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Scourge of the Skyclaves

Modern* BR (Rakdos) Lurrus of the Dream-Den

CommandOmega

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Creature (18)

Sorcery (16)

Land (14)

Instant (8)

Companion (1)

Commander: Lurrus of the Dream-Den

Sideboard

Creature (1)

Hello all, this is my take on a Scourge of the Skyclaves deck in modern, with Lurrus of the Dream-Den as a companion. The deck is focused on lowering both your life total and your opponent's life total to make Scourge of the Skyclaves as big a threat as possible. I'm always open to suggestions, and as you can see, the sideboard is nonexistent, so please feel welcome to contribute. Thanks!

For Scourge of the Skyclaves to be effective, we need to focus on draining our own life as well as our opponents. For this purpose, I've included an effective list that doesn't really need mana to function, save one card.

Drain Cards:

  1. Bolt Lands: Shatterskull Smashing   and Agadeem's Awakening  : You'll rarely be playing these as spells, but rather as untapped lands that will make you lose 3 life. These are great starts, as getting your life down to 14 on turn 2 will help you set up a super effective Scourge of the Skyclaves if you deal damage to your opponents on turn one.

  2. Bloodstained Mire: This one is pretty self-explanatory. Bloodstained Mire lets you thin your deck, search for a land, and makes you lose 1 life. It is super effective in a strategy like this, as forcing life loss is necessary for our win condition.

  3. Blood Crypt: This is another easy one. Draining yourself for 2 and getting a dual land is essential in this deck, as it provides both of the colors we need as well as making us lose life.

  4. Gut Shot: Phyrexian mana is a blessing for this deck, as paying 2 life to either deal one damage to the opponent or an additional one to ourselves helps us reach our goals much faster, as well as that added bonus of the spell being free to play at instant speed. It's a terrific burn spell in this deck.

  5. Thoughtseize: Thoughtseize is usually a great discard spell with the drawback of you having to lose two life in almost any other deck. However, in this deck, this is great all around. You get to force a disadvantage of your opponents as well as draining yourself for 2, making your opponents weaker and Scourge of the Skyclaves stronger.

These cards are essential for lowering our opponent's life totals to make sure we're not the only ones dying to our own spells. Scourge of the Skyclaves's power and toughness stats are based on the highest life total subtracted from 20, not the lowest. We have to make sure our opponents have the same or a worse life total compared to us for an effective Scourge of the Skyclaves play.

Burn:

  1. Lightining Bolt: This one is extremely self-explanatory. Lightning Bolt is a simple, widely played burn spell that deals 3 damage to your opponents for only one mana at instant speed.

  2. Skewer the Critics: This one is a sorcery speed Lightning Bolt provided you've done damage to your opponents this turn, which shouldn't be difficult seeing all the burn spells you're running.

  3. Gut Shot: As mentioned above, this spell is more focused on draining your own life rather than your opponents, but it's still powerful here all the same. 0 mana and two of your own life for one of your opponents's life is definitely worth the trade.

Aggro:

  1. Knight of the Ebon Legion: This is a pretty powerful one-mana spell if you have some mana to sink into it. Even without extra mana, something that benefits off of burning your opponents is still a powerful contender in our deck. +1/+1 counters and pump abilities integrated into the card can be super helpful.

  2. Monastery Swiftspear: She's a nice turn one play, especially with a Gut Shot in hand. Haste and prowess are superb abilities in an aggro strategy, and she's also a one-mana 1/2 with no drawbacks.

  3. Vexing Devil: This one can either go in burn or aggro, and they're a pretty slept-on card in my opinion. You either get a one-mana 4/3 that's ready to go the next turn, or you get a one-mana sorcery that deals 4 to an opponent.

  4. Scourge of the Skyclaves: Best boy. Scourge of the Skyclaves is the star of the show, being a black Tarmogoyf that is dependent on life totals rather than card types in the graveyard. They're a pretty fantastic play if life totals are low enough, as you can see a 2 mana 8/8 pretty often.

We have a few other oddball cards that can still be powerful and helpful for the strategy, but they're not the stars of the show.

  1. Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger: Is a nice turn two play, forcing a discard as well as the possibility of having the opponent lose 3 life. They're also nice to bring back if you have enough spells in the graveyard, as a 6/6 will definitely do some damage.

  2. Lurrus of the Dream-Den: While a bit of a slower play due to the companion mechanic nerf, there's no harm in including Lurrus of the Dream-Den when all of your permanents would be below 2 CMC anyways. Lurrus is a great way to play out some powerful stuff from the graveyard as well. A secondary Vexing Devil trigger doesn't hurt (well, it hurts your opponent, but that's beside the point).

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Casual

91% Competitive