MTG Salvation

Hi everyone,

I've used Living Death a lot of ways over the years, I like the card a lot.
From exclusively cycling creature builds like Monstrous Carabid & Horror of the Broken Lands, to full-blown graveyard decks running dredge and weenies, or even the glass-cannon approach with Hermit Druid dumping my deck, pop Druid with a Culling the Weak into LD. I like variation....

I'm curious;
How do you build it for multiplayer?
And how resilient do you find it?

Cheers

Haven’t done one of those recently, sorry.
I can’t give any truly inspired advice.

Run free sacrifice effects, graveyard destruction, some self mill and/or discard effects.
Have a backup plan for if it gets countered?

What, I did is this: Take Modern Living End shell, added 4x Demigod of Revenge + some mix of Massacre Wurms & Garys & then seasoned it to personal taste. Oh, it definitely works.

Gary usually kills everyone but if someone manages to survive, you can usually just Demigod them to death right then and there. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Quote from Morphling »

What, I did is this: Take Modern Living End shell, added 4x Demigod of Revenge + some mix of Massacre Wurms & Garys & then seasoned it to personal taste. Oh, it definitely works.

Gary usually kills everyone but if someone manages to survive, you can usually just Demigod them to death right then and there. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

My biggest concern with that would be the mana. The Modern versions of the deck only pay 3 mana for their Living Death variant and they're built accordingly. They also get to play with 6-8 virtual copies of the spell thanks to Cascaders whereas we can only play 4. As such I'd recommend something with more lands and a couple of copies of Diabolic Intent/Mausoleum Secrets (depends on the build) for added consistency.

Since you already brought up Demigod of Revenge, I want to plug Buried Alive. It's good in Living Death decks in general and it's also insane with Demigod of Revenge.

I've run a deck with good success in my playgroup.

It's based on having three hero creatures, that hopefully win me the game if they get to survive a couple of rounds. I've been running with Sheoldred, Whispering One paired with It That Betrays and usually Butcher of Malakir as the third.

I get the combo out early with Dark Ritual, Buried Alive and Victimize, chosing Sheoldred and IT first, pulling Butcher in on my next turn with Sheoldred. I transmute for missing pieces with Dimir Machinations. This is my main combo, but Living Death often ends up being the deciding factor.

Sheoldred and IT come in tapped, but Sheoldred still makes opponents sac creatures on their turn, which I then receive thanks to IT. On my turn, I pull out Butcher and start attacking with IT, making them sac even more creatures. If they have a kill spell for IT, they have to sac creatures thanks to Butcher and I bring IT back with Sheoldred next turn. If they kill Sheoldred, they sac creatures to me because of IT and Butcher.

Other than that, in my playgroup, you will get beat down if you have no creatures in the first 5 rounds. Lots of love for tribal decks and the like, I suppose. So I run Vampire Nighthawk and Bone Picker to deter enemies. I also run some critters for support, like Blood Pet (saccing this turn one into a Bone Picker is great early pressure).

I run Putrid Imp to get rid of hero creatures stuck in my hand. Reassembling Skeleton as a sure bet Victimize target (once you've tried having your graveyard full of nasty creatures, Victimize in hand, but no sac target, you will love this card).

I also add in a couple of Crypt Ghast. They've served me well as a means to e.g. hard cast Sheoldred, Whispering One with no Putrid Imp in sight, or to get the Buried Alive/Victimize combo off in one turn.

Often times, I will get the combo off early, everybody will turn against me and my hero creatures will get dealth with (hopefully killed, not exiled). Opponents will then build their army and work through my Reassembling Skeletons and the like, only to have it all fall apart to a Living Death, pulling out all my goodies again and burying opponents' armies.



Fun times have included

At one point I had Harvester of Souls and Malakir Cullblade in the deck. I got the combo off pretty late in the game, but still had a hard time overcoming my opponents. I ended up almost milling myself to Harvester, but the Cullblade got to be a thirtysomething hitter that finally got to swing and take it home.

Going up against a Coffin Queen deck that makes you think twice before Buried Aliveing your creatures. Ended up playing around it somehow (can't quite remember the situation) by casting two Living Death on my turn (thanks to Crypt Ghast), effectively switching twice, which won me the game.

Casting Dark Ritual into Buried Alive turn one with a Victimize in hand, only to have my opponent's turn one land be Bojuka Bog. Somehow managed to still win by bouncing Vampire Nighthawks and Bone Pickers in and out of graveyard.

Having all your hero cards in hand and discarding them to Putrid Imp to give it MORE FLYING before casting Living Death.

In general, ending up with ridiculous amounts of lands because my opponents panic about saccing their creatures to me, which is why I've included two Exsanguinates. With Crypt Ghast out, I've one-shot a game of four this way.


Anyways, we are not a very competitive playgroup, so this might not work for you at all, or be the BEST Living Death deck, that you ask for, apologies in advance for my wall of text if that's the case. I'm a new player as well, so if my understanding of rules on certain combos is off, I apologize for that too. But I've just had too much fun with this deck not to post it.

Also, the Demigod of Revenge/Buried Alive combo sounds sweet, will have to try that!

Quote from Prid3 »

My biggest concern with that would be the mana.

OH COME ON when have you ever known me to overlook these sorts of details?

Honestly, I treat this as an afterthought for precisely the reasons you describe. Most games, I'm only really looking to 'curve out' at 3 mana to win right there. The games where that initial combo attempt gets countered, yeah, it's definitely a setback. Always is. At that point, you're pretty much praying to survive long enough to draw into another attempt. I didn't check but pretty sure I'm running 22-24 lands. (Something like this, I'm betting closer to 22.) 4x Shocks, 4x Filters, 2x Temples, 4x Luxury Suite, etc etc..

Diabolic Intent & Mausoleum Secrets are both interesting. They each have drawbacks you would definitely have to build around a bit. Funny you bring those two specific cards up. I only just recently acquired up playsets of both and have them sitting aside for decks. Can't wait to use them somewhere.

Yeah...Buried Alive was pretty much the entire reason I picked up my first set of Demigods, lol. First time you pull it on someone, they will never treat you the same after that. Really not kidding It doesn't feel very 'kitchen table' if that's what your mates are used to. Be careful here!

Quote from Morphling »

Buried Alive was pretty much the entire reason I picked up my first set of Demigod of Revenge

First set? You have more than one? LOL - Fair enough - they're awesome.
Yeah the Modern Living End shell is a good one.

I recently changed up my Living Death deck. Been tweaking it for a while.
Lately I've been running Living Death with mostly 1-cmc cyclers & Burgeoning, after I finally got sets of Horror of the Broken Lands, Desert Cerodon & Archfiend of Ifnir. I like a few Shriekmaw and a set of Faithless Looting aswell, which is only there to grave the few non-cyclers in the deck, like Urabrask the Hidden.

Quote from bleedin_eyeball »

Lately I've been running Living Death with mostly 1-cmc cyclers & Burgeoning, after I finally got sets of Horror of the Broken Lands, Desert Cerodon & Archfiend of Ifnir. I like a few Shriekmaw and a set of Faithless Looting as well, which is only there to grave the few non-cyclers in the deck, like Urabrask the Hidden.

Burgeoning is interesting but it seems like it would be difficult to reliably cast on turn 1 and doesn't fit well with what the deck is trying to do. Is it better on average than cards like Carpet of Flowers, Dark Ritual, Songs of the Damned or Cabal Ritual? If you have a hand full of lands then it's solid but it seems a bit loose.

I've done the Faithless Looting thing too and the cards that I've historically ran are things like Mogis's Marauder, Dragonlord Kolaghan, Sire of Insanity and Angrath's Marauders. Mogis has the upside of being castable which sometimes matters when you're going for Songs of the Damned lines since 8 mana on turn 4 is do-able.

FWIW my current "all-in" version of the deck is:

Cheers. Intersting list.
No Archfiend of Ifnir, I'm guessing due to Deadshot Minotaur.

Sire of Insanity - I like it.

16 lands? How consistent is it? Do you find yourself having to mull just because of lands?

Quote from Prid3 »

Burgeoning is interesting but it seems like it would be difficult to reliably cast on turn 1 and doesn't fit well with what the deck is trying to do. Is it better on average than cards like Carpet of Flowers, Dark Ritual, Songs of the Damned or Cabal Ritual?

Better on average? No.
I'm more-or-less testing Burgeoning out with my current manabase of 20 lands (8 fetches), but otherwise I usually run Dark Rit.
The main reason I've been testing it, is because a few of my mates are loving There can be only one!-style perms lately. It's horrible. I just want to reach across the table and slap them.
As for the good > 20 lands has meant that I regularly find more land for Burgeoning, but in this type of deck it requires fetches for consistency, which I have to admit, isn't great for longevity.

Quote from bleedin_eyeball »

No Archfiend of Ifnir, I'm guessing due to Deadshot Minotaur.

Nah, too expensive to cycle.

Quote from bleedin_eyeball »

Sire of Insanity is nice for getting rid of creature sweepers - I like it.

Yep, exactly.

Quote from bleedin_eyeball »

I agree on Ingot Chewer, I've run a few in the past too, should probz put them back in.

I'm fine with running 2-3 but it's definitely a flex slot.

Quote from bleedin_eyeball »

16 lands? How consistent is it? Do you find yourself having to mull just because of lands?

Consistent enough. The deck sees a lot of cards and has nothing to do with lands beyond the 3rd. It's built for multiplayer so it takes advantage of the free mull + always draw on your first turn to avoid "non games."

Quote from bleedin_eyeball »

Quote from Morphling »

Buried Alive was pretty much the entire reason I picked up my first set of Demigod of Revenge

First set? You have more than one? LOL - Fair enough - they're awesome.

Absolutley!! I have one (O.G. Shadowmoor) playset for this deck simply for devotion abuse and another (Modern Masters) playset that I picked up for a 'Big Red' deck. It features 4x Demigod of Revenge & 4x Thundermaw Hellkite. (Both 5/5 Hasty Flyers for 5 mana.) Buuuuut it also has some Sin Prodders and Combustible Gearhulks. These abuse Demigods in a completely different way. You take 5...now? Or take it...probably later this turn anyway? Or next turn if I draw into any more? Quite fun.

It's not "competitive tryhard the best" but I like the slow value-based Living Death decks that don't rely on self-mill. I'll just durdle with Baleful Strix, Jace, Vryn's Prodigy, Kalitas, Traitor of Geth, Faerie Artisans, and Recurring Nightmare, and then at some point cast Living Death. If there happens to be a Consecrated Sphinx or Sheoldred, the Whispering One in my graveyard, great.

If you want the best Living Death deck, you should probably build the Vintage version of Modern's Living End decks. Combo style.