When first taking a look at Sek'Kuar, Deathkeeper a few things immediately become obvious.
-The first is his synergy with sacrifice effects, as he provides you with another fresh body whenever you sac one of your(hopefully many)nontoken creatures.
-The second is his how open ended he is. Because he does not care how your creature died he allows you to take your deck in a multitude of directions to suit your playstyle. For this build I've chosen to go the sacrifice/recursion/combo route, but I can see everything from midrange and control to aggro and dedicated combo being viable.
-The third is his ridiculously awesome and fitting flavour. Sek'Kuar carries his title of lone legendary orc with pride.
Why Sek'Kuar?
I have long been a fan of combos in Magic, especially those of the infinite kind and particularly in EDH. In fact, it was one of the reasons I first became interested in the game. Going infinite holds a special allure to me, and when I get to go through the motions of a combo I'm at my happiest.
Similarly, another thing I've always loved in magic is synergy. I like my cards interacting with each other to form something greater than the sum of their parts. Good stuff decks are not for me.
You can imagine my joy when I discovered Sek'Kuar while browsing this very website. Here was a general with the possibility of combining two of my very favourite things, combos and synergy, with creatures, a card type I've always liked, but never quite clicked with. After reading every thread about Sek'Kuar I could find on this forum, combining the ideas I found there with a few pet cards of my own and tweaking it I ended up with the list you see here.
The deck aims to hang back while controlling the game until we've either buried our opponent in synergistic card advantage or ended the game with a combo. The first few turns will typically be spent ramping and not doing much until we find the pieces to really get us rolling. Some things to note about the deck:
-You don't need to be afraid of committing to the board. We pack plenty of recursion and our general makes us resistant enough to sweepers that we seldom have an issue rebuilding. This also means you can go "all in" on sacrifices sooner than you'd think.
-Time is on our side. We have enough combos and tutors that we will eventually draw one. We only need to stay alive long enough, which can admittedly be a little tricky if our opponents wise up and put pressure on us.
-Many times you will find yourself with two thirds of a combo in hand or not enough mana to play everything. In these situations it's almost always better to not play any of the pieces and instead try to play the whole combo during a later turn, provided you have enough time. People get nervous if you sit with Melira and a persist creature in play. Taking the whole table by surprise is preferable to getting ganged up on because you showed them how close to dying they are.
-Don't feel like you're forced to combo to win. Swinging for 15+ with graveborns is fairly easy and can take people of guard. People forget how big the graveborns are. More importantly they forget the tokens have haste. Be sure to take advantage of unwise attacks your opponents make because they didn't bother reading your general carefully.
Discussion of Individual Cards
Creatures
-Grave Titan is a solid beater while also being part of a combo. He's a bit expensive and not terribly synergistic with the deck, as I only have one way to make use of the infinite colorless mana the combo provides. I'll likely replace him once I find something better, but I need to test with him a bit more.
-Sepulchral Primordial and Molten Primordial are both very excellent creatures. Sepulchral in particular can really do some nasty stuff when the graves are well stocked. Triggering either one of them multiple times through the use of Mimic Vat or Nim Deathmantle is just silly.
-Dimir House Guard is a sac. outlet when I need one and a tutor when I don't. A lot of the good stuff in the deck cost 4 mana.
-Viscera Seer is in the deck for when I need a cheap sac. outlet to go off. He's not very great unless I'm doing that, though the utility he provides is worth it I feel.
Artifacts
-Both Mimic Vat andNim Deathmantle were practically made for this deck. The Vat allows you to milk ridiculous amounts of value from anything that dies and Nim Deathmantle does the same, while also saving valuable creatures and granting evasion. I would not even consider playing the deck without these cards.
-Ashnod's Altar synergies really well with Nim Deathmantle and any creature with an ETB trigger while simultaneously being a fine sac. outlet and source of mana.
-Insurrection is here to win games, and that it does admirably.
Notable Combos and Synergies
There are numerous combos and neat interactions in the deck. I will only mention the most important ones due to lack of space and because it's quite possible I'm not aware of them all.
Melira, Sylvok Outcast/Mikaeus, the Unhallowed + sac outlet + any persist creature = infinite sacrifices and infinite ETB triggers. It's worth noting that this doesn't work if both Melira and Mikaeus are on the battlefield.
Nim Deathmantle + Ashnod's Altar + Sepulchral Primordial/Grave Titan = infinite mana + infinite sacrifices + infinite reanimate/tokens. The Primordial combo only works if your opponents have two or more creatures in their graveyards combined(Very likely).
Add Sek'Kuar/Grave pact/Vicious Shadows/Pawn of Ulamog to any of the above combos = infinite 3/1 tokens with haste/opponents saccing infinite creatures/deal infinite damage to every opponent who has a card in hand/infinite Eldrazi Spawn.
Overall I've found Sek'Kuar to be an absolute blast to play, and he has quickly become my favourite general. I'd recommend him to anyone that loves combos, sacrificing and complex situations with lots of choices.
Comments, thoughts and suggestions are very much appreciated!
I got to play a couple of games with the deck yesterday. The first game I managed to win with Mikaeus + Woodfall Primus through a fair amount of disprution due to a missplay from an opponent, and the second game I managed to lose because I tried to play Demonic Tutor for Revelation a turn too early. Sucks to lose that way, but valuable lessons were learned.
I also managed to acquire a Skullclamp that I'm going to try and fit in. Any suggestions on what to cut for it?
Another thing I've been thinking of doing is working in more stealing type effects in the deck. The cards I've been considering are Conquering Manticore, Zealous Conscripts, and if I can find one; Willow Satyr. Do you think this is a change worth doing, and if so; which of these cards should I add and which cards should I cut?
I've decided to cut Goblin Assassin to fit in Skullclamp. The Assassin just hasn't been doing anything and I feel disappointed whenever I draw him. Coupled with his high mana cost he's an easy cut, despite how hilarious he is. Skullclamp should improve the deck's consistency a fair bit while lowering the curve.
The more I think about Melira the more I want to cut her. She's just a dead draw when I'm not trying to combo off and she often sits in my hand not doing much. I'm just not too happy about running such a narrow card. I'd much rather have a generally useful card instead. She's probably going out of the deck as soon as I find a suitable replacement.
My friend runs a very heavy combo helmed by Sek'Kuar that he's been running for almost a year now and it's pretty powerful.
Are meta is very healthy and features all archetypes but we all have a wide variety of decks so combo isn't always present. But it is present a good bit because Sek'kuar is his favorite deck. We know his deck can explode and win from nowhere so we put a good bit of pressure on him. As such he runs more sweepers and spot removal. Dunno if your meta require it but it works well for him.
My friend runs a very heavy combo helmed by Sek'Kuar that he's been running for almost a year now and it's pretty powerful.
Are meta is very healthy and features all archetypes but we all have a wide variety of decks so combo isn't always present. But it is present a good bit because Sek'kuar is his favorite deck. We know his deck can explode and win from nowhere so we put a good bit of pressure on him. As such he runs more sweepers and spot removal. Dunno if your meta require it but it works well for him.
I haven't faced a great amount of pressure from the other decks yet, so I currently don't feel the need to fit in more spot removal or sweepers. This might change though, since my deck is still fairly new and it's likely my playgroup hasn't gotten used to it yet. If I do start to regularly feel more pressured I'll consider upping the removal count.
I'm not sure about Time of Need. In my list it would only get Mikaeus, the Unhallowed or Melira, Sylvok Outcast. While both of those cards are good I'm already considering cutting one of them and even if I wasn't it would still be very narrow. I already think that I run a good amount of tutors, and I don't like cutting one of those for a much narrower one. I'm just not too hot about such narrow cards in general.
He only run's a few more than that (Vorinclex, Chanier). His deck is very tutor heavy though. Which helps him get combo pieces and answers to our threats.
No Necropotence/Phyrexian Arena?
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Thanks to Heroes of the Plane for the awesome Sig.
He only run's a few more than that (Vorinclex, Chanier). His deck is very tutor heavy though. Which helps him get combo pieces and answers to our threats.
No Necropotence/Phyrexian Arena?
Vorinclex is not something I'd run. Chainer on the other hand is interesting. He would let me milk both my own and my opponents' creatures of value and provide some handy recursion. He is quite heavy on the black mana, though I do believe I have the mana base to support the card. I think I might've just found Melira's replacement.
The lack of those cards is mostly because I currently don't own any of them. I'll add Phyrexian Arena as soon as I find one. I could actually get a Necropotence if I wanted, but I'm not sure I want it. It would really paint a target on my back and the triple black cost could be tricky. I'll have to think about it.
-Melira, Sylvok Outcast, +Chainer, Dementia Master. I'd like to move away from narrow cards in general and she's about as narrow as they come. Her only use is allowing for a faster combo, and while that might occasionally be useful, she's stuck in my hand doing nothing way too often to be worth it. Chainer is much less narrow, and should be solid with more or less every creature in my deck while also taking other peoples fatties. He does require quite a bit of black mana, but that shouldn't be to big of a problem for this deck.
-Natural Affinity, +Braids, Cabal Minion. Natural Affinity is cute, and the dream of playing it in response to a wrath with Sek'Kuar on the board is hilarious, but it's far too often a dead card. Braids has excellent synergy with my disposable creatures and my sacrifice theme and I would like to try her out.
-Malevolent Awekening, +Phyrexian Reclamation. Reclamation is cheaper and less restrictive. I have plenty of sac. outlets already and the life shouldn't be a problem.
-Diabolic Revelation, +Sylvan Primordial. The revelation has proven to be very unfun to play with. Every time I draw it I feel compelled to sit back until I can tutor for a combo and win. I want my cards to be open ended and I hate feeling forced to sit and do nothing. Everything of note has already been said about SylvanP. He's just plain silly and I can't justify not running him any more. It's possible our forest count is just a wee bit too low to get max value out of him, but there's no way to find out without testing.
-Gamekeeper, +Phyrexian Delver. I'd rather have the option to get a specific creature from my yard than a random one from my library. The Delver also triggers as soon as it enters the battlefield so it's less reliant on a sac. outlet than Gamekeeper.
Harvester of Souls is pretty good with all the sacrificing of non-token creatures you want to be doing. To help your engine in general, I'd replace the non-creature ramp with more things like Farhaven Elf and Dawntreader Elk.
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You would never guess, at the terrifying sight of the man, that Hunding was as charming a companion as one could wish for.
I know you removed it, but Gamekeeper looks really interesting. I may have to add it to my Sek'kuar Deck.
Great list, I've never been a combo fan but this looks pretty solid.
It's a cool card, and the random aspect makes it especially exciting. Not doing anything until it dies is a bit annoying though, and so is hitting a Sakura-Tribe Elder on turn fourteen. If I can find some room later down the road I might try it again but for now I feel its slot is better used as something else.
And thank you. Comments like that are very motivating.
Harvester of Souls is pretty good with all the sacrificing of non-token creatures you want to be doing. To help your engine in general, I'd replace the non-creature ramp with more things like Farhaven Elf and Dawntreader Elk.
I can't believe I forgot about Harvester of Souls. It's going in as soon as I can find a copy.
I'm overly paranoid about color screw and the spell based ramp allows me to fetch multiple different lands if that would be necessary. It's probably not needed though, and more disposable bodies are always useful. I'm going to try replacing Kodama's Reach and Cultivate with Farhaven Elf and Dawntreader Elk next time I play and see how that goes.
My current EDH deck is also Jund, but I currently have Kresh the Bloodbraided as my general. My deck is similar, somewhere between this deck list and a more big fatties style. I can see this as where my EDH deck would go if I decided to go the combo route. May I suggest adding Terastodon to the list, its always funny to turn people's lands into elephants, and imprinting it with Mimic Vat is hilarious. I would also recommend adding Triskelion to combo off with Mikaeus, the Unhallowed, a combo that I eventually want to abuse in my EDH as well. You can find the decklist here.
My current EDH deck is also Jund, but I currently have Kresh the Bloodbraided as my general. My deck is similar, somewhere between this deck list and a more big fatties style. I can see this as where my EDH deck would go if I decided to go the combo route. May I suggest adding Terastodon to the list, its always funny to turn people's lands into elephants, and imprinting it with Mimic Vat is hilarious. I would also recommend adding Triskelion to combo off with Mikaeus, the Unhallowed, a combo that I eventually want to abuse in my EDH as well. You can find the decklist here.
I'm trying to limit the number of expensive cards in my list and as I already have both Woodfall Primus and Sylvan Primordial I don't think it's worth to add another high cost creature. I might experiment with running Terastodon instead of Sylvan Primordial eventually, if I find that I lack the the necessary forest count to make SP nuts.
Triskelion feels too clunky and useless on his own. I'm striving towards avoiding narrow cards as much as possible, and I don't think the cost of including him is worth the combo with Mikaeus. If I ever end up putting Tooth and Nail into the deck I might consider Triskelion, but that's not going to happen any time soon.
-Grave Titan, +Harvester of Souls. Grave Titan is just a big guy that makes small dudes. He doesn't have very much synergy with the deck at all and I never find myself tutoring for him. Harvester should be absurd with all the creatures that I sacrifice, and he even triggers from my opponents creatures!
-Krosan Grip, +Necropotence. So I finally caved in and got myself a copy of Necropotence. I don't think I need to explain how ridiculously good drawing 20+ cards is when your goal is to combo off. Krosan Grip is nice, but I haven't found it to be especially necessary. I have plenty of other ways to deal with both artifacts and enchantments.
-Darksteel Ingot, +Dawntreader Elk. I'm going to try Hunding's suggestion of replacing the non-creature ramp with creature ramp. Dawntreader Elk happened to be the only decent one I had lying around. If I don't miss the ingot and I find the increased creature count beneficial I'll go ahead and replace more of the spell based ramp with creatures.
I'm also going to a large gaming convention this weekend, where I'll hopefully get to play plenty of games with the deck. I might even be able to recount some of the more interesting ones for the thread.
Grave Pact
Skull Clamp
Sadistic Hypnotist
Nath the Gilt Leaf
Token Generation cards
...
AND
Natural Affinity (if you have a grave pact out, cast it after everything dies & the gravepacts hit the stack. Cast Natural Affinity = land destruction)
Don't forget Earthcraft
You can fill out the rest of the deck with putrefy, naturalize/gleeful sabotage, and whatever else... (eternal witness? harmonize? tangle?)
PS: Squirrel Nest is unlimited tokens with earthcraft... and mana to a certain degree
Looking at this guy for sac/rec loop deck and your decklist is inspiring me.
Another card to consider with Nim Deathmantle is Su-Chi, pays for itself! Just throw in a sac outlet like Ashnod's Altar and you have infinite colorless, or Phyrexian Altar and you have infinite any color.
The general
-The first is his synergy with sacrifice effects, as he provides you with another fresh body whenever you sac one of your(hopefully many)nontoken creatures.
-The second is his how open ended he is. Because he does not care how your creature died he allows you to take your deck in a multitude of directions to suit your playstyle. For this build I've chosen to go the sacrifice/recursion/combo route, but I can see everything from midrange and control to aggro and dedicated combo being viable.
-The third is his ridiculously awesome and fitting flavour. Sek'Kuar carries his title of lone legendary orc with pride.
Similarly, another thing I've always loved in magic is synergy. I like my cards interacting with each other to form something greater than the sum of their parts. Good stuff decks are not for me.
You can imagine my joy when I discovered Sek'Kuar while browsing this very website. Here was a general with the possibility of combining two of my very favourite things, combos and synergy, with creatures, a card type I've always liked, but never quite clicked with. After reading every thread about Sek'Kuar I could find on this forum, combining the ideas I found there with a few pet cards of my own and tweaking it I ended up with the list you see here.
1 Sek'Kuar, Deathkeeper
Game Enders
1 Insurrection
1 Sylvan Primordial
1 Sepulchral Primordial
1 Molten Primordial
Sac Outlets
1 Skullclamp
1 Goblin Bombardment
1 Ashnod's Altar
1 Viscera Seer
1 Dimir House Guards
1 Phyrexian Plaguelord
1 Sadistic Hypnotist
1 Attrition
Sacrifice Matters
1 Grave Pact
1 Vicious Shadows
1 Pawn of Ulamog
Utility/Miscellaneous
1 Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
1 Woodfall Primus
1 Braids, Cabal Minion
1 Mimic Vat
1 Murderous Redcap
1 Puppeteer Clique
1 Spike Weaver
1 Reassembling Skeleton
1 Avalanche Riders
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Gamekeeper
Spot Removal
1 Beast Within
1 Ashes to Ashes
1 Putrefy
1 Shriekmaw
1 Bone Shredder
1 Acidic Slime
1 Jokulhaups
1 Comet Storm
Recursion
1 Chainer, Dementia Master
1 Living Death
1 Eternal Witness
1 Deadwood Treefolk
1 Nim Deathmantle
1 Phyrexian Reclamation
1 Phyrexian Delver
Tutors
1 Survival of the Fittest
1 Birthing Pod
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Worldly Tutor
1 Green Sun's Zenith
1 Fierce Empath
Card Draw/Filtering
1 Necropotence
1 Sylvan Library
1 Harvester of Souls
1 Graveborn Muse
1 Yavimaya Elder
1 Wall of Blossoms
Ramp
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Wood Elves
1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
1 Skyshroud Claim
1 Kodama's Reach
1 Cultivate
1 Darksteel Ingot
Lands
1 Command Tower
1 City of Brass
1 Savage Lands
1 Exotic Orchard
1 Cavern of Souls
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Stomping Ground
1 Blood Crypt
1 Woodland Cemetery
1 Rootbound Crag
1 Dragonskull Summit
1 Twilight Mire
1 Fire-Lit Thicket
1 Graven Cairns
1 Golgari Rot Farm
1 Gruul Turf
1 Rakdos Carnarium
1 Karplusan Forest
1 Sulfurous Springs
1 Lavaclaw Reaches
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Rocky Tar Pit
1 Terramorphic Expanse
1 Evolving Wilds
1 Mosswort Bridge
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Temple of the False God
1 Winding Canyons
1 Grim Backwoods
5 Forest
4 Swamp
2 Mountain
General Strategy
-You don't need to be afraid of committing to the board. We pack plenty of recursion and our general makes us resistant enough to sweepers that we seldom have an issue rebuilding. This also means you can go "all in" on sacrifices sooner than you'd think.
-Time is on our side. We have enough combos and tutors that we will eventually draw one. We only need to stay alive long enough, which can admittedly be a little tricky if our opponents wise up and put pressure on us.
-Many times you will find yourself with two thirds of a combo in hand or not enough mana to play everything. In these situations it's almost always better to not play any of the pieces and instead try to play the whole combo during a later turn, provided you have enough time. People get nervous if you sit with Melira and a persist creature in play. Taking the whole table by surprise is preferable to getting ganged up on because you showed them how close to dying they are.
-Don't feel like you're forced to combo to win. Swinging for 15+ with graveborns is fairly easy and can take people of guard. People forget how big the graveborns are. More importantly they forget the tokens have haste. Be sure to take advantage of unwise attacks your opponents make because they didn't bother reading your general carefully.
-Sepulchral Primordial and Molten Primordial are both very excellent creatures. Sepulchral in particular can really do some nasty stuff when the graves are well stocked. Triggering either one of them multiple times through the use of Mimic Vat or Nim Deathmantle is just silly.
-Dimir House Guard is a sac. outlet when I need one and a tutor when I don't. A lot of the good stuff in the deck cost 4 mana.
-Viscera Seer is in the deck for when I need a cheap sac. outlet to go off. He's not very great unless I'm doing that, though the utility he provides is worth it I feel.
Artifacts
-Ashnod's Altar synergies really well with Nim Deathmantle and any creature with an ETB trigger while simultaneously being a fine sac. outlet and source of mana.
Enchantments
Sorceries
Notable Combos and Synergies
Melira, Sylvok Outcast/Mikaeus, the Unhallowed + sac outlet + any persist creature = infinite sacrifices and infinite ETB triggers. It's worth noting that this doesn't work if both Melira and Mikaeus are on the battlefield.
Nim Deathmantle + Ashnod's Altar + Sepulchral Primordial/Grave Titan = infinite mana + infinite sacrifices + infinite reanimate/tokens. The Primordial combo only works if your opponents have two or more creatures in their graveyards combined(Very likely).
Add Sek'Kuar/Grave pact/Vicious Shadows/Pawn of Ulamog to any of the above combos = infinite 3/1 tokens with haste/opponents saccing infinite creatures/deal infinite damage to every opponent who has a card in hand/infinite Eldrazi Spawn.
Reassembling Skeleton + Goblin Bombardment = Jerry rigged repeatable Fireball.
Nim Deathmantle/Ashnod's Altar + any creature with an ETB trigger = pay 2: get a trigger.
I also managed to acquire a Skullclamp that I'm going to try and fit in. Any suggestions on what to cut for it?
Another thing I've been thinking of doing is working in more stealing type effects in the deck. The cards I've been considering are Conquering Manticore, Zealous Conscripts, and if I can find one; Willow Satyr. Do you think this is a change worth doing, and if so; which of these cards should I add and which cards should I cut?
The more I think about Melira the more I want to cut her. She's just a dead draw when I'm not trying to combo off and she often sits in my hand not doing much. I'm just not too happy about running such a narrow card. I'd much rather have a generally useful card instead. She's probably going out of the deck as soon as I find a suitable replacement.
Are meta is very healthy and features all archetypes but we all have a wide variety of decks so combo isn't always present. But it is present a good bit because Sek'kuar is his favorite deck. We know his deck can explode and win from nowhere so we put a good bit of pressure on him. As such he runs more sweepers and spot removal. Dunno if your meta require it but it works well for him.
He also really enjoys Time of Need
Thanks to Heroes of the Plane for the awesome Sig.
Currently Playing- EDH
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Thank you for the reply!
I haven't faced a great amount of pressure from the other decks yet, so I currently don't feel the need to fit in more spot removal or sweepers. This might change though, since my deck is still fairly new and it's likely my playgroup hasn't gotten used to it yet. If I do start to regularly feel more pressured I'll consider upping the removal count.
I'm not sure about Time of Need. In my list it would only get Mikaeus, the Unhallowed or Melira, Sylvok Outcast. While both of those cards are good I'm already considering cutting one of them and even if I wasn't it would still be very narrow. I already think that I run a good amount of tutors, and I don't like cutting one of those for a much narrower one. I'm just not too hot about such narrow cards in general.
No Necropotence/Phyrexian Arena?
Thanks to Heroes of the Plane for the awesome Sig.
Currently Playing- EDH
GGGOmnath, Locus of the LifestreamGGG
BBBShirei, Lord of PoniesBBB
UWRasputin Dreamweaver, Russia's Greatest Love MachineUW
UBWZur, Killer of FunUBW
UGWTreva, Princess of CanterlotUGW
RWTajic, Master of the Reverse BladeRW
RRRZirilan, How to Train Your DragonRRR
PDH Decks
Gelectrode
Ascended Lawmage
Blaze Commando
Vorinclex is not something I'd run. Chainer on the other hand is interesting. He would let me milk both my own and my opponents' creatures of value and provide some handy recursion. He is quite heavy on the black mana, though I do believe I have the mana base to support the card. I think I might've just found Melira's replacement.
The lack of those cards is mostly because I currently don't own any of them. I'll add Phyrexian Arena as soon as I find one. I could actually get a Necropotence if I wanted, but I'm not sure I want it. It would really paint a target on my back and the triple black cost could be tricky. I'll have to think about it.
-Melira, Sylvok Outcast, +Chainer, Dementia Master. I'd like to move away from narrow cards in general and she's about as narrow as they come. Her only use is allowing for a faster combo, and while that might occasionally be useful, she's stuck in my hand doing nothing way too often to be worth it. Chainer is much less narrow, and should be solid with more or less every creature in my deck while also taking other peoples fatties. He does require quite a bit of black mana, but that shouldn't be to big of a problem for this deck.
-Natural Affinity, +Braids, Cabal Minion. Natural Affinity is cute, and the dream of playing it in response to a wrath with Sek'Kuar on the board is hilarious, but it's far too often a dead card. Braids has excellent synergy with my disposable creatures and my sacrifice theme and I would like to try her out.
Comments are very much appreciated, as always.
-Malevolent Awekening, +Phyrexian Reclamation. Reclamation is cheaper and less restrictive. I have plenty of sac. outlets already and the life shouldn't be a problem.
-Diabolic Revelation, +Sylvan Primordial. The revelation has proven to be very unfun to play with. Every time I draw it I feel compelled to sit back until I can tutor for a combo and win. I want my cards to be open ended and I hate feeling forced to sit and do nothing. Everything of note has already been said about SylvanP. He's just plain silly and I can't justify not running him any more. It's possible our forest count is just a wee bit too low to get max value out of him, but there's no way to find out without testing.
-Gamekeeper, +Phyrexian Delver. I'd rather have the option to get a specific creature from my yard than a random one from my library. The Delver also triggers as soon as it enters the battlefield so it's less reliant on a sac. outlet than Gamekeeper.
It's a cool card, and the random aspect makes it especially exciting. Not doing anything until it dies is a bit annoying though, and so is hitting a Sakura-Tribe Elder on turn fourteen. If I can find some room later down the road I might try it again but for now I feel its slot is better used as something else.
And thank you. Comments like that are very motivating.
I can't believe I forgot about Harvester of Souls. It's going in as soon as I can find a copy.
I'm overly paranoid about color screw and the spell based ramp allows me to fetch multiple different lands if that would be necessary. It's probably not needed though, and more disposable bodies are always useful. I'm going to try replacing Kodama's Reach and Cultivate with Farhaven Elf and Dawntreader Elk next time I play and see how that goes.
Special thanks to Heroes of the Plane Studios for the avatar and Inkfox Aesthetics for the sig.
Vaevictus Asmadi, Creator of [The Spirit of EDH]
EDH Decks
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I'm trying to limit the number of expensive cards in my list and as I already have both Woodfall Primus and Sylvan Primordial I don't think it's worth to add another high cost creature. I might experiment with running Terastodon instead of Sylvan Primordial eventually, if I find that I lack the the necessary forest count to make SP nuts.
Triskelion feels too clunky and useless on his own. I'm striving towards avoiding narrow cards as much as possible, and I don't think the cost of including him is worth the combo with Mikaeus. If I ever end up putting Tooth and Nail into the deck I might consider Triskelion, but that's not going to happen any time soon.
-Grave Titan, +Harvester of Souls. Grave Titan is just a big guy that makes small dudes. He doesn't have very much synergy with the deck at all and I never find myself tutoring for him. Harvester should be absurd with all the creatures that I sacrifice, and he even triggers from my opponents creatures!
-Krosan Grip, +Necropotence. So I finally caved in and got myself a copy of Necropotence. I don't think I need to explain how ridiculously good drawing 20+ cards is when your goal is to combo off. Krosan Grip is nice, but I haven't found it to be especially necessary. I have plenty of other ways to deal with both artifacts and enchantments.
-Darksteel Ingot, +Dawntreader Elk. I'm going to try Hunding's suggestion of replacing the non-creature ramp with creature ramp. Dawntreader Elk happened to be the only decent one I had lying around. If I don't miss the ingot and I find the increased creature count beneficial I'll go ahead and replace more of the spell based ramp with creatures.
I'm also going to a large gaming convention this weekend, where I'll hopefully get to play plenty of games with the deck. I might even be able to recount some of the more interesting ones for the thread.
First of all, I whish to gratz you for the primmer.
I´m with the desire to made a edh build similar to yours, and so, I have some questions for you:
why don´t you use sol ring and/or more acelaration?
some creatures to consider:
- Broodbraid Elf
- Falkenrath Aristocrat (can be a sac. and a planeswalker killer)
and how about some removal like:
- go for the throught
- diabolic edit
- abrupt decay
- dreadbore
- Lightning Bolt
and for the last
why dont you use vampiric tutor?
Inspired on your primmer i´m considering running the following list:
1 Sek'Kuar, Deathkeeper
1 Insurrection
1 Sylvan Primordial
1 sheoldred the whispering one
1 Tirano Dragão Avérneo
1 Skullclamp
1 Goblin Bombardment
1 Ashnod's Altar
1 Herege Viashino
1 Phyrexian Plaguelord
1 Sadistic Hypnotist
1 Attrition
1 Grave Pact
1 Vicious Shadows
1 Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
1 Melira, Sylvok Outcast
1 Squee, Nabobo Goblin
1 Woodfall Primus
1 Butcher of Malakir
1 Bloodghast
1 Murderous Redcap
1 Puppeteer Clique
1 Reassembling Skeleton
1 Avalanche Riders
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Swiftfoot Boots
1 Life from the Loam
1 Beast Within
1 Putrefy
1 Shriekmaw
1 Bone Shredder
1 Acidic Slime
1 Dreadbore
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Terminate
1 Jokulhaups
1 Disco de Nevinyrral
1 Damnation
1 Pernicious Deed
1 Balthor the Defiled
1 Living Death
1 Eternal Witness
1 Nim Deathmantle
1 Defense of the Heart
1 Birthing Pod
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Necropotence
1 Sylvan Library
1 Arena Phyrexiana
1 Harvester of Souls
1 Yavimaya Elder
1 Wall of Blossoms
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Wood Elves
1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
1 Skyshroud Claim
1 Kodama's Reach
1 Cultivate
1 farseek
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Llanowar Elves
1 Fyndhorn Elves
1 Sol Ring
Lands (36)
3 Forest
3 Swamp
3 Mountain
1 Taiga
1 Badlands
1 Bayou
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Stomping Ground
1 Blood Crypt
1 Woodland Cemetery
1 Rootbound Crag
1 Dragonskull Summit
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Graven Cairns
1 Fire-lit Thicket
1 Twilight Mire
1 Command Tower
1 lagoa espelhada
1 Savage Lands
1 Temple of the False God
1 Grove of the Burnwillows
1 Terramorphic Expanse
1 Evolving Wilds
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Wasteland
1 Stripmine
1 Phyrexian Tower
1 Volrath's Stronghold
any sugestions? maybe sorin?
Skull Clamp
Sadistic Hypnotist
Nath the Gilt Leaf
Token Generation cards
...
AND
Natural Affinity (if you have a grave pact out, cast it after everything dies & the gravepacts hit the stack. Cast Natural Affinity = land destruction)
Don't forget Earthcraft
You can fill out the rest of the deck with putrefy, naturalize/gleeful sabotage, and whatever else... (eternal witness? harmonize? tangle?)
PS: Squirrel Nest is unlimited tokens with earthcraft... and mana to a certain degree
Another card to consider with Nim Deathmantle is Su-Chi, pays for itself! Just throw in a sac outlet like Ashnod's Altar and you have infinite colorless, or Phyrexian Altar and you have infinite any color.
Also Bog Initiate enables a combo with Reassembling Skeleton + Ashnod's Altar.
Both of those will give you infinite sac/recursion.
UG Ezuri... since been corrupted
BRG Prossh, the Sacrifice Engine
GR Bobo, the Mad Land-chucker (retired)
GU Kruphix, Open the Valves (retired)
UU Talrand, Spell Summoner (retired)
GG Ezuri, Ready-Made Leader (retired)