As of the writing of this post, Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim is a newly released legendary creature from Oath of the Gatewatch. This deck is based all around making use of her traits and qualities with a great focus on making her work with Sanguine Bond.
Firstly, Ayli costs only WB, which is certainly on the cheaper end of things. He can play Ayli early and often, and this deck is geared to ramp up so even if she dies four times, we'll still be able to replay her and sacrifice things to her.
Second, she's got Deathtouch. Since she's cheap, this makes her a *great* blocker. Other than occasionally using her to make the trade, we're incorporating some super secret tech in the form of Viridian Longbow. Why? Deathtouch does not specify combat damage, thus equipping the Longbow makes Ayli a death-pinger which is good for board control.
Ayli's Third ability that we care about is our bread and butter. "1, sacrifice another creature: You gain life equal to the sacrificed creature's toughness." Having a sac(rifice) ability for this cheap on such a cheap commander makes a focus on sacrifice and recursion far more efficient than usual, plus it gives us a boost in life whenever used. This is what this deck is based around. We're running large creatures like Ashen Rider with good ETB and death trigger effects so that we can play them, reap value, sac them, reap value, recur them, and reap value. Additionally, we can exploit a small loophole on the cards Fiend Hunter, Faceless Butcher and Leonin Relic-Warder: they all have two triggers, one that remove a permanent on ETB and one that gives it back when they leave. Using Ayli as a sac outlet, we play these creatures, their triggers go on the stack and, before those initial triggers resolve, we sac said creatures causing the second triggers to go resolve before the first. The first triggers then resolve, perma-exiling whatever you're targetting. One more note about this ability: Life gain is all well and good, but unless you're making use of it, it's just delaying the inevitable. To push the pace of the game and advance our own position, we're running cards like Sanguine Bond and Cradle of Vitality.
Ayli's last ability is, "1WB, sacrifice another creature: Exile target nonland permanent. Activate this ability only if you have at least 10 life more than your starting life total." It's another sac outlet. It's more expensive and won't gain us any life, but it's fantastic utility and allows us to better control the board state. Play smart with it though, we don't have an endless supply of creatures.
Ayli's also a 2/3 Kor Cleric, but we're not a Cleric deck and don't pretend to be. A WB Kor tribal deck could be cool, different thing to do though.
Blade of Selves/Herald of the Host - Myriad puts free bodies on the field that last until the end of combat. The idea is that we swing with a creature with Myriad, combat happens, then as the "exile this token" triggers hit the stack, we sac the tokens off to Ayli for value. Note: Myriad becomes useless with only one opponent.
Phyrexian Processor - We're going to have a surplus of life that we can spend on things. Take a moment and think of life as money. What's the best way to spend money? Invest to make more money. The same concept applies with this card, we invest a deal of life into it so that we may reap more value off of it. Always play with AT LEAST nine mana and Ayli: four for the cast, four for the token, one to sac the token to Ayli.
Nighthowler - Bestow on something to be sac'd, then sac it itself, then recur it (preferably to hand) to wash, rinse and repeat.
Illusionist's Bracers - Equip to Ayli. Sac'ing a creature to gain 5 life? Gain 10! Exile pesky permanent? Exile two!
Notable Exclusions
Exquisite Blood - This deck *loves* to have Sanguine Bond and similar cards on the field to push the progress of the game as we gain life, so why not set up the old infinite combo with Exquisite Blood? It's personal preference. I barely ever run infinite combos that win on the spot in multiplayer decks. They can be good release valves for when the game state becomes unbalanced or if the game has gone on for an annoyingly long time, but in most other situations, it cheats the rest of the table out of a fair game and awards nothing but a hollow victory. If you're playing in a purely competitive, cutthroat meta, infinite combos can be expected, but progressive strategy and politics tend to carry the day in my meta.
Demonic Tutor/Vampiric Tutor/Enlightened Tutor - Unless a tutor synergizes well with the overall strategy of the deck, I'm not going to run it. It's personal preference, I won't use up valuable card slots that could be used to further diversify and strengthen the deck. Also, tutors such as these promote a greater linearity to playing the deck, which is just fine if your only goal is to win.
Angelic Accord/Luminarch Ascension - Leave mana open, get angels to continually sacrifice. Note: with Ayli, not only does Accord draw less hate but it's cheaper on the mana too. You're just restricted to one per turn. Also, Accord is far more of a budget card.
Sun Titan - More recursion for a wider variety of things, but more restricted in usage.
Mimic Vat - Wait, why have I not already included this?
Pawn of Ulamog/Sifter of Skulls - More death triggers, and quasi-ramp. Works especially well with Grave Pact-ish things.
Massacre Wurm - It's a good value creature that pushes the pace of the game. The dream here is to equip him up with Blade of Selves.
Cathars' Crusade/Archangel of Thune - I'd probably replace Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite with one of these already if Norn didn't also give opponents' creatures -2/-2. These are fantastic for growing our creatures, which will attack and do things to put opponents' life totals down and then be sac'd for more life. Generally, more value.
Toxic Deluge - We have tons of life. If our opponents have something like Sigarda, Host of Herons, Hexproof and unsac'ability is hard for us to get around. Deluge gets around it.
Black Market - We'll have a lot of creatures dying, so this can provide us with serious advantage over the long term.
Wake the Dead - Instant-speed mass recursion that doesn't exile the creatures it yanks back. Gets back creatures on the cheap to be sac'd to Ayli for value.
Dawn of the Dead - The value end of Sheoldred in cheaper enchantment form, we can get around the exile clause by sac'ing to Ayli.
Comments, concerns, constructive criticisms, alliterations and suggestions are appreciated!
Cool deck. I plan to build a very similar deck with Ayli. Did you consider Thornbite Staff instead of Viridian Longbow? I will probably run both actually.
Cool deck. I plan to build a very similar deck with Ayli. Did you consider Thornbite Staff instead of Viridian Longbow? I will probably run both actually.
Thank you! Yes, I did consider Thornbite Staff but I'm worried it'll be too mana intensive. Running both Staff and Longbow on Ayli lets you machine gun down the whole board, so that's pretty cool.
Why not Karlov of the Ghost Council?
He probably becomes huge in a deck like this for a very low mana investment. His ability might be a bit redundant, on the other hand the conditions for activating at are different enough that it will work in situations where Ayli isn't online.
Other than that, I think you really have an awesome list. I might want to build my own now
The deck hasn't gotten actual game experience yet, but I've been solitairing it a ton. The mana needed some serious attention, I wasn't running nearly enough Plains. Also, the deck is gradually finding a more-concise identity, which I'll explain in a moment.
Cuts
Secluded Steppe/Drifting Meadow/Barren Moor/Polluted Mire - I'm so used to running as many Cycling lands as possible in my red and white decks to eek out any card advantage I can that, in a deck like this with multiple engines for real card advantage already moving, I blindly included them. They're inefficient lands and we really don't need them.
Orzhov Guildgate - It comes in tapped and gives no additional effect.
Arcane Lighthouse - Possible future re-inclusion, but cut for now for the sake of more consistent mana.
Vizkopa Guildmage - This deck *loves* Sanguine Bond and effects like it, but the deck is also very mana hungry. Progressing the board state and our overall position in the game while also worrying about keeping mana open for this just for a chunk of life here or there doesn't feel worth it. Additionally, if the mana's being used for more important things, this isn't anything but a vanilla 2/2.
Blood Artist/Zulaport Cutthroat/Falkenrath Noble - These are great cards, especially in a deck where things are dying all of the time. However, being the red player I am, I learned an important lesson in politics from running Purphoros so much - it's not so much the big chunks of damage you inflict on people that draw their ire, that's to be expected. It's the constant pinging triggers that keep their notice and draws their aggression. Were this a true token-sac deck, we'd keep them in for the immense amount of death triggers they get value from. However, they're not worth the card slots if I'm only sac'ing one or two fatties per turn cycle.
Return to Dust - Another great card, but superfluous. Ayli herself, as well as several other cards in the deck that synergize far better with the theme, can already exile artifacts and enchantments.
Adds
5 Plains - Correcting the insane imbalance in lands. Note: The shell of this deck was taken from an old Vish Kal, Blood Arbiter deck that was 80-90% black.
Godless Shrine - I recently began scrapping my old Alesha Tiny Leaders deck which ran a complement of Shock lands.
Serra Avatar - I like the idea of doubling my life total on a whim. I like it even better if I outright blast away an opponent in the process.
Emeria Shepherd - Black's great at recurring creatures, but not much else. Emeria Shepherd helps to shore up that weakness.
Butcher of Malakir - We sacrifice creatures pretty often, let's extend that love to everyone at the table.
Cauldron of Souls - Cauldron's got two major functions here: 1. board wipe recovery, 2. sacrificing creatures twice in one turn.
Why not Karlov of the Ghost Council?
He probably becomes huge in a deck like this for a very low mana investment. His ability might be a bit redundant, on the other hand the conditions for activating at are different enough that it will work in situations where Ayli isn't online.
Other than that, I think you really have an awesome list. I might want to build my own now
The thing about Karlov in relation to this deck is that he rewards you for the quantity of life-gain triggers you can produce whereas we seek to utilize a lesser quantity of triggers, but triggers of a much higher value. Karlov doesn't care at all for how much life you gain, he only cares if you gain life and how many times you gain life. To make things easier on us (and because I think Sanguine Bond in this deck is the best thing ever), I'm making card choices based upon gaining lots of life at once. Put simply, I want to take an occasional big gulp rather than a steady stream of sips. Because Karlov wouldn't be reaching his max potential in this deck, I just don't see a good reason to use a card slot on him over something that fits better.
And thank you! I'm very excited to play this deck, Ayli's going to be a fantastic Commander.
You have lots of creatures dying for black market as well
Tutors that don't fit directly into my strategy (think Academy Rector) aren't something I'm a fan of running. I like having greater variance in my decks and tutors not only take valuable card slots that could be used for new, different pieces of our overall strategy, but they also promote more linear play in how the deck runs. They're not for me.
I also try to limit myself on infinite anything as much as possible. I like to win the old fashioned way of clobbering my opponents' life totals to nothing.
Dictate of Erebos (and Grave Pact too) do tend to stick around longer than Butcher, but I tend to prefer Butcher because he's easily sac'able and easily recurrable. I'll probably include the two if I ever find a good trade for them. Also, Black Market, since it got reprinted in November, I've been meaning to get my hands on a copy of that too. These three cards are getting added to my considerations.
Two other suggestions that I think would be really strong are Wake the Dead and Rally the Ancestors. Play them, bring back your GY, retrigger ETB abilities, trade off an opposing attack the sac everything remaining for life.
Especially Wake the Dead is incredibly powerful but very little played and I think it would fit this deck like a glove.
Two other suggestions that I think would be really strong are Wake the Dead and Rally the Ancestors. Play them, bring back your GY, retrigger ETB abilities, trade off an opposing attack the sac everything remaining for life.
Especially Wake the Dead is incredibly powerful but very little played and I think it would fit this deck like a glove.
Wake the Dead's a fantastic idea, I used to run that in my Bladewing deck and only cut it because I couldn't consistently make use of the the creatures ETBing, and it comes with the plus of putting them back into the graveyard if I'm stopped from doing that myself. Definitely something I'll consider. As for Rally, I'm a little more wary, yanking out the big creatures (here's looking at you, Ashen Rider) takes *a lot* of mana which I might not be able to deliver on reliably, especially if I want to keep up mana to sac those creatures away before they exile themselves.
Two other suggestions that I think would be really strong are Wake the Dead and Rally the Ancestors. Play them, bring back your GY, retrigger ETB abilities, trade off an opposing attack the sac everything remaining for life.
Especially Wake the Dead is incredibly powerful but very little played and I think it would fit this deck like a glove.
Wake the Dead's a fantastic idea, I used to run that in my Bladewing deck and only cut it because I couldn't consistently make use of the the creatures ETBing, and it comes with the plus of putting them back into the graveyard if I'm stopped from doing that myself. Definitely something I'll consider. As for Rally, I'm a little more wary, yanking out the big creatures (here's looking at you, Ashen Rider) takes *a lot* of mana which I might not be able to deliver on reliably, especially if I want to keep up mana to sac those creatures away before they exile themselves.
Definitely seriously considering Wake the Dead.
Now I need to get a Wake the Dead too, that card is perfect for Ayli, I'd never even heard of it before. I have my list here if you feel like checking it out: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/23-01-16-ose-ayli/ It's a little less focused than yours, a bit more midrangey.
I had an epiphany this afternoon: Angel of Serenity has the same exploitability with her triggers as Fiend Hunter and company, but for triple the value. I'll be adding her asap.
Two other suggestions that I think would be really strong are Wake the Dead and Rally the Ancestors. Play them, bring back your GY, retrigger ETB abilities, trade off an opposing attack the sac everything remaining for life.
Especially Wake the Dead is incredibly powerful but very little played and I think it would fit this deck like a glove.
Wake the Dead's a fantastic idea, I used to run that in my Bladewing deck and only cut it because I couldn't consistently make use of the the creatures ETBing, and it comes with the plus of putting them back into the graveyard if I'm stopped from doing that myself. Definitely something I'll consider. As for Rally, I'm a little more wary, yanking out the big creatures (here's looking at you, Ashen Rider) takes *a lot* of mana which I might not be able to deliver on reliably, especially if I want to keep up mana to sac those creatures away before they exile themselves.
Definitely seriously considering Wake the Dead.
Now I need to get a Wake the Dead too, that card is perfect for Ayli, I'd never even heard of it before. I have my list here if you feel like checking it out: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/23-01-16-ose-ayli/ It's a little less focused than yours, a bit more midrangey.
I like the idea of Preacher and Helm of Possession, you steal their duders, use them and sac for value. If you're rocking SFM, I recommend more equipment. Bonehoard has fun synergy with Ayli thanks to Living Weapon being a thing, you sac off the germ token then move it around to other creatures to sac for more value. Elbrus, the Binding Blade (aka Withengar Unbound) is my top pick to equipment to cheat in, because I hear giant demons are pretty cool. Also, Illusionist's Bracers double all of Ayli's activated abilities as well as anything else worth equipping. Hello, Preacher?
Edgewalker makes Ayli cost nothing but her commander tax. I have not seen that as a consideration. While it is true you are not playing a strict Cleric tribal deck, Edgewalker is impacting your commander, who should be seeing LOTS of play in this deck, so is an interesting tech in terms of value (and, assuming you have Edgewalker and enough mana to play it by T3, will free up your T2 pretty heftily).
Edgewalker makes Ayli cost nothing but her commander tax. I have not seen that as a consideration. While it is true you are not playing a strict Cleric tribal deck, Edgewalker is impacting your commander, who should be seeing LOTS of play in this deck, so is an interesting tech in terms of value (and, assuming you have Edgewalker and enough mana to play it by T3, will free up your T2 pretty heftily).
~Lil Kalki
Thank you for the suggestion! Edgewalker's nice and all and it does provide a significant decrease in mana needed to play Ayli, but it just doesn't do enough. If we had more Clerics (we have maybe two others) or if Edgewalker did something aside from sitting around being a vanilla 2/2 when Ayli is in play. Yeah, the discount would be nice but I don't foresee myself even thinking about including Edgewalker unless I 1. made it Clerics tribal, or 2. found a recurring trend of Ayli getting killed every five seconds.
Have you thought about Eternal Dragon? In the beginning you can cycle it for a Plains and later it's flying 5/5 which can go back to the hand. Proper Burial could be a nice redundancy for Ayli don't you think? I will also try Emeria, the Sky Ruin but i think that Plains count is hard to get.
Eternal Dragon is such a huge mana investment on top of everything else. I used to run it in a few decks and I think I still have it in my mono-white deck (anything for card advantage in mono-white), but it never worked well for me. There was always something better to play, something more pressing that needed my mana. Then again, the big investment is just returning it to hand and recasting it, consistently discarding it for a Plains and bringing it back to hand with a recursion engine (Phyrexian Reclamation, Sheoldred, etc?) could yield a lot of value.
I did consider Proper Burial when putting the list together but I left it out because 1. all it does is gain life when your creatures die and nothing else, 2. Ayli should be able to provide us with enough life coming in. If I find that the deck needs more sources of consistent life-gain, I'll reconsider.
Emeria's really only good if you're running 20+ Plains or if you can reliably land something like Prismatic Omen. It's a fun thought, but seven Plains is hard to find in a two colored deck outside of Green. That being said, if you want a two colored deck that reliably use Emeria, Karametra, God of Harvests is your ticket.
This is a great resource for my evolving list - thanks, I appreciate it.
One quick recommendation - if you're already running Whip of Erebos, why not consider Crypt Rats ?
Certainly, it can clear your board (and everyone else's) which I guess is a drawback - but putting 10 black into rats + whip late game in a 4+ player game often has enough targets to gain me hundreds of life when I do it. Short of infinite combo, it's one of the most efficient ROI for mana to life. Crypt rats is Sun Titan-able, to boot.
This is a great resource for my evolving list - thanks, I appreciate it.
One quick recommendation - if you're already running Whip of Erebos, why not consider Crypt Rats ?
Certainly, it can clear your board (and everyone else's) which I guess is a drawback - but putting 10 black into rats + whip late game in a 4+ player game often has enough targets to gain me hundreds of life when I do it. Short of infinite combo, it's one of the most efficient ROI for mana to life. Crypt rats is Sun Titan-able, to boot.
I'm glad the thread's worked well for you. I don't know about Crypt Rats, it has minimal synergy with the deck and kills off our own Commander pretty easily, and it can't get around indestructibility. Additionally, after running the deck for the first few times earlier today (more on that to come tomorrow), I'm not at the point yet where I can generate ridiculous amounts of black mana. Yeah, it combos well with Whip, but that's one card in the whole of the 99. The chances of drawing those together, keeping them on the board at the same time (opponents will likely draw the connection) and getting through the blast of black mana sounds rather difficult. For now at least, I'd like to keep every card slot in here as having direct synergy with Ayli or having synergy with the strategy she's spawned. I do, however, *need* board wipes in this deck, I became painfully aware of that today.
I can certainly understand that. I think I've got between 11 and 14 tutor effects in the deck (not counting fetches) so getting the right tool for the job isn't terribly difficult for my build. Additionally, I'm heavily in black and anticipate Sun Titan looping these guys.
Is heavy in black but feels strong bringing a creature from the graveyard every turn like bringing back Gary every turn while you jsut sacrifice him before end of the turn
Is heavy in black but feels strong bringing a creature from the graveyard every turn like bringing back Gary every turn while you jsut sacrifice him before end of the turn
You know, that looks like a fantastic card to include. I can't say I've ever seen it played before, but I really want it for the deck now. I'll just need to find one. Thank you for the suggestion!
Is heavy in black but feels strong bringing a creature from the graveyard every turn like bringing back Gary every turn while you jsut sacrifice him before end of the turn
You know, that looks like a fantastic card to include. I can't say I've ever seen it played before, but I really want it for the deck now. I'll just need to find one. Thank you for the suggestion!
Firstly, Ayli costs only WB, which is certainly on the cheaper end of things. He can play Ayli early and often, and this deck is geared to ramp up so even if she dies four times, we'll still be able to replay her and sacrifice things to her.
Second, she's got Deathtouch. Since she's cheap, this makes her a *great* blocker. Other than occasionally using her to make the trade, we're incorporating some super secret tech in the form of Viridian Longbow. Why? Deathtouch does not specify combat damage, thus equipping the Longbow makes Ayli a death-pinger which is good for board control.
Ayli's Third ability that we care about is our bread and butter. "1, sacrifice another creature: You gain life equal to the sacrificed creature's toughness." Having a sac(rifice) ability for this cheap on such a cheap commander makes a focus on sacrifice and recursion far more efficient than usual, plus it gives us a boost in life whenever used. This is what this deck is based around. We're running large creatures like Ashen Rider with good ETB and death trigger effects so that we can play them, reap value, sac them, reap value, recur them, and reap value. Additionally, we can exploit a small loophole on the cards Fiend Hunter, Faceless Butcher and Leonin Relic-Warder: they all have two triggers, one that remove a permanent on ETB and one that gives it back when they leave. Using Ayli as a sac outlet, we play these creatures, their triggers go on the stack and, before those initial triggers resolve, we sac said creatures causing the second triggers to go resolve before the first. The first triggers then resolve, perma-exiling whatever you're targetting. One more note about this ability: Life gain is all well and good, but unless you're making use of it, it's just delaying the inevitable. To push the pace of the game and advance our own position, we're running cards like Sanguine Bond and Cradle of Vitality.
Ayli's last ability is, "1WB, sacrifice another creature: Exile target nonland permanent. Activate this ability only if you have at least 10 life more than your starting life total." It's another sac outlet. It's more expensive and won't gain us any life, but it's fantastic utility and allows us to better control the board state. Play smart with it though, we don't have an endless supply of creatures.
Ayli's also a 2/3 Kor Cleric, but we're not a Cleric deck and don't pretend to be. A WB Kor tribal deck could be cool, different thing to do though.
1 Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim
Lands
11 Swamp
11 Plains
1 Godless Shrine
1 Isolated Chapel
1 Caves of Koilos
1 Temple of Silence
1 Orzhov Basilica
1 Scoured Barrens
1 Myriad Landscape
1 Terramorphic Expanse
1 Evolving Wilds
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Blighted Fen
1 Blighted Steppe
1 Terrain Generator
1 Vault of the Archangel
1 Reliquary Tower
1 Temple of the False God
Ramp & Rocks
1 Sol Ring
1 Orzhov Signet
1 Charcoal Diamond
1 Marble Diamond
1 Commander's Sphere
1 Burnished Hart
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Kor Cartographer
1 Crypt Ghast
1 Sign in Blood
1 Read the Bones
1 Phyrexian Arena
1 Grim Haruspex
1 Disciple of Bolas
1 Smothering Abomination
1 Erebos, God of the Dead
1 Bloodgift Demon
1 Alhammarret's Archive
Recursion
1 Phyrexian Reclamation
1 Animate Dead
1 Victimize
1 Athreos, God of Passage
1 Doomed Necromancer
1 Whip of Erebos
1 Beacon of Unrest
1 Karmic Guide
1 Phyrexian Delver
1 Puppeteer Clique
1 Cauldron of Souls
1 Sepulchral Primordial
1 Emeria Shepherd
1 Sheoldred, Whispering One
1 Debtors' Knell
Because Life
1 Phyrexian Processor
1 Cradle of Vitality
1 Sanguine Bond
1 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
1 Sunscorch Regent
1 Kokusho, the Evening Star
1 Defiant Bloodlord
1 Exsanguinate
1 Debt to the Deathless
1 Leonin Relic-Warder
1 Fiend Hunter
1 Merciless Executioner
1 Fleshbag Marauder
1 Nighthowler
1 Faceless Butcher
1 Slum Reaper
1 Academy Rector
1 Herald of the Host
1 Archon of Justice
1 Serra Avatar
1 Butcher of Malakir
1 Angel of Despair
1 Ashen Rider
Tech & Utility
1 Viridian Longbow
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Illusionist's Bracers
1 Blade of Selves
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
Notable Card Choices
Notable Exclusions
Additional Considerations
Comments, concerns, constructive criticisms, alliterations and suggestions are appreciated!
Thank you! Yes, I did consider Thornbite Staff but I'm worried it'll be too mana intensive. Running both Staff and Longbow on Ayli lets you machine gun down the whole board, so that's pretty cool.
Kor Cartographer and Solemn Simulacrum, too! Just keep mana open to sac them to Ayli. Emeria Shepherd is definitely on the short list for inclusion.
He probably becomes huge in a deck like this for a very low mana investment. His ability might be a bit redundant, on the other hand the conditions for activating at are different enough that it will work in situations where Ayli isn't online.
Other than that, I think you really have an awesome list. I might want to build my own now
EDIT: Also: What about Skullclamp?
GWKarametra - The MistveiledGW
GWR Marath - The Egg-laying Wool-Milk-Pig GWR
RBGrenzo - Restrained RakdosRB
UWRGBHorde of NotionsUWRGB
Retired: Karador, Ghost Chieftain | Rafiq of the Many | Animar, Soul of Elements | Maelstrom Wanderer
Cuts
Adds
I need to get on finding another Skullclamp.
The thing about Karlov in relation to this deck is that he rewards you for the quantity of life-gain triggers you can produce whereas we seek to utilize a lesser quantity of triggers, but triggers of a much higher value. Karlov doesn't care at all for how much life you gain, he only cares if you gain life and how many times you gain life. To make things easier on us (and because I think Sanguine Bond in this deck is the best thing ever), I'm making card choices based upon gaining lots of life at once. Put simply, I want to take an occasional big gulp rather than a steady stream of sips. Because Karlov wouldn't be reaching his max potential in this deck, I just don't see a good reason to use a card slot on him over something that fits better.
And thank you! I'm very excited to play this deck, Ayli's going to be a fantastic Commander.
You didn't mention them in notable exclusions, are you deliberately avoiding demonic tutor, vampiric tutor and enlightened tutor?
Have you considered the infinite toughness combos? angelic protector / task force + shaman en-kor / nomads en-kor
You have lots of creatures dying for black market as well
Tutors that don't fit directly into my strategy (think Academy Rector) aren't something I'm a fan of running. I like having greater variance in my decks and tutors not only take valuable card slots that could be used for new, different pieces of our overall strategy, but they also promote more linear play in how the deck runs. They're not for me.
I also try to limit myself on infinite anything as much as possible. I like to win the old fashioned way of clobbering my opponents' life totals to nothing.
Dictate of Erebos (and Grave Pact too) do tend to stick around longer than Butcher, but I tend to prefer Butcher because he's easily sac'able and easily recurrable. I'll probably include the two if I ever find a good trade for them. Also, Black Market, since it got reprinted in November, I've been meaning to get my hands on a copy of that too. These three cards are getting added to my considerations.
Thank you for your suggestions!
Especially Wake the Dead is incredibly powerful but very little played and I think it would fit this deck like a glove.
GWKarametra - The MistveiledGW
GWR Marath - The Egg-laying Wool-Milk-Pig GWR
RBGrenzo - Restrained RakdosRB
UWRGBHorde of NotionsUWRGB
Retired: Karador, Ghost Chieftain | Rafiq of the Many | Animar, Soul of Elements | Maelstrom Wanderer
Wake the Dead's a fantastic idea, I used to run that in my Bladewing deck and only cut it because I couldn't consistently make use of the the creatures ETBing, and it comes with the plus of putting them back into the graveyard if I'm stopped from doing that myself. Definitely something I'll consider. As for Rally, I'm a little more wary, yanking out the big creatures (here's looking at you, Ashen Rider) takes *a lot* of mana which I might not be able to deliver on reliably, especially if I want to keep up mana to sac those creatures away before they exile themselves.
Definitely seriously considering Wake the Dead.
They're like two pees in a pod. Yeah, I should find myself a copy of Coffers.
Now I need to get a Wake the Dead too, that card is perfect for Ayli, I'd never even heard of it before. I have my list here if you feel like checking it out: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/23-01-16-ose-ayli/ It's a little less focused than yours, a bit more midrangey.
I like the idea of Preacher and Helm of Possession, you steal their duders, use them and sac for value. If you're rocking SFM, I recommend more equipment. Bonehoard has fun synergy with Ayli thanks to Living Weapon being a thing, you sac off the germ token then move it around to other creatures to sac for more value. Elbrus, the Binding Blade (aka Withengar Unbound) is my top pick to equipment to cheat in, because I hear giant demons are pretty cool. Also, Illusionist's Bracers double all of Ayli's activated abilities as well as anything else worth equipping. Hello, Preacher?
You've got *a lot* of money in your list.
~Lil Kalki
Proud Disciple of the Church of the Wary
Thank you for the suggestion! Edgewalker's nice and all and it does provide a significant decrease in mana needed to play Ayli, but it just doesn't do enough. If we had more Clerics (we have maybe two others) or if Edgewalker did something aside from sitting around being a vanilla 2/2 when Ayli is in play. Yeah, the discount would be nice but I don't foresee myself even thinking about including Edgewalker unless I 1. made it Clerics tribal, or 2. found a recurring trend of Ayli getting killed every five seconds.
Eternal Dragon is such a huge mana investment on top of everything else. I used to run it in a few decks and I think I still have it in my mono-white deck (anything for card advantage in mono-white), but it never worked well for me. There was always something better to play, something more pressing that needed my mana. Then again, the big investment is just returning it to hand and recasting it, consistently discarding it for a Plains and bringing it back to hand with a recursion engine (Phyrexian Reclamation, Sheoldred, etc?) could yield a lot of value.
I did consider Proper Burial when putting the list together but I left it out because 1. all it does is gain life when your creatures die and nothing else, 2. Ayli should be able to provide us with enough life coming in. If I find that the deck needs more sources of consistent life-gain, I'll reconsider.
Emeria's really only good if you're running 20+ Plains or if you can reliably land something like Prismatic Omen. It's a fun thought, but seven Plains is hard to find in a two colored deck outside of Green. That being said, if you want a two colored deck that reliably use Emeria, Karametra, God of Harvests is your ticket.
One quick recommendation - if you're already running Whip of Erebos, why not consider Crypt Rats ?
Certainly, it can clear your board (and everyone else's) which I guess is a drawback - but putting 10 black into rats + whip late game in a 4+ player game often has enough targets to gain me hundreds of life when I do it. Short of infinite combo, it's one of the most efficient ROI for mana to life. Crypt rats is Sun Titan-able, to boot.
I'm glad the thread's worked well for you. I don't know about Crypt Rats, it has minimal synergy with the deck and kills off our own Commander pretty easily, and it can't get around indestructibility. Additionally, after running the deck for the first few times earlier today (more on that to come tomorrow), I'm not at the point yet where I can generate ridiculous amounts of black mana. Yeah, it combos well with Whip, but that's one card in the whole of the 99. The chances of drawing those together, keeping them on the board at the same time (opponents will likely draw the connection) and getting through the blast of black mana sounds rather difficult. For now at least, I'd like to keep every card slot in here as having direct synergy with Ayli or having synergy with the strategy she's spawned. I do, however, *need* board wipes in this deck, I became painfully aware of that today.
Is heavy in black but feels strong bringing a creature from the graveyard every turn like bringing back Gary every turn while you jsut sacrifice him before end of the turn
You know, that looks like a fantastic card to include. I can't say I've ever seen it played before, but I really want it for the deck now. I'll just need to find one. Thank you for the suggestion!
It was funny when i was recurring Fleshbag Marauder and Sidisi, Undead Vizier