Shallow Grave

The site is broken in many ways and that includes the algorythm for hot page.

Anyway, if you want a critique, I'll be so gently:

* I don't see the use in Cry of Contrition. It could be more Cabal Therapy or, since you are already Legacy, Hymn to Tourach for that matter.

* Diabolic Intent is great in a deck like this, however, there aren't many targets to fetch. Gravepact and Nameless Inversion are the most likely candidates but they are also cards you don't need more than one of. This doesn't necessarily mean you should go down with the Intents, I'd rather suggest to run more 1-ofs instead, cards with heavy impact that might be situational so it makes sense you can tutor for them. Just keep that in mind when considering changes.

* I found Anvil of Bogardan a great way to filter for cards and to fill the grave with Crawlers, Haakon and Knights. Maybe even better than Buried Alive which cannot place a Haakon you already drew into the grave. Downside is that the opponent *might* also benefit from discarding.

* While I am personally a big fan of Reassembling Skellis I don't get why you emphasize so much on them instead of, for example, Gravecrawlers. Haakon enables Knights to come back and if one of those knights also happens to be a zombie, then that one enables Gravecrawler instead. So I think it should be in reverse here, 4 Crawlers and 2 Skellis.

* I am not a big fan of the Broodlord. Even with Haakon in the Grave he is still more a liability than a threat. You can get a Phyrexian Crusader for the same mana which is much more versatile (and a zombie knight for that matter, see above regarding Gravecrawlers and Haakon)

* For the same reason I would run Stromgald Crusader oder Black Knight (or lets say a mix of them - remember, tutors)

* Even if you have creatures to spare, I don't think Bone Splinters is worth it. What you gain in mana cost over something like Go for the Throat or Doom Blade , you lose again when you have to replay whatever you sacrificed. You can't kill artifact creatures respectively black creatures with those, then again they are instants while Bone Splinters is a sorcery, which is awful for spot removal.

I usually don't promote my own decks on other's but I have two decks that might give you ideas. First one is this one:
http://www.mtgvault.com/puschkin/decks/chained-to-the-anvil/
which is Chains of Mephistopheles deck and therefore an entire different story, but it also includes Anvils, Haakon and Gravecrawlers and generaly has a creature mix similar to this.

Second one is which I haven't even published yet (still missing a few cards) but since you seem to like Reassembling Skellis as much as I do, you might give it a shot:
http://www.mtgvault.com/puschkin/decks/skellis/
It mainly revolves around the idea of giving the Skellis Deathtouch via Deathbaron. That's also why it has so many other Skeletons (Kathari Remnant is SICK with Deathbaron). The deck has so many 1-ofs because I am not sure at this point with which I will go, there are so many good ones.

Wow, thank you for taking the time to actually thoughtfully reply. I'm not saying my way is right at all, and I'm seriously considering some of your suggestions, but Ill see if I can explain some of my decisions.

The Cry of contrition are in for three reasons: they are way cheaper in real life (at least when I first made the deck, not sure about now) and they don't make me reveal my hand when discarding Haakon, and if using it offensively I like haunting their blocker and they need to decide if its worth letting it die or something.

I like diabolic intent a lot, I search for Gravepact and Buried alives or just Haakon depending on the situation. The other one is can find phyrexian Tower and the sac synergizes well. Even if I get it later in the game theres always something worth searching for whether its another buried alive to fill my graveyard of the second gravepact.

But if I was to through in some High impact one offs any in particular come to mind?

I had never head of the Anvil, it's an interesting idea (unless playing with someone who benefits obviously) but I'm definitely going to play around with a proxy or two!

As for the Skellies, apart from my general love for them :) I prefer 4 of them to grave crawler because they have no requirements to come back from the grave yard, and they can block. essentially My first Buried Alive I grab Haakon, Grave Crawler, and whichever zombie knight I feel is most useful that game. Then using the gravecrawler and phhyrexian tower I start cycling through the sacing. (the other factor when making the deck was money cuz skeelies are quite cheap)

Bloodlord is in over some others for two reasons, him dying easy helps gravepact and hes one of like two knights for 3 cmc that can survive the Nameless inversion making him a 7/1.

Oh and I think you missed it but I do run 4 Stromgald crusaders btw.

Bonesplinters is also where you're very right. The thing I really don't like is the sorcery part. But when I have a gravepact, gravecrawler, and a tower out (usually have that all by turn 4 or 5) I then tap tower sac graveawler, add BB to mana pool, use B play gravecrawler, use B play bone splinters sac gravecrawler, destroy target creature. For tapping one land they sac two and I destroy one. Its a brutally cheap board clear. But youre right, for spot removal it sucks. I rely on Nameless inversions for that kind of thing and that can get expensive depending on how big the creature is :/ I really should look into better spot removal no matter how attached to the above combo I am.

Also your Anvil deck (thanks for the link) is spectacularly awesome. +1 from me! I love the use of the old cards (I play with a younger crowd who have never heard of anything before Innistrad it seems so bringing out the ass kicking from the past is always satisfying). I really enjoy how your deck makes the absolute best use of the Anvil.

Thanks again for taking the time! Any big one offs come to mind with good synergy to this deck?

Well, I'd say if you have Gravepact, Gravecrawler and Tower in play, then creature removal isn't a thing you have to worry about much anymore ... it's the earlier stages that count and where Bonesplinter actually slows you down (even though it's techinally faster, mana wise). Since you like oldschool cards, you could try out Urborg Justice, a card nobody ever played with, but it has big potential here, especially if you ever play this in multiplayer.

High Impact cards with synergy as one-ofs to tutor for:
- Dark Prophecy
- Blood Artist
- Grey Merchant of Asphodel (thanks to Haakon, Crawlers and Skellis you'll always have a high devotion count)
- Skullclamp

BTW, it's nice to see someone actually being able to explain himself and having reason for his picks, it makes much more sense now. And yes, I missed the Crusaders, my fault.

HOLY SHITSNACKS Urborg Justice! Its like Chainer's edict with Storm! That's Spectacular! I'm not sure I'd want to run 4 in place of Bone splinters though maybe just two and something else with less conditions.

Of those suggestions skullclamp or blood artist stick out to me. Would you recommend taking out a/the bloodlord to make room or something else?

And thank you, I am often accused by some of the people I play with of overthinking what goes in a deck so I appreciate that comment.

That's because most other deck builders out there tend to underthink (or don't think at all and netdeck). Can't blame them, though, since that what Wizards of the Coast is encouraging when they print tribes, block mechanic etc. that outright tell them what to combo them with. I was raised in an evironment where we had to find card combinations and synergies ourselves (no internet, even!) which was in fact more fun.
But I digress and tend to rant, so let's stop there ;)

I'll be offline for today. Have fun with your deck.

Thank you, and thank you for letting me pick your brain!

Hey, Its you again, Pushkin with the shared fate deck!!!

Ooh another cool old card I haven't bumped into before! Seeing as how I can already play all creatures from the graveyard to play and everything cost 3 CMC as well (or less) I'm not sure it fits this particular deck but it has given me an idea for another one. Thanks for the idea!

Your welcome!
See that one of mine : http://www.mtgvault.com/avatarinsane/decks/zombies-never-die/

Nice! I have a special place in my soul for a good old fashioned zombie deck. +1 I'm curious: is having all the one-offs and not many multiples for flavor, preference, or some other reason?

No reasons. Just the card that I have. it's a question of money too! :) Thank you!

Awesome use of Landfall :) +1

But it only counts your own creatues hitting the grave, Blood Artist counts the opponent's, too.

I thinkI would only use it in a multiplayer match honestly, so Blood artist is probably better in that regard at the end of the day....

Thank you!

It is used as creature removal. You might not be aware of the combo with Haakon, right? Nameless Inversion has changeling. So, as weird as it sounds, it is an instant with the creature type "knight". And that means, if Haakon is in play, you can play Nameless Inversion from the grave.

Exactly. What he said. It's the combo that made me decide to build a Haakon deck actually!

Ah, that makes sense!

Thank you! It was un to make and is great fun to play! Which is really what makes or breaks a deck for me to be honest. Plenty of great near unbeatable decks are annoying or just plain boring to play. This definitely isn't! Thanks for taking the time to look!

I considered him strongly, but seeing as how he is mildly conditional in that I NEED to discard a creature when I play him (even when I play him from the graveyard) I felt Arrogant Bloodlord would be the better 4/4 (to survive Nameless Inversion and become the 7/1) in the end, especially late gate. And even the fact that Bloodlord dies easily if they have 1/1s isn't a bother because it just triggers Gravepact and I can get him back anyway. Also the thought of using Mercenary to discard Haakon if I drew him was part of why I considered him, I instead decided to use the one mana spells that make a 'target player' discard, so I can use them offensively once Haakon is in the Graveyard.

Thanks for commenting!

Thank you, as do I! This one is one of my favorites for its flavor and consistency. Thanks for commenting!

What is the best way to get Haakon in the graveyard?

Generally I think the best two cards for it in MTG are Buried Alive or Entomb (B Instant - One creature fom Library to Grave). I use buried alive though to dump Haakon, a gravecrawler, and a knight at the same time. Because haakon is a 3 drop getting him in my graveyard turn one isn't speeding the deck up much, and he's not that impactful on his own anyway so I prefer buried alive to Entomb in this case.

I can search for buried alive with diabolic intent if I need or if he's in my hand I have the discard spells which say "target player" not "opponent". So once I discard haakon (if I've drawn him) I can use those spells offensively for the rest of the game if I want. Also because of haunt and flashback they are usable multiple times so more bang for my buck.

I play this deck a lot and I have a Haakon in play by turn 5 about 95% of the time (unless it was a really crap hand or mana problems or was against a control deck of some sort). Against Control decks I sometimes sideboard in Dash hopes (1B Instant - Counter target spell, or opponenet loses 5 life) and that helps keep haakon safe and in my graveyard not my hand.

It depends a lot on the deck, actually. For example my Chains deck uses Chains of Mephistopheles and Anvil of Bogardan to get the Knight into the grave. But that's hard to compare which is "better" because my entire deck is basing on the Chains/Anvil combo.

Generally put, the two cards BasilicaNero mentioned are the best direct ways to get Haakon into the grave. However, there are other methods like discarding and milling yourself and, depending on your deck, these methods might provide additional value. For example, if you use Avatar of Discord, you will also get a fatty at the same time. This might or might not be "better" than Entomb and Buried Alive - the former get you more value but are typically slower. In the end it all depends on what you want to achieve with Haakon and what fits best to that strategy.

Exactly, well put. I meant in this style of deck, with this mana curve and these support cards, I find these two to be the most effective. If It was a self milling deck or something then I probably wouldn't use either of them. So exactly what Puschkin said: it depends on the rest of the deck around him.

And actually Puschkin's Haakon deck is excellent and I think probably better than mine at the end of the day. But being based off of Haakon and the Anvil makes it run slightly differently. It's definitely worth a look for a slightly different take on Haakon:

http://www.mtgvault.com/puschkin/decks/chained-to-the-anvil/