Yea, Baneslayer Angel is a bit of a money knocker, but if someone has one for trade in your area~ Also understand the difference of areas. I try not to say 'take this card out' because in some play areas, its a must to have some sort of play style. Around me, getting 8+ mana is a bit hard without some sort of ramp.
Another cheap removal would be Path to Exile.
I also take it by the cost comment that Planeswalker cards a bit out of the question for adding?
It seems rather mana intense to me, but you do say your play group is casual~ I am used to needing early drops to stay in the game. As for things you can add, would suggest Baneslayer Angel if you can get your hands on one. Also Plaxcaster Frogling makes a good utility creature for Jenara.
A bit of an upgrade for Confiscate could be Blatant Thievery. For only U more, you get to do it to every opponent of yours, and in multiplayer EDH, that usually turns out nicely. If you are playing single player, in the very least you get a permanent where they cannot destroy the enchantment to get it back.
I think with the changes above that I am done with my deck. There are still 2 cards on the table to squeeze in there; Wrath of God and Sword of Light and Shadow. So I am still looking for the final input on them. Aside from that, I have all the cards collected and ready to shuffle about.
If you are going for interactions with Sanguine Bond, why not try Tainted Sigil, or a Loxodon Warhammer? I also like Death Cloud in black decks, and it works well with the sigil as well.
As for the Reverse the Sands question, I believe that any time life totals change it is considered a gain when it goes up and a loss when it goes down. Magister Sphinx may be an example of this.
Note that this isnt a net gain or loss as the rulings for Tainted Sigil will show you.
All that said, Reverse the Sands probably isnt a great choice because the deck looks like it is supposed to gain a bunch of life, and sands will only be good if your deck has gone terribly wrong.
Thank you for the clarification, and for the card ideas! I had not even thought of Tainted Sigil. The other suggested ones were good as well, but due to this deck being spell intensive and light on creatures, had found the Hammer and the Cloud a bit less effective. If only Lifelink still stacked~
Anyhow, drew out some good results with this deck so far, Sorrin Markov then Sigil works well while having one of the 'win the game at your upkeep' cards when you have high enough life. Also Sigil helps prevent a harsh alpha-strike from players.
Been having the white/black combo stuck in my head for a while, and finally got an idea out into deck form. Tried to make a good mix of gaining life/making my opponents loose life and board control.
Anything named after them is good ;-) Curse of the Cabal - incredible fun to suspend, and out-of-nowhere insta-death when hardcast.
(But be warned, I've suspended this and then had my opp cast Ivory Mask the turn before it resolved. That hurt)
Cabal Conditioning - this should wipe your opponents' hands quite effectively, assuming they can't nuke all your perms in response ;-)
A favourite black card of mine, Imp's Mischief. Did me well in a game where I was about to be hit with Curse of the Cabal, and was worth the 10 life.
I usually kick it turn 5-6 on average in my Marrow-Gnawer deck, with either Extraplanar Lens or Gauntlet of Power in play. Tutor's help a lot to pull it out, and when you are playing against some EDH decks where they only have 12 'worthy' creatures, the others all being weenies with abilities worth putting in, it's been a game winner each time. Now the only flaw there is that while I design my decks more suited for multiplayer, they only do 1v1s around here, so I don't think Sacrament is that great in multiplayer, maybe for taking out 1 opponent, but you'll make enemies fast.
I will have to look into what has indeed happened to my Patriarch's Bidding from this list. It is in my list of cards that I needed to get, and traded to get it last Friday. I should be getting the final cards I need for this deck in a few days, and hope laying them all out will show where my error is.
Was playing a 5 way game, 2 already dead at this point, and had a large mass of lands (14) and quite a few enchantments (4). Also had down Helm of Obedience, and 5 creatures that were not mine, taken with Helm. One of my opponents suspends Curse of the Cabal, he couldn't hard cast it because I had been destroying his land, and all 5 creatures I have were from his deck, so he's hating me right now. My other opponent isn't much of a worry, he was the target of both the other now dead opponents. The only enchantment of mine that is worth mentioning that was in play, is Greater Auramancy. In my hand, I am holding Imp's Mischief, Idyllic Tutor, and Damnation. Not really worth clearing the board, as I have the most creatures, most of them are not my creatures.
On my turn, I draw Vesuva and play my Idyllic Tutor, been holding onto it most of the game, and right now I needed a little enchantment combo, but could only pull out the first half, which I grabbed Karmic Justice. If I was going to loose half my perms, he was going to loose them all. After that, I play Vesuva, copying the other opponents Kor Haven, just to destroy it, and I already delt with his Maze of Ith earlier.
Things go rather slowly, they both play creatures as a defense, no one wants to make a drastic move just yet, waiting for Curse to go off. I draw a Demonic Tutor, one of 2 cards I was hoping for; Being the last search effect I had left that put a card into my left, the other was the card I wanted to search for, Sacred Ground. So I play Sacred Ground, suddenly my opponents aren't feeling too happy.
Now it's the player's turn with Curse of the Cabal. There is no point in making it delay itself, as they can't deal with my Sacred Ground and Karmic Justice combo. And now that it is going off, he'd be foolish to target himself, needing his creatures and land both, targeting me has gone out of the question, so he has to target the other guy, who doesn't have a whole lot of creatures left, but a good land collection, and his only partial ally right now. Sadly, he had to target the other guy, even sadder I was still sitting on my Imp's Mischief, and more than willing to sacrifice 10 life to put most of my lands into my graveyard, returning them untapped, and destroying all but 3 of his lands, 3 that need a colourless to activate them, or they produce nothing.
I ended up alpha-striking the guy with the perms left, and he couldn't stop all of it, then leaving me with an opponent with 4 cards in hand, and 3 land that couldn't make mana.
Ok, wow, Sadistic Sacrament is going in, so Cranial Extraction is going out. For 1 less mana, 3 times the cards, and I don't have to name them, just search and pluck. Also, if I pay 7 more, so 10 total, I get 15 cards!!! The only draw back is I can't pluck from their hands or graveyards.
Other options for taking out are the Gnat Miser and Locust Miser, as they don't really do much late game, and if someone plans on having a lot of cards, they will have effects to have no handsize limit, thus making them plain rats. And Cauldron of Souls has more use now if I were to add in Death Pits of Rath; Infected Vermin and its ability are a good way to whipe the board, even of shroud creatures, and Cauldron of Souls could at least save some of mine.
Re-uploading the deck as it stands now. Most recent change was removing Patriarch's Bidding for the fact that I mostly will not be keeping my rats in the graveyard already, and added in Overwhelming Forces, a much better Decree of Pain, and very easily the costly card of the set for me... but I feel it's impact on the functionality of the deck cannot be denied. Just the other day, I barely won because top decked Decree of Pain, and luckily got a land to play a creature I drew, making sure an Elspeth didn't crack in a couple turns. It would have been better to keep the creatures I already had to ensure that better.
I need to remove 1, or maybe 2 cards from my deck. Was hoping to get some suggestions.
Thinking it over, I might want to keep Goryo's Vengeance and get rid of Profane Command. It would help to have me pull a creature with haste from the graveyard with Goryo's Vengeance and then Hatred him for a kill. I think I have enough kill and raise effects to not need Profane.
Again I merged these posts due to someone having responded to the thread between the time I first noticed the issue and the time I got around to dealing with the issue. I don't want to stifle discussion, so I decided to merge the posts instead of deleting them.
~~ DC
Funny. I was just thinking to myself that I like soldiers, I don't like paying for an exorbitant manabase, and I'd love an EDH deck. So Darien seemed like an ideal place to start... and here I look and there's a deck! Now, I had previously made some budget restrictions for myself ($100 total, max $5 per card) which are going to immediately invalidate a few cards, despite how good Elspeth is in this deck. But if you don't mind, I may steal a few cards from your build (though, to be honest, we already had a bit of overlap) in making my budget EDH deck.
Not a problem! Elspeth is one of those cards that if I didn't own, I'd not consider putting her in a deck (hence why none of my decks have old fetch lands or original dual lands), so I understand the price limits. If you'd choose to take some things out, I can understand many probably don't share my love for equipments, and nor does this include any Zendikar yet, as I'm still getting to learn the set.
I hope this helps any and all who would like to work on Soldier EDH decks, and I can't really claim any 'ideas' for my own, MTG made the cards, I just pulled the ones I liked
Another cheap removal would be Path to Exile.
I also take it by the cost comment that Planeswalker cards a bit out of the question for adding?
A bit of an upgrade for Confiscate could be Blatant Thievery. For only U more, you get to do it to every opponent of yours, and in multiplayer EDH, that usually turns out nicely. If you are playing single player, in the very least you get a permanent where they cannot destroy the enchantment to get it back.
1: Snow-Covered Swamp
2: Snow-Covered Swamp
3: Last Breath
4: Storm Herd
5: Needlebite Trap
6: Alabaster Potion
-- In --
1: Snow-Covered Plains
2: Caves of Koilos
3: Path to Exile
4: Lumicarch Ascension
5: Wound Reflection
6: Bloodghast
Thank you for the clarification, and for the card ideas! I had not even thought of Tainted Sigil. The other suggested ones were good as well, but due to this deck being spell intensive and light on creatures, had found the Hammer and the Cloud a bit less effective. If only Lifelink still stacked~
Anyhow, drew out some good results with this deck so far, Sorrin Markov then Sigil works well while having one of the 'win the game at your upkeep' cards when you have high enough life. Also Sigil helps prevent a harsh alpha-strike from players.
1: Ebony Charm
2: Reanimate
3: Snow-Covered Plains
4: Snow-Covered Swamp
5: Snow-Covered Swamp
-- In --
1: Maze of Ith
2: Sensei's Divining Top
3: Tainted Sigil
4: Urborg
5: Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Ghost Council of Orzhova
Creatures x 21
1 Agent of Masks
1 Angel of Despair
1 Atalya, Samite Master
1 Baneslayer Angel
1 Blind Hunter
1 Bloodghast
1 Deathbringer Liege
1 Divinity of Pride
1 Eight-and-a-Half-Tails
1 Felidar Sovereign
1 Flayed Nim
1 Infectious Horror
1 Knight of Meadowgrain
1 Maga, Traitor to Mortals
1 Magus of the Mirror
1 Skeletal Vampire
1 Stillmoon Cavalier
1 Teysa, Orzhov Scion
1 Vampire Nighthawk
1 Wall of Reverence
1 Yosei, the Morning Star
Enchantments x 9
1 Bloodchief Ascension
1 Cradle of Vitality
1 Debtors' Knell
1 Faith's Fetters
1 Luminarch Ascension
1 Phyrexian Arena
1 Sanguine Bond
1 Test of Endurance
1 Wound Reflection
1 Beacon of Immortality
1 Chastise
1 Condemn
1 Exile
1 False Cure
1 Hatred
1 Imp's Mischief
1 Insidious Dreams
1 Mortify
1 Path to Exile
1 Sun's Bounty
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Zealous Persecution
Sorceries x 12
1 Bond of Agony
1 Death Grasp
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Pain's Reward
1 Plague of Vermin
1 Profane Command
1 Promise of Power
1 Solemn Offering
1 Swallowing Plague
1 Temporal Extortion
1 Terashi's Grasp
1 Vindicate
1 Coalition Relic
1 Darksteel Ingot
1 Orzhov Signet
1 Quietus Spike
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Skullclamp
1 Sol Ring
1 Tainted Sigil
Planeswalkers x 1
1 Sorin Markov
Lands x 34
1 Ancient Tomb
1 Cave of Koilos
1 Fetid Heath
1 Godless Shrine
1 Marsh Flats
1 Maze of Ith
1 Orzhov Basilica
1 Tainted Field
1 Urbog
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Volrath's Stronghold
12 Snow-Covered Plains
11 Snow-Covered Swamp
1: Ebony Charm
2: Reanimate
3: Snow-Covered Plains
4: Snow-Covered Swamp
5: Snow-Covered Swamp
-- In --
1: Maze of Ith
2: Sensei's Divining Top
3: Tainted Sigil
4: Urborg
5: Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1: Snow-Covered Swamp
2: Snow-Covered Swamp
3: Last Breath
4: Storm Herd
5: Needlebite Trap
6: Alabaster Potion
-- In --
1: Snow-Covered Plains
2: Caves of Koilos
3: Path to Exile
4: Lumicarch Ascension
5: Wound Reflection
6: Bloodghast
A favourite black card of mine, Imp's Mischief. Did me well in a game where I was about to be hit with Curse of the Cabal, and was worth the 10 life.
Experiment Kraj
Mirror-Sigil Sergeant
Plaxcaster Frogling
Twilight Drover
Also Voidslime for a good counter, both Ajani Goldmane and Elspeth, Knight-Errant are good generals for Doubling Season. Also Coalition Relic is good for mana fixing/acceleration, and works better with, yet again, Doubling Season.
I will have to look into what has indeed happened to my Patriarch's Bidding from this list. It is in my list of cards that I needed to get, and traded to get it last Friday. I should be getting the final cards I need for this deck in a few days, and hope laying them all out will show where my error is.
I do agree with the removal of Helm of Obedience and Leyline of the Void, and may add in Cairn Wanderer or Skeletal Changeling, but again, will have to see just how many cards I am off by.
On my turn, I draw Vesuva and play my Idyllic Tutor, been holding onto it most of the game, and right now I needed a little enchantment combo, but could only pull out the first half, which I grabbed Karmic Justice. If I was going to loose half my perms, he was going to loose them all. After that, I play Vesuva, copying the other opponents Kor Haven, just to destroy it, and I already delt with his Maze of Ith earlier.
Things go rather slowly, they both play creatures as a defense, no one wants to make a drastic move just yet, waiting for Curse to go off. I draw a Demonic Tutor, one of 2 cards I was hoping for; Being the last search effect I had left that put a card into my left, the other was the card I wanted to search for, Sacred Ground. So I play Sacred Ground, suddenly my opponents aren't feeling too happy.
Now it's the player's turn with Curse of the Cabal. There is no point in making it delay itself, as they can't deal with my Sacred Ground and Karmic Justice combo. And now that it is going off, he'd be foolish to target himself, needing his creatures and land both, targeting me has gone out of the question, so he has to target the other guy, who doesn't have a whole lot of creatures left, but a good land collection, and his only partial ally right now. Sadly, he had to target the other guy, even sadder I was still sitting on my Imp's Mischief, and more than willing to sacrifice 10 life to put most of my lands into my graveyard, returning them untapped, and destroying all but 3 of his lands, 3 that need a colourless to activate them, or they produce nothing.
I ended up alpha-striking the guy with the perms left, and he couldn't stop all of it, then leaving me with an opponent with 4 cards in hand, and 3 land that couldn't make mana.
Hall of the Bandit Lord is also for mana, I do only have 34 land... but I guess additional Snow-Covered Swamps would be better.
Other options for taking out are the Gnat Miser and Locust Miser, as they don't really do much late game, and if someone plans on having a lot of cards, they will have effects to have no handsize limit, thus making them plain rats. And Cauldron of Souls has more use now if I were to add in Death Pits of Rath; Infected Vermin and its ability are a good way to whipe the board, even of shroud creatures, and Cauldron of Souls could at least save some of mine.
So how do these changes sound;
In:
Death Pits of Rath
Reiver Demon
Sadistic Sacrament
Snow-Covered Swamp
Out:
Cranial Extraction
Gnat Miser
Locust Miser
Rotting Rats
I had to look into adding more land, so taking out a few cards, and thinking of removing:
Duplicant
Imprison
For 2 more Snow-Covered Swamps.
Due to Lake of the Dead not hindering my Extraplanar Lens and Gauntlet of Power, I am swapping it out for another Snow-Covered Swamp.
1 Marrow-Gnawer
// Rat Specific Creatures (17)
1 Chittering Rats
1 Crypt Rats
1 Diseased Vermin
1 Infected Vermin
1 Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni
1 Kuro's Taken
1 Nezumi Graverobber
1 Nezumi Ronin
1 Nezumi Shortfang
1 Okiba-Gang Shinobi
1 Pestilence Rats
1 Ratcatcher
1 Ravenous Rats
1 Skullsnatcher
1 Stronghold Rats
1 Swarm of Rats
1 Throat Slitter
// Other Helpful Creatures (7)
1 Avatar of Woe
1 Balthor the Defiled
1 Chainer, Dementia Master
1 Coffin Queen
1 Korlash, Heir to Blackblade
1 Reiver Demon
1 Solemn Simulacrum
// Creature Re-Animation (7)
1 Beacon of Unrest
1 Goryo's Vengeance
1 Necromancy
1 Living Death
1 Profane Command
1 Rise from the Grave
1 Victimize
1 Altar of Shadows
1 Ashes to Ashes
1 Chainer's Edict
1 Cruel Revival
1 Damnation
1 Death Pits of Rath
1 Decree of Pain
1 Eradicate
1 Grave Pact
1 Hellfire
1 Overwhelming Forces
1 Ritual of the Machine
// Mana Acceleration (4)
1 Black Market
1 Extraplanar Lens
1 Gauntlet of Power
1 Sol Ring
// Card Advantage (5)
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Phyrexian Arena
1 Scroll Rack
1 Skullclamp
1 Sensei's Divining Top
// Other Effects (6)
1 Cauldron of Souls
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Rings of Brighthearth
1 Riptide Replicator
1 Sadistic Sacrament
1 Soul Foundry
1 Leyline of the Void
1 Helm of Obedience
1 Thornbite Staff
// Planeswalkers (1)
1 Liliana Vess
// Lands (37)
1 Arena
1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
1 Cabal Coffers
1 Crypt of Agadeem
1 Maze of Ith
1 Strip Mine
1 Swarmyard
1 Temple of the False God
1 Thawing Glaciers
1 Urborg
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Vesuva
1 Volrath's Stronghold
1 Wasteland
23 Snow-Covered Swamp
Re-uploading the deck as it stands now. Most recent change was removing Patriarch's Bidding for the fact that I mostly will not be keeping my rats in the graveyard already, and added in Overwhelming Forces, a much better Decree of Pain, and very easily the costly card of the set for me... but I feel it's impact on the functionality of the deck cannot be denied. Just the other day, I barely won because top decked Decree of Pain, and luckily got a land to play a creature I drew, making sure an Elspeth didn't crack in a couple turns. It would have been better to keep the creatures I already had to ensure that better.
I need to remove 1, or maybe 2 cards from my deck. Was hoping to get some suggestions.
1 Marrow-Gnawer
// Rat Specific Creatures (17)
1 Chittering Rats
1 Crypt Rats
1 Diseased Vermin
1 Infected Vermin
1 Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni
1 Kuro's Taken
1 Nezumi Graverobber
1 Nezumi Ronin
1 Nezumi Shortfang
1 Okiba-Gang Shinobi
1 Pestilence Rats
1 Ratcatcher
1 Ravenous Rats
1 Skullsnatcher
1 Stronghold Rats
1 Swarm of Rats
1 Throat Slitter
// Other Helpful Creatures (7)
1 Avatar of Woe
1 Balthor the Defiled
1 Chainer, Dementia Master
1 Coffin Queen
1 Korlash, Heir to Blackblade
1 Reiver Demon
1 Solemn Simulacrum
// Creature Re-Animation (7)
1 Beacon of Unrest
1 Goryo's Vengeance
1 Necromancy
1 Living Death
1 Profane Command
1 Rise from the Grave
1 Victimize
1 Altar of Shadows
1 Ashes to Ashes
1 Chainer's Edict
1 Cruel Revival
1 Damnation
1 Death Pits of Rath
1 Decree of Pain
1 Eradicate
1 Grave Pact
1 Hellfire
1 Overwhelming Forces
1 Ritual of the Machine
// Mana Acceleration (4)
1 Black Market
1 Extraplanar Lens
1 Gauntlet of Power
1 Sol Ring
// Card Advantage (5)
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Phyrexian Arena
1 Scroll Rack
1 Skullclamp
1 Sensei's Divining Top
// Other Effects (6)
1 Cauldron of Souls
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Rings of Brighthearth
1 Riptide Replicator
1 Sadistic Sacrament
1 Soul Foundry
1 Leyline of the Void
1 Helm of Obedience
1 Thornbite Staff
// Planeswalkers (1)
1 Liliana Vess
// Lands (37)
1 Arena
1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
1 Cabal Coffers
1 Crypt of Agadeem
1 Maze of Ith
1 Strip Mine
1 Swarmyard
1 Temple of the False God
1 Thawing Glaciers
1 Urborg
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Vesuva
1 Volrath's Stronghold
1 Wasteland
23 Snow-Covered Swamp
Help, please.
Thinking it over, I might want to keep Goryo's Vengeance and get rid of Profane Command. It would help to have me pull a creature with haste from the graveyard with Goryo's Vengeance and then Hatred him for a kill. I think I have enough kill and raise effects to not need Profane.
Again I merged these posts due to someone having responded to the thread between the time I first noticed the issue and the time I got around to dealing with the issue. I don't want to stifle discussion, so I decided to merge the posts instead of deleting them.
~~ DC
Not a problem! Elspeth is one of those cards that if I didn't own, I'd not consider putting her in a deck (hence why none of my decks have old fetch lands or original dual lands), so I understand the price limits. If you'd choose to take some things out, I can understand many probably don't share my love for equipments, and nor does this include any Zendikar yet, as I'm still getting to learn the set.
I hope this helps any and all who would like to work on Soldier EDH decks, and I can't really claim any 'ideas' for my own, MTG made the cards, I just pulled the ones I liked