Master of Cruelties

Creature — Demon

First strike, deathtouch

Master of Cruelties can only attack alone.

Whenever Master of Cruelties attacks a player and isn't blocked, that player's life total becomes 1. Master of Cruelties assigns no combat damage this combat.

Discussion (48)

B33lz3bub on Kaervek, the Merciless

1 month ago

Taking something out of a deck is the most headache inducing activity ever with which I'll probably be of little help, however I can point you to some additions that you can make. (although, I would probably take out the spellbombs as well as stalking vengeance and nettlevine blight, because of their big mana cost) I have created a Kaervek deck of my own recently, and although I'm still in the process of perfecting it, it seems that a healthy diversity of creatures and enchantments is the way to go. Damage doubling creatures such as Angrath's Marauders and Sower of Discord are a must, as well as small but efficient pingers like Immolation Shaman and Scab-Clan Berserker, but arguably the most leg work goes to enchantments such as Furnace of Rath, Manabarbs, Citadel of Pain, Spellshock, Pestilence and most especially Havoc Festival. If you have the budget Master of Cruelties, Wound Reflection and Painful Quandary completely lock the game, with or without Kaervek being on the board. Toralf, God of Fury  ^Flip would be great addition as well. Hope this helps

RedBullMan2 on Aggressive Angels and Demons

1 month ago

where is Rakdos the Defiler and Master of Cruelties ?

multimedia on Alesha Khan of the Graveyard

2 months ago

Hey, Karmic Guide is a helpful budget creature with Alesha. Alesha reanimates Karmic and then Karmic lets you reanimate any creature and that creature doesn't enter the battlefield attacking. Karmic also gets back into your graveyard to reanimate again when you don't pay the echo cost at your next upkeep.

Sac outlets let you reuse creatures by getting them back into your graveyard to reanimate again with Alesha. This is important with Master of Cruelties to be able to cheat him onto the battlefield with Alesha again attacking. A couple of the better budget sac outlets are Goblin Bombardment and Viscera Seer.

If you add Murderous Redcap then you have a combo with Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit and Alesha can reanimate this combo. Add Viscera Seer as the sac outlet who Alesha can reanimate for an infinite damage to opponents combo by repeatedly sacing Redcap and persist does the rest. Karmic Guide is helpful with combo like this because you don't want Anafenza or Seer to enter the battlefield attacking instead you just want to reanimate them.

You have a good package cards for looting as well as tutoring for creature putting it into your graveyard. Anger is a nice card with these effects to give Alesha haste.

Battlefield Forge, Caves of Koilos, Exotic Orchard, Furycalm Snarl, Shineshadow Snarl, Smoldering Marsh, Tainted Field, Tainted Peak are some budget land upgrades to consider.

Good luck with your deck.

Arievilo on Hell's Gates

2 months ago

Hey zapyourtumor ! Thanks for the great tips already added some to the deck here.

I replaced Fetid Imp with Scourge of the Skyclaves . It fits the cheap creature place better and is a demon so not only helps the priests to summon more demons but also helps with Mark of the Oni . I also think he goes great with Vexing Devil , Blood Crypt and Spawn of Mayhem . Dark Confidant would be perfect but it is too expensive. Even the scourge is a bit expensive to add to the physical deck right now but I'll save up for it and in time I will get it, maybe someday I'll get my hands in some of that dark wizard.

About Mark of the Oni I understand what you are saying but I love the card. It is really fun to play with it so I'll not remove it despite the drawback it has. Regarding Grim Return it is also just a fun card if I get to combo with Archfiend of Depravity (or Desecration Demon you suggested and cast it on my opponent's end turn to take over one of his creatures, or combine it with removal to take one of his creatures for me, so that being said I liked the ideia of having Sin Prodder because, besides the draw help, it seems like a easy way to help me cast Rakdos, Lord of Riots and goes well with it later either.

Thanks for the tip about Lightning Bolt , fits better in the deck than Go for the Throat . I just don't quite understand why you prefer Fatal Push to terminate. As I see it is just +1 mana cost for a more solid removal but I might be missing something so if you could detail more on your thoughts about it I would appreciate it.

Finnally, after altering the virtual version of the deck I finished with 22 lands. Kind of on the fence on keeping the 3rd Rakdos, Lord of Riots or the 2nd Lord of the Void instead of a 23rd land card. What do you think?

I had Master of Cruelties in the main deck at first because I really like it too. Thanks again for your suggestions, really appreciate it

zapyourtumor on Hell's Gates

2 months ago

Cool concept! Here are some of my initial thoughts and comments after reading through the list a few times.

I really don't like Blood Speaker. A 4 mana 3/2 vanilla that tutors a demon to hand for 4 mana everytime - if it let you tutor one onto the battlefield it might actually be playable. I would cut all of these.

The main issues I see with the deck are your disruption package. I would add more efficient removal like Lightning Bolt and Fatal Push over a lot of your Go for the Throats and Terminates (I'd leave 1 Terminate for Murktide decks). Grim Return doesn't seem super great either.

I'd also include hand disruption in a playset of Inquisition of Kozilek, since I assume Thoughtseize is out of your price range. Discard is just a staple in any black midrange deck like this. While these cards might be a little more expensive than the other cards in the deck, Bolt/Push/Inquisition are all modern staples that can slot into most red/black decks and are unlikely to lose their value anytime soon.

Mark of the Oni is cute, so if you really have fun with it in the deck then of course that's fine, it just doesn't seem very good because the best time to drop it is earlier in the game to survive and you can't really play it early game. The only cheap demons I could find are Dream Devourer and Scourge of the Skyclaves which could slot in if you want to keep Mark of the Oni. Only run Scourge if you are running a playset of bolt though. If you have the money for Scourge I'd definitely get it, although it's pretty expensive.

Since you have Skirsdag High Priest, you probably need some lower costed creatures. While Fetid Imp fits the theme, its really bad. I'd cut it. Honestly something like Dark Confidant would be great here since you can tap it to Skirsdag and it gives you some much needed draw power, but it's really expensive. I can't really think of any other good 1-2 cmc black creatures that fit the hell theme (except asmor but she doesn't count lol), but there are definitely some good ones out there.

Some other devils/demons are Sin Prodder (need that draw engine?), Desecration Demon, which gets really brutal with Archfiend of Depravity, and Doom Whisperer. I'm sad that Master of Cruelties probably doesn't fit here since he's my favorite demon.

FunnyDuck on Never Break the Chain (Chainer, Nightmare Adept)

3 months ago

Cornonjacob07

Thanks for the support! I'll try and take a look at your own list when I have the time if you want some suggestions there as well.

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First, Shenanigans ! I had it in the list for a while as a stand in for Golgari Thug (who's pricey for an uncommon) and it performed...better as discard fodder than as artifact removal. Ingot Chewer does a lot for this deck and is much more abusable and cheaper to cast (9 times out of 10 you evoke it).

I essentially only have room for 3 expendable single-target removal slots after all the synergistic options like Shriekmaw . Between Baleful Mastery , Bedevil , Chaos Warp , Rakdos Charm , Vandalblast , By Force , and Shenanigans itself (for examples), I prize the exile effect and mana efficiency on Baleful Mastery first and foremost (if you're wheeling frequently with Magus of the Wheel or even Ruin Grinder a single draw is irrelevant), with Chaos Warp acting as another non-destruction removal piece that isn't restricted on what it can hit. All of that covers creature removal quite thoroughly, so I looked to dedicated artifact removal next.

I chose Vandalblast over any other targeted artifact removal due to the popularity of Osgir, the Reconstructor and Voltron-style Sword of X & Y equipment decks. A non-targeting wipe is significantly stronger against artifact decks like them vs. an incremental single-target destruction effect like Shenanigans. If you don't have a go-wide artifact deck like Osgir in your play environment, feel free to use Shenanigans over Vandalblast and reap some extra discard synergy in the meantime.

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For Ilharg, the Raze-Boar I wanted a threat to work as an independent backup plan from the graveyard. The best response a graveyard deck can have against grave hate is to practice moderation, and Ilharg attacks on a similar angle to Sneak Attack without adding to the graveyard unnecessarily. The vast majority of ETB effects in the deck are valuable and worth repeating over and over again, while Ilharg itself is a hard-to-remove threat in its own right. If you are having trouble with needing creatures in hand to abuse, I would highly recommend Phyrexian Reclamation ...so much so that I wouldn't even suggest running Sneak or Ilharg without it!

And trust me when I say that sneaking in a Master of Cruelties off of Ilharg is a devious play that is guaranteed to turn heads and take names!

multimedia on Alesha, No Idea

4 months ago

Hey, nice version of Alesha.

New sets Modern Horizons 2 and Strixhaven has lots of budget goodies for Alesha. The first two cards can tutor for and put Master of Cruelties into your graveyard.

• Vile Entomber : best card of the bunch to consider adding since it's repeatable Entomb with a deathtouch body who Alesha can reanimate.
• Unmarked Grave : tutor for any nonlegendary card and put in your graveyard.
• Goblin Bombardment : now a $1 and it's one of the best sac outlets in Commander especially with Cruelties. After making an opponent have 1 life sac Cruelties to end that opponent and repeat next turn by reanimating Cruelties.
• Karmic Guide : now a $1, powerful with Alesha because she can reanimate it which then can reanimate any other creature in your graveyard. Karmic can put itself back into your graveyard by not paying the echo cost making it easily repeatable.
• Zephyr Boots : give Alesha flying evasion and it can be repeatable loot to fuel her reanimation.
• Access Tunnel : another Rogue's Passage , less mana cost to activate.

Viscera Seer is a one drop sac outlet to abuse reanimation of the same creatures with Alesha and it also can help your draws with repeatable scry. Solemn Simulacrum can be repeatable basic land ramp and draw when reanimated with Alesha. Ravenous Chupacabra can be repeatable creature removal.

Exotic Orchard is another rainbow land. Spectator Seating and Vault of Champions are Bond lands that ETB untapped if playing multiplayer Commander. Talisman of Conviction and Talisman of Hierarchy are two more two drop mana rocks.

If interested in any of these suggestions then I offer more advice including cuts to consider. Good luck with your deck.

kellpiece on CBT Demons

5 months ago

I love demon deck ideas. The only drawback is alot of demons have REALLY shitty negative stuff they do as well.

Griselbrand get this boi in there. he fucks. hard. I'd also def keep the Master of Cruelties and maybe even throw in some Lightning Greaves to protect your heavy hitters. Sire Of Insanity also a fuckin sick demon who works well with top decking if you have Varragoth, Bloodsky Sire out. Demigod of Revenge is also a sick ass card thats easy to play with your basic mana set up. Also maybe consider 1-2 Ob Nixilis Reignited for some late game card draw and variation to keep opponents on their toes.

Also dont be too afraid to lean heavy into some removal/burst, black/red has some great options like Bedevil , Lightning Bolt , Fatal Push and Inquisition of Kozilek

Biggest advice would be to dial back on some of the demons/devils just for the sake of having them. Some of em are trash. For example you could ditch the Tibalt's Rager for maybe some Spike Jester or Dreadhorde Butcher