Scourge of the Skyclaves has shown its strength in Modern alongside Death's Shadow. The added threat density has renewed its position near the top of the Modern meta, but how good can it be in other formats? Today we'll be brewing in Historic to out Scourge of the Skyclaves to the test. Check out our YouTube channel for a video deck tech.
This list is a blend of what the Rakdos Pyromancer decks are doing, mixed with some of the top end we see in Mono Black decks. The deck plays a ton of cheap creatures and interaction, to help support a powerful top end. This deck is also positioned to take advantage of the module lands from Zendikar Rising better than most decks. We're constantly hitting ourselves and the opponent in the face, but with each hit, we take the stronger we become. Scourge of the Skyclave
The entire deck is built around making this creature work. We're constantly doing the dance if balancing both our life and the opponent's. To help us with this we have burn spells and cheap creatures to deal early damage, and we play other creatures and interaction that damages ourselves. Agadeem's Awakening and Shatterskull Smashing are fantastic in this deck, as we actively want to pay the three life for the land. We'll get into all of the cards in more detail as we move along. Early Aggro
Bomat Courier is an exciting addition from Kaladesh Remastered and it fits right into this deck. As a one drop with haste, it gets in quick to start lowering the opponent's life total and given enough attacks it can sac itself to get us some cards later on once our hand is empty. Soul-Scar Mage works very well with cheap interaction, and we've seen this play out in the Modern versions of the deck. The ability to put -1/-1 counters on creatures instead of damage could also help us manage bigger creatures that we may not be able to answer cleanly. Glint-Sleeve Siphoner is a card I'd consider adding as a two of. Menace works well with our removal spells, and drawing an extra card for one life could help us compete with midrange decks. Interaction and Disruption
The selection of interaction for this deck is amazing. Thoughtseize attacks anything from in the hand and the life loss is an upside in this deck. We have Fatal Push for early interaction, but with Bomat Courier and Fabled Passage, we have a way to easily turn on Revolt to scale in the midgame. Shock is very important to the function of the deck. It can be a Fatal Push when we need it to be, or we can throw it upstairs to start pressuring the opponent's life total. We have plenty of ways to damage ourselves but it is very important to have an easy way to damage the opponent as well. Feed the Swarm allows us to answer almost any creature or enchantment and could make our Scourge massive if the life loss is significant. We're also sneaking in a couple of copies of Spikefield Hazard to helps us against Jund Sacrifice decks and to answer Uro which is still escaping around Historic. Double Duty MVP's
Bonecrusher Giant and Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger double as threats and interaction. Stomp can do the work of a Shock, and then we get a 4/3 beater with a great taxing ability. Kroxa enters the battlefield and forces the opponent to discard a card, and then repeats the process when it escapes back to start attacking. This can be deadly, especially when combined with early Thoughtseize pressure. Kroxa can close out the game as a 6/6 and will start draining the opponent if they are out of cards in hand. These two monsters give the deck a solid backbone and allow us to keep applying pressure. Closers
Both Spawn of Mayhem and Rankle, Master of Pranks have shown their dominance in the Mono Black Aggro decks. Spawn of Mayhem is very robust in this deck as it can Spectacle in for 3 mana, and it manages both our and the opponent's life totals with the upkeep trigger. Once we get to 10 or less life we up the pressure by putting a +1/+1 counter on Spawn every turn. Rankle is a stand-alone threat that can close out the game and can do a lot of things depending on the situation. If we're getting low on cards then we can have each player lose 1 life and draw a card, if we're ahead on board but behind on cards then we can have each player discard, and if we need an edict effect then we can have player sac a creature. Like the Mono Black Aggro decks, we have two copies of Demonic Embrace. Scourge and Embrace can one-shot an opponent depending on the life total management, and it works great with our other threats. Kroxa doesn't mind being pitched to bring Embrace back as we can easily Escape it later. The temptation to run Hazoret, the Fervent is there as it can pitch cards for direct damage and is a hard-to-answer stand-alone threat. Sideboard
Sideboarding with this deck is pretty straight forward. We have a pair of Bloodchief's Thirst to swap with Fatal Push depending on the matchup, and we have we have a Duress for extra hand disruption. We also have Abrade for Tempered Steel decks, and a Bedevil for a catch-all removal spell. Token decks and other go-wide strategies like Goblins are a problem so we have Witch's Vengeance to help cover that. Orzhov Auras is a deck to look out for so I'm thinking Claim the Firstborn will help by allowing us to steal a massive Kor Spiritdancer and send it back at them. Roiling Vortex is an important card against spell-slinging decks, and most importantly shuts down life gain. To finish off we have Ox of Agonas to give the deck some draw power in the grindy matchups.
Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed Rakdos Scourge. Like I mentioned before we have a video deck tech over on our YouTube Channel, so head over there to drop a like and subscribe to show your support. We're also on Twitch Streaming so follow us over there and follow us Instagram to stay up to date with our posting schedules. Lastly, join our Discord if you're looking for a place to hang out and chat about Magic. Thanks again for reading and joining the Fellowship.
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