MTG Salvation

As the thread title says, the purpose of this deck is the earliest possible casting of Razaketh, the Foulblooded in order to search for Mikaeus, the Unhallowed and Triskelion and hopefully cast them the same turn. Although the main wincon, if disrupted in any way, there are other things to do with the deck. It runs disruption in the form of discarding and spot removal. Most of the creatures are able to self-reanimate, which is good for consistent use of Razaketh's ability. The other creatures facilitate insane mana production. Another possible wincon is Gray Merchant of Asphodel, Maga, Traitor to Mortals, or Exsanguinate. The deck produces an insane amount of mana (albeit a non-infinite amount) so it's viable to win with Exsanguinate or Maga. This deck is not coy as to what it's purpose is. Once your opponents get wind of what you do with this deck, you may have things become countered, killed, exiled, etc. So at least there is a sense of urgency in doing things before getting disrupted.

Although an incredibly linear deck, I am posting it here because I may want to eventually build this and I want it to be resilient enough to be used efficiently and win regardless if my opponents know what's going on or not. So maybe more control and/or disruption? Maybe the self-reanimating creatures aren't all that necessary? Black is one of my favorite colors in MtG but I'm nowhere near as expect as I've seen some people here are. So hopefully any monoB experts can help me out? Anywho, without further ado, here's my current list:

How are you winning with your combo of Mikaeus and Walking Ballista? These two cards together don't form a combo. You need something to offset the static +1/+1 buff that Mikaeus provides (not the undying ability). When your ballista dies, it will come back with a +1/+1 counter on it so it will be a 2/2 because of the buff from Mikaeus. Do you plan on always sacrificing it to Razaketh? That seems like a lot of life for only 1 point of damage.

Are deciding against Triskelion because it costs 6?

Quote from WizardMN »

How are you winning with your combo of Mikaeus and Walking Ballista? These two cards together don't form a combo. You need something to offset the static +1/+1 buff that Mikaeus provides (not the undying ability). When your ballista dies, it will come back with a +1/+1 counter on it so it will be a 2/2 because of the buff from Mikaeus. Do you plan on always sacrificing it to Razaketh? That seems like a lot of life for only 1 point of damage.

Are deciding against Triskelion because it costs 6?

I use Triskelion if I have the mana. But you're right; I would have to offset Mikaeus's +1/+1 buff. Remember that I can give Walking Ballista an additional +1/+1 counter with 4. But I would need infinite mana to pull that off... Well, if I can cast both Mikaeus and Triskelion in the same turn it's pretty much GG and the main goal. I'd have to fix my original post then...

Another combo I was considering besides Mikaeus + Triskelion is Gravecrawler + Phyrexian Altar + Plague Belcher, which only requires 5BB to pull off which is cheaper than a same turn Mikaeus + Triskelion. Even then, Gravecrawler + Phyrexian Altar + Vengeful Dead in a same turn is still cheaper than a same turn Mikaeus + Triskelion.

An alternate route to getting to the Mike and Trike comboo could be Buried Alive and Victimize as it only needs 6 mana and a creature (your general perhaps?) to go off and neither of those is a bad card.

And then, if you're running Buried Alive and Triskelion/Walking Ballista, why not add in Necrotic Ooze and Phyrexian Devourer plus a couple more reanimation spells (Reanimate, Animate Dead etc.)? That's an even cheaper win (4 mana, 4 life and a high enough CMC left in your library) and good reanimation is very rarely a bad thing to have in a black deck.

Also, you're in black and have an expensive general that is highly likely to set up a win when you cast him. So, where are your rituals? Dark Ritual in particular, but also ones like Culling the Weak can be well worth it to get your general out a few turns earlier.

Caged Sun and Gaunlet of Power might be useful. Nykthos Shrine to Nyx Or you could go infinite mana with Rings of Brighthearth, Cabal Coffers, Desert Temple combo.

I like the list though it looks solid. I would definitely add Vampiric Tutor and Demonic Tutor for sure though as searching for what you need is so helpful and can be done before your commander drops.

Quote from PhroX »

An alternate route to getting to the Mike and Trike comboo could be Buried Alive and Victimize as it only needs 6 mana and a creature (your general perhaps?) to go off and neither of those is a bad card.

And then, if you're running Buried Alive and Triskelion/Walking Ballista, why not add in Necrotic Ooze and Phyrexian Devourer plus a couple more reanimation spells (Reanimate, Animate Dead etc.)? That's an even cheaper win (4 mana, 4 life and a high enough CMC left in your library) and good reanimation is very rarely a bad thing to have in a black deck.

Also, you're in black and have an expensive general that is highly likely to set up a win when you cast him. So, where are your rituals? Dark Ritual in particular, but also ones like Culling the Weak can be well worth it to get your general out a few turns earlier.

Yeah, I could definitely add Buried Alive and Victimize; that would definitely get the combo online much faster. I'd still be using Razaketh to tutor for those two cards but it'll be way cheaper to cast together than Mike and Trike. Thanks!

Oh, and yeah, I should definitely add some more rituals in besides Bubbling Muck. Dark Ritual, Culling the Weak, and maybe even Cabal Ritual since I'm bound to have threshold by then.

Quote from Vehiclemaniac »

Caged Sun and Gaunlet of Power might be useful. Nykthos Shrine to Nyx Or you could go infinite mana with Rings of Brighthearth, Cabal Coffers, Desert Temple combo.

I like the list though it looks solid. I would definitely add Vampiric Tutor and Demonic Tutor for sure though as searching for what you need is so helpful and can be done before your commander drops.

Thanks! I actually had Caged Sun and Gauntlet of Power in the deck. I should definitely add them back to get more mileage out of my mana. Either way, they're cheaper to cast than my commander and help out with the casting. As for lands, I don't know how I skipped over Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx. Another land I should definitely add is Cavern of Souls; no one likes getting an 8-costed commander to get countered.

The Rings of Brighthearth + Cabal Coffers + Deserted Temple is a good infinite combo and not easy to disrupt given that it's based on 2 lands and an artifact. I may look into that, being as I'd only have to swap out a swamp for the temple and see what else I'd have to cut for Rings of Brighthearth - which would still be good because it would double Razaketh's ability as well.

I understand that adding the tutors would be great especially if I'm unable to access Razaketh for whatever reason. However, I'm still on the fence as to whether actually adding tutors to the deck. That would basically make Razaketh not matter for the deck. I could essentially do the same with any monoB legendary creature in the command zone.

Alright, so given a couple of suggestions, here are the recent changes I'm going to test out:

Quote from Rasputin101 »

I play a super ramp kozilek, Butcher of truth build and was thinking about building a razaketh deck that follows the same lines.

Take a look at the kozilek primer for the rock list to get razaketh out early and then just tutor up rings of brighthearth and basalt monolith for infinite mana, then do what you want
Stick in creatures that replace themselves when the hit the graveyard, like myr sire for multiple tutors and just chuck in finishers like exsanguinate

That sounds pretty solid. That makes Razaketh super consistent. Granted, it'll make the deck very predictable and boring after a while, so I'll probably build it temporarily. But yeah, I definitely see what you mean.