Perhaps not budget with the price of phyrexian altar being what it is. But if the decklist had crystalline crawler then the combo would work with another sacrifice outlet.
Just a reminder for everyone looking to go infinite with this deck:
If you already have Eternal Witness and Phyrexian Altar in your decklist, you can just throw Unearth in to make another infinite sacrifice combo. Unearth isn't terrible when drawn without those cards anyway considering that it has cycling (safe in the graveyard for the Witness) and can bring back a sacrificed creature straight to the field (particularly nice with Fleshbag Marauder effects.
I'm just gonna get Aerie Ouphes out of the way first: it needs to have a target for you to use it's ability. When it resolves, it's gonna eventually kill Mazirek if that's your only target so you can't use it to go infinite.
Sorry, I didn't mean going infinite in terms of +1/+1 counters on Mazirek or the ouphes. I believe that you can stack the ouphes sacrifice ability an infinite number of times in response to itself before Mazirek would be killed when it resolves. Once the ouphes returns from persist and gets a +1/+1 counter from Mazirek, you can respond to the original sacrifice with another sacrifice. Meaning, you could still get an infinite number of sacrifice triggers (+1/+1 counters on another creature or death triggers from blood artist); Mazirek would die if he's the target, but if you're winning the game right there, that's not such a hard price to pay. It still might not be worth it compared to the other persist creatures, but thought I'd bring it up.
Thanks for your thoughts on hardened scales and corpsejack menace. I definitely understand your reasoning and it makes sense that they would make a huge impact on the game once Mazirek is up and running. I wasn't sure if they may slow you down too much before Mazirek is out, but hardened scales is quite cheap and corpsejack menace is still a very efficient creature besides having a powerful effect.
I appreciate you reporting all of your findings and making budget versions of your decks. Thank you for all of the playtesting and time you've put into these posts. Can't wait to hear your thoughts on the Kaladesh cards.
Hi Everyone!
I'm really loving this primer of sorts and am super into this deck. Just bought a bunch of the cards that I don't already have to put together a version of my own! I haven't played with the deck at all yet so please excuse my ignorance.
It seems to me that a couple cards that are used are win-more cards. All of the other +1/+1 counter cards ( Hardened Scales, corpsejack menace and kalonian hydra, plus animation module and armorcraft judge) don't really do much until you've got Mazirek out and you're saccing creatures. Of course, they make things move a lot more quickly for you once that is happening, but it seems like you would want to focus on playing cards that are useful any time. Tooth and Nail or Defense of the heart could be game over if they can resolve. Even chord of calling or green sun's zenith. Also, if you're adding a little combo package, throwing aerie ouphes isn't a bad idea at all, since you just need to have that and mazirek out. Then, if there are any creatures with flying out, they're all dead. Or, if there are none, you just need another creature to benefit from the saccing (zulaport cutthroat) and then you can target mazirek an infinite number of times.
I guess my overall question is how often does it feel like the deck is stalling, or do you feel like you're already drawing enough cards and producing enough mana so that you can play a few of those win-more cards?
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If you already have Eternal Witness and Phyrexian Altar in your decklist, you can just throw
Unearth in to make another infinite sacrifice combo. Unearth isn't terrible when drawn without those cards anyway considering that it has cycling (safe in the graveyard for the Witness) and can bring back a sacrificed creature straight to the field (particularly nice with Fleshbag Marauder effects.
Sorry, I didn't mean going infinite in terms of +1/+1 counters on Mazirek or the ouphes. I believe that you can stack the ouphes sacrifice ability an infinite number of times in response to itself before Mazirek would be killed when it resolves. Once the ouphes returns from persist and gets a +1/+1 counter from Mazirek, you can respond to the original sacrifice with another sacrifice. Meaning, you could still get an infinite number of sacrifice triggers (+1/+1 counters on another creature or death triggers from blood artist); Mazirek would die if he's the target, but if you're winning the game right there, that's not such a hard price to pay. It still might not be worth it compared to the other persist creatures, but thought I'd bring it up.
Thanks for your thoughts on hardened scales and corpsejack menace. I definitely understand your reasoning and it makes sense that they would make a huge impact on the game once Mazirek is up and running. I wasn't sure if they may slow you down too much before Mazirek is out, but hardened scales is quite cheap and corpsejack menace is still a very efficient creature besides having a powerful effect.
I appreciate you reporting all of your findings and making budget versions of your decks. Thank you for all of the playtesting and time you've put into these posts. Can't wait to hear your thoughts on the Kaladesh cards.
I'm really loving this primer of sorts and am super into this deck. Just bought a bunch of the cards that I don't already have to put together a version of my own! I haven't played with the deck at all yet so please excuse my ignorance.
It seems to me that a couple cards that are used are win-more cards. All of the other +1/+1 counter cards ( Hardened Scales, corpsejack menace and kalonian hydra, plus animation module and armorcraft judge) don't really do much until you've got Mazirek out and you're saccing creatures. Of course, they make things move a lot more quickly for you once that is happening, but it seems like you would want to focus on playing cards that are useful any time.
Tooth and Nail or Defense of the heart could be game over if they can resolve. Even chord of calling or green sun's zenith. Also, if you're adding a little combo package, throwing aerie ouphes isn't a bad idea at all, since you just need to have that and mazirek out. Then, if there are any creatures with flying out, they're all dead. Or, if there are none, you just need another creature to benefit from the saccing (zulaport cutthroat) and then you can target mazirek an infinite number of times.
I guess my overall question is how often does it feel like the deck is stalling, or do you feel like you're already drawing enough cards and producing enough mana so that you can play a few of those win-more cards?