Tentative Connection

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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
Quest Magic Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

Tentative Connection

Sorcery

This spell costs less to cast if you control a creature with menace.

Gain control of target creature until end of turn. Untap that creature. It gains haste until end of turn.

Baiken_3D on Jund Snackrifice

1 year ago

Instead of the Shambling Shell and Golgari Rotwurm, I think the deck could instead utilize some Body Dropper and Iron Apprentice, as well as bumping the Bloodbriar to 4. Ideally, the Mark of Mutiny can be replaced with another Act of Treason or a Bloody Betrayal for some kind of draw filtering, or perhaps another Lose Calm for stealing the opponent's strongest creatures for combat and sacrificing them before it wears off. Some Tentative Connection would be exceptionally useful alongside Body Dropper.

TheVectornaut on red and black

2 years ago

I second the idea of cutting down to just 60 cards in 2 colors. Then, I'd try to identify the main gameplan you like to follow when playing the deck. That will inform any cuts, additions, and other revisions you make down the line.

The first archetype that jumps out at me is definitely knights. They are often Mardu () these days, but just Rakdos () should work just fine for casual play. You already have Belle of the Brawl , Barrow Witches , Charity Extractor , Embereth Paladin . Locthwain Paladin , Garna, the Bloodflame , Ogre Errant , Raging Redcap , and Tentative Connection which can definitely fit such a style. Most of the lower cost creatures and spells wouldn't be that bad either. I'll list some cards from the modern card pool under $5 that I think could be strong additions to such a deck.
Ashenmoor Liege , Bloodcrazed Paladin , Cavalier of Flame , Cavalier of Night , Champion of Dusk , Elite Headhunter , Embereth Shieldbreaker , Foulmire Knight , Hanweir Lancer , Hero of Oxid Ridge , Knight of the Ebon Legion , Kulrath Knight , Midnight Reaper , Murderous Rider , Olivia, Mobilized for War , Stormfist Crusader , and Weaselback Redcap are all knight creatures with various effects, costs, and price points that I see as playable. For more general knight synergy, Blacklance Paragon , Fervent Champion , Joust , Sigiled Sword of Valeron , Tournament Grounds , and my favorite, Smitten Swordmaster are options too. Toss in some solid removal like Lightning Bolt , Terminate , or Bedevil and you have the recipe for a strong tribal aggro deck.

The other major archetype I see being possible here is some sort of angel/dragon/demon big stuff deck. The problem is that such a deck is likely to be much slower, making it tougher to keep up in 1v1 games. Plus, a lot of those cards are legendary, so they tend to come with a hefty real-world price tag. Still, I've seen Kaalia of the Vast do some very scary stuff in casual. Such a deck would support your larger creatures as well as spells like Cauldron Dance and Victimize .

zamiero on Vial and Ghost!

3 years ago

3> Ahhh I've been wanting to play with Obosh, the Preypiercer and Angrath's Marauders - glad you found a spot for them. While you're at it, you could also consider other "damage doublers" such as Wound Reflection and Fiendish Duo. I've thought about a Vial-Smasher deck with a White partner just to add Gisela, Blade of Goldnight.

3> I see you enjoy big monsters and X-spells here. Oh to be young again... but seriously, this seems like a good deck to play them in as you would be rewarded. Instants are your friend, as you can Smash Vials on everyone's turn! No Comet Storm?

3> I would be worried about Vial-Smasher getting nuked from orbit as soon as your turn passes and it's no longer indestructible. You'll find Heroic Intervention and Slippery Bogbonder will help with targeted Exile removal. You already have Destroy and Sacrifice covered I see.

3> I see some cost-reduced and commander-free spells in there, but you have a limited suite. While doing research for my thoughts on Vial-Smasher, I found the following might be helpful - list is just copy/paste, so it will include some White and/or Blue cards:

3> I see some cost-reduced and commander-free spells in there, but you have a limited suite. While doing research for my thoughts on Vial-Smasher, I found the following might be helpful - list is just copy/paste, so it will include some White and/or Blue cards:

cbsmith on Greven, Magic's Cannibal [Primer]

3 years ago

I'm surprised no Cabal Coffers to really burst up the mana.

Always good to add some damage multipliers like Temur Battle Rage, Unleash Fury, Fiery Emancipation (though it's a bit pricey unless you've got Treasonous Ogre there to help you out on the costs).

Also fun to combo it up with things to copy your extra combat cards like Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, Splinter Twin.

Tentative Connection is a great ol' "one turn steal and sack" trick that synergizes amazingly with Greven, but there's one more that I throw in so I can have more fun: Act of Aggression. I'd give up some of those homespun sacrifice targets and enjoy sacrificing other people's creatures! ;-)

On the life gain side of things, you gotta want Exquisite Blood no? Throw in a Tree of Perdition and you can do horrible, horrible things to people: the Tree swaps their health down to 13, and that counts as life gain for you, and then you sack the Tree, giving up all that life you just gained, but now Greven is this unholy monster that just levels the playing field (and ironically, if that wasn't lethal, you'll get back all the life loss they get again). It also pairs similarly with Heartless Hidetsugu (though the Whip of Erebos you've got already in there makes it work well enough).

Some things are just better in graves, like Filth and Anger... and if you aren't going to have much in the way of reanimators, Necrotic Ooze comes in handy... just in case someone somehow dodged a bullet with the first use of Tree of Perdition's active ability... now you can try taking them down to 3 health! ;-)

I also like having Squee, the Immortal and Gravecrawler around to give me cheap card draw, and Rekindling Phoenix for a bit more juice in "immortal" sacrifice targets.

Pro-tip if you play multi-player games: the myriad mechanic is your friend. Banshee of the Dread Choir and Warchief Giant let you trigger any ETB effects, and then you can play politics with your opponents trading favours for which token you are going to sacrifice to boost Greven.

I love pairing Greven with Flayer of the Hatebound as you do. Even more fun is bringing in K'rrik's old man, Yawgmoth, Thran Physician, because at the cost of 1 life (yeah! Greven and Font of Agonies get even more charged up!, and a minion sacrifice, you can cancel out that +1/+1 counter so that you can keep sacrificing the Flayer each round.

One more fun thing that can add chaos into everything is Brash Taunter. Not only is he a great blocker, but If you've got Fiery Emancipation out, you can use Soul's Fire and then have Brash Taunter be the target, who then redirects to your opponent... with the damage tripling on each hop, for 9x damage from Greven's power after he's done a sacrifice... and that's not counting his actual attack damage.

Zillabrony13 on JLK's Greven Deck l CZ#286

3 years ago

I highly recommend Tentative Connection for this deck. With Greven out it’s a 1 mana Act of Treason, meaning you can steal the best creature on the board then sac it to Greven.

mrdehring on Do You Feel Threatened?

3 years ago

I have a Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest deck that might be a good place to look. Where did everyone go?

Hazoret's Favor is also a good sac outlet.

A few other steal effects: Jeering Instigator, Tentative Connection, The Akroan War

multimedia on Wild Bonder

3 years ago

Hey, good budget version and interesting description. Nice Demonic Tutor :)

Cards $2 or less each to consider adding:

You want more protection for the creature you mutate too because without protection the mutate creature can be killed in response to being mutated or after. In multiplayer Commander mutate is much more of a problem because there's three or more opponents who could have removal. That's a lot more potential removal you have to deal with than if you were playing 1v1.

Swiftfoot Boots gives the equipped creature hexproof meaning that creature can't be targeted by your opponents removal. Boots is an equipment, it can be equipped to any creature you control and it doesn't leave the battlefield when the equipped creature is removed. Open the Armory is a budget tutor that can get Boots.


Flying and double strike is a good combination to do Commander damage with Snapdax. Hushbringer is powerful disruption in multiplayer Commander since it prevents all creatures who have an enter the battlefield ability that triggers and any creature who has a dies ability that triggers. These two types of triggers are ways for players to gain a lot of value from creatures. Hushbringer is not going to affect you much since mutating is not an enter the battlefield trigger it's a cast trigger thus Hushbringer doesn't prevent mutating.

Will-o'-the-Wisp is a one drop flying creature who can regenerate. This little Spirit can be powerful with mutate. Brightling is a unique creature with mutate since you can bounce it as well as all creatures that are mutated back to your hand. This is pseudo protection because you can activate Brightling in response to opponents removal. By bouncing all the creatures that are mutated then you can mutate them all again getting more value out of mutate.


When Snapdax dies you can choose to spend it to your graveyard instead of putting it back into the Command Zone. This gets around having to pay Commander tax for Snapdax and the tax must be paid even if you're mutating Snapdax from the Command Zone which can be problematic. When Snapdax goes to your graveyard then you can recur it with cards that recur creatures from your graveyard. Phyrexian Reclamation is very good repeatable recursion at instant speed for mutate creatures because you want the creature to come back to your hand to then cast it again to mutate again.

Cards to consider cutting:

Good luck with your deck.

MalkavianPrince on Crusading Menaces *Budget*

3 years ago

Vito1014 Have you considered Tentative Connection instead of Claim the Firstborn ? May be worth a maindeck IMO. We usually always have a creature with menace, making it the same cost as Firstborn but with far greater effect. Favorite steals so far include big 4,5,6-drop monsters, whack them with it, and then sac to Dreadmalkin What's your favorite usage?

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