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| 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 |
| Highlander | Legal |
| Legacy | Legal |
| Leviathan | Legal |
| Limited | Legal |
| Modern | Legal |
| Oathbreaker | Legal |
| Pauper | Legal |
| Pauper Duel Commander | Legal |
| Pauper EDH | Legal |
| Planechase | Legal |
| Quest Magic | Legal |
| Tiny Leaders | Legal |
| Vanguard | Legal |
| Vintage | Legal |
Assassinate
Sorcery
Destroy target tapped creature.
TheVectornaut on
Blue/White Life and Defenders
3 years ago
I think a good place to start would be to evaluate what goals are the most important for your deck while making sure you don't have too many ideas that compete against each other. When I look at the deck now, I can see the general idea of a U/W control list that takes advantage of freeze and lifegain to prolong the fight until you can win. However, I see some major problems with the plan as it is now.
First, the deck lacks a clear win condition at the end of all the control. You'll either need to chip away over the course of a slow game with your smaller creatures or hope you have enough freeze effects to get your big guys in late-game. Control deck usually opt for some type of haymaker that can reliably close the game. Some like AEtherling and Gideon, Ally of Zendikar are designed to protect themselves, some like Celestial Colonnade and Shark Typhoon place emphasis on evasion, some like Torrential Gearhulk and Snapcaster Mage give you as much value as possible, and some like Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Teferi, Time Raveler deny your opponents of counterplay. There's a lot of overlap within those categories and not all of these cards will be played as a wincon, but having a clear plan to win is better than only playing to not lose. The closest cards you have are probably Serpent of Yawning Depths and Archipelagore. Sea monsters are certainly a fine casual deck but slotting them into something else can be awkward at best and ineffectual at worst.
The second problem I see is the missed potential of your chosen colors combined with your chosen tribe. Right now, you have very few ways to take advantage of the clerics in the deck. Clerics are intended to be W/B since you get access to powerful new tools like Orah, Skyclave Hierophant, Taborax, Hope's Demise, and Cleric of Life's Bond along with classics like Sin Collector, High Priest of Penance, and Skirsdag High Priest. The lifegain/drain synergy in clerics also benefits from orzhov colors to play threats like Angel of Destiny, Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose, Marauding Blight-Priest, Speaker of the Heavens, Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim, Twilight Prophet, Pious Evangel Flip, Drana's Emissary, and Cruel Celebrant.
Incidentally, black also synergizes quite well with tapdown effects because of Assassinate cards like Royal Assassin, Deathbringer Liege, and Murderous Compulsion, although white does have its share of Vengeance with Sunblast Angel, Deadeye Harpooner, and Swift Response. Anyway, now that I'm on this tangent, it's worth mentioning that including strong freeze effects is important if you want to make such an underused mechanic work. I'm partial to Dungeon Geists and Icefall Regent as permanent taps, but there's also Guardian of Tazeem, Niblis of Frost, Tamiyo, the Moon Sage, Time of Ice, Lorthos, the Tidemaker, Frost Titan, and Hands of Binding. Alternatively you can use cheaper cards that can retap a creature each turn like Gideon's Lawkeeper, Blinding Souleater, Fatestitcher, Hidden Strings, and Minister of Impediments. The final category I'll mention are other cards that take advantage of tapping enemy creatures like Palliation Accord and Verity Circle, except I'd only ever recommend the latter.
In summary, I think you should decide whether you're more interested in clerics or in freeze since they don't synergize with each other that well. For clerics, switching to black and taking advantage of lifedrain and sacrifice is advisable. For freeze control, find ways to abuse tapping, implement a strong win condition, and generally include more card draw and countermagic. If you are dead set on combining these styles, I'd at least invest in some tribal support cards to give the clerics more impact than just weakly contributing to the party mechanic. Adaptive Automaton, Door of Destinies, Obelisk of Urd, and Coat of Arms are some popular options. Finally, if your budget doesn't allow you to purchase many new cards, prioritizing the acquisition of additional copies of your strongest but cheapest cards is a good way to upgrade. For this deck, I think those cards are Attended Healer, Cleric of Chill Depths, Hypnotic Sprite, Kor Celebrant, Luminarch Aspirant, Queen of Ice, Shepherd of Heroes, Skyclave Cleric Flip, Concerted Defense, Dovin's Veto, Negate, Inscription of Insight, Staggering Insight, Trapped in the Tower, and maybe Silundi Vision Flip. Good luck with your build and let me know if you have any questions!
Stardragon on Card creation challenge
3 years ago
Death's Everlasting Sleep 2
Instant
Choose One
Tap target permanent it does not untap during it's controls untap phase
Destroy target tapped creature it does not regenerate
Nothing to amazing it basically Assassinate and Narcolepsy in one card
Make a Spider Whale in
Kjartan on
Murder all the Things
5 years ago
I assume this is built out of cards you owned at the time of construction, and that's why you only run 2 Murder and 2 Asphyxiate /3 Assassinate , as well as having a 2/2 split between Ruthless Ripper and Hired Poisoner .
Even so, I have to question you on some of these other choices:
Assassin's Strike seems like a terrible option. This late in the game, your opponent likely doesn't even have anything to discard, essentially making it a 6 mana sorcery removal spell.
Contract Killing also seems bad, since your only 6+ mana card is Assassin's Strike . And unless you hold a lot of cards back, those clues, with 5 lands in play, or not gonna do a whole lot.
Destroy the Evidence definitely also seems bad. Most decks don't care about losing a land this late in the game, and milling them will more than likely just help them. Since you're not a land destruction deck, nor a mill deck, I don't think you have a way of capitalizing on this card.
As for suggestions, something to deal with non-creature decks, and some overall better spells. Doesn't have to be expensive, just Duress , more Murder s, Victim of Night n' all that.
Enticer on
Millin'
5 years ago
I would defiantly run more Jace's Phantasm if you have them. Also, maybe cut some Assassinate. Phantom Monster is just horrible, and I would get rid of that. Maybe some more Mindcrank? I have a non-budget kinda competitive mill deck, which I would never consider buying but if you want some ideas, you can check it our here.
King_of_Sunhall on
Rakdos, Vampires.
5 years ago
Remove: Batterhorn, Oxidda Scrapmelter, Assassinate, Rocky Tar Pit, Searing Blaze, Daring Demolition, Sarkhan's Unsealing, Icy Manipulator, 4x Mountain.
Move: Rakdos into the 99
Add: Card Draw, Dreadbore, Olivia Voldaren as Commander, 4x Swamp, Bojuka Bog, Vandalblast.
Brutal_B on Noob to Magic; need help …
6 years ago
I play a casual blue black that utilizes a lot of "freeze/stall" spells as I like to call them. Creatures like Frost Lynx, Watertrap Weaver, and Fogwalker; Harbinger of the Tides. Enchantments such as Malfunction, Ice Over, and Claustrophobia. Play instants like Send to Sleep, Chilling Grasp, and Ojutai's Breath. As far as black...Deathstroke, Assassinate, Royal Assassin, Rathi Assassin, Stalking Assassin, Murderous Compulsion. Throw some nasty flyers in the mix and you're sure to piss off your friends.
Backinthefrey on
UB Mill
6 years ago
i did some play testing, and despite your deck being presented as an aggro budget mill, my slow build enchantment mill is able to consistently beat it, while the deck is less than half the price. this isn't me saying the deck is bad, its me saying you need to make it faster, and focus on card advantage more than self preservation. whites only job here is to keep you alive, but blue very easily has cards that do the same, as well as black. to replace the Path to Exile is replaceable by a large number of cards, such as Assassinate, Murder, or Doom Blade. it costs only slightly more, and its not like they will have a game ending creature turn 1 anyway. and to replace your Ethereal Haze you can use something basic like Unsummon, or use a bored wipe one like AEtherize, or just a Polymorphist's Jest to nullify a big hit. that way you narrow down to two colors, and still keep the cards to stay alive
