Hell's Caretaker

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Legality

Format Legality
1v1 Commander Legal
Archenemy Legal
Block Constructed Legal
Canadian Highlander Legal
Casual Legal
Commander / EDH Legal
Commander: Rule 0 Legal
Custom Legal
Duel Commander Legal
Highlander Legal
Legacy Legal
Leviathan Legal
Limited Legal
Modern Legal
Oathbreaker Legal
Oldschool 93/94 Legal
Planechase Legal
Premodern Legal
Quest Magic Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

Hell's Caretaker

Creature — Horror

, Sacrifice a creature: Return target creature card from your graveyard to play. Play this ability only during your upkeep.

DreadKhan on Sauron, The Dark Lord Commander Deck

2 months ago

I feel like this deck should look pretty hard at Relic of Sauron, it's one of the best mana rocks for a Grixis deck, it also offers card draw and a discard outlet when you don't need the mana. I also feel like you might want more ramp, but I'm not sure I'd shave the land count too much further. I do have much higher average MV decks with similar land counts, they tend to run a lot of ramp though!

I've always liked the idea of evasive Changelings in this deck, the best being Changeling Outcast, but Mistwalker is also good, Mothdust Changeling less so but still interesting, evasion is really good on an Army in here. Taurean Mauler might be worth throwing in too, any of these is infinitely better than trying to use a token as the base for your army. Amoeboid Changeling can make any creature an army (to trigger Sauron). You might even try Maskwood Nexus, you can always choose not to wheel your hand away if you're happy with it (could be an issue if you're getting in with several armies in a turn).

Since Sauron discards your hand before he draws a new one you might want to look into some recursion effects, Black is very good at that kind of thing. Sheoldred, Whispering One is a nice easy-button recursion card that also hassles your opponents, but she is slow and a ton of mana, but you can reanimate her with something like Animate Dead or Reanimate. Since Sauron can make you a new token whenever someone casts a spell (if you don't already have one) you could use sacrifice based recursion effectively, Hell's Caretaker could do some work. These are just a few low hanging fruit, if you need a bunch more (or cheaper ones) I could probably rattle off more.

With this much built in discard you might look at the better Delve cards, Treasure Cruise and Dig Through Time come to mind immediately, both are pretty good card draw if you don't have to pay any generic mana in.

Mask of Griselbrand can work well as a draw source, it also gives two useful abilities for an Army. Not sure if this is too out there, but you could try Shinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep and Shizo, Death's Storehouse, if you make an Army your Ringbearer it becomes Legendary, meaning these lands don't just help Sauron (but making Sauron unblockable is inherently good in a deck like this because he has 7 power and he's a 3 hit kill). Fear from Shizo is probably better than First Strike in most metas, but First Strike is a very useful effect. Rogue's Passage is a nice budget card that can let Sauron or an Army get in each turn. I really have enjoyed using Scavenged Brawler, it would be very good with your Commander (if he can get in twice he can kill someone, regardless of their life total), but it'll also be useful with a good sized Army token, those key word abilities are pretty sweet in my experience. Dauthi Embrace is a nifty old card that can be very sneaky, you can use it to help opponents get in, not just to protect your creature from blockers. If you plan to attack and are in Red you might benefit from Berserkers' Onslaught, double strike on your entire board can be a very powerful effect.

If you want a way to protect Sauron from most board wipes, I really love Gift of Doom, this gem of a card can be cast as a Morph for 3 mana, after which you can sacrifice a creature to attach the aura to a creature (note that this method doesn't target the creature it attaches to, so you can get around Shroud on your creature) at literally any time you have priority iirc. It's also not a spell or ability, so you can use it in response to something with Split Second. Indestructible is very good, but if you can get Deathtouch on a creature with trample it only takes 1 point of damage to 'destroy' any creature (regardless of whether or not it dies), the rest goes over, so it has great synergy with Scavenged Brawler (and other Trample sources). You can always cast it for 5 mana, and it's not a terrible card in that form, but the Morph effect is one of the best ways to protect an individual creature (or to turn your opponent's block attempt into a blood bath).

Finally, Mercadian Bazaar, Subterranean Hangar, and Saprazzan Cove are my spiciest ideas for a deck like this, I will take no offense if you laugh at them, but you might be surprised by what they can do in a deck with a 6 mana Commander. I use the first two as well as two Fallen Empires storage lands (which I wouldn't encourage you to use unless you want gray hair) in my Rakdos deck, I play them as ramp cards, and it's openly hilarious how useful they can be if you really want to cheese out a big Commander (or recast them repeatedly).

Hope some of this brainstorming is helpful, Sauron is a pretty strong Commander that attracts a fair bit of attention afaik.

LumpySpaceJams on Ashnod's Vault

3 months ago

Thanks for the suggestions SufferFromEDHD!!

Fulminator Mage is a great suggestion, I'm always hesitant to dedicate a full spell slot to land destruction, but this may end up being an exception as it would be doubled and repeatable.

Doomed Necromancer and Hell's Caretaker I opted for Apprentice Necromancer instead since it combos with Blood Pet when Ashnod is out and does grant haste to my creatures it reanimates. Sacing it at end of turn isn't even a down side because I can instead sac it to one of the many sac outlets for value instead.

Stronghold Assassin is an interesting choice, I don't feel like I have enough targeted removal, so this may have to be tested.

DreadKhan on Meren

3 months ago

I suspect you've probably got enough creatures to look at Lurking Predators, it's ramp and card draw rolled into one package, you just need to run a lot of creatures. If you like big reanimation effects their is Grave Betrayal, this loves your various forced sacrifice effects. Coffin Queen and Hell's Caretaker are some lower to the ground reanimators that might be interesting, Queen can also reanimate your opponent's stuff. Demon of Dark Schemes is a weird recursion option, though it can go infinite, usually with creatures that make tokens via ETB. I've always loved having stuff like Dawntreader Elk and Diligent Farmhand in my Meren deck, they find a land without further input and end up in the graveyard when they do it, so you can recur them if that's the best option. I like Silverglade Pathfinder as both a clunky source of ramp that lets you discard creatures, it might not be powerful enough for your build though!

SufferFromEDHD on Ashnod's Vault

3 months ago

Nice build. Packed full of solid triggers.

Fulminator Mage

Doomed Necromancer and/or Hell's Caretaker

Stronghold Assassin

Made_Compleat on Actual Literal Biblical Satan

4 months ago

Wow, this is a really cool deck! It certainly looks like fun abusing Actual Literal Biblical Satan.

I have one small suggestion. Hell's Caretaker doesn't really work here, as you can only use it on your upkeep. This means that Act of Treason effects don't let you sacrifice the creatures you steal to the Caretaker. I'd recommend cutting it for one of the following: Altar of Dementia, Woe Strider, or Viscera Seer. All of these are free sac outlets you can use whenever.

Again, I love the deck! I have a similar deck that I play a lot, Memnarch's Eleven. It's a similar theme but mono-U instead of rakdos. I'd love it if you could check it out and maybe make a few suggestions. Thanks so much!

NV_1980 on Friends from the Depths

4 months ago

Would Hell's Caretaker fit? Also, I'm thinking Sheoldred, Whispering One would make a lot of sense.

KingKilvas on Temptation of the Literal Devil | The Beast EDH

4 months ago

Cool deck! Really like how you commit to the theme.

I'd suggest Hell's Caretaker as a nice on-theme card that's great for offing your stolen creatures and recurring your ETBs.

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