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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 |
| Legacy | Legal |
| Leviathan | Legal |
| Limited | Legal |
| Modern | Legal |
| Oathbreaker | Legal |
| Pauper | Legal |
| Pauper Duel Commander | Legal |
| Pauper EDH | Legal |
| Pioneer | Legal |
| Planechase | Legal |
| Premodern | Legal |
| Quest Magic | Legal |
| Tiny Leaders | Legal |
| Vanguard | Legal |
| Vintage | Legal |
Recover
Sorcery
Return target creature card from your graveyard to your hand.
Draw a card.
Xenerai on
Zombinstein
3 years ago
if this deck is for casual then i'd say its pretty alright for a fun break from the norm. Only 10 cards short of a commander deck too if you want to go that route. But if you're looking for more competitiveness, I'd say to do the following:
The first thing we need to do before anything, is to figure out the strategy we're going for. Obviously a token based liliana deck is way out of reasonable budgets. The blue you added does give me an idea for a control based zombie deck.
So the first thing to do is remove the cards above 60 that we wouldn't need, along with cards that will don't either assist or protect our strategies. I would start by removing the following: 2 - Advanced Stitchwing. 2 - Certain Death. 1 - Collective Brutality. 1 - Corrupt. 1 - Corrupted Roots. 2 - Disentomb. 1 - Doom Blade. 1 - Essence Harvest. 1 - Gnawing Zombie. 1 - Grixis Slavedriver. 1 - Grixis Grimblade. 1 - Hunted Ghoul. 1 - Haunted Dead. 3 - Ingenious Skaab. 4 - Laboratory Brute. 1 - Lamplighter of Selhoff. 1 - Maalfeld Twins. 2 - Macabre Waltz. 2 - Midnight Recovery. 1 - Mistvein Borderpost. 1 - Moan of the Unhallowed. 2 - Paranoid Delusions. 1 - Polluted Dead. 2 - Psychic Strike. 1 - Recover. 1 - Rise from the Grave. 1 - Scrapskin Drake. 1 - Shambling Attendants. 1 - Sibsig Host. 1 - Sibsig Muckdraggers. 1 - Sidisi's Pet. 1 - Sip of Hemlock. 1 - Skinrender. 1 - Spineless Thug. 1 - Stitched Mangler. 2 - Thraben Foulbloods. 1 - Strange Augmentation. 1 - Undead Executioner. 1 - Zombie Outlander. 15 - Swamp. 10 - Island.
It IS Quite a lot, but it's because we need to make room for the cards that'll make the bulk of our strategy, not to mention there are cheaper, better alternatives to most of these cards (lands were removed because the mana base will be changed later). With these cards taken out, that leaves us with the following: 3 - Cemetery Recruitment. 1 - Ghastly Conscription. 1 - Sign in Blood. 1 - Graf Harvest. 1 - Rooftop Storm. 2 - Gavony Unhallowed. 1 - Jhessian Zombies. 1 - Vedalken Ghoul.
these are pretty linearly focused for an effective strategy. to fluff out the rest of the cards for the deck, I'd recommend:
+1 - Cemetery Recruitment. +3 - Sign in Blood. +4 - Mana Leak. +3 - Duress. +3 - Vedalken Ghoul. +3 - Jhessian Zombies. +1 - Rooftop Storm. +4 - Go for the Throat. +4 - Rotting Rats. +3 - Claim / Fame.
somedumbjerk on
Ayara engines EDH
4 years ago
next on the chopping block: Scheming Symmetry , Open the Graves , Fortuitous Find - not sure about this one but it's been suggested. The combos are a little artifact-centric, so being able to Recover one of those is nice.
danielisaias on
Sorin's Delight
4 years ago
Hey! It's me again.
I think this is the best version of your monoblack so far. I strongly recommend Champion of Dusk . It could easily replace Soul Salvage and Recover . What's best than recovering one dead creature? Getting several new ones!
Also Cabal Stronghold works wonders in the long run, and could replace two of your swamps.
Other than that, the game has a more firm strategy, and the mana curve seems much more balanced!
danielisaias on
Sorin Duo of Death
4 years ago
WarrKing is absolutely correct in his guideline.
As to which cards could leave the deck in order to add new ones, I believe Sorin's Guide , gravewalker and Recover are definitely the weakest cards here.
Cabal Coffers is quite expensive, and cannot be played in standard format, but Cabal Stronghold is the standard alternative to it, and getting your hands on a pair of those would be great for your manabase.
Let me know how your deck turns out as you make any updates!! :D
TheKoolzo555 on
Amass Zombies (budget)
4 years ago
Angrath, Captain of Chaos If your creatures have death touch, any one of your creatures they want to block they will have to sacrifice 2 of theirs because of menace, and you can get 2 "amass 2"'s out of him. Only costs 4 mana, and gives you a lot. Could really boost your late game.
You'll be going through a lot of creatures, so something to either draw cards or cast/draw from your graveyard would probably be valuable to keep your hand up throughout the game. Maybe Recover ?
Nemesis on
Burning Zombies
4 years ago
Heyo! I've been out of standard for a while (aside from MTGA), so take my suggestions with a grain of salt, but I think you've got a pretty good base going, especially since you say you're new to magic. Bear with me here, since I don't know what you count as "budget", so I'm going to assume anything below $5. So lets get to the changes:
Open the Graves - This one is a little less easy, I haven't playtested the deck so I don't know the mileage you get from it, but here are my issues - First, it's 5 mana. It's the only card at this cost and it tops off your list. Second, it doesn't do anything when it comes down to help you win. Third, it relies on you have a board that is dying, so you can get value off of it.
Blood Divination - There are cheaper alternatives you could go for here.
Recover - This card basically does nothing. It costs 3 mana and doesn't really bring you closer to winning. The card draw is nice, but I'm sure tehre are better options.
Vraska, Swarm's Eminence - Her passive only works while you have Death Baron on the field, so you can't really count on that.
Graveyard Marshal - Eats your bodies to make more zombies allowing you to go wide - $.50
Vizier of the Scorpion - Creates a zombie and provides your tokens with deathtouch if you decide to keep Vraska - $.10
Josu Vess, Lich Knight - now I'll admit this one is a bit out there, but it is a zombie, it has menace, it has a decent body for the cost and assuming you make it to the late late late game, it's a great finisher. This is my lowest recommendation though.
Costly Plunder - Draws 2 instead of 3, but is an instant so you can respond to creature removal by casting it. It's also half the cost. - $.10
Lastly, you may want to consider adding more Cast Down s, drop the land count by one (if you're dropping the 5 mana slot), and lastly Dragonskull Summit for mana fixing (these are about $5 each). Thaaaaat's everything, I think.
Recon419A on
Orzhov Vampire Deck
5 years ago
Raise Dead isn't a bad graveyard retrieval card, but there isn't much that's better in Standard right now; options would be Recover , Soul Salvage , and FinD. Cast Down hits non-legendary creatures, and Price of Fame hits legendary creatures for cheaper than non-legendary creatures, so they complement each other nicely. If you're willing to ramp your opponent and splash green, you can pick up Assassin's Trophy , although probably not on a budget. Moment of Craving is not a bad card; it's one of the few things that get rid of Adanto Vanguard cheaply (since a creature with zero or less toughness is removed from the battlefield even if it's indestructible). You might consider replacing some or all copies of it with Vicious Offering if you're willing to sacrifice creatures sometimes, or with Dead Weight for a persistent effect without the life gain. A strictly more powerful but also more expensive option is Vraska's Contempt . None of those cards synergize especially well with Sengir Vampire because Sengir Vampire is a 4/4, which means that most of the time it will either kill a creature by itself or die to it, rendering the later death of the creature meaningless since you no longer control Sengir Vampire. If you're looking for that type of synergy I recommend Kazarov, Sengir Pureblood , although he's very expensive mana-wise for a Standard deck (which is probably not horrible in casual play but might bite you in the butt at a tournament when he gets killed with Price of Fame or similar after sideboarding). As an additional recommendation that's kind of like Moment of Craving thematically, you might consider Arterial Flow (both are useful in your deck but serve different roles); there's also Moment of Triumph as another vampire-themed combat trick. If you like all these vampire-themed cards for flavor reasons, search through the Ixalan and Rivals of Ixalan sets; they were tribal sets with Merfolk, Pirates, Vampires, and Dinosaurs as the tribes, so probably about 20% of the cards are vampire-themed in those two sets.
Ragamander on
Blue/Black
5 years ago
The first thing I'll say is that with 21 lands, you probably can't expect to get the mana to launch Army of the Damned or a really powerful Mind Grind or Torment of Hailfire. Well, at least without Organ Harvest, of which you're only sporting one copy. (If you don't play with teammates, or if you don't play with silver-bordered cards, you might replace it with Culling the Weak.) For reference, the math on Army of the Damned is that about 1/3 of your cards are lands = 8/24, meaning you need to survive to turn 17-18 (have seen a total of 24 cards between your opening hand and your draws each turn) to hit that 8th land. That’s a long time in a Magic game.
Second, Mind Grind, while fun, is questionable here, since none of your other cards will mill your opponent. Many people play with 4 copies of many of their cards, so milling them might not cut them off from their game plan unless you mill them so much they might die. And for that, you would need more support for the mill plan or a LOT more mana. (This is possible, but a big change. Look for cards like Glimpse the Unthinkable and Mind Funeral. Otherwise, I'd cut it for cards that affect board-state or life-totals.)
Third, your overall game plan appears to be to stall in the early game for more powerful plays late, since your low cost cards are generally defensive. This means you'll want more lands in your deck so that you don't stumble on your way to those big plays. I'd remove Coral Atoll and put in four Dimir Aqueducts. It's not the ideal play, but it's cheap and there's a lot of upside if your opponent doesn't Ghost Quarter it or something. Anyways, that will take you up to 24 lands AND increase your average mana output a little more, letting you rely on 4CMC, 5CMC, and 6CMC plays to dominate the game.
Finally, on to individual cards:
Kraken Hatchling, Mausoleum Wanderer, Pharika's Chosen, and Will-o'-the-Wisp are all fine defensive one-drops, but they all do something a little different. Thornbow Archer is a little more aggressive than the rest of your deck wants, so maybe drop it and pick your favorite of those first four and add a second.
Fogwalker is okay on defense, though it's not the best two-drop out there. I'm not a fan of Olivia's Dragon, especially outside of madness/reanimator decks. Rancid Rats just doesn't offer enough oomph for the mana (skulk is not typically a very useful ability). Graf Rats is bad unless you have Midnight Scavengers, so it's really about how much you personally want to meld them. Ultimately, I'd rather replace them with better blockers like Wall of Tears, Wall of Souls, Contraband Kingpin, Dragon's Eye Savants, Gifted Aetherborn, or the absolute top-tier Baleful Strix. Other value options include Omenspeaker, Sigiled Starfish, and Augur of Bolas. Other fun options here are Surge Mare, Riptide Mangler, Lazav, the Multifarious, Fathom Feeder, and Ludevic's Test Subject Flip. Choose your favorites. Alternately, spot-removal like Doom Blade, Victim of Night, Cast Down, Go for the Throat, and sometimes Dimir Charm are pretty effective.
Wharf Infiltrator can be good sometimes. You can leave it in for fun or replace it.
Eternal Scourge has its uses, but I don't think this deck is optimized for it. Ideally you'd want a few things that can exile it from graveyard or hand, such as Gurmag Angler, Soulflayer, Tombstalker, Scavenging Ooze, Grim Lavamancer), Azor's Gateway Flip (from hand), or the most hilarious option, Serum Powder. As it stands, it's just difficult to kill outside of combat, like a bad shroud or hexproof. Honestly, I don't think you need a 3/3 to be immune to removal. Replace with a finisher, which I'll discuss in a bit. Alternately, one of my favorite defensive 3CMC creatures is Graveblade Marauder, since its offensive capabilities can rapidly increase.
Markov Crusader isn't actually very good even in the rare case when you do have another vampire, and you only have one other one. Compare to 4CMC utility wunderkind Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet, 5CMC finishers (like Archfiend of Depravity, Glyph Keeper, Ob Nixilis, the Fallen, Vengeful Pharaoh, and maybe even Serra Sphinx), and 6CMC game-winners (like Noxious Gearhulk, Dread, Kokusho, the Evening Star, Wurmcoil Engine, Grave Titan, or even Vengeant Vampire, though that last one is much worse than the others). Sure, none do exactly what Markov Crusader does, but some are close and they all have incredible upsides. Even something like Shriekmaw might ultimately gain you more life by just killing something outright, plus it's super-flexible. Heck, Soul Ransom and Mind Control are strong cards too, at least against creature decks. Anyways, Markov Crusader is a card to replace.
Midnight Scavengers is okay, especially if you have a lot of disposable deathtouchers to bring back, but it still doesn't compare favorably to the above finishers unless you really want to meld it with Graf Rats. Remember, doing things you want to do is an important part of MTG. But if you don't care to meld, I'd look to replace it.
Ob Nixilis, Unshackled is fine. In most cases it doesn't compare favorably to the 6CMC critters above, but it has its uses. If you've got a lot of little deathtouchers (Pharika's Chosen, Typhoid Rats, Dire Fleet Poisoner, it can grow really out of hand. Also, Field of Ruin forces a library search.
Elder Deep Fiend is fine. Usually you play it in a deck that has plenty of creatures you don't mind (or are better off) sacrificing (for example, Priest of the Blood Rite, Relentless Dead, Doomed Dissenter, Stormbound Geist/Geralf's Messenger), then you emerge it early and tap down lands. That's not really your plan here, so it's probably not the best choice. Some good choices for replacements are above, but within the category of emerge creatures, I think Distended Mindbender fits your deck better.
Organ Harvest is a powerful card, but has some drawbacks. Most importantly, a lot of people don't play with or against silver-bordered cards. They're not legal in any official tournaments. Tournament legal variations are Dark Ritual, Culling the Weak, and Ashnod's Altar. Other than that, it's a card that is useless in many situations and completely changes what you're able to do when you actually can make use of it, and that can be awkward from a strategy perspective. If you don't have creatures, you can't cast it. If you don't have a big spell in your hand, you don't need to cast it and you'd rather have almost any other card. So it wants your deck to be full of disposable creatures and big spells, like an emerge deck or a zombie deck really making use of Army of the Damned and From Under the Floorboards. But for the most part that is not this deck, so unless you want to build around the card, I'd remove it, either replacing it with Dark Ritual which is always useful when drawn early, or something else that's cheap and effective: Dead Weight, Apathy, Doom Blade, Pharika's Chosen, or whatever.
Sorcerous Sight is worse than Peek and Gitaxian Probe, but I don't think any of those are particularly good in your deck. If you want to know what's in your opponent's hand, play Telepathy. Otherwise, there's better card draw: Preordain and Ponder are the best cheap spells, but it might be worth spending more mana for more effect with Sign in Blood or Chart a Course.
Cemetery Recruitment isn't particularly good with so few zombies. You can add more zombies, or switch to Ghoulcaller's Chant/Find / Finality/Recover/Disturbed Burial/Death Denied to simulate the effect, or just do card advantage the old-fashioned way, with stuff like Sign in Blood/Consult the Necrosages/Read the Bones/Notion Rain/Secrets of the Golden City. Alternately, shred your opponent's hand (and lose friends) with Hymn to Tourach or punch your opponent for cards with Shadowmage Infiltrator. If you're committed to bringing creatures back from the dead, look to Zombify, Extract from Darkness, or Isareth the Awakener, which can randomly run away with the game if your opponent doesn't have an answer. The most efficient reanimation spell is Unburial Rites, but you'd need to splash white for it to be better than the above options.
Contingency Plan doesn't actually net you any cards in hand; you just control what you are going to draw later. Since you're not very graveyard-focused, there's little benefit. The more flexible version is Dimir Charm, and the more powerful version is Lim-Dul's Vault. If you want to stack the top of your deck for 2CMC without wasting a card to do it, there's Diabolic Vision, but the 1CMC Preordain and Ponder are worthy as well. Alternately, raw card advantage is an option. Any of the options I've already listed are fine, but here are some more: Chemister's Insight, Foresee, Deep Analysis.
Mind Grind attacks on an irrelevant axis. Recommend replacing it with a finisher unless you add more mill. If you want a non-creature finisher, Ob Nixilis Reignited is pretty cool. If you just want something that can't get Murdered, there's Sphinx of Jwar Isle.
Torment of Hailfire is possibly workable if you go to 24 lands with Dimir Aqueducts. X=3 is pretty much the bare minimum, and if they have cards in hand even that might not be enough. This is a possible swap for a finisher, as above.
Army of the Damned is hard to cast at 8CMC. Recommend replacing it with a cheaper finisher unless you're all about Organ Harvest.
Apathy is pretty decent at 1CMC. Probably not as good as just casting Doom Blade/Go for the Throat to kill the thing, but definitely more interesting and fun. It can stay in, though swapping it for something more reliable is technically the correct decision.
Strange Augmentation is bad in your deck. While +3/+3 for 1CMC is fine in a very aggressive deck, that doesn't seem like your game plan. Ideally, your finishers are big enough to win without the extra P/T. If they're not, these could be replaced with kill spells to make sure they are.
Tormod's Crypt is useless unless you frequently play against graveyard-based decks. Even then, with only one in the deck, you're in bad shape. I'd swap it for Relic of Progenitus or Sentinel Totem if you really need graveyard hate. If a creature is reliable against those graveyard decks, Deadeye Tracker, Nezumi Graverobber, or Withered Wretch can do some work. Agent of Erebos is another option. If the only things you need to exile are creatures, then Cemetery Reaper, Dimir Doppelganger, and the powerful Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet are options. Otherwise, cheap kill spells, counterspells, or even more expensive exiling removal (e.g. Sever the Bloodline, Silence the Believers) are options. Phyrexian Scriptures is another card I'll mention, just 'cause it does lots of stuff.
Nevinyrral's Disk is pretty good. Go ahead and keep that in there.
Gridlock is okay, but it's basically a Darkness you can use aggressively. I think Sleep is generally better at that. Alternately, if you want a mass-defense spell, Yahenni's Expertise, Languish, and Damnation are the go-to sweepers.
Outwit is way too narrow; most decks don't target players. (The primary exceptions are burn and mill, so if you play against them a lot, it might be fine.) If you want a dollar-cost-effective counterspell in that slot, play Counterspell or MAYBE Dimir Charm for flexibility.
Turn Aside is okay, but mostly outclassed by Dive Down or Counterspell.
Murder is fine. (Card-wise, not morally!) Technically Hero's Downfall is better if you can get one.
Liliana Vess is fine, but she's a little slow. I'm not sure whether she's better or worse in this deck than Jace, Unraveler of Secrets, Ob Nixilis Reignited, Ob Nixilis of the Black Oath, or even Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver. My inclination is that those are stronger as you increase the median quality of the cards in your deck (making Vess's -2 less important).
Here's one inexpensive, somewhat-boring take:
2x Glyph Keeper
1x Silumgar, the Drifting Death
1x Liliana Vess
2x Dimir Charm
2x Doom Blade
2x Agony Warp
3x Notion Rain
9x Island
9x Swamp
That's just one take on the general strategy. Ultimately, (I think) you're playing Dimir Midrange, and so you're looking for about 40% (24) lands, 30% (18) things that keep you alive until you have 4-6 mana, 20% (12) things that kill your opponent and are themselves hard to kill, and 10% (6) things that put you ahead on cards just in case you're not drawing the right part of your deck.
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