This is one of my favorite multi-player free-for-all decks. The main downside is that when I am playing in a group that knows this deck, as soon as I bring it out, it generally makes everyone else in the group start gunning for me immediately.
The two win conditions are the Mindcrank/Bloodchief Ascension combo and Exsanguinate used with Bubbling Muck, Dark Ritual, Caged Sun, or some combination of those three. In four player games, it is not uncommon to kill all three other players with one Exsanguinate, or at least knock off 1-2 of them and boost your own life up to a very comfortable level.
I use Piranha Marsh in combination with Geth's Verdict and Bump in the Night for the Ascension counters to get the BCA/Mindcrank combo going. Once its going, those are all instant kill cards for whoever I target with them.
I put Blind Zealot and Fume Spitter in the sideboard due to a friend killing me with a card that forced me to mill until I revealed a creature card. Since there are no creature cards in this deck, that card alone was an instant kill for me, hence the creatures in the sideboard.
This is deck is doing a few things very right and a few things very wrong. First of all, I love the BloodCrank combo, and I love the idea of nuking the field with Exsanguinate. Those are very powerful multiplayer strategies to employ. What I don't like it is how you're supporting these cards. I'm going to be frank here, but other than the Swamps, the Exsangs, the Diabolic Tutors, the Cranks and the Ascensions, I can't say that I like any card in your deck for a multiplayer setting. They're just very small and conditional. What I would rather see is a deck that supports your key cards better.
For instance, you have a fair amount of targeted removal in this baby. Killing 1-2 creatures isn't going to help if 4 people are ganging up on you. What you need is mass removal in these slots. My personal favorites are Mutilate and Damnation, but they're also somewhat slow at times. Damnation is also fairly pricey which makes it a less-than-ideal card lol. Innocent Blood and Massacre (only if you have White players obviously) hit very fast on the other hand, and can easily protect you from early assaults. Black Sun's Zenith, Barter in Blood and Syphon Flesh aren't bad either, but I don't feel like they're as good as some of the other options. I guess Pestilence isn't a bad card since it can clear the field and nuke people for 2 to trigger your Ascensions, but it's fairly slow and mana intensive. I wouldn't use it unless people play with slow decks. Still, it supports our "drain them out" theme very well, and fills a lot of other vital roles. Again, the idea here is that you won't survive long using spot removal. We need some actual mass removal to help us get to the late game.
As far as your "burn" goes, well it's just terrible really. Bump in the Night is an abysmal card, especially since you can't even flash it back. Let's be clear about this; the card is only good in situations where you have an Ascension in play that needs to be activated. That's it. That is so freaking narrow man. Also, the plan of Verdict + Marsh is flimsy as Hell. What if you need to play the land? What if you need to kill creatures? The stars have to align in order for your plan to work in my opinion. I don't like it all. What I would personally use is more drain. Syphon Soul, Blood Tithe, Urborg Syphon-Mage, cards of that nature. Every card listed there does the full 2 damage in order to proc the Ascension if needed, but the card isn't just dead when we don't. Since our goal is often just to drain people out of the game, they support our "Plan B" (assuming that BloodCrank is "Plan A") very well. Word of caution though, the Syphon-Mage isn't that great in removal heavy metas. If he's just going to eat removal and die, don't bother with him. It's not worth playing if that's all he's going to do.
The last thing that I want to tackle are the rituals. Personally, I hate them in multiplayer. Yeah, they seem good when you're powering out a massive Exsanguinate, but the problem is that A) they're strict card disadvantage and B) they're useless for 99.99% of the game. Since you're playing mono-Black, what I would do is invest in Cabal Coffers. They're like permanent rituals that don't cost you real cardslots, and they don't cause card disadvantage either. Your lands just plain do a ton of work for you. So, the question now becomes, "what do I play instead of those rituals?" Tutors and draw. Remember, the 12 best cards in our deck are Cranks, Ascensions, and Exsanguinates. Everything else is fine, but they're not cards that we care about. What we need is solid ways to find cards that matter to us. Now, some of the mediocre-but-budget options are Syphon Mind, Skeletal Scrying, Necrologia and Beseech the Queen. They get the job done and don't hurt the wallet. The godly-but-expensive options are Demonic Tutor and Vampiric Tutor, which are freaking amazing, but they're not exactly cheap lol. This is clearly a budget deck so I'm pretty much ruling those out heh. The "in-between" cards are things like Phyrexian Arena, Necropotence and Yawgmoth's Bargain. Now, let's go back to what I said before about burn. Imagine a deck with 8-10 drain spells (4x Exsanguinate, 4x Blood Tithe, 0-2x Syphon Soul) and a Necropotence in play. Every turn you drain people for whatever, draw a ton of cards using the life, and do the same thing next turn. From there you can play mass removal to kill creatures, play your combo to win, or just plain keep draining people out if they have no answers to your plan. It's pretty sick lol. I guess the last card that I could mention is Shred Memory. It's narrow and bad, but it does tutor up Exsang and Crank, so that's not NOTHING. Still, it's just horrible compared to Beseech the Queen. No reason to ever use it unless it's like a SUPER budget deck.
Random comment: Boseiju, Who Shelters All is Godly when it comes to stopping counters. You said that people gang up on you. I have no idea what that actually means in terms of cards thrown at you. If counters are troublesome, then consider this badboy to get those Exangs and Blood Tithes through.
Anyways, I hope you can see that I'm trying to mold this into a true multiplayer deck that is designed to beat any number of opponents. That means taking out spot removal and cards that only affect single players, and sticking to powerful global effects. SHAMELESS PLUG: There's a guide in my sig that you may find helpful, so feel free to check that out if you ever get the time. Hope this helps.
Dude...wow, just wow. Let me say first off, I just started playing back in July, around the release of Core 2012. This deck isn't intended to be a budget deck, it is just the best deck I could think of to put together with the cards I had access to. The suggestions you made are amazing, I will put together a better response when I get back (heading out the door right now), but thank you for the advice, I will definitely be using it.
Yeah no worries, we have all the time in the world to fix this badboy up. Like I said, you're definitely on the right track with respect to cards like Exsanguinate and combos like BloodCrank, but it's important not to let the card quality of the rest of your deck slide too much. Now, I'm no fool. I realize that very few cards are as powerful as Exsanguinate. Still, it's important to remember that cards like Bump in the Night and Go for the Throat really don't do ****, especially when 3 people are ganging up on us. What we need are solid global effects that will enable us to survive global hate, so that we can consistently achieve one of our endgame goals to win. A big part of that is going to involve adding some good tutor and draw spells to this deck, which is why I tried to highlight as many good ones as I could. We're not going to go card-for-card with 3 other players without some help. That will mean drawing enough cards to ensure that we always have access to mass removal when needed, and enough drain to keep alive until we can combo off or leech people out. What I don't suggest are smallball cards like Sign in Blood that don't really do anything. It just has the same problems that your other small cards do. We need much more bang for our buck, every card matter a lot in decks like these. So yeah, looking forward to your "real" reply heh. We can definitely hammer something out that should work much better for you.
P.S. What card does your friend use to mill you? Is it Helm of Obedience? If so, you could always be EVIL and build a deck with Leyline of the Void and Helm of Obedience (or even add it to this deck). Since the cards get exiled, you never hit a creature, so you can literally mill anyone out for 1 mana. It's disgusting lol. Fighting fire with fire is how we do things around here.
EDIT: I also updated my OP a bit with some card ideas that I forgot when I posted at the time. Be sure to check out the cards again if nothing else.
What I had been doing with the Go for the Throat was holding onto it unless someone attacked me. When they do, I kill their critter. It made everyone else think twice about attacking me too, so long as I had a card in hand and open mana. That's an easy one to get rid of though, since you provided a ton of better options. I honestly didn't know most of the cards you mentioned existed.
For removal, I really like Innocent Blood, Massacre, and Barter in Blood. Massacre shouldn't be an issue, as most of the people I played with use multi-color decks, and it is pretty rare that there isn't at least one plains in play somewhere on the board at any given time, so that's free removal. Very nice.
Blood Tithe and Syphon Soul are also going to be auto-includes, like you said, they are automatic triggers for the BCA counters, and do a nice job of building life.
For draw/tutor, I actually have a playset of Demonic Tutors in another deck, the only reason I had Diabolics in here was due to not having any other Demonics. I will have to look into acquiring a few more to put in this deck, because the way its looking, this may be my new #1. I do like Phyrexian Arena for draw as well, it seems to fit in pretty well with everything else, and it gives you a card at the beginning of your turn in case you have Necropotence out already too. I also dig Beseech the Queen, I think I'll have to include that as well.
As far as the other cards in the deck, I'll probably go with your advice about dumping everything other than the Exsan and Bloodcrank Combo, with one exception. I practically have to keep Caged Sun now, as it combos with Cabal Coffers for an insane Exsanguinate, on top of only having to use one swamp to initially trigger Cabal.
For lands, you think 18 Swamps/ 4 Cabal Coffers is good then? Basically just dropping in the Cabals in place of the Piranha Marshes?
I don't remember the name of the card he used, but that wasn't it. I'm pretty sure it was blue, and it basically said target player puts cards from the top of his library into the graveyard until he reaches a creature card. Then the person who cast the (?) card gets control of the creature revealed this way. And yeah, the Leyline/Helm combo there is ridiculous, I'll have to keep that in mind for future use, lol.
I don't remember the name of the card he used, but that wasn't it. I'm pretty sure it was blue, and it basically said target player puts cards from the top of his library into the graveyard until he reaches a creature card. Then the person who cast the (?) card gets control of the creature revealed this way.
That sounds like Telemin Performance. Nasty card against low-creature decks.
For lands, you think 18 Swamps/ 4 Cabal Coffers is good then? Basically just dropping in the Cabals in place of the Piranha Marshes?
I should have addressed this issue more clearly in my original post, but I'll take the time to do that now. 22 lands isn't where a Control deck wants to be. If you're playing with a bunch of 1-2 CMC critters and removal, it's a fine number. That's not the case for us. Control decks win when they hit their drops, and tend to lose miserably when they miss them. The absolute minimum lands that you should run is 24, since that gives you a decent shot at hitting 4 lands by turn 4 every game. That's a decent number since it means that you can usually stabilize with something like Barter in Blood. You do NOT want to ever be sitting there with 3 lands in play, no lands in hand, and mass removal stranded in your hand when you need it. Still, a better number to run in this deck would be 26. You've already said that you're keeping Caged Sun, which is a 6 drop that we want to play on turn 6, and we have to keep in mind that our endgame goal is often going to involve big Exsanguinates. If we can hit a land drop every turn (or close to it), we should be a in a great spot to do that. I basically hate playing land-light decks in multiplayer in general, especially ones with Exsanguinate. Mana screw is an auto loss and mana flood is an auto win. I just don't see any good reason not to run a ton of lands. I would run with 22 Swamps and 4 Coffers personally.
Oh, and by the way, pick up Phage the Untouchable or Leveler for your sideboard. If your opponent plays that Blue spell on you, he just loses the game. That'll teach that ****er to screw around with a Black mage lol. NO MERCY! The reason why I like Phage is because she's a legitimate win condition in this deck. You can reasonably cast her and like, you never know, she may just hit someone every now and then. Leveler is just useless, which is why I don't like him as much, but he still gets the message across of "don't **** with me bro." Oh, and I'm totally serious about this. I don't care if cards like these are virtually useless and could even lose me the game if I draw too many of them. I'd still play them if someone was sitting there playing Telemin Performance on me. **** that. If I'm going to lose the game because someone is going to try and hate me out, then I will do everything in power to hate them out in turn. People play Karma? Pack Stench of Evils into your deck. Green player starts attacking you? Perish it up. Give in to the Dark Side my young apprentice.
That sounds like Telemin Performance. Nasty card against low-creature decks.
Yep, that's the one. Insta-killed me, he was down to like 4 life, I had around 34, didn't matter in the least, lol.
@Tich: Right on, good advice. It's going to take a little time before I get all these cards together, but I can't wait until the first time I get to play this deck against my old group again, lol, they don't know what they're in for. And yes, Phage is definitely going in the SB, even if he doesn't drop that Telemin on me, like you said, I should be able to hard cast her at some point, and with the board-clearing removal, it isn't unrealistic to think I could get a hit or two in on some opponents with her. I like the way you think too, if I were a Jedi, I'd end up being a Sith for sure, lol.
Do you have a decklist in mind? It might help to finalize something before you purchase anything. I mean, it's not like any card that I vouched for is bad, and they could all be played in any number of decks. Still, if you're just looking for a 60 card deck to sleeve up and shelve, then it might be wise to work out a list right here and now.
I don't have the sideboard worked out yet, mainly because I can't see where I'd want to sideboard out any of the cards in the MD. Here's what I'm looking at for the MD:
I dropped to three of the BCA and Mindcranks to help keep it at just sixty cards with the increased lands. I figured that with the Demonic Tutors and Beseech the Queens, it shouldn't be a problem still getting the bloodcrank combo off.
I would play 4 Ascensions and 1 Crank before I split them at all. Ascension is a card that you want to see as early and often as possible, and the Crank isn't needed until you have one with 3 counters on it. Basically, you're probably better off going with 4-2 instead of 3-3. It might not seem like much, but the difference between having a turn 1 Ascension and not having it is fairly big. Crank really isn't that important and you definitely don't need to load up on them. You do want to see one, but you never need 2 and you don't need to see one early most of the time.
Also, I'd probably roll with 4 Tithes and 3 Souls since your deck, amazingly, is 4-drop light but 3-drop heavy. Most Black decks have a million 4-drops lol. It also works much better when you Potence on turn 3 into a Tithe on turn 4. It uses your mana better and gains you more life.
Awesome, thanks for the advice again. I'll definitely do the swaps you reccomended. I'll post up a revised decklist with sideboard a little later after I figure out the SB. Right now I am looking at Massacre, Perish, and Phage the Untouchable for sure. Any other recommendations for the SB?
Well I mean this is casual play, so your "sideboard" is basically your entire collection. I don't know what you expect to face down, nor how many people you play with, but that's really what determines what you need to have on hand. People play Blue counter decks? Have Boseiju, Who Shelters All at the ready. People all play aggro decks and try and beat you down? Run out a Glacial Chasm and fuel it with your lifegain to all but lock up the game. More mass removal works here too, but isn't nearly as cool. People play a bunch of lifegain decks? Throw in False Cure. There's no perfect "sideboard" by any means, it boils down to how you need to react to how other players are reacting to you. Hope this helps somewhat.
EDIT: Now, if you know what your friends like to play, then I could always toss out some ideas that you could explore. I realize that predicting your meta isn't always easy, but for some people it is (I mean, not everyone has a ton of decks). If you have some "inside information" then that would help make a more informed set of suggestions.
Also considered taking out the dark rituals for the 3 Bloodchief 1 Mindcrank with a leechridden swamp... One shots everyone and by the time they realise, they cant counterspell the land tap....
Nice guide btw
Ps. Another ***** thing to do... I got desperate, was the Contamination and Breeding Pit combo...
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
2 Sorin's Vengeance
3 Geth's Verdict
4 Bump in the Night
3 Go for the Throat
4 Exsanguinate
2 Diabolic Tutor
4 Bloodchief Ascension
4 Mindcrank
4 Dark Ritual
4 Bubbling Muck
2 Caged Sun
4 Piranha Marsh
3 Blind Zealot
3 Sorin's Thirst
4 Consume Spirit
3 Deathmark
2 Fume Spitter
The two win conditions are the Mindcrank/Bloodchief Ascension combo and Exsanguinate used with Bubbling Muck, Dark Ritual, Caged Sun, or some combination of those three. In four player games, it is not uncommon to kill all three other players with one Exsanguinate, or at least knock off 1-2 of them and boost your own life up to a very comfortable level.
I use Piranha Marsh in combination with Geth's Verdict and Bump in the Night for the Ascension counters to get the BCA/Mindcrank combo going. Once its going, those are all instant kill cards for whoever I target with them.
I put Blind Zealot and Fume Spitter in the sideboard due to a friend killing me with a card that forced me to mill until I revealed a creature card. Since there are no creature cards in this deck, that card alone was an instant kill for me, hence the creatures in the sideboard.
Thoughts/comments/recommendations?
For instance, you have a fair amount of targeted removal in this baby. Killing 1-2 creatures isn't going to help if 4 people are ganging up on you. What you need is mass removal in these slots. My personal favorites are Mutilate and Damnation, but they're also somewhat slow at times. Damnation is also fairly pricey which makes it a less-than-ideal card lol. Innocent Blood and Massacre (only if you have White players obviously) hit very fast on the other hand, and can easily protect you from early assaults. Black Sun's Zenith, Barter in Blood and Syphon Flesh aren't bad either, but I don't feel like they're as good as some of the other options. I guess Pestilence isn't a bad card since it can clear the field and nuke people for 2 to trigger your Ascensions, but it's fairly slow and mana intensive. I wouldn't use it unless people play with slow decks. Still, it supports our "drain them out" theme very well, and fills a lot of other vital roles. Again, the idea here is that you won't survive long using spot removal. We need some actual mass removal to help us get to the late game.
As far as your "burn" goes, well it's just terrible really. Bump in the Night is an abysmal card, especially since you can't even flash it back. Let's be clear about this; the card is only good in situations where you have an Ascension in play that needs to be activated. That's it. That is so freaking narrow man. Also, the plan of Verdict + Marsh is flimsy as Hell. What if you need to play the land? What if you need to kill creatures? The stars have to align in order for your plan to work in my opinion. I don't like it all. What I would personally use is more drain. Syphon Soul, Blood Tithe, Urborg Syphon-Mage, cards of that nature. Every card listed there does the full 2 damage in order to proc the Ascension if needed, but the card isn't just dead when we don't. Since our goal is often just to drain people out of the game, they support our "Plan B" (assuming that BloodCrank is "Plan A") very well. Word of caution though, the Syphon-Mage isn't that great in removal heavy metas. If he's just going to eat removal and die, don't bother with him. It's not worth playing if that's all he's going to do.
The last thing that I want to tackle are the rituals. Personally, I hate them in multiplayer. Yeah, they seem good when you're powering out a massive Exsanguinate, but the problem is that A) they're strict card disadvantage and B) they're useless for 99.99% of the game. Since you're playing mono-Black, what I would do is invest in Cabal Coffers. They're like permanent rituals that don't cost you real cardslots, and they don't cause card disadvantage either. Your lands just plain do a ton of work for you. So, the question now becomes, "what do I play instead of those rituals?" Tutors and draw. Remember, the 12 best cards in our deck are Cranks, Ascensions, and Exsanguinates. Everything else is fine, but they're not cards that we care about. What we need is solid ways to find cards that matter to us. Now, some of the mediocre-but-budget options are Syphon Mind, Skeletal Scrying, Necrologia and Beseech the Queen. They get the job done and don't hurt the wallet. The godly-but-expensive options are Demonic Tutor and Vampiric Tutor, which are freaking amazing, but they're not exactly cheap lol. This is clearly a budget deck so I'm pretty much ruling those out heh. The "in-between" cards are things like Phyrexian Arena, Necropotence and Yawgmoth's Bargain. Now, let's go back to what I said before about burn. Imagine a deck with 8-10 drain spells (4x Exsanguinate, 4x Blood Tithe, 0-2x Syphon Soul) and a Necropotence in play. Every turn you drain people for whatever, draw a ton of cards using the life, and do the same thing next turn. From there you can play mass removal to kill creatures, play your combo to win, or just plain keep draining people out if they have no answers to your plan. It's pretty sick lol. I guess the last card that I could mention is Shred Memory. It's narrow and bad, but it does tutor up Exsang and Crank, so that's not NOTHING. Still, it's just horrible compared to Beseech the Queen. No reason to ever use it unless it's like a SUPER budget deck.
Random comment: Boseiju, Who Shelters All is Godly when it comes to stopping counters. You said that people gang up on you. I have no idea what that actually means in terms of cards thrown at you. If counters are troublesome, then consider this badboy to get those Exangs and Blood Tithes through.
Anyways, I hope you can see that I'm trying to mold this into a true multiplayer deck that is designed to beat any number of opponents. That means taking out spot removal and cards that only affect single players, and sticking to powerful global effects. SHAMELESS PLUG: There's a guide in my sig that you may find helpful, so feel free to check that out if you ever get the time. Hope this helps.
Guilds of Ravnica - Commander 2018 - Core 2019 - Battlebond - Dominaria - Rivals of Ixalan - Ixalan - Commander 2017 - Hour of Devastation - Amonket - Aether Revolt - Commander 2016 - Kaladesh - Conspiracy 2 - Eldritch Moon - Shadows Over Innistrad - Oath of the Gatewatch - Commander 2015 - Battle for Zendikar - Magic Origins - Dragons of Tarkir
Green - Blue - Red - White - Gold
P.S. What card does your friend use to mill you? Is it Helm of Obedience? If so, you could always be EVIL and build a deck with Leyline of the Void and Helm of Obedience (or even add it to this deck). Since the cards get exiled, you never hit a creature, so you can literally mill anyone out for 1 mana. It's disgusting lol. Fighting fire with fire is how we do things around here.
EDIT: I also updated my OP a bit with some card ideas that I forgot when I posted at the time. Be sure to check out the cards again if nothing else.
Guilds of Ravnica - Commander 2018 - Core 2019 - Battlebond - Dominaria - Rivals of Ixalan - Ixalan - Commander 2017 - Hour of Devastation - Amonket - Aether Revolt - Commander 2016 - Kaladesh - Conspiracy 2 - Eldritch Moon - Shadows Over Innistrad - Oath of the Gatewatch - Commander 2015 - Battle for Zendikar - Magic Origins - Dragons of Tarkir
Green - Blue - Red - White - Gold
For removal, I really like Innocent Blood, Massacre, and Barter in Blood. Massacre shouldn't be an issue, as most of the people I played with use multi-color decks, and it is pretty rare that there isn't at least one plains in play somewhere on the board at any given time, so that's free removal. Very nice.
Blood Tithe and Syphon Soul are also going to be auto-includes, like you said, they are automatic triggers for the BCA counters, and do a nice job of building life.
For draw/tutor, I actually have a playset of Demonic Tutors in another deck, the only reason I had Diabolics in here was due to not having any other Demonics. I will have to look into acquiring a few more to put in this deck, because the way its looking, this may be my new #1. I do like Phyrexian Arena for draw as well, it seems to fit in pretty well with everything else, and it gives you a card at the beginning of your turn in case you have Necropotence out already too. I also dig Beseech the Queen, I think I'll have to include that as well.
As far as the other cards in the deck, I'll probably go with your advice about dumping everything other than the Exsan and Bloodcrank Combo, with one exception. I practically have to keep Caged Sun now, as it combos with Cabal Coffers for an insane Exsanguinate, on top of only having to use one swamp to initially trigger Cabal.
For lands, you think 18 Swamps/ 4 Cabal Coffers is good then? Basically just dropping in the Cabals in place of the Piranha Marshes?
I don't remember the name of the card he used, but that wasn't it. I'm pretty sure it was blue, and it basically said target player puts cards from the top of his library into the graveyard until he reaches a creature card. Then the person who cast the (?) card gets control of the creature revealed this way. And yeah, the Leyline/Helm combo there is ridiculous, I'll have to keep that in mind for future use, lol.
Karn Liberated
Empyrial Armor
Sword Of Body And Mind
Birds Of Paradise
That sounds like Telemin Performance. Nasty card against low-creature decks.
I should have addressed this issue more clearly in my original post, but I'll take the time to do that now. 22 lands isn't where a Control deck wants to be. If you're playing with a bunch of 1-2 CMC critters and removal, it's a fine number. That's not the case for us. Control decks win when they hit their drops, and tend to lose miserably when they miss them. The absolute minimum lands that you should run is 24, since that gives you a decent shot at hitting 4 lands by turn 4 every game. That's a decent number since it means that you can usually stabilize with something like Barter in Blood. You do NOT want to ever be sitting there with 3 lands in play, no lands in hand, and mass removal stranded in your hand when you need it. Still, a better number to run in this deck would be 26. You've already said that you're keeping Caged Sun, which is a 6 drop that we want to play on turn 6, and we have to keep in mind that our endgame goal is often going to involve big Exsanguinates. If we can hit a land drop every turn (or close to it), we should be a in a great spot to do that. I basically hate playing land-light decks in multiplayer in general, especially ones with Exsanguinate. Mana screw is an auto loss and mana flood is an auto win. I just don't see any good reason not to run a ton of lands. I would run with 22 Swamps and 4 Coffers personally.
Oh, and by the way, pick up Phage the Untouchable or Leveler for your sideboard. If your opponent plays that Blue spell on you, he just loses the game. That'll teach that ****er to screw around with a Black mage lol. NO MERCY! The reason why I like Phage is because she's a legitimate win condition in this deck. You can reasonably cast her and like, you never know, she may just hit someone every now and then. Leveler is just useless, which is why I don't like him as much, but he still gets the message across of "don't **** with me bro." Oh, and I'm totally serious about this. I don't care if cards like these are virtually useless and could even lose me the game if I draw too many of them. I'd still play them if someone was sitting there playing Telemin Performance on me. **** that. If I'm going to lose the game because someone is going to try and hate me out, then I will do everything in power to hate them out in turn. People play Karma? Pack Stench of Evils into your deck. Green player starts attacking you? Perish it up. Give in to the Dark Side my young apprentice.
Guilds of Ravnica - Commander 2018 - Core 2019 - Battlebond - Dominaria - Rivals of Ixalan - Ixalan - Commander 2017 - Hour of Devastation - Amonket - Aether Revolt - Commander 2016 - Kaladesh - Conspiracy 2 - Eldritch Moon - Shadows Over Innistrad - Oath of the Gatewatch - Commander 2015 - Battle for Zendikar - Magic Origins - Dragons of Tarkir
Green - Blue - Red - White - Gold
Yep, that's the one. Insta-killed me, he was down to like 4 life, I had around 34, didn't matter in the least, lol.
@Tich: Right on, good advice. It's going to take a little time before I get all these cards together, but I can't wait until the first time I get to play this deck against my old group again, lol, they don't know what they're in for. And yes, Phage is definitely going in the SB, even if he doesn't drop that Telemin on me, like you said, I should be able to hard cast her at some point, and with the board-clearing removal, it isn't unrealistic to think I could get a hit or two in on some opponents with her. I like the way you think too, if I were a Jedi, I'd end up being a Sith for sure, lol.
Guilds of Ravnica - Commander 2018 - Core 2019 - Battlebond - Dominaria - Rivals of Ixalan - Ixalan - Commander 2017 - Hour of Devastation - Amonket - Aether Revolt - Commander 2016 - Kaladesh - Conspiracy 2 - Eldritch Moon - Shadows Over Innistrad - Oath of the Gatewatch - Commander 2015 - Battle for Zendikar - Magic Origins - Dragons of Tarkir
Green - Blue - Red - White - Gold
4 Exsanguinate
3 Mindcrank
3 Bloodchief Ascension
2 Necropotence
3 Phyrexian Arena
4 Innocent Blood
2 Barter in Blood
3 Blood Tithe
4 Syphon Soul
2 Demonic Tutor
2 Beseech the Queen
4 Cabal Coffers
I dropped to three of the BCA and Mindcranks to help keep it at just sixty cards with the increased lands. I figured that with the Demonic Tutors and Beseech the Queens, it shouldn't be a problem still getting the bloodcrank combo off.
Also, I'd probably roll with 4 Tithes and 3 Souls since your deck, amazingly, is 4-drop light but 3-drop heavy. Most Black decks have a million 4-drops lol. It also works much better when you Potence on turn 3 into a Tithe on turn 4. It uses your mana better and gains you more life.
Guilds of Ravnica - Commander 2018 - Core 2019 - Battlebond - Dominaria - Rivals of Ixalan - Ixalan - Commander 2017 - Hour of Devastation - Amonket - Aether Revolt - Commander 2016 - Kaladesh - Conspiracy 2 - Eldritch Moon - Shadows Over Innistrad - Oath of the Gatewatch - Commander 2015 - Battle for Zendikar - Magic Origins - Dragons of Tarkir
Green - Blue - Red - White - Gold
EDIT: Now, if you know what your friends like to play, then I could always toss out some ideas that you could explore. I realize that predicting your meta isn't always easy, but for some people it is (I mean, not everyone has a ton of decks). If you have some "inside information" then that would help make a more informed set of suggestions.
Guilds of Ravnica - Commander 2018 - Core 2019 - Battlebond - Dominaria - Rivals of Ixalan - Ixalan - Commander 2017 - Hour of Devastation - Amonket - Aether Revolt - Commander 2016 - Kaladesh - Conspiracy 2 - Eldritch Moon - Shadows Over Innistrad - Oath of the Gatewatch - Commander 2015 - Battle for Zendikar - Magic Origins - Dragons of Tarkir
Green - Blue - Red - White - Gold
4 Guul Draz Vampire
2 Guul Draz Assassin
4 Bloodghast
4 Kalastria Highborn
2 Kuon, Ogre Ascendant
4 Blade of the Bloodchief
4 Skullclamp
4 Dark Ritual
4 Innocent Blood
2 Barter in Blood
2 Buried Alive
2 Grave Pact
2 Cabal Coffers
20 Swamp
Also considered taking out the dark rituals for the 3 Bloodchief 1 Mindcrank with a leechridden swamp... One shots everyone and by the time they realise, they cant counterspell the land tap....
Nice guide btw
Ps. Another ***** thing to do... I got desperate, was the Contamination and Breeding Pit combo...