Permanent Links to my decklists

As some of you have discovered, I’ve been working on a set of pages for my decks, proposed or existing. It’s up there, and the main page has links to all my decks, what’s in them, and how they’re supposed to work. If you hover over the main page link, you’ll also get a dropdown showing the sub-pages (which hopefully will be self-explanatory).

I’ll be updating those pages every now and then, especially when cards go on or off the Wantlist and Watchlist (which will be available for each deck… eventually.) When I make changes to the decks I’ll still post here, but I’ll also update the decklists on these pages.

 

Quick Hit: Sek’Kuar, Deathkeeper Decklist

This is the same deck I posted a few weeks ago, just reposting a link here

Sek’Kuar, Deethkeeper

 

Bonus Monday Content: The Game

A group of us went down to the local on Friday night (shout out to Aargon Games in Dunedin, yo! Yeah OK, I’ll lay off the fake bro/homey vibe there) to play some EDH while Sam was in town. First game I played was my Animar versus Sharuum versus Chorus of the Conclave… short version of that game was Sharuum won after a fairly large Open the Vaults when Sharuum had a Cranial Plating equipped and we were all out of flying blockers. Was a good, laid back game though, and Animar got to do some crazy stuff with Palinchron (without bouncing it), Great Whale, and bouncing my own Riftwing Cloudskate with Crystal Shard to repeatedly keep Scourglass off the table 🙂

The second game was much more memorable, though. It was a five-way free for all, with the same three players as game 1, plus Sam, and another guy who will remain anonymous for reasons which will soon become apparent….

I was playing Sek’Kuar, Sam was playing Damia, Oscar (I think his name was Oscar, someone correct me if I’m wrong!) was playing Kresh, Sam (not that Sam) played Zedruu, and Other Guy was playing Riku. It was all fun and games, and killing stuff and swinging with stuff and so until Other Guy went

Walk the Aeons
(next turn) Get the Walk the Aeons back with something (can’t remember what), Walk the Aeons
(next turn) Beacon of Tomorrows
(next turn) Warp World

Fun ….. Thankfully Riku wasn’t in play for any of that! Somehow I managed to hit 15 out of 16 permanents, including all my colours; poor Zedruu got screwed on white, but had a Shield Sphere in play, which eventually killed him… but not before something HIGHLARIOUS (yes I spelt it like that on purpose) happened, which I shall detail in due course. Damia got very little land, but all colours, Kresh was down to about 6 or 7 permanents, and Riku had a bunch of stuff, including Djinn of Wishes. One of the permanents I got was Kessig Cagebreakers and they actually lived long enough to swing not once but twice giving me 14 wolf tokens to feed to my Scarland Thrinax if and when I needed to.

A turn or two later, Damia has a reasonably massive Lord of Extinction, and swings it and some friends into Riku. He Brainstorms putting cards on top, then activates Djinn of Wishes twice getting…

Magmatic Force (fine)
Blightsteel Colossus (What. The. Fuck.)

A couple of turns later (maybe 1) he activates the last counter on the Djinn….. and hits Phyrexian Metamorph, copying Blightsteel. Sigh…

Begin the scrambling! After the dust settles, Zedruu, he of the white mana screw, has a singular Goat token courtesy of Springjack Pasture. He also handily has a Curse of Echoes courtesy of Riku… he sacrifices the Goat to add W, and casts Path to Exile. Much hilarity ensues, as four out of five of us target Riku’s stuff (Blightsteel, Metamorph. Magmatic Force, and I can’t remember what else). Riku gets knocked out a few turns later and still can’t figure out why (apparently). Zedruu, STILL short of white mana, goes shortly after, and that leaves me, Damia and Kresh, all on single figure life totals. Damia counts his mana, and thanks to a Empty the Catacombs from Kresh, is able to cast Kira, Psychosis Crawler, and Minds Aglow for exactly enough to kill me and leave Kresh on 2. Kresh dies next turn and Sam takes out the game.

The comment was made – not by me this time! – that the Riku deck had everything you don’t want to play against – multiple extra turns, random effects, infect…. But in spite of that this game was a blast to play against 3 really cool opponents and one not so cool one. Aside from his deck, he made several play errors, and was constantly losing track of what was in play – in particular Sam’s Kira, which eventually we just stopped reminding him about and let his abilities get countered. Still, I think everyone had a good game and it was very close at the end.

 

Changes: Sek’Kuar

A few changes to upgrade Sek’Kuar:

Subtractions:

• Weatherseed Totem (too expensive to get back – I have a Weatherseed Treefolk somewhere that I’ll slot in at some point)
• Murderous Redcap (part of an infinite damage combo that I don’t have the other half for – Melira)
• Demonmail Hauberk (there for the Sacrifice equip, but the deck runs enough sac outlets already)
• Mogg War Marshal (wanted to keep this one, but am upgrading)

Additions:

• Nihil Spellbomb
• Withered Wretch (need more graveyard removal)
• Profane Command (often this’ll be drain X life, give my team fear and swing for the win)
• Reassembling Skeleton (stupid obvious card is stupidly obvious. With a sac outlet and Sek’Kuar says “1B: Put a 3/1 hasty into play”)

 

 

Game Report: Sek’Kuar times 2

I played a couple of really quite interesting games last night, using my new Sek’Kuar deck (see previous post for details on the deck). To the report!

Game1: Stonebrow, (my) Omnath, Sek’Kuar, Thraximundar

The Stonebrow and Omnath decks were being piloted by a couple of new(ish) players, so I thought that Thrax, which was being run by Sam (hi Sam!) would be the big threat. Boy was I wrong… I actually stopped taking notes for this game about 6 turns in as I thought the game was over by that point. Again, I was wrong!

The first few turns for the non-Omnath players were fairly tame, but Omnath’s line of play went something like:

• Forest
• Forest, Orochi Sustainer
• Forest, Time of Need for Sachi, Daughter of Seshiro
• Forest, Sachi, Sakura Tribe Elder (a shaman, doncha know)
• Forest, Omnath (add 8 mana to pool)
• Rancor, 18 mana in pool, kill Thrax….

Ouch. Luckily for me I had a Terminate in my hand and enough blockers (due to Mogg War Marshal and Bloodthrone Vampire) that the Omnath wasn’t going to kill me. Also luckily, I killed Omnath on my turn, then Stonebrow played Wheel of Fortune to make Omnath discard the Rancor… however in response to the Wheel of Fate Omnath played Chord of Calling for… Rofellos. Oh crap…

Then replay Omnath, play Asceticism (to which I respond with Wrecking Ball), replay Omnath AGAIN before the mana runs out (now under Asceticism). OH CRAP… Thankfully he didn’t have trample at this stage. Eventually (and I may be remembering this in the wrong order) these things happened:

• Asceticism gets killed by a Wickerbough Elder
• Omnath gets to 45/45 (still without trample) and gets killed by something. Response: Momentous Fall. OH DOUBLE CRAP. Gain 45, draw 45 cards? Sure.
• Play and equip Shield of Kaldra. OH TRIPLE CRAP. Neither Stonebrow nor myself can get rid of Omnath now (slim chance that I can make the player sacrifice it, but there are plenty of other creatures to go through first and my Grave Pact is in the graveyard due to the Wheel of Fate)
• Stonebrow gets a Mana-Charged Dragon going and using mana from both of us, get Omnath down to 28 life.
• By this stage Omnath is truly ridiculous; it’s generating ~20 mana per turn, and the big lug – still without trample – is in the hundreds
• Omnath plays Patron of the freakin’ Orochi.
• Omnath Genesis Waves for 20 (leaving three cards in their library) and hits three different ways to give it trample (O-Naginata, Roughshod Mentor and Horned Helm) and MARK OF SAKIKO. The writing is on the wall. Since the Dragon can kill Omnath on the next swing, Omnath swings in and kills the HELL out of Stonebrow, incidentally making Omanth a 428/425 Trampling Indesctructible Death Machine of Death.

It’s my last turn. I have Sek’Kuar, two War Marshal tokens, Fires of Yavimaya, Wickerbough Elder (used) and two Graveborn tokens in play, and Hellkite Hatchling and Natural Affinity in my hand. “All in!” I declare, casting Natural Affinity and then the Hatchling, devouring all of my non-token creatures (which now includes my lands). The end result is a 16/16 Hellkite, 17 Graveborn tokens, Sek, and two Gobbos. Unfortunately for me, the Natural Affinity gives Omnath enough lands to block with and he drops to 12, and then kills me extremely dead.

All in all this turned out to be a very enjoyable game, although not I imagine for Sam who got knocked out early and then had to watch while the remaining two of us managed to stall out the game for a while (although he did kick off another game before we finished).

Lessons Learned: Needs more ways to deal with artifacts, and more global removal (which I’m trying to get in)

MVP: Natural Affinity + Hellkite Hatchling making me a big tramply flier and 15 Graveborn tokens at the low low cost of sacrificing my lands 🙂 Good endgame plan 🙂

LVP: Don’t recall… I don’t remember being disappointed by anything I drew, but it was a weird game in which I was on the defensive pretty much the whole time.

Game 2: Emperor EDH

Team 1: Sisay, Damia and Momir Vig

Team 2: (my) Tolsimir, Sek’Kuar, Akroma White

We all picked our decks and then assigned team members randomly; the Captain Sisay and Damia decks are both very good, and as you’ll see the Momir deck is no slouch either. The Akroma deck is a good one but takes some time to get set up, and my Tolsimir deck is wildly variable, at the best of times. To the game!

Not too much happens early except Momir gets Thrummingbird plus Orochi Hatchery out early, and starts swinging into Akroma, proliferating the token(s) on the Hatchery. I put an end to those shenanigans by evoking Shriekmaw and killing the bird. Damia drops Bad Sygg, which starts getting him cards almost immediately when Momir attacks Akroma with a Coiling Oracle and two Snake tokens.

Sisay drops an Azusa and an extra land, but Akroma resets the board (something it is very good at) with an Akroma’s Vengeance. I gain 15 life off Deathgreeter. Go team! After the wrath, Sisay drops a Sun Titan, which gets a Loxodon Warhammer into play. Damia plays Keiga, and I drop a Gleancrawler. Not being able to attack from the General’s position is not good for my deck; it loves the red zone!

Next turn Damia plays Psychosis Crawler and then Forsee (ouch) then Momir plays his general and Forgotten Ancient. Tolsimir plays a Marshal’s Anthem, kicked once, to get Rampaging Baloths back into play.

After that Momir starts playing Mystic Snakes and Draining Whelks, and that pretty much wraps up the game. I think by the end of the game (Momir, in conjuction with two Psychosis Crawlers (a Dimir Doppelganger and a Spitting Image) kills off Akroma and then get to work on me) Momir has cast Draining Whelk three times and Mystic Snake twice… isn’t this supposed to be Elder Dragon Highlander??

I have one last big turn after a Minds Aglow where I have Insurrection in my hand, but Momir has Draining Whelk in his. I try and draw out the Whelk while still having enough mana for Insurrection, but can’t do it, and die to Minds Aglow again in Damia’s next turn.

Not such a great game, the deck didn’t really fire like it can. Also (pet peeve) I don’t particularly enjoy games where the same cards get cast again… why have a 100 card deck if you’re just going to cast the same spells? It’s not a big deal though and there were any number of ways that I would have died.

Lessons Learned: Need more graveyard removal. Don’t play this deck as an Emperor.

MVP: None. Maybe Deathgreeter 😉

LVP: The deck may need another land or two; I was stuck on 4 for a couple of turns.

 

The newest deck: Sek’Kuar, Deathkeeper

(or perhaps that should be “Sek’Kuar, killing my own guys for fun and profit” 😉 )

Kicking off this new year with a new deck; deck number 16 of 27 in my Challenge of Doom! Sek’Kuar, Deathkeeper is a happy little soul, who is as happy with killing off his own minions as he is dealing with the oppositions… after all those Graveborn tokens aren’t going to make themselves…

The Deck

Rather than list the whole deck here, I’ll provide a handy dandy link to it: Click for the DeckStats analysis. What follows here are the main strategies of the deck, and some synergies that I’ve attempted to put in, and some thoughts on why I’ve done what I’ve done.

The Theory

EDH is a game where creatures die all the time. Although our playgroup isn’t quite as focussed on board sweepers as they used to be, it’s simply a fact of life that sometimes the board needs to be reset or someone dies. With that in mind, Ol’ Sek doesn’t mind when you wipe, as he leaves a whole bunch of angry buddies behind. Even better, I can wipe the board myself, and then swing in with the hasty remains of my team 🙂 The list isn’t all about wipes though; there are other ways Sek’s ability can be used.

Sacrifice effects

Cards which already kill themselves – Sakura Tribe Elder, Doomed Necromancer and so on – now pull double duty with Sek’Kuar on the board. Likewise cards which sacrifice your own dudes for some effect like Nantuko Husk, Spawning Pit, or Hellkite Hatchling provide twice the effect when Sek’Kuar is around. I have only included effects that can take place at instant speed in this version of the deck – I did consider things like Sadistic Hypnotist, but for this first version I’m going with the instant speed only so that I can respond to a Threaten or Path to Exile type threat when it’s convenient to do so.

Not-quite-symmetrical symmetrical effects

Most notably in this list: Innocent Blood. You guys can all sacrifice a creature; I’ll have a 3/1. Even better if I have Grave Pact in play. Likewise with Bone Splinters which, if Sek’Kuar is on the battlefield reads B: Destroy target creature, put a 3/1 Haste into play.

Comes into play triggers

I didn’t push this much, pretty much only including Warstorm Surge here (since it only triggers on my creatures and doesn’t cost anything to activate) but Electropotence was considered for this as well. Pandemonium was never really an option, as most of the dudes I’ll end up with are x/1’s and any creature coming into play would kill them just fine. The dream here is to have Warstorm Surge, Spawning Pit and Sek’Kuar in play all at the same time, which handily turns any “real” creature I have into x+5 damage, where x is the creature’s power. (It comes into play, deals x damage. Sac it to Spawning Pit, making a 3/1, dealing 3 damage. Sac the token to Spawning Pit – it doesn’t say “Sacrifice a non-token creature”! – to put a second counter on it, spend 1 to put a 2/2 into play and deal another 2 damage. All at instant speed, whenever I want to do it.)

Leaves play triggers

Grave Pact. Deathgreeter. Pattern of Rebirth. When stuff dies, other stuff happens. (To add to this list as soon as I get some: Vicious Shadows and Deathbringer Thoctar). What I haven’t put in this list is the other “growing” creatures like Rockslide Elemental, Lumberknot, or Scavenger Drake. I don’t think they do quite enough by themselves, or will get killed when I don’t want them to (“You’ll die on my terms dammit!”). I’ve considered adding Lumberknot and/or Algae Gharial though, as they do protect themselves. However, they “just” become large, and don’t help themselves get through, so they’re on the sidelines for now. What is your opinion on them?

Other bits

This being a Black/Red/Green deck, it seems somewhat inevitable to have some of the best creature destruction spells in the game in the deck. Putrefy. Terminate. Wrecking Ball. Blasphemous Act. Savage Twister. I’ve also got Gleancrawler in here; I try and put him in any G/B deck as he’s one of my favourite creatures, but in this deck he has the potential to be absolutely gold – sac all my creatures, get them all back at end of turn? Yes please! 😀

As always with my decks, I’ve put in a few out and out experiments just to see how they perform; things like Weatherseed Totem (I must try and get a Weatherseed Treefolk to replace it), Aerie Ouphes (persist seems like a good fit for the deck, and these guys sac themselves to boot), Kuon (if there’s a deck where he can flip immmediately, this should be it!), Demonmail Hauberk, and Anthem of Rakdos are all on the watchlist to see how they perform.

I’ve also put one dirty dirty combo in here; if you can see what it is (it’ll make me pretty unpopular, probably, and I’ll more than likely take it out) post in the comments – unless you already know what it is (Jock, Sam, looking at you!)

Cards I’m looking for

Aside from Vicious Shadows and Deathbringer Thoctar, there are some cards I’m looking for to go into this deck. Some of them are:

• Tombstone Stairwell (I’ve been looking for a deck that can abuse this; this one certainly does!) RTFC!! Sek’Kuar does say non-token… still it works nicely with Deathgreeter, Grave Pact, Warstorm Surge, etc etc. I just don’t get an army of Graveborn tokens out of it…
• Damnation (I have two; they’re currently in Ghost Council and Kaalia, but I think would be better in here than in Kaalia)
• Decree of Pain
• Lavalanche
• Kresh

So, that’s my latest. Comments welcome!

 

Next Up: Well, maybe….

It’s been a while since I posted anything – there are lots of reasons for that but the most relevant is that I’ve been internalising a really complictated situation in my ‘ead (Those of you who don’t get the reference – and most probably won’t – click here 😉 ). While building my last 3 or 4 decks, I keep running into cards and thinking “Hey that would work really well in Sek’Kuar!” I have tons of ideas for this deck and it will be one of the more syngergistic and therefore hopefully smoother and better decks that I have.

But then I look at poor old Doran, and Isperia, and the newer but no less disappointing Garza Zol and Damia – all of which could be fun and interesting and dangerous – but at the moment they’re definitely below the curve on power level, and some of them just aren’t that interesting.

So I have bit of a dilemma – do I build Sek’Kuar, or rebuild some of my less fun, less “good” decks?

I have some ideas for each of these poor suffering decks, and I think I’ve been a bit guilty (especially with Doran, Isperia and Garza Zol) of sticking too much to the theme at the expense of power. All of the decks mentioned can simply be ignored by the other players and taken out pretty much at leisure (with the odd exception – all the decks have won games except Damia and I’ve only played that twice), and that’s the sign of a bad deck, surely.

What do you folks think? All of my ideas for Sek’Kuar are more or less entrenched and I won’t forget about them soon, but I like putting decks together and giving them a play to see how they go. I also have a great dislike for decks I know should be better, and aren’t.

What to do, what to do….