[EDH] Anowon, The ruin sage

[Offler]

Basic strategy.
a) Clean the table, or force your opponent to play any mass destructive spell
b) Cast Anowon.
c) If he dies, put him in a graveyard, reanimate him, cast him again. Avoid Command zone if possible.
d) Attack with Anowon, and try for win on Commander damage or let the player pay a lot of life with cards like Sorin Markov

Decklist:

General:
http://fc02.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2013/117/5/e/03_by_tomgreystone-d6383zg.jpg

Link to alter on DeviantArt:
http://tomgreystone.deviantart.com/art/Anowon-the-Ruin-Sage-Alter-art-368214316
I am not the author of this alter, i own the card. All credit goes to Tom Greystone :)


Vampires:

Blood Seeker
Sangromancer
Malakir Bloodwitch
Ascendant Evincar
Butcher of Malakir
Shadow Alley Denizen
Captivating Vampire
Vampire Nocturnus
Necropolis Regent
Mephidross Vampire
Gatekeeper of Malakir
Bloodghast
Dark Impostor
Bloodflow Connoisseur
Vampire Nighthawk
Bloodhusk Ritualist
Fiend of the Shadows
Arrogant Bloodlord
Nirkana Revenant
Skeletal Vampire
Bloodlord of Vaasgoth
Sengir Nosferatu
Bloodline Keeper

Reanimation:
Footbottom Feast
Death Denied
Patriarch's Bidding
Profane Command
Tortured Existence

Grave removal:
Bojuka Bog

Murders and sacrifices:
All is dust
Damnation
Life's Finale
Decree of Pain

Evasion:
Cover of Darkness
Whispersilk cloak
+Rogue's Passage

Tutoring
Vampiric Tutor
Demonic tutor
Night Dealings
Demonic Collusion
Liliana Vess
Dimir house guard
Netherborn Phalanx

Card drawing:
Skullclamp
Phyrexian Arena
Necropotence
Underworld Connections
Read the bones
Sign in blood

Faster creature casting:
Vedalken Orrery


Major life loss
Quietus spike
Temporal Extortion
Sorin Markov
Blood Tribute
Repay in kind

Exsanguinate
Consume Spirit

Sickening dreams

Equipment/power boost
Shade's Breath
Nightmare lash
Lashwrithe

Never Truly dead:
Reassembling Skeleton
Nether Traitor
+ Bloodghast

Misc:
Sol ring
Fleshbag Marauder
Sadistic Sacrament
Grave Pact

Lands:
Crypt of Agadeem
Cabal coffers
Bojuka Bog
Inkmoth nexus
Reliquary tower
Vesuva
Rogue's Passage
Winding Canyons
25x Swamp

****************************
Original post:

I build up a pretty nasty T2 deck from the Vampire thrash i had and the result is very interesting combination between agro, discard and reanimation. This brought me to the idea what to do with Anowon who has its potential.

Lately I found Season of the witch, things like Ensnaring Bridge, Crawlspace just followed the basic idea of the sacrifice-discard control engine in monoblack vampire flavour with a possibility to play it as plain aggro.

That means:

Crypt of agadeem
Cabal coffers

Gatekeeper of malakir
Bloodhusk Ritualist (pretty neat idea of hiding discarding in multikicker. nice for reanimation :D)
Bloodthrone Vampire
Nirkana Revenant
Vampire Hexmage
Vampire Nighthawk
Vampire Nocturnus
Viscera seer
Bloodghast
Sangromancer

Recurring nightmare
Disentomb]

Hymn to tourach
Stupor

However the deck is just in "idea" phase. Any cards with similar effects as the Season of the witch are welcome

[Nelis]

I build up a pretty nasty T2 deck from the Vampire thrash i had and the result is very interesting combination between agro, discard and reanimation. This brought me to the idea what to do with Anowon who has its potential.

Lately I found Season of the witch, things like Ensnaring Bridge, Crawlspace just followed the basic idea of the sacrifice-discard control engine in monoblack vampire flavour with a possibility to play it as plain aggro.



I don't think that works. From Gatherer: Any creatures which can't attack for some reason are exempted from the effect.

[Offler]

Ah true. Thanks :)

However things like Crawlspace or Silent arbiter might work. All creatures are able to attack at the "Declare attacker step" however some of them are not allowed to attack.

At all the Season of the witch is really something to me which deserves some trying to use it (even in selfsacrifice engine).

[Xiang]

Recurring Nightmare is banned.

[bokwinkle]

Personally, if I were going to run season of the witch I'd run Proganda effects - probably with Zur. It seems pretty dirty that way. You'd probably get targeted A LOT in multiplayer...lol.

Generally Anawon is pretty underpowered because of the lack of decent vampires available to you for EDH. There's about 15 that are worth playing, and the rest just take up space. I ran Anawon for while and just struggled the entire time.

[Offler]

Recurring Nightmare
oh damn it. This card is really broken only with Survival of the fittest.

Well Anowon has its potential very similar to Braids the Cabal minion (the black one), and I really understand why is Braids banned as general.

The idea of this deck is less vampire flavour, more black non-combo reanimation which has to benefit of selfsacrifice, forced sacrifice to opponnent (edicts, and season), black and colorless mass destruction (Damnation, Nevynirrals disk) and Discard control, and later turning renanimating effects to be as effective as playing creatures. Even if it seems crazy to play low level reanimations which return cards only to hand and not directly to play it could be much more fun with "comes into play""effects. My current black vampire T2 works with disentomb and Bloodhusk ritualist quite good.

Anowon has to took place in the deck as would Braids, so ... since Braidsiis Banned as general, i would like to see black decks which lead to this banning:) And I am quite interested about that :D

Propaganda is blue however there are cards less uses such as black Fog - Darkness and if I remember correctly there are similar black or colorless effects such as Crawlspace i just have to find the cards on gatherer...

[Offler]

Some time has passed and I have build up this deck. Some newer vampires were introduced in last sets so tribal vampire is more viable. The deck is designed for multiplayer game which is reflected in creature classifications:

General:
Anowon, the Ruin Sage

Vampires Tier 1:
Creatures which affect each player/opponent
Pulse Tracker
Blood Seeker
Sangromancer
Malakir Bloodwitch
Ascendant Evincar
Butcher of Malakir
(And Anowon)

Vampires Tier 2:
Creatures which improve tribal theme, or are affecting at least single player/opponent
Shadow Alley Denizen
Blood Artist
Kalastria Highborn
Captivating Vampire
Vampire Nocturnus
Falkenrath Noble
Necropolis Regent
Mephidross Vampire

Other Vampires:
Quag Vampires - as tested in my modern deck good for start, and great for late game
Vampire Hexmage - against planeswalkers
Bloodthrone Vampire
Gatekeeper of Malakir
Bloodghast - combo with Skullclamp
Dark Impostor - against generals
Bloodflow Connoisseur
Vampire Nighthawk
Bloodhusk Ritualist
Sengir Vampire
Fiend of the Shadows
Kalitas, Bloodchief of Ghet

Reanimation:
Restless Dreams
Raise Dead
Disentomb
No Rest for the Wicked
Grim Discovery
Recover
Footbottom Feast
Living Death - to be replaced with Patriarch's Bidding
Profane Command
Death Denied

Grave removal:
Relic of Progenitus
Gravestorm
Bojuka Bog

Other Spells:
Geth's Verdict
Tribute to Hunger
Smallpox
Pox
Unnerve

Dark Ritual
Cabal Ritual

Bad Moon
Cover of Darkness

Altar's Reap
Phyrexian Arena

Dash Hopes
Bloodchief Ascension
Blessing of Leeches
Life's Finale

Artifacts:
Aether Vial
Cryptic Gateway

Oblivion Stone
Nevinyrral's Disk

Blade of the Bloodchief
Lightning Greaves

Expedition Map
Skullclamp

Lands:
Crypt of Agadeem
Cavern of Souls
33x Swamp

****************************


Wishlist
Leechridden swamp
Cabal coffers
Shizo, Death's Storehouse
Vesuva or Thespian's Stage or both.

Vampiric Tutor
Exsanguinate
Patriarch's Bidding
Darkness

Basic idea is Agro-control Vampire Tribal. Definitely needs some adjustments, but for now its pretty viable. The deck lacks some tutoring and drawing. I fear that have to play with too few cards on hand...

[Offler]

First tests:

Anowon, the Ruin Sage
As his ability triggers only on the beginning of my upkeep, and not of each player, it requires additional treatment. Anything that grants him flash is good - Winding Canyons, Vedalken Orrery. Anything that allows him to survive longer, or attack will also help - Whispersilk cloak

Fiend of Shadows - Won a game when forced player to exile Damnation. Quite impressive.
Dark Ritual - Was replaced by Chainer's Edict
Blood seeker - Prevented my opponent to start combo for few turns... Falkenrath noble and Blood artist both have same potential vs those combos.
Quag vampires - Works as intened. Good early start, good kicked in late game.
Bloodflow connoisseur + Bloodghast - surprisingly useful.

The deck surely lacks drawing engine for now...

[Offler]

Some changes

-Swamp + Cabal Coffers
-Swamp + Winding Canyons
-Life's finale +Killing Wave
-Cryptic Gateway + Vedalken Orrery
-Aether Vial + Mox Diamond
-Cabal Ritual + Sol ring
-Pulse Tracker + Vampire Interloper (not the best deal I know, but I lack some vampires for now)
-Bad Moon + Urge to Feed
-Disentomb + Midnight recovery
-Raise dead + Dead Reckoning

[Offler]

- Recover + Stir the grave
- Dead Reckoning + Soulless revival
- Midnight Recovery + Dread Return
- Relic of Progenitus + Tormod's crypt
- Hideous visage + Ebony Charm
- Blade of the Bloodchief + Exsanguinate

The deck also get further changes. Have Cabal coffers, Night dealings... Vedalken orrery and Winding Canyons proven very useful when casting Anowon, the ruin sage at the end of opponents turn. List will be updated soon (done).

[Offler]

The deck is able to keep table clean of enemy creatures. This allows Anowon to do a lot of damage as a general.

Night Dealings
Seems as a limited form of tutoring. In this deck it works perfectly. Dealing 4 damage to opponent allows search for almost any card.

Black Market and Deathrender added to wishlist. Blade of the Bloodchief is by far not the most effective when creatures are about to leave battlefield.

Any shroud/hexproof effect on Anowon is making my opponents insane. Once Anowon has such effect, they have to search and activate mass destruction of some sort. Swiftfoot boots on wishlist. Regeneration has similar effect. Ring of Xathrid seems very good choice, Skeletal Grimace as well. However regeneration does not protect from effect which shuffle general into library...

I have read also this article:
http://99edhproblems.com/2010/01/20/worldwake-edh-general-review-anowon-the-ruin-sage/

Not bad, but I would rather let my opponents to destroy my creatures and waste as many cards as possible. That is also reason why I play Footbottom feast or Death denied. Losses are only temporary.

Edit: Kokusho, the Evening Star ...
Shade's form (nice features and flavor as well)
Unhallowed pact
Hatred

[Offler]

Tested few new cards:

Null profusion - works perfectly
No mercy - Beatiful
Grave pact - Not sure...
Shade's Breath - Nice.

Night dealings was sucessfully tested and is perfect. Can be used both as tutor and drawing engine at the same time.

Wishlist still contain Shade's Form

The deck is now being rebuilt with bit heavier discard.

[Offler]

Next round of testing:

I previously tested that this vampire theme is perfect when opponent has 20 healthpoints. In order to make the combat damage more viable I added Sorin Markov, Temporal Extortion, Quietus spike, Blood Tribute.

Every one of these cards meant great difference, and changed the further game, as the opponent no longer had 40 HP... On the other hand, those cards are not very viable in multiplayer, much more in duels...

Edicts:
Previously I utilized a lot of edict cards - Cruel Edict, Chainer's Edict, Tribute to hunger. Targeting a player surely can force him to sacrifice something that is indestructible or with hexproof, however most of time people are able to sacrifice token, or less important creature.

Exactly same effect is done by Anowon every turn, and thats why are people trying to bring to game any sort of token generator. Thats the reason why I have to destroy token generators directly, not by any kind of edict. So edicts out and are going to be replaced by Go for the Throat (nice flavor actually), mass destruction like Life's finale however I still miss Damnation.

Also there is one interaction which can replace edicts. Grave pact or Butcher of Malakir with Skeletal Vampire. For 5 mana it generates 2 bats which can be sacrificed for his own regeneration. With those enchantment/creature every bat acts as an Edict... So the Grave pact, Butcher of Malakir and Skeletal Vampire are definitely going in.

Also for those who love alternate arts:
http://tomgreystone.deviantart.com/art/Malakir-Bloodwitch-Alter-art-368213998
http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2013/117/4/7/02_by_tomgreystone-d6383qm.jpg

New alternate for Sangromancer was also made yesterday, and once the author of the alter hooks it on the web I will link it :)

Wishlist:
Repay in kind

[Offler]

For some time I was thinking to add Arena into the deck.

The same guy who recommended Sengir vampire was strongly against Arena... One of the arguments was "Are you going to remove mana-producing land and add land which does not produce mana". I simply replied "No, I am going to replace artifact, or other non-land card". And again and again it attracted my attention.

The reason was Sengir Vampire himself. You know, its quite hard to force opponent to block him with small creature, and when opponent attacks he is not doing so with small creatures (unless its a swarm of creatures), while Arena was one of the first solution I found.

Of course, there are more similar vampires:
Soul Collector
Baron Sengir
Mephidross vampire
Repentant vampire

These interactions are quite well known, so I wonder why Arena was automatically out of discussion. But within current decklist (which contain Nether Traitor, Bloodghast and Reassembling skeleton) there are few other interactions. With some of these cards I really dont care to sacrifice my creature in order to tap lets say, Blightsteel collosus. And still - selfsacrifice is still worth it with Grave Pact or Butcher of malakir...

At least, Arena will get a fair chance in this deck.

[FTW]

I would be tempted to exploit Anowon in loopy shenanigans with these cards:


Grave Pact
Butcher of Malakir
Blood Artist
Falkenrath Noble
Carnival of Souls
Phyrexian Altar
Ashnod's Altar
Pawn of Ulamog
Reassembling Skeleton
Tenacious Dead


Infinite sacrifice+recursion engines:
Tenacious Dead/Reassembling Skeleton + Phyrexian Altar + Pawn of Ulamog
Tenacious Dead/Reassembling Skeleton + Carnival of Souls + Ashnod's Altar/Phyrexian Altar/(Bloodthrone Vampire+Pawn of Ulamog) + Blood Artist/Falkenrath Noble

Pairing any of the infinite sacrifices with Grave Pact/Butcher of Malakir will instantly wipe the board. Pairing any of them with Blood Artist/Falkenrath Noble drains opponents for infinite life. IMO the combo-finishes, although convoluted, slide nicely into a Vampire EDH deck.

Grave Pact/Butcher of Malakir are just good ways to profit off Anowon if you feed him something like Nether Traitor, Ashen Ghoul, Bloodghast, Tenacious Dead or Reassembling Skeleton (force opponents to sacrifice 2 creatures each upkeep instead of one). They also pair very well with Attrition as spot removal on the opponents' boards.

You could also play Braids, Cabal Minion, Smokestack+Spine of Ish Sah, Crucible of Worlds+Strip Mine (also good with Bloodghast!) and max out on taxing opponents' resources, although that may not be your play style.

But I at least recommend adding the Altars so you can loop skeleton sacrifices for mad profit.

[TsumiBand]

I've been trying to get mileage out of sac effects in various decks as well, and I came across Nim Devourer the other day.

I understand that "only during upkeep" is sort of limiting; however, it is a one-card method for guaranteeing your "on-death" effects trigger. It does not require a different creature be sacrificed, at it is already in play. In this way, you're paying BB during your upkeep to guarantee Grave Pact triggers X times, along with any any Morbid effects, Black Market, Pawn of Ulamog, and so on. Carnival of Souls would effectively reduce subsequent activations to the cost of B.

I don't think it's any worse than Tenacious Dead, since you can't just sit on Tenacious Dead until the time is right; you either return it when it dies, or find a different way to do it. I don't mean to say that it replaces it, just that it's differently limiting; one trades -1 card dependency for a different timing restriction.

Finally, while it has crap toughness, it does have the added benefit of having the shared Nim's innate ability of getting +1/+0 per artifact you control. So it'll be biggish; an 8/1 that reanimates at the cost of a lowly Eldrazi token.

I'm going through my jank tonight to see if I don't have one for my Ghost Council of Orzhova deck and will be mucking about with it.

[Offler]

I am not going to play pure combos, only interactions and synergies. Since during december most of them were clear to me lets explain them:

The butchery:
Grave pact
Butcher of Malakir
Dark Prophecy

"Victims":
Reassembling skeleton
Nether Traitor
Bloodghast

Altars of sacrifice:

Skullclamp
Bloodflow connoisseur
Dimir house guard


Two tricky vampires:
Skeletal vampire
Sengir nosferatu


These four groups of cards represent the enchantment/creature which is forcing my oponnent to sacrifice when any of my creature dies, suitable victims, possibilities to make them dead, and two cards which may be quite unsuspecting to my opponents. Both skeletal vampire and Sengir nosferatu allow to sacrifice a creature. Very expensively, but its worth it with Grave pact in play.

If the sacrifice leads to card advantage or better control over enemy creatures (and only creature control) its what I am looking for.

4 cards of Doom:
Sorin Markov
Temporal extortion
Quietus spike
Blood tribute


any of those cards already caused victory. Mostly were followed by:
Profane command
Exsanguinate
Consume spirit


Also my current test with Vedalken Orrery and Winding canyons were quite good. Anowon was cast "at the end of turn", but these effects are not solely for him. Any vampire in the deck can benefit from this approach.

Anowon decks also usually benefit from mass destruction:

Damnation
Decree of pain
Black sun's Zenith
Oblivion stone


I am waiting for Patriarch's bidding.

I still have to slightly to improve number of the vampires, but the "mass reanimation" cards such as Death denied or Footbottom feast are keeping my hand full of various vampires. There has to be a balance between vampires, reanimation, and card drawing.

First page of the topic will be updated soon. (during the weekend I hope).

[Offler]

Some major additions the deck:

Necropotence
Life's Finale is back in deck and replaced Black sun's Zenith
Netherborn Phalanx acts as a perfect finisher after Repay in kind. Also his transmuting leads to Sorin Markov or Blood tribute.
Bloodline keeper finally arrived
Nirkana Revenant

I still dont have Repay in kind and Patriarch's Bidding.

Edit:
First post now contain actual decklist.

[Offler]

Update:

- Innocent Blood + Fleshbag marauder
- Shade's Form + Sickening dreams
- Grim discovery + Patriarch's Bidding
- Oblivion stone + All is dust (you know, Gods, Avacyn... this say "sacrifice")

Considering Petrified field to replace one land.

Sickening dreams is commonly considered (among my playgroup) to be useless card. In this deck it sweeped the board, killed one opponent, and allowed me to use Patriarch's bidding more effectively.

Wishlist:
Maga, Traitor to Mortals - pretty nice. Direct damage + body, can be reanimated. Flavour is also fits theme.

[Offler]

Some updates...

Mephidross vampire
It attract every creature destroy you can imagine, nevertheless if it survive, its not as dangerous as it appears. Still its only 3/4 Flying in the beginning. It will be replaced by Kalitas, Bloodchief of Ghet.

Since I removed the Arena, Sengir Vampire, Repentant vampire and all equipments with Deathtouch these cards will be not required in the deck for now.

Vedalken Orrery
Too much sweeping in metagame. I would like to place here some another vampire with flying. I was considering Balustrade spy which is quite overlooked, however for same spot I am thinking of Pawn of Ulamog. With proper sacrifice engine he can boost some mana... Viscera Seer is the third card to be tested.

Nightmare Lash and Lashwrithe proved functional in this deck, so Rogue's passage. Previously I considered killing opponnents with traditional combat damage to be nearly impossible, now it works just fine.

Patriarch's bidding and Fleshbag marauder
Patriarch's bidding proved useful in two manners. In one case when even Malakir bloodwitch was in grave and re-animated with all the vampires it simply killed one oponent and healed me enough for further play. If opponent was able to reanimate a bunch of creatures Blood seeker sealed his destiny.

Fleshbag marauder proved more useful than Innocent blood. Not only I was able to reanimate it, but also it was heavily equipped with Nightmare lash, and unblockable due Rogue's Passage.

[Offler]

Changes:

- Mephidross Vampire + Kalitas, Bloodchief of Ghet
- Vedalken orrery + Exquisite blood
- Eternity vessel + Duplicant
- Liliana Vess + Insidious dreams

Wishlist:
Gravepurge
Instant reanimation on top of library + draw single card is quite useful.

[Ryu092]

Kalitas, Bloodchief of Ghet - was that a creature?
Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief
Pawn of Ulamog - synergy with mana boost
Vampire Hexmage - PW removal, I think you have it
Mirri the Cursed - best chopper among vampires, Nighthawk is 2nd
Adaptive Automaton - +1/+1 bonus - redundancy
Kalastria Highborn
Infernal Tribute - card draw combined with sac outlet
Go for the Throat - just spot removal
Mutilate - you know why, and I know why you don`t like it

Hope this will help. I thought about this after our last game where Trostani was swarming tokens.