I use Black Market to power either Exsanguinate or Yawgmoth's Will, neither of which you run; so it might not be doing much for you. Now that I've played Gray Merchant of Asphodel, I'd be more inclined to pull Falkenrath Noble from your list (but again, I use Market and Phyrexian Reclamation to cycle Gary). Do you find Skirsdag High Priest does a lot of work for you? He always struck me as slow.

Yeah, Skirsdag High Priest can be slow but a guaranteed 5/5 flyer every turn is still pretty nice. And when he's done his tapping thing, I can use him as a blocker or for sac fodder for other effects.

Gray Merchant of Asphodel stays in because he's been in the deck for a while but I have yet to ever draw him. One of those cases where I don't know if I like it yet because he's never happened.

Skirsdag High Priest generates a 5/5 flyer on each of your turns. Which is why it is slow. -- with Thousand-Year Elixir (not bad if built around), he can generate a 5/5 every turn though.

Yeah that's what I meant. Summoning Sickness, yo.

Love the deck, I made a similar one with less artifacts, y'up for taking a look at Shirei's Daycare?

Thanks! (Would you mind upvoting? I'm trying to break Top 10 Shirei decks...)

I used to not like the high-ish number of artifacts, but now that I've got Marionette Master in here, I think it will be less of a downside. I also run a Myr Retriever which helps me to get my artifacts back as needed.

I'll take a look at your list momentarily. :)

How do you feel about Kormus Bell?

Kormus Bell seems delicate. For one, it makes all of my swamps vulnerable to board wipes and removal (or all lands, with Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth). If Shirei is super protected (hexproof & indestructible), and I have a good sac outlet, it does work like you want it to. So it gives you a lot more lands to tap each turn, and creatures to sac.

The biggest downside is that if it goes wrong, I'm screwed and I have no way to get rid of it on my own.

On another note, I'm strongly considering a Genesis Chamber, as per shub's suggestion. It seems good. Maybe I'll slide away from discard effects in order to fit this in.

Okay. So. I remember why I haven't played this deck in a while.

In order to be playing the deck optimally, and not hold back on purpose, you have to be doing all of your sacrificing shenanigans on every player's turn. EVERY. TURN. This tends to drive the other players crazy in a multiplayer game, unless you are either a) super quick at doing all your responses and triggers, or b) winning the game right now.

Also, everyone still hates Mind Slash and Thoughtpicker Witch, with good reason. Other sac outlets are likely needed. This deck could do with more ways to win hard and fast.

I got going last night really well, but I couldn't kill anyone, I was just keeping my lead. I had Pawn of Ulamog, Sifter of Skulls, and Genesis Chamber so my token game was strong. I had Thoughtpicker Witch to use the colorless mana from my eldrazi tokens, and a Falkenrath Noble, so I was controlling the tops of libraries and draining people slowly. I eventually got out a Butcher of Malakir, so I was keeping a lead on board state (even without any protection on Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker), but I just couldn't win fast enough. It didn't help that there was both a Blind Obedience and a Thalia, Heretic Cathar in play, so all my creatures ETB'd tapped and made it hard to attack with tokens. I got up to 115 life with Falkenrath Noble, but then somebody exchanged life totals and I ended up losing the 4-way match when I was down to one opponent left.

Thoughts on how to kill faster? I don't think it went poorly, I was just slow, and stalled more than powered through to win.

Thin out a few creatures in exchange for card draw. Phyrexian Arena is a good starting point.

Done. Sort of. I took out Black Market for Phyrexian Arena, since my playgroup never lets the former stay on the field long.

Also thinking of swapping out Scavenger Drake for Fallen Ideal. Free Sac outlet that buffs my commander, and thus provides quasi-protection against Languish type effects.

Thoughts on something to swap out Thoughtpicker Witch for? Prefer another cheap sac outlet creature with a beneficial effect, but the pickings are getting slim.

My playgroup also hates Thoughtpicker Witch, but it's difficult to replace.

Haven't touched this in like 4 months. Wow. I haven't been playing magic much lately but I'm keeping track of the new sets. Nothing really jumped at me here for Shirei from AER. Hope of Ghirapur didn't fit my style with an attack trigger (would be worth it in a Duel Commander, 1v1 build), and Fourth Bridge Prowler was the closest we had to something worth including, but there's just better things.

So far, Amonkhet seems the same way. Doomed Dissenter seems like a reasonable contender if you want to go the token route, which I am a fan of. Bontu's Monument wouldn't suck, but a Jet Medallion is just as good or better for mana cost reduction, and we don't want to work on "when cast" triggers.

Thoughts on Tattered Mummy to replace Perilous Myr? Do you find yourself using the Myr to hit a creature or hit a player more often?

Um. Both. I definitely hit the player if they're pretty low or if there's nothing else worth hitting. Note that it's a good blocker, because it hits em for 1 on a block, and then 2 more when it dies from blocking. It also combos well with Myr Retriever, Buried Ruin, and Marionette Master for a minor artifact recursion/token-y theme.

Tattered Mummy can do a lot of work for you in a multiplayer game though, and honestly, it might be a good replacement for Falkenrath Noble. Instead of doing -1 to a single opponent's life and +1 to yours (a total change of 2), you can do -2 to all opponents. It kinda comes out in the wash. Plus, this dude is recurrable with his base 1 power.

Another decent contender from the final full spoiler of Amonkeht is Festering Mummy, which says you "may" put a -1/-1 counter on a creature. It can be yours (to reduce power) or theirs (as removal). It recurs under Shirei, and could be a replacement for Necropede, I guess? I prefer Necropede's infect and artifact properties, but it's a decent card.

I prefer to stay as neutral as possible in the political war so Tattered Mummy gets the nod from me.

And holy cow I love Festering Mummy, I prefer a strong -1/-1 theme for Shirei so I'll probably put him in alongside Necropede and Fume Spitter.

Cheers.

Hey, Im having a slight problem with this deck, not the same version... but similar.It tends to be a VERY slow kill, which tends to anoy everyone and generate a lot of hate... which in the end, is a kill sentence for me (having every player against me).

Do you have a way/ suggestion in order to speed this up?

Um, frankly, not really. It is one of the weaknesses of this deck I think. You want to play on every player's end step, which admittedly gets annoying for some players.

Putting some more creatures that get bigger with deaths (like Swarm of Bloodflies, Carrion Feeder, or Bloodflow Connoisseur) could be one method. Fallen Ideal is a sac outlet that can protect your commander (against damage based board wipes or removal) and gives evasion via flying, which could possibly make commander damage a sudden unexpected wincon.

I think one of the best (that is, fastest) strategies would be to use lifedraining effects of Zulaport Cutthroat, Blood Artist, Falkenrath Noble,Grey Merchant of Asphodel, Tattered Mummy and possibly others, perhaps in combination with a token swarm strategy. In fact, an artifact token strategy with Marionette Master and Genesis Chamber could be a great way to go.

The problem is that this deck needs enough control elements to protect itself, since it is very much a glass cannon. Maybe consider more tutors - there are definitely some that I don't have just because of the costs. Buried Alive, Entomb, Vampiric Tutor, cheap reanimation like Reanimate, Animate Dead, and Exhume could help you assemble your engine faster. This deck is rather slow by nature of having a 5CMC commander, needing protection to keep it stable, and needing at least a few other creatures on board to do anything useful. This deck depends on building up a massive board state, which takes time.

If you find yourself consistently having a lot of mana available (via Ashnod's Altar, Phyrexian Altar, Black Market, etc) you might be able to make a card like Exsanguinate work as a wincon.

Also, Aetherworks Marvel is obviously amazing in this deck, and especially if you go the Artifact route like I mentioned above. Then you could do crazy things like Codex Shredder to get Living Death back and use it again and again. Get Junk Diver, Scarecrone, and Workshop Assistant, for even more recursion. There's a whole bunch of stuff I don't have that could make an artifact version viable, but I've never tested it:

Bottle Gnomes, Heap Doll, Hedron Crawler, Hex Parasite, Hope of Ghirapur, Manakin, Metalworker, Myr Moonvessel, Myr Sire, Opaline Unicorn, Pentavus(?), Scarecrone, Silent Arbiter, Stuffy Doll, Triskelion, Workhorse

Also Also, while it's strategically useful, you could also remove a bunch of the cards that do discard effects, like Black Cat, Thoughtpicker Witch, and Mesmeric Fiend. While this doesn't speed up the deck, it removes some of the biggest hate-generators. People can get mad at you for screwing them over, but can they really get made at you for not dying?

Nothing new from Ixalan that excites me. If Direfleet Hoarder had been a 1/X, it would have been amazing to make a treasure token every turn. The only thing close to a contender is Seeker Squire, which explores, but that's not ideal for Shirei due to the +1/+1 counter the ability gives.

Guess we'll wait for the next set.

Hey, what about Mike/Trike combo for faster kills? Mike undying is quite nonbo w Shirei, but Trike works well even without Mike in play.

Personal choice to not run 2-card infinite combos. Triskelion is a good choice if you move to an artifact sub-theme which I've mentioned elsewhere though. And I'd never want Mikaeus, the Unhallowed on my battlefield outside of this combo, so it makes it quite a nonbo with the entire deck.

Diabolic Intent would be good here

Oh for sure, it's just above my usual price point. Sidisi, Undead Vizier does the same thing with a nice creature body attached.