So I just got Strands of Night as I saw it in the local store's 15 cent bulk crate. The first reanimation is quite expensive (6 mana, 2 life and a Swamp), but the base cost is cheap enough for it to be a possible inclusion in my upcoming monoB goodstuff deck. Does anyone have experience with the card?
Chandra, Torch of Defiance - Oops! All Chandras. Prime Speaker Zegana - Draw for Power. Pir & Toothy - Counterpalooza. Arcades, the Strategist - Another Brick in the Wall. Zacama, Primal Calamity - Calamity of Double Mana. Edgar Markov - Vampires Don't Die. Child of Alara - Dreamcrusher.
Its one of the few cards that can reanimate at instant speed and keep the ceature around. It's very playable so long as you can feed it swamps without harming your landbase too much. Most black decks run Crypt Ghast, easy way to get it back again and again to keep the BBBB flowing
I'm not sure why you would wanna play any deck but the one in your signature, as it is the best deck. But if you insist on using this card it seems pretty awesome in green black decks. Exploration effects and/or Crucible of Worlds. Sacrificial altars seems useful for fueling it. Survival of the Fittest to tutor monsters in the yard. Strands seems like a nice hidden gem with many applications. It seems useful to many commanders as well.
I've actually played it a little bit in dredgey combo EDH decks and it works fine as long as you're doing the G/B classic Buried Alive, Entomb, Deathrite Shaman, Life from the Loam, Golgari Grave-Troll dealio but I'd be curious to see the approach a monoblack would take. It certainly loses some validity without those Golgari pieces, I will say that.
It looks a bit black-heavy. Unless you have a lot of creatures that are worth reanimating at a moment's notice I think you'd be better off with Phyrexian Reclamation which can go into decks that aren't so black-heavy (which gives you access to an overall better pool of creatures to recur).
Reclamation is easier to cast, but it can't be used to bypass extreme costs like Grislebrand or Emrakul.
Alternatively, for repeatable reanimation, consider Hell's Caretaker, which can be a bit easier to manage, just restricted on when you can use it.
It looks a bit black-heavy. Unless you have a lot of creatures that are worth reanimating at a moment's notice I think you'd be better off with Phyrexian Reclamation which can go into decks that aren't so black-heavy (which gives you access to an overall better pool of creatures to recur).
Reclamation is easier to cast, but it can't be used to bypass extreme costs like Grislebrand or Emrakul.
Alternatively, for repeatable reanimation, consider Hell's Caretaker, which can be a bit easier to manage, just restricted on when you can use it.
This allows you to reanimate, rather than just recurring, though. Unlike Phyrexian Reclamation. (Though both examples you used are b& in Commander.)
Land recursion is common enough. If you're also in white, Sun Titan or Second Sunrise can do it. Twilight Shepherd can return lands (and everything else you sac'd this turn) to your hand. If you're in green, you have more choices than you'll know what to do with.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Card advantage is not the same thing as card draw. Something for 2B cannot be strictly worse than something for BBB or 3BB. If you're taking out Swords to Plowshares for Plummet, you're a fool. Stop doing these things!
This allows you to reanimate, rather than just recurring, though. Unlike Phyrexian Reclamation.
I am aware of this. My point was that in order to run Strands of Night, you'd probably want to be very black-heavy, which drastically narrows the quality of creatures you can reanimate. The cost / narrowness doesn't seem like it would be worth bending a deck to support unless it were mono-black / black-heavy 2-color with a very specific creature suite.
For example, if I were black-white, I'd rather just run Emeria, the Sky Ruin and a bunch of plains. A 3-color deck would likely not have many swamps. Urborg is tutorable easily in GBx builds, though. I could see a GB-heavy GBU deck being able to use this reasonably, I suppose? I think GBW has better options.
Unless you're trying to chain re-animations, the most you'll want to spend is probably BBBB anywawy; one for the re-animation, and one more in case someone tries to remove your target in response. That's cheap enough that you can do other things on the side, such as Life from the Loam shenanigans or playing out a oracle of mul-daya, or even Sun Titan if you're late enough in the game.
I guess as far as repeatable reanimation goes, Sidisi, Undead Vizier also exists. Losing a land really hurts though, so I guess its uses are limited by that.
This makes me really appreciate Feldon and Pulsemage Advocate all the more.
I can second this usage. You don't really need to reanimate Gray Merchant too many times before you win the game, so the land sacrifice isn't super painful. For me, this card offered repeatable reanimation redundancy with Chainer, Dementia Master and Corpse Dance in my Toshiro Umezawa reanimator list. Dawn of the Dead is another excellent inclusion if you've got sac outlets laying around. It's also very good with Sidisi, Undead Vizier.
... Very promising, so happy I made this thread, and so happy I bought the card at a bargain price. Not that I expect it to be expensive, but I bought it for so little I probably saved 60%. I'm going to just slot the card into my monob goodstuff build and have it do work with Gary and whatever other cards I might slot in anyways. The largest issue was the Swamp sacrifice and the experiences from you guys in this thread seems promising. ^^
GWUBAtraxa, Praetor's Voice PrimerGWUB
GWURoon Bant Blink WhateverGWU
BRGLord Windgrace LandsBRG
http://www.commandercast.com/category/articles/generally-speaking
Follow me on Twitter: @generalspeak
Reclamation is easier to cast, but it can't be used to bypass extreme costs like Grislebrand or Emrakul.
Alternatively, for repeatable reanimation, consider Hell's Caretaker, which can be a bit easier to manage, just restricted on when you can use it.
Older Magic as a Board Game: Panglacial Wurm , Mill
This allows you to reanimate, rather than just recurring, though. Unlike Phyrexian Reclamation. (Though both examples you used are b& in Commander.)
Land recursion is common enough. If you're also in white, Sun Titan or Second Sunrise can do it. Twilight Shepherd can return lands (and everything else you sac'd this turn) to your hand. If you're in green, you have more choices than you'll know what to do with.
On phasing:
For example, if I were black-white, I'd rather just run Emeria, the Sky Ruin and a bunch of plains. A 3-color deck would likely not have many swamps. Urborg is tutorable easily in GBx builds, though. I could see a GB-heavy GBU deck being able to use this reasonably, I suppose? I think GBW has better options.
Older Magic as a Board Game: Panglacial Wurm , Mill
[Primer] Erebos, God of the Dead
HONK HONK
I guess as far as repeatable reanimation goes, Sidisi, Undead Vizier also exists. Losing a land really hurts though, so I guess its uses are limited by that.
This makes me really appreciate Feldon and Pulsemage Advocate all the more.
Older Magic as a Board Game: Panglacial Wurm , Mill
I can second this usage. You don't really need to reanimate Gray Merchant too many times before you win the game, so the land sacrifice isn't super painful. For me, this card offered repeatable reanimation redundancy with Chainer, Dementia Master and Corpse Dance in my Toshiro Umezawa reanimator list. Dawn of the Dead is another excellent inclusion if you've got sac outlets laying around. It's also very good with Sidisi, Undead Vizier.