[Primer] Karador, the Ghost Chieftain - Utility Rock
Deck's Focus
Karador focuses mainly on creature reanimation, making your creatures work twice(or more) as hard. The Junk colors (GWB) features the best reanimation spells in the MTG color pie, which makes this deck even more powerful. Karador decks mainly win through attrition by slowly wearing down the opponent using creatures that recurs.
Player mindset This deck is good for you if:
- You like toolbox decks. Having answers to just about anything and everything
- Tutoring and Shuffling is in your blood.
- You don't mind trading creatures with opponent's creatures
What you will not find in this deck:
- Captain Planet (with your powers combine!) aka Voltron style play
- Aggro swarming (Ghave, the Guru of Spores is seriously much better)
- Extreme solitairing (Sorry that Junk colors doesn't include U)
How does the deck look like?
This is my current version of the deck, enlisting the help of the hive mind. Cards are listed by function/packages rather than type.
We just can't let our general do all the work alone by himself. These are the helpers that help him make reanimation a breeze.
Karmic Guide / Reveillark - One of the best white recur engines that Junk has to offer. A must include. Reveillark is one of the key influences of creature choice in this deck. Do take note that it can bring any 2 creatures with power 2 or lesser back onto the battlefield.
Saffi Eriksdotter / Sun Titan - Another absurd recur engine that is GW. Sun Titan is the 2nd key influence of creature choice
Animate Dead / Necromancy - Enchantment/aura based reanimation cards. These 2 are the best choices amongst others that has similar functions. They make excellant Sun Titan targets too.
Nim Deathmantle - Artifact based, Sun Titan recurrable reanimator
Sheoldred, Whispering One - Semi-STAX based reanimator. The best of its class for function and cost.
Recur Targets - Utility Creatures
Set of toolbox creatures that will kill anything and everything. (Besides PWs)
Eternal Witness - Regrowth on a stick. Pass the SunTitan/Reveillark test.
Bone Shredder - Terror on a stick. Pass the SunTitan/Reveillark test. Self-sacrifice makes it seals the deal to be included.
Acidic Slime - De-facto creature to include for any EDH deck that runs G. Reveillark recurrable. 5cc to kill off any non-creature (minus PW) permanents that comes with a deathtouch 2/2 body.
Quasli Pridemage - Disenchant/Naturalize on a stick. Pass the SunTitan/Reveillark test. Exalted is icing on the cake.
Entomber Exarch - I can't describe how good this card is in Karador. If you are facing a meta running full of U players, you will appreciate the sheer power of this creature. Knowing what is in your opponent's hand + ability to discard a counterspell/annoying piece (Bribery, Mind over Matter) makes this a powerful include. The exarch's 2nd ability is also good for recurring utility creatures.
Coffin Queen - SunTitan/Reveillark recurrable, animate dead on a stick. Has an innate ability to exile opponent's creatures from their graveyards too.
Puppeteer Clique - Similar to Coffin Queen but is faster and has persist.
Spike Feeder - I've been debating on whether to use this or Kitchen Finks. Ability to self sacrifice + Sun'larkable makes it a slightly better choice.
Fiend Hunter - Innistrad has brought us this gem. A Sun'larkable Faceless Butcher is what this deck needs. The reason why I choose Fiend Hunter over Duplicant is the extra synergies this card is able to offer. It enables extra ETB effects on my own creatures, permanent exile (like Duplicant) when a sacrifice channel is present, and lastly it enables interesting shenanigans with our general himself. Gives our general the ability to cast more than 1 creature from our graveyard on a single turn.
Sliver Package (Mini)
Long live the hive mind! Junk colored Slivers have the most utility amongst the rest of the hive mind. We have anti-enchantment/artifact, anti permanent, disruption, life gain and mana ramp.
One good lockdown synergy that the slivers provide is the interaction between Gemhide and Mindlash Sliver. It makes Karador able to lockdown an opponent by making him discard the card he draws during his draw step (unless he wants to cast that as an/if it is instant) by sacrificing the Mindlash Sliver/or any other sliver. Gemhide is there to provide the 1mana necessary to make it worthwhile. Being able to reanimate back the sacrificed Sliver during our turn makes the 'lockdown' feasible (or use the reveillark loop).
Blasting Station - Sac' engine, 3cc wincon that Sun Titan likes.
Ramps
This has been a list with numerous ins and outs. Green has alot to offer for mana ramps, like sorcery/instant speed ramps. Focus here is on creature ramps rather than sorcery ramps as they provide a body to reduce Karador's cost when they die.
Coalition Relic - Currently I can't find any good creature that does what this do. Bloom Tender is a strong contender but still pales in comparsion to this.
Sol Ring - No other alternative. This is the best artifact ramp.
Eternal Dragon - Best landcycling creature in Junk colors. Early land tutor + late fattie.
Nothing much to say for tutors. Junk has too many of them. I'll highlight those which are worthy to talk about.
Birthing Pod - Very powerful card to run in Karador. My current de-facto pod list is any 3cc creature -> Entomber Exarch (4cc) -> Karmic Guide (5cc), bringing back Entomber for another round of discard. Next turn drop Karmic guide, pod, Exarch for Reveillark for a nice little semi discard lockdown vs U players (my playgroup just has too many of them... Niv Mizzet, Jhoira, Numot, Rafiq, Azami).
Woodfall Primus - Persist non-creature destroyer at his best.
Archon of Justice - Rattlesnake card, effective against all permanents.
Mindslicer - The card that U hates the most. Drop all their carefully sculpted hands. Often or not players will spend a counter on this.
Aura of Silence - An enchantment/artifact tax card that also works as a disenchant/naturalize. Sun Titan friendly.
Liliana of the Veil - Mostly used for her +1 (discard) and -2 (edict) abilities .
Praetor's Grasp - A very very versatile card. Doesn't affect the board state but it helps in a lot of ways. Remove opponent's wincon, or take away their graveyard hate. Can be used as a pseudo-ramp spell too (target lands and mana rocks, sol ring ftw)
Oppression - A card under testing phase. Liked it for the disruption it offers, has a casting cost low enough to be enabled on early turns and is Sun Titan friendly.
Life's Finale - A very good sweeper to compliment a reanimator deck. Possible to do extended combos depending on which 3 creatures you take from opponent's library. Puppeteer's Clique's companion. Update, shifted Life's Finale to sideboard due to meta changes. There are plenty of wipes to go around my meta currently.
Hermit Druid - Too powerful and deem it unfun if I slot it in.
Rune-Scarred Demon - Meta/Playgroup dependent. Not a favorite card of mine as it is a very beautiful Bribery/Clone target.
Terastodon - See Rune-scarred Demon. If you see a U player ramp up to 7mana... cast bribery followed by Phantasmal Image, you know you just lost the race.
Bojuka Bog - Having a gy removal on a land is good. Having your opponent Vesuva targetting your own backyard (err graveyard) is not.
"Some of the other guys dared me to go out, but I knew it weren't no ordinary giant giga-blasting blaze of unending flames that would scorch the whole world."
—Norin the Wary
Thanks for the suggestions. Grim Backwoods is definitely going into the deck. I just need to find which land to cut, an extra way to sacrifice a creature is always welcomed
Jar of Eyeballs looks really interesting. I like the 'low profile~ness' of the card, low threat level means more likely to activate. Nice little tech, thanks. I'll try when I get a copy of it.
Speaking about Jar of Eyeballs, another 'rather similar' card is Cream of the Crop. It is a nice way to 'filter' your top deck whenever you recur a creature with power 2 and above. Combos nicely with its partner in arms Lurking Predators.
I had forgotten all about the cream. Idk if it would end up better or not. Personally, I'd like the jar better since I don't run the predators and I like being able to dig really, really deep.
But to each his own I suppose.
"Some of the other guys dared me to go out, but I knew it weren't no ordinary giant giga-blasting blaze of unending flames that would scorch the whole world."
—Norin the Wary
Not really. My playgroup(s) don't really play infect/poison/wither. As for her interaction with the persist guys, there are 2 other cards in Junk which are better suited for the role as they provide more buffs (Juniper Order Ranger & Mikaeus, the Unhallowed).
It was in my previous version of Karador prior to the Slivers package, took it out to test out the slivers. A very situational card in my opinion, most of the time I find that I don't really need the card. This might change when I play more games with Mikaeus on the field. It has good interaction with the legendary zombie.
Yet to try Lurking Predators extensively. Most of the time this kind of cards will be the first to be countered due to the threat they have. My playgroup usually consists of 4 players, with me having the only deck which has no U in it, the rest of the players are all packed with FoWs, Pact of Negations, Cryptic commands and others.
As for Wild Pair and Hunting Grounds, for the former my deck is more optimised for a pod chain rather than a P/T combi. As for the latter most of the time I do not have enough creatures on my hand to fully abuse it (due to the amount of mass discards I play)
I get my crypts/relics/claws/bogs using Praetor's Grasp. Since my opponents are running them I might as well use it against them, it also lowers the amount of gy hate they can use on me.
I realize most of these questions are probably extremely meta dependant.
Boseiju, Who Shelters All is in my current deck list, missed it out when I first post the primer. Thanks for reminding me.
Dosan the Falling Leaf & City of Solitude are both very good cards to use. In my meta if I play these I'll sure be hated out to the max. Before I took out 3 cards to test out the slivers package, I had Grand Abolisher as the 'U prison' of my choice. Opponents' counterspells are actually very useful, they can be used to counter other opponent's spells, as long as they counter mine during my turn.
I really liked the inclusion of slivers into Karador. Their hive mind (sharing of abilities) gives them even more utility combined. Feel very inclined to test out Gemhide Sliver as a replacement for Coalition Relic. What do you guy think?
I am packing a Triskelion. That way a resolved Tooth and Nail can be game over, if the opponent does not have an instant answer
Yep Triskelion is a nice addition to add, he is the gatling of choice for our Mikaeus, the Unhallowed :D. However besides Mikaeus, Trisk has little to no synergy with the rest of the deck, apart of being able to be reanimated with Reveillark. Triskelion suits a Ghave deck more where his +1/+1 counters can be abused more.
Edit: 26th Feb 2012.
Oppression is not working as intended. Not really happy to draw it and it does not make a huge impact when it hits the field. Paints a huge target mark on me.
Gemhide Sliver. Very powerful card to use in replacement of coalition relic. Makes the small team of 5 slivers very deadly in Karador. Another thing to note is with gemhide it makes it easier to make opponents go into topdeck mode (due to Mindlash Sliver).
Inclusion of green creatures (14 green creatures currently) means Green Sun's Zenith is much more viable in this deck. Very useful for grabbing the small utility creatures like Gemhide (Mana ramp), Harmonic (Anti Enchantment/Artifact) & Darkheart Slivers (Lifegain).
Cards under scutiny:
Buried Alive - Have not found any good use of it yet apart from dumping creatures into my graveyard, more often or not my graveyard will get hated out when I play Karador. Probably will keep if I find a slot to place its counterpart Living Death
Perilous Forays - An ok ramp card but most of the time not really happy to see it when I draw it.
It is time of the year for updates due to new card releases
Avacyn Restored has brought Karador quite a number of nice minions for him to command.
Below are some of my considerations for Karador.
Priority Considerations: Harvester of Souls - Personal non-token Fecundity on a 5/5 deathtouch body? Sign me on!
What makes him so intriguing is the amount of 'insurance' he provides. With him in a multiplayer field, each and every creature sweep your opponent casts to reset the board will give you card advantage (aka Decree of Pain). Not to mention he has good synergy with your own self sacrifice outlets (eg. echo creatures, evoke creatures, birthing pod strategies)
Soul of the Harvest - Green's variation of the Harvester of Souls. Only triggers when a non-token creature comes into play on Karador's side. Both the Black and the Green are good, with black as 'sweep insurance' and green having more ways to tutor it out. Green also combos really nicely with reanimators like Animate Dead.
Ulvenwald Tracker - A nice little 'Contested Cliffs' on a stick. This can serve as a nice "sacrifice outlet", on some occasions our 'sacrificee' can bring someone else down together too.
Cards which are good but low priority:
Griselbrand - Good card draw on a stick but the casting cost really irks me. BBBB is really taxing on a tri-color deck like Karador and most of the time when Karador reaches the capability to utilize the demon, Karador already has a good chance to win.
Deck's Focus
Karador focuses mainly on creature reanimation, making your creatures work twice(or more) as hard. The Junk colors (GWB) features the best reanimation spells in the MTG color pie, which makes this deck even more powerful. Karador decks mainly win through attrition by slowly wearing down the opponent using creatures that recurs.
Player mindset
This deck is good for you if:
- You like toolbox decks. Having answers to just about anything and everything
- Tutoring and Shuffling is in your blood.
- You don't mind trading creatures with opponent's creatures
What you will not find in this deck:
- Captain Planet (with your powers combine!) aka Voltron style play
- Aggro swarming (Ghave, the Guru of Spores is seriously much better)
- Extreme solitairing (Sorry that Junk colors doesn't include U)
How does the deck look like?
This is my current version of the deck, enlisting the help of the hive mind. Cards are listed by function/packages rather than type.
1 Karador, Ghost Chieftain
Recur Package (8)
1 Karmic Guide
1 Reveillark
1 Saffi Eriksdotter
1 Sun Titan
1 Animate Dead
1 Necromancy
1 Nim Deathmantle
1 Sheoldred, Whispering One
Recur Targets - Utility Creatures (9)
1 Eternal Witness
1 Bone Shredder
1 Acidic Slime
1 Quasli Pridemage
1 Entomber Exarch
1 Coffin Queen
1 Puppeteer Clique
1 Fleshbag Maruader
1 Fiend Hunter
Sliver Package (Moderate) (5)
1 Harmonic Sliver
1 Necrotic Sliver
1 Mindlash Sliver
1 Darkheart Sliver
1 Gemhide Sliver
Win-cons (1)
1 Blasting Station
Ramps (8)
1 Yavimaya Dryad
1 Primeval Titan
1 Wood Elves
1 Yavimaya Elder
1 Sol Ring
1 Eternal Dragon
1 Elvish Aberration
1 Perilous Forays
Tutors (12)
1 Tooth and Nail
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Academy Rector
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Survival of the Fittest
1 Birthing Pod
1 Buried Alive
1 Entomb
1 Fierce Empath
1 Chord of Calling
1 Green Sun's Zenith
Control (7)
1 Yosei, the Morning Star
1 Woodfall Primus
1 Archon of Justice
1 Mindslicer
1 Aura of Silence
1 Liliana of the Veil
1 Praetor's Grasp
1 Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
Draws (4)
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Sylvan Library
1 Greater Good
1 Skullclamp
Targetted Removal (2)
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Beast Within
Board sweeps (2)
1 Asustere Command
1 Pernicious Deed
Sacrifice Channels (1)
1 Ashnod's Altar
Crucible Package (2)
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Life from the Loam
Lands (37)
1 Scrubland
1 Savannah
1 Bayou
1 Godless Shrine
1 Temple Garden
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 High Market
1 Miren, the Moaning Well
1 Phyrexian Tower
1 Grim Backwoods
1 Strip Mine
1 Mistveil Plains
1 Murmuring Bosk
1 Flagstones of Trokair
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Marsh Flats
1 Kor Haven
1 Barren Moor
1 Secluded Steppe
1 Tranquil Thicket
1 Commander's Tower
1 Reflecting Pool
1 Isolated Chapel
1 Woodland Cemetery
1 Sunpetal Grove
1 Fetid Heath
1 Twilight Mire
1 Wooded Bastion
1 Boseiju, who Shelters All
2 Plains
3 Forest
3 Swamp
1 Life's Finale
Card Listing Breakdown, Explanations {and Alternatives, coming soon}
We just can't let our general do all the work alone by himself. These are the helpers that help him make reanimation a breeze.
Karmic Guide / Reveillark - One of the best white recur engines that Junk has to offer. A must include. Reveillark is one of the key influences of creature choice in this deck. Do take note that it can bring any 2 creatures with power 2 or lesser back onto the battlefield.
Saffi Eriksdotter / Sun Titan - Another absurd recur engine that is GW. Sun Titan is the 2nd key influence of creature choice
Animate Dead / Necromancy - Enchantment/aura based reanimation cards. These 2 are the best choices amongst others that has similar functions. They make excellant Sun Titan targets too.
Nim Deathmantle - Artifact based, Sun Titan recurrable reanimator
Sheoldred, Whispering One - Semi-STAX based reanimator. The best of its class for function and cost.
Recur Targets - Utility Creatures
Eternal Witness - Regrowth on a stick. Pass the SunTitan/Reveillark test.
Bone Shredder - Terror on a stick. Pass the SunTitan/Reveillark test. Self-sacrifice makes it seals the deal to be included.
Acidic Slime - De-facto creature to include for any EDH deck that runs G. Reveillark recurrable. 5cc to kill off any non-creature (minus PW) permanents that comes with a deathtouch 2/2 body.
Quasli Pridemage - Disenchant/Naturalize on a stick. Pass the SunTitan/Reveillark test. Exalted is icing on the cake.
Entomber Exarch - I can't describe how good this card is in Karador. If you are facing a meta running full of U players, you will appreciate the sheer power of this creature. Knowing what is in your opponent's hand + ability to discard a counterspell/annoying piece (Bribery, Mind over Matter) makes this a powerful include. The exarch's 2nd ability is also good for recurring utility creatures.
Coffin Queen - SunTitan/Reveillark recurrable, animate dead on a stick. Has an innate ability to exile opponent's creatures from their graveyards too.
Puppeteer Clique - Similar to Coffin Queen but is faster and has persist.
Spike Feeder - I've been debating on whether to use this or Kitchen Finks. Ability to self sacrifice + Sun'larkable makes it a slightly better choice.
Fleshbag Maruader - Innocent Blood on a stick. Good alternative will be Abyssal Gatekeeper.
Fiend Hunter - Innistrad has brought us this gem. A Sun'larkable Faceless Butcher is what this deck needs. The reason why I choose Fiend Hunter over Duplicant is the extra synergies this card is able to offer. It enables extra ETB effects on my own creatures, permanent exile (like Duplicant) when a sacrifice channel is present, and lastly it enables interesting shenanigans with our general himself. Gives our general the ability to cast more than 1 creature from our graveyard on a single turn.
Sliver Package (Mini)
One good lockdown synergy that the slivers provide is the interaction between Gemhide and Mindlash Sliver. It makes Karador able to lockdown an opponent by making him discard the card he draws during his draw step (unless he wants to cast that as an/if it is instant) by sacrificing the Mindlash Sliver/or any other sliver. Gemhide is there to provide the 1mana necessary to make it worthwhile. Being able to reanimate back the sacrificed Sliver during our turn makes the 'lockdown' feasible (or use the reveillark loop).
Harmonic Sliver, Necrotic Sliver, Mindlash Sliver, Darkheart Sliver, Gemhide Sliver
Win-cons
Ramps
Yavimaya Dryad / Wood Elves - 3cc that ramps for Forest. Good for decks that run shocks/duals.
Primeval Titan - Too strong not to include. He is in the ramp department as he gets lands.
Solemn Simulacrum - Card advantage on a 4cc colorless creature. Yavimaya Elder is another card vying for this slot.
Coalition Relic - Currently I can't find any good creature that does what this do. Bloom Tender is a strong contender but still pales in comparsion to this.
Sol Ring - No other alternative. This is the best artifact ramp.
Eternal Dragon - Best landcycling creature in Junk colors. Early land tutor + late fattie.
Elvish Aberration - A Gilded Lotus/Thran Dynamo that landcycles.
Perilous Forays - Nice card to spit out lands by sacrificing a creature for 1. Help protect creatures from Tuck effects Chaos Wrap and Exile effects Swords to Plowshares.
Tutors
Birthing Pod - Very powerful card to run in Karador. My current de-facto pod list is any 3cc creature -> Entomber Exarch (4cc) -> Karmic Guide (5cc), bringing back Entomber for another round of discard. Next turn drop Karmic guide, pod, Exarch for Reveillark for a nice little semi discard lockdown vs U players (my playgroup just has too many of them... Niv Mizzet, Jhoira, Numot, Rafiq, Azami).
Control
Yosei, the Morning Star - One of white's best control creature cards.
Woodfall Primus - Persist non-creature destroyer at his best.
Archon of Justice - Rattlesnake card, effective against all permanents.
Mindslicer - The card that U hates the most. Drop all their carefully sculpted hands. Often or not players will spend a counter on this.
Aura of Silence - An enchantment/artifact tax card that also works as a disenchant/naturalize. Sun Titan friendly.
Liliana of the Veil - Mostly used for her +1 (discard) and -2 (edict) abilities .
Praetor's Grasp - A very very versatile card. Doesn't affect the board state but it helps in a lot of ways. Remove opponent's wincon, or take away their graveyard hate. Can be used as a pseudo-ramp spell too (target lands and mana rocks, sol ring ftw)
Oppression - A card under testing phase. Liked it for the disruption it offers, has a casting cost low enough to be enabled on early turns and is Sun Titan friendly.
Sweep Protection
Draws
Sensei's Divining Top - Card Quality ftw.
Sylvan Library - Card Quality which doubles as a good draw if one can spare the life.
Greater Good - One of the best draws/discard/sac enchantment which fits perfectly with Karador. SunTitan/Saffi engine likes it.
Skullclamp - Turn your creature deaths into card advantage with this equipment.
Board sweeps
Pernicious Deed - Sun Titan friendly sweeper
Life's Finale - A very good sweeper to compliment a reanimator deck. Possible to do extended combos depending on which 3 creatures you take from opponent's library. Puppeteer's Clique's companion. Update, shifted Life's Finale to sideboard due to meta changes. There are plenty of wipes to go around my meta currently.
Sacrifice Channels
Crucible Package
Crucible of Worlds , Life from the Loam
Notable Omissions
Rune-Scarred Demon - Meta/Playgroup dependent. Not a favorite card of mine as it is a very beautiful Bribery/Clone target.
Terastodon - See Rune-scarred Demon. If you see a U player ramp up to 7mana... cast bribery followed by Phantasmal Image, you know you just lost the race.
Bojuka Bog - Having a gy removal on a land is good. Having your opponent Vesuva targetting your own backyard (err graveyard) is not.
Updates
13th February 2012:
- 1x Spike Feeder, + 1x Darkheart Sliver
- 1x Life's Finale, + 1x Oppression
- 1x Plains, + 1x Boseiju, who Shelters All
- 1x Homeward Path, + 1x Grim Backwoods
26th February 2012:
-1x Oppression, +1x Green Sun's Zenith
-1x Coalition Relic, +1x Gemhide Sliver
-1x Solemn Simulacrum, +1x Yavimaya Elder
Comments and suggestions are greatly welcomed. Will do my best to answer to all questions :3
WUBRG Reaper King - Elf Tribal WUBRG | Tribal Fun
WRG Gishath, Sun's Avatar - Dinosaur Tribal WRG | Rawr!!!
WUG Derevi, Empyrial Tactician - Enchantress Tactics WUG | Enchantments Focused
GBG The Gitrog Monster - Land Shenanigans GBG | Lands/Mill Focused
WBW Kambal, Consul of Life Allocation Matters WBW | Life Gain/Loss focused
UBR Kess, Dissident Mage of the Lotus UBR | Spellslinger
BGB Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons - Counters & Tokens BGB | -1/-1 counters focused
Might I suggest Grim Backwoods and Jar of Eyeballs for more ca?
Cockatrice Username: seriph0
@blackkithkin20:
Thanks for the suggestions. Grim Backwoods is definitely going into the deck. I just need to find which land to cut, an extra way to sacrifice a creature is always welcomed
Jar of Eyeballs looks really interesting. I like the 'low profile~ness' of the card, low threat level means more likely to activate. Nice little tech, thanks. I'll try when I get a copy of it.
Speaking about Jar of Eyeballs, another 'rather similar' card is Cream of the Crop. It is a nice way to 'filter' your top deck whenever you recur a creature with power 2 and above. Combos nicely with its partner in arms Lurking Predators.
WUBRG Reaper King - Elf Tribal WUBRG | Tribal Fun
WRG Gishath, Sun's Avatar - Dinosaur Tribal WRG | Rawr!!!
WUG Derevi, Empyrial Tactician - Enchantress Tactics WUG | Enchantments Focused
GBG The Gitrog Monster - Land Shenanigans GBG | Lands/Mill Focused
WBW Kambal, Consul of Life Allocation Matters WBW | Life Gain/Loss focused
UBR Kess, Dissident Mage of the Lotus UBR | Spellslinger
BGB Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons - Counters & Tokens BGB | -1/-1 counters focused
But to each his own I suppose.
Cockatrice Username: seriph0
1. Do you consider anything having to do with Melira, Sylvok Outcast too powerful?
2. Why exclude Living Death?
3. Why no room for Lurking Predators, Wild Pair, or Hunting Grounds?
4. Why no anti-graveyard hate like Riftsweeper or True Believer or Leyline of Sanctity?
5. Why no graveyard hate like Scavenging Ooze or Loaming Shaman? I guess your lack of green explains why you opted out of running Green Sun's Zenith.
Sounds like you really hate blue. I'm surprised you don't run Dosan the Falling Leaf or Gaea's Herald or Boseiju, Who Shelters All or City of Solitude.
I realize most of these questions are probably extremely meta dependant.
Not really. My playgroup(s) don't really play infect/poison/wither. As for her interaction with the persist guys, there are 2 other cards in Junk which are better suited for the role as they provide more buffs (Juniper Order Ranger & Mikaeus, the Unhallowed).
It was in my previous version of Karador prior to the Slivers package, took it out to test out the slivers. A very situational card in my opinion, most of the time I find that I don't really need the card. This might change when I play more games with Mikaeus on the field. It has good interaction with the legendary zombie.
Yet to try Lurking Predators extensively. Most of the time this kind of cards will be the first to be countered due to the threat they have. My playgroup usually consists of 4 players, with me having the only deck which has no U in it, the rest of the players are all packed with FoWs, Pact of Negations, Cryptic commands and others.
As for Wild Pair and Hunting Grounds, for the former my deck is more optimised for a pod chain rather than a P/T combi. As for the latter most of the time I do not have enough creatures on my hand to fully abuse it (due to the amount of mass discards I play)
So far I have no trouble with the amount of graveyard hates in my meta.
5. Why no graveyard hate like Scavenging Ooze or Loaming Shaman? I guess your lack of green explains why you opted out of running Green Sun's Zenith.[/QUOTE]
I get my crypts/relics/claws/bogs using Praetor's Grasp. Since my opponents are running them I might as well use it against them, it also lowers the amount of gy hate they can use on me.
Boseiju, Who Shelters All is in my current deck list, missed it out when I first post the primer. Thanks for reminding me.
Dosan the Falling Leaf & City of Solitude are both very good cards to use. In my meta if I play these I'll sure be hated out to the max. Before I took out 3 cards to test out the slivers package, I had Grand Abolisher as the 'U prison' of my choice. Opponents' counterspells are actually very useful, they can be used to counter other opponent's spells, as long as they counter mine during my turn.
The 3 cards I took out prior to the slivers are:
- Grand Abolisher
- Living Death
- Pattern of Rebirth
WUBRG Reaper King - Elf Tribal WUBRG | Tribal Fun
WRG Gishath, Sun's Avatar - Dinosaur Tribal WRG | Rawr!!!
WUG Derevi, Empyrial Tactician - Enchantress Tactics WUG | Enchantments Focused
GBG The Gitrog Monster - Land Shenanigans GBG | Lands/Mill Focused
WBW Kambal, Consul of Life Allocation Matters WBW | Life Gain/Loss focused
UBR Kess, Dissident Mage of the Lotus UBR | Spellslinger
BGB Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons - Counters & Tokens BGB | -1/-1 counters focused
13th February 2012:
- 1x Spike Feeder, + 1x Darkheart Sliver
- 1x Life's Finale, + 1x Oppression
- 1x Plains, + 1x Boseiju, who Shelters All
- 1x Homeward Path, + 1x Grim Backwoods
I really liked the inclusion of slivers into Karador. Their hive mind (sharing of abilities) gives them even more utility combined. Feel very inclined to test out Gemhide Sliver as a replacement for Coalition Relic. What do you guy think?
WUBRG Reaper King - Elf Tribal WUBRG | Tribal Fun
WRG Gishath, Sun's Avatar - Dinosaur Tribal WRG | Rawr!!!
WUG Derevi, Empyrial Tactician - Enchantress Tactics WUG | Enchantments Focused
GBG The Gitrog Monster - Land Shenanigans GBG | Lands/Mill Focused
WBW Kambal, Consul of Life Allocation Matters WBW | Life Gain/Loss focused
UBR Kess, Dissident Mage of the Lotus UBR | Spellslinger
BGB Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons - Counters & Tokens BGB | -1/-1 counters focused
Yep Triskelion is a nice addition to add, he is the gatling of choice for our Mikaeus, the Unhallowed :D. However besides Mikaeus, Trisk has little to no synergy with the rest of the deck, apart of being able to be reanimated with Reveillark. Triskelion suits a Ghave deck more where his +1/+1 counters can be abused more.
Edit: 26th Feb 2012.
Oppression is not working as intended. Not really happy to draw it and it does not make a huge impact when it hits the field. Paints a huge target mark on me.
Gemhide Sliver. Very powerful card to use in replacement of coalition relic. Makes the small team of 5 slivers very deadly in Karador. Another thing to note is with gemhide it makes it easier to make opponents go into topdeck mode (due to Mindlash Sliver).
Solemn Simulacrum is switched with Yavimaya Elder as he is needed in my other EDH.
Inclusion of green creatures (14 green creatures currently) means Green Sun's Zenith is much more viable in this deck. Very useful for grabbing the small utility creatures like Gemhide (Mana ramp), Harmonic (Anti Enchantment/Artifact) & Darkheart Slivers (Lifegain).
Cards under scutiny:
Buried Alive - Have not found any good use of it yet apart from dumping creatures into my graveyard, more often or not my graveyard will get hated out when I play Karador. Probably will keep if I find a slot to place its counterpart Living Death
Perilous Forays - An ok ramp card but most of the time not really happy to see it when I draw it.
Decklist updates:
-Oppression, +Green Sun's Zenith
-Coalition Relic, +Gemhide Sliver
-Solemn Simulacrum, +Yavimaya Elder
WUBRG Reaper King - Elf Tribal WUBRG | Tribal Fun
WRG Gishath, Sun's Avatar - Dinosaur Tribal WRG | Rawr!!!
WUG Derevi, Empyrial Tactician - Enchantress Tactics WUG | Enchantments Focused
GBG The Gitrog Monster - Land Shenanigans GBG | Lands/Mill Focused
WBW Kambal, Consul of Life Allocation Matters WBW | Life Gain/Loss focused
UBR Kess, Dissident Mage of the Lotus UBR | Spellslinger
BGB Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons - Counters & Tokens BGB | -1/-1 counters focused
Avacyn Restored has brought Karador quite a number of nice minions for him to command.
Below are some of my considerations for Karador.
Priority Considerations:
Harvester of Souls - Personal non-token Fecundity on a 5/5 deathtouch body? Sign me on!
What makes him so intriguing is the amount of 'insurance' he provides. With him in a multiplayer field, each and every creature sweep your opponent casts to reset the board will give you card advantage (aka Decree of Pain). Not to mention he has good synergy with your own self sacrifice outlets (eg. echo creatures, evoke creatures, birthing pod strategies)
Soul of the Harvest - Green's variation of the Harvester of Souls. Only triggers when a non-token creature comes into play on Karador's side. Both the Black and the Green are good, with black as 'sweep insurance' and green having more ways to tutor it out. Green also combos really nicely with reanimators like Animate Dead.
Somberwald Sage - A nice 'gilded lotus' replacement. Good to work in union with bloom tender.
Ulvenwald Tracker - A nice little 'Contested Cliffs' on a stick. This can serve as a nice "sacrifice outlet", on some occasions our 'sacrificee' can bring someone else down together too.
Cards which are good but low priority:
Griselbrand - Good card draw on a stick but the casting cost really irks me. BBBB is really taxing on a tri-color deck like Karador and most of the time when Karador reaches the capability to utilize the demon, Karador already has a good chance to win.
WUBRG Reaper King - Elf Tribal WUBRG | Tribal Fun
WRG Gishath, Sun's Avatar - Dinosaur Tribal WRG | Rawr!!!
WUG Derevi, Empyrial Tactician - Enchantress Tactics WUG | Enchantments Focused
GBG The Gitrog Monster - Land Shenanigans GBG | Lands/Mill Focused
WBW Kambal, Consul of Life Allocation Matters WBW | Life Gain/Loss focused
UBR Kess, Dissident Mage of the Lotus UBR | Spellslinger
BGB Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons - Counters & Tokens BGB | -1/-1 counters focused