Speeding up Skirsdag
Modern Deck Help forum
Posted on Dec. 26, 2017, 12:51 p.m. by thetanman91
Hello all, I am revisiting my first constructed deck that I played when I started playing Magic during the first Innistrad block: Skirsdag Sacrament
The concept is simple, create 5/5 demon tokens through Skirsdag High Priest and sacrificing my creatures using Deranged Outcast and/or Disciple of Griselbrand, or beat face using Lords to pump my humans. When I played this deck regularly during standard FNM's, it did well and always made top 8 at least.
With modern having so many choices and a large card pool, I wanted to see how can I tune this deck to be faster or what changes can anyone suggest to improve the overall efficiency of this deck? Thank you all for the help!
Both your sacrifice outlets are pretty bad, as they require you to spend mana and tap them to use the sac ability (meaning you can only use it once per turn, and not on the turn they enter the battlefield). The best sac outlet in Modern is Viscera Seer, and the second best is Cartel Aristocrat (if you don't mind going Abzan).
Also, I agree with the user who said you should go for a tribal Human deck. Your Werewolf flip cards are too weak for Modern and lose the synergy with the rest of the deck once they transform, since they lose the Human creature type. Right now your deck looks like it wants to do two separate things which don't go well with each other.
Some other card suggestions:
Bloodghast (this is by far the best sac fodder you can get in Modern)
Bloodsoaked Champion (consider this a budget version of Bloodghast)
Young Wolf (can be sacrificed twice, also great for chump blocking)
December 27, 2017 12:08 p.m.
thetanman91 says... #4
Thanks for the suggestion square711. As of now the deck is a human tribal, and the point of having Wolfbitten Captive Flip is for a turn 1 play and to be used as fodder. Mayor of Avabruck Flip is used to pump my humans, with both not necessarily used for their wolf flip sides. I can definitely see where youre coming from, and I do have a play set of Bloodsoaked Champions to replace the Captives..I also have Young Wolfs so I'll tinker around with those. I do need to pickup Viscera Seers and Cartel Aristocrats, those would definitely speed things up! Also, instead of Raise the Alarm, what do you think of Gather the Townsfolk?
December 27, 2017 12:26 p.m.
Raise the Alarm was actually a mistake on my part - I thought it made Human tokens, not Soldier tokens. Gather the Townsfolk is sorcery speed, which kinda sucks, but it does synergize better with the rest of the deck... but on second thought, maybe you're better off not playing either of them. Just focus on replacing your current sacrifice outlets and testing with Young Wolf to see how well it fits your needs.
Oh, and one last thing: get rid of Village Cannibals. A 2/2 that hits the board on turn 3 is too slow for Modern - if you want a creature that gets bigger as you sacrifice stuff, Mortician Beetle is your best bet.
December 27, 2017 3:20 p.m.
thetanman91 says... #6
The biggest reason for having Village Cannibals is to pump it from a 2/2 to a 5/5 using Deranged Outcast...however, with all the recent suggestions, it seems that maybe keeping a purely human tribal seems like not the way to go.
December 27, 2017 3:37 p.m.
I'm not too sure how much there is to be gained by staying exclusively human tribal. It seems like there's already a heavy token theme to the deck, which makes Intangible Virtue a better option than trying to build around Mayor of Avabruk and Champion of the Parish.
If you branch out more into token-territory, you can play stuff like Promise of Bunrei, Lingering Souls, or Voice of Resurgence. Just think of a play where you sacrifice Young Wolf to Bloodthrone Vampire, triggering Promise of Bunrei, sacrifice the tokens to Bloodthrone Vampire, then activate Skirsdag High Priest, then finally casting Tragic Slip/Fatal Push to clear away any blockers.
December 27, 2017 5:26 p.m.
thetanman91 says... #8
Thanks for the input sylvannos. I'm considering breaking away from human tribal and youve brought up some good suggestions.
December 27, 2017 8:39 p.m.
thetanman91 says... #9
I don't have the mana base unfortunately to add white, only a playset of Isolated Chapel and one Concealed Courtyard. I do however have the mana base for B/G: Playset of Overgrown Tomb, Woodland Cemetery, and Blooming Marsh. How would a deck like this look sticking to just B/G until I can acquire the lands needed for abzan colors?
December 28, 2017 10:44 a.m.
There's been G/B Stompy variants that use Strangleroot Geist, Young Wolf, Experiment One, Hardened Scales, and Winding Constrictor to quickly make large creatures.
If you use Viscera Seer as a sac outlet (probably something else too, so it's more consistent), you have Skirsdag High Priest making 5/5s every turn, setting off Experiment One, etc. You could also probably play Walking Ballista and Hangarback Walker.
December 28, 2017 5:35 p.m.
thetanman91 says... #11
Sounds good, thanks for the suggestions...going to brew something up and update the list once it's done.
December 29, 2017 11:10 a.m.
thetanman91 says... #12
Hey hope everyone had a great holiday season. sylvannos, I went ahead and brewed up a B/G variant of my Mono STOMP deck: Skirsdag Stomp. Take a look if you can and let me know what you think of it, thanks!
January 2, 2018 10:24 a.m.
I like it, but you don't have any sac outlets. Cutting Vines of Vastwood and Blossoming Defense can make room for them. I think I'd also play Fatal Push or Aspect of Hydra over Rancor.
January 3, 2018 3:49 a.m.
thetanman91 says... #14
Thanks for having a look. What I could do is change the deck around to include more black and sacrificing cards such as:
-4 Rancor
+4 Fatal Push
Also, is Tasigur, the Golden Fang worth having in a deck like this, or should I cut him to make room for another Varolz, the Scar-Striped and Skirsdag High Priest?
Thanks for the help!
January 3, 2018 10:23 a.m.
Yeah you don't have a lot of ways to fill your grave quickly. You could cut some basics and up your fetch count, then drop to only one Tasigur, the Golden Fang.
Do you have Bloodghasts? That could also do some silly things if you up your fetches, add those, and play some dredge cards (Life from the Loam is pretty spicy).
Regardless, deck looks like a lot of fun!
January 3, 2018 5:41 p.m.
thetanman91 says... #16
Unfortunately, those are all the fetch lands that I have, I'm on a budget. Don't have any Bloodghasts but I do have Bloodsoaked Champions, though I don't think they have a place in this deck unless I cut Experiment One, but we want that to get bigger.
Tasigur, the Golden Fang isn't necessary for this deck anyway, I just thought he would be pretty easy to get out with the sacrifices and fetches that I do have, but again, isn't necessary. I could cut him for other cards to keep the deck consistent.
January 4, 2018 9:38 a.m.
In that case, don't change anything except the Tasigur, the Golden Fangs. The point of Bloodghast is that you can sacrifice it multiple times in a turn and keep bringing it back. Bloodsoaked Champion doesn't really fit that plan because you have to attack first.
Winding Constrictor, Hardened Scales, Simic Guildmage, Kitchen Finks, and Avatar of the Resolute are some other options in place of Tasigur, the Golden Fang. Evolutionary Leap may also be a nice sac outlet, especially with undying.
thetanman91 says... #2
Another user suggested adding some white to gain access to humans such as Champion of the Parish, Thalia's Lieutenant, and maybe even Renegade Rallier...thoughts?
December 27, 2017 10:37 a.m.