Ok, I never got around to testing this idea but I kept looking at
Sedgemoor Witch and how freaking SWEEET it would be in this deck and I really do want to field this for some games to at least have tested the concept out. As I got to poking at the list I just kept making adjustments. I felt like I kept too many of the original cards I enjoyed in my traditional list which was a far more controlling list and I needed to adjust away from some of the instants to something that would work better for me. Also now that my LGS is open again and playing I am back to seeing more token and combo as the win conditions than what I was encountering during the Covid pause. Some of that has shifted me away from some of the edict effects a little. I felt like I needed a few more creatures and creature engines at that then what I had.
DECK CHANGES:
- Plaguecrafter → Priest of Forgotten Gods I originally passed on Priest because well..... its kind of slow. In retrospect though getting my opponents to sacrifice when I want it to happen opens up the toshiro flashbacks and the fact that it gives me mana when I do it as well is actually really nice and I think plays to how Toshiro wants to play. Plague crafter was more of a throw away ETB effect but I think lowering the curve and having an ongoing threat that gives me Toshi triggers when I want them is going to be better for the deck. It also draws cards so thats cool.
- K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth → Sedgemoor Witch I think that K'rrik is too much setup. Its a cool card but its going to cost me a lot of life and take time to set up that I would prefer to not be doing. So lets just lower the curve down and have more sweet synergy instead. I really love what the Witch does its just absolutely perfect for this deck concept.
- Overseer of the Damned → Doom Whisperer Overseer does silly things with Grave Pact things but I ended up not going as deep into edicts and even ended up cutting a number of them in this change. I like that Doom Whisperer gives a lot of access to what I draw and even filling up the graveyard as needed is nice. It has a nice stat line for the mana plus it flies and I just really like its activated ability and have wanted to test it in a deck like Toshiro for a while now.
- Liliana's Triumph → Heartless Act Back to my usual meta I see too many token and combo setups. Its more important for me to have the surgical removal than value removal multiple opponents.
- Word of Command → Vile Entomber I really love word of command and its a sweeeeeet card. That said I think it plays better towards a more controlling build than what I was going for. I am not really sure about the entomber especially given that I don't have actual Entomb in this list but I like that it comes on a body with deathtouch. There have been other variations of this sort of card in Gravebreaker Lamia and Corpse Connoisseur but the small bump in cost as well as less relevant bodies have always kept me from pulling the trigger on them. Really I want to give this effect a shot and see what my thoughts are and I liked the less cost + deathtouch of this variation. Its possible I could see Gravebreaker Lamia also contesting with this spot but I just need to test them at some point and see how much I value this. I really think that its going to be heavily focused towards Bloodghast but we will see. I only have a handful of cards that on their own are good targets but I felt that some redundancy towards a Bloodghast online was fine.
- Sudden Spoiling → Grim Haruspex Sudden Spoiling felt like a more controlling card than where I felt like I was trying to be with this deck. I also think that to some degree I need to make some of my more situational responses be cheaper because holding up 3-5+ mana for something I may or may not want is a bit harder when trying to be proactive too with a low number of ramp focused cards present.
- Crypt Incursion → Cling to Dust Shifting to cheaper graveyard interaction. I also like that cling for card draw seems fairly good where as crypt when its not so optimal is kind of a dead card. I really wanted a cheaper interaction with surgical interaction vs a larger splashier effect in this case. I am not sure that I will use the Escape mechanic much in here but even flashing it back from Toshiro for a second draw potentially seems fine.
- Dark Bargain → Plumb the Forbidden lowers the cost of the draw a little which I think is good because Dark Bargain has always felt a tad clunky to me at four mana. Even without sacrificing anything Plumb is still ok as some cheap draw but I think it really opens up in response to a sweeper or even just throwing away some chaff tokens.
- Scour from Existence → Sword of the Animist Scour is nice to have but I am not as dedicated to ramping and big mana in this build. I also am not as control focused and while its nice that it hits anything, I felt like I could use something a little more proactive. I like Sword of the Animist here in that it can curve with my commander and give me some ongoing value ramp. This ramp also plays well into the coffers plan so I felt like even though I was a low ramp low curve kind of deck it made sense to utilize.
So, I guess where I am at right now I am questioning if I want a little more ramp or not. Ramp is odd when running a low curve but I have enough draw that I think I am more looking for some value ramp effects than trying to tempo into my plans or ramping into something big. Getting more mana helps me to play more effects when I have good draw going. I am still thinking about maybe
Dowsing Dagger as it would play fairly well with my land copy effects like
Vesuva /
Thespian's Stage. I likewise considered
Sword of Hearth and Home but I lack much to flicker and its increased cost to use plus need to hit an opponent all sound a touch harder for me to get behind. Needing to hit someone once with the Dagger is something that I can use surprise and some removal to potentially get past but the sword seems harder to justify for me in a deck like this. I could also consider some ramp like
Gilded Lotus potentially but with any of these artifact ramp concepts the downside is always that they aren't creatures or instants which I try to put a lot of focus to. I likewise considered
Phyrexian Altar but have some similar holdups about it as with ramp plus I strongly dislike infinite combos. Lots of my hold up on adding more ramp to the deck has been primarily on how much my creature and instant count seem to matter in a deck like this.
Anyways, my hope is to get the deck together and at least test the concept. I really love some of the cool synergies in here like
Tormod, the Desecrator with Toshiro or
Bloodghast. Since I saw
Sedgemoor Witch I have had a very hard time not thinking about the possibilities of it in a Toshiro list and it fits this build concept sooooooooo well I just haven't been able to get it out of my head.