Into the Vault: Judith Scourge Diva Deck Tech

Written by Christian Gil Portugalisa

        We are back with another deck tech. Ravnica Allegiance has brought a lot of amazing commander options and today is no different. For those of you who know me, you know that I like to play the color black. From Legacy Pox to Modern 8-Rack. Black brings with it tutors and explosive mana production which can end games quick and easy. Red is very similar to black in that it also brings explosive mana production and game ending spells. Put them together and you get Judith, the Scourge Diva.


The Commander

Judith, the Scourge Diva

        Judith has two different abilities. Her first ability allows her to increase the damage potential of your other creatures. Her second ability allows her to deal 1 damage to any target. Any target being the keyword. She is basically an aristocrat style commander and we will find ways to abuse her second ability today.


        One thing we need to consider is that it only activates when nontoken creatures you own dies. So we need two things, a sacrifice outlet and creatures we can sacrifice infinte or near infinite times. Let's take a look at what Magic the Gathering has printed in the past.


Partner in Crime

        There is a very strong creature, no a demon who can be at Judith's beck and call. Once he is on the board, you know it's time to shuffle up for a new game.


Razaketh, the Foulblooded   Buried Alive  Necromancy

        Razaketh and friends brings a lot of combo potential. Razaketh can help you search for the cards you need when you need it. Everytime you sacrifice a creature to search for a card, Judith deals damage to 1 target. This is good and all but that is not why you guys are here. You want to see if we can break Judith in a different sense.


The Sacrificial Lambs

        The creatures we are looking for need to be cheap, in terms of mana cost, and should also be resilient. If they can bring themselves back into play or in hand, that would be a wonderful bonus.


Reassembling Skeleton Bloodghast Nether Traitor Squee, Goblin Nabob Squee, the Immortal

        These Five (5) creatures are just amazing. They simply don't know what "death" means. They will find a way to comeback from the graveyard and you can then rinse a repeat. Remember Razaketh? You can use Razaketh and these creatures to continually search for whatever card you want. Even if you are not looking to combo off, these are the creatures you will want in your deck. Talk about resilience.


The Altar

        Yes you got it. It's as if the old civilizations have returned and is now praying to whatever god they believed in. In our deck, we will be including the following sacrifice outlets and get as much value as we can.


Ashnod's Altar Phyrexian Altar Viscera Seer Skullclamp Sadistic Hypnotist

        Ashnod's Altar and Phyrexian Altar can be very backbreaking. With other cards in the deck, we can basically go wild with how much mana we can produce. Since our main sacrificial creatures all have one (1) toughness, Skullclamp is going to be an amazing inclusion since we can basically draw 2 cards everytime we equip it. Sadistic Hypnotist is just one of those cards where you can literally strip one or more opponents hands or you can play him as a political card. "Don't attack me and I won't make you discard." Now that is power.


Shout "LIVE!!!"

        We are sacrificing a lot of creatures left and right. So we need to find ways for them to "comeback to life". I believe recursion is one of the routes you would want to take when you are playing Judith. Here are some recursion spells that you might want to try out.


Balthor the Defiled Living Death 

Mikaeus, the Unhallowed Nim Deathmantle

        Nim Deathmantle has a very strong interaction when you also have Mikaeus, the Unhallowed and Ashnod's Altar in play. You can sacrifice a non-human creature to Ashnod's Altar which will then comeback due to Mikaeus's undying trigger which you then sacrifice again to Ashnod's Altar. This will net you with 4 colorless mana that you can use to activate Nim Deathmantle to resurrect the same creature and you can then rinse and repeat. Infinite recursion means infinite Judith triggers.


        If you want to take a more combo centric approach, you can also play cards like Necromancy, Dance of the Dead, Animate Dead, Goryo's Vengeance, Reanimate, Corpse Dance, and many more.


For the Horde

        Are there other ways we can abuse this you might ask? Well we can do that with other creatures such as the following: Grim Haruspex, Pitiless Plunderer, Pawn of Ulamog. These can help you go wide by replacing your sacrificed creatures with small tokens which you can also sacrifice to produce more mana. You can even add creatures like Siege-Gang Commander and Grave Titan and produce infinite mana. Show me the mana!!!


Siege-Gang Commander Grave Titan Anger 

        These three can be very back breaking. With Anger in the graveyard, you can basically kill your opponents with infinite goblins or zombies by doing the Nim Deathmantle and Ashnod's Altar Combo. I don't know which one is worse. Death by goblins or death by zombies. You tell me.


Judith's: The End Game

        Having all this mana, this power, how can we make use of all of it? Judith snaps her finger and the world turned black and red.


Exsanguinate Electrodominance Walking Ballista 

        End the game with cards like Exsanguinate or if you don't have enough to kill everyone, you can always shoot one target and cast another card for free with Electrodominance. This is what I call value. You know how painful paper cuts are right? Well Walking Ballista is our go to construct to ping everyone for infinite 1 damage. Oh you have Mikaeus in play too? Then all you need to do is cast Walking Ballista for... well 0. It comes into play and dies but gets resurrected due to the undying trigger and give walking ballista with a +1/+1 counter. Remove the counter, it dies, deals one damage to any target, resurrects due to the undying trigger and well you know the rest. This is not a combo deck. This is what I call synergy.


Decklists

        There are so much potential with Judith taking the helm. Go with a synergistic aristocrat deck design or a fast combo deck that can end games in as little turns as possible. Here are two deck lists for your perusal.


        


Judith Synergy

Lands (36)
1 Ancient Tomb
1 Blood Crypt
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
1 Cavern of Souls
1 City of Brass
1 Crystal Vein
1 Mana Confluence
1 Marsh Flats
8 Mountain
1 Peat Bog
1 Polluted Delta
1 Sulfurous Springs
12 Swamp
1 Tainted Peak
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Wooded Foothills

Artifacts (13)
1 Ashnod's Altar
1 Basilisk Collar
1 Fellwar Stone
1 Gorgon Flail
1 Mana Vault
1 Nim Deathmantle
1 Phyrexian Altar
1 Rakdos Signet
1 Sensei's Divining Top

1 Skullclamp
1 Sol Ring
1 Talisman of Indulgence
1 Mind Stone

Enchantments (6)
1 Black Market
1 Dictate of Erebos
1 Goblin Bombardment
1 Grave Pact
1 Necropotence
1 Phyrexian Arena

Instants (6)
1 Bedevil
1 Chaos Warp
1 Electrodominance
1 Entomb
1 Necrologia
1 Vampiric Tutor

Sorceries (15)
1 Damnable Pact
1 Decree of Pain
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Exsanguinate
1 Faithless Looting
1 Gamble
1 Living Death
1 Mob Rule
1 Night's Whisper

1 Read the Bones
1 Sign in Blood
1 Syphon Mind
1 Threaten
1 Torment of Hailfire
1 Toxic Deluge

Creatures (23)
1 Anger
1 Balthor the Defiled
1 Bloodghast
1 Burnished Hart
1 Disciple of Bolas
1 Godo, Bandit Warlord
1 Grave Titan
1 black Merchant of Asphodel
1 Grim Haruspex
1 Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
1 Nether Shadow
1 Nether Traitor
1 Pawn of Ulamog
1 Pitiless Plunderer
1 Reassembling Skeleton
1 Sadistic Hypnotist
1 Shriekmaw
1 Sidisi, Undead Vizier
1 Siege-Gang Commander
1 Squee, Goblin Nabob
1 Squee, the Immortal
1 Viscera Seer
1 Walking Ballista



Judith Combo

1 Skullclamp
1 Sol Ring
1 Talisman of Indulgence
1 Mind Stone

Enchantments (6)
1 Black Market
1 Dictate of Erebos
1 Goblin Bombardment
1 Grave Pact
1 Necropotence
1 Phyrexian Arena

Instants (6)
1 Bedevil
1 Chaos Warp
1 Electrodominance
1 Entomb
1 Necrologia
1 Vampiric Tutor

Sorceries (15)
1 Damnable Pact
1 Decree of Pain
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Exsanguinate
1 Faithless Looting
1 Gamble
1 Living Death
1 Mob Rule
1 Night's Whisper

1 Read the Bones
1 Sign in Blood
1 Syphon Mind
1 Threaten
1 Torment of Hailfire
1 Toxic Deluge

Creatures (23)
1 Anger
1 Balthor the Defiled
1 Bloodghast
1 Burnished Hart
1 Disciple of Bolas
1 Godo, Bandit Warlord
1 Grave Titan
1 black Merchant of Asphodel
1 Grim Haruspex
1 Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
1 Nether Shadow
1 Nether Traitor
1 Pawn of Ulamog
1 Pitiless Plunderer
1 Reassembling Skeleton
1 Sadistic Hypnotist
1 Shriekmaw
1 Sidisi, Undead Vizier
1 Siege-Gang Commander
1 Squee, Goblin Nabob
1 Squee, the Immortal
1 Viscera Seer
1 Walking Ballista

1 The Mending of Dominaria
Artifact (4)
1 Crucible of Worlds

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