Budget Culling Scales

[tron]

Hello, this is somewhat more of a budget/casual deck, although I hope I can get it as competitive as possible. Here is the list (no sideboard yet, maindeck still needs a lot of work):

4 Phylactery Lich
4 Skinrender
4 Shriekmaw
4 Arrogant Bloodlord
3 Tombstalker
3 Okiba-Gang Shinobi
4 Innocent Blood
3 Damping Matrix
4 Darksteel Ingot
4 Culling Scales
4 Dark Ritual
4 Ancient Tomb
4 Mishra's Factory
3 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 Vault of Whispers
4 Swamp

The general idea of the deck is to play culling scales and either get into play Darksteel Ingot or Phylactery Lich because both of these cards are indestructible. Culling Scales is also not that bad of a card by itself with light creature removal.

Other card choices:

Shriekmaw and Skinrender: creature removal and to beatdown.

Okiba-Gang Shinobi: punishes them if they hold back playing spells, and the ninjutsu can help you recast Shriekmaw and Skinrender.

Arrogant Bloodlord and Tombstalker: efficient beatdown creatures. There might be better alternatives but I can't think of what else I could add at the moment.

Damping Matrix: shuts off Sensei's Divining Top which completely shuts down Culling Scales because of the tap to draw ability, along with hitting equipment, Qasali Pridemage, aether vial, and many other things.

I thought the Phylactery Lich + Culling Scales interaction was pretty cool so I wanted to base a deck around that. The deck at the moment seems a little slow to win because the threat density is low and there isn't anything less than 3 converted mana cost. I also think that it needs some kind of life gain to counteract the slow starts, and also it needs more hand disruption, but I'm not sure what I should be cutting.

Any ideas or suggestions would be appreciated.

[Mystical_Jackass]

Try running Chrome Mox and Chalice of the Void with Lich. You could even keep the rituals for testing, but I was thinking focus more on getting that explosive start--that Turn1 Chalice-1 lockdown, followed by Turn2 5/5 smasher--as opposed to the synergy behind Culling Scales or Ingot.

Darksteel Ingot isn't that important, it's only use would be to ramp for Shriekmaw but in Legacy artifact destruction isn't as much an issue as StP, PtE, Edicts, or bounce and that's only "if" you can fight through discard/countermagic.

I'm even sort of skeptical about the Artifact Lands, too. Of course it seems like the obvious play, but there's SO much wasteland in Legacy... maybe this is more subjective to meta, but at least for me it seems about 50% decks I play will be using them. A resolved Chrome Mox is gonna be safer for Lich most of the time, the most common threat is gonna be something like EE, Deed, or Pridemage but other than that it's pretty safe if you can resolve Chalice to slow them down.

Don't play Tombstalker unless you're going to run at least 6 fetchlands and probably more cheap spells like duress/seize, snuff out, etc. Otherwise it's just not effective at all. If you want to go more hand disruption route be my guest, but I think chrome mox is a stronger play with Lich with the requirement. Good luuck :wink: