kitsunewarlock
09-23-2009, 02:07 PM
Yeah, this is my first real post. I've been working on a deck called "Wraith-Shriek" for a while. Basically uses Street Wraith, Tortured Existence and Dredge to fill up my graveyard and draw me into Soulshriek/Ghoul's Feast to win the game with a creature that has either fear, flying or swampwalk. Unfortunately, the deck didn't pan out too well (although it did some fun things with Songs of the Damned and bombs like Kokusho).
The deck basically lets me discard lots of creatures, dredge and draw cards until I hit a spell that turns one of my creatures into a Lhurgoyf. The creatures almost all have an evasion ability, so I'm pretty sure to be able to use one of them properly.
I kinda left it rotting for a while until I saw the new Zendikar card "Crypt of Agadeem". For those who don't know:
Land
Comes into play tapped.
T: B
2, T: Add B for each black creature card in your graveyard.
Mana-Base: (19)
4 Crypt of Agadeem (ZEN)
2 Barren Moor
1 Phyrexian Tower
3 Dryad Arbor
9 Swamp
Black Utility:
4 Songs of the Damned
3 Sign in Blood
Recursion:
4 Tortured Existence
Discard Outlet Creatures:
4 Faerie Macabre
4 Circling Vultures
2 Ghost-Lit Stalker
2 Shriekmaw
Cycling Creatures:
3 Undead Gladiator
4 Street Wraith
Dredge:
4 Golgari-Brown Scale
4 Stinkweed Imp
Win-Cons:
1 Haunting Misery
2 Ghoul Feast
4 Soulshriek
This is the basic version of the deck. The one I'm running now may be slightly different (its 61 cards for one thing; I'm still testing it for cuts), but overall its quite similiar. The deck looks like it wants to go green/black for "Life from the Loam" and side-deck Krosan Grips and whatnot, but until I get a hold of the Bayous required for that, lets just look at this:
Mana:
The swamps are a given. The Barren Moor is to help dredge and is only put onto the battlefield as a last resort.
The Crypt, despite its 'comes into play tapped' restriction, is a huge boost in mana. By turn 3 or so it usually starts generating around 5-7 mana a turn. On top of that, its not legendary. So Crypts can actually power one another up.
The Phrexian Tower helps give me another way to kill my own Dredge creatures if need be. Furthermore it lets me filter my Dryad Arbors into black mana (negating, albeit at the loss of a permanent land, the 'summoning sickness' downfall of the arbor).
The arbor itself is a great boon to this deck. Its land that can be brought back via Tortured Existence. Although it doesn't power crypt, it does power 3 other key spells in the deck. It can be discarded to tortured, help hardcast brownscale if need be, and, best of all, its a 0 drop creature. So it can always swing in for the win with Soul Shriek or chump block, if need be.
Songs of the Damned is another key card in this deck. Some people have told me to drop it for Dark Ritual, but after turn 2 this winds up producing 3-4 mana a turn. This feeds the Tortured Existence-Dredge engine to help me dump creatures into my graveyard extremely quickly.
Sign in Blood lets me get to my combo pieces and helps me dredge.
Tortured Existence is the key engine in the deck, although it can do reasonably well without it. It lets me discard my dredge creatures and, once I dredge for him, pull back Street Wraith. Once Wraith + Imp are available, I can basically go "B, 2 Life: Dredge 5". If I start to run low on life, Brownscale lets me go "B: Dredge 2". Which is useful late game when I'm producing 10-12 mana per songs of the damned/crypt use.
Faerie Macabre is one of the stronger cards in the deck as it helps me survive against Goyf for a while and really messes with other Dredge decks. She can be discarded any time so I can power my win-cons and mana production.
Circling Vultures can be discarded any time (like Macabre). Furthermore its a good blocker (3/2 flier for 1), although I rarely pay the upkeep cost. When I'm going in for the final swing, its often times the creature to do it (although it costs me 1 creature in the graveyard).
Ghost-Lit Stalker is still being tested but seems quite good against control. I can't rely on traditional methods like Hymn and Thoughtseize/Duress as I need the slots for more creatures. Ghost-Lit is harder to stop than a traditional discard spell. And although it costs 7, I can usually get there by turn 3-4 with Crypt or Songs. Plus I can use it under Standstill.
Shriekmaw lets me deal with nasty creatures, goes straight to the graveyard and has fear to boot. Plus I can sac it to Phyrexian Tower with Evoke on the stack.
Undead Gladiator is an alternative method to discarding dredge creatures and, with Crypts/Songs, can cycle quite a bit.
Street Wraith is a key card in the deck and probably the reason for building the deck. Nothing much to say here other than "I love {almost} free cycling"
Golgari-Brown Scale: Although I can't cast him and he doesn't power Crypts, he does give me free dredging with Street Wraith for that extra last minute "umph". Plus I can technically gain life with him if need be...
Stinkweed Imp is the primary dredger and blocker, plus his evasion lets him often times swing for the win.
Haunting Misery is only used when I know 100% for sure that I will win after casting it. If it resolves and I don't win, I've probably lost. Hence why there's only 1.
Ghoul Feast is just two extra Soul Shrieks.
Soulshriek is the primary win-condition. Takes 3-5 turns to set up and lets me swing with a 25/1 flier or fear creature or swampwalk creature, etc...
Cards I've Used/Thinking of Using:
->Oversold Cemetary/Oath of Ghouls: Helped a lot in getting creatures back, but was awfully slow.
->Shinen of Fear's Chill: Seems like a really oddball rogue card, but the odds of my opponent having two fliers or two black creatures with no swamps seems phenomenally low.
->More Haunting Misery: Just using this card as a win-con seems interesting. I could even try running Bosieum Strip in case I discard it.
If I went Black/Green:
->Eternal Witness would help me pull back my win-con when it gets dredged.
->Regrowth does similiar wonders.
->Life from the Loam adds to my dredge and helps me pull back Tomb and Arbors.
->Fetchlands can fetch for arbors at the end of my opponent's turn, making semi-hasty arbors.
->Maelstrom Pulse seems strong, but its lack of being a creature sure is annoying.
The deck basically lets me discard lots of creatures, dredge and draw cards until I hit a spell that turns one of my creatures into a Lhurgoyf. The creatures almost all have an evasion ability, so I'm pretty sure to be able to use one of them properly.
I kinda left it rotting for a while until I saw the new Zendikar card "Crypt of Agadeem". For those who don't know:
Land
Comes into play tapped.
T: B
2, T: Add B for each black creature card in your graveyard.
Mana-Base: (19)
4 Crypt of Agadeem (ZEN)
2 Barren Moor
1 Phyrexian Tower
3 Dryad Arbor
9 Swamp
Black Utility:
4 Songs of the Damned
3 Sign in Blood
Recursion:
4 Tortured Existence
Discard Outlet Creatures:
4 Faerie Macabre
4 Circling Vultures
2 Ghost-Lit Stalker
2 Shriekmaw
Cycling Creatures:
3 Undead Gladiator
4 Street Wraith
Dredge:
4 Golgari-Brown Scale
4 Stinkweed Imp
Win-Cons:
1 Haunting Misery
2 Ghoul Feast
4 Soulshriek
This is the basic version of the deck. The one I'm running now may be slightly different (its 61 cards for one thing; I'm still testing it for cuts), but overall its quite similiar. The deck looks like it wants to go green/black for "Life from the Loam" and side-deck Krosan Grips and whatnot, but until I get a hold of the Bayous required for that, lets just look at this:
Mana:
The swamps are a given. The Barren Moor is to help dredge and is only put onto the battlefield as a last resort.
The Crypt, despite its 'comes into play tapped' restriction, is a huge boost in mana. By turn 3 or so it usually starts generating around 5-7 mana a turn. On top of that, its not legendary. So Crypts can actually power one another up.
The Phrexian Tower helps give me another way to kill my own Dredge creatures if need be. Furthermore it lets me filter my Dryad Arbors into black mana (negating, albeit at the loss of a permanent land, the 'summoning sickness' downfall of the arbor).
The arbor itself is a great boon to this deck. Its land that can be brought back via Tortured Existence. Although it doesn't power crypt, it does power 3 other key spells in the deck. It can be discarded to tortured, help hardcast brownscale if need be, and, best of all, its a 0 drop creature. So it can always swing in for the win with Soul Shriek or chump block, if need be.
Songs of the Damned is another key card in this deck. Some people have told me to drop it for Dark Ritual, but after turn 2 this winds up producing 3-4 mana a turn. This feeds the Tortured Existence-Dredge engine to help me dump creatures into my graveyard extremely quickly.
Sign in Blood lets me get to my combo pieces and helps me dredge.
Tortured Existence is the key engine in the deck, although it can do reasonably well without it. It lets me discard my dredge creatures and, once I dredge for him, pull back Street Wraith. Once Wraith + Imp are available, I can basically go "B, 2 Life: Dredge 5". If I start to run low on life, Brownscale lets me go "B: Dredge 2". Which is useful late game when I'm producing 10-12 mana per songs of the damned/crypt use.
Faerie Macabre is one of the stronger cards in the deck as it helps me survive against Goyf for a while and really messes with other Dredge decks. She can be discarded any time so I can power my win-cons and mana production.
Circling Vultures can be discarded any time (like Macabre). Furthermore its a good blocker (3/2 flier for 1), although I rarely pay the upkeep cost. When I'm going in for the final swing, its often times the creature to do it (although it costs me 1 creature in the graveyard).
Ghost-Lit Stalker is still being tested but seems quite good against control. I can't rely on traditional methods like Hymn and Thoughtseize/Duress as I need the slots for more creatures. Ghost-Lit is harder to stop than a traditional discard spell. And although it costs 7, I can usually get there by turn 3-4 with Crypt or Songs. Plus I can use it under Standstill.
Shriekmaw lets me deal with nasty creatures, goes straight to the graveyard and has fear to boot. Plus I can sac it to Phyrexian Tower with Evoke on the stack.
Undead Gladiator is an alternative method to discarding dredge creatures and, with Crypts/Songs, can cycle quite a bit.
Street Wraith is a key card in the deck and probably the reason for building the deck. Nothing much to say here other than "I love {almost} free cycling"
Golgari-Brown Scale: Although I can't cast him and he doesn't power Crypts, he does give me free dredging with Street Wraith for that extra last minute "umph". Plus I can technically gain life with him if need be...
Stinkweed Imp is the primary dredger and blocker, plus his evasion lets him often times swing for the win.
Haunting Misery is only used when I know 100% for sure that I will win after casting it. If it resolves and I don't win, I've probably lost. Hence why there's only 1.
Ghoul Feast is just two extra Soul Shrieks.
Soulshriek is the primary win-condition. Takes 3-5 turns to set up and lets me swing with a 25/1 flier or fear creature or swampwalk creature, etc...
Cards I've Used/Thinking of Using:
->Oversold Cemetary/Oath of Ghouls: Helped a lot in getting creatures back, but was awfully slow.
->Shinen of Fear's Chill: Seems like a really oddball rogue card, but the odds of my opponent having two fliers or two black creatures with no swamps seems phenomenally low.
->More Haunting Misery: Just using this card as a win-con seems interesting. I could even try running Bosieum Strip in case I discard it.
If I went Black/Green:
->Eternal Witness would help me pull back my win-con when it gets dredged.
->Regrowth does similiar wonders.
->Life from the Loam adds to my dredge and helps me pull back Tomb and Arbors.
->Fetchlands can fetch for arbors at the end of my opponent's turn, making semi-hasty arbors.
->Maelstrom Pulse seems strong, but its lack of being a creature sure is annoying.