Welcome Ghouls and Gals, to Reaper King's Halloween Town. This is an EDH / Commander Deck, which tip-toes a balance between fun flavor deck, with competitive EDH cards and synergies. It's aim is to be casual enough for a fun Halloween themed EDH / Commander game among friends, but still good enough to pull out wins. This will be my EDH / Commander deck for life, so it will see regular updates as more "spooky cards" hit the printer!
Reaper King's Halloween Town uses its Pumpkin Mayor more of an Emblem that vindicates. When you cast it, you've got enough Scarecrows and Changlings to get at least one in your hand or graveyard. From there you can blink them and recur them for repeat vindicates. Once you add Xenograft and Conspiracy into the mix, those vindicates turn into complete boardstate destruction.
While this is a great trick for the deck, and gives it a couple awesome synergies, I won's deny that its overall a cute commander rather than a strong one. But the 5 colors of it allows you to play white's Ghosts, blue's Tricks and Changlings, Green's Wolves and Spiders, Red's Vampires and Black's well, everything. To make up for that, Halloween Town's residences are some of the most spooky and best creatures for EDH, most of them can win the game on their own if left unchecked. With enough destruction behind it to interact, your team has a strong chance to win.
Overall, if your EDH is a relaxed playgroup that prefers fun over competitive wins, this is a great deck to play that still can pull up results while being "fair". If you want to have quick wins while facing the strongest decks possible, you'll be best to look for one of the more "tier 1 " commanders. Overall this primer will focus on a flavor first approach, but kept as competitive as it can be in that light.
Why Should I Play this Deck?: If you like creepy halloween things, or if you like graveyard and good stuff synergies. The deck also does a lot of very fun things. Why Shouldn't I Play this Deck?: If you like to win EVERY time, or crave board/stack interaction. The deck does it's own thing, and its a fun thing, but it is simple and not super interactive.
Because its the coolest spooky tribe, his favor text is "Its harvest time", how cool is that art work, and he has a pumpkin for a head, what more do you need?
Jokes aside, thats pretty much THE reason to run him, because he is cool. Which is a pretty valid reason in EDH. To be real with you for a moment, Reaper King is one of those really powerful Commanders with not enough support to do anything with him. In pretty much every "top tier" commander you can get better effects because support is easier on theme. Meren of Clan Nel Toth is way better at reanimation, Brago, King Eternal with flickering EtB effects, even Avatar of Woe probably kills more things then Reaper King.
But it's still a cool card, so if you want to use it here's why you should: Five colors are amazing to deck build with, and you dont need removal because you can just use scarecrows instead. The trick with Reaper King so to play more into his 5 colors, and allow his ability to be something you can do, rather than you must build around. Which is perfect for a Halloween themed commander.
Viscera Seer- A vampire that can be be tutored by Hulk, and is a super cheap and good sac engine. Blood Artist- A vampire who threatens opponents to not use boardwipes, and rewards our recursion. Bloodghast- A vampire ghost who lets us get some extra use out of sac and reset effects. Feral Prowler- What's Halloween without a Black Cat? Well, its not Black Cat, but it's better. I'll admit this is in the deck for flavor. But hey when you are doing sac and recursion, you can actually get closer to draw with this. Yahenni, Undying Partisan- A sac outlet that fits well enough for the theme, but its price and effect makes it easy to put out and easy to keep. See the synergies down below. Reassembling Skeleton- This time, a spooky scary skeleton who lets us get some extra use out of sac and reset effects. Shapesharer- Shapesharer is a master Tricker Treater. He comes in a scarecrow, and changes to what ever you like. Hes so good, he can even make other changelings dress up for a turn. Plague Belcher- With all the zombies in this list, it will do its fair share of damage, but the real trick is the -1/-1 counters on him, meaning he can combo off with Mikaeus and a sac engine for game winning combos. Gilder Bairn- Givin' out mad candy like its his business, this guy makes all our planeswalkers and undying better. Loyal Retainers- Now with The Mummy spookiness! Loyal Retainers helps make the ever growing list of legendaries better, and can recur key peices of your combo: Sacrifice- Grim grin, Recursion- Mikaeus, as well as utility. Mirror Entity- Another scarecrow, he gives us a mana sink for all our zombies and wolves giving them a boost, and tribal. Scarecrone- One of our actual scarecrows, this guy brings back some key artifacts creatures like Grim Poppet combo, and gives us tons of CA with a conspiracy or xenograft. Taurean Mauler- Another scarecrow, this one punishes your opponents for doing anything. Anger- This really helps get some combos from game breaking to just winning on the spot. See combos below. Chameleon Colossus- Our biggest scarecrow. He is a 5/5 for 4 mana with his king out, and thus, doubles even better. Protection from black is very important in edh as well. Crypt Ghast- A ghost who gives you mana ramp and life gain, something the deck actually needs a fair amount of. Graveborn Muse- often drawing much more than 1, since we can easily make tons of zombies. Meren of Clan Nel Toth- One of the best witches in EDH, By saccing things we always have her getting better, and she can bring us back really important combo pieces. Necrotic Ooze- This slime isn't very powerful on its own, but makes some game winning combos when you have the right things in the yard. Olivia Voldaren- She's your classic masquerade vampire. And she'll invite your friends creatures to the party too! Its too deadly to turn her down. Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet- A vampire who brings zombies to the Monster Mash. With some extra life gain and and grave hate on the side. Body Double- It's literally a person dressing up, and becoming our spooky things in the graveyard. Enables and redundants our combos and jank. Ghoulcaller Gisa- Now this lady is a powerhouse. Shes a sac outlet that gives you more zombie bodies! Shes everything you'd want. Grimgrin, Corpse-Born- Another zombie that is a sac outlet, while being a massive beatstick. Ishkanah, Grafwidow- This card not only fits our theme of tokens on recur... but also gives us win cons when our dudes become spiders, or we go off. Karmic Guide- An angel might seem out of place here... Until you realize she is in a graveyard. Since her life is mostly spent in the grave, her recursion can happen almost every turn. Puppeteer Clique- Just like guide, puppeteer recurs things, while recurring itself. Even better, with persist, you can blink, grave recur it back to to use it all over again. Deadeye Navigator- Who doesn't like pirate ghosts? His blink lets you mess with entering effects, and reset persist and undying. Even better, you can reset him too with the persist and undying triggers. Grave Titan- Because you never could have enough zombies Mikaeus, the Unhallowed- Not only does he recur everything, he even resets with a ton of cards on here for basically immortality. Muldrotha, the Gravetide- Its a hell of a recursion card. Getting back more than just creatures. Grim Poppet- scarecrow removal, with -1/-1 counters to toss around. Maybe on things with undying for example. Protean Hulk- The blob, a little weird, but still on horror theme, massively upgrades the deck to enable its combos Rune-Scarred Demon- sweet sweet recurring tutors! And a flying 6/6 aint so bad either. Sheoldred, Whispering One- You needed another spider that also plays with the yard? Look no further. Razaketh, the Foulblooded- Our second bat wings, this gives us a sac engine that can find the pieces we need to win.
Demonic Tutor- EDH staple. Its a tutor. Buried Alive- This is a first for me... but it basically is a 3 creature tutor for 3 mana. Eerie Interlude- Another Ghostway, but better. Journey to Eternity- A fantastic way to abuse a 1 shot sac recur into a rainbow land and with future recursion! Mimic Vat- Turns out alot of our Creatures love to turn into reoccurring Zombie nightmares. Who knew?! All Hallow's Eve- Look at the name, look at the art, look at the effect. This card makes the deck. Arlinn Kord- Werewolf Planeswalker! Makes wolves and wins the game. Grimoire of the Dead- Why wouldnt we get ourself the necronomicon? We love bringing our things back from the dead. Rite of Replication- While most decks are content to use this to make a ton of beat sticks... we can use this with reaper king for 25 vindicates. Arcane Adaptation- See below. Conspiracy- Makes all your creatures cast become scarecrows... which makes all creatures vindicates with legs! Xenograft- See Conspiracy. Dictate of Erebos- We need board control effects and ways to punish removal. This does both. Grave Pact- See Dictate. Also, you better have the spooky reaper to be on flavor. Necropotence- The deck lacks a "ton" of actual draw. To compinsate, it needs more powerful draw, and boy is this a powerful draw. Liliana Vess- Repeatable tutors with pacts from demons Ugin, the Spirit Dragon- A ghosty dragon! And a super powerful one at that. Everything this thing can do is great.
Sol Ring- Its a ghost ring thats a staple in EDH Fertile Ground- Pumpkin patch that gives you mana, whats not to love Ashnod's Altar- Combo piece and can use our tokens we make Chromatic Lantern- Needed for the mana fixing. Coalition Relic- Needed for mana fixing Phyrexian Altar- Combo piece and can use our tokens we make Wild-Field Scarecrow- Its a scarecrow that also gets mana! Scuttlemutt- Scarecrows as a tribe lack alot of things, but apparently not making mana while vindicating.
Lets be honest here... Most of the mana base goes to making 4-5 colors available. Which leaves the trick list of lands rather shallow. But we still can fit some in here.
Ancient Tomb- Mana ramp that fits flavor Cabal Coffers- Even better mana ramp! Bojuka Bog- Sometimes you just need to burn the graves so they don't comeback. Ghost Quarter/Wasteland- You're basic land hate. Truth is, the deck doesn't need a ton, since its scarecrows can also handle this. Kessig Wolf Run- We had to fit a werewolf in here somewhere, and this one lets our beef be even beefier. Phyrexian Tower- Adds to our sac effects, while giving mana ramp Shizo, Death's Storehouse- Since we are mostly good stuff, we use a higher than normal amount of legendaries Strip Mine- A check against other lands Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth- One of the best lands to use for us, as everything we need should be able to make black Vault of the Archangel- Lifegain and removal in one card. Great with all our tokens. Volrath's Stronghold- Reusing creatures is what we do best.
There is no clear cut way to use this deck, but the deck does have 3 main themes which is abuses to good effect. These themes are; Good Stuff, Recursion, Scarecrows. That is also in order of importance. Below I'll break down why those themes exist, but playing this deck is actually pretty easy.
Due to the "good stuff: nature of the deck, you just aim to play almost a midrange nature of the deck. Ramp early, play big must deal with threats and try to win off that backed with removal and grave pact effects. Grave Titan on a mimic vat is pretty good. You do this, all the while tutoring and prepping a plan B, which is an oops I win with the second theme recursion.
Our main goal is good stuff. The idea here is to just jam good hay makers. It is supported by out 2 other sub themes which is bringing them back to life, and using removal. Stuff like Grave Titan or Sheoldred, Whispering One can very likely win the game on their own. And we can dip into all 5 colors of magic because thats Reaper King's real power. A lot of these threats like Rite of Replication don't even use the graveyard so it makes us that much harder to beat or hate out by simple means. Simply cast and try to pressure people.
This is your long game and your plan B. It's a way to reuse your threats, giving you gas, and also a few ways to just randomly go infinite, see below in Tricks. Things like Loyal Retainers and Muldrotha, the Gravetide, along with sac effects like Ashnod's Altar and Grimgrin, Corpse-Born let you reuse the same creatures over and over to gain advantage. This combos well with the Good stuff theme, as you are probably gaining advantage every time you do it as well as nulling board wipes and removal. It also plays well with Scarecrows turning them into machine gun removal.
Most decks run some amount of cheap removal or board wipes. And in that department, you will see we are distinctly lacking. Well this is because scarecrows can play AS removal for us. Most scarecrows included in this deck are simply good on their own like Wild-Field Scarecrow and Scuttlemutt. We also are using only the "good" changelings like Taurean Mauler and Chameleon Colossus for that fact too. Why would we want to run this over actual removal? Because we can use blink and sac effects with them to reuse this effect.
It may seem odd that we aren't all in tribal here. Well simply put, unless the tribe has a TON of support it won't do very well. As such, we have to view Reaper King's lord ability as utility rather than must run. The best cards we can use are Conspiracy like cards or Rite of Replication. I can not stress this enough. Cast Reaper King only after you have a way to Recur scarecrows or have Conspiracy cards in play. We are odd that we only cast our commander after a set up not FOR a set up.
The whole Halloween Town EDH deck isn't nearly as complicated as some "Super competitive decks" by the virtue of sacrificing some of those game ending combos for the sake of "fun," nor is it as easy to understand as most tribal synergies since its very lightly combo. Halloween Town is a very much "good stuff" deck that the cards happen to be creepy. So the best way to help learning the deck, is to have a list of its combos and synergies. If you'd like, print out this section as a visual guide.
Basically a ton of cheap enter the battlefield effects via Blink. The basic formula for this one is Blinker+Card=Pay off
Blink effects on scarecrows or changelings while Reaper King is out result in Vindicates
This is mostly about abusing Enter the Battlefield triggers, but is also a little easier to set up than blinking... while also being more flavorful but more vulnerable. The basic formula is Sac Outlet + Recur Engine + Card = Pay Off
Recur effects on scarecrows or changelings while Reaper King is out result in Vindicates
If you can get out Xenograph/Conspiracy/Mirror Entity you can add this to the list of sac outlets.
Necrotic Ooze does some great utility in this deck, but also can rarely be a Win combo. Remember Buried Alive find a lot of ooze pieces for you to win. Here is the combo as well as cards to watch out for in the yard that ooze can take.
Win Combo
Most "good" ooze winning combos require 2 cards, and while this deck has the first half of several of these (Devoted Druid + Grim Poppet) (Bloodline Keeper+ Grimgrin, Corpse-Born) it still can technically create a winning board state off these conditions:
Sac something to give you 3 tokens, netting you 3 3/3 zombies, sac one to phyrexian altar and one to Grimgrin then repeat for infinite counters. If you manage to make em 4/4s you have infinite tokes too.
If you don't have the pump effect, its basically B get a 2/2 token and a 1/1 counter. If you have Anger you likely win on the spot.
Useful Abilities
These cards make everything you own into a scarecrow and sometimes a spider. This matters with the following cards:
With these out, suddenly everything is a scarecrow. Which mean everything gets a pump by Reaper King, and also gets a buff AND blows something up on cast/recur/flicker
Kalitas enters as a scarecrow, kills a creature, exiles it and gets a zombie scarecrow, rinse and repeat. With Blood Artist or Anger You win the game
Very rarely you will name spider, then just kill off players.
This now also turns into a sac outlet, with draw attached.
Step 1: Have hulk die. Sac him, block with him, or you can use a scarecrow vindicate on him. Step 2: His trigger goes off, and you find Karmatic Guide, bringing back Hulk and Viscera Seer if you need a sac engine. Step 3: Sac Hulk again, this time find Mikaeus, the Unhallowed. Step 4: Sac Guide, and she will undying allowing you to get back Hulk. Sac Hulk for Plague Belcher, Putting a -1/-1 Counter on Guide and Belcher. Step 5 on: Sac Guide, hulk, and belcher as many times as you want to tutor anything, including all the combos listed above this for winning.
But What if something is already dead? No worries, that's what Body Double is for. She can do a really great Halloween Costume and be what ever is dead, until those things arent dead anymore.
But what if they are exiled? Yeah, at that point, Hulk for value.
There are too many cards that are on theme to play all of them. But over time I have created lists of them to keep track of in case I need a sort of effect. If you feel like youd like to add something to the deck feel free! Below I lumped them into overall effect groups
Edh really is the best way to express yourself in a game of magic. You really get to pour a lot of creativity into it and make the "avatar of you." I mean look... I'm a happy little pumpkin, and I get to use a pumpkin headed scarecrow as my commander. But sometimes a few extra touches go a long way. Heres how I make my games just a little more halloween.
While you could always use real candy, that way you can give them out during a game, you could always use sculpty and painted alternatives.
Personally I'm a fan of candy corn +1/+1 counters and spider -1/-1 counters
Theres no question here. Reaper King spindown dice from shadowmoor fat packs or the graveborn dice
I'm a big fan of inked playmats. I'm working on a halloween themed "boardgame" playmat right now to go with the halloween style. Pictures to come!
Another playmat I used prior to my board game mat is my "planeswalker" character. You can feel free to use it as well if you like it.
I personally prefer to double sleeve my cards, since I'll be using these cards forever. As such, my undersleeve is inked playmat sleeves with my "planeswalker" character. My over sleeves is kmc perfect fit clear matte.
Feel free to use these sleeves if you like.
Sometimes a card will be important for the deck, but not look as "spooky" as it could. Take for example expedition map. not very halloween at all... But change a few markers to be candy shapes, and bam, you got a trick or treat map.
As I have my cards altered to fit the the theme I will post it up here for you all to use.
Full Sheets to make double sided tokens:A1/A2/B1//B2
Updated the decklist, cutting cute cards for better "good stuff" cards and tighter sac recur synergies. - Bogwitch Brew combo, Teysa, twilight shepherd, Debtors' Knell, and nim death mantle, garruk for Ishkanah, Grafwidow, Huntmaster of the Fells, Kaya, better lands
Added new flavor options, 1/1 counters, tokens, dice
Cartel Aristocrat was cut for Yahenni, Undying Partisan. Haste means it can kill an opponent right away with our destruction combos, and does lighten our mana colors. On the downside its 3 mana, and doesnt protect against exile, but we uptrade that for protection against wipes. Plus its a vampire so its more on theme. Aristocrat and Noxious Gearhulk added to the themed noted cards.
Geralf's Messenger replaced with Plauge Belcher. Same type, same price, easier to cast. Isnt as good with the blink effects, nor does it naturally combo with poppet, but it will trigger passively more often, and combos off with mikaeus for an insta win with a sac outlet.
Woodfall Primus and Havengul Lich cut for Protean Hulk and Body Double. Body double basically does what lich does, but works better in a protean hulk situation too. Woodfalls destroy was redundant in a deck that reoccurs scarecrows, and hulk grabs those peices easier, even if just for value.
Stuffy Doll and Huntmaster of the Fells cut for Invocation Loyal Retainers and Meren of Clan Nel Toth. Meren has clearly become one of the best cards you can play plus sets you for a free recur every round at the worst. Loyal retainers got a Mummy make over, so they finally fit the theme now, and thus is just a good all around card to add. Huntmaster is a token maker and one of the few wolves, but you never see the flip side, sorta defeating its fun purpose. Stuffy doll doesnt really do much and is really high on the cmc, and doing both of these lowers the cost of the deck.
Replaced Hissing Quagmire for Cabal Coffers. I probably need mana for late game stuffs, and hissing while a dual land, isnt that awesome. Replaced Mind's Eye for Necromancer. More spooky and more powerful.
Replaced Cairn Wanderer, Black Cat and Dark Petition for Crypt Ghast, Feral Prowler and Razaketh, the Foulblooded. I need more mana ramp than I do removal with a "meh" body. Black cat gets upgraded to another black cat, this one helps more when searching for wins, and also pisses my friends off less. Razaketh is a little iffy and might get cut, but I dont run a lot of spells, and feel the need for more good sac engines.
Massive update to the primer. Made a few sections more reable, rewrote a bit, and added some sections on why to play this deck, and how to play it.
Vicious Shadows cut. Too expensive, never really worked out as a win con. Kaya, Ghost Assassin I LOVE this walker and her flavor... but her flicker isnt powerful enough, shes a bad enchantment. There were times that she slipped under the radar, but I should have power, not random happy accidents. Replaced with Grave Pact and Dictate of Ebebos. I needed more board control anyways, and honestly this deck plays like a bad (but fun) Meren deck anyways.
Added Arcane Adaption, and cut Ghostaway. Its a pretty odd swap, since Arcane Adaption makes my dudes scarecrows, so flickering is better, but in a vaccum Adaption is better, where as ghostaway, with this current build, is only good when I have out a tribal effecting enchantment. We don't have enough enter the battle field effects or GOOD scarecrows to make the deck's flicker work great. I'll revise that when we go back to shadowmoor and actually get good changelings and scarecrows...
Luxury Suite and Morphic Pool Added and cutting Underground River and Sulfurous Springs. It hurts me to cut Devil in a hot spring... But these are just better mana. The whole deck is basically black with 4 splash colors, if it was true rainbow, Id just use these whole cycle. Hope they add the enemy lands in the future. Bramble SovereignKrav, the Unredeemed are on my watch list... I got a feeling I wont use Krav because I wont partner it... Though bramble is up for options.
Bravo! As amazing as this is though, I'm a little disappointed in how many of your misc/on theme cards are excluded from the deck. If I saw someone playing Reaper King and they cast Frankenstein's Monster, it's a guarantee I would never block or kill that dude out of respect.
Why not have 1 or 2 slots open to rotate theme cards in and out of the deck. No doubt you're going to be furious whenever you draw them, but at least it's fun. Plus, What's more scary than the possibly drawing a Cyclopean Mummy some games?
Hey, if ya do, let me know how it goes. Havent had any real time to play with it. Im exited gfor shadows of innistrad. Maybe ill get a werewolf worth running
Now see, stuff like this remind me why I got into magic in the first place. No crib swap though?
Nope! Main reason is pretty simple. Tribal doesnt trigger the vindicate, unless I hit my own stuff... Which I might if it said destroy instead of exile. But I put most of the removal spells out of the deck (Started the deck with close to 400 cards, and cut down) because the reaper king triggers should cover most of that built in.
Changes:
The Main Deck
-1 Dark Impostor
+1 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
Spooky Cards Worth Testing
Sifter of Skulls
Dark Imposter is a good card here, being able to at worst, be removal. The stealing of abilities is also good. But Kalitas will provide more raw value. It gives a grave hate that leaves our side intact for our shenanigans, and gives us more token generation for saccing. It also provides us with a semi sac outlet, and some way to gain life back. I also get a couple combos/nice synergies, which Imposter didnt give us.
Sifter would also be sheer token generation, as well mana, which might be worth looking into as part of the deck. I dont know how good it will be, so Id appreciate some insight here.
You should put Evil Twin in there to keep oppressive creatures and "unfun" general's off the board. I like to keep things fun. It's a good way to keep "that one guy" who wants to be a jerk in check so they don't ruin the game for everyone else. Sounds weird. I know. But, trust me. It works. Plus, it fits the theme perfectly!
Private Mod Note
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COMMANDER DECKS Gishath, Sun's Avatar Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind Surrak Presents: Snow-where to Run (A Temur Production) Zurgo - Mardu Warrior Tribal Gisa and Geralf Jhoira's Artifacts
I love the deck: it's a great marriage of flavor and function. It may not compete with the most Spike-ish of decks, as winning by blowing up permanents isn't as direct is a lot of the strategies in EDH, but it seems super fun, and I'm enamored of the flavor. I only wish the changelings looked a little creepier.
Eventually I need to update this primer. It got a fair amount of additions from the last set, and I cut some cute stuff for meatier stuff. And yeah, I never intended it to be extra competitive. I'm sure it works well enough in a semi casual/competitive play group, and will get full on wrecked by a real one... But I play competitive Modern, so this is my break deck. I also wish the changelings were a little creepier... but I'm sure they will be when we go back to shadowmoor, since the most "recent" lore has Nissa showing up as its flipping back to shadow.
Sadly the deck got like NOTHING in this new set, since really the only creepy stuff from kaladesh is aetherborn, and even then, none of the cards printed helped with the graveyard/sac/blink effects for the deck. Noxious Gearhulk, maybe, but if the deck is going off with its sac recurs, you are probably getting more than just a murder anyways.
PS, I had no clue about the clown in magic. that was new to me.
Updated a lot over the last 6 months. Made it a little more competitive with a few Oops I wins and better ways to get them. Deck is actually really solid now a days, even when playing against more cut throat kinda people. Still, my group is more casual and wants bigger fun, so there isnt any real control deck, but a fair amount of soft checks on stuff, so like grave hate exists for example.
On the flip side, the times grave hate showed up I still won off natural good stuff. So there is enough there.
My real question (not meaning to bump this) is should I be pushing the deck in a bit more of a Gravepact and dictate of erebos direction? I feel that Im pretty good at killing since scarecrow vindicates, and the few times Ive needed to reset, I had ugins searchable and ready... But maybe I should be more controling and slow?
Came across this deck about a week ago and it looks like everything I could possibly want out of an edh deck! Love the spooky flavor. Debating making a 4c deck with thrasios and one of the bw partners based around the same parameters of your deck! Very interested in your spooky blink section. I'm going to probably change my kitchen table tasigur into a 4c version of your deck.
Also gracepact is super value especially with some of your sac combos. Dictate of erebos would definitely work as a surprise everyone sac your board.
So far the need for grave packs havent come up. If my edh group turns less of an arms race I might pull the trigger, cutting shadows and a blink effect.
Let me know what you come up with. Cutting red is probably fine, you just miss out on devils, some spiders, some hell fire stuff and a clown.
Edit: and yeah, thanks about the alter section. I really love spookifying the deck up to give it flavor. I realized the other day with playing, I need to get pumpkin face counters and vampire ones too for my scarecrow effects and my olivia vampireing effects. There was alot of homeward path and olivia stealing I had to keep track off
Another set. another changes. Slacked on the Ixalin set update, but I did change a few things:
Vicious Shadows cut. Too expensive, never really worked out as a win con. Kaya, Ghost Assassin I LOVE this walker and her flavor... but her flicker isnt powerful enough, shes a bad enchantment. There were times that she slipped under the radar, but I should have power, not random happy accidents. Replaced with Grave Pact and Dictate of Ebebos. I needed more board control anyways, and honestly this deck plays like a bad (but fun) Meren deck anyways.
Added Arcane Adaption, and cut Ghostaway. Its a pretty odd swap, since Arcane Adaption makes my dudes scarecrows, so flickering is better, but in a vaccum Adaption is better, where as ghostaway, with this current build, is only good when I have out a tribal effecting enchantment. We don't have enough enter the battle field effects or GOOD scarecrows to make the deck's flicker work great. I'll revise that when we go back to shadowmoor and actually get good changelings and scarecrows...
Radiant Destiny doesn't make the cut, but I have a habit of picking up tribal cards that could should we ever go back to shadowmoor and scarecrows get buffed. As it stands... Reaper king is still best played as a good stuff deck, which brings us to prophet and Journey.
I doubt prophet is better than graveborn muse, which would be the natural swap. She draws on average 2 cards a turn, which is better than 1 and drain, but then again I havent read enough on prophet to know if shes just the new absurd card for black decks. Journey seems more like a good card, as it can go on reaper king to protect him, or something else for double the effects. A rainbow land never hurts, and neither does a recur effect that is mostly immune to dying in my friendly EDH group. But I'd love some input on these two cards, especially if anyone has played with em.
Seer can also be fetched and comboed off by hulk. I am hesitant to put this cheese in here, because I don't like going off hardcore combo town... but realistically, when I combo, I combo, so I might as well make the instawin combo less painful for my friends and over quicker.
Sorin was an all-star in his day... So I held on to him for years. 4 years to be exact. But hes just less good after power creep and infinite damage combos, 6 mana "turn someones life back to mostly normal" Theres more powerful stuff like constant Board exiles or repeatable recursion. Cauldron was good, but really only ever got 1 activation... if that. Its lackluster, and I got enough witches in the deck to justify cutting it. Dragonlair Spider NEVER lived... like ever. I just got dead after casting it. And it was always hard to cast because of the colors. So I dont mind cutting it.
Twilight Prophet was... not so good. It didnt really draw me any cards til late game, so graveborn was better... the drain never really changed the world either.
5 Reaper King
Mana Candy:
1 Sol Ring
2 Fertile Ground
3 Ashnod's Altar
3 Chromatic Lantern
3 Coalition Relic
3 Phyrexian Altar
3 Wild-Field Scarecrow
3 Scuttlemutt
4 Crypt Ghast
Ghouls and Gals:
1 Viscera Seer
2 Feral Prowler
2 Blood Artist
2 Bloodghast
2 Reassembling Skeleton
2 Shapesharer
3 Gilder Bairn
3 Loyal Retainers
3 Mirror Entity
3 Plague Belcher
3 Scarecrone
3 Taurean Mauler
3 Yahenni, Undying Partisan
4 Anger
4 Chameleon Colossus
4 Graveborn Muse
4 Meren of Clan Nel Toth
4 Necrotic Ooze
4 Olivia Voldaren
4 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
5 Body Double
5 Ghoulcaller Gisa
5 Grimgrin, Corpse-Born
5 Ishkanah, Grafwidow
5 Karmic Guide
5 Puppeteer Clique
6 Deadeye Navigator
6 Grave Titan
6 Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
6 Muldrotha, the Gravetide
7 Grim Poppet
7 Protean Hulk
7 Rune-Scarred Demon
7 Sheoldred, Whispering One
8 Razaketh, the Foulblooded
2 Demonic Tutor
3 Arcane Adaptation
3 Buried Alive
3 Eerie Interlude
3 Journey to Eternity
3 Mimic Vat
3 Necropotence
4 All Hallow's Eve
4 Arlinn Kord
4 Grave Pact
4 Grimoire of the Dead
4 Rite of Replication
5 Conspiracy
5 Dictate of Erebos
5 Liliana Vess
5 Xenograft
8 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
Haunts and Gravestones:
1 Ancient Tomb
1 Badlands
1 Bayou
1 Blood Crypt
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Cabal Coffers
1 Command Tower
1 Creeping Tar Pit
1 Fetid Heath
1 Forbidden Orchard
1 Forest
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Godless Shrine
1 Island
1 Kessig Wolf Run
1 Krosan Verge
1 Llanowar Wastes
1 Luxury Suite
1 Marsh Flats
1 Morphic Pool
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Phyrexian Tower
1 Polluted Delta
1 Reflecting Pool
1 Scrubland
1 Shizo, Death's Storehouse
1 Strip Mine
1 Sunken Ruins
2 Swamp
1 Twilight Mire
1 Underground Sea
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Vault of the Archangel
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Volrath's Stronghold
1 Watery Grave
Reaper King's Halloween Town uses its Pumpkin Mayor more of an Emblem that vindicates. When you cast it, you've got enough Scarecrows and Changlings to get at least one in your hand or graveyard. From there you can blink them and recur them for repeat vindicates. Once you add Xenograft and Conspiracy into the mix, those vindicates turn into complete boardstate destruction.
While this is a great trick for the deck, and gives it a couple awesome synergies, I won's deny that its overall a cute commander rather than a strong one. But the 5 colors of it allows you to play white's Ghosts, blue's Tricks and Changlings, Green's Wolves and Spiders, Red's Vampires and Black's well, everything. To make up for that, Halloween Town's residences are some of the most spooky and best creatures for EDH, most of them can win the game on their own if left unchecked. With enough destruction behind it to interact, your team has a strong chance to win.
Overall, if your EDH is a relaxed playgroup that prefers fun over competitive wins, this is a great deck to play that still can pull up results while being "fair". If you want to have quick wins while facing the strongest decks possible, you'll be best to look for one of the more "tier 1 " commanders. Overall this primer will focus on a flavor first approach, but kept as competitive as it can be in that light.
Why Should I Play this Deck?: If you like creepy halloween things, or if you like graveyard and good stuff synergies. The deck also does a lot of very fun things.
Why Shouldn't I Play this Deck?: If you like to win EVERY time, or crave board/stack interaction. The deck does it's own thing, and its a fun thing, but it is simple and not super interactive.
Because its the coolest spooky tribe, his favor text is "Its harvest time", how cool is that art work, and he has a pumpkin for a head, what more do you need?
Jokes aside, thats pretty much THE reason to run him, because he is cool. Which is a pretty valid reason in EDH. To be real with you for a moment, Reaper King is one of those really powerful Commanders with not enough support to do anything with him. In pretty much every "top tier" commander you can get better effects because support is easier on theme. Meren of Clan Nel Toth is way better at reanimation, Brago, King Eternal with flickering EtB effects, even Avatar of Woe probably kills more things then Reaper King.
But it's still a cool card, so if you want to use it here's why you should: Five colors are amazing to deck build with, and you dont need removal because you can just use scarecrows instead. The trick with Reaper King so to play more into his 5 colors, and allow his ability to be something you can do, rather than you must build around. Which is perfect for a Halloween themed commander.
Viscera Seer- A vampire that can be be tutored by Hulk, and is a super cheap and good sac engine.
Blood Artist- A vampire who threatens opponents to not use boardwipes, and rewards our recursion.
Bloodghast- A vampire ghost who lets us get some extra use out of sac and reset effects.
Feral Prowler- What's Halloween without a Black Cat? Well, its not Black Cat, but it's better. I'll admit this is in the deck for flavor. But hey when you are doing sac and recursion, you can actually get closer to draw with this.
Yahenni, Undying Partisan- A sac outlet that fits well enough for the theme, but its price and effect makes it easy to put out and easy to keep. See the synergies down below.
Reassembling Skeleton- This time, a spooky scary skeleton who lets us get some extra use out of sac and reset effects.
Shapesharer- Shapesharer is a master Tricker Treater. He comes in a scarecrow, and changes to what ever you like. Hes so good, he can even make other changelings dress up for a turn.
Plague Belcher- With all the zombies in this list, it will do its fair share of damage, but the real trick is the -1/-1 counters on him, meaning he can combo off with Mikaeus and a sac engine for game winning combos.
Gilder Bairn- Givin' out mad candy like its his business, this guy makes all our planeswalkers and undying better.
Loyal Retainers- Now with The Mummy spookiness! Loyal Retainers helps make the ever growing list of legendaries better, and can recur key peices of your combo: Sacrifice- Grim grin, Recursion- Mikaeus, as well as utility.
Mirror Entity- Another scarecrow, he gives us a mana sink for all our zombies and wolves giving them a boost, and tribal.
Scarecrone- One of our actual scarecrows, this guy brings back some key artifacts creatures like Grim Poppet combo, and gives us tons of CA with a conspiracy or xenograft.
Taurean Mauler- Another scarecrow, this one punishes your opponents for doing anything.
Anger- This really helps get some combos from game breaking to just winning on the spot. See combos below.
Chameleon Colossus- Our biggest scarecrow. He is a 5/5 for 4 mana with his king out, and thus, doubles even better. Protection from black is very important in edh as well.
Crypt Ghast- A ghost who gives you mana ramp and life gain, something the deck actually needs a fair amount of.
Graveborn Muse- often drawing much more than 1, since we can easily make tons of zombies.
Meren of Clan Nel Toth- One of the best witches in EDH, By saccing things we always have her getting better, and she can bring us back really important combo pieces.
Necrotic Ooze- This slime isn't very powerful on its own, but makes some game winning combos when you have the right things in the yard.
Olivia Voldaren- She's your classic masquerade vampire. And she'll invite your friends creatures to the party too! Its too deadly to turn her down.
Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet- A vampire who brings zombies to the Monster Mash. With some extra life gain and and grave hate on the side.
Body Double- It's literally a person dressing up, and becoming our spooky things in the graveyard. Enables and redundants our combos and jank.
Ghoulcaller Gisa- Now this lady is a powerhouse. Shes a sac outlet that gives you more zombie bodies! Shes everything you'd want.
Grimgrin, Corpse-Born- Another zombie that is a sac outlet, while being a massive beatstick.
Ishkanah, Grafwidow- This card not only fits our theme of tokens on recur... but also gives us win cons when our dudes become spiders, or we go off.
Karmic Guide- An angel might seem out of place here... Until you realize she is in a graveyard. Since her life is mostly spent in the grave, her recursion can happen almost every turn.
Puppeteer Clique- Just like guide, puppeteer recurs things, while recurring itself. Even better, with persist, you can blink, grave recur it back to to use it all over again.
Deadeye Navigator- Who doesn't like pirate ghosts? His blink lets you mess with entering effects, and reset persist and undying. Even better, you can reset him too with the persist and undying triggers.
Grave Titan- Because you never could have enough zombies
Mikaeus, the Unhallowed- Not only does he recur everything, he even resets with a ton of cards on here for basically immortality.
Muldrotha, the Gravetide- Its a hell of a recursion card. Getting back more than just creatures.
Grim Poppet- scarecrow removal, with -1/-1 counters to toss around. Maybe on things with undying for example.
Protean Hulk- The blob, a little weird, but still on horror theme, massively upgrades the deck to enable its combos
Rune-Scarred Demon- sweet sweet recurring tutors! And a flying 6/6 aint so bad either.
Sheoldred, Whispering One- You needed another spider that also plays with the yard? Look no further.
Razaketh, the Foulblooded- Our second bat wings, this gives us a sac engine that can find the pieces we need to win.
Demonic Tutor- EDH staple. Its a tutor.
Buried Alive- This is a first for me... but it basically is a 3 creature tutor for 3 mana.
Eerie Interlude- Another Ghostway, but better.
Journey to Eternity- A fantastic way to abuse a 1 shot sac recur into a rainbow land and with future recursion!
Mimic Vat- Turns out alot of our Creatures love to turn into reoccurring Zombie nightmares. Who knew?!
All Hallow's Eve- Look at the name, look at the art, look at the effect. This card makes the deck.
Arlinn Kord- Werewolf Planeswalker! Makes wolves and wins the game.
Grimoire of the Dead- Why wouldnt we get ourself the necronomicon? We love bringing our things back from the dead.
Rite of Replication- While most decks are content to use this to make a ton of beat sticks... we can use this with reaper king for 25 vindicates.
Arcane Adaptation- See below.
Conspiracy- Makes all your creatures cast become scarecrows... which makes all creatures vindicates with legs!
Xenograft- See Conspiracy.
Dictate of Erebos- We need board control effects and ways to punish removal. This does both.
Grave Pact- See Dictate. Also, you better have the spooky reaper to be on flavor.
Necropotence- The deck lacks a "ton" of actual draw. To compinsate, it needs more powerful draw, and boy is this a powerful draw.
Liliana Vess- Repeatable tutors with pacts from demons
Ugin, the Spirit Dragon- A ghosty dragon! And a super powerful one at that. Everything this thing can do is great.
Sol Ring- Its a ghost ring thats a staple in EDH
Fertile Ground- Pumpkin patch that gives you mana, whats not to love
Ashnod's Altar- Combo piece and can use our tokens we make
Chromatic Lantern- Needed for the mana fixing.
Coalition Relic- Needed for mana fixing
Phyrexian Altar- Combo piece and can use our tokens we make
Wild-Field Scarecrow- Its a scarecrow that also gets mana!
Scuttlemutt- Scarecrows as a tribe lack alot of things, but apparently not making mana while vindicating.
Lets be honest here... Most of the mana base goes to making 4-5 colors available. Which leaves the trick list of lands rather shallow. But we still can fit some in here.
Ancient Tomb- Mana ramp that fits flavor
Cabal Coffers- Even better mana ramp!
Bojuka Bog- Sometimes you just need to burn the graves so they don't comeback.
Ghost Quarter/Wasteland- You're basic land hate. Truth is, the deck doesn't need a ton, since its scarecrows can also handle this.
Kessig Wolf Run- We had to fit a werewolf in here somewhere, and this one lets our beef be even beefier.
Phyrexian Tower- Adds to our sac effects, while giving mana ramp
Shizo, Death's Storehouse- Since we are mostly good stuff, we use a higher than normal amount of legendaries
Strip Mine- A check against other lands
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth- One of the best lands to use for us, as everything we need should be able to make black
Vault of the Archangel- Lifegain and removal in one card. Great with all our tokens.
Volrath's Stronghold- Reusing creatures is what we do best.
There is no clear cut way to use this deck, but the deck does have 3 main themes which is abuses to good effect. These themes are; Good Stuff, Recursion, Scarecrows. That is also in order of importance. Below I'll break down why those themes exist, but playing this deck is actually pretty easy.
Due to the "good stuff: nature of the deck, you just aim to play almost a midrange nature of the deck. Ramp early, play big must deal with threats and try to win off that backed with removal and grave pact effects. Grave Titan on a mimic vat is pretty good. You do this, all the while tutoring and prepping a plan B, which is an oops I win with the second theme recursion.
Our main goal is good stuff. The idea here is to just jam good hay makers. It is supported by out 2 other sub themes which is bringing them back to life, and using removal. Stuff like Grave Titan or Sheoldred, Whispering One can very likely win the game on their own. And we can dip into all 5 colors of magic because thats Reaper King's real power. A lot of these threats like Rite of Replication don't even use the graveyard so it makes us that much harder to beat or hate out by simple means. Simply cast and try to pressure people.
This is your long game and your plan B. It's a way to reuse your threats, giving you gas, and also a few ways to just randomly go infinite, see below in Tricks. Things like Loyal Retainers and Muldrotha, the Gravetide, along with sac effects like Ashnod's Altar and Grimgrin, Corpse-Born let you reuse the same creatures over and over to gain advantage. This combos well with the Good stuff theme, as you are probably gaining advantage every time you do it as well as nulling board wipes and removal. It also plays well with Scarecrows turning them into machine gun removal.
Most decks run some amount of cheap removal or board wipes. And in that department, you will see we are distinctly lacking. Well this is because scarecrows can play AS removal for us. Most scarecrows included in this deck are simply good on their own like Wild-Field Scarecrow and Scuttlemutt. We also are using only the "good" changelings like Taurean Mauler and Chameleon Colossus for that fact too. Why would we want to run this over actual removal? Because we can use blink and sac effects with them to reuse this effect.
It may seem odd that we aren't all in tribal here. Well simply put, unless the tribe has a TON of support it won't do very well. As such, we have to view Reaper King's lord ability as utility rather than must run. The best cards we can use are Conspiracy like cards or Rite of Replication. I can not stress this enough. Cast Reaper King only after you have a way to Recur scarecrows or have Conspiracy cards in play. We are odd that we only cast our commander after a set up not FOR a set up.
The whole Halloween Town EDH deck isn't nearly as complicated as some "Super competitive decks" by the virtue of sacrificing some of those game ending combos for the sake of "fun," nor is it as easy to understand as most tribal synergies since its very lightly combo. Halloween Town is a very much "good stuff" deck that the cards happen to be creepy. So the best way to help learning the deck, is to have a list of its combos and synergies. If you'd like, print out this section as a visual guide.
Basically a ton of cheap enter the battlefield effects via Blink. The basic formula for this one is Blinker+Card=Pay off
Blinkers
Cards/Pay Off
You can also add the following for these effects:
This is mostly about abusing Enter the Battlefield triggers, but is also a little easier to set up than blinking... while also being more flavorful but more vulnerable. The basic formula is Sac Outlet + Recur Engine + Card = Pay Off
Sac Outlet
Recur Engine
Cards/Pay Off
You can also add the following for these effects:
Necrotic Ooze does some great utility in this deck, but also can rarely be a Win combo. Remember Buried Alive find a lot of ooze pieces for you to win. Here is the combo as well as cards to watch out for in the yard that ooze can take.
Win Combo
If you don't have the pump effect, its basically B get a 2/2 token and a 1/1 counter. If you have Anger you likely win on the spot.
Useful Abilities
These cards make everything you own into a scarecrow and sometimes a spider. This matters with the following cards:
Step 2: His trigger goes off, and you find Karmatic Guide, bringing back Hulk and Viscera Seer if you need a sac engine.
Step 3: Sac Hulk again, this time find Mikaeus, the Unhallowed.
Step 4: Sac Guide, and she will undying allowing you to get back Hulk. Sac Hulk for
Plague Belcher, Putting a -1/-1 Counter on Guide and Belcher.
Step 5 on: Sac Guide, hulk, and belcher as many times as you want to tutor anything, including all the combos listed above this for winning.
But What if something is already dead? No worries, that's what Body Double is for. She can do a really great Halloween Costume and be what ever is dead, until those things arent dead anymore.
But what if they are exiled? Yeah, at that point, Hulk for value.
There are too many cards that are on theme to play all of them. But over time I have created lists of them to keep track of in case I need a sort of effect. If you feel like youd like to add something to the deck feel free! Below I lumped them into overall effect groups
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Balefire Dragon
1 Beast Within
1 Black Cat
1 Chaos Warp
1 Council's Judgment
1 Cribswap
1 Cairn Wanderer
1 Damnation
1 Dictate of Erebos
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Hallowed Burial
1 Heap Doll
1 Helvault
1 Ixidron
1 Mortify
1 Path to Exile
1 Prey Upon
1 Putrefy
1 Shriekmaw
1 Terminus
1 Unburial Rites
1 Tragic Slip
1 Utter End
1 Victim of Night
1 Woodfall Primus
1 Cartel Aristocrat
1 Krav, the Unredeemed
1 Cauldron Dance
1 Cauldron Haze
1 Chainer, Dementia Master
1 Corpse Dance
1 Endless Cockroaches
1 Karador, Ghost Chieftain
1 Nether Shadow
1 Shallow Grave
1 Torrent of Souls
1 Geralf's Messenger
1 Havengul Lich
1 Bramble Sovereign
1 Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver
1 Bloodline Keeper
1 Hallowed Spiritkeeper
1 Huntmaster of the Fells
1 Lingering Souls
1 Mayor of Avabruck
1 Teysa, Envoy of Ghosts
1 Dragonlair Spider
1 Sifter of Skulls
1 Brainspoil
1 Dark Petition
1 Erebos, God of the Dead
1 Increasing Ambition
1 Knollspine Dragon
1 Lim-Dul's Vault
1 Phyrexian Arena
1 Skullclamp
1 Snapcaster Mage
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
1 Twilight Prophet
1 Lazav, Dimir Mastermind
1 Sakashima the Impostor
1 Evil Twin
1 Nirkana Revenant
1 Graven Cairns
1 Leechridden Swamp
1 Moorland Haunt
1 Sunken Ruins
1 Twilight Mire
1 Drogskol Reaver
1 Ghost Council of Orzhova
1 Ghostly Flicker
1 Flickerwisp
1 Mistmeadow Witch
1 Kaya, Ghost Assassin
1 Ghostaway
1 Beckon Apparition
1 Cyclopean Mummy
1 Demonic Hordes
1 Elbrus, the Binding Blade
1 Frankenstein's Monster
1 Headless Horseman
1 Increasing Vengeance
1 Invisible Stalker
1 Invoke Prejudice
1 Moonveil Dragon
1 Psychosis Crawler
1 Jar of Eyeballs
1 Laboratory Maniac
1 Raven's Crime
1 Season of the Witch
1 Sorin Markov
1 Soul of New Phyrexia
1 Stillmoon Cavalier
1 Stuffy Doll
1 Vicious Shadows
1 Witch Hunt
1 Bitterheart Witch
1 Curse of Misfortunes
Lock
1 Curse of Death's Hold
1 Overwhelming Splendor
1 Curse of Vengeance
1 Curse of Echoes
1 Curse of Thirst
1 Curse of Bloodletting
1 Trespasser's Curse
1 Curse of Predation
Edh really is the best way to express yourself in a game of magic. You really get to pour a lot of creativity into it and make the "avatar of you." I mean look... I'm a happy little pumpkin, and I get to use a pumpkin headed scarecrow as my commander. But sometimes a few extra touches go a long way. Heres how I make my games just a little more halloween.
While you could always use real candy, that way you can give them out during a game, you could always use sculpty and painted alternatives.
Personally I'm a fan of candy corn +1/+1 counters and spider -1/-1 counters
Here's other choices:
Halloween Counters:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/239002873/10-piece-small-tiny-halloween-button-mix?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=halloween acrylic&ref=sr_gallery_47
https://www.etsy.com/listing/237328092/50-pieces-acrylic-black-cat-charm-with?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=halloween acrylic&ref=sr_gallery_47
https://www.etsy.com/listing/199555198/12-pumpkin-beads-15mm-x-9mm-acrylic?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=halloween acrylic&ref=sr_gallery_10
https://www.etsy.com/listing/248778259/20pc-acrylic-skull-beads-halloween?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=halloween acrylic&ref=sr_gallery_3
https://www.etsy.com/listing/259539339/10-pcs-tiny-black-bats-acrylic-laser-cut?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=halloween acrylic&ref=sr_gallery_15
https://www.etsy.com/listing/186289023/cute-ghosts-cabochon-10-pcs-laser-cut?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=cabochon ghost&ref=sr_gallery_12
Candy Counters:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/62638820/colorful-candy-with-star-dots-cabochons?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=cabochon candy&ref=sr_gallery_22
https://www.etsy.com/listing/455534396/10pcs-chocolate-resin-chocolate-ball?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=cabochon candy&ref=sr_gallery_30
https://www.etsy.com/listing/197536240/jesse-james-buttons-6pc-rainbow-pops?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=cabochon lollipop&ref=sr_gallery_32
https://www.etsy.com/listing/197951475/12-candy-corn-34-decorative-cabochon-bow?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=cabochon candy corn&ref=sr_gallery_29
https://www.etsy.com/listing/169446209/4-3d-kawaii-chocolate-brown-candy-bar?ref=shop_home_active_11
https://www.etsy.com/listing/221198756/46mm-red-licorice-candy-cabochons-12?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=resin candy&ref=sr_gallery_23
I'm a big fan of inked playmats. I'm working on a halloween themed "boardgame" playmat right now to go with the halloween style. Pictures to come!
Another playmat I used prior to my board game mat is my "planeswalker" character. You can feel free to use it as well if you like it.
Feel free to use these sleeves if you like.
Sometimes a card will be important for the deck, but not look as "spooky" as it could. Take for example expedition map. not very halloween at all... But change a few markers to be candy shapes, and bam, you got a trick or treat map.
As I have my cards altered to fit the the theme I will post it up here for you all to use.
Full Sheets to make double sided tokens: A1/A2/B1//B2
http://imgur.com/a/YBHqb
Oldest to Newest
Why not have 1 or 2 slots open to rotate theme cards in and out of the deck. No doubt you're going to be furious whenever you draw them, but at least it's fun. Plus, What's more scary than the possibly drawing a Cyclopean Mummy some games?
but i might try to put this together just for *shirts* and giggles
i always like a casual deck around
[center][color=Blue]
Edric Spy and die
Azami the lady of the draw
Naya Zoo
Past decks
Orloro
sharuum the hegemond
Mono black control
splinter twin
UBarrin, Master WizardU
USticher GeralfU
UIxidor, Reality SculptorU
UWNoyan Dar, Roil ShaperUW
Nope! Main reason is pretty simple. Tribal doesnt trigger the vindicate, unless I hit my own stuff... Which I might if it said destroy instead of exile. But I put most of the removal spells out of the deck (Started the deck with close to 400 cards, and cut down) because the reaper king triggers should cover most of that built in.
The Main Deck
-1 Dark Impostor
+1 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
Spooky Cards Worth Testing
Sifter of Skulls
Dark Imposter is a good card here, being able to at worst, be removal. The stealing of abilities is also good. But Kalitas will provide more raw value. It gives a grave hate that leaves our side intact for our shenanigans, and gives us more token generation for saccing. It also provides us with a semi sac outlet, and some way to gain life back. I also get a couple combos/nice synergies, which Imposter didnt give us.
Sifter would also be sheer token generation, as well mana, which might be worth looking into as part of the deck. I dont know how good it will be, so Id appreciate some insight here.
COMMANDER DECKS
I am the who when you call "who's there?"
I am the wind blowing through your hair
I am the shadow on the moon at night, filling your dreams to the brim with fright.
This is Halloween, this is Halloween. Halloween, Halloween.Halloween, Halloween.
I love the deck: it's a great marriage of flavor and function. It may not compete with the most Spike-ish of decks, as winning by blowing up permanents isn't as direct is a lot of the strategies in EDH, but it seems super fun, and I'm enamored of the flavor. I only wish the changelings looked a little creepier.
Low-power cube enthusiast!
My 1570 card cube (no longer updated)
My 415 Peasant+ Artifact and Enchantment Cube
Ever-Expanding "Just throw it in" cube.
Sadly the deck got like NOTHING in this new set, since really the only creepy stuff from kaladesh is aetherborn, and even then, none of the cards printed helped with the graveyard/sac/blink effects for the deck. Noxious Gearhulk, maybe, but if the deck is going off with its sac recurs, you are probably getting more than just a murder anyways.
PS, I had no clue about the clown in magic. that was new to me.
On the flip side, the times grave hate showed up I still won off natural good stuff. So there is enough there.
My real question (not meaning to bump this) is should I be pushing the deck in a bit more of a Gravepact and dictate of erebos direction? I feel that Im pretty good at killing since scarecrow vindicates, and the few times Ive needed to reset, I had ugins searchable and ready... But maybe I should be more controling and slow?
What do you all think?
Also gracepact is super value especially with some of your sac combos. Dictate of erebos would definitely work as a surprise everyone sac your board.
Also those tokens are amazing!
Let me know what you come up with. Cutting red is probably fine, you just miss out on devils, some spiders, some hell fire stuff and a clown.
Edit: and yeah, thanks about the alter section. I really love spookifying the deck up to give it flavor. I realized the other day with playing, I need to get pumpkin face counters and vampire ones too for my scarecrow effects and my olivia vampireing effects. There was alot of homeward path and olivia stealing I had to keep track off
Now the things on my eye for Rivals that came out is Twilight Prophet, Journey to Eternity // Atzal, Cave of Eternity, and Radiant Destiny.
Radiant Destiny doesn't make the cut, but I have a habit of picking up tribal cards that could should we ever go back to shadowmoor and scarecrows get buffed. As it stands... Reaper king is still best played as a good stuff deck, which brings us to prophet and Journey.
I doubt prophet is better than graveborn muse, which would be the natural swap. She draws on average 2 cards a turn, which is better than 1 and drain, but then again I havent read enough on prophet to know if shes just the new absurd card for black decks. Journey seems more like a good card, as it can go on reaper king to protect him, or something else for double the effects. A rainbow land never hurts, and neither does a recur effect that is mostly immune to dying in my friendly EDH group. But I'd love some input on these two cards, especially if anyone has played with em.
Seer can also be fetched and comboed off by hulk. I am hesitant to put this cheese in here, because I don't like going off hardcore combo town... but realistically, when I combo, I combo, so I might as well make the instawin combo less painful for my friends and over quicker.
Sorin was an all-star in his day... So I held on to him for years. 4 years to be exact. But hes just less good after power creep and infinite damage combos, 6 mana "turn someones life back to mostly normal" Theres more powerful stuff like constant Board exiles or repeatable recursion. Cauldron was good, but really only ever got 1 activation... if that. Its lackluster, and I got enough witches in the deck to justify cutting it. Dragonlair Spider NEVER lived... like ever. I just got dead after casting it. And it was always hard to cast because of the colors. So I dont mind cutting it.
Twilight Prophet was... not so good. It didnt really draw me any cards til late game, so graveborn was better... the drain never really changed the world either.