Armies of The Dark Lord

[PrimevalCommander]

If you need the life gain, and like a sac outlet that can deal damage, going back to Ayara, Widow of the Realm // Ayara, Furnace Queen may not be the worst thing. She doesn't get value out of Army tokens, but can generally outclass Blasting Station for damage with lifegain as a bonus. Not being able to sac tokens for value is not ideal, but if they eat removal, so be it. Ayara, Widow of the Realm // Ayara, Furnace Queen still saves important non-tokens from removal, wipes, and theft, and the mana value of those cards will probably be 4+ on average, making the benefit worth the minor loss in utility. Unless you are doing a creature combo loop with Blasting Station, I don't think it will outshine Ayara even with the "mana value" restriction.

Disciple of Griselbrand is notably not an S-tier sac outlet, but it can gain major life points and is fine for incremental sacrificing where you aren't trying to go on a sac-loop, which it doesn't sound like you are. Requiring mana is lame for a sac-outlet, and you might really be max-min on your mana usage when wheeling your hand so often. I like it well enough when it nets me 5-10 life a turn cycle. I actually need extra life for absorbing combat damage and life-for-card transactions that black loves so much.

[yeti1069]

If you need the life gain, and like a sac outlet that can deal damage, going back to Ayara, Widow of the Realm // Ayara, Furnace Queen may not be the worst thing. She doesn't get value out of Army tokens, but can generally outclass Blasting Station for damage with lifegain as a bonus. Not being able to sac tokens for value is not ideal, but if they eat removal, so be it. Ayara, Widow of the Realm // Ayara, Furnace Queen still saves important non-tokens from removal, wipes, and theft, and the mana value of those cards will probably be 4+ on average, making the benefit worth the minor loss in utility. Unless you are doing a creature combo loop with Blasting Station, I don't think it will outshine Ayara even with the "mana value" restriction.

Disciple of Griselbrand is notably not an S-tier sac outlet, but it can gain major life points and is fine for incremental sacrificing where you aren't trying to go on a sac-loop, which it doesn't sound like you are. Requiring mana is lame for a sac-outlet, and you might really be max-min on your mana usage when wheeling your hand so often. I like it well enough when it nets me 5-10 life a turn cycle. I actually need extra life for absorbing combat damage and life-for-card transactions that black loves so much.

The creature I most want to sac in the deck is the army, so having a sac outlet that doesn't work with it feels like kind of a big miss.

Played a game last night where life gain was super-important. I started with Ancient Tomb, so was doming myself for 2 nearly every turn, in addition to having to shock in a couple lands and pay life for some other cards as well (such as 7 for a Toxic Deluge) over the course of the game. Also, as has generally been the case, the deck quickly attains archenemy status...even if it isn't necessarily the scariest board at the table. Sauron got removed a few times, to both board wipes and spot removal, hefty cost to pay though it was (once was in response to my own removal of a commander, so they didn't mind paying the cost). Thankfully, I hit all my land drops and came into a number of rocks, so recasting The Dark Lord wasn't a big deal. I did have a few moments where I didn't quite have mana enough to spare for a removal in hand and the other shenanigans I was trying to do, and ended up pitching more removal to the wheel than I would have liked, though it worked out in the end.

Witch's Clinic saved my bacon for sure! I think I gained 14 life off of it (would have been 21, but I had one turn where I announced that I cast a removal spell after blockers, rather than with Sauron's wheel trigger on the stack, and a round of removal ensued, which also resulted in my not having Sauron around for damage). I ended the game at 9 life (and 20 commander damage from Kraum, Ludevic's Opus, so that gain saved my life. Bitterthorn actually got to put in some work, although it again came down later, and again saw a board wipe before its first attack. This game was a grinder, with numerous board wipes and a ton of interaction. I'm honestly not sure that I would have won without two players scooping early. No idea what happened to the first, he just disappeared at an odd moment. The other was playing The Goose Mother, and that card is SCARY in the command zone! I don't believe he ever got to attack with it, as it got removed (mostly by me) every turn cycle, since a 7/7, 9/9, 12/12, 14/14, 16/16, flying commander can make short work of anyone. He had a TON of food tokens, and was at over 40 life when he dropped, feeling frustrated at all the removal. I honestly thought he was doing quite well, being able to soak removal and not have to commit to the board while me and the last player duked it out, and had figured The Goose player would really become a threat after one of us died.

Wandering Archaic // Explore the Vastlands came down early, and it put in a little work, although it's hard to tell just how much it's doing most of the time.

[yeti1069]

Added Rakdos Joins Up and it put in a lot of work in its first appearance! Reanimated a discarded Archfiend of Ifnir and I was able to sac my huge army to punch someone in the face, as well as bonking someone for 8 when my Balrog died later. It got removed, but it had done a fair amount of damage up to that point.

Separately, I'm getting to the point where I really need to slot Living Death back in.