This deck focuses around sacrificing creatures, preferably creatures with undying, as a cost for powerful spells. This idea began when I was digging through my black cards to build a different deck. Bloodflow Connoisseur and Geralf's Messenger were side-by-side twice. This coincidence caught my attention and I thought... Bloodflow can sacrifice another creature in order to grow. Undying creatures grow when they die (or get sacrificed). This could turn into something fun. It did! After a lot of research and reading, I've built a list of some of the best sacrifice mechanics in modern. (Sadly, Skullclamp and Jinxed Ring aren't legal in modern. They would be PERFECT in this deck!)
The last step is balancing the deck's tools. For that, I want YOUR HELP! The sideboard is currently full of genuine options for a sideboard as well as cards which I considered along the way but decided to leave out. All cards in the sideboard with a quantity of 1 are the cards which were benched. If a card in the sideboard is a multiple, then it's a genuine sideboard option. If you can think of other graveyard toys which aren't listed, you think something in the sideboard should be included, or you think the card counts should changes, speak up!
Geralf's Messenger, Rite of Consumption, and Blasting Station can all be game-ending bombs in this deck. Do you agree? What could they replace????????
Should Gutter Grime or Ooze Flux find a home in the mainboard???????????????
This deck's main goal is playing creatures with Undying and bouncing them to the graveyard. You rarely want to lose an Undying creature without a counter in combat, as that will ONLY give you a slightly larger creature. Instead, you want to sacrifice your undying creatures for bonuses like drawing 2 cards, making another creature bigger, or cursing your opponent into taking 2 damage during their upkeeps. (Some other potential benefits are gathering dust in the sideboard.) Some of the combos are detailed below.
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Mainboard:
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- Slitherhead, Young Wolf, and Strangleroot Geist are the best sacrificial lambs, but you can sacrifice anything else in a pinch.
- Bloodflow Connoisseur is the inspiration for this deck. When you use her to sacrifice Young Wolf or Strangleroot Geist, they all get +1/+1 counters! If she eats Slitherhead, then you can Scavenge Slitherhead for FREE for a second +1/+1 counter on her! Her best trick occurs during combat. If you're blocking with her and anything else, then wait until blockers are declared. Between declaring blockers and dealing damage, you can use her instant speed activated ability to eat another one of your blockers so she can become big enough to kill her opponent or simply stay alive when she otherwise wouldn't. The creature which was blocked by whatever she ate obviously won't take any damage, but it will still be blocked. A similar trick can be used when she is attacking and she wouldn't survive being blocked.
- Scavenging Ooze is a great tool for mana draining in the late game. This card functions a lot like Bloowflow Connoisseur but it eats the creatures she already consumed AND gives you a little health each time.
- Altar's Reap is simply great card advantage. It's instant speed makes it trully great! Don't use this on your turn! Only do this if you have a bunch of available mana to use on whatever you draw. Instead, leave your creatures on the battlefield as blockers. After declaring blockers, or at the end of your opponent's turn, sacrifice a creature for Altar's Reap and draw 2 cards. Your opponent won't see it coming!
- Jinxed Idol can be a game winner over time but BE WARNED! Your opponent can send it back to you by sacrificing one of their own creatures whenever they want...
- Collected Company hits every creature in the deck. Since almost half the spells in this deck are creatures, this card can do great things.
- Mortician Beetle is a great addition to the board state. Whenever you use your various sacrificing methods, it will chow down on the new carcasses and grow stronger.
- Hardened Scales makes your Undying creatures as well as Bloowflow Connoisseur, Mortician Beetle, and Scavenging Ooze EVEN BETTER!! This is a must-have!
I'll often wait until the last minute to use sacrifice abilities just in case I pull a Mortician Beetle or Hardened Scales.
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ACTUAL Sideboard cards:
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- Bone Splinters and Tragic Slip: These are GREAT pieces of removal to throw in the deck when facing another agro deck. One of them includes a sacrifice, which means Bloodflow Connoisseur will have less food, while the other would normally piggy back on the death of something in play. I can't decide which is better, but I'm leaning towards Tragic Slip since it doesn't interfere with your other sacrificing bonuses.
- Killing Wave: This is a nice way to shut down token makers and clear a path for your fattened Beetle, Scavenger, or Connoisseur.
- Tormented Thoughts: This helps take pesky spells away from your opponent. If they're very controlling or aggressive, this could shut them down in the second or third game. Surgical Extraction could do a similar job to cards which the opponent has already played, but the sacrifice function in Tormented Thoughts fits in well with this deck's meta.
- Rite of Consumption: This card will deal direct damage when your creatures can't. This card could turn your swollen Beetle, Scavenger, or Connoisseur into a missile aimed at your opponent after these creatures have already widdled your opponent down. If your opponent dropped a few blockers, this will essentially throw your big creatures directly at your enemy. It simply feels hard to fit into the main deck. It feels like a good addition to games 2 or 3 if you have trouble with your opponent's blockers in the first game.
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Cards which may or may not work:
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Sadly, Carrion Feeder, Jinxed Ring, and Skullclamp are all banned in modern. They would all be GREAT in this deck. The single cards in the sideboard all have potential, but a line has to be drawn somewhere. These are the lines I have drawn. They're roughly in order of importance. If you disagree, tell me why! Let's make the deck even better!
- Blasting Station: This is a potential BOMB in this deck, but where does it fit???????????????????????? Note that adding this will lower Collected Company's effectiveness.
- Geralf's Messenger: This guy does great chip damage with the sacrifice meta of this deck, but his CMC is simply too hard to manage. This deck is 60% green. A creature which needs 3 black mana wouldn't consistently come out on turn 3, 4, or even 5, even with the stack of pricey dual lands I added. He's just soooooo good, but where what would he replace?????????????????????????
- Gutter Grime: This card has GREAT synergy in this deck, but it's just too expensive. If this is on the battlefield when you're sacrificing other creatures, you'll quickly get a small army of powerful ooze creature tokens. Since it's CMC is a whopping 5, it regularly came too late in the game to be as bomby as it seems.
- Winding Constrictor: This card was included to essentially have more than 4 copies of Hardened Scales' ability. When Gutter Grime was in the deck, these two cards worked very well together. This snake made the grime grow twice as fast! Without the Grime in the deck, a line had to be drawn at 4 copies of counter multiplication in the form of Hardened Scales.
- Varolz, the Scar-Striped is similar to Scavenging Ooze, but it lets you put counters on any creature you control. A clever trick with Varolz is playing creatures which have a higher power than their CMC. *cough* Death's Shadow *cough* Scavenging Ooze gets +1/+1 no matter what it eats. Varolz could turn a couple creatures into 2 +1/+1 counters for slightly more mana. That's not super special. If Death's Shadow was in the deck... Oh man. Play Death's Shadow. Let it die and don't shed any tears. Whenever Varolz is in play and a Death's Shadow is in the bin, you can spend a SINGLE BLACK MANA for a +13/+13 counter!! Without this combo, Scavenging Ooze is simply better.
- Flesh-Eater Imp: This flier could win the game on its own if your opponent has no fliers or reach to stop it. After only 10 damage, you'll win the game with Infect counters. Since its +1/+1 counters don't stick around like Bloodflow Connoisseur's do, it falls a hair short of worthy in my eyes. Should this be added in the sideboard so it can be played in game 2 and 3 if you learn your opponent can't block fliers???????????????????
- Bioshift: This card was one of the first 4 tools I considered when I built this deck. You could use this to move counters off Undying creatures and onto other creatures and make those Undying creatures ready to sacrifice again. Can you think of another way to accomplish this task that isn't a one-time-use spell??????????????????????????
- Ooze Flux: This does a similar job as Bioshift; this will take +1/+1 counters off undying creatures and make more creatures out of them. This is great mana pit in the later game, but it simply feels too pricey. Am I wrong????????????????????????????????????
- Hell's Caretaker: This trick can make your Undying creatures even more Undying. Use this ability on an Undying creature which already has it's +1/+1. It will return to the battlefield fresh and ready to sacrifice again. Since this card has a CMC of 4, more than double the average cost for this fast desk, and can only be used once a turn during your upkeep, it's not as effective as it sounds.
- Hunger of the Howlpack: This is a nice way to make your well-fed creatures even bigger, but it simply doesn't seem necessary. Adding this could impact the effectiveness of Collected Company.