Woe Strider

Creature — Horror

When Woe Strider enters the battlefield, create a 0/1 white Goat creature token.

Sacrifice another creature: Scry 1. (Look at the top card of your library, you may put that card on the bottom of your library.)

Escape—{3}{B}{B}, Exile four other cards from your graveyard. (You may cast this card from your graveyard for its escape cost.)

Woe Strider escapes with two +1/+1 counters on it.

Combos

• Ashnod's Altar + Nim Deathmantle + Woe Strider

Tokens

• Goat 0/1 W

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Alchemy	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 (51)

TheForsakenOne on K'rrik, Manipulator of Life (Totals)

1 month ago

This deck seems very .... confused. On one hand you have swamp synergies, on the other sacrifice synergies, and then you have weird cards like Elder Brain that don't fit into either. I'd suggest picking one of the two theme's and sticking to it.

Cards I would suggest cutting:

Withercrown (just not a good card)

Crypt Incursion (Too situational, its going to be dead a lot of the time)

Xathrid Gorgon (Too slow)

Visara the Dreadful (Removal magnet + too slow)

Consume Spirit (There are better mana sinks than this)

Corrupt (Needs too many swamps to be worth the mana)

Liliana's Shade (Also just not a good card)

Elder Brain (just a weird card in general and too inconsistent)

Cards I would suggest adding:

Abhorrent Overlord (Makes a buch of creatures for your sacrifice triggers)

Pontiff of Blight, Thrull Parasite, Basilica Screecher (More extort cards that synergize very well with K'rrik)

Exsanguinate (Better mana sink than consume spirit)

Nirkana Revenant (Another mana doubler for swamps)

Vein Ripper (Very good for this kind of deck, but it just came out and is currently pricey so I'd wait to buy this one)

Bitterblossom, Dreadhorde Invasion (make a creature every turn for your sacrifice outlets)

Viscera Seer the classic free sacrifice outlet. Also see Woe Strider

Ayara, First of Locthwain (Free creature with K'rrik out and pings opponents every time a black creature enters which usually happens a lot with sac decks)

scottbaker91 on Budget Meren Eldrazi spawn

2 months ago

I think Hand of Emrakul, Decimator of the Provinces, Kozilek, the Great Distortion, and Pathrazer of Ulamog are too expensive to cast / commander ability for what they do. Some replacement examples would be: Terastodon, Void Winnower, Fleshbag Marauder, Noxious Gearhulk, Ravenous Chupacabra, Plaguecrafter, Eternal Witness, It That Betrays, Woodfall Primus, Acidic Slime, Ob Nixilis, Unshackled, Sepulchral Primordial, Overseer of the Damned, etc.

cards like Dalek Squadron with a sac outlet will get you a lot of Meren counters quickly. cards like Greater Good are great at filling your graveyard and your hand. cards like Oversold Cemetery are great for your low mana creatures and late game expensive creatures. Tragic Slip isn't a very good card for multiplayer commander, unless you are using something like Isochron Scepter

I think your deck is a little heavy on creature token generators, especially your creatures. I know they are there to build up tokens on Meren and to generate mana, in the early game, but they aren't doing much in the mid to late game. Maybe replace a few with some faster reanimator spells like: Living Death, Lifeline (a personal favorite), Necromancy, Animate Dead, Victimize, Rescue from the Underworld, Beacon of Unrest, etc.

Other cards I would consider cutting: Skullbriar, the Walking Grave (too slow imo unless he is your commander), Blisterpod (needs to die to get the token), Pawn of Ulamog, Vorapede, Village Rites, Gray Merchant of Asphodel (starts to shine with lots of reanimator stuff), Woe Strider, Scion Summoner, Brood Monitor, Deathreap Ritual, Commander's Sphere

It's tough to suggest cards for a budget deck. A card that I might consider to be absolutely necessary could require cheaper options in other parts of the deck to make it fit.

Made_Compleat on Actual Literal Biblical Satan

5 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!

DreadKhan on Chatter

6 months ago

I feel like your Commander would like One with the Kami and Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest. You just need a free sac outlet like Viscera Seer, Carrion Feeder, Woe Strider, Dimir House Guard (does double duty as a tutor for MV 4 stuff), or Sadistic Hypnotist. Most of these don't have a very good payoff other than killing a creature, but some have useful upsides.

I wonder if you could shave a few lands by running some of the following: Golgari Rot Farm, Blighted Woodland, Myriad Landscape, Castle Garenbrig, Guildless Commons, and Mosswort Bridge. Most of those are fairly budget, and getting a ramp effect out of a land feels extremely good in my experience. The best options also help with fixing your mana.

If you want to add something really pushed, Pitiless Plunderer is really good with your Commander, it looks like it's had a reprint, but it's still up there for a single card. Another card to keep an eye out for is Swarmyard. Toski, Bearer of Secrets is a solid Squirrel pick, if not the cheapest. If you often have 1/1 creatures you aren't super attached to their is always Skullclamp, it's a few bucks but it can do a lot of work with 1/1 tokens.

I'm not sure how desperate you are for tokens/are afraid of flyers, but I always have fun with Sandwurm Convergence. Transmogrifying Wand is a nice way to put pressure on your opponents' creatures, it plays well in budget decks. Grim Haruspex is a pretty nice card if you expect to lose creatures, it doesn't even charge life.

thesilentpyro on Casual CoCo Food Aggro/Combo

8 months ago

Also don't need to swap both Trail of Crumbs and Dispute for CoCo. Even without adding more creatures, math says 26 gives an 83% chance of hitting two, which is pretty dang good. Dropping either reduces the number of possible things to do on T2 (if we don't T1 Goose, at least), but that's not a huge deal. Trail is nice to be able to get the non-creatures I like so I'd want to keep it around, but it's hard for me to cut Dispute either since the treasure would help cast Company (and it itself can draw into Company where Trail can't).

Probably drop the Witch's Ovens for a creature-based outlet. Seer is the best one, but I like Varolz, the Scar-Striped because I have nostalgia for it and it supports the aggro side-plan plus leans into the same self-mill support Sam wants, but the creatures in the deck are all small when they're not on the field so it's not going to get big payoffs and is mostly just a mana sink. Yahenni, Undying Partisan is another option along the same lines, doesn't feed aggro as well but has haste and indestructible is slightly better than regeneration, and is a little easier to cast. Both are mainly in consideration because being legendary means Sam can get them back from the grave. Woe Strider is also a consideration as it comes with a chump blocker that also triggers Pippin, Chatterfang, and Rosie, and can revive itself repeatedly if you're not having a great game and need help stemming the bleeding until you can rebound.

So if I want to do the CoCo route, drop the Trails and Witch's Ovens, add CoCo and a creature-based sac outlet, and find room for some number of Sarinth Steelseeker and another Grist? Could trim a copy of Altar and Deadly Dispute. Having Cat without Oven makes me sad, but Oven is pretty lackluster, it only really does things with Cat and since the deck has a better plan than durdling with Oven now it should probably go away altogether.

I do need to make sure to keep enough food-makers in the deck. Oven is a cheap food engine that had some synergy even if its over power is low, so dropping it (and the Trails to a lesser extent) reduces that consistency. OTOH, Company is pretty good at finding the better food-makers (namely Sam and Pippin) anyways. A single copy of each of Merry, Warden of Isengard and Pippin, Warden of Isengard would be fun and help a bit with that, plus they synergize with the other side-plans of the deck. Rapacious Guest is good for this too. Tough Cookie might be the one that gets the slot, though. It's starting to get potentially crowded on 3-drops, and you can do worse on turn two than make two food, one of which is also a bear.

I could play Urza's Saga, keep a single Oven in, add copies of the on-color artifact lands (maaaybe the ETB-tapped indestructible dual ones?), a Springleaf Drum (fetching artifact lands doesn't take an extra card slot, but drawing Drum helps accelerate if you're also already making land drops), maybe a Pithing Needle/Executioner's Capsule/Portable Hole, Nihil Spellbomb, or Skrelv, Defector Mite. Gingerbrute to stay on-theme, be able to get a food instantly if you're really hurting and Oven won't do, and as just a great Rosie target (and it also keeps your creature density for Company up). Blade of the Bloodchief is a cute win-more way to support the aggro plan that is funny with Viscera Seer or Yahenni as the sac outlet of choice. I told myself I wouldn't play stupidly broken things in my casual 60-card decks, so Skullclamp should probably stay out. Sam being able to get back Saga seems good, and the Karnstruct will be a scary size. Colorless mana hurts in a three-color deck that plays so many colored one-drops though, especially since I'd probably want three copies. Monetarily it's even more expensive than Invasion, which is worth considering too. It does play into a lot of things the deck wants to do between the construct, fetching silver bullets, and being re-usable with Sam if we somehow get into the long game. Maybe just whatever copies (if any) I have that aren't currently in commander decks.

There's also the The Underworld Cookbook + Asmoranomardicadaistinaculdacar build which I feel like I should mention even if nobody else ever reads this, but that's a different deck and getting too close to Modern territory (even if it's not a great deck there, it does exist). I like my hobbits better.

PolarisFluff on Marchy March and the Funky Bunch

9 months ago

scotchtapedsleeves Thank you for the reply!

Fell Stinger is cool, but they also just printed Triarch Praetorian! I guess I was worried that cards like this wouldn't have targets when they entered, but I don't have to sacrifice every creature that has a counter at once.

You're totally right about Blood Artist. I was thinking to myself, "Why the hell did I even add this?" lol. I kept pinging myself with it because I didn't want to be the highest life total.

Vengeful Ancestor was a pet card but it can totally go. Same with Gyruda, Doom of Depths. I wanted to try and make the deck different than most marchesa effects, but some of the cards just don't end up playing well.

Don't you diss Woe Strider! It costs a little more, sure. But it also makes a token itself so it functionally has scry 1 on etb attached, and it can escape from the yard with +1/+1 counters if it somehow gets dumped.

Faerie Artisans is unironically maybe one of the strongest cards in casual. The particular synergy in marchesa is that if you sacrifice it, you get to keep the last token that it just made even when it comes back, since it's a new object. It also draws much less hate than direct theft.

What's the point of Rakdos Cackler as sacrifice fodder if we're not running aristocrats effects?

Thran Vigil seems absolutely terrible. It gets you a single +1/+1 counter per round. Not even per turn. It only triggers on your turn, and only at most one counter on your turn.

Ravenous Chupacabra too expensive? What is cheaper and repeatable?

scotchtapedsleeves on Marchy March and the Funky Bunch

9 months ago

Hey! Coming over from Reddit to give some advice.

First off, some overarching themes that I notice:

• Draw vs Card Advantage - A lot of the cards in your "Draw" category don't actually provide any impactful draw, only scrying and cantrips. I'm an enormous fan of Fell Stinger and Thought Sponge. Easily repeatable draw effects that dump cards in your hand. Scry isn't useful unless you're drawing a ton of cards or are doing some topdeck manipulation.

• Your creatures are too big - Marchesa appreciates small bodies with big effects rather than big bodies with meh effects. For this reason, I would take out Combustible Gearhulk, Vindictive Lich, Vengeful Ancestor, and Gyruda, Doom of Depths. Playing lots of small, cheaper bodies lets your deck fly under the radar until it pops off. It will also give you more targets for Imperial Recruiter.

• Aristocrats style - Marchesa doesn't play like your typical aristocrats deck, Blood Artist isn't very effective when you're only sacrificing 2-3 creatures a turn. It's also counterintuitive to Dethrone. Abusing ETB and LTB effects is more important than slowly draining opponents

• Not enough counter distribution - You only have 5 cards under counters and they're all either situational or restrictive. Drop some Thran Vigil type cards in there and you'll go far

Overall, you're too reliant on creatures for draw, removal, etc. Run some efficient draw and removal spells

Next up, cards I recommend removing. I've playtested most of these and they're not nearly as impactful as they seem.

• Blood Artist - Covered this above, you don't want to gain life
• Combustible Gearhulk - Opponents will often just take the damage early game and late game you do NOT want to be spending 6 mana on a 6/6 with no impactful ETB.
• Vindictive Lich - An alright card, not fantastic though. I'm very pressed for 4 drops in my deck so it didn't make the cut.
• Vengeful Ancestor - Not a very impactful card. You're running Kardur, Doomscourge so this card is just overshadowed.
• Gyruda, Doom of Depths - 6 mana to maybe cheat in one creature? Not a huge fan. If you want to replace it with a grave robber effect Puppeteer Clique is better. Still not fantastic, it didn't make the cut in my deck
• Aether Channeler - A fine card, the mode selection is okay. I'm not in love with the effects it gives though
• Morbid Opportunist - Only one draw a turn? Blasphemy
• Woe Strider Free sac outlets are nice, but I find I get overrun with them when I have more than 5 in a deck. Also more expensive just to scry? Not a fan
• Dauthi Voidwalker Will generate so much hate. Unless you can fend off your opponents don't run it
• Faerie Artisans Not the kind of stealing Marchesa likes, tokens aren't the name of the game here. Something like Zealous Conscripts will take you much further
• Phantom Steed Same as above, tokens are nice but this isn't a great card
• Ravenous Chupacabra Too much mana for removal. Black and blue have much cheaper options

There are more that I personally wouldn't run, but that's up to how you like to play your deck.

Now for some cards I would include in every Marchesa deck

• Thran Vigil - Allows you to immediately sac creatures that come back + an extra layer of protection
• Uncivil Unrest - Same as above but you can also give haste to fresh casts. Double damage doesn't hurt
• Fell Stinger - Repeatable, powerful draw on a deathtouch body
• Thought Sponge - Incredible draw engine. Sac it on opponents turns every time it enters and you'll draw AT LEAST 6 cards a turn cycle.
• Iron Apprentice - Great 1 drop, can distribute counters if you're having trouble and is sacrifice fodder
• Rakdos Cackler - sacrifice fodder
• Flayer of the Hatebound - This card gets a bad rap but it's great in Marchesa
• Herald of Secret Streams - Wincon alert! This card sneaks under the radar until you hit someone with 25 unblockable damage
• The Ozolith - Expensive, but who doesn't want to keep their counters for 1 mana!

Of course, please take a look at my deck if you need inspiration. It's pretty casual, but the synergies can be backbreaking if your opponents don't keep you in check. I also have a ton of cards in my maybeboard that I'm considering or have saved for later.

https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/guess-whos-back-back-again-and-again/?cat=custom&sort=&cb=1689648313

DreadKhan on EDH Merens Reanimator

1 year ago

In my Meren deck, I don't run a lot of bigger creatures, even though the deck has decent odds of ending up with huge amounts of mana, stuff like Beast Whisperer/Grim Haruspex draw cards off of creatures either entering or leaving the battlefield, there are lots of variants of both of those effects, and these will let you play many spells in a turn, rather than play one huge thing. I don't think your MVs are a huge problem, but the 'top of my curve' creatures are Razaketh, the Foulblooded, Protean Hulk, and Sheoldred, Whispering One, the first two can win on the spot or very quickly, while Sheoldred is a bit more questionable, a lot of people find stuff like Sheoldred tends to be too slow in todays game, so even that is a card I'm considering switching out for lower to the ground stuff. I checked and atm I have 14 1 drops, which is a few more, there are plenty of decent 1 drop mana dorks you could throw in to both lower your curve and possibly raise your consistency, though the best is Elves of Deep Shadow, since your deck cares more about Black mana.

As a general rule of thumb for Meren, if you can do a thing with a creature instead, you probably should unless the creature option is truly awful, I run 55 creatures in the 99, and I'm still thinking about sneaking more in by taking out things like Artifacts. Creature payoffs are better than artifact payoffs in Golgari, and Meren can't recur non-creatures.

For sac outlets, you ideally want a selection of 'free' sac outlets, ones that only use a creature and no other input, so stuff like Viscera Seer, Carrion Feeder, Woe Strider, any of the good altars (Phyrexian Altar, Ashnod's Altar, and Altar of Dementia are my all very good), Sadistic Hypnotist is insanely useful (it is a 5 drop though), if you have 4 drops that matter you can use Dimir House Guard because Transmute is a good mechanic if you care about the MV and it's also a free sac outlet. I think you can throw in a few sac outlets that are more limited, stuff like Helm of Possession, Phyrexian Tower, Hell's Caretaker, Altar of Bhaal, and Ritual of the Machine are all beefy effects, even if you can only use them once per turn. I really like stuff like Sakura Tribe Elder because the card provides it's own sac outlet (but only for itself), ymmv but I think you're taking a risk by running something like Solemn Simulacrum over Dawntreader Elk or Diligent Farmhand, 4 mana is a ton and it lacks a self destruct feature.

One option some people end up taking is replacing Meren as the Commander, not because she isn't strong enough but because the play patterns are pretty consistent, once you've figured out what your deck is trying to do, Meren is usually very predictable, so some people prefer something like Baba Lysaga, Night Witch. She offers card draw and a sac outlet in the Command zone while caring a lot less about creatures in particular, so you'd have more freedom in terms of card types.

Hope some of this is helpful!