The idea behind the deck is to grind the opponent down with raw card advantage. Lots of card draw, discard, and pinpoint removal keep most relevant threats off the board, while Drana makes a discrete appearance and proceeds to smash face.
Geth's Grimoire gives you insane card advantage. There's enough discard in the build to consistently draw you cards. It turns Honden of Night's Reach into a "free" Phyrexian Arena, and Raven's Crime turns all your extra swamps into new cards.
Repay in Kind is insane. It's an awesome way to make sure your opponent is out of the game, especially with Necropotence and Phyrexian Processor, both good cards in their own right. The deck loses *a lot* of life, and Repay in Kind makes sure your opponent is there with you if you can't stabilize or bounce back with lifegain.
In a different vein, Eternity Vessel makes you *very* hard to kill, and completely offsets the major life loss you suffer. It also works well with Necropotence and Phyrexian Processor.
EDIT #3 Major Overhaul. Original decklist is here.
It's a pretty decent MBC build. No eldrazi included, as they're Drana's enemies. There are a few interesting synergies/combos you can pull off:
Rings of Brighthearth + Cabal Coffers + Deserted Temple + 6 swamps total = Infinte mana. Urborg helps reduce the number of lands needed.
Rings of Brighthearts + Thawing Glaciers (+ Deserted Temple) = ramp. Good with Gauntlet or Lens.
Memory Jar + Yawgmoth's Will (in hand before cracking the Jar) = great synergy overall.
Gauntlet of Power and/or Extraplanar Lens + Avarice Totem = instant speed permanent steal. By stacking "Exchange control of Avarice Totem and Gauntlet of Power" while they're both under your control, and then swapping the totem for the desired opposing permanent, you'll end up giving them the Gauntlet/Lens (which still works for you, so no real loss) and taking their biggest threat.
Lightning Greaves + Phyrexian Procesor = hasty 8/8's every turn turn the game around very quickly.
Cards I'm planning on getting or am considering to include:
...is usually a pretty good choice. Also I run cards like Ad Nauseum (since 50+ cards in my deck cost 1 or less, usually draws about 14 cards at instant speed) and a whole host of artifact mana. In fact the Skithiryx deck in my sig was originally a Drana deck (about two days ago), and so far has only changed it's general. You might take a look at that.
With how powerful your general is I feel that more lands and or artifact mana accel might be very important. I know my strategy if I went up against your deck would be to see how many times I can kill your general as your general being in play is going to hurt too much. Plus the more mana you have available the more killing she can do in a turn.
Also I for one don't care for too many Dark Confidant effects in a deck. I know they are nice as they are reusable card draw but something like Promise of Power, Ambition's Cost, and Ancient Craving can be decent as well as they draw several cards for a set amount of life loss. I guess I just dont care for the Dark Tutelage much as what do you do when its in play and you are at low life? You mainly just die. Sure you might get that nev disk off to save yourself but I have seen my buddy die a lot to tutalage.
If you want one more means of killing off enchants you could add in All is Dust.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I have officially moved to MTGNexus. I just wanted to let people know as my response time to salvation decks being bumped is very hit or miss.
Yeah, Dark Tutelage and Dark Confidant will kill you in this format.
Your swamps are very important. These lands are a waste; Cabal Pit, Mistifying Maze, Urborg, tomb of Yawgmoth and Strip Mine.
You have the 2 Coffers counting swamps then the Lens, Gauntlent and Nirkana Revenant(where is she!?) doubling your swamps.
These EDH MBC builds are basically mana ramping decks. Your swamps count for 2-3 mana each most of the time. Wasting land drops to Strip Mine a single land and remove a couple creatures is not as good as adding an extra 3 mana to your side of the table. Your General has built-in creature removal you don't need lands to do it for you. Once you get these non-swamps out you won't have to run Urborg or waste a tutor for it.
Also Urborg and Extraplanar Lens is helping your opponent waaaaay too much.
I would add a few more artifact acceleration as well. Thran Dynamo and Gilded Lotus are a big help. Doubling Cube or even better (though more expensive) Candelabra of Tawnos are game enders.
Yeah, Dark Tutelage and Dark Confidant will kill you in this format.
Your swamps are very important. These lands are a waste; Cabal Pit, Mistifying Maze, Urborg, tomb of Yawgmoth and Strip Mine.
You have the 2 Coffers counting swamps then the Lens, Gauntlent and Nirkana Revenant(where is she!?) doubling your swamps.
These EDH MBC builds are basically mana ramping decks. Your swamps count for 2-3 mana each most of the time. Wasting land drops to Strip Mine a single land and remove a couple creatures is not as good as adding an extra 3 mana to your side of the table. Your General has built-in creature removal you don't need lands to do it for you. Once you get these non-swamps out you won't have to run Urborg or waste a tutor for it.
Also Urborg and Extraplanar Lens is helping your opponent waaaaay too much.
I would add a few more artifact acceleration as well. Thran Dynamo and Gilded Lotus are a big help. Doubling Cube or even better (though more expensive) Candelabra of Tawnos are game enders.
Blood Tribute could sub for Sorin. Its even better if Drana or another vamp is out. If Wound Reflection is out its and insta-kill.
Urborg + Extraplanar Lens doesn't help my opponents out in the least. Extraplanar Lens only cares about lands with the same name. Urborg also helps turn Coffers/Deserted Temple into swamps, helping the ramp I get off coffers. It also has good synergy with Sundering Titan, letting me nuke non-basics.
I don't know about cutting Pit and Maze. They're not over-the-top amazing, but they have helped me in keeping some stupid things in check. Exiling a Zur in response to his trigger (or after, asuming they don't give him shroud) is pretty good. Pit also kills the random Stillmoon Cavalier or Auriok Champion.
I'll definetely look into Blood Tribute and wound reflection. The Wound + Extortion synergy never crossed my mind; seems like fun times. I gotta get me some Sins of the Past for extra lulz.
I like Mind Sludge for 1v1, as it usually knocks out their hand completely when used at the right time. I'll try and nab that Mind Twist and Mind Shatter, though.
@Nidevinja: I've found that Thoughtseize, Duress, and IoK underpreform quite badly in EDH. I'll cehck your thread a little later when I'm not procrastinating form my college work.
Here's one thing I've never understood... Every time I see somebody build a mono black deck, (except myself) they always invest a whole lot of time into massive (but very, very slow) mana generation. Stuff like Cabal Coffers, Magus of the Coffers, Extraplanar Lens, Gauntlet of Power, Doubling Cube, Nirkana Revenant, and Black Market... Are all painfully slow, force you to lose out on utility lands for just swamps, and make very little sense unless your general is Maga, Traitor to Mortals (who could actually make use of such mana). What's the plan with all this mana? An extremely late game Drain Life? Consume Spirit? If you're just looking for a different win condition besides Drana (who is actually pretty good at it, 3 turns with mana investment)... Why not just run Helm of Obedience and Leyline of the Void? Then you can remove all those terrible cards for just two, and you even get the bonus of running better lands than basic swamps.
@Nidevinja: I've found that Thoughtseize, Duress, and IoK underpreform quite badly in EDH. I'll cehck your thread a little later when I'm not procrastinating form my college work.
In 1v1 if these cards aren't good against my opponent, then they've basically already lost. Mostly because it means that they don't have any cards that matter when I either combo them out or lock them out of the game in the usually between turns 3-6.
Even in Multiplayer, you simply hold them until you're planning on something, then level them at the player(s) mostly likely to have a solution to what you're doing.
Yeah, Dark Tutelage and Dark Confidant will kill you in this format.
I've actually always found the worse (read as overcosted) your deck, the worse these cards are for you. The top decks usually run about 36 lands, at least 14 things that cost one or zero (probably more if you're using the Official Banned List, and get all the nuts artifact accel)... In which case you likely have more than that. So half the time you're taking 0 or 1 from them.
Your swamps are very important, that's true... But these lands are insane; Urborg, tomb of Yawgmoth (since it makes everything a swamp) and Strip Mine (because people play with obnoxious busted lands).
@Nideovinja: The problem I've found with targeted discard is that an EDH deck is far too inconsistent to use them properly. I found myself drawing them when I didn't need them or not drawing them when they would have been good far too often. Topdecking them was also terrible, more so than in other non-singleton formats.
Black Market, Extraplanar Lens, Gauntlet of Power, and Cabal Coffers aren't as slow as you think. They allow you to do really stupid things, like actually cast everything you drew off Memory Jar, abuse Yawgmoth's Will to the fullest, go crazy with Helldozer, Drana, Crypt Rats, Pestilence Demon, Masticore, etc... They're certainly better than Prismatic Lens, Coldsteel Heart, and Skull of Ramos. You're also running Dark Ritual, which blows in this format. It allows for ocassionally explosive starts, but one-shot cheap advantages aren't as good in EDH as they are in other formats.
You mention utility lands, yet all I see you running in your list are fetchlands... which really does puzzle me, as they don't really do anything except cost you a life. The only really good utility lands you seem to be running are the Ancient Tomb, Bojuka bog (though it's quite conditional) and to an extent, Dust Bowl.
I don't really like 100% consistent insta-win combos. The infinite mana combo is very hard to pull off and easily crippled by a well-aimed strip mine or wasteland. I don't play Hatred or Helm + Leyline for that reason. I'm trying out the whole Temporal Extortion/Blood Tribute + Wound Refection, but I probably won't play Tribute with a Reflection in play. The Extortion is different, as your opponents won't always lose half their life, so you can't just decide to off someone at random.
@Nideovinja: The problem I've found with targeted discard is that an EDH deck is far too inconsistent to use them properly. I found myself drawing them when I didn't need them or not drawing them when they would have been good far too often. Topdecking them was also terrible, more so than in other non-singleton formats.
See here's the thing, there is no such thing as a late game in competitive 1v1 EDH. So the problem with "top decking" them later doesn't really exist. My Drana deck's kill window was turns 7-8. (4-6 for Skithiryx). I'm not here for a mid game either, I'm here to kill them. So early discard is basically how I keep my general from being answered (very often), also it's how I stop Oona deck from killing me turns 3-4, Lands.dec killing me on turn 3, Arcum locking me out of the game on turns 3-4, forcing through threats against obnoxious mono blue counter decks... In fact EDH is such a horribly broken format (which is awesome!) that if I don't involve myself in my opponent's first few turns... I've already lost. Well against the good decks. If all my opponent does is play creatures with the intent of beating me down, and it doesn't involve their general, I can safely ignore them, they just don't matter.
Black Market, Extraplanar Lens, Gauntlet of Power, and Cabal Coffers aren't as slow as you think. They allow you to do really stupid things, like actually cast everything you drew off Memory Jar, abuse Yawgmoth's Will to the fullest, go crazy with Helldozer, Drana, Crypt Rats, Pestilence Demon, Masticore, etc... They're certainly better than Prismatic Lens, Coldsteel Heart, and Skull of Ramos. You're also running Dark Ritual, which blows in this format. It allows for ocassionally explosive starts, but one-shot cheap advantages aren't as good in EDH as they are in other formats.
Let's talk about the best possible setup you have for Cabal Coffers... if you drop just swamps and it... it produces...
0 on turn 1,
0 on turn 2,
0 on turn 3, (Remember it costs two and a tap to activate)
1 on turn 4, (It's now as good as Prismatic Lens, Coldsteel Heart, and Skull of Ramos)
2 on turn 5, (This turn it produces what Dark Ritual did)
3 on turn 6,
4 on turn 7,
So if you played it and 6 swamps in your first seven turns, and Cabal Coffers... You now have 10 mana. Of course to achieve this example and on average you have to run 50% lands, as you've only had 14 cards by this point.
I'm pretty certain I don't even need to explain why Black Market is bad... I mean not only must you get it out, which given you list has almost no accelerators looks like turn 5. Then you need a kill spell, which if you play on turn six.. you get one black mana on turn seven. Congratulations... you've created a swamp. But a defective one that only works on your precombat main phase.
Extraplanar Lens once again working on the best possible scenario of always playing a swamp, and of course your deck has no real way to speed it out so...
Turn 4 You net 4 mana.... since you had to imprint a swamp.
Turn 5 You net 6 Mana
Turn 6 You net 8 Mana
By this point you've played 7 of the 13 cards you've gotten. Again requiring 50% of your deck being Swamps.
Gauntlet of Power... comes down turn 5 in your list... and armed with 6 swamps... on turn 6 will give you 12 mana. Again assuming 50% swamps in your deck.
So even in the best possible way that they'd be good, they're all still painfully slow, and require a massive land commitment.
Now for some reason you're talking down cheap accelerators like Prismatic Lens, Coldsteel Heart, and Skull of Ramos. But I think what you're missing here, is that instead of loading my deck up with swamps, and hoping for late game mana, all of these cards work together to provide consistently explosive starts (I do run 14 accel cards, and tutors). Getting 6 mana on turn 3, is very possible, after all, we've got a very broken EDH mulligan rule, and a stack of cheap tutors to make certain that Sol Ring or Mana Crypt are going to happily help play these. So things like Swamp, Swamp, Vampiric Tutor (Gets Mana Crypt), is really 4 mana on turn 2. Heaven forbid I play another 2/3 cost mana artifact on turn... That's five mana on turn 3, even a land drop, six if I don't. Every example above in perfect conditions took 5-6 turns to achieve that. Not really certain why you'd call them bad. Test my list, see what I mean. Aggressively mull, and don't be afraid to level that first tutor at Mana Crypt, or Sol Ring.
You mention utility lands, yet all I see you running in your list are fetchlands... which really does puzzle me, as they don't really do anything except cost you a life. The only really good utility lands you seem to be running are the Ancient Tomb, Bojuka bog (though it's quite conditional) and to an extent, Dust Bowl.
Did you just called Strip Mine and Wasteland bad? They're also in my list, and as utility as they come. Also Ancient Tomb is not a utility land, it's a mana accel.
I don't really like 100% consistent insta-win combos. The infinite mana combo is very hard to pull off and easily crippled by a well-aimed strip mine or wasteland. I don't play Hatred or Helm + Leyline for that reason. I'm trying out the whole Temporal Extortion/Blood Tribute + Wound Refection, but I probably won't play Tribute with a Reflection in play. The Extortion is different, as your opponents won't always lose half their life, so you can't just decide to off someone at random.
This is a fair statement, as it simply shows a difference in deck aims. I'm entirely coming from the hardcore competitive side. If however you're mostly aiming for a fun deck to play with your friends, then I most definitely won't begrudge you that. I'm told not everybody finds "broken" fun, in fact I think my play group might be odd for liking it so much.
Still I think you should run Hatred for flavor reasons, I mean look at her quote.
"If our former masters would have us kneel again, they shall feel our defiance slashed across their membranes."
@Nideovinja: I don't really agree with the whole "lets kill each other ASAP" approach to EDH, but hey, to each his own. The way I look at the accelerants I'm running is to ask myself, "when do I break even with mana production?" Coffers breaks even on turn 3 (if combined with Urborg) or 4, so I'm ramping myself up little by little without wasting non-land card slots. Lens breaks even on turn 4 assuming you don't have that 4th swamp, and if you do, you've gained 2 mana. I didn't mention Strip Mine and Wasteland because they're pretty much standard-issue for ~99% of EDH decks. I didn't think we'd be discussing those. I also like your pro-hatred argument. I'll probably "side" it in in multiplayer games to kamikaze myself against the biggest threat. At least then it's not an I-win-period scenario.
@ZemogFC: I'm pretty sure Gauntlet of Power doesn't interact with Urborg that way. When a mono-red deck taps a Mountain/Swamp, he can either tap it for red mana or colorless mana.
A deck may not generate mana outside its colours. If an effect would generate mana of an illegal colour, it generates colourless mana instead.
That sounds like a replacement effect, much like the one on River of Tears. If you remember the interaction with Reflecting Pool, you'll notice that the Pool only sees the river producing B or U as allowed by the replacement effect. There was a Cranial Extraction article with that question, IRC. So, the way I've been playing it, Gauntlet only helps decks that can already produce black mana. I'll double check the ruling when I get a chance to, but I'm pretty sure that's how it works.
Major update to the list. Many staples are missing, as they're in my Sheoldred deck, and I just can't be bothered with the hassle of swapping the cards constantly.
Updated first post. Got rid of all the small discard effects in favor of bigger/repeatable ones. Got my hands on a Chainer, Dementia Master and an extra Grave Titan to help the deck smash face, and threw in Eternity Vessel to help me stay alive. If all else fails and the deck is bleeding me out, Repay in Kind ensures my opponent dies before I do.
1 Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief
Lands
1 Cabal Coffers
1 Urborg, tomb of yawgmoth
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Tectonic Edge
1 Mikokoro, center of the sea
1 Boseiju, who shelters all
1 Deserted Temple
1 Urza's Factory
1 Reliquary Tower
28 Swamp
Creatures
1 Viscera Seer
1 Bloodghast
1 Dark Confidant
1 Gatekeeper of Malakir
1 Bloodhusk Ritualist
1 Graveborn Muse
1 Sangromancer
1 Magus of the Coffers
1 Chainer, Dementia Master
1 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Dread
1 Helldozer
1 Grave Titan
1 Nirkana Revenant
1 Kalitas, Bloodchief of Ghet
1 Sorin Markov
Enchantments
1 Dark Tutelage
1 Phyrexian Arena
1 Necropotence
1 Honden of Night's Reach
Artifacts
1 Expedition Map
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Oblivion Stone
1 Geth's Grimoire
1 Lashwrithe
1 Phyrexian Processor
1 Vedalken Orrey
1 Eternity Vessel
1 Extraplanar Lens
1 Gauntlet of Power
1 Caged Sun
Sorceries
1 Raven's Crime
1 Persecute
1 Monomania
1 Mind Sludge
1 Mind Twist
1 Mind Shatter
1 Profane Command
1 Exsanguinate
1 Black Sun's Zenith
1 Chainer's Edict
1 Consuming Vapors
1 Barter in Blood
1 Ambition's Cost
1 Dimir Machinations
1 Ill-Gotten Gains
1 Beacon of Unrest
1 Life's Finale
1 Diabloic Tutor
1 Demonic Collusion
1 Repay in Kind
1 Suffer the Past
1 Diabolic Edict
1 Geth's Verdict
1 Go for the Throat
1 Tribute to Hunger
1 Sudden Death
1 Snuff Out
1 Tendrils of Corruption
1 Nemesis Trap
1 Skeletal Scrying
1 Shred Memory
Geth's Grimoire gives you insane card advantage. There's enough discard in the build to consistently draw you cards. It turns Honden of Night's Reach into a "free" Phyrexian Arena, and Raven's Crime turns all your extra swamps into new cards.
Repay in Kind is insane. It's an awesome way to make sure your opponent is out of the game, especially with Necropotence and Phyrexian Processor, both good cards in their own right. The deck loses *a lot* of life, and Repay in Kind makes sure your opponent is there with you if you can't stabilize or bounce back with lifegain.
In a different vein, Eternity Vessel makes you *very* hard to kill, and completely offsets the major life loss you suffer. It also works well with Necropotence and Phyrexian Processor.
EDIT #3 Major Overhaul. Original decklist is here.
1 Drana, Kalastria bloodchief
Lands
1 Cabal Coffers
1 Urborg, tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Deserted temple
1 Thawing Glaciers
1 Cabal Pit
1 Mistifying maze
1 Strip Mine
1 Vesuva
29 Swamp
Creatures
1 Guul Draz Assassin
1 Dark Confidant
1 Withered Wretch
1 Fleshbag Marauder
1 Hypnotic Specter
1 Crypt Rats
1 Bloodhusk Ritualist
1 Dimir House Guard
1 Graveborn Muse
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Masticore
1 Shriekmaw
1 Magus of the Coffers
1 Duplicant
1 Dread
1 Helldozer
1 Butcher of Malakir
1 Kalitas, Bloodchief of Ghet
1 Sundering Titan
1 Pestilence Demon
1 Mox Diamond
1 Sol Ring
1 Phyrexian totem
1 Extraplanar Lens
1 Gauntlet of Power
1 Black Market
Card Draw
1 Phyrexian Arena
1 Dark Tutelage
1 Necropotence
1 Promise of Power
1 Memory Jar
Misc. Utility
1 Sensei's Divining top
1 Avarice Totem
1 Expedition Map
1 Rings of Brighthearth
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Phyrexian Processor
1 Enslave
Planeswalkers
1 Liliana Vess
Spells
1 Innocent Blood
1 Drain Life
1 Consume Spirit
1 Profane Command
1 Demonic tutor
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Ashes to ashes
1 Dimir Machinations
1 Oblivion Stone
1 Beseech the queen
1 Temporal Extortion
1 Nevinyrral's Disk
1 Diabolic Tutor
1 Barter in Blood
1 Consuming Vapors
1 Snuff out
1 Tendrils of Corruption
1 Damnation
1 Mutilate
1 Mind Sludge
1 Beacon of Unrest
1 Blood tribute
1 Wound Reflection
Rings of Brighthearth + Cabal Coffers + Deserted Temple + 6 swamps total = Infinte mana. Urborg helps reduce the number of lands needed.
Rings of Brighthearts + Thawing Glaciers (+ Deserted Temple) = ramp. Good with Gauntlet or Lens.
Memory Jar + Yawgmoth's Will (in hand before cracking the Jar) = great synergy overall.
Gauntlet of Power and/or Extraplanar Lens + Avarice Totem = instant speed permanent steal. By stacking "Exchange control of Avarice Totem and Gauntlet of Power" while they're both under your control, and then swapping the totem for the desired opposing permanent, you'll end up giving them the Gauntlet/Lens (which still works for you, so no real loss) and taking their biggest threat.
Lightning Greaves + Phyrexian Procesor = hasty 8/8's every turn turn the game around very quickly.
Cards I'm planning on getting or am considering to include:
- Vampiric Tutor
- Volrath's Stronghold
- Grave Titan
- Decree of Pain
- Loxodon Warhammer
- Phage the Untouchable
Geth, Lord of the Vault*Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon*
Note: My playgroup has banned Sorin + Magister Sphinx due to their "set someone's life at 10" effects, hence his abscence from the list.
Cards to include in Multiplayer games:
- Endless Whispers
- Repay in Kind
- Syphon Mind
- Plague of Vermin
- Cabal Conditioning
EDIT: -- Slaughter Pact, Bitterblossom, and Dark Tutelage. ++ Blood Tribute, Temporal Extortion, and Wound Reflection.EDIT #2: --Gatekeeper of Malakir and Shred Memory. ++ Dark Tutelage and Dimir House Guard.
Any thoughts?
BBB Mikaeus, the Unhallowed BBB
UG Momir Vig, Simic Visionary UG
UB Grimgrin, Corpse-Born UB
Hatred for Drana since she's got the evasion, and it just ends the game.
Also a discard package including....
...is usually a pretty good choice. Also I run cards like Ad Nauseum (since 50+ cards in my deck cost 1 or less, usually draws about 14 cards at instant speed) and a whole host of artifact mana. In fact the Skithiryx deck in my sig was originally a Drana deck (about two days ago), and so far has only changed it's general. You might take a look at that.
Also I for one don't care for too many Dark Confidant effects in a deck. I know they are nice as they are reusable card draw but something like Promise of Power, Ambition's Cost, and Ancient Craving can be decent as well as they draw several cards for a set amount of life loss. I guess I just dont care for the Dark Tutelage much as what do you do when its in play and you are at low life? You mainly just die. Sure you might get that nev disk off to save yourself but I have seen my buddy die a lot to tutalage.
If you want one more means of killing off enchants you could add in All is Dust.
Signature by Inkfox Aesthetics by Xen
[Modern] Allies
Your swamps are very important. These lands are a waste; Cabal Pit, Mistifying Maze, Urborg, tomb of Yawgmoth and Strip Mine.
You have the 2 Coffers counting swamps then the Lens, Gauntlent and Nirkana Revenant(where is she!?) doubling your swamps.
These EDH MBC builds are basically mana ramping decks. Your swamps count for 2-3 mana each most of the time. Wasting land drops to Strip Mine a single land and remove a couple creatures is not as good as adding an extra 3 mana to your side of the table. Your General has built-in creature removal you don't need lands to do it for you. Once you get these non-swamps out you won't have to run Urborg or waste a tutor for it.
Also Urborg and Extraplanar Lens is helping your opponent waaaaay too much.
I would add a few more artifact acceleration as well. Thran Dynamo and Gilded Lotus are a big help. Doubling Cube or even better (though more expensive) Candelabra of Tawnos are game enders.
My Drana deck loves Temporal Extortion and Wound Reflection. Especially together. No Mercy is another standout in my build, but I only play multiplayer.
Mind Twist and Mind Shatter are great in 1 vs 1. They will fit right in with your Bloodhusk Ritualist. Take out that Mind Sludge!
Blood Tribute could sub for Sorin. Its even better if Drana or another vamp is out. If Wound Reflection is out its and insta-kill.
B Lover Since '09 ~
Standard:
meh.
Modern:
Urzatron GR
Vintage:
Contol-Slaver UBR
EDH:
Drana B
Jhoira UR
Savra BG
Turned into:
Adun Oakenshield BGR
Sharuum BUW
Turned into:
Memnarch U
KiKi-Jiki R
Turned into:
Godo R
Turned into:
Aurelia RW
The Mimeoplasm UBG
Rasputin Dreamweaver UW
Turned into:
Geist of Saint Traft -French 1v1 UW
Nekusar UBR
Urborg + Extraplanar Lens doesn't help my opponents out in the least. Extraplanar Lens only cares about lands with the same name. Urborg also helps turn Coffers/Deserted Temple into swamps, helping the ramp I get off coffers. It also has good synergy with Sundering Titan, letting me nuke non-basics.
I don't know about cutting Pit and Maze. They're not over-the-top amazing, but they have helped me in keeping some stupid things in check. Exiling a Zur in response to his trigger (or after, asuming they don't give him shroud) is pretty good. Pit also kills the random Stillmoon Cavalier or Auriok Champion.
I'll definetely look into Blood Tribute and wound reflection. The Wound + Extortion synergy never crossed my mind; seems like fun times. I gotta get me some Sins of the Past for extra lulz.
I like Mind Sludge for 1v1, as it usually knocks out their hand completely when used at the right time. I'll try and nab that Mind Twist and Mind Shatter, though.
@Nidevinja: I've found that Thoughtseize, Duress, and IoK underpreform quite badly in EDH. I'll cehck your thread a little later when I'm not procrastinating form my college work.
BBB Mikaeus, the Unhallowed BBB
UG Momir Vig, Simic Visionary UG
UB Grimgrin, Corpse-Born UB
I can see the Maze being good early on, but how early do you have threshold to activate the Pit?
I've been meaning to add Nightmare Lash to my deck. Its seems really good for 1 vs 1 play.
B Lover Since '09 ~
Standard:
meh.
Modern:
Urzatron GR
Vintage:
Contol-Slaver UBR
EDH:
Drana B
Jhoira UR
Savra BG
Turned into:
Adun Oakenshield BGR
Sharuum BUW
Turned into:
Memnarch U
KiKi-Jiki R
Turned into:
Godo R
Turned into:
Aurelia RW
The Mimeoplasm UBG
Rasputin Dreamweaver UW
Turned into:
Geist of Saint Traft -French 1v1 UW
Nekusar UBR
That doesn't work either. It only applies if they are tapping basics for black mana.
In 1v1 if these cards aren't good against my opponent, then they've basically already lost. Mostly because it means that they don't have any cards that matter when I either combo them out or lock them out of the game in the usually between turns 3-6.
Even in Multiplayer, you simply hold them until you're planning on something, then level them at the player(s) mostly likely to have a solution to what you're doing.
I've actually always found the worse (read as overcosted) your deck, the worse these cards are for you. The top decks usually run about 36 lands, at least 14 things that cost one or zero (probably more if you're using the Official Banned List, and get all the nuts artifact accel)... In which case you likely have more than that. So half the time you're taking 0 or 1 from them.
Fixed.
Black Market, Extraplanar Lens, Gauntlet of Power, and Cabal Coffers aren't as slow as you think. They allow you to do really stupid things, like actually cast everything you drew off Memory Jar, abuse Yawgmoth's Will to the fullest, go crazy with Helldozer, Drana, Crypt Rats, Pestilence Demon, Masticore, etc... They're certainly better than Prismatic Lens, Coldsteel Heart, and Skull of Ramos. You're also running Dark Ritual, which blows in this format. It allows for ocassionally explosive starts, but one-shot cheap advantages aren't as good in EDH as they are in other formats.
You mention utility lands, yet all I see you running in your list are fetchlands... which really does puzzle me, as they don't really do anything except cost you a life. The only really good utility lands you seem to be running are the Ancient Tomb, Bojuka bog (though it's quite conditional) and to an extent, Dust Bowl.
I don't really like 100% consistent insta-win combos. The infinite mana combo is very hard to pull off and easily crippled by a well-aimed strip mine or wasteland. I don't play Hatred or Helm + Leyline for that reason. I'm trying out the whole Temporal Extortion/Blood Tribute + Wound Refection, but I probably won't play Tribute with a Reflection in play. The Extortion is different, as your opponents won't always lose half their life, so you can't just decide to off someone at random.
BBB Mikaeus, the Unhallowed BBB
UG Momir Vig, Simic Visionary UG
UB Grimgrin, Corpse-Born UB
See here's the thing, there is no such thing as a late game in competitive 1v1 EDH. So the problem with "top decking" them later doesn't really exist. My Drana deck's kill window was turns 7-8. (4-6 for Skithiryx). I'm not here for a mid game either, I'm here to kill them. So early discard is basically how I keep my general from being answered (very often), also it's how I stop Oona deck from killing me turns 3-4, Lands.dec killing me on turn 3, Arcum locking me out of the game on turns 3-4, forcing through threats against obnoxious mono blue counter decks... In fact EDH is such a horribly broken format (which is awesome!) that if I don't involve myself in my opponent's first few turns... I've already lost. Well against the good decks. If all my opponent does is play creatures with the intent of beating me down, and it doesn't involve their general, I can safely ignore them, they just don't matter.
Let's talk about the best possible setup you have for Cabal Coffers... if you drop just swamps and it... it produces...
0 on turn 1,
0 on turn 2,
0 on turn 3, (Remember it costs two and a tap to activate)
1 on turn 4, (It's now as good as Prismatic Lens, Coldsteel Heart, and Skull of Ramos)
2 on turn 5, (This turn it produces what Dark Ritual did)
3 on turn 6,
4 on turn 7,
So if you played it and 6 swamps in your first seven turns, and Cabal Coffers... You now have 10 mana. Of course to achieve this example and on average you have to run 50% lands, as you've only had 14 cards by this point.
I'm pretty certain I don't even need to explain why Black Market is bad... I mean not only must you get it out, which given you list has almost no accelerators looks like turn 5. Then you need a kill spell, which if you play on turn six.. you get one black mana on turn seven. Congratulations... you've created a swamp. But a defective one that only works on your precombat main phase.
Extraplanar Lens once again working on the best possible scenario of always playing a swamp, and of course your deck has no real way to speed it out so...
Turn 4 You net 4 mana.... since you had to imprint a swamp.
Turn 5 You net 6 Mana
Turn 6 You net 8 Mana
By this point you've played 7 of the 13 cards you've gotten. Again requiring 50% of your deck being Swamps.
Gauntlet of Power... comes down turn 5 in your list... and armed with 6 swamps... on turn 6 will give you 12 mana. Again assuming 50% swamps in your deck.
So even in the best possible way that they'd be good, they're all still painfully slow, and require a massive land commitment.
Now for some reason you're talking down cheap accelerators like Prismatic Lens, Coldsteel Heart, and Skull of Ramos. But I think what you're missing here, is that instead of loading my deck up with swamps, and hoping for late game mana, all of these cards work together to provide consistently explosive starts (I do run 14 accel cards, and tutors). Getting 6 mana on turn 3, is very possible, after all, we've got a very broken EDH mulligan rule, and a stack of cheap tutors to make certain that Sol Ring or Mana Crypt are going to happily help play these. So things like Swamp, Swamp, Vampiric Tutor (Gets Mana Crypt), is really 4 mana on turn 2. Heaven forbid I play another 2/3 cost mana artifact on turn... That's five mana on turn 3, even a land drop, six if I don't. Every example above in perfect conditions took 5-6 turns to achieve that. Not really certain why you'd call them bad. Test my list, see what I mean. Aggressively mull, and don't be afraid to level that first tutor at Mana Crypt, or Sol Ring.
Did you just called Strip Mine and Wasteland bad? They're also in my list, and as utility as they come. Also Ancient Tomb is not a utility land, it's a mana accel.
This is a fair statement, as it simply shows a difference in deck aims. I'm entirely coming from the hardcore competitive side. If however you're mostly aiming for a fun deck to play with your friends, then I most definitely won't begrudge you that. I'm told not everybody finds "broken" fun, in fact I think my play group might be odd for liking it so much.
Still I think you should run Hatred for flavor reasons, I mean look at her quote.
"If our former masters would have us kneel again, they shall feel our defiance slashed across their membranes."
Girl's got some hate there.
Really Donald? I said... "Making any basic land a Sol Ring for them". Please explain what doesn't work.
B Lover Since '09 ~
Standard:
meh.
Modern:
Urzatron GR
Vintage:
Contol-Slaver UBR
EDH:
Drana B
Jhoira UR
Savra BG
Turned into:
Adun Oakenshield BGR
Sharuum BUW
Turned into:
Memnarch U
KiKi-Jiki R
Turned into:
Godo R
Turned into:
Aurelia RW
The Mimeoplasm UBG
Rasputin Dreamweaver UW
Turned into:
Geist of Saint Traft -French 1v1 UW
Nekusar UBR
@ZemogFC: I'm pretty sure Gauntlet of Power doesn't interact with Urborg that way. When a mono-red deck taps a Mountain/Swamp, he can either tap it for red mana or colorless mana.
That sounds like a replacement effect, much like the one on River of Tears. If you remember the interaction with Reflecting Pool, you'll notice that the Pool only sees the river producing B or U as allowed by the replacement effect. There was a Cranial Extraction article with that question, IRC. So, the way I've been playing it, Gauntlet only helps decks that can already produce black mana. I'll double check the ruling when I get a chance to, but I'm pretty sure that's how it works.
Thanks for the feedback, guys.
BBB Mikaeus, the Unhallowed BBB
UG Momir Vig, Simic Visionary UG
UB Grimgrin, Corpse-Born UB
BBB Mikaeus, the Unhallowed BBB
UG Momir Vig, Simic Visionary UG
UB Grimgrin, Corpse-Born UB
BBB Mikaeus, the Unhallowed BBB
UG Momir Vig, Simic Visionary UG
UB Grimgrin, Corpse-Born UB