MTG Salvation

I have been working on Sek'Kuar for a while now, my first list was good, but had little to no interaction with my general.

I have replaced cards until I have settled on the current list... trial and error until I came up with a list that I believe will survive in most meta's

Please off any thoughts, there are some nice interactions in the deck




I want to replace both panorama's for better utility lands that can be used to increase the overall depth of the deck, like the stronghold

any suggestions would be good


IN'S:

+1 Rix Maadi, Dungeon Palace
+1 High Market
+1 Bloodghast
+1 Perilous Forays

OUT'S:

-1 Naya Panorama
-1 Jund Panorama
-1 Squee, Goblin Nabob
-1 Violent Ultimatum

Looks like a fun deck. The first thing I looked for was Vicious Shadows of course

Phyrexian Tower and High Market would probably be worth the land slots for sac outlets to trigger pacts/prevent theft & tucking.

I don't have cut suggestions, but I'll offer the standard "anytime you have black" cards for consideration:
Profane Command
Exsanguinate
Sorin Markov
Black Sun's Zenith
Phyrexian Arena

And if you end up looking for more cheap sac/clamp fodder, there's always Bloodghast and Reassembling Skeleton.

Reassembling Skeleton is a must in any Sek build. Whether control, goodstuff or combo, you will need the extra blocking early on in a lot of metas, and lategame it's just pure gas.

Vengeful Pharaoh is also a very underrated card that I think performs quite excellently in FFA's. He grants Buried Alive the same effect as a Ghosty Prison - that of ensuring that perfunctory attacks go elsewhere. It's exceptionally good in Sek, because in the odd event that somone actually attacks into you while it's in the GY, you've the option of gaining that extra benefit through Sek when he's replayed and sacced.

With these and the Squee you already have, Rix Maadi, Dungeon Palace is a very potent utility land.

cheers guys for the advice, its hard to put any extra creatures in the deck at the moment, although I do see the point of Vengeful Pharaoh, he would be an excellent addition to the deck

the skeleton i am not sure on, i am pretty active turns 3-7 and dont really wish to be spending mana recurring, rather trying to gain some board presence.

High Market, awesome choice and will be going straight into the list

so will, Rix Maadi, Dungeon Palace... I have found squee to be less useful late game and a constant discard outlet would be excellent

again thank you for looking at the list, and the advice has been helpful

Bloodghast is also totally amazing in the list. I use it with all of the sac outlets and it is a champ at pumping out tokens with the commander.

Perilous Forays works amazingly with Bloodghast as it just makes a great loop that for 1 mana you ramp a land and spawn a token off you commander. It is also solid with Reassembling Skeleton as it ramps quite well still.

Insurrection I love this thing especially if you have a lot of sac outlets as you steal everything and beat people's faces in then grind all the creatures through your sac outlet and spawn 3/1 tokens off of them.

Natural Affinity if you or someone else wraths with your commander in play you can flip this card and just game over everyone by mass LD that spawns 3/1s off of your lands. Really fun trick but sort of mean.

Goblin Bombardment I absolutely love this card with Reassembling Skeleton. It is sort of like a psudo Fireball as you pay 2 mana per damage you want to throw out. It is a good sac outlet for sure.

I had Perilous Forays in the list to begin with, the same as bloodghast but i wasn't happy with either the way they performed.

bloodghast uses 2 BB early on and can't block, so bye bye bloodghast

and Perilous Forays, wasn't as good a sac mechanic as I was hoping for... as I was tapped out alot of times on my turn and couldn't sac in response to theft

Nether Traitor was the card I finally settled on as it can go inifite with, phyrexian altar - golgari germination or sek'kuar, deathkeeper out

used to unload a huge wave, mill out with Geth, I also wanted and Exsanguinate for that reason, little life gain can't hurt right... the only card I would think of taking out of the list would be violent ultimatum

Quote from ELSE83

I had Perilous Forays in the list to begin with, the same as bloodghast but i wasn't happy with either the way they performed.

bloodghast uses 2 BB early on and can't block, so bye bye bloodghast

and Perilous Forays, wasn't as good a sac mechanic as I was hoping for... as I was tapped out alot of times on my turn and couldn't sac in response to theft

Nether Traitor was the card I finally settled on as it can go inifite with, phyrexian altar - golgari germination or sek'kuar, deathkeeper out

used to unload a huge wave, mill out with Geth, I also wanted and Exsanguinate for that reason, little life gain can't hurt right... the only card I would think of taking out of the list would be violent ultimatum

I am not trying to come off as an ass, but when playing a deck that centers around attrition and sacrifice effects, your main goal is to not tap out. You want to protect those resources and get the abilities off. The reason the Forays is good in Sek, is that you are 2 for 1ing yourself in the retrieval of a land along side a 3/1 dork. To me, that is worth leaving some mana open for and through ramp you can get this engine going early enough in the game to compensate for leaving a mana or two untapped early on and not playing the spells you may have wanted to. My Sek deck was about the grind, so early game plays where spent ramping and dropping the non-threatening stuff. Bloodghast + Forays + Amulet of Vigor was a combo that I pulled off far to many times with my build. Bloodghasts role in your deck is not to block, he is an engine, an enabler. I suppose that early enough in the game he could swing for a few turns worth of damage, but in the long run his self recurring ability is what you should be exploiting if you decide to run him.

Phyrexian Altar was other shinning piece in my old build. As was Homura, Human Ascendant coming down with a dedicated sac outlet turns your little army into a scary, scary thing.

I hope this come off as helpful, the way that I intended it to, and not snarky or condescending.

End of Line

Quote from Tylert_fr

Command people... if you play Endrek sahr, master breeder, you HAVE to play Tar Fiend!!
What's better than Putting 34 points of power on the table (6 3/1 elementals and 1 16/16 tar fiend) and discarding the whole hand of your opponent?

The general's ability only procs off of nontoken creatures. You get the fatty tar fiend, but you don't get the elementals.

I have to agree that, I think you're undervaluing Bloodghast in a deck that has lots of sac/gy triggers. Sure, it would be nice if he could block, but he's mainly there to die, then die again for free every turn. An early game ghast with skullclamp ensures massive card advantage for the duration of the game. And with fetchlands, he can often die multiple times in a turn to kill people with Vic Shadows, kill off threats with Grave Pact, or just multiple trigger your commander. He can even provide very good ramp if Ashnods Altar is in play. And all of this is for FREE every turn you drop a land. You can't get much more efficient than that.

I honestly think that you should give him another trial period, you may very well change your mind about him.

ok they are fair reasons to include bloodghast but then what to take out, the only reasonable option would be squee for my thinking, perform similar roles in the deck although through discussions it seems that bloodghast would provide more for the deck than squee will

so I will trail the swap

A secondary trial of perilous forays seems like it needs to occur, with bloodghast in the deck it seems that perilous forays should be back in there.

you have convinced me try it against

good references also Rhapsody & Blackjack68

I am hoping that the deck looks a little better, with the advice given by forum members... i have made the inclusions suggested and the deck seems to have just ticked up a touch

anymore suggustions?