Discussion Forum

wouldn't you want to play Infernal Tutor is this deck requires 2 Myr Retrievers? You could add 1 Junk Diver and 1 Krark-Clan Ironworks to your deck to make it a wee bit more resilient. Neither are as good as the ones you already play but they each serve as a semi 5th combo piece.

Why royal assasin, seems bad? It's one of those cards that used to be good but now it's just like an overcosted mountain goat.

As you play blue I would play at least 4xponder, maybe even a few preordain on top of that.

1x Krark-Clan Ironworks
1x Junk Diver
4x Myr Retriever
4x Ashnod's Altar

1 Gravepact
1 Contamination

4x Disciple of the Vault
1x Reiver Demon
1x Massacre Wurm
1x Sheoldred, Whispering One
1x Desecration Demon

4 Terramorphic expanse
8x Swamp
8x Island

1 Victimize
4 Ponder
2 Preordain
2 Infernal Tutor
1x Fabricate
4x Bitter Ordeal
2x Flesh Allergy
4x Dark Ritual

I gotta say junk diver is interesting, i've never heard of that card. I'm not sure if i'd want it in the deck or not yet. Infernal tutor is a must add when i get the money to purchase a few, thanks for that suggestion.

I've looked at krark-clad ironworks alot but never put it in because i thought that 4 ashnods alters were enough, do you think it'd be worth it to add one of those?

I've always liked royal assassin as an attacking deter ant, it's a pretty mean card in my opinion especially if you have out massacre wurm. But I can deal with lowering the amount to like 2. For my creature base i was thinking i wanted 3 massacre wurm, 2 maybe 1 royal assassin, 2 reiver demon, and 2 desecration demons. (obviously other than my 4 retrievers). I hate cards like surgical extraction ruining this decks day, so i tried to run a pretty nice creature base to be able to win without the retrievers too.

mitotic manipulation is just mean with multiple massacre wurms if i don't have my retrievers out. I might be able to do without the mitotic to make room for some of the other suggestions you gave like gravepact.


and i totally agree with the ponders, it was stupid of me not to run those in this deck.

I can understand you wanting to make the deck less liniar, if you are facing a lot of extraction decks or you're playing multiplayer games you probably don't want to be the combo deck that gets singeld out.
In that case the combo should be kind of an alternative win and not the focus of your deck. You should build a typical black aggro control deck with an optional combo win condition.

If you want a focussed combo deck that just wants to do one thing you should probably take steps to defend your combo

1. redundancy is one way, that's why I suggested junk diver and krark-clad ironworks
2. disruption, probably in the form of duress/cabal therapy


I guess I never liked mitotic manipulation, but I see where it could lead to a second my retriever and start your combo.

Yea i've been leaning towards making the myr retriever combo an alternative win, a kind of out of nowhere slap to the face. Although I still want to make it so I have a good chance of pulling it off every game. So like keep the fabricates, probably gonna see if I can acquire some infernal tutors as well. Obviously will through some ponders in too. Other than that i'd like the them of creatures to run like massacre wurm theme, field decimation, and just plain nasty. reiver demon, massacre wurm, sheoldred, desecration demon ... ect

I was thinking that dark ritual and ashnods alter would maximize playing these creatures quickly... I have some easy fodder for ashnods like the retrievers and disciple of the vault.

I know you said you weren't fond of the assassins, but i feel that they are very intimidating to have on the field and work nice with massacre wurm being out there too...idk I'm always willing to listen to ideas for replacements of those guys, but keep that intimidating atmosphere, and is relatively cheap to cast like 3 mana-ish area.

If i'm running 2 copies of reiver demon, 3 of massacre wurm, and 2 to 3 of desecration demon, i think that mitotic manipulation is pretty mean to have in here, and as you've stated it really does help to instantly set off the retriever combo.

and i'll agree with ya on adding one krark clad ironwork, i'll get on finding one, im pretty sure my buddy has one.

what do ya think?

-3 sign in blood
-3 diabolic tutor
-1 mitotic manipulation
-1 bitter ordeal

+1 massacre wurm
+1 desecration demon
+3 ponder
+2 infernal tutor
+1 krark clad ironworks

and as for the royal assassins, it's up in the air until a better add is found, until then i like their intimidating factor on the field, and i can have it out turn 1 so its not too bad for this deck, but i'm willing to switch them out for anything more suitable.