[Budget Versatility] Mono Black Clerics

[AceofAllan]

My budget has never allowed for a multicolored manabase, and as a result, I make mono-colored decks. You all know that this basically means that nothing I play will ever be competitive in legacy, but this deck comes close.

I believe I have made a very solid and versatile deck on a modest budget. This deck has several ways to win, can often pull a win out of nowhere, usually takes the opponent by surprise, and it has a surprising tendency to beat control decks. I am a little iffy about the sideboard. I think it gives me the options I need, but perhaps there's room for improvement (that doesn't cost much). So here goes nothing.

Decklist

Utility spells:
2x Last Gasp
2x Terror
2x Dash Hopes
2x Hymn to Tourach
3x Urborg Justice
4x Dark Ritual

Combo Enabler:
2x Oversold Cemetery

Creatures:
4x Rotlung Reanimator
4x Cabal Archon
4x Dark Supplicant
4x Soldevi Adnate
3x Shepherd of Rot
3x Order of the Ebon Hand
1x Scion of Darkness

Lands:
2x Starlit Sanctum
18x Swamp

Sideboard:
2x Dash Hopes
2x Hymn to Tourach
2x Last Gasp
2x Sadistic Glee
2x Vile Deacon
1x Oversold Cemetery
4x Deathgreeter

Strategy

So there are three general ways to win. First, you can fetch the Scion and beat with a 6/6 and potentially three 2/2 zombies (it's amazing how common this is). Second is to use the Archon's ability coupled with Oversold Cemetery until judgment day. Third is to center around the Shepherd of Rot; doomsday scenario but even using the Archon just once for a 4 life lead. Most of the time you use a combination of all three though, and sometimes you just beat with a massive zombie/cleric army. Two reanimators will give you more zombies than you know what to do with.

The deck centers largely around abilities instead of spells, which is where it beats control. With an early Supplicant, every cleric you summon after the second becomes a must counter. Burn has trouble with the deck too, because you sacrifice any creature he targets (this works with bounce too). Always be willing to sac in response.

A side note: I think this is the only deck to make good use of Urborg Justice.

Card Choice

Most of the choices here should be self explanatory. I know the Order of the Ebon hand ought to be Withered Wretch so the deck has a better way to deal with graveyards. I just don't have any and this was the next best thing.

Anyway, Hymn, Terror, Last Gasp, and Urborg Justice all synergize by putting creatures in the opponents graveyard for the Scion to take. Because of the supplicant, UJ is often a "You sacrifice three creatures and I get a fatty that reanimates your creatures" for just two black mana. Dash Hopes never counters anything, but once you get your enemy to 6-8 life, it only takes a few mana to sac enough clerics to finish him off. The Starlit Sanctum is there as a backup sac outlet when all I draw is Rotlungs and no Archons.

Soldevi Adnate is BEAUTIFUL in this deck. No one ever notices him sitting there. "He's tapped out, nothing he can do." Wrong. I have two mana waiting to pounce with a Dash Hopes, Urborg Justice, Last Gasp, Terror, or two sacs for an 8 life swing. Another point of versatility here: With Dark Rituals and Soldevi Adnate, there is a decently high chance that you can actually cast the Scion in the worst case scenarios.

Sideboard

Extra Last Gasps to replace Terror against artifact/black decks, or to add more creature kill if needed.

Extra Cemetery if you really need the combo.

Vile Deacons and Sadistic Glee are there when you need REALLY big attackers. These work very well with Starlit Sanctum as well.

Sometimes you need Hymn, sometimes you need Dash Hopes. Two of each in SB to replace the other for games 2/3. Let luck figure out what you need game one.

Deathgreeters. I gotta find something better for this. They aren't clerics, and I usually gain enough life from the Archon.

Let's say they have Swords to Plowshares for the Scion. Take him out for the Cemetery, leave the supplicants so they save the swords just in case.



What do you guys think? Give it a chance, it'll surprise you.

[purlqg]

Cool deck. Heres just some suggestions:
Vendetta instead of Terror? They cost one less and as you say the deck generates alot of life from the Archons and sanctums. This also gives you one more out to Lackey on the draw. + it kills dreadnaught and other artifact creatures like ravager/master of etherium and terror doesn't.

I don't undestand Dash Hopes it may be ok when you have your opponent under 10 life, but rest of the time it really sucks..... I would play hymn over it any time. The fact that the combo player can just laugh and pay the five life and then continue with what he was doing is just not worth it.

I would try to get some good sideboard stabbles like engineered plague against goblins/merfolk and relic of progenitus/tormod's crypt against graveyard strategies. They are quite cheap to so it wouldn't be a big investment.

:)

[eq.firemind]

AceofAllan, great idea!

I think you need Aether Vial in this deck. It's not expensive and you can always sell it back if it disappoints you.

The same is true for 2 Tormod's Crypts for sideboard.

Withered Wretch is cheap and with 3 Wretches main and 2 Crypts side you'll have significantly better chances against metagame.

Maybe you want Funeral Charm for its flexibility.

Recurring Nightmare can be nice addition to the deck.

If only you could spend money on Scrublands + Fetches, you'll get Swords to Plowshares(cheap and popular) AND Ethersworn Canonist (not expensive and popular). She's Cleric (Supplicantable), she's an artifact (Soldevi Adnatetable:smile:) and many decks hate to see her. I think 3 Scrublands and 4 Bloodstained Mires are worth buying (again, you can always sell them back the same price you bought 'em) and open some great options for your deck and for deckbuilding in general.

[AceofAllan]

I like Vendetta, and I'm getting my hands on some Withered Wretches.

I know Dash Hopes never counters anything, but it's the most life loss for mana cost that I have. The first one stings, a second one really burns. After that you're just a few sacrifices from dead.

Aether Vial could be deadly in this. A free archon at end of turn, then sac a few things with the mana I would have used to cast the archon? Sounds great.

The ethersworn canonist is excellent. It would be incredible because if the restriction ever bothers me, I can sac her at will. That could be amazing... I need some freakin' scrublands.

I think I like this deck mostly because of its backwards strategy.

"Muahahaha! Witness my army KILL ITSELF!!! Oh, and by the way I win."

[eq.firemind]

Hey, another great white cleric: Mother of Runes. Protecton for Scion is nice. Good first drop is priceless. Now you realy want that 4 Bloodstained Mire and 3 Scrubland, don't you? :tongue:

1-drops for your deck:
4 Dark Suplicant
3 Mother of Runes (maybe 4, but we don't want many :w: in deck)
4 Aether Vial in place of Dark Ritual (acts as a color fixer for :w: girls too).

2-drops:
3 Sheperd of Rot
4 Withered Wretch (one little thing: he's Zombie for Sheperd :wink:)
4 Ethersworn Canonist (maybe 3 main,1 side)
2 Oversold Cemetery. Maybe No Rest for the Wicked here? It can be explosive with Suplicant/Archon + Vial.

3-drops:
4 Cabal Archon
4 Rotlung Reanimator
1 Recurring Nightmare maybe?

Some thoughts on noncreature part:

First time I saw Dash Hopes I thought it suck. I've changed my mind after tests. It's surprisingly solid and may become even better with Vial freeing our mana.

Urborg Justice looks bad cause it's too situational, it needs open mana and many good decks can win with just 1 creature in play. Danger of cool things.

NO! Don't even try Vendetta! Terravore and the likes will laugh at you!
Try Snuff Out! It costs 1 less mana and dodges Counterbalance!

$$$ question
3(4)Scrubland = 100(135)$
4 Bloodstained Mire = 80$
3 Mother of Runes = 9 $
4 Ethersworn Canonist = 16$
4 Aether Vial = 20 $
Total: 225(260)$
Theese are the prices for new fresh NM/M cards from Starcity Games (read:slightly overpriced), wich means you can find all what you need for around 200(230)$. And if you don't mind worse quality cards, the price is even lower (around 170(200)$ I think).
170$ and even 200$ for great always-playable cards is not very big deal I think and, as I said before, you can ALWAYS sell the cards back for the same price you bought 'em (unless you spilled some coffee on :tongue:).

Almost forgot: Smother >>>> Terror and costs just 1.50$ on StarCity

[porcupinetreeman]

Here's the budget list I run. It actually beats of a lot of tier legacy decks. Make sure you don't go without reanimate, its the MVP.

4 Withered Wretch
4 Priest of Gix
4 Rotlung Reanimator
4 Order of the Ebon Hand
3 Shepherd of Rot
4 Cabal Archon
4 Dark Supplicant
1 Scion of Darkness

4 Dark Ritual
4 Hymn to Tourach
4 Reanimate

20 Swamp

[AceofAllan]

NO! Don't even try Vendetta! Terravore and the likes will laugh at you!
Try Snuff Out! It costs 1 less mana and dodges Counterbalance!

$$$ question
3(4)Scrubland = 100(135)$
4 Bloodstained Mire = 80$
3 Mother of Runes = 9 $
4 Ethersworn Canonist = 16$
4 Aether Vial = 20 $
Total: 225(260)$
Theese are the prices for new fresh NM/M cards from Starcity Games (read:slightly overpriced), wich means you can find all what you need for around 200(230)$. And if you don't mind worse quality cards, the price is even lower (around 170(200)$ I think).
170$ and even 200$ for great always-playable cards is not very big deal I think and, as I said before, you can ALWAYS sell the cards back for the same price you bought 'em (unless you spilled some coffee on :tongue:).

Silly me, forgot about snuff out. That would be NICE.

The budget there may look pretty small to most of you guys, but do you realize that triples the co$t of my deck? Someday down the road I may have that kind of spare cash, but right now I essentially have to stay monoblack.

I'm not dropping Urborg Justice. It may be a niche card, but too many times for me it has been a Diabolic Edict on steroids that clears the board. Block, sac, you lose 4, I gain 4. Sac an Adnate for two black, UJ, you sac three creatures. Most importantly, however, is that UJ can kill creatures without targeting them (Protection or Shroud workaround).

I wish I could fit the Priest of Gix in there somewhere. He seems like an easy way to get the cleric count up, but I want to keep my non-creature spells for the utility.

I've also considered using Conspiracy for an infinite-ish combo with zombie-cleric tokens, but it's just too much mana to be useful.

[syssc9]

Clerics

You guys are skating all around my casual/multi-player Cleric deck. Glad someone else sees the potential of Clerics. At the big table at my local card shop it has won out over as many as 7 other players on multiple occasions. Mine is B/W with duals, fetches, and Vindicates, so it doesn’t qualify as budget. But since I wasn’t using them anywhere else at the moment… Here’s the list:

Creatures
4 Soul Warden
3 Auriok Champion
1 Ancestor’s Prophet (for FUN!)
4 Children of korlis
4 Order of the Ebon Hand / Order of Leitbur
4 Cabal Archon
4 Rotlung Reanimator
3 Doubtless One

Non Creatures
3 Conspiracy
4 Ambition’s Cost
4 Vindicate

Land
4 Fetches
4 Scrubland
2 Tainted Field
12 Swamps/Plains

First of all look at the Land and notice the Tainted Fields. The Tainted lands seem to be the forgotten card in any mostly Black deck that splashes another color. I use them all the time to great affect and love them. 2, however, seems to be the right number. Also, I fully agree that Mother of Runes is a far better card in general than the Korlis Kids, or any other of my 1 or 2 drops, but the cheap crap you see above is based on the internal synergy of this particular deck. Besides, I have my moms in other more serious decks.

This thing appears downright silly at first glance, but works on a number of factors. First, I find other players, will notice I’m playing a bunch of clerics and quickly dismiss me as a misguided N00b, and turn there attention to the other players, the ones they perceive as the real threats. Usually by about the 3rd or 4th round of play they notice I am at 40 – 60 life, depending on the number of players, and start taking notice. By then it is often to late. My continued survival is based on the rampant life gain I get in multi-player. The kill, as others have mentioned, is based on the Archon. If you also have Rotlung in play you get lots of free blockers and can turn your 1/1’s into 2/2’s, not to mention paying Archon, doing damage and gaining even more life. And not just the life from Archons ability, think about the 7 life gaining Clerics I have in there as well. Lovely to block, sac to Archon, do 2 damage, get 2 life, then get 1 live for every Warden or Champ you have in play as the Rotlung triggers. And if you have more than one Rotlung in play, the whole thing borders on obscene. As was mentioned earlier, Conspiracy naming Clerics just makes everything that much worse. Now the damage you can do and the life you can gain are only dependent on the black mana you can muster. The overall structure of the deck can be tweaked in many directions. I built mine for fun.

[Shabbaman]

You can easily splash white if you run Twisted abominations and a single shockland. But monoblack is already good as it is. You could consider Ancient tomb in addition to Dark ritual and run more expensive spells. Living death (a cheaper and better Damnation in this deck) or Call to the netherworld come to mind.

EDIT: I meant Call to the Grave.