Qal Sisma Behemoth

Creature — Ogre Warrior

Qal Sisma Behemoth can't attack or block unless you pay {2}.

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
Pioneer	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (5)

Sparky41 on

7 years ago

Okay, so the way I see it, this is another deck idea that's mostly there, but can go into a few different directions. The first would be to keep the deck G/R and turn it into a traditional ramp deck, with mana dorks and ramp spells that can build you up to a fast Surrak, the Hunt Caller, a fat Crater's Claws, or whatever eldrazi, dragon, or planeswalker you have lying around. Typical ramp stuff...

If you want to keep the deck with a strong "Ferocious" theme, I would recommend moving it into temur colors, which give you some truly efficient threats. With the addition of blue, you gain Surrak Dragonclaw, Savage Knuckleblade, Temur Ascendancy, Icefall Regent, and increased usability of Shaman of the Great Hunt. Other sweet efficient threats are either Atarka, Thunderbreak Regent, Shaman of Forgotten Ways, See the Unwritten, Whisperer of the Wilds, Lambholt Pacifist  ^Flip, the list goes on. The important thing is that you don't fall into the trap of gimmicky creatures that are actually very mana-inefficient, like Qal Sisma Behemoth.

NotSquishedYet on

8 years ago

HairyManBack, I like the idea of Painful Truths - though I don't have any of it, I DO have Read the Bones. I am not sure which is better, but I think I will include the cheaper option at this point.

About Skin Invasion, I wasn't sure about it either, and I see what you mean, The_Riddlebox. I threw this deck together and hoped the tape would stick; it was literally an OCD filler of the one-drop slot. XD

I do think Tireless Tracker could find a place here, back in from my earliest testing thoughts. THAT one was me testing other options and going for OCD mana distribution.

HairyManBack, right. I'll test out those budget beef hunks. They do seem useful. I'll also mess around with burn/discard, for sure.

To The_Riddlebox, my main reason for Corpse Churn is an attempt not to clutter up the 3 drop slot too much - what do you think, to solve that issue?

I think you may have misread the other user's comment - jank, not junk, and they simply did not want to take their deck in that direction. The main purpose of this deck is jank - I didn't really expect it to be too competitive. Rush of Adrenaline is here to get that final push turn 4 - Tormented Thoughts is mediocre without it, and the pump means they're left with nothing in their hand instead of the two best cards, and I can't use Arlinn turn 4 for 1 mana. Grotesque Mutation is invaluable damage and lifegain, as much as an 11 point life swing for 2 mana on turn 4. Both boost spells activate Lambholt Pacifist, making it much more valuable.

Qal Sisma Behemoth is rather difficult to kill because of its 5 toughness, and I don't know of any other 3 drops with 5 power. If I used any other creature, I would be losing a lot of power in attacks, blocks, and in combo power. It also helps to not overextend while still getting massive early punches in. The whole point of it is that speed matters a hell of a lot more than it used to in Standard, and going off turn 4 is better than turn 6.

In testing, I have rarely gotten to enough lands to activate Sylvan Advocate before getting draw ramp from The Gitrog Monster. Then again, a major reason I did not decide on the Advocate is that budget habits die hard; I'll consider it for the best build, even though it's nothing but eye candy to me.

Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet is in here mostly for good-stuff beatdown. (And, shamefully, more OCD.) A 3/4 with Lifelink isn't too bad in my book, and similarly I have found Jaddi Offshoot gains quite a bit of life. I will consider removing them, if there are better options.

I am not sure of Oath of Nissa or Tormenting Voice, and Fork in the Road seems mediocre to me, but Traverse the Ulvenwald could be good. I originally somewhat sculpted this around achieving Delirium for Deathcap Cultivator, so it would fit right in.

The_Riddlebox, I get what you mean about it going too many directions at once. There's a fine line between Midrange and a Scatter, and it's still not to Midrange. Many of my decks work that way, going all over the place - the strategy itself is not bad, though here it is incomplete. It is much harder to face an aggro deck when they have removed your creatures and your options. I start with a rough, vague idea, see what works, and take it in that direction. The deck is still in the very early stages, but yes - the various suggestions have helped and gotten me thinking.

Thank you both for the assistance! I look forward to a hearty debate before I decide on any of the cards in the deck for sure.

ComputerizedMTG on

8 years ago

Corpse Churn should just be another Pulse of Murasa in my opinion. You have no interaction with your graveyard other than The Gitrog Monster and if you don't have him out it's kind of a bad way for you to get a creature back. There are better Gitrog enablers so I would suggest to use Pulse instead.

Grotesque Mutation and Rush of Adrenaline are very odd cards to have in here. If you want pump effects that badly I would suggest Arlinn Kord as she does more things as well. I feel like this deck is a sort of mid-game control-ish deck where you want to get Gitrog out and just control board through the advantage that you are getting thanks to his sac/draw effect, so if to stay in the game you really need those combat tricks I feel like that means you are falling behind your opponent and your deck could have used stronger utility in it instead.

Skin Invasion looks like a pretty fun card to play, I don't think this deck is where it needs to be. I feel it deserves a better place in a more aggressive deck where you are swinging in early with threats that your opponent HAS to remove or he loses turn 3 or 4. Your deck feels like it starts off later than that, and you don't have early game pressure, meaning your opponent won't have a hard time killing the enchanted creature and the enchantment when it flips as he didn't need to blow removal early.

I think you mentioned the Tormented Thoughts and Qal Sisma Behemoth combo in another decklist, and I have to agree with the other person that this is just kind of a junk combo. If your way of getting advantage is to play a creature that's bad just so you can sac it, then I just feel like you could do better. I get the point behind it, and it might even work; however, I really feel like you should focus on YOUR plays over what your opponent will do. You have 8 cards dedicated to this combo, and I feel like they could be just about anything else. Now if you really like Tormented Thoughts and feel like you absolutely need it to win, just ditch Qal Sisma Behemoth. This deck has many creature choices available that are actually useful to what you are trying to do, that you can just run good picks and still sac them, over running a terrible card just to sac. You can even sac Gitrog and then just get it back with Pulse, that's a better combo to me anyways:discard 6 cards, gain 6 life, have your engine back up next turn. That's just an example, my point is you don't need to run something that won't do anything ever just to sac to Tormented Thoughts.

Lambholt Pacifist is very lack luster too in here. Especially as a 4 of, I don't really think it does anything here. Running Sylvan Advocate would get you a much more aggressive creature for the same cmc that also ends up making your Hissing Quagmire into 4/4s.

Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet seems really odd here as you can't take advantage of either of his ability too effectively, so if he is just a 3/4 with Lifelink here I think you can do better. In the same line Jaddi Offshoot is not that great if you can't consistently put lands into play, with 24 lands, no way to fill your hand other than GItrog, and no ramp to put lands in play or on the field, I really can't see you getting too many triggers out of it. I understand that Gitrog and the Wildborns let you play more lands pet turn, but that doesn't mean much if you don't actually have extra lands to play.

I feel like this deck needs to focus on ramping up, put out threats, and use Gitrog for advantage. Which is something you are not doing here. I would think that this deck could probably use something like Traverse the Ulvenwald, Fork in the Road, or Oath of Nissa. I also feel like Tormenting Voice would be nice as it is early card draw that later will draw you 3 cards if you have Gitrog out and you pitch a land.

The deck just seems very lack luster at the moment because it looks like you are trying to do too many things at once. You have cards that indicate you want to be aggressive, then you have cards that make it seem like you are trying to control your opponent, and then you have cards that beg for a ramp shell. I think you should pick one of those and stick to it.

Hope that helps!

NotSquishedYet on Delirious Jund

8 years ago

Qal Sisma Behemoth, Tormented Thoughts...

Bit of a jank combo, but each piece is alright - and if you pull it off, it puts you miles ahead in card advantage as early as turn 4. Think it might be worth including?

joeyb11223 on

8 years ago

Also not really sure about Mistfire Adept tbh, with elusive spellfist already unblockable and if I chuck 2 lurker in, monastery generally hits hard when they chose to block something else and it gets through and is pumped anyway, it has skywise as a buff as well....flying from a 4 mana creature isn't enough really. I'd rather have Akoum Firebird I think, helps if I end up drawing too much mana as well or Hardened Berserker to make it easier to cast temur and another pump spell simultaneously. Curve ball would be Qal Sisma Behemoth