Onslaught Strategy #3 - Black's Back!!!

[train]

Aphetto Dredging - 3B Sorcery (common) Return up to three target creature cards of the creature type of your choice from your graveyard to your hand.
-You get 3 spells back for 1 that costs 4 mana - here, Let me mutilate over, and over, and over...

Cabal Archon - 2B Creature - Cleric (uncommon) B, Sacrifice a Cleric: Target player loses 2 life and you gain 2 life. 2/2
-Hmmmm... goes well with the above!!!

Cabal Slaver - 2B Creature - Cleric (uncommon) Whenever a Goblin deals combat damage to a player, that player discards a card from his or her hand. 2/1
-There can be tons of goblins and quickly - watch for Red/Black control decks...

Chain of Smog - 1B Sorcery (uncommon) Target player discards two cards from his or her hand. That player may copy this spell and may choose a new target for that copy.
-2 mana discard 2 - hymn-nnnnn.... copy all you like, Black loves G.Y. manipulation!!!

Death Match - 3B Enchantment (rare) Whenever a creature comes into play, that creature's controller may have target creature of his or her choice get -3/-3 until end of turn.
-This with mutilate is wrong!!! This with any creature is wrong!!!

Ebonblade Reaper - 2B Creature - Cleric (rare) Whenever Ebonblade Reaper attacks, you lose half your life, rounded up.
Whenever Ebonblade Reaper deals combat damage to a player, that player loses half his or her life, rounded up. Morph 3BB 1/1
-Transcendence anyone???!!!

Endemic Plague - 3B Sorcery (rare) As an additional cost to play Endemic Plague, sacrifice a creature. Destroy all creatures that share a creature type with the sacrificed creature. They can't be regenerated.
-Black/Blue(already popular) Standardize!!!

False Cure - BB Instant (rare) Until end of turn, whenever a player gains life, that player loses 2 life for each 1 life he or she gained.
-Life Burst that!!!

Gravespawn Sovereign - 4BB Creature - Zombie Lord (rare) Tap five untapped Zombies you control: Put target creature card from a graveyard into play under your control. 3/3
-I'm playing 5 color... eat 1 of each of the pit-fighters!!!

Grinning Demon - 2BB Creature - Demon (rare) At he beginning of your upkeep, you lose 2 life. Morph 2BB 6/6
- Easy Killin's goin' on!!!

Head Games - 3BB Sorcery (rare) Target opponent puts the cards from his or her hand on top of his or her library. Search that player's library for that many cards. The player puts those cards into his or her hand, then shuffles his or her library.
-Here, would you like some land!!!

Oversold Cemetery - 1B Enchantment (rare) At the beginning of your upkeep, if you have four or more creature cards in your graveyard, you may return target creature card from your graveyard to your hand.
-Not as good as Oath of Ghouls, but dam_ close!!!

Rotlung Reanimator - 2B Creature - Zombie Cleric (rare) Whenever Rotlung Reanimator or another Cleric is put into a graveyard from play, put a 2/2 black Zombie creature token into play. 2/2
-Let me run this with Cabal Archon!!! Or I can just mutilate!!!

Smother - 1B Instant (uncommon) Destroy target creature with converted mana cost 3 or less. It can't be regenerated.
-Ha!!! I can now kill flying wurms and Brushhoppers!!! Mutilate, Discard 2 to brushhopper, smother!!!!

Visara the Dreadful - 3BBB Creature - Gorgon Legend (rare) Flying T: Destroy target creature. It can't be regenerated. 5/5
-Twice as much as the Royal, but bad ass enough to lay the beats down!!! Red/Black Control... Anger!!!

Words of Waste - 2B Enchantment (rare) 1: The next time you would draw a card this turn, each opponent discards a card from his or her hand instead.
-Another Multiplayer beatings card!!!

Black has opened the doors to Dominance... This is probably the color, along with red, that can give blue's wizards the Sh_t fits!!!!

 

[Killerbob]

Aphetto Dredging -nice card. Combine it with anarchist!

Cabal Slaver -might be very good. This hits the table just before they play wrath/abyss/Moat or even story circle. Might be worth considering in type 1.

Chain of Smog -not a Hym. Hym is strong, because its random. But you can target yourself, to fill your graveyard, and then target your opponent, as an ekstra bonus. Or you can keep targetting yourself, if thats what you want!

Death Match -comboes well with shrieking drake or man-o-war. Or gravediggers. Or token generators.

Ebonblade Reaper -sucks!

Gravespawn Sovereign -Tap five untapped Zombies you control???
this just cant be right. 6 mana for a 3/3 with an ability you will never be able to play. Anyone remember Hand of Justice?


Head Games -Jesters mask without summoning sickness...LOBOTOMY!

Rotlung Reanimator -kicks ass!

Words of Waste -dont think ít will work. The cards you will draw is usually better than the ones he choses to discard. If it was random, it would be ok (maybe). Who wants to see roars in opponents graveyard? Or give him threshold? And late game, maybe he doesnt have any cards.

 

[train]

Ebonblade Reaper -sucks!

Gravespawn Sovereign -Tap five untapped Zombies you control???
this just cant be right. 6 mana for a 3/3 with an ability you will never be able to play. Anyone remember Hand of Justice?

Words of Waste -dont think ít will work. The cards you will draw is usually better than the ones he choses to discard. If it was random, it would be ok (maybe). Who wants to see roars in opponents graveyard? Or give him threshold? And late game, maybe he doesnt have any cards. - Killerbob

Ebonblade Reaper...
You have to remember - losing life isn't always bad... some cards stop you from losing when you go below zero... That makes this guy extremely strong!!!

Zombie Infestation makes Gravespawn sovereign stronger than you think - he'll be in the Strong B/U infestation builds!!!

The reason Words of Waste works is because I said it would be stronger in extended - you have infinite mana sources, and your opponent doesn't have an infinite hand... so while you make them discard everything, and it's still your turn, haunting echoes the bad boy!!!

That's the reason mind sludge and haunting echoes are so strong now - they get so much into the graveyard!!!

 

[Killerbob]

The reason why Ebonblade Reaper sucks, is not the life loss. But hes too small, and too overcosted to be playable.

I admit Infestation + Gravespawn Sovereign is a nice combo. I still think 6 mana for a toughness 3 creature will not work, but its worth a try.

I still dont think Words of Waste is good. Maybe you can win with waste+ echoes, but thats because echoes is good. Maybe as a sideboard card against control, but I guess you have better choices.

 

[train]

I guess for straight casting, the sovereign is a little high, The deck I had built he'd work well best in was an infestation, Balthor the defiled deck... Using buried alives, Champions, and everything else, he could be strong...

The beauty of the deck was using the cabal rituals with threshold early - buried alive... and overeager apprentices... This would probably be the better build for me to fit him into...

The reaper is small, but without direct dmg or removal he'll stick around - you just have to get him past creatures, and black can do that with smother and swat coming out... not to mention the innocent bloods, cahiner's edicts, and butchers to assist...

I don't know many extended decks running wurms, flashback spells, but they may come around soon... other than that - I want my opponent to lose their hand... Words is not strong in standard.. or sealed, I just see it strong in extended...

 

[Azreal the Soulmaster]

um the trick with the reaper is to attack with him morphed, wait until damage is dealt the unmorph him...you dont' lose any life because the ebonblade reaper never attacked, but the ability still triggers

What happens if I turn a creature face up while combat damage is on the stack?
It will still do 2 damage (because the damage is locked in already). But if that creature has an ability which triggers "whenever this creature deals combat damage," that ability will trigger when the combat damage resolves.

 

[Deadman]

It'll will be a cold day in hell I let a morphed creature through in black.
It's just not worth the risk!
Ebonblade Reaper is powerful, just not easy to use.