Welcome back! Today we will take a look at an offbeat deck that is near and dear to my heart. This deck filled with oodles of little creatures can really pack a punch once your combo hits, dropping nearly 30 damage in one turn. I was inspired to make a budget Modern version of this deck after seeing the Standard version played by Kevin Crimin of roguedeckbuilder.com. A non-budget version could easily run copies of Snapcaster Mage.

Playing the Deck

Immortal Servitude has a very simple strategy but is mildly complicated to play. The object of the deck is to fill your graveyard full of two casting cost creatures, bring them back into play with Immortal Servitude and sacrifice them with Bloodthrone Vampire. In doing so, the resulting damage from multiple Blood Artists can instantly kill any opponent at a reasonable amount of life. Let’s take a step by step look at what makes this deck go.

Looking for Lands

The first steps to this deck is fishing for the lands you need to cast Immortal Servitude. Not only are there cards that dig for necessary lands, they also help fill your graveyard for it’s final Immortal Servitude cast and resulting blast of damage.

4x Satyr Wayfinder

This creature helps dig for land as well as fill the graveyard. A grade A asset to this deck that should be played often early.

3x Coiling Oracle

This little guy fuels U/G budget decks everywhere. He nets you at the very wost a free draw in this deck, at best the land you desperately need as well as a chump blocker.

3x Grisly Salvage

This instant is a great digging spell and should be cast as soon as reasonably possible. Take a Saytr Wayfinder over a land since you will net a creature as well as the land from a later Wayfinder Cast.

Filling Your Graveyard

These additional cards are used to fill your graveyard as quickly as possible. Cast them as needed.

3x Golgari Thug

If you want a graveyard filled, this is the man. coming from your hand, the Thug turns into a chump blocker that pops one of your land digging creatures back to the top of your deck or even Dredge him back to the top of your deck for another cast, filling your graveyard yet again. Beware, milling your deck can also put an Immortal Servitude into the graveyard, which is hard to cast from there but we will get into that later.

2x Lotleth Troll

This is a sneaky way to toss creatures into your graveyard when all else fails. Discarding a creature boosts this troll up +1/+1. It’s not the best way to fill the pits but he gets the job done in a pinch.

3x Forbidden Alchemy

This is a great spell for this deck. It can be cast from not only your hand but your graveyard as well. It digs deeper than other spells and can nab the most important spell of the deck, Immortal Servitude.

Supporting Cast

2x Alchemist’s Apprentice

This Apprentice can be used as a chump block and net you an additional card draw. I took this over Elvish Visionary to even out the blue to green spell ratio since I needed Forbidden Alchemy and Coiling Oracle.

3x Perilous Myr

Not only can this little fella chump block, he deals an additional two damage, possibly killing a problem creature your opponent controls. This damage may make or break giving you the time you need to get the combo going or slow your opponent’s attacks as they consider the potential of you using the Myr as a blocker.

2x Skirsdag High Priest

This guy is a lightning rod. Plain and simple. Once this Priest hits the field, players tend to either question the play, seem baffled or go into full on fear mode and drawing a removal spell from their hand. On the rare occasion that you are able to summon a demon with it, go for it. The additional pressure and damage is always appreciated.

2x Noxious Revival

This card is in this deck for one reason. To place an errant Immortal Servitude from the graveyard to the top of your deck. Sometimes when this deck mills itself too hard you may find your four copies of Immortal Servitude in the graveyard. Noxious Revival is your second chance.

The Combo

4x Immortal Servitude

This card is the lighter that starts the dynamite. Casting this spell with a full graveyard pulls out massive ammounts of two casting cost creature, which your deck is full of. Casting this spell requires some alertness since not having the two following creatures in the graveyard make the spell pretty pointless.

3x Bloodthrone Vampire

If Immortal Servitude is the lighter, this Vampire is the wick to the dynamite. This creature is your sacrifice outlet to deal massive amounts of damage with…

4x Blood Artist

The dynamite. When in play each dead creature nets you one life as well as one damage. Put two in play and deal twice the damage. Three? Even better! This guy can keep you in a game for multiple turns just by chmp blocking with creatures you want in your graveyard anyway. The game ending combo requires a well timed Immortal Servitude, bringing out multiple creatures. Blood Artists and a Bloodthrone Vampire make that resulting lethal damage from sacrificing the newly brought into play creatures. Game over.

This deck is obviously a one trick pony. If Immortal Servitude is countered you may have a hard time recovering. I have won before after one countered cast of the spell but not two. This deck can also survive an emergency cast of Immortal Servitude just to get some creatures in play for blocking assistance, then casting again later for the kill once your graveyard holds the necessary combo creatures.

I rank this as a strong kitchen table contender or a fun deck to make peoples heads scratch in tournament play. It’s definitely a few steps behind Tier 1 Modern decks because of the time needed to prop up the combo but it can snag a win from baffled opponents.

The Budget decklist can be found here and can be made for just over $60. It requires a bit of practice to learn it’s timing but once you master it you will have a great time playing it. See you next week!

Aiokii wished he kept records of the amount of creatures that have been put in his graveyard over the years. The 1 millionth visitor would had received a box of Rice-a-roni as a parting gift. Contact him at https://twitter.com/TheAiokii , Facebook https://www.facebook.com/thepaperchampionblog or post in the comments below. Check out http://www.reddit.com/r/budgetdecks/, for Magic: The Gathering on a budget discussion.