Basic Premise:
This deck will see continued changes over time as part of a "league" played amongst a few friends where we each start off with a one of the Commander 2019 pre-cons then slowly swap in cards over time.
A win will get you 4 cards to substitute and a loss gives 3 cards to substitute.
Current Stats:
Wins: 0
Losses: 3
Total # of Substitutes: 9
Notes:
I haven't quite decided which route to take with this deck. The two I'm most interested in are: Reanimator with either Anje or Chainer at the helm, or some sort of life loss, aristocrats style with Greven at the helm. I'm personally leaning more towards reanimator as I feel Greven would be probably require more changes, though I'm already interested in having a completely separate deck built around Greven anyway.
Post-Game 1:
Couldn't get much to happen, felt like I wasn't able to draw frequently enough, was always at parity, trade 1 card for another never coming out ahead. I was frequently low on cards. Having only played once, it's hard to truly judge how well it plays, though I felt I needed more card draw.
Cards Added: So I'm adding in Phyrexian Arena, for just solid card draw and works with Greven if I go that route. Faithless Looting for card draw while also building a graveyard for the Reanimator theme. Anger, because it's a great card with so much rummaging/looting and reanimator.
Cards Removed: This was an easy choice. Since this isn't a deck that needs a ton of lands, like a Lands Matter deck, it's easy to cut some lands this early. With all the decks I build, I typically have around 35-37 lands and but that's without running dual fetches.
Post-Game 2:
Similar to game 1 I constantly felt like I had few plays, mostly due to the poor card draw. I managed to get a Magus of the Wheel to activate with an empty hand pretty late into the game, but I just hit 4 lands, an Armillary Sphere, Alchemist's Greeting, and Warstorm Surge, basically nothing at that point. That was my one good source of card draw that I needed but wiffed. In my last surviving combat I blocked with Anje, responding with a couple madness casts in a row which turned out kind of neat, but by then it was too late, I was killed by the next player.
Cards Added: So like the first game, I'm still feeling like I don't have a ton of options, I'm either lacking card draw or have expensive cards in hand that I can't use unless I cast for madness which were already not useful or too conditional. So I'm adding in Archfiend of Ifnir as a way to deal with the morph and populate decks who frequently had large boards. Adding in Apprentice Necromancer as a way way to reanimate the creatures I was able to get into my graveyard, while also giving them haste. Adding in Combustible Gearhulk as a good card or damage source, and a good target for reanimation.
Cards Removed: Also like game 1 it wasn't a tough choice for cards to cut, this time I cut Aeon Engine which does nothing for my gameplan, Alchemist's Greeting (a weak creature removal? meh...), and Fiery Temper which is basically a Lightning Bolt if I cast with madness, otherwise 3 mana.
Note: For the next couple or so games I'm going to give Greven a try as the commander, it might help with the card draw situation while also providing some extra damage output, but I might have a different problem with low life rather than card draw. The deck definitely seems like Anje or Chainer are better fits right out of the box. Even though I felt the deck was a bit lacking and tough to play, I'm still excited to continue this as I have a ton of options for upgrades and routes to take this.
Post-Game 3:
This game I tried Greven as commander. Played smoother and was capable of dealing quite a bit of damage pretty early with him in combination with K'rrik. However our game had trouble dealing with a large board of morph creatures, so I'll have to add some more board wipes and better removal.
Cards Added: Adding Cavalier of Flame as both a haste enabler, damage pump, a source of card draw and graveyard filler. Adding Phyrexian Reclamation for recursion which is psuedo card draw, depending on who you ask. With that being said, I'm also adding Living Death to reanimate my filled graveyard while doubling as a board wipe.
Cards Removed: Removing Avacyn's Judgement because without the madness it's just 2 mana for 2 damage at sorcery speed, it's just bad. Best case scenario I discard it with a bunch of lands untapped and deal X damage to face or kill a few creatures. Removing Murderous Compulsion because a 2 mana sorcery to destroy a tapped creature is not great, yeah it has madness to have psuedo-instant speed casting but that "tapped creature" requirement is very restricting, I've found. And finally after this, removing Dark Withering. The upside is it can be as cheap as 1 black mana, but the downside is it requires madness for that reduced cost, can't target black creatures, and outside madness it's 6 mana. If it were say 3 mana for it's normal casting cost I would probably keep it.
Note: Will play with Greven again as like I said it felt a little better at making some kind of impact, and if I keep going with it I can include something like Grave Pact which would work great with Greven, the necromancers, and Living Death I've just added. That being said I don't want this to turn into an aristocrats deck.
All Changes:
Cards Added:
1x Faithless Looting
1x Phyrexian Arena
1x Anger
1x Archfiend of Ifnir
1x Combustible Gearhulk
1x Apprentice Necromancer
1x Cavalier of Flame
1x Phyrexian Reclamation
1x Living Death
Cards Removed:
1x Swamp
2x Mountain
1x Aeon Engine
1x Alchemist's Greeting
1x Fiery Temper
1x Avacyn's Judgement
1x Murderous Compulsion
1x Dark Withering
