Pointed Discussion

Wish it read "When ~ is sacrificed, target player loses 1 life and you gain 1 life." would give it some sac friendly synergy

Kinda reminds me of Orzhova dudes

Excellent one drop for my drain deck.

Think of it as one mana sorcery speed drain spell that can also be used as a chump blocker. So what if there's no damage on the stack anymore?

lol junk

Good with Mortician Beetle. Dealing 1 life, gaining one life, and pumping a creature is always fun.

not junk at all. its good. you're trading flying for "sac to gain 1 life and opponent loses 1 life."

Death Cultist.

Cool flavor, terrible card. I emded up drafting a few of them and they were almost completely useless.

limited uses, but can be good in some situations. Great against mono-white decks.

Why is this card rated so low? I know black can't do what RDW does, but a black Mogg Fanatic to players is still awesome. This guy should at least be good enough to merit some play.

This card is really, really bad. It just doesn't DO anything. Drawing it is like drawing nothing.

Could be better. But still its pretty solid for a black one drop.

I fail to see how this is a bad 1 drop.

Most 1 drops are either chump blockers (vast majority), have some effect that doesn't directly help you beat the opponent (things like Llanowar Elves), or take time to actually become useful (Mortician Beetle, Scute Mob, etc.). This guy may only be a 1/1, but he's also free life and a free unpreventable point of damage on an opponent for only B. Combine that with the fact that even late-game there aren't a lot of ways to get around losing the life and that Black has several cards that do something good when a creature goes to the graveyard, and you have a very nice 1 drop.

doesnt the ability work at instant speed? i thought you could use it to block then sac him for the effect before combat damage is dealt. unless the creature had trample, it is an effective 1 drop for us poor people. not to mention black has several cards that use put into graveyard from the battlefield effects. cards like basilisk collar make this card annoying

Their primary purpose is to combo with sac creatures, and until Alara rotated out, Fleshbag Marauder was one of the better combos. Now, it serves mainly to pump Mortician Beetle, though I've found that its prowess better serves Bloodthrone Vampire. On its own, though, this card is just a chump blocker with a neat effect that ruins its purpose as a chump blocker. 3.5/5

One of my favorite one drops in my black Dark Tutelage scry/burn deck. Never has hurt me for drawing it.

He is also an obscene target for my Nim Deathmantle, Necrotic Plague, combo.

I pity the foo' who sees this as junk.

@Diachronos:
It's a bad one drop, because it still is a card. Instead of him, you could have a doomblade or a good creature. Like, what does this guy do in the best case? You play him on turn 1, attack two or three times, then chump block and sac. That's the best case, and it's mediocre. If your opponent has evasion creatures (trample or flying or shadow or something) he is useless as chump blocker. If your opponen doesn't rely on creatures to win, he is also useless as chumpblocker. If your opponent has an early creature in play, he is useless as an attacker too. If you draw him after turn 1, he sucks horribly too. The 1 lifegain effect is so tiny, that it doesn't matter. The 1 lifeloss is better, but still not efficient to waste a card for.

And if you want to play him regularily on turn 1, that means you want to add four of him to your deck? Then you will despair if you draw the other three later, when you get pounded by more efficient creatures. Or you just want to add one? Then the chances of playing him first turn are tiny.

Comparing him to Mogg Fanatic makes no sense. In his time, Mogg Fanatic could kill birds of paradise or other creatures. This guy can't (since your opponent would never block with those creatures). Also, if Mogg Fanatic blocked or was blocked, he could kill two toughness creatures (before the combat damage stack rule was changed). This guy can't kill two toughness creature.

I only see one reason for this guy to make senes: in a dec where you want to be able to sacrifice creatures at instant speed. Like for gravepact. Or for Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker. Even then, there are many better creatures for that job out there.

This guy is simply not worth a cardslot in any deck. 0.5/5

An incredibly mediocre card that amounts to very little without lots of love and support from some sort of damage multiplier or something.

Could work in a red/black double damage dealt deck but that's no good when you can simply burn some asses anyways.

Ok anyone who thinks this card is medicore has not played against it. I got pummeled by a U/B deck using this and Grave Pact and Clone and I was playing a strong G/W deck. Way underrated card, and its a common!

New rules in M10 weakened this card and similiar ones like Mogg Fanatic quite a bit

Still its just a 1 drop, the sacrifice is usable (not great or bad) and can be used as part of combos that require saccing of creatures

3.5/5

This card is a beastly combo with Brimstone Volley. Either you kill a creature with power 5 and they lose life/you gain life, you can also smack them for 6 damage directly and gain a life out of it. A 1 mana creature that you can use to control morbid abilities means way more fun for you in Innistrad (casual play, but still) and any other combo your creative mind can think of. Death cultist works great in conjunction with other cards, and that's what he was meant for.

This is the final piece of my Overkill deck. They fog my infinite number of infinite/infinite trampling oozes? Then I blow them up to make them lose infinite life, while I gain infinite life. So in closing, this is a great one of one drop.

@ majinara

You spend only one mana on this card to play it. If the opponent has no creatures, this guy will hit them from the beginning of the game until he runs out of use. Then he becomes a small fling with lifelink bonus. PWNAGE for one mana. Doomblade costs 2, and you cant hurt them with it. So its not fair to compare these cards for their function. also when they're calculating kill shots they'll have to remember to include the possibility for this guy to change your life total.

Anyways. I actually run him in my Karador EDH deck because ranger of Eos finds him and then with many variations of the same combo functions I could sacrifice this guy infinitely. Using reveillark and saffi eriksdotter / karmic guide and phyrexian alter gives you infinite mana/ life/ and opponent loss of life. Plus he is like an extra mana towards casting karador. Plus he has a self included sac mechanic which is great for grave pact/ martyrs bond/ butcher of malakir.

Ive seen this guy in standard become nothing but a nuisance.
..that is all.

This guy is awesome in EDH because he sucks there.

No hear me out- he is on the surface very very weak- but it just so happens that is his super power: "I don't look like a threat, which means you won't try hard enough to kill me. Which means you will all die."

Sanguine Bond, Exquisite Blood

+ everything that even looks like half a Deathgreeter

Deal 2 points of damage, gain 1 health. Not to shabby.

One drops are rarely ever "bad" because there are no big expectations towards them. This guy is not bad, he can block something bigger than him without going completely to waste.

This card is bad because it does nothing out of the ordinary that a 1-1 lifelinker for one can do.

Why you would ever run this outside of a limited deck where you just could not find enough cards is beyond me.

This card is amazing actually, if you don't know how to use it, keep it out of your deck.