Started working on a deck using Olivia Voldaren last week, this is what I came up with. Play tested it with some friends this past weekend and I really think the deck curves out too high. Any suggestions on what to replace would be greatly appreciated. Please give reasoning with each choice and I will take it into account. I have been considering making room for Deathbringer Thoctar, Pestilence, Mutilate, and Elemental Mastery. I understand the benefits of the first 3, but am wandering if anyone else has tested Elemental Mastery to create tokens to sac for a pseudo-board wipe every turn with grave pact or Butcher in play. I want to keep this deck fun to play against, and I don't want to go straight vampire tribal though the current version does have a tribal sub-theme due to how well the cards work together.
That is an awesome painting! I believe I am going to go with Olivia, started pulling cards for her last night. Thanks for all the help everyone! Schutzwald, Drana definitely has a spot in the deck, I love what she does, but on a tight budget at the moment and don't have a lot of the staples necessary to make a good mono-black deck. No Grave Pact, Necropotence, or Damnation. A lot of my options using 2 colors are already having to be sub-par for now until I can find another job. I definitely do want to build around Drana at some point though.
I had Mogis pulled earlier and was looking at it but he seems a little too much like Book Burning where it will never play out how you want it to. I have considered Drana, she will definitely have a place in the deck, just not sure if I want her as the commander. Black doesn't really have any artifact/enchantment removal and with the decks everyone else will be playing, that means I'll spend half my time waiting for someone else to draw into one. We have a couple of people who play stax type decks.
I have been wanting to build a Glissa deck for a while now, unfortunately I'm missing a lot of the artifacts that really make her good and I'm in between jobs right now so going out and dumping a bit of money on cards isn't really an option unfortunately. I've tried working with Lyzolda and Savra but everything I've seen says their very dependent on reliable recursion like Grave Pact and Volrath's Stronghold. I love all the options you guys have given but the two that are really standing out to me are Olivia and Nath, so I guess I need to decide now whether to go green or red. Thanks so much for all the input guys! Underhill, I really like your deck list. Now I guess I need to go look through what I have and see which color is more viable for me right now. So far I've worked in a 60 card format, but most of my local play group has almost went strictly to Commander so if I want to keep playing this amazing game I have to get something put together. Just a singleton format has so many amazing options available that its hard to come to a decision.
Having a hard time trying to pick a commander for my next deck. I know I want to have black as one of my colors and want to build on a creature based control theme, using creatures like Butcher of Malakir and Anowon, the Ruin Sage to control the board, as well as using big X spells to deal direct damage such as profane command and exsanguinate to close the game out. I'm pretty sure I don't want to stick to mono-black and want to try to keep it at 2 colors due to budget constraints keeping me from getting the fetch lands I would need to build a reliable 3 color deck. However if someone can provide a good reason for sticking to a mono-black deck I am still open to the idea.
Thanks for the input CZ. I may very well make 2 versions of this, one with limited resources and one without. I love everything you suggested, but as I stated in the above post I'm going to be using this to help teach a new player so I don't want to play something that could turn him from Magic before he really gets a start. I hadn't even thought of putting limited resources into it and I believe I have like 3 of them. Unfortunately Aether Vial is out of the question as I lost my job about a month ago unless I can trade for it. I know its not essential. Also most of my normal playgroup is really casual, one doesn't even believe in using anything he didn't pull from a pack. I will probably keep Limited Resources in my deck box and swap it in every so often to keep people on their toes but build a build without it to keep the game fun, and not just for me.
EDIT: One thing I am wandering is if I keep WG instead of mono-white, and add in Knight of the Reliquary, how would life from the loam fit in this list. Most of my games are 3-4 people tops so the 3 mana wouldn't be unreasonable even with LR in play. Add birds of paradise just in case I end up being mana screwed. Will post a decklist in the next couple of days based off what I have available.
yeah, I just finished rebuilding my mono-black vampire control deck. All I used to play was multiplayer. ThatRedwood, I was considering going mono-white and topping out my curve with Crovax, AH and putting in a playset of Crusade as well as a singleton of Sun Titan for recursion and Sunblast Angel to finish a player off before my combat if they make a big swing. I can't think of any others right that would be a huge help.
iemsparticus, I know decks like these aren't great in a 1v1 setting but I'm going to be teaching a beginner some basic strategy and I need a deck that isn't as brutal as my vampires. He won't be having fun if I'm not letting him play the whole match and I don't want that. Thanks for the tip on Junk Reanimator though. I'll definitely look into it.
Just recently started getting back into multiplayer and considering one of my favorite builds in Modern is GW Hatebears I am hoping to convert this buildup into a Multiplayer setting but I figure most of the weenies used in duel builds won't hold up in multiplayer so I am looking for creatures that will fit better into a multiplayer setting. Any help on this would be greatly appreciated. I know cards like Thalia and Leonin Arbiter will still hold value but I am worried about running out of gas mid to late game.
Went 2-2-0 at FNM with this deck last night, took 6th place first night running it. Found that Bow of Nylea was extremely lacking in this deck. Any time I saw it I just wanted another Whip. Added Mystic Genesis expecting to cheat another creature out, though every time I felt I should hold the mana there were at least 2 creatures in hand I wanted to cast or something on their side I would rather see gone. Psychic Strike is probably functioning as the best counter I have seen. With so many good scry options current, not only is a spell countered, but it screwed them on their scry almost every time. I have heard a lot of good and bad about Curse of the Swine vs. Cyclonic Rift, and this card saved the game every time I saw it. Would definitely recommend running 3 mainboard and side out 2 versus control. With desecration demon the boar tokens aren't even a big deal because they will be sacrificing them just to stay alive. Tried out a Cloudfin Raptor / Experiment one combo in sideboard for aggro decks but found that when sideboarded in I always just wanted more removal. Picked up 3 Jace, the Living Guildpact, another Vraska, 1 each of Genesis Hydra and Scuttling Doom Engine, and another Whip. Will post updated deck for next week in a bit. Matchups went as follows.
Game 1: RU Pyromancer 2/1/0 - Almost always had me down to 6 life before I stabilized. The only matchup where Bow of Nylea helped with the Gain 3 life ability, but I still would have rather had another Whip maindecked. Deck had a hard time handling a barrage of burn spells though.
Game 2/3: Big Red 1/2/0 - My hardest matchup so far and faced Big Red both games 2 and 3. Boros Reckoner's were easier to deal with than I expected. Main problems faced were burn spells and Firefist Striker honestly were what won games for them. Wished I had 2 more Ratchet Bombs or Drown in Sorrow Sideboarded. After these matches considering Drown in Sorrow Mainboard.
Game 4: G/B Devotion - Green Devotion with black splashed for Abrupt Decay and M15 Garruk. Easy win. Once again Curse of the Swine was a main contender in this matchup. Every time he got decent devotion, i would have 6-7 mana open and leave him with some bores that give him 0 devotion. The changes i'm planning can only help this matchup even more.
Loved that onebody playing predicted a move i was going to make. They saw early whip/ desecration demon/ thoughtseize and automaticially jumped to mbd, even with blue and green mana in play. Caryatid pointed them to jund midrange. Deck kept people on their feet all night and every match was a close call. Sad i didn't get to test it against w/u/x control though.
Edit: Deck Updated
Removed
-1 Silence the Believers
-2 Mystic Genesis
-1 Bow of Nylea
-3 Dreg Mangler
-2 Divination
-1 Herald of Torment
-1 Prognostic Sphinx
-1 Thassa, God of the Sea
-1 Polukranos, World Eater
Added
+1 Thoughtseize
+3 Read the Bones
+1 Curse of the Swine
+2 Drown in Sorrow
+1 Whip of Erebos
+3 Jace, The Living Guildpact
+1 Vraska, the Unseen
+1 Scuttling Doom Engine
Sideboard
1x Tormod's Crypt
1x Thoughtseize
3x Pharika's Cure
2x Dimir Charm
1x Simic Charm
1x Drown in sorrow
2x Unravel the Aether
1x Back to Nature
1x Erebos, God of the Dead
4x Olivia Voldaren
Creatures
2 Ashling the Pilgrim
4 Ichorid
4 Sangromancer
4 Slum Reaper
4 Hell's Caretaker
4 Falkenrath Noble
5 Puppeteer Clique
5 Sadistic Hypnotist
5 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
5 Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief
5 Anowon, the Ruin Sage
6 Massacre Wurm
6 Steel Hellkite
6 Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
6 Triskelion
6 Flameblast Dragon
6 Nirkana Revenant
6 Grave Titan
7 Sepluchral Primordial
7 Butcher Of Malakir
7 Rune-Scarred Demon
7 Sheoldred, Whispering One
9 Artisan of Kozilek
12 It That Betrays
12 Blightsteel Colossus
1 Skullclamp
1 Sol Ring
2 Nim Deathmantle
2 Lightning Greaves
3 Phyrexian Altar
3 Temple Bell
3 Darksteel Plate
5 Gilded Lotus
6 Caged Sun
Enchantment
2 Oversold Cemetery
2 Goblin Bombardment
3 Phyrexian Arena
3 Necrogen Mists
3 Haunted Crossroads
4 Breeding Pit
4 Whip of Erebos
4 Grave Pact
5 Black Market
Instant
2 Comet Storm
4 Wild Ricochet
4 Shriveling Rot
Sorcery
1 Fireball
2 Exsanguinate
2 Smallpox
2 Rakdos's return
3 Beseech the Queen
3 Pox
4 Barter in Blood
4 Diabolic Tutor
4 Sever the Bloodline
5 Incendiary Command
8 Decree of Pain
8 Army of the Damned
6 Sorin Markov
Land
0 Mikokoro, Center of the Sea
0 Crypt of Agadeem
0 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
0 Strip Mine
0 Tectonic Edge
0 High market
0 Madblind Mountain
0 Kher Keep
0 Temple of the False God
0 Bloodstained Mire
0 Dragonskull Summit
0 Urborg, Tomb of yawgmoth
0 Dakmor salvage
0 Rakdos Guildgate
0 Graven Cairns
0 Opal Palace
0 Blood Crypt
0 Command Tower
8x Swamp
7x Mountain
EDIT: Let me know if any of the links aren't working and I'll try to fix it.
EDIT: One thing I am wandering is if I keep WG instead of mono-white, and add in Knight of the Reliquary, how would life from the loam fit in this list. Most of my games are 3-4 people tops so the 3 mana wouldn't be unreasonable even with LR in play. Add birds of paradise just in case I end up being mana screwed. Will post a decklist in the next couple of days based off what I have available.
iemsparticus, I know decks like these aren't great in a 1v1 setting but I'm going to be teaching a beginner some basic strategy and I need a deck that isn't as brutal as my vampires. He won't be having fun if I'm not letting him play the whole match and I don't want that. Thanks for the tip on Junk Reanimator though. I'll definitely look into it.
3x Sylvan Caryatid
3x Herald of Torment
1x scourge of skola vale
3x Dreg Mangler
1x Courser of Kruphix
1x Thassa, God of the Sea
2x Reaper of the Wilds
3x Desecration Demon
1x Polukranos, World Eater
1x Prognostic Sphinx
Planeswalkers
1x Kiori,the Crashing Wave
1x Vraska the Unseen
Instant/Sorcery
2x hero's Downfall
2x Psychic Strike
1x Silence the Believers
2x Thoughtseize
3x Divination
1x Curse of the Swine
2x Whip of Erebos
1x Bow of Nylea
Lands
3x Overgrown Tomb
2x Watery Grave
2x Breeding Pool
3x Temple of Deceit
4x Temple of Mystery
3x Yavimaya Coast
2x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1x Radiant Fountain
2x Island
1x Forest
1x Swamp
1x Tormod's Crypt
3x Cloudfin Raptor
2x Experiment One
1x Thoughtseize
1x Bile Blight
1x Back to Nature
1x Ratchet Bomb
1x Curse of the Swine
2x Drown in Sorrow
1x Erebos, God of the Dead
1x Pharia's Mender
Went 2-2-0 at FNM with this deck last night, took 6th place first night running it. Found that Bow of Nylea was extremely lacking in this deck. Any time I saw it I just wanted another Whip. Added Mystic Genesis expecting to cheat another creature out, though every time I felt I should hold the mana there were at least 2 creatures in hand I wanted to cast or something on their side I would rather see gone. Psychic Strike is probably functioning as the best counter I have seen. With so many good scry options current, not only is a spell countered, but it screwed them on their scry almost every time. I have heard a lot of good and bad about Curse of the Swine vs. Cyclonic Rift, and this card saved the game every time I saw it. Would definitely recommend running 3 mainboard and side out 2 versus control. With desecration demon the boar tokens aren't even a big deal because they will be sacrificing them just to stay alive. Tried out a Cloudfin Raptor / Experiment one combo in sideboard for aggro decks but found that when sideboarded in I always just wanted more removal. Picked up 3 Jace, the Living Guildpact, another Vraska, 1 each of Genesis Hydra and Scuttling Doom Engine, and another Whip. Will post updated deck for next week in a bit. Matchups went as follows.
Game 1: RU Pyromancer 2/1/0 - Almost always had me down to 6 life before I stabilized. The only matchup where Bow of Nylea helped with the Gain 3 life ability, but I still would have rather had another Whip maindecked. Deck had a hard time handling a barrage of burn spells though.
Game 2/3: Big Red 1/2/0 - My hardest matchup so far and faced Big Red both games 2 and 3. Boros Reckoner's were easier to deal with than I expected. Main problems faced were burn spells and Firefist Striker honestly were what won games for them. Wished I had 2 more Ratchet Bombs or Drown in Sorrow Sideboarded. After these matches considering Drown in Sorrow Mainboard.
Game 4: G/B Devotion - Green Devotion with black splashed for Abrupt Decay and M15 Garruk. Easy win. Once again Curse of the Swine was a main contender in this matchup. Every time he got decent devotion, i would have 6-7 mana open and leave him with some bores that give him 0 devotion. The changes i'm planning can only help this matchup even more.
Loved that onebody playing predicted a move i was going to make. They saw early whip/ desecration demon/ thoughtseize and automaticially jumped to mbd, even with blue and green mana in play. Caryatid pointed them to jund midrange. Deck kept people on their feet all night and every match was a close call. Sad i didn't get to test it against w/u/x control though.
Edit: Deck Updated
Removed
-1 Silence the Believers
-2 Mystic Genesis
-1 Bow of Nylea
-3 Dreg Mangler
-2 Divination
-1 Herald of Torment
-1 Prognostic Sphinx
-1 Thassa, God of the Sea
-1 Polukranos, World Eater
Added
+1 Thoughtseize
+3 Read the Bones
+1 Curse of the Swine
+2 Drown in Sorrow
+1 Whip of Erebos
+3 Jace, The Living Guildpact
+1 Vraska, the Unseen
+1 Scuttling Doom Engine
Sideboard
1x Tormod's Crypt
1x Thoughtseize
3x Pharika's Cure
2x Dimir Charm
1x Simic Charm
1x Drown in sorrow
2x Unravel the Aether
1x Back to Nature
1x Erebos, God of the Dead