Rocky Tar Pit

Land

Rocky Tar Pit enters the battlefield tapped.

, Sacrifice Rocky Tar Pit: Search your library for a Swamp or Mountain card and put it onto the battlefield, then shuffle your library.

Discussion (51)

JohnMichaelBushman on Nicol Bolas the OathBreaker

1 day ago

Cool concept, but I suggest the following:

1. Lower your deck's curve. Yes, it is on flavor to be Bolas tribal, but they cost a lot to cast. Speaking of which...

2. Add in Evolving Wilds and Myriad Landscape . The more lands that tutor for lands, the better. You can also add in Rocky Tar Pit and other similar Slow Fetchlands if you have a budget.

3. Look at EDH lists for Nicol Bolas, the Ravager  ^Flip, especially since you want to go the Superfriends route. There're a handful of versions that could help you make this deck more efficient.

dingusdingo on Blood Moon in Four-Color Mana ...

3 weeks ago

You've correctly identified some methods already used (signets, dorks) which are extremely common in decks. This is because they 1) ramp 2) color fix 3) spread mana across permanent types to avoid getting wiped. You should DEFINITELY run the signets/talismans and available dorks, they are so incredibly efficient at what they do and at very low real dollar cost, and are diversified to avoid getting totally wiped. I know you want more lands but also consider Armageddon only costs $4 and has already had so many printings and you will see it in competitive decks and other low-tuner competitive decks. If you run Blood Moon on a budget, absolutely run the talismans and signets I can't stress that enough.

However, being a budget boy who wants to go fast myself, I've stumbled across similar questions before, so I'm more than willing to share what I've gleaned. You pretty much want cards that WILL come down turn 1 or 2, cards that give free stuff for cheap $$$, or or pump up those basic land #'s. You may also notice that in typical Blood Pod lists, there aren't that many red cards or red mana sources, and that many of my recommendations are green. You're going to want to weight your colors so red is a smaller part and to run very few red lands because all your nonbasics become Mountains, so run your nonbasics to include a red splash and then run more forests.

Sakura-Tribe Elder

It is a Rampant Growth on legs that can block-then-sac on annoying early creatures like Tymna the Weaver . Brings you to a basic so works with BM, it can swing to get Tymna triggers. It spiked a while ago but its still decently cheap to buy.

Rampant Growth Farseek Nature's Lore

Nature's Lore is the best of these three, as the forest enters untapped and it can grab shocklands with a Forest type if you dont have BM out. Growth gives the most utility by giving you any basic land for BM. Farseek gives any but a forest, but you have to make a green to cast it so you've got at least one green somehow. These are extremely playable fixer/ramp cards on a budget and are really going to help you with a budget Blood Moon land base. I recommend these over the 3 CMC counterparts Cultivate Kodama's Reach because they come out a turn faster so far lower chance you're going to get staxed out. They curve extremely well into having 4 mana on turn 3 (Tana on turn 3?), as opposed to using all your turn 3 mana for a big turn 4. They also raise the amount of keepable hands you will have, as 2 mana + growth gets you to Tymna, while 2 mana + Cultivate is a mulligan more times. They're even enjoyable to see sometimes late game after MLD.

Arcum's Astrolabe

Insane color fixing and it cantrips, the only problem is you have to run snow-basics instead. If you happen to have enough snow basics laying around, this is a very solid bet for color fixing.

Chromatic Sphere Chromatic Star

One of these is much cheaper to purchase, so I highly recommend that one. Fixes and cantrips, you really don't mind drawing them late at all.

Springleaf Drum

Color fixer and ramper, works real well with BM. Just add creatures.

Fetchlands

If you have them, they will deck thin + get you to the correct basic land. I know fetchlands are expensive, so also consider that there is a lesser known cycle of mirage ETB tapped fetchlands, while definitely worse, are much cheaper. Sleeper cards tagged for your convenience Flood Plain Bad River Rocky Tar Pit Mountain Valley Grasslands . Also DEFINITELY run Evolving Wilds and Terramorphic Expanse if you don't already. More sleeper fetches that might interest you Krosan Verge Thawing Glaciers

Simian Spirit Guide Elvish Spirit Guide

Nice replacements for Mox Opal and Mox Diamond . They let you hit signets/talismans/growths/big dorks on turn 1. They help you escape from underneath Trinisphere or Sphere of Resistance . They are slot intensive, but with Tymna in command zone to guarantee draws I would also highly recommend these. These will be invaluable in helping you get a stronger start than more expensive opposing stax decks. They're a small hit to the wallet but once again, fraction of the price of Opal/Diamond.

Wild Growth Utopia Sprawl

I didn't see these listed in the OP or in comments, so I definitely wanted to bring them up. Work extremely well to accelerate and color fix, they also work with Blood Moon . They're enchantments so it gives extra diversity from creatures/artifacts against wipes. Works extremely well with Arbor Elf and Voyaging Satyr

Landcycling

Tutors basic land of your choice to your hand. There are a couple downsides though 1) Doesn't ramp you at all 2) Most cards with landcycling aren't very good for the actual spell. Landcycling does have a few big perks though 1) its an activated ability, which makes it MUCH harder to interact with and mostly immune to stax effects 2) minor bonus utility of actually playing the card 3) it will become a land eventually so it dodges more hate than other permanent types. This would be effective if you had other strong stax decks in your meta, or a crazy amount of counterspells, but otherwise I'd try one of the other ones I listed first.

Metia on Deck does not contain a lapdance *ding* Sliver EDH

4 weeks ago

Umm, well I can't offer my exact land selection to you as it involves revised duals I can say this:

Fetches are your friend, seriously. In a 5 color deck having fetches rarely make me sad, so I would run the full contingent:

Polluted Delta

Flooded Strand

Wooded Foothills

Bloodstained Mire

Arid Mesa

Marsh Flats

Scalding Tarn

Misty Rainforest

Verdant Catacombs

Options:

There are Mirage fetches as well, a whole friendly color cycle of them, they are 'slow' but they can still grab shock lands, and cost no life: Rocky Tar Pit , Bad River , Flood Plain , Grasslands , Mountain Valley These also have the benefit of being absurdly cheap. That being said, if you do not have access to these, I'll offer some other suggestions.

Go up to 42-44 lands. Sure the curve hits 3/4, but I don't think the ideal is to hit 4 lands and be pleased with life, so I would suggest adding lands, and increasing consistency by removing some of the etb tapped lands:


Here are some 'simple' 1:1 conversions for cards I think would suit the deck better.

Kindred Dominance -> Woodland Cemetery

Coat of Arms -> The Immortal Sun

Intruder Alarm -> Dreamstone Hedron

Armageddon -> Hour of Promise

Fellwar Stone -> Mutavault

Arcane Sanctum -> Sulfur Falls

Crumbling Necropolis -> Clifftop Retreat

Savage Lands -> Isolated Chapel

Seaside Citadel -> Hinterland Harbor

Frontier Bivouac -> Rootbound Crag

Mystic Monastery -> Sunpetal Grove

Nomad Outpost -> Drowned Catacomb

Opulent Palace -> Glacial Fortress

Sandsteppe Citadel -> Dragonskull Summit

Exotic Orchard -> Reflecting Pool

Door of Destinies -> Vanquisher's Banner

Aphetto Dredging -> Icon of Ancestry

Amoeboid Changeling -> Unsettled Mariner

Honestly I hate the Terminate and some of the other choices but I am exhausted so I thought I would offer some help as opposed to trying to offer more and simply not posting.

SideBae on The Scarab God

1 month ago

So for starters, I think you should definitely include Ponder and Preordain . These two one-mana cantrips don't look like much, but they'll let you run thirty-three lands rather easily and smooth out your draws. There's a reason they're super-banned in Modern, and it's not 'cause no one likes them.

Brainstorm is similar to the aforementioned, but you need shuffle effects to make it good -- getting stuck with two dead cards on top of your deck blows chunks. I think you need at least three fetches to justify running brainstorm, and probably want six plus, really. If the Zendikar/Onslaught fetches ( Polluted Delta , Verdant Catacombs , etc.) are inaccessible (they often are), there're other fetch options. Prismatic Vista is good, but that one can be expensive too... Evolving Wilds , Bad River , Rocky Tar Pit , Flood Plain , Terramorphic Expanse and Ash Barrens are all valid and much more affordable.

Concerning your counter-board, there's room for (a little) improvement without breaking the bank. Disallow , for instance, is a strictly better Cancel . I don't think Thought Collapse is very good... three mana is a lot of pay for a counterspell is a lot, and milling an opponent is frequently good for them in EDH. I think you may be better off using that slot for something like Fact or Fiction (which builds card-advantage) or a low-cost counter like Spell Snare , Spell Pierce or Dispel .

The best way to improve this deck, I think, is to work on the mana-rocks. The best ones outside Sol Ring ( Mana Crypt , Mana Vault , Mox Diamond , etc.) are unfortunately very expensive; however, there're a lot of two-mana mana rocks that are very affordable, and you may already have lying around. In my experience, two-mana rocks are a lot better than three mana rocks. Consider some or all of the following: Talisman of Dominance , Dimir Signet , Fellwar Stone , Arcane Signet (I think/hope the price will drop soon), Mind Stone , Prismatic Lens , Everflowing Chalice ... These'll let you keep up with green decks, or at least have a chance of doing so.

I see you're running Gravecrawler . I feel semi-obliged to point out that Skullclamp is stupidly good with Gravecrawler . Note that if you have a lord like Diregraf Captain out, it becomes slightly less fun; however, with your Carrion Feeder , you can keep it coming.

I think most UB decks benefit from running Ashiok, Dream Render and Narset, Parter of Veils . Their hatebear-like static abilities are super relevant in EDH, and if you pair Narset, Parter of Veils with your Windfall , you're halfway to playing Leovold, Emissary of Trest (who, thank whatever G-d may be, is banned).

Obviously, I don't know exactly how this deck will play -- I've never played this list. However, I suspect you end up with a lot of guys on the field. If that's the case, consider Slate of Ancestry as a draw engine with discard as a perk.

If you run a reanimation package, you can get cards like your Grave Titan down REAL fast. Consider Entomb in addition to your Buried Alive , and two or three cards like Animate Dead , Reanimate , Necromancy , Dance of the Dead , etc. Depending how spicy you want to get, Dreams of the Dead is in your colors... I think it's probably pretty bad, but I figured I'd mention it.

Patriarch's Bidding is around $20 nowadays, but it'll help you recover from a boardwipe real fast. I suggest running it in most black tribal decks, unless your meta is more than 40% to 50% tribal.

Command Tower seems like a good land to run. However, if you want to cut the colorless lands like Emergence Zone for basic Swamp s and Island s, you can run Back to Basics to pretty good effect.

Winds of Rebuke is a good bounce effect that also mills you... It'll build card advantage via your graveyard, so you should at least test it.

Right. That's all I got for now. Good luck!

SideBae on Thicc Ol' Nicol

1 month ago

Hey man! I always liked the idea of Nicol Bolas, the Ravager  ^Flip in EDH. I have some suggestions.

1. Blue Sun's Zenith is an interesting infinite mana outlet, but it is only going to kill one opponent at a time (assuming you have no way to tutor it back out of your deck). I think Exsanguinate is better, if only because it is a 'kill everyone' type of deal.

2. Vintage Xerox cards, like your Brainstorm , are a good way to filter through cards you don't want to get to those you do; cantrips like these seem underwhelming, but are banned in Modern and (some) are restricted in Vintage for a reason. I suggest adding Ponder and Preordain to the mix, as they can provide a lot of card selection and make marginal opening sevens much better.

3. Your lands have, like DemMeowsephs indicates, a lot of room for improvement. If you want your Brainstorm to be the best it can be, land-generated shuffle effects are the way to go. While the Onslaught/Zendikar fetches are the gold-standard here (like Polluted Delta or Scalding Tarn ), they are also roughly to price of gold; slightly more affordable options include Terramorphic Expanse , Evolving Wilds , Prismatic Vista , Bad River , Rocky Tar Pit ... Shock lands ( Steam Vents , Watery Grave and Blood Crypt , for this deck) are a good option, especially since they can be fetched with Bad River or Rocky Tar Pit . Chromatic lands, like City of Brass , Mana Confluence or even a well-timed Reflecting Pool are also great ETB-untapped sources of mana. Finally, I think you're running too many lands; generally, if you aren't a lands-matter oriented deck, you want to run around thirty-three at most. I suggest replacing four or five lands with mana-rocks, which will speed up your deck a lot.

4. Speaking of rocks, I'm glad to see you're already running the signets in addition to Sol Ring . In non-green color identities it's tough to ramp, and their inclusion shows you already recognize how powerful artifact ramp is. I suggest Talisman of Creativity , Talisman of Indulgence and Talisman of Dominance in addition to the signets. Two-mana ramp is significantly better than three-mana ramp, since by turn three you want to be doing things more relevant to the board; this becomes easier if you ramped on two, thus having four mana turn three. To that end, I suggest replacing some of your three-mana ramp with two mana ramp. Options include Prismatic Lens , Thought Vessel , Everflowing Chalice , Coldsteel Heart , Fire Diamond / Charcoal Diamond / Sky Diamond (I like these the least), and the soon-to-release Arcane Signet (hopefully its price will drop once the Throne of Eldraine releases).

5. Mass card-draw is at a premium in EDH, where doing busted things requires that you have a critical mass of busted cards. If you have the money, Wheel of Fortune is a second, better Windfall to pair with your Narset, Parter of Veils . As it has a similar but more powerful effect in conjunction with the Windfall effects, I suggest you bring in Notion Thief from your sideboard. I've always had a soft spot for cards like your Syphon Mind , as draw-threes are also great; consider Painful Truths . That's a card I've been very impressed with in my Tasigur, the Golden Fang list, and I think it'll be good in any three-color black deck. Mystic Remora is a great card that can be an easy Ancestral Recall if you drop it at the right time, especially in less experienced/less cutthroat metas.

6. In Magic, it is perhaps as important to stop your opponents from doing things as it is to do things yourself. If you choose not to run Notion Thief (or even if you do), Night of Souls' Betrayal is a brutal card to consider. Ashiok, Dream Render tends to be a pain for most decks (as the vast majority of decks try to tutor, at least in some way), and a REAL pain for graveyard decks.

7. Grixis, especially with Nicol Bolas-y decks, has access to a whole suite of discard magic not available to other commander identities. It takes a lot of crafting, but building a deck with Waste Not in mind can be really nice. Mass-discard, similar to your Syphon Mind and general's ETB trigger, keeps pressure on your opponents' hands and will help prevent them from killing you. Consider Raven's Crime , which turns late game land-blanks into repeatable one-for-ones, and Words of Waste , which can make your general's +2 all the more brutal.

Right. That's all I got. Good luck!

SideBae on Arms Dealing 101

2 months ago

Ponder and Preordain are worth including in any blue deck. They dig you to whatever you need, and past what you don't. Brainstorm is good, too, but you'd need to run more shuffle effects to make it worth playing. Slow fetches, like Flood Plain or Rocky Tar Pit , are cheaper alternatives to the Onslaught and Zendikar fetches.

You can probably do more in terms of artifact ramp. Talisman of Progress is good in addition to your Talisman of Conviction and Talisman of Creativity . Thought Vessel is also great; I suggest cutting Reliquary Tower for a basic land if you run it, as one of this effect is probably enough, and Thought Vessel can ramp you fast if it comes down turn two. (In other words, it doesn't cost a land drop.)

City of Brass and Mana Confluence are great ETB-untapped lands that produce all your colors. In a format with forty life, they're frequently just redundant Command Tower s.

You should consider Treasure Cruise or Dig Through Time -- both may be difficult, as delving for one means the other is harder to cast. I think in this deck, which appears more control than combo, Treasure Cruise is likely the better choice. It provides slightly more card advantage, and Dig Through Time is good mainly for card selection, rather than advantage.

Windfall is a great card-draw spell, especially if you pair it with your Narset, Parter of Veils .

Enlightened Tutor seems like it'd be kinda a powerhouse in this deck. It's on the pricier side of cards, but being able to tutor for whatever prison effect you need is a really, really good thing.

In terms of planeswalkers, Rowan Kenrith seems real good; needles to say, the +2 ability is especially good if you target an opponent who can't attack you. If you choose to, Will Kenrith is also ok. He tutors for Rowan Kenrith , and vice versa. Note that the partner effect triggers even if you don't have the other half, so if you really wanted, you can search and fail to find, then shuffle. This is useful if you get Brainstorm locked, but I don't advise planning on doing this frequently.

Grand Melee and Disrupt Decorum happen to be... right up your alley.

There're some hate-filled cards you can consider running, in order to pressure opponents' life totals not exclusively through combat. Scab-Clan Berserker , Harsh Mentor , Eidolon of the Great Revel , Pyrostatic Pillar , Sulfuric Vortex and friends are all worth considering.

Supreme Verdict and Wrath of God are good boardwipes to clean up your mess.

Cleansing Meditation can be good in the right meta.

Council's Judgment and Grasp of Fate are both excellent removal.

Good luck man!

SideBae on Yet another Oona, queen of the EDH

2 months ago

So, I have a couple suggestions. I found this deck under the 'help' tab, but your description doesn't ask for help. So please forgive me if I sound presumptuous.

1. Preordain . Ponder and Brainstorm are already in your deck, and Preordain will help dig to lands if you need them, and past lands if you don't. One-mana cantrips are some of the best cards for getting a deck more powerful. Importantly, running more cantrips means that you can cut a land or two, meaning your deck will have a higher average card power.

2. Your mana-base has room for improvement. Watery Grave is great, especially if you end up running fetch lands. Zendikar/Onslaught fetches like Polluted Delta or Misty Rainforest are easily the best fetches, but slow-type like Bad River and Rocky Tar Pit can also be useful. Also, consider Prismatic Vista . With a high concentration of land-based shuffle effects, Brainstorm becomes more and more powerful. Evolving Wilds and Terramorphic Expanse are good substitutes. Sunken Hollow and Fetid Pools are also fetch-able. Other duals, like Underground River , Morphic Pool and Choked Estuary are also good.

3. In non-green EDH decks, artifact ramp is of prime importance. Talisman of Dominance , Fellwar Stone , Mind Stone and Thought Vessel are all great. Two-mana rocks are significantly better than three-mana rocks in EDH, as by the time you have three mana you usually want to do more powerful things than cast a rock. Additionally, if you end up running Ancient Tomb or Mana Crypt (which are hard to get ahold of), you can land a two-mana rock turn-one. Mana Vault also happens to be busted.

4. In magic, it happens that it's a LOT easier to exile your deck than an opponent's. Jace, Wielder of Mysteries works great in Doomsday -style decks; if you're smarter than me, you can probably use Doomsday to tutor up your infinite mana combo. More simply, you can just cast Demonic Consultation with Jace, Wielder of Mysteries on the table, naming a card not in your deck (I generally use Atog or Singing Tree ), and then draw a card to win. So you may want to include Demonic Consultation and/or Doomsday , the latter if you have a lot of power in the brain-thingy.

5. I see you're running Ashiok, Dream Render ; I love that card. Narset, Parter of Veils is also worth running, especially if you choose to include Windfall . Narset's been kicking ass in Vintage recently, and I have found her to be completely nuts in EDH.

6. I may be missing something, but I am unsure as to why you're running Seat of the Synod and Vault of Whispers . If you had a Mox Opal in the list they might make more sense, but as things stand I think they're just worse than Island s and Swamp s. Back to Basics , Blood Moon , Magus of the Moon , By Force , Null Rod , Stony Silence and Collector Ouphe are all rampant in EDH (at least in my experience), so I think you'd be better off cutting the artifact-lands.

7. Vision Skeins is an interesting include; you may be interested in running Words of Wisdom , which gets your opponents less out of the card. Also, if you run Notion Thief , the card is pure value. Note also that Vision Skeins becomes Words of Wisdom if you have Narset, Parter of Veils out.

8. Ovinize is worse than Rapid Hybridization or Pongify , in my opinion. I think you should run two to three boardwipes -- Cyclonic Rift , Toxic Deluge and Damnation are the best ones, I think, with Toxic Deluge on top (you can cast it while Gaddock Teeg is down).

9. Demonic Tutor is the best tutor, and Scheming Symmetry is good in a deck heavy in mill effects. There're some other good tutors to consider, of varying price: Vampiric Tutor , Diabolic Tutor , Fabricate (to get Isochron Scepter ), Mystical Tutor (for your Dramatic Reversal ), Dark Petition , Beseech the Queen , Mastermind's Acquisition and Lim-Dul's Vault are all good. Ideally, you wouldn't include the four-mana tutors, since they tend to take a whole turn to resolve. I suggest running around two or three more tutors than you have now.

10. There're a couple of ways to generate card-advantage that I think are worth including in a final list of this deck. I'm not entirely certain how the deck plays, but if you have Oona, Queen of the Fae out frequently without an infinite-mana combo, Skullclamp is definitely worth including. Sticking it on one of your faerie tokens means butt-loads of card-advantage. Slate of Ancestry is similarly good if you tend to have a high creature-count. Fact or Fiction and Chemister's Insight are alright instant-speed card-draw. Phyrexian Arena is a good piece of permanent-based card-draw, and Dark Confidant , if you have access to it, is great with your low average CMC. Speaking of low CMC, Ad Nauseam is a great card-draw spell; I recommend including it for the high-value card-draw.

11. If you want to pour money in here, Cavern of Souls is a great way to make sure your general isn't countered.

12. There're a few counterspells you don't have that I think you might find useful. Counterspell itself is good, and it's far pricier cousin, Mana Drain , is also great. Spell Snare , Swan Song and Flusterstorm are all great counters as well. Turn Aside is one I've thought about but never used... you may want to consider it.

13. If you choose to keep mainly basics and avoid the duals mentioned in (2), consider Back to Basics . The card is under $10 nowadays, and it's a great way to punish greedy mana bases.

Ok! That's all I got. Good luck, man!

SideBae on Dimir Zombies

2 months ago

I don't think you need more combos... I think you need better mana, tutors and card draw to make your current combos more consistent. Running one or two combos is probably good enough, especially since zombie decks tend to be good at the beat-face plan, too. Counter-magic is worth considering, though not everyone likes running it.

Mana: Ramp is a big part of EDH. Having fast, reliable access to your colors is indispensable -- this is part of the reason two-cost rocks are better than three-cost rocks. I think Talisman of Dominance is probably better than Commander's Sphere . It comes down a turn earlier, and it allows you to cast your general turn three. Cards like Charcoal Diamond , Sky Diamond and Coldsteel Heart are also good, though their coming into play tapped is a real setback. Underground River is a land you should consider, as are Morphic Pool and Drowned Catacomb .

Tutors: Demonic Tutor and Vampiric Tutor are the gold-standard here, though they're also rather hard to get ahold of. I like Dark Petition and Diabolic Tutor ; you might want to consider Entomb or Buried Alive to get your Gravecrawler and friends into the 'yard. If you include Animate Dead , Reanimate , Necromancy , Exhume and/or Dance of the Dead you can get out your Grave Titan or Overseer of the Damned real fast. Reanimation packages are good.

Card Draw: There're a few cards I think you either didn't know about or overlooked in this area.

1. Graveborn Muse : This card is BUSTED in zombie decks. Even staying out for just one turn cycle can get you four or five cards easily, making it a way better Phyrexian Arena . If you choose to run something like Whip of Erebos , you can pretty easily recoup the life.

2. Night's Whisper / Chart a Course : Two-mana draw-twos have always been pretty good. In a top-deck war, these can make all the difference.

3. Cantrips: Ponder , Preordain and Brainstorm are all excellent cards; in Vintage, these are signatures of Xerox-decks. They'll dig you to lands if you need them, and get you past lands if you don't. Note that Brainstorm goes from OK to really good with the inclusion of shuffle-effects, like your Evolving Wilds . Running more of these lands, like Prismatic Vista , Flooded Strand , Polluted Delta , or even just Bad River or Rocky Tar Pit is a good idea.

4. Treasure Cruise / Dig Through Time : These are good ways to utilize lands or similar non-functional-in-graveyard cards you mill with Gisa and Geralf . Depending on how full your yard typically ends up, running one or both of these is probably a good idea.

5. Skullclamp : Pair this with your Gravecrawler for instant value.

6. Distant Melody : I'm not sure how many zombies you have, but having an average of four or more zombies will make this worth including.

7. Slate of Ancestry : This is similar to Distant Melody , but is more repeatable.

8. Undead Augur : This card will help you out-draw opponents.

9. Corpse Harvester : While not technically card-draw, it is a good form of card-advantage. It'll get you both swamps and whatever creature you need. If you include Fetid Pools , Sunken Hollow or Watery Grave , you can fetch those, too.

10. Fact or Fiction : This is card-draw and self-mill all packed into one card.

Beat Face:

1. Zombie Master : Pair this with Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth and your creatures are unblockable.

2. Cover of Darkness : This is a good secondary evasion plan. Lord of the Accursed is a similar card that also buffs your guys.

3. Death Baron , Undead Warchief and Lord of the Undead : These lords make your dudes all the more potent. Note that buffing toughness makes the Gravecrawler + Skullclamp loop harder to pull off.

4. Patriarch's Bidding : This is a great way for tribal decks to come back from a boardwipe.

5. Coat of Arms : This is a lot of mana to invest in an easily-killed artifact, though it is worth considering. This can rather easily pump your guys with +5/+5.

6. Gray Merchant of Asphodel : This is a good way to recoup life, while at the same time pressuring your opponents' life totals.

7. Rot Hulk : I'd run this in any zombie deck.

Counter-Magic: Force of Will , Mana Drain and Pact of Negation are the gold standard, though difficult to get ahold of. Consider the following:

1. Counterspell : This is a better form of Cancel .

2. Spell Snare : This is a good, affordable counter spell that can take out an opposing Demonic Tutor or Flash -combo without difficulty.

3. Negate / Countersquall : This will hold off boardwipes and keep your guys alive.

4. Exclude : In a creature-heavy meta, this is probably worth running as it does not cost card advantage.

5. Cryptic Command / Dismiss : Four mana is a lot to leave up in this sort of deck, but these can be powerful. You should at least consider them.

Right -- that's all from me. Good luck!