Serious Sacrifice

Posted on October 18, 2012

Welcome to my final article about black budget answers to big brutes. Today's topic is black's strongest way of dealing with opponents' large, single threat plan: untargeted sacrifice. When an opponent drops an under-costed fatty such as Phylactery Lich, Tinkers up Inkwell Leviathan, ramps into Progenitus, or Exhumes Spirit of the Night, you're looking for untargeted sacrifice. On to the last three categories!

Limited Sacrifice Effects

Geth's Verdict, Diabolic Edict, Cruel Edict, Chainer's Edict, and Warren Weirding are all exceptionally similar.

Suggestion	Advantage	Disadvantage
Geth's Verdict	Instant, point of damage	Double black
Diabolic Edict	Instant, splashable	N/A
Cruel Edict	Cannot be redirected to you, splashable	Sorcery
Chainer's Edict	Possible reuse, splashable	Sorcery
Warren Weirding	Goblins matter (e.g. Wort, Boggart Auntie), to create tokens, splashable	Sorcery, can give enemy Goblins

The first two are vying for the top spot, Cruel Edict is seldom the best choice, Chainer's Edict is good in a deck that plays a long game and produces a lot of mana, and Warren Weirding is, unsurprisingly, best in a Goblin deck.

Gatekeeper of Malakir should also be mentioned. He demands a heavy commitment to black, though, so one of the advantages of enters-the-battlefield triggers is mitigated by black's return-to-hand effects needing the card in the graveyard, and that clashes with adding another color. Also, he does nothing with blinkers such as Galepowder Mage.

The next two, Tribute to Hunger and Consuming Vapors, are also similar to each other. The double use of Consuming Vapors makes it more attractive, but when it comes to killing large, fast creatures, it must be noted that there is a much wider gap in most mana bases between 3 and 4 mana than between 2 and 3. Besides, when a hasty flyer shoots from the grave toward you, instant speed is important.

The best is last. Urborg Justice looks like a card with too many hoops and only targets one player to boot, but this overlooked gem is powerful. For example, if someone uses Pyroclasm to clear the way for his Avatar of Fury, eliminating all of your Sword of the Meek/Thopter Foundry combo deck's tokens, you can cast Urborg Justice, and devastate his board. One difficult-to-deal-with threat may be today's objective, but destroying someone's position, possibly at instant speed, cannot be overlooked.

This deck uses Urborg Justice against hard-to-target creatures and gummed up boards.

"“Two Houses, Both Alike in Dignity” – Capulets (R/B) – Vintage Legal, 75 cards"

Planeswalkers (4)
4 Tibalt, the Fiend-Blooded

Deck Notes:

Bad news upfront: The deck is built around Haakon, Stromgald Scourge, who is $3.49. The following cards are also not budget: Wheel of Fortune, Tibalt, the Fiend-Blooded, Skullclamp, Mercenary Knight, Altar of Dementia, and Buried Alive. As previously pointed out, Buried Alive belongs in every collection. Otherwise, none of these is necessary. A lower-budget version is covered later.

Basically, the deck uses Haakon to abuse Nameless Inversion for spot removal while swarming with recursive Knights. The Cateran Summons is key, as it searches for Mercenary Knight to toss Haakon, finds Nameless Inversion, or seeks Cairn Wanderer who we hope has a bunch of abilities. Hero of Oxid Ridge deserves special note. He is brutal.

Symmetrical Sacrifice

Foremost, all black mages' arsenals should include Innocent Blood. It stops aggressive starts. If turn-three Geist of Saint Traft or Troll Ascetic has become normal, acquire Innocent Blood.

Second is Smallpox. Smallpox requires that you be able to abuse at least one, preferably more, of its downsides. It cannot be thrown into any deck. The two parts of the card to focus on are the creature sacrifice and the discard. Land sacrifice and a single point of damage are hard to build around, though Flagstones of Trokair, Dakmor Salvage, and Grim Discovery come to mind for the former.

When it comes to sacrificing a creature, abusing Smallpox is easy. There are cards in every color, as well as colorless cards, that key off creatures leaving the battlefield: Vicious Shadows, Flayer of the Hatebound, Harvester of Souls, Extractor Demon, Mitotic Slime, Thragtusk, Aura Thief, Keiga, the Tide Star, Reveillark, Academy Rector, Sundering Titan, It That Betrays, and Child of Alara. There are also creatures, such as Haakon, that don't fear the reaper. Cards that want to be discarded are harder to find, but Haakon-like creatures as well as madness, flashback, and reanimation strategies all like discard.

Next is Barter in Blood. Take everything said about Innocent Blood and double it.

The next three offerings are creatures. Abyssal Gatekeeper and Fleshbag Marauder (the new Slum Reaper is, generally, a worse Marauder) seem similar but perform differently. Abyssal Gatekeeper is a rattlesnake that plays nice with sacrifice effects such as Smallpox or Goblin Bombardment. Also, players are averse to blocking him, even if he is beefed up. He also doesn't like friends. Fleshbag Marauder, however, usually ends up doing an Innocent Blood impression. It really shines with cards like Momentary Blink if it is your only creature. Where Abyssal Gatekeeper and Fleshbag Marauder overlap is that they are solid cards to recur with effects like Unearth and Sun Titan. You just have to decide whether you want a body on the board, r an easily recurred or blinked Innocent Blood. I prefer the Gatekeeper for defense and the Marauder for active creature removal.

Braids, Cabal Minion is in a class all her own, as she is an answer to a huge variety of problems and not just big creatures. When built around, Braids, Cabal Minion becomes ridiculous. I am surprised she is budget. She and Reassembling Skeleton are best, budget, buddies.

The next card is the heir to the king of symmetrical sacrifice. Butcher of Malakir is a game-ending evasive creature with a pertinent tribe that costs only 3 more mana than the card he is based on: Grave Pact. Unlike Grave Pact, Butcher of Malakir fits in more decks. Grave Pact decks tend to revolve around Grave Pact, whereas Butcher of Malakir can be just one of the arrows in your quiver. Sure, he costs a lot of mana and will attract fire. Plus, he punishes the opponent for killing him, unlike Grave Pact. However, like Avatar of Woe, he is win condition and board control in one neat package. They actually would probably do fairly well together as the top end of a nasty control deck.

Asymmetrical Sacrifice

Syphon Flesh is the category's first card. Syphon Mind and Syphon Soul are solid multiplayer cards, and Syphon Flesh is no different. While it costs a bit, it creates a material advantage all by itself. It is best the turn after a board sweeper. If your playgroup is like mine, everyone saves a beastie for after the inevitable sweeper. Let them drop them. Kill their dudes, and bring out your dead.

Anowon, the Ruin Sage has many of the advantages and disadvantages of Butcher of Malakir above. He doesn't punish people for killing him, however, and he forces a tribal deck. The effect is powerful, though, and he is solid creature for the mana cost.

The final card is Call to the Grave. Its recent reprinting has caused its price to plummet. A budget card that overshadows the power of the card it is based on, The Abyss, Call to the Grave's only drawbacks are that it pushes for a tribal Zombie deck and that it disappears if you don't have a creature. What’s the best non-Zombie for Call to the Grave if you don't want a tribal list? Reassembling Skeleton, of course!

Here is the promised budget Haakon list.

"Budget Cards Except for Haakon (R/B) – Vintage Legal, 75 cards"

Deck Notes

First, Haakon is still in the list. Second, if Stromgald Crusader weren't just over $2, he'd be added. Third, this list is untested. So, here is how I think it works. Use a discard resulting from Rakdos Carnarium, Graveborn Muse, Faithless Looting, Smallpox, or a dredge from Dakmor Salvage to put Haakon into the ’yard and then into play. In the meantime, the Zombies plug the ground and contribute to a Call to the Grave endgame that leaves everyone else creatureless.

This concludes my article series. I hope you enjoyed it. However, I realized as I was reviewing that I did not have any blue decks and that this article and the previous one leaned heavily on tribal decks. Knowing that not everyone likes tribal decks, let me leave with Mr. and Mrs. Smith.

"Mr. and Mrs. Smith (B/U) – Vintage Legal, 75 cards"

Deck Notes

This deck is budget. Terrorize early with cheap drops, and then use the toolbox to eliminate decks that depend on abusing interactions—Nihil Spellbomb takes care of graves, Meekstone big creatures, and so on. Meanwhile, create creatures to bring Tradewind Rider online. Finally, dominate with the numerous nasties.

Adding money ideas: