Midnight Reaper is just a bad Grim Haruspex. The plus side is triggering on its own death, the downside is that pesky 1 life loss per card. If the deck didn't need Haruspex before, it won't need Reaper.
Sam Black talked about the archetype on a recent podcast (ProPoints) in relation to the new card Hunted Witness maybe giving the deck new legs since it now has more redundant pieces. His list looks very similar to the one you posted izzetmage, here was his rough list:
There was also a quick mention about making it a hybrid of humans with champion of the parish and thalia's lieutenant to give the deck a way to win w/o the graveyard.
Would more blood artist effects help? Judith, Scourge Diva for 1RB might be worth the red splash, she gives another copy of the blood artist effect and also buffs your whole team with +1/+0
She seems okay, but at the same time, you've got Blood Artist and Cutthroat at two mana. Pumping the team, and being able to ping planeswalkers + creatures is pretty good, so in the Mardu build she could find a home.
However... It's non token creatures, so that's a massive downside. As well as that, being at three mana means that she can't be brought back with Return, and to bring her back with Rally costs five... She also dies pretty easily, and that's not ideal when you've just spent three mana on her. All in all, I'd say no, mostly because she doesn't trigger with tokens. That said, she is pretty powerful, and could totally be worth testing in mardu aristocrats!
Maybe it could be good over Path To Exile in the main as it can kill big creatures? Way more conditional, obviously, but its synergy with the rest of the deck could make it better. Path has always kinda felt like a necessary evil =P
I love priest, the design, the ability everything but this is infinitely worse than path if your goal is to kill big creatures. It's not even guaranteed you will kill what you want assuming you have jumped through all the hoops to even activate the ability. As a unique effect for the deck I could see it as a 1 of maybe but NEVER over real removal.
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Current Decks:
Modern: BG eldrazi midrange BWG Abzan value evolution BUG BUG Midrange
i‘m playing BW Aristocrats in modern for about two years now. Tested many versions in different metas and i think i found the strongest version so far:
The priest of forgotten gods slot was filled with 2 cartel Aristocrats and 2 Wall of Omens before. In play testing i found that the priest is actualy very great. He is a sac outlet (remember u can target yourself too for saccing three dudes then), disrupts the opponent and mana ramp + card draw. Sure he has to life on round. But then the Deck can accelerate very good.
Stitcher‘s supplier is a great new addition too (milling Lingering souls, midgame casting of return to the ranks etc.) Hunted witness + doomed traveler are very great sac fodder because u can sac the dude and immediately get a untapped white token for return to the ranks.
The sideboard tries to be synergistic with the main deck (want many creatures there). Leonin Relic warder is better than i originally thought. U can do the „trigger on the stack sac trick“ like sculler with him too and then get him back later with return for more value. Besides being faster than most other BW Aristocrats versions u have disruption with sculler and priest in the main board too.
So what do u guys think of my version? I have to admit that tron is a very very hard matchup.
Greetings Daniel
After some early goldfishing with Priest of the Forgotten Hollows I've been impressed. Priest's need to tap makes it somewhat slow compared to a traditional sac outlet (and She encourages us to sac on our own turns to make use of her ability's floating mana), but she combines a sac outlet and drain effect while also keeping you at card parity with the opponent during the sac.
One early suggestion: I think the deck might benefit from some Fetid Heaths to help filter Priest's BB into white mana so that you can cast a broader range of spells off of it. I might start with something like -3 Caves of Koilos, -1 Godless Shrine and +4 Fetid Heath.
The deck has some of the best redundancy of any I can think of (up to 8 Doomed Travelers, 8 Artists, 8 Sac Outlets, 8 Rally effects) and when you have a couple Artists on the Field, a stocked graveyard, and Return to the Ranks it gets pretty scary. The trouble is in consistently creating that particular game state early enough. And unfortunately there are so many clunky fail states with the deck: a board full of Doomed Travelers does almost nothing, the second and third+ sac outlets do almost nothing, a hand full of Return/Rally effects without a stocked GY does nothing, Blood Artists by themselves do almost nothing.
In my opinion the final thing the deck needs is some additional filtering or tutoring to help line things up. The CoCo + Satyr Wayfinder + Eternal Witness engine helped accomplish that in Abzan. Smuggler's Copter was an old suggestion of mine for Orzhov. More recently there's Mausoleum Secrets, which tutors up all creatures except the Doomed Travelers but unfortunately fails to tutor up Return to the Ranks, and is also rather tempo negative.
Thank you for mentioning fetid heath. I think it‘s better than the Caves of Koilos.
I think the deck doesn’t need green to work well right now. BW has all the tools for Aristocrats. In my opinion the best advantage of abzan was always that it’s faster because of the mana dorks available. Now with the Priest BW has a great tool of acceleration. In an earlier version I had Bob‘s in the deck. The are great too, but the priest is going to fit better.
You are absolutely right about the redundancy. In my experience viscera seer is waaay better than cartel aristocrat. The deck needs food for the train running and here viscera deer and priest are good for scry and draw. Even if u loose the priest u can still get her back with return.
Thought about Mausoleum secrets too. But I think it’s not good enough for the deck. Tested plunge into darkness in an earlier rally version. It‘s quite good and lets you dig for the missing pieces too. But again, no creature.
In the Sideboard i found no creature that could replace fatal push, it‘s just too good and in my opinion better than path in Aristocrats. Now it’s even better because with the black mana the priest could better fire of in opponents turn. Then I could use the mana for Fatal Push
In my opinion the best advantage of Abzan was always that it’s faster because of the mana dorks available. Now with the Priest BW has a great tool of acceleration.
Having mana acceleration in black is definitely exciting but the format speeds up over time and I think this deck needs all the acceleration it can get -- Birds + Priest together is not a bad place to be at all.
Having 5-6 mana T3 or 7-8 mana on T4 lets you do some nutty things. For example, in goldfishing so far I hit the curve of T1 Bird, T2 Priest, T3 CoCo, T4 E-Wit from hand to return CoCo -> activate Priest, re-cast CoCo, sac out for lethal.
The difference in tempo between the Abzan and Orzhov version is night and day IMO. So far the Abzan build has goldfished more T4 kills that I thought possible for a durdely Aristocrats deck . Saytr Wayfinder as copies 4-8 of Stitcher's Supplier is a big deal for consistency, CoCo helps you find missing combo pieces and also acts as insulation against graveyard hate.
The only thing I'm not sure on is whether Rally or Return is better in this build. Rally is better with E-Wit (3 CMC), but you become more dependent on finding a Viscera Seer since a Rally'd Priest lacks haste to tap before it's exiled.
Orzhov certainly has some big benefits with more consistent, painless mana. And Lingering Souls is a hell of a card. Both strategies certainly deserve another look with the recent cards.
Sure. Abzan will be faster no question. But as u said against aggro Decks (Burn, Zoo, Elves etc.) u will have more Problems because of the increased fetch, shock and u don’t want to chump block with the mana dudes. And then there is perhaps no room for Tidehollow sculler. The card is imho very good and as Aristocrats have naturaly problems against combo, he can help there in the main.
Priest and Rally works. The rally exile is at the beginning of your next upkeep. Then the priest can activate it‘s ability in response to the exile trigger, no summoning sickness anymore, to get at least three dudes in the yard... but yeah, u have to wait till your turn again
Another problem of CoCo + mana dorks: returning or rally is a little bit weaker then: u have more non-creature cards in the deck and returned doomed traveler/witness has more value than returning a mana dude (and they have summoning sicknes then too)
There was a 5-0 posted recently for a Mardu Aristocrats list. It's technically more of a Mardu Humans aggro list, stripping out combo elements like Viscera Seer / Blood Artist / Rally and instead borrowing some of the most successful elements of traditional Humans lists -- Champion / Lieutenant beats + Thalia GoT / Freebooter interaction. Tithe Taker is an interesting middle ground as he's a taxing human for the aggro half but also has afterlife for the aristocrats half. Finally, they added Judith and Falkenrath as a top end and replaced Reflector Mage with Bolt + Path.
Compared to traditional Humans the deck loses out on Vial so its tempo ceiling is a bit lower, the loss of Meddling Mage makes combo more difficult, and having a top-end of Falkenrath Aristocrat opens you up to Path to Exile. On the other hand it looks more resilient to destruction-based removal, and I think it has the potential to be as fast if not ~1/2 turn faster than Humans thanks to Judith, Falkenrath, and Bolt. With "only" a 3-color manabase it also has a much greater ability to play non-creature spells, including strong SB cards such as RIP.
CKL has some matches recorded here. It looked decent in action, and most of the building decision seemed sound. Of course, knowing myself, I'm awfully tempted to muck it up a bit and add in a few more Aristocrat elements, maybe a few Priest of the Forgotten Gods.
I was thinking and testing it those three cards along with Athreos, God of Passage. Combining them, unless Myr gets exiled or countered, you can lock your opponent by milling them or killing them.
Yesterday I got my opponent at 11 lifes, and I had in game 2 Zulaport Cutthroat, 1 Blood Artist and 1 Viscera Seer, in my hand 1 Heartless Summoning. Triggers from Zulaport and artist killed him.
I post below the deck I was running and I would like to know your opinions about it, if possible.
@shelldell:
I think the Deck is a Little Bit to Slow. Tested bloodsoaked Champion a lot, the 2 mana was a little bit to cluncky.
And u don’t have a nice finisher card like Rally the ancestors or return to the ranks. I would cut the bloodsoaked and the point removal and would add a few Priests of forgotten gods and Rally the ancestors, perhaps adding a few drainers for more pay off when creatures are dying
With my list I posted above I finished a 83 people modern event with 7th place. Priest of forgotten gods is just awesome! You should test it
Thought about your list again: don’t know of it’s Perhaps too much of a mix between beat down and aristocrats elements. Aristocrats it’s strong because of many creatures dying and creatures who profit of creatures dying (like blood artist, Zulaport, Judith etc.) i could see Judith as a nice addition to aristocrats, but never tested her. And don’t underestimate Rally or return to the ranks. These cards often end the games on the spot... but it’s hard to get a Falkenrath back with rally, 6 mana is a lot. Usually u want to cast it for 4 mana, max. 5.
viscera seer is very strong too, because it lets u dig for the next rally or return
Why would you choose either Return or Rally as a finisher in this current meta with so much gy hate over say Butcher of hordes/Noble?
(When testing I was side-boarding out the gy package almost every game 2, admittedly I was also enjoying putting it back in game 3)
I have been so impressed with your list! I’m only playing causal tournament practice games on mtgo with it but the build is consistently impressing me with its resilience. The incidental life gain is real in this meta. I have won through Rest In Peace white leyline runic halo. Admittedly the deck seems to be very weak to blood moon :(. Moving forward are you planning on adding in the new drainer? What would you cut? The priest?
That sounds good
Yeah i‘m thinking about to cut the tidehollow scullers for the new Cruel Celebrant. The idea of 12 drainers is very spicy. And i think 12 of them are realy strong if u...
1. don’t cut sacrifice fodder
2. don’t cut the sac Outlet
Because u want many dudes to sac if u have multiple drainers in the mainboard.
So i think celebrant vs sculler the upsides are:
1. more drain/Aristocrats power
2. better in the mainboard versus Burn and aggro Decks like humans/elves etc (there u are in chump Block mode
Downsides:
1. Aristocrats decks are weak against combo. The Sculler reduced the weakness. With no scullers in the main against decks like ad neuseam or storm etc. u are going to have big problems
2. viscera seer into sculler sac is a nice Opening. U loose that
I think it’s about personal taste. I would not recommend to cut the Priest (my experiences with the Card are awesome)
Overall u could say that celebrant vs sculler the Problematic matchs are going to be even more problematic and the good matchups are going to be more easy. Perhaps the downside could be a little compensated because faster kills are possible
I used to play aristocrats back in Innistrad standard. I always wanted to play it again in modern. Here is what I was thinking. I like the synergies with morbid and human tribal. Please let me know what you think.
I tested the High Priest. I felt it was too slow. Perhaps replace them with fiend Hunter (u can do the sac trick with the hunter like sculler). And don’t underestimate the power of recursion spells like Ranks or Rally. I would add these cards and delete the path. Lingering souls could be replaced with more humans like zulaport or thalias Lieutenant to get more synergy. Souls dont have synergy with rally (if u would dedice to Play that).
No recursion spells could be ok if u decide to do more beat down than drain.
I personaly like more the drain kill Plan of Aristocrats. Your Deck is something between drain and beat down.
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| Ad Nauseam
| Infect
Big Johnny.
4x hunted witness
4x viscera seer
4x stitcher's supplier
4x cartel aristocrat
4x blood artist
4x zulaport cutthroat
4x rally the ancestors
2x return to the ranks
This looks like the core, so you can fill in the rest with cards you like such as Path to Exile, Lingering Souls, or Tidehollow Sculler.
He also talked about taking the deck a couple extra ways, like adding blue for Jace, Vryn's Prodigy, Minister of Inquiries, or Hedron Crab to get some more self-mill.
There was also a quick mention about making it a hybrid of humans with champion of the parish and thalia's lieutenant to give the deck a way to win w/o the graveyard.
Here is the link to the podcast where he talked about it (starts at 1:45): https://soundcloud.com/propoints/guilds-of-ravnica-preview-card-and-set-discussion-part-1-ep-13
BG Rock
Modern:
RW Sun & Moon
RBG Dredge
RWG Burn
Legacy:
W Death & Taxes
However... It's non token creatures, so that's a massive downside. As well as that, being at three mana means that she can't be brought back with Return, and to bring her back with Rally costs five... She also dies pretty easily, and that's not ideal when you've just spent three mana on her. All in all, I'd say no, mostly because she doesn't trigger with tokens. That said, she is pretty powerful, and could totally be worth testing in mardu aristocrats!
(Idk how to do the proper click on name thing, so here's the link XD) https://www.mtgsalvation.com/cards/ravnica-allegiance/35924-priest-of-forgotten-gods
Maybe it could be good over Path To Exile in the main as it can kill big creatures? Way more conditional, obviously, but its synergy with the rest of the deck could make it better. Path has always kinda felt like a necessary evil =P
Modern: BG eldrazi midrange
BWG Abzan value evolution
BUG BUG Midrange
Tiny Leaders: BW Athreos Zombies
Commander: BG Gitrog Monster
T1 Land Vial - Vial in Dryad Arbor
T2 Land (3 mana) and Vial on 1 (it's like Green Sun's Zenith/Dryad Arbor's T1)
Fish
U/W Control
U/B Control
U/B Control Mill, U/R Ascension Mill, BUG Mill
G Tron, Eldrazi Tron, Eldrazi Aggro
Junkie Doran
U/W Ephara Flash
Splendid Dredge
i‘m playing BW Aristocrats in modern for about two years now. Tested many versions in different metas and i think i found the strongest version so far:
4 Viscera Seer
4 Doomed Traveler
4 Stitchers Suplier
3 Hunted Witness
4 Blood Artist
4 Zulaport Cutthroat
4 Tidehollow Sculler
1 Cartel Aristocrat
4 Priest of Forgotten Gods
4 Lingering Souls
4 Return to the Ranks
4 Coincealed Courtyard
4 Godless Shrine
4 Marsh Flats
3 Caves of Koilos
3 Plain
2 Swamp
Sideboard
4 Fatal Push
2 Vampire Hexmage
4 Leonin Relic-Warder
2 Judge‘s Familiar
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
The priest of forgotten gods slot was filled with 2 cartel Aristocrats and 2 Wall of Omens before. In play testing i found that the priest is actualy very great. He is a sac outlet (remember u can target yourself too for saccing three dudes then), disrupts the opponent and mana ramp + card draw. Sure he has to life on round. But then the Deck can accelerate very good.
Stitcher‘s supplier is a great new addition too (milling Lingering souls, midgame casting of return to the ranks etc.) Hunted witness + doomed traveler are very great sac fodder because u can sac the dude and immediately get a untapped white token for return to the ranks.
The sideboard tries to be synergistic with the main deck (want many creatures there). Leonin Relic warder is better than i originally thought. U can do the „trigger on the stack sac trick“ like sculler with him too and then get him back later with return for more value. Besides being faster than most other BW Aristocrats versions u have disruption with sculler and priest in the main board too.
So what do u guys think of my version? I have to admit that tron is a very very hard matchup.
Greetings Daniel
After some early goldfishing with Priest of the Forgotten Hollows I've been impressed. Priest's need to tap makes it somewhat slow compared to a traditional sac outlet (and She encourages us to sac on our own turns to make use of her ability's floating mana), but she combines a sac outlet and drain effect while also keeping you at card parity with the opponent during the sac.
One early suggestion: I think the deck might benefit from some Fetid Heaths to help filter Priest's BB into white mana so that you can cast a broader range of spells off of it. I might start with something like -3 Caves of Koilos, -1 Godless Shrine and +4 Fetid Heath.
The deck has some of the best redundancy of any I can think of (up to 8 Doomed Travelers, 8 Artists, 8 Sac Outlets, 8 Rally effects) and when you have a couple Artists on the Field, a stocked graveyard, and Return to the Ranks it gets pretty scary. The trouble is in consistently creating that particular game state early enough. And unfortunately there are so many clunky fail states with the deck: a board full of Doomed Travelers does almost nothing, the second and third+ sac outlets do almost nothing, a hand full of Return/Rally effects without a stocked GY does nothing, Blood Artists by themselves do almost nothing.
In my opinion the final thing the deck needs is some additional filtering or tutoring to help line things up. The CoCo + Satyr Wayfinder + Eternal Witness engine helped accomplish that in Abzan. Smuggler's Copter was an old suggestion of mine for Orzhov. More recently there's Mausoleum Secrets, which tutors up all creatures except the Doomed Travelers but unfortunately fails to tutor up Return to the Ranks, and is also rather tempo negative.
I think the deck doesn’t need green to work well right now. BW has all the tools for Aristocrats. In my opinion the best advantage of abzan was always that it’s faster because of the mana dorks available. Now with the Priest BW has a great tool of acceleration. In an earlier version I had Bob‘s in the deck. The are great too, but the priest is going to fit better.
You are absolutely right about the redundancy. In my experience viscera seer is waaay better than cartel aristocrat. The deck needs food for the train running and here viscera deer and priest are good for scry and draw. Even if u loose the priest u can still get her back with return.
Thought about Mausoleum secrets too. But I think it’s not good enough for the deck. Tested plunge into darkness in an earlier rally version. It‘s quite good and lets you dig for the missing pieces too. But again, no creature.
In the Sideboard i found no creature that could replace fatal push, it‘s just too good and in my opinion better than path in Aristocrats. Now it’s even better because with the black mana the priest could better fire of in opponents turn. Then I could use the mana for Fatal Push
4x Birds of Paradise
2x Noble Hierarch
4x Viscera Seer
4x Stitcher's Supplier
4x Satyr Wayfinder
4x Blood Artist
4x Zulaport Cutthroat
4x Priest of the Forgotten Gods
3x Eternal Witness
4x Collected Company
4x Rally the Ancestors
Land (19)
4x Windswept Heath
4x Verdant Catacombs
1x Misty Rainforest
2x Overgrown Tomb
1x Godless Shrine
1x Temple Garden
2x Forest
1x Plains
1x Swamp
2x Westvale Abbey
The difference in tempo between the Abzan and Orzhov version is night and day IMO. So far the Abzan build has goldfished more T4 kills that I thought possible for a durdely Aristocrats deck . Saytr Wayfinder as copies 4-8 of Stitcher's Supplier is a big deal for consistency, CoCo helps you find missing combo pieces and also acts as insulation against graveyard hate.
The only thing I'm not sure on is whether Rally or Return is better in this build. Rally is better with E-Wit (3 CMC), but you become more dependent on finding a Viscera Seer since a Rally'd Priest lacks haste to tap before it's exiled.
Orzhov certainly has some big benefits with more consistent, painless mana. And Lingering Souls is a hell of a card. Both strategies certainly deserve another look with the recent cards.
Priest and Rally works. The rally exile is at the beginning of your next upkeep. Then the priest can activate it‘s ability in response to the exile trigger, no summoning sickness anymore, to get at least three dudes in the yard... but yeah, u have to wait till your turn again
Another problem of CoCo + mana dorks: returning or rally is a little bit weaker then: u have more non-creature cards in the deck and returned doomed traveler/witness has more value than returning a mana dude (and they have summoning sicknes then too)
Compared to traditional Humans the deck loses out on Vial so its tempo ceiling is a bit lower, the loss of Meddling Mage makes combo more difficult, and having a top-end of Falkenrath Aristocrat opens you up to Path to Exile. On the other hand it looks more resilient to destruction-based removal, and I think it has the potential to be as fast if not ~1/2 turn faster than Humans thanks to Judith, Falkenrath, and Bolt. With "only" a 3-color manabase it also has a much greater ability to play non-creature spells, including strong SB cards such as RIP.
4 Champion of the Parish
4 Bloodsoaked Champion
2 Doomed Traveler
2 Kytheon, Hero of Akros
4 Thalia’s Lieutenant
3 Kitesail Freebooter
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
3 Tithe Taker
3 Judith, the Scourge Diva
4 Falkenrath Aristocrat
Spells (6)
3 Lightning Bolt
3 Path to Exile
2 Arid Mesa
4 Cavern of Souls
1 Clifftop Retreat
3 Concealed Courtyard
4 Marsh Flats
1 Mountain
1 Mutavault
2 Plains
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Swamp
2 Godless Shrine
2 Auriok Champion
1 Dark Confidant
2 Ethersworn Canonist
2 Kambal, Consul of Allocation
1 Kaya, Orzhov Usurper
1 Nearheath Pilgrim
1 Path to Exile
2 Rest in Peace
1 Stony Silence
1 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
1 Wear/Tear
Some days ago, I saw a decklist with Myr Retriever along with Heartless Summoning and Altar of the Brood.
I was thinking and testing it those three cards along with Athreos, God of Passage. Combining them, unless Myr gets exiled or countered, you can lock your opponent by milling them or killing them.
Yesterday I got my opponent at 11 lifes, and I had in game 2 Zulaport Cutthroat, 1 Blood Artist and 1 Viscera Seer, in my hand 1 Heartless Summoning. Triggers from Zulaport and artist killed him.
I post below the deck I was running and I would like to know your opinions about it, if possible.
4 Blood Artist
4 Zulaport Cutthroat
4 Myr Retriever
4 Bone Picker
3 Athreos, God of Passage
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
1 Damnation
4 Heartless Summoning
4 Altar of the Brood
There are 4 cards I don't remember right now what I had in the deck, I will check it later.
Also, for a bit more control, I was thinking on adding Thoughtpicker Witch and Lingering Souls, and remove 1 HS and 1 AotB.
I think the Deck is a Little Bit to Slow. Tested bloodsoaked Champion a lot, the 2 mana was a little bit to cluncky.
And u don’t have a nice finisher card like Rally the ancestors or return to the ranks. I would cut the bloodsoaked and the point removal and would add a few Priests of forgotten gods and Rally the ancestors, perhaps adding a few drainers for more pay off when creatures are dying
With my list I posted above I finished a 83 people modern event with 7th place. Priest of forgotten gods is just awesome! You should test it
Thought about your list again: don’t know of it’s Perhaps too much of a mix between beat down and aristocrats elements. Aristocrats it’s strong because of many creatures dying and creatures who profit of creatures dying (like blood artist, Zulaport, Judith etc.) i could see Judith as a nice addition to aristocrats, but never tested her. And don’t underestimate Rally or return to the ranks. These cards often end the games on the spot... but it’s hard to get a Falkenrath back with rally, 6 mana is a lot. Usually u want to cast it for 4 mana, max. 5.
viscera seer is very strong too, because it lets u dig for the next rally or return
Deck without lands looks something like this:
3 Athreos, God of Passage
4 Blood Artist
4 Myr Retriever
3 Renegade Rallier
4 Viscera Seer
4 Voice of Resurgence
4 Zulaport Cutthroat
3 Altar of the Brood
3 Heartless Summoning
3 Abrupt Decay
2 Assassin's Trophy
2 Rally the Ancestors
As my last post, I wanted to go for a combo as well, a second turn combo.
As @Danny said, I like the idea of Rally the Ancestors. It can provides the finisher you need from graveyard, and it's a card I always loved.
Perhaps u add perilous myr. With heartless summonning u shock something for zero mana and it has synergy with myr retriever
And falkenrath noble could be nice there. He survives the summoning and then drains for every creature that dies...
Keep brewing dude. Don’t know how good aristocrats with heartless summoning is but it seems fun and interesting
Blood Artist 9-12 isn't exactly what the deck was missing, but maybe there's a build that wants this. /shrug
Edit: and with Blood Artist you can do infinite damage.
Why not graveyard hate in the sideboard?
Why return to ranks over Rally?
Why would you choose either Return or Rally as a finisher in this current meta with so much gy hate over say Butcher of hordes/Noble?
(When testing I was side-boarding out the gy package almost every game 2, admittedly I was also enjoying putting it back in game 3)
Thank you
Return to the ranks is better in the early/midgame than rally. Turn 3 kills are possibly with return, not with rally.
I have been so impressed with your list! I’m only playing causal tournament practice games on mtgo with it but the build is consistently impressing me with its resilience. The incidental life gain is real in this meta. I have won through Rest In Peace white leyline runic halo. Admittedly the deck seems to be very weak to blood moon :(. Moving forward are you planning on adding in the new drainer? What would you cut? The priest?
That sounds good
Yeah i‘m thinking about to cut the tidehollow scullers for the new Cruel Celebrant. The idea of 12 drainers is very spicy. And i think 12 of them are realy strong if u...
1. don’t cut sacrifice fodder
2. don’t cut the sac Outlet
Because u want many dudes to sac if u have multiple drainers in the mainboard.
So i think celebrant vs sculler the upsides are:
1. more drain/Aristocrats power
2. better in the mainboard versus Burn and aggro Decks like humans/elves etc (there u are in chump Block mode
Downsides:
1. Aristocrats decks are weak against combo. The Sculler reduced the weakness. With no scullers in the main against decks like ad neuseam or storm etc. u are going to have big problems
2. viscera seer into sculler sac is a nice Opening. U loose that
I think it’s about personal taste. I would not recommend to cut the Priest (my experiences with the Card are awesome)
Overall u could say that celebrant vs sculler the Problematic matchs are going to be even more problematic and the good matchups are going to be more easy. Perhaps the downside could be a little compensated because faster kills are possible
2 Bloodsoaked Champion
4 Cartel Aristocrat
4 Champion of the Parish
4 Doomed Traveler
4 Priest of Forgotten Gods
2 Skirsdag High Priest
3 Xathrid Necromancer
3 Zulaport Cutthroat
Spells (12)
4 Gather the Townsfolk
4 Lingering Souls
4 Path to Exile
3 Cavern of Souls
4 Concealed Courtyard
4 Godless Shrine
4 Marsh Flats
2 Mutavault
3 Plains
1 Swamp
1 Vault of the Archangel
1 Kaya, Orzhov Usurper
2 Nearheath Pilgrim
1 Orzhov Pontiff
2 Relic of Progenitus
1 Rule of Law
2 Sin Collector
2 Stony Silence
2 Thoughtseize
2 War Priest of Thune
No recursion spells could be ok if u decide to do more beat down than drain.
I personaly like more the drain kill Plan of Aristocrats. Your Deck is something between drain and beat down.