Since we already examined the value of a token with Decayed yesterday. That’s good because we have a decent number of cards to discuss.
Sometimes your Black deck wants more card draw beyond Sign in Blood but you also do not want to consistently tap out when you want to leave up mana for removal. While Succumb to Temptation does exist, Blood Pact has the added utility of being able to deal two points of damage to an opponent. The end result is a card that is more likely to be Sign in Blood number five in the decks that want such an effect. If a base-Black “Flash” style deck comes into vogue I could see this card getting the call.
A lot of the strength of Black in Midnight Hunt is tied to how well it can support Zombie tribal. Crawl from the Cellar is not as strong as Ghoulcaller’s Chant or Cemetery Recruitment, but the ability to get back a creature and bolster an attacker is not nothing. Just like Blood Pact is the fifth Sign in Blood, this is fighting for the spot of the fifth Ghoulcaller’s Chant.
Spark Harvest is playable in a deck with enough cannon fodder and Eaten Alive is more or less a strict upgrade. Between Pulse of Murasa and Reaping the Graves, nothing stays dead in Pauper for long. The ability to exile an offender for a single mana should not be underestimated, even if it does come with an additional cost. This is going to look bad against Spellstutter Sprite, but outside of that it is going to do work, clearing out Stormbound Geist so Chainer’s Edict can get the job done.
A one drop that can turn into a 4/4 deserves a look. The fact that you can activate it at instant speed and turn on your Mortician Beetles does count for something, especially since Aristocrats decks need mana sinks in the mid game. Taken together, Ecstatic Awkener is a lot of work for a bad Myr Enforcer that still loses in combat to Gurmag Angler.
Three mana to nab two cards out a graveyard and give a deck two pieces of sacrifice fodder is a decent rate. But as I’ve mentioned before I am not very high on the value of Decayed Tokens. Couple that with the fact that these cards always play worse than they look and you have a card that gets outclassed by other, older options.
Zombies and other Aristocrat style decks can often struggle to punch through the final points of damage. Once the board gets gummed up or Fogs and Stonehorn Dignitary come online, the ability to attack no longer matters. Then you have a deck built on putting creatures on the board with few ways to punch through. Siege Zombie might not be the most efficient way to end the game but, just like its namesake, it will eventually get the job done.
NerdtotheCore 