I feel bad for Umbra Stalker. A card with such potential and great art should not be so underused. Heck, even reanimator decks don't use him, so I decided to make a deck that will completely break it in half. While Chroma in itself is too linear of a mechanic for Johnnies to play around with, I think this decklist is quite the exception. I present...Dark Chroma.
Card Choices/Explanations:
Gamekeeper - Sole reason I'm splashing Green here. Unlike other Green cards that search the library for a creature to cheat into play (i.e. Pattern of Rebirth, Natural Order, etc), Gamekeeper does it by putting cards into the graveyard, which is absolutely crucial for Umbra Stalker to be huge.
But the problem lies in getting Umbra Stalker without running into other creatures - so I'm limiting myself to just the Stalker and Gamekeeper. It's very likely that 1 Gamekeeper will then run into a 2nd one, so I have free Sacrifice outlets in the form of Cabal Therapy, which will hopefully be dumped into the graveyard via Gamekeeper's trigger. Crippling Fatigue can also kill the Gamekeeper from the Graveyard if necessary. Hopefully by using these cards, we set off a chain of events that eventually land a huge Umbra Stalker.
Worm Harvest - the alternate win condition. It should be dumped fairly consistently by Gamekeeper along with a bunch of lands, setting up a huge, reusable token generator.
Stitch Together - As a one-of to be tutored up if necessary, deck should hit threshold fairly easily and it's a backup plan just in case the Umbra Stalker gets destroyed.
Deck Fix/Suggestions:
Not sure what to fix yet as I came up with this deck idea only a couple hours ago and I'm posting it now for critique before actually buying the cards. I feel like I've hit every spectrum a black deck can hit, but if I'm missing something please do tell.
Sideboard lists some cards that I couldn't quite fit into the final version, but all of them seem good enough for me to consider at least 1 copy to be tutored.
As always, comments and suggestions are always appreciated.
Needs Rancor or something like that. He's a big dude, no doubt, but he gets chump blocked all day. Helm of Kaldra and Horned Helm also give trample (and the helm's alt. ability is neat). Actually, just search for equipment that gives trample. You'll find a really neat list.
Whispersilk Cloak could be an alternative to the Urborg+Filth combo mentioned above.
The problem with Whispersilk Cloak in a build revolving around a creature with a CMC of 7 is that it is a dead card until you can get him out. With Filth he can still do some damage and chump block. You will not want to Cloak the Gamekeeper either because her whole job is to go to the graveyard, so you want to recklessly attack with her. Plus lands are harder to deal with than enchantments (and it gives umbra +1/+1 for each Filth in the GY).
Also, some more really good options for this would be Innocent Blood and Damnation/Mutilate (cheaper version, gives all creatures -4/-4 by the time you can play it, so its still very strong).
Additionally, I would drop the green as it isn't doing too much here. Or if you want to keep it, throw in Pernicious Deed.
Additionally, I would drop the green as it isn't doing too much here. Or if you want to keep it, throw in Pernicious Deed.
Why in the world would I drop Green here? Gamekeeper is the only Green card in here, and taking that out means taking apart the entire deck. Did people actually read the description and the decklist?
Althought not really a good card to actually use, Temporal Extortion would do great in the graveyard with its :symb::symb::symb::symb: casting cost.
Yeah BBBB is nice for the Umbra, which is why I have it listed in the Sideboard. But the deck doesn't actually benefit from taking an extra turn, which makes this card an overcosted Cantrip.
Needs Rancor or something like that. He's a big dude, no doubt, but he gets chump blocked all day. Helm of Kaldra and Horned Helm also give trample (and the helm's alt. ability is neat). Actually, just search for equipment that gives trample. You'll find a really neat list.
Whispersilk Cloak could be an alternative to the Urborg+Filth combo mentioned above.
Chump-blocking is obviously a concern for a big creature without evasion. Adding Filth screws with the game-plan, so absolutely not. Adding auras and equipment in a deck with 6 creatures total is simply ineffective and they'll be dead cards most of the time. There's a reason why there's so much removal here - it's to avoid chump blocking and attack undeterred. I feel that adding more forms of unblockability is redundant.
Also, some more really good options for this would be Innocent Blood and Damnation/Mutilate (cheaper version, gives all creatures -4/-4 by the time you can play it, so its still very strong).
I question the usefulness of Dark Ritual in a deck like this. What am I ramping to? The most useful scenario would be a Turn 2 Gamekeeper that gets sacrificed to a flashbacked Cabal Therapy. If I don't have a sacrifice outlet on turn 2, then it will probably happen on Turn 3. Even with Ritual, I don't think that's fast enough to warrant its inclusion.
The deck is meant to slow play as a mono-black control deck until I draw into Gamekeeper or tutor for it, then drop a huge Umbra Stalker out of nowhere.
As for Innocent Blood, it's listed in the Sideboard already, but I think the removal suite I have here already is fine. I originally wanted to include 4, but after dropping the Umbra Stalker, it becomes rather useless so I decided not to include it.
But I do like Mutilate - I'll probably take out 2 Unmake for them. I can't have Damnation destroying the Umbra, so I would prefer the Mutilate.
Diabolic Intent however, is a dead card most of the time. The goal was to get Gamekeeper into the graveyard, but to do it with spells that aren't dead most of the time. Cabal Therapy is a good example of this. I can play it even without a creature.
It's just a way to dump some of crappier cards in your hand to fuel your graveyard mana symbol count while searching for the card you need. Plus there's no rule about only getting cards with costs less than your lands, so you can double duty discard out cards you don't need at the time and get the one you do, while pumping your Umbra Stalker at the same time.
It's just a way to dump some of crappier cards in your hand to fuel your graveyard mana symbol count while searching for the card you need. Plus there's no rule about only getting cards with costs less than your lands, so you can double duty discard out cards you don't need at the time and get the one you do, while pumping your Umbra Stalker at the same time.
The drawback of only getting cards with CMC less than your current land count is irrelevant here. Most of the cards have a lower CMC count than 3. Searching for Gamekeeper is important, and while I can't do that on Turn 3 with Beseech the Queen, I can't do that early with Insidious Dreams either. And I would never want to search up Worm Harvest or Umbra Mystic.
The only advantage I see is discarding to get a nice number for Pox to take advantage of.
I like Insidious Dreams a lot and use it in a lot of my decks, but I don't think it's the best choice here. If I need to discard useless cards to fuel my graveyard, then I'll stick with Pox. If I need to increase the Black mana count (which should be unnecessary since Gamekeeper should be able to do that by itself), then Beseech the Queen provides Triple Black compared to Insidious Dreams' 1 black.
Worm harvest is only good with your two pox, and even then it's still bad without fetchlands. I'd cut those for damnations.
I don't think you know how the deck works at all. Pox was never meant to fuel Worm Harvest. After triggering Gamekeeper, you mill your library until you hit one of the 5 creatures left, and by the time you do, you would have milled a bunch of lands.
Since the deck is built to sacrifice again should we run into another Gamekeeper via the 1st's trigger, that means more cards will be put into the graveyard until we hit a nice fat Umbra Stalker. Of course, that means the number of lands in the graveyard will have increased even more.
It's a backup plan for Umbra Stalker, but it should hold itself up very well as a solid-win condition. It's triple Black mana cost also fuels Umbra Stalker. I'd say it's a win-win card.
I still am not sold on green. I think it needs to go.
The direction I can see this deck going in that will not get screwed over as bad by graveyard hate is to go stictly black. Use cards like Hymn and Duress for hand disruption, any of black's great removal--Damnation, Mutilate, Innocent Blood, Diabolic Edict, Grasp of Darkness-- and to make the Umbra massive, use creatures like Demigod of Revenge teamed with Buried Alive. On turn one you can set up your Umbra to be an 13/13 unblockable creature by dropping a Dark Rit+Buried Alive pulling out two Demigods and a Filth. Then while you build up your mana you can sit back and control the game. Other cards to think about would be Putrid Imp and Zombie Infestation that serve two purposes: getting those high CC creatures into the graveyard, and stalling the game longer.
I just think the deck needs to be a little more versatile so a card as simple as Bojuka Bog doesn't completely dessimate it. It has some potential. But I mean look at your build. You have some sub-par cards in there just because of their CC. It would become a stronger deck to have more than just the one creature to win with. Give yourself some options that allow you to play cards regardless of how many is in their casting cost. And where the ones with a lot of can be useful in other ways if need be
I still am not sold on green. I think it needs to go.
The direction I can see this deck going in that will not get screwed over as bad by graveyard hate is to go stictly black. Use cards like Hymn and Duress for hand disruption, any of black's great removal--Damnation, Mutilate, Innocent Blood, Diabolic Edict, Grasp of Darkness-- and to make the Umbra massive, use creatures like Demigod of Revenge teamed with Buried Alive. On turn one you can set up your Umbra to be an 13/13 unblockable creature by dropping a Dark Rit+Buried Alive pulling out two Demigods and a Filth. Then while you build up your mana you can sit back and control the game. Other cards to think about would be Putrid Imp and Zombie Infestation that serve two purposes: getting those high CC creatures into the graveyard, and stalling the game longer.
I just think the deck needs to be a little more versatile so a card as simple as Bojuka Bog doesn't completely dessimate it. It has some potential. But I mean look at your build. You have some sub-par cards in there just because of their CC. It would become a stronger deck to have more than just the one creature to win with. Give yourself some options that allow you to play cards regardless of how many is in their casting cost. And where the ones with a lot of can be useful in other ways if need be
Just my two cents.
You do realize that the situation you're talking about - your "ideal" version of my deck - gets hated out by graveyard destruction just as easily as my current build right?
Duress isn't stopping any Bojuka Bogs anytime soon, Hymn To Tourach is already in the deck. The "real" solution would be something like Sadistic Sacrament, or a very lucky, well-timed, (and may I add, SUBPAR) discard spell that allows you hit lands as well. Even then, it will never stop Leyline of the Void.
So yeah cards like that will hate out my deck, but they'll also stop your 1st turn Ritual, Buried Alive, or whatever variation of my deck you want to create. By the way, who in the world maindecks graveyard hate for Casual? People don't even do that for Legacy/Vintage tournaments. Graveyard hate is useless most of the time, and okay, if my opponent by any chance does pull out graveyard hate I'll just play a different deck. The point is, not every black deck puts in Bojuka Bog, and not every deck plays Tormod's Crypt which can fit into any deck. If that was the case, I wouldn't make my build like this.
And you're telling me to "Use cards like Hymn and Duress for hand disruption, any of black's great removal--Damnation, Mutilate, Innocent Blood, Diabolic Edict, Grasp of Darkness" ? Hymn/Mutiliate/Grasp are in the deck already, and I've explained in detail why I don't need Damanation/Innocent Blood. Either way, it's not even a substantial change to the deck. You're basically just listing your favorite removal spells which may or may not marginally improve the deck.
Also, Putrid Imp/Zombie Infestation in a deck like this? The deck would have to greatly adapt to these additions or otherwise suffer from major card disadvantage. If "subpar" was ever applicable to this deck (and I don't believe any cards in my original list are "subpar"), these two cards would be just that.
Anyway, back to your vision of the deck. So you want the deck to slowroll to 7 mana while filling the graveyard with creatures via self-discard. Meanwhile, control the board with black's best removal spells/stalling techniques.
Congratulations, you just listed a run-of-the-mill, MBC deck with a random black fattie as a finisher. Do you understand what the point of the deck was? It was to make Umbra Stalker really shine, and do something that other decks cannot do. In the situation you list with Buried Alive into Demigod of Revenge, the gameplan is obviously to pull out all 3 Demigods by casting a 4th. Umbra Stalker would hardly be the star of that deck - it wouldn't even be an afterthought. You can't even call it "versatile", since it gets hated out by everything this deck already gets hated out by.
There's a very good reason why Umbra Stalker is rarely used, even in Mono-Black decks. It's simply outclassed by much more efficient, hard-beating creatures. But I wanted to include it in a deck where it's better than a Grave Titan, or Kokusho, the Evening Star, or Dread, Nightmare, Tombstalker, etc. A deck where Umbra Stalker is truly irreplaceable as a core creature, and Gamekeeper allows for that.
But I swear, the day one of my decklists gets moved to the primer page even on a common deck like Burn or MBC is the day I quit playing Magic altogether. If I wanted to build your regular MBC, I would have built MBC. Meanwhile, I have yet to hear an intelligent, compelling suggestion on how to really improve the deck.
Wow, someone is touchy. I didn't mean to offend. And I never said those cards were NOT currently in the deck.
And I wasn't suggesting Putrid Imp and [card]Zombie Infestation[card] in this build.
Other cards to think about would be Putrid Imp and Zombie Infestation
Key word: would. Talking about the alternate I was suggesting.
As the deck stands now, it looks like 80% of the time you will be winning with tokens, not the card in question. You have built a Worm Harvest-focused deck. Only thing that needs replacing is the Stalker with something like Creakwood Liege and you've got yourself a great WH deck.
No need to get so affronted. You're playgroup is different than mine obviously. Of course the critiques I offer will be from the standpoint of who I play against.
Edit: I am not telling you you have a bad deck, it looks solid. But the concentration is more on Worm Harvest. If you were posting this as such, there would not be much to change as it looks good. But since you are trying to build a deck abusing Umbra Stalker (of course, I am assuming this as the title is "Dark Chroma") I am just offering an alternative build that takes advantage of him.
I don't know what decklist you're looking at, but Worm Harvest is far from the focus of the deck. If I was building around Worm Harvest, I would be including fetchlands, dredge cards, Scapeshift or go an entirely different route. In fact, very few of the cards currently in this decklist would make it over to a Worm Harvest deck, should I ever make one. The main combo is and always will be Gamekeeper + Umbra Stalker. The deck focuses on getting that to work - and Worm Harvest is merely a sideshow. In fact, if I called this a Worm Harvest deck, it would be a really bad Worm Harvest deck. I'd actually be embarassed to call it that.
Basically in your criticisms, you haven't made any real substantial suggestions to truly take advantage of Umbra Stalker, nor made a real compelling argument to drop Green and Gamekeeper. I think Gamekeeper + Umbra Stalker should win games by itself, and if that's not truly abusing Umbra Stalker, I don't know what is. Worm Harvest mills well with Gamekeeper and assists with Chroma, which is why its in here. The deck could very well win with both - a 20/20 Stalker or 10 worm tokens, but I don't believe adding Worm Harvest diminishes the star power of Umbra Stalker at all.
If your critiques were truly from the viewpoint of who you play against, then you must play against people who maindeck narrow hate like Bojuka Bog. Otherwise, the suggestions you mention in this thread (Extortion, Ritual, Filth, Duress, etc) are hardly meta-specific, and have nothing to do with who you or I play against. Those cards are played in every playgroup.
And the alternative build you suggested - the Buried Alive w/ Demigods? That's making the deck revolve around the Demigods as I said before, and it undermines Umbra Stalker even more than what you suggest Worm Harvest is doing now. In that deck, you would win with the Demigods 99% of the time - so by your argument, it's even worse than making the "focus" on Worm Harvest.
So I'm not angry at you specifically - I'm merely lashing out at the number of uneducated comments on this thread - comments that really show a lack of understanding of how the deck functions, and suggestions that are completely contradictory to even the poster's own arguments.
Actual suggestion here: Profane command. Dude, it's removal, has BB for chroma, reanimates your dead umbra stalker if you have one, gives it fear. What more could you want?
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Thank you! Finally a decent suggestion. I really like it - although I doubt I'll ever get to 9 mana to revive the Stalker. Fear + removal + possible alternate win condition is nice. Low CMC searchability with Beseech the Queen + BB with Chroma is just excellent.
I did consider Phthisis - but it's too easily played around for it to be effective. Additionally, there's a chance that it will be an auto-loss for me if I have it out with Umbra Stalker. If my opponent has no creatures, then I'm forced to cast Phthisis off the suspend, I have to target my own creature, most likely losing me over 20 life.
Techie card for your SB? I expect play this one a good bit over the next year.
Hermit Druid is a card that I pondered over for a moment. I know it was the core combo piece with Sutured Ghoul in the deck Angry Hermit, which is actually the inspiration for this deck. It's also the reason why Krosan Reclamation is in the sideboard as a 1-of, an homage to the original deck.
But Hermit Druid requires a deck with nonbasics, and I'm afraid I can't drop that much money on dual lands and fetchlands just for casual play. It would be awesome and give the deck another layer of consistency, but I'd like to keep this deck budget, as with all decks I make.
Gate to Phyrexia is interesting, but probably too narrow for casual play. I think I would prefer Putrefy if I needed artifact destruction.
17 Swamp
4 Tainted Wood
2 Llanowar Wastes
Creatures 6
2 Umbra Stalker
4 Gamekeeper
Disruption Spells 20
2 Pox
4 Unmake
4 Grasp of Darkness
4 Hymn to Tourach
4 Cabal Therapy
2 Crippling Fatigue
4 Sign in Blood
4 Beseech the Queen
2 Worm Harvest
1 Stitch Together
2 Kaervek's Spite
2 Syphon Life
2 Hideous End
2 Innocent Blood
2 Barter in Blood
2 Smallpox
2 Death Wish
1 Temporal Extortion
Card Choices/Explanations:
Gamekeeper - Sole reason I'm splashing Green here. Unlike other Green cards that search the library for a creature to cheat into play (i.e. Pattern of Rebirth, Natural Order, etc), Gamekeeper does it by putting cards into the graveyard, which is absolutely crucial for Umbra Stalker to be huge.
But the problem lies in getting Umbra Stalker without running into other creatures - so I'm limiting myself to just the Stalker and Gamekeeper. It's very likely that 1 Gamekeeper will then run into a 2nd one, so I have free Sacrifice outlets in the form of Cabal Therapy, which will hopefully be dumped into the graveyard via Gamekeeper's trigger. Crippling Fatigue can also kill the Gamekeeper from the Graveyard if necessary. Hopefully by using these cards, we set off a chain of events that eventually land a huge Umbra Stalker.
Unmake, Grasp of Darkness - good removal that can even target black creatures. BB/BBB mana costs help pump Umbra Stalker to the max.
Pox - acts as a possible sacrifice outlet for Gamekeeper, BBB mana cost is great for the deck, and its effect is huge.
Hymn to Tourach, Sign in Blood, Beseech the Queen - pretty standard discard, draw, tutor, the best that black offers with all Black mana costs.
Worm Harvest - the alternate win condition. It should be dumped fairly consistently by Gamekeeper along with a bunch of lands, setting up a huge, reusable token generator.
Stitch Together - As a one-of to be tutored up if necessary, deck should hit threshold fairly easily and it's a backup plan just in case the Umbra Stalker gets destroyed.
Deck Fix/Suggestions:
Not sure what to fix yet as I came up with this deck idea only a couple hours ago and I'm posting it now for critique before actually buying the cards. I feel like I've hit every spectrum a black deck can hit, but if I'm missing something please do tell.
Sideboard lists some cards that I couldn't quite fit into the final version, but all of them seem good enough for me to consider at least 1 copy to be tutored.
As always, comments and suggestions are always appreciated.
R: Copypasta Sauce {Browbeat}
UR: Mana Cache , One Spell to Bind them All {Magnetic Theft}
UG: Epic Struggle , All-In-Poison {Metamorphosis}
UW: Planar Overlay , Decree of the Bailiff {Saprazzan Bailiff}
BG: Thought Gorger , Dark Chroma {Umbra Stalker}
UBR: Dwarven Shrine
WUBRG: Dissipation Field , Maelstrom Nexus
Also, to make Umbra worthwhile, he needs some sort of evasion. Maybe add Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth. Then add in a few Filth to make him unblockable.
Also, Diabolic Intent could work as a tutor in this build, because I am assuming the goal of Gamekeeper is to get to the graveyard.
Whispersilk Cloak could be an alternative to the Urborg+Filth combo mentioned above.
I would also recomment some Dark Rituals.
Also, some more really good options for this would be Innocent Blood and Damnation/Mutilate (cheaper version, gives all creatures -4/-4 by the time you can play it, so its still very strong).
Additionally, I would drop the green as it isn't doing too much here. Or if you want to keep it, throw in Pernicious Deed.
Why in the world would I drop Green here? Gamekeeper is the only Green card in here, and taking that out means taking apart the entire deck. Did people actually read the description and the decklist?
Yeah BBBB is nice for the Umbra, which is why I have it listed in the Sideboard. But the deck doesn't actually benefit from taking an extra turn, which makes this card an overcosted Cantrip.
Chump-blocking is obviously a concern for a big creature without evasion. Adding Filth screws with the game-plan, so absolutely not. Adding auras and equipment in a deck with 6 creatures total is simply ineffective and they'll be dead cards most of the time. There's a reason why there's so much removal here - it's to avoid chump blocking and attack undeterred. I feel that adding more forms of unblockability is redundant.
I question the usefulness of Dark Ritual in a deck like this. What am I ramping to? The most useful scenario would be a Turn 2 Gamekeeper that gets sacrificed to a flashbacked Cabal Therapy. If I don't have a sacrifice outlet on turn 2, then it will probably happen on Turn 3. Even with Ritual, I don't think that's fast enough to warrant its inclusion.
The deck is meant to slow play as a mono-black control deck until I draw into Gamekeeper or tutor for it, then drop a huge Umbra Stalker out of nowhere.
As for Innocent Blood, it's listed in the Sideboard already, but I think the removal suite I have here already is fine. I originally wanted to include 4, but after dropping the Umbra Stalker, it becomes rather useless so I decided not to include it.
But I do like Mutilate - I'll probably take out 2 Unmake for them. I can't have Damnation destroying the Umbra, so I would prefer the Mutilate.
Diabolic Intent however, is a dead card most of the time. The goal was to get Gamekeeper into the graveyard, but to do it with spells that aren't dead most of the time. Cabal Therapy is a good example of this. I can play it even without a creature.
Not GG, unless I'm missing something. What advantage does Insidious Dreams provide that Beseech the Queen doesn't already?
R: Copypasta Sauce {Browbeat}
UR: Mana Cache , One Spell to Bind them All {Magnetic Theft}
UG: Epic Struggle , All-In-Poison {Metamorphosis}
UW: Planar Overlay , Decree of the Bailiff {Saprazzan Bailiff}
BG: Thought Gorger , Dark Chroma {Umbra Stalker}
UBR: Dwarven Shrine
WUBRG: Dissipation Field , Maelstrom Nexus
It's just a way to dump some of crappier cards in your hand to fuel your graveyard mana symbol count while searching for the card you need. Plus there's no rule about only getting cards with costs less than your lands, so you can double duty discard out cards you don't need at the time and get the one you do, while pumping your Umbra Stalker at the same time.
The drawback of only getting cards with CMC less than your current land count is irrelevant here. Most of the cards have a lower CMC count than 3. Searching for Gamekeeper is important, and while I can't do that on Turn 3 with Beseech the Queen, I can't do that early with Insidious Dreams either. And I would never want to search up Worm Harvest or Umbra Mystic.
The only advantage I see is discarding to get a nice number for Pox to take advantage of.
I like Insidious Dreams a lot and use it in a lot of my decks, but I don't think it's the best choice here. If I need to discard useless cards to fuel my graveyard, then I'll stick with Pox. If I need to increase the Black mana count (which should be unnecessary since Gamekeeper should be able to do that by itself), then Beseech the Queen provides Triple Black compared to Insidious Dreams' 1 black.
R: Copypasta Sauce {Browbeat}
UR: Mana Cache , One Spell to Bind them All {Magnetic Theft}
UG: Epic Struggle , All-In-Poison {Metamorphosis}
UW: Planar Overlay , Decree of the Bailiff {Saprazzan Bailiff}
BG: Thought Gorger , Dark Chroma {Umbra Stalker}
UBR: Dwarven Shrine
WUBRG: Dissipation Field , Maelstrom Nexus
I don't think you know how the deck works at all. Pox was never meant to fuel Worm Harvest. After triggering Gamekeeper, you mill your library until you hit one of the 5 creatures left, and by the time you do, you would have milled a bunch of lands.
Since the deck is built to sacrifice again should we run into another Gamekeeper via the 1st's trigger, that means more cards will be put into the graveyard until we hit a nice fat Umbra Stalker. Of course, that means the number of lands in the graveyard will have increased even more.
It's a backup plan for Umbra Stalker, but it should hold itself up very well as a solid-win condition. It's triple Black mana cost also fuels Umbra Stalker. I'd say it's a win-win card.
R: Copypasta Sauce {Browbeat}
UR: Mana Cache , One Spell to Bind them All {Magnetic Theft}
UG: Epic Struggle , All-In-Poison {Metamorphosis}
UW: Planar Overlay , Decree of the Bailiff {Saprazzan Bailiff}
BG: Thought Gorger , Dark Chroma {Umbra Stalker}
UBR: Dwarven Shrine
WUBRG: Dissipation Field , Maelstrom Nexus
The direction I can see this deck going in that will not get screwed over as bad by graveyard hate is to go stictly black. Use cards like Hymn and Duress for hand disruption, any of black's great removal--Damnation, Mutilate, Innocent Blood, Diabolic Edict, Grasp of Darkness-- and to make the Umbra massive, use creatures like Demigod of Revenge teamed with Buried Alive. On turn one you can set up your Umbra to be an 13/13 unblockable creature by dropping a Dark Rit+Buried Alive pulling out two Demigods and a Filth. Then while you build up your mana you can sit back and control the game. Other cards to think about would be Putrid Imp and Zombie Infestation that serve two purposes: getting those high CC creatures into the graveyard, and stalling the game longer.
I just think the deck needs to be a little more versatile so a card as simple as Bojuka Bog doesn't completely dessimate it. It has some potential. But I mean look at your build. You have some sub-par cards in there just because of their CC. It would become a stronger deck to have more than just the one creature to win with. Give yourself some options that allow you to play cards regardless of how many is in their casting cost. And where the ones with a lot of can be useful in other ways if need be
Just my two cents.
You do realize that the situation you're talking about - your "ideal" version of my deck - gets hated out by graveyard destruction just as easily as my current build right?
Duress isn't stopping any Bojuka Bogs anytime soon, Hymn To Tourach is already in the deck. The "real" solution would be something like Sadistic Sacrament, or a very lucky, well-timed, (and may I add, SUBPAR) discard spell that allows you hit lands as well. Even then, it will never stop Leyline of the Void.
So yeah cards like that will hate out my deck, but they'll also stop your 1st turn Ritual, Buried Alive, or whatever variation of my deck you want to create. By the way, who in the world maindecks graveyard hate for Casual? People don't even do that for Legacy/Vintage tournaments. Graveyard hate is useless most of the time, and okay, if my opponent by any chance does pull out graveyard hate I'll just play a different deck. The point is, not every black deck puts in Bojuka Bog, and not every deck plays Tormod's Crypt which can fit into any deck. If that was the case, I wouldn't make my build like this.
And you're telling me to "Use cards like Hymn and Duress for hand disruption, any of black's great removal--Damnation, Mutilate, Innocent Blood, Diabolic Edict, Grasp of Darkness" ? Hymn/Mutiliate/Grasp are in the deck already, and I've explained in detail why I don't need Damanation/Innocent Blood. Either way, it's not even a substantial change to the deck. You're basically just listing your favorite removal spells which may or may not marginally improve the deck.
Also, Putrid Imp/Zombie Infestation in a deck like this? The deck would have to greatly adapt to these additions or otherwise suffer from major card disadvantage. If "subpar" was ever applicable to this deck (and I don't believe any cards in my original list are "subpar"), these two cards would be just that.
Anyway, back to your vision of the deck. So you want the deck to slowroll to 7 mana while filling the graveyard with creatures via self-discard. Meanwhile, control the board with black's best removal spells/stalling techniques.
Congratulations, you just listed a run-of-the-mill, MBC deck with a random black fattie as a finisher. Do you understand what the point of the deck was? It was to make Umbra Stalker really shine, and do something that other decks cannot do. In the situation you list with Buried Alive into Demigod of Revenge, the gameplan is obviously to pull out all 3 Demigods by casting a 4th. Umbra Stalker would hardly be the star of that deck - it wouldn't even be an afterthought. You can't even call it "versatile", since it gets hated out by everything this deck already gets hated out by.
There's a very good reason why Umbra Stalker is rarely used, even in Mono-Black decks. It's simply outclassed by much more efficient, hard-beating creatures. But I wanted to include it in a deck where it's better than a Grave Titan, or Kokusho, the Evening Star, or Dread, Nightmare, Tombstalker, etc. A deck where Umbra Stalker is truly irreplaceable as a core creature, and Gamekeeper allows for that.
But I swear, the day one of my decklists gets moved to the primer page even on a common deck like Burn or MBC is the day I quit playing Magic altogether. If I wanted to build your regular MBC, I would have built MBC. Meanwhile, I have yet to hear an intelligent, compelling suggestion on how to really improve the deck.
R: Copypasta Sauce {Browbeat}
UR: Mana Cache , One Spell to Bind them All {Magnetic Theft}
UG: Epic Struggle , All-In-Poison {Metamorphosis}
UW: Planar Overlay , Decree of the Bailiff {Saprazzan Bailiff}
BG: Thought Gorger , Dark Chroma {Umbra Stalker}
UBR: Dwarven Shrine
WUBRG: Dissipation Field , Maelstrom Nexus
And I wasn't suggesting Putrid Imp and [card]Zombie Infestation[card] in this build.
Key word: would. Talking about the alternate I was suggesting.
As the deck stands now, it looks like 80% of the time you will be winning with tokens, not the card in question. You have built a Worm Harvest-focused deck. Only thing that needs replacing is the Stalker with something like Creakwood Liege and you've got yourself a great WH deck.
No need to get so affronted. You're playgroup is different than mine obviously. Of course the critiques I offer will be from the standpoint of who I play against.
Edit: I am not telling you you have a bad deck, it looks solid. But the concentration is more on Worm Harvest. If you were posting this as such, there would not be much to change as it looks good. But since you are trying to build a deck abusing Umbra Stalker (of course, I am assuming this as the title is "Dark Chroma") I am just offering an alternative build that takes advantage of him.
Basically in your criticisms, you haven't made any real substantial suggestions to truly take advantage of Umbra Stalker, nor made a real compelling argument to drop Green and Gamekeeper. I think Gamekeeper + Umbra Stalker should win games by itself, and if that's not truly abusing Umbra Stalker, I don't know what is. Worm Harvest mills well with Gamekeeper and assists with Chroma, which is why its in here. The deck could very well win with both - a 20/20 Stalker or 10 worm tokens, but I don't believe adding Worm Harvest diminishes the star power of Umbra Stalker at all.
If your critiques were truly from the viewpoint of who you play against, then you must play against people who maindeck narrow hate like Bojuka Bog. Otherwise, the suggestions you mention in this thread (Extortion, Ritual, Filth, Duress, etc) are hardly meta-specific, and have nothing to do with who you or I play against. Those cards are played in every playgroup.
And the alternative build you suggested - the Buried Alive w/ Demigods? That's making the deck revolve around the Demigods as I said before, and it undermines Umbra Stalker even more than what you suggest Worm Harvest is doing now. In that deck, you would win with the Demigods 99% of the time - so by your argument, it's even worse than making the "focus" on Worm Harvest.
So I'm not angry at you specifically - I'm merely lashing out at the number of uneducated comments on this thread - comments that really show a lack of understanding of how the deck functions, and suggestions that are completely contradictory to even the poster's own arguments.
R: Copypasta Sauce {Browbeat}
UR: Mana Cache , One Spell to Bind them All {Magnetic Theft}
UG: Epic Struggle , All-In-Poison {Metamorphosis}
UW: Planar Overlay , Decree of the Bailiff {Saprazzan Bailiff}
BG: Thought Gorger , Dark Chroma {Umbra Stalker}
UBR: Dwarven Shrine
WUBRG: Dissipation Field , Maelstrom Nexus
Actual suggestion here: Profane command. Dude, it's removal, has BB for chroma, reanimates your dead umbra stalker if you have one, gives it fear. What more could you want?
Thanks to Darth Monkey and SGT_Chubbz at Damnation Studios for the sig and banner.
R: Copypasta Sauce {Browbeat}
UR: Mana Cache , One Spell to Bind them All {Magnetic Theft}
UG: Epic Struggle , All-In-Poison {Metamorphosis}
UW: Planar Overlay , Decree of the Bailiff {Saprazzan Bailiff}
BG: Thought Gorger , Dark Chroma {Umbra Stalker}
UBR: Dwarven Shrine
WUBRG: Dissipation Field , Maelstrom Nexus
Thanks to Darth Monkey and SGT_Chubbz at Damnation Studios for the sig and banner.
R: Copypasta Sauce {Browbeat}
UR: Mana Cache , One Spell to Bind them All {Magnetic Theft}
UG: Epic Struggle , All-In-Poison {Metamorphosis}
UW: Planar Overlay , Decree of the Bailiff {Saprazzan Bailiff}
BG: Thought Gorger , Dark Chroma {Umbra Stalker}
UBR: Dwarven Shrine
WUBRG: Dissipation Field , Maelstrom Nexus
Maybe Hermit Druid?
Death Stroke over Crippling Fatigue maybe? Eh, maybe not.
Rite of Consumption could be a fun surprise.
Techie card for your SB? I expect play this one a good bit over the next year.
Fully-powered 600-Card "Dream Cube" https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/dreamcube
450-Card "Artificer's Cube" https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/artificer
Cubing in Indianapolis...send me a PM!!
Hermit Druid is a card that I pondered over for a moment. I know it was the core combo piece with Sutured Ghoul in the deck Angry Hermit, which is actually the inspiration for this deck. It's also the reason why Krosan Reclamation is in the sideboard as a 1-of, an homage to the original deck.
But Hermit Druid requires a deck with nonbasics, and I'm afraid I can't drop that much money on dual lands and fetchlands just for casual play. It would be awesome and give the deck another layer of consistency, but I'd like to keep this deck budget, as with all decks I make.
Gate to Phyrexia is interesting, but probably too narrow for casual play. I think I would prefer Putrefy if I needed artifact destruction.
R: Copypasta Sauce {Browbeat}
UR: Mana Cache , One Spell to Bind them All {Magnetic Theft}
UG: Epic Struggle , All-In-Poison {Metamorphosis}
UW: Planar Overlay , Decree of the Bailiff {Saprazzan Bailiff}
BG: Thought Gorger , Dark Chroma {Umbra Stalker}
UBR: Dwarven Shrine
WUBRG: Dissipation Field , Maelstrom Nexus