MTG Salvation

CHAINER, NIGHTMARE ADEPT

I've been running the original Chainer for years now, and I've become incredibly attached to the deck both for its playstyle and what it means to me on a personal level (it was a creative outlet to help get me through a time of pretty intense grief). So, when the new version of Chainer was announced last week, I immediately began brewing, excited about a new legend for the first time in a long time.

I have no plans to take apart my old Chainer deck - I considered it, but I just can't make myself do it - more likely I'll scavenge cards from my Kiki-Jiki deck for this one. So, I'm going to attempt to build a deck with this Chainer that is similarly exciting, but also feels different in the way it works.

Both obviously will use the graveyard a lot, but I'm hoping that using the new Chainer's discard ability will open up some different, interesting space, as well as the addition of R to the deck.

The way I'm planning on doing this though is pretty simple. Buy the precon, play it a few times with Chainer, Nightmare Adept at the helm, learn what parts of the deck work or not, and tinker with it from there (I suspect the mana base will be the first thing I switch out, as I happen to already have what I need there). It will be kind of a long term experiment, but I'm excited to do it.

Anyone else who's planning on running new Chainer? Please join me!


So that's the stock decklist. Like all of these, there's a lot to tinker with.

My first instinct is that I'd like to have more spells that discard on their own ala Cathartic Reunion and Faithless Looting. Maybe add some wheels like Wheel of Fortune, Reforge the Soul, and Dark Deal. If I've got wheels, Waste Not would be killer, as would Geth's Grimoire or Liliana's Caress. Yawgmoth's Will, aside from being a very good spell on its own would be absolutely devastating late game with this deck.

Also, Living Death, Living End, and spells like that seem very good for this deck, especially with a sac outlet for Chainer, so you can bring him back with the rest of your graveyard, giving everything haste.

I'm imagining a very fun loop with Phyrexian Altar, Anarchist, and Living Death which is making the lizard part of my brain very excited.

So what do you guys think? Anyone else planning on building Chainer, Nightmare Adept? I'm sure some of you are doing a more "from scratch" build and I'd love to see those, too!

Not sure if I'll build him separate yet, though that would be cool. I imagine he can do good work in my Marchesa deck as recursion for creatures she missed. But I'm also currently looking at creatures with flash in (B/R) (Dualcaster Mage, Garna, the Bloodflame, maybe even Shimmer Myr or Offalsnout). Also looking at tap abilities because of the haste - Doomed Necromancer, Feldon of the Third Path (maybe some pet cards like Bloodline Keeper or Walking Atlas).

As for recursion, I'm getting a copy of Thrilling Encore to try in place of Living Death (possibly in Chainer). Anarchist is a good option since there's red - I have to rely on XHD in mono-black Chainer for that loop.

Thrilling Encore is great, and requires a couple fewer hoops than Living Death - I'll probably actually skip Living End and use Encore instead. Good call.

I'm torn on how to best use the haste. Tapping abilities can be strong, but is it just stronger to reanimate everything and swing? IDK

Doomed Necromancer will be killer early game, though, so I think it's a pretty clear include. I'm also looking real hard at Hell's Caretaker and Coffin Queen. I'm also wondering if there are some cheap creatures with really powerful tap effects that could be looped with his ability.

Basically, does this deck want ETB triggers (to take advantage of the reanimation - though this will be probably too much overlap with my regular Chainer deck), activated abilities (to take advantage of the haste), or attack triggers (to take advantage of the haste)?

And do I want to lean farther to the Red side of this deck, so it differentiates itself a bit more?

I think that's the main reason I want to play with the precon a bit first, and see which direction the deck pulls me.

The reason I was thinking about ETB, flash, and tap abilities is because you'll only be able to attack on your turn, but you could discard and possibly cast on any turn. A mix of things is probably best.

Doomed Necromancer is killer all game, really, because you discard whatever you want and only pay 2BB to put any creature from your graveyard to play, allowing you to reanimate big stuff for a discount. Hell's Caretaker has an issue though, because you can only activate it during your upkeep. Apprentice Necromancer could be good, though.

You could avoid some overlap with B Chainer's ETB stuff by using more red (which honestly, has some pretty fun ETB stuff).

One card I would consider in this deck is burnished hart. Yes, I know it is unimpressive and costs a fair bit of mana, but your deck seems like it will be extraordinarily mana hungy and the ability to keep recurring the hart (even if only 1 additional time per game), is a lot of ramp you otherwise wouldn't easily get.

Phyrexian Delver and Artisan of Kozilek would be useful to cast from the graveyard then they can grab an extra creature from your graveyard and benefit from the Haste bonus.

My list is here if interested: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/200-chainer-nightmare-adept/

As a Rakdos player who has never felt happy with any previous Rakdos decks, I'm pretty pleased with Chainer. Its great to finally have a BR general designed for 40 life multiplayer and not burning through 20 life 1v1.

Goblin Welder sounds good with Chainer. Discard a big artifact before your turn, then discard the welder in your turn and play it with Chainer's effect to give it haste and get your big artifact.

used to post here but lost my account years ago

Big thing I want to figure out is how to chain(no pun intended) Doomed Necromancer with Crypt Champion and Phyrexian Altar more consistently I think you use Goblin Engineer to get the alter but you'd have to reanimate two things on the same turn and Chainer only handles one ALSO there's no way to profit off of this without Blood Artist on the field so that's more than buried alive can get

I was also thinking about how to combo off with liliana, heretical healer

I'm coming off of this as a Frites Karador player so This new R graveyard toolbox thing looks great man


EDIT: Human frites with Angel Of Glory's Rise, Fiend Hunter, Priest of Gix, and Undercity Informer. Thing is though there isn't really a single creature that reanimates two creatures repeatedly in black which is very ironic

I believe whisper, blood liturgist would reanimate 2 creatures repeatedly. Now, you didn't say anything about them being untapped....
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Also, you're in red. Why does it only have to be a blood artist trigger? I mean, you have purphorous and impact tremors to trigger off of the enters the battlefield stuff.

edit: Nevermind, I thought whisper was a victimize, but it's the other way around.