Void Maw

Creature — Horror

Trample

If another creature would be put into a graveyard from play, remove it from the game instead.

Put a card removed from the game with Void Maw it into its owner's graveyard: Void Maw gets +2/+2 until end of turn.

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Block Constructed	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
Modern	Legal
Modern Beyond Horizons	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Planar Constructed	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (40)

aholder7 on Assailing Archeology

2 years ago

Methodology: You were on the play in every game. Sideboarding was not included in any game as it usually would help your opponent more than you (and i was lazy).

Murktide: 0-7 Despite Murktide having the disadvantage of multiple dead cards in their deck against you, these games weren't even remotely close. You almost never got to resolve and keep anything of note. Your method of dealing with small threats was to 2-for-1 yourself with shards. Your early game was entirely non existent meaning they usually got 4 turns to try and kill you before you even started playing.

Crashing Footfalls: 2-5 Your first win was because i forced them to keep a once land hand to see what it would take for you to win. even with them missing land drops on turn 2 and 3 and your your turn 4 mishra they actually almost beat you. the second win was because by turn 12 they had managed to not draw a single cascade card, and despite that had you on the ropes most of the game.

Rakdos AggroL 1-6 Your win was when the opponent decided to take the damage option on combustion because they were at 18. turns out flipping a combined 21 works just as well here as it does in black jack. to be fair you actually had a decent board state that game. not certain if you would have won, but it was the only game you weren't out right destroyed in.

Overall: Your inability to fight in the early game is debilitating. You don't necessarily need to drop super big threats, but at least have a plan to prevent your opponent from killing you by turn 4. those Lightning Bolts in the sideboard would be a good start. Also now that i have read jaxis, they are not a good card for you. they are a win more card of sorts. they only do something useful if you don't really need them. Bone Shards's costs are actually a bit steep. Terminate is a really solid removal spell. Fatal Push is great if you want to keep to 1 mana. Dreadbore would be good to keep the planeswalker removal option of shards but i believe you are trying to keep the deck budget. you could get proactive and use cards like Inquisition of Kozilek to remove threats before they can actually bother you. Void Maw much like jaxis is a card that only even works in theory if you are already in a position where you should win. i don't know what creatures you'd want on the lower end. maybe something like Sin Prodder would be your type of fun but probably not the best card. something that produces tokens to block with would be nice but i'm not really sure what the options are for that as thats not really what RB is about.

keizerbuns on Assailing Archeology

2 years ago

Wow, it did a lot better than I would’ve imagined! Thanks for testing it out for me aholder7.

I definitely agree that Braids would be better off as another copy of Gearhulk, but just for my playgroup I think I'm going to leave her in as well as the 2 Void Maws. If I do feel like getting more serious with the deck though, I have another Gearhulk and 2 Rust Goliaths in the sideboard that I'd swap braids and maw out for, and 4 Lightning Bolts to replace the Bone Shards with. I did also take your advice on favoring Thrill so I made thrill a 4 of and then took out 1 reunion and 1 tutor.

Thanks for all your help, I feel like this deck has come a long way thanks to your advice!

aholder7 on Assailing Archeology

2 years ago

looks like you ended up dropping green. i think that's for the best.

I decided to goldfish the deck a few times and test it out against some of the top decks to see how it fares. I was surprised to see how well it matched up, but here are the results. I did not sideboard because i was lazy.

Murktide (1-2): If they counterspell Mishra or Jaxis, you really don't have much to do and they beat you down. On the flip side, if mishra resolves theres not much murktide really doesn't like that. in the game you lost you almost won from a 19 damage combustion hulk flip. i have also discovered that hulking for 15 is not unusual and any deck you play against should just let you draw as it's too much of a risk for an instant kill from nearly full health. Lightning Bolt would have helped you close games better and served you as solid removal against weak threats.

Crashing Footfalls (2-1): Game 1 you had to use 2 Bone Splinters on their two rhinos out the gate, but they didn't have the counterspell back up to stop you and dind't draw into a second cascade spell until you dropped combustion which kind of hoses 4/4s. game 2 you couldn't get threats to board fast enough. game 3 you jaxis into a battlesphere for blockers and it lets you live just long enough to hulk out. i have found combustion hulk has been a real mvp in all of the matches. I think this match up would not normally be in your favor as each game you had multiple bone shards which is unusual but very helpful in this match up.

Rakdos Aggro (2-0): A discard deck with only 2 cards that can deal with mishra and jaxis did not fair well. they did get you really close on damage both games with the second game winning off a really lucky top deck. I do think you might have the edge in this game.

Overall thoughts: Jaxis and Hulk were MVP in all match ups. Cathartic Reunion requiring 2 discards was a bit clunky to play around. it may be better to favor Thrill of Possibility. I got Void Maw out multiple times, even with mishra out. it was never more useful than a vanilla 4/5. granted a 4/5 was really useful against 4/4 rhinos. You just don't really run out of targets for mishra. if you do, you should probably already have won or you didn't have targets to begin with. Braids was ok in the one match i drew them in. your early game was at it's best with a turn 3 jaxis into battlesphere for 4 free damage and a surprise 8/7 giving you 4 tokens to block with on later turns all while replacing itself with 2 more cards. if that didn't happen you were usually in a weird spot hoping that you had shards and that it would be enough. I did get profane tutor off a couple of times, but i actually never grabbed mishra with it. Sometimes i was grabbing a leveler others it was hulk, but i'm not sure how much i like the card over just another good card. You never get to bone shards a creature that is going to die, do not expect to.

keizerbuns on Assailing Archeology

2 years ago

Thank you so much for the feedback aholder7!

You bring up a lot of really good points here. I suppose I could just get the same result of mana ramping if I just used Rakdos colored stones. I was using green because originally I had 4 copies of Ravenous Squirrel for saccing my creatures so I did need the green to activate its ability, but since I've decided to drop the squirrels I guess there isn't much need for green beyond needing it for tutors and for the occasional time I use Bala Ged Recovery  ^Flip. Speaking of the tutors, I do think having at least a couple is really necessary for finding Void Maw, which I feel is a really important combo piece in this deck. I've also found that it's surprisingly easy to get the delirium effect of Traverse the Ulvenwald off even with only 3 fetch lands, but if I really want to keep the tutors I guess I could just add a couple more Profane Tutors, or maybe even the new Diabolic Intent.

I've also been noticing too that Bone Shards isn't really enough early game interaction, so maybe adding a few more 1 drop removal or burn spells might help the early game consistency. Jaxis, the Troublemaker has been an absolute superstar in this deck so adding at least 1 more couldn't hurt anything.

As with Chainer, Nightmare Adept, I don't think it hurts to have just a 1 off of him since he doubles as a way to recast my important non-artifact creature combo pieces should they ever get removed or dumped into the graveyard from my library, on top of him just being a great source of free discarding. I actually feel like I would need him more if I were to remove green from the deck since I wouldn't have access to Bala Ged Sanctuary  ^Flip anymore.

Last, I don't know if I would add the fenlurker, the rat, or the zealot just cause I feel like they would be taking up space for more useful cards. I also don't actually like the idea of using Sundering Titan in this deck since it can very easily backfire and force me to blow up my own lands if my opponents don't have any black or red basics.

I really like all of your suggestions and your reasoning for dropping green is pretty sound. I do like how the deck feels right now, but I'm going to make a new version of this deck with the changes you suggested and see how much more I like it. Chances are you're right about the changes that I need to make here and I'll probably end up overhauling this version to match the version you suggested.

Thanks again for your comment, it's much appreciated!!

aholder7 on Assailing Archeology

2 years ago

I like the feel of this deck and it seems fun but I have some questions and comments.

First, is green bringing enough to the table? you are playing 8 green cards if you count the backside of the flip land. They are also cheaper cards which means you would need to assure having access to green early consistently. You are devoting more than just a small splash to it, but all you are getting out of it really is some minor ramp. something like Mind Stone or Talisman of Dominance would probably serve you better. without delerium, traverse could be replaced by a basic. With delerium its a great card but in order to do that you need to get all 4 of your types (Land, Sorcery, Artifact and Creature) into the grave. Artifact and Creature are fairly easy but with as few fetches as you are playing you need to have already gotten a Cathartic Reunion or similar off before you have a consistent chance at delerium.

second i think you need a bit more interaction. you have Bone Shards which is a nice way to also get cards in grave. but as a 3 of, you aren't going to be able to respond to many things. I'd suggest throwing in Lightning Bolts but there are a number of cheap removal options like Disintegrate or Go for the Throat if you prefer those.

I think Jaxis, the Troublemaker is one of your best cards here. 3 mana with no warning to drop a leveler or combustion. if you can keep him around you can provide value by continuing to drop threats.

I don't see you hard casting most of your larger threats so Chainer, Nightmare Adept seems like they'd only be able to be a discard outlet and you have plenty of those.

it sounds like you are enjoying Void Maw so i'll skip commentary on it.

overall i think you lack early game presence or a way to stabilize if you manage your way through it. This is especially true if you are using Bone Shards as a way to get value out of unearth targets instead of putting targets in the grave. some basic cards like Yarok's Fenlurker/Burglar Rat/Dusk Legion Zealot can be a blocker and manage resources a bit.

I also don't think your tutors are entirely required with threats and filtering.

tl;dr

-1 chainer

-3 solemn

-4 rampant growth

-2 traverse

-2 profane tutor

+2 Jaxis

+1 combustible

+4 Mind Stone

+2 Sundering Titan as a scarier unearth target.

+3 Terminate

keizerbuns on Assailing Archeology

2 years ago

Balaam__, thanks for your thoughts! I like the Void Maw version better too, it's definitely a lot more fun when it's up and running but after playtesting with Sundial of the Infinite I've found that using the sundial is the more efficient and faster way to play this deck. I think I am going to stick with Maw and Braids in the main board since it's more fun but I'll keep the sundials in my sideboard for when I want a better chance of winning.

keizerbuns on Assailing Archeology

2 years ago

Thanks Balaam__! What do you think about removing Void Maw and Braids, Arisen Nightmare and replacing them with 2x Sundial of the Infinite?

keizerbuns on Assailing Archeology

2 years ago

Thanks for the suggestion, legendofa! Trash for Treasure would pair well with Solemn Simulacrum. The only problem is, I'm not sure where I would fit it into the deck and what to take out for it.

I'm actually currently trying out a version of this deck that uses Sundial of the Infinite in place of Void Maw (and Braids, Arisen Nightmare since I'll no longer need to sac in response to Unearth exile triggers) because waiting one extra turn to get Maw out before I start Unearthing feels like it's slowing the deck down too much. So this version of the deck may change if I like how Sundial feels.