Sadistic Hypnotist

Creature — Human Minion

Sacrifice a creature: Target player discards two cards. Play this ability only any time you could play a sorcery.

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	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
Planechase	Legal
Premodern	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (49)

legendofa on infinite rats

2 weeks ago

I leave this in your capable hands. Do you think the deck needs more removal? Sadistic Hypnotist or Feed the Swarm. Another win condition? Altar of the Brood, Altar of Dementia, or Karumonix, the Rat King. More card draw? Phyrexian Arena, Black Market Connections, Deadly Dispute, Bankrupt in Blood, or Village Rites. (I know I suggested some of these cards already; they've worked well for me.)

legendofa on infinite rats

2 weeks ago

Pulling from my own Rat tribal deck (Modern-ish casual, not EDH):

Karumonix, the Rat King gives you an out against lifegain-heavy decks. I don't recommend going deeper than that with poison (i.e. don't add Ichor Rats or Septic Rats), but Karumonix adds a layer to your attacks and keeps rats coming.

I haven't gotten Ashcoat of the Shadow Swarm yet, but I want to. It looks amazing. If your budget can handle it, I'm recommending it just in theoretical grounds.

I personally am not impressed with Swarm of Rats (Rat Colony is pretty much all-around better) and Pestilence Rats, but they might work better in EDH, where you always have access to a fear-granting effect. How have they worked for you?

Ratcatcher is a free tutor for a rat every turn. Highly recommended.

Memoricide is a little odd, since it can only hit one card that isn't in play. Is this a meta choice? Do you have a specific target for it that you know you'll see?

Unless you see a bunch of Voltron, Battlecruiser, or other decks with one big creature, I would diversify the removal a little bit. You have a lot of single-target creature removal. I'm a big fan of discard, so I'm recommending based on what I like at this point. Cabal Therapist, Mind Slash, and Sadistic Hypnotist turn your rats into hand removal. Feed the Swarm offers enchantment removal with a very evocative name for this deck. Try some of these in place of Cast Down or Ultimate Price or something. Also, Despise isn't great if you're just fishing. If you want a T1 discard effect, Thoughtseize is best, Inquisition of Kozilek and Blackmail are solid, and Dread Fugue is pretty good.

Following up on that, I see a good set of mass removal and graveyard recursion, and Marrow-Gnawer lets you rebuild quickly. This part looks solid.

DreadKhan on EDH Merens Reanimator

1 month ago

In my Meren deck, I don't run a lot of bigger creatures, even though the deck has decent odds of ending up with huge amounts of mana, stuff like Beast Whisperer/Grim Haruspex draw cards off of creatures either entering or leaving the battlefield, there are lots of variants of both of those effects, and these will let you play many spells in a turn, rather than play one huge thing. I don't think your MVs are a huge problem, but the 'top of my curve' creatures are Razaketh, the Foulblooded, Protean Hulk, and Sheoldred, Whispering One, the first two can win on the spot or very quickly, while Sheoldred is a bit more questionable, a lot of people find stuff like Sheoldred tends to be too slow in todays game, so even that is a card I'm considering switching out for lower to the ground stuff. I checked and atm I have 14 1 drops, which is a few more, there are plenty of decent 1 drop mana dorks you could throw in to both lower your curve and possibly raise your consistency, though the best is Elves of Deep Shadow, since your deck cares more about Black mana.

As a general rule of thumb for Meren, if you can do a thing with a creature instead, you probably should unless the creature option is truly awful, I run 55 creatures in the 99, and I'm still thinking about sneaking more in by taking out things like Artifacts. Creature payoffs are better than artifact payoffs in Golgari, and Meren can't recur non-creatures.

For sac outlets, you ideally want a selection of 'free' sac outlets, ones that only use a creature and no other input, so stuff like Viscera Seer, Carrion Feeder, Woe Strider, any of the good altars (Phyrexian Altar, Ashnod's Altar, and Altar of Dementia are my all very good), Sadistic Hypnotist is insanely useful (it is a 5 drop though), if you have 4 drops that matter you can use Dimir House Guard because Transmute is a good mechanic if you care about the MV and it's also a free sac outlet. I think you can throw in a few sac outlets that are more limited, stuff like Helm of Possession, Phyrexian Tower, Hell's Caretaker, Altar of Bhaal, and Ritual of the Machine are all beefy effects, even if you can only use them once per turn. I really like stuff like Sakura Tribe Elder because the card provides it's own sac outlet (but only for itself), ymmv but I think you're taking a risk by running something like Solemn Simulacrum over Dawntreader Elk or Diligent Farmhand, 4 mana is a ton and it lacks a self destruct feature.

One option some people end up taking is replacing Meren as the Commander, not because she isn't strong enough but because the play patterns are pretty consistent, once you've figured out what your deck is trying to do, Meren is usually very predictable, so some people prefer something like Baba Lysaga, Night Witch. She offers card draw and a sac outlet in the Command zone while caring a lot less about creatures in particular, so you'd have more freedom in terms of card types.

Hope some of this is helpful!

legendofa on Salty Commanders!

2 months ago

My main thought on my Nath of the Gilt-Leaf deck is that it didn't capture the Sadistic Hypnotist combo. The power level, salt, and threats look right, and it captures Chain of Smog + Professor Onyx and Maralen of the Mornsong + Opposition Agent. It has a preference for hard locks and wincon combos. This isn't really wrong, especially when measuring salt levels, but it's something I noted.

The analysis of my Dromar and Xantcha lists look pretty much perfect. Good work!

One more for fun: Above such mortal concerns

DreadKhan on Korvold Sacrifice

4 months ago

I assume you're trying to keep this on a lower budget, so this post will lean into cards that are cheaper, probably ~$5 or less. I feel like something like Pawn of Ulamog, or Sifter of Skulls, or even Ogre Slumlord? Bodies off of creatures dying that can also die is pretty on theme.

A great source of fodder can be Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder, but if you play anything too big he'll just die. You really want some infinite and free sac outlets if you use him, but there are a few of those around that aren't too costly, including Viscera Seer, Carrion Feeder, Woe Strider, and Sadistic Hypnotist. There is also Dimir House Guard, which can also serve as a tutor for anything that's 4 mana if you already have better sac outlets on board. Another creature that interacts fairly well with your Commander is Prossh, Skyraider of Kher, who can make some bodies for you/provides a free sac outlet.

Not sure how often you attack, but Jolene, the Plunder Queen, Grim Hireling and Professional Face-Breaker can all generate treasures for you to sacrifice as needed. These are good cards with creatures that are hard to block, such as Shadow creatures, though Gruul has no Shadows afaik and Black has mostly Dauthi that aged poorly and the pricey Dauthi Voidwalker, I have been known to run Dauthi Slayer and Dauthi Marauder here and there, Dauthi Horror is also reasonably cost effective in it's own way. There are a few more out there if you like the concept of creatures that can't block or be blocked.

You might like Mimic Vat, the bodies can be useful while having some synergy with the Commander.

Since Korvold can easily get over 10 power and has evasion, have you considered Tainted Strike to help him one-shot people? 10 Infect damage kills any opponent, regardless of life total. Also good with a Trample source obviously, Garruk's Uprising, Primal Rage (or Rancor?) or Blossoming Bogbeast are all affordable and playable sources. Obviously not important if people rarely run fliers in your area.

I could point out some good candidates for replacement in your list if you'd like.

Hope some of this is helpful!

FormOverFunction on Help Make My Mono Black …

4 months ago

Tortured Existence is super useful in this case, especially with the desecrated tomb. I’ve already forgotten your list, but do you have Sadistic Hypnotist in there? If you’re mono-Black the casting cost isn’t too bad, and the side benefit of discard is pretty great. Nether Shadow can make graveyard management irritating, but can be really great if you get your engine running. Jinxed Ring might be hilarious as a sac outlet; its downside would be limited for you, and your opponents would either have to give you another sac outlet back or soak the damage for a few turns. Could be fun. Cellar Door is often thought of as something to use on your opponents, but if you’ve got a lot of creatures in your deck, and you want selective access to them in your graveyard, this might be a good way to filter through them (while getting some free zombies too!). If you haven’t noticed, I’m mostly looking at my Haunted House deck for these recommendations. My decks have a lot of weird random junk, so feel free to poke around in there for other weird options! Good luck, the deck looks really fun!!

DreadKhan on Meren of Clan Nel Toth Aristocrats (WIP)

9 months ago

I find mana sources can be a good way to generate XP while adding lands/mana, Dawntreader Elk and Diligent Farmhand are both recursive ramp sources for Meren. Yavimaya Granger is another option, but requires you to hit 3 mana, so it's a bit worse. I also use Blood Pet, and there are some bigger Blood Pets out there. All of these can add mana to your pool, are easily recurred, and add XP when they ramp you, which lets you play out the rest of your hand quicker. If you're adding lands, it also will let you recast Meren when you inevitably need to. These are all better IMHO than Satyr Wayfinder and Yavimaya Elder (one doesn't ramp you and the other can whiff, one doesn't even die on it's own). Solemn similarly has issues, coming in at 4 mana and also not being able to sacrifice itself. Any of these that work for 2 mana at most are strictly better than Rampant Growth in a Meren deck in my experience, you want creatures to do this. Golgari Signet (and even Arcane Signet) are also probably worse than creature ramp, again provided it's low enough to the ground. These suggestions are assuming your goals is to actively try to generate XP and ramp at the same time, possibly while using little (or none) of your mana to do it.

I like Sadistic Hypnotist if you can fit it in, it's an infinite sac outlet that also can Mind Rot people, that's real value even at 5 mana. Mitotic Slime is a good way to generate a lot of bodies. Dockside Chef is a reasonable sac outlet, as is Skullport Merchant. Buried Alive, Final Parting, and Jarad's Orders are pretty solid tutors in Meren. Also worth a look, Viscera Seer, if not also Carrion Feeder, B for an infinite sac outlet can be huge. Worst case scenario they can off themselves for Meren to reanimate (free XP is always good).

DreadKhan on Uber For Phage?!

10 months ago

If you're looking for discard stuff, I use Bottomless Pit, Necrogen Mists, Cunning Lethemancer, Stronghold Rats, Necrogoyf and Creeping Dread as my best discard outlets in my Discard/Stax deck. No clue how many you'd want (if any), but these tend to be good at generating a lot of discard triggers if that's what you want, both for you and opponents.

Strong but not as consistent, you could look at Syphon Mind, it might be the best discard spell, but it's a one and done unfortunately. If you can generate a lot of bodies, Sadistic Hypnotist can clear out big hands. If you think you can consistently deal combat damage to opponents (via Shadows or other unblockables), Court of Ambition is really decent, offering damage and discard on the same card.