Glissa, The Traitor Primer.
"Justice Urged On My High Artificer; My Maker Was Divine Authority, The Highest Wisdom, And The Primal Love." (Inferno, Dante Alighieri).
~the commander of this deck Glissa, the Traitor is a Mirrodin Besieged promo foil. she also is autographed by the artist himself.
This build of Glissa, the Traitor was made to focus on her ability, but not rely on it.
Summary
This deck function off graveyard recursion and sacrificing abilities. Most glissa decks are either Voltron, Artifact-creature amassing, or infinite artifact creature damage ping. This deck was originally built in 2012 and since then clue/food tokens have become a popular mechanic. More modern Glissa decks will most likely utilize clues and food tokens as pieces of the engine. I have no desire to disassemble this build in favor of adding that flavor into it. too much would have to be scrapped and the deck would be entirely different.
With this deck the primary gameplan is to play cards such as Fleshbag Marauder/Merciless Executioner/Plaguecrafter/Braids, Arisen Nightmare to cause opponents to sacrifice so that glissa may retrieve artifact pieces out of the yard. Other pieces are important of course like repeated artifact/enchantment removal thru Sylvok Replica or Spot removal with Executioner's Capsule. When spot removal is not enough and the game requires board wipes Oblivion Stone/Nevinyrral's Disk is the piece that you want. When the engine is running as intended removal artifacts and sacrificing creatures allow for constant refills of used pieces.
Pieces that glissa cannot retrieve for whatever reason can be retrieved with other utility cards such as; Volrath's Stronghold, Buried Ruin, Reanimate, Eternal Witness, Genesis, Portal to Phyrexia. (Not currently in the deck but Recollect, Regrowth, Storrev, Devkarin Lich, and Biotransference would all help with recursion).
Win conditions of this deck vary from Woodfall Primus Combo, Wurmcoil Engine combo, Mindslaver combo, Vraska the Unseen Ultimate ability, Or just good old fashioned Damage. Glissa, the Traitor being First strike Deathtouch she wins with commander damage quite a bit. (Other Combos not currently in my build but are suitable would include, Walking Ballista, Triskelion, Hangarback Walker, Puppeteer Clique and/or Myr Battlesphere).
Engines and Fuel
List in no particular order
This Glissa deck has fewer ramping opportunities than most other Green/Black Decks or Glissa decks in general. The deck's average curve is 3.2 CMC so ramp is not massively important to the gameplan. Ramp in this deck is rather straight forward. Most of the decks ramp potential comes from sorceries, creatures, and artifacts. Despite the deck being Golgari colored sometimes there can be a struggle for double green cost for Glissa herself. Some of this list will be brought up again in the recursion section
Sorceries
The only sorceries capable of ramping are limited too, Skyshroud Claim, Nature's Lore, and Rampant Growth. Skyshroud claim and Nature's Lore were chosen because the lands do not enter tapped and do not have to be basic lands. this allows the pilot to fetch dual lands. Rampant growth was chosen solely for more lands and more ramp. With the exception Skyshroud Claim the other ramp spells are meant for early game.
Creatures
Creatures capable of ramping in this deck is a rather small list. Solemn Simularcum and Birds of Paradise are the only two in the deck. Birds of Paradise offer early game support and quickly becomes less useful. Birds never truly becomes obsolete though. It can easily become fuel for the engine later but that section will be discussed in depth in another section. Solemn Simulacrum is able to obtain a land and draw a card upon it leaving the battlefield. Because Solemn Simulacrum is a 4 CMC colorless artifact creature it is easily recurs from Glissa's ability or other recursion methods. This makes Solemn an ideal piece of ramp and tech for the overall theme of Sacrificing and Recursion. Newly Added Prosperous Innkeeper provides mana ramp in the flavor of treasure tokens. Innkeeper can also facility in an infinite combo.
Rocks
Artifacts for Ramp/rocks tend to be a little more board for Glissa but also limited in quantity. Arcane Signet, Ashnod's Altar, Expedition Map, Mox Opal, Sol Ring. Arcane Signet is designed to be early game or for pure mana fixing for cards that require double/triple color cost. Ashnod's Altar provide mana but its true function is to fuel the engine of the deck and combos. Mox Opal is just a standard mana rock. Sol Ring is a 2 colorless mana for 1 CMC.
The Removal Suite for this deck is fairly comprehensive and will broken up into two sections. The other half of the removal suite will be further discussed in the Recursion section. Removal is broken into the instants, sorceries, planeswalkers, enchantments, artifacts, and creatures. All the pieces of kit synergy well with each other despite the card typing.
Instants
Removal instants are probably the easiest to digest first, Assassin's Trophy, Beast Within, Tear Asunder, Silence the Believers/V.A.T.S., Crypt Incursion are the whole of the instant suite.
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Assassin's Trophy allows for any permanent to be removed. it has a handful of downsides. It costs 2 CMC( and allows the opponent to fetch a land from their deck. additional it requires targeted removal.
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Beast Within is another general permanent removal spell. has similar downsides as the above card. requires a cost of 3 CMC() and opponents get a 3/3 beast token. This trade of is actually preferrable because it provides glissa with a removal target.
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Tear Asunder is an interesting piece of tech. This card allow for exiling target artifact or enchantment. It also has a Kicker ability that changes it into a nonland permanent exile effect. Exile on instant is always a bonus. this card has a lightweight cost of 2 CMC() and the kicker cost make its alternate cost higher but still within reason ().
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Silence the Believers offers instant speed multi-target exile. the base cost of the spell is 4cmc() but has a strive ability to add targets for an additional () cost for each target after the first. This card can be costly to exile multiple targets. due it being instant speed it is best to use on opponents end steps.
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Crypt Incursion is for decks that utilize their graveyard. Exiles target players yard and you gain life off it.
(i will not discuss V.A.T.S. yet it is still being playtested.)
Sorceries
This section is shorter containing only, Ashes to Ashes, Casualties of War, Damnation, Maelstrom Pulse.
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Ashes to Ashes is a Fantastic 3 CMC drop removal spell. it allows up to 2 target non-artifact creatures to be exiled. downside is caster takes a hit of 5 life.
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Casualties of War is a heavy cost card. Because of its heavy cost and sorcery speed it is best to cast only if you intend on hitting multiple targets. it is not meant to be used as just a single target removal spell.
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Damnation is a board wipe.
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Maelstrom Pulse has the distinction of being primarily for token removal. It is also strong against decks that make clones/copies.
Creatures
Many of cards in this section will come up again in the recursion section. As far as removal is concerned Fleshbag Marauder/Plaguecrafter, Butcher of Malakir, Braids, Arisen Nightmare, Glissa Sunslayer, Phyrexian Obliterator, Sheoldred, Whispering One, Sylvok Replica, Woodfall Primus. Some of these are for enchantment or non-creature removal and some are for creature removal.
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Fleshbag Marauder/Plaguecrafter are both used for fuel to the overall engine and recursion. other than those purposes they are just decent forced sacrificing options to cast against opponents. (additional note: if some reason you choose to not sac Fleshbag Marauder to his own ability he becomes a valid target for Skullclamp.
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Braids, Arisen Nightmare is similar to the two listed above but she offers card draw and life reduction as additional synergy. she her self can help fuel the engine of the deck. she allows the pilot to sac artifacts or creatures to get utility of making opponents choose sacing or losing life. this deck much appreciates help with saccing its own creatures and opponents.
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Glissa Sunslayer is a toolkit in herself with more function other than just removal. she has First strike and Deathtouch so if she attack a creature will die to her. most players will not block her. when she deal combat damage to a player the pilot gets to either; Draw 1 and lose 1 life, destroy target enchantment, or remove 3 counters off a permanent. this last ability of counter manipulation allows pilots to remove undying counters from cards or outright killing opponents planeswalkers.
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Phyrexian Obliterator is threat and a bluff. most players will not willingly attack into him. he will be removed/destroyed almost every time he cast. he is also good fuel for self sacrificing. when he takes damage opponents have to sac (x) permanents for how much ever damage he took. I will repeat, this card is meant to be used as a bluff.
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Butcher of Malakir is a "slow" removal card. it requires the player to sacrifice a creature then opponents are also forced to sacrifice. he basically just a Grave Pact on a Flying stick. Flying is useful due to glissa being rather weak in the flying department.
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Sylvok Replica is an easy early game Artifact-creature for 3 CMC. His activated ability allows the player to pay , and Sac to destory target artifact or enchantment. he is a solid choice because you do not have to tap him to get this ability off. because he is an artifact he is easily gotten out of the yard by glissa. if he hits an artifact-creature or enchantment-creature that will cause a glissa trigger to get another artifact out of the yard to your hand.
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Sheoldred, Whispering One is another "slow" removal card. On each opponents upkeep they are forced to sacrifice a creature due to her ability. On the Pilot's upkeep she allows the pilot to put a creature card from the graveyard into play. this is very good for glissa and allows for much synergy. can easily get Fleshbag Marauder or Sylvok Replica back from the yard after they have been used. she has many valid grabs and uses.
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Woodfall Primus allows the pilot to hit non-creature permanents. Because this card has persist it will get 2 targets before it hits the graveyard its "final" time. With these targets you can hit lands if you so choose. Woodfall Primus can also be abused with undying counter from Mikaeus, the Unhallowed allowing the pilot to get much more than 2 hits off Primus.
Enchantments
Enchantment removal is very small this section wont require much explaining. Grave Pact and Kenrith's Transformation are the only two in the deck. Grave Pact is a major engine piece and helps cards like Fleshbag Marauder get more value. Kenrith's Transformation is for single target removal like commanders and such. the only reason why it is here is because it can be obtained out of the yard by Eternal Witness and forces opponents to remove it instead of focusing on other artifacts.
Artifacts
the suite of artifact removal includes, Executioner's Capsule, Nevinyrral's Disk, Oblivion Stone, Thornbite Staff, Tormod's Crypt.
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Executioner's Capsule is spot removal of non-black creature cards. this helps glissa get a trigger and itself is easily obtained out of the yard off another kill from another source.
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Nevinyrral's Disk/Oblivion Stone are both Board wipes. O-stone allows the player to protect other permanents before you pop it but has a heavy cost. Requires 4 CMC and Tap ability to protect from the ensuing board wipe. this will require the wipe to take an additional turn. this makes Oblivion Stone weak to being removed. It is best to pop O-stone ASAP. Nevinyrral's Disk is cheaper but enter tapped and has a similar weakness as Oblivion Stone.
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Thornbite Staff allows either, Glissa, the Traitor or Glissa Sunslayer to kill target creatures indefinitely but not infinitely.
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Tormod's Crypt is a 0 CMC graveyard removal artifact. not much else to be said.
Planeswalkers
Only have two walkers in this deck and both of them have high synergy with the rest of deck. Vraska the Unseen and Grist, the Hunger Tide both will use all of their loyalty abilities in an ideal game.
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Vraska the Unseen's +1 Protects herself and potentially helps Glissa's trigger to proc. the -3 is Removal on demand. finally the -7 removes an opponent from the game if it connects. Rogue's Passage should help with that. for a 5 CMC() Walker that comes out at 5 loyalty that isnt bad.
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Grist, the Hunger Tide's +1 helps fill the yard for potential targets for Glissa. Her -2 lets the pilot sac a creature to destroy an opponents creature or walkers, this should proc Glissa and/or Grave Pact/Butcher of Malakir. Finally Grist's -5 lets you hit an opponent's life for how many ever creatures are in your yard. once again 3 CMC() walker that comes in at 3 loyalty is not bad.
Both the walkers synergize with each other and Glissa very well. personally I think they are both perfect fits for the deck overall. If you had Savra, Queen of the Golgari in the deck they would benefit from her as well.
(will mainly be bullet points here)
Basic Engines
Recursion
Tutors
Miscellaneous
Words words words
Changes/Removals
Sensei's Divining Top -> Nihil Spellbomb (Sensei's is banned at LGS)
Read the Bones -> Toxic Deluge, Needed another board wipe.
Toxic Deluge -> Grist, the Hunger Tide, for more synergy.
Krosan Grip -> Return to Nature, changed purely for mana curve reasons.
Deathrender -> Tormod's Crypt, For mana curve + Deathrender under preformed most of the time (might still come back in).
Reaper of the Wilds -> Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet, felt reaper didn't offer enough to the deck to remain
Akroma's Memorial -> Portal to Phyrexia
Darksteel Plate -> Cloudstone Curio
Oversold Cemetery -> Aluren
Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet -> Seton, Krosan Protector
Victim of the night -> Kenrith's Transformation
Welding Jar -> Mind Stone
Mind Stone -> Phyrexian Revoker
Seton, Krosan Protector -> Braids, Arisen Nightmare
Testing Grounds
Cards I am currently playtesting but not comfortable adding to the official deck list yet;
Silence the Believers is currently being tested as V.A.T.S..
Imotekh the Stormlord is currently being tested as Savra, Queen of the Golgari.
Nevinyrral's Disk is currently being tested as Krark-Clan Ironworks.
Return to Nature is currently being tested as Tear Asunder.
Casualties of War is currently being tested as Invoke Despair.
Umezawa's Jitte is currently being tested as Prosperous Innkeeper.
Viscera Seer is currently being tested as Woe Strider.
Crypt Incursion is currently being tested as Nihil Spellbomb.
Realmwalker is currently being tested as Augur of Autumn.
Grist, the Hunger Tide is currently being tested as Cultivate/Sonic Screwdriver.
Rampant Growth is currently being tested as Myr Retriever/Regrowth.
Above cards are being playtested and list will be updated after testing.
Any advice or constructive criticism is welcomed.
