@Thograr

I had Cauldron of Souls in the deck in one of my first drafts. It seems good in theory, but I had a few issues with it:

1) As mentioned, it's a one trick pony. You can use it a single time for the turn, and then it becomes obsolete quick.

2) Once your opponents see what you're doing with it, it'll be destroyed instantly. As it costs 5 mana, that can set us back significantly.

3) I'm trying not to rely on effects that enter my graveyard. When I play a black deck, I assume my opponents will be running effects such as Leyline of the Void, Relic of Progenitus, etc, as they usually will be. Making a black/green deck that doesn't rely on the graveyard is pretty rare, particularly as this is a deck based around sacrifices.

4) In my playtesting, it doesn't work as good as you ever think it will. I had the same issue with Mimic Vat. It sounds (and looks great) in theory, but by the time I have a creature I want to abuse, I usually have another type of card draw or sacrifice engine in play that's much cheaper and resilient to abuse.

The same could be said about your commander. He costs 5 mana and your opponents will see him coming a mile away. It's good to have redundancy and alternatives in an EDH deck.

And, anyway, if your opponents do blow up the Cauldron, that's one less removal spell in their hand, and you can always get it back by sacrificing your Buried Ruin , possibly triggering a +1/+1 counter spew.

@EDHdad

The difference is that my opponents are not able to respond to sacrifice triggers once my general is in play. Let's say I cast him, and they cast Terminate on him. Well, good for you - I'll sacrifice my board at instant speed, stack my +1/1 counter triggers on the stack, and still one shot you this turn.

Hell, if I have Eldrazi tokens in play, I can respond to split second cards by sacrificing them, since they are mana abilities. This includes my lands. This deck is probably the only resilient deck to split second.

He only needs to hit play, and then the game is already over. The only way they can truly stop me in my tracks is if they can destroy my sacrifice outlets at instant speed, which is usually pretty rare, and why I run multiple outlets.

I just saw it and I don't know if it will be good enough, but do you know about Plaguemaw Beast??? Sacrifice a creature to proliferate will put two +1/+1 counters pn your creatures, which seems pretty good for only one sacrifice. But meybe it would be better with the original commander of the Plunder the Graves EDH deck, Meren of Clan Nel Toth.

I'm not sure if anyone has mentioned this, but doesn't the combo between Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest and Woodfall Primus not work? Because sacrificing Woodfall puts a -1/-1 counter on it from persist but then puts a +1/+1 counter counter on it from Mazirek. I think that means that Woodfall would have both a +1/+1 counter and a -1/-1 counter on it, which makes it so that it won't return to the battlefield when it's sacrificed again. At the most, you'll get two sacrifice triggers, but not infinite ones like you thought. Once again, I don't know this for sure. If I'm wrong, I'm sorry. :)

+1/+1 counters and -1/-1 counters cancel themselves. So if a +1/+1 counters should be put on a creature with a -1/-1 counter already, you just remove the -1/-1 counter instead. Same is true for the opposite.

looks like a great deck. Also 50th upvote!!!

thegigibeast is almost right. You still put the +1/+1 counter on, and the +1/+1 and -1/-1 cancel out as a state-based action. In practice, yes, you just remove the -1/-1 counter. But things like Hardened Scales still trigger - when Woodfall Primus comes back it actually gets two +1/+1 counters; one is removed to cancel out the -1/-1 counter from Persist, leaving one +1/+1 counter on. Not a big difference, but it could matter.

Nice deck, I'm going to start brewing one as I think this is the only interesting commander from this batch.

Have you considered Barter in Blood as a removal option?

Or Fecundity as card draw/politics?

@Trotsky

I had Fecundity in the deck. The problem was I was playing against a ton of the new Ezuri decks which run a top of weenies or tokens, and unfortunately the card grants cards to all players as a global effect. For that reason, I found that other players were benefiting from it more than myself.

I may consider putting it back in the deck, but I know my playgroup is going to be running the new Ezuri, so I expect the same token/weenie shenanigans to occur. Great card though.

Also, on another note I replaced Phyrexian Obliterators with Greenwarden of Murasa. It made me sad, but the Obliterator wasn't doing enough good. It was a scary threat that no-one would ever block, so no-one would sack permanents. Greenwarden grants me two cards back, and is a decent beatstick if needed. It's pretty much the big mama to Eternal Witness.

No one has mentioned Savra, Queen of the Golgari????

To help deal with the large amount of life loss that is under your "concerns", I strongly suggestion Whip of Erebos. One of my favorite cards ever printed, it gives your whole squad lifelink. At 4 CMC, that is very reasonable. And the ability to 'Whip' back a creature from the graveyard to get that extra ETB effect is good too. Great deck, +1

why Wasteland over Strip Mine?

Super shenanigans seem superb.

Really, this deck seems really fun to play.

Thanks also for the "Budget" section of your excellent guide, I am building this list about the same, but with cheaper versions of several cards.

Has Archfiend of Depravity ever been considered for this deck? If it got shot down, I'd like to know why because it seems really strong both on its own and with the commander.

I would double check on the way the persist trigger and mazirek triggers stack. Because the combo gets significantly worse if mazirek resolves before the persist trigger resolves

michael921 - As the active player, you are allowed to stack the triggers how you wish since they would occur at the same time.

evncrbch, thank you for clearing that up!

Can you explain the Persist combo a little better? I am still not super clear on how the stack would go. My thinking is that the creature would leave play when the +1 counters are applied, so it would still come back with -1 on it. I'm new to this though, so would probably benefit from hearing the order of things.

mattpowers - Both triggers occur when the creature dies. Because you are the active player, you get to choose how the triggers go on the stack. If you choose to have the Mazirek trigger go on first, then the Persist trigger, the persist trigger resolves first, placing a -1/-1 counter on the persist creature. Then the Mazirek trigger will resolve, putting a +1/+1 counter on the persist creature, cancelling the -1/-1 counter.

As for creatures that generate tokens, you could try Skeletal Vampire. He is also a sacrifice outlet. Sacrifice a 1/1 bat, get two 2/2 bats and pump your board. Sure that effect has a cost, but if you really need it you can also just sacrifice the bats to regenerate him for no cost.

@mattpowers

This question has been answered a few times already, however I will answer it here in hopes that it explains it to everyone in detail. Please keep in mind that this answer will be long and drawn out in hopes that it answers all aspects of the question.

The second that one of our creatures is sacrificed, the triggered ability from Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest is on the stack. It doesn't matter if you cast lightning bolt on Mazirek, or even Sudden Shock which is split second - his ability has already occurred. The ruling below explain why this is the case:

701.14a To sacrifice a permanent, its controller moves it from the battlefield directly to its owners graveyard.[...]

Off the top of my head, I can't think of ANY way to truly respond to paying the sacrifice cost on a permanent, as doing so immediately places it in your graveyard. (Edit: A player could cast Stifle on Mazirek to counter his ability, however this is a completely different scenario)

In regards to persist, the rulings are as followed:

702.78a Persist is a triggered ability. Persist means When this permanent is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, if it had no -1/-1 counters on it, return it to the battlefield under its owners control with a -1/-1 counter on it.

As sacrificing a permanent INSTANTLY places it in our graveyard, the creature checks to see if it qualifies for the persist ability. If it had no -1/-1 counter, it comes back into play. Keep in mind that this is still on top of the stack before Mazirek's had a chance to put any counters on creatures in play. If the creature with persist has an ability upon death (Such as Woodfall Primus), this will be placed on the stack before Mazirek has a chance to put counters on any creature.

The creature with persist will come back to play from the graveyard. All other abilities or spells on the stack will then resolve in the order they were casted until Mazirek is able to put a +1/+1 counter on all creatures, including the creature with persist.

Keep in mind that if a permanent has both a +1/+1 counter and a -1/-1 counter on it, N +1/+1 and N -1/-1 counters are removed from it as a state-based action, where N is the smaller of the number of +1/+1 and -1/-1 counters on it. As the creature had a -1/-1 counter, it effectively removes it as Mazirek's ability resolves.

Once all abilities and spells have been resolved, you will be left with your originally sacrificed creature with persist, with no counters on it. As long as your opponents have no (good) response, you can repeat this action indefinitely with any persist creature of your choosing.

I think Master of the Wild Hunt or Creakwood Liege would be good additions over overlord and the imp. Plus the wolves have a kill condition.

My bad - Woodfall Primus is a ETB. His ability triggers on re-entry to battlefield, not entry of graveyard.

IpCrash3r, have you already looked at Shamanic Revelation for card draw? I freakin' love that card!