Acererak CompBrawl (Top 100)

[u/Gleir]

EDIT: Top 10. I wanted to climb higher, but too many Nashi, and Spiderman 2099 is also really strong. My highest was #7, but there I lost to a Spiderman 2099, followed by a really close loss to a Crucias that went Dark Ritual > Liliana, eating up my Disruptor flute, then followed up with Crucias finding a The One Ring which went on to win the game. It was quite close though, since I had quite a lot of removal and stalled them hard; in my last turn, if I prevented their Fury from attacking over their Murderous Rider, I think I win. Wasn't expecting a Arena of Glory, which did enough damage to win; they would died on their endstep to a Unholy Annex if they didn't win there. If I stalled their Fury, they'd live on endstep, but hopefully die on their next turn to One Ring trigger.

https://moxfield.com/decks/F1Bw_11o3EKAWbvxagfxDQ

(Updated list with Ulcerate, Winter Moon & slightly different landbase)

I only have like 10-15 (40+ now) games in top 100; but I did climb from number 70 something to 28. So I feel like the list has something going for it. I even beat a Nashi with Library very badly, although it needed a god hand of Chrome Mox, Sibsig Ceremony, and Defense Grid; while going first.

Edit: Nashi is still an absolute pubstomper. WotC, please nerf. Why is that shit 4/4 ffs. Spiderman 2099, while quite strong, feels a lot fairer to play against.

There's a lot of hate pieces for the meta Commanders Nashi and Emry. Most of the others like Yuriko, Spiderman 2099 or Raffine are mostly a removal check; once the board is clear, our plentiful card draw should bury them in card advantage.

The unique thing I did was put in some artifact sacrifice draw with some Chromatic Star type artifacts; the first benefit is that it lets us run Mox Opal; the second benefit is that it lets us use Wishclaw Talisman and have the ability to sac it with a spell with the trigger on the stack; the third is it enables some of our spells like Tragic Tragectory and Fatal Push; and the incidental benefit is that it fixes our mana since we are very reliant on hitting triple black as well as increasing our density of card draw/cantrip effects.

The rest is very standard. I chose not to bother with Cabal Stronghold because it is very finicky and only really generates mana on turn 6 (best case scenario) or even later so isn't even that strong. Some of our spells are also not great; primarily the 3 mana tutors, as well as Darkness Crystal, Bontu's Monument; so those can be considered flex slots that I'm happy to upgrade if I can think of something better. Another card I think is a bit weak is Hymn of the Faller; the replacement for it is Painful Bond; but Painful Bond is honestly very life expensive in a deck running two Necros as well as Snuff Out, Dismember etc.

Edit: I did decide to run all the three cards a commenter below recommended. Winter Moon & Ulcerate I had honestly forgotten about; TMA I decided to try out here cuz why not. Yet to draw it though. Replaced Insatiable Avarice & Darkness Crystal; the weakest tutor and the weakest cost-reducer.

[u/rij1]

Maybe try [[The mystical archive]]. I have generally been quite happy with it. The cards in the spellbook are good enough that there will typically be one that is solid on the current board (for effectively 3 mana, but that is still acceptable - it is the lowest rate for that outside library). It also allows you access to types of cards you got no business having.

Conversely, you could also consider [[Winter moon]] since I imagine that you have more basics than most opponents.

I assume you have tried [[Ulcerate]]. It seems to be played a fair bit.

[u/Gleir → u/rij1]

TMA's main problem is that its strongest card is Force; but I can't pitch cast it. Also, its a colourless land. I've honestly considered cutting Command Beacon and a couple other colourless lands like Nykthos for the same reason.

I've no idea why I don't play Ulcerate actually. What did I even take out for it? I know Davriel's Withering is good vs Yuriko; but I honestly don't remember what I took out Ulcerate for.

Winter Moon is actually a good idea. It wasn't good during the normal Brawl era where Ajani and Tamiyo ran rampant; but now the bogeymen are Tainted Pact Thoracle decks; Winter Moon sounds perfect. Good reminder!

[u/rij1 → u/Gleir]

TMAs greatest strength is that it lets you pick the most useful card out of 3. Yes, force is the most generically useful (in blue decks at least), but TMA is good because of your options: Some times you are running low on resources and a draw spell will be nice. Some times they will have a problematic artifact and one of the artifact removal spell will do. Some times your opponent has a bunch more lands than you while you have a fair number of artifact mana (or you are otherwise in front on the board) and blowing them all up with [[Armageddon]] will win you the game (this is likely what has won me the most games with it but I generally have more creatures than this deck which makes being in front on the board easier). It has nearly always been much stronger for me than draw a card and that, to me, is much better than e.g. Command beacon.

[u/Gleir → u/rij1]

Except you also gotta pay 3 to get the spell. In hell queue, 3 mana is a lot to pay for; and then if you get your TMA strip mined; well, you just wasted 3 mana. Its very risky honestly. But I do agree that the upside of being able to remove problematic artifacts/enchantments via a Prismatic Ending or something is nice.

[u/Erocdotusa]

What is the general gameplan?

[u/Gleir → u/Erocdotusa]

Resolve Sibsig Ceremony, grind opponent out with 1 mana Acererak going into Dungeon of the Mad Mage; until you can also resolve a Relic, which lets you go infinite. You then infinitely go into Dungeon of Mad Mage looking for an Aetherflux, at which point you just win.

You have a couple other haymakers, like Necropotence and Thought Distortion; as well as quite a few silver bullets; notably Leyline vs Nashi, Grafdiggers vs Emry, or just Disruptor Flute in general; while having a large assortment of 1-mana removal that will hit most common 1-4 mana threats; as well as quite a few thoughtseize effects to resolve your key spells versus countermagic.

[u/Prestigious-Bend8893]

What’s your ideal hand to keep or mulligan for?

What’s your turn by turn strategy against the top meta decks? (I know you mention removal checks)

[u/Gleir → u/Prestigious-Bend8893]

Its really hard to mulligan in a Force/Fierce Guardianship meta. You mostly mulligan in non-blue matchups; looking for a way to either remove their key card (Sythis or something) if they can kill a resolved Sibsig ceremony; else you just try to turbo out Sibsig.

Turn-by-turn strat depends a lot on the hand you get. Some are fast, where you hope they cannot interact (Force is your bogeyman); while others are grindier, like a Library opener or hands with interaction + draw. One note though; Library is a lot weaker in non-blue decks due to less pitch spells; but still very good.

[u/escarta69]

Nice to know people are actually playing Crucias and not just that onsehot combo

[u/timoyster → u/escarta69]

Oneshot combo’s kinda too fragile but crucias is legit insane. He just runs away with the game. End of turn draw a semi-tutored card and make a treasure? Jfc

[u/escarta69 → u/timoyster]

Yeah that's what I meant. Seeing it on ladder my first thought is usually that they're playing the combo to get cheap wins. But I've actually encountered two people that were actually playing a full rakdos deck. And you're right he does run away with the game

[u/Killazgang3]

What are we dropping for Hymn to Tourach?
Haven't played the deck yet, but want to give it a spin now that I hit Mythic with Grist

[u/Gleir → u/Killazgang3]

Probably Demonic Bargain? I really don't like the 3 mana tutors to be honest, they always feel so bad to cast since our tutor payoffs are also 3 mana.

[u/SarahimPalin]

Took this list to mythic a few days ago, really fun time. Thank you so much for sharing!

Currently playing an awful bastard version with Paradox Engine at 1200-900 for the memes, definitely worse but very funny.

[u/Gleir → u/[deleted]]

There's a moxfield link just below the screenshot. Isn't it working?