Victimize

Sorcery

Choose two target creature cards in your graveyard. Sacrifice a creature. If you do, return the chosen cards to the battlefield tapped.

Discussion (51)

Optimator on Yahenni Aristocrats

2 weeks ago

You don't have a ton of card-draw, and I also recommend at least eight pieces for almost any deck. Graveyard recursion, especially the good ones, definitely count as card advantage in my book, so Phyrexian Reclamation is great here, as is Whisper.

Grim Haruspex and Disciple of Bolas are on-theme. Thorn of the Black Rose and Custodi Lich are fun creature-based choices too. Some other classic choices are Ambition's Cost, Ancient Craving, Promise of Power, Liliana's Contract, Syphon Mind, Castle Locthwain, and Read the Bones. Palace Siege is okay, especially if you feel you need more recursion. Diabolic Servitude is nice and repeatable. Victimize and Blood for Bones are a great rate. Oversold Cemetery is nice too, though pricey.

Greed, Arguel's Blood Fast  ^Flip, Skullclamp and Erebos, God of the Dead are really good but not cheap. Erebos, Bleak-Hearted, Yawgmoth, Thran Physician, and God-Eternal Bontu would be decent as well. Bonus points for some being threats/blockers.

Gonti, Lord of Luxury is an interesting choice for card advantage--especially if you can recur him out of the graveyard over and over.

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Dreadhorde Invasion is a great source of sacrifice fodder. So are Grave Titan and Bitterblossom but they're expensive. High Market is good in case your commander get's Arrested or turned into an elk or frog or the moon. Rogue's Passage could help end games once Yahenni is huge.

If you find you can't close out games between all the groupslug aristocrat cards and Yahenni's damage, perhaps a few auxiliary groupslug cards could tip games in your favor. Most of the good ones are very expensive though. Bloodchief Ascension, Painful Quandary, Polluted Bonds, Wound Reflection, and Palace Siege et al. Torment of Hailfire and Exsanguinate are classic finishers too.

As far as cuts go... I don't love some of the creature-based removal. I know it's good because you can sacrifice them later but perhaps Morkrut Banshee, Skinrender, and Anowon the Ruin Sage could be cut. I don't love Devour in Shadow and Drag to the Underworld. You should be set on removal even with those five cuts. Feed the Swarm is worth noting! Mortician Beetle is a bit win-more but is uniquely suited to the deck and worth keeping for now. Probably makes a good blocker. Geralf's Messenger is a bit weaker than some of the token generators and recurring threats too.

Also, I don't know if you care (few do) but if you want an accurate price calculation for your deck you should put the cards in the Sideboard into the Maybeboard so they aren't added.

Fibonachos on Orah Cleric Tribal

2 weeks ago

Good looking list! One or two suggestions, if you are going for life-gain Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim might be better value than Pitiless Pontiff. That being said, I'm not sure there is enough life gain to make Speaker of the Heavens worth. Other great 1 costs would be Mother of Runes and Giver of Runes. A sweet tutor to consider is Buried Alive, and good recursion in Victimize. Hope that helps!

Fibonachos on Orah Domino Effect

3 weeks ago

Fun looking deck! One thought would be replacing Blood for Bones with Victimize, seems like a no-downside switch.

multimedia on rakdos, the showstopper/ chaos

1 month ago

Hey, nice start on a budget. Chaos can be a tricky theme to build.

The avg. CMC of your deck is very high at 4.3 with only Sol Ring as reliable ramp and only having 35 lands. This 4.3 number means you will consistently not be casting a card until earliest turn four, more like turn five. Not doing anything for the first four turns or more is not fun in Commander because you risk basically not having any board presence at all before turn five. My advice is add some ramp in place of a few high CMC cards (5 CMC or higher). Doing this will reduce the avg. CMC and ramp will make it easier to cast spells especially Showstopper.

Some cards for ramp to consider adding:

• Heartless Summoning
• Rakdos Signet, Mind Stone, Commander's Sphere
• Dark Ritual
• Solemn Simulacrum

For the cards to consider cutting you want to make a choice of what are the best cards you want at the high end of the mana curve? Having lots of both high CMC Chaos cards and big creatures is too many high CMC cards. Showstopper is the six drop creature you want to cast. Cards to consider cutting to add more ramp:

• Capital Punishment
• Creepy Doll, Stuffy Doll
• Reiver Demon, Indulgent Tormentor
• Demon of Dark Schemes, Lord of the Void

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Reanimation is a good secondary strategy when playing so many high CMC creatures. Reanimation needs enablers to get creatures into graveyard which is good with Patriarch's Bidding and Demons. Consider expanding on reanimation? Another reason to add enablers for reanimation is Anger. A haste enabler to give your high CMC creatures haste, attacking with them the turn you play them especially Showshopper.

• Buried Alive, Faithless Looting, Thrill of Possibility
• Anger
• Animate Dead, Victimize

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Some card changes to consider:

• Sin Prodder > Mogg Assassin
• Stormfist Crusader > Murder
• Chaos Wand > Volatile Rig
• Confusion in the Ranks > Risky Move
• Stolen Strategy > Captive Audience

Budget lands to consider adding to replace some basic lands: Graven Cairns, Ash Barrens, Grixis Panorama, Jund Panorama, Foreboding Ruins, Tainted Peak, Evolving Wilds.

Good luck with your deck.

multimedia on Matriarch of the Orzhov Syndicate Teysa Karlov

1 month ago

Hey, nice budget version of Teysa.

Some budget card upgrades to consider:

• Open the Armory > Night's Whisper
  Armory can get Skullclamp. If it's not getting Clamp than Deathmantle or Greaves or Animate or Dance.
  
  

• Leonin Relic-Warder > Serrated Scorpion
  Warder makes a dies loop with Animate Dead, Dance of the Dead or Necromancy and since you have all these enchantments then it fits right in. If you would like me to explain the interaction I will.
  
  

• Mirror Entity > Burnished Hart
  Entity can be repeatable pump for all tokens and Teysa or it's activated ability for zero can be the sac outlet to combo with Reveillark + Karmic Guide.
  
  

• Priest of Forgotten Gods > Flesh Carver
• Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim > Cartel Aristocrat
• Tithe Taker > Hunted Witness
• Victimize > Unearth
• Generous Gift > Mortify

Some budget lands to consider adding: High Market, Ash Barrens, Esper Panorama, Opal Palace, Orzhov Basilica.

Good luck with your deck.

Massacar on Hell in a Cell

1 month ago

I know you're looking for cuts currently, but one include that compliments your commander extremely well would be Krark's Thumb.

Also your forum post said you want to get things back with reanimator effects, but you don't include Animate Dead or Necromancy. Whip of Erebos and Victimize could also be useful to you. Following off of your forum post, if filling your graveyard is your goal, Mesmeric Orb is a fantastic card for such strategies.

As for cuts, I'd probably cut Solemn Simulacrum, Torch Fiend, Demon of Death's Gate (I'm just never impressed with this big demon personally), and Finale of Eternity.

Masterful on Necronomicon | Teysa Karlov | Primer

2 months ago

sub780lime I haven't had many problems with Reflecting Pool or Exotic Orchard's consistency, so I prefer them over the forced life loss from City of Brass and Mana Confluence. In some testing I've done with these painlands, there were instances where the life loss mattered, especially when it came to low-life razaketh/necropotence usage. Ultimately, it doesn't matter much, and I would understand swapping them based on preference. In playgroups that rarely play white and/or black, orchard is bad, and reflecting pool gets worse the less lands we have. For me, they've performed better than the painlands on average.

In terms of Austere Command, everything's a bit hard to trim from. For the sac outlets, unfortunately 5 of them are inconsistent (High Market, Victimize, etc.), and one of them is 8 mana. Additionally, the inconsistent ones are in the deck for reasons other than being sac outlets. The cards I'm considering the most are Victimize, Phyrexian Reclamation, and Living Death, but I'm still not sure I'd want austere command instead of any one of these cards.

Thanks for the input!

Lokotor on The one and only Black Rose, Marchesa

2 months ago

I'm not exactly sure where you're taking your list. are you going for aristocrats? theft? control? it feels a bit spread out at the moment.

it might help to specifically pick one of those themes and go through the list and ask "how does this card contribute to that theme?"

A few cards i'm not sure make sense generally:

you have a lot of Fork effects. is there a particular reason why? if not you may want to consider some less situational cards.

you should probably replace River Kelpie with something like Midnight Reaper or Nikara, Lair Scavenger since they can come out 2-3 turns sooner and give the same effect more or less.

I personally feel Dack's Duplicate doesn't add much, but depending on your meta it might be a good fit.

I don't think Twilight's Call is a good card for you. Living Death is ok since it can be pretty one sided a lot of the time, but generally i've never found I am in great need for mass reanimation effects. I think between Reanimate and Victimize you'll have enough if you need it.

Grave Pact/Dictate of Erebos would probably be a big help for you.

you should also check out the marchesa subreddit and discord server