Pre-release at Battle for Zendikar with my friends was an absolutely amazing experience, and I had an amazingly fun time being there. It was nice being able to win some prizes with a BW ally deck and a 4 color eldrazi deck. However, it left me wanting more, especially with all the vampires out there.
I notice that the majority of people seemed to be running ally tribal or eldrazi tribal, while some ran zendikari decks (elementals, dragons, etc). It left me wondering why no one was running vampires, as they seem to be a great viability here.
Vampiric allies are superior to regular allies in that they often benefit from life-gain as well as for being an ally. Cult of Eternal Blood is built around gaining life and using that life gain to buff your vampires and allies, as well as trigger other allies to buff those creatures some more.
Drana's Emissary - Guarantees life gain/life loss without allies. Can be deadly when stacked. Triggers allies.
Kalastria Healer - At two mana, this ally provides more life-gain opportunities and can combo well with other allies/spells.
Zulaport Cutthroat - Two mana and even more life-gain for every dead creature, also triggers allies.
Serene Steward - A great way to buff creatures with any extra mana.
Liliana, Heretical Healer - A 2/3 lifelink for 3, quickly transforms in this type of deck, which can give us creatures from the graveyard or make our allies return upon death.
Bloodbond Vampire - Quickly becomes dangerous as it gets +1/+1 for each ally, creature or planeswalker that triggers life gain.
Drana, Liberator of Malakir - A 2/3 flying first strike that can buff our other creatures, or itself. This can get dangerous over time.
Planeswalkers
Sorin, Solemn Visitor - Buffs our creatures and gives us lifelink. Also provides 2/2 flyers. If not dealt with, can destroy their creature base in time with his final.
Gideon, Ally of Zendikar - For 4 mana, we get a 5/5 indestructible, prevent all damage creatures that triggers allies every turn.
Sorceries
Bone Splinters - Great way to deal with bigger baddies, and sometimes killing one of our own can help us.
March from the Tomb - Not only gives us back allies, but can trigger a bunch of their abilities in one sitting.
Ondu Rising - Easy lifelink in the case we don't draw a Sorin.
Altar's Reap - Allows us to advanced the game faster. Has been useful for both flipping Liliana as well as making better decisions with our cards.
Lands
Caves of Koilos - Life-gain negates the negative effects of pain-lands.
Shambling Vent - Can become a 2/3 with lifelink, just in case.
Scoured Barrens - It can trigger life-gain abilities from our creatures. Not bad.
Sideboard(WIP)
Languish - Useful as a board wipe in the event something happens to my creatures.
Rising Miasma - This is a replacement for languish in the event I am facing a weaker deck without much buffs, as there is strong chance my creatures would survive this.
Secure the Wastes - Must-have. If a game sees no use of Ondu Rising, switch for this. Creates 1/1 chumps that can be buffed or activate abilities to drain life.
Encircling Fissure - Came in handy at pre-release with regular allies. They swung with everything, which would have killed me, but I played this card, then swung for the kill my turn.
Bone Splinters - Two more to add in case someone likes to play fatties or uses a specific creature for combos.
Hallowed Moonlight - A great way to deal with any sort of graveyard resurrection.
Maybeboard
Expedition Envoy - Fast drop, but not sure if taking out other cards for this would work well.
Kor Bladewhirl - First strike is appealing, but I had to replace this card with Serene Steward.
Leave Thoughts Below
This is one of my first completely homebrewed decks (using gatherer and feedback), so I am looking forward to hear any and all feedback, be it positive or negative.
Special thanks to kmp101, MrM0nd4y and Tzarken for pointing out some card choices that were brilliant with this deck.
Also, shouldn't you be running 4x Caves of Koilos? All the life gain negates the self-inflicted wound
Changes have been made to the original post. Liliana is a perfect fit for the deck indeed, and she can activate quite fast. Sorin has been put into the main board, and I dropped 2 Nirkana Assassin to fit in 2 Kor Bladewhirl. Having Sorin in the mainboard makes Lantern Scout useless, so I replaced her for Gideon, which is also a much better card as he's essentially a 5/5 indestructible ally for 4 mana.
Cave sof Koilos was added, and so was Scoured Barrens.
Nirkana Assassin is probably the worst card in the deck and I'd be cutting it in favour of Ob Nixilis Reignited, who is arguably the strongest planeswalker in standard at the moment. While Scoured Barrens is nice, I wouldn't run 4. Your curve is really low and your deck looks pretty aggressive, and having 6 taplands between that and the manlands is probably too many. I'd cut back to 2 or 3.
Other than that, it looks like it has potential. Let us know how it goes.
Nirkana Assassin is probably the worst card in the deck and I'd be cutting it in favour of Ob Nixilis Reignited, who is arguably the strongest planeswalker in standard at the moment. While Scoured Barrens is nice, I wouldn't run 4. Your curve is really low and your deck looks pretty aggressive, and having 6 taplands between that and the manlands is probably too many. I'd cut back to 2 or 3.
Other than that, it looks like it has potential. Let us know how it goes.
It's actually good you pointed this out. Originally, the deck had a lot of higher cost vampires. Now that I have trimmed it, it seems to be much lower, and so Ob Nixilis might be a better fit. He could also serve use in just generally getting a second card to avoid deadspots where I have no cards to play.
I will proxy play this as much as possible, but I won't have the deck fully constructed until gameday (october 25th-26th). I will gladly report back here with how it does.
You may want to consider Serene Steward and/or Expedition Envoy. Both are allies, the Steward will make your guys bigger, and make your lifegain more relevant -It seems to do what you want to do in this deck. The Expedition Envoy would just make the deck faster, and with the stuff many people are playing, you are going to need a head start on damage. I am not a huge fan of Ob Nixilis Reignited in this deck. I think he will work much better in a more control orientated list. Drawing a card is nice, but it's much less useful to you than maybe pumping all of your guys, or bringing them all back to the battlefield, and there are a LOT of spells that will kill a creature for less mana... Using those abilities over and over again are where Ob Nixilis becomes good, but you really don't want the game to drag out past turn 6-7, when your opponents are going to be wiping the board and/or dropping much larger/more powerful creatures and effects (and maybe even then you are pushing it...).
For your side board, you will want to consider Hallowed Moonlight, as there will be a number of decks that are going to try re-animating groups of creatures (as yours will with March From the Tomb). It can also stop Collected Company and thopter-generators (Hangarback Walker). Speaking of the Walker, I know you have a fair number of token generators, but you might still want to look into that enchantment that gives all token creatures -2/-2... It kills the thopter tokens, ally tokens, and 1/1 Eldrazi Scions, which you will probably run into at your local FNM. Sorry, I forget it's name, and I am too lazy to look it up. Hidden Dragon Slayer might be useful in your board as well, so you can pop the midrage/big baddies that people will drop in front of you to stop your dudes...
I am not sure how you will beat Languish, outside of hopefully "outgrowing" it, but that means several turns of "landing" +1/+1 tokens before it hits. You should probably play more March from the Tomb, so that you can recover from board wipes, and hit them with all the re-entry triggers from Kalastria Healer.
Anyways, that's my take on it. I am considering building a deck like this, but with my suggestions (obviously). I look forward to seeing how you do.
I will have to sit down tonight and evaluate all those cards. I agree, by comparison, Ob Nixilis is quite slow. Seren Steward is a great choice that I forgot about.
Regarding Languish, I suppose it's fair or not to say that someone has an equal chance to draw a languish as I will a March from the Tomb if I run 4. The biggest problem I will have is running against a black, due to it's ability to kill a planeswalker for 3. Essentially, the bane of this deck is black control of some sort.
I also look forward to seeing how you do. If you'd like to consult sometime and fine-tune/compare this deck/yours, I'd be happy to.
I'm a bit confused, overall I really like the deck, but you keep mentioning that you will easily activate Liliana, and you will get lots of value out of Zulaport Cutthroat. I just don't really see how, there's not really any sacrificing going on, which means that we'd have to trade with opponent creatures to activate those abilities. But how often do we really do that? It's not a deck that throws a lot of creatures or tokens, and the ones that are thrown, is better off not dying, and without really any graveyard fillers, I don't see how 4x March From the Tomb comes in handy in most situations.
Please correct me if I'm wrong.
Whether we have to sacrifice a creature to use bone splinters, or we simply have to block creatures, I have found many reasons for Liliana and Zulaport.
Liliana - She is a 2/3 lifelink for 3. This is pretty good on it's own. However, you are NOT ocnsidering the opponent here. They will swing whenever they know our creatures will die in the process. Blocking with one of my less needed vampires/allies at the time of the game will cause them to die, thus activating Liliana. In a proxy test I did last night, she did well. Came in handy for the 2/2 zombie and the graveyard pulling, but game didn't last long enough to use her final
Zulaport comes in handy a lot too, especially with March from the tomb. The point of Zulaport is to drain the opponents life when I have board presence, or in the long term, since I can get creatures back with Liliana. March from the Tomb is meant to allow me to swing will all my creatures, let most of them die, then pull them from the graveyard again and have all their abilities trigger at once. MArch from the Tomb is a *must* in this deck.
This deck is not meant to go on for incredibly long games, but I have been able to win when it does thanks to the life drain from Zulaport and other cards.
After pulling a Gideon this weekend along with a fair few of the commons and uncommons needed for this kind of list I've been testing today. I quite often find myself happy to chump block knowing I will be getting some triggers off it but feel it would benefit the tempo to have a few Altar's Reap main board to keep fueling my hand. Possibly cutting a single Drana, Liberator of Malakir and March From the Tomb.
Also has anyone tested a one of Secure the wastes. Between Drana and Cuttroat I feel the tokens represent a fairly decent threat.
I have considered Alatar's Reap, but I wasn't too sure, because I have often been able to use my sorceries in most occasions. So I am not so sure about switching it, especially with Drana, because it would reduce the chances of pulling them, but I will proxy test it.
As far as Secure the Wastes go, I found a distaste for it in my mardu warrior tribal, because it wasn't that great. However, you're right, it might do well to have it in this deck. At worst, I get a few 1/1 chumps to block with, which can activate Cutthroat. At best, I get buffed 1/1s.
I can proxy test in the morning, and I'll get back to you.
After pulling a Gideon this weekend along with a fair few of the commons and uncommons needed for this kind of list I've been testing today. I quite often find myself happy to chump block knowing I will be getting some triggers off it but feel it would benefit the tempo to have a few Altar's Reap main board to keep fueling my hand. Possibly cutting a single Drana, Liberator of Malakir and March From the Tomb.
Also has anyone tested a one of Secure the wastes. Between Drana and Cuttroat I feel the tokens represent a fairly decent threat.
After doing some tests, I feel that Altar's Reap mainboard is a great choice. It was useful in a proxy match because it let me basically reassure my decisions. In this instance, the game was dragging on, and the prospect of achieving Liliana's final was very well possible. Altar's Reap actually let me sacrifice a creature to flip her over, so that's one reason to add it, but another is this: I had good creatures in my hand, and was afraid that using Liliana's +2 would make me discard good cards and draw bad ones. Using altar's reap, I drew two fantastic cards and used Liliana's +2.
Secure the wastes has earned it's place in my sideboard, replacing 2 of the Rising Miasma's. I actually drew two of these with that Altar's Reap I just mentioned. Playing both on consecutive turns allowed for 8 1/1 warriors, and, yes, I had Drana on the field. I had two Cutthroats on the field, so it really acted as a great defense, because I could block with all 8 and let them take 8 damage, whilst I gain 8 life.
Very nice update robmoore675. How has the mana been working for you? With it being enemy lands, has it slowed you down at all? What are some of the weaker spots or cards so far?
Very nice update robmoore675. How has the mana been working for you? With it being enemy lands, has it slowed you down at all? What are some of the weaker spots or cards so far?
As far as the mana base goes, I have found no issues. I sat down and drew 7 hands to test the mana base. Out of the 7 times, I have only had to mulligan once, and it was not because of not having a mana, but rather, only have one land in the hand.
I have played one game where I wanted to put out Liliana sooner, but had to wait an extra turn to draw a second black mana, but at the time I had other good cards to play anyway, and not having enough lands is barely an issue.
While the dual lands have rarely come in handy for their second abilities (Scoured Barrens for gaining life and Shambling Vent for a 2/3 lifelink), they are exactly what is needed, alongside Cave of Koilos, to balance the mana base. In the 6 ghost sessions (drawing and placing to check for mana consistency), I have only once needed more black mana, but not at all for white. While I am sure the possibility for mana faliure is there, I feel that the mana base is as balanced as it will get.
Ondu Rising - It's weakness comes from when gaining more life is unnecessary. However, being as this is the swap of choice with the sideboard card secure the wastes, I feel it is essential to keep it at least in the sideboard to start. It has come in handy in two games, as well as the one game Tzarken mentioned, because we can swing for massive amounts of life, and then just rez the creatures. It's a good combo, and Ondu Rising is needed for it, but it isn't too many games where you need the life.
Serene Steward - This is where I get skeptical. Buffing my creatures has not been needed all that much in the game, because I can usually win without the need for strong creatuers. However, I need to test this against specific decks before I make any decisions. I only faced one deck with a Languish, and they didn't get a chance to play it. In the case they do have one, buffing my more important creatures is a good idea. Also, I have yet to actually get into a game where I have drawn this card but not Drana. I feel that, in that event, Serene Steward would make a good replacement.
Bloodbond Vampire - It's greatest weakness here is the two black mana it takes to summon. I only have two in the deck, so it hasn't been an issue, but it could be. In order to truly determine this card's value, I need to keep testing until I draw her early on. It might be worth to keep her since she had done really well for me in pre-release, getting dangerous fast, but she might just become another managorger hydra; it either comes out too late to be worthwhile, or gets targeted way to fast. Only time will tell.
Regarding the side-board, I have yet to play any deck more than once or twice. I have been proxy playing friends using tappedout.net as well as using other decks found online, as you can play a normal game, and hide your hand so your friend can see your battlefield. I have plans to print my deck, sleeve it, and ask to proxy play people down at the shop. This will make it easier to test my sideboard.
Gideon, Ally of Zendikar is a super-fun card as well. I only got to use him about twice, because the other games had him come out late into the game when he wasn't really needed. Anyways, this one game, I was facing a deck that also ran a Liliana. I went first, and put out some great starting cards (Drana's Emissary and Kalastria Healer) turn 2 he put out a Zulaport Cutthroat and turn 3 a Liliana. Turn 4 I drew a Gideon, played it, and laughed, because I I could only use him for his +0 ability. Turning him into a 5/5 and attacking would allow them to trigger Liliana. So, come a few turns later, I had about 3 2/2 tokens, and then drew a Liliana, played it, and then next turn used Bone Splinters to kill his poor Liliana, thus flipping mine. This was a match-up against a friend, and he was upset yet found it ironically hilarious.
Personally I like drawing Drana's emisdary in my starting hand. It is one of the stronger cards, especially if you get more. One duel land and one basic is enough mana to start the deck. Other than that, I feel the deck is built well enough to be able to run any hand, and that it can be dependent on the opponent and other cards. I'd prefer Gideon before Liliana if I have allies, but if I have more non ally vampires from the start, Liliana is much better, especially with an altars reap or bone splinters.
I put together a very similar list to OP's (current) list. Utter End and Infinite Obliteration (a personal favorite against raptors, den protectors and siege rhinos) might be worth considering as at least sideboard options. Virulent Plague is likely going to be pretty strong in the sideboard vs scions, ally tokens and thopters (obviously is a non-bo with Gideon). Another one worth considering for a life gain mirror match of sorts would be Tainted Remedy.
For now Virulent Plague should certainly be in the side. However it will NOT work against similar strategies such as the one in this thread. That is because the tokens still enter the battlefield as 0/0 or less, go to the grave yard, and then cease to exist. Therefore trigger all the affects from "when creature dies" affects.
Tainted Remedy could become really strong in mirror matches.
How are you feeling about a pump spell in this deck? It seems like it would do quite well with the secure the wastes and all the token generation.
How fast have you experienced this deck to be? Might be because I'm comparing it to BW Warriors, but I'm a bit worried about not having a one drop when we're up against things like siege rhino on turn 4, when we, hopefully, can only cast a bloodbond vampire or one of our plainswalkers.
I am not too sold on pump spells. Secure the wastes is indeed to be an army of weenie blockers that can trigger abilities upon death, be buffed, etc.
The deck is not fast, but it's "slow" speed isn't what we commonly view it is. The deck is very exponential in it's speed. Two matches seem to define this perfectly. I was dealing with a deck that had some pretty beefy creatures ( Butcher of the Horde and Brutal Hordechief, as well as Secure the Wastes). I got dropped to 4-5 life or so. However, you have to learn to play your cards right, and when to play them is crucial. I was losing life becuase of Brutal Hordechief, then gaining it right back, but Butcher of the Horde was giving me a beating. I then decided to play Sorin, and give my guys life-link for the full round. This created a problem for him, because if he attacked with his 1/1 weenies that were giving him life and making me lose it, I would gain far more life. He decided to swing for it though with just about everything except for a few 1/1s. I blocked them all, killing some of my creatures (I didn't attack with Drana to buff them, which became smart). However, I was then able to use March from the Tomb to get them all back. Then, all I had to do is gain more life than I am losing thanks to Sorin. I had to sacrifice my Drana to block his butcher of the horde to protect Sorin, but I drew a Bone Splinters. While it wasn't a topdeck to save the game, it was a help.
Sorry if that's all over the place. That was one of my earlier games and I'm trying to remember it as best as possible. Regardless, the point of the story was that the life-gain typically grows faster and faster. Dropping to less than 10 life is not an issue in this deck, at all, because typically we can take it just fine and survive longer. In most games, I hope and pray they attack with their beefcakes, because I know I can easily survive it, then use that opportunity to attack for some damage.
The hardest game with this deck has been facing another deck that utilizes lifelink in some way. However, the life-drain of this deck typically gives me the upper-hand.
RobMoore, if you are still having trouble casting some of the double BB cards on turn 3, maybe decrease the number of Plains by one or two and increase the number of Swamp by that many.
So what's the plan against Abzan? Cuz right now that deck is my biggest concern (as it might be for most) along with Esper Dragons. Bone Splinters, while being perfectly fine for us, do little against Ojutai and I can't help but notice that you don't really have any instant-speed removal. Otherwise, it's very similar to a WB brew I've been thinking about since the midnight prerelease as well
Not so sure about those yet. What decklists of those do you expect to see in the meta, so that I may proxy test against them and get a feel for it?
Has anyone tested with Brutal Hordechief instead of the Bloodbond. It doesnt grow but provides another drain effect and a way to get the weenies through a stalled board state.
This looks like a very good substitute. I will probably go with Hordechief in that slot over Bloodbond
What is everyone currently running right now? The deck looks really good on paper, but I'm curious how it will fare with the popular decks that come about from a new rotation.
Basically relies on interaction between cutthroats/husk/healers and rally or march.
Been out of the game for a fair while so not sure re mana base etc, blue is only in there to fill the GY for rally and for some sideboarded negates - meta is fairly counterish at the moment.
Introduction
Pre-release at Battle for Zendikar with my friends was an absolutely amazing experience, and I had an amazingly fun time being there. It was nice being able to win some prizes with a BW ally deck and a 4 color eldrazi deck. However, it left me wanting more, especially with all the vampires out there.
I notice that the majority of people seemed to be running ally tribal or eldrazi tribal, while some ran zendikari decks (elementals, dragons, etc). It left me wondering why no one was running vampires, as they seem to be a great viability here.
Vampiric allies are superior to regular allies in that they often benefit from life-gain as well as for being an ally. Cult of Eternal Blood is built around gaining life and using that life gain to buff your vampires and allies, as well as trigger other allies to buff those creatures some more.
Deck List
2x Bloodbond Vampire
3x Drana, Liberator of Malakir
4x Drana's Emissary
4x Kalastria Healer
4x Serene Steward
4x Zulaport Cutthroat
2x Liliana, Heretical Healer
Land (24)
4x Caves of Koilos
8x Plains
2x Shambling Vent
8x Swamp
2x Scoured Barrens
2x Bone Splinters
3x March from the Tomb
2x Ondu Rising
2x Altar's Reap
Planeswalkers (4)
2x Sorin, Solemn Visitor
2x Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
3x Encircling Fissure
3x Languish
2x Secure the Wastes
2x Rising Miasma
2x Bone Splinters
3x Hallowed Moonlight
Creatures
Drana's Emissary - Guarantees life gain/life loss without allies. Can be deadly when stacked. Triggers allies.
Kalastria Healer - At two mana, this ally provides more life-gain opportunities and can combo well with other allies/spells.
Zulaport Cutthroat - Two mana and even more life-gain for every dead creature, also triggers allies.
Serene Steward - A great way to buff creatures with any extra mana.
Liliana, Heretical Healer - A 2/3 lifelink for 3, quickly transforms in this type of deck, which can give us creatures from the graveyard or make our allies return upon death.
Bloodbond Vampire - Quickly becomes dangerous as it gets +1/+1 for each ally, creature or planeswalker that triggers life gain.
Drana, Liberator of Malakir - A 2/3 flying first strike that can buff our other creatures, or itself. This can get dangerous over time.
Planeswalkers
Sorin, Solemn Visitor - Buffs our creatures and gives us lifelink. Also provides 2/2 flyers. If not dealt with, can destroy their creature base in time with his final.
Gideon, Ally of Zendikar - For 4 mana, we get a 5/5 indestructible, prevent all damage creatures that triggers allies every turn.
Sorceries
Bone Splinters - Great way to deal with bigger baddies, and sometimes killing one of our own can help us.
March from the Tomb - Not only gives us back allies, but can trigger a bunch of their abilities in one sitting.
Ondu Rising - Easy lifelink in the case we don't draw a Sorin.
Altar's Reap - Allows us to advanced the game faster. Has been useful for both flipping Liliana as well as making better decisions with our cards.
Lands
Caves of Koilos - Life-gain negates the negative effects of pain-lands.
Shambling Vent - Can become a 2/3 with lifelink, just in case.
Scoured Barrens - It can trigger life-gain abilities from our creatures. Not bad.
Sideboard(WIP)
Languish - Useful as a board wipe in the event something happens to my creatures.
Rising Miasma - This is a replacement for languish in the event I am facing a weaker deck without much buffs, as there is strong chance my creatures would survive this.
Secure the Wastes - Must-have. If a game sees no use of Ondu Rising, switch for this. Creates 1/1 chumps that can be buffed or activate abilities to drain life.
Encircling Fissure - Came in handy at pre-release with regular allies. They swung with everything, which would have killed me, but I played this card, then swung for the kill my turn.
Bone Splinters - Two more to add in case someone likes to play fatties or uses a specific creature for combos.
Hallowed Moonlight - A great way to deal with any sort of graveyard resurrection.
Maybeboard
Expedition Envoy - Fast drop, but not sure if taking out other cards for this would work well.
Kor Bladewhirl - First strike is appealing, but I had to replace this card with Serene Steward.
Leave Thoughts Below
This is one of my first completely homebrewed decks (using gatherer and feedback), so I am looking forward to hear any and all feedback, be it positive or negative.
Special thanks to kmp101, MrM0nd4y and Tzarken for pointing out some card choices that were brilliant with this deck.
My thoughts include:
Drana, Liberator of Malakir and Liliana, Heretical Healer seem like a natural pairing.
Sorin, Solemn Visitor should be in the main board.
And Gideon, Ally of Zendikar seems like it would be strong in your list.
Also, shouldn't you be running 4x Caves of Koilos? All the life gain negates the self-inflicted wound
C Long Live Eldrazi C
URW Control
WBG Abzan
GRW Burn
EDH
GR Rosheen Meanderer
Changes have been made to the original post. Liliana is a perfect fit for the deck indeed, and she can activate quite fast. Sorin has been put into the main board, and I dropped 2 Nirkana Assassin to fit in 2 Kor Bladewhirl. Having Sorin in the mainboard makes Lantern Scout useless, so I replaced her for Gideon, which is also a much better card as he's essentially a 5/5 indestructible ally for 4 mana.
Cave sof Koilos was added, and so was Scoured Barrens.
Other than that, it looks like it has potential. Let us know how it goes.
It's actually good you pointed this out. Originally, the deck had a lot of higher cost vampires. Now that I have trimmed it, it seems to be much lower, and so Ob Nixilis might be a better fit. He could also serve use in just generally getting a second card to avoid deadspots where I have no cards to play.
I will proxy play this as much as possible, but I won't have the deck fully constructed until gameday (october 25th-26th). I will gladly report back here with how it does.
For your side board, you will want to consider Hallowed Moonlight, as there will be a number of decks that are going to try re-animating groups of creatures (as yours will with March From the Tomb). It can also stop Collected Company and thopter-generators (Hangarback Walker). Speaking of the Walker, I know you have a fair number of token generators, but you might still want to look into that enchantment that gives all token creatures -2/-2... It kills the thopter tokens, ally tokens, and 1/1 Eldrazi Scions, which you will probably run into at your local FNM. Sorry, I forget it's name, and I am too lazy to look it up. Hidden Dragon Slayer might be useful in your board as well, so you can pop the midrage/big baddies that people will drop in front of you to stop your dudes...
I am not sure how you will beat Languish, outside of hopefully "outgrowing" it, but that means several turns of "landing" +1/+1 tokens before it hits. You should probably play more March from the Tomb, so that you can recover from board wipes, and hit them with all the re-entry triggers from Kalastria Healer.
Anyways, that's my take on it. I am considering building a deck like this, but with my suggestions (obviously). I look forward to seeing how you do.
Regarding Languish, I suppose it's fair or not to say that someone has an equal chance to draw a languish as I will a March from the Tomb if I run 4. The biggest problem I will have is running against a black, due to it's ability to kill a planeswalker for 3. Essentially, the bane of this deck is black control of some sort.
I also look forward to seeing how you do. If you'd like to consult sometime and fine-tune/compare this deck/yours, I'd be happy to.
Whether we have to sacrifice a creature to use bone splinters, or we simply have to block creatures, I have found many reasons for Liliana and Zulaport.
Liliana - She is a 2/3 lifelink for 3. This is pretty good on it's own. However, you are NOT ocnsidering the opponent here. They will swing whenever they know our creatures will die in the process. Blocking with one of my less needed vampires/allies at the time of the game will cause them to die, thus activating Liliana. In a proxy test I did last night, she did well. Came in handy for the 2/2 zombie and the graveyard pulling, but game didn't last long enough to use her final
Zulaport comes in handy a lot too, especially with March from the tomb. The point of Zulaport is to drain the opponents life when I have board presence, or in the long term, since I can get creatures back with Liliana. March from the Tomb is meant to allow me to swing will all my creatures, let most of them die, then pull them from the graveyard again and have all their abilities trigger at once. MArch from the Tomb is a *must* in this deck.
This deck is not meant to go on for incredibly long games, but I have been able to win when it does thanks to the life drain from Zulaport and other cards.
I have considered Alatar's Reap, but I wasn't too sure, because I have often been able to use my sorceries in most occasions. So I am not so sure about switching it, especially with Drana, because it would reduce the chances of pulling them, but I will proxy test it.
As far as Secure the Wastes go, I found a distaste for it in my mardu warrior tribal, because it wasn't that great. However, you're right, it might do well to have it in this deck. At worst, I get a few 1/1 chumps to block with, which can activate Cutthroat. At best, I get buffed 1/1s.
I can proxy test in the morning, and I'll get back to you.
After doing some tests, I feel that Altar's Reap mainboard is a great choice. It was useful in a proxy match because it let me basically reassure my decisions. In this instance, the game was dragging on, and the prospect of achieving Liliana's final was very well possible. Altar's Reap actually let me sacrifice a creature to flip her over, so that's one reason to add it, but another is this: I had good creatures in my hand, and was afraid that using Liliana's +2 would make me discard good cards and draw bad ones. Using altar's reap, I drew two fantastic cards and used Liliana's +2.
Secure the wastes has earned it's place in my sideboard, replacing 2 of the Rising Miasma's. I actually drew two of these with that Altar's Reap I just mentioned. Playing both on consecutive turns allowed for 8 1/1 warriors, and, yes, I had Drana on the field. I had two Cutthroats on the field, so it really acted as a great defense, because I could block with all 8 and let them take 8 damage, whilst I gain 8 life.
The deck has been updated.
C Long Live Eldrazi C
As far as the mana base goes, I have found no issues. I sat down and drew 7 hands to test the mana base. Out of the 7 times, I have only had to mulligan once, and it was not because of not having a mana, but rather, only have one land in the hand.
I have played one game where I wanted to put out Liliana sooner, but had to wait an extra turn to draw a second black mana, but at the time I had other good cards to play anyway, and not having enough lands is barely an issue.
While the dual lands have rarely come in handy for their second abilities (Scoured Barrens for gaining life and Shambling Vent for a 2/3 lifelink), they are exactly what is needed, alongside Cave of Koilos, to balance the mana base. In the 6 ghost sessions (drawing and placing to check for mana consistency), I have only once needed more black mana, but not at all for white. While I am sure the possibility for mana faliure is there, I feel that the mana base is as balanced as it will get.
The weakest cards in the deck are Ondu Rising, Serene Steward and Bloodbond Vampire. However, I am reluctant to cut them for the following reasons.
Ondu Rising - It's weakness comes from when gaining more life is unnecessary. However, being as this is the swap of choice with the sideboard card secure the wastes, I feel it is essential to keep it at least in the sideboard to start. It has come in handy in two games, as well as the one game Tzarken mentioned, because we can swing for massive amounts of life, and then just rez the creatures. It's a good combo, and Ondu Rising is needed for it, but it isn't too many games where you need the life.
Serene Steward - This is where I get skeptical. Buffing my creatures has not been needed all that much in the game, because I can usually win without the need for strong creatuers. However, I need to test this against specific decks before I make any decisions. I only faced one deck with a Languish, and they didn't get a chance to play it. In the case they do have one, buffing my more important creatures is a good idea. Also, I have yet to actually get into a game where I have drawn this card but not Drana. I feel that, in that event, Serene Steward would make a good replacement.
Bloodbond Vampire - It's greatest weakness here is the two black mana it takes to summon. I only have two in the deck, so it hasn't been an issue, but it could be. In order to truly determine this card's value, I need to keep testing until I draw her early on. It might be worth to keep her since she had done really well for me in pre-release, getting dangerous fast, but she might just become another managorger hydra; it either comes out too late to be worthwhile, or gets targeted way to fast. Only time will tell.
Regarding the side-board, I have yet to play any deck more than once or twice. I have been proxy playing friends using tappedout.net as well as using other decks found online, as you can play a normal game, and hide your hand so your friend can see your battlefield. I have plans to print my deck, sleeve it, and ask to proxy play people down at the shop. This will make it easier to test my sideboard.
Gideon, Ally of Zendikar is a super-fun card as well. I only got to use him about twice, because the other games had him come out late into the game when he wasn't really needed. Anyways, this one game, I was facing a deck that also ran a Liliana. I went first, and put out some great starting cards (Drana's Emissary and Kalastria Healer) turn 2 he put out a Zulaport Cutthroat and turn 3 a Liliana. Turn 4 I drew a Gideon, played it, and laughed, because I I could only use him for his +0 ability. Turning him into a 5/5 and attacking would allow them to trigger Liliana. So, come a few turns later, I had about 3 2/2 tokens, and then drew a Liliana, played it, and then next turn used Bone Splinters to kill his poor Liliana, thus flipping mine. This was a match-up against a friend, and he was upset yet found it ironically hilarious.
What do you look for in the starting seven?
C Long Live Eldrazi C
I would also consider trying this;
-2 Ondu Rising
-1 Serene Steward
-1 Drana's Emissary
+2 Lantern Scout
+2 Expedition Envoy
Tainted Remedy could become really strong in mirror matches.
Brutal Hordechief is strong and can easily be considered.
C Long Live Eldrazi C
C Long Live Eldrazi C
I am not too sold on pump spells. Secure the wastes is indeed to be an army of weenie blockers that can trigger abilities upon death, be buffed, etc.
The deck is not fast, but it's "slow" speed isn't what we commonly view it is. The deck is very exponential in it's speed. Two matches seem to define this perfectly. I was dealing with a deck that had some pretty beefy creatures ( Butcher of the Horde and Brutal Hordechief, as well as Secure the Wastes). I got dropped to 4-5 life or so. However, you have to learn to play your cards right, and when to play them is crucial. I was losing life becuase of Brutal Hordechief, then gaining it right back, but Butcher of the Horde was giving me a beating. I then decided to play Sorin, and give my guys life-link for the full round. This created a problem for him, because if he attacked with his 1/1 weenies that were giving him life and making me lose it, I would gain far more life. He decided to swing for it though with just about everything except for a few 1/1s. I blocked them all, killing some of my creatures (I didn't attack with Drana to buff them, which became smart). However, I was then able to use March from the Tomb to get them all back. Then, all I had to do is gain more life than I am losing thanks to Sorin. I had to sacrifice my Drana to block his butcher of the horde to protect Sorin, but I drew a Bone Splinters. While it wasn't a topdeck to save the game, it was a help.
Sorry if that's all over the place. That was one of my earlier games and I'm trying to remember it as best as possible. Regardless, the point of the story was that the life-gain typically grows faster and faster. Dropping to less than 10 life is not an issue in this deck, at all, because typically we can take it just fine and survive longer. In most games, I hope and pray they attack with their beefcakes, because I know I can easily survive it, then use that opportunity to attack for some damage.
The hardest game with this deck has been facing another deck that utilizes lifelink in some way. However, the life-drain of this deck typically gives me the upper-hand.
C Long Live Eldrazi C
C Long Live Eldrazi C
Not so sure about those yet. What decklists of those do you expect to see in the meta, so that I may proxy test against them and get a feel for it?
I will have to see how those do once Khoivandon gets back to me. Also, that's not a bad idea to take out a plains and add in a swamp.
This looks like a very good substitute. I will probably go with Hordechief in that slot over Bloodbond
C Long Live Eldrazi C
2x Bloodbond Vampire
2x Drana, Liberator of Malakir
4x Drana's Emissary
4x Kalastria Healer
2x Liliana, Heretical Healer Flip
3x Nantuko Husk
4x Zulaport Cutthroat
2x Altar's Reap
3x Rally the Ancestors
Sorcery - 7
2x Bone Splinters
2x March from the Tomb
1x Ondu Rising
2x Taigam's Scheming
Planeswalker - 3
1x Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
2x Sorin, Solemn Visitor
2x Caves of Koilos
1x Island
2x Marsh Flats
6x Plains
2x Prairie Stream
2x Shambling Vent
2x Sunken Hollow
7x Swamp
Basically relies on interaction between cutthroats/husk/healers and rally or march.
Been out of the game for a fair while so not sure re mana base etc, blue is only in there to fill the GY for rally and for some sideboarded negates - meta is fairly counterish at the moment.
Thoughts?
Cheers.
LG
Other notable cards with similar effects: Mer-Ek Nightblade, Tuskguard Captain