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Legality
| Format | Legality |
| 1v1 Commander | Legal |
| Archenemy | 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 |
| Oathbreaker | Legal |
| Pauper | Legal |
| Pauper Duel Commander | Legal |
| Pauper EDH | Legal |
| Planechase | Legal |
| Premodern | Legal |
| Quest Magic | Legal |
| Tiny Leaders | Legal |
| Vanguard | Legal |
| Vintage | Legal |
Bog Initiate
Creature — Human Wizard
(1): Add (Black) to your mana pool.
DreadKhan on
Misappropriation of funds
1 year ago
Not sure if Springleaf Drum would work in here? Your Commander comes out quite early and doesn't tap to use his ability, also useful if you steal a creature or make a small token.
If you end up using Tymaret's ability a fair bit, some Lifelink might be nice since it's damage, Mask of Griselbrand seems like a fit (great if your Commander dies a lot), possibly Basilisk Collar. Either of those is also quite good with Rite of the Raging Storm, and if it's not killed you can sacrifice the token with your Commander each turn (same if a 5/1 trample is useless otherwise). Another great sacrifice source could be Ophiomancer (but it's a bit pricey), or Ogre Slumlord, which can make a ton of bodies in some matches. Sifter of Skulls is a budget pawn of ulamog, not sure if you want both (but I think I would).
If you're using Crux of Fate, I feel like you should consider Sarkhan the Masterless, it's Dragon tokens will dodge the wipe, and he can make you harder to attack if you have a few Dragons out.
If you like a land that can make a creature, there are also Kher Keep and Springjack Pasture, both make 0/1s, but they are technically bodies.
It's an old/weird card, but Kyren Negotiations has some synergy with your Commander, it turns any creatures you have out into damage sources, even if they can't attack, handy to use before sacrificing something maybe?
Whenever I see Whisper, it makes me think of Hell's Caretaker, Caretaker is more awkward timing-wise, but it's also only 1 for 1. I really love Coffin Queen, especially to reanimate opponent's stuff, but she is a bit pricey.
Since your Commander is a Zombie, have you thought about using Gravecrawler? If you have enough support, you could make your Commander into an infinite combo, but I think even if you just cast Gravecrawler 2 or 3 times a turn you're probably not doing too badly? The fact that it's not a token means it'll work with Pawn or Sifter of Skulls, and Bog Initiate can turn their mana into Black, so you can recast Gravecrawler at least. Defiler of Flesh can also help recast Gravecrawler (or any other Black permanent).
Metroid_Hybrid on Looking For A Hand Based …
1 year ago
It is not an Artifact, but there is Bog Initiate..
DreadKhan on
Mishra, Claimed by Gix
1 year ago
A few things that might help, I'm hoping I've understood what you're looking for!
Viscera Seer is among the best sac outlets ever printed at only B, but the most popular altars are all really pushed, Phyrexian Altar, Ashnod's Altar and Altar of Dementia. Ashnod's is probably the best, but Phyrexian is still very good. Skullport Merchant is great on a budget, if you want a recursive body some of the better options are Gravecrawler, which only needs a Zombie and can easily go infinite with a lot of things, and Haakon, Stromgald Scourge who lets you recast any Knights, which also includes Changelings but most importantly lets you loop the same 1 drop Knight. These sorts of cards also like Pitiless Plunderer, Pawn of Ulamog and Sifter of Skulls, and any colourless sources can benefit from Bog Initiate. Nether Traitor can let you get an extra sacrifice for each Black mana you have to match a dying creature. If you usually have a cheap sacrifice outlet, Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder can make a ton of bodies for you. Another recursive body that can offer some ongoing value is Silversmote Ghoul, you just want a way to gain a bit of life, so something like your Exquisite Blood or Whip of Erebos can help ensure you gain enough. Ogre Slumlord is a decent source of bodies if you have some ways to kill enemy creatures, the nice thing is that once the Slumlord gains some steam, you're pretty tough to attack on the ground. Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs can make bodies that discourage people from swinging at you. Really bad in some ways, but Bloodsoaked Altar can make weenies into beefy demons, plays well with token generators obviously.
If you expect to have medium size creatures die, Mask of Griselbrand can draw a reasonable number of cards, it can also gain you decent life while offering evasion. There are very few downsides to running this card in my experience, even in a deck that doesn't run many creatures your Commander can wear it.
Blade of Selves would be funny if you ever get your Commander melded, when you swing you get a copy of your meld for each opponent (though you only get the ETBs before they die unfortunately).
War Room is a very good land to look at, maybe Bonders' Enclave if you think you can get a big enough body out consistently. Agitator Ant can help ensure you have a big enough body fwiw, the effect can get very out of hand though if you lack wipes.
DreadKhan on
Rakdos
1 year ago
It's not really a great card, but Shivan Gorge can deal some damage to each opponent, which can let you shave mana off of spells for a turn. There is also stuff like Spear Spewer that pings each player, that's a much better way to achieve that goal I suppose. There are also Kessig Flamebreather and Firebrand Archer that can turn any non-creature spell into damage, not sure you have enough stuff to justify them, but felt they were worth a mention. There is also good old Pyrohemia/Pestilence, which can ping each opponent (and it clears out x/1s if tokens are an issue in your area). Not sure if you will be able to get in for damage consistently, but Rite of the Raging Storm tokens usually suck to block, so you might get 5 damage per turn in some metas.
I feel like it's worth throwing in something like Carrion Feeder or Viscera Seer if you want a sac outlet that can clear out lots of bodies and derive value from it, Feeder even works with Pitiless Plunderer (or another 'mana from dead creature' card, Pawn of Ulamog and Bog Initiate will work on a budget) and Gravecrawler to go infinite.
Final point, maybe a few Annihilator creatures that have high MV as their drawback, they tend to be colourless anyways, so can give a full discount and be free sometimes. Artisan of Kozilek and Pathrazer of Ulamog are good examples that aren't too pricey, but Titans are obviously more expensive/powerful, it's worth noting you'll always get cast triggers, even if you're casting them for nothing/very little. Some of these can also let you run cards that care about high MV, like Protection Racket and Timesifter, both are very strong in some metas. Heck, I think I'd just run Protection Racket either way now that I think about it, I'm not sure there is a drawback to that card in this deck, it's big drawback is that it's bad in combo decks because people won't give you combo pieces, but in a deck that isn't attached to any one card you can run it safely. There is also Meteor Golem, Platinum Emperion and even Platinum Angel to offer some value if stuff like Darksteel Colossus or Blightsteel Colossus are over the budget, and there are big old utility beaters like Tsabo Tavoc that are worth a look, you can shave 5 mana off still.
Rakdos is a pretty nifty Commander, hope you're having fun with him!
DreadKhan on
Sacrificial Deer Two the Cat
1 year ago
I feel like stuff like Make an Example or Do or Die can kill a ton of creatures (or people's very important ones), it's pricier but Phyrexian Purge can clear a bunch of stuff out, it's very good with Sangromancer fwiw. Not sure if it's too pricey, but Vona's Hunger can clear a ton of opponent's stuff out for you. I could be wrong, but I think Necromantic Selection is absolutely hilarious with your Commander, you can just choose your Commander and you get a treasure for each creature that died, including your Commander. Rise of the Dread Marn is maybe good enough.
Rite of the Raging Storm should probably be considered, it'll give you a treasure almost guaranteed each of your turns, and hits only opponents on each opponent's turn. It's also budget atm, it might go up. Rite is very good with Mask of Griselbrand, a card that is better than it looks in my experience.
Nettlecyst might be decent? It's bigger than Cranial Plating, but you can't move it at instant speed, maybe still good?
If you can get enough tokens out, Kyren Negotiations can let them ping opponents you can't swing at.
Not sure you need another, but Sifter of Skulls is another Pawn of Ulamog. Both like Bog Initiate in my experience.
If you like reanimation, there is Hell's Caretaker, which can turn a token into any creature in your graveyard. Not sure if other people in your area play graveyard decks, but Callous Bloodmage is a nice solution to such decks that also can be used to generate a card or a Pest.
It's probably as cheap as it'll get, but Grim Hireling is both great with Treasures in general, but also can generate them for you, especially if you have evasive creatures. In reference to Treasure generation, there is also Academy Manufactor, a very good card if you want potential life gain/card draw when you generate treasures.
DreadKhan on
Meren (becoming) cEDH
1 year ago
My Meren deck is very much eager to get her out early, and will likely recast her if necessary, so I run a lot of creature ramp. My deck isn't cEDH, so it can afford to spend turns ramping and filling out my board, and I can usually use her ability from the turn she enters. It probably is better in competitive play to not care as much about having your Commander out. That said, I think I would be more cautious about milling myself if I didn't consistently have Meren out during games, I'm not sure how else those cards are working in your favour? I'm not seeing all that many payoffs for having a big graveyard, I could be missing some though. Anyways, that could free up quite a few cards, you have a lot of mill effects.
While both Vorinclex and Sheoldred are good creatures, I would expect both to fall off in value as you get to higher power. The big issue is their high MV, they are very tough to cast and removing them isn't especially difficult. Meren will have a hard time bringing back either for you, especially if you're not farming XP like I do.
Pawn of Ulamog is less mana than Sifter, Bog Initiate can make your colourless mana sources make Black, which can help (but is otherwise a bad card, but rarely terrible). IMHO there are better Hulk Piles you could be fetching out, I think a lot of competitive decks like Mikaeus, the Unhallowed and Walking Ballista to generate infinite death triggers. I've seen people using Disciple of the Vault, Lesser Masticore, Viscera Seer and Melira, Sylvok Outcast to win on the spot from a single Hulk pile regardless of what you've got out. Such a deck has less redundancy I suppose. My deck usually digs out infinite death triggers off the first Hulk Pile and then uses Meren to recur the Hulk and win on my end step, my pile uses Gravecrawler, Carrior Feeder and Pitiless Plunderer, but I have tons of other paths, especially if I have two or more uses of Hulk. I'm sure there are tons of other piles, and part of the fun is just building whatever you want, but just pointing this if you want to get more competitive.
cEDH almost never runs Enters Tapped lands, they are anathema to the format, with decks running stuff like Mana Crypt, Jeweled Lotus, Ancient Tomb alongside Sol Ring to speed their deck up instead. They also tend to run the G dorks like Llanowar Elves, there are 3. You could shave some lands period, maybe 2, especially if you add in some 'fast mana'. You probably want ~15 ramp sources, maybe more in cEDH.
DreadKhan on
Teysa pale booby
1 year ago
If you want a cheap source of bodies, Haakon, Stromgald Scourge can reanimate any knights, including Changelings. If you Final Parting for Haakon into the Yard and Nameless Inversion you can recast Inversion for 1B as many times as you want, potentially killing lots of stuff. If you use Haakon, you should look at ways to discard him incase you draw into him. I have run Avenger en-Dal to decent effect. Bloodsoaked Altar is a sneakily good card if you can stand to discard. Body Snatcher isn't super-cheap, but it's a ton of value and can discard Haakon. Bog Witch can turn any card into a Dark Ritual, which helps since your deck has a lot of Black costs. Devout Witness is handy if you don't want to run Disenchant because you need more creatures. Icatian Crier makes 2 bodies fwiw. Skirk Ridge Exhumer makes nifty bodies. The Restoration of Eiganjo Flip not only makes bodies and discards, it also can recur something small, it can even ramp you if you recur a land. Undertaker is much cheaper than Tortured Existence, it's not as good but it's still solid. This isn't an exhaustive list, but these are some options if you want to try out Haakon.
If you use Haakon and something like Pawn of Ulamog or Sifter of Skulls, a sac outlet and Universal Automaton to get infinite death triggers. If you use a Knight that costs B to cast, there is Bog Initiate to fix. There are better things you can do than this, but this is pretty budget. If someone tries to exile your combo pieces, you can always sacrifice them to send them to your graveyard instead.
Varragoth, Bloodsky Sire is a pretty reasonable tutor, and if you need to, you can find an effect for someone else to use (hopefully to your benefit, like a board wipe or removal spell). Eye of Vecna is nice cheap card draw. Strands of Night is a cheap repeatable recursion source, something that is worth a look. Casting of Bones is pretty solid draw if you can count on having creatures you want dead, 3 cards is a lot for 3 mana.
DreadKhan on
It's Just a Flesh Wound ($100 Meren)
2 years ago
It's an infinite combo engine in my Meren deck, but I will say you need 2 or more cards to actually go infinite with it, a way to generate mana from bodies, and a way to generate bodies. The mini-wipe ETB offers a way to get enough energy to hopefully start the chain, but you really want a creature that makes lots of bodies you can reanimate, and something like Pitiless Plunderer or Phyrexian Altar (or Ashnod's Altar and Bog Initiate if you're weird) to make it infinite. I use Mitotic Slime as my main source of bodies, and the ability to reanimate anything after I've got infinite mana/reanimations is pretty consistently good enough to win the game. I often use Blood Artist or similar to win on the spot at this point.
It gains some viability points from the fact that Golgari is very good at tutoring the Demon up, as well as combo pieces. It's rare that I don't win if I can set this combo up, but it is possible to have infinite mana/reanimations and have nothing else worth reanimating, and no cards in hand, so you'd just be stuck hoping to draw Zulaport Cutthroat or similar to close. This can happen if everyone's graveyards are exiled, which Farewell can do (and which people should be running more and more often).
In my deck, I have other reanimation sources that can power up Demon of Dark Schemes to use it to reanimate Sidisi, Undead Vizier or Protean Hulk (or something similar) in order to win, so even if it's not infinite, it's ability can still be very powerful. If your playgroup has lots of players that use big creatures, the Demon can reanimate them for you as well, which can sometimes close the game.
It's biggest weakness is that you can't really dig it out with Protean Hulk, it's MV is so high it'd feel pretty bad to just find that in many cases. If you're not ever going to go infinite with it, going finite can still be pretty good, it's only 2B to reanimate a creature, and something like Underworld Hermit or Avenger of Zendikar can bring plenty of bodies along, allowing you to build up an army. If you've got lots of Aristocrat payoffs, just generating the Energy for your next reanimation can be powerful.
