Today I had an idea for a new deck: I wanted to use Gray Merchant of Asphodel as my end game in a basic Sultai Reanimator shell. The trick was keeping my devotion to black high and ideally pressuring my opponent’s life total early, which lead the deck in some interesting directions.
To start with, I wanted black two-drops, and the most fitting that came to mind were Rakshasa Deathdealer and Disciple of Deceit. Disciple of Deceit would allow me to turn Sidisi, Brood Tyrant into Whip of Erebos, or chain Gray Merchants to fill my graveyard to fuel the Whip, as well as letting me find other bullets.
Disciple of Deceit also encourages me to play a handful of bullets including removal spells at a variety of costs. I’m playing three different gods to tutor for. Phenax, God of Deception isn’t a card that’s seen a lot of play, but I think it might be among the best cards in a Sultai mirror, and this deck seems like a great home for it.
Nighthowler complements Rakshasa Deathdealer in making the deck more aggressive and helps with devotion to black for Gray Merchant of Asphodel.
The sideboard is fairly standard, except that not using Courser of Kruphix or any cards with constellation allows me to play Back to Nature, and I’m using Dark Betrayal.
Creatures (25)
- 4 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
- 2 Nighthowler
- 1 Erebos, God of the Dead
- 1 Phenax, God of Deception
- 4 Satyr Wayfinder
- 1 Pharika, God of Affliction
- 3 Disciple of Deceit
- 1 Reclamation Sage
- 4 Sidisi, Brood Tyrant
- 4 Rakshasa Deathdealer
Planeswalkers (1)
Lands (23)
Spells (11)
Round 1
Round 2
Round 3
Round 4
Overall, I was really impressed by Rakshasa Deathdealer, and I wonder if more Sultai decks should be using that. Erebos, God of the Dead is also a card that I think people have forgotten about which might have a place in some of the Whip mirrors.