Reaper King

[The Pharmacist]

Been working on this deck for about a week now. It's a ton of fun to play. Let me know what you guys think

Reaper King

Changeling/Scarecrow

Mirror Entity
Chameleon Colossus
Changeling Hero
Moonglove Changeling
Game-Trail Changeling
Changeling Sentinel
Changeling Berserker
Changeling Titan
Cairan Wanderer
War-Spike Changeling
Mothdust Changeling
Amoeboid changeling
Skeletal changeling
Woodland Changeling
Taurean Mauler
Shapesharer
Turtleshell Changeling
Ghostley Changeling
Fire-Belly Changeling
avian Changeling
Mistform ultimus
Scarecrone
Heap Doll

Other Men/Lords

Eternal Witness
Blood Speaker
Sliver Overlord
Merrow reejerey
Elvish Archdruid
Lin Sivvi, Defiant Hreo
Goblin Chieftain
Azami, Lady of Scrolls
Lovisa Coldeyes
Solemn Simulacrum
Tidespout Tyrant
Primeval Titan

Tutor/draw

Demonic Tutor
Diabolic Tutor
Opportunity
Jace's Ingenuity
Crystal Ball
Sylvan library
Concentrate
Tidings
Harmonize
Realms Uncharted

Speed

Sol Ring
Seek The Horizon
Kodama's Reach
Explosive Vegetation
Skyshroud Claim
Cultivate
Spectral Searchlight
Darksteel Ingot
Coldsteel Heart
Gilded Lotus

Removal

Wrath of God
Day of Judgment
Damnation

Protection

Whispersilk Cloak
Diplomatic Immunity
Darksteel plate

Other

Hull Breach
Aura Shards
Creeping Mold
Erratic Portal

Land

Bayou
taiga
Badlands
Plateau
Underground Sea
Scrubland
Savannah
Tropical Island
Volcanic Island
Tundra
Mountain
3 Island
1 Plains
3 Forest
2 Swamp
City of Brass
Elephant Graveyard
Unholy Grotto
Darigaaz's Caidera
Rith's Grove
Dromar's Cavern
Crosis's Catocombs
Treva's Ruins
Windswept Heath
Scalding tarn
Polluted Delta
Marsh Flats
Verdant Catacombs

[Hunding Gjornersen]

Swarmyard regenerates most of your stuff. Haakon, Stromgald Scourge would make a good Survival target.

[Octopusman]

Swarmyard regenerates most of your stuff. Haakon, Stromgald Scourge would make a good Survival target.

I love where you're going with this. I know you want to maximize scarecrows but maybe a joiner adept might be useful in there somewhere.
I'm worried about your mana base/general cost.Wonder if a composite golem could be worth the slot. Crystal Quarry?

I LOVE the changlings with the lords. No use for an Eladamri's Call to get what you need?


With General and some changelings. Ghostway could be pretty funny!

This is so rad. Keep up the good work!

[edit] Also, Mistform Ultimus too weak for this deck :(

[The Pharmacist]

I love where you're going with this. I know you want to maximize scarecrows but maybe a joiner adept might be useful in there somewhere.
I'm worried about your mana base/general cost.Wonder if a composite golem could be worth the slot. Crystal Quarry?

I LOVE the changlings with the lords. No use for an Eladamri's Call to get what you need?


With General and some changelings. Ghostway could be pretty funny!

This is so rad. Keep up the good work!

[edit] Also, Mistform Ultimus too weak for this deck :(

Yes my mana base is a mess for sure. I just bought all the 3 color Planeshift lands. That will help a ton.

Ghostway was in the deck and It was hit or miss. Right now I've been winning a lot of games just buy getting 3 Changelings out that have the Champion ability. Its hard to do, but if you get it to work. You blow there hole board up.

As for Mistform Ultimus. I forgot about him and I'm sure I'll be adding him

[The Pharmacist]

Just updated the list

[sunshine]

Scuttlemut seems like a solid upgrade from the Searchlight. Also, Mutavault may not help you with color problems but it'll get pretty silly with all the lords you're running.

[Zach Tartell]

Patriarch's Bidding.

[(nameless one)]

Conspiracy can turn all your creatures relevant with Reaper King.

[Zach Tartell]

Conspiracy can turn all your creatures relevant with Reaper King.

Thought of that earlier, but the different lords add both flavor and a TON of utility. Definitely worth keeping.

[The Pharmacist]

Conspiracy can turn all your creatures relevant with Reaper King.

I had Conspiracy in my original list. It was really good if you could drop it fast. I think I'm going to give it another try tho.

[bokwinkle]

I still think that Loxodon Hierarch, Saffi Ericstodder, and Dauntless Escort could add some much-needed protection to "the king". I really like Saffi because he also acts as a way to get another activation from a killed scarecrow, and he can be brought back with 'Lark. Also Twilight Shepard is very good at giving you second chances to play vindicates. I understand the desire to keep the vindicate population high...but with that percentage the importance of reaper king dramatically increases and the ability to protect him becomes more valuable as well.

I keep trying to run Squee in my Naya EDH deck and he just never makes the cut. It's too easy to string together a bunch of cards to pitch to the yard - I never seem to run out of survival targets. I'm more likely to run Dust Elemental to return survival target to my hand than to reach for squee.

Also, in EDH forestwalk is pretty damn good...everyone plays green...so I wouldn't hesitate to run the Elf lord. Speaking of Lords, what about Wort, Boggart Auntie - recursion seems like a good plan.

In the acceleration I'd run Coalition Relic over Spectral Searchlight - it's just better, it always gets you at least one mana of any color...and sometimes 2.

Also...Greater good and Tooth and Nail still seem...good, if not great. Greater good offers you a sac outlet too, which is nice if someone goes to exile an important or difficult to remove lord (like timber protector, Crystalline Sliver, or Scion)

I'm also a Huge fan of Haakon...if only you had more discard outlets - you might be able to get away with this if you ran more stuff like Sift and Careful consideration over some of your other draw choices...but I'm not sure if it's worth it. Def worth considering though because it makes genesis, anger, wort, and 'Lark so much better it also makes running Knight of the Reliquary, stillmooon cavalier, and Kinsbaile Cavalier even more playable.

Just don't make it too good...lol.

[Tog]

Wow, I'd never even thought of the Hakkon + Changeling interaction. That's so cool! It wouldn't even be that hard to get it in the yard considering you're playing all five colors. Something like blue draw-discard cards (Careful Consideration, Thirst for Knowledge, Sift, Compulsive Research) or Survival of the Fittest/Fauna Shaman.

[The Pharmacist]

I still think that Loxodon Hierarch, Saffi Ericstodder, and Dauntless Escort could add some much-needed protection to "the king". I really like Saffi because he also acts as a way to get another activation from a killed scarecrow, and he can be brought back with 'Lark. Also Twilight Shepard is very good at giving you second chances to play vindicates. I understand the desire to keep the vindicate population high...but with that percentage the importance of reaper king dramatically increases and the ability to protect him becomes more valuable as well.

I keep trying to run Squee in my Naya EDH deck and he just never makes the cut. It's too easy to string together a bunch of cards to pitch to the yard - I never seem to run out of survival targets. I'm more likely to run Dust Elemental to return survival target to my hand than to reach for squee.

Also, in EDH forestwalk is pretty damn good...everyone plays green...so I wouldn't hesitate to run the Elf lord. Speaking of Lords, what about Wort, Boggart Auntie - recursion seems like a good plan.

In the acceleration I'd run Coalition Relic over Spectral Searchlight - it's just better, it always gets you at least one mana of any color...and sometimes 2.

Also...Greater good and Tooth and Nail still seem...good, if not great. Greater good offers you a sac outlet too, which is nice if someone goes to exile an important or difficult to remove lord (like timber protector, Crystalline Sliver, or Scion)

I'm also a Huge fan of Haakon...if only you had more discard outlets - you might be able to get away with this if you ran more stuff like Sift and Careful consideration over some of your other draw choices...but I'm not sure if it's worth it. Def worth considering though because it makes genesis, anger, wort, and 'Lark so much better it also makes running Knight of the Reliquary, stillmooon cavalier, and Kinsbaile Cavalier even more playable.

Just don't make it too good...lol.

I do like Dust Elemental and he could very easy be going in the deck.

After some playing lastnight, I may cut the Survival package. It's good,but I don't think this deck needs its. I'm thinking about adding Wort, Boggart Auntie and some more speed to the deck.

This deck still has trouble with the early game.

[Hunding Gjornersen]

Since you run almost as many as shapeshifters, I'd be worried about drawing into too many mismatched lords and not enough things for them to pump.

[The Pharmacist]

Just added Conspiracy and Sliver Overlord to the deck

[Malchar]

Haakon, Stromgald Scourge
Crib Swap

With haakon in play, you can cast crib swap indefinitely as long as you have the mana. You can even crib swap one of your own creatures to trigger reaper king, then keep crib swapping the crib swap token to trigger the king over and over.

[Mnemon]

Have you thought about Volrath's Laboratory (http://magiccards.info/query?q=volrath%27s+laboratory&v=card&s=cname) and Riptide Replicator (http://magiccards.info/query?q=riptide+replicator&v=card&s=cname)? They might be a little expensive but are recurring Vindicates with Reaper King. Also Debtors Knell (http://magiccards.info/query?q=debtors+knell&v=card&s=cname) for the same purpose and more.

[bokwinkle]

yeah, those cards are good, I think he was running them in the original list - but they are all extremely slow.

I feel like there must be a good way to speed up a 5-color deck without running basics for fetching or just forcing artifacts - since the fastest artifacts just produce colorless mana anyway. I don't think the issue is curve - because generally the creatures are pretty cheap - I think it's more the fact that you need several creatures plus a lord to have impact on the board state - essentially any one or 2 of your creatures does nothing. I'm not sure how to fix it atm...giving it some thought.

Maybe the Warchiefs? Something to reduce costs seems most effective rather than ramping. Regardles of what you do to make it faster you're going to walk into wrath effects as well, You'll need something for that as well. Maybe you just need more selective critera for your lords - I see a few that could go pretty easy, with the premise that you're trying to avoid/prevent wrath effects.

I think I'd at least run these:

Daru Warchief
undead Warchief


with serious thought to these

Goblin Warchief
Krosan Warchief


Also I'd consider some tutoring with legs to up your creature counts and look for important cards

Treefolk Harbinger
Flamekin Harbinger


The treefolk can go get timber protector, leaf-crowned elder or a changeling, and the flamekin can go get any changeling or 'Lark. They don't quite replace themselves, but I think it at least can get you something you need at any point in the game.

Lastly, I'm not sure how you feel about the tripple red, but Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker is just a house here...either to double a lord effect or create a vindicate effect...he's just good. I can't picture running this deck without him.

[bokwinkle]

For the record, I still think this is funny:

wonder
anger
survival of the fittest
genesis
eternal witness
careful consideration
intuition
Memory Jar
Anvil of Bogardan
Bazaar of Baghdad
Cephalid Coliseum
Greater Good
Probe
Haakon, Stromgald Scourge
Wort, Boggart Auntie
Knight of the Reliquary
Patriarch's Bidding
Crucible of Worlds
Wasteland
Strip mine
Wheel Of Fortune
Tolarian Winds
Windfall

just sayin'...

[The Pharmacist]

Just updated the deck list as to the way I'm running it now. Fixed the mana so it's not all nonbasic now. I added the following cards to the deck

Wort, Boggart Auntie- Getting a changeling back every turn seams good.

Dust Elemental- Haven't got him in play yet, but could be really good late game

Darksteel Plate- No need to explain

I'm really thinking this will fix the mana problem

Cultivate
Skyshroud Claim
Explosive Vegetation
Kodama's reach
Seek the Horizon

[The Pharmacist]

Have you thought about Volrath's Laboratory (http://magiccards.info/query?q=volrath%27s+laboratory&v=card&s=cname) and Riptide Replicator (http://magiccards.info/query?q=riptide+replicator&v=card&s=cname)? They might be a little expensive but are recurring Vindicates with Reaper King. Also Debtors Knell (http://magiccards.info/query?q=debtors+knell&v=card&s=cname) for the same purpose and more.

In my first list I had the Volrath's Laboratory and Riptide Replicator in the deck. The thing I didn't like about it,was to get your first guy in to play it's 9 or 10 mana. I still toy around with them every now and then, but if I was going to add one of them it would be the Replicator.

[bokwinkle]

Seems like if you're going to pay 9 or 10 mana for something you should just run Praetor's Counsel and Tooth and Nail

[The Pharmacist]

Seems like if you're going to pay 9 or 10 mana for something you should just run Praetor's Counsel and Tooth and Nail

That's my point. There's better cards out there for that much mana

[GGoober]

Coolest deck ever. I would fit Priest of Titania and Wirewood Symbiote to go infinite. I think the list can cut some lords etc, and possibly focus more on generating infinite mana via Symbiote + mirror entity, that way you can bounce your whole board get all the come into play triggers and ggn00b opponents. Gilt-Leaf archdruid is one of my favorite green cards in EDH. In your deck, he draws cards, and steals lands. If you go infinite with entity + symbiote, it's your whole deck, their manabase for you.

Props for the list, highly creative, and definitely a hilariously enjoyable multiplayer list that can become out of control really easiler. I'm going to try it out, and most likely tweak it to my playstyle.

[The Pharmacist]

Coolest deck ever. I would fit Priest of Titania and Wirewood Symbiote to go infinite. I think the list can cut some lords etc, and possibly focus more on generating infinite mana via Symbiote + mirror entity, that way you can bounce your whole board get all the come into play triggers and ggn00b opponents. Gilt-Leaf archdruid is one of my favorite green cards in EDH. In your deck, he draws cards, and steals lands. If you go infinite with entity + symbiote, it's your whole deck, their manabase for you.

Props for the list, highly creative, and definitely a hilariously enjoyable multiplayer list that can become out of control really easiler. I'm going to try it out, and most likely tweak it to my playstyle.

Good call on the above cards!

This deck is really just to have fun with. You could make this deck much more competitive.

About the lords. I've been thinking about dropping a few of them. So it's really not a bad idea to drop a few and add some of the cards you suggested.

I'd like to see your list when your done with it

[Dave]

Lovisa Coldeyes woluld be a bomb!
btw Harabaz Druid is a little better than Priest of Titania, maybe we should play them both for acceleration matters?

[The Pharmacist]

Lovisa Coldeyes woluld be a bomb!
btw Harabaz Druid is a little better than Priest of Titania, maybe we should play them both for acceleration matters?

Lovisa Coldeyes 100% going in

[Dave]

Sachi, Daughter of Seshiro would help a lot, too.

[Dave]

Sorry for the double post, but something just came to my mind: 2 Changelings on the battlefield, plus Coat of Arms... infinite power and toughness for both??:eek:

[Aggro_zombies]

Sorry for the double post, but something just came to my mind: 2 Changelings on the battlefield, plus Coat of Arms... infinite power and toughness for both??:eek:
No. It's counting other creatures that share at least one type with it. The number of types shared doesn't matter.

[andrewlb]

So I've been playing Reaper King for about a month now, I thought I would share my deck list and then my thought process and how games usually play out...enjoy!

Lands
I won't list off all of the lands, I'm playing 40, the notables are:
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
Cabal Coffers
Boseiju, Who Shelters All

I'm also considering adding Volrath's Stronghold

Scarecrows/Changelings:

Changeling Titan
Changeling Hero
Taurean Mauler
Amoeboid Changeling
Skeletal Changeling
Chameleon Colossus
War-Spike Changeling
Avian Changeling
Changeling Berserker
Fire-Belly Changeling
Scarecrone
Mirror Entity
Jwari Shapeshifter
Ghostly Changeling
Woodland Changeling
Moonglove Changeling
Scuttlemutt
Shapesharer

Acceleration:
Selesnya Signet
Boros Signet
Rakdos Signet
Simic Signet
Golgari Signet
Sol Ring
Gilded Lotus
Coalition Relic
Solemn Simulacrum
Primeval Titan
Oracle of Mul Daya
Bloom Tender
Garruk Wildspeaker
Far Wanderings
Explosive Vegetation
Cultivate
Harrow
Kodama's Reach
Explore
Mana Reflection
Mirari's Wake

Utility Creatures:
Mystic Snake
Fauna Shaman
Azami, Lady of Scrolls
Consecrated Sphinx
Sliver Overlord
Sigil Tracer
Bringer of the Black Dawn
Harmonic Sliver
Lin Sivvi, Defiant Hero

Sorcery/Enchantment/Instant/Planeswalker:

Maelstrom Nexus
Umezawa's Jitte
Venser, the Sojourner
Vampiric Tutor
Mystical Tutor
Demonic Tutor
Enlightened Tutor
Worldly Tutor
Sylvan Library
Survival of the Fittest
Mind Spring
Praetor's Counsel
Rite of Replication
Blue Sun's Zenith
Genesis Wave
Door to Nothingness
Green Sun's Zenith
Regrowth

Our main differences in decks seem to be the amount of acceleration and my lack of synergistic creatures. I'll preface the following with the thought that my playgroup is fairly competitive. I don't have a lot of room to make a deck that kicks around or doesn't accelerate because I'll get roflstomped.

My deck started as something like yours, all of the changelings + things like Knight Exemplar, etc., etc. Most of the games went something along the lines of get a few changelings out, get a lord or two, not do anything relevant, get blown out by Wrath of God, cry. The problem I found with the lord plan was that often I didn't have enough physical changelings on the field in addition to the fact that as soon as someone wrathed I was sol. I slowly shifted the deck to included more acceleration (I'm at 22 pieces w/ Scuttlemutt) and sorceries that did relevant things. Most of my games play out along these lines now: Accelerate in the early turns, attempt to get Primeval Titan, get to around 20 mana, sink it into a Genesis Wave, Sliver Overlord, Blue Sun's Zenith, etc. then just generally play out the deck. My only infinite combo is looping Champion triggers to infinitely destroy permanents. The deck does fairly well, as you have the mana to stay in it late game, as well as Reaper King as an "Oh Shit!" to knock out choice permanents. As a note: Reaper King never gets played the turn I get to 5 of each color or 4 colors and 2 other sources, he gets played later when there are relevant things to do with him. A fair number of ways I try to end the game with him involve Reaper King, Harmonic Sliver and Sliver Overlord. A large Genesis Wave can be game ending too. As a note for 1v1: almost every 1v1 I DO play Reaper King as soon as I get to 5 of each color, as vindicating at that stage in the game is usually crippling.

So if you are interested in making the deck more competitive, that is my take on a direction that you can go with it and why I ended up going that way. If your playgroup is casual enough so that you can run lords, then I'm moderately jealous :D

I'm going to include a few card comments then split:

Rite of Replication - If you cast it on Reaper King kicked, you vindicate 25 things

Maelstrom Nexus - In addition to just being a sweet card, every 2CMC becomes either a Vampiric, Enlightened, Worldly or Mystical tutor because I run no other 1 drops

Scarecrone - I played a game yesterday where I accelerated by somewhere around turn 5 or 6 to around 17 mana with something like 2 Signets, Sol Ring, Gilded Lotus, Garruk, Explosive Vegetation and lands. I played Reaper King, then the turn after drew Scarecrone and immediately won, the card is the nuts. Pay 5 = Draw a card and Vindicate

Sigil Tracer + an X spell = nuts

Door to Nothingness - I play this card because I find it to be hilarious, a phrase that comes up amount our friends a lot is "if you don't answer it you just lose." While Door is pretty easily dispatched, if you don't answer it, you literally just lose :D

If you have questions or thoughts lemme know, thanks :D, Reaper King for life

[bokwinkle]

Sorry for the double post, but something just came to my mind: 2 Changelings on the battlefield, plus Coat of Arms... infinite power and toughness for both??:eek:

No, but they do get +1 for every creature on the table...which still makes the card amusing. You just can't play the card against a deck like Sliver's, Goblins, Elves, or token generation...and you have to beware rogue Mirror Entities, since someone can just drop that card, put 3 mana into and and probably kill you with 3 creatures if there are like 10 creatures creatures on the board.


So I've been playing Reaper King for about a month now, I thought I would share my deck list and then my thought process and how games usually play out...

That seems to be a very competitive edh list. The accleration combined with the high-powered sorceries seems like a good mix. Generally I'd say that unless you can reign yourself in (better than I can reign myself in) that the deck could quickly just become 5c good stuff, using the king only for his colors. For example: I am surpised to see you run survival without E-Wit and/or Genesis and/or Anger as well...Also Reveilark seems like a no-brainer...and possibly Karmic Guide, That's 5 creatures right there that I'd probably sub in for changelings - thus weakening the theme. Ultimately, I suppose you just need to find a balance between the power level that 5c provides and the theme of the deck based on your "meta" and comfort level. Personally this isn't a deck I could ever build because I wouldn't be able to stick to the theme.

Right now our playgroup gives Pharmacist some slack when he plays Reaper King because we know it's a relatively casual deck. I think you're right though, that the Lords generally don't provide enough upside unless you overcommit and open up to wrath effects. However, the creature quality in the deck is so low that all your opponents really need to do is repeatedly kill Reaper King to keep the deck out of contention - and in multi-player it's not uncommon to see reaper king catch swords, duplicant, vindicates (slightly ironic), Wrath Effects, Control Magic (or some sort of Sarkhan Vol action), etc. - which leaves you with a bunch of acceleration and/or changelings in hand and no way to reliably play and protect the King. That's the problem with not running lords...if you don't you really only have about 5-6 cards in the deck + the general that need to be answered - leaving you trying to provide answers against the rest of the table while they pick off your threats as soon as they land.

I feel this is definately one of the hardest decks to build because in order to stay on theme your card quality has to suffer to some extent, and it puts a huge Crosshairs on just a few of your cards. It's not like Horde of Notions or Scion of the Ur-Dragon or Sliver Overlord which have a ton of very powerful cards that are on theme. It does seem like a blast to play though, and I applaud you both for taking up the challenge.

[andrewlb]

While 5 color good stuff could be a direction the deck would take, I would be very hard pressed to cut any more changelings from the deck. Running Karmic Guide and Reveillark would be nice as surival targets, but would be wiffs as topdecks a vast majority of the time. I could see running Genesis and Eternal Witness, I'll consider putting them in the deck (more or less inexcusable that I'm not running E-Witness :D), however a card like Anger suffers from the 'loose topdeck" syndrome, as well as the deck rarely kills with beatdowns unless you have already vindicated a bunch or you have something like Mirror Entity in play. I would imagine him getting Reaper King killed is a little more painful because of the lack of heavy mana production. Each game I play with the deck I expect Reaper King to get to somewhere around 3 kills, which I can always support with the mana. Hindering and Control Magic type effects can hurt, however the deck has a few ways to win without Reaper King. As foolish as it sounds, I don't usually try to find a time where nothing will be countered to start playing stuff. My general mode of runnign with this deck is "I hope you have a counterspell." This works because the deck has enough powerful effects where one will eventually get off at give you a chance to dominate. Only 2 decks out of 7 in our group don't run counterspells, so it isn't like I'm just mising spells. The fact that the deck runs pretty creature heavy gives you a lot of early resilience to stay alive while the combo decks get picked off and then survive into the late game where you have a decent chance of winning.

I forgot to add in my original post my thoughts on Crystalline Sliver. I personally had to cut him because he is both very good and very bad. The sliver nonbos with Venser, Shapesharer, Champion Abilites, and Sliver Overlord (you can's steal their dudes) enough that it wasn't worth keeping in the deck.

Another reason to not cut anymore changelings is that in 1v1 changelings are king. When you only have to throw vindicates at one person they become that much stronger.

As a final note I thought I would mention my mulliganing habits. I usually ditch every changeling from the hand (with partial-paris mulligans) except for maybe shapesharer, mirror entity and scuttlemutt. To be honest, without partial-paris it would be hard for this deck to function, since you don't want any changelings in the early game in favor of acceleration and the like.

I appreciate your applaud of taking up Reaper King, thanks :D

[The Pharmacist]

I just updated my list that I'm running right now. I like the way it's been running

I took at some of the lords and add more acceleration

These are the cards I added
Heap Doll
Scarecrone
Lovisa Coldeyes
Solemn Simulacrum
Primeval Titan
Tidespout Tyrant
Coldsteel Heart
Gilded Lotus
Realms Uncharded
Hull Breach
Aura Shards
Erratic Portal