MTG Salvation

I'm building this deck for my girlfriend who wants to start playing EDH with us. She's a good player, but I still want to give her a deck that leans on the proactive side so that she doesn't feel like she's just waiting around not doing anything.

She loves Black, so we went through every possible Black Legendary and she liked Liliana, Heretical Healer the best.

What I'm trying to do with this deck is have a decent discard theme, a good amount of removal, and lots of good, small-to-mid-sized creatures for her to beat face with. All this is accompanied by a few game-enders, of course. The small creatures are good for flipping Liliana and using her -X ability.

Discarding the bigger creatures in the early game shouldn't be a big deal, as there is a bit of reanimation going on, but I'm not quite sure how much is not enough.

I really like the Madness cards here. Should there be more? What would you take out?

I feel like 32 creatures still might not be enough. Should I add more? What kind of stuff should I have? Keep in mind I want it to be somewhat proactive, especially since there will be plenty of discarding anyways.

I've been trying to include Multiplayer-friendly discard spells as much as possible. The best combo I discovered was Words of Waste and Geth's Grimoire.

Buried Alive or Entomb? I own both.

Should I include single-target discard like Hymn to Tourach? How about Sinkhole?

Any comments or ideas would be really appreciated.

Here's the list:

If you have a Volrath's Stronghold then I would use it. I also love cards like Haunted Crossroads and Phyrexian Reclamation for repeatable recursion. They can also go a long way by allowing you to put Liliana in your Graveyard and bring her back without paying the tax.

Thanks for the advice!

I've been trying to get my hands on a Stronghold for such a long time and haven't yet been able to find one. I'll definitely add Phyrexian Reclamation. Thank you!

I'm taking out Necropotence, as I overlooked the fact that cards entering my graveyard are exiled. Can't have that!

Living Death, Cabal Coffers, animate dead, and contamination are all super solid cards for black. It seems with the current list that finding a consistent way to close out the game might be difficult. Maybe, consider Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon as a finisher. An excellent target for entomb and animation spells since it can give itself haste.

Thanks! I'll make room for Skythiryx and Animate Dead somewhere. Do I really need to get a Coffers, considering how low the curve is in this deck?

For now, I'm going with -1 Liliana of the Dark Realms (too many Lilianas can cause a problem for our commander), -1 Blood Artist (only targets single players), -1 Swamp and -1 Ensnaring Bridge (totally prevents even me from winning, unfortunately), +1 Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon, +1 Filth, +1 Sol Ring (how could I forget?), +1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth.

Filth + tomb makes all my creatures unblockable, so that seems pretty decent.

I think the answer is no, you don't have to run coffers. I think it gives you a sort of plan b win con with exsanguinate which does have the added benefit of affecting all opponents but isn't incredibly necessary. Consider running lashwrithe, perhaps. It does a lot of work in a black deck and make Skittles lethal as soon as it hits the board as long as you have the one black to give it haste and 4 life to spare.

I think if you do not run cabal coffers then you should really think about crypt ghast or even if you do. It's a decent target for Lilly and reanimation if it dies and allows you to double your mana. I'd remove the burnished hart and Solemn Simulacrum. You don't need any color fixing in Mono black and they act as sub par ramp. They also do not allow you to search out the utility non-basics you may need in a match such as arcane lighthouse.

Lashrithe is an excellent idea, thanks! I'll switch out the Burnished Hart for it, I think. I do want to have a certain amount of self-sacrifice creatures in order to protect Liliana. I also agree that Crypt Ghast is better than either of the two artifact creatures. Not sure what to do at this point! I'll have to think about it.

Heya, was lurking around and saw your comment. I built a Liliana deck a while ago and actually did a deck tech on it here:

http://www.commandercast.com/deckbuilders-spotlight-15-sams-liliana-heretical-healer-deck

Looking back there's a few things I'd note.

1) you can cut the silly kill myself combos. They're cute but unnecessary.

2) never cut blood artist or his friends. They're the lifeblood of the deck.

3) the more 1/2-drop self sacrificing creatures the better: Heap Doll, Blood Pet, and I'd even considered Fume Spitter. You just really want to have them in play and hit Lilliana on 3 to go right into the shenanigans.

4) Geth's Grimoire.

Hope this helps! Lemmie know if I can clarify anything and post how the deck does. I'll be interested to see another Lilly deck in action.

Thanks, I'll check out your deck tech in a bit.

What do you mean by "silly kill myself combos"?

Are there any other cards like Blood Artist and Zulaport Cutthroat that I should know about?

What would you recommend cutting for more 1-drops? Are there any other quality early drops that sacrifice themselves?

I'm already running Geth's Grimoire. Are you suggesting I should cut it? Preliminary testing has shown it's a really good card.

Falkenrath Noble is a Blood Artist effect, but it's kind of expensive (which probably doesn't matter in EDH).

I also saw Shadows of the Past while looking up drain life effects. This might be worth playtesting in this playstyle. The Scry is always useful plus it gives you a late game mana dump if you run Crypt Ghast and Coffers.

No Vengeful Pharaoh?

Geth, Lord of the Vault can also get you creatures to die for Liliana

I was running cards like Soul conduit and Repay In Kind to combo with paying almost all my life from Necropotence or Necrologia. Don't bother with them, they're just funny and not actually all that great.

As mentioned below Falkenrath Noble is the only other one you can run. I also like the suggestion of Shadows of the Past, something that'd be really powerful in this deck.

I'm not a huge fan of Filth. It doens't really work towards our end goal of draining opponents out. It's only "good" because you can discard it, but honestly we can just use discard to set up a creature to reanimate later, so I don't think we need fodder. I'd also say something a little similar for From Under the Floorboards. The card is good if you wanted to push the deck in a tribal zombie direction, but not as just "good to discard to Lilly". This could free up a little space for a couple early drops.

Ones I've mentioned previously Blood Pet, Fume Spitter, and Heap Doll offer fantastic utility. Soldevi Adnate is old tech that offers a sweet (and inexpensive, early drop) sac outlet. Not sure how good it is as I've not tried it myself, but it feels like a good alternative to expensive cards like Phyrexian Altar or Black Market.

I missed the Grimoire because it was under discard not draw. The card is nuts. Keep it.

I'm not a huge fan of Vengeful Pharaoh as it's not a may, and replacing a draw with a dead card that only kills things after they deal damage to you. Geth is an interesting pick but only likes opponent's creatures, when what we really want is our own creatures.

If Liliana of The Veil is something that is available to you, there isn't any reason she shouldn't be in here as a backup to Defiant Necromancer. Her +1 is the same and very effective still.

Slum Reaper is a big power body and works like Fleshbag Marauder and Merciless Executioner which you have already. Beats hexproof, shroud, and indestructible and can be recurred.

Graveborn Muse is amazing, although I see a lot of ways to produce zombies or creatures that are already zombies and losing too much life could be problematic late game as it's not a may. Phyrexian Arena could work for replacement.

I second Geth, Lord of the Vault as he can grab your opponents creatures handily OR artifacts.

Also an option is Chainer, Dementia Master. The three life is a little steep, but he is a great source of reanimation from any graveyard and with some extort triggers off of Crypt Ghast it will be mitigated some.

Bitterblossom can work as early game blockers and easy to sac off for Liliana or good evasive attackers/blockers.

Hope these help out. The list is looking good.

Thanks for all the great replies and encouragement!

Slum Reaper, Shadows of the Past, Falkenrath Noble (I like this one more than Blood Artist), Soldevi Adnate and maybe Geth, Lord of the Vault are all cards I'm definitely interested in playing. I think I'll be cutting Burnished Hart, Bloodthrone Vampire and From Under the Floorboards in order to make room for some of it. I suppose I should also add Crypt Ghast, though I don't know how necessary ramp is here, to be honest.

The fact that Geth takes artifact is actually really cool considering that I'll be playing against a Daretti deck fairly frequently, so it's a decent metagame choice.

Liliana of the Veil has a very good first ability for multiplayer, but her other two are a bit underpowered in this setting, especially considering they are -loyalty abilities. Not saying it's a bad card by any stretch, but just how good is it in EDH?

I've been wanting to try out the Filth/Tomb tech for a while now, as it keeps being suggested to me (I play a lot of Black too). This seemed like the place to do it, but perhaps not?

Quote from Upkeep »

Thanks for all the great replies and encouragement!

Slum Reaper, Shadows of the Past, Falkenrath Noble (I like this one more than Blood Artist), Soldevi Adnate and maybe Geth, Lord of the Vault are all cards I'm definitely interested in playing. I think I'll be cutting Burnished Hart, Bloodthrone Vampire and From Under the Floorboards in order to make room for some of it. I suppose I should also add Crypt Ghast, though I don't know how necessary ramp is here, to be honest.

The fact that Geth takes artifact is actually really cool considering that I'll be playing against a Daretti deck fairly frequently, so it's a decent metagame choice.

Liliana of the Veil has a very good first ability for multiplayer, but her other two are a bit underpowered in this setting, especially considering they are -loyalty abilities. Not saying it's a bad card by any stretch, but just how good is it in EDH?

I've been wanting to try out the Filth/Tomb tech for a while now, as it keeps being suggested to me (I play a lot of Black too). This seemed like the place to do it, but perhaps not?

Mono Black is definitely one of the best places to play filth/tomb. I have great luck with it. It becomes a problem quick, but if you run into a lot of land destruction, it will not fare well at all. Have to tailor it to your meta's playstyle.

Liliana of the Veil's -2 is just like any other edict effect which is still very powerful in this format. She can come down early and take care of other commanders or the best case scenario, commanders and creatures with hexproof, shroud, or indestructible. You do have many other way to do that already so she may not be needed at all especially as Defiant Necromancer as the commander. Just an option should you need another reliable source.

I would highly consider Crypt Ghast as a you already run Nirkana Revenant. His extort helps to stabilize with many of blacks pay life for x benefits.

Okay, I've replaced Burnished Hart, Bloodthrone Vampire, From under the Floorboards and Rings of Brighthearth with Slum Reaper, Crypt Ghast, Soldevi Adnate and Shadows of the Past. Rings of Brighthearth was good, but never as game-breaking as I had originally intended it to be.