Erebos, God of Goodstuff

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Tevesh
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Post by Tevesh » 4 years ago

I've always liked MBC. I figure, why not make a casual deck for that? Unfortunately, my version of casual might not be yours... Though to keep is casual I'm going to avoid tutors and most of my draw is going to be fuelled by Erebos. It has been pointed out to me that all of my decks require my Commander to function, so I figure, why not build one that doesn't? Well, besides a big mana sink that draws me cards.
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Last edited by Tevesh 4 years ago, edited 21 times in total.

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Tevesh
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Post by Tevesh » 4 years ago

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I wanted more life gain to fuel Erebos than to actually do damage with Corrupt, so it goes in favour of welcoming Gary back into my undead arms. As a Creature, I can also do a lot more shenanigans with him.

Necropotence caused a lot of attention and was also against the spirit of the deck. This is supposed to be Casual, not eat my life total to find wincon and dab on all of the kids. In its place comes Conqueror's Galleon which is a lot more fun and will let me recur all of my big, nasty spells.

Myriad Landscape is a very small opportunity cost way to getting Ramp which this deck craves. Emergence Zone lets the deck play silly things when they shouldn't. Snow Swamps leave to make room.

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ISBPathfinder
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Post by ISBPathfinder » 4 years ago

Dread Presence seems fairly good in mono black shells. Both of the abilities seem relivant and easy to trigger.

What is your take on Thrashing Wumpus or Crypt Rats instead of Pestilence Demon? I know its a little different role being the demon can survive easier but the difference in mana cost is something I often look at.

Bloodchief Ascension - Does this card work for you? I don't think I have ever seen it actually go active before.
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Tevesh
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Post by Tevesh » 4 years ago

ISBPathfinder wrote:
4 years ago
Dread Presence seems fairly good in mono black shells. Both of the abilities seem relivant and easy to trigger.

What is your take on Thrashing Wumpus or Crypt Rats instead of Pestilence Demon? I know its a little different role being the demon can survive easier but the difference in mana cost is something I often look at.

Bloodchief Ascension - Does this card work for you? I don't think I have ever seen it actually go active before.
Bloodchief Ascension is a low risk high reward sort of card. I don't have much of a board so a lot of the time people forget about it when others have much more cluttered and threatening looking boards. They then spend time hitting each other for two and once this goes active, it does serious work. And if it gets blown up, oh well.

Pestilence Demon is an artifact of when the dead had Whip of Erebos which was pretty dirty pool but this is a much more spellslinger version of MBC. The Demon currently sits there oppressing Creatures with 5 or less toughness as a repeatable Wrath that also flies in for damage. And if things get serious I can go past it's 6 toughness to nuke the board. It is kind of questionable but I've been happy so far.

Dread Presence is a great suggestion, chucking that in.
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I cut Grim Return and Thrilling Encore because I am the one who causes the Wraths, I rarely have some spare mana to then also steal all of those kills. Dread Presence goes in as draw or removal.

I needed some way to handle those Hexproof Voltrons and Vona's Hunger delivers, plus it probably nukes the entire board when it goes off.

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Tevesh
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Post by Tevesh » 4 years ago

The next update:
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Hero's Downfall hits targetable Creatures and Planeswalkers, it is the untargetable that have been posing problems so Liliana's Triumph comes in. And who knows, maybe I'll control a Liliana Planeswalker?

All is Dust is a great Wrath for Black, Crux was probably was worst Wrath.

Coffin Queen took too long to spin up and sometimes there weren't any worthy targets. Consume Spirit pays off my Cabal Coffers and Cabal Stronghold as I felt I didn't quite have enough ways to pay off big mana.

Demon of Dark Schemes didn't really have juicy targets when it ETBed so I decided to add another way to pay off huge X spells.

I want to make sure I make a land drop every turn so I'm cutting two rocks for that. Gilded Lotus because it is one of the more expensive Rocks and Charcoal because it is one of the cheaper ones. I did think of cutting Everflowing Chalice but then I asked myself 'Aren't I trying to pay off the Coffers?' so I decided to keep it in the deck.

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Tevesh
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Post by Tevesh » 4 years ago

Another pair of obvious adds:
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Venser's Journal provides me the life I need to fuel my card draw and my card draw fuels Venser's Journal's life gain. It's quite incestuous. I feel like this should have been obvious but I'm a big dummy. I cut Strands of Night because while it was amazing potential, the base requirements to make it worthwhile are simply too high. I'm sad, Strands feels like one of the cards I need to keep cutting in all of my decks even if I want to play with it frequently.

With Kenny Loggins being torn apart, I freed up my Volrath's Stronghold. Considering how few Creatures I run but their high impact, I feel like this is easy to justify.

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Tevesh
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Post by Tevesh » 4 years ago

One more MBC obvious add and one that's actual Erebos related:
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Font of Agonies is pretty easy to activate when my Commander makes me pay life and I'm happy to do so. Pay six, lose 4, draw two and shoot your Creature seems like a good time. I decided to cut Dark Ritual because while I like the idea of a big tempo swing that Erebos can quickly buyback with inherent card advantage, it was a slot that I could rarely take advantage of. I think Font will be good times and if I'm wrong; well, I'll probably find something else abusive.

So... Bolas's Citadel. Yeah, that's an obvious Black card. I decided that Worn Powerstone was the worst Ramp spell for me. Now, I know Bolas Rock isn't technically Ramp but it functions in that fashion in lieu of spending mana on casting spells. It should be especially egregious with Erebos being able to change the top card when I need to dig. Or, y'know, I want that X Spell in my hand. I figure the three point CMC increase is OK with the deck designed to make sure it hits every land drop and then abuses those lands with Coffers et la.

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Tevesh
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Post by Tevesh » 4 years ago

Another case of the dumbs:
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Pestilence Demon is great if I'm ahead but I'm looking more for ways to not get killed beforehand. Decree of Pain wipes the board and draws me cards. I can also Cycle it early to smash a Swarm of Creatures.

Primal Amulet made me greedy and dumb; I also might not run enough Instants and Sorceries to make it worthwhile. I do feel dumb for not including a Mirage Mirror in my initial builds. It can turn itself into a Cabal Coffers, allowing for more big mana shenanigans plus anything else obnoxious.

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Post by TheGildedGoose » 4 years ago

My experience with Font of Agonies was that it was total garbage, even in Erebos. Typically, when I need spot removal, I need it now and want it to be as cheap as possible. Moreover, as a repeated form of removal, it's rather inefficient. I would rather wipe the board than try to kill two or three creatures with it.

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Tevesh
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Post by Tevesh » 4 years ago

GloriousGoose wrote:
4 years ago
My experience with Font of Agonies was that it was total garbage, even in Erebos. Typically, when I need spot removal, I need it now and want it to be as cheap as possible. Moreover, as a repeated form of removal, it's rather inefficient. I would rather wipe the board than try to kill two or three creatures with it.
You're probably right, I just want to see if that's the case.

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Tevesh
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Post by Tevesh » 4 years ago

Adding utility:
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Ob Nixilis is a lot for a Phyrexian Arena or a Murder. I wasn't too impressed with either. Arena gets away with being Arena by virtue of costing three; Ob Nix's five takes up room where I can sit with mana open and draw on end step. With that in mind, I wanted some utility since I already have draw handled and picked Shrouded Lore. I can dump a huge amount of mana into whatever I need to Regrow, especially if that is a destroyed Cabal Coffers.

Black Sun asked for a lot of mana to wipe the board, I rather have kill clauses than putting -1/-1 counters on all of the things. I rather have Consume the Meek in its slot; it's an Instant which allows me to see if I should cap those token swarms or see if they go elsewhere.

Blast Zone is a low opportunity cost way of having another way to deal with Enchantments.

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Tevesh
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Post by Tevesh » 4 years ago

Welp, [mention]GloriousGoose[/mention] was right. Time to trim some crap:
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Geth is cool and all but he's pretty situational, they may not have Artifacts or Creatures I want to Reanimate and that's if they even have that. The deck wants to do big Black mana and Nirkana Revenant does that. With the Shade ability, it can even end games for me rather than the hoops Geth jumps through. If Geth touched my own 'yard, I'd be interested but as is, I think the Revenant does a better job justifying CMC 6.

I dropped Font on turn one and quickly accrued 20 counters on it. Too bad so many Creatures became untargettable through a variety of means. One player loves to interact with targetting removal and so another has shifted to make sure all his decks have Hexproof in them. This quickly outclasses a lot of targeted removal. So, Font drops out for Pestilence as it does not care about Shroud or Hexproof. It is also a clock where I can slowly ping my opponents to death.

Conqueror's Galleon is fun but requires too many hoops to jump through. I figure some card draw that doesn't cost me life and I sometimes have excess mana to play with so Mind's Eye felt like a natural conclusion.

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Tevesh
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Post by Tevesh » 4 years ago

The least synergistic piece?
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Feels like blasphemy but I rather hide how much life I can gain and rely on lots of little Creatures to die.

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Tevesh
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Post by Tevesh » 4 years ago

Cutting a few weak options:
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Slaughter has been staying in my hand at times without a target due to facing Black Creatures. I also have seen how oppressive Pestilence has been. I can use it to trigger Bloodchief Ascension; it can be used to turn Erebos into a Creature who can sit there, tanking the pings; Erebos as a Creature means he can also block; the lifegain can be ridiculous with Exquisite Blood; being able to do a little bit of damage on demand can shut out entire deck archetypes out and I can use it as a finisher against a low-life opponent. Slaughter already costs me life but Wisps has so much more potential. I'm already running Snow Lands for Dead of Winter so it's not like I need to go out and spend a lot on Snow Swamps.

Thran Dynamo has kind of been a disappointment. I need the fast mana rocks moreso than the stable mana Dynamo provides. I've opted to slot in my copy of Maze to curb aggression. With Urborg, it can count as a Swamp for my Cabal Coffers and be being nonlegendary I can copy it with my Thespian's Stage.

Mystifying Maze has only been disappointing, especially in comparison to other Maze options I have in my deck. It gets replaced by a Basic Snow Swamp for all the reasons you run Basics in MBC.

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Tevesh
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Post by Tevesh » 4 years ago

Switch for needs:
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I already do big mana, but do pay that off I need to draw more cards and Erebos has hurt me too much at times. The Atlas goes in to add some pain free draw which I feel is still within character aka "Not Necropotence". The Chalice is just so extra for no particular reason.

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Tevesh
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Post by Tevesh » 4 years ago

I am the one who has changed. I used to like MBC because it was a big, bad deck that laid down the law and just did its own thing. Now, I like being able to interact and that's something that Black does not do well. While I'll always be fond of the archetype, I've moved past that and so it'll just have to remain in my memories. I am retiring Erebos.

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