Play him in monoblack and he'll probably be bigger than anything else on the table by the time you get to seven mana, especially if you have a lot of cards with or even (another Umbra Stalker?) in their casting costs. I'd use him with Rakdos (the guild, not the Defiler), but the red splash dilutes his power.
love the artwork its a good card in a plain black deck but not in a multicolored
Kindulas
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
if this had Dredge...
HairlessThoctar
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(4 votes)
This guy reallllly wants something extra.
Some form of evasion or some manner of protection. Otherwise, he's "just" a fatty...
Anubisisking
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(3 votes)
This guy costs too much.
That said, he has awesome art and a neat ability. 4/5
Kryptnyt
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(2 votes)
Art is awesome and ability is cool... but he's damn expensive for what amounts to a vanilla creature. Sure, he becomes epicly fat, but what's the use if he doesn't trample? It's also sad he dies to Bojuka Bog. Even with all that, tempting to make a deck around him. So tempting.
alucard311
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(3 votes)
Behind his complicated ability, he is fundamentally a vanilla. Sure, he's a big vanilla that can do scary things, but if you are using a strategy that can abuse him then you should probably be running Avatar of Woe, Chainer, or Sheoldred, the Whispering One instead.
endersblade
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I think Primalcrux was the best of this type of creature. With the stalker, one Tormod's Crypt and he's a gonner.
AXER
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(2 votes)
He's right at home in the Phyrexia Duel Deck! What with all the sacrificing black manaed creatures.
Lash_of_Dragonbreath
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
Play him in a dredge deck with a certain cycle of auras from Scourge. You want him to have evasion? What about dragon shadow, dragon fangs or dragon wings? And why not throw some dragon breath as well?
Goatllama
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
Of all the creatures that should have a cost made completely of black mana, this is the one. Also needs fear or something, as many people have noted.
AHAHAHAHAHHHHAHAHAA! They laughed at my momo-black EDH deck! Well I'll Show them! I'll show them all!
Opined_Fluke
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
For the amount of hoops you need to jump through, 5 would be a fair cost for this guy. I guess compare to Serra Avatar as 7 for a huge vanilla.
DarthParallax
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
Lord of the Pit starts the conversation about Black Chroma/Devotion. Demons are an EXCELLENT resource to mine for Black Mana Symbols, but I also wouldn't want to use too many of them. Very few are truly worth it, but at the same time, a high percentage of 'Black Mana Symbol Creatures' that are worth it, are demons. Reiver Demon seems like an outstanding choice, but Griselbrand feels pretty hardcore and possibly more heat than you want to pack, depending on your format, metagame, #ofplayers, and the hate you could expect to be boarded in against you either next game or next week.
Buried Alive is clearly far more important than Entomb in this deck's instance, because the most # Black Symbols Entomb can net is either 3 or 4, but Buried Alive can get 6 without hardly trying.
Knights are also a great option. There aren't an overwhelmingly huge # of black Knights, but there are enough to give you a choice of options from.
Finally, while it's certainly tempting to look at Shadowmoor and Eventide and cram everything bigger than Phyrexian Obliterator in, I think the key to the deck being awesome is being VERY deliberate and SPECIFIC in your selection of the 5-mana Symbol slot:
Don't use more than 1 or 2 of these:
Demigod of Revenge: Works best in highly Aggressive decks, also since you'll be running Buried Alive, running 4 copies is a smart option and you can include any of many single-reanimation cards to get all of them out of your grave. Excellent Plan B for when your Umbra Stalker runs smack dab into Wrath of God, and if you can find an Instant Reanimation effect, probably the ONLY good strategy to escape a simple Relic of Progenitus ruining your whole game plan.
Ghastlord of Fugue: Simply put, not a Spike option for your deck. It's got some good elements for Control and Disruption, but I'd include it as a wild card to something unexpected instead of trying to have this be an additional axis of the deck after Umbra Stalker.
Divinity of Pride: A Boss Ass ***. The Lifelink is incredibly badass. Good for Aggression or Midrange, and I'd probably either 1x or 2x it in every build, next to just one other 5-cost from Eventide.
Deity of Scars: Highly unrecommended without Gift of the Deity, highly recommended with it. Not a lot else to say. More dependent on its "themed Enchantment" than the other Avatar-Gods of Eventide. Helm of the Ghastlord is also helpful for the Blue one.
There's no room for Phyrexian Obliterator in this version, and if I'd wanted to go for Broken, I wouldn't have considered anything until first scratching down '4x Necropotence, 4x Griselbrand' I like combining Reanimate with Lifegaining effects, because it's a pretty confident promise of a powerful graveyard combo, but it does give your opponents opportunity to try to punish you for paying too much life before you're ready. Also a good reason to include Fetch-Shock land suite. If this deck is a bit too powerful or fast for your play group, pick a second color after Black and put in a mono colored card that gives you a big huge effect-- like Comet Storm for Red or Avacyn, Angel of Hope for White. Nykthos + Fetch + Shock is boss at getting the mana you need for a heavy-weighted card in an off-color.
blurrymadness
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
Devotion is the reincarnation of Chroma and Grey Merchant is the reincarnation of this card (oddly enough.) I feel that they've done a very good job evolving this into something that not only feels more black but is actually usable, both in casual and competitive circles.
This guy was a sad attempt thrown together I'm afraid. Where Sanity Grinding is innovative and worth a "build around me" deck (you can easily mill 20-40 cards with it) this guy is merely comparable with Mortivore (especially in multiplayer; where you'll get the time to reach 7 mana.) He's not interesting in reanimator or ramp (you need a lot in your grave, there are better targets), he's not that fun (he's just fat) and other cards use his weakness (grave hate) and his benefit (getting absurdly huge) much better; such as Consuming Aberration; and again, are much more fun for "build around" IMO.
I hope they do another attempt with Chroma (rather than only replace it with devotion.) Even if this guy had evasion I feel like he'd just be a boring fatty; a change in the ability to something like "When ~ etb, exile all cards from all graveyards. For each black mana symbol on the exiled cards other creatures get -1/-1 until end of turn and ~ gets a +1/+1 counter"; now he's a Dread Cacodemon who exiles graveyards, has a drawback, and is decidedly neat to build around (as he wants you to use your graveyard, but then kills it!)
Comments (22)
Some form of evasion or some manner of protection.
Otherwise, he's "just" a fatty...
That said, he has awesome art and a neat ability. 4/5
Even with all that, tempting to make a deck around him. So tempting.
Buried Alive is clearly far more important than Entomb in this deck's instance, because the most # Black Symbols Entomb can net is either 3 or 4, but Buried Alive can get 6 without hardly trying.
Knights are also a great option. There aren't an overwhelmingly huge # of black Knights, but there are enough to give you a choice of options from.
Finally, while it's certainly tempting to look at Shadowmoor and Eventide and cram everything bigger than Phyrexian Obliterator in, I think the key to the deck being awesome is being VERY deliberate and SPECIFIC in your selection of the 5-mana Symbol slot:
Don't use more than 1 or 2 of these:
Demigod of Revenge: Works best in highly Aggressive decks, also since you'll be running Buried Alive, running 4 copies is a smart option and you can include any of many single-reanimation cards to get all of them out of your grave. Excellent Plan B for when your Umbra Stalker runs smack dab into Wrath of God, and if you can find an Instant Reanimation effect, probably the ONLY good strategy to escape a simple Relic of Progenitus ruining your whole game plan.
Ghastlord of Fugue: Simply put, not a Spike option for your deck. It's got some good elements for Control and Disruption, but I'd include it as a wild card to something unexpected instead of trying to have this be an additional axis of the deck after Umbra Stalker.
Divinity of Pride: A Boss Ass ***. The Lifelink is incredibly badass. Good for Aggression or Midrange, and I'd probably either 1x or 2x it in every build, next to just one other 5-cost from Eventide.
Deity of Scars: Highly unrecommended without Gift of the Deity, highly recommended with it. Not a lot else to say. More dependent on its "themed Enchantment" than the other Avatar-Gods of Eventide. Helm of the Ghastlord is also helpful for the Blue one.
Recommended Build:
22 Lands
4x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
4x Godless Shrine
4x Marsh Flats
10x Swamp
22 creatures
4x Umbra Stalker
4x Demigod of Revenge
2x Divinity of Pride
3x Black Knight
3x Stillmoon Cavalier
1x Rakdos the Defiler
1x Obzedat, Ghost Council
4x Reiver Demon
16 spells
4x Buried Alive
4x Reanimate
4x Dark Ritual
4x Sign in Blood
There's no room for Phyrexian Obliterator in this version, and if I'd wanted to go for Broken, I wouldn't have considered anything until first scratching down '4x Necropotence, 4x Griselbrand' I like combining Reanimate with Lifegaining effects, because it's a pretty confident promise of a powerful graveyard combo, but it does give your opponents opportunity to try to punish you for paying too much life before you're ready. Also a good reason to include Fetch-Shock land suite. If this deck is a bit too powerful or fast for your play group, pick a second color after Black and put in a mono colored card that gives you a big huge effect-- like Comet Storm for Red or Avacyn, Angel of Hope for White. Nykthos + Fetch + Shock is boss at getting the mana you need for a heavy-weighted card in an off-color.
This guy was a sad attempt thrown together I'm afraid. Where Sanity Grinding is innovative and worth a "build around me" deck (you can easily mill 20-40 cards with it) this guy is merely comparable with Mortivore (especially in multiplayer; where you'll get the time to reach 7 mana.) He's not interesting in reanimator or ramp (you need a lot in your grave, there are better targets), he's not that fun (he's just fat) and other cards use his weakness (grave hate) and his benefit (getting absurdly huge) much better; such as Consuming Aberration; and again, are much more fun for "build around" IMO.
I hope they do another attempt with Chroma (rather than only replace it with devotion.) Even if this guy had evasion I feel like he'd just be a boring fatty; a change in the ability to something like "When ~ etb, exile all cards from all graveyards. For each black mana symbol on the exiled cards other creatures get -1/-1 until end of turn and ~ gets a +1/+1 counter"; now he's a Dread Cacodemon who exiles graveyards, has a drawback, and is decidedly neat to build around (as he wants you to use your graveyard, but then kills it!)