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The First
Posted: Sat Jan 27, 2007 2:56 pm
Joined: 07 Oct 2005 Posts: 195 Location: Anderlecht, Belgium
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Come and read the first article of The First of 2007! An amazing tale of sudden spoiling.
--- end description ---


I know, I know, I’m late. Due to a couple of personal issues - no worries, nothing too serious - I left my Magic cards collection gather some dust on a few shelves in my closet and my ambition to always invent crazy, stupid, or just very, very annoying combos and decks, locked away somewhere deep in my unconscious consciousness. Or vice versa. Whatever you prefer.

And now, I’m back. And just in time it seems. Fun times ahead. A green Ball Lightning, a red Akroma, a black Wrath of God – it was about time that the Master of All Things Evil himself, or herself(?), stood up to His Holiness - all surrounded by his lovely Angels while the master has surrounded by vampires, zombies, undead dogs and rats - and ended His wrath and …. (Zzzzzzzz….).

But this is not why I am – or was – writing this article. The reason why I am writing this article is quite easy. I was opening two booster boxes two weeks ago, and I was very pleased when I read one particular card that I pulled. 1 card. 1 rare black card from Timespiral. I did not know of its existance as I had not payed much attention to spoilers from Timespiral. I knew that some cards came back due to conversations with my friends. I knew white and black got some creature cards back with shadow. Shadowmage Infiltrator, Mystic Snake and my favorite lil’ Mystic Enforcer. Psionic Blast and Akroma were also on many people’s whishlist. But no-one ever mentioned this card;

Sudden Spoiling – 1BB
Instant
Split Second
Creatures target player controls become 0/2 and lose all abilities untill end of turn.

I was somehow surprised when I took a look around on the Magic community message boards. Sudden Spoiling was not as omni-present as I thought it would be. Sure it is no Bogardan Hellkite or Nether Traitor. Cards of which the goodness can be guessed by Yu-gi-oh players. But even Yugi, Master of All Things Puzzled, should have been able to determine the sheer power of this card by now, once he put it in the right deck. Then I looked at some price lists. Verdict: $2,5. I found this kind of strange.

Let us compare with another card. A white one.

Humble – 1W
Instant
Target creature loses all abilities and becomes 0/1 until end of turn.

I found this a good and versatile removal card back in the ol’ days. Lets pretend you attack me with the meanest and baddest amongst vampires, dragons, angels, demons and the like. A real champion;

Mr. Beatstick – 3WUB
Unreal creature – vampiric, angelic, dragon kinda demon
Shadow, Flying, Trample, Haste, Undestructible
“This is what happens when people who have too much imagination are writing an article about Magic” - YOU
45/99

Let’s pretend you have a Bottle Gnome in play. Thanks to Humble, your Gnome, which was actually made to die, has a pretty good chance at killing the Champion and live to tell about it, while filling up on some yet unidentified –the Izzet are working on it btw- liquid.

Imagine what you could do with the same spell but if it were made uncounterable and cast to all your opponent’s creatures. Protection from black and untargetability would be no issue in this case either. Imagine your opponent playing Akroma with a smile on his face and you killing her any time you feel like it while you laugh at him in a friendly manner. This beautiful dream has become reality, my friends.

This dream is Sudden Spoiling.

IMAGINE what it could do in a blackish weenie deck, stuffed with a lot of creatures with tight 2/2 bodies and maybe some kind of evasion. Lets say a deck that looks somewhat like the list below;

22 Swamps

3 Foul Imp
4 Dauthi Slayer
4 Dark Confidant
4 Hypnotic Specter

4 Plagued Rusalka
4 Thoughtpicker Witch *

3 Nether Traitor
3 Nightshade Assassin

3 Smallpox
4 Last Gasp
2 Sudden Spoiling

* = not sure of quantity

EDIT:
out

4 Sangrophage
3 Daggerclaw Imp
1 Sudden Spoiling

In

3 Foul Imp
1 Last Gasp
3 Nether Traitor
1 Nightshade Assassin

~ thinking about adding Urborg Syphon-Mage

This deck is still under testing and in need of some serious fine tuning but you should be able to get the bigger picture. Some cards are not optimal for this deck but as it plays right now, it is very consistent against aggro decks. It is versatile and it never lost in 7 games till now. 4 games were played against a Gruul deck with a focus towards red and burn spells. 3 games were played against a WW/u deck.

Why is Sudden Spoiling good in this deck? Because whether or not you are the aggro player, the Spoiling is helping your deck. If you are the aggro, there are 2 possibilities;

- You play the Spoiling and attack. All of your creatures can attack without dying and the ones with evasion will always deal their damage.

OR

- Attack and play the Spoiling afterwards, killing most of their blocking creatures in the process and keeping yours alive and kicking.

When you are in defense mode, there are also 2 possibilities but they are based upon your own status.

- You play the Spoiling when the opponent attacks but you have no blockers available. You will not get any damage…

OR

- You play the Spoiling and block wisely, killing his attacking creatures.

In each of the 4 cases mentioned above, you either gain card (or creature) advantage or a life total advantage on your opponent.

Obviously, there is no end to this article. This card is very versatile in my opinion. But I cannot predict what it means for post Planar Chaos decks or pre Planar Chaos decks as I don’t have been playing a lot since the release of Time Spiral.

Anyway, I hope you liked this lil’ piece of writing. If not, with all that Planar Chaos lingering around, I’m doomed to write a few more articles.

Your host,

- The First
Last edited by The First on Sun Jan 28, 2007 11:18 am; edited 1 time in totalGreat minds bleed alike.
Do not copy media. Support creativity.
La_Sin_Grail
Posted: Sat Jan 27, 2007 3:53 pm
Joined: 14 Aug 2005 Posts: 806 Location: Maryland
I think you did a pretty good job of the writing.... but that deck, man. I don’t know. I would love to see what build of gruul or WWu deck this beat. Daggerclaw imp? Thoughtpicker witch? Sangrophage? All unplayable. Nightshade assassin is questionable, spoiling is only good against creature decks.
The First
Posted: Sun Jan 28, 2007 10:44 am
Joined: 07 Oct 2005 Posts: 195 Location: Anderlecht, Belgium
After a bit more playtesting with this deck, Daggerclaw Imp and Sangrophage do seem to be the weakest link. Sangrophage is just too expensive. Unlike the Dark Confidant, its advantage is not big enough to justify its cost. Daggerclaw Imp is just terrible all toghether.

Thoughtpicker Witch is playable. It can give you some advantage in certain situations. Or when you have a creature that is about to die, it is a nice way to make it useful one last time. However, it can go if I find a better 1 drop.

Nightshade Assassin is great but I think it is not supposed to be in this kind of deck. It really shines if you have a bunch of black cards in hand, so you need to have a Confidant out. It is nice creature advantage against Gruul and WWu. Combined with the Small Pox, it is even better, but one again, it might be better in a deck that is a bit slower and with more disruption. Need to test that asap.

Spoiling won’t help you against combo decks but it is great against rush decks - not the ones that throw burn at you of course - or decks with a big, bad finisher that has no counters. All toghether, maybe the Spoiling should not be maindecked 3 times. 2 times would be sufficient. You don’t need it that often. I’d rather throw in a 4th Last Gasp. 3th can go in sideboard.
Great minds bleed alike.
Do not copy media. Support creativity.
La_Sin_Grail
Posted: Sun Jan 28, 2007 11:39 am
Joined: 14 Aug 2005 Posts: 806 Location: Maryland
Very good cuts. I would recommend splashing another color with all the room you’ve freed up. There may be better one drops elsewhere. Best of luck!

Grail
Felipe Musco
Posted: Sun Jan 28, 2007 4:03 pm
Joined: 18 May 2006 Posts: 2434 Location: Florianópolis, SC, Brasil
Or you can go with Damnation, the black Wrath of God. Gets the job done, for one more mana. Sudden Spoiling, I believe, it’s merely a sideboard card for it. Although I DO love the card. The ability, having split second, the art, everything is great about it! As for 1-drops, maybe try out Plagued Rusalka. It’s ability is useful to take out random thallids (deathspore or the regular one), birds, elves, savannah lions, dark confidant, etc.
I don't like YOU.
Cobra
Posted: Sun Jan 28, 2007 4:53 pm
Joined: 12 Jul 2005 Posts: 1202 Location: Austin, TX, USA
I like Plagued Rusalka over Thoughtpicker Witch too. Apart from picking off one-toughness creatures, it makes combat tough for your opponent as your 2/2s can trade with his 3/3s and so on.
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The First
Posted: Mon Jan 29, 2007 2:23 pm
Joined: 07 Oct 2005 Posts: 195 Location: Anderlecht, Belgium
Hi guys,

thanks for the feedback.

Please notice that the Plagued Rusalka is already in this deck. I would never forget my beloved one drop. Late game, it gets even better when you have a Plagued Rusalka out and 1 Nether Traitor in graveyard and 1 in play (or even with both in Gravyard I guess). Sac creature, get Traitor back, sac Traior, get other Traitor back, etc. For each 2 mana, you keep the number of creatures and give a creature -1/-1. No too cost effective but very cool indeed. I’d love to play that combo with a Grave Pact in play though.

For this deck, the Spoiling is better than Damnation. A Wrath of God is never good for creature heavy decks/rush decks. And quite convienently, the Spoiling is a very good defensive card as most of my creatures have 2 power, as well as a good offensive card as most of my creatures have either Flying, Shadow, ... So Damnation will clear the entire board while the Spoiling will only kill (most of) my opponents creatures while keeping (most of) my creatures alive and kicking.
Great minds bleed alike.
Do not copy media. Support creativity.
La_Sin_Grail
Posted: Mon Jan 29, 2007 8:12 pm
Joined: 14 Aug 2005 Posts: 806 Location: Maryland
Don’t say never. Sideboarding in Wogs in a R/W agro deck can make a win against dragonstorm Razz
The First
Posted: Tue Jan 30, 2007 12:06 pm
Joined: 07 Oct 2005 Posts: 195 Location: Anderlecht, Belgium
Indeed, against Dragonstorm, it might prove to be usefull. But it still depends. If a Hunted Dragon or 2 are played, the tokens should be able to take down 3 to 6 dragons with Sudden Spoiling and survive it.

However, Gigadrowse can quite ruin your day.

Also do those dragons not have haste and do they not kill you in 1 turn in general? Which would mean that a sorcery is not tto effective against it.

Dragonstorm is nasty Sad
Great minds bleed alike.
Do not copy media. Support creativity.
physcosick
Posted: Tue Jan 30, 2007 3:08 pm
Joined: 18 Oct 2005 Posts: 229 Location:
The First wrote:
Indeed, against Dragonstorm, it might prove to be usefull. But it still depends. If a Hunted Dragon or 2 are played, the tokens should be able to take down 3 to 6 dragons with Sudden Spoiling and survive it.

However, Gigadrowse can quite ruin your day.

Also do those dragons not have haste and do they not kill you in 1 turn in general? Which would mean that a sorcery is not tto effective against it.

Dragonstorm is nasty Sad
Against a R/W aggro deck, Dragonstorm has to go off as soon as possible. Which, unfortunately, could mean that you can only search for 3 dragons. By doing this, you can only deal 15 damage... or 16 but thats not smart. For one, you rarely ever want to play Hunted Dragon against an aggro deck. RW also runs Lightning Helix though so laying out 4 dragons dealing 20 to the face could easily be ruined with an inresponse helix.... then you basically lose. Because of this, it is more beneficial, most of the time, to clear the board of all weenies with your Hellkites and then wait to attack till the next turn.

So in that sense, i think it’s a different situation. I’d be less scared of Damnation and a lot more scared of Trickbind and Shadow of Doubt.

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