Another Necrotic Ooze deck! Trying to shy away from the typical Phyrexian Devourer + Triskelion combo. Trying to keep it to Golgari colors. And no infinite combos please :).
Was wondering if I should exclude certain spells or creatures for additional card draw such as Griselbrand or Arcanis the Omnipotent (who would work well with Pili-Pala).
You know that Pili Pala only untaps himself, right? He doesn't work with Godsire the way you think he does. It would have to be something like Kiora's Follower.
You know that Pili Pala only untaps himself, right? He doesn't work with Godsire the way you think he does. It would have to be something like Kiora's Follower.
You do know that if they are both in the graveyard and the ooze is in play that he can make an 8/8, untap the ooze for two mana (producing a mana), and then tap it for another 8/8, and then untap it for one mana plus the mana produced, and rinse and repeat until he runs out of mana, right?
That is why it is under the ooze interactions.
[Love the TMNT reference.]
I recommend upping the Fauna Shaman count to four. They can be discarded to each other if needed (making the ooze one if it is in play), so they aren't truly "dead" and they find your signature card while tossing creatures in the yard to make him interesting. It makes the toolbox work smoothly. Cut the Scholar for one. The Shaman does discard better and you can add your Pilla-pala for untap. Cut both Gnaw to the Bone for the other Shaman and the Pill-Pala.
Finally, Bloodline Keeper seems unnecessary. That is what Oona is for. If nothing else, I look at it as a toolbox creature and you can go to one.
Addendum: I like the Thornling and Magus of Disk interaction, but, again, I think you can go to one Thornling. You also probably won't need that many Buried Alive as you have plenty of "draw and discard." You would enjoy one and two would be suboptimal. So, I would cut to two, for sure.
More thoughts an hour later!
Putrid Ooze should be cut. You either want to be dropping Shaman or Grisly Salvage turn two. [A thought, the elves don't really ramp into a turn 3 play. They could be something else, even a different form of ramp.] Anyway, depending on your meta you might go to the full four Avatar of Woe to give yourself something besides just the Ooze as a haymaker. Which leads me to point out that something like Tortured Existence or Phyrexian Reclamation will probably be necessary to get back dead oozes. Also, keeping yourself from dying with something like Stinkweed Imp might be good (and give you turn two play off the elves). Finally, Kiki Jiki, the Mirror Breaker allows you to create copies, which might be fun, especially with Pili-Pala.
You know that Pili Pala only untaps himself, right? He doesn't work with Godsire the way you think he does. It would have to be something like Kiora's Follower.
You do know that if they are both in the graveyard and the ooze is in play that he can make an 8/8, untap the ooze for two mana (producing a mana), and then tap it for another 8/8, and then untap it for one mana plus the mana produced, and rinse and repeat until he runs out of mana, right?
That is why it is under the ooze interactions.
For whatever reason it didn't register that he was referring to using the ooze to activate them from the GY. Yes, obviously that works.
Added a couple Tortured Existence for recursion and some more toolbox creatures for more interactions.
Anddddd since I cannot think of any deck ideas for the colors of red/black, I decided to make another list with the same theme. I haven't tested it yet, but it might seem a little slow. Maybe add a couple Wall of Razors, Vampire Nighthawk or 2 more Firestorm to get people off my back.
Not sure about the Guildmage because it needs a lot of mana. The rest of the cards already proved their worth.
Of course Tariel isn't that great but I had fun animating three critters in a turn...
Post scriptum: in some versions you pay a lot of life but hardly gain any. Seems risky.
Hello everyone. I'm trying to revise this deck to be a Rakdos Ooze deck. I still want it to be able to play a game of magic for whatever reason my Ooze keeps getting targeted, exiled, whatever.
I've pondered other ideas too. I'm thinking the early game may be slightly weak. I was thinking maybe some early game defense like Will-O'-the-Wisp and then later pump them up with Gigantomancer. Dredge could be an option too with early game blockers like Golgari Thug and Stinkweed Imp and later on use Balthor the Defiled for some mass regeneration. Animate Dead is anooooother option with an early game stomp with Sire of Insanity, Ooze, etc.
Alesha is significantly weaker than Grenzo so I would flip those numbers if anything. I don't think that the deck needs 3x Spikeshot Elder so I would probably start by shaving those and then working towards do-nothing blockers such as Nighthawk.
Looking at updating some of my decks. This is one of them. I went back to Golgari colors for this deck. It's still an ooze deck, but not so many toolbox creatures this time and more of a kind of good-stuff re-animator deck with Survival of the Fittest in here. I'm still not looking to go infinitie, so Necrotic Ooze+ Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord + Phyrexian Devourer seems to be the next best thing. I'm debating about the mana dorks, but they help enable quicker SOTF activations, provide some chump blocks, and turn 3 oozes. I'm open to suggestions. I haven't played it a lot, but the deck seems pretty solid now.
I don't understand your Necrotic Ooze argument. Phyrexian Devourer, by definition, can only lead to finite combos. Decks will always have a finite quantity of cards and thus the Ooze combo can only ever deal a finite quantity of damage. In that sense I don't understand why you would opt for a Jarad kill over a simpler Triskelion kill given that they both meet your requirement. Just play 4x Survival 4x Buried Alive 10x Revival spells kill the table on turn 4 switch decks and call it a day. Besides, it's not like the table is going to laud your Jarad OTK as being something fun/interactive/novel/etc. They won't care if it's technically a finite combo. And, if they would, why wouldn't the same logic apply to the Triskelion combo kill given that it's objectively finite as well? This isn't even a gray area, you literally cannot argue that the Nooze + Devourer + Trisk kill is an infinite combo. Try employing it to kill someone who went off with a Melira, Sylvok Outcast "infinite" life combo and see what happens.
@ Prid3: fair enough. Let's just say I were to omit the Phyrexian Devourer on certain occasions. Maybe just a single Avatar of Woe and call it a day? I still have an alternate win con with Jarad + LOE. I use to have Wall of Blood in here. That can be a somewhat fair pump spell.
@ Prid3: fair enough. Let's just say I were to omit the Phyrexian Devourer on certain occasions. Maybe just a single Avatar of Woe and call it a day? I still have an alternate win con with Jarad + LOE. I use to have Wall of Blood in here. That can be a somewhat fair pump spell.
The deck desperately needs access to a card like Phyrexian Delver. It's by far and away the most glaring omission. I'm also a huge fan of having silver-bullets like Faerie Macabre that you can tutor for and use at instant-speed to blow people out. Then again maybe your meta doesn't have any GY-based decks, I have no idea, but in general I like having access to those types of effects.
I don't understand the 4x Stinkweed Imp and 1x Golgari-Grave Troll. How often are you enacting the Dredge plan? What do those cards do when you don't draw a Survival? Like, the biggest "weakness" of your current deck (as far as I can tell, obviously I have no experience with it) is that it's extremely anemic in every game in which fail to draw/defend a Survival which seems a bit sketchy to me. Is the plan turn 1 Elf, turn 2 Imp and kinda hope to get there? Seems iffy to me.
Have you thought about cutting Imps and Grave-Trolls for more Buried Alives and more Exhumes/Dance of the Deads/Necromancys or whatever? That way you can still play magic even when you fail to draw a Survival by playing Griselbrand Reanimator. Even if you just have the one that's totally fine because as long as you draw 7-14 cards that should dig you into a Survival at the very least.
Oh, one more thing! If you have a Sidisi, Undead Vizier she can turn all of your Dance of the Deads/Animate Deads/etc. into Demonic Tutors, which, again, is relevant when you don't have a Survival draw. You still really want Phyrexian Delver because that card is bonkers when you do have a Survival in play so if possible I'd like to see one of each.
Any reason why the Phyrexian Delver? Is it because it's a Reanimate that comes with a body? What about losing 8 life if you use it on a card like Griselbrand though?
Sometimes we'll have some unearth cards in the graveyard or some other little durdles, but nothing really of importance. I can always try a 1-of and see how it fairs for Faerie Macabre.
Stinkweed Imp and the Golgari Grave-Troll are there for blockers and fill the grave effects when I have drawn Lord of Extinction or Jarad. The troll lets me repeatably fling him every turn if need be.
I can try and test using the full playset of Buried Alive and reanimator cards. Is something like 10x a fair amount? I do have a Junk reanimator deck that uses Animate Dead, Sun Titan, Vessel of Nascency, and other derps so I was trying not to do another copy of the same deck in BG colors.
The main reason I added SOTF was to just pitch cards to help fuel Ooze as a discard outlet along with Lotleth Troll. There's also Fauna Shaman, but I decided to go with SOTF instead. I tried to think of other stuff to use with the Ooze deck, with such other outlets as Tortured Existence. Then I got to thinking while typing too, what about a BG madness deck with the Ooze? Could be a thing also with Shriekmaw, Arrogant Wurm, Golgari Grave-Troll, and other dudes.
And I'm not understanding the Sidisi, Undead Vizier interaction. Is it because you can reanimate it for 1B and then sac itself in the process to dig out a card? That's pretty sweet if that's the case.
Any reason why the Phyrexian Delver? Is it because it's a Reanimate that comes with a body? What about losing 8 life if you use it on a card like Griselbrand though?
Because it let's you play Reanimator with nothing but Survival of the Fittest in play. Let's pretend that you need your Massacre Wurm, how do you actually gain access to it with your current deck? Pray that you have an Animate Dead kicking around? No, you need to play Phyrexian Delver so that Survival becomes the all-in-one toolbox that enables you play any of the creatures from your deck at any time. Trust me, you can't appreciate just how powerful this interaction can feel until you actually play with it. Being able to tutor up a Reanimate for a single Green mana is utterly absurd because you can literally pick any threat in your deck and cheat it out with nothing but a Survival. It's such an important aspect to this archetype.
And I'm not understanding the Sidisi, Undead Vizier interaction. Is it because you can reanimate it for 1B and then sac itself in the process to dig out a card? That's pretty sweet if that's the case.
Exactly. This is why you should almost always play Sidisi in these Survival Reanimator decks with 4x Animate Dead and 4x Dance of the Dead. Playing with 8x Demonic Tutor is a huge game and all-but ensures that you always have access to a Survival.
Or in a shell like this, does Ooze even need to be in here? That could free up a few more slots to work with some other stuff...
Right now the Nooze combo is forcing you to play things like Thornling and Magus of the Disk and while I like that combo well enough the problem is that it kills all of your other crap which seems pretty bad. I could easily see this deck moving away from Nooze in order to free up some deck slots and options. What it boils down to, for me, is that you won't win the game by assembling Nooze + Thornling + Magus because at some point someone will be able to thwart your combo. Maybe I'm wrong, I don't know your meta, but I would rather keep my Survival around if at all possible.
Cut: 1x land, 1x Exsanguinate, 2x Wall of Blossoms, 1x Deathreap Ritual, 1x Disciple of Bolas, 1x Fauna Shaman and 1x Grave Titan,
Add: 4x Carpet of Flowers, 4x Elvish Mystic or any other combo of 1 CMC dorks for that matter. Like Burgeoning is down to 3 bucks or something silly, is that on the table at all?
Oh, don't bother with the KWR package. You're going to lose more games to mana screw than you'll win by gaining access to that effect. I wouldn't mind the Red splash if this were an Orcish Lumberjack deck but it's obviously not so.
EDIT: If you want a lifegain spell play something like Thragtusk or Gray Merchant of Asphodel if possible. You want it to be A) a creature and B) not something that forces you to sacrifice a fatty. Also, remember that Animate Dead effects are actually pretty dece in Gary decks because you obviously get the extra drain from the Black symbols. Even in a 4 player FFA Gary drains for 6-9 depending on how you recur him and that's assuming that you don't have a Griselbrand in play.
The only real question I have is am I able to close games out with this package? I added Exsanguinate as a bomb finisher with the Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth + Cabal Coffers combo. I mean the most obvious choice is Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord + Lord of Extinction. What if someone has graveyard wipe though? Then I'm kind of screwed. Do I pray to have my fatties lead the way to victory, or should I add some emergency cards like Craterhoof Behemoth for example to make all my mana dorks bigger threats in the later game?
@Thijs1301: Some decent suggestions. Cutting the Ooze allows for more slots for other stuff, but I'm not sure about that either. Oona, Queen of the Fae maybe better than Jade Mage though if it isn't being hard casted.
So I was thinking more about the deck, and what about adding white and just re-doing my junk deck to incorporate this stuff in it? Adding Sun Titan to get back your tutors is pretty busted too.
I've decided to keep the deck strictly BG as it is fun the way it is. Is there another win condition to add to this deck? I'm thinking maybe Craterhoof Behemoth and shaving another land. Obviously turn 3 Griselbrand or Sylvan Primordial is nothing to scoff at either though.
4 Elves of Deep Shadow
2 Putrid Leech
2 Fauna Shaman
3 Splinterfright
1 Nyx Weaver
4 Necrotic Ooze
2 Bloodline Keeper
2 Thornling
1 Oona, Queen of the Fae
2 Avatar of Woe
1 Civilized Scholar
1 Gigantomancer
1 Jodah's Avenger
1 Jorubai Murk Lurker
1 Magus of the Disk
1 Sturdy Hatchling
1 Wall of Blood
Spells:
4 Grisly Salvage
2 Gnaw to the Bone
4 Buried Alive
6 Forest
4 Swamp
4 Temple of Malady
4 Woodland Cemetery
2 Golgari Rot Farm
I wanted the deck to be able to perform outside of the Ooze if something were to happen. Some fun interactions with the Oooze though:
-Jodah's Avenger + Jorubai Murk Lurker + Wall of Blood creates an un-blockable, pump-able, life gaining machine!
-Magus of the Disk + Thornling = destroy everything!
-Smaller creatures early on and tokens from Oona, Queen of the Fae allow Gigantomancer to make a huge force!
-Civilized Scholar and Sturdy Hatchling allow great utility for the Ooze!
-Another cool interaction I thought about adding is Pili-Pala and Godsire for a bunch of 8/8's for 2
Was wondering if I should exclude certain spells or creatures for additional card draw such as Griselbrand or Arcanis the Omnipotent (who would work well with Pili-Pala).
Possible other fun cards to consider?
-Kessig Cagebreakers
-Spider Spawning
-Ghoultree
-Putrid Imp/Lotleth Troll as another discard outlet
-Hex Parasite (Planeswalkers)
-Animate Dead
-Twisted Abomination and Elvish Aberration for land fixing and their 2nd abilities.
My Powered 630 card Vintage Multiplayer Cube
cEDH: WUBR Blue Farm WUBR, UG Kinnan Flips UG, U Urza Scepter U
You do know that if they are both in the graveyard and the ooze is in play that he can make an 8/8, untap the ooze for two mana (producing a mana), and then tap it for another 8/8, and then untap it for one mana plus the mana produced, and rinse and repeat until he runs out of mana, right?
That is why it is under the ooze interactions.
[Love the TMNT reference.]
I recommend upping the Fauna Shaman count to four. They can be discarded to each other if needed (making the ooze one if it is in play), so they aren't truly "dead" and they find your signature card while tossing creatures in the yard to make him interesting. It makes the toolbox work smoothly. Cut the Scholar for one. The Shaman does discard better and you can add your Pilla-pala for untap. Cut both Gnaw to the Bone for the other Shaman and the Pill-Pala.
Finally, Bloodline Keeper seems unnecessary. That is what Oona is for. If nothing else, I look at it as a toolbox creature and you can go to one.
Addendum: I like the Thornling and Magus of Disk interaction, but, again, I think you can go to one Thornling. You also probably won't need that many Buried Alive as you have plenty of "draw and discard." You would enjoy one and two would be suboptimal. So, I would cut to two, for sure.
More thoughts an hour later!
Putrid Ooze should be cut. You either want to be dropping Shaman or Grisly Salvage turn two. [A thought, the elves don't really ramp into a turn 3 play. They could be something else, even a different form of ramp.] Anyway, depending on your meta you might go to the full four Avatar of Woe to give yourself something besides just the Ooze as a haymaker. Which leads me to point out that something like Tortured Existence or Phyrexian Reclamation will probably be necessary to get back dead oozes. Also, keeping yourself from dying with something like Stinkweed Imp might be good (and give you turn two play off the elves). Finally, Kiki Jiki, the Mirror Breaker allows you to create copies, which might be fun, especially with Pili-Pala.
For whatever reason it didn't register that he was referring to using the ooze to activate them from the GY. Yes, obviously that works.
My Powered 630 card Vintage Multiplayer Cube
cEDH: WUBR Blue Farm WUBR, UG Kinnan Flips UG, U Urza Scepter U
4 Elves of Deep Shadow
4 Fauna Shaman
3 Splinterfright
1 Nyx Weaver
4 Necrotic Ooze
1 Thornling
2 Oona, Queen of the Fae
3 Avatar of Woe
1 Civilized Scholar
1 Gigantomancer
1 Jodah's Avenger
1 Jorubai Murk Lurker
1 Magus of the Disk
1 Sturdy Hatchling
1 Wall of Blood
1 Pili-Pala
1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
1 Myr Propagator
4 Grisly Salvage
2 Tortured Existence
2 Buried Alive
Lands:
6 Forest
4 Swamp
4 Temple of Malady
4 Woodland Cemetery
2 Golgari Rot Farm
Added a couple Tortured Existence for recursion and some more toolbox creatures for more interactions.
Anddddd since I cannot think of any deck ideas for the colors of red/black, I decided to make another list with the same theme. I haven't tested it yet, but it might seem a little slow. Maybe add a couple Wall of Razors, Vampire Nighthawk or 2 more Firestorm to get people off my back.
2 Rakdos Pit Dragon
4 Necrotic Ooze
4 Demigod of Revenge
2 Twisted Abomination
1 Oona, Queen of the Fae
2 Avatar of Woe
Toolbox Creatures:
1 Anger
1 Magus of the Disk
1 Civilized Scholar
1 Gigantomancer
1 Jodah's Avenger
1 Wall of Blood
1 Jorubai Murk Lurker
1 SpikeShot Elder
1 Myr Propagator
1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
1 Vector Asp
0 Pestilent Souleater
1 Pili-Pala
1 Arcanis the Omnipotent
4 Faithless Looting
2 Firestorm
2 Tortured Existence
4 Buried Alive
Lands:
4 Dragonskull Summit
4 Temple of Malice
2 Rakdos Carnarium
6 Swamp
4 Mountain
A new fun interaction is to pump Necrotic Ooze up with Wall of Blood, give it infect via Vector Asp/Pestilent Souleater and Spikeshot Elder everyone to death.
Even more cool cards!
-Shauku, Endbringer - permanent exile!
-Infernal Denizen - creature steal!
-Minion of Leshrac - kill creatures or Urzatron!
-Cinderhaze Wretch - discard those pesky fogs!
So many options to pick and choose from, lol.
Great fun. Also runs Rings of Brighthearth...
Note: you only run 20 land. In my experience 24 does the trick, less is iffy!
Other cards I run:
Not sure about the Guildmage because it needs a lot of mana. The rest of the cards already proved their worth.
Of course Tariel isn't that great but I had fun animating three critters in a turn...
Post scriptum: in some versions you pay a lot of life but hardly gain any. Seems risky.
My meta: 3 or 4 player free for all, anything goes but boring games or broken decks cause a vote to end that game.
Core Creatures (20)
3 Spikeshot Elder
1 Pack Rat
4 Vampire Nighthawk
4 Necrotic Ooze
1 Olivia Voldaren
4 Demigod of Revenge
2 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
1 Sire of Insanity
1 Magus of the Disk
1 Jorubai Murk Lurker
1 Wall of Blood
1 Jodah's Avenger
1 Twisted Abomination
1 Gigantomancer
Spells (10)
2 Faithless Looting
1 Tortured Existence
1 Oversold Cemetery
2 Buried Alive
2 Bonehoard
2 Syphon MInd
24 Lands
So the deck can win in some different ways:
Spikeshot Elder or Vampire Nighthawk + a huge Bonehoard
Necrotic Ooze + Wall of Blood + Jorubai Murk Lurker + Jodah's Avenger
Necrotic Ooze + Bonehoard + Spikeshot Elder in the yard
Necrotic Ooze + Magus of the Disk + Twisted Abomination - repeatable wrath
Necrotic Ooze + Gigantomancer on all my weenies
Olivia Voldaren - enough said
Demigod of Revenge + Buried Alive combo
Gray Merchant of Asphodel - enough said, especially with 4 Demigods out
I've pondered other ideas too. I'm thinking the early game may be slightly weak. I was thinking maybe some early game defense like Will-O'-the-Wisp and then later pump them up with Gigantomancer. Dredge could be an option too with early game blockers like Golgari Thug and Stinkweed Imp and later on use Balthor the Defiled for some mass regeneration. Animate Dead is anooooother option with an early game stomp with Sire of Insanity, Ooze, etc.
All suggestions are greatly appreciated!
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
Alesha is significantly weaker than Grenzo so I would flip those numbers if anything. I don't think that the deck needs 3x Spikeshot Elder so I would probably start by shaving those and then working towards do-nothing blockers such as Nighthawk.
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
Creatures (26)
4x Elvish Mystic
2x Lotleth Troll
1x Scavenging Ooze
1x Eternal Witness
1x Squee, Goblin Nabob
4x Stinkweed Imp
1x Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
1x Magus of the Disk
4x Necrotic Ooze
1x Golgari Grave-Troll
1x Lord of Extinction
1x Thornling
1x Massacre Wurm
1x Phyrexian Devourer
1x Sylvan Primordial
1x Griselbrand
1x Sol Ring
4x Animate Dead
4x Survival of the Fittest
2x Buried Alive
1x Deathreap Ritual
Lands (22)
5x Forest
2x Golgari Rot Farm
1x Rogue's Passage
6x Swamp
4x Temple of Malady
4x Woodland Cemetery
I don't understand your Necrotic Ooze argument. Phyrexian Devourer, by definition, can only lead to finite combos. Decks will always have a finite quantity of cards and thus the Ooze combo can only ever deal a finite quantity of damage. In that sense I don't understand why you would opt for a Jarad kill over a simpler Triskelion kill given that they both meet your requirement. Just play 4x Survival 4x Buried Alive 10x Revival spells kill the table on turn 4 switch decks and call it a day. Besides, it's not like the table is going to laud your Jarad OTK as being something fun/interactive/novel/etc. They won't care if it's technically a finite combo. And, if they would, why wouldn't the same logic apply to the Triskelion combo kill given that it's objectively finite as well? This isn't even a gray area, you literally cannot argue that the Nooze + Devourer + Trisk kill is an infinite combo. Try employing it to kill someone who went off with a Melira, Sylvok Outcast "infinite" life combo and see what happens.
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
The deck desperately needs access to a card like Phyrexian Delver. It's by far and away the most glaring omission. I'm also a huge fan of having silver-bullets like Faerie Macabre that you can tutor for and use at instant-speed to blow people out. Then again maybe your meta doesn't have any GY-based decks, I have no idea, but in general I like having access to those types of effects.
I don't understand the 4x Stinkweed Imp and 1x Golgari-Grave Troll. How often are you enacting the Dredge plan? What do those cards do when you don't draw a Survival? Like, the biggest "weakness" of your current deck (as far as I can tell, obviously I have no experience with it) is that it's extremely anemic in every game in which fail to draw/defend a Survival which seems a bit sketchy to me. Is the plan turn 1 Elf, turn 2 Imp and kinda hope to get there? Seems iffy to me.
Have you thought about cutting Imps and Grave-Trolls for more Buried Alives and more Exhumes/Dance of the Deads/Necromancys or whatever? That way you can still play magic even when you fail to draw a Survival by playing Griselbrand Reanimator. Even if you just have the one that's totally fine because as long as you draw 7-14 cards that should dig you into a Survival at the very least.
Oh, one more thing! If you have a Sidisi, Undead Vizier she can turn all of your Dance of the Deads/Animate Deads/etc. into Demonic Tutors, which, again, is relevant when you don't have a Survival draw. You still really want Phyrexian Delver because that card is bonkers when you do have a Survival in play so if possible I'd like to see one of each.
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
Sometimes we'll have some unearth cards in the graveyard or some other little durdles, but nothing really of importance. I can always try a 1-of and see how it fairs for Faerie Macabre.
Stinkweed Imp and the Golgari Grave-Troll are there for blockers and fill the grave effects when I have drawn Lord of Extinction or Jarad. The troll lets me repeatably fling him every turn if need be.
I can try and test using the full playset of Buried Alive and reanimator cards. Is something like 10x a fair amount? I do have a Junk reanimator deck that uses Animate Dead, Sun Titan, Vessel of Nascency, and other derps so I was trying not to do another copy of the same deck in BG colors.
The main reason I added SOTF was to just pitch cards to help fuel Ooze as a discard outlet along with Lotleth Troll. There's also Fauna Shaman, but I decided to go with SOTF instead. I tried to think of other stuff to use with the Ooze deck, with such other outlets as Tortured Existence. Then I got to thinking while typing too, what about a BG madness deck with the Ooze? Could be a thing also with Shriekmaw, Arrogant Wurm, Golgari Grave-Troll, and other dudes.
And I'm not understanding the Sidisi, Undead Vizier interaction. Is it because you can reanimate it for 1B and then sac itself in the process to dig out a card? That's pretty sweet if that's the case.
Does something like this make sense then?
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Fauna Shaman
1 Eternal Witness
1 Faerie Macabre
1 Squee, Goblin Nabob
2 Necrotic Ooze
1 Magus of the Disk
1 Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
1 Lord of Extinction
1 Sidisi, Undead Vizier
1 Thornling
1 Phyrexian Delver
1 Massacre Wurm
1 Sylvan Primordial
1 Griselbrand
2 Avatar of Woe
1 Sol Ring
4 Animate Dead
4 Dance of the Dead
4 Survival of The Fittest
2 Necromancy
4 Buried Alive
1 Deathreap Ritual
Lands (23)
23 Lands
Or in a shell like this, does Ooze even need to be in here? That could free up a few more slots to work with some other stuff...
Because it let's you play Reanimator with nothing but Survival of the Fittest in play. Let's pretend that you need your Massacre Wurm, how do you actually gain access to it with your current deck? Pray that you have an Animate Dead kicking around? No, you need to play Phyrexian Delver so that Survival becomes the all-in-one toolbox that enables you play any of the creatures from your deck at any time. Trust me, you can't appreciate just how powerful this interaction can feel until you actually play with it. Being able to tutor up a Reanimate for a single Green mana is utterly absurd because you can literally pick any threat in your deck and cheat it out with nothing but a Survival. It's such an important aspect to this archetype.
I was thinking 8 since you'll always have Survival of the Fittest to tutor up Phyrexian Delver which makes it closer to 12 in practice.
Exactly. This is why you should almost always play Sidisi in these Survival Reanimator decks with 4x Animate Dead and 4x Dance of the Dead. Playing with 8x Demonic Tutor is a huge game and all-but ensures that you always have access to a Survival.
Right now the Nooze combo is forcing you to play things like Thornling and Magus of the Disk and while I like that combo well enough the problem is that it kills all of your other crap which seems pretty bad. I could easily see this deck moving away from Nooze in order to free up some deck slots and options. What it boils down to, for me, is that you won't win the game by assembling Nooze + Thornling + Magus because at some point someone will be able to thwart your combo. Maybe I'm wrong, I don't know your meta, but I would rather keep my Survival around if at all possible.
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 Fauna Shaman
1x Scavenging Ooze
2x Wall of Blossoms
1x Eternal Witness
1x Faerie Macabre
1x Squee, Goblin Nabob
1x Disciple of Bolas
1x Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
1x Sidisi, Undead Vizier
1x Lord of Extinction
1x Phyrexian Delver
1x Grave Titan
1x Massacre Wurm
1x Primeval Titan
1x Sepulchral Primordial
1x Sylvan Primordial
1x Griselbrand
1x Sol Ring
1x Exsanguinate
4x Animate Dead
4x Dance of the Dead
4x Survival of the Fittest
4x Buried Alive
1x Deathreap Ritual
Lands (23)
1x Cabal Coffers
6x Forest
1x Kessig Wolf Run
1x Mountain
5x Swamp
4x Temple of Malady
1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4x Woodland Cemetery
Should I exempt the Wall of Blossoms for some more fat? I have an unused Mikaeus, the Unhallowed, he could be good here.
What I would personally do is:
Cut: 1x land, 1x Exsanguinate, 2x Wall of Blossoms, 1x Deathreap Ritual, 1x Disciple of Bolas, 1x Fauna Shaman and 1x Grave Titan,
Add: 4x Carpet of Flowers, 4x Elvish Mystic or any other combo of 1 CMC dorks for that matter. Like Burgeoning is down to 3 bucks or something silly, is that on the table at all?
Oh, don't bother with the KWR package. You're going to lose more games to mana screw than you'll win by gaining access to that effect. I wouldn't mind the Red splash if this were an Orcish Lumberjack deck but it's obviously not so.
EDIT: If you want a lifegain spell play something like Thragtusk or Gray Merchant of Asphodel if possible. You want it to be A) a creature and B) not something that forces you to sacrifice a fatty. Also, remember that Animate Dead effects are actually pretty dece in Gary decks because you obviously get the extra drain from the Black symbols. Even in a 4 player FFA Gary drains for 6-9 depending on how you recur him and that's assuming that you don't have a Griselbrand in play.
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
Burgeoning is in another deck I have thats simic colors and runs all the fun bouncelands, Summer Bloom, Windfall, Mystic Remora and Mind's Dilation. There's not a lot of blue players in my meta, so unfortunately Carpet of Flowers is out. Maybe that will change if people keep making more and more decks. I decided to go with 4 Elvish Mystic and 4 Birds of Paradise.
I also decided to omit Faerie Macabre and add Gray Merchant of Asphodel since there are more burn decks in our meta than anything with graveyard recursion.
The only real question I have is am I able to close games out with this package? I added Exsanguinate as a bomb finisher with the Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth + Cabal Coffers combo. I mean the most obvious choice is Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord + Lord of Extinction. What if someone has graveyard wipe though? Then I'm kind of screwed. Do I pray to have my fatties lead the way to victory, or should I add some emergency cards like Craterhoof Behemoth for example to make all my mana dorks bigger threats in the later game?
Creatures (18)
4x Birds of Paradise
4x Elvish Mystic
1x Scavenging Ooze
1x Eternal Witness
1x Squee, Goblin Nabob
1x Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
1x Gray Merchant of Asphodel
1x Lord of Extinction
1x Phyrexian Delver
1x Sidisi, Undead Vizier
1x Massacre Wurm
1x Primeval Titan
1x Sepulchral Primordial
1x Sylvan Primordial
1x Griselbrand
1x Sol Ring
4x Animate Dead
4x Dance of the Dead
4x Survival of the Fittest
4x Buried Alive
Lands (22)
7x Forest
2x Golgari Rot Farm
5x Swamp
4x Temple of Malady
4x Woodland Cemetery
I wanted to suggest
- Jade Mage
- Coffin Queen
and maybe other stuff. But you removed the Oozes, now they might not cut it...My meta: 3 or 4 player free for all, anything goes but boring games or broken decks cause a vote to end that game.
So I was thinking more about the deck, and what about adding white and just re-doing my junk deck to incorporate this stuff in it? Adding Sun Titan to get back your tutors is pretty busted too.
Creatures (24)
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Satyr Wayfinder
1 Eternal Witness
1 Flickerwisp
1 Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
1 Mindslicer
1 Siege Rhino
1 Thragtusk
1 Lord of Extinction
1 Sidisi, Undead Vizier
1 Kokusho, the Evening Star
1 Angel of Serenity
1 Sylvan Primordial
1 Griselbrand
1 Ashen Rider
1 Sol Ring
1 Blade of Selves
4 Animate Dead
4 Survival of the Fittest
4 Recurring Nightmare
Lands (22)
4 Evolving Wilds
4 Sandsteppe Citadel
4 Exotic Orchard
1 Vault of the Archangel
4 Forest
3 Swamp
2 Plains
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