, so little time...
I was goldfishing and realized that while I did not often find myself lacking on cards between the tutors and Necropotence, I did find myself with too many Yahennis and the associated sweepers. So, the following applies:
In:
2 Nevinyrral’s Disk (screams Cults and horror in the original art, but also handles artifacts, enchantments, and big monsters in a game perspective).
2 Grim Discovery (wanted more recursion of a clear game closing threat in Marit Lage that often = kill it or die).
As I’m looking at the deck, I like the idea of maybe not having 4x Gary in two decks. Two means of a 2nd turn kill, rare as they would be, but that would be fun to drop. I only have to pick up some petals, so I can test this 1v1 idea out, but what do you think?
Well, testing the petals was a horrible idea, too inconsistent. But proxies cost me nothing to find that out...woot. The cool thing is, in exploring that bad deck idea, I hit upon an idea that abuses both the demigods and Bloodghasts to maximize devotion for powered up Gary kills. So, Gary is definitely wincon 1.
Adding two Buried Alives gives me two avenues of graveyard hijinks depending on what’s in my hand. If a demigod is in hand, might as well go for broke and try a 4 demigod swing for a kill. It sets up a possible 22+ devotion move in the following turn with Gary for game. Or, swinging all four Bloodghasts into play gives lots of aggro steam for post-sweeper and Yahenni action, and raises devotion for Gary to 10+.
Either way, I’ll be abusing what makes both playsets fun to play with a definite direction to work for, which for a casual group like mine is enough. And it’s not like “devotion kills” isn’t a great pun for a cult theme. I’ll take Marit Lage when I can get her, but there is lots more to do that fits a cult theme. I finally like this list, but I can play with a couple of slots. If you have any suggestions to enhancing this theme, let me know.
Edit: So after many hands of gold fishing, testing is going well. There are enough synergies complimenting each other that my two hard tutors are searching for all kinds of cards and play is not linear. Sometimes it’s for Buried Alive, but just as often it’s Necropotence, Yawg’s Will or a Gray Merchant. The hand curve scales well with plenty of mana from only lands, allowing me to horde my Dark Rituals until it’s advantageous to drop an explosive series of plays. The mass sweepers and Marauders give removal options throughout the game but allow me to recover board position quickly. I think it’s ready to test against my friends.
Of the three games I’ve played so far with this latest list, I’ve closed two of them out with a Marit Lage token, with the Hexmage cracking Dark Depths. There have also been a win and two kills using Gray Merchant, but all three games have been mine, so the deck is performing well. The only thing left for new kills, realistically is a Demigod of Revenge aggro assualt with three of the four triggered from the graveyard, but they serve well for devotion count regardless.
Oh, right, I did not see the Dark Depths. It was listed under "Spells" in the original decklist. In that case Vampire Hexmage is great!
By the way, thanks for the feedback. I really looked hard at Geralf’s Messenger and Phyrexian Obliterator. And though they aren’t really what I’m going for with the deck since they would supplant the demigods and Bloodghast slots, they really are fantastic cards. Cheers.
4 Vampire Hexmage
4 Bloodghast
4 Vampire Nighthawk
4 Ravenous Chupacabra
4 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
Spells:
4 Dark Depths
3 Charcoal Diamond
4 Hex
4 Torment of Hailfire
1 Necropotence
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Sol Ring
2 Recurring Nightmare
21 Swamps
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Volrath’s Stronghold
1 Strip Mine
The idea of Yahenni’s Expertise slamming my group’s horde decks and then free-casting Fleshbag Marauder as a clean-up hitter for bigs is one of the lures here. And if Yahenni is in play and large enough to survive and get even bigger, so much the better. Gary with the demigods sending devotion through the roof is also pretty exciting. Plus, Marit Lage is always fun. Sac’ing the Bloodghasts to ensure Yahenni survives increases the chance of one of his copies being out all game, and they can also give me sac targets to keep demigods on the table with Recurring Nightmare.. So many synergies, so little time...
Feedback is always appreciated. Thanks.
4 Vampire Hexmage
4 Bloodghast
4 Yahenni, Undying Partisan
4 Fleshbag Marauder
4 Demigod of Revenge
4 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
4 Yahenni’s Expertise
4 Dark Ritual
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
1 Necropotence
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Recurring Nightmare
4 Dark Depths
1 Volrath’s Stronghold
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
22 Swamp
You dont have that much card draw...Skullclamp (if legal in your format) or Syphon mind could be good.
Out:
2 Yahenni’s Expertise
2 Yahenni, Undying Partisan
In:
2 Nevinyrral’s Disk (screams Cults and horror in the original art, but also handles artifacts, enchantments, and big monsters in a game perspective).
2 Grim Discovery (wanted more recursion of a clear game closing threat in Marit Lage that often = kill it or die).
4 Vampire Hexmage
4 Dark Ritual
4 Demigod of Revenge
4 Buried Alive
4 Lotus Petal
4 Reassembling Skeleton
4 Yahenni’s Expertise
4 Fleshbag Marauder
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
1 Recurring Nightmare
1 Necropotence
20 Swamp
Adding two Buried Alives gives me two avenues of graveyard hijinks depending on what’s in my hand. If a demigod is in hand, might as well go for broke and try a 4 demigod swing for a kill. It sets up a possible 22+ devotion move in the following turn with Gary for game. Or, swinging all four Bloodghasts into play gives lots of aggro steam for post-sweeper and Yahenni action, and raises devotion for Gary to 10+.
Either way, I’ll be abusing what makes both playsets fun to play with a definite direction to work for, which for a casual group like mine is enough. And it’s not like “devotion kills” isn’t a great pun for a cult theme. I’ll take Marit Lage when I can get her, but there is lots more to do that fits a cult theme. I finally like this list, but I can play with a couple of slots. If you have any suggestions to enhancing this theme, let me know.
4 Bloodghast
4 Vampire Hexmage
4 Fleshbag Marauder
2 Yahenni, Undying Partisan
4 Demigod of Revenge
4 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
2 Nevinyrral’s Disk
Spells:
4 Dark Ritual
2 Buried Alive
2 Yahenni’s Expertise
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
1 Recurring Nightmare
1 Necropotence
4 Dark Depths
24 Swamp
Edit: So after many hands of gold fishing, testing is going well. There are enough synergies complimenting each other that my two hard tutors are searching for all kinds of cards and play is not linear. Sometimes it’s for Buried Alive, but just as often it’s Necropotence, Yawg’s Will or a Gray Merchant. The hand curve scales well with plenty of mana from only lands, allowing me to horde my Dark Rituals until it’s advantageous to drop an explosive series of plays. The mass sweepers and Marauders give removal options throughout the game but allow me to recover board position quickly. I think it’s ready to test against my friends.
By the way, thanks for the feedback. I really looked hard at Geralf’s Messenger and Phyrexian Obliterator. And though they aren’t really what I’m going for with the deck since they would supplant the demigods and Bloodghast slots, they really are fantastic cards. Cheers.