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Aggro_zombies
10-12-2008, 12:14 AM
A Brief History
A while ago, I had a :b::r: EDH deck built around Rakdos the Defiler, and it was a blast to play. The deck was pretty suicidal in that it was designed to take advantage of sacrificing your own permanents in various ways, and of course if things went wrong, they often went hideously wrong (hence the fun part). The game always ended in a total blowout for either myself or my opponent, with about fifty-fifty odds as to which side got totally annihilated.

Enter Kresh. As Shards was being spoiled, it became apparent that Jund was the creature token-creature sacrifice shard that my deck needed. I knew that cards like Dragon Fodder and Predator Dragon where auto-ins, but I wasn't sold on going into green...until Kresh was spoiled.

Basically, Kresh is beast in a "suicidally sacrificing my own guys" deck. It's not that hard to do all 21 points of General damage in one swing. Furthermore, the fact that he's relatively cheap means it's also easy to get him out early and often, right around the time all the sacrificial engines start firing up.

Also, a note on the name: the deck is named after the Tool song "Vicarious," which is really appropriate given what the deck does.

List
General: Kresh the Bloodbraided

Creatures:
1 Deathgreeter

1 Nether Traitor
1 Nezumi Bone-Reader
1 Ravenous Rats
1 Skittering Skirge
1 Rakdos Guildmage
1 Keldon Marauders
1 Mogg War Marshall
1 Thunderscape Familiar
1 Golgari Guildmage

1 Chittering Rats
1 Dusk Urchins
1 Nantuko Husk
1 Phyrexian Ghoul
1 Skittering Horror
1 Stronghold Assassin
1 Fulminator Mage
1 Blood Cultist
1 Lyzolda, the Blood Witch
1 Hissing Igunanar
1 Jund Battlemage
1 Eternal Witness
1 Sprouting Thrinax

1 Crypt Champion
1 Magus of the Abyss
1 Mindslicer
1 Murderous Redcap
1 Savra, Queen of the Golgari

1 Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder
1 Puppeteer Clique
1 Shriekmaw
1 Caldera Hellion

1 Vein Drinker
1 Predator Dragon
1 Rakdos the Defiler
1 Drooling Groodion

Sorceries:
1 Life//Death
1 Innocent Blood
1 Chainer's Edict
1 Diabolic Intent
1 Night's Whisper
1 Dragon Fodder
1 Regrowth
1 Blightning
1 Firespout

Instants:
1 Grim Harvest
1 Terminate
1 Evolution Charm
1 Putrefy
1 Jund Charm

Enchantments:
1 Oversold Cemetery
1 Mind Slash
1 Phyrexian Arena
1 Grave Pact
1 Dawn of the Dead
1 Necrogenesis
1 Golgari Germination
1 Ooze Garden

Basic Lands:
11 Swamp
5 Mountain
4 Forest

Nonbasic Lands:
1 Rix Maadi, Dungeon Palace
1 Svogthos, the Restless Tomb
1 Volrath's Stronghold
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Jund Panorama
1 Terramophic Expanse
1 Blood Crypt
1 Graven Cairns
1 Rakdos Carnarium
1 Bayou
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Twilight Mire
1 Golgari Rot Farm
1 Taiga
1 Stomping Grounds
1 Savage Lands
1 Cabal Pit
1 Leechridden Swamp
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Geothermal Crevice
1 Keldon Necropolis

Lingering Questions
1) Do I need more sac outlets? The deck has a number of high-quality sacrifice outlets already, but the problem is that most of them are one-shot effects or are conditional. I have a feeling I need to add more repeatable sacrifice outlets to the deck in order to take advantage of its token-making and creature-recurring abilities. Does anyone have any good ideas? Rusalkas from Ravnica seem like a good call, or at least the red and black ones do. There's also Nantuko Husk's forebearer Phyrexian Ghoul, and their cousins Phyrexian Broodlings and Carrion Feeder. Stronghold Assassin may be another strong call.

2) Should I add mana acceleration? The Rakdos version of the deck had a lower curve and a much faster aggro component, while this deck is much more aggro-combo-control oriented. Adding in some mana artifacts or mana Elves could speed the deck up, but I'm also worried about diluting the deck's theme by doing so.

Thoughts?

EDIT: Replaced Bitterblossom with Grim Harvest, partially because I needed the Bitterblossom for another deck and partially because I think I prefer recursion over token generation here, by a slim margin. I also replaced Phyrexian Rager with Fulminator Mage. I'd been unhappy with Rager from the get-go, but kept it because the card draw is nice. Mage made the cut because it does something that can actually be relevant in some cases, but I may drop it back out for one of the aforementioned additional sacrifice creatures if I don't like it.

EDIT 2: Replaced Pyre Zombie with Stronghold Assassin, which is just better.

EDIT 3: Updated with a few modifications to the list, including the addition of Nezumi Bone-Reader as extra discard. Duress may be on the way eventually, as might Thoughtseize.

ThoseWhoFearTomorrow
10-12-2008, 12:35 AM
I really like this deck and was wanting to build around Kresh myself. Your list has given me some good ideas. A couple things:

1. I'm looking forward to playing with Necrogenesis. It seems like a much better Night Soil.

2. No evoke creatures? I thought that Shriekmaw is an autoinclude. Ingot Chewer and Briarhorn could also fit.

3. Sadistic Hypnotist is a great sac outlet and the CC shouldn't be bad since it is EDH and you have some time to set up. Combine with Nath of the Gilt-Leaf and your EDH group will hate you.

4. Kresh seems pretty vulnerable since GBR doesn't have many protection options besides Avoid Fate, discard and deflection type spells. Maybe include Whispersilk Cloak and Cloak and Dagger?

Aggro_zombies
10-12-2008, 12:46 AM
2. No evoke creatures? I thought that Shriekmaw is an autoinclude. Ingot Chewer and Briarhorn could also fit.
Shriekmaw is in there already, but Briarhorn is an interesting idea. I also considered Spitebellows, but never ended up working it in there.


1. I'm looking forward to playing with Necrogenesis. It seems like a much better Night Soil.
It is a much better Night Soil. It's ridiculous in matches against similar decks, and in a pinch I can remove stuff in my own yard to make tokens, though given how easy it is to return creatures from my yard to various other zones, I don't do it often.


3. Sadistic Hypnotist is a great sac outlet and the CC shouldn't be bad since it is EDH and you have some time to set up. Combine with Nath of the Gilt-Leaf and your EDH group will hate you.
Never thought of that, actually. I'll give it a spin.


4. Kresh seems pretty vulnerable since GBR doesn't have many protection options besides Avoid Fate, discard and deflection type spells. Maybe include Whispersilk Cloak and Cloak and Dagger?
I know this will raise some eyebrows, but this deck actually doesn't care much if Kresh dies. At one point early in development, I had a mini-combo going with Kresh, Witness, a recursion source, and Rite of Consumption. Make Kresh big, then feed him to your Rite to generate enormous swings in life totals. Rinse and repeat next turn. I ended up cutting the Rite for something else (Necrogenesis, I think), but the point is that you can get Kresh up to his previous size in one turn without breaking a sweat. It might be annoying to have him get removed from a lethal attack, but it's not a bother. I'll still look into some shroud options, though.

ThoseWhoFearTomorrow
10-12-2008, 12:52 AM
I missed Shriekmaw the first time through the list and caught it after I posted. Oops.


I know this will raise some eyebrows, but this deck actually doesn't care much if Kresh dies.

I kind of have tunnel vision here. I was just thinking about ways to make Kresh huge and swing with him. There are a lot of other synergies here and plenty of ways to win without a huge Kresh.

Goblin Bombardment is another sac outlet that could work in this deck. Low cost and effective.

EDIT: If you have two extra slots, it could be hilarious to add Scuzzback Marauders and Bramblewood Paragon. With Goblin Bombardment, it is infinite damage. It can make Kresh infinitely huge with a sac outlet. It makes Husk or Feeder huge. Plays nicely with Deathgreeter, Hissing Iguanar, and Stalking Vengeance. If you want to make this a focal point of your deck, you are already in black and green for tutoring and red has Gamble (for use with Volrath's Stronghold and even Genesis).