MTG Salvation

Spooky takes a look at the monstrous snake from Theros and brews a graveyard-based deck made to clobber your opponent with giant creatures!

Introduction

Graveyard based cards seem to be arriving en masse in recent sets. I'm not one to complain, of course. I love graveyard based decks. Dredge was my first real Legacy deck, and Cephalid Breakfast has long been one of my favorites. Casual play groups often look down on combo decks, however, and let's face it, most decks that use the graveyard in any way other than burying their dead monsters is exactly that. I've long wanted to build a deck that was based around the graveyard but didn't play Narcomoeba or reanimate an Iona on turn two. I never knew where to start, until Theros block gave me a bit of an epiphany. This epiphany came in the form of Nemesis of Mortals. Nemesis just screams "Build around me!" I'm not one to say no (especially to 30ft long monster snakes) so when I heard that familiar scream, I had to oblige.

Construction

Starting off the deck seems simple enough. We know we want four of our namesake creature, and we can more or less guess the number of lands we want as well. For now, we will just list Forests, but that can, and will, change later on.

We want the deck to have some sort of graveyard theme, we know that for sure. Looking for cards that have similar abilities as Nemesis gives us some sweet options. Karador, Ghost Chieftain seems really cool at first glance, but at three colors it may become a bit difficult to cast him. Beyond that, his second ability seems to have a dis-synergy with the rest of the cards we want to be playing. Sure its cool, but we want to be stacking our graveyard full of creatures, not taking them out. Ghoultree on the other hand is perfect. A potential 10/10 for could be even better than Nemesis!

There seems to be few other options in this area, so what can we find in the area of creatures that get bigger with your graveyard? Revenant is a cool flier from Stonghold that may justify splashing black. This could potentially give us some better enablers later on. Nightstalker Engine on the other hand, while still an option, seems a little lackluster. I would like to say that Born of the Gods gave us some nifty choices, but all I can see is Graverobber Spider, and I would rather not have to pay for my graveyard based buff. Kessig Cagebreakers is another card that looks nice at first glance, but I'm not sure if we will be able to consistently reach five mana without diluting the deck. Nighthowler is a newer creature from Theros that could make a splash.Splinterfright is both an enabler and a beat stick who definitely looks promising. Let's not forget about his little brother Boneyard Wurm either. I know a lot of people have tried to make that little wiggler work, and it's about high time I was one of them!

The last on-theme creature I could find is actually one I am pretty excited about. Way back when I was first starting to play Magic, I used to get decimated by my older brother's Avatar of Woe. It was a walking kill spell that I couldn't block, and it presented a nasty clock to boot. The thing is sick, and it fits perfectly in our deck. As long as we can figure out a way to consistently make it cost two to play, I know we can start making people cry at least as much as I did when it was played against me.

We seem to have plenty of creatures to play, so lets start looking for spells that work with our theme as well. Blossoming Wreath and Gnaw to the Bone could be great at keeping us alive while we fill our graveyard. I'm inclined to pick Gnaw, as I've seen its power first-hand in both Pauper and Modern. It goes without saying that the flashback also gives it a power level well above Wreath. Ghastly Demise could provide us with some great removal, while Soulshriek, Wreath of Geists, and Ghoul's Feast all look like awesome finishing spells. I'm not sure if creatures like Ghoultree really need to be much bigger, but hey, why not? I would consider Songs of the Damned as a potential, but the two major cards we are building around cost less for each creature we bury, so I don't think we really need the ramp in the first place. Finally, Spider Spawning and Grim Flowering are at the top of the curve. Flowering seems like it costs way too much for what it gives us, but Spawning, on the other hand, has some sweet potential. The casting cost of five may be a little high, but the number of Spiders it could give is may make it all worth it.

Overall there seems to be a ton of directions we could take this deck already. A little bit of streamlining will certainly be in order, but for now we will keep trucking on with what we have found.

The deck seems like it is really coming together. Now, all we need are the enablers. Nemesis being green means if we stayed in a single color we would be very limited in out graveyard enabling cards. We want a deck that can quickly and efficiently get creatures in the graveyard so that Nemesis can be played and monsterfied as soon as possible. Cards like Mulch, Tracker's Instincts, Commune with the Gods, and Born of the God's Satyr Wayfinder are all potentials, but they kind of seem lackluster. The first couple turns we will be dropping lands and not much else. Afterwards we will be spending another few turns casting our enablers and looking for creatures to play. Half of the enablers we would be playing would force us to bury our large creatures as well. It's looking like we really do need to play black. At the very least this gives us the option to play Grisly Salvage, which can find us a fatty, or a land should we need one.

Looking at the deck as is, it should be pretty obvious that we need more creatures, not more spells. Luckily for us, there is a mechanic in the game that allows us to play more creatures, fill our graveyard, and see more cards, all at once. Cycling! We have quite a few on color options as well. Street Wraith is the most obvious and powerful cycler we could play. It's a free cycle, which means it's free mana for Nemesis or Ghoultree casting. We can also hardcast him, should we ever want to. The rest of our options are basically any creatures that can cycle for a black or green mana. Monstrous Carabid, Architects of Will and Deadshot Minotaur all fit the bill. Fume Spitter is not a cycler, but he can top us off for good measure. He is an early spell for us to play, small threats die to him, and we can bury him in the graveyard whenever we want thanks to the fact that even if there is no creature in play, he can target himself with his own ability!

I don't know about you, but I'm getting pretty excited about this list. So far, this is what it looks like.

As I said earlier, some streamlining is certainly in order. I know for a fact that we want to maximize our cycle enablers, as well as our Grisly Salvages. Of course, we need to keep all of our Nemesis of Mortals and Ghoultrees as well; they are the whole reason we are building this deck. Avatar of Woe is an awesome card, but we cannot guarantee we can play her every game. I think trimming her to two copies should be fine. In that same light, Revenant is sweet, but probably much too costly. We have other cards that do exactly what he does, but all for less mana, so I guess he gets the axe completely.

Splinterfright and Boneyard Wurm both fit the deck extremely well, but one of them needs to go. I am on the fence about this one, and really I wouldn't argue too much with you should you decide to go a different route, but I think Fright is the one getting voted off the island. The fact that he has trample is nice, but the potential to mill away a fatty and the higher casting cost kind of push me away.

Trimming away some Gnaw to the Bone and Spider Spawning numbers is easy enough. They are both strong, and deserve spots in the deck, but we certainly don't need four of each. This is especially true when you look at the fact that they both have flashback (which makes them synergize nicely with Grisly Salvage, by the way). Wreath of Geists is cool, but when it really comes down to it we need room, and a 10/10 is probably big enough in most cases. This leaves us with our final, nothing short of awesome list.

Deck Name: Boneyard
Deck Type: Aggro/Combo
Cost: ~$22

Now to see how the deck plays. After some promising goldfishing, I messaged a few friends and then fired up the ol' Cockatrice.

My opening hand sees Street Wraith, Fume Spitter, Nemesis of Mortals, Gnaw to the Bone and three lands. It's not amazing, but I'll keep it. He wins the die roll and starts off with an Island into Ponder. I respond to his end phase by cycling Street Wraith. On my turn I play a Fume Spitter and pass. His second turn lands him two Delver of Secrets, one of which promptly dies to a cascade of saliva. I'm at two creatures in the yard and facing down a Delver. This should be fun.

I topdeck a cycler, which cycles into another. His Delver fails to flip, and on my turn I cast a Nemesis. Things are looking good until he sets some Mountains and double Lightning Bolts my 5/5 away. I set up with a few more cyles, but start to sweat when he has me at 8 life, casts Brainstorm and follows it with Erratic Explosion. What am I playing against? "There better not be a Draco on the top of that deck!" I think to myself. Luckily, he hits a Fireblast instead (yay!) and I cast a Gnaw to The Bone on my turn for 18 life. A 9/9 Boneyard Wurm and Ghoultree coming down on my next turn seals the deal as his burn just can't get through Gnaw.

Some promising stuff for sure. I won't clog this article up with test games, though. Goldfish the list yourself, or stick it into a Magic program and play it against friends. You could also just build it straight up, as the price is a measly 22 bucks! It's a fun deck, with some great power behind it. You see a ton of cards during your games, and your monsters can get silly big. Spider Spawning can be very fun depending on the tokens you choose to play with, and you definitely turn heads after you cast a one mana Ghoultree. All in all, this is certainly a deck I will be keeping around for a while.

Conclusion

So what did you think of today's deck? I would love to hear from anyone who decides to build or play it. Don't forget, if you have an idea for a casual deck you want me to write about, or if you want help improving on a list, just send me a message. I'm always looking for new ideas, and happy to help build some sweet brews.

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