Grim Flayer

Creature — Human Warrior

Whenever Grim Flayer deals combat damage to a player, look at the top three cards of your library. Put any number of them into your graveyard and the rest back on top of your library in any order.

Delirium - Grim Flayer gets +2/+2 as long as there are four or more card types among cards in your graveyard.

Discussion (51)

abbatromebone on abzan buying an obliterator...

6 days ago

• Jund is amazing in every way except for you wallet. That is the worst part of jund. Discard spells impower your Tarmogoyf so running those is super important. Enough to want more Thoughtseize
• Dark Confidant is really good. It helps fight back the down side of discard cards. would recommand, and its early black devotion. Even when we take 5 on Gary when we cast him we heal so there is up side. Getting closer to our win con is always better. We dont need 20 life to win only 1.
• Scavenging Ooze is pretty powerful, you do have rest in peace in the SB but its still worth considering.
• Plague Engineer can help as well. Id play only one though. I see some decks play Murderous Rider as well as a one of.
• Collective Brutality is a very powerful card. I have been on the receiving end many times and lost because of the value this card gets you.
• I would recommend more removal. Espically at least 1x Abrupt Decay and one more Assassin's Trophy . Id be even more comfortable playing 2 more Fatal Push .
• The Reasons for blue: oko,3/3 elks, oko, and filtering with Snap caster. Unless you fight a lot of burn dont go blue.
• Reasons for red: Bolt is Life (cheap removal), Blood braid value (remember she was banned for some time), and wrenn and six. Jund is much more powerful than this build. That being said its not the archtype, and its wayyyyy more spendy.
• For land you want at least to "horizon lands" such as Nurturing Peatland and fast lands such as Blooming Marsh . Field of Ruin can also really help.
• Kitchen Finks is a great SB card and so is Fulminator Mage . Most play Nihil Spellbomb but you have white so you dont need this. By adding all this removal you wont need Damnation in your SB.
• Not a big fan of Mishra's Bauble or Grim Flayer . 10 Fetches is also a little high i would consider cutting down on those. To 6 or 8.
• You are abzan so i will say Worship is a card Giver of Runes Path to Exile and Angel's Grace are cards. As well as Siege Rhino . White also gets you Vizier of Remedies + Devoted Druid for infinite mana. - Tireless Tracker is also a good card draw engine although its not black.
• Other cards to consider Postmortem Lunge Eladamri's Call Finale of Devastation Sin Collector Eidolon of Rhetoric and Collector Ouphe

Grubbernaut on Midrange Sultai

1 week ago

4x Treasure Cruise seems a bit high, especially with no JVP; I might recommend going -1 Cruise, -1 Traverse the Ulvenwald , -1 Walking Ballista and +3 Jace, Vryn's Prodigy  ^Flip. This will make all of your cards a little better by filling the yard, and also be less of a nonbo for Grim Flayer when you delve away the yard with Cruise.

I think you also want 2-4 Fatal Push in the mix, and that'll also get better with JVP, for flashback potential. That being said, I think this looks like a good list that's a lot of fun. Sultai is fantastic in pioneer.

Cheers!

Argy on Abzan Midrange

3 weeks ago

I've playtested this now.

I'm unconvinced that Sorin, Vengeful Bloodlord is as good as Sorin, Solemn Visitor

I know you see this deck as fast, but I find that it plays more to the midrange.

As such, you could do with one or two more lands.

I would have gone with 24 for this build.

The Creature mix also doesn't feel quite right.

Four of most things is usually not a good way forward.

I'd think of something more like this:

3x Anafenza, the Foremost
3x Deathrite Shaman - best in the mid to late game
4x Fleecemane Lion
4x Gilded Goose
4x Grim Flayer
3x Murderous Rider - more than three feels like overkill
4x Siege Rhino

That gives you two extra slots for land.

I'd also think about dropping Abrupt Decay down to one copy, and using three Assassin's Trophy instead.

One of the decks I test against has that mix, and it seems to work well.

Hope that helps.

Nillstan on Abzan Midrange

3 weeks ago

the__odysseus

Theres actually an updated list now. You caught me in the middle of finalizing my testing. Here's the basic rundown, if that changes anything. Freebooter were cut for the Sorins. Theres now recursion, midrangy walkers, and even more versatility than there was before.

I could see Grim Flayer , but I took Fleecemane Lion over it for the sake of wrath control, though I've been considering cutting 2 mana Anafenza for it.

My 4's are too full for kalitas, and even though in testing it was good, it was far too clunky for my liking.

I could definitely consider scooze, as it could easily replace RIP for the sake of DRS.

Courser was too slow to work out. The deck is on the faster end of the spectrum.

the__odysseus on Abzan Midrange

3 weeks ago

In addition, you have a lack of recursive value. In play testing your deck, I noticed you can kind of stall out after t5, and your opponent has a wrath, you're in trouble I would suggest a strong midrange Planeswalker as a 2-3 of, or maybe multiple walkers. I wouldn't go above 3 for it though. Nissa, Voice of Zendikar , Gideon, Ally of Zendikar , Liliana, the Last Hope , and Kaya, Orzhov Usurper are all powerful walkers that can really help this deck. Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit seems like more of an ago card, as does Fleecemane Lion . Instead of the lion, might I suggest Grim Flayer ? It's another powerful 3 power 2 drop, but has more of a card advantage engine built in. It also feeds your Deathrite Shaman . For more versatility, I'd go an even 2-2 split on the Abrupt Decay 's with Assassin's Trophy . Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet is weirdly underrepresented an extremely powerful. Scavenging Ooze has shown it's power in modern, and would probably slide well into this deck. Courser of Kruphix is amazing. You don't have room for all of these cards, but I would definitely recommend sliding some of these in. Your deck looks sweet though!

Magnanimous on Abzan Midrange [[Primer]]

1 month ago

Deathrite Shaman , Scavenging Ooze , and Grim Flayer all require cards in the graveyard and you only have 3 Fabled Passage and 2 Collective Brutality to enable them. Smuggler's Copter and Grim Flayer can help, obviously, but I wouldn't want to rely on getting in to enable delirium.

Also, I generally dislike Smuggler's Copter in BGx decks with bigger creatures, seeing as it's roughly similar to something like your other powerful 2 and 3 drops in size, doesn't give much card advantage, and requires another chunky creature to tap down to enable it ( Deathrite Shaman is the only creature I would be happy not blocking/attacking with, but even then you're losing all the abilities).

I think you need more of a reason to splash white. Currently you have 5 lands that make white for 4 Siege Rhino s and 4 sideboard cards. I would cut white currently, possibly to splash blue for Oko, Thief of Crowns , Drown in the Loch , etc. If you really want to keep white, I don't think a single late-game threat is enough of a reason. So, you could mainboard a few of the sideboard white cards you put and/or add Anguished Unmaking and whatever other powerful white cards.

thegreatwizard on PIONEER - Abzan Midrange

1 month ago

It’s true that Walking Ballista is weak just as a removal spell, but it allows you to be proactive since it is a creature, and against control decks, for example, it is a great card rather than a dead draw like most removal spells would be. I would argue that Hushwing Gryff is not actually any better at beating Felidar Guardian combo decks than Walking Ballista is. Walking Ballista allows you to kill Saheeli Rai when she uses her -2, before she is exiled again. Also, I don't believe that your deck has a bad matchup against those combo decks anyway. You have plenty of ways to pressure their life total (e.g. Grim Flayer , Smuggler's Copter , etc.) and plenty of ways to disrupt the combo (e.g. Abrupt Decay , Murderous Rider , and Fatal Push + Fabled Passage ). I would focus the sideboard on dealing with dedicated control decks or other decks that can go over the top of what you're doing. I think a second planeswalker ( Elspeth, Sun's Champion ?) or another copy of Veil of Summer might be worth playing on the sideboard. Perhaps Knight of Autumn or other artifact/enchantment hate would be worthwhile as well.

Mike94 on Wait, Rhino's legal in this format? (Pioneer)

1 month ago

I wouldn't recommend Rest in Peace to be honest. Shuts down your Grim Flayer and has bad synergie with: Liliana, the Last Hope and Voice of Resurgence (the exile is a replacement effect so it doesn't die anymore). Leyline of the Void is where you wanna be I guess or Tormod's Crypt .