Grisly Spectacle

Combos Browse all Suggest

Legality

Format Legality
1v1 Commander Legal
Archenemy Legal
Block Constructed 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
Modern Legal
Oathbreaker Legal
Pauper Legal
Pauper Duel Commander Legal
Pauper EDH Legal
Pioneer Legal
Planechase Legal
Quest Magic Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

Grisly Spectacle

Instant

Destroy target nonartifact creature. Its controller puts a number of cards equal to that creature's power from the top of his or her library into his or her graveyard.

SniperFrog on Oona

1 year ago

Alright. So there's a couple things I would change, but I don't want you to think it's better or anything, just what I would do. I'll give budget suggestions and non budget suggestions so you have a variety of choices without hurting the wallet.

I think I would go for mono blue so I can get Bruvac the Grandiloquent's effect in my command zone. It seems actually nutty to just be able to get this guy going. That being said, I like a lot of the black spells you have here, namely Mind Grind and Nightscape Familiar, so I would consider something like Phenax, God of Deception or maybe Mirko Vosk, Mind Drinker to stay in dimir. Not really sure the red is helping much at all, though. Only four red cards is a bit of a bad look, though they seem cool in theory. I've never played any of them, so I don't really know how good they actually are.

So there are a few optimizations I would consider as well. Three mana rocks are a bit slow for my tastes and there are a lot of decent options at two mana, I'd recommend Fellwar Stone, Mind Stone and Arcane Signet to name a few cheaper options. There's also Sapphire Medallion, Chrome Mox and Mana Vault, though those are strictly non budget.

More optimizations for interaction seems good here as well. Maybe drop some of your three mana counterspells for some one or two mana spells. Counterspell is a mainstay and at very good price as well. I like Swan Song, An Offer You Can't Refuse and Drown in the Loch in this slot. There are a plethora of non budget options as well, particularly free counters like Force of Will and Force of Negation or other heavy hitters like Mana Drain and Cryptic Command. Plenty of cool things to do with this, however, so you have options.

Your lands look rough. I personally will always go with untapped lands with so many options, but that can get really pricy, really fast. Of course, if you didn't have to worry about a red splash, your landbase gets A LOT better.

If you're having trouble with hitting enough lands, consider lowering the curve a bit or even adding a couple more to try to smooth things out. I generally try to have around forty-two to forty-five mana sources, though my curves are usually around 2-2.5, so you might want a little more than that, maybe. I don't know. That's something you can figure out with playtesting.

Now comes the fun part. As it stands, including the above mentioned cards, I would try to find room for these:

Into the Story for some card draw.

Leyline of the Void or something similar like Planar Void along with Helm of Obedience mills infinitely. Also pretty good to beat the eldrazi triggers if you see these things regularly.

Rhystic Study and its baby brother Mystic Remora are both excellent card draw spells with humongous upside, though they are both getting a little on the expensive side now, with Rhystic pushing forty or fifty bucks.

I like Bitter Ordeal, but I think this is kind of a pet card that I want to make work, so I might be projecting here. lol

Reanimate effects seem VERY strong here. I like the ones that target opponent's graveyards the most, so I would stick with Animate Dead and Dance with the Dead along with the aforementioned reanimate. Didn't think about this at first. Could be really sweet.

Mesmeric Orb is money in these decks. Gives mad inevitability.

Altar of the Brood and Altar of Dementia are both combo pieces, but I feel like they're more build arounds than good on their own.

Folio of Fancies. I've never seen this card before, but I love it. Seems like it would fit nicely.

Tome Scour and Brain Freeze are insane with Underworld Breach but this is another build around that pulls you more into storm than mill, I think. Still maybe worth thinking about.

Sands of Delirium seems sweet.

A few draw X spells could be just what you need. Stroke of Genius, Pull from Tomorrow, Fascination and Prosperity come to mind. Skyscribing also seems sweet, but I'm not sure how good it is.

Some cards I would just outright cut:

Gravepurge, not positive what this is doing for you, beside gumming up your draws. I guess it can get something back but not sure it's relevant. Hard to say without playing the deck.

All three mana rocks. Darksteel Ingot, Dimir Cluestone, Ur-Golem's Eye, Hedron Archive are a few. There are actually a few more than I thought, so maybe cutting all of them isn't the right thing to do unless you are cutting like for like for cheaper rocks.

Grisly Spectacle, I feel like you can get a better removal spell. I see the appeal, but I feel like it will get at most six cards milled maybe. Something like Feed the Swarm is probably just better or Drown in the Loch which hits two birds with one stone.

Countermand. Four mana counterspell seems like a really hard ask. I know it's on theme, but something cheaper is probably just better. See above for suggestions on cheap counters.

I would maybe cut some other, stuff, but I feel like I've already given you a lot to think about. Love the list. I'm excited to see it once you've had a chance to keep tuning it. Follow for sure. :)

edge_dino on TSG

2 years ago

I also want to say take out the Entomb for Vile Entomber cause while it does cost 4 compared to the 1 it is still a creature doing it and with your commander you can easily bring it bak from the grave thus doing it more, i also see you are going with a small milling theme to aid your commander as well but i think it could potentially backfire against many opponents but that would be more situational, as for fitting in fun cards like Victory Chimes you could take out Fellwar Stone and yes ik that the mana cost is different but considering you already have solring and signets i believe it would be completely alright for that, as for King Narfi's Betrayal just take out 1 of your mill cards and that saga is easily better because of its effects in general and Black Market is practically a must have as a constant and a potential target for removal, now where cards to remove go Winds of Rebuke and Grisly Spectacle .

Mechanon on

2 years ago

Sewer Nemesis , Consuming Aberration , Bonehoard , Grisly Spectacle , Nighthowler , Sepulchral Primordial , Sublime Epiphany , Maddening Cacophony and Talent of the Telepath might be some helpful cards. Lazav is definitely a commander to be reckoned with if you have some milling or if one of your powerful creatures gets killed/countered. Playing Lazav against a Ghalta, Primal Hunger deck is lots of fun, since commanders dying/being countered count as entering the graveyard. There's lots of good mill cards that came out with Zendikar Rising as well.

Upyron on not quite mono black

4 years ago

I like to say this deck is very expensive, and won't work try to change some cards like 10: Grisly Spectacle try instead with Murderous Rider or you might prefer Spark Harvest this deck is based devotion but tolkens dont work on them do you know? you should change strategy or using better Mana/performance cost, Agonizing Remorse I really advise you to use this 2 sites to looking well your cards like http://mythicspoiler.com/ and magic official database you can google it with an advance search engine, try mtg Wiki as well!!

good luck

thom-le on Circu, Dimir Lobotomist

4 years ago

Nosema You wrote: "Hey, Thank you so much for responding. It was really helpful and I am close to finishing the deck but I REALLY like the idea of the Duskmantle Guildmage and Mindcrank combo. I was wondering whats the best way to trigger that. like the cheapest/easiest way for your opponents to all discard a card? Also do you try to play both at the same time or play 1 and then the other and risk it being destroyed? Thanks again!"

One strategy is to improve the mill technique. If you are playing different Counterspells than Didn't Say Please, Thought Collapse, Psychic Strike could be possible additions. Maybe consider Psychic Corrosion, Memory Erosion or Jace's Erasure, but I think those Enchantments are not in the theme of the deck.. Grisly Spectacle is better as a removal with mill, Jace's Archivist helps also the Notion Thief + Whispering Madness -combo. Pilfered Plans is card draw with mill.. so you have a nice pool of cards to choose from.

Another way is to get the Discard-Theme. Very annoying but also very effective. You still may play Windfall, Dark Deal and all those cards with such an effect. Painful Quandary is awesome but creates hate. A special combo could be High Market + Howltooth Hollow + Mindslicer if you are going deeper and deeper in the theme. Bottomless Pit, Oppression are fantastic cards. Bloodchief Ascension is so good for gaining life in the discard strategy, just think of this one.

In my opinion you play both cards, but you need some Counterspells in your hand. And you should have enough mana available..

Rasaru on

4 years ago

You've given a ton to think about, Valius! Much appreciated! A lot of what you mentioned makes sense. Initially, my goal was to build this deck around the $100 mark, so I didn't consider cards like Cyclonic Rift , Toxic Deluge , etc. But... things change! :)

I did have a follow up on Brainspoil . While I agree that Grisly Spectacle is a better card for the deck, I'm specifically using Brainspoil to tutor cards like Consuming Aberration and Traumatize .

Mind if I ask you a couple of more questions? When you were writing your 2 comments, I was in the process of adding 3 questions to my description above. You've already answered #2 pretty thoroughly. Mind taking a stab at questions 1 and 3 (I didn't forget about Bojuka Bog )? Thanks in advance!

Valius on

4 years ago

Cards you could remove to make space for better synergistic ones are:

Mirko Vosk, Mind Drinker
Sire of Stagnation
Dreamborn Muse (I go back and forth on this but I still feel it’s worth taking out unless self mill is a strategy for you)
All your enchantments except Fraying Sanity
Aether Gale
Brainspoil ( Grisly Spectacle is better)
Dark Deal
Karn's Temporal Sundering
Intellectual Offering

If I was building this deck, that’s where I would start. Of course it’s your deck, and if anything is sentimental then by all means keep it in.

Load more
Have (3) SunshineDynamo , reikitavi , ajmcnulty
Want (1) pabloriv