Exhume works amazingly with a Braids and/or Sheoldred in play, even better when combo'd with Grave Pact. But Reanimate is tricky. You're going to want to get your 7+ mana creatures out fast, and losing 7x life to do so might acceptable one time, but certainly not twice. I'd look into replacing at least 3 of them for something else. Unless you plan to use it as discard fodder? Also, a beater with Lifelink would be super fancy. Like Wurmcoil Engine, Baneslayer would work amazingly, or even Chancellor of the Dross which you can open with and subsequently discard -> reanimate.
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Super sweet! I put quite a bit of consideration into designing this, and tried to cover all of my bases. Wasn't sure if there was a particular weakness I'd overlooked, or if I'd missed the mark on a few of the cards. Brain Freeze, for example, I'm not sure if it storms when copied by Isochron Scepter, or when Isochron Scepter copies another spell. Even if it doesn't, I'd still pick it over Tome Scour or Memory Sluice. Circu would fit perfectly, though I rather enjoy the fact that I'm not running any creatures. My local casual meta includes a few mono black, mono white, and Orshov fanatics with plenty of creature specific removal & control. I just love the idea of rendering a good 10-25% of their decks infective without even casting a card to do it :) On a side note, I cannot find my (failure of a) Circu deck anywhere :( I really want to pull the Mundungu out of there and use them elsewhere. And on another side note, I found my missing Lotus Petals ^-^
Not at all. Good deck building is all about balancing the amount of cards needed. x1's are usually those cards that do something completely awesome within the theme of the deck, but isn't necessary to win. They're those "if you draw this, it'll change the pace of the game, but if I don't draw it, I have other answers too" cards. I definitely like the changes, this is shaping up to be something awesome. In my opinion though, you're running too few creatures to make use of Braids and Gravepact. Assassins are made by design to kill creatures, I think you should drop Go for the Throat for more creatures. Even something with death touch, like Vampire Nighthawk. Also, I think Kiku, Night's Flower is too inefficient. For the same cost as it takes to activate her ability, you could cast a Phyrexian Obliterator. So, I suggest replacing her with a pair of them. So.. -4 Go for the Throat, +4 more creatures (preferably CMC 2 or less, but Nighthawk would work too) -2 Kiku, +2 Phyrexian Obliterators You could also run +3x creatures replacing Go for the Throat, and run a Crucible of Worlds as well. It turns Bloodghast from being good sac fodder into being a full out sac engine, and provides obscene ramp and deck thinning with Lake of the Dead and your fetch lands. This also works well with Attrition or Hell's Caretaker.
Neither are Specters, my all time favorite tribal. I love running two obscure tribals against each other ^-^ One's all about card advantage, the other battlefield advantage. Would be a fun game!
I commented, but blatantly advertising your decks without also contributing something to the deck you commented on is frowned upon. The Vault community doesn't thrive upon stealing some of the spotlight, it's all about giving a little and getting a little ;)
25 lands + 4 dark rituals will make for a lot of weak opening hands with excess mana and nothing to do with it. I also dislike the inclusion of Dragonskull Summit and Drowned Catacombs just for a single Thraximundar. IMO, either drop some lands and make it mono-black, or drop the dark rituals and add more U/R mana production and make better use of the colors. These suggestions are tied around the idea of running mono black. -4 Dragonskull Summit -4 Drowned Catacombs -4 Dark Ritual -4 Grasp of Darkness +4 Marsh Flats +1 Swamp +4 Geth's Verdict +1 Demonic Tutor +2 Diabolic Intent +4 Bloodghast +1 Buried Alive +3 Thoughsieze Other cards you might want to look into: Curse of the Cabal, Phyrexian Arena, Necropotence, Braids Cabal Minion, Black Sun's Zenith and/or Damnation, Bitterblossom. Hope this helps!
Only reason I questioned Throne of Geth is because of it's dependence upon Venerated Teacher to do anything really overwhelming. Level up is otherwise too slow on its own and therefore I've found Contagion Clasp to be more helpful in stalling my opponent and providing mid-game proliferations. Still, even if you only have one or two level up counters, proliferating them for {2} could be a huge discount. Just two different styles is all :) It's definitely a good fit. Hex Parasite, I was thinking might be an interesting / tricky twist. Eat the level up counters off a creature that would otherwise be destroyed, or eat the excess counters off creatures after multiple Teachers / proliferations. As well as eat counters from Walkers or -1/-1 counters from Infectors. Could potentially sneak by for some big damage.
Your life total can drop below zero, yes; however, if you have zero or less life, you cannot pay costs of spells or abilities with life.
Throne of Geth... why? Is it just meant to self-sac for a 1 time proliferation of your level up counters? While slower, I've had great success using Congagion Clasps when I ran a level up deck, as they add another element of removal and control. Also, what do you think about Hex Parasite with levelers?
Yes, it is legal. In the case of Spitemare, however, you need a way to prevent Spitemare from suffering lethal damage, such as the combo between Melira and Everlasting Torment, or Darksteel Plate, Prismatic Ward, Rite of Passage / Vigor... etc. Stuffy Doll is already indestructible, so no worries there. This would then create an infinite combo, however the combo would be broken once all opponents' life totals are reduced to 0. When a player's life total is reduced to 0, they immediately lose the game as a state based effect (which means it occurs outside of the stack).
The capability of targeting a permanent precludes Spellskite's ability to change the target of a spell or ability. In other words, if the spell or ability couldn't target Spellskite when it was cast / activated / triggered, then Spellskite cannot redirect that spell or ability to itself. Much like how Spellskite cannot pull counter spells. So no, it could not change targets if Spellskite's controller also controlled a Asceticism (or if Spellskite had shroud / protection from another source), nor can it change the target of Go for the Throat. Good to know for mono black if matched up against combotwin ;)
Spellskite cannot change the target of spells that cannot target Spellskite, such as Demistify and War Priest of Thrune. The only way Spellskite can protect the enchantments is if the spell or ability read "target artifact or enchantment" or "target permanent." And that's what most of the removal looks like, so that's okay. Just don't think that Spellskite can change the target of ANY spell or ability.
!!! I didn't think of that! That's totally awesome. Also works well with Voracious Hatchling & the other Hatchlings from Eventide.
Modified the deck a little bit: -1 Viscera Seer -3 Doom Blade -3 Go for the Throat +1 Phyrexian Arena +2 Sign in Blood +4 Geth's Verdict. Overall I'm happy with the changes, the deck runs much more consistently now. I can dig deep and fast and lay down overwhelming amounts of cheap vampires. I had difficulty with this before if I didn't draw a Skullclamp within my first 8 cards. Sign in Blood and Phyrexian Arena help keep the card advantage overwhelming, and since the changes I've drawn Buried Alive and / or Gravepact much more often. I'm also going to try to get my hands on a fourth Bloodghast and three more Marsh Flats. Absolutely 100% my favorite creature printed in the last two years. One other change I'm considering is replacing a combination of two of the following: Guul Draz Vampire, Vampire Lascerator, and / or Viscera Seer; and adding two more Swamps. Despite my comment above, I have had some difficulty maintaining enough mana to keep dropping cards since I've added Nighthawk and Gatekeeper. And finally, I'm thinking about investing in a set of Diabolic Intent since a full set costs as much as a Demonic Tutor, and running a pair of them in this deck. I'm not sure where I will make room for them yet, though.
I was absolutely disappointed when I opened Melira in my first booster pack.. nobody around here plays Infect, with the exception of a few newer players.. but running Melira is not worth it just for that. Then I noticed this combo too. Still never going to build it, but I got to thinking about it, and there are a few other cards that combo well with Melira. In R/G/W you can run Melira, Everlasting Torment, Kulrath Knight, Spitemare / Stuffy Doll + Guilty Conscience, direct damage such as Pyroclasm, Chain Reaction, etc.. It's an enchantment heavy concept that requires combo pieces. Luckily all the combo pieces are enchantments, which can be fetched by Idyllic Tutor.
Only damage is dealt in the form of poison counters. Phyrexian Unlife does not affect loss of life. If you have 0 or less life, you cannot pay costs that require you to pay life, as you have no life to pay with. So once you have 0 life, if you have a card in play that prevents you from losing the game, you can no longer pay Phyrexian mana costs with loss of life.
Did you even look at the deck? Read Phyrexian Unlife: "You don't lose the game for having 0 or less life. As long as you have 0 or less life, all damage is dealt to you as though its source had infect. (Damaged is dealt to you in the form of poison counters.)"
Maybe if you stopped sucking, your decks would get noticed. (Non-constructive comments and emo complaints will receive non-constructive replies.)
Aside from the fact that your sideboard is totally over 15 cards, replace them with Runes of Protection ;P 100% better than the Circles.
I'll have to take a better look in the morning, but right off the bat I can tell you, replace Vampire Aristocrat with Bloodthrone Vampire. Don't ask me why they printed one and then the other, but they did.. Consider replacing Butcher of Malakir with Gravepact. Granted, it's not a creature, but it's a LOT easier to cast! And finally, try to get a hold of some Bloodghast. They're just so ungodly awesome in any black deck. Add a sacrifice theme to it and even better!! Then with Bloodghast in the mix, you can add Phyrexian Tower too for some good mana ramp and more sacrifice. It's a costly land at $4 each, but if it provides any consolation it's the second cheapest land printed in Urza's Saga, considering Gaea's Cradle goes for $73 ;P Just a few thoughts off the top of my head, but as I said I'll have to take a better look later :)
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