Syndicate Guildmage
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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

Syndicate Guildmage

Creature — Human Cleric

, : Tap target creature with power 4 or greater.

, : Syndicate Guildmage deals 2 damage to target opponent or planeswalker.

MrBoombastic on Humans Have Come! (For Better or Worse)

3 years ago

Hi there!

A few cards I'd take out for better/stronger alternatives:

Cards that can be put in instead:

  • Giant Killer It is an early tapping creature, that doubles as removal.

  • Law-Rune Enforcer The "weaker" version of Giant Killer, but his tap ability is significantly better.

  • Tithe Taker A somewhat disruptive creature, that gives you an evasive dude on when he dies.

  • Tomik, Distinguished Advokist His abilities don't matter much, but a 2/3 flier for 2 should be enough to make up for it.

  • Gideon Blackblade He's a human on your turn and he's a very strong play on curve. He can be hard to deal with for control decks, keeps you on board after boardwipes and sometimes gets to snipe their best thing with his -6.

  • Lavabrink Adventurer If you can correctly calculate what to avoid (odd or even), I imagine this guy could be quite annoying to play against.

  • Taranika, Akroan Veteran Once you have some small dudes to pump up, this guy starts to hit for a bunch.

  • Reverent Hoplite If you end up harder on white, this guy could end up putting a bunch of power in play.

  • General Kudro of Drannith This guy does it all in a deck centered around humans. Play all 4.

  • Sunhome Stalwart Will be hard to beat in combat, once you have a couple of Kudro and/or Lockdowns in play. He also beefs up the tokens on attack, which might come in handy.

There is also the possibility of splashing red for cards like Tajic, Legion's Edge, Stormfist Crusader and Judith, the Scourge Diva, but I believe that some combination of the above will definitely make your decks stronger.

Shaving off the top of the curve means you can take out some lands too (around 2-4, depending on how the new list looks).

Good luck brewing.

Brimstone on

5 years ago

I looked at the Orzhov deck and I think that Teysa Karlov is the key to making it work if you want to use sacrafice effects to make it worth it. Until she is in play, killing your own creatures for bonus effects, even when you are getting afterlife triggers, will usually leave you behind because you wont have much card draw. I would focus mostly on cheap creatures with afterlife, and avoid creatures that force you to sacrifice to get good value out of them.

-[Creatures]-

I don't really like the value added by Basilica Bell-Haunt , Forbidding Spirit , or Grasping Thrull . Similarly Knight of Sorrows and Orzhov Racketeers seem a little too expensive to be worth their stats/afterlife triggers. I also think that Knight of the Last Breath is too expensive and his sacrafice ability is expensive and specific to non token creatures, but it might be worth running 1 of him as a late game way to blow up all of your afterlife creatures once you have a Teysa Karlov and Vindictive Vampire in play. The Teysa Karlov + Vindictive Vampire combo is probably your best bet to win late game by giving you enough of a lead to finish them off with your 1/1 fliers. If you have a Teysa Karlov and one (or more) Vindictive Vampire s in play, don't be afraid to use a Kaya's Wrath This will do a bunch of damage, and boardwipe the enemies armies while leaving you with all of your doubled afterlife triggers.

As for which creatures I think are pretty good, you will need to play around with deciding between all of the low cost afterlifeers Imperious Oligarch , Ministrant of Obligation , Orzhov Enforcer , and Tithe Taker all look pretty good. Syndicate Messenger is a little more expensive but is a solid flyer and Seraph of the Scales looks great, my only concern is that they would be in the same mana cost as both Teysa Karlov and Vindictive Vampire . Twilight Panther , Syndicate Guildmage , Pitiless Pontiff and Impassioned Orator all seem a little underwhelming to me.

Hero of Precinct One could be useful but only if you run mostly multicolored spells and that might not be worth it to aid this single card. Resolute Watchdog might be a good sideboard in case the enemy continues to kill off your Teysa/Vindictives. Priest of Forgotten Gods seems like she is part of a combo in an edh deck, just waiting to happen, but if you run a ton of low cost afterlife creatures, which you are, she might work great. Ideally she would kill two of your creatures right after they block or are blocked, and then draw you a new creature!

-[Instants]-

Bladebrand seems like a fun way to punsh the other player for blocking one of your small attackers, I think if used well it will add a lot of value to your little attackers, making the enemy afraid to block them. I would opt for Mortify over Final Payment or Expose to Daylight but sideboard the daylights for pesky artifacts. Undercity's Embrace lets the enemy decide what they sac, and you will basically never meet the requirement to get the extra health, so it isn't very good unless like hexproof becomes a problem? I am not sure about Grotesque Demise and Summary Judgment I feel like judgement is cheeper and will deal with most low cost creatures and may handle some bigger ones, so I would opt for that, but Grotesque will help with creatures that have afterlife, if you are running against a mirror. With our play group, you most likely wont be.

-[Enchantments]-

Ethereal Absolution too expensive, only sideboard in if somehow you are losing to late game 1/1 creatures or if late game your afterlife creatures are just too weak to finish the enemy, my guess is that it's not going to help much in time. Ill-Gotten Inheritance too in single player and in multiplayer makes you a huge target. If you find in multiplayer games that late game you are widdling away at people but cant ever find a way to attack, this might work. My guess is that Kaya's Wrath / Priest of Forgotten Gods + Vindictive Vampire would do better.

-[Sorceries]-

With your life gain, recursion, and death trigger effects, I feel like Kaya's Wrath will often leave you in better shape than it will others. I would run 4 of them however you also need to be careful. If you boardwipe with little or no cards in your hand, other decks will probably rebuild more quickly than you can. Instead, if you are planning a boardwipe, save a few good creatures in your hand, even if it means taking damage for a round or two, then boardwipe. I wish Bankrupt in Blood was instant speed, but running a few might be a good idea to help you recover your handsize after boardwipes. Mortify is better than Bring to Trial unless you are having troubles with enemy enter the grave effects, or idestructable. Could be a sideboard card. Consecrate / Consume is iffy. If you are having troubles with big mean creatures it's a nice card. You could take a hit from the creature for 1 round, then kill it and gain back that life. The ability to use it to draw a card instead id alright, but not great. Revival / Revenge seems pretty fun with this deck. You can use it to get back cheep afterlifers (especially Imperious Oligarch or Orzhov Enforcer ) or, if you draw it late game, you can use it to swing the tide of a game quite a bit.

-[Lands]- This land base looks pretty solid, I would only caution that when running 4x Orzhov Basilica and 4x Orzhov Guildgate you risk getting caught with a very slow start, which is sad when you have such low cost creatures. Ideally you would want to play a Guildgate rnd1, a basic land rnd2, tap for a 2 cost creature, then on turn three play a second 2 cost creature and then a basilica. So that on turn four you can play a four cost creature.

Masterful on Necronomicon | Teysa Karlov | Primer

5 years ago

literaturecult46 The deck looks good for the most part, but I do have some suggestions:

  1. I'd replace Syndicate Guildmage and Beckon Apparition since their abilities are very low impact.

  2. If you're sold on running the Glass of the Guildpact , Seal of the Guildpact , and Tome of the Guildpact , I'd run a lot more multicolored cards, especially creatures. Remember, afterlife tokens are multicolored, so they do work with glass.

  3. If you're going for heavy lifegain, some cards to consider would be: Felidar Soverign, Gray Merchant of Asphodel , Kokusho, the Evening Star , Font of Agonies , Dawn of Hope , Kambal, Consul of Allocation , and Well of Lost Dreams .

  4. Your curve is quite heavy on 4 cmc cards. This can be tough since Teysa is also 4 cmc, so in the early turns of the game, you might have a lot of 4 drops stuck in your hand.

If you'd like to ask any more specific questions, I'd love to give more specific advice.