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The following is a parody of what I consider the worst excesses of a church when the leaders have perverted it from worship to profit and power. The theme is intended to embody the worst tendencies of a corrupted religious group in the deck build and playstyle. For the sake of argument, let's say it's the Orzhov church.
A note: this is not intended as a commentary on any current events or specific group(s) as the deck has existed since 2014. I'm posting it now as part of my record-keeping because I have the time to do so.
The worshipers at the church of Athreos are all identical in their uniform devotion, and are willing to sacrifice much because they believe in a second life after death. While the Deity tries to return their supposed followers to the path, the endless cycle of zealotry and attrition continues. The crusade to purge the non-believers cannot be stopped. No trace of their history will remain.
Believers can no longer remember the healing of their Deity and are doomed to be lead astray by those who would profit from their devotion. The cost of a life is disregarded while the tithes and lives alike are spent accumulating power.
The true leaders of this church would pay any price or sacrifice congregations to be god-king. No lesson is learned from failure except the need for retribution.
The playstyle of the deck is also intended to evoke the theme. Turns are somewhat repetitive at first: casting the same spells frequently to indoctrinate. When it comes time to sacrifice, the important part is that the Athreos, God of Passage triggers resolve first and then the tutor resolves. If your opponent pays the 18 life to prevent any return, you can threaten them with immense suffering. Knowing that this may happen usually means that you will slowly extort more and more concessions from your opponent. This is singular, because targeting a single opponent is advantageous for stage 2.
Eventually, your opponent is on their deathbed at 1 or 2 life, and then choice is an illusion. They are impoverished, and on life support, unable to pay that which they do not have. This is where the combo comes online to tax their next of kin. A steady stream of apostles visits them, showing the separation of body and spirit and they have no power to stop you. This generates infinite tokens and mana with some combination of Edgewalker or Phyrexian Altar. Win by transferring the outstanding Debt to the Deathless to the survivors.
Brief aside that can be interpreted as theme commentary: I didn't previously realize that the deck runs exactly 7 demons to potentially reference 7 sins, but now that I see it I don't want to change that count.
Brief aside 2: Mods, if this isn't acceptable per forum rules, please let me know and I'll remove it this theme section.
Brief aside 3: Reader, if you are offended by this theme, please let me know how you would like me to modify it to be more ambiguous. If instead you disagree with the concept of corruption existing in religious institutions, then we may need to agree to disagree.
A note: this is not intended as a commentary on any current events or specific group(s) as the deck has existed since 2014. I'm posting it now as part of my record-keeping because I have the time to do so.
The worshipers at the church of Athreos are all identical in their uniform devotion, and are willing to sacrifice much because they believe in a second life after death. While the Deity tries to return their supposed followers to the path, the endless cycle of zealotry and attrition continues. The crusade to purge the non-believers cannot be stopped. No trace of their history will remain.
Believers can no longer remember the healing of their Deity and are doomed to be lead astray by those who would profit from their devotion. The cost of a life is disregarded while the tithes and lives alike are spent accumulating power.
The true leaders of this church would pay any price or sacrifice congregations to be god-king. No lesson is learned from failure except the need for retribution.
The playstyle of the deck is also intended to evoke the theme. Turns are somewhat repetitive at first: casting the same spells frequently to indoctrinate. When it comes time to sacrifice, the important part is that the Athreos, God of Passage triggers resolve first and then the tutor resolves. If your opponent pays the 18 life to prevent any return, you can threaten them with immense suffering. Knowing that this may happen usually means that you will slowly extort more and more concessions from your opponent. This is singular, because targeting a single opponent is advantageous for stage 2.
Eventually, your opponent is on their deathbed at 1 or 2 life, and then choice is an illusion. They are impoverished, and on life support, unable to pay that which they do not have. This is where the combo comes online to tax their next of kin. A steady stream of apostles visits them, showing the separation of body and spirit and they have no power to stop you. This generates infinite tokens and mana with some combination of Edgewalker or Phyrexian Altar. Win by transferring the outstanding Debt to the Deathless to the survivors.
Brief aside that can be interpreted as theme commentary: I didn't previously realize that the deck runs exactly 7 demons to potentially reference 7 sins, but now that I see it I don't want to change that count.
Brief aside 2: Mods, if this isn't acceptable per forum rules, please let me know and I'll remove it this theme section.
Brief aside 3: Reader, if you are offended by this theme, please let me know how you would like me to modify it to be more ambiguous. If instead you disagree with the concept of corruption existing in religious institutions, then we may need to agree to disagree.
The main card selection is based on a human/cleric tribal deck. I run 33 Shadowborn Apostle so that the probability of always rippling out most-all of them off Thrumming Stone is high. Plenty of sacrifice outlets because most opponents don't pay life for the apostles so that they can spend it on keeping other creatures dead instead. This helps fuel the deck. The only combo is looping clerics with sacrifice outlets when an opponent has less than 3 life, and cannot choose to pay to stop the combo. Otherwise the deck is a slow value engine that threatens to explode and win with a pile of 1/1s or tokens.
Honestly, Athreos and shadowborn apostles are a somewhat well known combination, so most of the deck is unsurprising. I try to keep mine distinct by staying on theme in build and in character when I play it.
Church of Athreos
Approximate Total Cost:
The demon toolbox
- Demon of Dark Schemes is a reanimation tool for key cards such as Edgewalker or stealing bombs from opponents. It also doubles as a board wipe against most tokens. Killing all the Shadowborn Apostles on entry is usually a non-issue because there either aren't any or the energy can be used for reanimation.
- Rune-Scarred Demon is a tutor.
- Overseer of the Damned is removal, and when combined with a sacrifice outlet and Grave Pact is a board wipe.
- Archfiend of Despair is the rattlesnake that usually results in 4-6 Shadowborn Apostles returning to your hand. A playgroup only needs to see a player lose 36 life once to remember this threat.
- Pestilence Demon is another board wipe, but can also be a win condition. Even if all the apostles died, this can still be fueled by Crypt of Agadeem.
- Razaketh, the Foulblooded this is many tutors.
- Kuro, Pitlord Lifeloss for targeted removal. This demon is nearest to the chopping block, but the ability to repeatably remove key winconditions or threats such as Laboratory Maniac or Blightsteel Colossus has been a saving grace. I virtually never pay the upkeep cost.
