Quote Originally Posted by LansXero View Post
Yeah, but you also need a degree of consistency and sinergy. Going for a variety of game plans can thin them all so much neither is reasonably achievable.
Oh absolutely, but generally i find the deck transitions between various win conditions quite well, which isn#t to say i don't think there's some issues and actually TvTyrant has made a point or two.

Quote Originally Posted by Tvtyrant View Post
The biggest things I noticed is your top end seems kind of high, and I think there is better removal available. I think something like this would be better. The removal is better, you have more creatures and your curve is a little lower.
My main concern are the loss of Absolution and to a much lesser degree Luminous bonds, (Pacifism rotates back in, in a few hours so i can swap bonds for that anyway). Absolution plays a key long term role in the deck because if the games drags out you can quickly reach the situation where teysa backed mass celebrants is the only win condition. It works when it's available, but if it isn't the whole deck can fail. Okerta can help, but she's not allways reliable. Absolution lets you have a more long term win condition. -1/-1 to everything for the opponent and +1/+1 to everything for you is far more powerful than it appears at first blush. Tghat said Citywide bust should have gotten put in honestly and plaugcrafters absolutely one i've been thinking about putting in.

Actually let me go through every card in the deck and cover my thoughts a bit.

Bladebrand: This was a revision or two in addition in an attempt to provide some removal that also got me some card draw as i was running into issues, but the deck's got revised a few times since then and thats made it much less valuable, in particular the recent swap of bell haunt for priestess of forgotten gods has given me options when i can get enough creatures for her to work with that make it much less valuable than it once was. Killing flyers with the deathtouch is it's last remaining niche and it's definitely one i could stand to remove.

Consecrate/consume This was one i added very early on that i happened to have many copies of lying around. it sort of stuck around because in a pinch i could use it to exile awkward cards and/or get card draw plus the bypassing of indestructible and the life gain where valuable side niches. I'm still a little hesitant at the idea of losing lifegain. but honestly citywide bust probably fills the same sort of niche with a bit more broad power and i'm not feeling the desperate need for card draw anywhere near as often.

Ethereal Absolution: I originally added this just to combo with the afterlife tokens, but honestly this is a card that any white/black mix deck should be playing. In fact if you can find a way to bypass the mana specific cost parts somehow it's one you really should be including in any deck with any usable creature count. Though thats sufficiently non-trivial as not to be a serious proposition much of the time. it's power really surprised me and it's won me at least as many games as simple token spam plus seraph alone has.

Luminous Bonds. Another early addition it's mostly stuck around because of it's value vs god eternals, big creatures from decks that can easily get them back, and other shenanigans where locking the target down on the board is more valuable than taking it off the board. Given pacifism is returning i see little reason not to swap that back in tough and save my mana.

Cruel Celebrant: Actually a mid level addition, it's only a win condition under specific circumstances normally but it can do a lot of weakening and it makes opponents hesitate about doing things they otherwise would with hard removal. They also draw out a fair amount of removal on their own. They only rarely win games on their own but they make opponents hesitate and can provide the final few point of damage (or life for me), to clutch a game out and generally complicate my opponent's life. basically they win me games by getting my opponents to do things or use things they wouldn't otherwise do.

God-Eternal Okerta: actually a very early addition when i was looking for bulk and had her left over from a white/green build. She's still valuable for the 6 toughness and ability to just keep coming back, (the token generation is nice but not as valuable as you'd think unless the ame drags really badly), but i'd agree she's one of the weaker parts of the composition at this point. Her main use more often than not is to draw aggro or give thought erasure a difficult choice. Actually the latter is somthing the deck as a whole excels at rarely can your opponent attack you or your strategy without hurting themselves at least a little along the way. Arguably Bontu might fill the same hole better but i've only really started to recently appreciate the latter's power.

Imperious Oligarchy. An early source of damage, death triggers and afterlife. Oddly one of the weaker cards in the deck, not because she's bad but because her true power only really comes when you get the right support lined up behind her and your rarely going to get that. if you do it's GG. Despite that the deck has a need for cheap creatures with at least a couple of power and getting that with afterlife tacked on is fundamentally not a bad deal. Not every card at this mana curve point needs to eb a game winner, if it annoys and complicates your opponents lives and draws any ire they may have early it's done it's job.

Orzhov Enforcer: A token generator, (again complicaites your opponent's life because they don't necessarily want to kill it), that also pulls double duty as a defensive form of creature destruction. That tends to mean it also survives longer than oligarchy which makes it's afterlife trigger more likely to synergise with the rest of the deck.

Priestess of the Forgotten Gods: A recent addition but fills a number of use cases, biggest issue is i could do with a few more cheap creatures for her to work with, but whe she does she can sac things to trigger effects, take life from an opponent and provide soft removal plus ramp.

Seraph of the Scales: A mid term addition after seeing it but one of the strongest combo's with Teysa as she brings a bulkier body than enforcers, cna fly, hits harder, has higher afterlife and cna still gain deathtouch. Can win games, directly, provide defensive removal and again is something your opponent often doesn't want to kill, especially if Teysa or Absolution are on the field.

Teysa: Actually the starting point for the deck but far from completely vital to the decks performance at the same time she really does enhance every aspect of it as she makes your afterlife and celebrant triggers anstier and lifelink plus vigilance on tokens means you can sue lifegain to stall out your own life total whilst hurting the enemy whilst still having blockers available, (and if you have celebrant those blockers will first gain you life from lifelink, then die and gain you more life from celebrant while hurting your opponent, and absolution naturally lets them block kill bigger stuff and deal more damage and gain more via lifelink).

As i mentioned above the real strength of the deck is the way it keeps giving your opponent bad and worse options to choose between whilst having a variety of options to go with, there's no single point of failure they can go after reliably in most cases, (massacre girl is probably the hardest counter).


That said citywide bust, pacifism, and swapping out blade brand are definitely on my radar and i do want to see if i can tweak some stuff elsewhere, i'm also interested what you think of bontu instead of okerta?