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| The First |
![]() Posted: Tue Jul 18, 2006 3:32 pm |
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Joined: 07 Oct 2005
Posts: 195
Location: Anderlecht, Belgium
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--- description ---
Who talks like that?! *shudder*
--- end description ---
Decks you never imagined being build, being played, or worse, winning games against some of the more potent decks in the meta. Decks that look somewhere from very bad to very, very bad on paper but seem to prove their worth in play. Decks that consist of cards that are not worth a buck individually nor toghether.
Yes, they exist. And with every new set released, their number grows exponentially. Most of them will teach us something about the game we hold so dear. Amongst other things, they will teach us how not to build a deck, how not to play a card or, against better judgement, how bad some of those favorite cards of yours actually are.
Nevertheless, some good things can be learned from them as well. That is also why I wrote this article – except for the fact that I love absurd decks and I love to play with those favourite uber-mega bad cards.
The card that started it all – laugh all you like – is Woebringer Demon. 3BB for a 4/4 flyer is not that bad if it were not for its cool – but actually pretty bad – game text; At the beginning of each player’s upkeep, that player sacrifices a creature. If the player can’t, sacrifice Woebringer Demon.
Because I don’t like to lose without putting up a good fight, and since I do not like a single win condition or aim for a deck, I needed a heck of a lot extra punch. Because this was a first draft and I was playing mono-black at the time (a few weeks or even months ago), I decided to do the same for this deck. It would improve consistency for the mana base and it would garantee to me that the Woebringer Demon could be played the moment I got to 5 lands, maximising the number of times I could actually play the Demon each game.
Then, I began thinking about cards that would interact with the Demon. Grave Pact came to mind almost instantly, reducing the number of creatures on the opponent’s side with 2 for every 1 of my creatures. Now then, which creatures do we like to sacrifice? Maybe some cool creatures with abilities that trigger once they are put into the graveyard. Only the Festering Goblin and the Ashen-Skin Zubera were found with the Gatherer and they are only semi-useful.
Another essential part of the combo is to keep the Demon around for as long as there are creatures remaining on the other side. So, we will be needing quite a few creatures in our deck, but even then, you might not get them when you need them. Creatures with dredge as ability on the other hand, can be returned to hand, and play, when they are needed and as many times as you want, providing you with at least 1 creature to sac instead of the Demon on your next turn.
The Golgari Thug matches both of the descriptions given in above alineas. It is dredgeable AND it will get you a creature card back – any creature card – probably put into the graveyard by his own dredge ability. Talking about some very cool tutor card for this deck! The Stinkweed Imp is the second dredge creature for obvious reasons.
Since I don’t like to depend on 1 card for a deck, especially if that card has a CC of 5, I decided to add Plagued Rusalka. They can kill a creature on their own and are great in combo with Grave Pact, Goblins or Zuberas. I also added Keening Banshee. I really like the feel of them. I picked them over the Nekrataal because they fly and because giving a creature –2/-2 “bonus” is enough to permanently kill quite a few creatures while the Nekrataal says non-black creature (Ghost Husk, Ghost Dad or the like anyone?). I also added 2 Mortivore. The Thug can get them back and make them big. They are solid finishers.
Remember what I said about these kind of decks and how they sometimes learn you that some cards, how useful they might seem or could be or become, really are not everything you expect them to be. Confused? I added the Orzhov Euthanist to the first draft. The previous sentence is now probably crystal clear.
The first draft decklist is;
~ Creatures ~ 34
4x Woebringer Demon
2x Mortivore
4x Keening Banshee
4x Stinkweed Imp
4x Orzhov Euthanist
4x Golgari Thug
4x Ashen-skin Zubera
4x Plagued Rusalka
4x Festering Goblin
~ Other ~ 26
4x Grave Pact
22x Swamp
This deck is based on the KISS principle once again – Keep It Simple and Stupid. This deck is really easy to play and very consitant. Only 1 color so no need for hard to get dual-lands. No need to tune your mana base. Tweak the number of copies for every card? No thanks. I’ll be useing 4 copies of every card, allowing me to get them out on a consistant base. Every card is picked to fullfill only 1 strategy; get rid of all creatures, get a few of yours back and go for the win. The KISS principle on itself is very potent and good to fall back onto if you are lost somehow.
I had quite a few ideas on how to improve this deck, both by adding colors or rare cards. What about Rakdos in this deck as an ultimate finisher? Adding white for more disruption or lifegain might be nice. What about blue? More control is always good for a combo/control oriented deck. Or maybe add red for more chaos to disrupt an opponent’s control deck. Or maybe add green for acceleration and to improve the life/death cycle.
This last alinea shows us that options are endless. However, a deck based on the KISS principle will probably be better than any kind of deck somewhere lost between choices like what colors to add or which potent cards to use, blurring the unity.
Changes will be made to this deck. Will they improve this deck? I honestly don’t know, but if you ever try to build a strange deck, keep in mind that keeping it simple and stupid is the first step to a higher level.
- The First
PS: this deck beat Orzhov and Zoo on numerous occassions and has so far never let me down. |
Great minds bleed alike.
Do not copy media. Support creativity. |
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| BrianBoitano |
![]() Posted: Wed Jul 19, 2006 2:02 pm |
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Joined: 16 Jun 2006
Posts: 124
Location: Houston, TX
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I like the premise of this article, but I find the particular rare you choose to base this around as kind of dull. In my imagination, this deck won’t teach us much about the game, and although you have proved that a deck with Woebringer Demon is playable, but it doesn’t really have the impact you want it to. It doesn’t feel like an exciting rogue deck that will put some of the "favorite cards" in their place. Woebringer Demon won’t make your opponent go "Wow, I got beat by that?!?", more likely "Wow, I got beat by a wannabe Braids, Cabal Minion."
That said, of course you chose to do it this way, so I might as well stop beating around the bush and review what you did with it  .
The focus of your deck, fitting in Woebringer Demon but also packing a lot of extra punch, is a good lesson in stability. You mention consistency and maximizing your Demon rate. The next step, which I also like, is finding interactions. Grave Pact, I think, is really a double edged sword. On the one hand, you’re maximizing the efficiency of the Demon’s second ability, basically trying for a budget version of Plague Wind, with a few losses on your side. This is okay, but I think that speeding up the Demon’s clock means losing out on that tasty 4/4 body. I think that, even though the KISS plan is tried and true, it won’t cut the butter here. I would suggest branching out into green for acceleration and the Golgari cards that can better support the Demon. This gives you more diversity and synergy, as green has some nice coming-into-play effects, so that losing your creature to the Demon doesn’t seem so bad. It also means the Demon comes out earlier, which would help you against any aggro deck or control that’s based around setting up a lock.
Dredge has proven not to be that powerful a mechanic unless some of the star dredgers are involved, such as Life from the Loam or Shambling Shell, so you might want to decide to go all-in or drop it. Consistency being the goal, having only two dredge cards and two cards that benefit from this dredge (the Thug and Mortivore) is an example of stretching yourself out.
I like the Plagued Rusalka choice, it has nice interaction with lots of cards in your deck.
Orzhov Euthanist is nice, but a bit limited. Most creatures that people will care about being Euthanized are either untargetable, have evasion, or aren’t for attacking, so damaging them will be tough. Maybe look into the many Drain Life type cards that can damage creatures? This will add a bit of utility for dealing with creatures that are beyond the Rusalka’s and Goblin’s reaches, and if your Demon isn’t working out.
So I say that while your mana curve is nice, and you have some decent synergies going around, branching out would be a good idea. I understand that you are convinced that KISS will prevail, since other deckbuilding strategies could lessen unity, but the current environment fosters unity between colors quite well. If you are focused in your adding of another color, you will end up with a better deck. |
"Not again" -Hans
Hello kind Sir or Madam, I am a polite sig virus. Please put me into your fine and dandy signature so that I might continue to replicate. Thank you for your time. |
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| The First |
![]() Posted: Sun Jul 30, 2006 10:08 am |
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Joined: 07 Oct 2005
Posts: 195
Location: Anderlecht, Belgium
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The loss of the Demon is not that bad. In the early to mid game, you need the sweeping power of both Woe-Bringer and/or Dredgers with Grave Pact.
Most opponents then hold their creatures in hand - so they don’t need to be sac’ed as well -giving me some time to build up my mana base for the more expensive creatures + load the graveyard with creatures- and blow up my Pact asap. Which actually helps me a lot in the late game.
The opponent is not often killed by the Demon but rather by a lot of small creatures. Some have flying, some are just bad to block (Goblin and Thug).
The Demon and Mortivore are more a last resort kind of thing or to break a tie.
I don’t agree with the Golgari improving this deck. Like you have said yourself; dredge is not a very good ability. Why would I then put more dredgers in this deck? Especially since the Life from the loam and other Grave-shell scarabs don’t really support the general theme of this deck.
Accel would be nice but it could harm the consistency of my deck. Grave Pact has a cost of 1BBB. That can hurt. Accel cards are green cards so you need green first turn of second to profit from accel. So your ratio green/black will be >1. If 8 dredge cards isn’t enough to get out on a consistent base, then how many fixers or accel cards do I need?
I know that the Euthanasist should be cut. It is a crap card. The demon is here to take care of untargettables and protection cards. The Pact/Demon combo will allow me to get to them faster.
I’ve been thinking about Maga. I always liked that card and I might be able to fetch him a few times to finish the game for me. But he is very, very expensive and probably not a good idea.
I could use some drain life cards though but I’d prefer them with creature bodies attached. The highway robber seems to be the only alternative. |
Great minds bleed alike.
Do not copy media. Support creativity. |
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| Cobra |
![]() Posted: Mon Jul 31, 2006 6:11 pm |
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Joined: 12 Jul 2005
Posts: 1202
Location: Austin, TX, USA
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Very nice article. I do agree with Brian that branching out into Green would be a significant improvement, though. Mana-acceleration creatures would be very nice here, helping to bring the Demon out quickly and then sacrificing themselves to it.
Yes, that moves you away from the "keep it simple, stupid" principle, but what’s really at stake? The idea that multiple colors decreases synergy isn’t really true with the cards curently available. (In fact, the reason we mention adding another color in the first place is because of a chance to increase synergy.) And the mana base would be just fine... we are talking about Green after all.  |
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| Felipe Musco |
![]() Posted: Mon Jul 31, 2006 7:04 pm |
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Joined: 18 May 2006
Posts: 2434
Location: Florianópolis, SC, Brasil
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Yep, the guys are right, after all, adding green, for instance, would allow you to (if you so desperately need to) add Putrefy, for compensating that extra turn before your Grave Pact hits the board, for instance. Whatever you’re trying to do with your strategy,  helps!  |
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