I almost built a carbon copy of WizardMN's Sygg control list but I have not had an aristocrats deck so I decided to build this. I think it's decent but needs a lot of tuning. The only game I played was basically a crapshow because of me doing bananas stuff with Possibility Storm and my low curve cards but some of my stuff worked to drain people a lot to get Sygg going.
https://deckbox.org/sets/2890338
The main idea is to stick Sygg and some Blood Artist effects and try to draw cards and drain people out. There're some Mikaeus, the Unhallowed combos, and the Intuition for Dread Return / Hullbreacher / Echo of Eons package, and some Gravecrawler combos as well to close the game if I can't get it done with damage and drains.
The deck's a little light on control elements, trying hard to control the board with Grave Pact effects, but I am sure I will add some more counters and bounce and such as I figure out what cards I can spare.
I forgot to put Undermine in there which I'll probably fix soon.
The deck's mana engine is kinda atypical, with Cabal Coffers and various altar effects to create endgame mana and not a lot otherwise.
Sygg, River Cutthroat - mostly mono black Aristocrats
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Phoenixlance
- Posts: 39
- Joined: 4 years ago
- Pronoun: he / him
Kels, Fight Fixer could be another draw engine for this list.
How married are you to keeping it mostly mono black? Nadir Kraken has nice synergy with Sygg here to give you more fodder that you can sac away. Other good blue creatures with death triggers include Reef Worm and Chasm Skulker. Oh, and the obligatory Baleful Strix.
Ruthless Deathfang could do some work as another Grave Pact effect, although affecting only a single opponent versus all is a drawback. The fact that it targets the opponent as well could lead to it being easily disrupted.
Another funny forgotten card for this kind of archetype would be Brine Shaman. This might stretch your fodder and mana a bit, but being able sac something to Cancel is interesting. Brine Shaman also has a tap ability that can help you draw cards off Sygg by targeting a 1 power creature while also still being a sac outlet.
How married are you to keeping it mostly mono black? Nadir Kraken has nice synergy with Sygg here to give you more fodder that you can sac away. Other good blue creatures with death triggers include Reef Worm and Chasm Skulker. Oh, and the obligatory Baleful Strix.
Ruthless Deathfang could do some work as another Grave Pact effect, although affecting only a single opponent versus all is a drawback. The fact that it targets the opponent as well could lead to it being easily disrupted.
Another funny forgotten card for this kind of archetype would be Brine Shaman. This might stretch your fodder and mana a bit, but being able sac something to Cancel is interesting. Brine Shaman also has a tap ability that can help you draw cards off Sygg by targeting a 1 power creature while also still being a sac outlet.
I've got a fever, and the only prescription is more card draw.
Decks:
Dragonlord Ojutai
Isperia the Inscrutable
Lurrus of the Dream-Den
Katilda, Dawnhart Prime
Beledros Witherbloom
Jenara, Asura of War
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Decks:
Dragonlord Ojutai
Isperia the Inscrutable
Lurrus of the Dream-Den
Katilda, Dawnhart Prime
Beledros Witherbloom
Jenara, Asura of War
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
I am not sure why I thought Kels was BUGPhoenixlance wrote: ↑3 years agoKels, Fight Fixer could be another draw engine for this list.
How married are you to keeping it mostly mono black? Nadir Kraken has nice synergy with Sygg here to give you more fodder that you can sac away. Other good blue creatures with death triggers include Reef Worm and Chasm Skulker. Oh, and the obligatory Baleful Strix.
Ruthless Deathfang could do some work as another Grave Pact effect, although affecting only a single opponent versus all is a drawback. The fact that it targets the opponent as well could lead to it being easily disrupted.
Another funny forgotten card for this kind of archetype would be Brine Shaman. This might stretch your fodder and mana a bit, but being able sac something to Cancel is interesting. Brine Shaman also has a tap ability that can help you draw cards off Sygg by targeting a 1 power creature while also still being a sac outlet.
MIght be worth a try.I had kraken/worm/skulker/strix in my piles as I was building and cut them. Kraken's mana cost is the main issue but triggering off Sygg is nice, and creates some good chains.
I think Deathfang is a bit too high a mana cost and only targeting one appointment but cool callout.
Brine Shaman seems more cute, but interestingly the +2/+2 is pretty relevant letting me pop for 3 with my small dudes and tokens which is Sygg's magic number. Countering creature spells is legitimately good even for 3. I'll pick one up and put it in the box
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Phoenixlance
- Posts: 39
- Joined: 4 years ago
- Pronoun: he / him
You've inspired me to theorycraft some Dimir Aristocrats myself, haha. Figured I'd post some more musings of mine for your consideration.
One thing that Dimir gives the Aristocrats strategy is creature theft as a way to fuel your gameplan. You already have Reins of Power, but Sower of Temptation gives you two creatures four 4 mana, and the evasion Sower itself has can be relevant in triggering Sygg. However, if Kraken was ultimately cut due to mana reasons then going this route might not be the way to go as Sower and most effects of its ilk usually cost UU. I think it may depend on how much you want to stretch the mana base; you could get away with replacing some Islands for things like Choked Estuary and River of Tears to help make those blue-intensive cards easier to cast.
Some other UB gold cards that I remembered were Mortus Strider (if you feel like you need another, albeit inefficient, recursive piece of fodder) and Vela the Night-Clad (another one to add to the arsenal of bleeders at your disposal that can also help push through combat damage, however she does cost 6 mana). Marang River Prowler may be a pure blue card, but is a 2-power unblockable piece of fodder that can be recast from grave.
I'm not seeing too many payoffs for the Coffers mana (although I could be missing them through the haze of post-vaccine symptoms), maybe something like Agadeem's Awakening as a late-game mass recursion piece to help push through those last points of damage?
One thing that Dimir gives the Aristocrats strategy is creature theft as a way to fuel your gameplan. You already have Reins of Power, but Sower of Temptation gives you two creatures four 4 mana, and the evasion Sower itself has can be relevant in triggering Sygg. However, if Kraken was ultimately cut due to mana reasons then going this route might not be the way to go as Sower and most effects of its ilk usually cost UU. I think it may depend on how much you want to stretch the mana base; you could get away with replacing some Islands for things like Choked Estuary and River of Tears to help make those blue-intensive cards easier to cast.
Some other UB gold cards that I remembered were Mortus Strider (if you feel like you need another, albeit inefficient, recursive piece of fodder) and Vela the Night-Clad (another one to add to the arsenal of bleeders at your disposal that can also help push through combat damage, however she does cost 6 mana). Marang River Prowler may be a pure blue card, but is a 2-power unblockable piece of fodder that can be recast from grave.
I'm not seeing too many payoffs for the Coffers mana (although I could be missing them through the haze of post-vaccine symptoms), maybe something like Agadeem's Awakening as a late-game mass recursion piece to help push through those last points of damage?
I've got a fever, and the only prescription is more card draw.
Decks:
Dragonlord Ojutai
Isperia the Inscrutable
Lurrus of the Dream-Den
Katilda, Dawnhart Prime
Beledros Witherbloom
Jenara, Asura of War
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Decks:
Dragonlord Ojutai
Isperia the Inscrutable
Lurrus of the Dream-Den
Katilda, Dawnhart Prime
Beledros Witherbloom
Jenara, Asura of War
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Def gonna pick up an agadeems. The main payoff for coffers Mana is casting game winning bombs or combo cards. The top end is pretty heavy and we want a lot of multi spell turns.
Combo turns like casting glen elendra, mikaeus and corpse dancing a sac outlet or whatever are reasonable with big Mana available. Hard casting razzledazzle etc
Combo turns like casting glen elendra, mikaeus and corpse dancing a sac outlet or whatever are reasonable with big Mana available. Hard casting razzledazzle etc
I like this list and it is a pretty far departure from my. So it is interesting to see a different take on Sygg.
I would say I am not a fan of Thieving Amalgam just based most on cost, but I can understand why it is here. I guess, I would probably prefer something like Bitterblossom here just to at least keep the creatures rolling even though you then lose the trigger.
I don't really see anything else to comment on or even suggest. It looks like a relatively tight, and fun, list.
I would say I am not a fan of Thieving Amalgam just based most on cost, but I can understand why it is here. I guess, I would probably prefer something like Bitterblossom here just to at least keep the creatures rolling even though you then lose the trigger.
I don't really see anything else to comment on or even suggest. It looks like a relatively tight, and fun, list.
I definitely like the idea of Bitterblossom and Dreadhorde Invasion but I felt like I needed some more powerful top end effects. Amalgam is a bit on the pricy side though, and I don't have a ton of other theft effects (outside of Thrilling Discovery Thrilling Encore I guess?) that'll let me use the trigger.WizardMN wrote: ↑3 years agoI like this list and it is a pretty far departure from my. So it is interesting to see a different take on Sygg.
I would say I am not a fan of Thieving Amalgam just based most on cost, but I can understand why it is here. I guess, I would probably prefer something like Bitterblossom here just to at least keep the creatures rolling even though you then lose the trigger.
I don't really see anything else to comment on or even suggest. It looks like a relatively tight, and fun, list.
I kinda wanted individual cards to have more of an impact, so more Ophiomancer and less Bitterblossom, but that could be a mistake for sure.
It's definitely on the short list to cut along with a lot of the more expensive cards. The cheap cards are just so dang good, I'm half tempted to cut everything 5+ tbh. I'm going to have to take a refresher on your Aristocrats deck to see if there's some angles I'd like to explore there.
cards I remembered from reading Marchesa
and some other cards I'm thinking on from the new set and otherwise
Last edited by pokken 3 years ago, edited 1 time in total.
I assume you meant Thrilling Encore above 
Yeah, I could see that. I think Ophiomancer is definitely better than Bitterblossom and it is tough to get cards that get you a permanent every upkeep (outside of green anyway).
I do think Tergrid can do good work when you are leaning on things like Grave Pact and Dictate so she might be worth it. I an not entirely sold on Valkyrie yet but the effect affecting all opponents and the fact that it flies and gains life just means that the whole package seems pretty good. I haven't actually been able to test it yet though.
I think reclamation is good, but I am wondering if you might be better served trying to just go with mass reanimation like Living Death.
I do like Standard Bearer for card draw but Blue has a lot more options. It certainly feels at home in an Aristocrats deck though. Plumb the Forbidden plays in the same space and gives you a sac outlet in case you might not have gotten one yet.
Cemetery is pretty good and Coven makes sense too. I was worried mostly about being able to gain life at the right time in Marchesa in case I didn't have the right cards out which is why I excluded it for that write-up. Maybe that is wrong though? I don't think you have much more for drain effects than I do so I would be curious if you think the drain effects you have are enough to get it to trigger often enough.
And Blight Mound seems like a pretty good one and one I totally glossed over for Marchesa. With as many things that should be dying, it gives plenty more to sacrifice and drain some more.
Yeah, I could see that. I think Ophiomancer is definitely better than Bitterblossom and it is tough to get cards that get you a permanent every upkeep (outside of green anyway).
I do think Tergrid can do good work when you are leaning on things like Grave Pact and Dictate so she might be worth it. I an not entirely sold on Valkyrie yet but the effect affecting all opponents and the fact that it flies and gains life just means that the whole package seems pretty good. I haven't actually been able to test it yet though.
I think reclamation is good, but I am wondering if you might be better served trying to just go with mass reanimation like Living Death.
I do like Standard Bearer for card draw but Blue has a lot more options. It certainly feels at home in an Aristocrats deck though. Plumb the Forbidden plays in the same space and gives you a sac outlet in case you might not have gotten one yet.
Cemetery is pretty good and Coven makes sense too. I was worried mostly about being able to gain life at the right time in Marchesa in case I didn't have the right cards out which is why I excluded it for that write-up. Maybe that is wrong though? I don't think you have much more for drain effects than I do so I would be curious if you think the drain effects you have are enough to get it to trigger often enough.
And Blight Mound seems like a pretty good one and one I totally glossed over for Marchesa. With as many things that should be dying, it gives plenty more to sacrifice and drain some more.
I am not sure. I might have to squeeze in Falkenrath Noble and see if I can find another good drain effect. Generally speaking this build really needs to find one of those I think,.WizardMN wrote: ↑3 years agoCoven makes sense too. I was worried mostly about being able to gain life at the right time in Marchesa in case I didn't have the right cards out which is why I excluded it for that write-up. Maybe that is wrong though? I don't think you have much more for drain effects than I do so I would be curious if you think the drain effects you have are enough to get it to trigger often enough.
And Blight Mound seems like a pretty good one and one I totally glossed over for Marchesa. With as many things that should be dying, it gives plenty more to sacrifice and drain some more.
The main thing for me is I'm running a lot of combos so either Pitiless Plunderer / Phyrexian Altar will create a lot of infinites with Coven, so I think it's probably good enough based on that? Basically any of my 4 1 drops becomes part of a 4 card infinite drain loop.
The other good thing I think Coven does is that it turns a sac outlet into protection for my creature based drain guys...Zulaport Cutthroat and Blood Artist and Lampad of Death's Vigil all can recur themselves on sac (since they drain post-death). Ayara, First of Locthwain a pretty huge engine too.
(I do have a couple sneaky extra lifegain effects though like Call the Bloodline and Kokusho, the Evening Star -- Kokopuff plus coven is kind of an endgame strategy despite the mana cost--with a good coffers and Ashnod's Altar you could conceivably jam it 2 or 3 times in a turn out of nowhere)
I think the card is probably strong enough that I should make sure I have enough lifegain for it to work?
Blight Mound seems to me to present a pretty ridiculously strong scenario where you end-step sac your board to drain, make a bunch of pests, bash with them for 2 power each, then sac them again. It might not be quite good enough but I really do like the 2/1's with menace for pushing damage, and incremental lifegain is also sweet.
I think you are spot on with needing enough support for the Coven. In comparison, I have actually cut Falkenrath Noble and Bastion of Remembrance because I didn't think they were doing enough in the deck. Which, again, is simply another reason why I didn't look at the Coven,
If you add Noble and with things like Kokusho and Lampad, you are likely at the right number of drain effects to make it work. And, if not, I don't think it is worth it to go too much further into more of those cards just to make Coven work. It is a powerful card, but the support cards start to lose efficacy as you go further down the line. That is my thought anyway.
And yeah, Blight Mound has some pretty good uses and even just attacking with the tokens is pretty good. And, of course, they gain life when they die so they give you more to trigger Coven.
If you add Noble and with things like Kokusho and Lampad, you are likely at the right number of drain effects to make it work. And, if not, I don't think it is worth it to go too much further into more of those cards just to make Coven work. It is a powerful card, but the support cards start to lose efficacy as you go further down the line. That is my thought anyway.
And yeah, Blight Mound has some pretty good uses and even just attacking with the tokens is pretty good. And, of course, they gain life when they die so they give you more to trigger Coven.
I converted the decklist link to just a deckbox link since I am likely to make a ton of changes as I try to get the balance right.
Main stuff I added was Liliana, and the Veinwitch Coven / Blight Mound package from the new set, and Tortured Existence. Oh, also Wake the Dead. And Falkenrath Noble back in, just too important despite its inefficiency.
I'm pretty excited about the new lifegain angle of the deck, and pretty stoked to try it out.
Main stuff I added was Liliana, and the Veinwitch Coven / Blight Mound package from the new set, and Tortured Existence. Oh, also Wake the Dead. And Falkenrath Noble back in, just too important despite its inefficiency.
I'm pretty excited about the new lifegain angle of the deck, and pretty stoked to try it out.
So I toned this deck down quite a bit by taking the wheel packages out. Had a solid game I won pretty convincingly off corpse dancing Gary and then a sick reins of power that lethaled the table.
This was vs stormyish hazorer, inniaz fliers and Veyran spells.
The game kinda hinged on me controlling the board early with eradicator Valkyria and bloodghast who did really good work. Valk is awesome in this deck. The pressure and sygg drawing were nice.
Sygg mostly hasn't been that amazing in this deck, tho he does power up nykthos which is nice. I drew two or three cards off him this game which was meaningful tho..
It does feel a little short on instant speed activity but overall I think it's okay. I might try putting in a couple counterspells.
This game had some issues with me missing seeing an open sac outlet the entire game but I was able to get I done anyway. I might need to play another couple if they keeps happening .
This was vs stormyish hazorer, inniaz fliers and Veyran spells.
The game kinda hinged on me controlling the board early with eradicator Valkyria and bloodghast who did really good work. Valk is awesome in this deck. The pressure and sygg drawing were nice.
Sygg mostly hasn't been that amazing in this deck, tho he does power up nykthos which is nice. I drew two or three cards off him this game which was meaningful tho..
It does feel a little short on instant speed activity but overall I think it's okay. I might try putting in a couple counterspells.
This game had some issues with me missing seeing an open sac outlet the entire game but I was able to get I done anyway. I might need to play another couple if they keeps happening .
I had two games last night with this deck that both went pretty smoothly (barring my saltiness)
Game 1
Omnath locus of the roil vs. Teysa, Orzhov Scion vs. my maelstrom wanderer deck borrowed by another player
In this game, Teysa and I both got decent starts, but Teysa hit a mentor of the meek and some ramp and was getting close to going off (had 3 of 4 combo pieces).
Omnath had played Urborg, so I expedition map'd for coffers and was doing OK, but had mostly an empty hand and could not stop his Field of the Dead. So coffers out a couple things and go into him with Yahenni, Undying Partisan, Ophiomancer, Sygg, River Cutthroat and Blood Artist while Teysa has a similar board but with Mentor and Teysa. but obviously Ophiomancer is quite a bit better when it turns into exiling everything on the board constantly with teysa.
Maelstrom wanderer is basically a nonentity because the player had some sequencing fus.
So I pass into OMnath with the aforementioned board and he tutors up Strip Mine, plays Crucible of Worlds and proceeds to strip mine my coffers. To which I say "Are you sure I'm the problem here? You 100% cannot beat Teysa 1v1." He nods, "coffers scares me." yeah my 2 card hand of bricks (two fleshbag effects against field of the dead, teysa aristocrats and an empty board) is terrifying when you're literally going to have your general and any card you play exiled forever. He then strip mined Teysa (who had an unbeatable engine on board and it did nothing), setting himself back yet another land to show me his commitment to balance.
Sooo I scoop it up. Enjoy going 1v1 with Teysa and losing (which of course he did). Why? this player has literally focused strip mine looped me out of the game the last 5 times we played despite it massively setting him back 3 of the 5 times, because "emeria scares me" or "coffers scares me" or whatever. I get that's a legitimate strategy but does this need to be a thing? Do I need to mulligan to graveyard hate to get to play the damn game?
I just don't understand the politics of presenting a strip mine loop aggressively like that. Even if I stay in the game I have to focus fire him out of the game because I'm going to struggle to beat that 1v1. Bleh.
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Game 2 was vs. Orvar, Yuriko (toned down ninja tribal, still quite strong), and Anowon.
Anowon basically was a non-entity this game except providing a Mindcrank to help mill me into stuff.
This game was interesting; it was mostly Yuriko vs. Orvar for most of it, while I set up Yahenni, Pawn of Ulamog and Sygg, River Cutthroat but was missing an engine piece (commentary later). Yuriko did synergize pretty strongly with Sygg, letting me draw back into the game pretty well
This game kinda went, Orvar setting up multiple Peregrine Drake's and Archaeomancer and basically digging to the combo. He was one mana short of whimming off. I killed Orvar on his end step and then played Syr Konrad, the Grim, which was really fantastic and helped me draw more sygg cards and pinged people quite a lot.
Turn cycle after that, Orvar replayed his stuff then at his end step I Intuition'd for Mikaeus, the Unhallowed Dread Return and Glen Elendra Archmage - they gave me Mikaeus, the Unhallowed [/card] which was probably the best answer they had since I didn't have that much mana - unfortunately for them I topdecked Demonic Tutor and was able to get Coffers for a sizable chunk of mana and was able to play MIkaeus, and flash back Dread Return sacrificing all my non-humans (boosh that is a combo).
Unfortunately yuriko was able to fetch a counterspell so I couldn't win from there. I instead passed. Yuriko slammed a bunch of attackers, but Orvar bounced his Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive which caused a massive blowout for him - since we could all block. Everyone took a beating from Syr Konrad, the Grim from all the deaths.
Yuriko then second mains Emrakul, the Promised End to take Orvar's turn. he had a hard decision to make since Orvar had the combo on the board and whim of volrath in the bin, and was spell targeting Archaeomancer from winning. Unfortunately, even with evoking a mulldrifter and digging with top he could not find one, so he passed the turn leaving Orvar with a counterspell and a Scavenger Grounds to handle me. Orvar reset after losing his orvar again and then passed to me.
At my upkeep I volrath strongholded Gray Merchant of Asphodel onto my top, which was lethal with Mikaeus, the Unhallowed and my sac outlets. That forced Orvar to burn scavenger grounds and put him off counter mana. I think he made the best choice he could but the game was locked up there pretty much since I had a grip full of hands from skullclamp and sygging all game.
I played Bloodghast and Nether Traitor and then Zulaport Cutthroat and Lampad of Death's Vigil and started the dance of sac'ing and mikaeusing and nether traitoring stuff until everyone was super dead. Since I Had Yahenni and Cutthroat and all the tokens from Pawn of Ulamog it was pretty well over.
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Comments
* I feel like constantly I am missing my recurrable engine card. I think I need to add Reassembling Skeleton and possibly Buried Alive.
* The lifegain dudes and the winmore stuff like Blight Mound seem to be too slow. Witch of the Moors especially just seems to rot in my hand a lot. Might just be the decks I'm running into are not super edictable most of the time. Veinwitch Coven hasn't really gotten there a lot, but it's possible I am not seeing its play patterns yet either.
* I am regularly feeling the sting of needing something to kill artifacts/enchantments more. I think the answer might be more counterspells or possibly opposing graveyard hate (Dauthi Voidwalker feels lik a shoe in that I should try to squeeze in).
I need more reps with the deck but I also think it might benefit from a couple more ways to draw cards. that said I am able to draw off Sygg pretty consistently at least one card a turn since I can usually clear the way to beat someone up.
I do really, really enjoy Sygg, River Cutthroat's play patterns and I am pretty sure even if this deck doesn't stick as aristocrats that I will build something with him.
Game 1
Omnath locus of the roil vs. Teysa, Orzhov Scion vs. my maelstrom wanderer deck borrowed by another player
In this game, Teysa and I both got decent starts, but Teysa hit a mentor of the meek and some ramp and was getting close to going off (had 3 of 4 combo pieces).
Omnath had played Urborg, so I expedition map'd for coffers and was doing OK, but had mostly an empty hand and could not stop his Field of the Dead. So coffers out a couple things and go into him with Yahenni, Undying Partisan, Ophiomancer, Sygg, River Cutthroat and Blood Artist while Teysa has a similar board but with Mentor and Teysa. but obviously Ophiomancer is quite a bit better when it turns into exiling everything on the board constantly with teysa.
Maelstrom wanderer is basically a nonentity because the player had some sequencing fus.
So I pass into OMnath with the aforementioned board and he tutors up Strip Mine, plays Crucible of Worlds and proceeds to strip mine my coffers. To which I say "Are you sure I'm the problem here? You 100% cannot beat Teysa 1v1." He nods, "coffers scares me." yeah my 2 card hand of bricks (two fleshbag effects against field of the dead, teysa aristocrats and an empty board) is terrifying when you're literally going to have your general and any card you play exiled forever. He then strip mined Teysa (who had an unbeatable engine on board and it did nothing), setting himself back yet another land to show me his commitment to balance.
Sooo I scoop it up. Enjoy going 1v1 with Teysa and losing (which of course he did). Why? this player has literally focused strip mine looped me out of the game the last 5 times we played despite it massively setting him back 3 of the 5 times, because "emeria scares me" or "coffers scares me" or whatever. I get that's a legitimate strategy but does this need to be a thing? Do I need to mulligan to graveyard hate to get to play the damn game?
I just don't understand the politics of presenting a strip mine loop aggressively like that. Even if I stay in the game I have to focus fire him out of the game because I'm going to struggle to beat that 1v1. Bleh.
-----------------------------------------
Game 2 was vs. Orvar, Yuriko (toned down ninja tribal, still quite strong), and Anowon.
Anowon basically was a non-entity this game except providing a Mindcrank to help mill me into stuff.
This game was interesting; it was mostly Yuriko vs. Orvar for most of it, while I set up Yahenni, Pawn of Ulamog and Sygg, River Cutthroat but was missing an engine piece (commentary later). Yuriko did synergize pretty strongly with Sygg, letting me draw back into the game pretty well
This game kinda went, Orvar setting up multiple Peregrine Drake's and Archaeomancer and basically digging to the combo. He was one mana short of whimming off. I killed Orvar on his end step and then played Syr Konrad, the Grim, which was really fantastic and helped me draw more sygg cards and pinged people quite a lot.
Turn cycle after that, Orvar replayed his stuff then at his end step I Intuition'd for Mikaeus, the Unhallowed Dread Return and Glen Elendra Archmage - they gave me Mikaeus, the Unhallowed [/card] which was probably the best answer they had since I didn't have that much mana - unfortunately for them I topdecked Demonic Tutor and was able to get Coffers for a sizable chunk of mana and was able to play MIkaeus, and flash back Dread Return sacrificing all my non-humans (boosh that is a combo).
Unfortunately yuriko was able to fetch a counterspell so I couldn't win from there. I instead passed. Yuriko slammed a bunch of attackers, but Orvar bounced his Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive which caused a massive blowout for him - since we could all block. Everyone took a beating from Syr Konrad, the Grim from all the deaths.
Yuriko then second mains Emrakul, the Promised End to take Orvar's turn. he had a hard decision to make since Orvar had the combo on the board and whim of volrath in the bin, and was spell targeting Archaeomancer from winning. Unfortunately, even with evoking a mulldrifter and digging with top he could not find one, so he passed the turn leaving Orvar with a counterspell and a Scavenger Grounds to handle me. Orvar reset after losing his orvar again and then passed to me.
At my upkeep I volrath strongholded Gray Merchant of Asphodel onto my top, which was lethal with Mikaeus, the Unhallowed and my sac outlets. That forced Orvar to burn scavenger grounds and put him off counter mana. I think he made the best choice he could but the game was locked up there pretty much since I had a grip full of hands from skullclamp and sygging all game.
I played Bloodghast and Nether Traitor and then Zulaport Cutthroat and Lampad of Death's Vigil and started the dance of sac'ing and mikaeusing and nether traitoring stuff until everyone was super dead. Since I Had Yahenni and Cutthroat and all the tokens from Pawn of Ulamog it was pretty well over.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Comments
* I feel like constantly I am missing my recurrable engine card. I think I need to add Reassembling Skeleton and possibly Buried Alive.
* The lifegain dudes and the winmore stuff like Blight Mound seem to be too slow. Witch of the Moors especially just seems to rot in my hand a lot. Might just be the decks I'm running into are not super edictable most of the time. Veinwitch Coven hasn't really gotten there a lot, but it's possible I am not seeing its play patterns yet either.
* I am regularly feeling the sting of needing something to kill artifacts/enchantments more. I think the answer might be more counterspells or possibly opposing graveyard hate (Dauthi Voidwalker feels lik a shoe in that I should try to squeeze in).
I need more reps with the deck but I also think it might benefit from a couple more ways to draw cards. that said I am able to draw off Sygg pretty consistently at least one card a turn since I can usually clear the way to beat someone up.
I do really, really enjoy Sygg, River Cutthroat's play patterns and I am pretty sure even if this deck doesn't stick as aristocrats that I will build something with him.
Got a game in with this last night that was a pretty triumphant victory. That's a bit tempered by the fact that one of my opponents was mill (womp womp). He milled me into the Nether Traitor that combo'd everyone out eventually.
The game winning combo here was setting up Phyrexian Altar + Nether Traitor + Pawn of Ulamog which I was able to then use the mana to drop Syr Konrad, the Grim which ended it.
Overall the deck still feels light on interaction which is a bit of a problem. I can't help but wonder if I could use a Spellseeker package with Cyclonic Rift et al, but it's just ick. Maybe I need more creature interaction or something? maybe a Venser, Shaper Savant type effect or two.
Also Dauthi Voidwalker was interesting but it puts a huge mental load *and* it's really trash against high synergy decks. Even with the mill player I could not be arsed to want to look through everyone's exile piles for stuff. It's very powerful graveyard hate, but I'm not sure it's what this deck wants to be doing. Cards like that and Opposition Agent don't really seem to jive with what the deck is doing, so I think I need to cut all of those guys for more synergy pieces eventually.
I just always seem to have my own stuff to do with this deck since the curve is low and Sygg is chaining cards.
The game winning combo here was setting up Phyrexian Altar + Nether Traitor + Pawn of Ulamog which I was able to then use the mana to drop Syr Konrad, the Grim which ended it.
Overall the deck still feels light on interaction which is a bit of a problem. I can't help but wonder if I could use a Spellseeker package with Cyclonic Rift et al, but it's just ick. Maybe I need more creature interaction or something? maybe a Venser, Shaper Savant type effect or two.
Also Dauthi Voidwalker was interesting but it puts a huge mental load *and* it's really trash against high synergy decks. Even with the mill player I could not be arsed to want to look through everyone's exile piles for stuff. It's very powerful graveyard hate, but I'm not sure it's what this deck wants to be doing. Cards like that and Opposition Agent don't really seem to jive with what the deck is doing, so I think I need to cut all of those guys for more synergy pieces eventually.
I just always seem to have my own stuff to do with this deck since the curve is low and Sygg is chaining cards.
