Tergrid, God of Fright
Approximate Total Cost:
If you ever wanted to play It that Betrays from the Command Zone then you're in luck. Oh but at a much reduced cost from to a very manageable . Oh but wait there is more.
Whenever an opponent discards a permanent card you can put it into play under your control as well.
Opponent discard lands...yes please mono-black land ramp on steroids. All their juicy artifacts, enchantments and even planeswalkers into play under your control as well..what!?
Outrageously game effecting is what is capable by this mono-black legendary creature. This card is stupid powerful in a Commander multiplayer game.
There are some cards that are pretty much going to swing the game in your favor to the point of realistically winning with Tergrid, God of Fright in play.
Let's look at some draw and discard cards in Dark Deal and Memory Jar. In a 4 player game you are probably going to average something like 9 additional lands from the discard alone and then of course all the other permanents.
Honestly this is just going to be too much for opponents most games, especially around the early to mid game.
Cards that both make players sacrifice permanents and discard cards are a complete blowout.
Death Cloud for even only say will mean opponents sacrifice 3 lands and 3 creatures. In a 4 player game with opponents sitting on full boards you'd get 9 lands and probably all the creatures from opponents.
Literally your game plan can be to cast Tergrid, God of Fright on Turn 5 and then Turn 6 cast Death Cloud and probably win the game off the back of it.
Smallpox, Pox, Fraying Omnipotence are also going to create massive board swings.
Pox with opponents on average having 6 lands each would mean gaining 2 lands from each opponent for a total of 6 additional lands.
It just creates a really hard to match tempo swing by reducing opponents mana and you actually gaining mana during the exchange.
Plus any permanents they discard you get which creates a further power gap.
Other cards that encompass both sacrifice and discard elements are Liliana of the Veil, Plague Reaver, Rankle, Master of Pranks, The Eldest Reborn.
Plague Reaver is great in that you can give it to an opponent and then they are stuck with either sacrificing their other creatures or discarding 2 cards. Rock and hard place.
Rankle, Master of Pranks is perfect for Tergrid. The fact that opponents sacrifice creatures, means that you'll always have fuel for Rankle for the sacrifice ability on subsequent turns. Add to that the discard and actually there will be many times that you use the draw portion as well if you've made opponents discard lots of cards that their hands are empty. Sometimes you'll want opponents to draw cards so that you have more targets for sacrifice or discard.
There is nowhere to hide
At it essence this deck looks to play out opponents decks and thus opponents own cards can become their own worse enemy.
There will be stages of the game where you have ways to continuously make opponents sacrifice permanents. Normally players hold onto cards in hand to protect them from such a fate. However with Tergrid, God of Fright and the many discard elements in the deck there is simply nowhere to keep their cards safe from becoming a permanent you control.
Another element to discard is that often when forced with decisions the hardest to cast cards are discarded first. With Tergrid, God of Fright opponents are forced into incredible awkward decisions on discards as often they can't afford to give you their high costing permanents.
Discard
There are quite a few permanents that cause at least one card to be discarded by each player each turn.
Some of them might force more discards with Chains of Mephistopheles or Oppression.
There are only a few target discard cards in Cabal Therapy, Thoughtseize, Unmask, Mind Twist.
Unmask is nice because you can look to use it the same turn you cast Tergrid, giving you value straight away.
Cabal Therapy can give you the information you need to hit the exact card you want.
Both Thoughtseize and Cabal Therapy can't name lands but can get all other permanents potentially.
Phyrexian Tower can be used to sacrifice Mindslicer in a pinch.
Sacrifice
Most of the removal in the deck is sacrificed based.
Cards that are specific to creature removal are Liliana's Triumph, Liliana, Dreadhorde General, Archfiend of Depravity, Call to the Grave.
There are 3 Liliana planeswalkers in the deck so Liliana's Triumph does have a chance at the discard portion as well.
Living Death actually makes opponents sacrifice their creatures, so Tergrid will allow you to put your opponents creatures that were in play back into play under your control.
All Is Dust is a sacrifice for all colored permanents.
Smokestack makes players sacrifice so you'll gain those permanents which means that you can use those as further targets for the Smokestack during your turn potentially.
The same with a card like Call to the Grave in that you may cast it with only Tergrid in play, but because your opponents are sacrificing first you'll get their creatures and you can use them to sacrifice on your turn to keep Tergrid around until literally opponents stop casting creatures and you run out of targets yourself.
Desolation actually makes players sacrifice lands and it is impossible for opponents to really play around it for too long.
Tergrid's Lantern
Tergrid's Lantern isn't particularly useful in this deck. However one trick you could look to use is to cast it as an artifact at the reduced cost of mana. You can use its ability on yourself and sacrifice itself so that you could look to Reanimate Tergrid from your graveyard.
This just means that you can look to have mana to spend on spells immediately potentially. This method will also allow you to get around "can't cast" spells like
Nevermore as well.
Archenemy and through the roof saltiness
Players love having to discard cards and sacrifice stuff right? Also people have no problem with their cards being "stolen" either.
No matter which way you spin it this deck will bring out the hate and you'll not be invited back to game nights..
What's not in the deck?
I've avoided cards that give opponents options not to discard or sacrifice if they can.
Torment of Hailfire is a favorite for a lot of people, however I've talked about this card being overrated in other threads. The ability to play around it makes it inconsistent at actually being disruptive and just more of a life drain which isn't the most effective in the 40 life domain of Commander.
I was looking at Gravepact and Dictate of Erebos for sacrifice elements, however you need to have your own ways of generating creatures and ways to get them killed in order to make these cards effective.
Zacama
