Callous Bloodmage

Creature — Vampire Warlock

When this enters the battlefield, choose one —

• Create a 1/1 black and green Pest creature token with "When this creature dies (is put into the graveyard from the battlefield, tokens are put into the graveyard before they cease to exist), you gain 1 life."
• You draw a card and you lose 1 life.
• Exile target player's graveyard.

Tokens

• Pest 1/1 BG

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Alchemy	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
Modern Beyond Horizons	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Pioneer	Legal
Planar Constructed	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Pre-release	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Standard	Legal
Standard Brawl	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (25)

Apoptosis on Smile all the way

1 day ago

In: Alesha, Who Laughs at Fate (a solid recursion option), Ali from Cairo (this is a ripcord to pull when you're looking at lethal, I've found myself in this position a few times and since this deck is very good at dialing up answers, I've slotted good 'ol Ali into the deck, Callous Bloodmage (this is a needed answer for decks that also rely on graveyard recursion), Carrion Feeder (I needed a creature based sac-oulet, which would be easier to tutor and would allow infinite combos), Dolmen Gate (chose over Legion's Initiative and Reconnaissance -both of which I love and are good alternatives -I'm testing out the gate to see which one I like more), Goblin Bombardment (free sac outlet, can go infinite), Pinnacle Monk  ^Flip (back into the main and out from the maybe; the one game I didn't have it I found the game stretching with lots of juicy targets accumulating in the graveyard and no way to get them back; I like options), Swamp (up to 5 total, better hitting land drops), Viscera Seer (another more optimal free sac-outlet).

Out: Aether Vial (I love this card and it's done good work mid-game, but I think there is better value), Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit (I decided to remove the infinite combo with Murderous Redcap for more resiliency and interaction potential), Baton of Morale (I really want to showcase the power of banding and think this could be a good way to direct damage to the creatures you want to die/recur, but am testing Dolmen Gate as an alternative way to do it), Cauldron of Souls (good for ETB recursion and wraths but I wanted to bring down the CMC, tough call), Claws of Gix (replaced for better options), Denethor, Ruling Steward (better options), Legion's Initiative (I love this card and it lets me get an extra ETB trigger, but am trying Dolmen Gate as an alternative), Murderous Redcap (took out the infinite damage trigger with Anafeza), Sword of Light and Shadow (I really like swords, but felt there are better options).

TheoryCrafter on Syr Konrad Milling & Killing - Primer

2 months ago

Have you considered Underworld Dreams? If an opponent has as few as 77 cards in their deck with no lifegain when you cast Peer into the Abyss, it's game over. Definitely so if you have Mindcrank.

Also, if you can find cards like Callous Bloodmage and Golgari Thug to replace some of your noncreature graveyard interaction, you may then want to consider adding Mortal Combat. This should help with losing over Angel of Suffering.

Great deck! You definitely took it in directions I wouldn't have thought of.

Happy Hunting!

Angel_Zero on Esper Etb blink trigger overload

9 months ago

I'd go up to 4 skyclave for sure, and I'd also recommend 4 Callous Bloodmage for whatever you need in the moment, its pretty handy. don't think faerie dream thief is worth it here, I'd go with Spirited Companion, and lastly I'd run 4 Guardian of Ghirapur. I get that these decks get clogged at the three drop slot, so I'd say cut the Displace/essence flux for more cheap removal instead.

DreadKhan on Meren, Clan of Nel Toth

1 year ago

One of my favourite things to do in Meren is to ramp (my deck is on the clunkier side, and it runs very few lands), and one of the better ways to repeatedly ramp is to use more stuff like Sakura Tribe Elder, variations include Diligent Farmhand, Dawntreader Elk, Yavimaya Granger, and maybe Burnished Hart/Fertilid. All of these can find a Swamp for you, each sacrifices itself and thus they have some nice synergy with Meren. I think the only Meren decks that don't want multiples of that effect is if they are building a very high powered list, where this kind of play 'isn't advancing your board' sufficiently. I often find that farming XP isn't a waste of time early, so these recursive ramp sources offer that as well. I think it's very hard to justify running land ramp Sorceries when you can run creatures that do the same thing, and arguably do a better job of it. I would also shave stuff like Arcane Signet or the Talisman for creature ramp, Meren can't recur your rocks for you when they get blown up. In addition to Meren there are tons of things that synergize with creatures, stuff like Beast Whisperer and Liliana's Standard Bearer can draw lots of cards via creatures, and you don't get that synergy with a 2 mana rock. Using Meren to recur Liliana's Standard Bearer is a pretty impressive bulk draw option.

Some generically good cards for a Meren list that I love are Buried Alive, Final Parting, and Jarad's Orders, each of these offers real tutoring power, and none are especially pricey. Buried Alive can find a whole combo for you to win with. Old Stickfingers is probably worth a look for the similar reasons, Meren feels really weak if you have no creatures in your yard to reanimate. I'm not sure if it's too high budget, but Fiend Artisan has a lot of synergy with Meren. You don't have to dig out a combo piece for the card to do useful things.

In my Meren deck it's a much better Rhystic Study (I run a very high creature count), but I suspect you'd get some value out of Lurking Predators. There is also Heartwood Storyteller, in my experience both belong in a deck with even more creatures but they could still be useful I think.

In my limited experience Callous Bloodmage offers pretty good graveyard hate on a very low budget, and if you don't need that it can do other stuff, it's a great card to use in infinite loop since it can do a few useful things.

Mitotic Slime offers you a ton of bodies for only 5 mana, it's not especially hard to go infinite with as a result. I like using it with Demon of Dark Schemes and Pitiless Plunderer (and a sac outlet) to win, the nicest part about using a combo like this is that each piece is independently good. Phyrexian Altar is better than Plunderer, but it's even more money (though the difference has dropped sharply).

Dawnstrider is an extra Spore Frog, one that doesn't require reanimation but offers a discard outlet, letting you put creatures in your graveyard. Silverglade Pathfinder is another discard outlet, but offers ramp instead.

I hope this isn't too try-hard for your deck, Meren is a very fun Commander to build.

PhyrexianPraetor on

2 years ago

DeVerbalen I was planning on it. Sadly I don’t have much money to play with and currently am saving up for a playset of solitudes. For the time being I plan on having Callous Bloodmage as a blink target. I might move the damns to the sideboard to still have them.

DreadKhan on EDH Merens Reanimator

2 years ago

When I built my Meren deck, I found that even with a pretty Black heavy deck, it was nice to run more Green than Black mana sources, since my Green ramp fixed my Black mana. I also cut lands for repeatable (and potentially repeatable) ramp like Diligent Farmhand or the Dawntreader you're considering, these can not only help get Meren out early, they give her something very useful to do with her ability as soon as she's out. There are quite a few now, but I only run ones that can find swamps. I also run a couple cards like Wood Elves, which don't sac themselves but can be sacrificed for value as soon as Meren is out. Using these types of cards allows my fairly low land Meren deck to be extremely rampy if Meren stays out. You can also run lots of 1 mana dorks in Meren, including Elves of Deep Shadow and knock-off Llanowar Elves.

I also find it's hard to run enough card draw, stuff like Grim Haruspex and Midnight Reaper or Beast Whisperer can draw a bunch of cards, and all of them are creatures. This brings me to another point, I found that in Meren that it's hard to run too many utility creatures of various sorts, you can do an astonishing amount of stuff with creatures in Golgari, I presently have 55 creatures in the 99, which makes cards like Lurking Predators insane and Heartwood Storyteller lots of fun, because Meren decks are also pretty good at pressuring the board, it's hard to know how many of the various Demon's Disciple family of cards you should run, but they feel pretty decent in Meren in my experience, if a bit obnoxious. There are also more cards like Grave Pact, Dictate of Erebos, as well as Savra, Queen of the Golgari, these are all super-obnoxious in a deck that likes to sacrifice stuff. One really weird 'one creature toolbox' is Callous Bloodmage, this can do a bunch of stuff and can be worth recurring if you can get it killed.

Not sure if you've ever come across these, they are old and rare even in Commander, but I find Ritual of the Machine and Helm of Possession can do work in Meren, the Helm is a sac outlet that grabs the best creature on the board. It rarely lasts too long, but it's a very strong effect if you're not worried about running artifacts. Ritual is nice and compact, you sac something you want dead to steal the best thing in a way that's hard to interact with for many decks. Final Parting is an interesting card in Meren, you can put a Protean Hulk or Razaketh, the Foulblooded, maybe Sheoldred into the graveyard and a Reanimate into hand, so it's 6 or 7 mana to put your best creature into play from the library.

If you want any ideas about infinite (or non-infinite) combos that can win games, I read a lot of Meren deck Primers, so I might have some ideas if you want to have that option.

Very good deck so far, hope you enjoy testing it!

wallisface on Dead Siege Ale

2 years ago

I like the list. The only card that stood out to me as a ”why is this here?” was Callous Bloodmage - card seems super suboptimal. Maybe swap it out for something like Persist or Unburial Rites - lets you bring any dead Rhinos back to inflict more misery.

DreadKhan on unthinkable apocalypse

2 years ago

If you're big on creatures, Sedris, the Traitor King can reanimate them for you. Any discard/mill effects become quite a bit better in such a deck. Stuff like Buried Alive, Entomb and Final Parting all become much better in Sedris, as do stuff like Vile Entomber or Oriq Loremage, even Dreamscape Artist becomes really interesting. Self-mill is much better too, as long as you're not on a combo. Sedris is great with a higher MV deck, since you can reanimate big creatures to swing the one time, and stuff like Court of Cunning can resupply you with creatures as needed, and there are lots of cards that care about a higher MV (Protection Racket is incredible if you aren't on a combo and you just want people to either take damage or give you tons of cards, it's hilarious with Esquisite Blood as you gain what they lose) as I already mentioned. With Sedris I feel like you'd want to look for creatures that have good ETB effects, and build less around combo and more around either attacking with Unearthed bodies or using ETBs like Callous Bloodmage to generate value.

Thraximundar is also a reasonably interesting choice if you want an older Commander and don't mind being slower, and Sol'kanar the Swamp King is great if you run lots of black spells and everyone you play against runs black, Swampwalk and lifegain are small but neat abilities to have. Keep in mind I tend to skew older when I look for Commanders, and like less heavily played ones, but the new Xander is very strong (might attract a lot of attention), Crosis is strong without attracting as much attention right away, Bolas is always a good pick if you like the character, Garza Zol, Plague Queen can get bigger and draws the odd card, it's a bit harder to find good Commanders for creature driven decks in Grixis, most of the Commanders care about instants/sorceries/artifacts, hopefully some of these will be helpful.