I tend to build rather slow (and sometimes silly) decks in my meta and I wanted to shake things up when I saw Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger. I want to build a silly but fast deck all about making my opponents discard cards by playing Kroxa over and over again. It would be even better if it was, in fact, the only card that makes my opponents discard and the rest of the deck is built entirely around it but that would probably be a bit too extreme.
The main goal of the deck would be to play Kroxa on turn 2, then maybe on turn 3 (depending on my hand), then again on turn 4, and so on, trying to put as much pressure as possible on my opponents. So I'll probably need to pay as much attention as possible to the curve.
But I feel like I'm no good in building those types of decks so here I am, looking for some help. Here's what I've got so far :
What we could play on turn 1:
- Sol Ring is an obvious choice, it will let us recast Kroxa on turns 3 and 4, all by itself and the normal land drops.
- Chrome Mox let us play Kroxa on turn 1.
- Vampiric Tutor can go fetch what is missing in our opening hand.
- Dark Ritual could allow us to set up some synergy even before the first casting of Kroxa (Megrim-style cards, Waste Not and such).
- Bloodchief Ascension might be worthwhile, but I don't know how much time it will take to get the three counters.
- Quest for the Nihil Stone seems good but might be a bit too restrictive as it only affects opponents that don't have any card left in hand.
- Shrieking Affliction triggers a little bit more easily than Quest for the Nihil Stone, but deals less damage.
- Tortured Existence probably needs to be considered but I don't know how many creatures will end up in the deck.
- Sensei's Divining Top is an all-star but I don't know if we'll have the luxury of paying 1 for that kind of effect if we plan to do lots of stuff early game
- Nihil Spellbomb might be useful, as we'll probably need a bit more graveyard hate than usual
- Relic of Progenitus can also be considered but exiling our own graveyard might be a problem for the mid to late game and the escape ability of Kroxa.
- Soul-Guide Lantern is also another strong option for graveyard removal.
During turn 3, we could either ramp, set up some synergy pieces or reanimate Kroxa:
- Ramp:
- Nothing specific comes to mind, we could play the usual Commander's Sphere, Darksteel Ingot and such. Unstable Obelisk might be worthwhile to deal with enchantments later.
- Synergy:
- Abyssal Nocturnus, Megrim, Liliana's Caress, Waste Not, Wheel of Torture and Words of Waste are the only good candidates that I've found.
- EDIT: After looking at KitsuLeif's decklist, Davriel, Rogue Shadowmage, Hellfire Mongrel and Paupers' Cage are also good choices
- Reanimation:
- Reanimate, Animate Dead, Dance of the Dead and Necromancy look like the best candidates since they will also allow us to reanimate creatures our opponents might have discarded.
- Unearth and Claim // Fame might be worthwhile but they only work for our graveyard.
- Phyrexian Reclamation can let us recast Kroxa for cheaper on turn 4.
- Phyrexian Arena and Necropotence might be worthwhile, but I don't know if they are really useful in faster decks, compared to stuff like Read the Bones or Night's Whisper.
Starting on turn 5, we would probably need:
- Some support cards to deal with what has already been played by our opponents
- Draw spells to replenish our hand
- Some engines that will allow us to cast Kroxa at least once each turn. Possible plays includes Palace Siege, Corpse Dance and Altar of Dementia (for enabling escape). Volrath's Stronghold also seems like a shoe-in.
- More powerful synergy with cards like Geth's Grimoire, maybe Sangromancer.