Pact of the Serpent

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Legality

Format Legality
1v1 Commander Legal
Archenemy 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
Oathbreaker Legal
Planechase Legal
Quest Magic Legal
Tiny Leaders Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

Pact of the Serpent

Sorcery

Choose a creature type. Target player draws X cards and loses X life, where X is the number of creatures they control of the chosen type.

Profet93 on Steppen Ratchet

3 weeks ago

OK got you, that helps me. To stay on theme, Pact of the Serpent for card draw?

Is Coat of Arms appropriate for your theme or is it too winmore for your taste?

Perhaps a Murderous Rider > Murder? While not a rat, it is more flexible and even has a creature mode than can be used for your sacrifice spells. It also hits PW

Deserted Temple - Untap coffers and politics?

Malakir Rebirth  Flip - To bring back your commander/bypass commander tax while getting another ETB value out of him. Imagine the leader of the horde rising from the dead if oyu will

Would a Skullclamp be out of the question?

I hope the suggestions I'm giving aren't too mainstream and apologize in advance if they are.

Crow_Umbra on Totentanz, Kazoo Kid

6 months ago

I agree with lhetrick13, that you could likely focus the majority of your cuts in your creature section. I think another area of focus for potential cuts would lower impact reanimation effects, mostly because this deck wants to make lots of rat tokens. Since you will be making lots of disposable bodies, you don't really need to invest much in single-target reanimation effects.

Also, I think you might want to swap Talisman of Impulse for Talisman of Indulgence. Probably just a mix up in the card selection menu.

Suggestions for potential cuts:

  • Gnat Miser - Reducing opponents' hand size by 1 isn't super impactful in the grand scheme of a game, especially with how commonly (over)played Reliquary Tower & Thought Vessel can be, depending on metas.

  • Persistent Specimen - Basically another Reassembling Skeleton, which it looks like you might've also removed from the list.

  • Burnished Hart - Yes, it can self sac to grab you 2 basics, but that costs 6 mana total to cast & activate. Could maybe even be replaced with another 2 mana rock like Mind Stone, or maybe even Cursed Mirror, which can copy one of your rats for additional utility.

  • Murderous Rider - Doesn't really fit the theme of the deck beyond being a removal spell. Could likely be replaced with another instant like Infernal Grasp or Baleful Mastery if you needed the additional removal.

  • Unearth - Single target reanimation. Doesn't seem like it will do too much, especially since you want to mostly sac rat tokens, and already have a fairly high creature count.

  • Phyrexian Reclamation - Similar line of reasoning as Unearth. It feels like you have more than enough creatures to keep casting, so trying to reanimate doesn't make as much sense here.

  • Grave Pact - Great card, but feels overly redundant with Dictate of Erebos, which has the benefit of surprising opponents with Flash.

  • Diabolic Tutor - I think you can probably replace this with Pact of the Serpent

Those are the most obvious cuts I can suggest at the moment. I think it would be helpful if you take some time to tag the cards in your deck, and what roles they play. Tagging helps me better visualize my categories and helps me decide on cuts and swaps.

If you want to aggro swarm your opponents with Rats, I'd suggest considering Rising of the Day as a haste anthem so your swarms can, well, swarm ASAP. I'd also recommend checking out Cover of Darkness to give all of your little Rats some Evasion, otherwise they will get chump-blocked to death. Ogre Battledriver might also be worth a look, especially since it can buff up your 1/1 rats, and give them haste. Ogre Battledriver has made itself at home in a couple of my aggro token decks for that reason.

My final suggestion is to hone in on if you want this to be an Aggro deck first, with the option to combo out, or if you want this to primarily be a combo deck with Aggro as a "Plan B" to fall back on. Determining that primary focus for yourself will also help guide some of the cuts you make.

Best of luck!

Crow_Umbra on

7 months ago

It looks like you're one card short of 99, but maybe one of these recs could fill that last slot:

  • Reconnaissance - One of the best cards out there for any Isshin build variant. This EDHREC article better explains how Reconnaissance is basically a pseudo-Vigilance anthem, and can prevent combat damage that would be dealt to your creatures. A bit pricey though, but worth it.

  • Dolmen Gate - Another excellent card for pretty much any Isshin build. Also a bit pricey, but has had a recent reprinting.

  • Pact of the Serpent - Since you are a bit more typal focused on Samurai, this could be a helpful means of drawing cards in bulk.

  • Taurean Mauler - Technically a Samurai, mostly because you're a bit light on creatures at 22 (including Isshin).

I hope these suggestions are helpful. Would be happy to offer other feedback if needed.

legendofa on Modern Horizons 3 Predictions/Wishlist

7 months ago

Going off the previous Modern Horizons, I expect some outside-of-Modern cards to be pulled in (Eladamri's Call, Enchantress's Presence), some lower-tier strategies to be given a push (Cloudshredder Sliver, Unmarked Grave), and some pushed cards (Force of Negation, Fury, and a bunch of generically good filler.

Some cards that could be Modern-ized (and probably keeping my failed prediction streak going):

Eyeballing some possible strategies that could use a bump:

  • weenie

  • or mill

  • something non-Eldrazi non-artifact colorless

  • Big Spells (mana value 5+ instants/sorceries, sorta like Prismatic from Strixhaven).

Some cards that might be pushed and generically good filler: I have no idea. That's for the designers to know.

SufferFromEDHD on Erebos, Skeleton God

8 months ago

Cool concept!

Black Market Connections ramp, card draw AND a skeleton token engine... Find a spot for this pronto.

Nameless Inversion might be useful.

Kindred Dominance definitely useful.

Species Specialist and Pact of the Serpent are solid tribal card draw.

Crow_Umbra on Mardu Humans

11 months ago

Very solid creature base! If anything you could maybe cut a few creatures to give you a couple more slots for draw, ramp, or maybe a couple more lands. In looking at your list, I think some of the following could be solid additions:

jarncards on hasteland

1 year ago

For global haste you can use Fires of Yavimaya, Concordant Crossroads, Mass Hysteria, and Urabrask the Hidden who will also conveniently turn off other people's haste. Anger and Barbarian Class also give haste after more effort.

Ant Queen, Artifact Mutation, Battle Hymn, Circle of Dreams Druid, Dragon Broodmother, Pest Infestation, Scute Swarm, Tempt with Vengeance, Sylvan Offering, Termagant Swarm are all useful if you can give haste to all of them.

Birds of Paradise is just the best mana dork.

You have green, so you might as well use the standard ramp package with Cultivate , Kodama's Reach, Explore , Farseek, , Rampant Growth, Three Visits and Nature's Lore. Probably ignore most mana rocks, because people are going to want to vandalblast you just because of the treasures.

Relentless Assault, Scourge of the Throne, Combat Celebrant, Hexplate Wallbreaker, World at War grant extra combats, with Hellkite Charger and Aggravated Assault potentially going infinite.

Vandalblast goes in every red deck. Even though youll have a ton of treasures i'd still run Brotherhood's End too

For draw spells consider Scroll Rack, Garruk's Uprising, Elemental Bond, Soul's Majesty, Furious Rise, Rishkar's Expertise, Beast Whisperer, Shamanic Revelation, Disciple of Bolas, Pact of the Serpent, Painful Truths, Harmonize, Sign in Blood, Night's Whisper, Read the Bones, Ambition's Cost, Ancient Craving, Damnable Pact, Commune with Lava, Lifeblood Hydra, or maybe Necropotence although the color restricion on necro is tough, treasures should take care of it.

Fable of the Mirror-Breaker  Flip, Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer , The Reaver Cleaver , Gadrak, the Crown-Scourge , Ancient Copper Dragon , Old Gnawbone Ziatora, the Incinerator for more treasure makers. Pyrohemia and Pestilence could be fun with the extra mana. Awaken the Woods is an amazing x spell too, but wont appreciate the two aforementioned cards.

If you're using magda the deck will benefit from dragons and expensive artifacts. throw in Imperial Recruiter and Worldly Tutor, Vampiric Tutor, and Demonic Tutor all go in your colors. so you can get her more consistently. Darksteel Forge and Gate to Phyrexia can be tutored into play with her for five treasure.

If you use dragons, you could add Dragonstorm, but you should carefully consider how many cheap spells you expect to be able to cast if you arent building specifically towards this card. Chatterstorm, Empty the Warrens, Yawgmoth's Will, Jeska's Will, Mana Geyser, and Manamorphose, Past in Flames are all good on their own and would add synergy.

If it ends up dragon tribal, cards like Crippling Fear , Kindred Dominance, Crux of Fate

Swashbuckler Extraordinaire is a very good payoff for using treasures if you dont use certain other nightmarish dragons like Atarka, World Render, Blast-Furnace Hellkite, Terror of Mount Velus, Thrakkus the Butcher

Crow_Umbra on A fistful of Myr [Urtet, Remnant of Memnarch]

1 year ago

Myr tribal finally gets its long awaited commander. 5 color lists aren't my typical cup of tea, but I have a few things for your consideration:

I hope these suggestions are helpful. Having access to all 5 colors really opens the possibilities for tribal support.

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