Excludes + Rationales:
Ancient Craving — I already run Ambition's Cost and I don't think I need two of this effect. I'm going to run Greed instead for now.
Asmodeus the Archfiend — I don't fully understand this card but it seems like a 6-mana 6/6 with "draw eight cards and lose eight life" for four black mana, meaning that's ten mana total before you've gotten anything out of him. He's also very vulnerable to blowouts, and annoyingly not a Demon.
Baleful Force/Bloodgift Demon — Too pricy for what they do. The same could be said about Seizan, Perverter of Truth, which has the added disadvantage of being symmetrical.
Black Market Connections — Basically a better Sanguine Spy in every way in this deck. I just don't run it because it costs a lot of money.
Bloodtracker — Four mana for a flying 2/2 that requires additional investment and for an opponent to remove it before it actually draws me any cards. Since I don't have any other +1/+1 counter synergies this just seems like a bad fit, although I do like the idea of a flyer that you can grow.
Bubbling Muck — I ran this for a while but it's oriented more towards combo decks that pop off in one turn rather than decks like this, which focus on incremental value over time. I think Arcane Signet will be a better fit.
Cunning Rhetoric — Fun card but this deck doesn't get that much benefit out of it, and oftentimes it'll give me cards I don't really want to play. It's not strong enough on its own to discourage larger attackers and without stuff like Monarch or Initiative in this deck I don't want to waste a space on discouraging smaller attackers when I could just run a board wipe or removal.
Cut of the Profits/Damnable Pact/Skeletal Scrying — Of the three, I like Pact the most because of its reach as a finisher, but even so it's pretty weak. As for card draw, at lower mana investment there's generally stuff that has a better rate, like Night's Whisper or Promise of Power, and at higher investments I'd rather just be playing something that actually wins me the game. Not to mention the graveyard requirement and Casualty 3 on Scrying and Cut, respectively, are things this deck struggles to achieve.
Dread Presence — At first I was a really big fan of this, viewing it as a 4-mana Phyrexian Arena, but now that I'm finally reassessing it Dread Presence falls substantially short of my expectations. To get any immediate value I need to play it as a five-drop and I need to play Swamps specifically, not just nonbasics. Even if I jump through that hoop it's not that good, and since I have no Landfall synergies I need to wait several more turns before this card gets enough triggers to be worthwhile.
Dream Devourer — It's cute, but Worn Powerstone is better ramp and dodges boardwipes, and the synergy with Liliana's Contract isn't enough to justify running this instead.
Endless Atlas — For some reason I ran a copy of this for the longest time, but spending two mana per turn to draw one card is just a less abusable Arguel's Blood Fast
. The only advantage this had was some incidental synergy with Karn, Scion of Urza and that's not enough of a justification to keep it in the deck. Same goes for Eye of Vecna.
Graveborn Muse — This is the only zombie in the deck, meaning it's never going to be more than a Phyrexian Arena that's vulnerable to creature removal. Somehow this is still one of the only creatures in all of Magic that has this ability, but it's nonetheless outclassed by things like Twilight Prophet.
Glint-Sleeve Siphoner — Needs to survive multiple attacks to even go neutral on cards, and that draw is required to happen on upkeep. I shouldn't even bother listing this here.
Hand of Vecna — Just a worse Empyrial Plate in every way, especially since we can't exploit the alternative equip cost in a deck that usually has 10+ cards in hand at any given time. The biggest dealbreaker is that it only grants the buff during your turn, meaning you can't use it to threaten a bigger Kagemaro boardwipe on your opponents' turns.
Harvester of Souls/Lolth, Spider Queen — Not enough creatures in this deck to be able to trigger them reliably. While there's some incidental synergy between Harvester of Souls and other players' creatures dying in 4-player games, there's better options at six mana.
Hero's Downfall — It's not bad but I'd like a little more from my single-target removal in EDH. I'm going to try Lethal Scheme as a replacement and see how well that works out.
Hoarding Broodlord — Fun design, but I don't have enough tokens to take advantage of the Convoke aspect often. I also think the Liliana's Contract synergy on Rune-Scarred Demon makes it worth keeping over the newcomer.
Ivory Crane Netsuke — Lifegain with an unreliable condition and no other upsides. It's just too weak.
Lethal Scheme/Pile On — Of the two, Lethal Scheme has the higher ceiling but Pile On seems better in a vacuum. Either way, four mana isn't really where I want to be for a single-target removal spell whose upsides are largely contingent on either having graveyard synergy or token swarms.
Lich's Mastery — Has a high ceiling, but the amount of lifegain in this deck has gradually decreased over time (which is also why I don't run Well of Lost Dreams), while the amount of effects that draw cards in exchange for life has increased, making this a bad include.
Mandate of Abaddon — Cute, but more situational/winmore than Nightmare Unmaking and redundant with Kagemaro's activated ability. It's also often going to be dead in hand if I lack a sufficiently big creature on board.
Mark of the Oni — Cute synergy with the ~6 demons in the deck, but it's really just a sorcery-speed removal spell with a bunch of conditions. Too weak.
Midnight Oil — While it's tempting to try to make this work with stuff like Reliquary Tower, the juice isn't worth the squeeze. Jumping through all those hoops provides only the underwhelming payoff of a four-mana enchantment that draws you one more card per turn.
Minions' Murmurs — High ceiling but terribly low floor, especially considering how few creatures this deck runs.
Moonlight Bargain — Without graveyard synergies, the best this is ever going to be is a worse Promise of Power, which I'm currently running.
Necrologia — Has the potential to be a better rate than Promise of Power but being restricted to the end step kinda limits its potential.
Ob Nixilis, Unshackled — I really like this card but I don't know what I'd cut for it. It's not particularly synergistic with the deck and although I have a minor demon subtheme this doesn't outclass any of the ones I'm running right now.
Phyrexian Etchings — For six mana, I get to draw three cards over three turns. And as soon as I stop paying, I get to lose a bunch of life. This is another really weak card and I'm baffled that my past self even bothered to consider it.
Protection Racket — I thought about this for awhile, but aside from politics in 4-player settings it's basically guaranteed to never draw me a card. This isn't an aggro deck so my opponents will usually be able to spare the life needed for exiling my cards, which isn't even that much for ~50% of my deck. Moreover, I don't think letting my opponents select my cards for me is a winning strategy (yet another reason not to run Sword-Point Diplomacy, so this is a pass from me.
Sanguimancy — Good while ahead but a really terrible topdeck while behind. I think for five mana I prefer the reliability of Stinging Study and Promise of Power.
Sanguine Spy — Difficult-to-achieve condition aside, the card draw occurs on the end step, which makes it much harder for me to actually use it since most of this deck is sorcery-speed.
Sarevok's Tome — Out of all the decks I have, this is the one that's best-positioned to take advantage of Tome's activated ability. But I've come to realize that, without additional Dungeon synergies, this is going to be a worse Hedron Archive most of the time. I think I'll test it out, but it being able to add two mana will be unreliable and the high ceiling of the second activated ability is mirrored by the low floor of spending four mana for a worse Dungeon Map.
Sorin the Mirthless — I thought about adding this for a while, but honestly if I'm not running Dark Confidant then I really shouldn't run this either. For two more mana this gives me the upside of making some tokens that aren't particularly useful in this deck or really anywhere besides Vampire commander decks. The only other advantage is that it lets me choose not to draw the card if it'd cost me too much life, but just +1 to look at the top of your deck and then do nothing is really pathetic. Now that I'm moving into a higher curve strategy this looks more and more like a bad include, and for those reasons, I'm out.
Staff of Nin — I've run this for a while and though it's reliable, it is so, so boring. 6 mana and a whole turn cycle to draw one card and deal one damage is never an optimal play, and though it generates more advantage as the game goes on I'd really rather be doing something more powerful by the time I reach 6 lands.
Succumb to Temptation — I don't value the instant speed enough to run this instead of something like Sign in Blood or Ancient Craving.
Syphon Mind — I play too much 1v1 EDH for this to be a good include. I also don't have any discard synergies.
Thawing Glaciers — I ran this for the longest time (as a proxy because it's so expensive) but I'm only just now realizing that while it's useful for ensuring land drops, it's really slow at doing that and I don't have any landfall synergies that benefit from its inclusion. If my deck is working correctly, I'll be drawing enough cards already to make sure I can hit each land drop, so I think I'll cut this for now and use Decanter of Endless Water instead.
Treacherous Blessing — For one mana less than Ancient Craving I get the same effect but with the potential to kill me later in the game. Given that this is a deck that plans on going long and I have no enchantment synergies, this just seems like a bad include.
Whip of Erebos — I ran this for a really long time, and the lifegain, conditional as it may be, is cute with Kagemaro. But I can't really justify four mana for a glorified Vampiric Link, especially seeing as though I only have 10ish creatures and half of those get minimal benefit from being recurred with the Whip's second ability. I'm going to try Sheoldred, the Apocalypse in that slot instead and see if that's preferable.
Wretched Confluence — The versatility is nice but none of the modes besides the card draw are ones I'd reliably want from a 5-mana spell, and if I only use it to draw three cards it's just an instant-speed Harrowing Journey.
