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Early build of Athreos aristocrats, still untested.

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Good news: the deck works.

Bad news: I'm still not sure it can win, at least not in its current state. I swapped out Aura of Silence, Grand Abolisher, and Ghostly Prison for Kaya's Wrath, Smothering Tithe, and Teysa Karlov. The former three don't really fit the deck's plan that well, and the other ones should make the deck work better. More testing is ultimately needed first.

I took this thing out for a spin for the first time at my LGS and ended up playing one 90 minute game with it vs. Omnath, Locus of Mana stompy, Mikaeus, the Lunarch white weenies, and Tymna the Weaver *f-etch*/Ravos, Soultender *f-etch* goodstuff. I had a solid opening hand, with land in both colors, a Blood Artist, Vindicate, Diabolic Intent, and Demonic Tutor. Combine that with a topdeck Phyrexian Arena and things looked good.

Unfortunately, everyone else seemed to have good hands, too. Omnath got off to a particularly explosive start, landing an early Genesis Wave for 12, and I had to drop a tutor for Kaya's Wrath. I had both Zulaport Cutthroat and Blood Artist out at this point, so it got a good amount of damage out of it, but I ended up getting my Arena blasted the next turn (and Arguel's Blood Fast ate it a couple turns later). Mikaeus went off and built up a huge board right after my wrath, so Tymna/Ravos dropped a Merciless Eviction a turn later. Omnath ended up building up a huge board AGAIN, so I dropped my second tutor on Day of Judgment. I was never able to restabilize; I dropped Ravos/Tymna with Falkenrath Aristocrat when he sac'd a bunch of stuff for Westvale Abbey, and then Mikaeus and I died to a massive unblockable Omnath the next two turns.

While the aristocrats plan certainly seems to do work- I was able to dish out 14 damage from Blood Artist triggers and an additional 9 from Athreos all in one turn- the deck doesn't seem to have enough recursion. Maybe it's due to the fact that two of the other decks ran some life gain, but people seem to be perfectly willing to lose a bunch of life to make sure even your smallest pieces don't come back. I feel like the deck needs more creatures that can come back on their own, like Reassembling Skeleton and Bloodsoaked Champion.

I'm also considering putting Teysa, Orzhov Scion in the Commander slot and moving Athreos to the 99. The Teysa/Darkest Hour combo is one of the easiest for this deck to pull off, so it seems like she'd be better suited to be the Commander. On top of that, she's more aggressive; her ability is a sac outlet, removal, and token generation all in one, whereas Athreos is just a payoff card. I'm going to try this both ways and see what happens.

In any case, it was a fun game in spite of its length and the grindy feel to it. The deck is a lot of fun to pilot, and with some tuning, I think it can be a huge threat.

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95% Casual

Competitive