Cultist Means Combo (v.9)

WARNING!: This deck requires skill.

Zhen-Zu, Hand of Nahid + Means to an End = drop your deck into your void. More of both is good. It's easy to kill yourself by not paying attention to the enemy life total or if they have Aegis. Still looking for ways to improve this deck to make it win faster; right now it's just RNG to get the cards you need as quickly as you can. This deck runs 25 cultists which means that if you want to guarantee a win, you'll need 3x Zhen-Zu, Hand of Nahid and 1x Means to an End or 1x Zhen-Zu, Hand of Nahid and 3x Means to an End at minimum. Ideally, you want 2x Zhen-Zu, Hand of Nahid and 2x Means to an End. The first 3x/1x and 1x/3x combos will self-mill 3 cards at a time, while the 2x/2x combo will self-mill 4 cards at a time.

EXPLAINING EVERY CARD IN THE DECK:
Ardent Convert: Sacrifice fodder for Nahid's Faithful. Sometimes combos with the Shade from Two-Face when your opponent plays a board-wipe to give you extra Shade turns (if you need them).

Cult Aspirant: Sometimes is sacrifice fodder for Nahid's Faithful, other times is just a very strong 1-drop that wins you the game if not dealt with in a reasonable amount of time.

Nahid's Faithful: 1-mana 4/4 Lifesteal unit that's usually a 5/5 when sacrificing Ardent Convert? Sign me up! It also sacrifices your other cultists to activate Zhen-Zu, Hand of Nahid's effect for combo potential? Even better! It can also activate Means to an End's effect by dealing damage due to its Lifesteal? Wow! And if it dies in combat, it also activates Zhen-Zu, Hand of Nahid's effect because it's a cultist? This card is amazing! It's perfect for this deck! Wait there's more?! You can bring it back with Remembrance just to activate the sacrifice effect to proc Zhen-Zu, Hand of Nahid's effect as well? This card is insane! It can't possibly get better can it? It can?! You can bring it back with Shadowlands Guide and then sacrifice the Shadowlands Guide to make it even bigger? I don't think I can handle any more. This card is nuts! Wait what? You say you can use Eremot's Machinations to bring back Ardent Convert, Zhen-Zu, Hand of Nahid, and Shadowlands Guide all at the same time and then use the effect of Shadowlands Guide to bring back Nahid's Faithful which then also gets to sacrifice Ardent Convert which then activates both Zhen-Zu, Hand of Nahid and Ardent Convert's effects? I think I'm gonna faint. Can we move on to the next card now please?

Dark Return: Originally added before I obtained (or knew about) Remembrance and Sinister Rumors. Originally, Dark Return was there to get back units, but sometimes having a slight buff to Ardent Convert was a welcome bonus. Nowadays, it still does that, but isn't as flexible as Sinister Rumors.

Remembrance: Originally added as a way to get Zhen-Zu, Hand of Nahid out of the void and back onto the field for less than 3 Power. Doing this for only 1 Power is a significant improvement, and making it Shifted also means the opponent is nigh-unable to interact with it, which protects it from silences while also growing strong enough to be able to unleash a powerful unblockable attack when the Shift ends. This card is here to fill a niche, and it fills that niche very well.

Sinister Rumors: The flexibility of this card is the main point of it. If you get a not-so-great opening hand that doesn't include Ardent Convert, Cult Aspirant, or Nahid's Faithful; this card can at least give you something to do on turn 1 by letting you look at your opponent's deck. Sometimes, if you pick the right card, your opponent will concede on the spot, making it a game-winning play. The ability to kill exhausted units is also very powerful for dealing with strong enemy attackers. On top of that, it keeps the ability to bring a unit back from the void and into your hand, which is the main reason it's here. A pseudo-replacement for Dark Return but also a bit more flexible.

Side note on Dark Return/Remembrance/Sinister Rumors: these 3 cards all do effectively the same thing for the deck, so if you want to mix and match them to fit your playstyle, that's completely fine. I'm currently running 1 of each for testing purposes, and they all seem to work pretty well in most cases, but each of them excels at something the others cannot do, and with Turn Back Time to get these back and prevent giving my units Voidbound, it's not a big deal if I lose them to self-mill because then I have more options. I also think the meta determines which of these will be good at any given time so having this slot be flexible is very nice for the deck.

Disjunction: Originally added as an alternate way to bring Means to an End back from the void if Turn Back Time got picked off by an enemy's Sinister Rumors or similar cards. Can also be used to deal with troublesome Relics played by your opponent. Mostly fits like an extra copy of Turn Back Time or Banish but cheaper and more-restricted on what it can do.

Recovery: If you were wondering why this deck wasn't running 4x 1-cost void-recursion spells, this is why. Not only does this card have void recursion, it also gets to protect Zhen-Zu, Hand of Nahid from getting silenced. It also helps with Sandstorm Titan if necessary. Replaying the cards can be slow, but it's better than losing their effects for the rest of the game. Especially against stuff like Rain of Frogs. If you feel like you aren't drawing it often enough, you can swap it with Vara's Choice from the market.

Send an Agent: Mainly here to replace Annihilate. A decent-enough kill spell that can also hit things Banish can't.

Two-Face: It's a cultist. It's deadly. It makes your opponent think twice before attacking (it stalls for you). It baits kill spells. It baits silences. It potentially mills very important cards off of your opponent's deck and makes them concede instantly. All-around useful card that does absolutely nothing unless your opponent is playing a 6+ cost multi-faction unit that dodges both Send an Agent and Banish, in which case, this card does literally everything to help you solve the problem of things trying to kill you.

Zhen-Zu, Hand of Nahid: If I haven't already talked about this card enough in the descriptions of other cards, here's a quick summary. He's a cultist. He gains you life whenever another cultist "goes to your void" (not dies). This means he combos with Means to an End. That's it. That's literally all he does, BUT this is one of the most-important cards in the deck. Without him, this deck is nothing. Despite all the amazing stuff Nahid's Faithful does. Zhen-Zu, Hand of Nahid is the deck's MVP.

Banish: Generally just one of the best kill spells in the game. No explanation needed.

Ebon Dune Smuggler: The only non-cultist unit in the deck (units in the market don't count). His entire purpose is to get you what you need, when you need it. Just... don't get Ark of Sol ok? That's a backup plan card. I'll explain later.

Hand of the Hecaton: Here to replace Lunar Magus as a potentially more-threatening card. Lunar Magus is a bit slower but it's more consistent at being a well-statted blocker. Hand of the Hecaton is more of a risky blocker looking to take down tough foes while Lunar Magus is more of a bulky blocker looking to block things for multiple turns in a row and thus keep them from attacking at all.

Means to an End: The deck's namesake and ultimate combo piece. Take this out and you'll have a mediocre band of cultists running around like headless chickens. This card literally makes the entire deck work. It fills up your void and empties your deck at the same time. On top of that, it near-infinitely combos with Zhen-Zu, Hand of Nahid, especially when multiple copies of both hit the board. One moment you have a 50-card deck, the next moment, you have a 0-card deck and your opponent's at -30 HP wondering wtf just happened. This card can win you seemingly unwinnable games and also cause you to lose games if you aren't skilled enough with it. Knowing how many cultists are left in your deck (not to mention your deck size) before you combo is always extremely important.

Rectifier: This is here as a replacement for Living Offering. See Living Offering for details on why it was swapped.

Shadowlands Guide: Only used to bring back Nahid's Faithful and then be sacrificed or used as a chump blocker. In extremely rare occasions, can be played as a 3/1 to threaten a 3/3 into not attacking. You'd basically be playing it as a desperation move at that point. If it's not a desperate situation, keep him in your hand until you have at least a 3/3 Cult Aspirant to bring back, but ideally a Nahid's Faithful. You'll only bring back Ardent Convert if it's turn 4+ and you've already sacrificed the Ardent Convert to a different Nahid's Faithful earlier in the game, or if you're losing and you desperately need 2 blockers just to live another turn.

Turn Back Time: Pretty self-explanatory card. Get thing back from void. Good. I recommend getting your other revival spells back first so you don't have problems later. If you get back Zhen-Zu, Hand of Nahid and can't play Eremot's Machinations or Remembrance on it a few turns later because you gave it Voidbound, I do not pity you.

Shadow Sigil: Mainly here to support Seat of Mystery, but also because the only turn where depleted power is accepted in this deck, is turn 1 and turns 7+. Even then, that's not ideal.
Time Sigil: Mainly here to support Seat of Mystery, but also because the only turn where depleted power is accepted in this deck, is turn 1 and turns 7+. Even then, that's not ideal.

Amber Waystone: Gaining life is good. Activates Means to an End.

Seat of Mystery: Allows you to play Nahid's Faithful on turn 1 in a not-ideal situation where you did not draw Ardent Convert or Cult Aspirant in your starting hand or first draw. Additionally, you need to be able to play cards early. This means you can't run things like Crest of Mystery (slow), Xenan Cylix (slow), or Xenan Tome (slow).

Xenan Banner: This deck runs a lot of low-cost units so this card will often be un-depleted when played.

Xenan Insignia: It's a Xenan colored deck. What more do you want from me?

THE MARKET
Ark of Sol: Every once in a while, you'll reach a point where you've attacked with your units and finished your mills with Means to an End, but you still haven't killed them and you have no cards in your deck and you still have a Means to an End or two that haven't exploded on your opponent yet. This would be the time to use this card.
Vara's Choice: Generally speaking, this should be used to stop threats that you know are coming or to clear out blockers or dangerous cards on the board.
Sandstorm Titan: This is here to stop you from getting overwhelmed by fliers. Since cultists don't fly, this is necessary.
Vara, Vengeance-Seeker: Mainly here to help you dodge aegis in the endgame. If Means to an End explodes on an aegis and this isn't on the field, you lose.
Eremot's Machinations: The main card you'll want to fetch when your opponent is not running aegis or fliers. Ideally, you want to get back Ardent Convert, Zhen-Zu, Hand of Nahid, and Shadowlands Guide or Hand of the Hecaton. Shadowlands Guide can then fetch Nahid's Faithful which can then sacrifice Ardent Convert for a great board state.

PS: If you absolutely hate running Seat of Mystery or Xenan Banner, you can swap them out with Xultan Conclave or Diplomatic Seal, since this deck only needs 2 Time and 2 Shadow influence for most of the main deck to operate. Amber Waystone is the only card that requires 4 Time influence, and that's optional. The Power to Influence ratios are as follows: 26 Power total
20 Time influence, 18 Shadow influence. 12 Xenan influence
I'd really like for Xenan to get Vows at some point. Those would be extremely strong for this deck (I'd remove 1 Shadow Sigil, 1 Time Sigil, and 1 Seat of Mystery for 3 of them. Adding a fourth would be unnecessary because I'd have to remove another Seat of Mystery for it and at that point it's messing with the influence ratios too much. Xenan Painting would be interesting, but I don't think I'd run it. It's too situational of an effect for how late in the game you need to be doing life-gain activities for it to work in this deck, and I don't like that they come in depleted on turn 3+ because most of this deck comes online turn 3..

WHY AREN'T YOU RUNNING X CARD?:
Ancient Bauble: Slow. Costs a lot of mana. Works better in a deck that plays turn by turn. This deck doesn't do that.

Azurite Prixis: Tested. Inconsistent. Don't feel like it's helping. Removed it.

Archmagister's Prophecy: While the effect is much better than Ancient Bauble, the extra health on a few units isn't going to make any games easier. I'd sooner play a boardwipe or splash a third color if a card was powerful enough.

Hive Hexagon: Budget replacement for Sandstorm Titan in the market if you need something to deal with fliers. However, this deck isn't trying to play turn by turn profits with trickle effects so this card is generally too slow for what we're trying to achieve.

Hive Stinger: The only cards we really want to be attacking with are Ardent Convert in the hopes they block and kill it for us to move the stats elsewhere with the Exalted, Cult Aspirant which is a highly targeted card for removal spells, and Nahid's Faithful which already has Lifesteal. We could theoretically play this on ourselves to be able to attack things, but there's really nothing this is doing that Extract couldn't do in that case. Maybe this could be a good replacement for Lunar Magus, but then you'd have to remove a non-cultist for another cultist so as to not mess with the ratio. If possible, we want to improve the ratio whenever we can. You can use this as a budget replacement if you want to try it out. I'd still recommend Extract instead though.

Meditative Trance: Slow. We're not trying to play turn by turn.

Hatecleaver: Tested. It works okay. Run it 1x in the market if you want to try it out.

The Big Wheel: Tested. Usually just makes you die fast before you can get going. Not recommended.

Mysterious Waystone: Slow. We're not sacrificing things enough to make it worth running.

Mask of Torment: Don't need the Power. Can be a good backup win condition if you want it. Recommended to put it in market or not use at all.

Xenan Blueprints: All this does is make us remove 1 Sigil from our deck to slot this in, which also removes 1 potential Sigil from our opening hand, which also hurts Seat of Mystery. Most of our deck is getting sent to the void anyway, so in the late game this means nothing, and the Heirloom effect is probably the weakest of all the Blueprints, on top of doing nothing for you because after you put a card on top, the +4 Health effect will cause you to self-mill that card and 3 others. Paying 8 to deck-thin 4 overall seems like a bad deal. I'd sooner run Malaise.

Malaise: Speaking of Malaise, this card is moderately useful for starting the combo, but it's generally unnecessary as most of your units do that by dying.

Devour: While this card does have some strength in this deck, very often you just don't have the power to play it during your opponent's turn. You're far better off with a kill-spell (such as more Send an Agent or Annihilate, especially if you don't have Means to an End on the board.

Crack the Earth: You don't run any 5-cost cards in your market, and even if you did, a spell that summons 1/1 cultists isn't the same when it's getting self-milled by Means to an End while you have Zhen-Zu, Hand of Nahid on board.

High Prophet of Sol: Same as Mask of Torment. You just don't need the power.

Living Offering: Originally added as an optional turn 3 play that can silence an enemy unit AND proc Zhen-Zu, Hand of Nahid's effect at the same time. Currently removed due to testing with Rectifier since that works better with Remembrance as an alternate option to get extra silences. I like both, but Rectifier is somewhat better due to getting 2 silence effects per use, and getting 2 cultist deaths for Zhen-Zu, Hand of Nahid instead of Living Offering's 1. If you want to play without Remembrance as mentioned earlier, consider using this instead of Rectifier. It also helps when power-screwed which doesn't happen often, but this deck HAS won games on just 2 power before.

Eager Offering: While it is better than Devour purely because it counts as a cultist, it's too slow to be useful and wastes our 3-cost slot. Maybe if it costed 2 it could be useful, but I'd still be hesitant to add it. This deck doesn't really need to draw cards.

Gravewatch Ancestor: On average, the best you're going to get is Sandstorm Titan in the void, and even then, her ultimate only brings her up to an 8/9 for 9 power. That's moderately not-worth for the effect and cost.

Proselytize: Same as Crack the Earth. Self-milling a cultist is better than self-milling a non-cultist with this deck. We're not trying to be cultist tribal swarm. We're cultist tribal self-mill. (tribal is a Magic term, look it up if you want more info).

Entranced Cultist: While this is a good card, it doesn't synergize with the deck. This deck doesn't attack often enough for the Quickdraw to be worth any value, and in the late game, you often want Nahid's Faithful to die when it attacks so you can get that 1 extra card of self-mill to combo with Zhen-Zu, Hand of Nahid.

Faceless One: It can't block, so even if it does recur itself, it's not doing anything but trying to die on attacks. Often, your opponent will realize this and just eat the damage since you're trying to win with a BIG BOOM card. This would work better in a Katra styled deck where only 2-3 Means to an End are used as a value-engine for repeating Katra's Lifeforce ability, and where your win condition is combat damage. That's simply not the case here.

Xenan Lifespeaker: This deck doesn't really draw a lot of cards, so this is widely lacking in usefulness here. Also, of the 3 units you'll want to attack with, 1 of them already has Lifesteal, making this pointless.

Angry Prophet: Again, not a swarm deck.

Fervent Siphoner: Tested. At best, I'd say picking this is a cute choice. While it has major potential to swing a game with some good combo turns, the lack of health gain on the effect makes it die very easily. On top of that, the damage is usually non-lethal or lacking Overwhelm when it would be lethal. This effectively functions like a bad Two-Face despite the possibilities. Maybe in a different version of the deck it can work, but not in this one.

Hecaton Recruiter: backup for if Nahid's Faithful ever gets hyper-nerfed.

Elding of the Final Hour: Tested. It's okay. It's not bad, but it's not good either. Most of the time, if you have the extra power to activate the effect, you've already won the game, and if you don't, he's just a weaker Lunar Magus. Elding of the Final Hour doesn't become good until turn 5 where you might have spare mana to use him, meaning he doesn't fill the 3-cost slot he's trying to, and 5 cost units are generally too slow for what this deck is trying to do.

Lunar Magus: Originally added as a turn 3 well-statted unit that synergizes with the deck due to being a cultist and gaining you life. Still provides that bulkiness, but more than 1 was unnecessary in nearly-every situation and usually led to bad board positions so it's been cut.

Ayan, the Abductor generally doesn't heal enough to be comparable to Lunar Magus when played on turn 3. You'd need to play it after Means to an End is already on the board, and at that point, you're facing the same problem as Elding of the Final Hour. Both are also susceptible to 3-damage removal spells as well, while Lunar Magus isn't.

Sunset Priest: Literally Ayan, the Abductor but worse. The life you gain with Ayan, the Abductor will cause Means to an End to self-mill you 3 cards just like Sunset Priest, but you can have multiple Means to an End on the board at a time.

Wingbrewer: Slow. Expensive. Dust expensive. Not worth.

Xenan Fanatic: In a more aggro-focused budget version of this deck, it would be useful, but since this deck is about combo'ing, this card doesn't really do anything, and its super weak stats on top aren't doing it any favors.

Karvet, Solar Dragon: Tested this for a long time and it just doesn't work with this version. In the aggro version it works as a market card, but even then, it's rarely useful. You're probably better off with Deafening Stampede.

Katra, the Devoted: Works amazingly in the aggro version. Does nothing in this version.

Bloodcall Invoker: Great card. Not the type of deck for it. It works better in the aggro version though.

Nahid, the Immortal: This card is fine in the aggro version, but in this version it punishes you for having a good combo going because you'll just be -1'ing a cultist from your deck without the upside of activating Zhen-Zu, Hand of Nahid's effect. The irony.

Xenan Adept: Way too expensive. You generally don't have more than 5 units out at a time unless your opponent is just straight up not playing removal whatsoever. The damage doesn't help you combo.

Mask Maker: Why is this a cultist?