Overview:
This is a sacrifice-focused deck that uses Gut, True Soul Zealot and Agent of the Iron Throne to create a steady stream of death triggers, generating value and dealing incremental damage to opponents through various payoffs.
Primer:
The deck operates on a sacrifice engine strategy, using the commander pair to generate 4/1 Skeleton tokens while dealing damage to opponents whenever creatures die. The deck includes multiple sacrifice outlets like Altar of Dementia and Witch's Oven, along with death trigger payoffs such as Blood Artist and Mayhem Devil. The strategy is supported by recursive elements like Reassembling Skeleton and token generators.
The gameplay typically involves establishing early sacrifice outlets and payoff pieces, then using Gut's attack trigger to create additional pressure while grinding out value. The deck can win through either combat damage with an army of tokens or through death trigger damage accumulation. Rise of the Dark Realms serves as a potential late-game finisher.
Weaknesses:
The deck is vulnerable to graveyard hate and can struggle against heavy removal, particularly exile effects that prevent recursion. It has limited answers to enchantments and relies heavily on creatures staying on the board to maintain its engine. The deck also has relatively few ways to deal with flying creatures and can be outpaced by faster combo decks.
Most Important Cards:
- Blood Artist
- Pitiless Plunderer
- Mayhem Devil
- Phyrexian Arena
- Bastion of Remembrance
- Chainer, Nightmare Adept
- Oni-Cult Anvil
- Reassembling Skeleton
- Altar of Dementia
- Rise of the Dark Realms
Attribute Ratings:
- Speed: 5/10
- Resilience: 6/10
- Consistency: 6/10
- Interaction: 5/10
Rating Justification:
This deck sits firmly in the optimized casual range, showing more cohesion than a basic precon but lacking the explosive power of higher-tier decks. While it has a clear gameplan and good synergies, the relatively slow speed and limited interaction suite prevent it from competing with more focused builds. The deck typically aims to win around turns 8-10 through incremental advantage, placing it in the 5.0-5.5 range.
Final power level rating: 5.0 - 5.5
The deck shows clear themes and synergies but lacks the fast mana and efficient tutors that would push it into higher power levels. It's well-suited for casual Commander pods where players are looking for interactive games with clear back-and-forth gameplay rather than quick combo wins or lockout strategies.
Gut, True Soul Zealot & Agent of the Iron Throne