Ah. Yeah, so playing against mono-u draw-go -ish decks, you will probably need to go for the long game, unless you get a godly hand. Over the course of the game, try to tutor up the more synergistic or more recurrable pieces earlier. You'll probably also want to go primarily for gravestorm than storm. In terms of the game plan, you'll probably also need to be controlling their board a decent amount. Especially if they are using up their counterspells on your removal, that'll help in the long run to push out combos. Staxy things like Chains of Mephistopheles or The Abyss, and creature pressure like Bitterblossom or some of your high-drops help here. You can probably modulate to deal with the Teferi deck a bit; I had to deal with Talrand for a while and had a few cards in there for that purpose, such as Night of Souls' Betrayal.
Was this a multiplayer game? You can also try to force the Teferi deck to focus on other people in that case. Though if you have a draw-go player hating on you, or in 1v1 with my current version, you mostly just have to keep on seeing how many spells you can cast in a turn until you run them through.
I do plan to expand on the strategy section when I have the time and energy.
It was just 1v1. Got land screwed quite a bit. Got a bunch of stuff countered. I gotta get some more games in and hopefully I'll get used to playing it and get more familiar with it.
And... I've been remiss on updates. Bit busy with stuff.
Sidisi, Undead Vizier and Damnable Pact look incredibly promising, and I certainly plan to test them, though both might be too mana-intensive for their utility (they both look promising enough that this may not be the case, though). Hedonist's Trove and Deathbringer Regent look solid for big-mana black decks, and Risen Executioner is interesting for its slight potential in budget lists (I'm assuming here, but y'know)... Tapestry of the Ages is cool, though I'm probably not going to add it here.
I had two games recently. The first was Xiahou Dun vs Norin (my version of Gaka's list) vs Sigarda. Norin got a god-hand, but I did get to force a play on one of his turns with Word of Command. The game ended to Purphoros, God of the Forge and Pandemonium triggers literally the turn before I would have won. The second game, I only got two black-producing lands (Swamp, Bojuka Bog) for most of the game (eventually pulled out Phyrexian Tower and Cabal Coffers (not so helpful here, but whatever)), but I was still quite operational. Phyrexian Arena put me one turn away from winning again when we had to leave, and Blood Artist recursion with Blood Funnel, Corpse Dance, and Phyrexian Altar kept me alive. The lone opponent had a Grimgrin, Corpse-Born deck, which was relatively casual, though still provided a bit of a challenge to avoid getting aggro-ed out. (Grimgrin gets HUGE really quickly...)
I have posted/am posting some updates on several different sections. I want to also get strategy updated, but that has been very slow-going, especially with my current work schedule and the standard to which I'd like to update it. For now, here's a quick review of DoT, commander rules changes, and my last set of changes to the deck:
Blood-Chin Fanatic - Too restrictive, but if someone was doing Warrior tribal they could used this to great effect.
Damnable Pact: Not quite efficient enough for its cost. One of the few cards I actively considered, though.
Hedonist's Trove: If only this was 2 mana less, I'd be all over this card. As is, I love it for Geth-styled thievery decks, but it's too costly for this deck.
The tuck rule change means next to nothing to Xiahou Dun. Yes, having my general tucked was annoying, but it was not very significant or common (Xiahou Dun is almost always hanging out in the graveyard when he would be tucked) between tutors and the ability of the deck to play without its general. The sad thing here though is that despite a straight-forward reminder that the commander replacement effect is a "may" choice, many players still do not seem to remember that. Not to mention players forgetting that the commander tax is based on the number of times a general is cast from the command zone rather than the number of times it is returned to the command zone. Oh well.
- Archfiend of Depravity - Archfiend has been even more underwhelming than Bloodgift Demon ever was. The effect is just a little too mild.
+ Sidisi, Undead Vizier - Sidisi is my next card to check out in the 5 mana beater slot. She also has an awesome tutor ability, especially with Corpse Dance.
- Oubliette - When it comes down to it, it is just an overcosted Journey to Nowhere. While that's actually quite reasonable as far as black removal choices go, I want to test some replacement options.
+ Silence the Believers - While this is quite mana-intensive, it seems like it might just be worth it. We'll see.
- Dance of the Dead, Night's Whisper - Needed slots for testing. These cards are still cool, but I figured they are reasonable choices to sub out, especially as duplicates.
+ Shrouded Lore - Artifact recursion is nice. Testing to see if this'll cost too much mana or generally be viable.
+ Imp's Mischief - Should provide for some interesting moments, at least. I'm hoping that this will prove as useful as it potentially suggests.
The deck has been getting land-screwed or at least color-screwed a lot recently, though I have had several relatively successful games despite that. I'll probably replace the sleeves, and possibly find a way to replace a non-basic with another Swamp.
Ever consider Ad Nauseam? great considering you're already playing things like Dark Rit, Tendrils, and Yawg Win.
I have considered it. I think I calculated that it was too hit or miss whether or not I would win on the turn that I played it, since I had to have both enough life and just enough mana. It might still be okay for the turn afterwards, but that's leaving a lot up to chance.
I like how it plays so far but there are a few cards that I included after reading your OP that I am still not sure about.
Blood Funnel I have a hard time seeing the value of this card because more often than not it is sitting in my hand. Oubliette I absolutely love this card for the flavor, but it is quite underwhelming.
And these cards aren't but have been absolute houses:
Sudden Death I can't count how many times this has stopped a deadlock/combo. Trading Post Awesome recursion / draw.
I will probably try out Imp's Mischief as it seems to solve a lot of problems this deck has. I also have a lot of problems with artifacts/enchantments but that's mono black typical. The only theorical out is LotV's ultimate... against something like Humility
Blood Funnel has been... interesting. I like it when I can get the creature presence to just use it regularly, or when I can use it with Corpse Dance as another Altar. It has had its games where it would be relatively dead, but I've generally been able to play around that. I currently feel it fulfills a reasonable role as one of the faster combo pieces.
On Oubliette, I agree with you. It is rather underwhelming. I have removed it from my list as of late March.
Sudden Death is a card that I used to run. It is a very good removal spell, but I believe I cut it mostly for meta reasons and because I needed to open up slots, if I remember correctly. I may include it again later.
Trading Post is a good card, but I don't like it for three reasons:
1) It's an artifact, which makes it less recurrable.
2) It has a rather high cost for an effect that I generally want to do at a low cost so that I can quickly replay or utilize the artifacts that I recur.
3) I have mixed feelings about the card anyways, for no particular rational reason.
Humility is a problem. A problem with a handful of solutions:
A) Someone else removes it. Yay!
B) You remove the player who played it. Yay!
C) You know ahead of time that they have Humility and remove it from their deck. Okay!
D) You cry. A lot. Maybe the Humility will get damaged and that player will stop playing it. (I do not advocate this plan.)
E) Meta-choices! You can always replace cards in the deck with other cards that better suit your meta.
This set is depressing thus far for Xiahou Dun. While some of these cards will slot decently well into other black decks, most of them are either too high in CMC for what they do or otherwise not very useful in regards to this deck. I understand why people are all over some of these (though I disagree in a lot of circumstances), but I'm still waiting, biding my time until we see something truly spectacular. Or not. Maybe this set will just be sad. I might test Flippiana, Flippetical Flipper out, and I suppose it's possible that I would test Dark Petition (though not the most likely). So far I'm liking white, blue, and red much more than black in this set. And that's unfortunate.
Whenever a creature dies, scry 1. (Look at the top card of your library. You may put that card on the bottom of your library.)
4B: Each opponent loses 2 life and you gain 2 life. Activate this ability only if there are four or more creature cards in your graveyard.
Instant win with our infinite mana combos, seems legit.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
My modern Decks: GBRJundGBR URWJeskai NahiriURW My Legacy Deck: URBGrixis DelverURB My EDH Decks: GJarad, Golgari Lich LordB GRhys, The RedeemedW RWArchangel AvacynRW UWDragonlord OjutaiUW
The four or more creature cards in your graveyard limit is harsh. I think I might test that out, though. It seems a bit win-more, but the scrys on a low cost card are nice. I probably will have to add in Buried Alive if I want to keep it in, though, which I was a bit hesitant on before. But it's always been a consideration, and this would certainly put that over the edge.
The four or more creature cards in your graveyard limit is harsh. I think I might test that out, though. It seems a bit win-more, but the scrys on a low cost card are nice. I probably will have to add in Buried Alive if I want to keep it in, though, which I was a bit hesitant on before. But it's always been a consideration, and this would certainly put that over the edge.
Still not the happiest about this set for Xiahou Dun.
Upon further thought, I'll probably still add in Buried Alive, and am definitely testing Lili, Fidgety Flipper and Dark Petition. Not super interested in anything else from Origins; Shadows of the Past seems a little lacking in oomph. In other news, especially if Flip-Flops McGee turns out to be good, I may be cutting Liliana of the Veil. Not that it is a bad choice for removal, just that I also don't necessarily even want more than one planeswalker, and the plus abilities are not exactly amazing on either of them.
hey, i love your deck and ive been atempting to make a similar one to your's but on a budget. this is what ive come up with so far.
ttp://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/xiahou-dun-the-one-eyed-copy-copy/
however im struggeling to win games with it right now, is there any advice u could give me to improve the deck?
btw. cards like the abyss, chains, and grim tutor are off the table because they are too expensive for me right now.
Hmm. That link didn't seem to work, even with fixing the typo. (Maybe the deck is set to private?). Basing on the other decks you have on tappedout, it looks like your avg cmc is a bit high, and that there's several cards that are big and flashy but are rather win-more. Sometimes not winning games in a particular playgroup can be a matter of what you are playing against. If you're hitting a lot of graveyard hate, then you can easily end up being in trouble more often than not.
hey, i love your deck and ive been atempting to make a similar one to your's but on a budget. this is what ive come up with so far.
ttp://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/xiahou-dun-the-one-eyed-copy-copy/
however im struggeling to win games with it right now, is there any advice u could give me to improve the deck?
btw. cards like the abyss, chains, and grim tutor are off the table because they are too expensive for me right now.
Hmm. That link didn't seem to work, even with fixing the typo. (Maybe the deck is set to private?). Basing on the other decks you have on tappedout, it looks like your avg cmc is a bit high, and that there's several cards that are big and flashy but are rather win-more. Sometimes not winning games in a particular playgroup can be a matter of what you are playing against. If you're hitting a lot of graveyard hate, then you can easily end up being in trouble more often than not.
yeah, seems the link was private (my bad):P not hitting much graveyard hate in my playgroup. just been struggling to get combos off due to mono blue control, and a kalali aggro.
here is the link again http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/xiahou-dun-the-one-eyed-copy-copy/
if u have time to look at it again would be much appreicated. also what high cmc card in your opinion should be swapped out?
By the way, what's the general for the mono-blue control deck?
Just for starters, I'd cut down on some of the cards you have that are reliant on you having creatures, Grave Pact, Diabolic Intent, and Contamination being the first two that I see. I'd also cut out some of the fringe cards that are in my build, like Imp's Mischief and the Leyline combo. And I'd cut Sorin, Kagemaro, and Gauntlet of Power (the latter can be replaced with Crypt Ghast. I'd also cut Extraplanar Lens; most of the mana doublers are generally not quite worth it in my book...
I'd focus in on solid, low-cost creature removal, generally instant speed, to deal with Kaalia: Dismember, Sudden Death, Mutilate (why not), Murder, Diabolic Edict, heck, maybe even Withering Boon. Careful that you balance well between non-black and low-cost point removal.
To deal with mono-blue control... Well, if the control deck isn't letting you combo off, then you probably want to focus in on aggroing against that player. You can do this in at least two ways. One way is to outplay the control, often involving some degree of politicking, and, yet again, cheap removal. You can also do what you can to not seem a threat to the blue player by focusing your removal and other hate-like maneuver at other players as seems reasonable; use your judgement here. Another way is to try to build with more of a creature focus. At that point, Diabolic Intent might be reasonable if you can get enough utility dudes in... (Fleshbag Marauder, Bloodghast, Gatekeeper of Malakir, Bloodgift Demon, Maralen of the Mornsong, etc.) If your cards are mostly removal or threats, that will eat up the control that would otherwise go towards combo pieces.
You can also jump into somewhat more of the Reanimator Thievery theme against Kaalia. This will serve a dual purpose; it'll deal with Kaalia while giving you threats, and it'll present threatening targets to other opponents. Careful you don't overreach, though. If you draw too much attention, then you'll be stopped before you even start getting out the door.
I'll have some more specific comments, and maybe a new set of budget variants of the deck, later.
Basically, Living Death/Twilight's Call, XHD, any sac outlet, Priest of Gix/Skirge Familiar+harvester of souls/grim haruspex.
The beauty of the deck is that from turn one, I can combo off any turn.
Turn one, with mana crypt and dark ritual, I can buried alive for triskelion, phyrexian devourer and necrotic ooze, then reanimate necrotic ooze for the win.
Late game, if I have living death/twilight's call in hand, buried alive for grim haruspex, skirge familiar and any sac outlet basically wins me the game as long as I have enough creatures in the yard/in play.
I basically play a normal game, aggroing and protecting myself, and wait for an opening to resolve twilight's call/living death to win on the spot. It's a lot easier when you get one card combos in the deck.
Basically, Living Death/Twilight's Call, XHD, any sac outlet, Priest of Gix/Skirge Familiar+harvester of souls/grim haruspex.
The beauty of the deck is that from turn one, I can combo off any turn.
Turn one, with mana crypt and dark ritual, I can buried alive for triskelion, phyrexian devourer and necrotic ooze, then reanimate necrotic ooze for the win.
Late game, if I have living death/twilight's call in hand, buried alive for grim haruspex, skirge familiar and any sac outlet basically wins me the game as long as I have enough creatures in the yard/in play.
I basically play a normal game, aggroing and protecting myself, and wait for an opening to resolve twilight's call/living death to win on the spot. It's a lot easier when you get one card combos in the deck.
That's quite a specific start... Living Death and Buried Alive are pretty good though. I may try that route again at some point; I always found that it stood up a bit less well to hate (not just graveyard hate) than at least some of my current plans.
yea that rarely goes off turn 1. but having buried alive with any reanimation spell threatens a turn 4 win. xiahou-dun after that threatens to combo off every single turn thereafter.
Morality shift is one of my pet cards. It's to black what primal surge is to an all permanents deck, or what genesis wave is to a green deck. Morality shift, sac xiahou dun to get the twilight's call, and reanimate everything. gray merchant alone drains for 60+ when you pull this off. actually, when you pull this off, you go infinite.
So essentially, the 3 one card combos: morality shift, twilight's call, living death
While Buried Alive plus reanimation makes for an explosive start - reminds me, I should at least put Buried Alive back in - I immediately find that your deck is falling into the same trend that I see a lot of mono-black players fall into of extreme reliance on your large mana sources. I'm actually sort-of surprised that you don't have an Expedition Map in there to fetch Coffers/Nykthos/Crypt/etc...
The other piece of advice I would give is to increase on combo pieces and more versatile control... Currently you're in for a bit of trouble if somebody just does an unkicked Sadistic Sacrament on you.
Was this a multiplayer game? You can also try to force the Teferi deck to focus on other people in that case. Though if you have a draw-go player hating on you, or in 1v1 with my current version, you mostly just have to keep on seeing how many spells you can cast in a turn until you run them through.
I do plan to expand on the strategy section when I have the time and energy.
[EDH Non-Primers] Newzuri | Breya
Yeah, I'll talk a little more about mulligans as well. I should be able to write stuff up tomorrow afternoon/evening or this weekend.
[EDH Non-Primers] Newzuri | Breya
Sidisi, Undead Vizier and Damnable Pact look incredibly promising, and I certainly plan to test them, though both might be too mana-intensive for their utility (they both look promising enough that this may not be the case, though). Hedonist's Trove and Deathbringer Regent look solid for big-mana black decks, and Risen Executioner is interesting for its slight potential in budget lists (I'm assuming here, but y'know)... Tapestry of the Ages is cool, though I'm probably not going to add it here.
I had two games recently. The first was Xiahou Dun vs Norin (my version of Gaka's list) vs Sigarda. Norin got a god-hand, but I did get to force a play on one of his turns with Word of Command. The game ended to Purphoros, God of the Forge and Pandemonium triggers literally the turn before I would have won. The second game, I only got two black-producing lands (Swamp, Bojuka Bog) for most of the game (eventually pulled out Phyrexian Tower and Cabal Coffers (not so helpful here, but whatever)), but I was still quite operational. Phyrexian Arena put me one turn away from winning again when we had to leave, and Blood Artist recursion with Blood Funnel, Corpse Dance, and Phyrexian Altar kept me alive. The lone opponent had a Grimgrin, Corpse-Born deck, which was relatively casual, though still provided a bit of a challenge to avoid getting aggro-ed out. (Grimgrin gets HUGE really quickly...)
Once I have the time and stop procrastinating, I'll update things... I also need to actually throw Shrouded Lore, Imp's Mischief, and Silence the Believers, at least, into the deck for testing. I'm currently considering cutting Archfiend of Depravity, one of Dance of the Dead/Necromancy, Oubliette, Hero's Downfall, Night's Whisper/Read the Bones, and/or that eight-mana combo.
+ Sidisi, Undead Vizier - Sidisi is my next card to check out in the 5 mana beater slot. She also has an awesome tutor ability, especially with Corpse Dance.
- Oubliette - When it comes down to it, it is just an overcosted Journey to Nowhere. While that's actually quite reasonable as far as black removal choices go, I want to test some replacement options.
+ Silence the Believers - While this is quite mana-intensive, it seems like it might just be worth it. We'll see.
- Dance of the Dead, Night's Whisper - Needed slots for testing. These cards are still cool, but I figured they are reasonable choices to sub out, especially as duplicates.
+ Shrouded Lore - Artifact recursion is nice. Testing to see if this'll cost too much mana or generally be viable.
+ Imp's Mischief - Should provide for some interesting moments, at least. I'm hoping that this will prove as useful as it potentially suggests.
Silence the Believers has played very well, as has Sidisi, Undead Vizier. I haven't had an opportunity to test either Shrouded Lore or Imp's Mischief.
Note: Consider another targeted graveyard hate piece for BGx decks.
EDIT: Revamped strategy section and added some other changes.
Jarad Graveyard Combo[Primer]!
Sidisi ANT!
Playing Commander to Win - A guide on Competitive, 4-player EDH
LandDestruction.com - An EDH blog
I have considered it. I think I calculated that it was too hit or miss whether or not I would win on the turn that I played it, since I had to have both enough life and just enough mana. It might still be okay for the turn afterwards, but that's leaving a lot up to chance.
I like how it plays so far but there are a few cards that I included after reading your OP that I am still not sure about.
Blood Funnel I have a hard time seeing the value of this card because more often than not it is sitting in my hand.
Oubliette I absolutely love this card for the flavor, but it is quite underwhelming.
And these cards aren't but have been absolute houses:
Sudden Death I can't count how many times this has stopped a deadlock/combo.
Trading Post Awesome recursion / draw.
I will probably try out Imp's Mischief as it seems to solve a lot of problems this deck has. I also have a lot of problems with artifacts/enchantments but that's mono black typical. The only theorical out is LotV's ultimate... against something like Humility
On Oubliette, I agree with you. It is rather underwhelming. I have removed it from my list as of late March.
Sudden Death is a card that I used to run. It is a very good removal spell, but I believe I cut it mostly for meta reasons and because I needed to open up slots, if I remember correctly. I may include it again later.
Trading Post is a good card, but I don't like it for three reasons:
1) It's an artifact, which makes it less recurrable.
2) It has a rather high cost for an effect that I generally want to do at a low cost so that I can quickly replay or utilize the artifacts that I recur.
3) I have mixed feelings about the card anyways, for no particular rational reason.
Humility is a problem. A problem with a handful of solutions:
A) Someone else removes it. Yay!
B) You remove the player who played it. Yay!
C) You know ahead of time that they have Humility and remove it from their deck. Okay!
D) You cry. A lot. Maybe the Humility will get damaged and that player will stop playing it. (I do not advocate this plan.)
E) Meta-choices! You can always replace cards in the deck with other cards that better suit your meta.
Norin the Wary (BRB) R
Blind Seer (Hose Everything) U
Mishra, Artificer Prodigy (Double Dipping) UBR
Borborygmos Enraged (Crush Mountains, Eat Forests) GR
Kresh the Bloodbraided (Get Wild) GRB
Derevi, Empyrial Tactician (Test Your Math) WUR
Toshiro Umezawa (Instant Reanimation) B
Dralnu, Lich Lord (Mill then Will) UB
Rakdos the Defiler (Death at any Cost) BR
Iwamori of the Open Fist (Wheel and Deal) G
Crovax, Ascendant Hero (Balancing Eggs) W
Still a 5-mana Tutor, You Guys is not worth it. Win Now or Else is not worth it. Demon of Wrong Sides is not worth it. Infest's Stupid Older Brother is not worth it. Lili of the Flip-Flops is probably not even worth it (stupid nonlegendary clause), though she is the only one that comes close. Why Can't We Just Colorshift Rain of Gore? is not worth it. Five mana? Oh come on... is not worth it.
This set is depressing thus far for Xiahou Dun. While some of these cards will slot decently well into other black decks, most of them are either too high in CMC for what they do or otherwise not very useful in regards to this deck. I understand why people are all over some of these (though I disagree in a lot of circumstances), but I'm still waiting, biding my time until we see something truly spectacular. Or not. Maybe this set will just be sad. I might test Flippiana, Flippetical Flipper out, and I suppose it's possible that I would test Dark Petition (though not the most likely). So far I'm liking white, blue, and red much more than black in this set. And that's unfortunate.
Grats on the Primer status! (I know its very late).
The Mimeoplasm || Karador, Ghost Chieftain
Prossh, Skyraider of Kher || Vial Smasher/Tymna Group Slug
Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief || Talrand, Sky Summoner
Yidris - Unblockable Saboteurs || Kiki-Jiki, ETB breaker
Kess, Dissident Mage
Don't you just want to say "Go home Wizards, you're drunk?"
Thanks!
http://www.mtgsalvation.com/cards/magic-origins/25584-shadows-of-the-past
Whenever a creature dies, scry 1. (Look at the top card of your library. You may put that card on the bottom of your library.)
4B: Each opponent loses 2 life and you gain 2 life. Activate this ability only if there are four or more creature cards in your graveyard.
Instant win with our infinite mana combos, seems legit.
GBRJundGBR
URWJeskai NahiriURW
My Legacy Deck:
URBGrixis DelverURB
My EDH Decks:
GJarad, Golgari Lich LordB
GRhys, The RedeemedW
RWArchangel AvacynRW
UWDragonlord OjutaiUW
So far for potential testing:
Dark Petition (Uggh)
Liliana, Heretical Healer (Wish its second ability hit anything, though)
Shadows of the Past (Hmm) + Buried Alive
Still not the happiest about this set for Xiahou Dun.
Upon further thought, I'll probably still add in Buried Alive, and am definitely testing Lili, Fidgety Flipper and Dark Petition. Not super interested in anything else from Origins; Shadows of the Past seems a little lacking in oomph. In other news, especially if Flip-Flops McGee turns out to be good, I may be cutting Liliana of the Veil. Not that it is a bad choice for removal, just that I also don't necessarily even want more than one planeswalker, and the plus abilities are not exactly amazing on either of them.
Hmm. That link didn't seem to work, even with fixing the typo. (Maybe the deck is set to private?). Basing on the other decks you have on tappedout, it looks like your avg cmc is a bit high, and that there's several cards that are big and flashy but are rather win-more. Sometimes not winning games in a particular playgroup can be a matter of what you are playing against. If you're hitting a lot of graveyard hate, then you can easily end up being in trouble more often than not.
By the way, what's the general for the mono-blue control deck?
I'd focus in on solid, low-cost creature removal, generally instant speed, to deal with Kaalia: Dismember, Sudden Death, Mutilate (why not), Murder, Diabolic Edict, heck, maybe even Withering Boon. Careful that you balance well between non-black and low-cost point removal.
To deal with mono-blue control... Well, if the control deck isn't letting you combo off, then you probably want to focus in on aggroing against that player. You can do this in at least two ways. One way is to outplay the control, often involving some degree of politicking, and, yet again, cheap removal. You can also do what you can to not seem a threat to the blue player by focusing your removal and other hate-like maneuver at other players as seems reasonable; use your judgement here. Another way is to try to build with more of a creature focus. At that point, Diabolic Intent might be reasonable if you can get enough utility dudes in... (Fleshbag Marauder, Bloodghast, Gatekeeper of Malakir, Bloodgift Demon, Maralen of the Mornsong, etc.) If your cards are mostly removal or threats, that will eat up the control that would otherwise go towards combo pieces.
You can also jump into somewhat more of the Reanimator Thievery theme against Kaalia. This will serve a dual purpose; it'll deal with Kaalia while giving you threats, and it'll present threatening targets to other opponents. Careful you don't overreach, though. If you draw too much attention, then you'll be stopped before you even start getting out the door.
I'll have some more specific comments, and maybe a new set of budget variants of the deck, later.
Basically, Living Death/Twilight's Call, XHD, any sac outlet, Priest of Gix/Skirge Familiar+harvester of souls/grim haruspex.
The beauty of the deck is that from turn one, I can combo off any turn.
Turn one, with mana crypt and dark ritual, I can buried alive for triskelion, phyrexian devourer and necrotic ooze, then reanimate necrotic ooze for the win.
Late game, if I have living death/twilight's call in hand, buried alive for grim haruspex, skirge familiar and any sac outlet basically wins me the game as long as I have enough creatures in the yard/in play.
I basically play a normal game, aggroing and protecting myself, and wait for an opening to resolve twilight's call/living death to win on the spot. It's a lot easier when you get one card combos in the deck.
That's quite a specific start... Living Death and Buried Alive are pretty good though. I may try that route again at some point; I always found that it stood up a bit less well to hate (not just graveyard hate) than at least some of my current plans.
here's the list:
http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/xia-hou-dun/
Morality shift is one of my pet cards. It's to black what primal surge is to an all permanents deck, or what genesis wave is to a green deck. Morality shift, sac xiahou dun to get the twilight's call, and reanimate everything. gray merchant alone drains for 60+ when you pull this off. actually, when you pull this off, you go infinite.
So essentially, the 3 one card combos: morality shift, twilight's call, living death
While Buried Alive plus reanimation makes for an explosive start - reminds me, I should at least put Buried Alive back in - I immediately find that your deck is falling into the same trend that I see a lot of mono-black players fall into of extreme reliance on your large mana sources. I'm actually sort-of surprised that you don't have an Expedition Map in there to fetch Coffers/Nykthos/Crypt/etc...
The other piece of advice I would give is to increase on combo pieces and more versatile control... Currently you're in for a bit of trouble if somebody just does an unkicked Sadistic Sacrament on you.