This is a stax deck, and it's a deck that I use in competitive games (though, not at tournaments since Shirei sucks). So, I don't run large creatures, such as Butcher or Sadistic Hypnotist. Both eat removal and cannot be saved by sacrifice to their own ability, not to mention that hypnotist is sorcery speed and untargetted -- not useful in early games, games where I face tutors, or games against decks with large draw power. That isn't to say it is bad, just not for this deck.

Killing Wave is trash. Seems like a good idea, but it was cut a very long time ago. Its like some weird fetish on tappedout that people run this card, and I do not get it. Why would I run this over Death Cloud? It's like the Black Cryptic Command -- a good card, but perversely overrated.

Basal Sliver is fine, I guess. Not reusable, removal bait, little too costly, god help you against a sliver deck (I do play against one sometimes).

I could probably stand to run sidisi, but that tutor comes a little late for this deck, especially without a lot of resources at my disposal. However, recursion and exploit do make up for that somewhat. I would probably cut Nether Traitor or Dimir House Guard -- depending on meta, preferences.

Xenic Poltergeist -- I already cut the superior Karn, Silver Golem because I removed a lot of the gimicky cards from the deck, and have more robust artifact recursion in Junk Diver, Myr Retriever and Buried Ruin. I never have the mana to recur wayfarer's bauble or expedition map on every turn.

Lightning Coils is fun, but must survive until next turn and depends on splashy plays -- not for stax, but a lot of fun in my shadowborn apostle deck (The Happening). I do really love this card though, and even the minimum 15 damage is nothing to scoff at. Those elementals are prime fodder as well. You know, I might try it out in this deck again. The art alone is a good enough reason.

Fume Spitter is the most likely to be run here, since it actually does something on its own of marginal value and is a cheap body, and the art is sick. I dont have enough B for plagued rusalka (nor does anyone) without phyrexian altar. Nor are there enough creatures out at a time for me to use to laser stuff down. Not for this deck. Likewise, I don't run Phyrexian Plaguelord, though I did for a time.

Skullclamp -- mhm. The point is that you get to draw 2 - 10 cards per turn. No single creature in the deck is that important (besides shirei). INUS conditions. Theres plenty of reanimation engines and recurrable creatures as well.

Somdevi adnate generates 2 - 4 Black mana per (your) turn and can be sacrificed to other abilities. Yeah not great ramp, but works very well / well enough. I was running burnished hart here, but I always ran out of swamps.

Reassembling Skeleton, Bloodghast, Nether Traitor -- can all be recurred multiple times per turn and without the aid of Shirei, and can be painlessly sacrificed to skullclamp. Again, this is a stax deck that wins by building a resource assymetry. What if someone blows up shirei in response to Contamination? Well ... You want to have the skeleton. How do you live through Possessed Portal without shirei? Skeleton. How do you combo off with Pawn of Ulamog? Nether Traitor.

Sorry, I should clarify a few points then...

Killing Wave is a budget friendly way to set your opponents back while leaving your board state untouched. It has a couple advantages over Death Cloud. I probably wouldn't want X=15 for Death Cloud because I'd discard my hand, lose most if not all of my lands, and probably my own commander, on top of 15 life. And if they have 30 tokens, they just sac half of them and shrug it off. Killing Wave will make them pay 15 life for each and every creature. They can't afford to keep their token army. I don't have to discard or lose lands. I only pay 15 for my commander and get all of my 1/X's back. They both of their strengths and weaknesses; I don't think it's trash.

Omg, you're right, Basal Sliver is a 2/2. I feel like an idiot, I'll see myself out.

Xenic Poltergeist is for artifact removal, not recursion. I don't even think it would work that way....

and okay. I'll buy it on the Reassembling Skeleton. I can activate it's ability whenever I want, not just when something else dies or when I drop a land. (And it costs less than $10, so that's nice.) I'll never be super happy to see him top-deck or when things are going okay, but he could be useful in my graveyard when I need him.

My particular deck isn't as staxy, and can often survive Shirei being killed off.

Yep yep -- I would run death cloud because this deck is prepared to make use of it over killing wave.

Never great to topdeck skeltal or traitor or ghast at the wrong time, but since my primary objective is to stick an early sac-stax piece, there isn't a bad time for me.

I also want to work Wake the Dead back in.

EndStepTop hook a brother up