Tyvar Priest Frenzy

Pioneer BG (Golgari) Midrange Mill Reanimator Sacrifice

Elsterooo

Land (19)

• 1x Blooming Marsh
• 1x Boseiju, Who Endures
• 4x Darkbore Pathway  ^Flip
• 2x Llanowar Wastes
• 2x Mirrex
• 3x Overgrown Tomb
• 3x Swamp
• 2x Takenuma, Abandoned Mire
• 1x The Biblioplex

Creature (22)

• 4x Cryptbreaker
• 3x Eyetwitch
• 4x Fiend Artisan
• 1x Gilded Goose
• 4x Priest of Forgotten Gods
• 4x Stitcher's Supplier
• 2x Woe Strider

Instant (8)

• 4x Pile On
• 4x Rotten Reunion

Sorcery (5)

• 1x Agadeem's Awakening  ^Flip
• 4x Thoughtseize

Planeswalker (4)

• 4x Tyvar, Jubilant Brawler

Artifact (2)

• 2x Agatha's Soul Cauldron

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Sideboard

Sorcery (7)

• 3x Confront the Past
• 2x Containment Breach
• 2x Pest Summoning

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Maybeboard

Land (18)

• 3x Blooming Marsh
• 1x Boseiju, Who Endures
• 2x Castle Locthwain
• 3x Darkbore Pathway  ^Flip
• 1x Llanowar Wastes
• 4x Overgrown Tomb
• 3x Swamp
• 1x Takenuma, Abandoned Mire

Creature (26)

• 4x Elvish Mystic
• 4x Eyetwitch
• 4x Gilded Goose
• 4x Priest of Forgotten Gods
• 3x Stitcher's Supplier
• 4x Undead Butler
• 3x Woe Strider

Instant (10)

• 4x Deadly Dispute
• 2x Overwhelming Remorse
• 2x Rotten Reunion
• 2x Village Rites

Planeswalker (4)

• 4x Tyvar, Jubilant Brawler

Sorcery (2)

• 2x Agadeem's Awakening  ^Flip

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MAYBEBOARD is now a baseline version of the deck to work off of with. This description is outdated, but I will leave it as it is. There's still more than one way to implement the core strategy of the deck, including going jund (list also outdated).

I will simply update the main decklist from time to time. This is the "proper" version against the meta for that point in time. .

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IMPORTANT! Old deck description

For all you Jund lovers out there: Tyvar Priest Jund Version

I've simply decided to stick with the "base" version to write my updates. I'll shortly go into the jund version here, the core strategy is naturally the same.

If you check out any bracket at all, the Card Suggestions one is the most important in terms of working with this deck.

Final disclaimer: I do not know how to make all of this look pretty, but I can organize it, so I hope it will be somewhat pleasing to the eye as you read through this. Also thank you, if you're that interested! I'm excited to make decks people like.

Before I start using brackets, a quick summary of what this deck does:

Utilizing Tyvar, Jubilant Brawler to use a ton of Priest of Forgotten Gods triggers, basically. This idea immediately came to mind when I saw the card revealed, however I put it off thinking it was going to go into the "Whacky not whooping" pile. It does seem strong, but there are a lot of questions about its performance once you think about it. You guarantee yourself constant value, I mention that because of Woe Strider, which in combination with your ability to control the board functions as both a bridge from your early game to the end, as well as a finisher if your opponent ran himself dry dealing with your Tyvars and Priests. Eyetwitch shows the power of lessons, especially Confront the Past which both synergized with the millplan as well as help you deal with even a wave of removal.

And finally:

I've decided to leave this deck at a very flexible list. Especially Village Rites was not in a lot of iterations of this deck, but it works nicely as a way to ensure you additional carddraw. This baseline is tested, so any changes needed to be made in the future can go nicely off of this list. I will talk about some of the possible adjustments and my thoughts on them in the last bracket.

Card overview - A closer look at each pick for this list

Woe Strider: This card is an all-star. Choosing what to do when with it is one of the most important aspects when piloting this deck. The escape generates value as well as creating a threat when facing a cleared boardstate, can function as an instant sac outlet for Priest of Forgotten Gods, and especially sacs Eyetwitch in addition to obviously smoothing out your draws. Sacing an Eyetwitch to grab Confront the Past is something you should always keep accessable.

Priest of Forgotten Gods: This is obviously the most complex card in this list because of her getting pseudo haste with Tyvar, Jubilant Brawler. I have to make this especially clear, I've gotten to trigger her for at least 12 damage on some turns, and this is best to simply try out yourself. You have no need to strategically be passive, but start to go all out to secure consistent turn five finishes. A double-trigger with Tyvar generates four mane, precisely enough to cast Confront the Past to fetch another one. You can see where this is going. You can replace your four loyalty Tyvar with a new one to keep the ball rolling. Try it. TRY IT!

Tyvar, Jubilant Brawler: You can ramp into him in this deck. It's a risky play, but even if you don't fetch a Priest, Undead Butler is one of many other good choices. Even fetching an Elvish Mystic can empty your hand easily if you cast it into a Gilded Goose and then an Eyetwitch. This is why Deadly Dispute and Woe Strider are important. Sacing the Eyetwitch from here can fetch a Confront the Past if your opponent removes Tyvar.

Eyetwitch: We got Pest Summoning for two-creature-fodder, we've talked about the importance of Confront the Past enough, and a bit removal. In my first draft of this description I wrote that you should avoid grindy games, which still holds true, but I've changed the category of this deck to midrange for a good reason. You have a lot of value with this card, which is all obvious, the important thing to note here really is taking this into account with your Undead Butler and Woe Strider triggers.

Stitcher's Supplier: HEADSHOT, COME ON! SHOOT. ME. IN. THE. HEAD. AND. SAC. ME. If you don't have half your deck in your graveyard by turn four, what are you doing? Since this card is basically suicidal and doesn't have much strategy to it, I'm going to use this to emphasize the importants of milling. I've balanced this list with the goal of having the right amount of mill. This might be one of the few cards that could confuse you on why there are 3x, but in all my games with it, four was simply slightly too much and not needed. I've switched to 4x Butlers instead because they are paid for by Priest more mana efficiently, and they fetch your stuff. Alongside Tyvar, Woes escape and Rotten Reunion, having access to a healthy graveyard is the other side of the carddraw coin you need to keep your engine going.

I've just mentioned Rotten Reuinion, Village Rites and Overwhelming Remorse both are fairly self explanatory. 2x for a reason. And they're the definite first contender when considering adjusting this deck for future cards.

Agadeem's Awakening  : This card is not replaceable however. I didn't put it in because "any utility land that is somewhat good is better than nothing". It is an incredible source of additional value. Ideally you'll cast it for six CMC, fetching Strider, a Butler or Priest, and an Eyetwitch. Even not fetching the Priest here generates even more value. Sac the Eyetwitch again for Confront the Past, keeping your Tyvar going, and the train goes on.

Deadly Dispute: The best carddraw black has to offer. Anything remotely doing something with sacrificing stuff needs this card. A ramping, flexible, none-creature reliant Village Rites. Put it into your deck. All of your decks. NOW

Tyvar Jund

Bloodtithe Harvester is an entire reason on its own to go jund with this deck. The aforementioned Deadly Dispute uses a blood token as fodder. It's the classic you've learned to love, but it creates enough ressources to also have Citanul Stalwart replace Elvish Mystic, which might not seem like much but makes the deck run a lot smoother. Finally Mayhem Devil. Well, it's Mayhem Devil, and I only put two of those in my decks because I think on an empty board this card just isn't doing it for me. Whether that philosophy is blasphemy or not, we don't need to worry about that here. Between the Butler and the constant draw, I've fetched the Mayhem Devil at just the right time suprisingly consistent, so 2x is the perfect place. Finally, we don't need Stitcher's Supplier always. That depends entirely on how much sac-triggers you can make work. Have enough available? Unlucky Witness! Feel like the Butler and Tyvar don't get you enough out of the graveyard, Stitcher's Supplier!

Card suggestions

Here we are. Right away: This will not include card suggestions for the Jund Version. Replace Village Rites with more Unlucky Witness, Stitcher's Supplier, or Rotten Reunion, switch around how many of these, that's about it. The decks's in a comfortable spot, if a bit slower in the version I ended up going with posting.

That being said, this is going to be a list of cards that can fit into this deck, but would create the need to adjust and tweak the entire thing into something a little more powerful, but less easy to work off of:

Cryptbreaker: Was and still is a heavy contender. I've settled on 1x, but wasn't able to use its abilities as consistently as I hoped. Drawing a card before sacing the Zombies you used it for is a powerful value-play. I've also felt that that bit of additional carddraw wasn't needed as often as another sac-outlet, which is why I've added the simplified Village Rites for it in the final list. If adjustment of this list requires something more value oriented, this is a must to consider.

Zulaport Cutthroat, Thoughtseize, Priest of the Haunted Edge, Voldaren Bloodcaster   and Mausoleum Secrets are all cards I don't feel I need to comment on.

Braids, Arisen Nightmare: I've thought about it, I want to list her. There might be some potential here, but I'm mostly mentioning her for the fun factor.

Teachings of the Kirin  : HIGH on the list. If not our Priest, we finish games with a big enough Woe Strider/board presence overall to close out games. If it weren't for that, this card would be out. Early game the +1/+1 counter isn't anything to write home about, almost makes this card too bad, if you could skip it this card would be glorious. But it mills, taking away card:Sticher's Suppliers job and opening up space to play Village Rites instead of Deadly Dispute to make us quicker, and effectivly creates 2 creatures to sac. One of which with an upside.

Cult Conscript: Now we get into the big contenders, a high contender if you're running Meathook Massacre which I will get into after this. I haven't seen anyone play this with Woe Strider. This card has been printed as a rare multiple times, you could compare it to Bloodsoaked Champion best. You can build decks for both, and can make the argument for both, it's just interesting that this one is an uncommon. Sacrificing a goat activates Conscript, and then you can just keep recasting since a goat died that turn. This is both a value play and especially noteworthy with Meathook Massacre. If there are or will be "Whenever a creature dies add 2 mana" effect in the future, this is an easy instawin combo with Meathook, Bastion of Remembrance and so on.

The Meathook Massacre: My precious. Still.. let me check.. 40 bucks. It is the one. It belongs in this deck. I've only left it out because simplicity, but it belongs in this deck. For instance, the current version I am actively playing has cut Deadly Disputes to make room for the Massacre on curve. Life's full of though decisions like that, including this card is not. Even without the Conscript-Woe interaction I just mentioned, the removal, the lifesteal, the lifegain makes this an insta-include. 2x please.

Fiend Artisan: Safe the best for last. Not because it's my favourite, but it's the most to talk about. I contemplated adding Artisan in the first draft of this deck and even then I already decided against it. It's simply not as smooth. There isn't the mana or value in terms of sac-fodder to fetch something with it and go as wild with Priest as with this version.

That being said, at the same time, there is incredible potential. I've seen that this card has since picked up popularity in a modern version of this deck, and rightfully so. It might be better in modern, in here I think it depends on when and with how many copies you create a consistently empty board on your opponents side so there are no blockers in the way. I consider huge creatures without trample to almost be worthless, and I expect there to be too many situations where it's that other creature you need to sac to get Priest going. First testing and my gut feeling included, in my opinion 1x should be the way to go here, should you include it.

Hope you have as much fun playing as I've had making this. This is my first and possibly only deck guide, so if there're questions, ask anytime.

Now I really want to make something weird and whacky.

Thank you for reading.

Top Ranked	Achieved #49 position overall 1 year ago Achieved #4 position in Pioneer 1 year ago Achieved #2 position in Pioneer Aggro 1 year ago
Date added	1 year
Last updated	9 months
Legality	This deck is Pioneer legal.
Rarity (main - side)	11 - 0 Mythic Rares 35 - 3 Rares 7 - 2 Uncommons 4 - 2 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	1.88
Tokens	Food, Goat 0/1 W, Pest 1/1 BG, Phyrexian Mite 1/1 C, Zombie 2/2 B, Zombie 2/2 B w/ Decayed
Folders	pioneer