Masterful The new Siege Zombie seems like a good way to get extra damage out of summoning sickness tokens and fits with the Aristocrat theme.

kirbysan I'm afraid Jadar, Ghoulcaller of Nephalia is a lot worse than Ophiomancer. Snake lady's strength is generating a piece of fodder to sac for value on every opponent's turn, and yes her new art is amazing! With 3+ opponents, Jadar is only generating a fourth of her value at most. Even if we accept him as a worse Ophiomancer, he's still a worse Bitterblossom which is a card that already doesn't make the cut.

I'm a little skeptical of Siege Zombie. It seems too far removed from our core aristocrats gameplan. Dealing 1-2 damage to each opponent every round is very slow compared to our other drainers. Even if we have 12+ creatures out and can drain for 4 each turn, we'd be winning anyway from that boardstate.

Good thoughts though. I'm sure we'll get some great death triggers somewhere in the coming spoilers. It is Innistrad after all.

Fleshtaker (innistrad midnight hunt) oh damn... too close to be the best card ever... why a scry instead of a blood artist effect ?

:(

I saw Fleshtaker this morning and was pretty disappointed. Only triggers off sacrifice instead of dying. Gain life instead of lose life and scry 1. Also sac outlet requires mana so you’ll be handicapped there.

Masterful How is Spawning Pit working out for you? I feel like it’s a dead card and kind of clunky. I’m never happy to have it in hand and I usually never have enough mana to get a good use out of it.

Khyheauts kirbysan Yeah Fleshtaker is underwhelming. Like you said, its lifegain and scrying isn't too useful, and the cost for sacrifice means its not a great sac outlet. Regardless, it wouldn't be a terrible card to play if someone likes its art.

I like Spawning Pit so far. It's nothing crazy, but it's more redundancy since being without a sac outlet is really painful for this deck. It'll feel underwhelming when we already have a sac outlet out, but it can still generate a lot of fodder from a large board.

Meathook Massacre could be a pseudo aristocrat. It has the -1 life we're looking for and will get us the +1 life when cast. I don't think it'll take the spot of Toxic Deluge but it could be worth a spot since it's an enchantment so has higher sticking potential. Dreadhound has the effects we're looking for but at 6cmc I think it's too high.

Indeed Meathook Massacre is the fifth blood artist effect we were looking for, Falkenrath Noble was the only other option until now.

kirbysan I'm confident The Meathook Massacre will find a place in the deck. The lifegain triggering off opponents' creatures is incredibly strong with boardwipes, and it also seconds as a boardwipe. It won't take the spot of any of our current wipes, acting more as an additional Blood Artist, but the fact that it can be used as a wipe ups our control potential. Not sure what the best cut is, but it's certainly stronger than a few current cards in the list. I just wish it were a creature so it could proc off itself and we could fetch it with creature tutors, but at least enchantments are hard to kill.

I think you're right that Dreadhound is too expensive. Similar to Syr Konrad, the Grim, we achieve this effect by cheaper means via Blood Artist and friends, and we don't gain much from additional procs off mill.

One card I've been keeping an eye on is Adeline, Resplendent Cathar. As long as we have a piece of fodder to attack with each turn, she's pumping out 3+ tokens every turn. On a similar level to Ophiomancer, 3+ tokens on our turn every round is as good as it gets, especially since it can proc as soon as she comes town. She's also quite big for a 3 mana creature, making her hard to kill and a strong attacker early game to consistently proc her own effect. The only unfortunate thing is that the tokens have to attack, and we have to attack to create them, meaning we can't sit on them while we build our board. However, she still does a great impression of Elspeth, Sun's Champion at 3 mana.

Eloniel We're always happy to play more aggressively costed drainers, especially one with additional versatility. I find Falkenrath Noble and Vindictive Vampire are too expensive. Our 4 mana options usually do more, like Luminous Broodmoth or Elenda, the Dusk Rose providing exponential value. I could see us playing as many as 7 good 2-3 mana drainers, as I always find myself wanting more in-game.

Masterful Jerren, Corrupted Bishop looks mildly interesting. Right now the deck has 11 Humans, 12 if you count Teysa Karlov which is a little over 30% of your creatures. It provides an additional token body. What I really like about it is getting down to 13 life and transforming giving you a sac outlet and draw ability. The 6cmc to transform may be a bit too much though. I'm unsure about the clunkiness vs. potential. What do you think?

Jerren, Corrupted Bishop is way too costly i think.

I already run Vindictive Vampire,I might keep it with The Meathook Massacre for a sixth blood artist or remove it. I will see if I find another cut instead.

Meathook Massacre, newly spoiled Innistrad enchantment, check it out.

Nm my comment, didn’t read that it’s been mentioned a bunch already

kirbysan Jerren is too optimistic imo. 12 Humans already isn't too many, so I don't think he's the most efficient token producer at 3 mana. Despite that, making a token on entering, potentially making more later, and possibly becoming a demon is pretty good. I'd never consider his transform realistic because of how difficult it is to get yourself to specifically 13 life while he's out, but it's fun. He's not best in slot, but he's alright and worth it if you get a kick out of potentially transforming him into a demon.

Eloniel Yeah the 4-mana drainers aren't bad, they're just not as efficient as the cheaper aristocrats pieces. If you find them personally fun/useful, no need to take them out.

Sillyprawn Yeah meathook is definitely going in. Just gotta find some cuts and make the update.

Masterful Thoughts on Curse of the Restless Dead? Seems like your pod goes heavy on ramp so this could be an interesting card. You could also just enchant yourself and save your Brought Back or Second Sunrise to fill up your board.

Also Prowling Geistcatcher could double your board state with a sac outlet similar to Nightmare Shepherd or Luminous Broodmoth.

IMO the Geistcatcher is a straght upgrade compared to Nightmare Shepherd.

kirbysan Housegheist Just found time to release the update where I briefly go over these. Curse of the Restless Dead makes tokens too slowly. While ideally it can make a bunch in one turn with fetchlands + Second Sunrise, that's too specific of a situation. Mostly, it'll be making 1-2 tokens per turn, which isn't ideal as a non-death-trigger.

I don't think geistcatcher compares favorably to Nightmare Shepherd or Luminous Broodmoth. Its a one-time effect instead of providing repeated value every time like shepherd or broodmoth. This means its potential is a lot lower.

Hi Masterful - cfost827 here on a new account I created :)

Out of curiosity, have you ever thought about running Academy Rector? He's a pretty solid card that cares about going to the graveyard. It could allow you to immediately put into play our strong Enchantments like Necropotence, Bolas's Citadel, Land Tax, Grave Pact, Bastion of Remembrance - whichever you need most at the given time.

Also, what are your thoughts on Ranger-Captain of Eos? He could tutor up Viscera Seer, Carrion Feeder or sac fodder if needed. He also can stop some of the annoying blue players from countering our spells if needed by saying him.

As always, I'm Looking forward to hearing your feedback! :) Thanks!

Hello, and thank you for the read. This is great!

Any thoughts about Martyr's cause (2W) as a sac outlet? Or do you have enough sac outlets/no need to prevent damage?

Works well with Command the dreadhorde, if nothing else.

(Sacrifice a creature: The next time a source of your choice would deal damage to any target this turn, prevent that damage.)

Hi Masterful - Hope all is well! Piggybacking of of my previous comment (would love to hear your thoughts on that comment to when you have a chance)

But I recently added back in Generous Gift as there have been several games where that card could have really helped or even saved me haha. At least it my meta, it's proven to be much more effective than Vanishing Verse - only exiling mono colored permanents was quite limiting.

Also, what are your thoughts on a creature + planes-walker removal card like Baleful Mastery? Seems pretty good to me at the expense of your opponent drawing one card.

Also, let me know your thoughts on Academy Rector when you have a chance.

Thanks! :)

Foster_I_Am Academy Rector is alright, but remember Teysa can't double her death triggers. When she dies, you can only exile her once, so you only get one enchantment. Bolas's Citadel would be a great target, but it's an artifact. Otherwise, we don't have great single-enchantment targets. Sure, we have some good ones like Necropotence, but paying 4 mana and killing a creature is a lot of hoops to jump through for something that isn't a wincon for our deck. Ranger-Captain of Eos is alright but definitely worse than Ranger of Eos and Recruiter of the Guard. I'd play it if we had more slots. Right now, it's a fine budget replacement for recruiter.

You can definitely play Generous Gift over Vanishing Verse. It's mostly personal preference, but I like having access to a 2-mana catch all removal spell for tutoring reasons. We already have Anguished Unmaking to tutor for when we have 3 mana, but if we need to remove an enchantment with 2 mana for example, we have no tutor targets. That's why I play verse. Personally, I think verse is better than Baleful Mastery in most situations. It doesn't draw your opponents a card and can hit enchantments or colored artifacts. However, removal spells are pretty similar and situational anyway, so play whatever you like best.

Vintrastorm I like Martyr's Cause, and it's especially good if the main way you're dying in your meta is to one source, like a voltron commander. Being 3 mana though, it's not the most efficient sac outlet, so I prefer cheaper creature-outlets, altars for mana generation, or something like Spawning Pit for guaranteed value. I haven't tested it a ton, and maybe the damage prevention is stronger than I'm giving it credit for. It's definitely a fun political tool at the very least. I think I'll try it instead of spawning pit next time I playtest the deck.

Masterful, with only 1 more day of Crimson Vow spoilers to go, I haven't seen any card that's really screamed Teysa yet. What are your thoughts?

Coming in at the last second Kaya, Geist Hunter could be a good token doubler. I like that it's 3CMC so you could play it a turn before Teysa Karlov. Its +1 could be used to keep pressure on the board if you don't have sac outlets. Also, that ultimate ability is great if you can get her up to 6.

Kaya is a no brainer for this deck i think. Welcoming vampire is interesting for drawing a bit.

Panicked witness could be interesting a gain a bit of life if the game is too long.