As soon as I get a bit of time...

Imprisioned in the moon obviously helps with planeswalkers, as does attacking wide and from the air.... I've currently settled on haunted dead as my source of flying pingers... Advanced stitchwing is going to be tested in the same place.

Other tests I'm currently running:

Pore over pages vs from under the floorboards
- straight up card advantage (whilst untapping just enough land to get haunted dead back/trigger the cryptbreaker) vs incremental life gain and bodies (great in a race)

Telling time vs vampiric rites vs altar's reap
- card filtering from a splash colour vs incremental life gain and card draw vs card draw.... The rites and reap provide much needed sac outlets against exile spells that target zombies that you want to get back and as protection from getting all of your tokens wiped by a declaration in stone


Edit: I found some time
Right, here is where I'm at:

Creatures

2x Cryptbreaker
3x Rancid Rats (happy to discard these to Cryptbreaker early game)
1x Lilliana, Heretical Healer
2x Diagraf Colossus (always happy to see this one)
3x Fleshbag Marauder
3x Natuko Husk (incredibly useful for stopping board wipes and exile effects)
2x Prized Amalgan (a 3/3 for isn't bad, happy to discard for a token to Cryptbreaker or to get a dead back from the graveyard
3x Haunted Dead (super useful for bodies, again happy to discard and play from the graveyard, spirit token is surprisingly useful to ping away with or buy time against fliers....can surprise block (the spirit))
1x Gisa and Geraf (excellent at pulling zombies from the graveyard over and over, works well with the Fleshbag )
2x distended Mindbender (not a zombie but a big body and very happy to pull planeswalkers/sweepers/decleration etc etc)

Spells

2x Dark Salvation (it's a kill spell for if cast for more it brings bodies )
1x Altar's Reap (especially useful vs exile effects, hold if you're expecting one; blowout against a decleration of stone targeting your zombie tokens)
2x imprisioned in the moon (removal for planeswalkers and other big bads)
3x Murder
1x Liliana, the last hope (all three modes have been super useful but the ultimate wins games)
2x From under the floorboards (helps keep you alive in a close race whilst providing bodies; you're mostly casting for 3 live and 3 bodies)
1x Jace, Unraveler of secrets (again all three are useful)
1x Ever After

Lands

5x Island
8x Swamp
2x Sunken Hollow
2x Westvale Abbey (one of the decks I've flipped it. The most in, usually the turn after a from under the floorboards)
2x Drowned Catacomb
2x Drownyard temple
4x Submerged Boneyard (these might be better off as 2 Islands and 2 Swamps)

For me this is a water deck, it plays beat down against a slow deck; it blocks and stalls out against faster decks. My usual plan is to hoard land once I've 6 on the field to discard to bring back the haunted dead or to discard to a Cryptbreaker. I've had a lot of fun with it and am still experimenting (still not tried stitch wings in place of the haunted dead)

Hopefully anyone playing has fun and feedback is definitely welcome

Alright, it's janky brew time. I really really like the Emerge mechanic. I want it to be amazing so badly. Unfortunately, in Magic Duels, it's not very good.

...or is it?

...

...

Ok, it's still not. But I've got something that's at least T2 competitive and has some game, so I'm throwing the concept out there to see if anybody can help me refine it while staying true to being the best Emerge deck it can be.


Background:

The reason Emerge is an interesting mechanic is that it's a way to cheat costs and cheat CMC. You get to cast an 8 mana creature without paying 8 mana. This lets you trigger all sorts of fun things like Sanctum of Ugin and Kozilek's Return, while finding it off Conduit of Ruin, etc etc etc. You might notice something those cards all have in common - you can't build a deck around them in duels. The only card we have for that is Emrakul's Influence, which is probably unplayable even in an Emerge deck.

Okay, so we can't take advantage of the CMC of the Emerge creature itself. What about cheating it into play by abusing the target's CMC? Here, duels does provide some tricks! The obvious one is Madness - and our best target would be Twins of Maurer Estate, a 5 CMC card that you can cast for just 3 mana. Allosaurus Rider it isn't, but it's at least something. The trouble is that you need to trigger madness first - and there aren't a lot of free outlets, so you'll probably be paying the remaining two mana to something anyway. Probably not the best way to get ahead on mana - though we might get ahead on value, if we weren't two-for-oneing ourselves. Awkward.

And that's when I thought of the cards that could make this deck tick - Haunted Dead and Advanced Stitchwing, alongside their best buddy Prized Amalgam.

These cards are good for Emerge on multiple levels. Both the returning creatures are 2 mana cheaper than their CMC (and Amalgam is 3 mana cheaper!). When you Emerge them, they go into the yard - and you can get them back! As many times as you need! They're also all respectably playable cards on their own in a graveyard shell, which will reduce the jank level of the deck a little bit.

Everything else is just trying to abuse the shell of recursive CMC reductions and Emerge - without further ado, here's my current list:


It's an Emergency! ()
(Combo)

Engine
4x Take Inventory
2x Oath of Jace
4x Pieces of the Puzzle

Targets
2x Prized Amalgam
3x [] Haunted Dead
2x [] Advanced Stitchwing

Payoffs
2x [] Elder Deep-Fiend
2x [] Distended Mindbender
3x [] Abundant Maw
3x [] Vexing Scuttler

Removal
3x Compelling Deterrence
3x Murder
2x Languish

Lands (25)
5x Island
10x Swamp
4x Evolving Wilds
2x Sunken Hollow
2x Drowned Catacomb
1x Submerged Boneyard
1x Geier Reach Sanitarium


Discussion:

This deck has so much cool stuff going on! With minimal effort, this deck can fill its graveyard, turn on delirium, have madness outlets at will and at instant speed, have zombies on demand for zombies-matter cards, and so much more. The struggle is figuring out which pieces are worth playing and which aren't.


Standouts:

Pieces of the Puzzle - The driving force of the deck. Effectively tutors for removal / engine, while simultaneously putting our targets in the yard and giving us fuel to toss to them. This card does it all, and for a fairly reasonable cost - including often chaining into copies of itself.

Take Inventory - This card has been amazing. You can tutor it with Pieces of the Puzzle (though always dump the first copy in the yard), and then recur it with Vexing Scuttler once you have multiple. This is the fuel of our engine.

Haunted Dead - As early as turn four, you can End of Turn return this from the yard, cast Compelling Deterrence with zombie clause, then untap and Emerge it with mana up to return it again or cast a two mana spell. The CMC and cost to return on this card are perfect, and bringing value with it in the form of a 1/1 flier is even better.

Advanced Stitchwing - The deck does very little without a target, so we need some redundancy; this guy is slightly better than the Ghoulsteed. Importantly, (unless Amalgam is in the yard) he doesn't have an ETB trigger. This means there's no window for the opponent to kill it before you can Emerge it, so use him instead if you suspect they're holding up instant speed removal and really need your Emerge trigger.

Prized Amalgam - Another cute payoff for recurring all our creatures, we get some free 3/3s! Which can then be sacrificed to Emerge all over again. Note that the trigger for returning only goes on the stack at the beginning of the next end step, so if you want it to return on a given turn, you'll need to bring back your Haunted Dead / Advanced Stitchwing before then - probably during the combat step. Takes a little getting used to for those of us who like instant speed effects during end step. Also, seems to be bugged slightly when you have two Amalgams - the first Amalgam's return trigger overwrites the original creature's return trigger, thus delaying the second Amalgam for a turn. This does, however, mean that if you Emerge the first Amalgam in such a situation, the second delayed one will bring them both back.

Languish - With Pieces of the Puzzle and Vexing Scuttler, we can find this card very reliably. It also leaves 7 out of 10 payoffs alive. It's good. Play it.


Options

Wretched Gryff - Feels like the worst Emerge card for our deck. It doesn't provide much more value than the initial creature, we spent three cards (discard two, and the Gryff itself) to get it into play, so drawing a card doesn't put us up, and it dies to Languish. If we want a flier, Stitchwing and Haunted Dead both do that job better. The card is for when you get the value from the sacrifice itself, and we don't.

Drownyard Behemoth - A big dumb idiot with flash and the ability to screw up a combat step because it can't be killed when it enters. Relevant because we get back our targets at instant speed, so this can come out of nowhere. Might want some number of copies in the deck, though I think it's weaker than all our current targets.

Removal - this is a pretty basic removal suite, but it's possible we can do something better here. Whatever we pick needs to be an instant or sorcery, though.

Lands - Uncertain on the value of Geier Reach Sanitarium, but it seems good. Would need more testing to decide if it's better than colored mana (or Drownyard Temple).

Other recursion - Gravedigger and Possessed Skaab are the most obvious choices here, since they can get back an Emerge creature, and then immediately be Emerged. They both feel worse than just playing more Emerge threats, though. Sanitarium Skeleton could provide some (very expensive!) card advantage.

Other shells - we could fairly easily fit in Madness, Delirium, Zombie Payoffs, Sacrifice Payoffs, Creature ETB Payoffs, Creature Death Payoffs, and more. I couldn't find anything better in any of those areas (Scour the Laboratory and Whispers of Emrakul probably being the closest) but I encourage you to check for yourself!


And that's a wrap...

I'd love to have people try out this deck and see what we can turn it in to. It's probably never going to be the best deck, but it sure is fun to play!

I think you're onto something here.... I've the distended Mindbender in my zombie deck, primarily as planeswalker and sweeper defence (by removing from the hand) and as a 5/5 beater; I try to cast turn 4 using whatever 3 drop I've cast to emerge. The best I've got is a turn 1 Cryptbreaker, discard haunted dead turn 2 for a token, returned haunted dead at the end of opponents turn 3, emerged saving haunted dead on turn 4.

My concern with your deck is the early game. With so many turn 4+ pay offs and turn 3 drops in order to get the turn 4 pay off what are you doing turns 1 and 2?

Saying that, I like the quicker dumping of stuff into the graveyard... Maybe green could help here with vessels and gather the pack... Is there a Sultai build here? It would give access to cheap 2 drop blockers and further emerge targets

Like it!

I slammed a pair of Dispel to defend pour buddies and swapped some Haunted dead for Priest of the blood rite just for fun.

I know that they don't match the idea but too fun to keep them out.

I swapped two Evolving Wilds for Drownyard temple and added an Ever After.

Testing but having lots of fun.

For those trying Sultai, I suggest testing Elemental Bond. Paired with an Amalgam, it makes all your recursion shenanigans net positive on cards. Careful about playing the second one, or you're likely to deck yourself by drawing too much before you win the game - I just played the AI and had 4 cards left in my deck to their 45 when the game ended. Felt even more durdly than this deck, though - which already struggles to keep a board clean. If only we had Emrakul, the Promised End / Traverse the Ulvenwald... alas.

Not a fan of the Abundant Maw. At least not 3 copies. Wouldn't something else be better uses of some of those slots? I also think you're selling Drownyard Behemoth short - it not only has flash but can't eat removal that turn. The only thing preventing it from being the perfect surprise blocker is a lack of flying/reach/regeneration. Jace, Vryn's Prodigy and Liliana, Heretical Healer both provide discard outlets amongst other functions - Jace can recycle a spell and Lil's - ability can trigger Amalgam. Lil's ult would be just stupid. Liliana, the Last Hope can stymie opposing aggression or fill/empty your bin, Liliana's Elite or Graveblade Marauder could profit off the overstuffed bin...

I mean the six point life swing is cute, but do none of these other functions appeal to you for one or two of those slots at least? I could see a single Maw as a way to stall or end a game that's got a ground stall going, but the multiples feel wasted.

I tried this this morning and got smashed.... Boros and humans were just destroying me, by turn 4 I was frequently in single life digits then I played a few esper controls and a very interesting ulamog lock deck....

After 10 games is gone 1-9

The deck feels like it wants to be quick, get a recursion or zombie out by 3 then a big emerge on 4 but it frequently happened 2-3 turns later when my opponents were dropping woodland wanderers and comparable fatties. The one game I got the engine working the opponent was gaining 10+ life per turn.

Telling time might help smooth the early turns, after that I'm currently not sure

I tried this this morning and got smashed.... Boros and humans were just destroying me, by turn 4 I was frequently in single life digits then I played a few esper controls and a very interesting ulamog lock deck....

After 10 games is gone 1-9

The deck feels like it wants to be quick, get a recursion or zombie out by 3 then a big emerge on 4 but it frequently happened 2-3 turns later when my opponents were dropping woodland wanderers and comparable fatties. The one game I got the engine working the opponent was gaining 10+ life per turn.

Telling time might help smooth the early turns, after that I'm currently not sure

if you're gonna be discarding might as well be super-profiting off it

-2 swamp +2 drownyard Temple; just the wind seems just overall better then Compelling Deterrence; and maybe murderous compulsion for murder, still debating on that one(just realized murderous compulsion would get HARD countered by Always Watching, forget that bit)

the engine also strikes me as being too fast, would probably run nagging thoughts over pieces of the puzzle

also suspect there are too few sources would do -1 Geier Reach Sanitarium +1 island

Funny story, I ended up making the same land changes Babs suggested, and also cutting two Maws for baby Jace and Lils 2.0. They've been amazing, especially in making sure Stitchwing is big enough to block other fliers, stopping Skulk, etc. Keep ending up with more Emerge dudes than I know what to do with and burning through my deck super quick. I've been down to 17 cards by turn 7 or 8 with no mill present. I am actually considering using the core engine for powering a reanimator deck though. Pieces is a great way to fill the bin without milling reanimation spells.

It feels like a neat trick, and it's fairly durable, but it kind of feels like I don't get a big enough pay off for all the setup. I've got a UG Emerge deck that lays them out much quicker without (seemingly) as much hassle.

Well just wanted to let you guys know where I am with the zombies..... The list has evolved an awful lot.

I tried pieces of the puzzle as a graveyard filler and as a means to grab kill spells which was working fairly well, in particular making massive Diegrafs and Elites but the deck was still too slow and susceptible to the long game which was where it should have shined.

So, after a mess around with Delerium (and a look at the PT) my zombies are currently Sultai with the tiniest red splash.

I'll post the list in the zombies constructed area

Does anyone have a Zombie build that's more control than aggro/swarm?

Yeah, my latest build over on the constructed area is zombie emerge control.... It's no longer dimir though

I have been trying to make a discard deck with Whispers of Emrakul. Been quite the fruitless endeavor. Mainly there are two things working against me, and they are 1. Getting delirium quick enough before opponent has no cards naturally. 2. having only 3 copies

My first effort was green-blue-black which has it's merits. excellent delirium cards like crop sigil and nice sac creatures like primal druid. And the blue in that deck was only for Pieces of the puzzle This card is super amazing especially since they have fixed it. I wonder if i can somehow fit whispers in this shell. You already have PotP and mindbender, but lacking some of the good delirium enablers green has though. Could add a zombie or 2 that self mills to take the place of what green was giving me. I think a good discard deck is close to being had, but you'd need mass bounce too i think maybe with lots of instants/sorceries and thing in the ice. On a tangent here but this shell looks like it could be good with whispers possibly.

Having a lot of fun with this zombie madness brew


Creatures (12)
2x Cryptbreaker
1x Jace, Vryn's prodigy
2x Wharf Infiltrator
2x [] Asylum Visitor
3x Reckless Scholar
2x Gilt-Leaf Winnower


None Creature Spells (24)
2x Dark Salvation
4x [] Just the wind
3x Grasp of Darkness
3x [] Nagging thoughts
2x Cemetery Recruitment
2x Imprisoned in the Moon
1x Liliana, the last hope
2x [] Welcome to the fold
3x [] Gisa's Bidding
2x [] From Under the Floorboards


Lands (24)
5x Island
7x Swamp
2x Sunken Hollow
2x Drowned Catacomb
4x Submerged Boneyard
2x Geier Reach Sanitarium
2x Westvale Abby


The Game Plan

use Cryptbreaker, Jace, the infiltrator, reckless scholar, Sanitarium to discard cards to madness
madness gisa's bidding for early pressure or to hit 3 zombies for cryptbreaker
remove with grasps, winnower, just the wind, dark salvation, imprisioned in the moon, welcome to the fold
restock with nagging thoughts and asylum visitors
go wide with dark salvation, liliana and from under the floorboards
go big with westvale Abby/Profane Prince

tips and tricks

-ideal start is turn 1 cryptbreaker, turn to infiltrator, turn 3 attack with infiltrator, draw and discard Gisa's Bidding 2 create 2 zombies and then draw with cryptbreaker

-use grasp/liliana to reduce toughness to grab with a cheaper welcome to the fold

-use jace/liliana to make power and toughness not equal ready for winnower

- use cemetery recruitment to get back vital cryptbreakers/jace/scholars/winnowers... especially if pitched early to create tokens


there are probably cards that can easily be moved replaced... the visitors could go as could the cemetery recruitment. ive considered adding a graf harvest for menace tokens.

I think it's safe to fit a Graf Harvest in for one of the Just The Wind.

Also, you're discarding a lot, and have X spells, you should throw in Drownyard Temple. Maybe drop an Abbey for one and a Boneyard for the other?

I feel a Erebos's Titan should fit there somewhere. Can't quite figure out what would go. BBB may be tough to cast early, but that's when you pitch it to Infiltrator and dig it back up later with a spare land.

Zerris, this is my new favorite deck - it is ridiculously fun to play and seems fairly powerful. Thank you for posting the list.

I changed 3 cards, plus the mana, and they seem like pretty important changes to me:

-3 Abundant Maw. It dies to Languish, and the lifegain didn't make a difference when I played it. But I also have faced very few pure aggro decks when testing this deck - it's mostly been control and mill for me. So my perspective could be off.

+1 Liliana, the Last Hope - her second ability, plus as an Oath of Jace trigger, are worth noting to help get the payoff cards. She's useful because until she's removed, 100% of your opponent's attention is focused on her. In testing, I won a couple of games just on her ultimate because it's not hard at all to create cheap blockers with this deck.

+1 Kozilek's Return - this single card was responsible for me winning at least 5 games I played today and it's easy to put in the graveyard. I toyed with putting in a single Mountain given Evolving Wilds is already there, but I never once cast Kozilek's Return from my hand, and I did lose a game because I drew a Mountain instead of the Island it replaced. Also, there's no trigger for it when it's cast from the graveyard, so if the opponent doesn't see it coming when you cast an Emerge creature, they can't even activate Selfless Spirit in response. And with Pieces of the Puzzle, it's a reliable sweeper - it has shown up every single game I've played it except one (roughly 25 games).

+1 Drownyard Behemoth. I'm less confident about this replacement simply because I didn't draw it very much, so I didn't have time to test it, but I found the flash aspect better than Abundant Maw - casting in response to removal, for example, made a difference in a couple of games.

I can think of two possible replacements for the Behemoth, although I'm not confident in either. Whispers of Emrakul as a singleton is great, given that you can recur it and getting delirium is easy - and it makes a pretty big impact when cast late in the game. It made a difference in one game I played.

Second, Macabre Waltz as a singleton serves as a recurrable way to get some of the heavy hitters back from the graveyard cheaply (plus is another discard outlet for Kozilek's Return). Liliana's second ability does this and works in a pinch, but she can't be tutored with Pieces of the Puzzle. I think it's a better inclusion than Whispers, and it might be better than the Behemoth. However, I kept the Behemoth in for now - I think it needs more testing either way.

I changed the mana base to 9 Swamp, 8 Island, 4 Evolving Wilds, 2 Sunken Hollow and 2 Drowned Catacomb. Arguably a Mountain should replace something as well but I would need to test it more.

Haven't tried this deck in a bit. I agree completely on adding Kozilek's Return, especially with so many ways to discard it. Dumping the Abundant Maws sounds good; they were the worst of our payoffs for exactly the reasons you described. The singleton Drownyard Behemoth sounds reasonable, as does the Liliana, the Last Hope. I think you're a bit too heavy on Islands - I'd probably go to 10 Swamp, 7 Island; we don't have a lot of double and a ton of double . Geir Reach always felt slow, so cutting it to free up a tapland seems fine.

While we're here, let's drop one Murder and one Compelling Deterrence for Jace, Vryn's Prodigy and... one Geistblast. Another way to abuse Take Inventory.

V 1.1

It's an Emergency! ()
(Combo)

Engine
4x Take Inventory
1x Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
2x Oath of Jace
4x Pieces of the Puzzle
1x [] Geistblast
1x Liliana, the Last Hope

Targets
2x Prized Amalgam
3x [] Haunted Dead
2x [] Advanced Stitchwing

Payoffs
2x [] Elder Deep-Fiend
2x [] Distended Mindbender
3x [] Vexing Scuttler
1x [] Drownyard Behemoth

Removal
2x Compelling Deterrence
2x Murder
1x [] Kozilek's Return
2x Languish

Lands (25)
7x Island
10x Swamp
4x Evolving Wilds
2x Sunken Hollow
2x Drowned Catacomb


Probably won't spend too much time on it - having more fun with my Angel Delirium deck - but that should improve it a little for those interested.

I've tested Dimir Emerge a fair amount more, and it's amazingly fun. I don't think Geistblast or Jace panned out for me above. Geistblast is interesting, but I'd rather not top-deck it - and I would like to topdeck what it replaces. Vexing Scuttler already accomplishes what Jace wants to do but without having to be flipped. I also think cutting a Compelling Deterrence is a mistake - this deck's primary weakness is against Superfriends, and Compelling Deterrence is what can make it competitive against that deck.

Instead, I went with the following list:

4 x Take Inventory
3 x Compelling Deterrence
2 x Whispers of Emrakul
2 x Oath of Jace
1 x Liliana, the Last Hope
1 x Kozilek's Return
2 x Prized Amalgam
4 x Pieces of the Puzzle
2 x Murder
3 x Haunted Dead
2 x Languish
2 x Advanced Stitchwing
2 x Elder Deep-Fiend
2 x Distended Mindbender
3 x Vexing Scuttler
1 x Drownyard Behemoth
10 x Swamp
6 x Island
4 x Evolving Wilds
2 x Sunken Hollow
2 x Drowned Catacomb


(edit) I replaced the mountain with a swamp because I think it creates a more reliable mana base. If I could fit a 25th land in, it would be a mountain.

Drownyard Behemoth was a great addition - the ability to Flash in a hexproof blocker for 1 mana as long as you have an Emerge creature on the board has made a large difference in some games.

Whispers of Emrakul has made this effectively a strong discard deck, despite only having a handful of cards that force discards. It's more effective than any other discard deck I've played in the current pool.

If anyone is interested, I recorded the last 3 games I played. The third is long and boring, but the first two demonstrate the strengths of this deck in action:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEzVzBUaZx0

Edit:

And here's a link to two very good games vs. aggro humans decks. The second game is definitely worth watching if you're into that kind of thing. The 17:30 mark demonstrates why I love this deck.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ol3B0lI ... e=youtu.be

Ive played this deck from 1-32 with 9 losses. Just looking to share. Apologies if I dont know how to post the fancy linky cards that show the cards in mtg library.

Creatures:
2x Thing in the Ice
1x Fleshbag Marauder

Instants:
3x Horribly Awry
3x Grasp of Darkness
2x Scatter to the Winds
3x Broken Concentration
4x Spell Shrivel
3x Murder
2x Confirm Suspicions
1x Unsubstatiate

Sorceries:
3x Rise from the Tides
2x Languish
3x Whispers of Emrakul

Enchantments:
2x Oath of Liliana

Planeswalkers:
1x Liliana, the Last Hope
1x Jace, Unraveler of Secrets

Land:
8x Swamp
8x Island
2x Sunken Hollow
2x Drowned Catacombs
4x Evolving Wilds


Recently I removed a Spell Shrivel and Unsubstantiate in favor of:
2x Brain in a Jar
to cast sorcs at instant speed (would be better if we actually got to act in upkeep phase to force discard before first main)