Introduction
Feed The Graveyard, as the name of the deck states, plays around the graveyard, makes use of creatures we don't mind trading or sacrificing and takes advantage of when this creature enters the battlefield abilities (since it's pretty much the same as when this creature dies but better in that it instantly triggers, forcing their death would be pretty easy but not optimal).
The Goal
Fun and versatility are the main goals while keeping the deck decently competitive. When playing this deck, you'll face decitions that involve many options available.
For example: if you cast Wake the Dead to block and additionally trigger juicy effects, you could bring Rotting Rats if you want to discard that last card your foe's holding to, or you could bring Shadowborn Demon to destroy two of his creatures (one due to blocking it and the other one due to the trigger), or maybe you want to bring
Pit Keeper
and return some important creature to you hand.
Mechanics and renewable fuel
- Play the cheap little creatures
- Sacrifice the little creatures to play the big creatures
- Feed the graveyard and abuse the synergy for the rest of the game
Little creatures willing to be sacrificed:
Festering Mummy
, Bloodsoaked Champion , Rotting Rats ,
Pit Keeper
, Bone Shredder
Big hungry creatures willing to eat the lesser ones:
Demonlord of Ashmouth
, Smothering Abomination ,
Delraich
,
Demon of Death's Gate
Cards that benefit from a Graveyard full of creatures:Nighthowler ,
Graveblade Marauder
, Grave Strength , Dread Summons , Wake the Dead ,
Pit Keeper
, Crypt of Agadeem
Cards that help filling the Graveyard (via milling, discarding or saccing):Dakmor Salvage , Darkblast , Stinkweed Imp,
Demonlord of Ashmouth
, Smothering Abomination ,
Delraich
,
Demon of Death's Gate
, Dread Summons , Grave Strength , Rotting Rats
Example of a common start
Turn 1
Play
Festering Mummy
or Bloodsoaked Champion
Turn 2
Play Rotting Rats and discard a creature you would like to bring back later in the game with Wake the Dead or a card with Dredge to rush the Graveyard feed
Turn 3
Play
Graveblade Marauder
which is a solid blocker or attacker (whatever you prefer to do according to the circumstances, he'll excell). It's unlikely that someone will attack you if this creature is untapped except they have a 4 strenght creature willing to trade; same goes when the Marauder attacks, the opponent will only block if willing to trade or if you already have some creatures in your graveyard.Ophiomancer is also a solid 3-drop, generating deadly tokens that will prevent your opponent from attacking (without evasion at least), and also giving you a sacrificeable creature each turn (super useful in this deck!)Nighthowler is obviously one of the bigger threats in the deck if left unchecked. Will exponentially grow each turn!Stinkweed Imp is a good deadly blocker that will be more than happy to die and give you the option to mill yourself.Also there's no reason to save Bone Shredder for later, go ahead, play it and let it die. He'll come back later on.
Turn 4
Play
Demonlord of Ashmouth
or Smothering Abomination and start having fun;or make one of your creatures to go bigger with an early Grave Strength, it doesn't matter if you don't have a thousand creatures in your graveyard yet, this spell by itself will get you some and there's no reason to save it for later.
As for mid-game
Keep attacking with
Graveblade Marauder
, it enables Bloodsoaked Champion to come back and aid the attack or to be devoured by your monsters (he can always come back to be eaten again).Keep playing threatning creatures and attacking with your flying monsters, let your opponent feel the pressure.
Demonlord of Ashmouth
will come back from the dead by it's own if killed, stronger than before and willing to keep the siege going.If able, play Nighthowler as an enchantment-aura so that your foe has to spend two removal-cards to get rid of your growing threat; he'll have to kill the enchanted creature and then kill the Nighthowler separately.Try not to use the Rotting Rats Unearth ability unless necessary or until late-game, after you've brought them back with Wake the Dead. This way, you'll be able to trigger it's discard more than twice per rat. That's VALUE.
As for late-game
Keep playing cards, don't save anything since all of your spells not only benefit from your Graveyard's creature quantity, they also help filling it so that your next one will be a bigger hit.You can play creatures and let some mana open to cast Wake the Dead, it doesn't have to be a X=10 cast, it's super effective at any cost. You can bring back Overseer of the Damned and let it handle two creatures by it's own, or if you have too many critters on play and you are in need of a bigger pal, bring
Demonlord of Ashmouth
since it will stay on play after sacrificing it due to it's Undying ability. You can also bring
Pit Keeper
back to block and get to your hand that lovely Nighthowler so you can re-cast it as an enchantment again and force your foe to spend two extra removal spells again to handle it.Dredge your Dakmor Salvage anytime you are in the need of mana, milling yourself is awesome in this deck.Crypt of Agadeem will finish the game as soon as you draw Wake the Dead or Dread Summons; if you don't get to draw those cards, the Crypt will enable you to play around those Bloodsoaked Champion.
Insane Synergy
Demonlord of Ashmouth
+
Festering Mummy
= When Demonlord dies, it comes back to play with a +1/+1 counter. If it dies while having a +1/+1 counter, it won't come back. When the demon enters the battlefield you are forced to sacrifice a creature; when the mummy dies, you can put a -1/-1 counter on target creature. +1/+1 counters and -1/-1 counters nullify eachother. Enough said.
Wake the Dead +
Demonlord of Ashmouth
= The demon will comeback for good and stay on the board if you have critters to sacrifice
Wake the Dead + Smothering Abomination = Bring some creatures back (each one trigger his own enter the battlefield ability) and draw a card for each one, including the abomination, at the end of turn when you sac them.
Wake the Dead + Bone Shredder = Good
Wake the Dead + Overseer of the Damned = this is just DISGUSTING , not only it kills the creature that it will block, it kills an extra creature, and as if that wasn't enough, it puts a token for each creature that got killed while it was on play or that died at the same time; it's insane!
Nighthowler or
Graveblade Marauder
or Grave Strength or Dread Summons or Wake the Dead...combined with...Stinkweed Imp or Dakmor Salvage or Grave Strength or Rotting Rats or any other way to stuff creatures in your cemetery.
Milling is good
Milling is great for this deck, not only because it empowers Nighthowler ,
Graveblade Marauder
and opens the variety of creatures we can bring back to the battlefield or to our hand; it is also great because our little sacrificeable creatures have the ability to return to the battlefield by their own. I'm speaking of Bloodsoaked Champion and Rotting Rats. It also enables us to Dredge some of our cards if we need them or if we just want to make a bulk of our graveyard.
The deck only runs 9 non-creature spells, so the odds are in favour to drop creature-cards to the graveyard with each milling effect. Our discarding effects are creatures, our drawing effects are also creatures, even our removal effects are creature-cards! I put a lot of thought into this deck and I love how fun and versatile it is to play.
Cards that were left behind through the process
This cards were considered, tested and work pretty good too. Show
Haunted Dead
is a good option since it has an enter the battlefield trigger which curiously creates a sacrificeable token each time it does. She also can return by her own means from the graveyard to the battlefield at the price of discarding two cards which curiously we don't mind throwing a pair of creatures to the graveyard (actually, we want to get rid of some of them that are better dead). The downside are both it's mana cost and that it comes back to play tapped when using her ability. Nevertheless, it's quite a great option to keep in mind.
Shadowborn Demon was cut because Overseer of the Damned is just more efficient at doing his job. The only thing the Shadowborn has in it's favour is that it can be played from hand quicker than the Overseer, but that's not really a problem since it's not meant to be played from hand. Also, Crypt of Agadeem makes the Overseer not that unplayable.
Bloodghast is outside the deck because it's freaking expensive for a casual deck. Feel free to add it if you can.
Buried Alive is not necessary. Also, we don't want any more non-creature spell; doesn't synergize with our milling needs.
Cryptbreaker is not that bad for a 1-drop and could provide sacrificeable tokens but it doesn't suit our theme.
Decaying Soil
suits the theme pretty well, but it slows the deck and will probably end up in the graveyard anyways.
Fleshbag Marauder tempted me a lot, but we have better 3-drops and better creatures to bring back from the graveyard if we need the enemy to lose creatures.
Geralf's Messenger
is great in any black deck, but it enters the battlefield tapped. Thanks anyway!
Gray Merchant of Asphodel is also a good creature to bring back from the dead from time to time. A good option to add if you want a little bit more versatility.
Golgari Thug is just great in this deck because it's a cheap 2-drop that has trigger when leaving the battlefield (re-activable if brought back to life and sacrificed), it gets us that creature we prefer to play (like the Nighthowler or Graveblade Marauder); AND it also has a Dredge of 4 which is AWESOME. It's just too expensive compared to
Pit Keeper
whom is pretty efficient at his job and doesn't hurt the wallet.
Gravecrawler ain't bad but we only run 8 other zombies, so Bloodsoaked Champion wins.
Viscera Seer ain't bad either, since it's ability can be activated dispite summoning sickness and it can use it to sac our creatures brought back with Wake the Dead before damage is asigned.
Whip of Erebos works nice here, but it slows the deck quite a bit and is a dead card in the graveyard when milled.
Nether Traitor
is amazing and suits the deck very well. Can be empowered with Grave Strength for deadly evasion strikes and can come back by it's own from the graveyard. The only reason I opt for Bloodsoaked Champion over this guy is because I prefer a sacrificeable 1-drop in case I've got
Delraich
or
Demon of Death's Gate
in hand.
Ravenous Rats
or
Black Cat
are both good discarding sacrificeable 2-drops, but when milled they are not as versatile as Rotting Rats which can reanimate themselves for an extra trigger. Also, the down-side of the Rotting Rats is not a down-side at all, I want to rush a chubby graveyard, I want Overseer of the Damned there, ready to be brought back when I want to.
Honorable mention to Living Death that fits the theme pretty well but not entirely since it's a dead card in case we've got things under control on the battlefield and that's kinda what we plan, right? So, no need.
Many other cards that somehow synergize with the deck were added to the maybe-board. If you have a good suggestion other than those cards and the ones mentioned above, please share it. I'd be glad.
Thank you for reading :)
...and feel free to comment or suggest!
