I've been trying to make a G/B zombie deck with descendants path. unholy grotto + gravecrawlers/mutavaults + descendants path is pretty sick. Vengeful pharoah is also really ridiculous with descendants path.
bloodghasts arent zombies. While they are one of my favorite creature cards, they do not fit in this deck. neither does skithiryx. infect has no place in this deck.
4 cavern of souls is really bad when you have a lot of 1cc black non-creature spells. I would remove 1-2 of them and replace them with urborgs. Lotus petals don't belong here. 4 lotus petals + 4 dark rituals = way too many temporary mana producers.
I think Avacyn will be B/W. Its hard to ignore the whole "goth" look she has. Black lipstick, heavy black eyeliner/eyeshadow, and all black clothing. An all white angel does not wear any of that.
I have a deck very similar to this. While it has pretty much all the combo elements you have, it tries to stay focused more on abusing +1/+1 counters and generating huge amounts of tokens that can be sacrificed. Every creature card i chose has at least one of the following conditions: it creates a lot of +1/+1 counters, it creates an overall +x/+x effect to all my creatures, it creates a lot of tokens easily without a condition such as tapping or a mana cost more than 1, it has a kick ass ETB ability, or is a game winner. All of these conditions have huge synergy with ghave decks for obvious reasons. Now onto my recommendations:
get rid of cards that don't follow the synergy or are too conditional:
- dauntless escort: helps against a wipe, but thats it. too conditional. no synergy.
- hex parasite: your general's purpose is to remove counters. redundant.
- karador, ghost chieftan. too slow. can only use his ability once a turn.
- genesis. too slow, can only use his ability once a turn.
- knight of the reliquiary. not as good as captain sisay.
- rhys, the redeemed. dies too easily. kind of a win more card.
- teya, orzhov scion. only useful when comboing, but doesn't win you the game.
the mother of all cards you should have in this deck:birthing pod
Its a sac outlet, a creature tutor, and gives you ridiculous card advantage if you have a good board. works really well with ETB creatures. Cards liek volrath's stronghold and mistveil plains makes sure you always have fuel for it. I cannot stress enough how ridiculous this card is.
- sword of feast and famine. while this card is amazing, it isn't that great in this deck. I'd rather have seedborn muse as a creature that can be grabbed in more efficiently with stuff like birthing pod.
Cards that punish opponents when you sac things are amazing. You are going to sacrifice a million tokens when you play this deck. Having cards that punish your opponents when you do this is just flat out crazy. You have butcher of malakir and savra, queen of the golgari. You are missing grave pact and martyr's bond. These cards pretty much act as a semi-permanent board wipes for just your opponents. There's really no need to have any board wipe cards in this deck because these act as a one-sided board wipe against all your opponents. Attrition is an amazing sac outlet for these types of cards. provides constant targeted removal.
- worldly tutor. way too slow for only getting a creature. This goes on top of your library (not even in your hand) vs the other 2 that come into play.
If you're looking for more recursion, I would look at nim deathmantle and/or mimic vat. mimic vat is really good with creatures with ETB effects. nim deathmantle is also good with ETB effects as well as keeping your dudes alive.
How often do you hardcast a titan vs podding or recurring them in? Also, phyrexian tower makes it much easier to get black mana. 3 black shouldn't be that hard mid to late game unless you're facing a deck with a lot of mana denial.
As for stability with creatures coming back, you do have a point. However, considering more than 50% of your creatures would quality for undying, I think that might be worth it. I'll playtest and see.
Ok, so I playtested this card more. It is really ridiculous once you have board position, but if its the only guy out, its not so good. It's a win more card. I can see this as a 1 of SB card against UR tempo, death and taxes, and maverick considering the amount of humans that are in them.
Triple black in a tri-color deck... I'm not personally going down that road. The "non-human" interaction cancels out not only Witness, but Explorer and Rector as well. Grave Titan's trigger is always going to work.
How often do you hardcast a titan vs podding or recurring them in? Also, phyrexian tower makes it much easier to get black mana. 3 black shouldn't be that hard mid to late game unless you're facing a deck with a lot of mana denial.
As for stability with creatures coming back, you do have a point. However, considering more than 50% of your creatures would quality for undying, I think that might be worth it. I'll playtest and see.
1. he buffs up most creatures in our deck. deranged hermits now make 3/3 squirrels with him out. Let deranged hermit die from echo, have him come back with 4 more squirrels. 2. He brings most of our dudes back with undying (yeah yeah, eternal witness wont come back). Most of our dudes have ETB affects, which makes this even more powerful. Who cares about 2/2 zombie fodders for recurring nightmare when we can bring our own guys back, even stronger, with ETB affects. 3. he has a neat bonus affect of killing attackers in random decks. knight of the reliquary, dark confidant, snapcaster mage, grim lavamancer, random dudes from D&T, etc. 4. He has evasion. Intimidate makes it much harder to block him.
Mikaeus has a ridiculous interaction with Ghave, Guru of Spores. Ghave can remove +1/+1 counters from creatures returning with undying and make 2/2 saproling tokens, which allows for your creatures to come back indefinitely. You can pretty much make an endless supply of tokens (provided you have the mana) with these two cards as well, since when you run out of +1/+1s you can just sac ghave with his ability and have him come back with undying.
With mikaeus not in play, ghave still allows for some solid token generation and provides a sac outlet. You can use the saprolings as blocker bate and sac them before damage to give ghave the counter back (or any other creature).
Stick in a karakas and you can use it as tech to keep your mikaeus or ghave alive and bounce stuff like emrakul and other annoying legends that might be a problem.
I think i am going to replace a grave titan with mikaeus, but I'm not really convinced with ghave. Since mikaeus was just leaked I havent done any playtesting yet. I'm not sure how I would make room for ghave.
bloodghasts arent zombies. While they are one of my favorite creature cards, they do not fit in this deck. neither does skithiryx. infect has no place in this deck.
4 cavern of souls is really bad when you have a lot of 1cc black non-creature spells. I would remove 1-2 of them and replace them with urborgs. Lotus petals don't belong here. 4 lotus petals + 4 dark rituals = way too many temporary mana producers.
you have no 2cc zombies.
get rid of cards that don't follow the synergy or are too conditional:
- dauntless escort: helps against a wipe, but thats it. too conditional. no synergy.
- hex parasite: your general's purpose is to remove counters. redundant.
- karador, ghost chieftan. too slow. can only use his ability once a turn.
- genesis. too slow, can only use his ability once a turn.
- knight of the reliquiary. not as good as captain sisay.
- rhys, the redeemed. dies too easily. kind of a win more card.
- teya, orzhov scion. only useful when comboing, but doesn't win you the game.
+ scavenging ooze. you have no graveyard removal. gives counters.
+ twilight drover. creates tokens and counters.
+ falkenrath noble. creates huge life swings. game winner when comboing out.
+ captian sisay. imo better than knight. can fetch savra, queen of the golgari + gaea's cradle + other stuff.
+ mycoloth. this guy is just nuts. Tokens and counters galore.
+ elesh norn, grand cenobite. makes your tokens huge, opponents creatures small. pretty ridiculous.
+ sheoldred, whispering one. pretty much superior to karador, ghost chieftan.
the mother of all cards you should have in this deck: birthing pod
Its a sac outlet, a creature tutor, and gives you ridiculous card advantage if you have a good board. works really well with ETB creatures. Cards liek volrath's stronghold and mistveil plains makes sure you always have fuel for it. I cannot stress enough how ridiculous this card is.
- sword of feast and famine. while this card is amazing, it isn't that great in this deck. I'd rather have seedborn muse as a creature that can be grabbed in more efficiently with stuff like birthing pod.
+ birthing pod
Cards that punish opponents when you sac things are amazing. You are going to sacrifice a million tokens when you play this deck. Having cards that punish your opponents when you do this is just flat out crazy. You have butcher of malakir and savra, queen of the golgari. You are missing grave pact and martyr's bond. These cards pretty much act as a semi-permanent board wipes for just your opponents. There's really no need to have any board wipe cards in this deck because these act as a one-sided board wipe against all your opponents. Attrition is an amazing sac outlet for these types of cards. provides constant targeted removal.
- shiekmaw. will be replaced with attrition
- sensei's divining top This card is all about efficiency. EDH doesn't care about that unless its 1v1. sylvan library is better because you can actually draw cards with the life you gain from stuff like falkenrath noble, scavenging ooze, and savra, queen of the golgari.
- austere command. I'd rather have martyr's bond for the same cc.
+ attrition
+ grave pact
+ martyr's bond
As for tutors, chord of calling is ridiculous with this deck. You should have this and/or green sun's zenith.
- worldly tutor. way too slow for only getting a creature. This goes on top of your library (not even in your hand) vs the other 2 that come into play.
+ chord of calling / green sun's zenith.
If you're looking for more recursion, I would look at nim deathmantle and/or mimic vat. mimic vat is really good with creatures with ETB effects. nim deathmantle is also good with ETB effects as well as keeping your dudes alive.
he states that the kaalia player destroyed the torpor orb.
However
This is true. the Sakura-tribe elder should not have been able to attack
Ok, so I playtested this card more. It is really ridiculous once you have board position, but if its the only guy out, its not so good. It's a win more card. I can see this as a 1 of SB card against UR tempo, death and taxes, and maverick considering the amount of humans that are in them.
How often do you hardcast a titan vs podding or recurring them in? Also, phyrexian tower makes it much easier to get black mana. 3 black shouldn't be that hard mid to late game unless you're facing a deck with a lot of mana denial.
As for stability with creatures coming back, you do have a point. However, considering more than 50% of your creatures would quality for undying, I think that might be worth it. I'll playtest and see.
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=384939
I think hes a better choice than grave titan.
1. he buffs up most creatures in our deck. deranged hermits now make 3/3 squirrels with him out. Let deranged hermit die from echo, have him come back with 4 more squirrels.
2. He brings most of our dudes back with undying (yeah yeah, eternal witness wont come back). Most of our dudes have ETB affects, which makes this even more powerful. Who cares about 2/2 zombie fodders for recurring nightmare when we can bring our own guys back, even stronger, with ETB affects.
3. he has a neat bonus affect of killing attackers in random decks. knight of the reliquary, dark confidant, snapcaster mage, grim lavamancer, random dudes from D&T, etc.
4. He has evasion. Intimidate makes it much harder to block him.
Mikaeus has a ridiculous interaction with Ghave, Guru of Spores. Ghave can remove +1/+1 counters from creatures returning with undying and make 2/2 saproling tokens, which allows for your creatures to come back indefinitely. You can pretty much make an endless supply of tokens (provided you have the mana) with these two cards as well, since when you run out of +1/+1s you can just sac ghave with his ability and have him come back with undying.
With mikaeus not in play, ghave still allows for some solid token generation and provides a sac outlet. You can use the saprolings as blocker bate and sac them before damage to give ghave the counter back (or any other creature).
Stick in a karakas and you can use it as tech to keep your mikaeus or ghave alive and bounce stuff like emrakul and other annoying legends that might be a problem.
I think i am going to replace a grave titan with mikaeus, but I'm not really convinced with ghave. Since mikaeus was just leaked I havent done any playtesting yet. I'm not sure how I would make room for ghave.
what do you guys think?