Hey Everyone, I wanted some advice on a black sac. deck I put together. I'm trying to keep it budget friendly and casual, so any card you got works ;).
So the idea is simple really. Get people sacrificing(including me) to ramp up my creatures. All the while destroying my opponents tough creatures with kill cards. Undying Evil to keep my creatures from getting sacked permanently and Unhallowed Pact for when I want one of my opponents creatures right before I destroy it or make them sac it. Cards that I am not quite sure I can fit in are Thoughtpicker Witch,Geth's Verdict,and Tribute to Hunger.Now I am aware I only have 20 Swamps but I figured this is a very low costing deck but if you think otherwise let me know. Thanks for taking a look and thanks for any advice you can give!
Dash Hopes is a bad imitation of a counterspell, it never does what you want it to do at the time you play it. If you want counterspells, play blue. And if you don't want to play blue, just abandon the counterspell approach. You don't need counterspells to have a good deck.
Cards like Dictate of Erebos and Grave Pact can easily break the synergy of your "each player sacrifices" effects, especially in multiples. They also allow you to capitalize more on sacrifice costs like the Carrion Feeder. Sifter of Skulls and Pawn of Ulamog create more creatures to sac each time Reassembling Skeleton dies, and those creature tokens come with a built in sacrifice ability.
You also really only have 8 creatures to win the game with at the moment. That's like having about two or three per game that the opponent has to deal with, an easy enough task for them, since those creatures also don't have any build in protective abilities, and you may end up sacrificing them to your own effects.
With a total of 12 creatures in the deck, you will find that Bone Splinters will get stuck in your hand quite often due to you not having any creature to sactrifice to it.
Undying Evil doesn't work with the 8 primary attack creatures of the deck, because they accumulate +1/+1 counters, which shut down undying. And even when undying works, you're still spending a card to get a creature. Better to use creatures with inherrent undying or similar abilities, like Butcher Ghoul, Sultai Emissary, Carrier Thrall, etc. Many of those are zombies, so you get additional value out of Ghoulcaller's Chant, because you can use the second mode. Nameless Inversion is a tried and tested combination with the card, too (it's a zombie card due to changeling), so you can get a lot of removal with just a few cards, opening space for other stuff.
I think, you should add in a few more lands. Midrangey and controllish decks like yours cannot really afford to dabble at two lands for too long, they need to get to 4+ mana reliably.
I totally didn't even think my creature already having the +1/+1 counters on them, rendering Undying useless. I'm still really new to Magic so I don't know that many cards from the top of my head. I also was thinking my creature count was pretty low. I appreciate the advice. So here is my new revised deck.
So I'm thinking if I add Dictate of Erebos I really don't need my sacrifice spells as much, especially when it forces me to sacrifice one as well. But, I could take out Unhallowed Pact and put either Innocent Blood or Barter in Blood back in. Unhallowed Pact is really there for fun, just to mess with my friends.
I'd favor Grave Pact over the Dictate, the flash ability isn't that significant on the card to warrant the additional mana. The Dictate mainly allows you to play more than 4 copies of the same effect if you so wish. Without a tutor for those cards, you probably need about 6 of them to reliably get one or two per game (and keep them on the field). Or you could run some tutors, something universal like Diabolic Tutor, or more specific like Dimir House Guard, which can grab a Pact and act as a sac outlet in one card, plus it has fear and can regenerate.
Keep your deck to 60 cards, you don't have to run a full four of each of your spells. If Unhallowed Pact is in there as a fun card, 2-3 copies should suffice.
Another permanent and "free" sacrifice outlet might be nessesary. I'd try a few copies of Spawning Pit, since it also gives you more creatures to sacrifice.
With a full set of Ghoulcaller's Chant, I really want you to add a full set of Nameless Inversion. I use that interaction in one of my decks, so I know how awesome it is. Give it a try.
If you want to steal your opponent's dead creatures, Rise from the Grave or even better Beacon of Unrest can grab them long after they died.
The reason I decided to go with Dictate was because I already have one on hand and Pact is 10$ a card. I'll add Nameless Inversion and drop Unhallowed Pact to the sideboard. In keeping Dictate I could add Brainspoil for getting Dictate out faster. But it's only purpose would be to get that one out. Not as versatile as Dimir/Pact combo. What would you suggest I drop in order to add another free sac?
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4 Mortician Beetle
4 Reassembling Skeleton
4 Innocent Blood
4 Dash Hopes (Not quite sure if this fits with the theme)
4 Go for the Throat
4 Bone Splinters
4 Ghoulcaller's Chant
4 Barter in Blood
2 Undying Evil (Thinking of adding 2 more and dropping Dash Hopes)
4 Unhallowed Pact
20 Swamp
So the idea is simple really. Get people sacrificing(including me) to ramp up my creatures. All the while destroying my opponents tough creatures with kill cards. Undying Evil to keep my creatures from getting sacked permanently and Unhallowed Pact for when I want one of my opponents creatures right before I destroy it or make them sac it. Cards that I am not quite sure I can fit in are Thoughtpicker Witch,Geth's Verdict,and Tribute to Hunger.Now I am aware I only have 20 Swamps but I figured this is a very low costing deck but if you think otherwise let me know. Thanks for taking a look and thanks for any advice you can give!
Cards like Dictate of Erebos and Grave Pact can easily break the synergy of your "each player sacrifices" effects, especially in multiples. They also allow you to capitalize more on sacrifice costs like the Carrion Feeder. Sifter of Skulls and Pawn of Ulamog create more creatures to sac each time Reassembling Skeleton dies, and those creature tokens come with a built in sacrifice ability.
You also really only have 8 creatures to win the game with at the moment. That's like having about two or three per game that the opponent has to deal with, an easy enough task for them, since those creatures also don't have any build in protective abilities, and you may end up sacrificing them to your own effects.
With a total of 12 creatures in the deck, you will find that Bone Splinters will get stuck in your hand quite often due to you not having any creature to sactrifice to it.
Undying Evil doesn't work with the 8 primary attack creatures of the deck, because they accumulate +1/+1 counters, which shut down undying. And even when undying works, you're still spending a card to get a creature. Better to use creatures with inherrent undying or similar abilities, like Butcher Ghoul, Sultai Emissary, Carrier Thrall, etc. Many of those are zombies, so you get additional value out of Ghoulcaller's Chant, because you can use the second mode. Nameless Inversion is a tried and tested combination with the card, too (it's a zombie card due to changeling), so you can get a lot of removal with just a few cards, opening space for other stuff.
I think, you should add in a few more lands. Midrangey and controllish decks like yours cannot really afford to dabble at two lands for too long, they need to get to 4+ mana reliably.
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)
4 Mortician Beetle
4 Reassembling Skeleton
4 Butcher Ghoul
4 Pawn of Ulamog
4 Go for the Throat
4 Bone Splinters
4 Ghoulcaller's Chant
4 Dictate of Erebos
4 Unhallowed Pact
22 Swamp
So I'm thinking if I add Dictate of Erebos I really don't need my sacrifice spells as much, especially when it forces me to sacrifice one as well. But, I could take out Unhallowed Pact and put either Innocent Blood or Barter in Blood back in. Unhallowed Pact is really there for fun, just to mess with my friends.
Keep your deck to 60 cards, you don't have to run a full four of each of your spells. If Unhallowed Pact is in there as a fun card, 2-3 copies should suffice.
Another permanent and "free" sacrifice outlet might be nessesary. I'd try a few copies of Spawning Pit, since it also gives you more creatures to sacrifice.
With a full set of Ghoulcaller's Chant, I really want you to add a full set of Nameless Inversion. I use that interaction in one of my decks, so I know how awesome it is. Give it a try.
If you want to steal your opponent's dead creatures, Rise from the Grave or even better Beacon of Unrest can grab them long after they died.
Archfiend of Depravity could help keep your opponent's creature development in check.
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)