After testing with Cloudshift a bunch, I definitely see why it's not great. I just wanted to see for myself.
I played in the PTQ today (yesterday) and I just got land flooded every game. I went 1-2 and dropped. Needless to say I was frustrated. I drew so many lands and so many Aether Vials. I lost to U/W Gifts for god's sake.
I really like that list a lot. I love the focus on the synergies and intricacies of the deck. After tweaked and all that, this is what I am currently working with.
Judge's Familiar is starting to feel really awkward to me. In some matchups it's great, but sometimes it's bad. In other matchups it's bad, but sometimes great. Since it's not 4, it's not always in your opening hand, and that's when you want to see it, but running 4 means you'll see it more often throughout the game. I am thinking about cutting it for something more consistent, or with more synergy. I'm thinking either slotting Pack Rat back in, or running some number of Stonecloaker or Whitemane Lion or Jotun Grunt. I like Jotun Grunt because he's big and cheap, but he doesn't really feel like he fits the deck's plan very well. I like Stonecloaker because he doubles as grave hate and can randomly win your fights against Tarmogoyf or Reanimator Strategies, and is very synergistic with Mangara, and our ETB effects, but our 3 drop spot seems crowded. I like Whitemane Lion. He's cheap, effective, synergistic, but is very lackluster and "vanilla" feeling. Pack Rat is great because he avoids flooding, and is actually useful in multiples.
So many choices. I love this deck for that reason. There are so many varieties of this deck that everyone plays their own sort of "flavor", and most of them are good.
Edit: Has anyone tried Crucible of Worlds? The old Crucible + Strip Mine lock...And with Pack rat you can discard lands and then play them. Just brainstorming here...
Huh. Did not know that about arbiter. I'll be sure to update with that info. That's a rather off way for it to work haha.
Anyway on the subject of cloudshift, there just too many other things I wanna be doing with my mana. Doesn't make the cut. I suppose if you insist on running Mangara it makes more sense, but seeing as I'd advise against that as well I can't say there's much grounds for supporting cloudshift. I rather have Akroma or pontiff there instead personally.
It's a 1 mana way to flip Akroma. What's not to like?
Akroma actually slipped my mind. I ran her in mono white a while back. I might slip her back in as a 1 of if I can find a spot.
Maybe it's bad. I want to at least try it and have it proven to me through my own testing. Mangara is good enough in legacy. I don't see why it is suddenly worse in modern. Sure we can't run Karakas, and that's a big part of it, but Cloudshift takes that place well enough while also allowing for so many other good interactions. It's "slow", yes, but legacy is way faster than Modern is, and it still sees play there. I think that if it's good enough for Legacy with Karakas, it's good enough in modern with our other options.
I'm trying this out. It's a build more based around the flicker tricks. It's also 61 cards. 23 lands feels like so many when you run Vial and you curve out at 4, and 22 Lands just doesn't feel like enough. 61 Cards lowers that ratio ever so slightly, so I think it's fine.
The sentiment was made that "Cloudshift doesn't do enough," but I disagree. At worst, it saves your creature from a removal spell. At best, it allows you more chances to do the ridiculous things that we all know the deck can do with flickerwisp and Resto Angel, but for only 1 mana. With Thalia, it's 2, but that's still a cheap price to pay for an instant speed 3/3 First Strike, or an exile effect from flickerwisp, or an exile permanently with Mangara, or exiling TWO cards with Tidehollow Sculler.
Also I don't think this was really touched on in the primer (I looked at the parts pertaining to Arbiter and didn't see it) but paying the 2 to ignore Leonin Arbiter's ability is a special action, meaning you can only do it when you have priority, not while a spell is resolving. The relevance of that is that your opponent has to pay the 2 mana before their search ability or spell resolves. That means you can respond by cloudshifting or resto angeling your arbiter. Then he becomes a new object, and they have to pay another 2 to ignore the new effect. Cloudshift makes this an actual reality a decent amount of times. Just food for thought.
Has anyone tried out running Cloudshift? It allows us to do flicker tricks and it only costs 1, so casting it through Thalia isn't a big deal.
I have also been thinking about adding Mangara to the deck again. I really like him as just a catch-all answer to anything, and just happens to be even better if you have a flicker effect. People say that the meta has sped up and that he's just too slow now, but I don't think that's the case. You're looking at turn 4 minimum to have him out and able to use his ability. That also puts a turn 1 vial at 3 which allows for wisp tricks. I think re-introducing stonecloaker to the mix, and maybe even the previously mentioned Cloudshift, and you have a lot of ways you can do tricky things. Even when he's not doing tricky things, he still answers some things that the deck has trouble answering otherwise, such as Pithing Needle, Blood Moon (for splash builds), Torpor Orb (And Hushwing Gryff soon!) and Emrakul. There were plenty of times when I just used an honest Mangara activation and it was enough.
I'm not sure what else I would run in those slots. Maybe some number of Dismembers in the main, a fourth Blade Splicer. I don't know. I have loved Judge's Familiar. It's also nice as just another evasive attacker. Sometimes you can just kill them by attack with owls for a bunch of turns in a stalemate.
Having turn 1 Vial into turn 2 Arbiter or Thalia or Sculler with that Force Spike backup is amazing, and the deck is very reliant on resolving its 2 drops. I can't imagine running anything else in those slots.
Being more control-ish, however, black may be able to benefit more from the Spirit of the Labyrinth + Mikokoro synergy. Having more draws to feed pack rat is great. I tested it for a while in Mono White and I didn't really like it though.
Played this list in a tournament today. Went 1-2 then dropped. I played against a bunch of bad decks, and it turns out sometimes we just can't answer bad cards.
Round 1 was against Merfolk. He was running Fated Infatuation and Triton Shorestalker. He had to read every card I played, and didn't know that I could activate vial at instant speed. Game 1 he scooped because I played a Flickerwisp from Vial in response to him targetting Master of Waves with a Fated Infatuation, and was mad that he didn't get to scry. At the end he commented that "his deck would love Aether Vial" leading me to believe it was a budget deck. Games 2 he mulliganed to 5 and I am pretty sure his hand was 4 islands and Thassa. I scullered the thassa and he drew Triton Shorestalkers and Lords off the top every turn. Game three I had him dead unless he had exactly 2 creatures that couldn't be Fated Infatuation, Thassa or Merfolk Sovereign, and a Rapid Hybridization, and I had to not have a removal spell or flickerwisp or resto angel. He did, and I didn't. Didn't see any Paths in any of these games.
Round 2 was against Merfolk again, but worse. No Thassa, still no Vials (and didn't know what Vial was). Games went similar, but I actually drew Path to Exile a few times. Imagine that. I won.
Round 3 was against Goblins. Hurray for mono-colored creature based matchups. Game one he had the nuts, Foundry Street into Goblin Guide + Legion Loyalist and then a bunch of other 1 drops and burn spells. I couldn't keep up. For the record, this guy commented that he couldn't afford Goblin Guides so he only had 1 in the deck. He ALSO didn't have Aether vials, and commented about how good they would be in his deck. Game 2 went alright. I played big toughness creatures and vialed in Thalia to block, the usual. Game 3 he killed me by drawing at least 3 Goblin Grenades, I think it may have been 4.
When I looked at all of the other decks in the room, they were all USA Twin, Tron variants, a few storms, scapeshifts, junds and pods. One guy was running the event deck, which probably would have actually been bad for me. I got paired up against the only 2 merfolk decks in the room back to back, and the only 3 monocolored decks in the room back to back to back. Tough luck.
I only like using playmats that I won. To me they are like trophies. I have a SCG IQ top 8 mat, a TCGPlayer Maxpoint event top 8 mat, and a TCGPlayer Open 5k top 16 mat.
I also have a playmat sporting the logo for my sponsor.
For those asking about Eidolon of Rhetoric against burn, yes, it's very good. I test a lot against burn, and I routinely side it in. It also basically wins the game against Storm. Just don't block a Goblin Electromancer with it, because you are just asking to get bolted. Patrician's Scorn and Celestial Flare are a nod to Bogles in my meta. People love that deck here for some reason. If I get to the venue and don't see many Bogles, I will probably change those into dismembers and Mark of Asylum, or something. The Mangara will probably turn back into the 3rd Resto Angel. I have a soft spot for that card because of legacy, but in reality it's just not as good in this format with no Karakas.
As much as I like the consistency of the mono white build, Tidehollow Sculler and Pack Rat have been amazing to me in past (and current) standards, and seem invaluably good in testing. Pack Rat even helps the aggressive matchups. If they can't kill you before he comes down, the rats get out of control. Mutavault is great here too for that reason.
Any suggestions and help with the build would be great.
Certain hands make for some sort of awkward lines of play. What would be the general consensus when you have a hand like...
Temple of Enlightenment
Temple of Enlightenment
Island
Cloudfin Raptor
Frostburn Weird
Master of Waves
Thassa, God of the Sea
Do you play the Island and Cloudfin on turn one, and hope to draw a land that isn't tapped, or a Familiar?
Do you play Temple and hope to get another 1 drop on turn 2?
Do you play the Temple and then Cloudfin and the Second Temple on turn 2?
Do you just skip cloudfin altogether and play Temple, then Island and Frostburn?
What matchups would you feel more comfortable playing slowly with the Temple, Temple cloudfin play?
Cloudfin just seems awkward in some hands such as these where your lands come into play tapped. I'm just trying to figure out which I should play, and what factors change it, like matchup and what not.
For those of you wondering about Mono Black Devotion with a splash of green, that's effectively what I have been playing and having pretty great success with.
I haven't figured out a situation where I wanted Desecration Demon more than Reaper of the Wilds yet, hence the 4/2 split in favor of Reaper. Reaper is just so insane right now. I was running no Demons, but I think 2 is fine. He's still really good from the graveyard via Whip.
I rarely can't cast something in my deck due to color. Usually it's because I'll have Nykthos in my opening hand and draw into Specter or something, but that's rare. Only 2 lands that can't cast Specter.
Also having specter and the ability to produce 3 colors means that I can naturally cast things from almost every deck right now.
Couple days ago at a Theros Sealed PTQ I had one of my more awkward games in recent memory.
I had a Polis Crusher in play, and my opponent had an untapped Erebos's Emissary. I attacked with my Polis Crusher with multiple instants in hand thinking "If he blocks, I'll just kill it by giving my guy +1/+0 and First strike."
So he blocks with his emissary and discards to it. I cast my Coordinated Assault, and he discards another guy. Then I go to target my Polis Crusher with Bow of Nylea to give it +1/+1 when I realize "Oh, he has protection from enchantments. Oh, that means your guy won't deal damage to mine either...cool"
Then about 5 seconds later we both finally realized that he could never have even blocked. We just looked at each other for like 5 seconds with the blankest stares ever, completely speechless as to how we missed this. Then we called a judge.
The worst part about this is I am a judge myself. I was pretty embaressed about that one. =S
-4 desecration demon +4 liliana's reaver I watched many games in the pro tour highlight the demons weakness of being tapped down during critical turns. I've also been on the bad end of a control'ed demon more than a couple times. Little dudes are appearing more and more. Reaver has a couple advantages over the demon here. The major one is his interaction with whip, he will always gain life on offense or defense during critical turns. A whipped reaver always kills an untapped creature, or better forces discard and then leaves a 2/2 lifelink zombie token, fantastic against control.
Second is devotion, devotion aggro decks don't want to trade, black devotion is fine with trades as it is overpowering later on. They will race a few demon swings if they have too, but racing a reaver is much harder because they lose cards in hand as well as facing a free 2/2 zombie. They also have to leave an untapped blocker behind instead of saccing something that attacked/tapped for mana.
Last is the new interaction with lillianas - ability being sorcery before combat, the opponent has a chance to stop your demon swing when pumping or killing a blocker, reaver will always go ahead with the plan.
Not that a reaver is without drawbacks however, namely RED, all of it, dies to lightning strike and mortars, reckoner has first strike, stormbreath flys over now, and fanatic of mogis gladly trades after punching you in the face. At least red isn't splashed in every other deck now though.
So far I enjoy the new interactions with the reaver but I can't tell if its actually better for the deck more times then not. Anyone else have one too many demon failures and feel like using a more controlable zombie minion? I'd like to hear what it was good/bad against. I'm crossing my fingers for a BB zombie lord in one of the next couple sets lol!
I wish there were a better option honestly. Demon fills a very unique role that I don't think Reaver can take up. We want something at 4 mana with 5 or more toughness that can be good offensively or defensively. Right now, the only thing that fits that is Demon. Reaper of the Wilds is also very good (I'm splashing green), but the double black devotion from demon is more useful I think.
To be honest, I really, really like this list. I think it might be 1 Underworld Connections too many...but other than that, I'm a fan. I'd probably run 1x Mistcutter Hydra maindeck in its place.
4 does seem like a lot, but 3 felt like I was never seeing them when I wanted them. I was on 3 Connections and 2 Read the Bones, but I absolutely hate seeing Read the Bones when I am playing against anything aggressive. At least Underworld Connections adds 2 to my Gray Merchant drain against Aggro.
I've secretly been working on a version of this deck and I didn't even know it at first. I started out building a B/G Midrange/Rock variant and it slowly started to become more and more black heavy. Now I'm playing basically Mono Black splashing Green for some options. I noticed that you guys were talking about how Profit // Loss was not good if you weren't running white. Well, Golgari Charm does the same thing, but also has 2 other VERY relevant abilities, and that's what I have been using. Here's my current list.
Temple of Mysterys are in there because they are green sources that don't mess up being able to cast Nightveil Specter. The lands have been changing around a decent amount. I may want another Temple in there instead of the Golgari Guildgate. This will be much easier when I get the B/G Temple =( I hate guildgates.
If Deadbridge Chant's second ability would bring back a card with bestow, can you have it enter the battlefield as an aura targeting a creature?
Nope. You may only use a creature as an aura if you cast it for its Bestow cost. Deadbridge Chant isn't letting you cast the creature, it's simply putting it directly into play onto the battlefield. (wording change, my apologies.)
I played in the PTQ today (yesterday) and I just got land flooded every game. I went 1-2 and dropped. Needless to say I was frustrated. I drew so many lands and so many Aether Vials. I lost to U/W Gifts for god's sake.
I really like that list a lot. I love the focus on the synergies and intricacies of the deck. After tweaked and all that, this is what I am currently working with.
3 Judge's Familiar
4 Tidehollow Sculler
4 Leonin Arbiter
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4 Flickerwisp
3 Blade Splicer
2 Brimaz, King of Oreskos
2 Mangara of Corondor
3 Restoration Angel
1 Akroma, Angel of Fury
4 Aether Vial
4 Path to Exile
//Land
4 Godless Shrine
2 Isolated Chapel
4 Ghost Quarter
3 Tectonic Edge
1 Eiganjo Castle
7 Plains
2 Swamp
3 Burrenton Forge-Tender
3 Stony Silence
2 Eidolon of Rhetoric
2 Dismember
2 Rest In Peace
2 Pithing Needle
1 Engineered Explosives
Judge's Familiar is starting to feel really awkward to me. In some matchups it's great, but sometimes it's bad. In other matchups it's bad, but sometimes great. Since it's not 4, it's not always in your opening hand, and that's when you want to see it, but running 4 means you'll see it more often throughout the game. I am thinking about cutting it for something more consistent, or with more synergy. I'm thinking either slotting Pack Rat back in, or running some number of Stonecloaker or Whitemane Lion or Jotun Grunt. I like Jotun Grunt because he's big and cheap, but he doesn't really feel like he fits the deck's plan very well. I like Stonecloaker because he doubles as grave hate and can randomly win your fights against Tarmogoyf or Reanimator Strategies, and is very synergistic with Mangara, and our ETB effects, but our 3 drop spot seems crowded. I like Whitemane Lion. He's cheap, effective, synergistic, but is very lackluster and "vanilla" feeling. Pack Rat is great because he avoids flooding, and is actually useful in multiples.
So many choices. I love this deck for that reason. There are so many varieties of this deck that everyone plays their own sort of "flavor", and most of them are good.
Edit: Has anyone tried Crucible of Worlds? The old Crucible + Strip Mine lock...And with Pack rat you can discard lands and then play them. Just brainstorming here...
It's a 1 mana way to flip Akroma. What's not to like?
Akroma actually slipped my mind. I ran her in mono white a while back. I might slip her back in as a 1 of if I can find a spot.
Maybe it's bad. I want to at least try it and have it proven to me through my own testing. Mangara is good enough in legacy. I don't see why it is suddenly worse in modern. Sure we can't run Karakas, and that's a big part of it, but Cloudshift takes that place well enough while also allowing for so many other good interactions. It's "slow", yes, but legacy is way faster than Modern is, and it still sees play there. I think that if it's good enough for Legacy with Karakas, it's good enough in modern with our other options.
3 Judge's Familiar
4 Leonin Arbiter
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4 Tidehollow Sculler
4 Flickerwisp
3 Blade Splicer
2 Brimaz, King of Oreskos
3 Restoration Angel
2 Mangara of Corondor
4 Aether Vial
4 Path to Exile
2 Cloudshift
//Land
4 Ghost Quarter
3 Tectonic Edge
4 Godless Shrine
2 Isolated Chapel
1 Eiganjo Castle
6 Plains
3 Swamp
3 Stony Silence
2 Eidolon of Rhetoric
3 Burrenton Forge-Tender
2 Rest in Peace
1 Pithing Needle
2 Dismember
1 Disenchant
1 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
I'm trying this out. It's a build more based around the flicker tricks. It's also 61 cards. 23 lands feels like so many when you run Vial and you curve out at 4, and 22 Lands just doesn't feel like enough. 61 Cards lowers that ratio ever so slightly, so I think it's fine.
The sentiment was made that "Cloudshift doesn't do enough," but I disagree. At worst, it saves your creature from a removal spell. At best, it allows you more chances to do the ridiculous things that we all know the deck can do with flickerwisp and Resto Angel, but for only 1 mana. With Thalia, it's 2, but that's still a cheap price to pay for an instant speed 3/3 First Strike, or an exile effect from flickerwisp, or an exile permanently with Mangara, or exiling TWO cards with Tidehollow Sculler.
Also I don't think this was really touched on in the primer (I looked at the parts pertaining to Arbiter and didn't see it) but paying the 2 to ignore Leonin Arbiter's ability is a special action, meaning you can only do it when you have priority, not while a spell is resolving. The relevance of that is that your opponent has to pay the 2 mana before their search ability or spell resolves. That means you can respond by cloudshifting or resto angeling your arbiter. Then he becomes a new object, and they have to pay another 2 to ignore the new effect. Cloudshift makes this an actual reality a decent amount of times. Just food for thought.
I have also been thinking about adding Mangara to the deck again. I really like him as just a catch-all answer to anything, and just happens to be even better if you have a flicker effect. People say that the meta has sped up and that he's just too slow now, but I don't think that's the case. You're looking at turn 4 minimum to have him out and able to use his ability. That also puts a turn 1 vial at 3 which allows for wisp tricks. I think re-introducing stonecloaker to the mix, and maybe even the previously mentioned Cloudshift, and you have a lot of ways you can do tricky things. Even when he's not doing tricky things, he still answers some things that the deck has trouble answering otherwise, such as Pithing Needle, Blood Moon (for splash builds), Torpor Orb (And Hushwing Gryff soon!) and Emrakul. There were plenty of times when I just used an honest Mangara activation and it was enough.
Having turn 1 Vial into turn 2 Arbiter or Thalia or Sculler with that Force Spike backup is amazing, and the deck is very reliant on resolving its 2 drops. I can't imagine running anything else in those slots.
Being more control-ish, however, black may be able to benefit more from the Spirit of the Labyrinth + Mikokoro synergy. Having more draws to feed pack rat is great. I tested it for a while in Mono White and I didn't really like it though.
3 Judge's Familiar
4 Leonin Arbiter
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4 Tidehollow Sculler
3 Pack Rat
4 Flickerwisp
3 Blade Splicer
2 Brimaz, King of Oreskos
2 Restoration Angel
//Spells
4 Aether Vial
4 Path to Exile
4 Ghost Quarter
1 Tectonic Edge
2 Mutavault
4 Godless Shrine
3 Caves of Koilos
2 Isolated Chapel
1 Eiganjo Castle
4 Plains
2 Swamp
3 Stony Silence
3 Eidolon of Rhetoric
2 Burrenton Forge-Tender
2 Rest in Peace
1 Celestial Flare
1 Pithing Needle
2 Dismember
1 Disenchant
Round 1 was against Merfolk. He was running Fated Infatuation and Triton Shorestalker. He had to read every card I played, and didn't know that I could activate vial at instant speed. Game 1 he scooped because I played a Flickerwisp from Vial in response to him targetting Master of Waves with a Fated Infatuation, and was mad that he didn't get to scry. At the end he commented that "his deck would love Aether Vial" leading me to believe it was a budget deck. Games 2 he mulliganed to 5 and I am pretty sure his hand was 4 islands and Thassa. I scullered the thassa and he drew Triton Shorestalkers and Lords off the top every turn. Game three I had him dead unless he had exactly 2 creatures that couldn't be Fated Infatuation, Thassa or Merfolk Sovereign, and a Rapid Hybridization, and I had to not have a removal spell or flickerwisp or resto angel. He did, and I didn't. Didn't see any Paths in any of these games.
Round 2 was against Merfolk again, but worse. No Thassa, still no Vials (and didn't know what Vial was). Games went similar, but I actually drew Path to Exile a few times. Imagine that. I won.
Round 3 was against Goblins. Hurray for mono-colored creature based matchups. Game one he had the nuts, Foundry Street into Goblin Guide + Legion Loyalist and then a bunch of other 1 drops and burn spells. I couldn't keep up. For the record, this guy commented that he couldn't afford Goblin Guides so he only had 1 in the deck. He ALSO didn't have Aether vials, and commented about how good they would be in his deck. Game 2 went alright. I played big toughness creatures and vialed in Thalia to block, the usual. Game 3 he killed me by drawing at least 3 Goblin Grenades, I think it may have been 4.
When I looked at all of the other decks in the room, they were all USA Twin, Tron variants, a few storms, scapeshifts, junds and pods. One guy was running the event deck, which probably would have actually been bad for me. I got paired up against the only 2 merfolk decks in the room back to back, and the only 3 monocolored decks in the room back to back to back. Tough luck.
I also have a playmat sporting the logo for my sponsor.
3 Judge's Familiar
4 Leonin Arbiter
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4 Tidehollow Sculler
3 Pack Rat
4 Flickerwisp
3 Blade Splicer
2 Brimaz, King of Oreskos
1 Mangara of Corondor
2 Restoration Angel
4 Aether Vial
4 Path to Exile
//Land
4 Ghost Quarter
1 Tectonic Edge
2 Mutavault
4 Godless Shrine
2 Caves of Koilos
2 Isolated Chapel
1 Eiganjo Castle
4 Plains
2 Swamp
3 Stony Silence
3 Eidolon of Rhetoric
2 Burrenton Forge-Tender
2 Rest in Peace
2 Patrician's Scorn
1 Celestial Flare
1 Pithing Needle
1 Dismember
For those asking about Eidolon of Rhetoric against burn, yes, it's very good. I test a lot against burn, and I routinely side it in. It also basically wins the game against Storm. Just don't block a Goblin Electromancer with it, because you are just asking to get bolted.
Patrician's Scorn and Celestial Flare are a nod to Bogles in my meta. People love that deck here for some reason. If I get to the venue and don't see many Bogles, I will probably change those into dismembers and Mark of Asylum, or something. The Mangara will probably turn back into the 3rd Resto Angel. I have a soft spot for that card because of legacy, but in reality it's just not as good in this format with no Karakas.
As much as I like the consistency of the mono white build, Tidehollow Sculler and Pack Rat have been amazing to me in past (and current) standards, and seem invaluably good in testing. Pack Rat even helps the aggressive matchups. If they can't kill you before he comes down, the rats get out of control. Mutavault is great here too for that reason.
Any suggestions and help with the build would be great.
Temple of Enlightenment
Temple of Enlightenment
Island
Cloudfin Raptor
Frostburn Weird
Master of Waves
Thassa, God of the Sea
Do you play the Island and Cloudfin on turn one, and hope to draw a land that isn't tapped, or a Familiar?
Do you play Temple and hope to get another 1 drop on turn 2?
Do you play the Temple and then Cloudfin and the Second Temple on turn 2?
Do you just skip cloudfin altogether and play Temple, then Island and Frostburn?
What matchups would you feel more comfortable playing slowly with the Temple, Temple cloudfin play?
Cloudfin just seems awkward in some hands such as these where your lands come into play tapped. I'm just trying to figure out which I should play, and what factors change it, like matchup and what not.
4 Reaper of the Wilds
4 Nightveil Specter
4 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
2 Lifebane Zombie
2 Desecration Demon
1 Pack Rat
//Spells
3 Underworld Connections
3 Thoughtseize
2 Whip of Erebos
2 Hero's Downfall
1 Putrefy
2 Abrupt Decay
2 Ultimate Price
2 Devour Flesh
1 Gaze of Granite
4 Overgrown Tomb
3 Golgari Guildgate
3 Temple of Mystery
2 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
13 Swamp
3 Pharika's Cure
3 Duress
2 Dark Betrayal
2 Pithing Needle
2 Golgari Charm
1 Lifebane Zombie
1 Gaze of Granite
1 Erebos, God of the Dead
I haven't figured out a situation where I wanted Desecration Demon more than Reaper of the Wilds yet, hence the 4/2 split in favor of Reaper. Reaper is just so insane right now. I was running no Demons, but I think 2 is fine. He's still really good from the graveyard via Whip.
I rarely can't cast something in my deck due to color. Usually it's because I'll have Nykthos in my opening hand and draw into Specter or something, but that's rare. Only 2 lands that can't cast Specter.
Also having specter and the ability to produce 3 colors means that I can naturally cast things from almost every deck right now.
I had a Polis Crusher in play, and my opponent had an untapped Erebos's Emissary. I attacked with my Polis Crusher with multiple instants in hand thinking "If he blocks, I'll just kill it by giving my guy +1/+0 and First strike."
So he blocks with his emissary and discards to it. I cast my Coordinated Assault, and he discards another guy. Then I go to target my Polis Crusher with Bow of Nylea to give it +1/+1 when I realize "Oh, he has protection from enchantments. Oh, that means your guy won't deal damage to mine either...cool"
Then about 5 seconds later we both finally realized that he could never have even blocked. We just looked at each other for like 5 seconds with the blankest stares ever, completely speechless as to how we missed this. Then we called a judge.
The worst part about this is I am a judge myself. I was pretty embaressed about that one. =S
I wish there were a better option honestly. Demon fills a very unique role that I don't think Reaver can take up. We want something at 4 mana with 5 or more toughness that can be good offensively or defensively. Right now, the only thing that fits that is Demon. Reaper of the Wilds is also very good (I'm splashing green), but the double black devotion from demon is more useful I think.
4 does seem like a lot, but 3 felt like I was never seeing them when I wanted them. I was on 3 Connections and 2 Read the Bones, but I absolutely hate seeing Read the Bones when I am playing against anything aggressive. At least Underworld Connections adds 2 to my Gray Merchant drain against Aggro.
4 Desecration Demon
4 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
4 Nightveil Specter
3 Lifebane Zombie
1 Abhorrent Overlord
//Permanents
4 Underworld Connections
2 Whip of Erebos
//Spells
3 Thoughtseize
3 Hero's Downfall
2 Doom Blade
2 Abrupt Decay
2 Golgari Charm
1 Gaze of Granite
1 Devour Flesh
4 Overgrown Tomb
3 Golgari Guildgate
2 Temple of Mystery
2 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
1 Mutavault
13 Swamp
4 Pharika's Cure
2 Duress
2 Mistcutter Hydra
2 Pithing Needle
1 Fade into Antiquity
1 Erebos, God of the Dead
1 Golgari Charm
1 Devour Flesh
Powering up a huge Gaze of Granite or Mistcutter Hydra off of Nykthos is so much fun it should be illegal.
Temple of Mysterys are in there because they are green sources that don't mess up being able to cast Nightveil Specter. The lands have been changing around a decent amount. I may want another Temple in there instead of the Golgari Guildgate. This will be much easier when I get the B/G Temple =( I hate guildgates.
Nope. You may only use a creature as an aura if you cast it for its Bestow cost. Deadbridge Chant isn't letting you cast the creature, it's simply putting it directly
into playonto the battlefield. (wording change, my apologies.)