Butcher Ghoul

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Legality

Format Legality
1v1 Commander Legal
Archenemy Legal
Arena Legal
Block Constructed Legal
Canadian Highlander Legal
Casual Legal
Commander / EDH Legal
Commander: Rule 0 Legal
Custom Legal
Duel Commander Legal
Gladiator Legal
Highlander Legal
Historic Legal
Legacy Legal
Leviathan Legal
Limited Legal
Modern Legal
Oathbreaker Legal
Pauper Legal
Pauper Duel Commander Legal
Pauper EDH Legal
Planechase Legal
Quest Magic Legal
Tiny Leaders Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

Butcher Ghoul

Creature — Zombie

Undying (When this creature dies, if it had no +1/+1 counter on it, return it to the battlefield under its owner's control with a +1/+1 counter on it.)

jarncards on Dead WOMan Walking

11 months ago

Fiend Artisan is green

I think Sidisi, Undead Vizier is awful unless you use a lot of reanimate effects, it's just so expensive to tutor. Geth, Lord of the Vault is crazy strong, but he's a totally different deck most of the time. I'd dump Liliana's Steward too. You and one other player go down a card, putting the rest of the table ahead of you by one card, but they also get to choose, so you're never going to get the card you want out of their hand.

Hobbling Zombie and other cards like it, like Putrid Goblin are excellent at keeping attacks away from you while you build up your board. and the pseudo revival effects let you abuse a lot of other zombie mechanics. Butcher Ghoul, and Geralf's Messenger or Doomed Dissenter are ok too. i wouldnt use Sightless Ghoul though. They are all better than Reassembling Skeleton though. Keep Relentless Dead. Im not sure if they make the cut, but they arent scary, but that means they are good at keeping a target off your back til youre readyfor one.

Magus of the Bridge is great for a non-zombie. Probably use it over Tainted Adversary, i feel like that one just costs way too much before its good. Dreadhorde Invasion is incredibly good, as is Mikaeus, the Unhallowed. i'd put those in for sure.Tormod, the Desecrator is still really good. Zombie Trailblazer is devastating to the person sitting to your left in particular or anyone playing five colors/ not black. When you REALLY need someone to not cast a spell. make all their lands swamps during the upkeep. almost every board wipe is a sorcery.

I think you might want to dump Thought Vessel for Mind Stone or even Blood Pet. In many cases discarding is beneficial to zombies. If you want to keep infinite hand size, Zombie Infestation and discard at will cards are pretty helpful.

I think Noxious Ghoul is the single best zombie card in the game, in this deck it basically says, tap your commander, wipe everyone else's boards. Use it.

Sutured Ghoul is runner up. If you include it and other high power zombies like Rotting Regisaur you can put him out as a 20+/xx easily, and then get 2/2s. HE doesnt play nice with mass reanimate, but he's an alternate win condition on his own. also its a great tool since youre probably gonna sac the dino and Phyrexian Soulgorger pretty quickly. If you sacrifice him on the end step before your turn i think you will almost always have a game ending horde.

Gray Merchant of Asphodel is utterly stupid. The absolute best reanimate target you could hope for. and since your card draw is gonna cost a ton of life, hes always going to be valuable. Whip of Erebos is probably the only other reasonable lifegain choice.That one makes aggressive attacking suddenly super safe

Jadar, Ghoulcaller of Nephalia is really cheap at making zombies if you dont have any other sources of decayed zombs. they cant block, but you get so many death triggers

Graveborn Muse is great card draw.

Hatred is usually better than Endless Scream

I think Gempalm Polluter is fantastic. its card draw, puts a big zombie into your graveyard, and hurts a player if things are going well.

I don't think Endless Ranks of the Dead is that great, but it certainly is cool. Wand of Orcus is really cool too. I'm not sure if its good though.

Board wipes will shut you down as you have things right now. Crowded Crypt and Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet, that way, even if there's a board wipe you still have a whole army of zombs to multiply even after everything is dead. Rise of the Dread Marn is another fantastic option that you can abuse if you run things like Carrion Feeder too. Run Carrion Feeder, period. It lets you loop gravecrawler and saves yourself from control magic and exile spells.

Consider Toxic Deluge and STRONGLY CONSIDER Nevinyrral's Disk. Single target removal like tragic slip is ok because you can choose when things die, but other cards like Malicious Affliction are going to miss a lot of key targets. And you absolutely need to have a way to clear artifacts and especially enchantments.

Dark Salvation is pretty cool. not sure if it is good enough, but i'd use it rather than some of your spot removal.

Liliana, Dreadhorde General is really absurdly strong if you can get it out, and even if it dies the next turn you can draw a bunch off of it. Liliana, Heretical Healer  Flip you already know is great.

If you diversify your black lands, Field of the Dead is the best land. its silly how good it is. I'll start you off with the autoinclude Unholy Grotto. Malakir Rebirth  Flip is too.

I'll see what you make and see if i find anything else. later

Tur on Hidden Power - Mono-Color - …

1 year ago

Hello everyone! This will be a forum post for a "Commander - Hidden Power" series. My goal is to show relatively inexpensive cards which are often overlooked by commander players in semi-competitive and casual play. (This post is not designed for competitive play.) If you enjoy the topic, please upvote the post or provide positive feedback and I will consider creating similar posts.

The powerful cards I plan on discussing are mono-color cards which are strong with big mana in commander.

I will provide one card per mono-color identity. These cards will not include x-spells nor multi-color identity spells. (I.e. no Torment of Hailfire nor Zacama, Primal Calamity)

It is obvious that big mana is a huge part of semi-competitive play. Whether it is from ramping through creatures, artifacts, enchantments, instants, sorceries, or lands. Big mana is pretty fun. Mana doubling effects from lands are especially useful. In this article, I'll be focusing on mana doubling from lands, but other ways to generate big mana are always possible

Here are some common big mana effects for each mono-color identity:

This is not an all inclusive list as Mana Flare, Heartbeat of Spring, Keeper of Progenitus, Sword of Feast and Famine, et cetera would work just as well. In each mono-color identity the artifacts Caged Sun, Gauntlet of Power, and Extraplanar Lens can be used, however the black and green color identities have an advantage for mono-color double mana effects. Furthermore, green contains cards such as Seedborn Muse, Awakening, and Wilderness Reclamation which allow for more interactions.

Well, let us begin in WUBRG order!

White: Sacred Mesa

This card is relatively unused. According to EDHREC, Sacred Mesa is played in 1511/849227 (0%) decklists and is under one dollar. You'd be surpized how powerful this card is with double mana. Imagine making some number of pegasus at instant speed as either blockers or attackers for your next turn. (The upkeep cost can be paid by making a summoning sick pegasus during your turn.) Not to mention power and toughness buffing effects are ideal with Sacred Mesa, examples include Dictate of Heliod, Cathars' Crusade, Caged Sun, or Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite.

It is often compared to Luminarch Ascension because they have similar effects. Yes, it makes a 4/4 angel instead of a 1/1 pegasus.

However, Luminarch Ascension has many downsides:

  • You have to have four quest counters to use the ability. (That is, you have to not lose life during an opponents turn four times.) This creates a huge target on your life total and you'll see it surely chip away.
  • Bounce effects, such as Cyclonic Rift really mess it up. Welcome back to square one!
  • Common cards, such as Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider prevent quest counters from even occurring. Vampire Hexmage or Hex Parasite are also options to remove the counters.

Sacred Mesa is way more versatile and does not have such downsides. Not to mention is it only three mana, ideal for Sun Titan recursion.

Blue: Compulsion

It is very rare to see this wonderful card. According to EDHREC, Compulsion is played in 1000/945324 (0%) decklists and is under one dollar. Having an activated draw ability with very little downside on a blue enchantment is insane. Ideal when paired with Teferi's Ageless Insight or Thought Reflection. There are a few cards which have a similar effect, such as Triskaidekaphile or Kefnet the Mindful without having to discard a card, but having a two mana activation is much more versatile. I suppose that an argument could be made with Training Grounds, but that is too much just to make the Kefnet the Mindful ability more cost effective. Furthermore, discarding a specific card like Echo of Eons, Wonder, or a shuffle Eldrazi such as Kozilek, Butcher of Truth has some nice synergy. (In fact, it should be played in most bant enchantress decks, such as the commander Tuvasa the Sunlit. Replenish for life!)

Black: Chainer, Dementia Master

This is a wonderful card, but a little pricey compared to the previous two cards. According to EDHREC, Chainer, Dementia Master is played in 6344/983251 (1%) decklists and is approximately ten dollars. Yes, we all know that you can abuse Chainer, Dementia Master with Gray Merchant of Asphodel or Kokusho, the Evening Star with sacrifice outlets such as Phyrexian Altar. Suppose we don't want to abuse this card into the ground is it still just good card? Yes. We can fill up or graveyard with Buried Alive or Entomb and get back a creature card, or we can grab a creature card from an opponents graveyard. It can also be used to interrupt graveyard combos, such as Aristocrats by using the ability on an opponents Butcher Ghoul with the undying trigger on the stack.

Red: Scourge of Kher Ridges

An extremely powerful and undervalued card. According to EDHREC, Scourge of Kher Ridges is played in 1005/912333 (0%) decklists and is under three dollars. If you're able to untap with Sourge of Kher Ridges and double mana, your opponents are going to have a rough time. As you can put multiple activations on the stack, it provides you with a very high on-board presence. Even within a response to removal. I've heard players complain that Scourge of Kher Ridges dies too quick to removal and my answer is "from your opponents perspective it needs to die before you're able to untap". Ideal with lifelink (and deathtouch) equipment such as Basilisk Collar or Shadowspear.

Green: Kamahl, Fist of Krosa

Typically unseen in play. According to EDHREC, Kamahl, Fist of Krosa is played in 4786/880991 (1%) decklists and is approximately five dollars. It is odd how unused Kamahl, Fist of Krosa is compared to Ezuri, Renegade Leader when they basically have the same effect. Overrun as an activated ability which is stackable multiple times. I agree that Ezuri, Renegade Leader is better in elf tribal decks, however Kamahl, Fist of Krosa is great in most big mana decks. Ideal for wide aggro. Tall aggro will gain the benefit of trample. If you don't have extra creatures you can animate your lands as 1/1 attackers, correction 7/7 attackers. (Pretty interesting because these attackers get around Cyclonic Rift, they're lands.) You can also get some payback by animating your opponents lands in response to a creature board wipe. (From that reasoning it can be paired with cards such as Ascendant Evincar and Crovax, Ascendant Hero to destroy opponents lands through animation.)

All in all, these are relatively unused cards which have a lot hidden power with big mana. If your deck is mono-colored and designed for big mana spells or abilities, think about giving these cards a chance. See if they work well for you and your playgroup.

ShiningEyes on juggling the health

1 year ago

Hiya! So a couple things One, enjoy playing casual. There's no need to actively push to change your deck if you don't want to. Two, welcome! Mtg is a blast, and I've been playing over 20 years now.

Now into actual feedback.

In Mtg, there are a couple of balancing acts a deck needs to perform. One of the most challenging ones for a new player to embrace is the idea of a Mana Curve. This is a much-praised concept that effectively says you want to be doing something on most turns of the game, and that generally you want to be doing the best stuff you can in a turn. This deck is missing 1-mana cards, and is running a lot of 5-6 mana cards for a deck that isn't trying to stop your opponent along the way. Here's some budget, casual low drops that I think you might really enjoy! Lightning Bolt is a classic card, and due to some recent reprints is currently a bargain at about $.50 per copy. On the creature side, you might consider Vampire Lacerator, since you've listed your goal as making bigger creatures than your opponents. Or, if raw damage potential is of more interest, you might consider Night Market Lookout.

Your removal cards, currently mostly sorceries, have solid upsides and also cost a lot of mana. You might find more success looking for a nimbler option. To keep things casual and also really high-quality, consider Terminate. Or, if planeswalkers are a problem for you, consider the similarly inexpensive and quality card Hero's Downfall.

Another balancing act that decks perform is consistency vs. utility. The fewer cards that are the same or have the same effect your deck is running, the less likely your deck is to play the same way from one game to the next. That said, if you play a bunch of copies of the same card (4 is the limit in a typical casual 60-card format), your deck will get to do the same game plan each game, but is likelier to run into a wall if your opponent is doing something particularly good against your strategy. Currently, your deck is really high variability, which is generally considered frustrating in a 60-card format. If you love that concept, look into the Rules of Commander. It's a popular casual format that encourages variability by saying anything other than a basic land, you may only have one copy in your deck.

There's also the challenge of balancing a theme, sometimes also called a tribe. Some decks run the best cards they have available. Others try to build around a particular theme, and make that theme run as smoothly as possible. The up and downsides here are much like with consistency, where the harder you commit to your theme the more likely it is to work, but also the more likely you are to run into problems you can't solve with the tools available to you. Right now, the deck is a little scattered. For example, Maze Abomination is particularly good when a creature is two or more colors. But you don't appear to be running any creatures that are two or more colors, so its upside isn't very helpful. What you do seem to have is a budding Sacrifice theme, often known as Aristocrats, a nickname derived from the card Falkenrath Aristocrat. To lean a little harder into that theme, I might recommend looking at Body Dropper, a recent common to get some more reward for your sacrificing. Blood Aspirant is very similar. Butcher Ghoul is a great low-drop creature that can be sacrificed multiple times. Rekindling Phoenix Does a similar thing, but on a bigger, flying creature. Blazing Hellhound is a solid mid-sized creature with a pretty good upside. If you're looking for a big beater that can win games, consider something like Demonlord of Ashmouth or Titan Hunter. What's the downside to running a lot of sacrifice effects? Well, cards like Yasharn, Implacable Earth can really slow down your whole deck until you find that Terminate or similar. As a new player, I wouldn't worry too much about this. Play your theme, play it to your heart's content, and worry about how your opponent is going to stop you once you have some more games under your belt.

Welcome to the game! There's a lot you can learn. Try to have patience with yourself as you discover your own favorite way to build decks and play. Feel free to ask any questions you have.

Gidgetimer on Custom commander Sewer Slime

2 years ago

To address your general speed problem, you are running 33 lands and 6 ramp with an average CMC of 3.57. This is entirely too mana light in my opinion. In my Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons deck I also run 33 lands, but have 11 ramp and an average CMC of 3.10. The ramp that I run that isn't in here is: Birds of Paradise, Devoted Druid, Llanowar Elves, Golgari Signet, Three Visits, Nature's Lore, and Wild Growth. Farseek always puts the land in tapped, so I run Three Visits and Nature's Lore over it since they grab the same duals. I'm not sure why I don't have STE in my list, though it runs well enough that I am not looking for more ramp. Since your average CMC is higher you may want to go with 13 ramp and just keep the ones you have and add all 5 of the additions.

To help with having sac fodder you are going to want creatures that recur themselves. You already have Reassembling Skeleton, but undying and persist would also let you recycle creatures for multiple activations. Puppeteer Clique, Rendclaw Trow, Woodfall Primus, Young Wolf, Strangleroot Geist, Geralf's Messenger, and Butcher Ghoul are all fine includes in a deck that wants to kill off it's own creatures in some way. Mikaeus, the Unhallowed will also grant all of your non-human creatures undying.

Burst card draw can be achieved with the black cards for life sorceries (Night's Whisper, Sign in Blood, Read the Bones, Ancient Craving). You can sustain card draw with Smothering Abomination, Phyrexian Arena, Skullclamp and Necropotence.

I think you could do with a few more sacrifice outlets as well, so I would add Viscera Seer and Phyrexian Altar. Viscera Seer also provides card filtering.

The following topics will help improve the deck in terms of pure strength, but may not be how you or your playgroup is wanting to play magic. Everyone's idea of fun is different, so I am going to include the suggestions in case they are something that both you and your group find acceptable.

Above some cards were mentioned that have the possibility to combo with cards already in the deck or with each other. Each card however is good in its own right and does not have to be used in the combos. If you are willing to go combo with the deck I will further explain these and also add some other cards specifically for the purpose of combos.

Yawgmoth and two undying creatures create a loop where you sacrifice the undying creatures in order to put -1/-1 counters on each other. It costs a life per iteration, but would give you the death triggers for your commander and for Gutter Grime. Adding in Blood Artist, Zulaport Cutthroat, or other similar effects gains you the life back and turns the loop into a win condition.

Mikaeus, the Unhallowed and any of the persist creatures allow for infinite sacrifice loops as the creature will come back with alternating +1/+1 and -1/-1 counters. Walking Ballista and Triskelion combo with Mikaeus and allow for infinite damage loops, in the case of Ballista you need a sacrifice outlet though. Things that enter with -1/-1 counters or that allow you to remove their +1/+1 counters for other reasons will also have similar interactions without the infinite damage.

With Devoted Druid you can add in Quillspike for shenanigans with infinite power Quillspike via tapping for green, untapping by putting a -1/-1 counter, adding power by paying green and removing the -1/-1 counter. This can be done with necrotic ooze as a 1-card combo if both pieces are in your graveyard. You can also get infinite death triggers by repeatedly killing Devoted Druid with Mikaeus out by activating the untap ability when she is not tapped.

Instead of card number advantage from drawing you could get card quality advantage from tutoring. In Golgari you have access to the best creature tutors and the best all around tutors available. Eldritch Evolution, Green Sun's Zenith, Worldly Tutor, and Finale of Devastation for creatures. Vampiric Tutor, Demonic Tutor, and Grim Tutor for all around.

multimedia on commander horde

2 years ago

Hey, nice start on a budget with upgrading the Wilhelt precon. In the deck editor you can add CMDR tag to Wilhelt text making him the official Commander of your deck.

1x Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver *CMDR*

You currently have 2x Rooftop which can't have in Commander. Some cards here that are in my opinion not worth playing because there's better options on a budget.

Dreadhorde Invasion and Midnight Reaper are in the Wilhelt precon, consider adding them back in? They're some of the better cards in the precon because of they're repeatable effects especially Invasion with Wilhelt.

If interested I offer more advice. Good luck with your deck.

multimedia on The Undying

2 years ago

Hey, nice casual budget version, but are undying creatures other than Mikaeus and Flayer really worth it?

Consider more enablers to get +1/+1 counters on your creatures?

If you're going for an attacking strategy then consider a few more fliers that have some added value when they die or when they ETB?

Bloodtracker + Sword of Hours is a nice interaction. Some sac outlets are helpful to sac creatures who have counters to get their die or ETB triggers.

You have several high CMC creatures here, more reanimation and enablers could help.

Olivia, Mobilized for War is a +1/+1 counter enabler and an enabler for reanimation.


Some cards to consider cutting:

Good luck with your deck.

Saccox on Immortal Counters Pezzent! (10/12 Euro/$)

2 years ago

Hi wallisface,thanks for your comment! 1) i prefering the addictional cost of Spark Harvest. 2) i can increase creatures but Blisterpod and Butcher Ghoul are valid for two. and you can utilize Butcher Ghoul many times with Retribution of the Ancients

DevoMelvminster on Everything Mono-Black (Competitive EDH)

2 years ago

Hey man, i notice you don’t have any undying creatures. These are the BEST creatures with Yawgmoth, Thran Physician as hexan just slap them with a -1/-1 counter to reset them.

Butcher Ghoul , Sightless Ghoul , and Treacherous Pit-Dweller are great and could replace some of your other token creators. Or run big daddy Mikaeus, the Unhallowed to give anything undying. Gray Merchant of Asphodel with undying, and yawgmoth reseting it? You just won.

Cards like Blight Mound , and Nest of Scarabs also pop off hard with yawgmoth.

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