Undercity's Embrace

Instant

Target opponent sacrifices a creature. If you control a creature with power 4 or greater, you gain 4 life.

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Arena	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Gladiator	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Historic	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Pauper	Legal
Pauper Duel Commander	Legal
Pauper EDH	Legal
Pioneer	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (3)

Ouroboros_47 on Rakdos control demons 2.1

5 years ago

I honestly would try to make the deck more control focused in the early game and then switch to beating them to death with your flying demons with trample later in the game. So this would mean having cards like Moment of Craving , Lava Coil , Bedeck / Bedazzle , Ritual of Soot , Golden Demise , Vraska's Contempt , and Bedevil to keep the opponents board under control. Cards like Scorchmark , Bladebrand , and Undercity's Embrace are not the cards you are going to want to use because, well quite frankly they aren't very good. Bladebrand is effectively a 2 for 1 trade for an opponent's creature at the cost of your own. Sure it draws you a card but you used 2 cards when one would suffice. Do you want card draw or removal? Scorchmark is just a worse Lava Coil . Undercity's Embrace can be alright but The Eldest Reborn is just better. Sure embrace can be used earlier but what do you need to kill early on that requires the opponent to sacrifice it? Carnage Tyrant ? Well, that doesn't typically come out on turn three anyways and if it does they've got 3 other creatures to choose from. Bedevil is just a better 3 mana kill spell to put in this spot.

Sorry if that sounded mean/ranty but I really didn't mean it to be, I just think that there are better choices to be made then the ones that are currently in the deck. I'm glad someone is trying to do a demon deck as I want to do the same, but sadly there just doesn't seem to be enough out there for a tried and true demons focused creature deck. At least in my opinion. I hope this was at least somewhat helpful.

Brimstone on

5 years ago

I looked at the Orzhov deck and I think that Teysa Karlov is the key to making it work if you want to use sacrafice effects to make it worth it. Until she is in play, killing your own creatures for bonus effects, even when you are getting afterlife triggers, will usually leave you behind because you wont have much card draw. I would focus mostly on cheap creatures with afterlife, and avoid creatures that force you to sacrifice to get good value out of them.

-[Creatures]-

I don't really like the value added by Basilica Bell-Haunt , Forbidding Spirit , or Grasping Thrull . Similarly Knight of Sorrows and Orzhov Racketeers seem a little too expensive to be worth their stats/afterlife triggers. I also think that Knight of the Last Breath is too expensive and his sacrafice ability is expensive and specific to non token creatures, but it might be worth running 1 of him as a late game way to blow up all of your afterlife creatures once you have a Teysa Karlov and Vindictive Vampire in play. The Teysa Karlov + Vindictive Vampire combo is probably your best bet to win late game by giving you enough of a lead to finish them off with your 1/1 fliers. If you have a Teysa Karlov and one (or more) Vindictive Vampire s in play, don't be afraid to use a Kaya's Wrath This will do a bunch of damage, and boardwipe the enemies armies while leaving you with all of your doubled afterlife triggers.

As for which creatures I think are pretty good, you will need to play around with deciding between all of the low cost afterlifeers Imperious Oligarch , Ministrant of Obligation , Orzhov Enforcer , and Tithe Taker all look pretty good. Syndicate Messenger is a little more expensive but is a solid flyer and Seraph of the Scales looks great, my only concern is that they would be in the same mana cost as both Teysa Karlov and Vindictive Vampire . Twilight Panther , Syndicate Guildmage , Pitiless Pontiff and Impassioned Orator all seem a little underwhelming to me.

Hero of Precinct One could be useful but only if you run mostly multicolored spells and that might not be worth it to aid this single card. Resolute Watchdog might be a good sideboard in case the enemy continues to kill off your Teysa/Vindictives. Priest of Forgotten Gods seems like she is part of a combo in an edh deck, just waiting to happen, but if you run a ton of low cost afterlife creatures, which you are, she might work great. Ideally she would kill two of your creatures right after they block or are blocked, and then draw you a new creature!

-[Instants]-

Bladebrand seems like a fun way to punsh the other player for blocking one of your small attackers, I think if used well it will add a lot of value to your little attackers, making the enemy afraid to block them. I would opt for Mortify over Final Payment or Expose to Daylight but sideboard the daylights for pesky artifacts. Undercity's Embrace lets the enemy decide what they sac, and you will basically never meet the requirement to get the extra health, so it isn't very good unless like hexproof becomes a problem? I am not sure about Grotesque Demise and Summary Judgment I feel like judgement is cheeper and will deal with most low cost creatures and may handle some bigger ones, so I would opt for that, but Grotesque will help with creatures that have afterlife, if you are running against a mirror. With our play group, you most likely wont be.

-[Enchantments]-

Ethereal Absolution too expensive, only sideboard in if somehow you are losing to late game 1/1 creatures or if late game your afterlife creatures are just too weak to finish the enemy, my guess is that it's not going to help much in time. Ill-Gotten Inheritance too in single player and in multiplayer makes you a huge target. If you find in multiplayer games that late game you are widdling away at people but cant ever find a way to attack, this might work. My guess is that Kaya's Wrath / Priest of Forgotten Gods + Vindictive Vampire would do better.

-[Sorceries]-

With your life gain, recursion, and death trigger effects, I feel like Kaya's Wrath will often leave you in better shape than it will others. I would run 4 of them however you also need to be careful. If you boardwipe with little or no cards in your hand, other decks will probably rebuild more quickly than you can. Instead, if you are planning a boardwipe, save a few good creatures in your hand, even if it means taking damage for a round or two, then boardwipe. I wish Bankrupt in Blood was instant speed, but running a few might be a good idea to help you recover your handsize after boardwipes. Mortify is better than Bring to Trial unless you are having troubles with enemy enter the grave effects, or idestructable. Could be a sideboard card. Consecrate / Consume is iffy. If you are having troubles with big mean creatures it's a nice card. You could take a hit from the creature for 1 round, then kill it and gain back that life. The ability to use it to draw a card instead id alright, but not great. Revival / Revenge seems pretty fun with this deck. You can use it to get back cheep afterlifers (especially Imperious Oligarch or Orzhov Enforcer ) or, if you draw it late game, you can use it to swing the tide of a game quite a bit.

-[Lands]- This land base looks pretty solid, I would only caution that when running 4x Orzhov Basilica and 4x Orzhov Guildgate you risk getting caught with a very slow start, which is sad when you have such low cost creatures. Ideally you would want to play a Guildgate rnd1, a basic land rnd2, tap for a 2 cost creature, then on turn three play a second 2 cost creature and then a basilica. So that on turn four you can play a four cost creature.

EastsideRock on OTJ - Grixis Control

5 years ago

Wsup yall! It's been a little while! Here are the cards from RNA that I think will/could make a potential splash in our 75.

Mesmerizing Benthid Although there are many things we can do with 5-mana, I feel like this is a very decent way to somewhat stall the game until we hit those coveted 7-8 lands down.

Cry of the Carnarium To unlcunk the 4CMC slot a little bit that 4x Soot are occupying. Exile clause is good.

Undercity's Embrace I like sac effects a lot, it helps against hexproof stuff and combat tricks. The 4-life gain is also great, reminds me of Foul-Tongue Invocation which I ran for its entire legal-time.

Electrodominance I will absolutely will have to give this INSTANT a try, as I usually do for 2-for-1 value cards like this!...the meta will decide if it sticks or not.

Bedevil This is definitely coming in...DUH! The only question is how many copies. 2-3 feels safe to say.

Macabre Mockery This is the kind of 75th card I would like to try at some point. Could definitely be used against mid-range and other big decks to seal the game out of the blue.

Blood Crypt I'm very confortable with our present manabase but nice to know this is available as well.