The deck wants at base to trigger Athreos' ability as much as possible to give a difficult decision to my opponents; either they will lose a lot of life, or they will send everything back to my hand, which I will discard and reanimate anyway for big creatures or simply recast for smaller. By having most of my creatures have ETB or dies effects, it makes the decision harder; if they just send it back to my hand, they risk that I recast it and get the ETB effect once more.
Note that my playgroup looks down on fetch cards, which is why there is no Demonic Tutor and others. My group also runs a moderately large amount of artifact hate, which is why I kept mana stones to a minimum. Also, my group allow proxies under certain conditions, especially for lands, so even if it's a casual deck I can proxy dual lands and other pricey cards.
Before I buy the missing cards, there is a little problem I'm faced with. While looking through my collection for cards I found two cards I skipped over or didn't consider while building the deck. I would very much like to add them, but I truly do not know what I should remove, so I would like your opinions. The cards are Gray Merchant of Asphodel and Ashes to Ashes.The choices have been made for these cards, first one in, second one out.
Also I welcome any criticism and suggestion of cards I did not think of. The deck is currently complete, but I still welcome any suggestion; I may have missed cards that would be excellent in there.
Hey, Akaneko. Very cool deck. This looks like a very similar route I first took my Athreos, God of Passage list. I hope you stick with him. He is a very fun commander to have and one would be surprised how many times they get "that" creature back.
You reference reanimation but I do not see some of the premier reanimation spells in Reanimate and Animate Dead. I feel these are almost too good for a black list not to run (especially one dedicating a portion of your strategy to like you are). Obviously they are stellar cards, but if you are looking for an instant way to reanimate creatures I would also take a look at Necromancy.
As for Gray Merchant of Asphohdel, this card was a house when he was in my list. At that time I had a lot of B permanents so gaining life with him was simple yet effective. If you are trying to flicker him I would recommend adding as many B permanents as possible (that do not dilute the strategy). I am not the biggest fan of Ashes to Ashes. I like your current removal slots as they are.
Over time my list turned into a more dedicated Hatebear strategy. Feel free to take a look at my list (in my sig) and to stop by my (hopefully) primer someday.
Thanks a lot for your input. I didn't have much time to think about Magic recently, so I'm sorry for the late reply.
I did get some time to try out the deck a few times; I tried a couple tweaks here and there, first playing at 37 lands with Gray Merchant of Asphodel and Ashes to Ashes to try them out. Here are my observations:
- The deck is not as mana hungry as I thought. It's playing fine at 37 lands with the 4 mana stones I have.
- As you said, Ashes to Ashes is not good enough. Both the non-artifact restriction and the 5 life cost gave me problems.
- Gray Merchant of Asphodel is a stellar card, and with only him and Athreos, God of Passage on the board, it's already devotion 3. It's really easy to cast him at devotion 5-7, and recurring at even these numbers is devastating.
- After trying with a proxy of Reanimate, I see that having low mana reanimation is useful, as you said. Reanimate is going in. However, no room for Animate Dead, and removing more lands would be a bad idea.
I wonder if Purgatory would interest you?
Your opponent may fear you simply returning the card for 4 life and 2 mana and say you can just bring it back to hand instead.
Not sure if that is something you want, but it may be fun to try.
Or it can act as a sort of backup to your commander.
I did consider Purgatory for my deck. However, at 4 mana (and 2 life), the reanimation price is a bit steep. In addition, the card prevents me from using any other form of reanimation since it exiles all creatures I own that die (and aren't bounced by Athreos, God of Passage). It would still deserve to be tested, so I may try it out, see how it goes.
If a creature you really do want goes to the graveyard you can ditch another you don't need yet to bring it back.
It's Survival of the Fittest for the graveyard and is surprisingly useful in games
It has been slowly winning people over in the last several years.
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Everything combos with Tombstone Stairwell.
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I recently finished building an Athreos deck for my play group. Here is the list:
1 Angel of Despair
1 Angel of Serenity
1 Archon of Justice
1 Ashen Rider
1 Disciple of Bolas
1 Duplicant
1 Faceless Butcher
1 Felidar Guardian
1 Fiend Hunter
1 Flickerwisp
1 Gonti, Lord of Luxury
1 Grave Titan
1 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
1 Kokusho, the Evening Star
1 Leonin Relic-Warder
1 Luminate Primordial
1 Massacre Wurm
1 Mindslicer
1 Restoration Angel
1 Sepulchral Primordial
1 Shriekmaw
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Sun Titan
1 Wurmcoil Engine
Sacrifice outlets
1 Ashnod's Altar
1 Attrition
1 Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim
1 Ghoulcaller Gisa
1 High Market
1 Miren, the Moaning Well
1 Teysa, Orzhov Scion
1 Vish Kal, Blood Arbiter
1 Champion of Stray Souls
1 Doomed Necromancer
1 Ever After
1 Karmic Guide
1 Phyrexian Delver
1 Reanimate
1 Rescue from the Underworld
1 Unburial Rites
1 Victimize
1 Wake the Dead
Triggers off death
1 Black Market
1 Butcher of Malakir
1 Dictate of Erebos
1 Grave Pact
1 Grim Haruspex
1 Harvester of Souls
1 Martyr's Bond
1 Requiem Angel
Single target removal
1 Anguished Unmaking
1 Path to Exile
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Utter End
1 Vindicate
Mass removal
1 Austere Command
1 Hour of Revelation
Other
1 Lethal Vapors
1 Phyrexian Arena
1 Skullclamp
Mana stones
1 Commander's Sphere
1 Darksteel Ingot
1 Orzhov Signet
1 Sol Ring
1 Arid Mesa
1 Barren Moor
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Command Tower
1 Concealed Courtyard
1 Drifting Meadow
1 Fetid Heath
1 Flagstones of Trokair
1 Flooded Strand
1 Godless Shrine
1 Isolated Chapel
1 Kor Haven
1 Leechridden Swamp
1 Marsh Flats
1 Mistveil Plains
1 Mortuary Mire
1 New Benalia
1 Orzhov Basilica
2 Plains
1 Polluted Delta
1 Polluted Mire
1 Scrubland
1 Secluded Steppe
1 Shambling Vent
2 Swamp
1 Tainted Field
1 Temple of Silence
1 Temple of the False God
1 Vault of the Archangel
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Volrath's Stronghold
1 Windswept Heath
The deck wants at base to trigger Athreos' ability as much as possible to give a difficult decision to my opponents; either they will lose a lot of life, or they will send everything back to my hand, which I will discard and reanimate anyway for big creatures or simply recast for smaller. By having most of my creatures have ETB or dies effects, it makes the decision harder; if they just send it back to my hand, they risk that I recast it and get the ETB effect once more.
Note that my playgroup looks down on fetch cards, which is why there is no Demonic Tutor and others. My group also runs a moderately large amount of artifact hate, which is why I kept mana stones to a minimum. Also, my group allow proxies under certain conditions, especially for lands, so even if it's a casual deck I can proxy dual lands and other pricey cards.
Before I buy the missing cards, there is a little problem I'm faced with. While looking through my collection for cards I found two cards I skipped over or didn't consider while building the deck. I would very much like to add them, but I truly do not know what I should remove, so I would like your opinions. The cards are Gray Merchant of Asphodel and Ashes to Ashes.The choices have been made for these cards, first one in, second one out.Also I welcome any criticism and suggestion of cards I did not think of.
The deck is currently complete, but I still welcome any suggestion; I may have missed cards that would be excellent in there.
You reference reanimation but I do not see some of the premier reanimation spells in Reanimate and Animate Dead. I feel these are almost too good for a black list not to run (especially one dedicating a portion of your strategy to like you are). Obviously they are stellar cards, but if you are looking for an instant way to reanimate creatures I would also take a look at Necromancy.
As for Gray Merchant of Asphohdel, this card was a house when he was in my list. At that time I had a lot of B permanents so gaining life with him was simple yet effective. If you are trying to flicker him I would recommend adding as many B permanents as possible (that do not dilute the strategy). I am not the biggest fan of Ashes to Ashes. I like your current removal slots as they are.
Over time my list turned into a more dedicated Hatebear strategy. Feel free to take a look at my list (in my sig) and to stop by my (hopefully) primer someday.
Thanks a lot for your input. I didn't have much time to think about Magic recently, so I'm sorry for the late reply.
I did get some time to try out the deck a few times; I tried a couple tweaks here and there, first playing at 37 lands with Gray Merchant of Asphodel and Ashes to Ashes to try them out. Here are my observations:
- The deck is not as mana hungry as I thought. It's playing fine at 37 lands with the 4 mana stones I have.
- As you said, Ashes to Ashes is not good enough. Both the non-artifact restriction and the 5 life cost gave me problems.
- Gray Merchant of Asphodel is a stellar card, and with only him and Athreos, God of Passage on the board, it's already devotion 3. It's really easy to cast him at devotion 5-7, and recurring at even these numbers is devastating.
- After trying with a proxy of Reanimate, I see that having low mana reanimation is useful, as you said. Reanimate is going in. However, no room for Animate Dead, and removing more lands would be a bad idea.
With that, the changes are:
Out
- Desert of the Glorified
- Desert of the True
In
- Gray Merchant of Asphodel
- Reanimate
Your opponent may fear you simply returning the card for 4 life and 2 mana and say you can just bring it back to hand instead.
Not sure if that is something you want, but it may be fun to try.
Or it can act as a sort of backup to your commander.
Everything combos with Tombstone Stairwell.
I did consider Purgatory for my deck. However, at 4 mana (and 2 life), the reanimation price is a bit steep. In addition, the card prevents me from using any other form of reanimation since it exiles all creatures I own that die (and aren't bounced by Athreos, God of Passage). It would still deserve to be tested, so I may try it out, see how it goes.
If a creature you really do want goes to the graveyard you can ditch another you don't need yet to bring it back.
It's Survival of the Fittest for the graveyard and is surprisingly useful in games
It has been slowly winning people over in the last several years.
Everything combos with Tombstone Stairwell.