The genesis of this was that I wanted to make a deck where I could play all the creatures from the graveyard.
Then I found Haakon, Stromgald Scourge and Nameless Inversion and it became a psuedo zombie/knight reanimator deck.
The point is to get creatures back to play from my graveyard and to make the most out of the resulting expendability of my battlefield.
Reassembling Skeleton - Solid early game sac material. He doesn't rely on any other factors to come back. He is crucial.
Haakon, Stromgald Scourge - The only other true "self-reanimator" besides Skelly. He opens doors to all black knights (kept black for simplicity in the mana production). He is brilliant. Practically the rest of the deck revolves around finding him, playing him, and using him.
Gravecrawler - In the running for this slot were also Nether Traitor and Bloodghast but Gravecrawler is cheaper and (because Haakon is a zombie) much easier to get out at the end of the day. There are only two because I can search for him if I need him and his is only sacrifice fodder really.
For the core of the knights I went with two:
Black Knight
and Stromgald Crusader. Black Knight because A: he's classic B: he's cheap at two CMC and C: the first strike is great early game. Stromgald Crusader is in over others such as Phyrexian Crusader and
Sanguine Guard
because while they were all A: zombies to help get Gravecrawler, he is B: cheaper and C: more versatile with the flying and buffing late game.
The Lieutenants of this undead army are
Stillmoon Cavalier
and
Arrogant Bloodlord
. Stillmoon is fantastic: he is basically a super-versatile combination of Black Knight and Stromgald Crusader for one more CMC and the pro black/white makes him a bitch to kill sometimes (and he's a zombie to boot, yay Gravecrawler!)
Bloodlord is one of my favorites finds in this deck: he works on so many levels. He is a knight, he only costs three, he is easy to kill (to activate Grave Pact), and he is the black knight for three and less who can survive a hit from Nameless Inversion. Say 'hello' to my 7/1 that I can get back anytime!
Support is all based on Discard, Sacrifice, and Search.
Discard: Cabal Therapy,
Cry of Contrition
--- The dicard is primarily in the deck to prevent you getting stuck with a Haakon in your hand. then as soon as he is safely in your graveyard it is awesome offensively. Therapy is my favorite for this especially because you get to see your opponents hand and the sac a creature flashback cost. Cry is good because you don't need to reveal your hand and the haunt help set up some bad choices for your opponents depending on what you haunt on there (or your) side.
Sacrifice: Bone Splinters, Cabal Therapy, Diabolic Intent, Nameless Inversion, Phyrexian Tower --- In order to make the most of the fact that I don't care when my creatures die, I needed to maximize the activation of Grave Pact. So I tried to find spells that did what I wanted AND sacked a creature. Also, Nameless Inversion will one shot kill everything in my deck (except Arrogant Bloodlord) making it perfect for late game (especially if I have two Grave Pacts out). Oh, and the sacking land = perfection!
Search: Diabolic Intent, Buried Alive --- I was strongly considering Entomb for one of these slots but Buried Alive beat it out because the main thing I will search for is Haakon, who costs three and with Buried Alive I can't search for him until I can play him so it doesn't slow me down. In fact, by dumping three creatures at a time right to where I can get at them, it speeds everything up turn four and later.
And that is a comprehensive look of how I built the deck and why it is the way it is.
Enjoy!
