Arthas: Wrath of the Lich King 📝 Deck Tech 📝
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DownAugust 31, 2014, 01:47:01 AM
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Last Edit: December 06, 2014, 11:16:31 PM by Dudecore
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August 31, 2014, 01:47:22 AM
Sedris,the Traitor King (Reanimator)Arthas Menethil, Crown Prince of Lordaeron and Knight of the Silver Hand, was the son of King Terenas Menethil II and heir to the throne. He was trained as a paladin by Uther the Lightbringer, and had a romantic relationship with the kind sorceress Jaina Proudmoore. Despite his promising beginnings, Arthas became one of the most powerful and evil beings Azeroth would ever know. Taking up the cursed runeblade Frostmourne, he became a death knight, led the Scourge in destroying Lordaeron, and merged with the Lich King.
This is my much looser attempt at making a WoW themed EDH deck. It runs a hybrid strategy of deploying either Sedris, the Traitor King OR Nekusar, the Mindrazer as my General. I feel like I've struck a pretty unique and great balance between both. There is plenty of ways they both interact and a surprising amount of overlap in the strategies. While the deck may have suffered in some areas due to this dual set-up, ultimately I found it the best solution.
Looting/Wheel
• Cephalid Broker
Alphabetically the first creature in my deck that has a looting effect. What I like about Cephalid (and others you will see) is the targeted looting (draw, discard). That type of flexibility really allows me to analyze the board and what I'm doing. Is Nekusar, the Mindrazer/Underworld Dreams/Liliana's Caress/Waste Not on the battlefield? Then Cephalid Broker acts like a Shock.
• Dragon Mage
Alphabetically the first creature in my deck that has a wheel effect. Wheel effects are the bomb for this deck because they fuel the graveyard for me to feed off. With ways to punish discarding and drawing, punishes players for crafting their hand. If an opponent is unguarded you can swoop in, hit them, then EVERYONE discards. It has versatility. Pretty sturdy body to boot.
• Jace's Archivist
Windfall on a stick. The symmetrical effect also happens to be versatile. This type of wheel effect punishes card hording and use of Spell Book/Venser's Journal/Reliquary Tower.
• Compulsive Research
Targeted looting. See Cephalid Broker
• Faithless Looting
Looting with a Flashback cost. Very low casting cost, not targeted which is a bummer, but you can't have it all. My graveyard is a resource, cards with Flashback help me get mileage. Looting effects do not always have to be used on my opponents, they're a great way to dig through your deck to find something you need.
• Reforge the Soul
Wheel of Fortune is on the reserve list. Therefore it will not be reprinted ever again (besides that Judge Foil they made...). Reforge the Soul is functionally different then Wheel of Fortune, but also can cost as much. Icing is that it can be done at instant speed. You can reveal and cast a card with miracle on any turn, not just your own, if it's the first card you've drawn that turn. It's pretty decent at 7-mana. Wheel effects are also detrimental to Graveyard hate in some instances. It isn't always that way, but you gotta be optimistic.
• Wheel of Fortune
It can generate huge card advantage. You can play most of the cards you want, then dump your hand and get new stuff. Opponents holding creatures or other sorcerys are going to be pissed.
• Whispering Madness
Another function reprint a card that's banned in Legacy and restricted in Vintage. We can also put it on a creature (Dragon Mage for lulz) because, what use do beaters have if they can't Wheel of Fortune every turn free? Every turn.
• Windfall
1 mana cheaper then Whispering Madness, but still another wheel effect. I've said almost anything I can think of as to why mass discard is awesome. It gets better with other cards in play.
• Dack Fayden
Low cost aggressive loot machine.
[+1]: Targeted looting. Awesome
[−2]: Gain control of target artifact. Everyone uses artifacts, Sol Ring at very least. I like this utility. I wouldn't go out of my way to make my other cards do this, but hey, it's attached to a targeted looting effect.
[−6]: I don't think I'll use this often. But it could be nice to have.
Reanimation
• Balthor the Defiled
Strong reanimation card, not because he is a minion lord, but because he pulls Flayer of the Hatebound and mostly everything else out of my yard to help win the game. Massive creature reanimation at a cheap enough cost. If I can get enough things in the yard quickly enough I can conceivably win rather early.
• Body Double
I have 5 EDH decks total, and Body Double is in 3 of them. It's ability to copy powerful combo cards in anyones graveyard is desirable. I consider it reanimation
• Doomed Necromancer
Fairly cheaply costed Reanimator. Actually doesn't have that many drawbacks considering. Also, with Anger in the yard it works right away.
• Lazav, Dimir Mastermind
Lazav is just fun to play with. It could be a Mimic Vat or something a bit more useful, but he's just such a tough nut to crack and can really get silly good given the Hexproof evasion.
• Puppeteer Clique
Resilient little creature reanimator. They take the biggest threat from your opponents yard, turns it sideways, then kicks it into exile.
• Sheoldred, Whispering One
She is one single card with all upside for my build. She forces my opponents to answer quickly or suffer the consequences. I like pressure cards like this, and I like paying less then their CMC for them.
• Exhume
Symmetrical reanimate spell. I ordinarily don't like these types of cards, but the low CMC allows me to loot some cards into the yard first to assure I get something I need.
• Rise of the Dark Realms
Liliana Vess' ultimate on a card. Thematically it's a perfect flavor card, it has plenty of use in my deck. It is basically a wincon, if it ever comes to that. The combo with Flayer of the Hatebound is listed below.
• Victimize
Swap one creature for 2. That's spicy.
• Animate Dead/Dance of the Dead/Diabolic Servitude/Necromancy
I am considering this one card called Reanimate. Why am I not running Reanimate? The damage from reviving them.
Draw Cards/Tutor
• Consecrated Sphinx
One of the quickest was to draw hate, and draw cards. Under certain situations opponents won't want to copy it or steal it. I have got tons of ways to reanimate it. I like my chances of maximizing value from it.
• Nekusar, the Mindrazer
Could act as a second commander if I wanted. I like the idea of a Reanimator EDH deck, I didn't have one yet. I also liked the idea of a Nekusar deck, because his art is cool and the Howling Mind effect that hurts everyone else is neat. So I set out to devise a way to have my cake and eat it too. So I build Sedris that wheels, and loots, reanimates. The transition between them is not all that difficult. There are enough Nekusar support cards to make him relevant, and enough reanimation spells to stay effective. Because of this my deck shows a little restraint as far as being a full blown reanimate 2-turn combo win deck.
• Rune-Scarred Demon
Demonic Tutor on a 5/5 flying beater. Not much explanation needed here.
• Buried Alive
I consider this a tutor because, well, it lets me search my deck for stuff. It can get my Anger in the bin, my Flayer of the Hatebound and whatever else I want to go off with.
• Dig Through Time
This is a way for me to maximize my Graveyard as a Resource thing. By being able to exile Lands or less useful spells I can get dig deep for nice combo pieces.
• Entomb
Instant speed and 1-mana tutor to throw something in the bin early. Part of not running any Graveyard Hate removal or things like that is being able to show some restraint. If I can't combo immediately, and I can't win with Graveyard hate then I'm just not going to win period. Entomb allows me to slow-roll cards into the graveyard, bait ones I don't care about, or can hit the gas pedal on a combo.
• Waste Not
I equate this to Trading Post - but for discard decks! It is a swiss-army knife. My looting effects are guaranteed to hit, the mana acceleration and me having such big creatures (many that cost
), being able to take use card advantage without being punished (unlike my opponents) and make a little army of undead for Sedris to command. • Liliana of the Veil
If you follow my deck techs, maybe you've seen my Oloro Stax deck. In that deck Elspeth, Knight-Errant was the Planeswalker most aligned with the decks philosophy. In this deck that card is Liliana of the Veil. The symmetrical discard is sweet, the other 2 abilities are boarding on next level. But onto Liliana Vess.
[+1]: Easy to see this as useful. The entire table discards a card, and those situations favor this deck.
[-2]: 1 player Cruel Edict is in most cases DEFINITELY worse then Vampiric Tutor of Liliana Vess. But this is a control cards none the less.
[-6]: Limited Resources onto a target player. Again, all the targeting one player stuff isn't ideal, except she costs 3 mana and her first ability can be a card disadvantage machine.
Powerful Interactions
• Flayer of the Hatebound + Sedris, the Traitor King/Balthor the Defiled/Sheoldred, Whispering One/Rise of the Dark Realm = Massive damage
Anything that I can reanimate from my graveyard is a wicked burn spell. Flayer also makes my opponents cautious about stealing from my yard also, since it cares about cards from MY graveyard entering play, if they take something I still control the trigger. Does not work with Living Death unfortunately. It's not a super hard combo to dig up considering Dread Return can pull anything from my yard. It's a ballistic interaction that can basically end the game pretty early, once my yard is loaded with goodies.
• Worldgorger Dragon + Animate Dead/Dance of the Dead/Necromancy = Infinite Mana
With Worldgorger Dragon in the graveyard, you target it with Animate Dead (or Dance of the Dead or Necromancy). When Worldgorger comes into play, you exile all permanents (including the Animate Dead). When Animate Dead leaves play, Worldgorger Dragon dies. When Worldgorger Dragon goes to the Graveyard, all of your permanents come back into play. Here is the hitch, when all permanents enter the battlefield they're untapped. (Unless stated otherwise). Lands are permanents. So you tap all of your lands to fill your mana pool, then target Worldgorger Dragon with the Animate Dead again. Infinite mana.
• It That Betrays + Malfegor
• Sundial of the Infinite + Sneak Attack/Unearth
Sundial keeps around all of my unearth creatures by pulling the exile trigger off the stack. It works with Sneak Attack also, If you activate it during the end step, when the ability is on the stack, then the turn ends, and everything is removed from the stack. The ability has already triggered once; it doesn't need to trigger again - the fact that the ability didn't resolve is irrelevant. You get to keep the creature. Sundial is just overall fun to play with anyway, it's not super costly mana wise.
• Drawing Cards + Nekusar, the Mindrazer/Underworld Dreams
Punisher cards that go right for the throat of most blue decks. Greedy card drawing now comes with a clock. Yes, card drawing is awesome, and most decks won't care, but this makes sure it will catch up with them. Nekusar forces everyone to draw addition cards, but only hurts the opponents. 2 damage per upkeep onto of whatever else is ailing them.
• Discarding Cards + Liliana's Caress/Waste Not
With all the wheels, and targeted looting, and blah blah. These two are houses. It seems like the community designed a card specifically for this deck. Every single wheel effect just makes me stronger. I build an army, generate mana AND draw cards. As for Liliana's caress, it's so gentle.
Control Cards
• Evil Twin
With the Magic 2014 rules changes to Legendary permanents, Evil Twin wasn't much of an all-star. Now, he's just about the only creature who functions similar to the old Legendary kill rule because...he kills the thing he's copying.
• Fleshbag Marauder
At its worst, it is a slight expensive Diabolic Edict, and if that's all I use it for then it works great. Being a creature allows me to reanimate it, keeping the boards clear while I keep devising a method of winning. Symmetrical creature sacrifice is cool in multiplayer. .
• Shriekmaw
A flexible Terror. He puts himself into the graveyard cheaply. Evoke comes in handy to dump creatures into the yard that I was probably going to put there anyway due to a Wheel/Looting effect.
• Damnation
Destroy all of the things.
• Dreadbore
Aggressively costed to deal with troublesome Planeswalkers.
• Forbid
Recursive Counterspell that can dump cards into my graveyard? How good can one card get?
• Terminate
Cheap and simple control card here. Aim and kill.
• Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker
Purely the most powerful planeswalker based on sheer abilities (CMC, not so much). Each of Bolas' abilities are nasty, if you're in Grixis you might as well include it.
Best of the Rest
• Anger
Devastation. Making all of your cards be hasty, nasty, bashy so early in the game. Anger in the bin is a must.
• Archaeomancer
Archaeomancer has the distinction of being in each of my blue EDH decks at one point. I've probably done more write-ups on her then any other creature.
• Consuming Aberration
I think this card is really super cool in a deck that wants to load graveyards and force players into unreliable hands. When everything is working, most people shouldn't have an answer for it. Its not difficult at all to make this creature large enough to kill anyone. It also has a nice secondary ability that triggers off a Wheel of Fortune effect.
• Grave Titan
Grave Titan is Grave Titan. Not all that much to say about it. It's an army in a box, and fits the zombie theme quite well.
• Hypersonic Dragon
The Prophet of Kruphix for Grixis colors. I love this card. I don't see why other decks haven't picked up on it yet. Playing sorceries as flash cards is fantastic as you cast Exhume to summon a creature to block.
• Phyrexian Metamorph
Is another Commander staple that appears in all of my blue decks.
• Wurmcoil Engine
Value beater. Engine bashes faces pretty safely. It gains life, if you chump with it that causes a split and you can reanimate it later for more blocking and attacking value.
• Crucible of Worlds
The deck is built around pouring perfectly good hands into the graveyard with milling, discard, wheel effects and whatnot. So it would be equally as useful to be able to play my land drops from there too.
• Dream Halls
The most broken card in the deck most likely. I could write 50 pages on how utterly awesome it is. It also gets around Containment Priest, it cannot stop Dream Halls from putting a creature onto the battlefield. Opponents can take advantage of this, but it allows you to dump your hand so quickly it doesn't matter.
Mana Rocks
Chromatic Lantern, Darksteel Ingot, Dimir Signet, Izzet Signet, Rakdos Signet, Sol Ring
Top 5
5. Dream Halls
4. Hypersonic Dragon
3. Sedris, the Traitor King
2. Anger
1. Sneak Attack
Last Edit: November 12, 2014, 09:03:22 PM by Dudecore
August 31, 2014, 01:47:42 AM
Updates and Revisions10/15/14
➖Thirst for Knowledge ➕Dig Through Time
10/27/14
➖ Unscythe, Killer of Kings ➕Consuming Aberration
10/30/14
➖ Worn Powerstone ➕Crucible of Worlds
➖ Anathemancer ➕Notion Thief
➖ Mountain ➕Dream Halls
11/13/14
➖ Liliana Vess ➕Liliana of the Veil
11/29/14
➖ Dance of the Dead ➕Cabal Coffers
Playtesting
Chaos Warp
Feldon of the Third Path
Necrotic Ooze
Shattering Spree
Wheel and Deal
Last Edit: November 29, 2014, 10:46:35 AM by Dudecore
September 02, 2014, 07:32:10 PM
I'm open to some suggestions. Did I miss something? Our humble iMtG forums have some of the deepest tech experts anywhere. I most certainly have overlooked something, I just recommend ya'll read the intro to the deck to see this runs 2 Commander options.September 02, 2014, 08:31:20 PM
Grimore of the Dead would be beautiful. You want to be pitching cards sometimes and you're drawing lots anyways, boom. September 02, 2014, 11:41:35 PM
Grimore of the Dead would be beautiful. You want to be pitching cards sometimes and you're drawing lots anyways, boom.
I thought about it, and just made it Forbid instead. If it were slightly faster then itI'd be a no brainer.
September 02, 2014, 11:44:58 PM
Grimore of the Dead would be beautiful. You want to be pitching cards sometimes and you're drawing lots anyways, boom.
I thought about it, and just made it Forbid instead. If it were slightly faster then itI'd be a no brainer.
I like it as a ticking time bomb. But that's me.
October 15, 2014, 08:14:13 PM
- Finished deck tech.- Added Dig Through Time
- Feedback is appreciated.
November 02, 2014, 01:41:13 PM
Might I add, Clever Impersanator might be better than Phyrexian Metamorph
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