Shriekmaw

Creature — Elemental

Fear (This creature can't be blocked except by artifact creatures and/or black creatures.)

When Shriekmaw enters the battlefield, destroy target nonartifact, nonblack creature.

Evoke (You may cast this spell for its evoke cost. If you do, it's sacrificed when it enters the battlefield.)

Discussion (51)

Balaam__ on Mardu Hunted Orb

1 week ago

Looks really good overall, but iirc Shriekmaw would be pretty mediocre here. At best you’re getting a 3/2 for . You won’t get to destroy a creature.

zapyourtumor on BW Value

1 week ago

Damn I really be seeing this everywhere now.

I built a similar type deck around this that ended up turning into Blokes. After playtesting it a few times, one thing stood out, which is that the combo is ridiculously inconsistent. I like how you have some other bouncable creatures for a plan B, but a lot of the cards just aren't great with cloudshift/ephemerate. I tested Silverquill Silencer and I was really disappointed, so I'd probably cut that. I had high hopes for Tidehollow Sculler , and it's a solid card by itself, plus it can combo with cloudshift/ephemerate right when it enters but after that its a pretty terrible flicker target.

I would probably go more towards an evoke flicker direction, since evoke cards combo really well with cloud/eph. I suggest cutting Skyclave Apparition for Shriekmaw , since Shriek+eph costs the same as a skyclave and kills 3 creatures without giving the opponent any creature tokens. I also suggest going into esper colors just because Mulldrifter is really great card advantage ( Subtlety sucks here though obviously).

Honestly, I doubt this kind of deck can ever be competitive, but for now its some fun jank. Happy brewing, I'm looking forward to what you can do with this :)

zapyourtumor on My MH2 Deck will ▷BREAK◁ Modern!?【Mdrn Horizons 2】

1 week ago

Ran a variant of this with Shriekmaw and Cloudshift . Not very consistent, but fun when it worked.

RebelGenius on The Pain of Loss [[Flicker Combo/Control]]

2 weeks ago

zapyourtumor Firstly, thank you for all the suggestions!

I'm currently hitting myself on the head for missing Shriekmaw , it's perfect in here. I also didn't even consider Elite Spellbinder , it's also perfect in this deck. Sin Collector would definitely be a nice sideboard card.

Ah, my mistake on the Surgicals, I'll get that fixed.

As for Wispmare , it's interesting, I'll definitely play around with it. The whole deck is kinda in alpha phase, so there's gonna be a lot of playing around.

I had thought of putting Solitude in the deck, but I thought that with the other removal spells I thought that having Mirran Crusader as a more offensive body would be better. Do you think that I should swap them?

zapyourtumor on The Pain of Loss [[Flicker Combo/Control]]

2 weeks ago

I like your deck.

My main comments are that you only have 4 creatures that benefit from flickering, and 6 flicker spells. I would definitely lean into the flicker more and go up to a playset of Cloudshift , then increase the number of creatures that you can flicker. I think Elite Spellbinder can be flickered to have two cards exiled at once that have taxed costs (if this doesn't work then I agree that Silverquill Silencer is better for the deck). And my biggest suggestion is definitely a playest of Shriekmaw . You can do the same stuff you do on grief with this bad boy to remove two creatures plus get a 3/2 for only 2 mana. I'd probably cut some of the other removal, like Damn , and maybe the mirran crusaders, for these.

Lastly, I know I said flickerable creatures that control the opponent's hand are good, but unfortunately most of them have a negative effect when leaving the battlefield such as Thought-Knot Seer , Tidehollow Sculler (love this card), Kitesail Freebooter etc. But one that doesn't have this is Sin Collector . I think he is worth considering for the sideboard since he hits a lot of annoying cards like TTB, scapeshift, BTL, loam, etc.

A random sidenote: You have 4x Surgical mainboard and 2x sideboard, which I assume was because you changed one of them without changing the other. You could maybe replace them with Vanishing Verse .

With these additions, the deck should become more of a streamlined "flicker control" deck instead of just a Grief flicker combo in a BW control shell.

P.S. I just did some research and it turns out flickering Elite Spellbinder does work! Noice

TheWooba on The Suicide Squad

3 weeks ago

Shalai seems alright, I might test it out. I've found the deck to have little interaction; have you considered adding Shriekmaw or Wispmare , Ingot Chewer , or even just Reclamation Sage ? It would be nice to get targeted removal from the grave with the Horde of Notions ability

Hardhitta7 on Which deck to build next?

1 month ago

Pikobyte yeah I think it will be fun! My first thought was evoking Mulldrifter and then playing it from the graveyard later and Shriekmaw too.

makronic on Elementalary

1 month ago

General Comments

I think you need to cut a lot of stuff... You'll need 40+ lands for a landfall deck I think. You've got so many cards that allow you to play additional lands. You might not have that many lands to get the value out of those cards, even if you could play lands from GY.

I think in the deck, there's 3 kinds of cards to fit the theme of what you're doing:

1. Small/medium stuff which both ramps and boosts landfall at the same time like Oracle of Mul Daya
2. Then it's big powerful board state changing stuff that your general will cheat from GY, like Roil Elemental
3. Utility for answers to opponent like Ingot Chewer and Demonic Tutor to control the board

Once you have the cards for (1), I think you'll be pretty unstoppable. You'll have the mana base to just throw things out. You shouldn't need to worry about card draw because your general can play off the GY. But, I don't think you have enough cards that puts things into GY. If you have a full GY, your general becomes basically tutor any card and cast it for 5 mana, which is ridiculously cheap. Mayael the Anima 's ability, in comparison, costs 6, and you only get to choose from top 5 random cards. I think exploiting the general's ability is the most powerful thing in this deck, but you can't do it without a graveyard.

I think cards that don't fit that theme you've got going should be cut, even if they're powerful cards, because they clunk up your engine. Except Vigor . Bloody Vigor is the best.

Cards I think you want:

Eternal Witness - this card combos with so much, espectially if you got a way to recur it back. It returns any card from graveyard to hand, not just creatures. Great for searching for answers in your GY which aren't elementals.

Hermit Druid - Populates your GY, and nets you a land in hand. Once it's on the board, for 1 mana, you're guaranteed a basic land, and lots of stuff in your GY. It's crazy good utility. But be careful, because 5 colour means you won't have that much room for basics.

Mana Drain - The much better counterspell

Shriekmaw - Does what your Ingot Chewer and Wispmare can do, but to non-black creatures. Is elemental, so can be reused for general. Completes your board control for artifacts, enchantments, and creatures.

Cards I think you might not want:

Avenger of Zendikar - good card, but not amazing value for money IMO. For 7 mana, I think it needs to be a game changer. I know you wanna build +1+1 counters into it, but I think there's just not enough cards for that engine, and you already have too many cards.

Animar, Soul of Elements - If you have your general out, animar doesn't really do much... If you get Animar out early, it doesn't help you cast your general, and those counters will take time to build up, by which time you might as well use your general.

Kozilek, the Great Distortion - a 10 mana card that you can't cheat out with your general?

Yarok, the Desecrated - you don't really have that many ETB effects for this to be worthwhile imo.

Sylvan Awakening - why for?

Vampiric Tutor - always good to have a tutor... but it might get in the way since this tutors to the top of your library rather than your hand. So it just interferes with your "play lands off topdeck" cards, which you have a few, and then everyone also gets to see what you've tutored.

Nissa, Vital Force - eh...

Path of Discovery - pretty underwhelming... requires a creature to come down, then you might either get a land in hand, or a +1/1 counter to the creature that just came down. So only 40% of the time or so you'll actually get a land in hand. For 4 mana, you have Oracle of Mul Daya, which is just much better.

Exploration - my experience with exploration is that it peters out quickly. If you play it early, you don't have an engine yet, and you run out of land in a turn or 2. If you play it late, it's a little underwhelming. Rather pay more mana for Mina and Denn, Wildborn , Courser of Kruphix or Oracle of Mul Daya which both sources you lands and let you play them. You also have Muldrotha, the Gravetide , The Gitrog Monster , and Zimone, Quandrix Prodigy which also serves similar functions but have other uses.

Growth Spiral - arguably worse than Exploration because it's single use. Effectively does the same thing as farseek because it replaces itself with a card draw, and you get a land on the battlefield in addition to your normal turn land. But worse than farseek because you can't tutor for the card you're drawing, and you need to have 2 lands in hand for it to be worthwhile. Also needs 2 specific coloured mana to play, which you might not have early game in a 5 colour deck.

Icon of Ancestry - costs 3 to use, and needs to tap. You're much better off having something that puts things in graveyard instead because you general only costs 5, and puts it on the battlefield. And you're restricted to elemental cards, which is likely 1/3 or less of your deck. You only get to top deck 3, so it's unreliable and mana inefficient.

Dragonmaster Outcast - it's a strong card, but if you're going to cut something, cut the cards that don't synergize. It's not an elemental, it doesn't put stuff in graveyard, it isn't an answer to something an opponent plays, it doesn't put land on the board or have landfall.

Acidic Slime - I love acidic slime, but it's not elemental and becomes single use. Might as well get a Reclamation Sage instead. Costs 2 less.