Drowned Catacomb

Land

Drowned Catacomb enters the battlefield tapped unless you control an Island or a Swamp.

{T}: Add {U} or {B}.

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	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
Quest Magic	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (48)

Craeter on Sneaky Sewer-Rat Spies

6 months ago

Lord_Olga Hey I appreciate you taking the time to really analyze this deck and offer some good suggestions! You've definitely got me thinking about some optimizations. Truth be told, I haven't had a chance to playtest this one yet, so I'm sure there is some room for improvement. I took your suggestions into consideration and made some tweaks to the deck.

Firstly, I did add two more lands to bring it up to 22, I agree with you 20 is too low for the curve but I'm having a hard time cutting to get up to 24. I also removed a lot of the more high cost cards to get the mana curve down further. I like to live dangerously, so I tend to slot as few lands as possible that still makes decks work. But I went ahead and added x4 Drowned Catacomb, I think you're onto something there. I'm skipping Polluted Delta for now to avoid the life loss since this deck only has a few cards with Lifelink.

I tend to build thematic decks, hence the Rogue's Passage, I did cut one but I'm going to keep one for the theme, even if it's not as good as the unblockable suggestions. I'm leaning against adding them, but I am adding Cover of Darkness, which serves the same function (except against black and artifact creatures), but against other {B} creatures then Throat Slitter will be relatively useless anyways. Cover of Darkness also benefits every creature since they are all Rats, and provides redundancy if Marrow-Gnawer is not out. It even has an interaction with Nashi, Searcher in the Dark if milled.

To address your 2nd point about speed, I cut some of the Drowned in the Loch and added two Force Spike to add some early game counters since this deck wants to make it to the mid game to really get going. And since I'm opting to keep it purely Rat themed and not add your 1 drop suggestions, this is the compromise to add some early game options.

I'm sure your suggestions would technically be better for a more truly competitive modern deck, I'm just opting to keep it more casual and thematic. But I appreciate your suggestions, I typically build for EDH and I want all of the things, so it's tough getting a 60 card deck streamlined with as many options as possible.

Lord_Olga on Sneaky Sewer-Rat Spies

6 months ago

Love the flavor, how does it do with the mana though? i see you have some things in here that help make ninjutsu cheaper, but setting a lot of this stuff up looks like it costs a lot of mana, and you've only got 20 lands. Your only turn one play is to put a candlestick out. You'll be playing unblockable creatures (which both cost 2cmc), then sending in ninjas by paying the ninjutsu cost, then resummoning your unblockables. Your early game draw combo with candlestick takes 4 turns to set up if you open the game with it (most LGS decks in modern are gearing up to play their wincon by then) and it also involves equipping your looter with it, which means you wont want to use it for ninjutsu or you'll have to re-equip candlestick which will slow you down.. you plan on using rogues passage to get ninjas out, but it also costs 4 mana to use and then you'd have to pay the ninjutsu cost for something still.

I do see you have some wincons set up that could go off at around turn 4-5, but they arent really related to the ninja stuff at all and setting them up is gonna slow down the ninja strategy as well as the other combos you're wanting to get going. Other way around too, if you do ninja stuff or draw you're gonna slow down preparing your wincons.

I sense a lot of conflict in this deck, focusing on one strat slows down another and on top of that you're rocking 20 lands (most of which enter tapped which will also slow you down) which means you'll probably not be playing a land each turn a good portion of the time. Usually 20 lands is for decks that either have a very low mana curve (average cmc of like 1.8, hardly any cards costing 3 or more cmc to play), or decks that have lots of ramp/draw to fall back on.

Let me know if im missing something but from what i see this thing is either gonna run super slow when you play its totality, or you're gonna have to essentially ignore the ninjutsu/unblockable aspect to setup your rat based wincons in time.

If that is true, i would suggest upping your land count to 24, getting rid of the lands that enter tapped in favor of something like Drowned Catacomb, or Polluted Delta, trimming some of the more expensive cards like Patriarch's Bidding that don't really fit what you're doing, and then look for some cheaper mana cost alternatives for what you're trying to do. For example, Aqueous Form makes a creature unblockable for 1 mana instead of 4 like Rogue's Passage, and it does it indefinitely. Curious Obsession is great for that +1/+1 and draw on an unblockable creature that takes 1 mana instead of setting up Candlestick and Shoreline Looter for 5 mana total and several turns to get cards in your graveyard. And if you want to break flavor a little bit, lots of good 1 drop unblockable creatures, technically Changeling Outcast is still a rat lol and then theres stuff like Slither Blade that is certainly not a rat, but good. And aside from that I guess just try to bring things together a bit more.

Anyway thats all I got, sorry for being so long winded but dimir stealthiness is my jam hahaha

Balaam__ on Reanimate, but I have no clue what im doing

10 months ago

Great effort for a youngster’s first foray into a daunting format. Much better than my first attempt.

A few suggestions that might work within the constraint of a tight budget:

•If you’re running {B}{U}, double down on the control aspect blue opens up. Countermagic is cheap (both mana wise and dollar wise) and crucial to sticking big plays. Your strategy should go something like ‘Play spell to get big creature into graveyard, play spell to get big creature out of graveyard, and keep a counterspell at the ready in case the opponent tries to interfere with that process.’

•Cut anything and everything that doesn’t directly contribute toward that gameplan. Try to ignore those ‘But I really like this card’ thoughts, and pay attention to the increased consistency this will net you.

•A specific observation I would make is that you don’t have anywhere near enough mana at your disposal. Aim for at least 22 lands in the deck. You won’t be hardcasting any 5+ cmc spells, true, but you absolutely must have mana at the ready when you need it or it’s basically game over. Incidentally, consider something like Drowned Catacomb instead of Undercity Sewers. There are other fairly inexpensive options as well, and they function more reliably than a land that is guaranteed to enter tapped.

Rasaru on Zombies 2.0

1 year ago

Do you want to the deck to stay within a certain budget? How much money are you okay with spending to upgrade? $25, $50, UNLIMITED?! :)

My first thought is to fix up your mana base. You have a LOT of lands that come in tapped no matter what your board state or hand looks like. That's going to slow your game plan down quite a bit. Let's make these simple swaps to start. Then, we I have a better idea of what your budget looks like, I can recommend additional swaps.

Vivid Marsh -> Takenuma, Abandoned Mire Utility lands are excellent because you don't have to play them as lands if your mana flooded AND it doesn't come in tapped

Vivid Creek -> Otawara, Soaring City Same as above

Scoured Barrens -> Godless Shrine Same colors, just has the option of coming in untapped and satisfies your other land requirements you're playing, like Shineshadow Snarl

Dismal Backwater -> Morphic Pool Same colors, comes in untapped 90% of the time in EDH

Jwar Isle Refuge -> Drowned Catacomb Same colors and at least has the opportunity to come in tapped vs ALWAYS coming in tapped

Reliquary Tower -> Raffine's Tower Land comes in tapped, but produces all three colors and can be cycled to draw a card if you're mana flooded.

If those options are too expensive, you could easily justify just swapping them all out for basics. :)

Balaam__ on

1 year ago

Depending on how competitive/expensive you want to be, there are a few different ways to approach a Faerie build. Typically, you either want to swarm the board with as many gnats as possible and win through attrition, which can be done through Bitterblossom and other token generators in combination with cheap to cast faeries.

With the alternative approach, you’re going to lean fully into control. Faeries are well suited to this playstyle, allowing you to micro manage everything your opponent tries to do through countermagic and bounce spells, locking down the table. {U}/{B} are the perfect control&removal colors, so I’d stick with Dimir.

You really can’t go wrong starting with the mana base, particularly if you like playing {UB} as it will transition well between formats and deck archetypes. You’re most likely aware of the ‘best’ lands, fetches and duals like Watery Grave or Polluted Delta (or Secluded Glen when specifically talking faeries). You may not be familiar with newer land cycles, stuff like Clearwater Pathway  ^Flip or Drowned Catacomb. These can be almost as effective as the ‘best’ lands but at a fraction of the price.

DarkKiridon on A Little Off The Top

1 year ago

Drowned Catacomb or better. No guildgates. Merfolk Windrobber, Hedron Crab Could use fetch lands with this. Mind Sculpt, Shadowmage Infiltrator ? Curse of the Bloody Tome or Drowned Secrets, Psychic Drain ? Psychic Strike for countering possibly.

Honestly think you have too many 5 drops. So many better and cheaper options.

Last_Laugh on Wilhelt and Sheoldred unite!

1 year ago

Arcane Signet, Dimir Signet, and Talisman of Dominance over Mind Stone, Sky Diamond, and whatever.

Plumb the Forbidden over Read the Bones. Instant speed makes this card.

Feed the Swarm is your only answer to enchantments in black.

Exotic Orchard, Underground River, Drowned Catacomb, Darkwater Catacombs, Morphic Pool, Tainted Isle, and Sunken Ruins are all pretty budget friendly.

fluffyeel on Help make deck good

1 year ago

Unfortunately, to up the power level, some of the things I will recommend might be pricey (cost-wise), but I'm already seeing some places to improve.

• Entomb and Buried Alive are good options to get your things into your graveyard that you can later reanimate with Scarab God. Alternately, Filth and Wonder are good things to put into the grave that give you added bonuses. (If you go the Filth route, Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth is super-valuable.)
• For mana rocks, Thran Dynamo, Gilded Lotus, and Chromatic Lantern are all very handy and budget-friendly. If you have them, of course there's also Mana Vault, Mana Crypt, and Chrome Mox, but don't just get them for this deck. (I happen to have opened them, so they move around between decks a lot.)
• The ultimate zombie enabler, to me, is Field of the Dead. You would need to likely swap some basics for snow-covered basics to make it work more, but the condition (7 lands with different names) is incredibly easy to meet. You can also go the route of some fetching (Terramorphic Expanse and Evolving Wilds, Fabled Passage, Polluted Delta, Prismatic Vista...). Watery Grave is also highly advised, along with Contaminated Aquifer, Ice Tunnel, Underground River, and Drowned Catacomb. Port of Karfell might also be worth considering.
• The best mill payoff from your opponents is Rise of the Dark Realms. Alternately, Reanimate, Animate Dead, and Extract from Darkness are great for bonus reanimation. Junji, the Midnight Sky is another possible option. Desertion and Aethersnatch are also good to take your opponents' things before they knew what hit them.
• More tutoring. Expedition Map will help for lands; Vampiric Tutor, Demonic Tutor, and Diabolic Intent are good in general; Lim-Dul's Vault is, I find, underappreciated and very handy. Fact or Fiction is also handy to get through your deck and get fun things into the graveyard (or make your opponents wonder what's happening).
• The Meathook Massacre, Damnation, and Cyclonic Rift are extremely handy for removal. The first is also a bonus payoff if your zombies die in the process! Yawgmoth, Thran Physician is also super-useful when it comes to removal, turning your zombies into both extra cards and weakening your opponents' creatures.
• High-cost things: Force of Will, Force of Negation, Mana Drain, and Commandeer are useful for control and making sure things don't stick and Memory Jar for filling up graveyards.