Sarevok, Deathbringer

Legendary Creature — Human Knight

At the beginning of each player's end step, if no permanents left the battlefield this turn, that player loses X life, where X is Sarevok's power.

Choose a Background (You can have a Background as a second commander.)

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Alchemy	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Arena	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
Oathbreaker	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (5)

TypicalTimmy on How in the heck is …

1 year ago

Sarevok, Deathbringer + Clan Crafter + Gyruda, Doom of Depths

Clan Crafter allows you to keep Sarevok from harming yourself due to his own trigger. This is because you always have an outlet to sacrifice toward. It'll also grow Sarevok's power, making him more brutal toward your opponents.

As for Gyruda, taking their stuff is always very nice. Clan Crafter also can put +1/+1 counters on Gyruda, since she is a Commander as well.

Recognize something unique with Sarevok, though. It draws attention to each player's end step, but does not stipulate in any way that the controlling player must have sacrificed something. For example, suppose there is a 4-player game between Bryan, James, Sarah and Anthony. Perhaps, for argument's sake, it is Sarah's turn. She moves to her end step, and this will put Sarevok's ability on the stack. During her turn, Sarah did not have a permanent leave the battlefield. You'd assume Sarevok would have her lose 3 life, since his power is 3. However, as par with EDH players, Anthony's turn is up next so he cracks his fetchland in response to Sarevok's ability.

Anthony searches for his Temple Garden and puts it onto the battlefield tapped.

Now Sarevok's ability moves to resolve. But what's this? It checks and sees that Anthony did in fact have a permanent leave the battlefield. Therefore, Sarah does NOT lose her 3 life.

• Just something to keep an eye out for.

GrimlockVIII on How in the heck is …

1 year ago

Given the plethora of cards that sacrifice things/themselves, bounce things/themselves, destroy things/themselves, exile things/themselves, etc., how the heck are you supposed to guarantee that Sarevok, Deathbringer's life loss trigger will take effect during your opponents' end steps?

legendofa on

1 year ago

Welcome to the club, JHM921!

For this deck, I see a focus on getting Sarevok, Deathbringer as big as possible, but I also see some bits and pieces that I think can be switched out. Cards like Butcher of Malakir and Grave Betrayal would work better in a more graveyard-focused deck than what I think this deck wants to be. There's some ramp and mana modification, with Nature's Lore, Sakura-Tribe Elder, and similar cards, but I think some more early cards like Elves of Deep Shadow, Golgari Signet, and Elvish Mystic would help accelerate early game into mid game.

Virus Beetle, Ravenous Rats, and Festering Mummy are all kind of underwhelming in this deck. If you want to force discard, you either want to affect every opponent or choose the discard yourself, and Festering Mummy just has too small of an effect that the deck doesn't really have ways to capitalize on. I recommend adding some more targeted permanent destruction. Depending on how much money you're willing to spend, Nature's Claim, Maelstrom Pulse, Abrupt Decay, and Assassin's Trophy are all viable.

Since your commander is a big part of your win condition, you need to be able to protect it. Regenerate effects like Golgari Charm or Wrap in Vigor, indestructibility from Tamiyo's Safekeeping or Heroic Intervention, or simple unkillable-ness from Supernatural Stamina or Undying Malice will help keep Sarevok fresh and deathbringing.

Look through your deck, and for each card, ask yourself, "Why is this card in here? Does it advance my win condition? Does it remove an opponent's specific threat or problem? Does it protect my board?" If the answer to any of these is no, then it can probably be replaced with something more directed to this particular deck.

For some more specific suggestions, I assume Cloak of the Bat is to make Sarevok harder to block. I would switch that for something like Whispersilk Cloak. You don't have a solid Vampire base for Indulgent Aristocrat, and the Vampires you do have don't contribute much to your winning strategy, so I would save the Vampires for another deck.

I think if you tighten up the focus, this deck will become very solid. Happy brewing, and above all, have fun!

amarthaler on EDH Rakdos Group Slug

1 year ago

Update!

Out: Sarevok, Deathbringer and Popular Entertainer

In: Rakdos Charm and Drain Life

Swapped out Sarevok and the background as commander to have Obosh, the Preypiercer come in and give it a shot.

KBK7101 on So what are the Background …

1 year ago

I haven't done too much research into pairings, but I do think a few had some potential (for me, at least) :

• Shadowheart, Dark Justiciar and Inspiring Leader for Orzhov token shenanigans. The buff from the background helps Shadowheart draw cards, too. Gut, True Soul Zealot and Halsin, Emerald Archdruid also work really well with the background here.

• Ganax, Astral Hunter and Acolyte of Bahamut. Gruul dragons. 'Nuff said.

• Sarevok, Deathbringer and Raised by Giants seems crazy. If no permanents left the battlefield this turn, you lose 10 life? Yikes!

Folk Hero, Clan Crafter, Vhal, Candlekeep Researcher, Criminal Past, Dragon Cultist and Cloakwood Hermit all seem pretty cool, too.

I will admit, I do like CLB's background partner system a lot more than the dungeon mechanic that AFR gave us. It feels much more "DnD" to me. (as someone who's never played DnD)