Demonic Taskmaster fits in with the controlling a single creature theme and is budget friendly.
A singleton Volrath's Stronghold would provide better recursion than Reassembling Skeleton/Tenacious Dead. A gold bordered Stronghold shouldn't set you back too much.
Is the one Westvale Abbey doing the kind of work you need it to? Despite the reliability of having a token generating land, it looks a bit slow even for this, slow, deck.
I'd also legitimately consider cutting two Patagia Vipers for two Snake Baskets just because of how dope they are with Seshiro.
Kaseto, Orochi Archmage seems like a natural fit here at first, but in actuality the evasion ability is much less relevant here than elsewhere if you're just tapping down the opposing board as part of your main game plan anyway.
I tested different utility lands such as Oran-Rief, the Vastwood and Pendlehaven until I settled on using Abbey. The Abbey produces tokens for Opposition use and provides me with a potential win condition that doesn't eat up a creature slot. I have been pleased with it so far.
Snake Basket just doesn't compare to the token spamming power of Summons. Summons is much more quicker in providing me with an army of snakes and gets even more absurd with any additional copies.
I forgot that Kaseto was a thing. I'll have to be on the lookout for any copies of it next time I hit my local game store.
The general idea is to shut down my opponent with Opposition and finish the game with a horde of snake tokens, Chameleon Colossus, or a transformed Abbey.
Rakdos Pit Dragon is pretty damned solid. Seeing as how easy it is for these for this type of deck to reach hellbent status, Rakdos Pit Dragon can easily attain double strike and has a good mana sink ability to make it even bigger.
The deck intends to win by stripping away an opponent's resources and beating face with recurring threats and/or a very large Carrion Feeder.
Carrion Feeder may look bad here but has proven to be solid. Since Swords to Plowshares/Path to Exile really screws over Gravecrawler and Bloodghast, Carrion Feeder serves as a bit of protection since I can sacrifice either one of those two creatures to Feeder in response to StP/PtE and not lose a good creature in the process. Carrion Feeder also turns any unwanted Dark Ritual into a permanent Giant Growth granted that a Gravecrawler is either in play or in my yard.
I was thinking about dropping Tragic Slip for Dismember or some other cheap removal spell.
I really like the idea of using Blood Scrivener - the zombie subtheme does make this stronger.
Last time I ran a pox deck I used Perilous Myr of all things. Probably not worth it unless your opponents are running token generation effects. Sangromancer was fun too but not really a win condition, just sort of overkill (and at times over costed to play).
Solemn Simulacrum isn't that good here. It is higher than my curve would ever allow (even with Dark Ritual). Plus, Simulacrum is more suited for decks that need the ramping such as control or midrange.
I think this looks good, I know it's not a Zombie, but I think Blood Artist would work really well here. I'm not sold on Carrion Feeder. There are some instances where you need to block, and having 11 creatures that can't block might not cut it.
Considering you are playing outside of Modern, you should probably consider running Skullclamp.
Carrion Feeder keeps Gravecrawler/Bloodghast safe from Swords to Plowshares/Path to Exile. It turns into a large threat later on once I have nothing else better to do with my mana and makes a topdecked Dark Ritual into a permanent Giant Growth with a Gravecrawler in my yard or in play. Plus, it gives me an additional zombie so that I can replay Gravecrawler more easily and reliably.
Blood Artist isn't bad, but I just don't need him here.
Should have mentioned this in my first post, but I want to keep this legacy legal.
This deck's game plan is to win through attrition by stripping away my opponent's resources and winning through recursive threats.
Blood Scrivener is a godsend here. It helps refill my hand (which is quite easy to reach hellbent status due to Smallpox and early Dark Ritual plays) and gives me another zombie for Gravecrawler. Dark Confidant would be the better choice overall, but Bob commands a hefty price tag for a playset.
Sakura-Tribe Elder is a staple favorite of mine for chumping a dude and ramping up my mana like a bro.
I tend to main deck Krosan Tusker quite a bit as well. Just love the fact that it is an uncounterable instant speed Divination in green. Plus, Tusker is a decent fattie for those situations when you need him to be.
I know entomb is a better card than buried alive normally, but in this deck i feel dumping 3 vines in the gy is better. Any reason you picked entomb? Seems pretty bad here because it's not like you have a reanimate target or a toolbox of stuff that goes well in your gy.
3cc is a much bigger difference than 1cc. If I were running some mana dork or something, I might run it. Otherwise, Buried Alive is really slow and clunky here. Plus, it can't fetch Cabal Therapy the way that Entomb can.
I think this deck is pretty well set to abuse Smallpox. I'd consider running that over Abrupt Decay.
Less control, but it hits them a lot harder than it hits you.
While Smallpox is a powerful card, I'm going to pass on this one. It sets me back a turn and this deck really needs the lands for Gravecrawler/Bloodghast shenanigans. Plus, I like the fact that Abrupt Decay hits a variety of problematic crap and tells countermagic to shove it.
I think that the best versions of this deck are the ones with dredgers (Stinkweed Imp and Golgari Grave-Troll) and Faithless Looting. There comes a time where you just want to dredge a creature back every turn instead of drawing a card. Faithless Looting is AMAZING because the draws can always become dredges which means that it can often be a "draw 3-5" or so per activation. Dropping 10-12 cards into your graveyard it usually the same thing as drawing 3-5 cards after all. It also has value even if it's milled which is very relevant.
I don't want to go the dredge route though. While amazing as it is, to me, dredge is incredibly dull and boring to play with.
If you intend to use Coffers in mono black control properly, a land base such as this works really well. I've been using it for a few years now and have had no problems with it.
A singleton Volrath's Stronghold would provide better recursion than Reassembling Skeleton/Tenacious Dead. A gold bordered Stronghold shouldn't set you back too much.
I tested different utility lands such as Oran-Rief, the Vastwood and Pendlehaven until I settled on using Abbey. The Abbey produces tokens for Opposition use and provides me with a potential win condition that doesn't eat up a creature slot. I have been pleased with it so far.
Snake Basket just doesn't compare to the token spamming power of Summons. Summons is much more quicker in providing me with an army of snakes and gets even more absurd with any additional copies.
I forgot that Kaseto was a thing. I'll have to be on the lookout for any copies of it next time I hit my local game store.
2 Seshiro the Anointed
3 Chameleon Colossus
4 Sakura-Tribe Elder
4 Coiling Oracle
4 Patagia Viper
4 Mire Boa
4 Sosuke's Summons
4 Opposition
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
Lands: 23
1 Westvale Abbey
4 Botanical Sanctum
4 Windswept Heath
4 Breeding Pool
4 Island
6 Forest
The general idea is to shut down my opponent with Opposition and finish the game with a horde of snake tokens, Chameleon Colossus, or a transformed Abbey.
Thoughts? Suggestions?
3 Geralf's Messenger
4 Blood Scrivener
4 Carrion Feeder
4 Gravecrawler
4 Bloodghast
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Hymn to Tourach
4 Dark Ritual
3 Tragic Slip
4 Smallpox
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Marsh Flats
16 Swamp
The deck intends to win by stripping away an opponent's resources and beating face with recurring threats and/or a very large Carrion Feeder.
Carrion Feeder may look bad here but has proven to be solid. Since Swords to Plowshares/Path to Exile really screws over Gravecrawler and Bloodghast, Carrion Feeder serves as a bit of protection since I can sacrifice either one of those two creatures to Feeder in response to StP/PtE and not lose a good creature in the process. Carrion Feeder also turns any unwanted Dark Ritual into a permanent Giant Growth granted that a Gravecrawler is either in play or in my yard.
I was thinking about dropping Tragic Slip for Dismember or some other cheap removal spell.
Thoughts?
Solemn Simulacrum isn't that good here. It is higher than my curve would ever allow (even with Dark Ritual). Plus, Simulacrum is more suited for decks that need the ramping such as control or midrange.
Attrition isn't horrible, but I just can't see myself making room for it.
Carrion Feeder keeps Gravecrawler/Bloodghast safe from Swords to Plowshares/Path to Exile. It turns into a large threat later on once I have nothing else better to do with my mana and makes a topdecked Dark Ritual into a permanent Giant Growth with a Gravecrawler in my yard or in play. Plus, it gives me an additional zombie so that I can replay Gravecrawler more easily and reliably.
Blood Artist isn't bad, but I just don't need him here.
Should have mentioned this in my first post, but I want to keep this legacy legal.
4 Geralf's Messenger
4 Blood Scrivener
3 Carrion Feeder
4 Gravecrawler
4 Bloodghast
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Hymn to Tourach
4 Innocent Blood
4 Dark Ritual
4 Smallpox
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Marsh Flats
16 Swamp
This deck's game plan is to win through attrition by stripping away my opponent's resources and winning through recursive threats.
Blood Scrivener is a godsend here. It helps refill my hand (which is quite easy to reach hellbent status due to Smallpox and early Dark Ritual plays) and gives me another zombie for Gravecrawler. Dark Confidant would be the better choice overall, but Bob commands a hefty price tag for a playset.
Thoughts?
-4 Dark Ritual
-1 Swamp
+1 Rotting Rats
+2 Geth's Verdict
+1 Marsh Flats
Dark Ritual allowed for early explosive game plays but found myself topdecking useless copies quite often later in the game.
Geth's Verdict is being tested since additional removal is something that I find myself needing from time to time.
I noticed a lone Marsh Flats in my collection so that is obviously going.
4 Geralf's Messenger
4 Carrion Feeder
4 Gravecrawler
4 Rotting Rats
4 Bloodghast
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Hymn to Tourach
4 Innocent Blood
2 Geth's Verdict
4 Smallpox
4 Verdant Catacombs
1 Marsh Flats
17 Swamp
The deck intends to win through attrition by depleting the opponent's resources and winning with recursive threats.
Thoughts?
Sakura-Tribe Elder is a staple favorite of mine for chumping a dude and ramping up my mana like a bro.
I tend to main deck Krosan Tusker quite a bit as well. Just love the fact that it is an uncounterable instant speed Divination in green. Plus, Tusker is a decent fattie for those situations when you need him to be.
3cc is a much bigger difference than 1cc. If I were running some mana dork or something, I might run it. Otherwise, Buried Alive is really slow and clunky here. Plus, it can't fetch Cabal Therapy the way that Entomb can.
While Smallpox is a powerful card, I'm going to pass on this one. It sets me back a turn and this deck really needs the lands for Gravecrawler/Bloodghast shenanigans. Plus, I like the fact that Abrupt Decay hits a variety of problematic crap and tells countermagic to shove it.
I don't want to go the dredge route though. While amazing as it is, to me, dredge is incredibly dull and boring to play with.
3 Cabal Coffers
20 Swamp