#thallid soothsayer

[mtg-smash-or-pass]

[haaaaaaaaaaaave-you-met-ted]

Thallid Soothsayer by Jason Engle

[madcat-world]

Thallid Soothsayer - JasonEngle

[15-dollars-and-a-dream]

Abzan Sac Tool Box

@colorguardian10 requested this list a good while back, and after fiddling with it for quite a bit I let it slip my mind. Upon coming back to working on it, I again felt like I was being drug down several different paths and was having trouble deciding which was appropriate. I finally settled on something that looks to generate value off of tool-box style creatures it can sacrifice and loop by reanimating them. There’s definitely more token heavy and sac heavy ways to build this list, but I think this one looks super fun and hope you do too, Color. 

Creatures (26)

1 Elenda, the Dusk Rose 2 Izoni, Thousand-Eyed 2 Jadelight Ranger 2 Knight of Autumn 1 Thallid Soothsayer 4 Llanowar Elves 4 Merfolk Branchwalker 4 Militia Bugler 2 Ravenous Chupacabra 2 Seekers' Squire 2 Whisper, Blood Liturgist  

Spells (11) 

2 Arguel's Blood Fast  2 Cast Down  2 Find // Finality  2 Journey to Eternity  1 Vivien Reid  2 Vraska, Golgari Queen 

Lands (23)

3 Forest   2 Memorial to Folly  4 Overgrown Tomb  3 Sunpetal Grove  3 Swamp  1 Plains  4 Temple Garden  3 Woodland Cemetery 

Militia Bugler hitting pretty much every creature I wanted to include in this deck is one of the main reasons it wound up down this path as opposed to the other options. It just generates loads of value. Whisper is one of our ways to re-use our creatures and does it while placing others in the yard to re-use later. Looping Izoni or Chupacabra or Knight of Autumn even just a couple times can be devastating. Izoni just does everything you’d want a card to be doing in a deck like this.

I just adore this entire cycle of cards that transform into lands. These two are both phenomenal in this list, being relevant both before and after they flip. Blood Fast is very powerful in a lot of matchups, as any deck not pressuring your life total gets punished by you getting to trade it in for cards. Journey is pretty easy to flip, and when we start being able to sac and reanimate cards every turn we should be able to drown our opponents. 

The deck likely sides heavily into removal. Cards like Vraska’s Contempt and Eldest Reborn are solid. I like playing a playset of Duress in any sideboard I can. 

-G

[cyrail]

Thallid Soothsayer by JasonEngle

Featured on Cyrail: Inspiring artworks that make your day better

[markrosewater]

Does black no longer have "defensive" P/T combinations with a higher toughness than power? In Dominaria there is only one common black creature (Calico Skin-Witch) and one uncommon (Thallid Soothsayer) with such stats. Also you mentioned that Yargle's P/T is in color-pie for black, which I thought it was no longer really now (to make red creatures and black creatures more different).

Black still gets high toughness. Black’s P/T identity has been the topic of a Color Pie Council meeting. We haven’t reached an outcome yet.

[edh-a-to-z]

Dominaria - Black

From Blue to Black, let’s see what the Cabal has for it’s loyal followers!

My Top 3 picks:

Cast Down

Grade: A-

Home: Any Black Deck

Range: Very Wide

Like Doom Blade and Go for the Throat before it, Cast Down joins the hallowed ranks of 1B conditional (but not really) instant removal spells.

Grab 7 of these. 

Phyrexian Scriptures

Ugh, someone got blood all over my alter. It’ll never wash out.

Grade: B+

Home: GY Hate, Artifact Decks

Range: Wide

We’ve got it all - Artifact conversion (haven’t seen that since Ashnod’s Transmorgant), Board Wipe, and GY hate, in three easy turns. One of the most interesting mythics we’ve seen thus far. Even with the weakness of Saga’s - people seeing them coming - most players welcome a board wipe every now and then, so unless this gets taken out the round it comes down, BOOM, new board.

And we’ve got a lovely Phi symbol sneaking in the background. Wonder how that infected artifact plane is doing...

Yawgmoth’s Vile Offering

Grade: B

Home: GY Decks, Any Black deck

Range: Wide

Unfortunately, due to the order of effects, you can’t kill something and steal it, but that’s hardly something to worry about. The Legendary hoop of these Sorceries is more worrying to me.

Killing something is worth 2 mana at Sorc Speed in black, and Resurrection without downsides is probably worth 3-4 mana. Entwining the effects is probably worth another 1 mana, so this is a pretty fair card given it needs a Legendary and Exiles itself. Any deck can use it well, but Entomb decks use it more reliably, and I love reliability over anything else.

Blessing of Belzenlok

Grade: F

Home: N/A

Range: N/A

I miss Unholy Strength now. Combat trick version is just bad.

Cabal Evangel

Grade: D-

Home: Cleric Tribal

Range: Very Narrow

Bog-standard Limited filler.

Sweet flavor, for those followers of Belzenlok reading this.

Cabal Paladin

Grade: C

Home: Artifact Combo

Range: Very Narrow

Can combo infinite to take out Hexproofed opponents. Mirran Spy, Banishing Knack/Retraction Helix, cheerio artifact. But there’s other options out there that are easier, or more brutal. 

Caligo Skin-Witch

Grade: D-

Home: Discard

Range: Very Narrow

2 mana for garbage, or 6 mana for “everyone else discard 2.” Solid potential in discard, but I think Dark Deal and Unnerve do a better job, as the body is lame.

Chainer’s Torment

Grade: C-

Home: LG Deck

Range: Narrow

Mild damage.

Mild damage.

Giant monster.

Do it for the meme.

Dark Bargain

Dormammu. I come to bargain.

Grade: C

Home: Any black deck, GY deck

Range: Wide

Few black Instants involve drawing, and they’re usually like Altar’s Reap. This card lets you choose the best two out of three, for double the mana. Instead of a sac, you take 2 damage, but who cares!

Landing something in the GY can work to your benefit, drawing 2 is nice. It’s like a cousin of Ambition’s Cost at instant.

Deathbloom Thallid

Grade: D-

Home: Fungus/Saproling Tribal, 

Range: Narrow

Body’s skinny for a 3 drop, feels like a Penumbra creature balanced for today. A three drop should probably be more than just slightly underpowered and sticky.

Demonic Vigor

Grade: C-

Home: Death Triggers?

Range: Narrow

Nice little cheap recursion, a passable usable Aura. Nice commander tax dodge, if that’s a problem.

Divest

Grade: F+

Home: Discard?

Range: Very Narrow

Another cousin of Duress. I’ve always had a fondness for B Sorcery discard spells, they’ve always had a flavorful effect of “mind ripping” that Black Mages seem fond of.

That said, this is garbage, even in the worst Creature/Artifact meta. 

Dread Shade

Grade: D

Home: MonoBlack Swamp Ramp

Range: Very Narrow

A shade?

I actually like Shades, but they never do well in EDH. Play one on Turn X, pump it with X+1 mana next turn, and wham, tons of damage. Suffers like most of the CCC cycle (like the damn Blue Djinn) with the EDH scaling problem.

Drudge Sentinels

Grade: F

Home: N/A

Range: N/A

Ah, Drudge Skeletons, this is what has become of you.

Brutally overcosted in CMC and ability cost. A sorry successor to an Iconic card of Magic’s history.

Eviscerate

Grade: F

Home: N/A

Range: N/A

Never thought I’d miss Murder. Limited and Standard has been controlling the removal introduced to the game - reasonable, given the game has been going on 25 years of slow power creep.

Unfortunately, it’s useless for our purposes.

Feral Abomination

Grade: D+

Home: Any Black Deck

Range: Very Wide

Fatties above 4 power don’t really need deathtouch - they should be able to kill things with raw size. With that said, I’m not complaining. This guy is big enough to stomp any small stuff, as well as remain a threat to a 30/30 creature.

But at the same CMC, look instead to Grave Titan, Harvester of Souls, Soul of Innistrad, Sidisi Undead Vizier or Hythonia the Cruel, all around better choices.

Final Parting

Buckle up kids, we’re going on a feels trip.

Grade: C

Home: Any Black Deck, GY decks

Range: Wide

Entomb stitched to Diabolic Tutor could only have a home in EDH. Solid workhorse of a card, if not a spectacular. 

Fungal Infection

Grade: F+

Home: Saproling Tribal

Range: Very Narrow

Saproling Tribal’s equivalent of Darkblast. Feels like something out of Lorwyn block.

Knight of Malice

♪ Fighting hard, fighting on for the steel / Through the wastelands evermore ♪

Grade: D

Home: Knight Tribal, Anti White

Range: Narrow

Black Knight rides again.

Hexproof is the new Protection, making it way easier to understand. Ironically, the two knights can now trade instead of being unable to fight each other. Ah, time marches on.

Lich’s Mastery

Grade: B

Home: Horcrux.dec, Pillowfort Deck, Combo Deck, Token Deck, LG deck

Range: Average

Good luck killing me now Harry, I have another Horcrux!

I just wanna make a trolling deck that’s impossible to kill, just more and more Lich spells.

A good option to keep yourself alive for another turn or two, especially if you have a GY or tokens to feed it. 

LG makes good use of going from this into combo, but there’s a non-zero chance of drawing yourself out with Beacon and the like, so count your cards.

Lingering Phantom

Grade: D

Home: Historic. Recursion

Range: Narrow

While self recurring spells are nice, this offers a poorly priced body, with cheap recursion. Much like Deathless Ancient of recent Ixalan block, it depends on the deck. Might have nominal usage in decks that need something to discard constantly.

Repeatable discard or playable creature is interesting, but not that powerful. I think I’ll stick with Reassembling Skeleton or Sanitarium Skeleton for my self-recurring needs, as they have less activation hoops to jump through.

Rat Colony

Grade: C+

Home: Rat Tribal, Whatever Relentless does

Range: Narrow

Relentless Rats, except top heavy and cheap!

Get 20 of them if they end up cheaper than Relentless (which is still <$2).

For everyone else, grab a Tsavo’s Decree or Kindred Dominance to do something about all these darn rats.

Rite of Belzenlok

Grade: D+

Home: Demon Tribal, Sac Effects

Range: Very Narrow

Make your own Lord of the Pit. Nice to have Clerics for saccing to anything you need, and while a 6/6 Flying Trampler is nice, 6 damage to the face isn’t nearly as bad here as it is in any other format.

The real problem is how bloody slow it is, and the possibility that a turn 6 demon isn’t big enough to be worth it.

Settle the Score

Grade: C-

Home: Black Superfriends (Atraxa?)

Range: Very Narrow

Unexpected PW synergy from Black.

And it’s like a hundred time better than Impale at the same cost. Everyone can use exile removal, sorc sucks but is workable.

Soul Savage

Grade: D-

Home: Any Black Deck

Range: Very Wide

Kinda feels like Death’s Duet.

I’d recommend Death Denied instead, it’s instant, and can scale like crazy. I think it works in most EDH decks instead.

Stronghold Confessor

Confessor? That’s what they’re called now?

Grade: D-

Home: Any Black Deck, Piracy

Range: Wide

Meh as a 1 drop, meh as a 4 drop.

Menace and counters don’t make it that useful.

Thallid Omnivore

Grade: D-

Home: Tokens, Sac Deck

Range: Average

Man, fungi love killing their buddies.

It does a Blood Bairn impression, assuming you’re willing to pay. Still, paying for sacrifices that only have temporary benefits? Meh.

Thallid Soothsayer

Grade: D

Home: Sac Decks, Token Decks

Range: Average

WOOHOO a Thallid!

For all 80 of you playing Fungi tribal, it’s an alternate for Carnage Altar.

The Eldest Reborn

Grade: B-

Home: Black Goodstuff, Discard decks, Res/steal decks

Range: Average

Pact. Discard. Steal

Fun saga. CMC’s a pain, but immediate removal helps, and it scales well to EDH.

Vicious Offering

Grade: B-

Home: Sac Decks

Range: Wide

A nice removal with an option. Simple card that’ll probably be in a sac-oriented Commander deck one day.

Windgrace Acolyte

Grade: F

Home: N/A

Range: N/A

Holy hannah, a mono black good guy? That fights the Cabal! Wow!

Filling your yard is better than milling, nominal lifegain is okay, and the body is pathetic. Filler.

See ya soon campers!

Found an image for Monoblack campfire! It’s all the rage in Demon Vogue!

[loreleywrites]

Do you think that Dominaria confirms that Thallids are just mimicking other lifeforms rather than being truly intelligent? Such as thallid Soothsayer just mimicking the cabals blood rituals.

Not at all. Humans mimic things and are plenty intelligent. We’ve known since Fallen Empires that the thallids are a civilization of sapient creatures.

[mirapunk]

ya know what I was gonna wait to post this but let’s do it now

so uh I fuckin 3-0ed with this ridiculous thing (only lost one game). was already drafting a p sweet abzan deck and then pack 3, there he was: Teferi. and I couldn’t resist giving him a chance in this deck. only cast him twice tonight but he was fuckin amazing both times so it was a good choice

list below cut

lands: Forest x6, Plains x5, Swamp x4, Island x2

green cards: Ancient Animus, Broken Bond, Saproling Migration, Grow from the Ashes, Yavimaya Sapherd, Wild Onslaught, Mammoth Spider x2

white cards: Healing Grace, Adamant Will, Sergeant-at-Arms, Pegasus Courser, Baird Steward of Argive, Blessed Light

black cards: Fungal Infection, Caligo Skin-Witch, Thallid Soothsayer

blue card: Cloudreader Sphinx

colorless cards: Bloodtallow Candle, Skittering Surveyor

multi-color cards: Shanna Sisay’s Legacy, Slimefoot the Stowaway, Teferi Hero of Dominaria

[kingofincoherencymtg]

Friday Night Magic

Tried out a new store. Sadly, they were so new that they didn’t have the draft weekend promo. Also, rather than drafting something new, I went with the exact same 3 colors as my prerelease deck.

Went 2-0 against a White/Blue weenie deck

Then went 1-2 against another White/Blue, this one with larger creature and more removal

And finished with 2-0 against a Black sacrifice deck

Decklist for those interested

//Lands 6 Forest 1 Memorial to Folly 1 Memorial to Glory 1 Memorial to Unity 4 Plains 4 Swamp

//Spells 1 Ancient Animus 1 Blessed Light 1 Chainer's Torment 1 Gift of Growth 2 Icy Manipulator 1 On Serra's Wings 1 Saproling Migration 1 Spore Swarm 1 Triumph of Gerrard 1 Vicious Offering 1 Yawgmoth's Vile Offering

//Creatures 1 D'Avenant Trapper 1 Daring Archaeologist 1 Grunn, the Lonely King 1 Skittering Surveyor 1 Thallid Soothsayer 1 Untamed Kavu 2 Urgoros, the Empty One 1 Voltaic Servant 1 Windgrace Acolyte 1 Yavimaya Sapherd

[mtgbracket]

Round of 8192 - Batch 94

You can now vote in Batch 94!

Currently open batches:

Batch 94 Batch 93 Batch 92 Batch 91 Batch 90 Batch 89 Batch 88

Batch 87 results will be up shortly.

Feature card: Very much in the race for the best Invitational card of all, Bob Maher’s Dark Confidant has an easy matchup this round but deserves to go very far!

Full list of matchups:

Redirect vs Fathom Seer Tajic, Blade of the Legion vs Xathrid Demon Angelic Benediction vs Sprouting Phytohydra Galvanic Key vs Entrails Feaster Kraul Warrior vs Orim's Chant Metallurgic Summonings vs Illuminate Korlash, Heir to Blackblade vs Supply-Line Cranes Curse of Stalked Prey vs Ulamog's Nullifier Thoughtweft Gambit vs Into the Wilds Kagemaro, First to Suffer vs Mesa Pegasus Graceful Adept vs Dawn to Dusk Bringer of the Red Dawn vs Vault of the Archangel Emperor Crocodile vs Crown of Convergence Always Watching vs Lead the Stampede Rith, the Awakener vs Goatnapper Morselhoarder vs Coiling Oracle Pulmonic Sliver vs Blood-Cursed Knight Karplusan Strider vs Intimidation Bolt Necroskitter vs Azorius Chancery Skullbriar, the Walking Grave vs Child of Gaea Resounding Thunder vs Impact Resonance Bloodbriar vs Grizzled Angler Feral Thallid vs Sigil Tracer Sultai Ascendancy vs Akki Drillmaster Carrion Feeder vs Lion's Eye Diamond Dark Confidant vs Harvest Hand Gift of the Deity vs Nimbus Swimmer Melt Terrain vs Tower Defense Shape Anew vs Megantic Sliver Sultai Soothsayer vs Celestial Mantle Guerrilla Tactics vs Jump Fetid Imp vs Serra's Embrace

[mtgbracket]

Round of 8192 - Batch 94 results

655 Bracketeers voted in Batch 94, and 10.48m votes have now been cast.

Visual results are here and today’s results are:

Dark Confidant defeats Harvest Hand with 93.42% of the vote Coiling Oracle defeats Morselhoarder with 92.14% of the vote Orim's Chant defeats Kraul Warrior with 90.60% of the vote Sultai Ascendancy defeats Akki Drillmaster with 86.19% of the vote

Korlash, Heir to Blackblade defeats Supply-Line Cranes with 85.85% of the vote Intimidation Bolt defeats Karplusan Strider with 84.94% of the vote Metallurgic Summonings defeats Illuminate with 81.42% of the vote Skullbriar, the Walking Grave defeats Child of Gaea with 81.13% of the vote

Sigil Tracer defeats Feral Thallid with 80.47% of the vote Always Watching defeats Lead the Stampede with 78.25% of the vote Kagemaro, First to Suffer defeats Mesa Pegasus with 76.37% of the vote Lion's Eye Diamond defeats Carrion Feeder with 75.43% of the vote

Guerrilla Tactics defeats Jump with 74.29% of the vote Serra's Embrace defeats Fetid Imp with 69.49% of the vote Into the Wilds defeats Thoughtweft Gambit with 69.17% of the vote Vault of the Archangel defeats Bringer of the Red Dawn with 68.07% of the vote

Sprouting Phytohydra defeats Angelic Benediction with 67.13% of the vote Celestial Mantle defeats Sultai Soothsayer with 65.88% of the vote Tower Defense defeats Melt Terrain with 65.65% of the vote Necroskitter defeats Azorius Chancery with 65.52% of the vote

Grizzled Angler defeats Bloodbriar with 64.83% of the vote Tajic, Blade of the Legion defeats Xathrid Demon with 60.15% of the vote Redirect defeats Fathom Seer with 60.09% of the vote Rith, the Awakener defeats Goatnapper with 57.25% of the vote

Nimbus Swimmer defeats Gift of the Deity with 57.03% of the vote Crown of Convergence defeats Emperor Crocodile with 55.78% of the vote Shape Anew defeats Megantic Sliver with 54.69% of the vote Impact Resonance defeats Resounding Thunder with 54.62% of the vote

Curse of Stalked Prey defeats Ulamog's Nullifier with 52.95% of the vote Galvanic Key defeats Entrails Feaster with 52.88% of the vote Pulmonic Sliver defeats Blood-Cursed Knight with 50.79% of the vote Graceful Adept defeats Dawn to Dusk with 50.08% of the vote

Full results to date can be seen here.

[kingofincoherencymtg]

Magic Draft

It was fun, I repeatedly summoned the dragon I drafted around.

I finished 4th of 5

I remember nothing else.

Decklist for those interested

//Lands 7 Forest 2 Mountain 8 Swamp

//Spells 1 Grow from the Ashes 2 Powerstone Shard

//Creatures 2 Cabal Paladin 1 Caligo Skin-Witch 1 Darigaaz Reincarnated 1 Guardians of Koilos 1 Howling Golem 1 Krosan Druid 2 Llanowar Elves 1 Rat Colony 2 Sporecrown Thallid 2 Stronghold Confessor 1 Thallid Omnivore 2 Thallid Soothsayer 1 Thorn Elemental 1 Warcry Phoenix 1 Whisper, Blood Liturgist