Been trading for a bunch of cards, finally got my last Woodland Cemetery and Killing Wave in the mail, so I think I'm going to be taking this deck to FNM tonight. Will report back later tonight on how everything went.

Although I just realized that we don't have a sideboard, so I'll have to come up with something.......

Oops. Congrats on the playset of Woodland Cemetery as those are apparently worth their weight in gold these days.

I look forward to how it goes.

Yeah, I got the first three before the price hike. This one I had to trade an arm and a leg for (and shipping body parts isn't cheap!), but it sets me up well to play some Golgari after rotation, so hopefully it is worth it.

If you'd like to take a look, here is the sideboard that I came up with quickly. I'm terrible at sideboarding, and even worse at making a sideboard in the first place, so it probably sucks.

Additional spells to make use of all that sacrificing
2x Bone Splinters
2x Gnaw to the Bone
2x Grim Flowering

A few more creatures that add onto the theme and give me some advantages in other ways
1x Disciple of Bolas (Just because it didn't make the cut and I think it goes perfectly in this deck)
2x Solemn Simulacrum (The only card that isn't rotation safe)
2x Acidic Slime (Artifact/Enchantment removal, plus another sac target)

Some general protection against stuff in the meta
2x Witchbane Orb (Protect against Bonfire of the Damned, and other such threats)
2x Curse of Death's Hold


Oh yeah, and I substituted Birds of Paradise for the Arbor Elves for the time being, since they can block fliers and make black mana.

(Whole Deck)

NullParameter wrote:If you'd like to take a look, here is the sideboard that I came up with quickly. I'm terrible at sideboarding, and even worse at making a sideboard in the first place, so it probably sucks.

Additional spells to make use of all that sacrificing
2x Bone Splinters
2x Gnaw to the Bone
2x Grim Flowering

A few more creatures that add onto the theme and give me some advantages in other ways
1x Disciple of Bolas (Just because it didn't make the cut and I think it goes perfectly in this deck)
2x Solemn Simulacrum (The only card that isn't rotation safe)
2x Acidic Slime (Artifact/Enchantment removal, plus another sac target)

Some general protection against stuff in the meta
2x Witchbane Orb (Protect against Bonfire of the Damned, and other such threats)
2x Curse of Death's Hold


Oh yeah, and I substituted Birds of Paradise for the Arbor Elves for the time being, since they can block fliers and make black mana.

(Whole Deck)

A general idea about sideboard is that its usually best to only have cards that hate specific styles/strageties because if you just put cards you like that didnt make the cut youll never put them in, theyre just not as good, things like topor orb and grafdiggers cage are sideboard cards, or my favs surgical extractions :)

imsully2 wrote:A general idea about sideboard is that its usually best to only have cards that hate specific styles/strageties because if you just put cards you like that didnt make the cut youll never put them in, theyre just not as good, things like topor orb and grafdiggers cage are sideboard cards, or my favs surgical extractions :)

Yeah, I know the general idea, but without having played the deck, I don't know its weaknesses yet. I have Witchbane Orb in there to hate on some things. Grafdigger's Cage would only hurt this deck since it has a bunch of undying. I added the Acidic Oozes to hate on artifact type decks and such. etc. etc.

I definitely have a few things in there for hating, but not knowing entirely what to hate on means that I had some room for maneuvering and just added in some other things that I thought might add to the deck so I could try them out if I found them necessary.

Had to work late instead of going to FNM....... :| Next week......

Possible Sideboard Cards:

Bower Passage (Flying)
Cower in Fear (Tokens)
Crushing Vines (Self Explanatory)
Deadly Recluse (Flying)
Elixir of Immortality (Mill)
Fog?? Craterhoof Behemoth/Overrun
Ghost Quarter (Inkmoth Nexus)
Ground Seal (Snapcaster)
Human Frailty (Um... Goblins??)
Naturalize (Again, self explanatory)
Sever the Bloodline (Tokens)
Victim of Night (Werewolves, vampires, and zombies)
Vile Rebirth (Reanimator)
Witchbane Orb


Cards I'd consider for main deck:

Harvester of Souls
Rancor
Reaper from the Abyss
Skirsdag High Priest
Vampire Nighthawk

Just trying to give you some thoughts, this is everything I can think of that isn't about to rotate that I'd recommend, there's no point in looking for things you might be able to use once and that's maximum

Good Luck Next week!! I was working tonight also so I feel ya :( Sucks to miss it

I finally got to play this tonight! And sadly, it bombed pretty hard. Went 1-3.
If and when you can get the big enchantments out (Exquisite Blood, Feed the Pack, etc.) then they can be great. The problem is that the current meta, at least where I'm at is just way too incredibly fast.

The main problem is that there just weren't enough creatures staying in my hand, especially when I'm using them as an extra resource to draw cards and kill things. Blood Artist + Barter in Blood definitely stole the show though. Any time that you can get a couple artists out and then essentially kill four creatures, that is at least a 16 point life swing in your favor. I cleared more than a couple boards with back to back Barter in Bloods, but that also left my board empty.

The problem wasn't quite as much of the fact that there aren't enough creatures in the deck, but rather that they all cost so little and are rather insignificant in the grand scheme of things, that you end up committing a lot of them to the board very quickly. And when you do that, and then sacrifice a bunch, you end up with an empty hand and just top decking the rest of the game. With all the extra life gained from the Blood Artists, will definitely want to include a full set of Sign in Bloods. For the most part, the enchantments are definitely cool when they hit the field, and allowed me stall for a few more turns whenever they did, but they should probably be dropped almost entirely for something that will help out more immediately and more readily.

I am gonna have to say though, that I sided in a couple Gnaw to the Bones and they rock the house in this deck. Sack a bunch of creatures to get a life swing from the Blood Artists, and then gain twice that much life, and then do it again with flashback. Even if you have only 4 creatures in the graveyard, that is 16 life for 6 mana. Will probably be main boarding those from now on because you really need that extra stall factor here.

Champion of Lambholt was pretty useless, because you'd just end up wanting to sacrifice it anyway. Will definitely drop those. Craterhoof Behemoth was much the same way; you never had enough creatures on the board and enough mana to make it worth while.

Lastly, definitely need a bunch of enchantment and artifact hate in the sideboard, possibly main. Oblivion Ring shuts down your sacs. Witchbane Orb shuts down Blood Artist. And I'm sure there is plenty more where that came from.

Gaining from sacrificing and life gain are really the stars of the deck, and we definitely need to play more on that fact. A lot more.

Interesting. Perhaps it would make sense to throw in Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord, Ghoultree, Boneyard Wurm, or something like that given the number of creatures in the graveyard?

TyWooOneTime wrote:Interesting. Perhaps it would make sense to throw in Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord, Ghoultree, Boneyard Wurm, or something like that given the number of creatures in the graveyard?

I would say that is probably an amazing idea, actually. And possibly Jarad's Orders as well, because that gets you the best of both worlds (especially since you can choose to only find one and it goes right to your hand).

Did Gutter Grime ever have an impact?

TyWooOneTime wrote:Did Gutter Grime ever have an impact?

I wasn't ever able to get it out once, because it was never relevant enough. By the time I had that much mana lying around, I didn't have enough creatures out to make it worth while because they were busy chump blocking and being sacrificed. The Exquisite Blood at least came in handy a bit with only a single Blood Artist, and Feed the Pack was able to essentially double the number of blockers I had lying around, but Gutter Grime just doesn't have an immediate impact and requires me to keep feeding it more and more creatures to be useful.

Bummer... In that case I'd say there's where we make room for the graveyard pumping critters.

On a side note, after playing with Lotleth Troll at my pre-release, I am a fan. But not to the degree that I'd want 4x of them. Maybe 2x because it's very quick and easy to just start dropping creatures to pump him, only to realize you have no blockers.