Combos Browse all Suggest
- Ayara, First of Locthwain + Ghoulcaller Gisa + Wall of Blood
- Ayara, First of Locthwain + Black Sun's Zenith + Nest of Scarabs
- Ayara, First of Locthwain + Marrow-Gnawer + Plague of Vermin
- Ayara, First of Locthwain + Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder
- Ayara, First of Locthwain + Bitterblossom
Legality
Format | Legality |
1v1 Commander | Legal |
Archenemy | Legal |
Arena | Legal |
Block Constructed | Legal |
Canadian Highlander | Legal |
Casual | Legal |
Commander / EDH | Legal |
Commander: Rule 0 | Legal |
Custom | Legal |
Duel Commander | Legal |
Gladiator | Legal |
Highlander | Legal |
Historic | Legal |
Historic Brawl | Legal |
Legacy | Legal |
Leviathan | Legal |
Limited | Legal |
Modern | Legal |
Oathbreaker | Legal |
Pioneer | Legal |
Planechase | Legal |
Pre-release | Legal |
Quest Magic | Legal |
Standard Brawl | Legal |
Tiny Leaders | Legal |
Vanguard | Legal |
Vintage | Legal |
Ayara, First of Locthwain
Legendary Creature — Elf Noble
Whenever Ayara, First of Locthwain or another black creature enters the battlefield under your control, each opponent loses 1 life and you gain 1 life.
, Sacrifice another black creature: Draw a card.
ProgramIncomplete on The Mycotyrant
1 month ago
Sure thing!
When I decided to build this deck I really wanted to lean into the descend theme so I challenged myself to run as few non-permanent spells as possible. I think my initial list had like 1 or 2. Overtime, I ended up adding more since I realized I needed efficient self mill payoff cards like Reanimate and Overwhelming Remorse or else the deck was a little too clunky. Currently I'm running 9 but I'm looking for oppurtunites to cut some without losing power or efficiency.
But still, even though it isn't "pure permanents" I still tried my best to cover all of the deck's bases with permanent spells. We have permanents that can remove threats like Chupacabra Echo and Reclamation Sage; permanents that can draw cards like Skullclamp and Izoni, Thousand-Eyed; permanents that can ramp us like Sakura-Tribe Elder and Aftermath Analyst; permanents that mill like Mesmeric Orb and Ripples of Undeath; permanents that can bring stuff back from the grave like Journey to Eternity Flip and Animate Dead; we even have The Meathook Massacre and Invasion of Fiora Flip as our boardwipes.
One really nice upside to having everything our deck wants to do on permanent spells is that it makes cards like Malevolent Rumble and Cache Grab really consistent at grabbing something useful. And I recently added Revival Experiment which seems like a really nice payoff for going all in on permanents.
Anyway, the basic idea of this deck is self-milling and using my commander's ability to swarm the board with tokens. Usually we want to spend the first couple turns setting up, hopefully getting a repeatable mill effect on the battlefield like Mesmeric Orb or by pairing one of our dredge cards with a discard outlet like Matzalantli, the Great Door Flip or Geier Reach Sanitarium. Once we've got our mill engine set up, then we can cast our commander. We want to make sure he triggers his end step ability the turn he enters so we can start getting our tokens online.
The tokens really are the core pillar of the deck. They can be sacrificed for value with cards like Skullclamp and Wight of the Reliquary; we can turn them into mana dorks with Insidious Roots; they can gain us a ton of life off of Essence Warden and Ayara, First of Locthwain; and they can present lethal by giving our Craterhoof Behemoth an army to buff. We also have the ability to drain the table to death with the aforementioned Ayara or Mirkwood Bats if we manage to mill enough cards. And of course, since they pump our commander, we can also win with commander damage.
Since we're milling so much the deck also has a reanimator subtheme. Reanimate and Animate Dead can bring back wincon creatures like Craterhoof and Ayara. Squirming Emergence can reanimate any permanent so it's an awesome way to put planeswalkers into play or snag an engine piece or even wipe the board with Invasion of Fiora Flip. Similarly, Rise of the Witch-king let's us bring back any permanent while also forcing our opponents to sack a creature which is nice.
A new card that I'm actually testing right now is Chthonian Nightmare. The fact that it's a repeatable reanimate effect for only 2 mana seems really strong. And even if you don't "charge it up" by repeatedly reanimating creatures that cost less than 3, roughly 75% of the creatures in my deck are 3 or less anyway and among those are some really impactful targets like Eternal Witness, Reclamation Sage, Six, and Accursed Marauder just to name a few. Very excited to see how it performs!
Alongside the reanimator subtheme we have an aristocrats subtheme. As mentioned earlier the tokens make great fodder for stuff like Skullcamp and Wight. And we have creatures that either sack themselves, like Sakura-Tribe Elder and Aftermath Analyst, or want to be sacrificed, like World Shaper. All that sacrificing can net us additional value off of Liliana, Dreadhorde General or Mirkwood Bats since he triggers on token sacrifice as well. We also have Disciple of Freyalise Flip, a great reanimation target that can draw us a ton of cards by sacrificing our creatures that grow in size as our graveyard does like Splinterfright and Souls of the Lost.
So yeah, that's the deck. It can be a bit slow and the lack of instant speed interaction is definitely a drawback but overall I like it a lot and it can have some explosive turns. You just have to be careful not to mill yourself out which is why I added in Kozilek, Butcher of Truth. He's a bit random so I might replace him with Elixir of Immortality. We'll see.
P.S. Apologies for the long winded reply, hopefully it was insightful.
MadHatter23 on Mono-Black Enchantment
5 months ago
The combo works by having Warehouse Tabby and Ayara, First of Locthwain on the field. Use Screams from Within to kill any 1/1 creature. The aura hits the graveyard triggering the taby creating a 1/1 black rat token. Ayara triggers opponents lose 1 life. The aura then returns targeting the new rat token. Thus continues the loop.
TheForsakenOne on K'rrik, Manipulator of Life (Totals)
6 months ago
This deck seems very .... confused. On one hand you have swamp synergies, on the other sacrifice synergies, and then you have weird cards like Elder Brain that don't fit into either. I'd suggest picking one of the two theme's and sticking to it.
Cards I would suggest cutting:
Withercrown (just not a good card)
Crypt Incursion (Too situational, its going to be dead a lot of the time)
Xathrid Gorgon (Too slow)
Visara the Dreadful (Removal magnet + too slow)
Consume Spirit (There are better mana sinks than this)
Corrupt (Needs too many swamps to be worth the mana)
Liliana's Shade (Also just not a good card)
Elder Brain (just a weird card in general and too inconsistent)
Cards I would suggest adding:
Abhorrent Overlord (Makes a buch of creatures for your sacrifice triggers)
Pontiff of Blight, Thrull Parasite, Basilica Screecher (More extort cards that synergize very well with K'rrik)
Exsanguinate (Better mana sink than consume spirit)
Nirkana Revenant (Another mana doubler for swamps)
Vein Ripper (Very good for this kind of deck, but it just came out and is currently pricey so I'd wait to buy this one)
Bitterblossom, Dreadhorde Invasion (make a creature every turn for your sacrifice outlets)
Viscera Seer the classic free sacrifice outlet. Also see Woe Strider
Ayara, First of Locthwain (Free creature with K'rrik out and pings opponents every time a black creature enters which usually happens a lot with sac decks)
Profet93 on Drivnod's Desecration
7 months ago
How important is making colored mana for gravecrawler? Energy Refractor and Prismite are 2 slots dedicated to making colored mana for gravecrawler if you have ashnod's out. Perhaps there is a combo I'm missing?
One niche suggestion is Carnival of Souls. It triggers on opponents as well so be careful but it can host a variety of combos....
Zulaport Cutthroat/Blood Artist + Reassembling Skeleton + Carnival of Souls + Phyrexian Altar/Ashnod's Altar
Carnival of Souls + Gravecrawler + Carrion Feeder + Zulaport Cutthroat/Blood Artist
^ Perhaps Carrion could swap would viscera seer to add to your zombie count. Although, scry is more helpful and viscera can block.
Ayara, First of Locthwain - Another drain effect that has draw built in. It's devotion is helpful for gray merchant. It also combos as such
Ayara, First of Locthwain + Carnival of Souls + Gravecrawler + Carrion Feeder
Karn is mostly just a suggestion to remove artifacts consistently. THe one sided null-rod is just a bonus. Not to mention it can recur your exiled artifacts. Since it's a PW, they will be force to remove it, either with a removal spell that they could have used on something else or combat damage in which you want creatures to block and die anyways.
Infernal darkness is mostly to stall for like 1-2 turns. It's very effective when you are in a winning position. It also forces blue players to counter it or else they are out of luck (unless they have artifacts, which Karn could deal with). It's not an entirely serious suggestion but worth mentioning.
Regarding your draw point, both Corpse Augur and Grim Haruspex are solid options as their mana cost is low. Grim Haruspex is particularly effective in your deck.
leon_bulminot on Volrath, Voltron Reanimator
8 months ago
Not sure what you might cut but if you want some help and unblockables, try a Kormus Bell plus something like Filth, you can turn your lands into a constant pinging source of damage.
I would also swap Void Winnower over to your control portion. Big beefy Eldrazi yes but risky to lose until your board is setup. And even then, he has more Utility as control.
I’d also swap Kozileks, if you have Kozilek, the Great Distortion. Lets you turn stuff like Filth into a counter spell and put it in the graveyard where you need it.
Also, Liliana of the Veil is decent but you can get so much more utility out of Liliana Vess for tutoring or, Liliana of the Dark Realms for land tutor and removal. Plus if you ultimate Dark Realms, you get BIG mana bumps, especially to use with Draco. Using 2 lands to keep him around versus 8.
And since you are so sack heavy, a card to not only dole out damage as you summon black creatures but let you sack and draw cards, and a seriously reduced cost, Ayara, First of Locthwain. Could replace 2 or 3 cards with just her.
Final suggestion and honestly, I am surprised with all the sacking you do here that it isn’t even on the maybe board. Blood Artist. All I need to say there lol
As for what to pull out, check your synergy and self interaction with cards. If two or three cards only interact with themselves, you might need to consider dropping them. I’ve been over the deck list but it could go so many different routes for beef sticks beating things down. Just thoughts to consider while looking for things to pull out. Sometimes one card can complete the function of 2 if you have them.
Zenntrox on Zombo Combo
9 months ago
Love the combo of this deck!
I've been tinkering with a zombie sacrifice deck myself and I got a few recommendations that might be helpful:
Ayara, First of Locthwain could probably be replaced with Blood Artist or Zulaport Cutthroat (the later being slightly worse, but also cheaper to buy irl). They all do functionally pretty much the same, but Ayara is more expensive with her 3 mana cost. So you might as well replace her unless you absolutely feel like you need that option to sac for her card draw or might have a reason to prefer the damage on creatures entering the battlefield rather than dying.
Headless Rider honestly doesn't feel like it's doing very much in this deck. As far as I understand it, the main wincons are either dealing damage through Ayara's ability or milling via the Altar of Dementia. Creating tokens just feels unnecessary and having more draw to get to your combo pieces faster is probably more useful. For example, Village Rites combos well with having disposable creatures and Undead Augur, effectively allowing you to draw 3 cards for 1 mana at instant speed.
If you don't mind your removal being sorcery speed, then you might want to give Bone Shards a try. It gives flexibility in either discarding or sacrificing for its cost and can also target plainswalkers. Finally, maybe 1 or 2 copies of Unearth could be useful as a failsafe in case important combo pieces end up in the graveyard. It can get you literally any creature from your deck back and that for just 1 mana.
Tsukimi on *RETIRED* Alela These Nuts
1 year ago
Nice looking Alela build! She quickly became one of my favorite commanders. I found pretty quickly that as tempting as Leyline of Anticipation and Vedalken Orrery are, the deck doesn't really need them - espeically with the variety of good, low CMC instants we have access to, a lot of which you have already. I always suggest Mari, the Killing Quill because she's a perfect fit with this deck, and a lot of fun to play with. Ayara, First of Locthwain is also a lot of fun with a deck like this.
Mind's Dilation is a fun include, have you gotten to playtest it yet? I've found with Alela high CMC cards stick around in my hand too long.
Feel free to check out my deck for any fun options you might have missed! Alela's Huge Goads
Oh also just a heads up your deck is listed as not EDH legal. I poked around your decklist to see if I could figure out why but no dice.
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