Carnophage

Creature — Zombie

At the beginning of your upkeep, tap Carnophage unless you pay 1 life.

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

Discussion (30)

Squee_Spirit_Guide on Premodern Zombies - WIP

9 months ago

Looks like a fun brew! I never realised how prominent the zombies were in Onslaught. Take a look at Carnophage and Lord of the Undead. I think they might fit nicely in here!

Gattison on Notorious B: Ready to Die [Remastered]

2 years ago

Henchman31: So for Spore Frog and other creatures that you can't get rid of, some good side board cards might be Beckon Apparition/Rotten Reunion or Eaten Alive. Sending them to exile should help.

For defense against removal there is always Apostle's Blessing, which can go in literally any deck if you willing to pay to 2 life.

And for the third match, it sounds like maybe the deck needs more draw so it can be more consistent.

Good call with Deadly Dispute, that could be worked in. Also on all those other cards too. If you want to build your own version and show me what you're thinking, I'll take a look at it. Otherwise stay tuned for an update, hopefully soon. I'm planning to do it tomorrow after work.

And my apologies for the late response, I didn't mean to leave you hanging like that.

Lastly, I do have a Carnophage + lifelink deck here: Cigarettes, since you brought it up hehe.

Henchman31 on Notorious B: Ready to Die [Remastered]

2 years ago

Gattison: Thanks again for the tips on updating the decks. To celebrate getting out of quarantine, last night I took this deck to my LGS to test it out with the other Pauper players. I made some minor changes beforehand:

Lands: +2 Mortuary Mire, +2 Barren Moor Instants: +4 Deadly Dispute

Sideboard: 2 Nihil Spellbomb, 2 Sylvok Lifestaff, 3 Tragic Slip, 4 Dash Hopes, 2 Feed the Swarm, 2 Shrivel

We're normally a small group but that night we were only 4: myself, another Pauper regular, and two others who are very active in the competitive Modern league. We settled into 3 rounds and... oof: 5 losses, 1 win, and one undecided due to overtime. Here's how it went down:

Round 1: vs. BG Dredge/ Tortured Existence 0-2-0 Not a good matchup at all, I'm afraid. Spore Frog made the combat step irrelevant, Thoughtpicker Witch kept me drawing lands and exiling my answers, and saccing his chump blockers to the deck's namesake kept me from activating any beneficial death triggers. All my card-draw got shuffled to the bottom in both rounds and there wasn't much I could do until he got a couple Gurmag Angler out to end my misery. On a side note: I hate playing against Dredge almost as much as Blink or Tron--all of which are beloved in this local meta. Maybe it's just ze Germans -_-. I'm always on the lookout for answers against these.

Round 2: vs. UB Looting/Control 0-2-0 Things were looking hopeful while I was developing my board and he was just casting different versions of Preordain for the first few turns. His main beater turned out to be Shipwreck Sifters, which got uncomfortably swole thanks to repeatable looting. Dross Golem was a star in this round and almost killed him in the first match. However after sideboarding, his removal became much more aggressive and I wasn't even left with blockers. Missing answers and sigh card draw, he took it home with some beefy spirits.

Round 3: vs. Temur Cascade or Gruul Walls + Mulldrifter -_-' 1-1-1 This was a weird one: aggressively defending and ramping with Tinder Wall, Overgrown Battlement, and Tuktuk Rubblefort until he could cascade into Boarding Party and other beaters. By turn 3 he had at least 6 walls out, each with at least 3 toughness that brushed off anything I could turn sideways. We were both surprised when my card draw engine started working in match 2 and I could slap out my own beaters with multiple rituals and disputes in a single turn. While he was missing his {R} and Winding Way, I managed a Soulcage Fiend and Mortis Dogs by turn 2. After taking the 5-life hit from Dash Hopes twice, I had him on turn 5; clinching it with Howl from Beyond. Although the last round was undecided and he was prepared to kill me with hasty Pirates again, I was still pleased to pull off the primary wincon at least once.

Overall thoughts: This was my first outing with the deck so I still need to play it more to see the clear differences between the inherent weaknesses and my own misplays. I like aggressive decks and when this got going, I was down to clown. All-stars of the night were Mortis Dogs, Dross Golem, and especially Deadly Dispute. So much value. Add a dash or two of Dark Ritual and Sign in Blood in a single turn? chef's kiss That being said, I still think some adjustments are in order: First, that Mortuary Mire got to go. It slowed down the deployment of creatures and messed with my draws. Silly me. Unearth is much better recursion hands down. Second, sadly the goblins and newts must make room for another 1 or 2 Festering Mummy and a full set of Shambling Ghast. The latter does the same thing as the others but gives the option to ramp--which is especially relevant in my meta where creature decks are scarce. Third, better quicker removal? I left out Innocent Blood this time but either that or the asymmetrical Geth's Verdict could work. Fourth, mass removal or damage-dealing ala Crypt Rats or Pestilence? Sure, it would kill our forces but isn't that the point?

After looking at some other Suicide Black lists, I've seen what makes this deck unique and I'm still interested in making it work. I like the focus on death triggers and I'd love to find more ways to exploit them. Other creature-based lists use beaters like Guul Draz Vampire, Dauthi Slayer, and Carnophage to drop that life total to the floor. Pumping beaters like these and/or giving them lifelink seems appealing, but I'd like to stay true to the spirit of this deck as much as I can.

Sorry for the wall of text, I just wanted to get this all out now while it was still fresh. I hope this proves interesting to you or any others looking to try this deck out.

wallisface on Beginner Mono B Zombie

2 years ago

Dark Ritual and a whole 20 lands feel largely pointless in a deck with entirely 1-drops. I get that you intend to add additional cards later, but nobody should start learning magic by being forced to mana-flood.

Carnophage is also a super odd choice for beginners, that notoriously over-value life and under-value maintaining a boardstate.

Flooremoji on Modern Suicide Black

3 years ago

DragonSliver9001: Suicide was an old deck archytype back around when extended was a format, basically using powerful but dangerous creatures such as Phyrexian Negator and Carnophage along with Dark Ritual for quick starts. It also featured Hatred and Unmask for kills out of nowhere through interaction.

It would certainly be a different deck in modern.

Goblin_Guide on Goblin_Guide

3 years ago

Week of 09222020 Combo

This one is from my new deck Munch. It involves two cards and is super erratic and you might die in the process, sooo ... basically no downsides!

Spoils of the Vault + Death's Shadow.

It doesn't actually need to be Shadow, it can be anything that wants you to have a low life total, but I like it best.

Cast Spoils, naming Death's Shadow. Go until you hit it. Cast it. Sometimes it's tiny because it was already the top card of your library (or straight up dies because you still have 14+ life); sometimes you die before casting it; but the best feeling is getting a T1 11/11 Death's Shadow with a Dark Ritual and getting a Carnophage friend along with it. Admittedly, you now die to Lightning Bolt, sooo ... eh, forget it, no one plays that card, right?

Snips500 on Zombie Attack!

3 years ago

Hi, great deck! I have a few suggestions if you don't mind. First, I would cut Harsh Sustenance. Its an alright card but Gray Merchant of Asphodel is just straight up better and right on curve for you. Sustenance makes you splash white which slows your deck down with the fetches and the possibility of not getting double black when you need it. Also, early it's likely a dead card where you would rather be drawing zombies. Gary on the other hand is another zombie that could actually do more damage than sustenance. So I would suggest going to 3-4 Garys and gutting all of the Sustenance, plains, and Barrens and go to just 20 black sources. That will make some space for more Garys and maybe some Sign in Blood which is a pretty important draw spell in the deck.

Next, I would suggest adding Cast Down. It is hands down the best spot removal in all of pauper. Hits everything at instant speed for only 2 mana.

Viscera Seer- while not a zombie she is a very good sac outlet to help you dig through your deck.

Butcher Ghoul- great card, it can be sacrificed twice, is just a good blocker and is hard to kill.

Carnophage- just a thought, its probably not something you want to add because it seems like this deck is more midrange instead of agro but an interesting card non the less.

Bone Picker- another interesting card that could work with your aristocrats theme but not a zombie so it also might not be the best.

bayentethene on Monoblack Buzzsaw

3 years ago

Ooh, I really like Diregraf Ghoul, that's a solid replacement for Carnophage I usually don't do a whole lot of blocking anyway, so that might be a solid choice!

And Oona's Prowler Looks like a solid addition. Would be nice to have more evasion.

Yeah, I'm not really sure why I left out 3cc stuff in the original build. Master of the Feast and Rotting Regisaur both look like solid additions, and give me some heavy hitters so I don't have to rely on Hatred so much. As mostly a pure weenie build as it sits, it does have a tendency to get bogged down versus bigger bodies.

I really appreciate the feedback! I'll look into testing a few different versions, and report back here once I've got some fresh results under my belt.