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| 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 |
| Pioneer | Legal |
| Planechase | Legal |
| Quest Magic | Legal |
| Tiny Leaders | Legal |
| Vanguard | Legal |
| Vintage | Legal |
Stronghold Confessor
Creature — Human Cleric
Kicker (you may pay an additional as you cast this spell.)
Menace (This creature can't be blocked except by two or more creatures.)
If Stronghold Confessor was kicked, it enters the battlefield with two +1/+1 counters on it.
mal099 on
Death in the Shadows
5 years ago
Wow, thanks for all the work you're putting into improving my deck, really appreciate it!
I haven't really seen those problems you had with Phyresis and Skittering Skirge , which might be due to different playstyles. This deck is made to be completely reckless, to win before the opponent can play removals, and it rewards a similarly reckless playstyle. So you're not supposed to play more than one creature unless there's nothing else to play, so the Skirge's negative ability or the different "life totals" tend to not be an issue. It can sometimes happen, but for Phyresis, I think the tradeoff is worth it, as you can generally win in just two attacks. I somewhat agree on the Skirge though, it is pretty much my least favorite card in the deck. I actually lost my first real game with this deck due to it, since it can be blocked. I like your point about having creatures with a different way of being hard to block, and will be replacing some of them with Highborn Ghoul . I don't like Guul Draz Vampire as it isn't unblockable early on, and Stronghold Confessor is easy to block later. They make more sense in your version of the deck of course, since you use instants and it doesn't hurt as much to switch from one to the other. Could benefit from equipments too, actually.
I considered sorceries/instants, but feel like they just reduce speed too much. Still, a few of them might work? I'm especially partial to Unnatural Endurance which you put in the Maybeboard, as it can additionally be used to save one of my creatures. The question is, is it better than Thrull Retainer ? I think it might be, but it's really close.
Vampire's Bite is also nice, but I think I really want to keep the number of sorceries/instants low. I do think your version of this deck is pretty nice, sacrificing some speed for long term viability, but it would probably benefit from keeping at least 50% of the buffs enchantments. It would also suffer against other very fast decks, so at least some defense would probably be good? Although the sideboard can still deal with that, without much change.
Another thing I'm considering is to put one more Gitaxian Probe in there, and even two Street Wraith . Basically enables me to take out some of the lesser cards, without costing Mana or taking up space in my hand. They cost life, of course... but I guess recklessly using life as a resource for tiny gains is just my playstyle. Might be a bad idea, but it's fun.
Halbrechtt on
Death in the Shadows
5 years ago
What you said about Endless Scream and Dauthi Mercenary makes sense. Even as I typed that up, I was thinking you might never get to the late game. But sometimes it's hard to tell just by looking at a deck.
After further contemplating the deck, and doing some actual playtests with it, I have a couple further thoughts that might be worth considering:
First, I feel like the inclusion of Infect might be dividing the focus of the deck, if ever so subtly. Several times in playtests, I'd have 2-3 creatures in play but only one with Phyresis, causing them to hit two different "life" totals (effectively). It was further complicated when I had a Rite of Consumption in hand, as it made sense to put the enchantment buffs on the Infect creature, but that also made the Rite pointless.
So I tried focusing more on Infect, to ensure all creatures I controlled would deal Infect damage, but the only other pauper card that grants it is Tainted Strike . Also, sometimes I'd have only one creature but redundant sources of Infect (the only consolation being the +1 poison from Tainted Strike). Ultimately, I just tried cutting Infect entirely and focusing solely on normal damage, which I personally preferred.
Second, have you considered going with instant/sorcery buffs rather than enchantment buffs? Obviously, voltron can be very powerful when it works, but enchantment-based voltron is hurt a lot more by removal. You seemed to imply that you run into a lot of removal when you said "the opponent has probably removed enough creatures that it's almost impossible to get back into the game".
Going with instants and sorceries presents less optimal targets to your opponent, it usually gives you the same power boost for 1 less mana, and adding in a little card draw gives some resilience to the deck. Basically, you sacrifice a turn or two, but you also can keep the steam going a little longer.
I copied your deck and tinkered with it this afternoon, doing both of the above things. Here's what I came up with:
Death in the Shadows (revamp)
Pauper
1 VIEW | IN 1 FOLDER
I playtested it quite a bit, as well as your original version. Although it can't get the turn 3 wins yours can, it will consistently win by turn 4-5. I'll keep my version up for a while, in case you want to play around with it a bit on T/O and see how it compares in your eyes.
I removed Rite of Consumption as it no longer worked as well without permanent buffs. In its place I added card draw.
I also never liked Skittering Skirge any time I had it in hand. It was always a disappointing play for me. In its place, I tried several low-mana evasion creatures, like Guul Draz Vampire and Stronghold Confessor . I found that the former "auto-scales" better for both early- and mid-game, whereas the latter is only good on turn 4 if you actually cast it that turn. But they have different types of evasion, which may make a big difference.
Skinken on
5 years ago
First of: Welcome to EDH: the format where you can pretty much brew anything you like!
However, some cards are much stronger than others in this format, and theres a general rule to evaluate the cards in your deck. First you have to evaluate how you win the game. Then you have to look at the cards and say: "Does this card forward that goal". For instance a card like Stronghold Confessor is not very good generally. It is a creature that deals at most 3 damage. At this point you could also play a Diabolic Tutor, finding part of a two-card combo that will win you the game. Avoid any cards that dont forward your gameplan. The best example is Serra Ascendant. A lot of people wrongly include this in their decks. Yes, it is a 5/5 flying lifelinker for . But if you can't kill them with it, the 20+ damage it might deal is not relevant.
So what cards should you run? Usually the answer is combo of some sort. And then all the cards that get you there. In black you can add a reanimation package (Pathrazer of Ulamog or better It That Betrays does win you a game if played on t2), you can go for an infinite damage combo (see for inspiration), or you can get lots and lots of mana using Cabal Coffers and the like and play a very big Torment of Hailfire.
If you wanna play reanimator you wanna get all the good reanimation spells
Most of them arent that expensive. The expensive part about this strategy is buying the targets. But it should be ok, just find some you like.
If you wanna build combo just play all the tutors you can afford. Also the all-in ones like Demonic Consultation.
If you wanna build big-mana.deck consider the following
- Crypt Ghast
- Thran Dynamo
- Primal Amulet Flip (double the Hailfire)
- Expedition Map
- Temple of the False God
- Caged Sun
- Extraplanar Lens
... and so on. A wierd tech you will not find anywhere else: Onyx Talisman ;)
Good luck brewing my guy!
landofMordor on Guilds of Ravnica: Spoilers and …
5 years ago
Phaetion, nooooooo! I looked up Scryfall creature cards only (; I guess I'm only half-wrong?
LittleBlueHero, I'm with you there! Convoke is hard to use well. I prefer it with things like Chief Engineer or Chord of Calling, where you're not necessarily losing so much tempo as casting an evasionless fatty.
DemonDragonJ, the P/T-to-CMC ratio is a quick and dirty way to evaluate the stats of a creature, especially in Limited. It's pretty accurate in the commons/uncommons like Thallid Omnivore and Stronghold Confessor, but the metric breaks down a little bit considering a) creatures really have gotten better since the Craw Wurm days, b) abilities and keywords make them harder to evaluate, and c) it's not a hard-and-fast design rule. Also, once you get past 6 CMC, the rule of thumb begins to break down anyways, because of the diminishing returns of increasing P/T.
Cookieboy1221 on
Muldrotha Brawl Deck
6 years ago
Cut the following:
6 Forests
3 Swamps
3 Islands
Save it and let me look at it after.