What would be a good strategy against someone who is using Mogis, God of Slaughter as a general?
Commander (EDH) forum
Posted on May 26, 2015, 5:15 p.m. by theindigoeffect
I'm in the process of creating a mono-black commander deck: I decided to pick Erebos, God of the Dead as my general to neutralize Oloro, Ageless Ascetic's incessant life gain, but I don't really have a means to defend myself against Mogis' keyword ability. What would you guys suggest?
If you're really scared of him, just run Cruel Edict and/or Diabolic Edict for killing him when he's a dude.
May 26, 2015 5:38 p.m.
Don't even worry about it and then use crap like Mikaeus, the Unhallowed + Gray Merchant of Asphodel + Phyrexian Altar + other reanimation spells. I used to play Erebos, God of the Dead Mono black turbo combo/control and lemme tell you just how AWESOME using a Gary like 5 times in a turn feels :]
May 26, 2015 5:39 p.m.
ThisIsBullshit says... #5
As far as the life losing part, run Oloro or just lifegain in your deck somewhere. If you want to prevent the sack effect, you can either run tokens (where it doesn't matter because you, in theory, have a shit load of disposable tokens) or run sack-prevention effects like Sigarda, Host of Herons.
Edit: totally missed the mono-black part of the post lol. Again, lifegain in some form is good if the 2 life a turn really is a problem. As for the sacking creatures, tokens still works, or run things like Dictate of Erebos so if you sack stuff, so does everyone else.
May 26, 2015 5:40 p.m. Edited.
Make the sacrifices work for you?
Things like Blood Artist, Grim Haruspex, Pawn of Ulamog, Xathrid Necromancer, Bone Shredder (sac it instead of paying Echo) and Butcher of Malakir bring the pain.
Abhorrent Overlord would make a ton of tokens in a mono-black deck, and let you sac them for more pain at accelerated rate.
Abyssal Gatekeeper, Agent of the Fates, Archfiend of Depravity, Barter in Blood, Consuming Vapors and Dead Drop can force him to sac his Commander if it's still a creature when they go off. Indestructible doesn't confer protection from that.
Alternately, use a Bloodsoaked Champion or Nether Traitor that comes back each turn.
May 26, 2015 5:49 p.m.
theindigoeffect says... #7
Thanks, everyone. At the risk of sounding stupid, I don't see how a card like blood-artist or Dictate of Erebos would benefit me, since Mogis, God of Slaughter gives me the option to sacrifice a creature, not destroy it. From what I understand, sacrificing a creature is not the same thing as destroying it. Perhaps I'm just confused.
May 26, 2015 6:40 p.m.
Neither of thosw cards say destroy they say 'when it dies'. A creature counts as dying when it hits the graveyard no matter if it was sacrificed or destroyed or whatever else it could be.
May 26, 2015 6:44 p.m.
Sacrificing a creature is in essence destroying it since it is being sent to the graveyard thus triggering Artist, and the dictates effect.
May 26, 2015 6:46 p.m.
Megalomania says... #10
The keyword is "dies". As long as it goes to the graveyard from play, it is understood as a creature that died.
Anyways, i'd go with the earlier suggestions. Unless Mogis or someone else has a bloodcrank (or stax pieces) in play, you won't have to worry about it.
May 26, 2015 6:50 p.m.
JakeHarlow says... #11
Didn't read all of the replies, so this might be old news.
Persistent token generation works well. Assemble the Legion, other kinds of stuff. Or persistent life gain. Oloro, Ageless Ascetic hard counters Mogis very well.
Also, you can focus on speed. Kill him faster than he can kill you.
May 26, 2015 7:25 p.m.
Honestly, BrendiBear, Mogis is a decent stax commander. Sure, you lack W/U, but you more than make up for it with the fact that you have access to a number of strong engines, good sacrifice effects, decent card draw (Necropotence being key here) and decent token producers means that you have a somewhat strong stax deck, besides the lack of tax and tap means.
May 26, 2015 10:12 p.m.
BrendiBear says... #14
He really is just all around mediocre and doesn't do anything.
May 26, 2015 10:50 p.m.
Mogis by himself is not a powerful stax deck. Sure, you can build him that way but from the question itself, I'd say the honest answer is: ignore it and just win faster.
Mogis, God of Slaughter's inherent problem is than he gives opponents a choice. This means that all of his creature sacrificing ability power is completely negated by the fact that you can decide to pay two life. and when you have 40 to begin with, thats not a problem.
On top of that, red/black decks are notoriously bad at ramping. Mono black decks however, when built correctly can be very fast as black gives you access to quite a few mana doublers (not to mention Cabal Coffers).
So the solution is simple, build your deck to be faster and just win before Mogis is a problem.
May 26, 2015 11:26 p.m.
Why is no one suggesting Reassembling Skeleton & Bloodghast ? :DThey are hard to get rid off :D
May 27, 2015 2:42 a.m.
Those two are usually only played is sacrifice reanimator decks (like Teysa, Orzhov Scion) and they shouldn't have a problem with creatures.
May 27, 2015 2:51 a.m.
Yeah, I'm on the ignore him wagon. Someone playing Mogis... I would save that player for last just so they got to play.
May 28, 2015 1:21 a.m.
rooroothepirate says... #19
I play mogis as a general and what everyone else here is saying is pretty spot on. The only way I win is if I either ramp really hard or manage to get a decent board state. Disrupt his board state and hand before he manages to really get going and you will end up winning; getting shocked once a turn isn't too bad in a 40 life format.
Ruffigan says... #2
Don't even worry about it, it is very tame in a format with 40 life. If you're running Erebos you'll probably be running life gain so it's really only helping you swindle your opponents' life.
May 26, 2015 5:21 p.m.