probably should have been Twilight Shepherd (I almost never want to play that card...just Chord for it once in a blue moon), but the Sheperd flies and does some relivant things.
Kozilek's Predator has been pretty OK but I needed to cut something and it seemed like it was good but not good enough. Ajani Goldmane has been in the deck for a over a year, I've played it 2 times, and had it in hand and not played it several times. Ajani seemed to be pretty bad in action, not really doing anything relivant, and not once did I get to play him with doubling season out and make 2 Serra Avatar tokens.
I've had Sterling Grove in the deck before and cut it. Thought I would give it another shot now that I am playing Genesis Wave and may want more help digging for Earthcraft (we will see how it goes). I'm tired of seeing people play Genesis Wave. I have it in other decks might as well play it in here so i can win out of nowhere like everyone else.
Every turn Spine of Ish Sah is a major pain in the butt, I was playing against a guy doing that this week, killed my General 3 turns in a row, and totally shut me down. When I steal this idea, I will definitely play it LOL! ... and with Thornbite Staff that basically kills everything on the board. Also you are playing Hell's Caretaker, he is retarded with Thornbite Staff on him.
Kills all the Cretures on the board at least.
Yeah Hell's Caretaker + Thornbite Staff + Triskelion = Infinite Damage Win.
- Hell's Caretaker + Thornbite Staff + Marsh flitter = Infinite Dudes
- Hell's Caretaker + Thornbite Staff + Pilgrim's Eye = All your basics in your hand for an epic Scroll Rack.
and few others.
In my other Shirei deck that combo can make every opponents discard thier hand (with Noxious Toad, Thieving Sprite, and Ashen-Skin Zubera), Put their hand on top of their deck via Chimney Imp, more infinite damage combos (with Infectious Host or a card like that), get all basics with Solemn Simulacrum and draw a bunch of cards, Remove thier graveyard via Heapdoll, infinitely sac and bring back Thoughtpicker Witch or Pawn of Ulamog making infinte eldrazi spawn then sac a spawn for 1 mana > activate Thoughtpicker Witch (sac a spawn) > RFG each opponents deck. If only Hell's Caretaker Thronbite Staff was easier to get into play and stay in play long enough.
Also Hell's Caretaker/Staff is so much better when you have a deck like this that plays really crappy creatures with abilities.
I've been thinking about adding Spine of Ish Sah . I have these grand ideas of using it with Priest of Yawgmoth to play it for free. Imagine having a bunch of dudes out, a sac outlet, and the priest equiped with Thornbite Staff...getting multiple Spine castings a turn. Not to mention that I will probably add Phyrexia's Core (land with: 1 tap- sac an Artifact gain a life) anyway to the deck. If I do I may want to add Infernal Tribute back into the deck instead of Null Profusion...if I do that.
Here is my take on Doran. I could really care less about his abilty. He is in a color trio that I really like and is essentially a 5/5 for 3 mana giving you an early game beater while everyone else is trying to ramp and fix their mana. It would work just as well as a Teneb deck but people don't kill Doran on the spot like they kill Mr. Harvester.
The deck is currently constructed to make it rather difficult for opponents to kill my creatures and keep them killed. Reveillark works with a lot of the cards in the deck and combines with Saffi Eriksdotter, Karmic Guide, and Sun Titan things become rather difficult to keep dead. There are more synergies with all those cards as well but those are the main ones. Those cards in various combinations can really make Living Death more lopsided in my favor. I don’t have any infinite combos with those cards out of personal preference but most people auto assume when Saffi, Lark, Karmic Guide are all out that I am going to douche combo everyone. When you add in the other cards like Teneb, the Harvester, Sheoldred, Whispering One , Nezumi Graverobber, Debtors' Knell, and Nim Deathmantle there are a lot possibilities for things to potentially come back. I don’t try to reanimate as a strategy I just try to keep things in play (if that makes any sense). I try not to leave things in my graveyard to be exiled but if they are no big deal there will be others.
Fast mana, card advantage, battlefield advantage, and fast relentless overwhelming force is basically what I have tried to achieve.
Here is what is in: Apprentice Necromancer – Works so well with a dead Reveillark or Sun Titan and other tnings. Kinda of a Saffi #2 Magus of the Library - The best card I have added in a long time Kamahl, Fist of Krosa - Better than Garruk most of the time due to creature tutors Syphon Mind - needed more card draw especially with Magus of the Library no in the deck Angelic Renewal – Does all sorts of fun things and Sun Titan just brings it back. It is my Saffi #3 Debtors' Knell - A good card I never put in because I hated it so much when other people played it.
I need to find something to cut to add Exsanguinate, mostly for life gain. Play it for 5 in most games and gain 15 life…not bad. Plus it could kill if need be. My deck use to be life gain city but after evaluating cards like Serra Ascendant, Phantom Nishoba, Windbrisk Raptor, and Battlegrace Angel I decided they were good but didn't really do anything to actively try and get the win and they were cut. Now I just Slowly die to Phyrexian Arena, my draw spells, and Hall of the Bandit Lord.
Joraga Treespeaker – Green Sun’s Zenith keeps telling me to play this card so I can turn 2 cast for it. Mana Ramp is good but I can’t convice my self it is needed.
Necrotic Ooze – Works with Saffi, Apprentice Necromancer, Bloom Tender, Magus of the Library, Geth, Knight of the Reliquary, Nezumi Graverobber, and Kamahl, and those are just what I have. I know if I put in then I would want to Add Chainer because Chainer without the exile draw back seems good. As long as I didn’t rely on the Ooze to do things then it would be ok. Seems to tempting not to try and go all in. Then again I ran a deck that Ooze comboed around turn 4-6 just a few weeks after Scars came out well before the big Extended Necrotic ooze deck. In the long run it is just some dude I wouldn’t want to attack with and I seem to have enough of them already. Do I really need a Saffi #4?
Reincarnation – This card just seems fun and potentially powerful…yet conditional and not very reusable (AKA not a good “Value Engine”). Saffi #5 or conditionally better.
Necromancer's Covenant – I really like this card. I have played it before and had some luck with it. It was a good hoser, chump blocker maker, and life gainer. Great after a Wrath for instant protection/threats. A lot of times it was dead card. Still good and fun.
Tainted Well – It cantrips…It screws a land…It comes back with Sun Titan. Nice filler type of card that has applications. The black Spreading Seas. I think that leaving a good land in play but unusable might probably be better than killing it. Plus someone has to waste a good removal card to get rid of it and Sun Titan seems to like it.
All the Swords of _____ including Vengeance – Then I would proably need to run Stonehewer Giant and Stoneforge Mystic and Enlightened Tutor (which I should proably be playing anyway). That is a lot spots to make room for and we have those very good extremely playable Praetors on their way.
Ah I see, (I read the rulings on the card), what about Coffin Queen ?
Coffin Queen is really good. I run it in my other Shirei deck that isn't poison. The poison kind of sucks all the room out of the deck. It was hard to have to cut it for this one. Whenever I play my other version I wish I would play with some of the cards in this version. I think the poison version is better in the sense that it can kill easier...worse in the sense that it is lacking a lot of the disruption the other version had. Coffin Queen is a card that could very easily make it back into the deck.
I love this concept, did clockwork beast not make the cut? Awwww he is my favorite from back in "the day".
In this deck when something dies with Shirei out it has to have 1 or less power when it leaves play and hits the graveyard. Thus the Clockwork Beast most like would hardly see recursion. The deck likes to sacrifice things often every players turn. I do love the clockwork creatures. Clockwork Dragon is my favorite because he sits there and collects counters and then kills people.
Wow, lol i just almost prefer to look at a deck list like this than i do the "list" form. Its like thumbing through someone's deck. I'm officially going to steal this now, thank you.
On the Commander Forum you put cards in the card tags and when you run your mouse over them the cards pop up. I wish this site did that. I had to post this deck this way since I need to have specific versions of specific cards. I do like the way it looks though too.
hah, fun looking theme! NOt a run of the mill Zur deck, thats for sure
Yeah it is actually pretty fun to play. It has some little interactions like the guys who make tokens and Brine Shaman, Order of Whiteclay and Opposition. The amount of Counterspells, steal effects, tap effects, and removal gives the deck the abilitiy to play a influential role in the game.
Also I decided that Enlightened Tutor need to be in the deck and took out Sky Diamond. Citunal Flute is really good in this deck as well as an early Land Tax. It also doesn't hurt to be able to tutor up Opposition. At least the Mirage Sky Diamond is getting replaced by another Mirage Card.
I have worked on various commander theme decks and have always given up on them. I decided to try and make a deck with only cards of old people on them. After going though all the possible Legends I could use I narrowed it down to Zur the Enchanter and Gaddock Teeg. Next I went through every set, duel deck, and promo looking for all the cards with the elderly on them or looked like they might be old. Zur seemed like it had the best opportunity to have the most fun and interesting cards while still being an OK deck. I found out that Magic has a lot of old men and very few old women. Thus the deck is almost all old guys. Academy Rector simple didn't have very good targets so it wasn't included. I have purposely not put in Old Man of the Sea due to cost, and lack of playability. Let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions.
This isn't as detailed or cool looking as a lot of these other mats but here is my "Myr Refinery" playmat I drew up based on a Myr token I made of Tiny Tim Myr. Tiny Tim Myr gets crushed and goes in the "Refinery" and then out pops an Aristocratic Fancy Pants Myr complete with top hat and monocle. I wanted it to go through technological revolution as it got farther down the line. I made this well before Scars of Mirrodin came out when the Magic world was not all Myr crazy. I may or may not finish the background. Who knows. It was nerve racking enough try not to screw up the main art.
I always like suggestion even if I don't use them. It gives me something to think about. I have taken ideas that people have given me for one deck, not used it in there, and put it into another one.
I wasn't running mortarpod until someone said "Why aren't you running mortarpod?" It never even crossed my mind to play it before.
I'm surprised Sacred Mesa didn't work if nothing else. It's a cheaper to cast Ant Queen that doesn't die to sweepers and makes flying tokens. Early it isn't very effective
I am rarely in a game with this deck that goes very long. I either kill the table really quick or I get ganged up on and I take a few people with me. I don't think I have ever had time to make it work.
This looks to hose tokens. Good to have it on your side. Bad to have it on the otherside. I have already heard people talking about how much they are looking forward to casting Tooth and Nail for Elesh Norn and Massacre Wurm. ugh.
My build is fairly different from yours being more enchantment based but we came to a lot of the same conclusions (removal not being very effective, 1 shot spells not being very good, lots of the same card choices). There are 2 very good enchantments that make tokens in Luminarch Acension and Sacred Mesa. These pump out tokens quickly and cheaply and with Earthcraft you can go nuts, often infinite if you have a mana doubler or Doubling Season in play as well. They also make the deck much more resilient to sweepers since you really don't need to play other proactive spells until they are dealt with. They sweep and you just make more tokens. A couple good stand alone enchantments are Sylvan Library and Land Tax. Fecundity is fantastic and while it works for your opponents as well you should very consistently have the creature advantage and gain much more value out of it. Survival of the Fittest is a great tutor with a decent creature count and I also included the pieces for a Reveillark loop so it can easily just win me the game with enough mana. With the addition of all these enchantments I wanted ways to protect them so I also added in Sterling Grove, Privileged Position & Karmic Justice. Since I cut back on creatures to make space this also allowed me to run the backbreaking Humility as well. Many decks simply fold to this card and a lot of the ones that don't must destroy it before they can start functioning again. Lastly with all these enchantments Replenish becomes incredibly powerful later in the game so I added that as well. My primer is in my sig and has some of the card choices I use explained in more detail.
I've run almost all of these cards at one point or another aside from Humility. The Humility idea seems pretty solid. I was actually looking at your deck post primer the other day. It is an good strategy. I find it intesteing how people seem to build decks that in theory should be pretty similar. I have seen many a Rhys deck that really only use Rhys as the only token maker, some that use mostly spells, etc.
I ran Survival and Fauna Shaman for a while and the way I had things built they didn't seem very effective same thing with Reviellark. Sterling Grove use to be in the deck but I took it out because I didn't like it (I think i just kept drawing it at the wrong times). Sacred Mesa just pisses me off because it never does anything, and I never want when i draw it, and just eats my mana and sits there and shrugs at me. I have kept it in decks for years while it did nothing. I see how it is good with Earthcraft. Fecundity I have tried and I always seemed to get burned by it so I think it just might not be good in my meta.
Ultimately everything gomes down to having enough space in the deck. I need to figure out how I am going to add a few of the new cards from New Phyrexia. I like the infect overrun thing, maybe Fresh Meat, and maybe one or 2 of those Splicers that make Golems (although I am not sold on those). I;ve always wanted to try Dawnglare Invoker but never seem to get it in.
I use to run a Captain Sisay engine along side the Skyshroud Poacher one. That worked pretty well until multiple Captain Sisay decks started showing up at the table.
I'm really liking the theme you have set up here, very synergistic. With the amount of sac outlets your running though, is there a reason you are not running grave pact/butcher of malakir?
I personally wouldn't run them due to the composition of my playgroup, but they would fit very well to clear blockers and make the deck more competitive. They would draw a lot more hate too though.
Butcher is in there and I don't have a gravepact right now. I realized after I submitted the deck list that I forgot I was going to mention the Gravepact not being in even though it is obviously pretty good. Believe me I have thought about getting one and putting it in but right now I am so cramped for space and the deck runs pretty smoothly. Gravepact is gone once someone blows it up anyway because I dont run Yawgmoth's Will or Ill Gotten Gains or any other way that can get it back.
Yawgmoth's Will is pretty good in this deck. I ran it in my other version of Shirei.
probably should have been Twilight Shepherd (I almost never want to play that card...just Chord for it once in a blue moon), but the Sheperd flies and does some relivant things.
- Kozilek's Predator
- Ajani Goldmane
+ Sterling Grove
+ Genesis Wave
Kozilek's Predator has been pretty OK but I needed to cut something and it seemed like it was good but not good enough. Ajani Goldmane has been in the deck for a over a year, I've played it 2 times, and had it in hand and not played it several times. Ajani seemed to be pretty bad in action, not really doing anything relivant, and not once did I get to play him with doubling season out and make 2 Serra Avatar tokens.
I've had Sterling Grove in the deck before and cut it. Thought I would give it another shot now that I am playing Genesis Wave and may want more help digging for Earthcraft (we will see how it goes). I'm tired of seeing people play Genesis Wave. I have it in other decks might as well play it in here so i can win out of nowhere like everyone else.
Kills all the Cretures on the board at least.
Yeah Hell's Caretaker + Thornbite Staff + Triskelion = Infinite Damage Win.
- Hell's Caretaker + Thornbite Staff + Marsh flitter = Infinite Dudes
- Hell's Caretaker + Thornbite Staff + Pilgrim's Eye = All your basics in your hand for an epic Scroll Rack.
and few others.
In my other Shirei deck that combo can make every opponents discard thier hand (with Noxious Toad, Thieving Sprite, and Ashen-Skin Zubera), Put their hand on top of their deck via Chimney Imp, more infinite damage combos (with Infectious Host or a card like that), get all basics with Solemn Simulacrum and draw a bunch of cards, Remove thier graveyard via Heapdoll, infinitely sac and bring back Thoughtpicker Witch or Pawn of Ulamog making infinte eldrazi spawn then sac a spawn for 1 mana > activate Thoughtpicker Witch (sac a spawn) > RFG each opponents deck. If only Hell's Caretaker Thronbite Staff was easier to get into play and stay in play long enough.
Also Hell's Caretaker/Staff is so much better when you have a deck like this that plays really crappy creatures with abilities.
The deck is currently constructed to make it rather difficult for opponents to kill my creatures and keep them killed. Reveillark works with a lot of the cards in the deck and combines with Saffi Eriksdotter, Karmic Guide, and Sun Titan things become rather difficult to keep dead. There are more synergies with all those cards as well but those are the main ones. Those cards in various combinations can really make Living Death more lopsided in my favor. I don’t have any infinite combos with those cards out of personal preference but most people auto assume when Saffi, Lark, Karmic Guide are all out that I am going to douche combo everyone. When you add in the other cards like Teneb, the Harvester, Sheoldred, Whispering One , Nezumi Graverobber, Debtors' Knell, and Nim Deathmantle there are a lot possibilities for things to potentially come back. I don’t try to reanimate as a strategy I just try to keep things in play (if that makes any sense). I try not to leave things in my graveyard to be exiled but if they are no big deal there will be others.
Fast mana, card advantage, battlefield advantage, and fast relentless overwhelming force is basically what I have tried to achieve.
1 Doran, the Siege Tower
Creatures (27)
Ramp/Mana
1 Bloom Tender
1 Oracle of Mul Daya
1 Primeval Titan
1 Wood Elves
1 Knight of the Reliquary
1 Geth, Lord of the Vault
1 Karmic Guide
1 Nezumi Graverobber
1 Reveillark
1 Saffi Eriksdotter
1 Sheoldred, Whispering One
1 Sun Titan
1 Teneb, the Harvester
1 Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
1 Magus of the Library
1 Regal Force
1 Angel of Despair
1 Duplicant
1 Massacre Wurm
1 Sunblast Angel
1 Terastodon
1 Woodfall Primus
1 Avenger of Zendikar
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Eternal Witness
1 Kamahl, Fist of Krosa
1 Netherborn Phalanx
Spells (24)
Spot Removal
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Vindicate
1 Austere Command
1 Decree of Pain
1 Profane Command
1 Beacon of Unrest
1 Cultivate
1 Hunting Wilds
1 Kodama's Reach
1 Skyshroud Claim
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Demonic Collusion
1 Diabolic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Chord of Calling
1 Green Sun's Zenith
1 Tooth and Nail
1 Ambition's Cost
1 Ancient Craving
1 Harmonize
1 Momentous Fall
1 Promise of Power
1 Genesis Wave
Enchantments (8)
Mana
1 Mana Reflection
1 Mirari's Wake
1 Greater Good
1 Phyrexian Arena
1 Aura Shards
1 Pernicious Deed
1 Debtors' Knell
1 Survival of the Fittest
Artifacts (3)
1 Akroma's Memorial
1 Nim Deathmantle
1 Sol Ring
Basics
4 Forest
3 Plains
2 Swamp
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Windswept Heath
1 Bayou
1 Fetid Heath
1 Godless Shrine
1 Golgari Rot Farm
1 Murmuring Bosk
1 Orzhov Basilica
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Savanah
1 Selesnya Sanctuary
1 Scrubland
1 Temple Garden
1 Twilight Mire
1 Wooded Bastion
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Cabal Coffers
1 Hall of the Bandit Lord
1 High Market
1 Kor Haven
1 Krosan Verge
1 Mistveil Plains
1 Mosswort Bridge
1 Oran Rief, the Vastwood
1 Shizo, Death's Storehouse
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Vesuva
1 Volrath's Stronghold
Basic lands of choice for this deck because it matters:
Foil of Course
Latest Changes:
Caustic Wasps - Good but went another direction
Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni - Got him to work a few times and he is never a surpirse once in play
Novablast Wurm - Really only worked well with Akroma's Memorial and usually killed more of my stuff than anyone else
Qasali Pridemage - Something had to go and decided on this.
Soltari Visionary - Good but went another direction
Steel Hellkite - Never did anything and was fragile
Garruk Wildspeaker - Going with Kamahl instead. Garruk did work well with Primeval though
Here is what is in:
Apprentice Necromancer – Works so well with a dead Reveillark or Sun Titan and other tnings. Kinda of a Saffi #2
Magus of the Library - The best card I have added in a long time
Kamahl, Fist of Krosa - Better than Garruk most of the time due to creature tutors
Syphon Mind - needed more card draw especially with Magus of the Library no in the deck
Angelic Renewal – Does all sorts of fun things and Sun Titan just brings it back. It is my Saffi #3
Debtors' Knell - A good card I never put in because I hated it so much when other people played it.
05/01/2011
sadly cut Apprentice Necromancer to add Genesis Wave...Long live Genesis Wave.
05/07/2011
- Angelic Renewal
- Twilight Shepherd
- Syphon Mind
+ Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
+ Sheoldred, Whispering One
+ Momentous Fall
A few other cards I am thinking about:
I need to find something to cut to add Exsanguinate, mostly for life gain. Play it for 5 in most games and gain 15 life…not bad. Plus it could kill if need be. My deck use to be life gain city but after evaluating cards like Serra Ascendant, Phantom Nishoba, Windbrisk Raptor, and Battlegrace Angel I decided they were good but didn't really do anything to actively try and get the win and they were cut. Now I just Slowly die to Phyrexian Arena, my draw spells, and Hall of the Bandit Lord.
Joraga Treespeaker – Green Sun’s Zenith keeps telling me to play this card so I can turn 2 cast for it. Mana Ramp is good but I can’t convice my self it is needed.
Necrotic Ooze – Works with Saffi, Apprentice Necromancer, Bloom Tender, Magus of the Library, Geth, Knight of the Reliquary, Nezumi Graverobber, and Kamahl, and those are just what I have. I know if I put in then I would want to Add Chainer because Chainer without the exile draw back seems good. As long as I didn’t rely on the Ooze to do things then it would be ok. Seems to tempting not to try and go all in. Then again I ran a deck that Ooze comboed around turn 4-6 just a few weeks after Scars came out well before the big Extended Necrotic ooze deck. In the long run it is just some dude I wouldn’t want to attack with and I seem to have enough of them already. Do I really need a Saffi #4?
Reincarnation – This card just seems fun and potentially powerful…yet conditional and not very reusable (AKA not a good “Value Engine”). Saffi #5 or conditionally better.
Necromancer's Covenant – I really like this card. I have played it before and had some luck with it. It was a good hoser, chump blocker maker, and life gainer. Great after a Wrath for instant protection/threats. A lot of times it was dead card. Still good and fun.
Tainted Well – It cantrips…It screws a land…It comes back with Sun Titan. Nice filler type of card that has applications. The black Spreading Seas. I think that leaving a good land in play but unusable might probably be better than killing it. Plus someone has to waste a good removal card to get rid of it and Sun Titan seems to like it.
All the Swords of _____ including Vengeance – Then I would proably need to run Stonehewer Giant and Stoneforge Mystic and Enlightened Tutor (which I should proably be playing anyway). That is a lot spots to make room for and we have those very good extremely playable Praetors on their way.
Coffin Queen is really good. I run it in my other Shirei deck that isn't poison. The poison kind of sucks all the room out of the deck. It was hard to have to cut it for this one. Whenever I play my other version I wish I would play with some of the cards in this version. I think the poison version is better in the sense that it can kill easier...worse in the sense that it is lacking a lot of the disruption the other version had. Coffin Queen is a card that could very easily make it back into the deck.
In this deck when something dies with Shirei out it has to have 1 or less power when it leaves play and hits the graveyard. Thus the Clockwork Beast most like would hardly see recursion. The deck likes to sacrifice things often every players turn. I do love the clockwork creatures. Clockwork Dragon is my favorite because he sits there and collects counters and then kills people.
On the Commander Forum you put cards in the card tags and when you run your mouse over them the cards pop up. I wish this site did that. I had to post this deck this way since I need to have specific versions of specific cards. I do like the way it looks though too.
Yeah it is actually pretty fun to play. It has some little interactions like the guys who make tokens and Brine Shaman, Order of Whiteclay and Opposition. The amount of Counterspells, steal effects, tap effects, and removal gives the deck the abilitiy to play a influential role in the game.
Also I decided that Enlightened Tutor need to be in the deck and took out Sky Diamond. Citunal Flute is really good in this deck as well as an early Land Tax. It also doesn't hurt to be able to tutor up Opposition. At least the Mirage Sky Diamond is getting replaced by another Mirage Card.
I think I need to add Tolaria West, and maybe Marsh Flats. The Tolaria West would help to grab any of my good lands Riptide Laboratory, Bojuka Bog, Mistviel Plains, Mystifying Maze, or Shizo, Death's Storehouse. The Marsh Flats would give me another fetch land that could get Mistviel Plains of a dual.
Commander
26 Creatures
27 Spells
Card Draw/Sifting
Removal/Bounce
Other
10 Enchantments
1 Artifact
35 lands
5 Island
3 Plains
2 Swamp
Dual Lands
Arcane Sanctum
Azorius Chancery
Dimir Aqueduct
Fetid Heath
Godless Shrine
Hallowed Fountain
Mystic Gate
Orzhov Basilica
Scrubland
Sunken Ruins
Tundra
Underground Sea
Watery Grave
Utility Lands
Bojuka Bog
Calciform Pools
Dreadship Reef
Flooded Strand
Mistveil Plains
Mystifying Maze
Polluted Delta
Riptide Laboratory
Shizo, Death's Storehouse
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
Vesuva
Volrath's Stronghold
Basic lands of Choice for this deck because it matters:
I made a few judgement calls on the validity of the old guys...I am happy to discuss my reasoning for inclusion with anyone.
Tiny Tim Myr Token the inspiration:
Playmat:
I wasn't running mortarpod until someone said "Why aren't you running mortarpod?" It never even crossed my mind to play it before.
It seemed like I had a lot more space to work with in my other build of Shirei. With needing to run the poison stuff and whatever other creatures I needed to work with Shirei it doesn;t leave much room. The most recent cards I had to cut were corpse dance, Victimize, Ichorclaw Myr, Balthor the Defiled, Reiver Demon, Ancient Craving, Infernal Tribute, Krark-Clan Ironworks, Attrition, Tainted Strike, and Phyresis. They were all good but under performed.
100 cards doesn;t stretch as far as it use to.
I am rarely in a game with this deck that goes very long. I either kill the table really quick or I get ganged up on and I take a few people with me. I don't think I have ever had time to make it work.
This looks to hose tokens. Good to have it on your side. Bad to have it on the otherside. I have already heard people talking about how much they are looking forward to casting Tooth and Nail for Elesh Norn and Massacre Wurm. ugh.
I've run almost all of these cards at one point or another aside from Humility. The Humility idea seems pretty solid. I was actually looking at your deck post primer the other day. It is an good strategy. I find it intesteing how people seem to build decks that in theory should be pretty similar. I have seen many a Rhys deck that really only use Rhys as the only token maker, some that use mostly spells, etc.
I ran Survival and Fauna Shaman for a while and the way I had things built they didn't seem very effective same thing with Reviellark. Sterling Grove use to be in the deck but I took it out because I didn't like it (I think i just kept drawing it at the wrong times). Sacred Mesa just pisses me off because it never does anything, and I never want when i draw it, and just eats my mana and sits there and shrugs at me. I have kept it in decks for years while it did nothing. I see how it is good with Earthcraft. Fecundity I have tried and I always seemed to get burned by it so I think it just might not be good in my meta.
Ultimately everything gomes down to having enough space in the deck. I need to figure out how I am going to add a few of the new cards from New Phyrexia. I like the infect overrun thing, maybe Fresh Meat, and maybe one or 2 of those Splicers that make Golems (although I am not sold on those). I;ve always wanted to try Dawnglare Invoker but never seem to get it in.
I use to run a Captain Sisay engine along side the Skyshroud Poacher one. That worked pretty well until multiple Captain Sisay decks started showing up at the table.
Butcher is in there and I don't have a gravepact right now. I realized after I submitted the deck list that I forgot I was going to mention the Gravepact not being in even though it is obviously pretty good. Believe me I have thought about getting one and putting it in but right now I am so cramped for space and the deck runs pretty smoothly. Gravepact is gone once someone blows it up anyway because I dont run Yawgmoth's Will or Ill Gotten Gains or any other way that can get it back.
Yawgmoth's Will is pretty good in this deck. I ran it in my other version of Shirei.