Whats up ya’ll? I’m still playing spellslingers and got the itch to show off my favorite and most fun build of Davriel. Hop in for a deck-tech and some games :). And join the discord below to sign up for the 2nd Mythic League Tournament!!! Its gonna be fun and competitive :)

Announcement

Hey everybody and welcome back to the channel, it’s good to see y’all. I know it’s been a minute. I’ve been doing other things in the background took a little break from the game and you know things have magic spell Slingers but before I bring this video to you today just wanted to give a huge shout out that we’re going to be doing the second Mythic league tournament. So, if you’re just looking for some fun and a little bit of competition you just have to go to the Discord, and I’ll put that new link in the description. Go on over there it’s Saturday today and if you can sign up within the next you know 24 hours some of this video gets released you know probably like 20 hours-ish something like that. It’d be great to have you. It should be fun. It should be a bit competitive. They’re in-game prizes as always for our tournaments. If you’re looking for something to do, definitely feel free to join. I wanted to give everyone a heads up about that.

Today I’m just playing in a deck that I’ve been having fun with I did a lot of my Mythic climb from Diamond into Mythic with this deck alongside a couple other ones that I might throw up on the channel just as something fun to do and just to have a moment for anyone who’s been tuning in or followed along.

If you’re new, sorry that there hasn’t been a ton of content. I just haven’t felt as motivated to keep doing the videos each week for the game, but I feel like I’m just going to do them, but I feel like and hopefully it’s educational I’m open to requests. So, feel free to let me know what you think in the comments, and I appreciate all the likes and the subscribes and you know we’re going to still keep stuff going on the channel, it just might not be multiple videos each week. So, I just wanted to be transparent. I appreciate all of y’all’s support and even though I haven’t been putting out much I still see folks tuning into the channel and that always makes me feel connected to the community still.

Other than that, let’s just get into what I think is one of the most fun decks to play and I had said it in <a href= “/2023-04-22-april-tier-list-s-a/”>my tier list video</a> I just think that now that the meta feels very soft. A few other players have said that too right. Garruk is kind of the deck to beat. Serra kind of answers Garrick and is, I think, probably the best control option. Then I really have to give props again to monman for this build. Aside from one or two card changes this is what they ran I think a month ago and were very successful with.

Deck

I think everyone really struggled to find what was the optimal Davriel build, and I really feel like this is it. Just the cheap cars that you have, the way it curves out, the explosive draws that you can have. I really think it’s very competitive and it’s just really fun. There’s just a lot of angles that you can attack your opponent from and it’s really hard for certain matchups to deal with what you’re doing. I think you’ve got some decent matchups into control, aggro and then mid-range kind of always varies. You’re sort of this almost low curve deck that then just has some really heavy hitters with Death’s Shadow or when you kind of run away with the game with unstable mutagen. So, we’ll do a quick Deck Tech and then we’ll just get into some games. Let me know what you think.

So, all the card choices, I think, are very particular and they just work really really well together. You want to think about how this deck is curving out, where is its power. One of its biggest Powers is Westvale Abbey. I don’t think you should be playing any other land. I think this is the best land with this specific Planeswalker. Dealing damage to yourself for Death’s Shadow obviously is synergistic. Getting lifelink off of the Demonic Priests is great and the Demonic Priests these 2/2 tokens they also get stats off of unstable Mutagen. So sometimes in the late game or even in the mid game you get to get these like buffed up lifelink creatures that really help you stabilize after you’ve kind of been burning through your life total to get ahead or to get more card Advantage. I just think that it enables the deck to do some really really crazy stuff and make it a lot more consistent.

So then let’s just go through what I think the curve looks like.

Desperate Prayer Unsummon Anticipate

They all cost two right but because of Davriel’s special ability they cost one less. All of these are technically one mana just like Mana Surge, Takedown and Grudge Match. So technically although you’re not obviously playing these all on turn one you’ve got six spells that cost one Mana and you can have these draws where maybe you start out with a desperate prayer but then the following turn you get to play an infectious Scorpion and Grudge Match something.

“When you have so many different dimensions to really attack your opponent from, that's the marker of a good deck”

Just the fact that you make some of these cards that come down a turn sooner and they’re a little bit cheaper, they really let you maneuver in matchups I think in a really dynamic way, meaning you just have so many other angles of attack from. When you have so many different dimensions to really attack your opponent from, that’s the marker of a good deck. That’s kind of what Garrick does as well with the diverse threats that he has.

Desperate Prayer

Whether you’re starting on turn one with desperate prayer (sometimes you could spike and hit Death’s Shadow which is kind of nice), whenever you gain a bit of life off Desperate Prayer it feels really good. You’re getting to see a card off the top. Gaining a bit of life to help you stabilize, especially in the late game, is really relevant and it costs one mana. It’s just really efficient. Same thing on Unsummon. It definitely has won me several games.

The combination of being able to Unsummon something, maybe Takedown something or Grudge Match or Path to Exile. It’s going to be really hard for your opponent to consider how many spells you can play in one turn. They all get even more powerful when you’re playing Davriel’s Scourge and you have that on the battlefield. There are some games where this card, just played on turn three or four, and the following turn, siphon three or four life and it’s really really hard to overcome. So having these cheap spells obviously empowers Davriel’s Scourge quite a lot.

I would say the same thing with Paincast Demon because this is your premiere thing you want to be playing on turn one and the fact that you can play the demon and take down something and connect for damage or play it Grudge Match. It just really does quite a lot of work. So that’s kind of like your early game package. Trying to get your demon down, trying to dig through your library with Desperate prayer, Anticipate, or Divination or Night’s whisper.

Drain Blood So, we get into the two drops. Drain Blood is a really really important player in the deck. It was a card that we’re like “is it really worth it to run?” and it very much is. The draining is really important, and it helps you stabilize against aggro decks in particular very well. Sometimes you double up, you can kill a four drop with two of them. The fact that you can hit them off of Night’s Whisper, increasing your chance of stabilizing when you need to, is really important. I think Drain Blood does a ton of work.

Dark confident Very similar to how Garruk uses this card, it’s a must block. You don’t want your opponent drawing extra cards. It does two damage to yourself. I’ve always said this about Davriel, you can keep both Death’s Shadows in your hand. When you have them in your opening hand, this card is almost always going to come down on turn four or five. It’s just so easy to enable in a deck that’s dealing this much damage to itself and Dark Confidant is a part of that game plan.

Merchant of death I go back and forth. Would I rather have the 2/3 vampire? Would I rather have the 3/2 that deals two damage. I’m not really sure. I think Merchant of death is still good enough as a two-power card that just blocks something and draws you a card. The most relevant thing, you feel like you’re getting away with something when you’re able to play this, block a 3/2 and draw a card because that’s the purpose. That’s the ideal scenario. Sometimes it’s gonna get killed off. Maybe it absorbed some sort of removal spell or a fight spell. Even if you chump block, it’s not that bad because you’re usually just trying to dig towards your Death’s Shadows,

Infectious scorpion Excellent, Excellent card. The three toughness is really relevant. Having the Fatal Infection, (which you can also get a little bit of life off if you cast It) after you’ve played your Scourge is good. The card advantage of having a 2/3 blocker and then a potential spell to kill something when you don’t really mind taking damage, especially in the early game, is pretty good.

Mana surge Mana Surge I would say this just sets you up for some really explosive turns. The biggest thing is if you’re the player going second and you’ve got Mana Surge and Krav, you can do a turn one Krav. You’ve got the empty Mana Crystal. You use one mana then you go up to four, you play Krav on turn one. Pretty scary! I would say honestly what Mana surge lets you do is have some of these explosive turns with Davriel’s Scourge as well. You get to play that, Mana surge to three, drain blood something, desperate prayer or anticipate. Just being able to do that allows you to really get the engine going. Once you’ve got that engine going it just can be really really difficult to stop.

That’s that’s kind of the early game package. Grudge Match does a ton of work. Path to Exile, because it costs two mana, ends up being pretty good. You really need unconditional removal spells when you’re playing against Garrick because they’ve got big stuff like Krav and Death’s Shadow and it’s just a really good choice for the deck.

Unstable Mutagen There’s not too much to say about unstable mutagen. When you get to play this on turn one or turn two it just feels really good. It just feels like the rest of the game you’re getting extra value on every single creature that you’re playing and sometimes it just makes it so your opponent really can’t beat you. Whether it’s giving a Death’s Shadow sneak or flying, trample, relentless, or even Ward in certain matchups, it’s just really backbreaking. They really can’t deal with it.

Krav Krav obviously is just really powerful creature to be playing.

Flagrant Foul It’s double flagrant foul. I’ve never been disappointed by this, especially in a more mid-range kind of meta with Garruk. Just having unconditional removal spells can be really really important and I think it’s worth having two of these in the deck.

Lightning Helix Just an excellent card. It costs three Mana in the deck. It’s dealing four damage to something and healing you. It’s netting you two life after you resolve it. It’s just one of the most important spells to be running in Davriel.

Kothophed Just another really powerful threat in black that your opponents have to deal with.

Death’s Shadow Shadow

As you’ll see, hopefully in some of these games, there are just some games where it feels like you’re you’re playing a different game when you have death Shadow and you’re running the sort of cards we are.

So, without further ado, let’s just play some games see how it goes!