I removed the Myr Retriever ...2 is a bit expensive for a creature in my deck...it must offer a great advantage or it just slows things down. The option of recovering an artifact from my graveyard was not that interesting when I playtested it. I'd rather use that 2 mana to clamp 2 creatures and draw 4 cards.
I removed one Syr Konrad, the Grim, 5 is expensive to play and Zulaport Cutthroat is more interesting for the price and can also be used as clamp fodder if I need to draw cards. I will surely add 2 more cutthroat when I can get my hands on them.
I am unsure abut the Stitcher's Supplier ...the only cards left that interact with it are the Bloodghast, Cabal Ritual and the cats...maybe I should replace them and the cabal ritual with something else.
I am looking for a creature that would cost 1 and that would provide two creatures...like a black version of Doomed Traveler if that exists. Maybe Unearth or Animate Dead would be interesting if I mill myself so much.
The color that I was closest to adding is red, for Mayhem Devil, which would trigger damage both when the food is sacrificed and when the cat is sacrificed.
I tried the deck friday, it was very strong...
Turn 1: Cat,
Turn 2: Cat and Oven
Turn 3: Dark Ritual, Grafted Wargear, Zulaport Cutthroat
Turn 4: Unwinding clock
...and everyone else died at that point
I dont think white would significantly improve the deck...Athreos, God of Passage would actually prevent my Bloodghast from going to the graveyard, which would be a problem for me.
What I also like is his flexibility in allowing you to help your partners in multiplayer games. I almost never play "free-for-all" type of games and I always have one or two other players that I am looking to help and the possibility to haste their creatures or give them extra life can have a significant impact for me.
I recently completed a bunch of trades and acquired 6 copies of the card....I will be playing him with Training Grounds in one deck and with Fires of Invention in another deck.
I have 3 Bloodghast in another deck and I have been thinking about moving them to this one before I saw your answer. Especially since the Stitcher's Supplier could toss them in the graveyard for me.
I'm just not sure how I would replace them in the other deck. It's a mono-black deck that runs on Skullclamp with a lot of 4 drops (Abyssal Persecutor and Phyrexian Obliterator) but does little in the early game. Maybe I could replace the ghasts with Dark Ritual.
Cauldron of Souls can push things "over the fence" in several situations.
If you have Cauldron + Unwinding Clock, every turn you can sacrifice cats to the oven and they will come back and die once more when sacrificed to add one extra trigger.
If you have Cauldron + several creatures, you can give persist to each of them and wipe your board one by one by doing something like moving your Grafted Wargear around for several triggers.
The persist ability with Syr Konrad, the Grim will trigger both when the creature dies and when the creatures leaves the graveyard.
If you have Cauldron + Butcher Ghoul, you can sacrifice the Ghoul to something, it comes back with a +1/+1 and then give it persist, sacrifice it again to something, resolve the persist instead of the undying ability, it comes back to die again and comes back with a +1/+1 counter. Overall, you had a creature that died 3 times, left the graveyard 2 times and came into play 2 times....the various triggers add up and the creature is still in play so you can repeat something similar on the next turn.
Plus Cauldron allows to protect your partner's creature in multiplayer games.
I am working on a "Cat in the oven" deck. The idea is to manage to go nuts with Bolas's Citadel, Skullclamp and tons of effects that make opponents lose 1 life.
The deck has 62 cards right now, I have to take out two.
The most surprising card in there is Grafted Wargear ...I didnt expect much at first but the card fits very well, it boosts my cats to allow them to deal significant damage, I can sacrifice them for two foods to feed my engine and I can use them to sacrifice creatures when I have no other sacrifice outlet (I equip the creature and I move the equipment)...it is useful when I already gave persist to the creature and I want it to die for it to come back and cause loss of life for my opponents.
The other cards are pretty obvious.
I want a better replacement for Reassembling Skeleton ...2 mana to play it and another 2 to bring it back is too much so I always end up spending my mana on something else.
My sideboard is common for all my decks so some cards in there dont make sense (like Carpet of Flowers or Constant Mists) but the rest should be useful.
Some cards are there for fun or to try how they will behave in the deck...this is still far from the final version.
I found that I need several cards with casting cost lower than 4 to make sure that I can interract with the game before turn 4. Bonecrusher Giant is a great card for this...I'm thinking of adding 1-2 more.
There are several interesting interractions that can easily happen....for example, Molten Primordial + Rite of Replication kicker on it to get every creatures of my opponents and attack with them + 5 primordials. or to use the primordial to get the strongest creatures of my opponents and then cast Barter in Blood after combat to sacrifice these creatures instead of sacrificing mine. I can discard Dimir House Guard to look for Barter in blood if I dont have it in my hand when I play primordial.
I built a quick deck with some rag-tag stuff that I could find. I was able to use Tetzimoc, primal death to put prey counters on a few creatures and then cast it for free with Fires on the same turn.
On the next game, they feared my deck a bit more and my Fires of Invention always got countered or disenchanted. I will work on improving the deck.
4 Cauldron Familiar
4 Stitcher's Supplier
3 Bloodghast
2 Zulaport Cutthroat
3 Ayara, First of Locthwain
1 Crypt Ghast
2 Syr Konrad, the Grim
1 Sol Ring
4 Witch's Oven
4 Skullclamp
2 Grafted Wargear
1 Unwinding Clock
2 Bolas's Citadel
1 Attrition
Spells (6)
4 Dark Ritual
1 Cabal Ritual
1 Liliana's Triumph
Lands (20)
2 Castle Lochtwain
18 Swamp
I removed the Myr Retriever ...2 is a bit expensive for a creature in my deck...it must offer a great advantage or it just slows things down. The option of recovering an artifact from my graveyard was not that interesting when I playtested it. I'd rather use that 2 mana to clamp 2 creatures and draw 4 cards.
I removed one Syr Konrad, the Grim, 5 is expensive to play and Zulaport Cutthroat is more interesting for the price and can also be used as clamp fodder if I need to draw cards. I will surely add 2 more cutthroat when I can get my hands on them.
I am unsure abut the Stitcher's Supplier ...the only cards left that interact with it are the Bloodghast, Cabal Ritual and the cats...maybe I should replace them and the cabal ritual with something else.
I am looking for a creature that would cost 1 and that would provide two creatures...like a black version of Doomed Traveler if that exists. Maybe Unearth or Animate Dead would be interesting if I mill myself so much.
I tried the deck friday, it was very strong...
Turn 1: Cat,
Turn 2: Cat and Oven
Turn 3: Dark Ritual, Grafted Wargear, Zulaport Cutthroat
Turn 4: Unwinding clock
...and everyone else died at that point
I dont think white would significantly improve the deck...Athreos, God of Passage would actually prevent my Bloodghast from going to the graveyard, which would be a problem for me.
I changed the deck a bit, I added 2 more Stitcher's Supplier, a Cabal Ritual and some Zulaport Cutthroat...I will post a new decklist soon, I have to go.
I recently completed a bunch of trades and acquired 6 copies of the card....I will be playing him with Training Grounds in one deck and with Fires of Invention in another deck.
I needed something to remove anyway =)
I'm just not sure how I would replace them in the other deck. It's a mono-black deck that runs on Skullclamp with a lot of 4 drops (Abyssal Persecutor and Phyrexian Obliterator) but does little in the early game. Maybe I could replace the ghasts with Dark Ritual.
If you have Cauldron + Unwinding Clock, every turn you can sacrifice cats to the oven and they will come back and die once more when sacrificed to add one extra trigger.
If you have Cauldron + several creatures, you can give persist to each of them and wipe your board one by one by doing something like moving your Grafted Wargear around for several triggers.
The persist ability with Syr Konrad, the Grim will trigger both when the creature dies and when the creatures leaves the graveyard.
If you have Cauldron + Butcher Ghoul, you can sacrifice the Ghoul to something, it comes back with a +1/+1 and then give it persist, sacrifice it again to something, resolve the persist instead of the undying ability, it comes back to die again and comes back with a +1/+1 counter. Overall, you had a creature that died 3 times, left the graveyard 2 times and came into play 2 times....the various triggers add up and the creature is still in play so you can repeat something similar on the next turn.
Plus Cauldron allows to protect your partner's creature in multiplayer games.
4 Cauldron Familiar
2 Stitcher's Supplier
4 Butcher Ghoul
3 Reassembling Skeleton
3 Ayara, First of Lochtwain
1 Crypt Ghast
3 Syr Konrad, the Grim
1 Sol Ring
4 Witch's Oven
4 Skullclamp
2 Myr Retriever
2 Grafted Wargear
1 Unwinding Clock
2 Cauldron of Souls
2 Bolas's Citadel
1 Attrition
Spells (5)
4 Dark Ritual
1 Liliana's Triumph
Lands (20)
2 Castle Lochtwain
18 Swamp
The deck has 62 cards right now, I have to take out two.
The most surprising card in there is Grafted Wargear ...I didnt expect much at first but the card fits very well, it boosts my cats to allow them to deal significant damage, I can sacrifice them for two foods to feed my engine and I can use them to sacrifice creatures when I have no other sacrifice outlet (I equip the creature and I move the equipment)...it is useful when I already gave persist to the creature and I want it to die for it to come back and cause loss of life for my opponents.
The other cards are pretty obvious.
I want a better replacement for Reassembling Skeleton ...2 mana to play it and another 2 to bring it back is too much so I always end up spending my mana on something else.
Thank you for your advices.
Syr Konrad, the Grim
Mire in Misery
Liliana's Triumph
...it's hard to make room for new stuff.
Current decklist:
3 Bloodghast
2 Crypt Ghast
4 Abyssal Persecutor
4 Phyrexian Obliterator
2 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
2 Syr Konrad, the Grim
1 Kokusho, the Evening Star
1 Sepulchral Primordial
1 Griselbrand
1 Sol Ring
4 Skullclamp
Enchantment (2)
2 Necromancy
Spells (11)
1 Demonic Tutor
2 Liliana's Triumph
2 Mire in Misery
1 Torment of Hailfire
1 Virtus's Maneuver
1 Syphon Mind
2 Tendrils of Corruption
1 Rise of the Dark Realms
2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
3 Cabal Coffers
17 Swamp
I just wish Oko wasnt that expensive...I would like to run some in my elk deck =)
4 Ghost-Lit Warder
1 Bonecrusher Giant
1 Glen Elendra Archmage
4 Dimir House Guard
1 Clackbridge Troll
2 Warchief Giant
2 Tetzimoc, Primal Death
2 Combustible Gearhulk
2 Molten Primordial
Artifacts (3)
1 Sol Ring
2 Mind's Eye
Enchantments (4)
4 Fires of Invention
Spells (13)
1 Ancestral Vision
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Liliana's Triumph
1 Vona's Hunger
2 Syphon Mind
1 Barter in Blood
1 Mastermind's Acquisition
2 Rite of Replication
1 Decimate
1 Time Warp
1 Capital Punishment
2 Luxury Suite
2 Morphic Pool
3 Sunken Ruins
2 Cascade Bluffs
1 Crumbling Necropolis
1 Minamo, School at Water's Edge
4 Swamp
2 Island
4 Mountain
1 Strip Mine
1 Maze of Ith
1 Infernal Reckoning
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Mystic Remora
1 Carpet of Flowers
1 Balance
1 The Elderspell
1 Winter Orb
1 Animate Dead
1 Hull Breach
1 Constant Mists
1 Shatterstorm
1 Time Spiral
1 Blasphemous Act
My sideboard is common for all my decks so some cards in there dont make sense (like Carpet of Flowers or Constant Mists) but the rest should be useful.
Some cards are there for fun or to try how they will behave in the deck...this is still far from the final version.
I found that I need several cards with casting cost lower than 4 to make sure that I can interract with the game before turn 4. Bonecrusher Giant is a great card for this...I'm thinking of adding 1-2 more.
There are several interesting interractions that can easily happen....for example, Molten Primordial + Rite of Replication kicker on it to get every creatures of my opponents and attack with them + 5 primordials. or to use the primordial to get the strongest creatures of my opponents and then cast Barter in Blood after combat to sacrifice these creatures instead of sacrificing mine. I can discard Dimir House Guard to look for Barter in blood if I dont have it in my hand when I play primordial.
On the next game, they feared my deck a bit more and my Fires of Invention always got countered or disenchanted. I will work on improving the deck.