Maybeboard


** As seen in Riley Knight's article on ChannelFireball! **

Deck Thesis and Summary

This is a graveyard value strategy built entirely of cards with NM prices less than $1, per this Scryfall filter.

Depending on where you shop and willingness to buy LP or MP cards, it's totally feasible that this can be constructed for less than $30.

After some testing, I can confidently say that the deck is powerful and operates smoothly. There is also a ton of room for upgrades, which makes this a fantastic starting point for someone looking to get in cheap then upgrade as they go.

NOTE: I will not be removing cards if they later rise above a dollar in price. What matters to me is whether it fit the criteria when it was added.

Piloting Notes and Combos

You goal when piloting this deck is similar to most any graveyard recursion deck: fill the graveyard as fast as possible, play and recur value creatures, and sacrifice the creatures for value. An important thing to note is that this deck tends to be fairly mana-hungry. You should prioritize making land-drops above most anything else. Don't be afraid of casting Izoni, Thousand-Eyed for low value if you need the card draw or board presence - it's far more important to keep up your velocity than to try and get max value every time.

Here are some combos/engines/endgame board states to be aware of:

  • Golgari Thug + a sacrifice outlet +Grim Haruspex or a similar effect allows you to repeatedly recur any creature in the graveyard for 2 mana. Adding a second draw effect makes this more potent as it allows for dredging the Thug in addition to recurring the target.

  • Perhaps the best endgame board this can produce consists of: Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis, a free sacrifice outlet, any combination of Blight Mound style effects, one or more Dreadhound style effects, and a stocked graveyard. With this setup, one can produce a large number of tokens by sacrificing and recasting Hogaak to drain opponents out from 40+ life. The most I've done this for is around 150 damage. but it could be higher if one has all of the possible pieces in play.

Upgrading the Deck

For someone looking to upgrade this decklist with cards outside the initial budget restriction, I would suggest the following: Life from the Loam, Golgari Grave-Troll, Eternal Witness, Phyrexian Reclamation, Hermit Druid, Blood Artist, Syr Konrad, the Grim, Craterhoof Behemoth, and land upgrades such as Overgrown Tomb, Woodland Cemetery, etc.

For those looking to customize within the budget restrictions, it may be worth trying to fit in Fleshbag Marauder effects given the number of cards that trigger off of your nontoken creatures dying. See the Maybeboard for additional ideas.

Suggestions

Updates Add

Two words. Eternal Witness.

Changes to the deck are as follows:

-1 Golgari Findbroker

-1 Bloodthrone Vampire

-1 Prowling Geistcatcher

+1 Eternal Witness

+1 Yahenni, Undying Partisan

+1 Body Launderer

CMM has finally dropped the price of Eternal Witness to under $1. Golgari Findbroker is both the worst and hardest to cast recursion creature in the deck, so it gets the cut here.

Bloodthrone Vampire is being cut in favor of Yahenni, Undying Partisan. The former has been in the deck since its inception and has served well as a free sacrifice outlet; however, Yahenni is a far more powerful card as a large and sticky threat in addition to have a free sacrifice ability.

Prowling Geistcatcher comes out for Body Launderer. These cards are similar but different in function, allowing you to reuse sacrificed creatures. I like how the Launderer's Connive ability interacts with the Dredge cards as an engine, and it plays more of a midgame role as opposed to the Geistcatcher's endgame, combo-esque role.

There are plenty of powerful cards in both this set and LTR that I am still considering, so there may be more updates here in the near future.

Comments

90% Casual

Competitive

Revision 15 See all

(1 year ago)

-1 Bloodthrone Vampire main
+1 Body Launderer main
+1 Eternal Witness main
-1 Golgari Findbroker main
-1 Prowling Geistcatcher main
+1 Yahenni, Undying Partisan main
Top Ranked
Date added 2 years
Last updated 1 year
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.

Rarity (main - side)

2 - 0 Mythic Rares

27 - 0 Rares

29 - 0 Uncommons

21 - 0 Commons

Cards 100
Avg. CMC 3.45
Tokens Day, Food, Goat 0/1 W, Insect 1/1 BG, Insect 1/1 G w/ Flying, Deathtouch, Morph 2/2 C, Night, Orc Army, Pest 1/1 BG, Rat 1/1 B, The Ring, The Ring Tempts You, Timeless Witness 4/4 B, Worm 1/1 BG
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