Zegana would be nuts even if she wasn't in a format so full of blink effects you'd think it was batting its eyes. Still, we've seen the impact Garruk, Primal Hunter has had, and since she serves a similar role at a similar price, I doubt she'll destroy standard.
Extort Bear is neat; it can provide reach to aggressive decks, and I imagine would be an auto-include in most Boros limited decks, unless that guild is just flush with monster 2 drops.
Instant Speed Prey Upon follows the time-honored hybrid mana tradition of providing a slightly overcosted effect with a neat bonus. I think this works particularly well with fight, because instant speed removal is really important, but that extra mana is one less mana to spend on the creatures you're fighting with. So, bravo.
does anyone else think that alms beast or treasury thrull could be playable with heartless summoning on the field?
I am actually really liking this thought. I mean, there's not a whole lot of incentive to play those cards with Summoning when you can play Thragtusk (particularly when Summoning puts Alms Beast into Thragtusk kill range...), but the synergy between cost reducers and extort, combined with beefy, efficient creatures like Alms, is appealing.
Anyway, this is a super well-designed card, managing to be innovative and dynamic while remaining elegant. I hope it will see constructed play, though I'm not holding my breath. If it does, it will be because it can profitably block or attack into a Thragtusk, shrugs off Ultimate Price and burn alike, and can pal around with Super Friends decks in colors with some *****in' 'walkers.
Taxing your opponent instead of offering you a kicker would probably be more satisfying from a flavor perspective, but considering how underwhelming an ability it would be after, like, turn 5, it'd be much harder to design for. To match its mechanic, Orzhov would need to be aggressive, perhaps tempo-heavy at the slowest.
As it stands, it's an ability that functions well at any point in the game and with a whole bunch of archetypes. It lets control decks grind their opponents out, and it gives aggro (which B/W is pretty well suited to right now, and that's even before any GTC cards) some appreciated reach and some occasionally helpful longevity. I might liken it to Exalted, another mechanic that is solid in the early game but never stops being relevant. And, you know, another mechanic that black and white get in standard right now and, if you're really willing to reach, begins with ex-, so the comparison sorta makes itself.
Quick question: I know that you can't trigger it multiple times off the same source, but if you have multiple permanents with extort, can you pay for each one?
I have a lot of faith in this archetype, although that's partially due to the fact that a Torpor Orb-maindecking monoblack demon tribal deck seems like the goofiest, most badass underdog I could root for. Cavern of Souls is a gamechanger both because it gives WRR an edge against delver, increasing the value of the Torb, and because the efficient beaters of this deck are both of the same creature type. Even with a splash, this looks poised to handle Titanspamming and counterspells with equal aplomb.
My list has been a demon tribal (though, Soulcage Fiend should probably go...) that takes its cues from Monoblack Infect and appreciates the hand-rending of Scroll of Griselbrand an awful lot. That said, I pretty much fold to Wurmcoil Engine unless I get him with Distress, and so I'm thinking a splash will be needed unless someone has a really good idea I'm missing. Blue? Blue.
Idyllic Tutor might be sort of decent as a one of, but Tallowisp is an engine that, with Sun Titan and Death Denied, is really hard to disrupt. Plus, Idyllic Tutor can't have an aura placed on it while Tallowisp can. And, yeah, Skullclamp is much better than Bequeathal, but it draws a lot of hate, and, honestly, I ****ing love Bequeathal. It cantrips with spiritdancer, buffs a few creatures here, comes back easily and can be placed on an opponent's creature in multiplayer. Plus, it's delightful to make Kor Spiritdancer or Evershrike into huge threats that help you out when they get killed.
Tich, none of the auras that I want to be putting on my own creatures are going to result in a 2-for-1. Rancor, Spirit Loop, and Bequeathal all replace themselves in some way or another. I originally had Evershrike as a four-of, but found that it was great for inevitability but most of the time Spiritdancer just did the job better.
Vows are a really good idea, Animate Dead is a shoe-in, and armadillo Cloak and/or Angelic Destiny are probably good enough to run as singletons to be fetched with Tallowisp. Fetid Heath is also pretty appealing.
Hana Kami is awful on its own, but good enough with Tallowisp, Bequeathal, Death Denied, and Rancor (If I want to keep casting it with Spiritdancer out) that I'm hesitant to get rid of it. That said, any other recommendations for something cheap, Spirit-y and inclined towards recursion.
I've always liked auras. Even when their inherent card disadvantage was explained to me, I just found them more endearing. Of course, this infatuation has cost me a lot of games, but, the ill-behaved puppies that they are, I can't stay mad at them. So, I made this deck and it makes me happy.
Yes, Ghost Dad himself is not here (Went out for cigarettes and never came back), but Evershrike activates Tallowisp, never dies, and loves you like you were his own. With Rancor and/or Spirit Loop, he's a remarkably resilient chump blocker/win con that only really fears being exiled and trampled. Of course, nothing in this deck especially minds time in the graveyard, with everything but Faith's Fetters and the Vindicates being recurable.
Which is what I like about this deck as compared to other aura shenanigans I've vomited up: it's sturdy. It's very possible to be swinging with a Kor Spiritdancer turn 3 that has two Rancors and a Bequeathal, making it a 10/8 trampler that puts four cards in your hand when it dies. Its board state is very aggressive, but when you count cards it's a fairly conservative play. And even if someone decides to kill it, Death Denied and Sun Titan will eventually and quietly disagree. Barring unfortunate graveyard hate and an excess of Paths to Exile, this should be a janky, sputtering card advantage engine that keeps building momentum. Also, Shining Shoal is hilarious in multiplayer, and Bequeathal has even more of a pull.
That said, quite a few problems with it. The manabase is haphazard (For some reason I have no problem playing with four Rancors but Overgrown Tomb strikes me as too cutthroat for casual), black is almost entirely useless (But Death Denied is a hell of a card, especially when Hana Kami tutors up auras), and oftentimes I'll run out of controlling auras. Also, for every kind thing the parentheses had to say about Hana Kami, dude kinda sucks a lot of the time. And so I come to you all, asking for advice.
Wort, Boggart Auntie seems like it could take this deck in a different direction that still involves a bunch of goblins getting tossed at lands and somehow winning. Mogg War Marshall, Mudbutton Torchrunner, and Squee, Goblin Nabob all actively like getting sacced, are decent on their own, and get better with at least certain parts of your original combo. Goblin Settler also seems worthy of consideration.
Essentially, I'm saying that you want red in your goblin land destruction deck.
A while back, I worked on a casual Mishra deck, and while I think I went too far in the direction of "janky cantripping artifacts and 2 mana artifact producers," I still think that the baubles might have a place. Dropping Mishra himself turn three or four and then having a single bauble in hand already means you've broken even on card advantage, and two or more become comical. That said, they might be too slow, what with the delayed cantrip.
In general, I found the problem with running too many "draw a card" artifacts is figuring out what to do with them; if the only threats in the deck are Mishra and Master of Etherium, well, your opponent can see very clearly what to murder. Beats might be the best way to go.
I really like this deck, but found that the 12 post decks on cockatrice just stomped all over it. So, I thought about a few reasonable and subtle solutions, like Brittle Effigy for Eldrazi and Magus of the Moat for everything except Emrakul. Then I decided to screw it and just add cloudposts to the deck.
What has surprised me is that the land base actually seems to work. Yeah, I've been overjoyed with topdecked plains, but by and large the curve has been non-awkward. Well, Expedition Map complicates things (That tart...), but it sticks around, and I've found that dropping posts once you've stabilized the board and have a few plains out is a perfectly viable strategy, especially for more aggressive decks. This probably hasn't solved the issue of losing to 12post, but it does at least give the possibility of racing them, as well as answers to all of their beaters that aren't Emrakul (Which is why I might go back to the Brittle Effigy idea). Still, this makes the "sit and put lands down" strategy of MWC we all love so much far more threatening, and it does so largely without additional mana costs.
Upon writing this out, I realize that I should probably replace Rule of Law with Meddling Mage and get a fetchland package going so that Primeval Titan can be stopped before everything is goddamn ruined. Lapse of Certainty makes me smile, and against Hivemind and Dragonstorm it probably means a victory, but there are a lot of good sideboard cards and I'm not sure I can keep insisting it makes the cut.
I really, really like this deck, but I've been approaching it from a slightly different angle: instead of stockpiling life and winning through huge ascendant/pridemate beats, I've piloted it as a build that can afford to spend health like a drunken sailor with internal hemorrhaging. After all, with phyrexian mana tossed in, life suddenly becomes more of a resource to be harvested than just a number to look pretty, and the soul sisters at the heart of the deck let you build up your supply so that Dismember will never be a life-or-death option as they hit like the vaguely efficient hitters they are. Also infinite life and all that.
This plays a lot more like a traditional white weenie deck, except that it can buy a better board and hand with blood. Without needing to worry about letting Ascendants going active, fetchlands turn Steppe Lynx into an immediate threat and potential almost-wincon, and Dismember never seems like a bad idea. Admittedly, the Soul Sisters themselves become somewhat less important, but they keep life totals up, work well with Shrine, and allow for that wonderful infinite combo to quickly turn the tides late-game, all the while providing respectable offense. I don't think it's necessarily better than the original build, but at least it will survive this rotation.
I'm less than thrilled with moltensteel, but probably need to test more than a one-of. I'm considering a couple of MB Divine Offerings because Torpor Orb is an almost instant loss and Spellskite just ****s on everything that's good in the world. Also the SB is half-assed, but it's got the Firewalkers and Lightcasters and a couple of Tumble Magnets but I have no idea if that makes any sense.
While I have Animate Dead, I probably won't have it often enough to make WGD anything more than a dead card most of the time, especially because I couldn't easily put the infinite mana into a victory. Honestly, if I were to add another infinite combo, it'd be the Kiki-Jiki+Conspiracy+Goatnapper one and dear god upon actually reading Conspiracy it fits the deck well enough to justify winning games with Goatnapper.
Nihil Spellbomb, Demonic Collusion, Linvala, Kagemaro, Adarkar Valkyrie and Hellcarver Demon (because ☺☺☺☺) are all auto-includes. I also tossed in Stoneforge Mystic and Sword of Feast and Famine, because I like going infinite and always want to have lightning greaves on hand. Sunforger seems...alright, especially if this deck is playing more control-ish than originally intended, but most of the don't-lose spells I've included have been sweepers. Besides, unless I get a utility creature or Stoneforge herself, it's actually pretty rare that I have much of board presence that isn't actively winning the game, so while I'll give Sunforger a shot, I have my doubts.
As for Dragon Tyrant, I'll defend him, at least for now; yes, he's nothing but lowered life totals and silly upkeep costs, but you might be overestimating the fear that Angel of Despair will inflict on a body; in EDH, swinging for 5 a turn is decidedly good-not-great, and the amount of turns my expensive, elite army needs is often one or two more than would be ideal. Being able to drop a single creature, out of nowhere, and hit for 20 is a big deal for this deck, especially if I can only expect 1-2 Kaalia drops in my hand at any given time (Unless Dragon Mage is out. I mention him specifically almost entirely so I can point out how he's my favorite card in this deck). Along the same lines, I'm keeping Avatar of Slaughter in, if only for a while, especially considering the sorts of joy he brings to Living Death.
Speaking of, after Urabrask led one of the most satisfying game-ending charges I've ever encountered, I'm keeping him around. His enter-play-tapped ability is good, but ultimately a bonus to a speed boost that these fellows really appreciate.
I don't need Gamble (Cool in theory, being anywhere from a Vampiric Tutor to an Entomb), Sheoldred (The reanimator's reanimation target!) or Mogg Fanatic (Game-ending with Reveillark but, well, is Mogg Fanatic). Instead of Mogg, I've tossed in Managra of Corondor, who can function as great spot removal that benefits from haste and a hilarious combo piece.
Also, Mirror Entity would really only help in the context of Reveillark and if I had a couple of creatures out and one of them was Avatar of Slaughter; It's pretty rare that I'll end a game with more than 8 mana, and that's not really worth it most of the time.
Hello community! A long time lurker is finally starting that long walk to decent 1v1 EDH decks, and I'd sure like your feedback.
Kaalia is a goddamned godsend for people who hate subtlety as much as I do, but she gets killed or counter or delayed and, long story short, that turn 3 Dragon Tyrant doesn't happen as often as I'd like. So, I meshed Kaalia's unique ability with a RBW deck I made a few months ago that essentially ran as that great Teysa-infinite-sacrifice deck but with kiki-jiki and wheel of fortune and got this, a result I'm rather pleased with. Fatties can appear from both the hand and graveyard, and the aforementioned wheel of fortune effects do a lot for both. All in all, an optimized version of this deck probably won't rise to the top of the format, but, you know, the Dragon Tyrants.
This deck wins from a couple of directions. There's the straightforward Kaalia-to-bomb or graveyard-to-bomb approach with Living Death optional but delightful. Yosei and Recurring Nightmare is serious bull☺☺☺☺ that can end games, and of course the classic Reveillark + Karmic Guide + Mogg Fanatic/Kiki-Jiki, sac outlet preferable. What makes this deck so fun is how well they mesh together: Yosei and Karmic Guide are both compatible with Kaalia, while Recurring Nightmare and Kiki-Jiki both appreciate all the powerful dead things this deck tends to accumulate. Reveillark, who is surprisingly not the star of the show here, still pulls up utility creatures that win games as combo pieces and the general herself if she's tossed to the graveyard.
As for problems, I know the manabase isn't great, but that's never been my strong suit. I'm also a bit weak to gy hate, but that hardly wrecks my entire strategy the way it would some others. The multi-pronged attack has given me a lot of adaptability and resiliency, but at the cost of some early-game really serious Kaalia beats, so if I find myself facing down quick aggro decks, I'm in trouble, and if control gets a'controlling, well, gulp. In general, if I could really streamline this to a decent speed, I think I could maybe win kinda regularly instead of just having a lot of fun.
Extort Bear is neat; it can provide reach to aggressive decks, and I imagine would be an auto-include in most Boros limited decks, unless that guild is just flush with monster 2 drops.
Instant Speed Prey Upon follows the time-honored hybrid mana tradition of providing a slightly overcosted effect with a neat bonus. I think this works particularly well with fight, because instant speed removal is really important, but that extra mana is one less mana to spend on the creatures you're fighting with. So, bravo.
Finally, the other card's art makes me smile.
I am actually really liking this thought. I mean, there's not a whole lot of incentive to play those cards with Summoning when you can play Thragtusk (particularly when Summoning puts Alms Beast into Thragtusk kill range...), but the synergy between cost reducers and extort, combined with beefy, efficient creatures like Alms, is appealing.
Anyway, this is a super well-designed card, managing to be innovative and dynamic while remaining elegant. I hope it will see constructed play, though I'm not holding my breath. If it does, it will be because it can profitably block or attack into a Thragtusk, shrugs off Ultimate Price and burn alike, and can pal around with Super Friends decks in colors with some *****in' 'walkers.
As it stands, it's an ability that functions well at any point in the game and with a whole bunch of archetypes. It lets control decks grind their opponents out, and it gives aggro (which B/W is pretty well suited to right now, and that's even before any GTC cards) some appreciated reach and some occasionally helpful longevity. I might liken it to Exalted, another mechanic that is solid in the early game but never stops being relevant. And, you know, another mechanic that black and white get in standard right now and, if you're really willing to reach, begins with ex-, so the comparison sorta makes itself.
Quick question: I know that you can't trigger it multiple times off the same source, but if you have multiple permanents with extort, can you pay for each one?
My list has been a demon tribal (though, Soulcage Fiend should probably go...) that takes its cues from Monoblack Infect and appreciates the hand-rending of Scroll of Griselbrand an awful lot. That said, I pretty much fold to Wurmcoil Engine unless I get him with Distress, and so I'm thinking a splash will be needed unless someone has a really good idea I'm missing. Blue? Blue.
Tich, none of the auras that I want to be putting on my own creatures are going to result in a 2-for-1. Rancor, Spirit Loop, and Bequeathal all replace themselves in some way or another. I originally had Evershrike as a four-of, but found that it was great for inevitability but most of the time Spiritdancer just did the job better.
Vows are a really good idea, Animate Dead is a shoe-in, and armadillo Cloak and/or Angelic Destiny are probably good enough to run as singletons to be fetched with Tallowisp. Fetid Heath is also pretty appealing.
Hana Kami is awful on its own, but good enough with Tallowisp, Bequeathal, Death Denied, and Rancor (If I want to keep casting it with Spiritdancer out) that I'm hesitant to get rid of it. That said, any other recommendations for something cheap, Spirit-y and inclined towards recursion.
3 Evershrike
2 Hana Kami
4 Kor Spiritdancer
3 Sun Titan
4 Tallowisp
Enchantments
4 Bequeathal
4 Rancor
1 Pillory of the Sleepless
1 Arrest
1 Faith's Fetters
1 Shielding Plax
3 Shining Shoal
2 Death Denied
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Vindicate
Lands
2 Evolving Wilds
4 Forest
3 Isolated Chapel
2 Marsh Flats
4 Plains
4 Sunpetal Grove
2 Swamps
1 Verdant Catacomb
2 Windswept Heath
Yes, Ghost Dad himself is not here (Went out for cigarettes and never came back), but Evershrike activates Tallowisp, never dies, and loves you like you were his own. With Rancor and/or Spirit Loop, he's a remarkably resilient chump blocker/win con that only really fears being exiled and trampled. Of course, nothing in this deck especially minds time in the graveyard, with everything but Faith's Fetters and the Vindicates being recurable.
Which is what I like about this deck as compared to other aura shenanigans I've vomited up: it's sturdy. It's very possible to be swinging with a Kor Spiritdancer turn 3 that has two Rancors and a Bequeathal, making it a 10/8 trampler that puts four cards in your hand when it dies. Its board state is very aggressive, but when you count cards it's a fairly conservative play. And even if someone decides to kill it, Death Denied and Sun Titan will eventually and quietly disagree. Barring unfortunate graveyard hate and an excess of Paths to Exile, this should be a janky, sputtering card advantage engine that keeps building momentum. Also, Shining Shoal is hilarious in multiplayer, and Bequeathal has even more of a pull.
That said, quite a few problems with it. The manabase is haphazard (For some reason I have no problem playing with four Rancors but Overgrown Tomb strikes me as too cutthroat for casual), black is almost entirely useless (But Death Denied is a hell of a card, especially when Hana Kami tutors up auras), and oftentimes I'll run out of controlling auras. Also, for every kind thing the parentheses had to say about Hana Kami, dude kinda sucks a lot of the time. And so I come to you all, asking for advice.
Essentially, I'm saying that you want red in your goblin land destruction deck.
A while back, I worked on a casual Mishra deck, and while I think I went too far in the direction of "janky cantripping artifacts and 2 mana artifact producers," I still think that the baubles might have a place. Dropping Mishra himself turn three or four and then having a single bauble in hand already means you've broken even on card advantage, and two or more become comical. That said, they might be too slow, what with the delayed cantrip.
In general, I found the problem with running too many "draw a card" artifacts is figuring out what to do with them; if the only threats in the deck are Mishra and Master of Etherium, well, your opponent can see very clearly what to murder. Beats might be the best way to go.
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
1 Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
2 Lodestone Golem
1 Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
4 Wall of Omens
3 Wurmcoil Engine
Non-creatures
3 Ghostly Prison
2 Journey to Nowhere
4 Oblivion Ring
4 Path to Exile
2 Day of Judgment
2 Wrath of God
1 Karn Liberated
4 Expedition Map
4 Cloudpost
4 Vesuva
4 Glimmerpost
2 Eye of Ugin
12 Plains
4 Magus of the Tabernacle
4 Leyline of Sanctity
4 Rule of Law
1 Gideon Jura
2 Lapse of Certainty
What has surprised me is that the land base actually seems to work. Yeah, I've been overjoyed with topdecked plains, but by and large the curve has been non-awkward. Well, Expedition Map complicates things (That tart...), but it sticks around, and I've found that dropping posts once you've stabilized the board and have a few plains out is a perfectly viable strategy, especially for more aggressive decks. This probably hasn't solved the issue of losing to 12post, but it does at least give the possibility of racing them, as well as answers to all of their beaters that aren't Emrakul (Which is why I might go back to the Brittle Effigy idea). Still, this makes the "sit and put lands down" strategy of MWC we all love so much far more threatening, and it does so largely without additional mana costs.
Upon writing this out, I realize that I should probably replace Rule of Law with Meddling Mage and get a fetchland package going so that Primeval Titan can be stopped before everything is goddamn ruined. Lapse of Certainty makes me smile, and against Hivemind and Dragonstorm it probably means a victory, but there are a lot of good sideboard cards and I'm not sure I can keep insisting it makes the cut.
4 Steppe Lynx
4 Soul's Attendant
4 Suture Priest
3 Immolating Souleater
4 Leonin Relic-Warder
4 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Hero of Bladehold
1 Moltensteel Dragon
4 Dismember
3 Tezzeret's Gambit
4 Shrine of Loyal Legions
Land
4 Marsh Flats
4 Arid Mesa
4 Tectonic Edge
12 Plains
This plays a lot more like a traditional white weenie deck, except that it can buy a better board and hand with blood. Without needing to worry about letting Ascendants going active, fetchlands turn Steppe Lynx into an immediate threat and potential almost-wincon, and Dismember never seems like a bad idea. Admittedly, the Soul Sisters themselves become somewhat less important, but they keep life totals up, work well with Shrine, and allow for that wonderful infinite combo to quickly turn the tides late-game, all the while providing respectable offense. I don't think it's necessarily better than the original build, but at least it will survive this rotation.
I'm less than thrilled with moltensteel, but probably need to test more than a one-of. I'm considering a couple of MB Divine Offerings because Torpor Orb is an almost instant loss and Spellskite just ****s on everything that's good in the world. Also the SB is half-assed, but it's got the Firewalkers and Lightcasters and a couple of Tumble Magnets but I have no idea if that makes any sense.
As for Dragon Tyrant, I'll defend him, at least for now; yes, he's nothing but lowered life totals and silly upkeep costs, but you might be overestimating the fear that Angel of Despair will inflict on a body; in EDH, swinging for 5 a turn is decidedly good-not-great, and the amount of turns my expensive, elite army needs is often one or two more than would be ideal. Being able to drop a single creature, out of nowhere, and hit for 20 is a big deal for this deck, especially if I can only expect 1-2 Kaalia drops in my hand at any given time (Unless Dragon Mage is out. I mention him specifically almost entirely so I can point out how he's my favorite card in this deck). Along the same lines, I'm keeping Avatar of Slaughter in, if only for a while, especially considering the sorts of joy he brings to Living Death.
Speaking of, after Urabrask led one of the most satisfying game-ending charges I've ever encountered, I'm keeping him around. His enter-play-tapped ability is good, but ultimately a bonus to a speed boost that these fellows really appreciate.
I don't need Gamble (Cool in theory, being anywhere from a Vampiric Tutor to an Entomb), Sheoldred (The reanimator's reanimation target!) or Mogg Fanatic (Game-ending with Reveillark but, well, is Mogg Fanatic). Instead of Mogg, I've tossed in Managra of Corondor, who can function as great spot removal that benefits from haste and a hilarious combo piece.
Also, Mirror Entity would really only help in the context of Reveillark and if I had a couple of creatures out and one of them was Avatar of Slaughter; It's pretty rare that I'll end a game with more than 8 mana, and that's not really worth it most of the time.
Kaalia is a goddamned godsend for people who hate subtlety as much as I do, but she gets killed or counter or delayed and, long story short, that turn 3 Dragon Tyrant doesn't happen as often as I'd like. So, I meshed Kaalia's unique ability with a RBW deck I made a few months ago that essentially ran as that great Teysa-infinite-sacrifice deck but with kiki-jiki and wheel of fortune and got this, a result I'm rather pleased with. Fatties can appear from both the hand and graveyard, and the aforementioned wheel of fortune effects do a lot for both. All in all, an optimized version of this deck probably won't rise to the top of the format, but, you know, the Dragon Tyrants.
1 Kaalia of the Vast
Creatures
1 Karmic Guide
1 Anger
1 Hellkite Charger
1 Reveillark
1 Dragon Mage
1 Imperial Recruiter
1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
1 Fulminator Mage
1 Yosei, the Morning Star
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Duplicant
1 Mogg Fanatic
1 Avatar of Slaughter
1 Tariel, Reckoner of Souls
1 Urabrask the Hidden
1 Sheoldred, Whispering One
1 Malfegor
1 Steel Hellkite
1 Twilight Shepherd
1 Dragon Tyrant
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
1 Reya Dawnbringer
1 Akroma, Angel of Fury
1 Angel of Despair
1 Angelic Arbiter
1 Bladewing the Risen
1 Platinum Angel
Artifacts
1 Sol Ring
1 Gilded Lotus
1 Boros Signet
1 Orzhov Signet
1 Rakdos Signet
1 Darksteel Ingot
1 Sensei's Diving Top
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Relic of Progenitus
1 Return to Dust
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Imperial Seal
1 Wheel of Fate
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Diabolic Tutor
1 Buried Alive
1 Makeshift Mannequin
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Mind Twist
1 Entomb
1 Exhume
1 Rise from the Grave
1 Animate Dead
1 Vindicate
1 Mortify
1 Terminate
1 Gamble
1 Ashnod's Altar
1 Phyrexian Altar
1 Blasting Station
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Phyrexian Arena
1 Lilliana Vess
1 Living Death
Land
1 Vivid Crag
1 Badlands
1 Lavaclaw Reaches
1 Dragonskull Summit
1 Blood Crypt
1 Graven Cairns
1 City of Brass
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Vivid Marsh
1 Vivid Meadow
2 Plains
1 Arid Mesa
3 Mountains
3 Swamps
1 Boros Garrison
1 Plateau
1 Orzhov Basilica
1 Rakdos Carnarium
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Fetid Heath
1 Marsh Flats
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Rugged Prairie
1 Battlefield Forge
1 Cave of Kolios
1 Scrubland
1 Godless Shrine
1 Miren, the Moaning Well
1 Strip Mine
1 Wasteland
1 Tectonic Edge
This deck wins from a couple of directions. There's the straightforward Kaalia-to-bomb or graveyard-to-bomb approach with Living Death optional but delightful. Yosei and Recurring Nightmare is serious bull☺☺☺☺ that can end games, and of course the classic Reveillark + Karmic Guide + Mogg Fanatic/Kiki-Jiki, sac outlet preferable. What makes this deck so fun is how well they mesh together: Yosei and Karmic Guide are both compatible with Kaalia, while Recurring Nightmare and Kiki-Jiki both appreciate all the powerful dead things this deck tends to accumulate. Reveillark, who is surprisingly not the star of the show here, still pulls up utility creatures that win games as combo pieces and the general herself if she's tossed to the graveyard.
As for problems, I know the manabase isn't great, but that's never been my strong suit. I'm also a bit weak to gy hate, but that hardly wrecks my entire strategy the way it would some others. The multi-pronged attack has given me a lot of adaptability and resiliency, but at the cost of some early-game really serious Kaalia beats, so if I find myself facing down quick aggro decks, I'm in trouble, and if control gets a'controlling, well, gulp. In general, if I could really streamline this to a decent speed, I think I could maybe win kinda regularly instead of just having a lot of fun.
And with that, I ask for feedback of all sorts.