Skullbriar: Removals and Additions

Here's what I'm going to axe:

Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord (I don't like this card at all in anything)
Thought Vessel 
Dread Summons
Eater of Hope
Champion of Stray Souls (maybe)
Phyrexian Plaguelord
Viridian Zealot
Primal Growth
High Market
Centaur Vinecrasher (maybe)
Mulch
Grim Backwoods

That's seven, possibly eight cards that I don't like. I'm also uncertain about Terastodon, since between green and black, any permanent type can be eliminated.  Checking out the build at EDHrec, and there are some goodies. 

Now, in Skullbriar there seem to be three overall themes; Graveyard recursion, Tokens, and +1 counters. I've decided to cut the recursion elements to give me more tokens and supplement the +1 counters. 

The initial games I've played have been fine though. I haven't hated this build but I also haven't been as enamored with it either. I definitely appreciate being able to have a turn two play that is relevant: casting Skullbriar on turn two can definitely put the screws to opponents. Plus, there are plenty of very powerful cards that boost the deck, but with a de-emphasis on the graveyard recursion aspect, I think the cuts I'm making are sensible. 

What I'm left with asking is: what does Skullbriar want or need now that I've whittled away 11ish cards I don't like?

My considerations:

Inspiring Call
Silkguard
Find/Finality
Casualties of War
Trailblazer's Boots
Phyrexian Scriptures
Bonder's Enclave
Thundering Mightmare
Reyhan, Last of the Azban
Necropolis Regent
Grakmaw, Skyclave Ravager
Drana, Liberator of Malakir
The Ozolith
Dig Up
Assassin's Trophy
Steelbane Hydra
Pine Barrens

Some of these cards, like Pine Barrens, are easy picks-lands usually are. Trailblazer's Boots is one that I'm wondering if it should be auto-included in every Commander deck. The rest I want to be careful about, because I don't want to go all in on cards like Inspiring Call or Silkguard and find myself unable to deal with enchantments or be mana screwed because I cut Mulch. 

Commander: Skullbriar, the Walking Grave

 Skullbriar, the Walking Grave

Instant 1 Altar's Reap 1 Tribute to the Wild 1 Golgari Charm 1 Grisly Salvage 1 Putrefy 1 Wretched Confluence	Artifacts 1 Skullclamp 1 Sol Ring 1 Golgari Signet 1 Lightning Greaves 1 Thought Vessel 1 Bonehoard 1 Eldrazi Monument
Enchantment 1 Diabolic Servitude 1 Branching Evolution	Sorcery 1 Mulch 1 Victimize 1 Primal Growth 1 Ambition's Cost 1 Sever the Bloodline 1 Barter in Blood 1 Rise from the Grave 1 Spider Spawning 1 Overwhelming Stampede 1 Dread Summons
Lands 1 Command Tower 1 Evolving Wilds 1 Golgari Guildgate 1 Golgari Rot Farm 1 Grim Backwoods 1 High Market 1 Jungle Hollow 1 Polluted Mire 1 Slippery Karst 1 Tainted Wood 1 Terramorphic Expanse 1 Vivid Grove 1 Vivid Marsh 13 Swamp 12 Forest	Creatures 1 Sakura-Tribe Elder 1 Viridian Emissary 1 Wall of Blossoms 1 Viridian Zealot 1 Korozda Guildmage 1 Blood Bairn 1 Phyrexian Rager 1 Skullwinder 1 Wood Elves 1 Eternal Witness 1 Corpse Augur 1 Centaur Vinecrasher 1 Bloodspore Thrinax 1 Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord 1 Shriekmaw 1 Indrik Stomphowler 1 Kessig Cagebreakers 1 Banshee of the Dread Choir 1 Phyrexian Plaguelord 1 Acidic Slime 1 Mycoloth 1 Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest 1 Vulturous Zombie 1 Great Oak Guardian 1 Champion of Stray Souls 1 Thief of Blood 1 Pathbreaker Ibex 1 Cloudthresher 1 Butcher of Malakir 1 Eater of Hope 1 Scourge of Nel Toth 1 Caller of the Pack 1 Verdant Force 1 Terastodon 1 Winding Constrictor 1 Corpsejack Menace

Here we have what is probably 99% base deck from the original WotC did years ago. 

Let's give this a tune up.

Updates

 I have a couple decks in the wings to talk about, including a crack at updating a Skullbriar, the Walking Grave Commander deck.

But I've been running tests on updating Starve, for the Friday Night Legacy games, which I hope I can get to this week. No promises, things have been needing attention that aren't Magic stuff. That's life, right?

But the tests have been pretty solid, and the list currently looks like this:

3 Tombstalker

3 Bloodghast

4 Stromgald Crusader

3 Gravecrawler

4 Shambling Ghast

3 Dakmor Salvage

18 Swamp

2 Castle Locthwain

3 Liliana, the Last Hope

3 Pox

4 Smallpox

2 Innocent Blood

4 Duress

4 Hymn to Tourach

// 15 Sideboard

SB: 3 Null Rod

SB: 2 Dauthi Voidwalker

SB: 4 Leyline of the Void

SB: 2 Engineered Plague

SB: 4 Sudden Edict

The Map

People are astounding sometimes. 

Some folks who love Commander got together to create an interactive map of commanders, so people can see what cards are really trending in certain decks. 

I found out about this via Reddit, where the creators explain what they are doing. 

I can't say that I love Commander that much-but I do think this project is pretty cool.

Late to the Party: Disco Elysium

I wanted to like Disco Elysium-I really did. A wildly different kind of RPG, with your stats representing a Greek Chorus of abilities, instead of standard base-'Knowledge' isn't an option but Encyclopedia is. Your stats can be tweaked by the kind of clothes you wear-you can fail the game entirely by staring at yourself in the mirror. There is a possessed necktie!  

However, I think that Disco wanted me to get into the role playing aspect a bit more than I wanted to. 

The main character is a drunk and there were often options to do or say some pretty shitty things-the kind of thing a barely functional alcoholic might say or do as a cop. 

I didn't want to do those things, so the game wouldn't let me proceed. 

Which is where I eventually found myself; In endless loops of conversations with other characters, an somehow unable to figure out which lever I could push that I wanted to push in order to move forward. 

The game is exceptionally well written, has impressive art design, and a score that is just dead on.

None of it mattered, in the end. I wasn't able to get any further with what I was doing and I wasn't sure if that was on me, or if the game just wasn't giving me the tools.

So I had resigned myself to do something drastic with my character: if the game was only going to give me options that were pushing the envelope, then fine. Let's push. 

It was with this reluctance I booted the game up again, having taken a break to finish Wasteland 3. 

I found myself in a room that I couldn't get out of. No interaction with any object let me out. The game itself broke!

Which, on the downside, means that I can't finish. On the upside, it means I don't have to! I can just let this one go, having had an experience I appreciated, but didn't exactly enjoy. 

I Was Told

Hold The Heathen Hammer High has achieved the basic level of success: I can do alright vs. friends. I like how this deck plays and what it can do.

But in the larger meta I'm playing in, whoooo does it get ripped. 

I did get one very cool suggestion that I'm testing out; Rograkh, Son of Rohgahh. The nod came from someone playing at the Friday Night events and is a wild idea but mana is tight in HTHHH, Rograkh is free and has a suite of abilities that are incredibly helpful for my deck!

One casualty of the deck is Cloudsteel Kirin. I really want to like it-flying is a great ability and the 'can't lose the game' clause is neat!

But is it relevant? 

I want to get my opponent dead when I cast these Reconfigure creatures. The Kirin doesn't add to power/toughness, so under the best circumstances I am paying three mana to let a creature fly. 

I can do better.

As a pure amusement, I'm trying out Molten Psyche in the deck. It won't work, the slot should belong to Galvanic Blast or Path to Exile and I know it. But I kinda can't help myself. I want to give at least a couple games with the Psyche a shot-card draw is always neat, right? 

That all said, I think some things have been settled. This isn't quite ready for prime time, even with an upgraded manabase. It IS a lot of fun and should be kept in mind as new cards arrive.

For now, I'll leave it at this:

1 Batterskull
1 Kaldra Compleat 
3 Nettlecyst 
 4 Colossus Hammer
1 Shadowspear

3 Lizard Blades
3 Sram, Senior Edificer
4 Puresteel Paladin
1 Stoneforge Mystic
3 Rabbit Battery
4 Esper Sentinel
1 Halvar, God of Battle
3 Rograkh, Son of Rohgahh

4 Sigarda's Aid

1 Galvanic Blast
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Path to Exile

7 Mountain
10 Plains
4 Rustvale Bridge

Sideboard
1 Sword of the Realms 
 2 Sword of Fire and Ice
3 Unlicensed Hearse
4 Path to Exile
3 Red Elemental Blast
3 Wear // Tear

Matt suggested a main deck Enlightened Tutor and that seems like a pretty useful idea. I did cut the Molten Psyche for a Galvanic Blast and a Path to Exile-because for some reason, I only have one Galvanic Blast. (They're probably in another deck.)

Skip To The Middle

It takes Pleasant Kenobi awhile to get to the point in a recent video.

However, when he does I have to say, I like it. WotC has been great at coming up with interesting, complex worlds and every time they do so, the story they are trying to tell gets crammed in there. That is a lot to try and get out of a single set.

This is weird, because it's coming at a time when Wizards is producing more content than ever.

I would even say "too much". The time we as players have gotten to spend on places like Ravnica, Mirrodin or Innisitrad the first time we were there helped cement those places as places we were interested in. Heck, I'd even argue that people would not have been as interested in Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty if we hadn't spent all the time on original Kamigawa, getting so much lore. 

I love Kaldheim, but I don't actually know anything about it. By way of contrast, I don't really care about Amonkhet but I know how that story ended and I can see where picking up again at that plane might offer some incredibly cool things! There are people wandering the desert after their god has abandoned them and if you can't see the potential in that, then I don't know what to tell you.

So I think the two block set structure would be a good thing to return to. They don't even have to be mechanically tied together-that's what your story is for! And it isn't as if Magic sets aren't doing year long ties anyway-we've just come off an extended period of Double-Faced cards in sets spanning multiple planes. 

Don't tell me it can't be done.