Sarkhan the Mad: Official Thread

Magic: The Gathering - Puzzle Quest MtGPQ Deck Strategy & Planeswalker Discussion Planeswalker Details
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Cost to Max Level: 160,730 runes

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Sarkhan
1: Fiery Sacrifice - cost: 6, 3 at Rank 4
1 - Draw 1 card and lose 3 life - Cost 6
2 - Draw 1 card and lose 2 life - Cost 6
3 - Draw 1 card and lose 1 life - Cost 6
4 - Draw 1 card and lose 1 life - Cost 3

2: Call Dragon - cost: 9
1 - Destroy one of your creatures and summon 1 3/3 Red Dragon with Flying
2 - Destroy one of your creatures and summon 1 4/4 Red Dragon with Flying
3 - Destroy one of your creatures and summon 1 5/5 Red Dragon with Flying
4 - Destroy one of your creatures and summon 1 6/6 Red Dragon with Flying

3: Fiery Breath - cost: 18
1 - When your Dragons attack this turn, they deal damage equal to their Power x 1
2 - When your Dragons attack this turn, they deal damage equal to their Power x 2
3 - When your Dragons attack this turn, they deal damage equal to their Power x 3
4 - When your Dragons attack this turn, they deal damage equal to their Power x 4

Level 60 mana bonuses: +1 manawhite.png
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Level 60 HP: 119
Level 60 max Creatures: 9 Spells: 7 Supports: 6

Post your decks and tips for Sarkhan below!

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Some confusion over the level 3 stats of Sarkhan’s first ability, if anyone could clarify it would be appreciated, as well as max deck slots. Thanks!

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Rank 3 is “Draw 1 card, lose 1 life” but it costs 6 loyalty. At rank 4 it costs 3.

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Thanks much, updating now!

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And this is my deck:

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It has a lot of removal because I have no other way to defend myself. Currently only level 40, but it is definitely my fastest deck so far. Too bad the dragons also die easily to removal icon_e_biggrin.gif

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Max creatures/spells/supports at level 60 are 9/7/6 for Sarkhan.

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Updated!

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anybody got ideas for a sarkhan eldrazi deck?

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I was also thinking about this. What I don’t like about it is that there are some nice Eldrazi cards that are red/black that give bonuses to Colorless, but they will not work, since Devoid is not Colorless and that kinda ruins it. I have a red/black Eldrazi deck in paper magic and I really wanted to recreate it here, since I have all the cards, but the synergy is not there, which is kinda lame.
The other thing that I don’t like is that Sarkhan’s third ability can finish a game really fast if you have a couple of dragons.
But I will try to come up with something a bit later, although I don’t have any of the powerful colorless mythic Eldrazi cards.

That’s something I did real quick, and even though I won 2 games with it, I’m not a big fan:

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Mirrorpool doesn’t buff the bonus damage from Ulamog’s Despoiler, I don’t like Scour from Existence, and I am using only Sarkhan’s first ability. Other Eldrazi cards either don’t work because they have to be colorless or the strong Mythics that are actually colorless, I am missing, but they can be used in any planeswalker anyway, so they will probably be better somewhere else. I really wanted to put Inverter of Truth there, but it will prevent Ulamog’s Despoiler from buffing. He doesn’t buff with Mirrorpool anyway, so maybe they can be switched? But that will leave no colorless creatures and even less cards for Shrine of the Forsaken Gods.
Overall, I don’t think Sarkhan’s power is in Eldrazi, but you can start from where I left and make it better.

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Sarkhan Eldrazi? That’s what I’ve found the most fun to be running so far. He’s only Level 20 right now, and i don’t have a lot of the best red cards, so it can be upgraded considerably.

Creatures:
Catacomb Sifter
Ulamog’s Despoiler *
Carrier Thrall

Spells:
Smash to Smithereens —> Demolish
Grip of Desolation
Grave Birthling
Unholy Hunger
Scour from Existence

Supports:
Mirrorpool
Shrine of the Forsaken Gods

The idea is to use Sarkhan’s 2nd ability only, Call Dragon, to turn Eldrazi Scions into Dragons. Use the removal spells to give you time to get a decent size dragon out, and Mirrorpool will turn Ulamog’s Destroyer into a 14/14 beast as long as there are void gems, when it isn’t powering up your next removal spell. Speaking of void gems, they’ll also power up Grip and CS, with Scour and UD getting a boost from the Shrine. Be mindful of having enough space for additional creature tokens once you start filling up the board, and consider sacrificing a low toughness Eldrazi if it’s going to die next turn due to being a defender. Keeping the defender instead of using it to summon a dragon is good if it’s going to keep you from taking damage also.

All in all, not a fast deck to play, but it has a lot of removal and has quite a bit of synergy to it. There are a few card drawing abilities scattered in here, mana pump with the Scions and Shrine, processes void gems with a fat creature or devoid cards, has defenders and flyers too, and removal spells that are efficient, cheap and don’t penalise you for playing them.

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Been experimenting with a Sarkhan recursion deck, since I only have one dragon (Avaricious).

Creatures
Abbot of Keral Keep
Volcanic Rambler
Goblin Dark-Dwellers

Spells
Grip of Desolation
Exquisite Firecraft
Dark Petition
Unholy Hunger
Transgress the Mind
Demolish

Support
Flameshadow Conjuring

It works pretty well when I get some of the recursion going, whether it be of removal via Dark-Dwellers or mana generation via cascades. It wins pretty consistently based on that alone. Flameshadow’s a question mark, as its utility is very hit or miss, but the rest are consistently useful.

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I’m running a steal-sacrifice deck with Sarkhan.

Unfortunately, you can’t act of treason/turn against + his second ability unless you do a match 5.

Act of Treason
Turn Against

Fiery Conclusion
Bone Splinters
Altar’s Reap

Fleshbag Marauder

Goblin Glory Chaser
Bonded Construct

Avaricious Dragon

Demolish

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Updated deck after landing a choice rare, Dragonmaster Outcast:

Goblin Dark-Dwellers
Avaricious Dragon
Dragonmaster Outcast

Dark Petition
Unholy Hunger
Grip of Desolation
Transgress the Mind
Demolish
Exquisite Firecraft

Smoldering Marsh

Some games, Outcast is pretty dead. Many games, it’s dominant, however, and Sarkhan’s third ability just wins games outright. An Avaricious and a pair of 5/5 dragons is 18 power, and while I’m still low level (38), hitting opponents for 54 (18+36) in one turn is an amazing swing. I dare say it’s the most powerful ultimate this side of Ob Nixilis.

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Minor quibble, Dragonmaster Outcast is a mythic.

I’d say to drop Exquisite Firecraft for a red gem converter (Cinder Glade, Battlefield Forge, Shivan Reef, Mina & Denn) to better support Dragonmaster Outcast. Plus that can boost loyalty gain, getting you to the third ability more quickly.

You already have two creature removal in Grip of Desolation and Unholy Hunger. You have Goblin Dark Dwellers to recur spells. And you have Sarkhan’s first ability in the worst case scenario to draw for more cards.

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Turn Against/Bone Splinters is a fun combo to run, rarely have I gotten a chance to use it but when it works, man it’s cheap way to wreak havoc on their creatures.

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Whoops, you’re right, mythic. My bad.

I actually prefer Firecraft to Hunger, simply because Firecraft is never a dead card, and recurring it with GDD often ends matches. While there are obviously a lot of creatures that have higher than 6 toughness, it usually isn’t a problem to obtain/keep/recur a Grip.

I do use Smoldering Marsh, but I’ll try swapping in an additional Cinder Glade to see if that helps stabilize the board better. Thanks for the input.

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Running a sac/dragon deck myself

Valakut Tyrant
Akoum Hellkite

Grave birthing
Altar’s reap
Bone splinters
Turn against
Dark Petition
Kozilek’s return

Shrine of the Forsaken Gods
Smoldering marsh

Sac bouncing the Tyrant is a vicious, vicious cycle …

Then again, so is watching the AI use turn against or act of treason on it icon_lol.gif

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This is my current deck for Sarkhan the Mad.

Playing it, it has really good synergy. There is a lot of removal for board control, with a lot of perks to Sarkhan’s abilities.

The musts of this deck:
Tyrant of Valakut
Dragonmaster Outcast
Despoiler of Souls
These 3 cards get me dragons. My favorite way is to get 1 to 2 dragons through the second ability on Despoiler of Souls. Have a destroy card prepped and ready, lose 3 mana to regen DoS and keep your creature. 3 mana for a sick token dragon? yes please. Tyrant clears most opponents boards and works with 3rd ability. Dragonmaster Outcast is iffy, usually red gems get taken defensively. I could substitute some cards on the bottom for red gem supports but meh, I like the chances. If this works, great. If not, I sac it using 2nd ability to add to dragon token. Just depends on the flow of the current game.

Grip of Desolation
To the Slaughter
These 2 are my OP removals for 5 mana. One connection of red or black, and they’re sitting there ready to be deployed whenever a new creature I dont like spawns against me.

On the fence:
Blight Herder
This works well with Grip of Desolation. Removal creates 2 ingested gems for BH to process. Creates 3/3 mana defenders. Can buy a round, or sac for a dragon plus 9 mana on next card you want. 11 mana Tyrant? yes please.

Cards that can be switched out for card mastery or better dragons if owned :
Inner Struggle (deals dmg equal to creatures toughness to creature. Third removal, may be overkill but I like controlling the battlefield. Great for 4/4 6/6 etc. bad for 4/7.)
Infinite Obliteration (fun if used, for 6 mana, removes first and last card in opponents hand crippling any come back)
Kindly Stranger (med cost monster to sac or has removal if less than 5 black on board, turns into 4/5 when it flips all for 10 mana)
Tainted Remedy (too expensive to use in most game situations, with 2 shields. However, fun trap card that can heal my dragons and get rid of low creatures. cough 1/1 white soldier tokens cough Usually used after I have three creatures on board with 1-2 removals ready to go in hand. Also usually the card I stock mana up for Despoiler of Souls)

I really wish I had a Mirrorpool, Avaricious Dragon, or Akoum Hellkite. Those 3 would replace Tainted Remedy, Kindly Stranger, and probably Infinite Obliteration. It’d be strong on creatures and removal, but that would win a lot of games alone. The only question I have about the adjustments would be mana cost. I like the deck now because it’s fairly balanced. 5 cards under 10 mana, 4x in the 10-15 range, and 1 at 20. Can usually play the musts and win games with only ~20 HP loss.

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Gun Bunny, could you provide a couple sentences of explanation about the sac-bounce cycle for the Tyrant?

  • I see how Turn Against + Bone Splinters knocks out 2 enemy creatures.
    I see how Dark Petition works w Bone Splinters & Altars Reap to recover your Dragons.
    I see how Grave Birthing works w Bone Splinters & Altars Reap to generate mana

But the deck requires you to first get a creature out for it to begin working, right? A creature must actually “die” in combat before Dark Perition works. And with only 2 creatures (plus the Scions from Grave Birthing), it seems a very real risk that you might not even get a creature in your hand during your first couple turns. I always run 4-5 creatures and I’ve still had the occasional game where I’m choked for creatures.

Plus, don’t the dragons still suffer another turn of sickness even after he’s recovered? I recognize the Tyrant deals 6 dmg to everything every time he returns (which can be devastating), but with only 2-3 creatures it seems likely the Tyrant could be already reinforced in the later stages, and Dark Petition only recovers a single copy of the sacced creature. I recognize this last issue is a minor one because if you have a reinforced Tyrant your probably within a few turns of victory.

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Skidoo, Dark Petition doesn’t care if the creature in your graveyard ever made it to the battlefield in the first place… otherwise Liliana wouldn’t be nearly as potent of a force as a reanimator if she always had to build up 15 loyalty to resurrect creatures!