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| Format | Legality |
| 1v1 Commander | Legal |
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| Arena | Legal |
| Block Constructed | Legal |
| Canadian Highlander | Legal |
| Casual | Legal |
| Commander / EDH | Legal |
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| Planechase | Legal |
| Premodern | Legal |
| Quest Magic | Legal |
| Tiny Leaders | Legal |
| Vanguard | Legal |
| Vintage | Legal |
Dark Ritual
Instant
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shadowjules on
Budget Cycle Storm
5 days ago
Hey QuantumGeckoGuy! Very cool deck man, I tinkered with something like this for a while as well.
I tinkered with a similar concept for ages. Instead of looking to scale with Drannith Stinger and Marauding Mako, mine had a combo win with Lotleth Giant, and a secondary beatdown plan with Hollow One and Chitin Gravestalker. The deck DESPERATELY needs to cut down as much as humanly possible on any card without cycling. I think running Dark Ritual is a mistake, as you can get similar results with 4 copies of Lotus Petal - when churning through your deck, you can combo off so much earlier with you effectively know you can consistently find free bursts of 1 mana to cast Songs of the Damned. The difference between your bursts of mana costing (1) and costing (0) is huge. Running Lotus Petal is extra good when accompanied by a suite of (1) cost cyclers. Drannith Stinger is a good start, but I would run every creature with a (1) mana cycling ability ever printed - it just adds a crazy amount of consistency. I've found that 38 to 40 creatures with cycling in the deck is ideal for a 1 turn combo kill.
Finding lands is extra easy with cards like Troll of Khazad-dum and Oliphaunt. With the amount of cards that cycling lets you see, you really don't want to mulligan. These landcycling cards are huge because they often allow you a turn 1 tutor of a land in the early game (Troll of Khazad-dum gets you Fetid Pools and Oliphaunt gets you Canyon Slough). You can tutor for a land turn one either with an untapped Ash Barrens or the strict upgrade in Capital City that also filters your mana, or again with a turn 1 Lotus Petal. Later in the game, the land cyclers are never dead draws, because they tutor for a dual land, that also ends up cycling away, letting you see more cards and remove more lands from your deck as you combo off.
Crucially for the combo win, Lotleth Giant only cares about creatures in your graveyard, so do keep that in mind when comboing off. I tend to split my graveyard into two piles - 1 with creatures and 1 with noncreature spells (cycled lands, lotus petals, and so on). The combo turn needs to resolve a Songs of the Damned to cast Lotleth Giant usually, but thats not always super hard. A sideboard tech of Miscalculation really helps protect this here. Also 2 Shadow of the Grave is usually enough to stop your deck from running out of steam, especially since you run out of steam after seeing like around 30-40 cards in your deck. Again, Lotus Petal is so useful here.
Finally, I've found that you CAN run 3 fluctuators and not 4 if you're able to have a split of cycling cards with a low enough curve. This deck really wants to minimize the turns it spends not spending mana, so again, Ash Barrens and Capital City not entering tapped is really important, same for your Lotus Petal. These untapped mana sources, along with 1 mana landcyclers and 1 mana cycling creatures gets this deck to be much more consistent and much faster.
Built like this, the Hollow Ones / Chitin Gravestalker Beatdown plan is more of a trick to trip up your opponent rather than a primary win condition. When your opponent plans to counter your big combo turn, dumping 2 4/4s and a 5/4 onto the battlefield really early can be backbreaking. THese are the matchups where something like Drannith Stinger is just a lot less useful as a pinger, and I would think of Marauding Mako and Drannith Stinger as plank cards with cycling rather than win conditions.
This deck has trouble against certain kinds of graveyard hate. It never targets anything in the graveyard, and never looks to play things directly out of your graveyard, so cards like Grafdigger's Cage and Soulless Jailer don't do anything. But cards that exile our whole graveyard or stop cards from getting to the graveyard (Rest in Piece / Leyline of the Void / Soul-Guide Lantern) make the Lolteth gameplan obsolete. Sideboarding in Ominous Seas still turns out cycling card draw into massive beaters, and this can still let us combo into two or three 8/8s to threaten a short clock.
The deck has some potential and honestly is a ton of fun to tinker with. I've been iterating on it for ages myself. Here's my list if you're at all curious (Ignore the silly name and out-of-date descriptions, its a little messy and I started it 5 years ago in high school). Deck: deck-large:cycling-coombo-deck
CommanderNeyo on
Budget Cycle Storm
1 week ago
Also, you could consider a couple copies of Shadow of the Grave, maybe dropping (2) of Reaping the Graves?
Have you also considered Cabal Ritual to go along with the Dark Rituals? I think they are fairly pricey, so might be out of the budget range.
RiotRunner789 on Beta Brackets Update Today
1 month ago
When I was first getting into Commander, I bought Braids, Cabal Minion out of a binder with the plan to make her a commander. I later found out she was banned by my playgroup.
Not actually happy she is unbanned. I'm probably going to build her now but it's going to be degenerate. Braids, Sol Ring, Dark Ritual, Ophiomancer, et cetera. It's going to work great 85% of the time and anger people 100% of the time. I'll then shelf the deck and bring it out once a year. I know I'll initially try to build her weaker but the end result in a known.
Coalition victory also seems unnecessary. The other unbans seem fine. Sway of the Stars might make it into my suspend deck. Mostly glad to hear no more change for the rest of the year.
Kjacobson6800 on
Kaalia, Queen of the Vast
1 month ago
Cool Build. I have a pretty mean Kaalia myself but its rather competitive. Yours looks fun to play I just tested it a few times. Love the Sneak Attack as a backup. Feel free to take a look at mine if you'd like. My only real suggestions after seeing your maybe list is to tune the creatures a bit more and sell that Alpha/Beta D-Tutor ... buy a Chrome Mox. Would leave you with a few $$ to really deck this thing out. Id also be running all 3 Talismans. A revised Demonic tutor is Rather affordable. I run Gamble Demonic Tutor, Enlightened Tutor, Vampiric Tutor, Grim Tutor, And Imperial Seal. More tutors and maybe Steelshaper's Gift to get the Greaves out fast. Diabolic Tutor works just fine to go get an Avacyn or something and get the whole table salty Lotus Petal is clutch too and chronically slept on IMO, especially when it comes to Kaalia... Im pretty sure Jeweled Lotus is banned in EDH now so maybe let that one go too. Necropotence is stupid good in a Kaalia deck, especially if you can get a Reliquary Tower out. As soon as i focused more on tutors, mana rocks, and a few board-wipes Wrath of God Day of Judgment Damn She started going off quick and dirty.Sensei's Divining Top is super helpful too. I wouldn't sleep on Dark Ritual if you're short a Jeska's Will. I slip a Dark Rit in mine from time to time depending on where I'm playing. I also run Armageddon and Catastrophe. Sometimes Winter Orb ...locks everyone down once I have Her out. I Cant tell you how many times Steel Hellkite has won the game for me. Blows up all dorks and keeps opponents rocks at bay. Plus you can grab him with Enlightened tutor. Dragon Mage could work in this to help load up youre Kaalia drops without needing a Wheel of Fortune Solid build!! Ive been tuning mine for years now.
Kjacobson6800 on
Kick off the Riot
1 month ago
Cool build. I love The Lord of Riots. only thing I would really suggest is to add some more mana-rocks. Fellowar stone is pretty solid for the money, especially in multiplayer... Other thoughts---Maybe a Jeska's Will or Dark Ritual ? A couple more signets or talismans? I really like Lotus Petal in any deck and almost always have a couple tutors and boardwipes in the mix. Gamble is super affordable. And considering Rakdos makes your creatures cost less, I could see a rather Jank Wildfire working in here. Cheaper than Damnation . It could potentially clear the board and slow the rest of the table down significantly if you already have your Commander in play. That being said, this is a solid deck for the price and Jund. Nice build!!
legendofa on
12 land grist
1 month ago
Bookrook I might be missing something. What's the typical line of play for the first couple of turns? My thought is that Land Grant into Haunted Mire or whatever, the Swamp Forest of your choice, into turn 2 land + Dark Ritual gets the Grist mill rolling a turn sooner. Would this work?
legendofa on
12 land grist
1 month ago
Land Grant can pull out a Forest to help cast Grist early, and Dark Ritual charges your mana for a turn. I don't know what the critical mass of Insects is to keep Grist rolling hard--maybe you can cut one or two?
leovolt884_ on
Dead Metal II: Rage
1 month ago
You can lean hard into Kuldotha Rebirth + Dread Return. I think it's a way more interesting combo than just using Exhume
like most reanimator decks. Generally I find pauper reanimator a boring archetype but this could be really cool. Churn through your deck with Faithless Looting, Cathartic Reunion, etc. Play setup cards like Gold Pan to give you an artifact plus more mana and lategame potential equipment. Crashing Drawbridge is a board wide haste enabler, and an artifact if needed. If you want to lean harder into reanimating artifact creatures, Argivian Restoration is a neat reanimator spell. Notably it also ramps you if you target an artifact land which is funny. Cleansing Wildfire can target your indestructible artifact duals to ramp you a basic and draw you a card for 2 mana which is awesome interaction. I would avoid using Exhume if possible because by giving the opponent a blocker, even if you trample through it, it will make you take longer to kill the opponent and give them more time to remove your threats and disable your deck. It also works against your removal by giving them their scariest cards you already spent resources removing back for free.
Overall I would focus on having fewer but stronger reanimator targets and just using Dread Return + Kuldotha Rebirth. Play some madness cards like Dark Withering, Brain Gorgers, Kitchen Imp, Terminal Agony, Hell Mongrel, Reckless Wurm, etc. That way you're playing cheap aggressive threats with your Dark Ritual's and Lotus Petal's while filling your graveyard with your hyper efficient discard. Less worrying about casting as many reanimation spells and more focus on being aggressive while you set up will get you the damage you need early on to deal with blockers and close the game quicker.
