The prices may be initially over-inflated, but I definitely think the set is packed with way more competitively powerful (and generally sweet) cards than typical. In addition to what you listed I definitely expect to see Goblin Engineer, Collector Ouphe, and Force of Vigor seeing significant play at the highest level of multiplayer as well as Modern. The Horizon lands should be multi-format staples for years.
There are also a number of gems for niche formats like Pauper, where I think Defile will be a lot more than marginal. and cards like Orcish Hellraiser and Winding Way could break through.
That's all without counting the tons of sweet, high-power reprints. Overpriced, sure, but I think the set will have a ton of staying power as exceptionally high-powered and exciting overall, especially when considering the impact across many different formats.
I don't think I'm going to actually build this one because it's not quite up to par in power level on a budget but I will say from testing that Parallax Wave is truly awesome in a heavy proliferate shell. The ability to hold on to counters to threaten opponents not to mess with you, the ability to make the threats disappear permanently, and the ability to hit multiple new targets every turn is just amazing. Just be careful of surprise enchantment removal!
Everflowing Chalice is of course incredible, but anyone who's played a proliferate deck knows that by know- I had never tried white cards because my New Phyrexia based proliferate builds were always blue black
Your deck currently lacks any 2 drops other than Intangible Virtue, I'd suggest adding something like Precinct Captain and/or Knight of the White Orchid to start building your board presence earlier and use your early turns efficiently.
One of the many new goodies brought by WAR is multiple ways to repeatedly proliferate, particularly on low-cost permanents. There are a ton of different ways to use these tools, but this is the first one I came up with which is both very different from the proliferate decks enables by New Phyrexia and at least moderately interesting and fuctional.
This list does still suffer from some inconsistency and fragility however. The depletion lands offer great power but if your early proliferate creatures are removed they can become a liability. There's also the problem of drawing too few enablers or too few payoffs, and the card draw in the deck is all dependent on having your synergies up and running. Consistent colored mana can be tricky as well since there are so many highly desirable colorless lands and 8 ETBT lands which do not fix colors. When the pieces do come together it's a ton of fun to fiddle with all the different counters and bury opponents in value!
I would definitely not cut Archfiend of Ifnir, because it's actually the most powerful thing this deck is doing. Getting a bunch of tokens or a giant creature is good, but Plague Wind-ing every turn is better. That said, I do agree that it would be good to have an additional discard outlet beyond TE and Lotleth Troll is a great suggestion! I like that it's a black creature for counting purposes in the graveyard, has no cost on the discard to let you active Archfiend the turn you play it, and also functions as a pretty good early roadblock. The troll even grows enormous with multiple Krovikan Horrors to loop.
Dread Return may only be reanimating 4-5 mana non-combo creatures which certainly isn't it's highest power level, but it's still a card which puts a strong creature into play for no mana while being cast from the graveyard, and at a cost which is usually negligible if not beneficial. It's especially great for reanimating a free Archfiend so you can pay for TE activations as soon as it hits. I may trim the number since I have few targets, but I think a couple are very good.
The Songs of the Damned are in because the deck had a tendency to spend up to 4 turns just durdling with resources before it actually did anything which powerfully affected the board and this was just too slow. Songs got out an Archfiend or Kessig Cagebreakers or Desecrated Tomb + TE activations a turn or two early. I do think it's a poor fit for the deck at many points in the game though, and having a few solid early blockers (Lotleth Trolls) may make the speed bump unnecessary.
Diabolic Intent would be superb here but I don't really feel like spending for them. I think 4 Archfiend gives me enough creature control to forego Pernicious Deed and Fleshbag Marauder.
I like that these changes give a nice boost to the creature count, and specifically the black creature count in the deck. I would love to find room for another Stinkweed Imp, since the dredge count really is low and for another Desecrated Tomb as well since I run so few actual threats/win conditions... It's hard to find the cuts though. This deck has major 60 card syndrome!
I've been reworking my old multiplayer BG Dredge list for a while, never quite happy with the setup. On the M19 thread here I noticed someone bring up that Desecrated Tomb is perfect with Tortured Existence so I decided to try a build focusing around TE. The result has turned out quite nicely!
I ended up running just 1 Tomb, since it's a nice value engine with Tortured Existence (and Krovikan Horror) but slots are tight for non-creatures and the list needed more speed and less durdling in testing. The real allstar from M19 is Stitcher's Supplier which is a huge boost to the archetype as a premier 1 drop that works especially great with Dread Return. Archfiend of Ifnir is oppressive with a Tortured Existence running and the enchantment also lets you stack Krovikan Horror however you like, put dredgers back in the yard where they belong, gain oodles of life with Golgari Brownscale, or get endless value and card selection from Skullwinder.
Obviously this list is not as broken as dredge can get, foregoing combo finishes or Bridge From Below shenanigans. It's intended to be pretty budget-friendly and (a little bit) fair. I've been having a lot of fun with it, and I think there's a lot of directions you could go with M19's new graveyard toys!
I've wanted to find a way to make multiplayer mill work for a long time without resorting to Altar of the Brood/Undead Alchemist combo. Simply jamming Consuming Aberration and Mind Grind alongside control spells is okay but unless you drop big $$ on a set of Mesmeric Orb you'll actually kill more quickly and effectively with various Mortivores than with mill itself. Psychic Corrosion from M19 gives me some hope at actually milling a table to death in a (somewhat) fair and effective way. My first thought is to combine the usual suspects of giant graveyard based beaters with power-based draw like Rishkar's Expertise to eliminate huge chunks of libraries while making the giants even giant-er.
In testing this list can often end the game off a resolved Rishkar's Expertise with Psychic Corrosion in play- if you have a creature with 7ish power or more you can mill a large portion of everyone's deck and if you're holding a Great Good or draw into one, immediately sacrifice the freshly enlarged creature for complete decking.
The weaknesses here are the early game and interacting against fast proactive decks. The creatures are small if not unplayable before you get some mill going and Altar of the Brood is merely decent here. Meanwhile the deck has so many requirements to enact its own game plan that it's hard to find room for any reactive spells to slow down opponents.
Centaur Vinecrasher, Bonehoard, and big card draw spells, as well as the non-interactive inevitability of your mill enchantments make control matchups favorable, even if they do keep killing all your creatures.
I'd love to hear your thoughts on this deck and other ways to use and abuse the newest multiplayer mill engine! Perhaps a Howling Mine turbo-fog strategy or a Notion Thief combo could get Psychic Corrosion churning out wins?
Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma looked like just an okay card to me at first. Taking 2 mana off the cost of your big 6 and 7 drops is pretty good, but it's not like we didn't already have Overgrowth and Worn Powerstone. Putting your ramp on a more expensive and more vulnerable permanent type just didn't seem worth it. The beautiful thing about cost reduction though is taking advantage of it several times per turn so it virtually generates 4,6,8 mana in a turn... 3 or 4 mana creatures with 4+ power work perfectly if only you could draw enough... Enter Temur Ascendancy! We had the perfect draw engine to fuel the madness the whole time!
The plan is to use powerful ramp to chain together loads of large creatures which draw more ad nauseam via Temur Ascendancy and Garruk's Packleader. Goreclaw takes the ramp to the next level, letting you cast approximately 1 zillion, and even making Myr Superion free! The rest of the deck features plenty of ways to produce mana though even without a Goreclaw- Joraga Treespeaker and Whisperer of the Wilds get your engines online fast and Neheb, the Eternal can produce tons of the good stuff. Wayward Swordtooths let you simply keep playing all the excess lands you draw while going off as well as being a highly efficient beater in a deck looking to dump all kinds of permanents into play. Warchief Giant draws you millions off Temur Ascendancy and Garruk's Packleader while beating down hard.
Sarkhan's Unsealing obviously takes more specific building parameters than Warstorm Surge but not only is it 4CMC, the 7+ power trigger hits EVERYTHING and not just one target- this is a ridiculous power gap. Turning your creatures into overloaded Mizzium Mortars (that also hit opponents) is immensely better than turning them into Flametongue Kavus. Getting a couple triggers from Unsealing likely does as much damage as a few dozen Warstorm Surge triggers. All you have to do is look back through this thread for multiple examples of creature bases that comfortably support it, and I'm sure there are more builds we haven't even touched on.
Warstorm Surge certainly works in a greater number of decks with more flexibility. You can slot it into almost any deck with large creatures and it will do work, while Unsealing is much more specialized. I think Sarkhan's Unsealing offers a much higher ceiling in power level however- and for me creative deckbuilding restrictions are part of the fun!
The next brew I came up with though is one that focuses on the problem of finding Sarkhan's Unsealing consistently by running tutors, and abusing the trigger to its fullest extent by looping Death's Shadow every turn. Unlike my first list, this one has no focus on playing beaters and attacking at all, since 5 Unsealing triggers is 20 damage anyways!
6 Tutors and 8 draw effects work to find the combo of Sarkhan's Unsealing + Death's Shadow + Oversold Cemetery while Abyssal Gatekeeper and Fleshbag Marauder buy you some time to get it online. This list is much more gimmicky than the first, as it's very soft to enchantment removal and has no real plan B if opponents break up the combo or you simply don't find the necessary pieces. It certainly highlights the signature card though!
The first card from M19 that has really caught my eye for casual 60 card play is Sarkhan's Unsealing. The effect is amazingly powerful if you can consistently (and preferably repeatedly) trigger the 7+ power effect. There are a lot of ways throughout Magic's history to get 7+ power at a discount, and the first rough list I've come up with simply plays a bunch of undercosted giants and ways to take exploit them.
Chandra's Ignition in particular seems like a go-to as redundancy for your "nuke the world" effects. This list may be a little rough but is a simple demonstration of how to abuse the Unsealing. Blow everything up, and clean up your defenseless opponents with your giant monsters!
I believe */* creatures retain their P/T in all zones, so those work while cards like Wight of Precinct Six and Golgari Grave Troll unfortunately won't trigger. Power on the stack also means weird things like Nyxathid always works even though it's smaller in play, and Mogis, God of Slaughter always works even when it won't actually be a creature upon resolving.
I'd love to hear your input and ideas on how to best abuse this engine of destruction!
Another angle I've been exploring with Fires of Invention is going with an enchantment theme so you can use Commune with the Gods and Kruphix's Insight to find your build-around enchantment consistently. Rising Waters is a cruel one, since you can cast spells without your lands but your opponents probably can't. Pyrohemia can keep the board clear using the "spare mana" you have with FoI. Future Sight keeps the gas coming for double-spell every turn. Cards like Doomwake Giant, Sigil of the Empty Throne, and Sphere of Safety can take advantage of a heavy enchantment theme, all at CMCs that pair nicely with Fires of Invention.
Then there are tons of cards that may not quite cut it at the cutthroat competitive tables but will be effective and sweet for the majority of EDH or 60 card multiplayer players. Morophon the Boundless, Astral Drift, King of the Pride, Sisay, Weatherlight Captain, Ayula's Influence, Llanowar Tribe, Unbound Flourishing, Cloudshredder Sliver, Collected Conjuring, Ice-Fang Coatl, Hall of Heliod's Generosity should all see plenty of use I would think. These are the kind of cards I'm really excited about brewing with.
There are also a number of gems for niche formats like Pauper, where I think Defile will be a lot more than marginal. and cards like Orcish Hellraiser and Winding Way could break through.
That's all without counting the tons of sweet, high-power reprints. Overpriced, sure, but I think the set will have a ton of staying power as exceptionally high-powered and exciting overall, especially when considering the impact across many different formats.
I don't think I'm going to actually build this one because it's not quite up to par in power level on a budget but I will say from testing that Parallax Wave is truly awesome in a heavy proliferate shell. The ability to hold on to counters to threaten opponents not to mess with you, the ability to make the threats disappear permanently, and the ability to hit multiple new targets every turn is just amazing. Just be careful of surprise enchantment removal!
Everflowing Chalice is of course incredible, but anyone who's played a proliferate deck knows that by know- I had never tried white cards because my New Phyrexia based proliferate builds were always blue black
Sacrifice outlets such as Skullclamp and Goblin Bombardment have already been mentioned as one great use of small tokens.
Creature-counting effects like Shamanic Revelation also make good use of them.
A possible alternative to 8 post in mono white tokens would be to use Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx alongside color-intensive cards like Benalish Marshal, Angel of Jubilation, and Nobilis of War. Even just playing a bunch of permanents with WW in their cost can make it quite good.
I also would never leave home without Windbrisk Heights in any white tokens deck. It's amazing!
4 Thrummingbird
1 Mikaeus, the Lunarch
4 Flux Channeler
2 Mindless Automaton
1 Azor's Elocutors
1 Contentious Plan
4 Everflowing Chalice
2 Orochi Hatchery
1 Ajani Goldmane
4 Parallax Wave
4 Pursuit of Knowledge
4 Contagion Engine
1 Calciform Pools
1 Grasping Dunes
4 Irrigated Farmland
3 Karn's Bastion
4 Remote Farm
4 Saprazzan Skerry
1 Island
2 Plains
New additions Grateful Apparition and Flux Channeler join mainstay Thrummingbird in providing enough cheap, consistent, repeatable proliferaters to make depletion lands playable, while supercharging resource engines like Everflowing Chalice and Mindless Automaton. Parallax Wave and Contagion Engine provide powerful multiplayer removal while Pursuit of Knowledge easily draws seven after skipping just one draw. A juiced up Orochi Hatchery or random value creatures pumped up huge by Mikaeus, the Lunarch or Ajani Goldmane serve as the primary win condition, while Azor's Elocutors can often win the game after just one upkeep in the late game
This list does still suffer from some inconsistency and fragility however. The depletion lands offer great power but if your early proliferate creatures are removed they can become a liability. There's also the problem of drawing too few enablers or too few payoffs, and the card draw in the deck is all dependent on having your synergies up and running. Consistent colored mana can be tricky as well since there are so many highly desirable colorless lands and 8 ETBT lands which do not fix colors. When the pieces do come together it's a ton of fun to fiddle with all the different counters and bury opponents in value!
Dread Return may only be reanimating 4-5 mana non-combo creatures which certainly isn't it's highest power level, but it's still a card which puts a strong creature into play for no mana while being cast from the graveyard, and at a cost which is usually negligible if not beneficial. It's especially great for reanimating a free Archfiend so you can pay for TE activations as soon as it hits. I may trim the number since I have few targets, but I think a couple are very good.
The Songs of the Damned are in because the deck had a tendency to spend up to 4 turns just durdling with resources before it actually did anything which powerfully affected the board and this was just too slow. Songs got out an Archfiend or Kessig Cagebreakers or Desecrated Tomb + TE activations a turn or two early. I do think it's a poor fit for the deck at many points in the game though, and having a few solid early blockers (Lotleth Trolls) may make the speed bump unnecessary.
Diabolic Intent would be superb here but I don't really feel like spending for them. I think 4 Archfiend gives me enough creature control to forego Pernicious Deed and Fleshbag Marauder.
My current changes: -3 Songs of the Damned, -1 Dread Return for +3 Lotleth Troll, +1 Krovikan Horror.
I like that these changes give a nice boost to the creature count, and specifically the black creature count in the deck. I would love to find room for another Stinkweed Imp, since the dredge count really is low and for another Desecrated Tomb as well since I run so few actual threats/win conditions... It's hard to find the cuts though. This deck has major 60 card syndrome!
4 Satyr Wayfinder
1 Golgari Brownscale
1 Skullwinder
2 Stinkweed Imp
2 Krovikan Horror
1 World Shaper
4 Archfiend of Ifnir
1 Golgari Grave-Troll
1 Kessig Cagebreakers
1 Vengeful Pharaoh
3 Songs of the Damned
4 Commune with the Gods
1 Desecrated Tomb
3 Dread Return
3 Crypt of Agadeem
3 Golgari Rot Farm
2 Jungle Hollow
4 Llanowar Wastes
5 Forest
6 Swamp
I ended up running just 1 Tomb, since it's a nice value engine with Tortured Existence (and Krovikan Horror) but slots are tight for non-creatures and the list needed more speed and less durdling in testing. The real allstar from M19 is Stitcher's Supplier which is a huge boost to the archetype as a premier 1 drop that works especially great with Dread Return. Archfiend of Ifnir is oppressive with a Tortured Existence running and the enchantment also lets you stack Krovikan Horror however you like, put dredgers back in the yard where they belong, gain oodles of life with Golgari Brownscale, or get endless value and card selection from Skullwinder.
Vengeful Pharaoh is a great early- to mid-game disincentive, Kessig Cagebreakers is a powerful finisher, and World Shaper is actually incredible, often returning 6+ lands while helping flash back a Dread Return. Songs of the Damned provides a major speed-boost and can fuel a ton of TE activations.
Obviously this list is not as broken as dredge can get, foregoing combo finishes or Bridge From Below shenanigans. It's intended to be pretty budget-friendly and (a little bit) fair. I've been having a lot of fun with it, and I think there's a lot of directions you could go with M19's new graveyard toys!
4 Glory-Bound Initiate
4 Selfless Spirit
4 Resolute Survivors
4 Combat Celebrant
4 Resolute Survivors
1 Vizier of the True
4 Glorybringer
3 Trueheart Twins
1 Aurelia, the Warleader
4 Reconnaissance
3 Brave the Sands
1 Ajani Goldmane
2 Seize the Day
4 Battlefield Forge
4 Wind-Scarred Crag
2 Boros Garrison
2 Needle Spires
1 Sea Gate Wreckage
5 Mountain
6 Plains
Psychic Corrosion from M19 gives me some hope at actually milling a table to death in a (somewhat) fair and effective way. My first thought is to combine the usual suspects of giant graveyard based beaters with power-based draw like Rishkar's Expertise to eliminate huge chunks of libraries while making the giants even giant-er.
2 Llanowar Elves
4 Wild Growth
1 Altar of Dementia
1 Mindcrank
4 Psychic Corrosion
3 Sphinx's Tutelage
4 Terravore
4 Bonehoard
4 Centaur Vinecrasher
3 Greater Good
4 Rishkar's Expertise
2 Ipnu Rivulet
4 Hinterland Harbor
2 Simic Growth Chamber
4 Yavimaya Coast
8 Forest
2 Island
In testing this list can often end the game off a resolved Rishkar's Expertise with Psychic Corrosion in play- if you have a creature with 7ish power or more you can mill a large portion of everyone's deck and if you're holding a Great Good or draw into one, immediately sacrifice the freshly enlarged creature for complete decking.
The weaknesses here are the early game and interacting against fast proactive decks. The creatures are small if not unplayable before you get some mill going and Altar of the Brood is merely decent here. Meanwhile the deck has so many requirements to enact its own game plan that it's hard to find room for any reactive spells to slow down opponents.
Centaur Vinecrasher, Bonehoard, and big card draw spells, as well as the non-interactive inevitability of your mill enchantments make control matchups favorable, even if they do keep killing all your creatures.
I'd love to hear your thoughts on this deck and other ways to use and abuse the newest multiplayer mill engine! Perhaps a Howling Mine turbo-fog strategy or a Notion Thief combo could get Psychic Corrosion churning out wins?
4 Myr Superion
2 Whisperer of the Wilds
2 Combat Celebrant
4 Temur Ascendancy
4 Wayward Swordtooth
1 Flametongue Kavu
4 Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma
1 Hero of Oxid Ridge
1 Shaman of the Great Hunt
1 Temur Sabertooth
4 Garruk's Packleader
1 Neheb, the Eternal
4 Warchief Giant
4 Frontier Bivouac
4 Spire Garden
4 Yavimaya Coast
3 Forest
4 Mountain
The plan is to use powerful ramp to chain together loads of large creatures which draw more ad nauseam via Temur Ascendancy and Garruk's Packleader. Goreclaw takes the ramp to the next level, letting you cast approximately 1 zillion, and even making Myr Superion free! The rest of the deck features plenty of ways to produce mana though even without a Goreclaw- Joraga Treespeaker and Whisperer of the Wilds get your engines online fast and Neheb, the Eternal can produce tons of the good stuff. Wayward Swordtooths let you simply keep playing all the excess lands you draw while going off as well as being a highly efficient beater in a deck looking to dump all kinds of permanents into play. Warchief Giant draws you millions off Temur Ascendancy and Garruk's Packleader while beating down hard.
Some options to add even more spice if you're willing to spend a little more $$ include Bloom Tender, Rhonas the Indomitable, Bramble Sovereign, Vengevine, Rekindling Phoenix, Xenagos, God of Revels, and Green Sun's Zenith. The indestructible and recursive creatures make the deck a lot more resilient to wraths, which are probably the deck's biggest weakness otherwise.
Warstorm Surge certainly works in a greater number of decks with more flexibility. You can slot it into almost any deck with large creatures and it will do work, while Unsealing is much more specialized. I think Sarkhan's Unsealing offers a much higher ceiling in power level however- and for me creative deckbuilding restrictions are part of the fun!
4 Expedition Map
4 Faithless Looting
4 Prophetic Prism
4 Sylvan Scrying
4 Kozileks Return
3 Hedron Archive
4 Sarkhan's Unsealing
3 Ulamog's Crusher
2 Artisan of Kozilek
2 Void Winnower
1 Kozilek, the Great Distortion
4 Urza's Power Plant
4 Urza's Tower
1 Eye of Ugin
4 Karplusan Forest
4 Spire Garden
This list functions a lot like traditional Modern RG Tron but the triggers of Sarkhan's Unsealing and Kozilek's Return do the battlefield clearing rather than Oblivion Stone or Ugin, the Spirit Dragon. On the bright side this version is much more affordable than running traditional top end cards like Wurmcoil Engine, Karn Liberated, and Ugin.
The next brew I came up with though is one that focuses on the problem of finding Sarkhan's Unsealing consistently by running tutors, and abusing the trigger to its fullest extent by looping Death's Shadow every turn. Unlike my first list, this one has no focus on playing beaters and attacking at all, since 5 Unsealing triggers is 20 damage anyways!
2 Faithless Looting
4 Abyssal Gatekeeper
2 Dusk Legion Zealot
4 Humble Defector
4 Diabolic Intent
4 Oversold Cemetery
2 Rakdos Signet
4 Fleshbag Marauder
4 Sarkhan's Unsealing
2 Sidisi, Undead Vizier
4 Bloodfell Caves
2 High Market
6 Mountain
8 Swamp
6 Tutors and 8 draw effects work to find the combo of Sarkhan's Unsealing + Death's Shadow + Oversold Cemetery while Abyssal Gatekeeper and Fleshbag Marauder buy you some time to get it online. This list is much more gimmicky than the first, as it's very soft to enchantment removal and has no real plan B if opponents break up the combo or you simply don't find the necessary pieces. It certainly highlights the signature card though!
4 Rakdos Signet
4 Nighthowler
4 Nyxathid
3 Taurean Mauler
4 Disciple of Bolas
2 Mogis, God of Slaughter
4 Sarkhan's Unsealing
4 Chandra's Ignition
3 Malignus
4 Bloodfell Cave
2 Rakdos Carnarium
2 Flamekin Village
1 Rogue's Passage
2 Spinerock Knoll
4 Mountain
7 Swamp
Chandra's Ignition in particular seems like a go-to as redundancy for your "nuke the world" effects. This list may be a little rough but is a simple demonstration of how to abuse the Unsealing. Blow everything up, and clean up your defenseless opponents with your giant monsters!
There are lots of other ways to build around Sarkhan's Unsealing and I'm sure I haven't found the best one yet. An elemental tribal deck with Nova Chaser, Thunderblust, and Force of Savagery? A self mill deck with Boneyard Wurm, Splinterfright, and Ghoultree? An artifact build with Traxos, Scourge of Kroog and Metalwork Colossus? Perhaps a Death's Shadow build or simply recurring Shivan Wurm?
I believe */* creatures retain their P/T in all zones, so those work while cards like Wight of Precinct Six and Golgari Grave Troll unfortunately won't trigger. Power on the stack also means weird things like Nyxathid always works even though it's smaller in play, and Mogis, God of Slaughter always works even when it won't actually be a creature upon resolving.
I'd love to hear your input and ideas on how to best abuse this engine of destruction!