Soyeah. The below is the current iteration of my recursion deck. The goal is essentially to use creatures as a resource, and grind my opponents down in a war of attrition. The decklist:
I mostly play in games between 3-6 players, free for all. We stick to the Vintage banned/restricted list, and while budget isn't a concern, I try to avoid unnecessary griefing - for example, playing contamination is a sure-fire way to get me attacked every game. Not to mention that I play with the same people every week, so if I tick them off too much, they'll remember.
Nezumi Graverobber is there to provide me with some early-game defense that can randomly hose graveyard decks, then flip and completely take over the game unless someone kills it right there and then.
As of right now I'm trying to find space for more Exsanguinate - any suggestions on what to cut, or other suggestions for the deck?
The deck is looking sexy as Hell so far, I really like the direction that you've chosen. Mad props on the Obliterators, they're the ****ing nuts! Love seeing them in any deck lol. Still, minor adjustments could be made to shore up some of this deck's weaknesses.
While Dimir House Guard is fine, it doesn't tutor for the actual linchpin of this deck; Skullclamp. Trust me, it's by far and away the most important card for your recursion strategy. No Plaguelord, no Blasting Station, no Hynotist, NOTHING is even remotely close to being as powerful as turning every creature in your deck into a "draw 2" for 1-2 mana. It's an absolutely INSANE draw engine that basically puts everything else to shame. It's the bee's knees baby, trust me on this.
The way I see it, you have a few options. You can either add more Clamps, or add more tutors. As far as tutors go, Beseech the Queens 3-4 are fine and so are Shred Memorys. Vampiric Tutor would be ideal, but I understand if you don't want to buy one. As dumb as Shred Memory may seem, it tutors for both Demonic Tutor and Skullclamp. As an EDH player, I can tell you that it's worth its weight in gold for that reason alone. No, it doesn't matter if you never use it to tutor for anything else. They're the 2 best cards in your deck, nothing else really matters. Well, it also tutors for Exsanguinate mind you, the third best card in the deck. Honestly, how can you go wrong with that lol? That being said, I'm HOPING that Beseech 3-4 can get in here. Don't worry about "2-for-1"ing yourself with tutors either (especially Vampiric). Skullclamp makes minor card disadvantage completely irrelevant.
In terms of cards to cut, you have a few options. The Plaguelord is a creature and can't hit players, which makes it somewhat weaker than Blasting Station in my mind. No, it's not "strictly worse" or anything, but I don't think that this deck needs a random 5 drop "removal" spell when you also have Grave Pact at your disposal. It just feels weak. If nothing else, cut back on some of Lords for more Pacts. It's that good!
The other cards that bother me are Nevy's Disk and the Graverobber. Don't get me wrong, they're hella badass cards, but this isn't the deck for them unless you have a very good reason otherwise. Disk is going to nail your important artifacts and enchantments, which is very detrimental in my mind. Unless you are absolutely drawing dead to some artifacts/enchantments, I wouldn't bother with it. Graverobbers are just unneeded. A 2 mana 2/1 isn't overly impressive early on. Just take the early beats and heal it back with Exsanguinate later on. Recurring creatures is fun, but who really cares about alternate win conditions when we have Exsanguinate and infinity creatures swinging/procing Blasting Station + Krovikan Horror. Not me, that's for sure.
The only other card that you might want to consider adding is something like Ashnod's Altar. I don't think that I need to explain how off-the-hook it can be Exsanguinate, even if that's a somewhat narrow application. It's also great for fueling big Skullclamp plays where you draw half of your deck, but again, that's not always going to happen. If anything it could be like a 1-of tutor target to test. Anyways, the idea here is that cards like the Plaguelord, the Robbers and even a Houseguard could all stand to go. From there you can fill up on Beseeches and Exsanguinates and run with that to seal games. That's 5 cards for 5 cards by my count.
I'd personally be adding more Grave Pacts. All those creatures dying left, right and centre, and you're not trying hard to make your opponents experience the same thing?
I'd probably also be finding room for at least a singleton Fleshbag Marauder for this reason also. If you start recurring him, he'll control the crowd very quickly.
Tich: Honestly, I took a good basis of my card choices from your guide. Soyeah. I have to say I agree on your recommendation of the dropping of Plaguelords for beseech the queen. I'm also considering dropping the house guards alltogether for exsanguinates, thanks to the increased quantity of tutors in the deck.
Unfortunately, I can't afford to drop the graverobbers right now - a friend in our group constantly runs green decks with berserk, and he'll frequently attack an open player for 20 damage on the second turn, just for trollings sake. While the 1 toughness won't exactly stop the berzerk, it's frequently enough to turn his attention in another direction.
I'm also looking to drop Nevinyrral's disk for Karn, as a thought - the removal of choice in my playgroup right now is oblivion ring, and having an obliterator tucked under an O-Ring means that it's never coming back, most of the time. Any opinions on the swap?
Cadaverousbl00m - The singleton fleshbag marauder is definitely a thought, and I'm looking into tossing more grave pacts in after I cull the 4 drop down some more. Cheers for the ideas.
Karn doesn't seem very impressive in this style of deck. While he can sometimes be a "double Vindicate," I find that he tends to vanish after a single activation (especially if you -3 him). PWers as strong as him tend to draw attention. What about All is Dust? It's not ideal because it hits Grave Pact, but it at least keeps your Skullclamp alive. That basically makes it head-over-heels better than Nevy's Disk in my book. I really can't stress enough how strong the Clamp is. It's totally worthwhile to build your deck around it like I'm suggesting. I'm not just wasting your time and energy. Karn isn't a bad alternative, but it's kinda hard for cards with such big targets on their heads to really control the game for you.
As far as early defense goes, I think that you should consider a different tactic. If there is a real threat of dying on turn 2, then something like a 2/1 probably isn't good enough. Have you considered adding a playset of Snuff Outs to the deck or something similar? I'm normally not the kind of person who like spot removal in multiplayer, but if the alternative is to die on turn 2 then you don't have much of a choice. The thing about "free" removal is that it's so powerful psychologically. The Green player just plain isn't going to attack you if you keep killing his creature while you're tapped out/have 0 defense. I mean there's tons of great Black spot removal out there, but it's kinda nice not having to hold up mana for it all the time. I'm a really big fan of the Slaughter Pacts and Snuff Outs if something HAS to be used, and in this case it probably does.
+3 Exsanguinate
+2 Beseech the Queen
+2 Snuff out
+1 Skullclamp
Snuff out was a house - every time I drew it, I was happy. The second skullclamp also worked wonders. I think going up to 4x beseech was a bit too far - 3 seemed to be the right number.
However, the reaction to exsanguinate surprised me. It turns out my group HATES exsanguinate. To the point that where they found out that I was running four, this deck became target number one every time it was played, and people sandbagged counterspells for me.
Seeing as no-one else runs exsanguinate, to keep the peace, I'm thinking of dropping down to 1, and keeping that as my inevitable late-game. I also found myself desperately missing Dimir House Guard as a non-threatening (that is, no-one wants to path to exile it on sight, like Obliterator) blocker - however, the absence of disk, plaguelord and graverobber weren't really noticed. As such, I'm looking at the following:
I would probably cut a Buried Alive before I cut a Beseech. Beseech can always tutor for it if needed, and ever BA beyond the first is fairly marginal. Beseech gets your Skullclamps which, as you've no doubt come to realize, is the best card in the deck. I dunno, it probably doesn't matter much either way, I'd just rather have 6 pulls at Skullclamp if possible. I'm fine with the other changes. GP is a total house in this deck, you really can't have too many of them. As much as I hate Exsanguinate being cut, you gotta do what you gotta do I suppose. I would personally just throw my Boseiju, Who Shelters Alls into the deck, but I can appreciate the card being too strong for your meta.
Snuff Out is a house. It' easily my favorite spot removal spell. Anything that can kill a turn 1 Lodestone Golem is aces in my book. Nothing really tops it when it comes to killing creatures that would otherwise end the game on turns 1-3.
No surprise to your group's hatred of exsang, I have mentioned on these boards before how it is a cheap and reviled card. Maybe go with consume spirit instead to be more multi friendly.
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1x Bojuka Bog
2x Crypt of Agadeem
2x Leechridden Swamp
1x Phyrexian Tower
16x Swamp
1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1x Volrath's Stronghold
Creatures
4x Bloodghast
3x Dimir House Guard
1x Krovikan Horror
4x Nether Traitor
2x Nezumi Graverobber
3x Phyrexian Obliterator
2x Phyrexian Plaguelord
1x Reassembling Skeleton
1x Sadistic Hypnotist
2x Beseech the Queen
4x Buried Alive
2x Damnation
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Exsanguinate
Artifacts
1x Blasting Station
1x Nevinyrral's Disk
1x Skullclamp
1x Grave Pact
1x Recurring Nightmare
Bloodghast, Nether traitor and Reassembling skeleton are the linchpins of the deck, allowing all my sacrifice outlets to work overtime. One Nether Traitor in play and one in the graveyard lets me do things like "B: 1 damage to target creature or player" with blasting station or "B: Target player discards two cards" with Sadistic Hypnotist.
I've gone for a toolbox using the demonic tutor and beseech the queen, and to a lesser extent using Dimir House Guard. Speaking of which, Dimir House Guard is a house in this deck - he can transmute for Obliterator, Nevinyrral's Disk, Damnation, Krovikan Horror or Grave Pact, can block indefinitely due to the nature of the deck, and can even nip in for two damage occasionally thanks to fear - not to mention that if I want to pump out a massive exsanguinate, worst case scenario I can sacrifice all my dudes to power Crypt of Agadeem to ridiculous levels.
Phyrexian Obliterator is self explanatory, especially when it comes out on turn 3 thanks to T2 dork, T3 Phyrexian Tower, sac the dork, Obliterator.
The singleton Exsanguinate was occupied by Sheoldred, Whispering One, but frankly I think Exsanguinate is plain better.
I mostly play in games between 3-6 players, free for all. We stick to the Vintage banned/restricted list, and while budget isn't a concern, I try to avoid unnecessary griefing - for example, playing contamination is a sure-fire way to get me attacked every game. Not to mention that I play with the same people every week, so if I tick them off too much, they'll remember.
Nezumi Graverobber is there to provide me with some early-game defense that can randomly hose graveyard decks, then flip and completely take over the game unless someone kills it right there and then.
As of right now I'm trying to find space for more Exsanguinate - any suggestions on what to cut, or other suggestions for the deck?
While Dimir House Guard is fine, it doesn't tutor for the actual linchpin of this deck; Skullclamp. Trust me, it's by far and away the most important card for your recursion strategy. No Plaguelord, no Blasting Station, no Hynotist, NOTHING is even remotely close to being as powerful as turning every creature in your deck into a "draw 2" for 1-2 mana. It's an absolutely INSANE draw engine that basically puts everything else to shame. It's the bee's knees baby, trust me on this.
The way I see it, you have a few options. You can either add more Clamps, or add more tutors. As far as tutors go, Beseech the Queens 3-4 are fine and so are Shred Memorys. Vampiric Tutor would be ideal, but I understand if you don't want to buy one. As dumb as Shred Memory may seem, it tutors for both Demonic Tutor and Skullclamp. As an EDH player, I can tell you that it's worth its weight in gold for that reason alone. No, it doesn't matter if you never use it to tutor for anything else. They're the 2 best cards in your deck, nothing else really matters. Well, it also tutors for Exsanguinate mind you, the third best card in the deck. Honestly, how can you go wrong with that lol? That being said, I'm HOPING that Beseech 3-4 can get in here. Don't worry about "2-for-1"ing yourself with tutors either (especially Vampiric). Skullclamp makes minor card disadvantage completely irrelevant.
In terms of cards to cut, you have a few options. The Plaguelord is a creature and can't hit players, which makes it somewhat weaker than Blasting Station in my mind. No, it's not "strictly worse" or anything, but I don't think that this deck needs a random 5 drop "removal" spell when you also have Grave Pact at your disposal. It just feels weak. If nothing else, cut back on some of Lords for more Pacts. It's that good!
The other cards that bother me are Nevy's Disk and the Graverobber. Don't get me wrong, they're hella badass cards, but this isn't the deck for them unless you have a very good reason otherwise. Disk is going to nail your important artifacts and enchantments, which is very detrimental in my mind. Unless you are absolutely drawing dead to some artifacts/enchantments, I wouldn't bother with it. Graverobbers are just unneeded. A 2 mana 2/1 isn't overly impressive early on. Just take the early beats and heal it back with Exsanguinate later on. Recurring creatures is fun, but who really cares about alternate win conditions when we have Exsanguinate and infinity creatures swinging/procing Blasting Station + Krovikan Horror. Not me, that's for sure.
The only other card that you might want to consider adding is something like Ashnod's Altar. I don't think that I need to explain how off-the-hook it can be Exsanguinate, even if that's a somewhat narrow application. It's also great for fueling big Skullclamp plays where you draw half of your deck, but again, that's not always going to happen. If anything it could be like a 1-of tutor target to test. Anyways, the idea here is that cards like the Plaguelord, the Robbers and even a Houseguard could all stand to go. From there you can fill up on Beseeches and Exsanguinates and run with that to seal games. That's 5 cards for 5 cards by my count.
Guilds of Ravnica - Commander 2018 - Core 2019 - Battlebond - Dominaria - Rivals of Ixalan - Ixalan - Commander 2017 - Hour of Devastation - Amonket - Aether Revolt - Commander 2016 - Kaladesh - Conspiracy 2 - Eldritch Moon - Shadows Over Innistrad - Oath of the Gatewatch - Commander 2015 - Battle for Zendikar - Magic Origins - Dragons of Tarkir
Green - Blue - Red - White - Gold
I'd probably also be finding room for at least a singleton Fleshbag Marauder for this reason also. If you start recurring him, he'll control the crowd very quickly.
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Unfortunately, I can't afford to drop the graverobbers right now - a friend in our group constantly runs green decks with berserk, and he'll frequently attack an open player for 20 damage on the second turn, just for trollings sake. While the 1 toughness won't exactly stop the berzerk, it's frequently enough to turn his attention in another direction.
I'm also looking to drop Nevinyrral's disk for Karn, as a thought - the removal of choice in my playgroup right now is oblivion ring, and having an obliterator tucked under an O-Ring means that it's never coming back, most of the time. Any opinions on the swap?
Cadaverousbl00m - The singleton fleshbag marauder is definitely a thought, and I'm looking into tossing more grave pacts in after I cull the 4 drop down some more. Cheers for the ideas.
As far as early defense goes, I think that you should consider a different tactic. If there is a real threat of dying on turn 2, then something like a 2/1 probably isn't good enough. Have you considered adding a playset of Snuff Outs to the deck or something similar? I'm normally not the kind of person who like spot removal in multiplayer, but if the alternative is to die on turn 2 then you don't have much of a choice. The thing about "free" removal is that it's so powerful psychologically. The Green player just plain isn't going to attack you if you keep killing his creature while you're tapped out/have 0 defense. I mean there's tons of great Black spot removal out there, but it's kinda nice not having to hold up mana for it all the time. I'm a really big fan of the Slaughter Pacts and Snuff Outs if something HAS to be used, and in this case it probably does.
Guilds of Ravnica - Commander 2018 - Core 2019 - Battlebond - Dominaria - Rivals of Ixalan - Ixalan - Commander 2017 - Hour of Devastation - Amonket - Aether Revolt - Commander 2016 - Kaladesh - Conspiracy 2 - Eldritch Moon - Shadows Over Innistrad - Oath of the Gatewatch - Commander 2015 - Battle for Zendikar - Magic Origins - Dragons of Tarkir
Green - Blue - Red - White - Gold
1x Bojuka Bog
2x Crypt of Agadeem
2x Leechridden Swamp
1x Phyrexian Tower
16x Swamp
1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1x Volrath's Stronghold
4x Bloodghast
1x Krovikan Horror
4x Nether Traitor
3x Phyrexian Obliterator
1x Reassembling Skeleton
1x Sadistic Hypnotist
Sorceries
4x Beseech the Queen
4x Buried Alive
2x Damnation
1x Demonic Tutor
4x Exsanguinate
1x Blasting Station
2x Skullclamp
Enchantments
1x Grave Pact
1x Recurring Nightmare
Instants
2x Snuff out
Changes were:
-3 Dimir House Guard
-2 Nezumi Graverobber
-1 Nevinyrral's disk
-2 Phyrexian Plaguelord
And
+3 Exsanguinate
+2 Beseech the Queen
+2 Snuff out
+1 Skullclamp
Snuff out was a house - every time I drew it, I was happy. The second skullclamp also worked wonders. I think going up to 4x beseech was a bit too far - 3 seemed to be the right number.
However, the reaction to exsanguinate surprised me. It turns out my group HATES exsanguinate. To the point that where they found out that I was running four, this deck became target number one every time it was played, and people sandbagged counterspells for me.
Seeing as no-one else runs exsanguinate, to keep the peace, I'm thinking of dropping down to 1, and keeping that as my inevitable late-game. I also found myself desperately missing Dimir House Guard as a non-threatening (that is, no-one wants to path to exile it on sight, like Obliterator) blocker - however, the absence of disk, plaguelord and graverobber weren't really noticed. As such, I'm looking at the following:
-1 beseech the queen
-3 exsanguinate
In exchange for
+3 Dimir House Guard
+1 Grave pact
Any comments/opinions on these changes?
Snuff Out is a house. It' easily my favorite spot removal spell. Anything that can kill a turn 1 Lodestone Golem is aces in my book. Nothing really tops it when it comes to killing creatures that would otherwise end the game on turns 1-3.
Guilds of Ravnica - Commander 2018 - Core 2019 - Battlebond - Dominaria - Rivals of Ixalan - Ixalan - Commander 2017 - Hour of Devastation - Amonket - Aether Revolt - Commander 2016 - Kaladesh - Conspiracy 2 - Eldritch Moon - Shadows Over Innistrad - Oath of the Gatewatch - Commander 2015 - Battle for Zendikar - Magic Origins - Dragons of Tarkir
Green - Blue - Red - White - Gold