Skittering Skirge
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Legality

Format Legality
1v1 Commander Legal
Archenemy Legal
Canadian Highlander Legal
Casual Legal
Commander / EDH Legal
Commander: Rule 0 Legal
Custom Legal
Duel Commander Legal
Highlander Legal
Legacy Legal
Leviathan Legal
Limited Legal
Oathbreaker Legal
Pauper Legal
Pauper Duel Commander Legal
Planechase Legal
Premodern Legal
Quest Magic Legal
Tiny Leaders Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

Skittering Skirge

Creature — Imp

Flying

When you cast a creature spell, sacrifice Skittering Skirge.

SufferFromEDHD on Suicide

3 months ago

Frightcrawler solid forgotten common.

Skittering Skirge is Wretched Anurid crossed with Delver of Secrets  Flip

Culling the Weak on theme ramp.

Demonic Appetite on theme pump.

Mortlocke on New hubs to be added

2 years ago

Hello legendofa,

I propose a new hub to be added: Phyrexian. During Modern Horizons 2, 225 creatures were retconned into having the Phyrexian creature subtype to join Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider . Additionally, there were a smattering of Enchantments, Artifacts and etc that ether have the Phyrexian subtype or create creature tokens that do. Thanks to this retcon I now have a deck that has a Phyrexian tribal theme. For your reference, below is a full list of spells that were affected by WotC's Phyrexian errata.

Source: https://mtg.fandom.com/wiki/Phyrexian

mal099 on Death in the Shadows

5 years ago

Wow, thanks for all the work you're putting into improving my deck, really appreciate it!

I haven't really seen those problems you had with Phyresis and Skittering Skirge , which might be due to different playstyles. This deck is made to be completely reckless, to win before the opponent can play removals, and it rewards a similarly reckless playstyle. So you're not supposed to play more than one creature unless there's nothing else to play, so the Skirge's negative ability or the different "life totals" tend to not be an issue. It can sometimes happen, but for Phyresis, I think the tradeoff is worth it, as you can generally win in just two attacks. I somewhat agree on the Skirge though, it is pretty much my least favorite card in the deck. I actually lost my first real game with this deck due to it, since it can be blocked. I like your point about having creatures with a different way of being hard to block, and will be replacing some of them with Highborn Ghoul . I don't like Guul Draz Vampire as it isn't unblockable early on, and Stronghold Confessor is easy to block later. They make more sense in your version of the deck of course, since you use instants and it doesn't hurt as much to switch from one to the other. Could benefit from equipments too, actually.

I considered sorceries/instants, but feel like they just reduce speed too much. Still, a few of them might work? I'm especially partial to Unnatural Endurance which you put in the Maybeboard, as it can additionally be used to save one of my creatures. The question is, is it better than Thrull Retainer ? I think it might be, but it's really close.

Vampire's Bite is also nice, but I think I really want to keep the number of sorceries/instants low. I do think your version of this deck is pretty nice, sacrificing some speed for long term viability, but it would probably benefit from keeping at least 50% of the buffs enchantments. It would also suffer against other very fast decks, so at least some defense would probably be good? Although the sideboard can still deal with that, without much change.

Another thing I'm considering is to put one more Gitaxian Probe in there, and even two Street Wraith . Basically enables me to take out some of the lesser cards, without costing Mana or taking up space in my hand. They cost life, of course... but I guess recklessly using life as a resource for tiny gains is just my playstyle. Might be a bad idea, but it's fun.

HalbrechtHalbrecht on Death in the Shadows

5 years ago

What you said about Endless Scream and Dauthi Mercenary makes sense. Even as I typed that up, I was thinking you might never get to the late game. But sometimes it's hard to tell just by looking at a deck.

After further contemplating the deck, and doing some actual playtests with it, I have a couple further thoughts that might be worth considering:


First, I feel like the inclusion of Infect might be dividing the focus of the deck, if ever so subtly. Several times in playtests, I'd have 2-3 creatures in play but only one with Phyresis, causing them to hit two different "life" totals (effectively). It was further complicated when I had a Rite of Consumption in hand, as it made sense to put the enchantment buffs on the Infect creature, but that also made the Rite pointless.

So I tried focusing more on Infect, to ensure all creatures I controlled would deal Infect damage, but the only other pauper card that grants it is Tainted Strike . Also, sometimes I'd have only one creature but redundant sources of Infect (the only consolation being the +1 poison from Tainted Strike). Ultimately, I just tried cutting Infect entirely and focusing solely on normal damage, which I personally preferred.


Second, have you considered going with instant/sorcery buffs rather than enchantment buffs? Obviously, voltron can be very powerful when it works, but enchantment-based voltron is hurt a lot more by removal. You seemed to imply that you run into a lot of removal when you said "the opponent has probably removed enough creatures that it's almost impossible to get back into the game".

Going with instants and sorceries presents less optimal targets to your opponent, it usually gives you the same power boost for 1 less mana, and adding in a little card draw gives some resilience to the deck. Basically, you sacrifice a turn or two, but you also can keep the steam going a little longer.


I copied your deck and tinkered with it this afternoon, doing both of the above things. Here's what I came up with:

I playtested it quite a bit, as well as your original version. Although it can't get the turn 3 wins yours can, it will consistently win by turn 4-5. I'll keep my version up for a while, in case you want to play around with it a bit on T/O and see how it compares in your eyes.

I removed Rite of Consumption as it no longer worked as well without permanent buffs. In its place I added card draw.

I also never liked Skittering Skirge any time I had it in hand. It was always a disappointing play for me. In its place, I tried several low-mana evasion creatures, like Guul Draz Vampire and Stronghold Confessor . I found that the former "auto-scales" better for both early- and mid-game, whereas the latter is only good on turn 4 if you actually cast it that turn. But they have different types of evasion, which may make a big difference.