Pact of the Serpent
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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
Oathbreaker Legal
Planar Constructed Legal
Planechase Legal
Quest Magic Legal
Tiny Leaders Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

Pact of the Serpent

Sorcery

Choose a creature type. Target player draws X cards and loses X life, where X is the number of creatures they control of the chosen type.

Optimator on Wick the whorled mind EDH

5 months ago

Minions' Murmurs and Pact of the Serpent might be good

DoctorMunchiesPHD on A Pimp Named Sliver Overlord

1 year ago

SufferFromEDHD Good call bro, what would you swap for it personally? Hesitant to cut more Slivers to guarantee targets for Manaweft Sliver or Pact of the Serpent but a good swap is a good swap, great synergy with Sliver Overlord, kind of just seems like a better Amoeboid Changeling.

HeavenlyAxe on

1 year ago

Hey Indie,

First off I really like the lands you have assembled and the suggestions from SufferFromEDHD are all good.

You are definitely going to want an artifact ramp package.

Sol Ring, Mana Crypt, Arcane Signet, Fellwar Stone, Gilded Lotus, Thran Dynamo

Special Mention to Nyx Lotus, it could be good being in mono black. and Jeweled Lotus, pays for your commander for free on turn 1 even.

Sword of the Animist is not bad ramp at all and buffs yours rats

Commander's Plate might be cute.

Liliana of the Dark Realms, makes sure you always get a land drop and could make your swamps tap for four.

Chittering Witch if your playing with more opponents.

Crypt Ghast is sort of ramp, but doubles your swamps. Very good in mono black.

Dauthi Voidwalker is not on theme at all but is just sooo much value in a two cost card I have to recommend it.

God-Eternal Bontu is excellent draw power in the right situation.

Dont forget you can run any number of Relentless Rats

Gray Merchant of Asphodel will heal you up a lot and hurt your opponents

Krav, the Unredeemed is also great card draw.

Yawgmoth, Thran Physician, has card draw, removal, and proliferate all on one card

Deadly Rollick, potentially free removal

Defile, cheap good removal

Thrilling Encore saves you from a board wipe or lets you bring everything back after sacrificing it all to like God-Eternal Bontu

Phyrexian Arena some ok card draw.

Bojuka Bog if you are worried about graveyards

Mutilate, a good board wipe in mono black

Night's Whisper, Read the Bones, Sign in Blood, are a great draw package for mono black

Toxic Deluge a great board wipe for when things need resetting, and you could follow with Thrilling Encore and get it all back

Syphon Mind is great draw if your playing with more players

Victimize - is really really strong, get rid of one weak thing for two of your best things

Yawgmoth's Will - lets you treat your graveyard like your hand for a turn

Lord Skitter, Sewer King makes rats

Marrow-Gnawer - lets you make lots of rats

Infectious Inquiry - good draw and gives poison

Ogre Slumlord - makes rats when your creatures or your opponents creatures die.

Tangled Colony - if your opponent has to block it or it dies to like Blasphemous Act will make you rats

Vraska's Fall removal and poison counter

Drown in Ichor removal and poison

Bontu's Monument all your creatures cost less

Rat Colony can have any number and they buff themselves, and cost less mana than Relentless Rats

Typhoid Rats deathtouch rat opponents wont want to block

Crypt Rats can board wipe but can also win the game if you give it infect, doesnt work with your commander because toxic specifies combat damage but does work if you give it infect and deal damage with it's ability.

Ratcatcher tutors rats, and gives you card advantage

Ashcoat of the Shadow Swarm - buffs your rats and lets you get rats back

Wave of Rats has blitz and reanimates itself

Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni rat that steals opponents stuff

Nashi, Moon Sage's Scion rat that steals opponents stuff

Adaptive Automaton is a rat and buffs rats

Okiba-Gang Shinobi rat makes opponents discard and has ninjutsu

Filth gives all your rats swampwalk pairs well with Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

Dark Ritual lets your get a head start or some extra mana a turn you need it

Tainted Strike instant speed infect, funny in multiplayer because you can use it on anyone's creatures.

Phyresis Outbreak gives poison and might kill opponents creatures

Feed the Swarm enchantment removal in black

Vat Emergence gets a creature back and proliferates

Spread the Sickness destroys a creatures and proliferates

Pact of the Serpent strong tribal card draw

Living Death swap graveyards with battlefields, great after sacrificing your whole board to draw cards

Skullclamp sack small rats for card draw

Thrumming Stone if you go the Relentless Rats or Rat Colony route

Coat of Arms your rats will be huge

Bolas's Citadel this card is dumb lol, lots of casting power and then you hit Gray Merchant of Asphodel and keep going lol

Icon of Ancestry kinda draw buffs rats...is ok

Contagion Engine proliferate twice each time you activate

Eldrazi Monument gives creatures flying indestructible and +1/+1

Grafted Exoskeleton gives a creature infect, great with Crypt Rats

Sword of Truth and Justice proliferate sword

Bad Moon buff all black creatures, opponents too

Phyresis gives infect again good with Crypt Rats

Greed card draw

Vraska, Betrayal's Sting proliferate planes walker

I know that's a lot but hopefully gave you some ideas to work with!

Profet93 on Steppen Ratchet

1 year ago

OK got you, that helps me. To stay on theme, Pact of the Serpent for card draw?

Is Coat of Arms appropriate for your theme or is it too winmore for your taste?

Perhaps a Murderous Rider > Murder? While not a rat, it is more flexible and even has a creature mode than can be used for your sacrifice spells. It also hits PW

Deserted Temple - Untap coffers and politics?

Malakir Rebirth  Flip - To bring back your commander/bypass commander tax while getting another ETB value out of him. Imagine the leader of the horde rising from the dead if oyu will

Would a Skullclamp be out of the question?

I hope the suggestions I'm giving aren't too mainstream and apologize in advance if they are.

Crow_Umbra on Totentanz, Kazoo Kid

1 year ago

I agree with lhetrick13, that you could likely focus the majority of your cuts in your creature section. I think another area of focus for potential cuts would lower impact reanimation effects, mostly because this deck wants to make lots of rat tokens. Since you will be making lots of disposable bodies, you don't really need to invest much in single-target reanimation effects.

Also, I think you might want to swap Talisman of Impulse for Talisman of Indulgence. Probably just a mix up in the card selection menu.

Suggestions for potential cuts:

  • Gnat Miser - Reducing opponents' hand size by 1 isn't super impactful in the grand scheme of a game, especially with how commonly (over)played Reliquary Tower & Thought Vessel can be, depending on metas.

  • Persistent Specimen - Basically another Reassembling Skeleton, which it looks like you might've also removed from the list.

  • Burnished Hart - Yes, it can self sac to grab you 2 basics, but that costs 6 mana total to cast & activate. Could maybe even be replaced with another 2 mana rock like Mind Stone, or maybe even Cursed Mirror, which can copy one of your rats for additional utility.

  • Murderous Rider - Doesn't really fit the theme of the deck beyond being a removal spell. Could likely be replaced with another instant like Infernal Grasp or Baleful Mastery if you needed the additional removal.

  • Unearth - Single target reanimation. Doesn't seem like it will do too much, especially since you want to mostly sac rat tokens, and already have a fairly high creature count.

  • Phyrexian Reclamation - Similar line of reasoning as Unearth. It feels like you have more than enough creatures to keep casting, so trying to reanimate doesn't make as much sense here.

  • Grave Pact - Great card, but feels overly redundant with Dictate of Erebos, which has the benefit of surprising opponents with Flash.

  • Diabolic Tutor - I think you can probably replace this with Pact of the Serpent

Those are the most obvious cuts I can suggest at the moment. I think it would be helpful if you take some time to tag the cards in your deck, and what roles they play. Tagging helps me better visualize my categories and helps me decide on cuts and swaps.

If you want to aggro swarm your opponents with Rats, I'd suggest considering Rising of the Day as a haste anthem so your swarms can, well, swarm ASAP. I'd also recommend checking out Cover of Darkness to give all of your little Rats some Evasion, otherwise they will get chump-blocked to death. Ogre Battledriver might also be worth a look, especially since it can buff up your 1/1 rats, and give them haste. Ogre Battledriver has made itself at home in a couple of my aggro token decks for that reason.

My final suggestion is to hone in on if you want this to be an Aggro deck first, with the option to combo out, or if you want this to primarily be a combo deck with Aggro as a "Plan B" to fall back on. Determining that primary focus for yourself will also help guide some of the cuts you make.

Best of luck!

Crow_Umbra on

1 year ago

It looks like you're one card short of 99, but maybe one of these recs could fill that last slot:

  • Reconnaissance - One of the best cards out there for any Isshin build variant. This EDHREC article better explains how Reconnaissance is basically a pseudo-Vigilance anthem, and can prevent combat damage that would be dealt to your creatures. A bit pricey though, but worth it.

  • Dolmen Gate - Another excellent card for pretty much any Isshin build. Also a bit pricey, but has had a recent reprinting.

  • Pact of the Serpent - Since you are a bit more typal focused on Samurai, this could be a helpful means of drawing cards in bulk.

  • Taurean Mauler - Technically a Samurai, mostly because you're a bit light on creatures at 22 (including Isshin).

I hope these suggestions are helpful. Would be happy to offer other feedback if needed.

legendofa on Modern Horizons 3 Predictions/Wishlist

1 year ago

Going off the previous Modern Horizons, I expect some outside-of-Modern cards to be pulled in (Eladamri's Call, Enchantress's Presence), some lower-tier strategies to be given a push (Cloudshredder Sliver, Unmarked Grave), and some pushed cards (Force of Negation, Fury, and a bunch of generically good filler.

Some cards that could be Modern-ized (and probably keeping my failed prediction streak going):

Eyeballing some possible strategies that could use a bump:

  • weenie

  • or mill

  • something non-Eldrazi non-artifact colorless

  • Big Spells (mana value 5+ instants/sorceries, sorta like Prismatic from Strixhaven).

Some cards that might be pushed and generically good filler: I have no idea. That's for the designers to know.

SufferFromEDHD on Skeletons

1 year ago

Cool concept!

Black Market Connections ramp, card draw AND a skeleton token engine... Find a spot for this pronto.

Nameless Inversion might be useful.

Kindred Dominance definitely useful.

Species Specialist and Pact of the Serpent are solid tribal card draw.

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