Bile Urchin

Creature — Spirit

Sacrifice Bile Urchin: Target player loses 1 life.

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
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

Discussion (20)

Balaam__ on 101% Mono Black Burn

2 years ago

Thanks Saccox. I’m still in the process of updating this deck (it was one of my earliest I posted to this site, and was in rough shape), so I’m taking any and all suggestions. I think the idea behind Barren Moor and Cryptic Caves is to utilize them for their draw power, and I’d have to say Yes the deck needs some of that. But I’d lean toward adding in Sign in Blood over the lands since it’s a bit more effective for us, or can burn the opponent in a 2-points-to-go scenario.

I like the idea of Sanctum of Stone Fangs but I get the feeling I’d need to rebuild most of the deck to get the maximum value from the card. I think I’ll pass on that one, but I can envision a deck it would do quite well in.

Oh, and I’ll be sure to replace Bile Urchin with the scorpion. Thank you for your input, as always!

libraryjoy on Black and White - please help!

2 years ago

For starters, I would take out Champion of the Parish (this needs to be in a deck that has a lot more humans) and Bile Urchin as I think it's maybe not enough value. Starfield Mystic is another early cut, as it wants to be in a deck with a high number of enchantments. It seems to me that you like a more control style build, so I'll focus on that. Full disclosure, I do not play black myself, so I'm not as good at Orzhov as I am at Selesnya, but I play enough magic that I should be able to give you some pointers.

Apollo_Paladin on Athreos' children

3 years ago

1) I'd drop Midnight Reaper down from x3 to x2 (+1 slot)

You really only need one of him out for him to be good, having multiples can suck your life total down and leave you unable (or unwilling) to sacrifice creatures to activate your combos.

2) If you're counting on recurring creatures to your hand instead of killing them (per Athreos, God of Passage, then cards like Grave Pact and Call of the Death-Dweller don't really fit. (+1 slot)

I can see Grave Pact still having perhaps a 2x copy in here, but surely you can find a sorcery for 3 mana or less that will help you along more. (+1 slot at least; dropping a copy of grave pact)

3) The Bile Urchin isn't a bad 1-mana drop, but I don't think you'd lose out too much swapping these straight-up for 4x High Priest of Penance. I get that they can recur and trigger other combos, but 1 life is a marginal amount so I think having some more control options (like destroy any permenant on High Priest) would suit you better. (+4 slots)

TOTAL: +7 Slots; Add in 4x High Priest of Penance and 3x Diabolic Edict

That'd be my recommendation(s)

Cheers!

dingusdingo on HOOOOOOONEY I'M HOOOOOOOOOME

4 years ago

drunksementhrowr We can discuss the deck here, or you're free to post on my profile!

The combo pieces have definitely seen some adjustments. The biggest change is the removal of Laboratory Maniac . Labman was high in CMC, and has no value outside the combo turn. Effectively, Labman is a complete dead draw if we aren't winning. This does mean that the self mill combo line has weakened, as Dread Return into labman on an empty library was a nice way to win. However, I think removing the labman line is correct. While it certainly can lead to wins, there are many parts during the line where you can be interrupted or have your win shut off. With our other lines, we can try another combo attempt later. The labman line is very all-in, once we have no cards in library we are either going to win the game or lose extremely soon. Labman also requires creatures in play, which we can't always guarantee, and a card that makes us draw, which we won't always have in hand.

To put it simply, it requires many deck slots, it does nothing besides win, its easy to shut off, and there is risk of a loss from doing it. I'm not saying labman is a bad combo by any means, but I think for this particular deck, adding consistency to the other combos is more important. Ad Nauseam acts as our most important win, and will let us assemble an infinite mana loop. After we have the loop, we use Lazav to copy and use Death Cultist or Bile Urchin to win. In the small amount of testing I've done on it, I like how it performs a bit better.

Some of the other cards offer support. Mindlash Sliver gives us a way to empty player hands, and protects our combo if we have infinite mana by discarding hand for everyone with Lazav. Martyr of Bones we can sacrifice for 0, which will let us mill out with infinite mana and Lazav, it also provides targeted grave hate which we can value time and again with Lazav. Martyr of Frost is a recurable effect with Lazav, which will help us with value in longer games. Unfortunately, we can't use the Martyr of Frost as a sac outlet to surveil with Lazav. Scheming Symmetry is another cheap tutor that does have a drawback, but the synergy with tutor to top to mill with surveil is strong.

The self mill lines have lost some extreme value without labman. However, we can choose to stop our self mill before we deck ourselves. Assembling the self mill combos is still strong, because we can Dread Return and copy with Lazav to recur an infinite mana combo. While our creature based combos require haste or an untap, the Orb + Alchemist combo can be used at the end step before our turn and we copy with Lazav so we can untap to combo, similar to how Ad Nauseam is played. Greaves + Cephalid has lost a lot of value though, and self milling somewhere between 30-80 cards it requires to assemble a combo in graveyard will not only make you a target but also telegraph the play. Considering removing the cephalid combo for deck space, but testing will reveal. I think the natural arc of this deck will bend towards replacing as many value cards with creatures as possible, and future printings will certainly draw our eyes.

I appreciate your interest in the deck and would love to hear about how it performs. Feel free to start an offshoot brew and replace some cards! I'm most curious to know how extra gas cards work in the build, and what you would replace for more gas. I hope this explanation helps a bit! After some more testing and brewing I will update the primer

Asyriel on Mono-Black Shirei Control

4 years ago

I did some playing around with your deck and this is the best i can really come up with for a synergistic deck. The main problem i had was getting shirei out fast

Creature (22) 4x Augur of Skulls 4x Bile Urchin 4x Blood Artist 3x Necroskitter 4x Qarsi Sadist 3x Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker Instant (12) 4x Force of Despair 4x Grim Return 4x Tragic Slip Sorcery (4) 4x Spark Harvest Land (20) 3x Mortuary Mire 3x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx 14x Swamp

Maybeboard Artifact (1) 1x Ensnaring Bridge Creature (4) 4x Cruel Celebrant

Depressed_plant on

5 years ago

Damn, Bile Urchin is a card you don't see often these days. It was in the first deck I got, a prebuilt Kamigawa Rakdos-deck. Ah, the memories.

I just wanted to point out that with the land base you have right now, it is not possible to get out Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit on turn 2 if you played a Swamp to get out one of your black 1-drops turn 1, as she requires two Plains to be cast.

Anyway, I really like the idea behind the deck, the abuse of counters in that way is cool! Have also seen your other deck, and I can say the same about that ^^ (it doesn't have counters, but you get the point :P)

Looking forward to what else you can cook up!

stensiagamekeeper on

6 years ago

I'm sorry to be the one to tell you this but the combo you're trying to set up doesn't actually work. Supernatural Stamina cares about the creature not the magic card so the second time you sacrifice the Treasure Keeper it'll be a different permanent and won't come back. I couldn't find where in the rules it says this but when you think about it Bile Urchin or Death Cultist plus Supernatural Stamina are both instant wins that would break modern or even legacy if it worked like that.

The most similar combo you could pull off in standard I can think of is with Naru Meha, Master Wizard that's coming in Dominaria. Target the Yahenni, Undying Partisan with Supernatural Stamina then cast Naru in response to copy the spell except target herself. Let it resolve and sacrifice her. She'll come back and you can copy the spell again. This will do nothing unless you have a payoff lying around like a pitiless plunderer or ashes of the abhorrent. Also remember this doesn't work with Defiant Salvager as he can only sacrifice as a sorcery.

If you want to cast your whole deck tho I guess Sunbird's Invocation and Brass's Bounty or Paradox Engine and any mana-dork would be the place to start.

Anyway have fun chasing the combo dream my friend.

lukas96 on That's not how you use Death's Shadow!

6 years ago

Well Death Cultist is a strictly better Bile Urchin