You pull off these builds every time. Keep it up. You made my Omnath playable and I'll never be able to play my Breya without your insight again lol. Great video
Field of the Dead is a super sneaky add. At first I was like "Well that's never gonna trigger" Haha. Love it. My build is going a little more token-y with things like Mycoloth, and I'm still finishing it up so I don't have a lot of experience playing it, but I'll share some thoughts with additions I like: You'll probably be targeted because... because we're being mean. So I wanted to include some life gain - The Haunt of Hightower and Bloodchief Ascension can do serious work Eldritch Pact can refuel you or finish an opponent depending on the situation Grave Pact (or budget friendly Butcher of Malakir) make your exploit creatures, eldrazi tokens, and "plaguecrafter" creatures really brutal Awakening Zone/From Beyond are like a Nest Invader every turn I made a few changes to mine after seeing yours, so thanks for the ideas!
Found this deck tech at just the right time. Was wanting to build Sméagol, and the list is amazing! Definitely going to need to make a list like this myself!
Love your Deckbuilding Videos. I Took your Deck and switched a few cards. But the Bones are the Same. I tested it in my usual Play group and it was a little to powerful. Any suggestions how to make it a little less powerful without losing the Themen?
Thanks for watching! If you wanted to tone down the power while still keeping everything functioning, you could - swap out 3-4 Nazgul for other Ring Temptation cards - swap a card draw spell for Shadowheart, Dark Justicar. - Throw in Awakening Zone or From the Beyond (or both, it was a close cut) - Alternatively, help bring your opponents up to speed. There's a 1 mana creature that fetches each player two lands when it dies, and an elf that lets your opponents get 2 lands if they also give you one. Helping bring your opponents up to speed could be a way to keep the power level roughly the same while elevating the power of your opponents Thanks for watching!
Hey! I love it, I also built a Sméagol deck, and as it seems I have all the expensive useless cards. So it is time to try your version. One thing that I like a lot is Sadistic Sacrament, what do you think about it?
nice list, you should consider cards like Hell's Caretaker, Lotus Cobra, Constant Mists, Garruk, Cursed Huntsma, Liliana, Dreadhorde General, Deadly Brew, Rise of the Witch-king and Oversold Cemetery. personaly i lean more towards tokens in my deck using cards like chatterfang and altar of baal
Thanks for watching! I'm glad you liked it. I love getting to talk about these decks more, and there's only so much you can really say in a video 😅 Tokens are good sacrifice fodder, but that's all that they are, and Smeagol doesn't reward us any further for multiple sacrifices. We're only trying to kill one creature on one turn- our own- and Smeagol doesn't really have any other synergies for going wide, so I cut most of the token makers and the like. Since we're only trying to kill one creature per turn, but we do need to be killing *creatures,* there's a premium on card slots that can provide a death *and* a creature, so instants/sorceries and Enchantments are more speedbumps than anything else (though there are still some- they just need to be really spectacular to make the cut). All of this is just to say that because we're only rewarded for 1 death per turn cycle, the ceiling on traditional aristocrat strategies like tokens or Lilliana/Garruk is pretty low However, Smeagol *does* reward us for multiple *ring temptations.* So the ceiling is much higher along that axis of the deck.
The Ring Goes South, at the MINIMUM, is a 4 mana spell for 3 lands: ring tempts (get a land and make any non legendary creature your bearer) for 2 lands, + Smeagol himself. Why do you think a random creature that sacrifices itself is better? 4 mana for 3 lands at the minimum is a great rate
@@pbbppbbp That sure is a payoff! I've heard a few other people build it to steal creatures. Though I've also heard people say that because you're stealing lands you'll be the target, so the life loss *might* be relevant, but I imagine that might depend on your meta .
It's not *bad,* it synergizes a lot. It would be a great substitute for a Nazgul if you're trying to save a little more. But in general, it's not very efficient on card slots (something this deck really wants). In the big picture, all it's doing is making bodies for us, but we've already got a lot of bodies that sacrifice themselves when they come in *and provide extra utility while doing so,* so none of them should be cut for it, and neither should any of the draw effects. A good rule to keep in mind for these kinds of decks is to not make bodies just for sac fodder, but to make bodies *that do something* for you (on their own) when they die.
They're definitely very good, so I would recommend it, but as you can tell from the decklist, I don't think it's necessary to have all 9. I think 6 is good, but on a budget you could probably cut down a few more if you put in more card draw spells.
Ah, I see. My calculator counts a card as costing $0 if it's out of stock, so when I did this and they were out of Nazgul, it deflated the price. I'll add a note to the description.
I don't know. It seems like that takes up a lot of card slots for very little synergy. Consider this: - Does Smeagol reward us *for* stealing lands? No: that's his payoff. - Does Smeahol reward us for playing Praetors? Not especially. - Does Realmbreaker care about sacrificing creatures? - Does Realmbreaker care about how many lands we've stolen? - How many Praetors would you want to put in this deck *without* Realmbreaker? If you wouldn't put very many, then adding the support for Realmbreaker would eat up card slots that *are* doing all the things that we want to do. I don't think this inclusion would be worth it. What do you think?
A little new to deckbuilding here but why does no one build this commander as an aristocrat style deck? It seems like it would be a good way to build since you are always sacrificing creatures, you have a ton of creatures with the ability to sacrifice, why not tick down people for each creature that dies?
Because Smeagol doesn't ask you to sacrifice *a large number* of creatures. You only get rewards for sacrificing *one* creature per turn, so the other pieces of the deck are included with that rate in mind. Adding in something like Zulaport Cutthroat would only let it do 1 damage per turn. That's *really* not worth the card slot.
Wouldn't even a tapped dual land be better than Riveteers Overlook or am I missing something? Edit: I figured out is because of Landfall and Field of the Dead :p
Thanks for watching! I love the chance to talk more about these, and this is one of those things that gets cut for time, so here goes. - It *is* true that Nazgul are strictly better than Uruk-hai berserker...just not in ways that our gameplan really cares about. The 1/1 counters and deathtouch don't do anything to help find our win conditions. Meanwhile, Nazgul are running upwards of $10 apiece, while the berserker is closer to $0.05. I don't build decks that are budget *focused* as much as they are budget *conscious.* I want to ask "is this $20 card bringing $20 worth of value to my game plan, or can I get 80% of the effect for 20% of the cost with a different card?" This is the case with the Berserker. There's just no reason to spend that $10+ on utility that we're not really using. 6 Nazgul is more than plenty (though, in a world where you don't care about budget at all, you should play more Nazgul). Hope this answered your question!
You pull off these builds every time. Keep it up. You made my Omnath playable and I'll never be able to play my Breya without your insight again lol. Great video
Field of the Dead is a super sneaky add. At first I was like "Well that's never gonna trigger" Haha. Love it.
My build is going a little more token-y with things like Mycoloth, and I'm still finishing it up so I don't have a lot of experience playing it, but I'll share some thoughts with additions I like:
You'll probably be targeted because... because we're being mean. So I wanted to include some life gain - The Haunt of Hightower and Bloodchief Ascension can do serious work
Eldritch Pact can refuel you or finish an opponent depending on the situation
Grave Pact (or budget friendly Butcher of Malakir) make your exploit creatures, eldrazi tokens, and "plaguecrafter" creatures really brutal
Awakening Zone/From Beyond are like a Nest Invader every turn
I made a few changes to mine after seeing yours, so thanks for the ideas!
Forgot to mention Gleancrawler since all our saccing is on our turn. 😅 Underrated All-Star in this deck.
Found this deck tech at just the right time. Was wanting to build Sméagol, and the list is amazing! Definitely going to need to make a list like this myself!
You got a talent for this. Ide be grateful for a video on Narset, enlightened exile.
Noted!!
Loving your videos :) I just became a Patreon, hope you keep up with this amazing quality
Thanks! Up next is Sauron- and whew, it's complicated 😅
I love watching your process. 😊
Love your Deckbuilding Videos. I Took your Deck and switched a few cards. But the Bones are the Same. I tested it in my usual Play group and it was a little to powerful. Any suggestions how to make it a little less powerful without losing the Themen?
Thanks for watching!
If you wanted to tone down the power while still keeping everything functioning, you could
- swap out 3-4 Nazgul for other Ring Temptation cards
- swap a card draw spell for Shadowheart, Dark Justicar.
- Throw in Awakening Zone or From the Beyond (or both, it was a close cut)
- Alternatively, help bring your opponents up to speed. There's a 1 mana creature that fetches each player two lands when it dies, and an elf that lets your opponents get 2 lands if they also give you one. Helping bring your opponents up to speed could be a way to keep the power level roughly the same while elevating the power of your opponents
Thanks for watching!
Veteran Explorer is one card, what’s the other one?
Hey! I love it, I also built a Sméagol deck, and as it seems I have all the expensive useless cards. So it is time to try your version. One thing that I like a lot is Sadistic Sacrament, what do you think about it?
How did it turn out?
nice list, you should consider cards like Hell's Caretaker, Lotus Cobra, Constant Mists, Garruk, Cursed Huntsma, Liliana, Dreadhorde General, Deadly Brew, Rise of the Witch-king and Oversold Cemetery.
personaly i lean more towards tokens in my deck using cards like chatterfang and altar of baal
Thanks for watching! I'm glad you liked it. I love getting to talk about these decks more, and there's only so much you can really say in a video 😅
Tokens are good sacrifice fodder, but that's all that they are, and Smeagol doesn't reward us any further for multiple sacrifices. We're only trying to kill one creature on one turn- our own- and Smeagol doesn't really have any other synergies for going wide, so I cut most of the token makers and the like. Since we're only trying to kill one creature per turn, but we do need to be killing *creatures,* there's a premium on card slots that can provide a death *and* a creature, so instants/sorceries and Enchantments are more speedbumps than anything else (though there are still some- they just need to be really spectacular to make the cut).
All of this is just to say that because we're only rewarded for 1 death per turn cycle, the ceiling on traditional aristocrat strategies like tokens or Lilliana/Garruk is pretty low
However, Smeagol *does* reward us for multiple *ring temptations.* So the ceiling is much higher along that axis of the deck.
The Ring Goes South, at the MINIMUM, is a 4 mana spell for 3 lands: ring tempts (get a land and make any non legendary creature your bearer) for 2 lands, + Smeagol himself.
Why do you think a random creature that sacrifices itself is better? 4 mana for 3 lands at the minimum is a great rate
Agreed. I guess I wasn't thinking about Smeagol's trigger when I cut it. 4 mana for 3 lands is in fact a great rate.
Cool! Also, what do you think about Lorcan, Warlock Collector to reanimate your opponent's creatures?
@@pbbppbbp That sure is a payoff! I've heard a few other people build it to steal creatures. Though I've also heard people say that because you're stealing lands you'll be the target, so the life loss *might* be relevant, but I imagine that might depend on your meta .
What do you think about running Curse of the relentless dead targeting yourself?
It's not *bad,* it synergizes a lot. It would be a great substitute for a Nazgul if you're trying to save a little more. But in general, it's not very efficient on card slots (something this deck really wants). In the big picture, all it's doing is making bodies for us, but we've already got a lot of bodies that sacrifice themselves when they come in *and provide extra utility while doing so,* so none of them should be cut for it, and neither should any of the draw effects. A good rule to keep in mind for these kinds of decks is to not make bodies just for sac fodder, but to make bodies *that do something* for you (on their own) when they die.
The Nazgûl are so expensive now. Is it required for the deck?
They're definitely very good, so I would recommend it, but as you can tell from the decklist, I don't think it's necessary to have all 9. I think 6 is good, but on a budget you could probably cut down a few more if you put in more card draw spells.
It says its over 200 even in card kingdom. Am i doing something wrong?
Ah, I see. My calculator counts a card as costing $0 if it's out of stock, so when I did this and they were out of Nazgul, it deflated the price. I'll add a note to the description.
Realmbreaker, the Invasion Tree should be explored as an option to mill/ steal lands from our opponents and to tutor in a few praetors.
I don't know. It seems like that takes up a lot of card slots for very little synergy.
Consider this:
- Does Smeagol reward us *for* stealing lands? No: that's his payoff.
- Does Smeahol reward us for playing Praetors? Not especially.
- Does Realmbreaker care about sacrificing creatures?
- Does Realmbreaker care about how many lands we've stolen?
- How many Praetors would you want to put in this deck *without* Realmbreaker? If you wouldn't put very many, then adding the support for Realmbreaker would eat up card slots that *are* doing all the things that we want to do. I don't think this inclusion would be worth it. What do you think?
A little new to deckbuilding here but why does no one build this commander as an aristocrat style deck? It seems like it would be a good way to build since you are always sacrificing creatures, you have a ton of creatures with the ability to sacrifice, why not tick down people for each creature that dies?
Because Smeagol doesn't ask you to sacrifice *a large number* of creatures. You only get rewards for sacrificing *one* creature per turn, so the other pieces of the deck are included with that rate in mind.
Adding in something like Zulaport Cutthroat would only let it do 1 damage per turn. That's *really* not worth the card slot.
@@aegisgamingofficial2178 Okay I see. That makes a lot more sense actually. Thank you so much for clearing that up.
I'd love to see a Prossh deck ngl
Wouldn't even a tapped dual land be better than Riveteers Overlook or am I missing something?
Edit: I figured out is because of Landfall and Field of the Dead :p
Why do you play just 6 Nazgul while you play Uruk-hai Berseker that is just worse?
Thanks for watching! I love the chance to talk more about these, and this is one of those things that gets cut for time, so here goes.
- It *is* true that Nazgul are strictly better than Uruk-hai berserker...just not in ways that our gameplan really cares about. The 1/1 counters and deathtouch don't do anything to help find our win conditions. Meanwhile, Nazgul are running upwards of $10 apiece, while the berserker is closer to $0.05.
I don't build decks that are budget *focused* as much as they are budget *conscious.* I want to ask "is this $20 card bringing $20 worth of value to my game plan, or can I get 80% of the effect for 20% of the cost with a different card?" This is the case with the Berserker. There's just no reason to spend that $10+ on utility that we're not really using. 6 Nazgul is more than plenty (though, in a world where you don't care about budget at all, you should play more Nazgul).
Hope this answered your question!
@@aegisgamingofficial2178Great answer. Thanks
You need way more spot removal and at least two board wipes in your list, otherwise great video.
This deck is 330 bucks.
That's the price from TCGPlayer as displayed in the moxfield deck editor. The price at the end of the video is from Card Kingdom.
Gravecrawler + phyrexian altar