New Sheoldred Masters the Lich

[Artaud]

Am I right thinking Sheoldred, the Apocalypse forms nice "little" combo with Lich's Mastery? The real question is what to do after drawing a deck and gaining arbitrary amount of life? Skirge Familiar FTW?

[Treamayne]

The real question is what to do after drawing a deck and gaining arbitrary amount of life?

Probably lose, unless you have LabMan/Jace or an instant speed win condition. Neither are "May" abilities, so they will cycle until you draw from an empty library . . .

[Artaud]

You can't lose - Lich's Mastery prevents that.

[kirkusjones]

Skirge Familiar + mana sink seems like the move.

[hyalopterouslemur]

For me New Sheoldred is going in a few decks. Mostly Nekusar and Oloro. But she can go in any black deck.

[3drinks]

You can't lose the game but you're in the midst of an involuntary loop that, pending no further input from players, will go on indefinitely. I was going to say the game would end in a draw, but there is a finite end point - you with a brick of cards in hand and having gained a lot of life.

Do something with your deck in your hand now.

[Hawk]

I suspect the answer is to either have Sanguine Bond/Defiant Bloodlord/Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose out before you start the chain so that you can kill the board, or using Skirge Familiar to make a massive Exsanguinate/Torment of Hailfire for lethal. As noted, this creates an involuntary loop, so you need to sac either Sheoldred or Mastery at some point unless you've got Vedalken Orrery or something like it to start flashing out combo pieces mid-combo.

[Dunadain]

Everybody keeps saying this is an involuntary loop that results in a draw if you don't have a way to end it at instant speed, but it's not, you draw your last card, Sheoldred, the Apocalypse triggers and you gain two life Lich's Mastery triggers you would draw a card, but you have no cards in your library, the game states that If you would draw a card and you have no cards in your library, you lose the game, but Lich's Mastery also says you can't lose the game, so nothing happens and the loops ends, you are now free to cast spells at sorcery speed.

As for your actually win con, it might be boring, but a whole bunch of mana rocks into Skirge Familiar into Torment of Hailfire and co.

I was trying to think of something cool you could do with all that life, but Lich's Mastery makes using your life as a resource a bad idea.

[Artaud]

I've found another Commander that makes good (or even better) use of Lich's Mastery to win - Queza, Augur of Agonies. Access to white gives more tutor options and blue allows to use Labman or Thassa's Oracle to win with empty library, not to mention she can kill 2 players all by herself. Anyway going mon-black is more challenging/interesting and more consistent in card choices. Skirge Familiar is a way to win but is also clumsy and overcosted card which does little outside of a combo. That's why I'm looking for another wincon as well as any "theme" I could run with new Sheoldred at helm.

As a side note I did run "old" Sheoldred deck for years until finally disassembling it for being too slow for my meta. It was control with heavy discard and Contamination lock. I don't suppose I can do it the same way with new Shelly.

[Dunharrow]

this combo is great and works well. I like the idea of doing monocolor but Queza may draw less attention.

It doesn't matter that skirge familiar is overcosted. You play rituals, lotus petal, moxes - anything that goes in an Ad Nauseam package. You can win with Torment or Pestilence or anything really. Just make sure to play discard spells to remove counters from blue players.

The rest of the deck just has to be interaction and tutors.

I personally think I would get bored of it... but it is spikey and skill-testing, so there is definitely an angle to enjoy it.

[3drinks]

I suspect the answer is to either have Sanguine Bond/Defiant Bloodlord/Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose out before you start the chain so that you can kill the board, or using Skirge Familiar to make a massive Exsanguinate/Torment of Hailfire for lethal. As noted, this creates an involuntary loop, so you need to sac either Sheoldred or Mastery at some point unless you've got Vedalken Orrery or something like it to start flashing out combo pieces mid-combo.

It's not involuntary. You will draw your deck and then the iteration ends. The last trigger to gain two life, tries to draw a card with lich's mastery, but can't because you have no cards in library. This would normally cause you to lose the game, but lich's mastery says you can't lose.

this combo is great and works well. I like the idea of doing monocolor but Queza may draw less attention.

It doesn't matter that skirge familiar is overcosted. You play rituals, lotus petal, moxes - anything that goes in an Ad Nauseam package. You can win with Torment or Pestilence or anything really. Just make sure to play discard spells to remove counters from blue players.

The rest of the deck just has to be interaction and tutors.

I personally think I would get bored of it... but it is spikey and skill-testing, so there is definitely an angle to enjoy it.

...Maybe don't play Pestilence|USG/Withering Wisps with Lich's Mastery though..................

[kirkusjones]

I was already running Mastery and Familiar in Vilis anyway, so why not?

[TheGildedGoose]

Sickening Dreams

[kirkusjones]

Sickening Dreams

Metal.