Hey folks, I've been toying with this same Zulaport Cutthroat + Kalastria Healer combo as a way to get the board coming and going. Looking ahead to Oath of the Gatewatch I've envisioned a deck about like this for our 5 player FFA:
Now I know there's not a good sac outlet, but with Blade of Selves the ETB effects are going to proc with any attack and if/when someone opts to kill said creature token the death effects from Zulaport Cutthroat will help to spread some player damage regardless.
I've really thought about attaching Blade of Selves to Relief Captain for the counters making Kor Bladewhirl a little more viable in mid/late game antics while also getting a proc from Kalastria Healer and Cliffhaven Vampire for each Ally. The thought would be to work the board evenly to keep the myriad effect maximized.
I'd also considered splashing R, and even then not necessarily in land base as the only thought to add there IMO was Chasm Guide and playing him through Ally Encampment to follow through a turn after a Rally the Ancestors.
Prid3, what would the decklist be like if the Black Devotion version of the deck has no budget restriction?
Depends entirely on the format. I typically build decks that are Legacy legal and I try to make them budget-minded and while I don't think there's any one "perfect build" I'd need to know the actual format that the persona cared about to make an attempt at doing so.
Prid3, what would the decklist be like if the Black Devotion version of the deck has no budget restriction?
Depends entirely on the format. I typically build decks that are Legacy legal and I try to make them budget-minded and while I don't think there's any one "perfect build" I'd need to know the actual format that the persona cared about to make an attempt at doing so.
Although knowing me I'd sneak a Buried Alive in there for good measure. I'd also definitely have some Mindslicers lying about just in case I wanted something with more "oomph" at the 4 CMC slot to replace Smothering Abomination. The land count might be a tad greedy but I generally expect games to run fairly long and if I'm not running a whack of card draw then flooding is a serious concern. Even then it's hard to hammer out a "perfect" deck because you can only hate so many things but there's definitely arguments to be made for cards like Leyline of the Void and disruption such as Smallpox. The current list is fairly weak to combo in that it would basically roll over and die to someone Grim Monolithing out a Hive Mind or whatever.
Although knowing me I'd sneak a Buried Alive in there for good measure. I'd also definitely have some Mindslicers lying about just in case I wanted something with more "oomph" at the 4 CMC slot to replace Smothering Abomination. The land count might be a tad greedy but I generally expect games to run fairly long and if I'm not running a whack of card draw then flooding is a serious concern. Even then it's hard to hammer out a "perfect" deck because you can only hate so many things but there's definitely arguments to be made for cards like Leyline of the Void and disruption such as Smallpox. The current list is fairly weak to combo in that it would basically roll over and die to someone Grim Monolithing out a Hive Mind or whatever.
Ah if only Skullclamp wasn't banned in Legacy, it would be way too insane to not include.
Although knowing me I'd sneak a Buried Alive in there for good measure. I'd also definitely have some Mindslicers lying about just in case I wanted something with more "oomph" at the 4 CMC slot to replace Smothering Abomination. The land count might be a tad greedy but I generally expect games to run fairly long and if I'm not running a whack of card draw then flooding is a serious concern. Even then it's hard to hammer out a "perfect" deck because you can only hate so many things but there's definitely arguments to be made for cards like Leyline of the Void and disruption such as Smallpox. The current list is fairly weak to combo in that it would basically roll over and die to someone Grim Monolithing out a Hive Mind or whatever.
Ah if only Skullclamp wasn't banned in Legacy, it would be way too insane to not include.
Hey, don't let me tell you what you can or can't play in the comfort of your own home. I try to build decks that will be relevant to the largest number of players in general but by no means am I trying to impose those constraints on people who don't follow them.
The only thing I'm really concerned with is the consistency. In Testing, I often feel I'm lacking a sac outlet or I run out of steam due to the lack of card draw. I'm wondering if Door of Destines should be Syphon Mind and Remembrance should be another sac outlet such as Attrition.
The only thing I'm really concerned with is the consistency. In Testing, I often feel I'm lacking a sac outlet or I run out of steam due to the lack of card draw. I'm wondering if Door of Destines should be Syphon Mind and Remembrance should be another sac outlet such as Attrition.
Personally I don't think that the deck needs more than 4 sac outlets. You never need more than 1 in play and you don't need it early on either. Most of these decks also field a lot of card draw and revival so finding more and/or recurring them is rarely an issue. I've legit played this style of deck over 50 times (although some were mostly goldfish games) and while I agree that some % of the time it doesn't come together as a whole I felt that 4 was the correct number of sac outlets. You could obviously field a few more if you wanted but I mean sac outlets don't really do anything unless you're "going off" with card draw/revival/etc. and in general they're part of 3ish card combos that you don't assemble early on.
I find that you have roughly 12 slots to dedicate to revival + card draw. Currently you have that in Grims, Clamp, Servitudes and Returns. If you want to add more card draw I would personally shave some of the revival and the Remembrance for Syphon Minds.
This is my rough draft so far. I didn't want to go super stax and like to fly under the radar. I'm thinking about cards like Diabolic Intent for tutoring or even Dark Ritual for temporary acceleration even though I don't run something like Phyrexian Arena for accelerating to.
This is my rough draft so far. I didn't want to go super stax and like to fly under the radar. I'm thinking about cards like Diabolic Intent for tutoring or even Dark Ritual for temporary acceleration even though I don't run something like Phyrexian Arena for accelerating to.
Why Entomb? Is that just for Ghasts? It's not like you're trying to reanimated a fatty on T2 or anything... I think 1 or 2 Buried Alive may be cute... but I'm not sure Entomb is worth it in here...
Why Entomb? Is that just for Ghasts? It's not like you're trying to reanimated a fatty on T2 or anything... I think 1 or 2 Buried Alive may be cute... but I'm not sure Entomb is worth it in here...
Assuming that he's mulliganing hyper-aggressively for Skullclamp then Entomb makes a fair amount of sense. He could easily drop to ~4-5 cards cards as long as it has a Clamp + recursive threat and still not be overly concerned about his lost card advantage. I'm somewhat inclined to agree with you that 4x Entomb is a touch suspect when your deck isn't on Nether Spirit + Contamination or Life from the Loam or something similar but Clamp is an extremely stupid card and if his plan is to mull hands that don't include one (which is very reasonable) then they make a lot more sense.
Hm yeah, if I wasn't using Life from the Loam or a re-animator shell to abuse the Entomb, then yeah you're right. I just put them because I had them laying around. This is my new list so far.
Looks like we have a new contender with spoiled Pious Evangel / Wayward Disciple. This is a huge treat for my already assembled ZC 'Humans Matter' deck. Now I can functionally add BA to it as well and not lose my synergy!
Sure the effect is costly and requires a tap, but in a budget deck it looks promising.
Looks like we have a new contender with spoiled Pious Evangel / Wayward Disciple. This is a huge treat for my already assembled ZC 'Humans Matter' deck. Now I can functionally add BA to it as well and not lose my synergy!
Sure the effect is costly and requires a tap, but in a budget deck it looks promising.
The flipped mode only affects "target opponent" and not "each opponent" which makes the card unplayable. Even if it didn't I don't even play the 4 manaBlood Artist let alone a 5 mana + conditional version.
I am curious about this deck but as of now, I don't have many of the cards as playsets that would be required..
I was wondering, is there any way to build a somewhat budget version of this deck?
Can't afford playsets of Bloodghasts & Bitterblossoms & Entombs right now, would there be a way to replace those without losing too much power?
Do you mind going a little more in detail on how that last deck works and its strong plays Mr. Prid3? How fast does it typically win for you? Also, I'm not sure I fully understand the rules between the interaction of living death and those cards.
Do you mind going a little more in detail on how that last deck works and its strong plays Mr. Prid3? How fast does it typically win for you? Also, I'm not sure I fully understand the rules between the interaction of living death and those cards.
Sure. I'll also use general terms because these kinds of decks are infinitely malleable and you can build them any number of different ways. Zulaport Cutthroat decks, at their core, are creature-based combo decks that pair mass card draw with mass revival in order to exsanguinate their adversaries. By combining cheap threat with Zulaport Cutthroats and free sac outlets (such as Viscera Seer) you can frequently drain the entire table for 20+ damage in a single turn (or across multiple, there's no wrong way to skin the cat).
All of your builds should start with 4 draw spells and 4 revival spells. Draw spells are important because you need a critical mass of warm bodies and Zulaport Cutthroats to actually win the game so until you're able to assemble them you can't exactly do much. As to which draw spell you elect to field the answer is "it doesn't matter as long as it's competitive." Mystic Remora, Skullclamp, Survival of the Fittest, Rhystic Study, Trade Secrets, Syphon Mind, Collected Company all you need is something relatively cheap that will dig you into more action. Moreover, it's important to remember that you're not overly concerned about casting everything that you draw so it's completely fine if your draw spells have a self-mill aspect to them. Trade Secrets is the perfect example of an ideal draw spell for this archetype for many reasons. First of all the base card is a draw 4 for 3 and having the worst/weakest player drawing cards is usually irrelevant when you're playing a combo deck. Moreover, the card has the upside that people can "make a mistake" and draw more than 2 cards off of it. If they draw 4, 6, 8, 20, 40, whatever you get to dig deep into your deck for Living Deaths (and Cavern of Souls/Boseiju, Who Shelters All if needed), fill your GY with random garbage and recur it all back to win the game on the spot. After all, if you're able to recur 5-6 copies of Zulaport Cutthroat/Kalastria Healer simultaneously and then sac them all to Viscera Seer you can easily do well over 20 damage to each opponent in a single turn. In case is isn't clear this is also why mass recursion is essential. Again, it can be anything from Rally the Ancestors to Wake the Dead to Return to the Ranks to Living Death or anything really as long as it brings everything back at once. This is important because it's extremely difficult to "nickle and dime" people out the fair way and if your plan is to simply amass creatures normally then you'll virtually never get the job done. People play removal, apply pressure, enact their own gameplans, etc. and so you need to be actively trying to nuke them all down as soon as possible. Mass card draw + mass revival is the fastest, most consistent way to go about this which is why all of my decks play 4 of each.
Otherwise you need 4 free sac outlets such as Viscera Seer so that when you cast mass revival you can immediately convert it to a game win. Otherwise you run the risk of losing to removal, other combos, various interactions, etc. Viscera Seer is my personal go-to since it digs into your draw + revival spells which are basically the only things that you care about. Lands and non-Zulaport Cutthroat creatures don't matter so skip over them as much as possible. Now, you might be asking "why not Bloodthrone Vampire" or some other beater? In my personal experience it's too difficult to actually connect with these types of threats and even when you do, so what? You kill one player at best. That doesn't win games. What does win games is finding your key draw/revival spells so that you can simultaneously nuke the table down. I don't think that you want fewer than 4 sac outlets but running any more than that can get clunky since they have very little inherent value outside of their combo applications. Digging for draw/revival is "fine" but unspectacular. You almost need to draw the first in order to win however which is why I don't run 2-3. Oh, and yes, it has to be a free sac outlet. Flesh Carver et al. are not reasonable substitutes. Again, your goal is to cast Living Death and to win the game immediately and unless you plan on assembling 15 mana it's free or bust when it comes to sac outlets.
Next you might be wondering "why cards like Halimar Excavator and Magus of the Bazaar?" Again, the key thing to remember here is that cards in GY are just as good as cards in hand when your plan involves Living Death (or any form of mass recursion). The Excavator is a fantastic self-mill engine that can easily fill your GY with relevant goodies to ensure that when you do slam a revival spell that it ends the game on the spot. Magus of the Bazaar is similar and it's important to remember that none of your spells matter other than Trade Secrets (i.e. your draw spells) and Living Death (your revival suite). "Draw 2 discard 3" is usually a terrible rate but pitching creatures/lands is irrelevant and as long as you keep your draw + revival you'll easily win. Otherwise filling your GY with critters is actively awesome when your plan involves Living Death so "draw 2 discard 3" isn't nearly as bad as it would otherwise be. In a sense you basically break-even because every creature that you bin is actually better than drawing it because it saves you time and mana. You only care about Living Deathing it all back into play at some point down the road and the sooner that you can reach that stage the better.
Fleshbag Marauder isn't a core component of the deck but long story short I think that it's the most competitive creature-based removal spell in Black. It's cheap, powerful interaction that's relevant at every stage of the game. Frantic Search is another way to dig for your draw/revival spells while binning creatures but, again, it's not an essential component by any means. You could play just about anything in that slot, even more creatures.
With respect to "key interactions to be made aware of" here's some things that come to mind. When a card like Living Death is cast "everything sees everything come into play." That is, every Kalastria Healer sees itself and every other Ally. You recur 7 Allies total? That's 7 triggers per Healer. Along those lines when it comes to Zulaport Cutthroat (or Blood Artist or Falkenrath Noble or whatever) every copy sees every creature dying when Living Death is cast. Let's pretend that you have 2x Zulaport Cutthroat and 3x other creatures in play when you resolve Living Death. What happens? The answer is that your opponents are drained for 10 each because each ZC sees itself and 4 other creatures dying. Note that this works against any form of mass removal so if an opponent plays a Wrath of God or whatever, again, each creature sees each other creature die. Unfortunately this makes this style of deck relatively complex and while I've used some basic examples the math can actually get extremely confusing. This is especially true because of Viscera Seer. In addition to the drain that comes from the death/revival of your threats the most important aspect of your combo is that post-Living Death you want to sacrifice everything to a Viscera Seer in order to trigger your Zulaport Cutthroats as much possible. The basic sac order is excess Viscera Seers -> generic threats -> Kalastria Healers -> Zulaport Cutthroats and the main thing to remember is that you need to sac your ZCs last to maximize your damage output. If your combo doesn't kill the first time remember that random creatures/lands are worthless so use your Scrys to put either a draw spell or another Living Death on top whenever possible. If you don't find either, that's fine, you've probably dug 6-7 cards closer to finding one which is way better than drawing a dorky threat.
Halimar Excavator should almost always target yourself. The only time that I use it to mill others is if someone gained a lot (sometimes infinite) life and I need to mill them out in order to win. Note that Halimar Excavator works really well with Living Death because, again, everything sees everything. Let's pretend that you revive 7 Allies total, 2 of which are Excavators. What happens? Well, each Excavator triggers 7 times (14 times total) for 7 cards. That's 98 cards that you get to mill. That will almost always be enough to mill at least 2 players out and will always be enough to mill one the one guy who gained 500 life.
I asked you for a piece of pie and you gave me free cake for a year! Thanks. It really clears things up for me. It's a really well thought out deck I love it, Cheap to buy too. I'm definitly going to make something very similar in the future! Im thinking my version will swap out skullclamps for 3 trade secrets, simply because I have a lot of skullclamp decks already, and ill remove the fleshbag marauders and magus of the bazaar for one necropotence, two syphon mind, two foil, three dark ritual and a demonic tutor or something.
Im thinking my version will swap out skullclamps for 3 trade secrets, simply because I have a lot of skullclamp decks already, and ill remove the fleshbag marauders and magus of the bazaar for one necropotence, two syphon mind, two foil, three dark ritual and a demonic tutor or something.
For the record this is a really crappy Dark Ritual deck. What are you going to ramp out with it? None of your "combo cards" do anything until you gather a critical mass of threats and while cheating out a draw spell is "fine" it's far too inconsistent. DR basically offers nothing to your combo given that it's not a creature and that even if you "cheat" on Living Death's manacost you're still going to have to wait until turn 5-6 to actually extract meaningful value from it.
Oh, and if anyone tries to convince you that Necropotence is bad because of the exile clause feel free to ignore them. It's irrelevant.
4x Kalastria Healer
2x Kor Bladewhirl
4x Serene Steward
4x Zulaport Cutthroat
4x Drana's Emissary
3x Drana, Liberator of Malakir
2x Cliffhaven Vampire
2x Relief Captain
2x Hero of Goma Fada
1x Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
Instants (7)
4x Altar's Reap
3x Rally the Ancestors
Artifact (4)
4x Blade of Selves
Land (21)
4x Ally Encampment
2x Isolated Chapel
1x Mortuary Mire
5x Plains
4x Scoured Barrens
5x Swamp
Now I know there's not a good sac outlet, but with Blade of Selves the ETB effects are going to proc with any attack and if/when someone opts to kill said creature token the death effects from Zulaport Cutthroat will help to spread some player damage regardless.
I've really thought about attaching Blade of Selves to Relief Captain for the counters making Kor Bladewhirl a little more viable in mid/late game antics while also getting a proc from Kalastria Healer and Cliffhaven Vampire for each Ally. The thought would be to work the board evenly to keep the myriad effect maximized.
I'd also considered splashing R, and even then not necessarily in land base as the only thought to add there IMO was Chasm Guide and playing him through Ally Encampment to follow through a turn after a Rally the Ancestors.
2 Blistergrub
2 Carrier Thrall
2 Dross Hopper
4 Grim Haruspex
4 Kalastria Healer
4 Pawn of Ulamog
2 Smothering Abomination
4 Viscera Seer
4 Zulaport Cutthroat
2 Shadows of the Past
3 Wake the Dead
3 Immortal Servitude
Should I go for 4 copies of Carrier Thrall and forget about Blistergrub?
Otherwise, I am wondering if I should have stronger creatures? My only large threat is Smothering Abomination...
They are too expensive, otherwise they would already be included.
Depends entirely on the format. I typically build decks that are Legacy legal and I try to make them budget-minded and while I don't think there's any one "perfect build" I'd need to know the actual format that the persona cared about to make an attempt at doing so.
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
Then I suppose using Legacy banlist then.
4x Polluted Delta
4x Bloodstained Mire
2x Marsh Flats
13x Swamp
1x Volrath's Stronghold
Creatures (20)
4x Viscera Seer
4x Zulaport Cutthroat
3x Bloodghast
3x Ophiomancer
2x Smothering Abomination
4x Gray Merchant of Asphodel
4x Dark Ritual
2x Bitterblossom
1x Umezawa's Jitte
2x Phyrexian Arena
2x Contamination
1x The Abyss
2x Grave Pact
2x Living Death
Although knowing me I'd sneak a Buried Alive in there for good measure. I'd also definitely have some Mindslicers lying about just in case I wanted something with more "oomph" at the 4 CMC slot to replace Smothering Abomination. The land count might be a tad greedy but I generally expect games to run fairly long and if I'm not running a whack of card draw then flooding is a serious concern. Even then it's hard to hammer out a "perfect" deck because you can only hate so many things but there's definitely arguments to be made for cards like Leyline of the Void and disruption such as Smallpox. The current list is fairly weak to combo in that it would basically roll over and die to someone Grim Monolithing out a Hive Mind or whatever.
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
Ah if only Skullclamp wasn't banned in Legacy, it would be way too insane to not include.
Hey, don't let me tell you what you can or can't play in the comfort of your own home. I try to build decks that will be relevant to the largest number of players in general but by no means am I trying to impose those constraints on people who don't follow them.
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
4 Zulaport Cutthroat
4 Blood Artist
4 Cartel Aristocrat
4 Syndic of Tithes
2 Knight of the White Orchid
2 Skirsdag High Priest
2 Xathrid Necromancer
3 Grim Haruspex
1 Skullclamp
4 Return to the Ranks
2 Door of Destinies
1 Remembrance
4 Immortal Servitude
Lands (23)
4 Isolated Chapel
4 Temple of Silence
2 Orzhov Basilica
1 Godless Shrine
7 Plains
5 Swamp
The only thing I'm really concerned with is the consistency. In Testing, I often feel I'm lacking a sac outlet or I run out of steam due to the lack of card draw. I'm wondering if Door of Destines should be Syphon Mind and Remembrance should be another sac outlet such as Attrition.
Personally I don't think that the deck needs more than 4 sac outlets. You never need more than 1 in play and you don't need it early on either. Most of these decks also field a lot of card draw and revival so finding more and/or recurring them is rarely an issue. I've legit played this style of deck over 50 times (although some were mostly goldfish games) and while I agree that some % of the time it doesn't come together as a whole I felt that 4 was the correct number of sac outlets. You could obviously field a few more if you wanted but I mean sac outlets don't really do anything unless you're "going off" with card draw/revival/etc. and in general they're part of 3ish card combos that you don't assemble early on.
I find that you have roughly 12 slots to dedicate to revival + card draw. Currently you have that in Grims, Clamp, Servitudes and Returns. If you want to add more card draw I would personally shave some of the revival and the Remembrance for Syphon Minds.
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
4x Polluted Delta
4x Bloodstained Mire
3x Marsh Flats
13x Swamp
18 Creatures
4x Viscera Seer
4x Zulaport Cutthroat
4x Gray Merchant of Asphodel
4x Bloodghast
3x Grim Haruspex
3x Bitterblossom
4x Entomb
3x Living Death
4x Skullclamp
2x Grave Pact
1x Umezawa's Jitte
This is my rough draft so far. I didn't want to go super stax and like to fly under the radar. I'm thinking about cards like Diabolic Intent for tutoring or even Dark Ritual for temporary acceleration even though I don't run something like Phyrexian Arena for accelerating to.
Why Entomb? Is that just for Ghasts? It's not like you're trying to reanimated a fatty on T2 or anything... I think 1 or 2 Buried Alive may be cute... but I'm not sure Entomb is worth it in here...
My Powered 630 card Vintage Multiplayer Cube
cEDH: WUBR Blue Farm WUBR, UG Kinnan Flips UG, U Urza Scepter U
Assuming that he's mulliganing hyper-aggressively for Skullclamp then Entomb makes a fair amount of sense. He could easily drop to ~4-5 cards cards as long as it has a Clamp + recursive threat and still not be overly concerned about his lost card advantage. I'm somewhat inclined to agree with you that 4x Entomb is a touch suspect when your deck isn't on Nether Spirit + Contamination or Life from the Loam or something similar but Clamp is an extremely stupid card and if his plan is to mull hands that don't include one (which is very reasonable) then they make a lot more sense.
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
4x Polluted Delta
4x Bloodstained Mire
3x Marsh Flats
13x Swamp
21 Creatures
4x Viscera Seer
4x Zulaport Cutthroat
4x Gray Merchant of Asphodel
4x Bloodghast
3x Grim Haruspex
2x Ophiomancer
3x Bitterblossom
3x Living Death
4x Skullclamp
2x Grave Pact
1x Buried Alive
1x Diabolic Intent
1x Umezawa's Jitte
Hm yeah, if I wasn't using Life from the Loam or a re-animator shell to abuse the Entomb, then yeah you're right. I just put them because I had them laying around. This is my new list so far.
Sure the effect is costly and requires a tap, but in a budget deck it looks promising.
The flipped mode only affects "target opponent" and not "each opponent" which makes the card unplayable. Even if it didn't I don't even play the 4 mana Blood Artist let alone a 5 mana + conditional version.
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
4x Polluted Delta
4x Bloodstained Mire
3x Marsh Flats
3x Overgrown Tomb
10x Swamp
4x Viscera Seer
4x Zulaport Cutthroat
4x Gray Merchant of Asphodel
4x Bloodghast
3x Grim Haruspex
3x Bitterblossom
4x Entomb
3x Living Death
4x Skullclamp
2x Grave Pact
1x Life from the Loam
This is what I came up with so far. Not much changed but decided to add a singleton Loam to have more entomb targets.
This is what I've been playing recently:
10x Swamp
4x Watery Grave
4x Drowned Catacomb
4x Tainted Isle
2x Island
4x Viscera Seer
4x Magus of the Bazaar
4x Halimar Excavator
4x Zulaport Cutthroat
4x Kalastria Healer
4x Fleshbag Marauder
4x Skullclamp
4x Frantic Search
4x Living Death
You might want to try something like it if you're looking for a budget-minded combo build.
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
Trade Secrets probably although the mana wouldn't be great.
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
Sure. I'll also use general terms because these kinds of decks are infinitely malleable and you can build them any number of different ways. Zulaport Cutthroat decks, at their core, are creature-based combo decks that pair mass card draw with mass revival in order to exsanguinate their adversaries. By combining cheap threat with Zulaport Cutthroats and free sac outlets (such as Viscera Seer) you can frequently drain the entire table for 20+ damage in a single turn (or across multiple, there's no wrong way to skin the cat).
All of your builds should start with 4 draw spells and 4 revival spells. Draw spells are important because you need a critical mass of warm bodies and Zulaport Cutthroats to actually win the game so until you're able to assemble them you can't exactly do much. As to which draw spell you elect to field the answer is "it doesn't matter as long as it's competitive." Mystic Remora, Skullclamp, Survival of the Fittest, Rhystic Study, Trade Secrets, Syphon Mind, Collected Company all you need is something relatively cheap that will dig you into more action. Moreover, it's important to remember that you're not overly concerned about casting everything that you draw so it's completely fine if your draw spells have a self-mill aspect to them. Trade Secrets is the perfect example of an ideal draw spell for this archetype for many reasons. First of all the base card is a draw 4 for 3 and having the worst/weakest player drawing cards is usually irrelevant when you're playing a combo deck. Moreover, the card has the upside that people can "make a mistake" and draw more than 2 cards off of it. If they draw 4, 6, 8, 20, 40, whatever you get to dig deep into your deck for Living Deaths (and Cavern of Souls/Boseiju, Who Shelters All if needed), fill your GY with random garbage and recur it all back to win the game on the spot. After all, if you're able to recur 5-6 copies of Zulaport Cutthroat/Kalastria Healer simultaneously and then sac them all to Viscera Seer you can easily do well over 20 damage to each opponent in a single turn. In case is isn't clear this is also why mass recursion is essential. Again, it can be anything from Rally the Ancestors to Wake the Dead to Return to the Ranks to Living Death or anything really as long as it brings everything back at once. This is important because it's extremely difficult to "nickle and dime" people out the fair way and if your plan is to simply amass creatures normally then you'll virtually never get the job done. People play removal, apply pressure, enact their own gameplans, etc. and so you need to be actively trying to nuke them all down as soon as possible. Mass card draw + mass revival is the fastest, most consistent way to go about this which is why all of my decks play 4 of each.
Otherwise you need 4 free sac outlets such as Viscera Seer so that when you cast mass revival you can immediately convert it to a game win. Otherwise you run the risk of losing to removal, other combos, various interactions, etc. Viscera Seer is my personal go-to since it digs into your draw + revival spells which are basically the only things that you care about. Lands and non-Zulaport Cutthroat creatures don't matter so skip over them as much as possible. Now, you might be asking "why not Bloodthrone Vampire" or some other beater? In my personal experience it's too difficult to actually connect with these types of threats and even when you do, so what? You kill one player at best. That doesn't win games. What does win games is finding your key draw/revival spells so that you can simultaneously nuke the table down. I don't think that you want fewer than 4 sac outlets but running any more than that can get clunky since they have very little inherent value outside of their combo applications. Digging for draw/revival is "fine" but unspectacular. You almost need to draw the first in order to win however which is why I don't run 2-3. Oh, and yes, it has to be a free sac outlet. Flesh Carver et al. are not reasonable substitutes. Again, your goal is to cast Living Death and to win the game immediately and unless you plan on assembling 15 mana it's free or bust when it comes to sac outlets.
Next you might be wondering "why cards like Halimar Excavator and Magus of the Bazaar?" Again, the key thing to remember here is that cards in GY are just as good as cards in hand when your plan involves Living Death (or any form of mass recursion). The Excavator is a fantastic self-mill engine that can easily fill your GY with relevant goodies to ensure that when you do slam a revival spell that it ends the game on the spot. Magus of the Bazaar is similar and it's important to remember that none of your spells matter other than Trade Secrets (i.e. your draw spells) and Living Death (your revival suite). "Draw 2 discard 3" is usually a terrible rate but pitching creatures/lands is irrelevant and as long as you keep your draw + revival you'll easily win. Otherwise filling your GY with critters is actively awesome when your plan involves Living Death so "draw 2 discard 3" isn't nearly as bad as it would otherwise be. In a sense you basically break-even because every creature that you bin is actually better than drawing it because it saves you time and mana. You only care about Living Deathing it all back into play at some point down the road and the sooner that you can reach that stage the better.
Fleshbag Marauder isn't a core component of the deck but long story short I think that it's the most competitive creature-based removal spell in Black. It's cheap, powerful interaction that's relevant at every stage of the game. Frantic Search is another way to dig for your draw/revival spells while binning creatures but, again, it's not an essential component by any means. You could play just about anything in that slot, even more creatures.
With respect to "key interactions to be made aware of" here's some things that come to mind. When a card like Living Death is cast "everything sees everything come into play." That is, every Kalastria Healer sees itself and every other Ally. You recur 7 Allies total? That's 7 triggers per Healer. Along those lines when it comes to Zulaport Cutthroat (or Blood Artist or Falkenrath Noble or whatever) every copy sees every creature dying when Living Death is cast. Let's pretend that you have 2x Zulaport Cutthroat and 3x other creatures in play when you resolve Living Death. What happens? The answer is that your opponents are drained for 10 each because each ZC sees itself and 4 other creatures dying. Note that this works against any form of mass removal so if an opponent plays a Wrath of God or whatever, again, each creature sees each other creature die. Unfortunately this makes this style of deck relatively complex and while I've used some basic examples the math can actually get extremely confusing. This is especially true because of Viscera Seer. In addition to the drain that comes from the death/revival of your threats the most important aspect of your combo is that post-Living Death you want to sacrifice everything to a Viscera Seer in order to trigger your Zulaport Cutthroats as much possible. The basic sac order is excess Viscera Seers -> generic threats -> Kalastria Healers -> Zulaport Cutthroats and the main thing to remember is that you need to sac your ZCs last to maximize your damage output. If your combo doesn't kill the first time remember that random creatures/lands are worthless so use your Scrys to put either a draw spell or another Living Death on top whenever possible. If you don't find either, that's fine, you've probably dug 6-7 cards closer to finding one which is way better than drawing a dorky threat.
Halimar Excavator should almost always target yourself. The only time that I use it to mill others is if someone gained a lot (sometimes infinite) life and I need to mill them out in order to win. Note that Halimar Excavator works really well with Living Death because, again, everything sees everything. Let's pretend that you revive 7 Allies total, 2 of which are Excavators. What happens? Well, each Excavator triggers 7 times (14 times total) for 7 cards. That's 98 cards that you get to mill. That will almost always be enough to mill at least 2 players out and will always be enough to mill one the one guy who gained 500 life.
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'm a sucker for discussing decks and strategies that I enjoy.
For the record this is a really crappy Dark Ritual deck. What are you going to ramp out with it? None of your "combo cards" do anything until you gather a critical mass of threats and while cheating out a draw spell is "fine" it's far too inconsistent. DR basically offers nothing to your combo given that it's not a creature and that even if you "cheat" on Living Death's manacost you're still going to have to wait until turn 5-6 to actually extract meaningful value from it.
Oh, and if anyone tries to convince you that Necropotence is bad because of the exile clause feel free to ignore them. It's irrelevant.
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