Kormus Bell Stays for the lulz (but yeah, it's a bad card)

Disciple of Phenax and Marsh Flitter are my two flex spots, so good job calling them out.

I am never really short on things to sacrifice, but Marsh Flitter does help see me through Smokestack at 3+ and Possessed Portal on the field. People generally don't last very long if I manage to pull this off, but just in case someone whips out a Merciless Eviction or Austere Command. A flying blocker isn't bad either.

Suggestions for replacements? I would prefer a creature in that spot, since 30 seems to be about right, but anything would do.

Disciple of Phenax -- really good to be able to target discard on every single turn that it is in play (with devotion), but again, it could stand to go. Though, I don't know what goes there better. Grim Haruspex has "win more" results -- I have a lot, a lot, a lot, of draw power in this deck, but never have much to do with it since there are only the two instants, and I can only make so much mana per turn. Overextension is a big problem that limits how much I dump onto the field every turn. My first tutor is usually for Necropotence, Skullclamp or Scarecrone, all of which draw me enough cards. With Grim Haruspex or Smothering Abomination or Harvester of Souls, I often get flooded. But, for now, I wouldn't be opposed to readding Haruspex.

If I were to replace those two, I would want to replace them with some utility or control creatures. I might re-add Blood Seeker or Bloodthrone Vampire in either of these two slots. Sadistic Hypnotist is great for a discard slot since he is so op -- especially with lots of stuff to sacrifice.

Pls thots help.

I mostly need some things that fill weak spots that are addressable with mono-black, using creatures.

Hmmm... I see. Maybe Augur of Skulls, Basal Thrull, Blood Pet, or Deathgreeter?

Augur of skulls would be good in 1v1, but (for good / some reason) makes me a target in multiplayer. I might add it in place of disciple because cheaper is better.

Basal thrull -- definitely a good card, that gets killed or exiled way too often for my liking, but also a good option.

Blood pet is a solid choice, especially with the ability to power scarecrone, grave pact, and attrition of every turn.

Deathgreeter has been in since the beginning.

Thanks for the help -- I think reducing the number of 4 cost creatures is probably the way to go.

Augur of skulls and basal thrull are my favorites right now. But maybe blood pet would be better than thrull in a lot of cases.

Sorry, Didn't see the Deathgreeter. Yeah, I figured some lower costing stuff was in order.

Made the changes! I am sure that I will miss marsh flitter, but a little more accel and augur should be good additions for 2 - 3 player games. I will substitute disciple of phenax in 4 player games. Always worthwhile to get rid of horded or tutored wraths on every turn.

I'm surprised no one has suggested this but why not put Pentavus in here. Pop off 5 1/1 flyers every turn (even your opponents turns) for 5 mana at worst, or swing with a 5/5 and leave mana up to avoid it taking a kill spell to the face while attacking, then pop off the tokens anyway at the end of turn.

Chimney Imp was pretty mean in my shirei deck

Two things.

1. I noticed you have 15 cards in sideboard and the max for commander is 10.

2. How the hell do you have a $700 land in your deck?!

That is all:)

Chimney Imp, literally a god amongst storm crows. Not even mad that he costs 5 mana. You can and should substitute him in whenever you feel like it, especially in 1v1 where you have Possessed Portal in play.

Ewpths. I'll go ahead and move them all to maybe for now, since my sideboard is really just "super maybe" right now.

PFFTTTTTTTTTTTT....

>2015

>not selling your car to buy this deck's land base

Don't you know that biking is better for the environment?

Yeah, you can definitely run something else instead of tabernacle -- it is just fun to whip it out in service of such a bad commander. Maybe run another swamp instead, or Spawning Pool

theres 2 Grim Haruspex in this list edit nvrmind missed maybe but good list

Yep -- thx. Removed second from maybe. Thanks for your support :)

Love the deck love the altar

Thanks!

Mana Web to combo with Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth? So they can only tap one land for mana per turn?

Yeah not a bad idea! Thanks

I WILL NOW SEND A NOTIFICATION TO EVERYONE WHO FOLLOWS THIS DECK~!

you were successful.

Ayy bby. Im thinking of finally cutting Kormus Bell, and should probably permanently sideboard Mindslaver

Its a real "kill your darling" situation, but what can you do, those cards are cumbersome -- slaver is just a good card without recursion and kormus bell is pure hot trash without protection for shirei + urborg + a sac outlet of some kind.

What do I put in their places?? More ramp? More draw? More death? More stax?

Hi there! Fellow Shirei player here (Let 'em Die [Primer: Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker]).

I like your deck. The only usual recommendations I have that I don't see you already have listed are Butcher of Malakir, Killing Wave, Basal Sliver, Sidisi, Undead Vizier, Xenic Poltergeist, Lightning Coils, Fume Spitter, and Plagued Rusalka.

Question though: you know that Skullclamp doesn't allow your creatures to come back with Shirei's ability, right? I've seen a lot of players make that mistake.

I'm not a huge fan of Reassembling Skeleton or Soldevi Adnate. Can you persuade me why to include them?

This is a stax deck, and it's a deck that I use in competitive games (though, not at tournaments since Shirei sucks). So, I don't run large creatures, such as Butcher or Sadistic Hypnotist. Both eat removal and cannot be saved by sacrifice to their own ability, not to mention that hypnotist is sorcery speed and untargetted -- not useful in early games, games where I face tutors, or games against decks with large draw power. That isn't to say it is bad, just not for this deck.

Killing Wave is trash. Seems like a good idea, but it was cut a very long time ago. Its like some weird fetish on tappedout that people run this card, and I do not get it. Why would I run this over Death Cloud? It's like the Black Cryptic Command -- a good card, but perversely overrated.

Basal Sliver is fine, I guess. Not reusable, removal bait, little too costly, god help you against a sliver deck (I do play against one sometimes).

I could probably stand to run sidisi, but that tutor comes a little late for this deck, especially without a lot of resources at my disposal. However, recursion and exploit do make up for that somewhat. I would probably cut Nether Traitor or Dimir House Guard -- depending on meta, preferences.

Xenic Poltergeist -- I already cut the superior Karn, Silver Golem because I removed a lot of the gimicky cards from the deck, and have more robust artifact recursion in Junk Diver, Myr Retriever and Buried Ruin. I never have the mana to recur wayfarer's bauble or expedition map on every turn.

Lightning Coils is fun, but must survive until next turn and depends on splashy plays -- not for stax, but a lot of fun in my shadowborn apostle deck (The Happening). I do really love this card though, and even the minimum 15 damage is nothing to scoff at. Those elementals are prime fodder as well. You know, I might try it out in this deck again. The art alone is a good enough reason.

Fume Spitter is the most likely to be run here, since it actually does something on its own of marginal value and is a cheap body, and the art is sick. I dont have enough B for plagued rusalka (nor does anyone) without phyrexian altar. Nor are there enough creatures out at a time for me to use to laser stuff down. Not for this deck. Likewise, I don't run Phyrexian Plaguelord, though I did for a time.

Skullclamp -- mhm. The point is that you get to draw 2 - 10 cards per turn. No single creature in the deck is that important (besides shirei). INUS conditions. Theres plenty of reanimation engines and recurrable creatures as well.

Somdevi adnate generates 2 - 4 Black mana per (your) turn and can be sacrificed to other abilities. Yeah not great ramp, but works very well / well enough. I was running burnished hart here, but I always ran out of swamps.

Reassembling Skeleton, Bloodghast, Nether Traitor -- can all be recurred multiple times per turn and without the aid of Shirei, and can be painlessly sacrificed to skullclamp. Again, this is a stax deck that wins by building a resource assymetry. What if someone blows up shirei in response to Contamination? Well ... You want to have the skeleton. How do you live through Possessed Portal without shirei? Skeleton. How do you combo off with Pawn of Ulamog? Nether Traitor.

Sorry, I should clarify a few points then...

Killing Wave is a budget friendly way to set your opponents back while leaving your board state untouched. It has a couple advantages over Death Cloud. I probably wouldn't want X=15 for Death Cloud because I'd discard my hand, lose most if not all of my lands, and probably my own commander, on top of 15 life. And if they have 30 tokens, they just sac half of them and shrug it off. Killing Wave will make them pay 15 life for each and every creature. They can't afford to keep their token army. I don't have to discard or lose lands. I only pay 15 for my commander and get all of my 1/X's back. They both of their strengths and weaknesses; I don't think it's trash.

Omg, you're right, Basal Sliver is a 2/2. I feel like an idiot, I'll see myself out.

Xenic Poltergeist is for artifact removal, not recursion. I don't even think it would work that way....

and okay. I'll buy it on the Reassembling Skeleton. I can activate it's ability whenever I want, not just when something else dies or when I drop a land. (And it costs less than $10, so that's nice.) I'll never be super happy to see him top-deck or when things are going okay, but he could be useful in my graveyard when I need him.

My particular deck isn't as staxy, and can often survive Shirei being killed off.

Yep yep -- I would run death cloud because this deck is prepared to make use of it over killing wave.

Never great to topdeck skeltal or traitor or ghast at the wrong time, but since my primary objective is to stick an early sac-stax piece, there isn't a bad time for me.

I also want to work Wake the Dead back in.

EndStepTop hook a brother up

No Bottle Gnomes? The version I ran loved that card, as the consistent lifegain really did put you out of range of some decks. Wouldn't overlook it tbh.

Yep its a good card. Wouldnt frown on running it. Prefer drainers and deathgreeter. I usually dont have a problem witn life, since few decks attempt a combat victory that also survive all the creature death.

But yeah, bottle gnomes, snack?