Hey guys! This deck is years in the making, I have changed cards in and out with each playthrough I do with it. It started as a monoblack demon deck, and then slowly worked into a sacrifice deck over the years, with fine tuning after that. It has developed to be my favorite deck. I use it strictly for casual with friends in a multiplayer setting, and it's a lot of fun! (Especially when contamination ticks them off). The deck is a control-aggro deck. I want to flood the field with a lot of massive creatures while slowing the game down with contamination to do so, and clearing the field with gravepact for the attack, with blood artist gaining me huge health and also possibly winning me the game. Just having so many cards that synergize so well makes this deck super fun. I feel like every play I do will have a big impact for every card I have, and that is a great feeling. Plus suicidal black is just so much fun, the flavor is amazing. Especially when you win through killing yourself.
Ophiomancer has proven to be the all-star of the deck. It keeps Contamination up like nothing else, and provides a deathtoucher each and every upkeep to defend with. And, it gives me a sacrifice each and every turn to pump my Mortician Beetles, Carrion Feeders, Grave Pacts, and Blood Artist. On top of this, even though Ophiomancer only allows for one token to be produced, the other ophiomancers DO STACK when you have an instant sac outlet like carrion feeder, and sac the first token while the others are still on the stack, and then keep sacrifing those tokens as they resolve. Essentially, Having an instant sacrifice option (like carrion feeder) allows for several sacrifices each turn if I have more than one Ophiomancer out due to the intervening "if" clause (and I have had all 4 out at once in a game of four people... That's 4 sacs each player's turn... My carrion feeder got +20 +20 in just ONE turn, and my Mortician beetle got even more from the other player's sacrifices, and the field was completely cleared because I had a gravepact out.) I have also had 3 ophiomancers out and a blood artist at one time. I won the game against 4 people within 2 turns of pulling my second ophiomancer. (I learned that ophiomancer tokens do stack in regard to instant sac outlets right here at the forum, so thanks guys for all your help!)
Carrion Feeder is my second all-star, and with sacrifices such as the rucurring bloodghast, bitterblossom tokens, and each-turn ophiomancer tokens, it grows massive very quickly, and my beetles grow with it and even bigger when a grave pact or two is out, as it grows on enemy sacrifices as well (I have gotten two of my beetles to 55/55 at the same time before)
Contamination really ticks everyone off, and I am usually forced by the other players to sub it out for other cards, but I LOVE getting a new player in our group, and he thinks his white weenie or blue control deck is gonna destroy everyone, and then contamination hits the field and ruins his day... (we have lost players in our group because of this, but it's priceless!) Since I am running monoblack, I am essentially at a disadvantage by limiting myself to only black cards... so What is an extremely advantageous card for strictly mono-black? Contamination! Specifically a sacrifice build around it, since it requires a sacrifice, and I will always have enough food to feed it and then some, and the "drawback" of sacrificeng only helps me out even more by combining with everything else in my deck. A mono-black sacrifice deck really is the true home for contamination, I have come to find.
EDIT: Altar of dementia was replaced with spawning pit. It still allows for a sacrifice each turn at instant speed to take advantage of ophiomancer if I have no carrion feeders, but I feel like this will work better in this deck than altar of dementia (thanks Rezzahan!)
The Grave Pact keeps the board clear when it hits, but The go for Throat helps with specific creatures if the opposing person has tokens to sac. (Only black and colorless can slip through Contamination, unless they have mana dorks, so I will sub Go for the throat with Attrition if they use artifact creatures.)
Bitterblossom is a wonderful token generator, and it produces flying so I can block flyers. Blood artist is not only a potential win condition, but it more than makes up for the life loss of Bitterblossom.
Volrath's Stronghold is a nice little insurance policy if someone kills off a needed ophiomancer or blood artist, and I can't seem to get another one or a diabolic intent to tutor for one. Phyrexian tower is great for a sac outlet and pre-contamination ramp, Urborg is essentially a swamp, with an ability that I have used successfully, although it is rare to use it, but I have successfully used it. Urborg, tomb of yawgmoth is perfect if I have volrath's stronghold or phyrexian tower out with no contamination, as it makes them produce swamp instead of colorless, which can really help.
Diabolic Intent is useful for anything I need... Especially If I need the combo of contamination and an ophiomancer to sustain the contamination, or perhaps I need a blood artist to get life or win the game.
Overall, I find this deck very fun to play with. I really love the look on new player's faces when contamination hits, and I love doing sacrifice combos, and clearing the board of enemy creatures and pumping my own to astronomical levels, while gaining life and zapping my opponent's life. It's a super fun deck!!! I made this deck really only for casual play, for fun at the table with the group, but it has proven to be very strong for me!
What do you guys think?? I just wanted to share my deck with you all, as it took years of play-testing to finely tune it to what it is. I know it won't be winning any legacy tournaments or anything, but it's very strong as a casual deck amongst friends. I am very happy with it and it brings me a lot of joy to play with it, and that's what this game is all about!
EDIT: So I removed my dark rituals and replaced them with skullclamps. This deck is BEGGING for skullclamp, with all those tokens to sac. Dark ritual is limited in this deck as far as usefullness goes. To make it worth it, I really need it on turn 1, and I would need 4 to do that, and even then, I have plenty of 1 drops that I can cast turn 1, and plenty of 2 drops turn two. I honestly feel like skullclamp will be MUCH more beneficial in this deck, as it will always give me card draw and will gurantee lands be drawn. This deck is PERFECT for skullclamp. I sideboarded the dark rituals though, in case my friends make me switch it out, like they do with contamination. The only reason I put 3 in and not 4, is because contamination requires a sacrifice during my upkeep, and I can only sac to skullclamp during my upkeep, so they kind of compete with each other if for some reason I don't have another source of sac food out.
Since Gravepact is such an essential card in the deck, you really should up their numbers (you already got 4 I know, but ->) by adding some Dictate of Erebos and/or more tutors. Dimir House Guard could be a sac outlet that also acts as a tutor for Grave Pact for example.
Altar of Dementia really has no place in the deck. You're aiming to win through life loss, so a milling card, even if its impact can be huge, should really be something more suited for your primary goal.
In general, you should increase the number of all your more essential cards to a full playset if possible. So a fourth Blood Artist, another Bloodghast and one more Bitterblossom.
Bloodghast could also be something to cut, but it can certainly contribute to te deck. Even more so with an ensured landfall if you need it. Oboro, Palace in the Clouds may not produce black, but it does grant a guaranteed landfall each turn without loss of mana (it can produce the mana you need to bounce it itself, then just replay it). Two or three copies should be fine, even more so if you add another Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth or two. Legendary is a much less painful drawback for lands now with the new legend rule.
Another token producer to consider is Creakwood Liege. The added power/toughness makes annoying 1/1 tokens into much more serious threats.
Creakwood is definitely a nice auggestion, he provides a solid drop for a little later in the game, but is still in my man's curve. I am thinking of at minimum cutting one bloodghast (so I would have two total) and throwing in a creakwood. Bloodghast is too good to get rid of entirely. The two power and haste are very relevant I find at a 2 cmc.
I am not quite yet convinced on getting rid of altar of dementia. The security and insurance it supplies for my creatures is awesome, but the real advantage it gives is being a cheap instant sac outelet, so I can take advantage of multiple sacrifices on each player's turn. The only other card I have that does that is carrion feeder, and since he is a creature (and one that people want dealt with), is subject to removal more easily than altar, and then I would be missing out on instant sacrifices until I get another carrion. perhaps spawning pit would be a better fit?
I do agree I need to find a way to put in a fourth blood artist. A fourth bittwrblossom is out of the question right now. They are a bit expensive and i have already spent a lot on this deck over the years
Spawning Pit is indeed nice.. And you won't run out of creatures with that, or at least not very fast. It also is a means to recover after a board wipe (sac all your creaures in response, let the wipe resolve, then make more tokens). The problem with the Altar is, that it only works, if your deck is already performing great. And then you don't need it. That's the definition of a "win more".
Mortician Beetle can probably be cut, since it is just another card that benefits from your sacrifices. Grave Pact and Dictate of Erebos provide a much better benefit, and with all that forced sacrifice you don't need a big creature to hide behind, and you don't need another big beater if the opponent has no means to defend himself against your tokens and already big Carrion Feeders.
I will pick up a few dictate or erwbos and try them. Thanks for the suggestions, I really appreciate it! I think I will replace altar with spawning pit. You're right, spawning pit will be more useful in this deck, and still provide an instant speed sac outlet, which is crucial with those ophiomancers.
EDIT: I have found that with decks where contamination is necessary, the Go for throat is kind of a wasted spot, because contamination usually hits early, and blocks the big bad creatures from coming out, and by the time grave pact hits, I have nothing to worry about as it clears the field. On top of this, the deathtouch tokens from ophiomancers does a fantastic job of keeping creature attacks at bay. I am thinking of replacing the two Go for Throat with 2 Blade of the Bloodchief. I feel that with all the instant-speed sacrificing that will be going on, I could throw this on a mortician beetle and double it's growth, which would make it massive in no time at all. Plus being a one drop is a big bonus, with only 1 to equip, and if my beetle gets axed, it sticks around for the next one. And I could bring back a bloodghast with haste, throw it on and sac some other things to grow it with +2 +2 if need be, and attack with haste for the win. Since I risk losing these massive creatures to removal, I only want 2 blade of the bloodchief in this deck.
Then when I face decks with heavy black or colorless, I can sub out Contamination and bring in the go for throat or attrition.
ALSO: As stated above, I put 3 skullclamps in. That card will be beast in this deck... at least I feel it will be.
I am getting second thoughts on Blade of the bloodchief... Should I replace it with two copies of Thoughtseize for some more early control elements?? Perhaps sideboard Blade?? My thought with thoughtseize is that once I have contamination in the game, I won't really need thoughtseize, and it is only useful early on. If I play against heavy black and colorless, again, I will sub out contamination and then thoughtseize would be more useful, as the cards in their hand will actually be playable and therefore a bigger threat.
Maybe I should cut 1 Spawning Pit and 1 Blade of the Bloodchief and put in 2 Go for the throat??
Perhaps I cut down to 2 skullclamps?? or is 3 a good number?
Very true, you definitely bring up a good point. I did just remember that my blood artists are also vampires, on top of my bloodghasts. I think that two blade of the bloodchiefs will work fine for right now, and I can pick up thoughtseize later when I want to dedicate more funds to this deck.
Since skullclamp is in here now, I will be drawing a lot of extra cards... should I throw in some mana rocks to ensure that I can cast those cards when i draw them, casting more than one?? Perhaps Ashnod's Altar? Maybe a dark ritual spinoff like Culling the Weak? (I know, it isn't a mana rock)... I am just hesitant on instant one-use mana like that because it could give you an early lead, but later in the game it can prove to be useless... except with skullclamp now...
I dunno. Perhaps keeping it the way it is will be the strongest. This is for casual multiplayer, so cards that benefit from sacrifice are extremeley crucial, as the more players there are, the more sacs I can do per turn, which grows everything extremely large.
Done and Done... My playgroup follows vintage format, because it allows for the most variety of cards and gives us a lot of freedom to build decks and just have fun with different cards, but still gives structure. Vintage allows for 1 Sol Ring, so I cut my 1 copy of Blade of the Bloodchief and added 1 Sol Ring... Perfect fit. And that can feed the equip cost twice of my skullclamps so my other mana is open to cast the spells I draw.
I am very glad I added a playset of skullclamp... that card is just far too perfect for this kind of deck, where I want to kill off my own creatures and will have plenty of tokens to do so. It's already an extremely broken card on its own, and in this deck even more so.
Now that I think about it... It's funny how vintage allows a full playset of skullclamp and not sol ring... I guess vintage games are too fast for skullclamp
It's honestly too bad I can't throw a second sol ring in since we use vintage legality. I guess with diabolic intents as tutors and skullclamps for card drawing, it won't be such a big deal to have only one. Next I wanna get a fourth bitterblossom if I can fit it in my budget.
i remember a fond memory of this deck... multiplayer with 5 people. I got bitterblossom out and down turn two, and contamination the next turn, and grave pact the fourth. My friend was playing mono green, and had a few mana dorks out. Well ophiomancer came out, and I had carrion feeder from turn one, so each of those player's turns, i sacced a snake token and cleared the field with Grave pact with 6 sacrifices in one turn when it got back to me. He no longer had mana dorks (neither did anyone else) and was screwed for the rest of the game. I completely ignored him and killed off everyone else, all of whom had some black at least splashed in their decks, but contamination still crippled them and didn't allow half of their cards to be played. My mono green friend was the only one left. I continued to not attack him and just watched him draw a card and discard a card from having too many cards in hand, turn after turn, and for some reason he never scooped. I eventually swung and hit him just to end it, but not after he cycled through 3/4 of his deck. I am a jerk haha. Good times.
So I playtested the deck numerous times, and revised it above to its current, ideal configuration. I was about to cut bloodghast entirely... but with skullclamp in the mix, he started to become the new all-star. I was consistently dropping 3 bloodghasts per game, and thanks to skullclamp, I always had land to reanimate 3 bloodghasts every single turn. It provided incredible sac-food to synergize extremely well with grave pacts and blood artists.
Skullclamp is irreplaceable in this deck. absolutely no less than four copies. Because skullclamp made bloodghast so valuable, I upped his number to 4 copies as well. I found that skullclamp competed for some of my sac fodder (contamination needs it every upkeep, diabolic intent needs some, and I like to sac a lot to carrion feeder and spawning pit, albeit I usually do that on other player's turns via the ophiomancer tokens for MASSIVE gains and on-death triggers)... but because of this, I upped my bitterblossoms to 4. I bit the bullet and bought the extra bitterblossom so I have a full playset. I also threw in 1 Oboro, Palace in the Clouds since I had one laying around, to make sure I could always bring back the bloodghasts.To make room for the additions, I cut 1 mortician beetle, so now I am down to 2, and I cut my Sol Ring (I found that my spells were very heavy black, bloodghast being 2 solid black, some solid black 1 drops like carrion feeder and mortician beetle, grave pact being heavy black) so the colorless mana was limited in its helpfulness in this deck. It was still very helpful, like for equipping skullclamp, but the fourth bitterblossom and bloodghast are far more helpful.
This revised deck is the ideal setup for what I was going for. I have plenty of sac outlets, plenty of sac food, plenty of tutoring and card draw advantage, and plenty of win conditions to fuel it all.
I was consistently able to drop contamination on turn 3 or 4 and keep it permanently, which was devastating, and only reinforced my need for 4 bloodghasts and bitterblossoms, to ensure a turn 2 drop for the combo.
This deck has become devastatingly powerful at the kitchen table. Honestly, it feels like a waste of money since most of the guys won't want to play against it, as I win about 90% of the time.
EDIT:
According to current prices on star city games, this deck is valued at $534... Now I didn't pay quite that much, but I did pay a lot, and ouch... that's quite the price for a casual deck... or at least I think it is.
Oh well, I still absolutely love playing this deck, and that's what really matters.
Ok so here is the latest dilemma... should I add braids, cabal minion to the deck? It would help big time with eliminating mana rocks and dorks that can get around contamination, especially with grave pact... but it does compete with contamination for a required sacrifice... however I do have a lot of sac food... perhaps I sideboard 4 braids and sub contamination in with braids when facing heavy black and artifact decks?
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Here is my deck:
Creatures (18):
Ophiomancer x4
Carrion Feeder x4
Blood Artist x4
Bloodghast x4
mortician beetle x2
Enchantments (12):
Grave Pact x4
Contamination x4
Bitterblossom x4
Sorcery (2):
Diabolic Intent x2
Artifact (4):
Spawning Pit x2
Skullclamp x4
Land (22):
Phyrexian Tower X1
Volrath's Stronghold x1
Urborg x1
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth x1
oboro, palace in the clouds x1
Swamp x17
Sideboard (15):
Attrition x3
Blade of the Bloodchief x2
Tormod's Crypt x2
braids, cabal minion x4
Mind Slash x2
Go for the Throat x2
Ophiomancer has proven to be the all-star of the deck. It keeps Contamination up like nothing else, and provides a deathtoucher each and every upkeep to defend with. And, it gives me a sacrifice each and every turn to pump my Mortician Beetles, Carrion Feeders, Grave Pacts, and Blood Artist. On top of this, even though Ophiomancer only allows for one token to be produced, the other ophiomancers DO STACK when you have an instant sac outlet like carrion feeder, and sac the first token while the others are still on the stack, and then keep sacrifing those tokens as they resolve. Essentially, Having an instant sacrifice option (like carrion feeder) allows for several sacrifices each turn if I have more than one Ophiomancer out due to the intervening "if" clause (and I have had all 4 out at once in a game of four people... That's 4 sacs each player's turn... My carrion feeder got +20 +20 in just ONE turn, and my Mortician beetle got even more from the other player's sacrifices, and the field was completely cleared because I had a gravepact out.) I have also had 3 ophiomancers out and a blood artist at one time. I won the game against 4 people within 2 turns of pulling my second ophiomancer. (I learned that ophiomancer tokens do stack in regard to instant sac outlets right here at the forum, so thanks guys for all your help!)
Carrion Feeder is my second all-star, and with sacrifices such as the rucurring bloodghast, bitterblossom tokens, and each-turn ophiomancer tokens, it grows massive very quickly, and my beetles grow with it and even bigger when a grave pact or two is out, as it grows on enemy sacrifices as well (I have gotten two of my beetles to 55/55 at the same time before)
Contamination really ticks everyone off, and I am usually forced by the other players to sub it out for other cards, but I LOVE getting a new player in our group, and he thinks his white weenie or blue control deck is gonna destroy everyone, and then contamination hits the field and ruins his day... (we have lost players in our group because of this, but it's priceless!) Since I am running monoblack, I am essentially at a disadvantage by limiting myself to only black cards... so What is an extremely advantageous card for strictly mono-black? Contamination! Specifically a sacrifice build around it, since it requires a sacrifice, and I will always have enough food to feed it and then some, and the "drawback" of sacrificeng only helps me out even more by combining with everything else in my deck. A mono-black sacrifice deck really is the true home for contamination, I have come to find.
EDIT: Altar of dementia was replaced with spawning pit. It still allows for a sacrifice each turn at instant speed to take advantage of ophiomancer if I have no carrion feeders, but I feel like this will work better in this deck than altar of dementia (thanks Rezzahan!)
The Grave Pact keeps the board clear when it hits, but The go for Throat helps with specific creatures if the opposing person has tokens to sac. (Only black and colorless can slip through Contamination, unless they have mana dorks, so I will sub Go for the throat with Attrition if they use artifact creatures.)
Bitterblossom is a wonderful token generator, and it produces flying so I can block flyers. Blood artist is not only a potential win condition, but it more than makes up for the life loss of Bitterblossom.
Volrath's Stronghold is a nice little insurance policy if someone kills off a needed ophiomancer or blood artist, and I can't seem to get another one or a diabolic intent to tutor for one. Phyrexian tower is great for a sac outlet and pre-contamination ramp, Urborg is essentially a swamp, with an ability that I have used successfully, although it is rare to use it, but I have successfully used it. Urborg, tomb of yawgmoth is perfect if I have volrath's stronghold or phyrexian tower out with no contamination, as it makes them produce swamp instead of colorless, which can really help.
Diabolic Intent is useful for anything I need... Especially If I need the combo of contamination and an ophiomancer to sustain the contamination, or perhaps I need a blood artist to get life or win the game.
Overall, I find this deck very fun to play with. I really love the look on new player's faces when contamination hits, and I love doing sacrifice combos, and clearing the board of enemy creatures and pumping my own to astronomical levels, while gaining life and zapping my opponent's life. It's a super fun deck!!! I made this deck really only for casual play, for fun at the table with the group, but it has proven to be very strong for me!
What do you guys think?? I just wanted to share my deck with you all, as it took years of play-testing to finely tune it to what it is. I know it won't be winning any legacy tournaments or anything, but it's very strong as a casual deck amongst friends. I am very happy with it and it brings me a lot of joy to play with it, and that's what this game is all about!
EDIT: So I removed my dark rituals and replaced them with skullclamps. This deck is BEGGING for skullclamp, with all those tokens to sac. Dark ritual is limited in this deck as far as usefullness goes. To make it worth it, I really need it on turn 1, and I would need 4 to do that, and even then, I have plenty of 1 drops that I can cast turn 1, and plenty of 2 drops turn two. I honestly feel like skullclamp will be MUCH more beneficial in this deck, as it will always give me card draw and will gurantee lands be drawn. This deck is PERFECT for skullclamp. I sideboarded the dark rituals though, in case my friends make me switch it out, like they do with contamination. The only reason I put 3 in and not 4, is because contamination requires a sacrifice during my upkeep, and I can only sac to skullclamp during my upkeep, so they kind of compete with each other if for some reason I don't have another source of sac food out.
Altar of Dementia really has no place in the deck. You're aiming to win through life loss, so a milling card, even if its impact can be huge, should really be something more suited for your primary goal.
In general, you should increase the number of all your more essential cards to a full playset if possible. So a fourth Blood Artist, another Bloodghast and one more Bitterblossom.
Bloodghast could also be something to cut, but it can certainly contribute to te deck. Even more so with an ensured landfall if you need it. Oboro, Palace in the Clouds may not produce black, but it does grant a guaranteed landfall each turn without loss of mana (it can produce the mana you need to bounce it itself, then just replay it). Two or three copies should be fine, even more so if you add another Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth or two. Legendary is a much less painful drawback for lands now with the new legend rule.
Another token producer to consider is Creakwood Liege. The added power/toughness makes annoying 1/1 tokens into much more serious threats.
Former Rules Advisor
"Everything's better with pirates." - Lodge
(The Gamers: Dorkness Rising)
"Any sufficiently analyzed magic is indistinguishable from science."
(Girl Genius - Fairy Tale Theater Break - Cinderella, end of volume 8)
I am not quite yet convinced on getting rid of altar of dementia. The security and insurance it supplies for my creatures is awesome, but the real advantage it gives is being a cheap instant sac outelet, so I can take advantage of multiple sacrifices on each player's turn. The only other card I have that does that is carrion feeder, and since he is a creature (and one that people want dealt with), is subject to removal more easily than altar, and then I would be missing out on instant sacrifices until I get another carrion. perhaps spawning pit would be a better fit?
I do agree I need to find a way to put in a fourth blood artist. A fourth bittwrblossom is out of the question right now. They are a bit expensive and i have already spent a lot on this deck over the years
Mortician Beetle can probably be cut, since it is just another card that benefits from your sacrifices. Grave Pact and Dictate of Erebos provide a much better benefit, and with all that forced sacrifice you don't need a big creature to hide behind, and you don't need another big beater if the opponent has no means to defend himself against your tokens and already big Carrion Feeders.
Former Rules Advisor
"Everything's better with pirates." - Lodge
(The Gamers: Dorkness Rising)
"Any sufficiently analyzed magic is indistinguishable from science."
(Girl Genius - Fairy Tale Theater Break - Cinderella, end of volume 8)
EDIT: I have found that with decks where contamination is necessary, the Go for throat is kind of a wasted spot, because contamination usually hits early, and blocks the big bad creatures from coming out, and by the time grave pact hits, I have nothing to worry about as it clears the field. On top of this, the deathtouch tokens from ophiomancers does a fantastic job of keeping creature attacks at bay. I am thinking of replacing the two Go for Throat with 2 Blade of the Bloodchief. I feel that with all the instant-speed sacrificing that will be going on, I could throw this on a mortician beetle and double it's growth, which would make it massive in no time at all. Plus being a one drop is a big bonus, with only 1 to equip, and if my beetle gets axed, it sticks around for the next one. And I could bring back a bloodghast with haste, throw it on and sac some other things to grow it with +2 +2 if need be, and attack with haste for the win. Since I risk losing these massive creatures to removal, I only want 2 blade of the bloodchief in this deck.
Then when I face decks with heavy black or colorless, I can sub out Contamination and bring in the go for throat or attrition.
ALSO: As stated above, I put 3 skullclamps in. That card will be beast in this deck... at least I feel it will be.
Thoughts??
Maybe I should cut 1 Spawning Pit and 1 Blade of the Bloodchief and put in 2 Go for the throat??
Perhaps I cut down to 2 skullclamps?? or is 3 a good number?
I dunno. Perhaps keeping it the way it is will be the strongest. This is for casual multiplayer, so cards that benefit from sacrifice are extremeley crucial, as the more players there are, the more sacs I can do per turn, which grows everything extremely large.
I think 1 blade of the bloodchief was a fair trade for 1 sol ring. I sideboarded my two blades.
I am very glad I added a playset of skullclamp... that card is just far too perfect for this kind of deck, where I want to kill off my own creatures and will have plenty of tokens to do so. It's already an extremely broken card on its own, and in this deck even more so.
Now that I think about it... It's funny how vintage allows a full playset of skullclamp and not sol ring... I guess vintage games are too fast for skullclamp
i remember a fond memory of this deck... multiplayer with 5 people. I got bitterblossom out and down turn two, and contamination the next turn, and grave pact the fourth. My friend was playing mono green, and had a few mana dorks out. Well ophiomancer came out, and I had carrion feeder from turn one, so each of those player's turns, i sacced a snake token and cleared the field with Grave pact with 6 sacrifices in one turn when it got back to me. He no longer had mana dorks (neither did anyone else) and was screwed for the rest of the game. I completely ignored him and killed off everyone else, all of whom had some black at least splashed in their decks, but contamination still crippled them and didn't allow half of their cards to be played. My mono green friend was the only one left. I continued to not attack him and just watched him draw a card and discard a card from having too many cards in hand, turn after turn, and for some reason he never scooped. I eventually swung and hit him just to end it, but not after he cycled through 3/4 of his deck. I am a jerk haha. Good times.
Skullclamp is irreplaceable in this deck. absolutely no less than four copies. Because skullclamp made bloodghast so valuable, I upped his number to 4 copies as well. I found that skullclamp competed for some of my sac fodder (contamination needs it every upkeep, diabolic intent needs some, and I like to sac a lot to carrion feeder and spawning pit, albeit I usually do that on other player's turns via the ophiomancer tokens for MASSIVE gains and on-death triggers)... but because of this, I upped my bitterblossoms to 4. I bit the bullet and bought the extra bitterblossom so I have a full playset. I also threw in 1 Oboro, Palace in the Clouds since I had one laying around, to make sure I could always bring back the bloodghasts.To make room for the additions, I cut 1 mortician beetle, so now I am down to 2, and I cut my Sol Ring (I found that my spells were very heavy black, bloodghast being 2 solid black, some solid black 1 drops like carrion feeder and mortician beetle, grave pact being heavy black) so the colorless mana was limited in its helpfulness in this deck. It was still very helpful, like for equipping skullclamp, but the fourth bitterblossom and bloodghast are far more helpful.
This revised deck is the ideal setup for what I was going for. I have plenty of sac outlets, plenty of sac food, plenty of tutoring and card draw advantage, and plenty of win conditions to fuel it all.
I was consistently able to drop contamination on turn 3 or 4 and keep it permanently, which was devastating, and only reinforced my need for 4 bloodghasts and bitterblossoms, to ensure a turn 2 drop for the combo.
This deck has become devastatingly powerful at the kitchen table. Honestly, it feels like a waste of money since most of the guys won't want to play against it, as I win about 90% of the time.
A lot of these cards are incredibly expensive. Luckily, I got a playset of bloodghast back when he was $6 each, Phyrexian tower when it was $15, Volrath's Stronghold when it was $20, diabolic intent when it was $6, yadda yadda.
EDIT:
According to current prices on star city games, this deck is valued at $534... Now I didn't pay quite that much, but I did pay a lot, and ouch... that's quite the price for a casual deck... or at least I think it is.
Oh well, I still absolutely love playing this deck, and that's what really matters.