Grim Flayer

Creature — Human Warrior

Whenever Grim Flayer deals combat damage to a player, look at the top three cards of your library. Put any number of them into your graveyard and the rest back on top of your library in any order.

Delirium - Grim Flayer gets +2/+2 as long as there are four or more card types among cards in your graveyard.

Discussion (48)

K0rt on Jundy boi test

2 months ago

This definitely looks like a Lurrus of the Dream-Den deck, you only have a single card that doesn't fit the requirements in Liliana of the Veil that can be easily cut and Lurrus is just so good in the midrange and control matchups that adding it seems like a no-brainer.

I have no idea what Manamorphose is doing in this deck. There are no cards that care about instant or sorceries in this list, meaning it's just going to be air most of the time. Even if you don't add Lurrus Mishra's Bauble can at least make Tarmogoyf better and fulfils the role of cheap cantrip better than Manamorphose in this current list.

Dreadhorde Arcanist is another weird inclusion. You only have 11 spells that it can successful flashback in the whole deck, meaning that it is going to be a two-mana 1/3 an awful lot, especially since your going to have graveyard hate boarded in against you already with your Kroxa and Fiend Artisan, maybe some more generic creatures would be better, like Scavenging Ooze or Grim Flayer .

4 Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger seems like way too many, especially since you have no dedicated mill effects or even an engine card like Dragon's Rage Channeler to put cards in the graveyard. If you want to go with a graveyard based strategy you should add some powerful enablers like Grisly Salvage as it makes both Fiend Artisan and Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger more powerful and consistent.

You might also want some Nurturing Peatland for Wrenn and Six to turn the +1 from it into spells. The 3 basic Forest in this list will almost certainly be awkward with Kroxa more times than you think it will, especially if you have two on the battlefield.

zapyourtumor on Lurrus Delirium Shadow

2 months ago

This decks mana curve is quite low and you don't have any real three drops to curve into ( Dismember doesn't count). Without the big, splashier 3-4 drops of big jund like Klothys, Huntmaster, BBE, etc., I don't really see why the Ignobles are there. I'd definitely take them out, since a deck like this probably wants more threats and disruption instead of mana acceleration.

I know Grim Flayer is cute and I've always wanted the card to work well, but Tarmogoyf just totally overshadows it in my experience. I would definitely go up to a playset of goyfs, which could maybe replace the Ignobles if you wanted to keep some flayers.

I would probably replace the rest of the Ignobles with IoKs. 6 discard spells seems like the sweet spot to me in this deck, 4x Thoughtseize + 2x Inquisition of Kozilek .

For the removal suite, I would definitely include some noncreature removal, like 1-2x Abrupt Decay (I see you got two Trophies and a Pulse in the sb). The ramping from trophy doesn't seem great in the current meta to be honest. Also, Dismember is pretty weak currently as well, I'd probably take out both.

Three TBRs definitely seems overkill to me, especially since JDS tends to be grindier and less explosive than GDS which usually only ran two. Since this is a lurrus delirium deck, in my opinion you should definitely run 1 Seal of Fire (more than one is pretty suboptimal though). To replace Dismember , you could add 1-2 Unholy Heat which is great. 1 maindeck Terminate might be worth it since it hits murktide.

Lastly, I don't think Night's Whisper is worth it since there are so many other discard, removal, and threats that you could be packing.

Happy brewing!

wallisface on A Grave Ultimatum

2 months ago

So, some further thoughts:

• going down the route of a grindy GB deck, you’re best bet is to ditch all your creatures except for Chevill, Bane of Monsters and Tarmogoyf . Then add in the other Rock-Staples like Grim Flayer , Dark Confidant , and Scavenging Ooze .

• with Grist, the Hunger Tide , imo he’s just not as strong as other walkers, unless you can abuse him alongside 4x Collected Company and 2-3x Unearth . That’s a tricky path to go down, as it means you’d probably want to splash a third colour and go Azban (you’d need around 28 total creatures, incl. Grist). Assuming that’s not the path you want to go down, Liliana of the Veil is the better walker.

• The Rocks ideal hand disruption package is 3x Inquisition of Kozilek and 2x Thoughtseize . As far as killspells, you want a healthy smattering of Abrupt Decay , Assassin's Trophy , and Fatal Push , in relative equal quantities.

GB grindy decks play out a lot like Jund decks, but without the red.. so you can take a lot of inspiration from those builds

aanimeeye on A Grave Ultimatum

2 months ago

I really appreciate both your comments :). What I'm trying to go for is a grindy/value deck

Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons : I'd be sad to see her go, unfortunately she does clash with herself being legendary and her effects are almost always blocked or fizzle if I don't target my creature. I put her in because I liked the menace interaction with Call of the Death-Dweller . Stitcher's Supplier -> Hexdrinker ?

Chevill, Bane of Monsters (and my maybeboard of Glissa, the Traitor + Mishra's Bauble ) is my attempt to fix my draw. I love Guul Draz Assassin , his value especially in winning contested boardspace games, the down side is that he is slow. KablamoBoom Driven / Despair seems awesome and I'd love to include it, sideboard tips too.

I would basically want to have deck which feels like I earned the win through skill. Looking at other decks Grim Flayer and Traverse the Ulvenwald seem like great additions, maybe Lurrus for the Tarmogoyf value. I'm just not sure there are enough/strong enough cards to win against the horrors in modern right now

skincrawler on Jund Delirium

3 months ago

Hi zapyourtumor,

Thanks for your comment and the suggestions.

I started with the good'ol "4 Inquisition of Kozilek / 2 Thoughtseize " package, but found myself boarding it out nearly every game, because of the high amount of Blitz variants in the meta right now. Might change that over time, but for now I think 3 Discard Spells + Kolaghan's Command in the main seems to be fine. Could be wrong here, though. I think Seal of Fire is better in this deck, specifically because it works quite well with Lurrus. I like the idea though and didn't really considered tribal card in my deck building. Maybe I can find room for a copy or two.

Delirium is quite easy to accomplish actually, especially with a relativ high creature count and the surveil of Dragon's Rage Channeler I usually have it up latest on turn 3. But I might want to change some spells to get it more often already turn 2 and have a faster recovery after my graveyard was whiped. (Which is usually the end of me, if opponent has any kind of threat on the board)

Ignoble Hierarch is debatable, I agree, even though I think it's a very strong creature (therefore having a full play set), but I like the mana exhalation early and it helps getting through some blockers with an unboosted Grim Flayer sometimes. I might want to change it to Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer though, or maybe even try out [Strike it Rich], to up my sorcery count.

I can also see this deck going more in the direction of Death's Shadow having more Thoughtseize, as you suggested. But for now, I don't think that I want it to be a gimmicy Shadow's deck and try to let it be its own jundy goodness ;P

zobster on Abzan Midrange

3 months ago

Here's A Metagame Sideboard Guide Niv to Light In: 2 Despark , 1 Despise , Languish Niv to Light Out: 1 Collective Brutality , 3 Fatal Push Spirits In: 1 Settle the Wreckage , 2 Despise , 2 Languish Spirits Out: 1 Duress , 1 Agonizing Remorse , 1 Knight of Autumn , 2 Grim Flayer Pheonix In: 1 Despark , 1 Agonizing Remorse , 2 Damping Sphere , 2 Rest in Peace Pheonix Out: 2 Fatal Push , 2 Abrupt Decay , 1 Collective Brutality , 1 Liliana, the Last Hope Jund In: 2 Knight of Autumn , 2 Rest in Peace Jund In: 2 Collective Brutality , 2 Gilded Goose Dimir Control In: 2 Knight of Autumn , 2 Agonizing Remorse Dimir Control Out: 4 Fatal Push Coco In: 2 Languish , 1 Settle the Wreckage , 1 Knight of Autumn Coco Out: 1 Gilded Goose , Liliana, the Last Hope , 1 Collective Brutality , Agonizing Remorse Pyromancer In: 2 Rest in Peace , 1 Liliana, the Last Hope Pyromancer Out: Agonizing Remorse , 1 Duress , 1 Gilded Goose Stompy In: 2 Despise , 1 Settle the Wreckage , 1 Languish , Liliana, the Last Hope Stompy Out: 1 Duress , 1 Agonizing Remorse , 1 Tireless Tracker , 2 Collective Brutality

itsbuzzi on Cookie's Jund (PNR)

8 months ago

Hello! I feel bad for drawing you into this deck but I figured I needed a second opinion and good testing cannot happen without events. Do not feel bad if your responses seem to all be negative. This is a combination of two lists so it will look like yours but vary. For the future, I can test this deck on occasion with an aggro list I have but, to test against anything else would not work as I am not the original pilot of any other deck. Anyway, I love the criticism and I'll start my responses in order, but do remember, I haven't tested anything. So I will be taking consideration but not making any changes yet until I have been able to play enough to decide. Sorry for the long response. Without further ado:

I really like Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger. The ability to remove a card from their hand, more notably a nonland card unless they take life as well, is great. Having a 6/6 beater seems a little less important as there are many other creatures in the deck. There is great value in the choice to escape the card while maintaining Grim Flayer and fueling the escape cost. At this point I can see a direct swap of Tasigur, the Golden Fang and Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger. While Kroxa reduces the opponents recourses Tasigur gains resources in the opposite manner. It is more by choice of the opponent but by exiling the graveyard with it's delve ability the choices are better. Tasigur's ability can be activated multiple times in a late game setting at end of turn after holding up responses but not needing to activate them, it's another thing to do. I could see this getting in the way of say clue tokens but we have yet to test that out as I see this issue coming in against late game which aggro does not go to. I do like that Kroxa is a recurring threat. All said and done I see the choices being keep how the deck is or swap 1x Tasigur for 1x Kroxa. I say only 1 because the recursion on Kroxa is just so strong if she gets milled she can come back, dies can come back sometimes the next turn if a Grim Flayer is on the field. In the end it comes down to testing but it is a wonderful consideration.

Vraska, Golgari Queen rounds out the 4 drop slot with more removal on a stick and I would have to argue the token generation of Tireless Tracker is exceedingly wonderful for her. In testing against my aggro deck she honestly comes down to -3 then dies the next turn fueling delirium for Grim Flayer so it's hard to say what would go in this slot but it appears as though she is definitely not great in the aggro match up but I could see her excelling in other match ups with her continuous ability. Perhaps another planeswalker would fit the bill better but we have tried Liliana, the Last Hope and she does not make the cut. It's ideal if her +1 could kill something every turn but it typically would not happen and if it does the game is heavily in our favor already. For now I would keep her in but I feel there may be other options out there other than the discussed walkers. I'm not entirely sure any walker is good in the aggro match up so the answer to this question will have to wait until different testing can commence but if I do find an answer I will let you know.

I like Bonecrusher Giant, but I feel only hitting for 2 damage hurts a lot more than it helps. Having another big body is great too, but I feel like that role is already played even in your list with all the other creatures we share and Kroxa. It's basically a direct swap of Bonecrusher Giant and Oath of Chandra. The most we have Oath acomplish in the deck is to bolt something then hit the graveyard (Vraska typically sacrifices Oath, the 2 damage at end step is a trigger that if it would occur is a forgotten trigger). So in this way it's with an instant speed shock or a sorcery bolt. I feel as though we have enough instant speed threats and could use these sorcery speed slots. It's just a unique card to fuel delirium at worst and a bolt with upside at best. I see the reasoning to remove it for something better as most other cards have many modes behind them but I have to admit the amount of multicolored cards in the deck hinder it and having more mono colored removal really helps the deck out in the event of multi colored protection. I find that due to the redundancy of Giant in the list and lackluster damage vs a unique card type that can enter the graveyard fairly easily is a little better. Against aggro it is a good card but I would say otherwise the card would get taken out for something else which isn't necessarily a bad thing it makes cutting cards easier for sideboarding.

Speaking of which, a disclaimer: the sideboard is not complete I just threw in cards and was somewhat in the process of removing some. We want the sideboard to work on match ups where we have difficulty but the hard part at this present moment is trying to figure out what match ups are the tough match ups. You can see we have some cards for aggro: (Abrade, Radiant Flames, even Scavenging Ooze). We have cards for midrange / control: (Agonizing Remorse, Shifting Ceratops). We have graveyard hate: (Scavenging Ooze and Soul-Guide Lantern). And lastly we have cards against combo: (Necromentia and Slaughter Games). Some of these cards can overlap for different needs we just don't know what needs need to be met.

I have had the discussion over Anger of the Gods and we are playing Radiant Flames because of the modular capabilities (playing it for 2 damage or 3, hardly ever 1 as explained here) and getting double red on turn 3 is much harder than getting all colors by turn 3. That, and the off chance we hit our own creatures they remain exiled and not destroyed. That is why we have Radiant Flames over Anger of the Gods. This slot in the sideboard is basically filled. Otherwise I agree Anger is the card to have.

Lastly about Necromentia and Slaughter Games. It is very much redundant to have both of these in the list we just haven't figured out which is better and would only run one, and not sure the amount of that one meta dependent. For Necromentia it can hit a turn earlier, and the off-chance it makes a token we can very much kill it with anything and possibly get value from it with Chevill, Bane of Monsters. For Slaughter Games it can't be countered but hits a turn later. I'm not sure if the ability to get non-basic lands with Necromentia is very relevant but Slaughter Games can only get nonland cards but as mentioned Slaughter Games can't be countered. So for now both of them sit in the sideboard until we can figure out which is better.

Perhaps you may have some insight on the topics mentioned above? If not I do appreciate the constructive criticism and all mentions will be placed in the sideboard for further testing with. Thanks!

UndeadxPenguins on Cookie's Jund (PNR)

8 months ago

Okay, so, I have a few critiques. Just want to start out by saying I'm not trying to be rude, but I want to explain my reasons for saying a card is bad or the deck needs work.

First, I think Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger is too good not to run in a deck like this, especially with Grim Flayer. Otherwise, what's the point of playing Grim? Kroxa gives you something to do on those later turns where you draw nothing.

Vraska, Golgari Queen is a great card, but I don't think it fits this deck. She belongs in a deck that gets value off creatures dying or token generators like my old Standard Abzan Midrange deck that had huge amounts of token generation from cards like Hero of Precinct One and cards with Afterlife & ran Cruel Celebrant.

I'm also not a fan of Tasigur, the Golden Fang in this list at all. With Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger, I could somewhat understand it since you could Exile the cards you don't want back & sort of try to force your opponent to give you the card you want, but even then I don't think he is great in it.

I'm gonna be brutally honest here: Oath of Chandra is a very bad card, especially with only 2 Planeswalker cards in the deck. Bonecrusher Giant is better here because it can hit any target & can be played as a creature to beat down afterwards.

The sideboard is fine, but it really depends on the meta. Mine is just built for the most common metas in the format: Control & Midrange since the main deck already does fairly well against Midrange & Aggro. Running both Necromentia & Slaughter Games is too much, in my opinion, so I'd say swap out Necromentia for Anger of the Gods as a board wipe against Mono-White, Mono-Red, & Mono-Black since their creatures tend to have less than 3 toughness, at least early on when you want to cast it.