[EDH] Demonlord Belzenlok - Demon Tribal

[ronco]

For the hell of it, I wanted to make a demon tribal deck, and have Demonlord Belzenlok be thy profane commander. This is VERY MUCH a work in progress as this is just the first draft of the deck. The goal is for casual multiplayer/1 on 1 games, where I may be loaning out a deck to let some newer people play kind of thing. So I won't be putting mana crypts in here (unless they get super cheap with mystery booster cards) but I will be making the deck reasonably competitive for kitchen table standards. It has a long way to go but I'll start this here and if there are any glaring omissions, I'm open for suggestions.

39 Lands


Swamp x36
Lake of the Dead
Barren Moor
Bojuka bog


22 Metalheads
Overseer of the Damned
Bloodgift Demon
Abyssal Persecutor
Demon of Wailing Agonies
Archfiend of Depravity
Doom Whisperer
Herald of Torment
Archfiend of Spite
Embodiment of Agonies
Harvester of Souls




Desecration Demon
Vilis, Broker of Blood
Rune-scarred Demon
Reaper from the Abyss
Indulgent Tormentor
Pestilence Demon
Grinning Demon
Kagemaro, First to Suffer
Kothophed, Soul Hoarder
Reiver Demon
Nefarox, Overlord of Grixis
Archdemon of Paliano


Those are the demons. Goal was to have a mix of splashy cards without having a horrible curve, hence why some of the smaller ones are in there (Grinning Demon for example). This may be the wrong way to go about it, so expect changes once the cards come in. Its tough for me to playtest with proxies. Fortunately this is very much a budget endeavor from a creature standpoint.

36 Other Cards


5 Planeswalkers Liliana Vess
Liliana, Death's Majesty
Liliana of the Dark Realms
Sorin Markov
Ob Nixilis of the Black Oath



11 Board Wipes/Removal Bontu's Last Reckoning
Toxic Deluge
Ritual of Soot
Damnation
Decree of Pain
Sudden Spoiling
Languish
Mutilate
Black Sun's Zenith
Price of Fame
Hero's Downfall



3 Card Selection Demonic Tutor
Razaketh's Rite
Bolas's Citadel




9 Mana Rocks/Reducers/Spells Mana Vault
Sol Ring
Heartless Summoning
Herald's Horn
Belbe's Portal
Bontu's Monument
Urza's Incubator
Jet Medallion
Caged Sun



7 Misc accessories Whip of Erebos
Exhume
Reanimate
Swiftfoot Boots
The Eldest Reborn
Mark of the Oni
Lashwrithe


1 Token Generators Demonic Rising



2 Alt win Con
Liliana's Contract
Hatred


Quick notes - The mana base is lacking cards like Cabal Coffers, Lake of the Dead, and so forth. Dark rit/Cabal rit are probably useless in this deck, and Exhume is likely a bad idea in a creature based format. Those will be cut, likely for more bad dudes, more protection/removal, and card filtering. Note - with the current curve the Dark Prince Belzenlok "draws" a fair amount of cards when cast, so late game (as long as I can get him in play) there isn't much of an issue refilling the hand, it's just being able to cast stuff.
Heartless Summoning is a MAJOR boost, however it doesn't play well with the token generators (which is why Bad moon is in there). There aren't nearly as many required sacrifice cards as I initially thought, so I'll reevaluate and see if that is still necessary. If not that will open up 3 more slots. I thought about going the Shadowborn Apostle route, but I didn't feel like taking up that many slots, plus the impact of any one Demon wasn't particularly worth it. Plus, removal and all that.

So, right now the plan is to board wipe until I can start flooding with evasive fatties and win in the air. There are some glaring omissions right now, but bear with me as it comes together. I find this posting format helps tremendously with that.

[ronco]

Cards to consider:
Blood Speaker
Rite of Belzenlok
Ob Nixilis of the Black Oath
Sanguine bond + a card to sac creatures and drain for their power, or something to that effect. Something like a flipped Arguels blood fast, but without the difficult flip constraint.

editing to add:
Diamond Valley (if i win the powerball)
Miren, the Moaning Well
Life chisel
Disciple of Griselbrand
Rite of Consumption
Consuming Vapors
Severed Strands
Disciple of Bolas

[ronco]

First edit:
- Bad moon
+ Demonic Tutor

Next edit:
- Lili, heretical healer
+ Lashwrithe

[ronco]

Removed:
Breeding Pit
Cabal Ritual
Dark ritual
inner demon
demon of catastrophes

added
Vraska's Contempt
Archdemon of Paliano
Razaketh's Rite
Herald of Torment
archfiend of ifnir


archdemon is just a 5/4 flyer for 4, no other reason
2 rituals were basically useless if not in the opening hand. Token producers will get the axe as the deck gets more streamlined. As of now, I will not be going the upkeep sacrifice route. Plus a BB upkeep cost really hurts the curve anyway.
Inner Demon/Herald swap was because I put the wrong card in there. While it's good to wipe weenies, chances are If i am in that position i won't have a creature out to cast it, so ritual/damnation/deluge/decree all work pretty well here anyway.

[ronco]

Removed:
Swamp x3
Gilded Lotus
Exhume
bitterblossom

Added
Bojuka Bog
Ob Nixilis of the Black Oath
Price of Fame
Rite of Belzenlok
Lake of the Dead
Caged Sun


We'll see hwo caged sun works out. Might be too much mana. Gauntlet of power is possibly a cheaper sub but I believe it helps opponents too. Also looking into Coalition Relic and Skull of Ramos. The former is better but the latter sounds cooler!

[ronco]

Minor update

out:
Rite of Belzenlok
Abhorrent overlord
Master of the Feast
Liege of the pit
in:
Demonic Rising
Archfiend of Spite
Hero's Downfall
Nefarox, Overlord of Grixis

Rite/Abhorrent didn't fit into the deck since i'm not doing a sacrifice theme. Rising still makes creatures like the Saga, and Archfiend is the same CMC as Overlord, so the curve is pretty much in tact and with better removal/less risk of a blowout i think.
Master is too much of a liability, so i slotted in removal instead.
Lieve - same as rite/abhorrent above. Cute with whip of erebos, but otherwise not really important anymore. Plus my foil is SUPER warped, so that also played into the logic haha. Nefarox helps the curve slightly. Can possibly act as removal or mini pump. Both plus sides. Only thing I'm really losing here is trample, which is great with Lashwrithe or Hatred, but it is what it is. Hatred isn't in yet, but its going to be at some point.

Also looking to add a worn powerstone or other smaller rocks. I need more early plays and also need to make sure I have enough cards CMC<4 to stop Belzenlok from killing me when I cast him.

Without my sacrificers, Abyssal Persecutor becomes a potentially larger liability, but it hasn't given me any problems yet. I'll probably fix that with my mana base down the line (Phyrexian Tower, etc).

[ronco]

in:
Hatred
Bolas's Citadel


Out:
Archfiend of Ifnir
Necropolis Fiend

Both outies didn't really contribute much for their cost, especially Fiend. Not sure bolas citadel is the right answer, but we'll test it out.