My first excursion into Modern and I had to stick to what I love the most... SACRIFICE.
The aim of the deck is to flood the board with creatures a.k.a sacrificial offerings, and drain the opponent.
There are several ways to achieve this morbid aspiration. The biggest pay off is the combo element of the deck. You need several Blood Artists or Zulaport Cutthroats in play with a few creatures and
Teysa, Orzhov Scion
. 2 mana required for
Plunge into Darkness
->
Sac creatures, gain a bunch of life from
Plunge into Darkness
, drain and gain with Zulaport Cutthroat and/or Blood Artist and get X 1/1 flying spirit tokens which are sacrificed to
Teysa, Orzhov Scion
, triggering the life gain/drain again and exiling a creature (provided all resources are adequate).
e.g. 3 random creatures, 1 Blood Artist and
Teysa, Orzhov Scion
= +9 life from
Plunge into Darkness
, +6 life from Blood Artist, opponent loses 6 life and their most powerful creature.
Realistically a turn 4 combo.
Other fun interactions are:
Gravecrawler, another Zombie, Viscera Seer, Zulaport Cutthroat and/or Blood Artist and 3 or more mana for some recurring sac, gain/drain, scry shenanigans. Throw in
Teysa, Orzhov Scion
for extra fun!
Bloodghast, Viscera Seer, Blood Artist and/or Zulaport Cutthroat and a fetchland doubles your money. Again, add
Teysa, Orzhov Scion
to the mix.
Fatal Push my Geralf's Messenger to finish off the opponent... that is sweet.
Plunge into Darkness
my whole board sometimes for crazy triggers.
Other cards:
Cryptbreaker
- great card advantage and early Zombies.
Thoughtseize - yep.
Overall, it can be a pretty fast, quite aggressive deck, left unchecked. If you can build a decent board state, gain and drain can be serious.
The sideboard has some staples. I'm trying out Ratchet Bomb. My own creatures dying to 2 counters is usually beneficial to me. Geralf's Messenger and
Teysa, Orzhov Scion
will be spared from the explosion.
