*Number in front of card is CMC, except lands, where it's the number of copies included.
Deck History and Summary:
As part of dismantling Alesha, Who Smiles at Death i took it upon me to build both a (B/R) and (W/B) deck. For (B/R) is was considering Xantcha, Sleeper Agent and especially Vial Smasher the Fierce for a while. I really liked the randomness, but the actual lists i came up with didn't entertain me as much.
Unsleeving the dismantled deck Grenzo, Dungeon Warden got stuck in my hand, so i decided to roll with him as a makeshift commander. Guess what, i liked him a lot and decided to make him the permanent commander.
Me not being too much of a combo guy i tried to keep it simple. The deck's supposed to work with Grenzo, Dungeon Warden sitting at a power of 2 and for the future i'd really like to go up to 50 fetchable creatures to maximize hits. Discounting Purphoros, God of the Forge and Homura, Human Ascendant i'm sitting at 45 right now. To be fair, i think finding cuts would be the harder part than finding creatures to add.
Let me know what you think of the deck! I'm always happy to get input.
I am not a fan of the one-off mana generators so I would be curious to know how well they work in practice. In most cases, it seems like it would be better to just have a better creature in that slot. If you want to go further into the death triggers like Cutthroat and Vindictive Vampire, it seems like you could use more sac outlets (like Viscera Seer or Carrion Feeder) and maybe even add in Nim Deathmantle. With either of the 2 Priests, you can't quite go infinite since it costs 1 mana each iteration, but you can get quite a few death triggers with each Priest paying for most of the ability of the Deathmantle.
I question the usefulness of Moggcatcher since you have a total of 5 Goblins from what I can tell. On the other hand, Goblin Ringleader is interesting in this build since you don't want to get Goblins and instead want to ship things to the bottom of the library. Grave Defiler is similar as you only have 4 other zombies. I like them both.
Hmm, Nim Deathmantle you say? I mean, my actual plan is finding more slots for creatures, so it'd be extra hard to find a slot for it. Not too convinced it's worth it either. Free sac outlets combined with the common bottom-of-library tools should do the trick.
Goblin Ringleader and Grave Defiler have been 2 of the best creatures to hit so far - especially when they don't hit a single of their tribe on top of the library.
Thx again for your input, i'd be glad to hear what you think about the possible includes.
The Dragon seems decent. It is a bit more limited in that you need Threshold so it is easily turned off and it is just one creature. The Priest is 7 power across two creatures and, with some shenanigans, you can get more than just one 5/5 flyer from it. I do agree that the Dragon is cheaper to get out but I think there is potentially more utility in the Priest. I think either one can help if you need a decent flyer.
Nighthowler and Wight would likely be the 2 best cards among this list. I think the others are much too expensive and, as you mentioned, without evasion. Wight and Nighthowler are without evasion too but Wight is super cheap and Nighthowler can, in a pinch, be attached to something with evasion.
I can understand that. I think the Mage slightly has it over the Riders due to mana cost and being able to control when you blow up a land, but if supply is an issue, Riders is serviceable. I know when I built my Alesha deck I did something similar where I only included 1 or 2 just to have them rather than an entire suite.
I usually prefer Viscera Seer and Carrion Feeder due to their low cost. Yahenni, which you have, is higher on the curve but it also easier to keep around which I think makes it a good card to include as well.
Another card you can look into is Noosegraf Mob to get you a bunch of tokens to go wide with. And, once you have your army, you put it on the bottom and get it back with Grenzo to start everything over again. 6 mana is a lot to try to hard cast it but it can get be pretty good if you can manage to cheat it out early.
You can find the most recent decklist following either of these links:
http://www.mtgnexus.com/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=454
https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/grenzo-dungeon-weenies/Last Deck Update: 09.07.19, Avg. CMC: 3,11
2x Grenzo, Dungeon Warden
Creatures (48)
4 Agent of Erebos
3 Anathemancer
4 Anger
4 Avalanche Riders
3 Basal Sliver
3 Blood Vassal
3 Bogardan Dragonheart
3 Bone Shredder
4 Canal Dredger
3 Catalyst Elemental
4 Crypt Ghast
3 Crypt Rats
4 Dimir House Guard
2 Dire Fleet Daredevil
4 Disciple of Bolas
2 Dusk Legion Zealot
2 Goblin Cratermaker
4 Goblin Ringleader
4 Gonti, Lord of Luxury
4 Grave Defiler
5 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
6 Homura, Human Ascendant
2 Iron Myr
4 Junktroller
5 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
2 Leaden Myr
3 Manic Vandal
5 Mindclaw Shaman
4 Moggcatcher
4 Nekrataal
3 Palladium Myr
3 Pawn of Ulamog
3 Phyrexian Rager
2 Phyrexian Revoker
4 Pitiless Plunderer
3 Priest of Gix
3 Priest of Urabrask
4 Purphoros, God of the Forge
4 Ravenous Chupacabra
5 Siege-Gang Commander
3 Skyscanner
4 Solemn Simulacrum
4 Tuktuk Scrapper
4 Vindictive Vampire
4 Vulturous Aven
2 Withered Wretch
3 Yahenni, Undying Partisan
2 Zulaport Cutthroat
3 Ashnod's Altar
2 Darksteel Pendant
2 Lightning Greaves
2 Rakdos Signet
2 Reito Lantern
1 Skullclamp
2 Soldevi Digger
2 Spawning Pit
2 Talisman of Indulgence
4 Teferi's Puzzle Box
1 Tel-Jilad Stylus
Enchantments (1)
2 Goblin Bombardment
Instants (2)
3 Chaos Warp
2 Rakdos Charm
Sorceries (2)
2 Mizzium Mortars
1 Vandalblast
Lands (35)
1 Blood Crypt
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Command Tower
1 Dragonskull Summit
1 Ghost Quarter
1 High Market
1 Howltooth Hollow
1 Luxury Suite
9 Mountain
1 Phyrexian Tower
1 Shadowblood Ridge
1 Smoldering Marsh
1 Spinerock Knoll
1 Sulfurous Springs
10 Swamp
1 Tainted Peak
1 Temple of Malice
1 Zhalfirin Void
Since you already have Avalanche Riders, what about Fulminator Mage and Goblin Settler?
I am not a fan of the one-off mana generators so I would be curious to know how well they work in practice. In most cases, it seems like it would be better to just have a better creature in that slot. If you want to go further into the death triggers like Cutthroat and Vindictive Vampire, it seems like you could use more sac outlets (like Viscera Seer or Carrion Feeder) and maybe even add in Nim Deathmantle. With either of the 2 Priests, you can't quite go infinite since it costs 1 mana each iteration, but you can get quite a few death triggers with each Priest paying for most of the ability of the Deathmantle.
I question the usefulness of Moggcatcher since you have a total of 5 Goblins from what I can tell. On the other hand, Goblin Ringleader is interesting in this build since you don't want to get Goblins and instead want to ship things to the bottom of the library. Grave Defiler is similar as you only have 4 other zombies. I like them both.
If i were to go for a decent flying beat stick i'd propably go for Fledgling Dragon over Priest of the Blood Rite. For a mana less (if hard cast) i'd usually get a 5/5 as well, one with Firebreathing, too.
I still have ~5 slots max, so undercover beat sticks could be an option. From my experience with Lazav, the Multifarious i know that Nighthowler and Wight of Precinct Six aren't as shabby as they look. In the past i got severely punched by Drakestown Forgotten,Ignition Team, Minion of the Wastes, Sewer Nemesis and the likes, but without evasion at that CMC they aren't as good.
Fulminator Mage/Goblin Gardener/Goblin Settler/Ravenous Baboons:
I didn't want to run a full suite of these as LD doesn't really advance my game plans too much. I didn't want to lack the option to either, so it was basically down to Fulminator Mage or Avalanche Riders. I didn't have a Fulminator Mage and he wouldn't allow me to pop enchanted Basics et al, so that's that.
I was hesistant to include Basal Sliver, Blood Vassal and Catalyst Elemental myself, too. They've been unspectacular yet flawless so far. While Priest of Gix and Priest of Urabrask net me an additional mana, they don't allow me to use it at another time. If i hit one of them while digging for value i can just sac them to churn through the deck further. Their synergy with Pawn of Ulamog, Pitiless Plunderer, Vindictive Vampire and Zulaport Cutthroat is quite cute.
You are certainly right about sac outlets on creatures! I need a couple more, i'm not quite sure how many and which ones yet. Viscera Seer seems like a natural fit. On top of that i'm considering Carrion Feeder, Bloodflow Connoisseur, Bloodthrone Vampire, to some extentNantuko Husk, Phyrexian Ghoul, Vampire Aristocrat, Devouring Swarm and Flesh-Eater Imp. I could see myself dropping Goblin Bombardment for one of them.
Hmm, Nim Deathmantle you say? I mean, my actual plan is finding more slots for creatures, so it'd be extra hard to find a slot for it. Not too convinced it's worth it either. Free sac outlets combined with the common bottom-of-library tools should do the trick.
While Moggcatcher can't hit many Goblins - namely Goblin Cratermaker, Goblin Ringleader, Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, Siege-Gang Commander & Tuktuk Scrapper - that's a great toolbox to fetch from. Normally Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker is my first pick for that insane flexibility.
Goblin Ringleader and Grave Defiler have been 2 of the best creatures to hit so far - especially when they don't hit a single of their tribe on top of the library.
Thx again for your input, i'd be glad to hear what you think about the possible includes.
Nighthowler and Wight would likely be the 2 best cards among this list. I think the others are much too expensive and, as you mentioned, without evasion. Wight and Nighthowler are without evasion too but Wight is super cheap and Nighthowler can, in a pinch, be attached to something with evasion.
I can understand that. I think the Mage slightly has it over the Riders due to mana cost and being able to control when you blow up a land, but if supply is an issue, Riders is serviceable. I know when I built my Alesha deck I did something similar where I only included 1 or 2 just to have them rather than an entire suite.
I usually prefer Viscera Seer and Carrion Feeder due to their low cost. Yahenni, which you have, is higher on the curve but it also easier to keep around which I think makes it a good card to include as well.
Another card you can look into is Noosegraf Mob to get you a bunch of tokens to go wide with. And, once you have your army, you put it on the bottom and get it back with Grenzo to start everything over again. 6 mana is a lot to try to hard cast it but it can get be pretty good if you can manage to cheat it out early.