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.
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.