Hello all! I noticed that there wasn't an official token for spawning pit, so I made one myself! I got the template online, and the artwork was all done by me as a Photoshop painting. I know it definitely looks more like a black card than an artifact... but once I started with the idea, I just didn't stop
I hope you enjoy it! I had a blast painting it! Let me know what you guys think, i might make more tokens. I would like to make an ophiomancer token next.
Spoiler tag added & merged w/ official thread - ZS
Ok so here is the latest dilemma... should I add braids, cabal minion to the deck? It would help big time with eliminating mana rocks and dorks that can get around contamination, especially with grave pact... but it does compete with contamination for a required sacrifice... however I do have a lot of sac food... perhaps I sideboard 4 braids and sub contamination in with braids when facing heavy black and artifact decks?
So I playtested the deck numerous times, and revised it above to its current, ideal configuration. I was about to cut bloodghast entirely... but with skullclamp in the mix, he started to become the new all-star. I was consistently dropping 3 bloodghasts per game, and thanks to skullclamp, I always had land to reanimate 3 bloodghasts every single turn. It provided incredible sac-food to synergize extremely well with grave pacts and blood artists.
Skullclamp is irreplaceable in this deck. absolutely no less than four copies. Because skullclamp made bloodghast so valuable, I upped his number to 4 copies as well. I found that skullclamp competed for some of my sac fodder (contamination needs it every upkeep, diabolic intent needs some, and I like to sac a lot to carrion feeder and spawning pit, albeit I usually do that on other player's turns via the ophiomancer tokens for MASSIVE gains and on-death triggers)... but because of this, I upped my bitterblossoms to 4. I bit the bullet and bought the extra bitterblossom so I have a full playset. I also threw in 1 Oboro, Palace in the Clouds since I had one laying around, to make sure I could always bring back the bloodghasts.To make room for the additions, I cut 1 mortician beetle, so now I am down to 2, and I cut my Sol Ring (I found that my spells were very heavy black, bloodghast being 2 solid black, some solid black 1 drops like carrion feeder and mortician beetle, grave pact being heavy black) so the colorless mana was limited in its helpfulness in this deck. It was still very helpful, like for equipping skullclamp, but the fourth bitterblossom and bloodghast are far more helpful.
This revised deck is the ideal setup for what I was going for. I have plenty of sac outlets, plenty of sac food, plenty of tutoring and card draw advantage, and plenty of win conditions to fuel it all.
I was consistently able to drop contamination on turn 3 or 4 and keep it permanently, which was devastating, and only reinforced my need for 4 bloodghasts and bitterblossoms, to ensure a turn 2 drop for the combo.
This deck has become devastatingly powerful at the kitchen table. Honestly, it feels like a waste of money since most of the guys won't want to play against it, as I win about 90% of the time.
EDIT:
According to current prices on star city games, this deck is valued at $534... Now I didn't pay quite that much, but I did pay a lot, and ouch... that's quite the price for a casual deck... or at least I think it is.
Oh well, I still absolutely love playing this deck, and that's what really matters.
So i found out a little while ago on the forums that if I had 2 ophiomancers and a carrion feeder out, i could sac the first token to carrion feeder before the second token resolved, and then get the second token and sac that too if I wished. So essentially if I had 4 ophiomancers out, i could have 4 sacs per turn. My question is, if I had 4 o phiomancers out, in my turn, could I sac the first token to contamination, and then the second token would resolve, and I could skullclamp it before the third token reaolves, then skullclamp the third token, and leave the fourth token to resolve and be the only snake token to remain that turn... could i do this? Or does the sac outlet have to be at instant speed like carrion feeder?
I remember desecration demon being $15. They are $1.50 now. Glad I traded mine.
I have had insane luck with cards. I remember buying a playset of lotus cobra for $6 each. I also got a playset of bloodghast back when he was $6 each. I got 2 cavern of souls back when they were $15 each, diabolic intent back when it was $5, phyrexian tower when it was $12, volrath's stronghold when it was $20, etcetera. I have only ever purchased individual cards that went up in value, never bought ones that went down. I had no idea they would go up, i just needed them for casual builds. Needless to say, i use the Bloodghasts and intents and tower and stronghold and whatnot now, but sold the lotus cobras and cavern of souls recently for some nice profit. I remember I would only ever use cards in my decks that synergized and tha got over a 4.0 rating on gatherer. I think that helped with the values of cards. Actually, i still use this rule for deck building today for the most part...
It's honestly too bad I can't throw a second sol ring in since we use vintage legality. I guess with diabolic intents as tutors and skullclamps for card drawing, it won't be such a big deal to have only one. Next I wanna get a fourth bitterblossom if I can fit it in my budget.
i remember a fond memory of this deck... multiplayer with 5 people. I got bitterblossom out and down turn two, and contamination the next turn, and grave pact the fourth. My friend was playing mono green, and had a few mana dorks out. Well ophiomancer came out, and I had carrion feeder from turn one, so each of those player's turns, i sacced a snake token and cleared the field with Grave pact with 6 sacrifices in one turn when it got back to me. He no longer had mana dorks (neither did anyone else) and was screwed for the rest of the game. I completely ignored him and killed off everyone else, all of whom had some black at least splashed in their decks, but contamination still crippled them and didn't allow half of their cards to be played. My mono green friend was the only one left. I continued to not attack him and just watched him draw a card and discard a card from having too many cards in hand, turn after turn, and for some reason he never scooped. I eventually swung and hit him just to end it, but not after he cycled through 3/4 of his deck. I am a jerk haha. Good times.
Done and Done... My playgroup follows vintage format, because it allows for the most variety of cards and gives us a lot of freedom to build decks and just have fun with different cards, but still gives structure. Vintage allows for 1 Sol Ring, so I cut my 1 copy of Blade of the Bloodchief and added 1 Sol Ring... Perfect fit. And that can feed the equip cost twice of my skullclamps so my other mana is open to cast the spells I draw.
I am very glad I added a playset of skullclamp... that card is just far too perfect for this kind of deck, where I want to kill off my own creatures and will have plenty of tokens to do so. It's already an extremely broken card on its own, and in this deck even more so.
Now that I think about it... It's funny how vintage allows a full playset of skullclamp and not sol ring... I guess vintage games are too fast for skullclamp
Contamination will slow the game down big time, and create a lock for most decks. During this time, I can tutor with diabolic intent and draw a ton of cards with skullclamp in order to set up my combo. I will have plenty to sacrifice to feed all of these cards, with 3 bitterblossoms, 3 ophiomancers, 4 bloodghasts, and even the priest of gix's can be used as sac food.
So Once I have my combo, I will have 1 recurring nightmare on the field, sac one priest of gix, and leave the other on the field, and have a bitter ordeal in hand. I can then do the infinite combo with 2x Priest of Gix and a recurring nightmare, and with butter ordeal, that is game. I have 1 blood artist as a backup too.
My backup is to clear the field with grave pact, and just attack with my own creatures. I understand a surgical extraction would destroy me, but that's why I sideboard 4 Tormod's Crypt.
So what do you guys think? Is this a viable deck for casual play? Or should I stick to my other sacrifice deck? I feel like this deck has the potential to be incredibly powerful... But maybe a little too touchy. My sacrifice deck I feel might be more stable when facing mono black and artifact decks. I feel like the recurring nightmare deck could stumble against any deck even splashing black, whereas my other one would probably fair better. Or so I think... even though recurring nightmare can bring back any critical creature that someone could have killed.
Here is my other deck. It revolves around pure sacrificing, and using ophiomancer and carrion feeder as instant sacrifices on every player's turn to maximize the effects of my other cards. And since multiple ophiomancers allow for multiple sacrifices each and every player's turn due to all the tokens going on the stack at once, and me simply sacrifing them all before the next one resolves, it allows for mega build up. Do you guys think this deck would fair better than the recurring nightmare one? Or should I scrap this one and make the recurring nightmare deck?
Since skullclamp is in here now, I will be drawing a lot of extra cards... should I throw in some mana rocks to ensure that I can cast those cards when i draw them, casting more than one?? Perhaps Ashnod's Altar? Maybe a dark ritual spinoff like Culling the Weak? (I know, it isn't a mana rock)... I am just hesitant on instant one-use mana like that because it could give you an early lead, but later in the game it can prove to be useless... except with skullclamp now...
I dunno. Perhaps keeping it the way it is will be the strongest. This is for casual multiplayer, so cards that benefit from sacrifice are extremeley crucial, as the more players there are, the more sacs I can do per turn, which grows everything extremely large.
If you splashed black... Recurring Nightmare is an absolute nightmare to have opponents play against. Combo with Kokusho, the Evening Star or do the 2x Priest of Gix infinite combo and pair that with cards that benefit from sacrificing, death, or entering the battlefield. Plus you could just get back your fatties from the graveyard anyway.
Very true, you definitely bring up a good point. I did just remember that my blood artists are also vampires, on top of my bloodghasts. I think that two blade of the bloodchiefs will work fine for right now, and I can pick up thoughtseize later when I want to dedicate more funds to this deck.
I am getting second thoughts on Blade of the bloodchief... Should I replace it with two copies of Thoughtseize for some more early control elements?? Perhaps sideboard Blade?? My thought with thoughtseize is that once I have contamination in the game, I won't really need thoughtseize, and it is only useful early on. If I play against heavy black and colorless, again, I will sub out contamination and then thoughtseize would be more useful, as the cards in their hand will actually be playable and therefore a bigger threat.
Maybe I should cut 1 Spawning Pit and 1 Blade of the Bloodchief and put in 2 Go for the throat??
Perhaps I cut down to 2 skullclamps?? or is 3 a good number?
I will pick up a few dictate or erwbos and try them. Thanks for the suggestions, I really appreciate it! I think I will replace altar with spawning pit. You're right, spawning pit will be more useful in this deck, and still provide an instant speed sac outlet, which is crucial with those ophiomancers.
EDIT: I have found that with decks where contamination is necessary, the Go for throat is kind of a wasted spot, because contamination usually hits early, and blocks the big bad creatures from coming out, and by the time grave pact hits, I have nothing to worry about as it clears the field. On top of this, the deathtouch tokens from ophiomancers does a fantastic job of keeping creature attacks at bay. I am thinking of replacing the two Go for Throat with 2 Blade of the Bloodchief. I feel that with all the instant-speed sacrificing that will be going on, I could throw this on a mortician beetle and double it's growth, which would make it massive in no time at all. Plus being a one drop is a big bonus, with only 1 to equip, and if my beetle gets axed, it sticks around for the next one. And I could bring back a bloodghast with haste, throw it on and sac some other things to grow it with +2 +2 if need be, and attack with haste for the win. Since I risk losing these massive creatures to removal, I only want 2 blade of the bloodchief in this deck.
Then when I face decks with heavy black or colorless, I can sub out Contamination and bring in the go for throat or attrition.
ALSO: As stated above, I put 3 skullclamps in. That card will be beast in this deck... at least I feel it will be.
Creakwood is definitely a nice auggestion, he provides a solid drop for a little later in the game, but is still in my man's curve. I am thinking of at minimum cutting one bloodghast (so I would have two total) and throwing in a creakwood. Bloodghast is too good to get rid of entirely. The two power and haste are very relevant I find at a 2 cmc.
I am not quite yet convinced on getting rid of altar of dementia. The security and insurance it supplies for my creatures is awesome, but the real advantage it gives is being a cheap instant sac outelet, so I can take advantage of multiple sacrifices on each player's turn. The only other card I have that does that is carrion feeder, and since he is a creature (and one that people want dealt with), is subject to removal more easily than altar, and then I would be missing out on instant sacrifices until I get another carrion. perhaps spawning pit would be a better fit?
I do agree I need to find a way to put in a fourth blood artist. A fourth bittwrblossom is out of the question right now. They are a bit expensive and i have already spent a lot on this deck over the years
I hope you enjoy it! I had a blast painting it! Let me know what you guys think, i might make more tokens. I would like to make an ophiomancer token next.
Spoiler tag added & merged w/ official thread - ZS
Skullclamp is irreplaceable in this deck. absolutely no less than four copies. Because skullclamp made bloodghast so valuable, I upped his number to 4 copies as well. I found that skullclamp competed for some of my sac fodder (contamination needs it every upkeep, diabolic intent needs some, and I like to sac a lot to carrion feeder and spawning pit, albeit I usually do that on other player's turns via the ophiomancer tokens for MASSIVE gains and on-death triggers)... but because of this, I upped my bitterblossoms to 4. I bit the bullet and bought the extra bitterblossom so I have a full playset. I also threw in 1 Oboro, Palace in the Clouds since I had one laying around, to make sure I could always bring back the bloodghasts.To make room for the additions, I cut 1 mortician beetle, so now I am down to 2, and I cut my Sol Ring (I found that my spells were very heavy black, bloodghast being 2 solid black, some solid black 1 drops like carrion feeder and mortician beetle, grave pact being heavy black) so the colorless mana was limited in its helpfulness in this deck. It was still very helpful, like for equipping skullclamp, but the fourth bitterblossom and bloodghast are far more helpful.
This revised deck is the ideal setup for what I was going for. I have plenty of sac outlets, plenty of sac food, plenty of tutoring and card draw advantage, and plenty of win conditions to fuel it all.
I was consistently able to drop contamination on turn 3 or 4 and keep it permanently, which was devastating, and only reinforced my need for 4 bloodghasts and bitterblossoms, to ensure a turn 2 drop for the combo.
This deck has become devastatingly powerful at the kitchen table. Honestly, it feels like a waste of money since most of the guys won't want to play against it, as I win about 90% of the time.
A lot of these cards are incredibly expensive. Luckily, I got a playset of bloodghast back when he was $6 each, Phyrexian tower when it was $15, Volrath's Stronghold when it was $20, diabolic intent when it was $6, yadda yadda.
EDIT:
According to current prices on star city games, this deck is valued at $534... Now I didn't pay quite that much, but I did pay a lot, and ouch... that's quite the price for a casual deck... or at least I think it is.
Oh well, I still absolutely love playing this deck, and that's what really matters.
I have had insane luck with cards. I remember buying a playset of lotus cobra for $6 each. I also got a playset of bloodghast back when he was $6 each. I got 2 cavern of souls back when they were $15 each, diabolic intent back when it was $5, phyrexian tower when it was $12, volrath's stronghold when it was $20, etcetera. I have only ever purchased individual cards that went up in value, never bought ones that went down. I had no idea they would go up, i just needed them for casual builds. Needless to say, i use the Bloodghasts and intents and tower and stronghold and whatnot now, but sold the lotus cobras and cavern of souls recently for some nice profit. I remember I would only ever use cards in my decks that synergized and tha got over a 4.0 rating on gatherer. I think that helped with the values of cards. Actually, i still use this rule for deck building today for the most part...
i remember a fond memory of this deck... multiplayer with 5 people. I got bitterblossom out and down turn two, and contamination the next turn, and grave pact the fourth. My friend was playing mono green, and had a few mana dorks out. Well ophiomancer came out, and I had carrion feeder from turn one, so each of those player's turns, i sacced a snake token and cleared the field with Grave pact with 6 sacrifices in one turn when it got back to me. He no longer had mana dorks (neither did anyone else) and was screwed for the rest of the game. I completely ignored him and killed off everyone else, all of whom had some black at least splashed in their decks, but contamination still crippled them and didn't allow half of their cards to be played. My mono green friend was the only one left. I continued to not attack him and just watched him draw a card and discard a card from having too many cards in hand, turn after turn, and for some reason he never scooped. I eventually swung and hit him just to end it, but not after he cycled through 3/4 of his deck. I am a jerk haha. Good times.
I think 1 blade of the bloodchief was a fair trade for 1 sol ring. I sideboarded my two blades.
I am very glad I added a playset of skullclamp... that card is just far too perfect for this kind of deck, where I want to kill off my own creatures and will have plenty of tokens to do so. It's already an extremely broken card on its own, and in this deck even more so.
Now that I think about it... It's funny how vintage allows a full playset of skullclamp and not sol ring... I guess vintage games are too fast for skullclamp
Creatures (12):
Bloodghast x4
Priest of Gix x4
Ophiomancer x3
Blood Artist x2
Enchantments (13):
Bitterblossom x3
Recurring Nightmare x4
Grave Pact x2
Contamination x4
Artifacts (4):
Skullclamp x4
Sorcery (9):
Diabolic Intent x4
bitter ordeal x4
Duress x2
Land (21):
Volrath's Stronghold x1
Phyrexian Tower x1
Verdant Catacombs x4
Urborg x1
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth x1
Swamp x13
Sideboard (15):
Hymn to Tourach x3
Innocent Blood x2
Grave Pact x2
Go for the Throat x2
Attrition x2
Tormod's Crypt x4
Now the idea of this deck is to hopefully skullclamp on turn 1.
Turn 3 I will try to get Contamination out, and turn two I can place a bitterblossom or bloodghast out to not only have more chances to keep contamination running indefinitely, but to also provide fodder for skullclamp or diabolic intent if I need to search for a contamination.
Contamination will slow the game down big time, and create a lock for most decks. During this time, I can tutor with diabolic intent and draw a ton of cards with skullclamp in order to set up my combo. I will have plenty to sacrifice to feed all of these cards, with 3 bitterblossoms, 3 ophiomancers, 4 bloodghasts, and even the priest of gix's can be used as sac food.
So Once I have my combo, I will have 1 recurring nightmare on the field, sac one priest of gix, and leave the other on the field, and have a bitter ordeal in hand. I can then do the infinite combo with 2x Priest of Gix and a recurring nightmare, and with butter ordeal, that is game. I have 1 blood artist as a backup too.
My backup is to clear the field with grave pact, and just attack with my own creatures. I understand a surgical extraction would destroy me, but that's why I sideboard 4 Tormod's Crypt.
So what do you guys think? Is this a viable deck for casual play? Or should I stick to my other sacrifice deck? I feel like this deck has the potential to be incredibly powerful... But maybe a little too touchy. My sacrifice deck I feel might be more stable when facing mono black and artifact decks. I feel like the recurring nightmare deck could stumble against any deck even splashing black, whereas my other one would probably fair better. Or so I think... even though recurring nightmare can bring back any critical creature that someone could have killed.
Here is my other deck. It revolves around pure sacrificing, and using ophiomancer and carrion feeder as instant sacrifices on every player's turn to maximize the effects of my other cards. And since multiple ophiomancers allow for multiple sacrifices each and every player's turn due to all the tokens going on the stack at once, and me simply sacrifing them all before the next one resolves, it allows for mega build up. Do you guys think this deck would fair better than the recurring nightmare one? Or should I scrap this one and make the recurring nightmare deck?
Creatures (18):
Ophiomancer x4
Carrion Feeder x4
Blood Artist x4
Bloodghast x3
Mortician Beetle x3
Enchantments (11):
Grave Pact x4
Contamination x4
Bitterblossom x3
Sorcery (2):
Diabolic Intent x2
Artifact (7):
Spawning Pit x2
Blade of the Bloodchief x1
Skullclamp x4
Land (22):
Phyrexian Tower X1
Volrath's Stronghold x1
Urborg x1
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth x1
Swamp x18
Sideboard (15):
Attrition x2
Blade of the Bloodchief x1
Tormod's Crypt x3
Bloodghast x1
Innocent Blood x2
Hymn to Tourach x3
Go for the Throat x3
I dunno. Perhaps keeping it the way it is will be the strongest. This is for casual multiplayer, so cards that benefit from sacrifice are extremeley crucial, as the more players there are, the more sacs I can do per turn, which grows everything extremely large.
Maybe I should cut 1 Spawning Pit and 1 Blade of the Bloodchief and put in 2 Go for the throat??
Perhaps I cut down to 2 skullclamps?? or is 3 a good number?
EDIT: I have found that with decks where contamination is necessary, the Go for throat is kind of a wasted spot, because contamination usually hits early, and blocks the big bad creatures from coming out, and by the time grave pact hits, I have nothing to worry about as it clears the field. On top of this, the deathtouch tokens from ophiomancers does a fantastic job of keeping creature attacks at bay. I am thinking of replacing the two Go for Throat with 2 Blade of the Bloodchief. I feel that with all the instant-speed sacrificing that will be going on, I could throw this on a mortician beetle and double it's growth, which would make it massive in no time at all. Plus being a one drop is a big bonus, with only 1 to equip, and if my beetle gets axed, it sticks around for the next one. And I could bring back a bloodghast with haste, throw it on and sac some other things to grow it with +2 +2 if need be, and attack with haste for the win. Since I risk losing these massive creatures to removal, I only want 2 blade of the bloodchief in this deck.
Then when I face decks with heavy black or colorless, I can sub out Contamination and bring in the go for throat or attrition.
ALSO: As stated above, I put 3 skullclamps in. That card will be beast in this deck... at least I feel it will be.
Thoughts??
I am not quite yet convinced on getting rid of altar of dementia. The security and insurance it supplies for my creatures is awesome, but the real advantage it gives is being a cheap instant sac outelet, so I can take advantage of multiple sacrifices on each player's turn. The only other card I have that does that is carrion feeder, and since he is a creature (and one that people want dealt with), is subject to removal more easily than altar, and then I would be missing out on instant sacrifices until I get another carrion. perhaps spawning pit would be a better fit?
I do agree I need to find a way to put in a fourth blood artist. A fourth bittwrblossom is out of the question right now. They are a bit expensive and i have already spent a lot on this deck over the years