Abyssal Persecutor

Creature — Demon

Flying, trample

You can't win the game and your opponents can't lose the game.

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Freeform	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Modern Beyond Horizons	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Planar Constructed	Legal
Planechase	Legal
PreDH	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (47)

legendofa on sacrificial flames

2 days ago

Welcome to the club, pixelotilz!

First suggestion here is to add more low-mana ramp. Mana dorks like Ignoble Hierarch, Elves of Deep Shadow, and Birds of Paradise can give you more options in the early turns, and you can find ways to use them once your mana base gets more established.

Most of your high-cost cards have cost reduction based on power, which is good. There's a lot of 2-3 power utility creatures in the 3-5 mana slots here. That's not necessarily bad by itself, but some of them can probably be switched out for more creatures with 4+ power for better discounts. Depending on how risky you want to be (the mention of little life gain suggests this should be a lower-risk deck), some of my thoughts are: Abyssal Persecutor is a big beater that wants to be sacrificed, Hulking Raptor offers another mana option, and Rakdos, Lord of Riots gives you more access to your top-end creatures.

TheVectornaut on Fast Demons

2 weeks ago

I'm not sure what format this is intended for so I'm sorry if any of my suggestions aren't legal. Most decks aiming for big demons opt for reanimation over other turbo out options, but I think you can make it work for a casual deck. I like Quicksilver Amulet for instance and I think you could also consider Heartless Summoning, Ancient Cellarspawn, or Crypt Ghast. Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx makes Coffers slightly worse but I can't imagine it being a bad inclusion with so many black pips. Another option would be to include more demons in the low mana range so that you have some board presence early. Some that came to mind are Varragoth, Bloodsky Sire for tutoring, Master of the Feast if you want to lean into a Underworld Dreams/Orcish BowmastersGC plan, Desecration Demon for stats and potential board denial, and Nightmare Shepherd for removal insulation. Really though, if you want more consistency, the best thing you can do is add more copies of your best cards. This does incentivize picking a clear direction and you don't want to consolidate too much here lest you get too low on unique names for Contract. If I was building this, I think I'd go to 4 copies of Spawn of Mayhem and 2-4 The Speed Demon with a focus on dealing damage or life loss to get their relevant triggers. Changeling Outcast is perfect for this so I'd up them too. Removal like Smallpox or the safer Geth's Verdict can incur life loss, and I do recommend upgrading from Sorin's Thirst and Cremate anyway. Fatal Push, Dismember, and Feed the Swarm are all options with varying strengths and weaknesses. That's just one direction too. You could just as easily build around foretell with Dream Devourer and some symmetry-breaking Damnations, Rite of Consumption effects with overstatted guys like Abyssal Persecutor, or pure devotion with Gray Merchant and Bloodletter alongside tools like The Meathook Massacre or Leyline of the Void. If you pick the handful of demons you enjoy playing the most and run more copies, you'll have more games actually playing with them and can save your tutors for emergencies more often.

moo1234 on Card creation challenge

1 month ago

Euron, the black hearted {B}{B}{B}{B}

Legendary creature - human warlock

flying, deathtouch

Hellbent - whenever a creature you control deals combat damage to an opponent ~ deals X damage to target opponent where X is half that players life total round down each time, X cannot be less than 0

You can't win the game and your opponents can't lose the game

5/5

'It's not everyday you get to see a dead body, so you have to make the most of it'

---

I really like cards like Abyssal Persecutor One with Nothing and Death's Shadow. Going back to alpha the most powerful card ever printed can arguably be Contract from Below. I think these perfectly encapsulate how I view black in mtg, so I love hellbent as a mechanic.

Glaze for black aside make another black card that gets more powerful as you get weaker in some way (you may use hellbent or the above cards for inspiration)

ThassaUpYo@ssa on Be'Elz A'Boot

2 years ago

Hey, Profet93! Thanks for the upvote & the comment as you raise a very valid point. While I do have ways to remove Abyssal Persecutor and understand his drawbacks, these are the three main reasons I run him:

1) He's a great early game 'meat stick' that I can use to inflict solid damage for multiple turns and force a removal response ahead of casting Be'Lakor, the Dark Master

2) He makes for a great blocker should my opponent(s) have a strong creature(s) of their own offering some deterrence

3) He combos pretty well with Be'Lakor, the Dark Master in the mid-to-late game dealing 6 damage anywhere I need for just 4 mana

My thought here is "once the garden has been watered, just turn off the hose" - after the damage has been done and/or Abyssal Persecutor has served his purpose simply cast a board wipe, use him as a chump blocker, kill him off with Be'Lakor, the Dark Master's ability, etc. With all of this being said, I have thought about swapping him out for quite some time.

I am curious about how good Mystic Remora is in EDH - it seems like it doesn't realistically hang around for long since you'll find yourself paying quite a bit of mana each upkeep to keep it around. I'm sure I'm missing something here, but to me it seems I'll want to end up wanting to use that mana to cast spells of my own as opposed to paying this cost.

Yawgmoth's Will is a great option for sure, and a solid play especially in the late game, I'm just torn on what I'd replace Abyssal Persecutor with but think this may be the leading candidate.

Were there any specific changeling(s) you had in mind that would be worth a look?

necromatic on Deep Darkness

2 years ago

Divided into 3 sections:

1.) Demons (12/60; 20%): Abyssal Persecutor, Demon of Catastrophes, Desecration Demon

2.) Sacrifice (16/60; 26.66%): Village Rites, Bone Splinters, Killing Wave, Demon of Catastrophes, Demon of Death's Gate, Xathrid Demon, Westvale Abbey  ^Flip

3.) The Sacrificed (12/60; 20%): Bloodsoaked Champion, Reassembling Skeleton, Typhoid Rats

Licecolony on Goaded With The Sauce

2 years ago

I really like your manifest take on Jon. Consider Dulcet Sirens. It's a clever way to mitigate risk of having those horrible creatures for yourself. I'll definitely be adding Crawlspace and Endless Whispers to my list.

Suggested removals from deck Plague Reaver. While it's a nice card to give away, the turn you play it you'll have to sacrifice Jon Irenicus to Plague Reaver's trigger regardless of which order you put the abilities onto the stack. You'd rather not lose Jon.

Gisa, Glorious Resurrector. It's something you can't give away, which means it's good when you're ahead, but not great when you're behind,. Your mileage may vary, but I think getting something more immediately impactful on the board tends to be best.

Mirko Vosk, Mind Drinker. You're not running a mill strategy, you'll only be filling the graveyard of dedicate graveyard decks.

Taniwha. I love this creature and totally understand running it for the memes, but phasing triggers before your upkeep, which means that when you give it away, it'll be phased out for the first turn under your opponent, so they'll keep their lands and you won't draw a card from Jon's ability. The turn cycle has to make two full rounds before Taniwha does anything.

Tergrid, God of Fright  ^Flip. Unlike Sheoldred, Tergrid doesn't make the opponent do either of its effects. It's another creature you don't want to give away, and Jon makes cards unsacrificeable. It just won't trigger much unless you're against a sacrifice deck.

Ensnaring Bridge. The creatures you donate will often be quite big. Ensnaring bridge will prevent them from attacking your opponents and deny you card draw.

Chromatic Lantern. It's only good if you need the mana fixing. You don't need the mana fixing. Try something like Thought Vessel or Decanter of Endless Water or Midnight Clock instead.

Assault Suit doesn't goad the creatures itself. Often they'll swing at you if possible.

Dissipation Field. Not as good as it looks. Doubles ETB triggers. Anti synergy with cards like Endless Whispers.

No Mercy Jon just has better options for this slot. If you can replace a non-creature with a creature in this deck, you usually want to.

Grave Betrayal. That's 7 mana for a card that could ruin your game by forcing you to revive bad cards you do not want.

Diplomatic Immunity. You want instant speed protection and protection from board wipes. Something like March of Swirling Mist is more versatile offensively and defensively.

Dark Ritual. I'm uncertain what you're trying to ramp into so quickly that you would need this. Maybe I'm wrong.

Countersquall. You may as well play the one mana version in An Offer You Can't Refuse.

Redirect may be bested by Narset's Reversal? That's a matter of opinion.

AEtherize risks bouncing creatures attacking other opponents such as those you've goaded but want them to keep. Try replacing this with a more versatile effect like Reins of Power or a more aggressive effect in Illusionist's Gambit.

Damnation. Jon prefers sacrifice board wipes so that your opponents keep their shit creatures.

Overall I think you could run less counter-magic in favor of more proactive effects.

Cards to Consider Creatures Generally I want to focus on adding creatures that you can give away and then steal back later to win the game.

With Jon, you often want cheap evasive creatures to give out for early card draw with his ability. Right now you have 1 two-drop creature. Throwing in a Changeling Outcast or a Slither Blade can mean you can give a creature away for cheap and still hold up mana for other things. Slither blade wouldn't die to Heartless Summoning too.

In the two-drop slot, you can run creatures that are more defensive like Baleful Strix, or give you card draw like Sygg, River Cutthroat or just more powerful creatures like Flesh Reaver which is a goaded 6/6 that can deal 12 damage a turn or Wretched Anurid. Heck, you can even add a versatile two-drop in Dimir Infiltrator which can be given away in the early game or used as a tutor in the late-game.

In the three drop slot, I think your idea of adding Steel Golem is a great one to make sure the only creatures your opponent has are the ones you're giving them. It's a brutal card. Rotting Regisaur is a card you don't mind giving away early, and can take back later to win. Phyrexian Soulgorger can be donated to an opponent as a goaded 10/10. They won't have to pay the upkeep, but that's a great body to give someone as a political tool. Cephalid Facetaker is also worth consideration though I personally don't run it.

In the four-drop slot, like you mentioned, Grid Monitor is a proactive creature counter. Abyssal Persecutor can save you from death. Archfiend of the Dross is risky but fun (it comes back to your control after the opponent dies).

In the 5-drop slot, both of the evil-eye cards are absolute ALL STARS. They work so well every game I've drawn them. They can also replace some of your weaker defenses like No Mercy and Dissipation Field

As a sidenote, I also like Deep-Sea Kraken as an unblockable 8/8 that can win you the game with homeward path.

Removal I recommend running more sacrifice-based removal since it'll mean your opponents keep the crap you give them. Things like Tergrid's Shadow or Vona's Hunger or All is Dust (one of my favorites) or Killing Wave. I also prefer Toxic Deluge to some of your other removal since it goes through hexproof. Curse of the Swine is also an exile effect that can be selective and works really well. You can also run single-target removal like Reality Shift or Pongify if you'd rather instant speed interaction. Feed the Swarm is quality. If you really don't care about cruelty, you can run Torment of Hailfire, but that card is honestly always too boring for me to want in my decks.

Card Draw Jon has access to some great card draw that most decks can't take advantage of. Fateful Handoff is a card draw spell that also donates (though does not goad). Sygg, River Cutthroat works well with evasive threats you give away (though should not be donated). Verity Circle works great with Jon's ability since it donates the creature first, and then taps it down. Teferi's Ageless Insight allows you to double your draw triggers from Jon.

Equipment Remember that you can donate creatures while they're equipped and you still control the equipment so they can't re-equip it. Pact Weapon makes the attacking creature bigger, while ensuring you can't die, and will draw you another card whenever the donated creature attacks. Dowsing Dagger  ^Flip works effectively on evasive creature to get you ramped. Vorpal Sword is a win condition on your unblockable evasive creatures.

Goad Dulcet Sirens, Bloodthirsty Blade.

Misc Graveyard removal is king. Throw in a Scavenger Grounds. My favorite card to run is Reality Shift. Make an Avenger of Zendikar spawn a dozen Wretched Anurids. It's not GREAT, but it is always funny. Cultural Exchange is a fun time too with all your manifest and shitty creatures.

That is all. Hope it was helpful.

Dead_Blue_ on Mono Black Control

3 years ago

Here was my list… Of Plague & Persecution -R.I.P.-

Abyssal Persecutor is an extremely fast beat stick, and you simply use removal like Liliana of the Veil’s -2 or Smallpox once the opponent is at zero life to win

Dead_Blue_ on Mono Black Control

3 years ago

I’d move the Surgical Extraction cards to the side unless you’re planning to hit fetches with them. You need some draw power 2x Phyrexian Arena could be it.

If you’re unhappy with Nether Spirit I used to run a Pox deck that used Abyssal Persecutor as the wincon instead