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A Standard format deck used to aggressively challenge an opponent by quickly overwhelming them with Demon of Death's Gate, while building up Mortician Beetles as a backup win condition. -------------------------------------------------- 5 May 11 Just updated with New Phyrexia cards.
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two sign in blood out, and one disentomb and a nim deathmantle in.
but thats a very good deck
No way. No offense, but that's the worse advice I've ever heard for a black deck. Sign in Blood is way too good not to run a full set in every deck, especially considering most standard black is 80-90% 1-3 drop creatures, that card draw is essential.
I think 20 lands are fine, otherwise the 2-drops can be a problem sometimes.
The only other thing I was thinking of was swapping some of them out for fetch lands, just to thin the deck out and keep the non-land cards coming.
Playtesting so far has been pretty successful. I've tried using less Sign in Blood and more Deathmantles as well as some other combos. It seems like the likelihood of a win is helped more by having more draw power than the expensive equip cost for the Deathmantles. I'm reconsidering their inclusion entirely, possibly dropping them to 2 in exchange for another utility (like a Liliana Vess), or maybe not using them all together. The inclusion of Bloodghasts, Gatekeepers, and Vapors really solidified how quickly my beetles get pumped.
If you still need more draw power, I know a creature that also fits into your sacrifice theme. Moriok Replica is low cost, has Sign in Blood stapled to it, and it can help your Mortician Beetle get big. Also, the fact that he's an artifact creature means he can potentially chump block an Etched Champion, and that can be worth a lot more that you'd think in Standard Constructed.
I've considered Moriok Replica too in a sacrifice deck (Mortician Beetle, Pawn of Ulamog, and Butcher of Malakir all benefit from the Replica) but the cost is just too great. 5 mana total to get the effect of a 2 CMC Sign in Blood is not worth it just to pump one or two of the other pieces. Moriok Replica is just too slow and ties up your mana which is better used elsewhere.
Dave, Savaj: About my same findings. I do think I need another type of draw mechanic, but I also found the Moriok Replica a little costly.
haha youre right, our decks are very similar, but thats cool though. great minds think alike. sign in blood isnt a bad idea at all, i might consider putting them in Death Squad
lol i forgot to tell you (though i was implied) i do like this deck haha
Ha, same for yours, mate! Once mine eventually drops out of Standard, those Dark Ritiuals will quickly find their way in to speed it up even more.
If you want to increase the speed of casting creatures, I would recomend running 2 'ornithopter's. Its mana cost is 0 so you can cast first turn. In theory you could have Demon of Death's Gate swinging at turn 2. Any fast creature will help. If you want to offset the cost for casting DODG then i would recomend consume spirit. 2 cost plus a blackX Deals damage of X to target creature or player and you gain X life. A good late game card when you have a number of lands out and you find that 6 life you paid is geting to you. Ornithopter is a godsend for this deck though.
you could actually drop the deathmantles for the ornithopters.
You know, I never considered that. That definitely seems like a better idea in place of the Deathmantles. I really want to find a place to use them, but I'm not going to force them into this deck.
So I ended up dropping the Thopters since I couldn't sac them to DoDG (black creatures only). They sort of helped, but I never noticed them really doing much more for me. I also removed the fetch lands since the landfall mechanic I needed doesn't care about having two lands enter int he same turn. Definitely looking for another life-gain card besides the vapors, just to offset some of the life penalties i'll be dealing with. I'll check out Consume Spirit or similar cards.
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Someone may have already suggested it but maybe Nihil Spellbombs and Nighthaze's for Sideboard cards would be pretty effective. An Eldrazi to prevent you from being milled to death is always a plus and there is of course the ever popular DOOM BLADE rawr!
ITs ALMOST THE SAME AS MINE...
For the Sideboard i would say maybe Vampire Hexmage if you are going against annoying planeswalkers like jace or Koth. Another Duress and Grasp of Darkness also. Like others said , maybe Doom Blade in your sideboard if you are going against heavy decks. If you need more draw consistency maybe try Dark Tutelage ... I know that if you run on a Demon that can be suicide , but meh ... its your deck's name :-P. Except that , you will draw 2 cards each turn for 1 or 2 life , but it cost more than Sign in blood. I tried both in my vampire deck and i found that Dark Tutelage was way more efficient. Good deck , i'll try this deck out since since i have the Demons and the Bloodghast ! I'll play test it and come for more advice ...if i found some :-P Great Deck !!!
Hexmages were definitely a 1st sideboard addition. I completely forgot about them at first.
Crypt of Agadeem is great in sac decks. Works as a slow swamp, but then becomes more effective once you have 3 creatures in your graveyard, and just keeps getting better from there. Exsanguinate (or Drain Life once you're out of standard) is great to run in conjunction with the Crypts. Always good to have a secondary win condition, and even if X just = 3, it's still beneficial. Also, don't know what the virtue is too it, but Cabal Ritual looks pretty good in sac decks (since you mentioned adding Dark Ritual) but it's more late-game, and Dark Ritual is too good for first turn drops. The above poster suggests Dark Tutelage for card draw, but if you were looking for more card advantage I'd suggest Viscera Seer. Fits better with the theme, and doesn't suffer the drawback of running into Demon of Death's Gate or a non-creature / non-land card.
Also, Flesh Allergy would rock in this. After sacrificing a few creatures, forcing sacs with Butcher, sac a few Eldrazi Spawn for mana, then drop Flesh Allergy to destroy something and cause massive loss of life.
Flesh Allergy is a great idea, I hadn't even notice the symmetry after adding the Pawns. I'm definitely going to test that out soon.
i very much enjoy this deck, i think ill make one of my own
The deck i made a few month's back is close to this. but I made mine faster and a bit easier to always drop something from your hand. Quest for the gravelord is a must for a deck like this. also add a diabolic tutor incase you dont pull a Demon in the opening hand or withing the first 2 pulls. add more black 1 drop creatures. guul draz vampire/assassin. dump out the 2 drops like pawn and gatekeeper. eliminate spells that dont effect creatures. add vampire's bite, or tainted/virulent swipe. just as suggestions.
i would add tutors to get the demon in your hand and sub in a bunch of vamps such as pulse tracker,vampire lacerator,viscera seer, etc. ive done this idea and you can get the demon out on turn 2
I've played with and against a friend's Demon of Death's Gate / 1-drop Vampire deck, and I can say from experience.. it's not hard to get 2x lands and 3x 1-drop creatures for a second turn Demon. It's not so much about having a stacked hand as it is just opening with Demon of Death's gate. On the other hand, it is a bit more difficult to get 4 lands for a 4th turn tutor -> Demon. Most likely turn 5-6, and by then, in most cases from my experience, it is better to keep the creatures you have than to sac for the Demon. I've made the mistake in doing so around turn 5-6, and all it did was give creature advantage to my opponent when it was a fairly even match at the time. Sure I had a big beater, but he could mitigate the damage by then, and I couldn't defend against his counter attacks. So. From my experience, I say no on running tutors to nab out a Demon. Besides, there's a Liliana in the deck.
Granted, this deck does run a bit more creature recursion than my friend's deck. So that could make a difference.
Savaj: So far, if I pull a DoDG in my opening hand, I'm pretty much guaranteed to get him out by turn 4, even if I only pull one land. Outside of playing a Jace deck the other day that keep me one step behind because I didn't get more than 1 swamp on my opening hand, I don't seem to have trouble getting the necessary creatures out. I figured the Liliana Vess was a good "emergency" addition. Besides giving me that easy discard, the emergency "Tutor" ability seems to do the job replacing the Tutors, hence why, like you, I went against them.
I like my design for a sacrificing deck better, It has more usefulness in it. More creatures that are built to kill. Check it out, it is called Sacrifice Pit.
Zalkerai , your Sacrifice deck is way too costy . Butcher of malakir is useless since you don't have any draw to make sure you have one land each turn. In this kind of deck , you need cheap removal like doom blade or grasp of darkness if you want to survive long enough to put the demons out. Too much creature with 3 cmc... And you really need Sign in blood to help flow the deck. Consuming vapors is good , but again if you don't have any other removal , the other player will end up sacrifying a token or a cheap creature. The deck of Fenwayhotspur is , in my opinion, built better because of all the cards to make the deck flow properly.
I like the beetle. Check out the decks that I've been posting. I'm going this weekend to get them beetles.
I'm more old school in my sacrifice deck I used the combo Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker and Smokestack, then toss in a bunch of power 0 & 1 creatures like: Will-O'-The-Wisp, Scavenger Drake, Infectious Host, Bottle Gnomes, and any other creatures that have a nice little ability when going to the graveyard. That and a couple Grave Pacts. don't hurt either.
Wow, went away for a few days and this deck blew up. Thanks for all the comments. To address a few concerns some of you have made, two main requirements for my deck was to keep it Standard, and to keep it on a budget. The Bloodghasts were the most expensive cards I've ever purchased, so I won't go further than that. Otherwise, I'll try to respond to everyone's suggestions individually, I really do appreciate them!
has anyone suggested to you dark tutelage? its an incredible tool for speeding up a black deck
Yeah , i suggested it a while ago ;-P
though with those deathgate demons in there maybe not
I like it. That demon is nastey in late game, but at turn 3 it just sends instant panic into your opponent. great job man. If you get a chance take a look at my decks. I would love some feedback.
I'll gladly check your decks out, thanks for the comment :) While it's not the most original idea (most of the sacrifice decks you see are Legacy/Vintage versions), it's just a ton of fun to play.
First draft of NP update complete. Geth's Verdict is supreme in removal for a sacrifice deck over the old Grasp of Darkness. I want to include Vault Skirge (colored artifact still works with DoDG), but unsure who to remove from the mainboard to make this happen. Top candidates are Pawn of Ulamog, Death Cultist, or Fume Spitter. I'm leaning towards the Cultists