This thread is for the discussion of my latest article, Dan's Deckshop - Dark Side Rising. We would be grateful if you would let us know what you think, but please keep your comments on topic.
Afterword
Hey everyone. First let me say how sorry I am that it took this long for the third article to come out. I snagged a brand new incredible job and several awesome game design opportunities... Which stole me away from magic for the better part of five months. Again, I'm very sorry it took so long to get written but here it is at last - and three more articles are in the works with one already under editorial review.
It feels good to be back.
Now a note about the deck. The playgroup I tried it out on has fully embraced the spirit of slow multiplayer decks. This version of Dark Side Rising thus doesn't really get going until turn 4+. Some playgroups just aren't as forgiving and run more cheap aggressive strategies (which are pretty bad in multiplayer in most circumstances, but some people just love their Kithkin). To deal with those folks you can try packing spells like Infest, which are weaker but a bit faster too. They're also great against token strategies.
This has been a Dan's Deckshop update. I hope you enjoyed.
cool article, i do love me a creature-less control deck. probably more than i should
also, i do hope you succeed in becoming the writer for building on a budget, as your description says, because your writing is so much more interesting than Jacob van Lunems
(I know it matters significantly less in long multiplayer games, but over half the deck costs four or more mana and my instincts tell me that's probably not a great thing.)
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I've been featured in From the Lab eight times! Does that make me cool?
cool article, i do love me a creature-less control deck. probably more than i should
also, i do hope you succeed in becoming the writer for building on a budget, as your description says, because your writing is so much more interesting than Jacob van Lunems
and you actually test the deck before posting...
Thanks, glad you liked it.
And yeah, creatureless control is so slick when it works. A real thing of beauty. I love running it too.
(I know it matters significantly less in long multiplayer games, but over half the deck costs four or more mana and my instincts tell me that's probably not a great thing.)
Thanks for raising this point. In multiplayer, the demands of the curve really depend on the playgroup. If your group, like the one I played with above, really focuses on end-game power - you can afford not to run anything until turn four. It's not like Fog Bank, Coalition Relic and friends are going to be attacking into you. Also, unless your group is really out for your blood, other people are going to be doing a lot more impressive things than laying a few swamps early on. The thing about the black deck is that no one move it ever does looks that dangerous, even people who know the power of the Dark Side have trouble taking you as seriously at this moment than the guy who just dropped Akroma, Angel of Wrath or Morphling. In fact, often they'll be counting on you to help kill the nasty for them.
However, if your playgroup focuses more on early aggression or fast token generation, you can run things like Infest to drop the curve a little lower. It works really well.
Hey Dan, great article. I've actually been using a similar decklist and when I saw this it made me chuckle. Great ideas in Mirari and Bosium Strip. Also, I am using Liliana Vess in place of Diabolic Tutor - if left unchecked she can tutor you an extra card (although it doesn't actually go to your hand) or at her very worse she's great for soaking damage. Looking forward to reading more of your work. Never underestimate the power of the dark side!
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Modern UW UW Control UW UWR Jeskai Geist UWR RWG Naya Burn RWG
EDH UWB Doomsday Zur UWB UW Grand Arbiter Augustin IV UW WB Teysa, Orzhov Scion WB
Not to be a downer, but isn't this deck basically Pox without the Poxes (and hand control)? Good additions could include Pox, Smallpox, Chimeric Idol, Nether Spirit, etc.
Not to be a downer, but isn't this deck basically Pox without the Poxes (and hand control)? Good additions could include Pox, Smallpox, Chimeric Idol, Nether Spirit, etc.
Don't worry, you're not a downer.
Pox is actually pretty darn different here. For one thing, Pox and Smallpox can really hurt your mana-base when this deck wants as many swamps out as possible. Nether Spirit is also a cool card, but he's just not going to make much of a difference in multiplayer without some serious support - which would take out a lot of deck slots that are already in demand for keeping us alive and killing our opponents.
Pox can certainly do great in multiplayer, but it's a very different strategy. If you have a cool Pox list, feel free to post it. I'd love to take a look.
Wow. I've got this deck, which is incredibly close to yours. I guessed your deck would be like mine when I saw barter in blood. No idea how close though:
Wow. I've got this deck, which is incredibly close to yours. I guessed your deck would be like mine when I saw barter in blood. No idea how close though:
That's awesome. Using Urborg to counter the drawback of having Multiple Coffers is slick tech. Too bad it isn't budget. I think you might want to run some more mass-removal and trim down copies of Mirari and Strip to 2 each (you've got way more than enough card draw and tutors after all). Plus, you've gotta try Exsanguinate if you're doing multiplayer it's just WAY too fun!
Hey- I noticed your theme was 'Black on a Budget'. For a cool $4.25 if you shop smart, here are two cards that quite frankly will add just STUPID power levels to the list:
1x Dark Ritual (.50)
1x Necropotence (3.75)
I don't know about you, but upping it to
4x Dark Ritual (2.00)
1x Necropotence (3.75)
for less than $6 seems VERY much worth it. It could even be worth the price of less-smart shopping and getting yourself a vanity From the Vault copy of The Skull for $7 and leave the Dark Rituals at home
So, here's my proposed new version of your list:
Something Something Something DARK SIDE....
Mana [29]
25x Swamps
4x Dark Ritual
Pressure [20]
4x Innocent Blood
4x Barter in Blood
4x Tendrils of Corruption
4x Mind Shatter
4x Mutilate
Here is my list of changes and explanations for them:
*I took out the Syphon Minds. I'm sure this will be controversial. Even in multiplayer, I HIGHLY doubt Syphon Mind will be drawing you more cards than NECROPOTENCE. Especially in a deck like this, where you are nearly maxing out on the suite of cheapo life gain effects in Black
*I upped the Diabolic Tutor count to 3, and lowered the number of bomb artifacts to keep that section of your deck the same size (6 cards). With a Necropotence and 3 Diabolic Tutors, you should find your consistency starts shooting through the roof, and you'll be able to find every single Finisher spell, even though I've reduced the number of them in here too.
*Mind Shatter has replaced Syphon Mind as our discard spell. Funnily enough, I couldn't find anything that actually Mind Twists everyone at once. Apparently Wizards doesn't think Discard should be that strong. So what I settled on was using Mind Shatter to single-mindedly focus on destroying any one threatening player's hand at a time. If you know they are bringing 'loaded gun' decks against you, then sending these to cripple a hand full of threats seems like a better option than getting only 1 card in each hand from Syphon Mind. Your mileage might vary, and I'm willing to concede I might just be WRONG here. Still, consider Necropotence's effect on the deck carefully before you shoot down non-Syphon Mind discard.
*I went completely all-out on the Pressure front, 4-Maxing even the Mutilates. The total cost of this deck is therefore going to be a little higher than the one you posted, but not out of reach, I think, for someone interested in running a deck that is conceptually nearly exactly the same as yours.....
I just added Necropotence 'cuz it happens to be way, way, way more broken than it's $7 FROM THE VAULT pricetag, and you can get it for $4 with patience. And I noticed your deck gains a lot of life
For someone interested in further souping this list up, I would suggest the following changes to MY list:
-2 Swamp
-1 Diabolic Tutor
-1 Mind Shatter
+2 Corrupt
+1 Exanguinate
+1 Consume Spirit
Those finishers are really important, and slimming some of our least necessary cards to increase our Life-gain reach as much as possible to fuel Necropotence seems smart. That 25th Swamp really becomes less important when you have 4x Dark Rituals as well. 2x Tutors was enough for you WITHOUT the Skull, so you can probably run 2 Tutors with the Skull and do quite finely. Mind Shatter, of all your cards, could be your least important, since it is very possible that the single copy of Necropotence suddenly turned this into "Black Channel Fireball" and untapping with an unanswered The Skull yields a straight win.
How is THAT for Dark Side, without a SINGLE Cabal Coffers to boot? Screw the Cabal, I'm keeping MY Coffers full!
I am probably every color-combination it is possible to be, though it's really hard to figure out what it would mean to be 4-colored....it doesn't seem logical to be 4-colored without being 5-colored.
How is THAT for Dark Side, without a SINGLE Cabal Coffers to boot? Screw the Cabal, I'm keeping MY Coffers full!
Looks like a very fun variant. If you try it out, let us know how it goes!
I'm worried it might be a little light on kill conditions at the moment and Dark Ritual doesn't exactly work well with Corrupt or Mutilate - but playtesting conquers all. I'd be excited to see how this non-budget spin works out.
Looks like a very fun variant. If you try it out, let us know how it goes!
I'm worried it might be a little light on kill conditions at the moment and Dark Ritual doesn't exactly work well with Corrupt or Mutilate - but playtesting conquers all. I'd be excited to see how this non-budget spin works out.
I know it breaks $20, but it's still not that bad. I think as long as a complete decklist, rares and lands inc., stays at/under the average price for a non-budget deck's landbase (which is usually $50+), then it can be considered 'relatively' budget if it can actually perform at the same level of crazy expensive decks. Also, when the power:dollar ratio is as imbalanced as it is with Necropotence, it really, really should count as budget. Necropotence might not QUITE be as good as JACE, THE MINDSCULPTOR, but when you can get it for $3.50, The Skull is comparable to, or better than, AT LEAST A JACE?!! That's seriously budget IMO. $30 for a complete deck is .50/per card counting lands. .50 lands is harsh, but if you get all your rare playsets for $2 ea., then .50 lands doesn't look so bad anymore.
Regarding Dark Ritual- there's a couple interesting things here- the 'Swamps matter' theme is important to the deck, that's true- dropping Necropotence, or casting 2 Innocent Bloods for half the price of Barter in Blood, or Mutilating on turn 3 or less againt multiple G/x or R/x decks where Barter in Blood might not be enough if they pack Elf or Goblin tokens&Lords- I think it wise to include at least 2x Dark Ritual- however, taking out a Dark Ritual in favor of putting back another Swamp is also a choice that makes sense.
The spine of the deck is pretty much settled. After that it's simple matter of deciding which cards you believe will be the most important to get the most out of. If the single set of Mind Shatters is really that important for your playgroup, go ahead and trade them out for Mind Twists- though I confess, I'm the kind of guy who can't afford Mind Twist because I refuse to use White-bordered versions, so Mind Shatter was my compromise with Budget. Also, just for the record- Mirari was a From the Vault card too- Relics to be specific. Anyone looking to make there deck look sweet might be interested in that knowledge.
I am going to be looking back at this deck a lot I think
Black is probably one of the best colors to build on a Budget though, after Red, because you can play such a high density of common staples. No wonder that's why the last two Premium Decks were basically 'Red Deck Wins' and 'Black Deck Wins'. I couldn't actually see a similar build being made out of White or Green cards, and PDS: Blue I just can't see looking budget at all...
I am probably every color-combination it is possible to be, though it's really hard to figure out what it would mean to be 4-colored....it doesn't seem logical to be 4-colored without being 5-colored.
Great article, I really liked it! I've been looking for a mono-B deck that fits my budget for a very long time and this really seems like what I was looking for. I can't wait to see the next article.:)
Nice Darth. Keep us updated on how the Rituals work out. And yes, Necropotence is completely nuts - easily crossing the line over to 'unfair' more often than not. I always feel dirty when I slip it into one of my decks.
I want to endorse paying attention to Duel Decks, Commander and the occasional PDS as well. More so with the first two, those decks can often come with great value and can be awesome ways to get power-house cards to expand your collection. You'll notice in coming articles that I grab a lot of Commander cards due to their inexpensive budget reprints.
Great article, I really liked it! I've been looking for a mono-B deck that fits my budget for a very long time and this really seems like what I was looking for. I can't wait to see the next article.:)
Thanks. Requests from readers like you were definitely the main reason I started making time for writing again.
Nice Darth. Keep us updated on how the Rituals work out. And yes, Necropotence is completely nuts - easily crossing the line over to 'unfair' more often than not. I always feel dirty when I slip it into one of my decks.
I want to endorse paying attention to Duel Decks, Commander and the occasional PDS as well. More so with the first two, those decks can often come with great value and can be awesome ways to get power-house cards to expand your collection. You'll notice in coming articles that I grab a lot of Commander cards due to their inexpensive budget reprints.
Thanks. Requests from readers like you were definitely the main reason I started making time for writing again.
Unfortunately, the days of Jace vs. Chandra or Divine vs. Demonic seem over :/
Let me list all of the amazing Duel Decks cards we've had SINCE then:
Planeswalkers
Mutilate
uhhh
Planeswalkers
xP
I'm not saying the Duel Decks are bad. They are actually really cool. As far as being 'steals for great reprints that we didn't expect would be casually available'...I think we have definitely seen our last Demonic Tutor. At least in Duel Decks. What is the best card you can remember being in a non-Black Duel Deck?
I am probably every color-combination it is possible to be, though it's really hard to figure out what it would mean to be 4-colored....it doesn't seem logical to be 4-colored without being 5-colored.
I agree that this deck seems too expensive mana-wise. Budget in terms of monetary value is important when building casual, but a nice mana budget is also something worth considering.
It doesn't matter the tempo of the environment among your play group, if you get stuck on three lands, which isn't even a bad position to be in most of the time, you will stall out. Your threats will never get played, and at best you can Innocent Blood, which will not scare anyone with an actual board position.
What your deck really should be, as mentioned before, is a Pox deck, which is not going to cost you much more money, Pox is easily affordable and blows up multiplayer tables.
You mention being reluctant to run Pox because it jeopardizes your mana base, but you should consider your expensive threats. Corrupt, Tendrils of Corruption, Mutilate, Exsanguinate... these are good cards, but if you run Pox, you can also blow up lands and run cheaper threats. See how that problem fixes itself?
You don't even need to add creatures. Phyrexian Totem allows you to salvage mana and have a beater on a stick. Chimeric Idol is also an absolute brute when your mana base goes thin.
WUGPhelddagrif GGGOmnath, Locus of Mana BBBXiahou Dun, the One-Eyed RRRAshling, the Pilgrim BBWTeysa, Scion of Orzhov UUUTalrand, Sky Summoner UUBVela the Night-Clad GGBVhati il-Dal RUWRuhan of the Fomori
Yep, Pox is an awesome multiplayer archetype. I wouldn't recommend running Dark Ritual in it, because again - speed is really not nearly as important as in duels. Other players often know this too, so they're less likely to play cheap creatures compared to duels... Meaning powering out an early Pox matters less. But that's an easy change and lets you run even more powerful plague effects.
I'm not really a fan of Pox decks though, because I just don't enjoy playing them. They can definitely work, but they can really kill the fun for a table. Using Corrupt and Exsanguinate to kill people, which pads out your life total by buckets, is seriously sweet. If your playgroup runs much more aggressively than mine, you can just drop the cost of some of the mass removal to lower CMC versions - as mentioned before - or throw out a versatile defensive option. Reflexively changing the entire deck's strategy because your play-group is a bit quicker to one of the more hated archetypes in multiplayer might be a bit of an extreme way to tune for your playgroup. Pox is a very different deck that casual playgroups are more likely to ban - and its key part costs $4 each, plus can't be used in other types of decks very easily.
But of course, both are powerful mono-black control archetypes and both showcase the power of the Dark Side. Thanks for bringing this up for other commentators to see.
About the Cabal Coffers being expensive: I've been in CMB for a while (I'm like the first minion on their list) and to join you need to enter a decklist for review. The first version of that deck was my list (very old, and used proxies) twas my favorite deck. They loved it, let me join and once for christmas, my dad said he'd buy me $50 of cards. No contest, 2 Urborg and 4 Cabal Coffers. Most memorable gift so far and gave my my favorite deck. So it was relatively budget for me
About the Cabal Coffers being expensive: I've been in CMB for a while (I'm like the first minion on their list) and to join you need to enter a decklist for review. The first version of that deck was my list (very old, and used proxies) twas my favorite deck. They loved it, let me join and once for christmas, my dad said he'd buy me $50 of cards. No contest, 2 Urborg and 4 Cabal Coffers. Most memorable gift so far and gave my my favorite deck. So it was relatively budget for me
A fine article highlighting the power of Exsanguinate and sweepers in general.
You stressed the awesome power of lifegain. Consider that the next time you say that, recommend that lifegain serves a purpose and should be tied to winning, rather than gaining life for its own sake.
Gaining life through Exsanguinate is great, because it is reducing opponents' life totals. Even Soul Warden works because it can swing for 1 or chump block, as necessary.
Gaining life through Demon's Horn or Angel's Mercy does nothing to harm your opponents. Dedicating card slots to doing naught but gaining life makes me twitch.
A fine article highlighting the power of Exsanguinate and sweepers in general.
You stressed the awesome power of lifegain. Consider that the next time you say that, recommend that lifegain serves a purpose and should be tied to winning, rather than gaining life for its own sake.
Gaining life through Exsanguinate is great, because it is reducing opponents' life totals. Even Soul Warden works because it can swing for 1 or chump block, as necessary.
Gaining life through Demon's Horn or Angel's Mercy does nothing to harm your opponents. Dedicating card slots to doing naught but gaining life makes me twitch.
I feel it is important to have a use for all that extra life, because otherwise, it is delay of game, which earns my ire at the table.
Aside from that, it was a fine article, and now I am off to read the rest of your writing.
Cheers!
Glad you enjoyed the article. And you make an excellent point about life gain. The best way to articulate the concept is the following.
"Gaining life does nothing on its own to change the board state - it doesn't allow you to gain an advantage or take away a disadvantage. That's why it tends to work best when it's either stapled to an already-good-deal (like Kitchen Finks) or comes in MASSIVE doses (Soul Warden in Multiplayer)."
People tend to focus on one or the other. You mention the first, for example, but consider the second as well. Soul Warden does nothing as a single1/1 - you highlight its ability to chump-block... But what is Chump-Blocking? It's proactive life-gain! There's no difference between chumping a vanilla 6/6 and gaining 6 life.
No, Soul Warden's power comes from its ability to generate massive amounts of free life at a nominal cost. And in multiplayer lifegain is great because it expands your options. If you have 100 life, you can treat an attacking 5/5 with the same casual attitude you'd treat an attacking 1/1 usually. No need to throw your useful creature in the way to block it, you can maintain your board presence while smashing other people around.
Exsanguinate does both here - it's a great amount of damage AND a truly massive amount of lifegain. Corrupt is a similarly good deal.
Gaining life is often powerful enough on its own though. Just take a look at the Martyr-Tron deck that preformed so well for Gabriel Nassif. Martyr of Sands and Proclamation of Rebirth - this is an expensive engine that does nothing but gain life. However, it gained truly massive amounts and served Gabriel's strategy. His late-game was the best, so he just needed to gain life faster than his opponents could deal damage.
Here the deck is based around winning a war of attrition. You can take away your opponents' ability to hurt you with your massive card-advantage sweepers and then gain truckloads of life to strain their resources even further. Each 10 extra life you gain gives you more time to draw additional Exsanguinates, Corrupts or Tendrils of Corruption. It's a delicious and subtle synergy.
Now, Dragon's Claw and similar fail because they don't gain you enough life to make their cost worth it in almost all cases, they're conditional and they don't impact the board - so your opponent is probably dealing more damage in combat anyway. However, if lifegain meets either of the two above criteria, it's good - especially in multiplayer for the reasons mentioned. If it's just something pathetic, like Healing Salve, it's not.
A friend of mine once had a deck like yours. A card I liked in his deck was tainted aether
It was very very good. If people sacrificed lands to keep their creatures, they would sacrifice them later to inocent blood.
Gthcka! That card is absolutely incredible! Great find, thanks for bringing it to my attention. I'd love to find room for it, or put it in a brand new deck. I'll definitely keep it in mind because... Wow, multiple copies of that would just be brutal. And it's so very budget.
Afterword
Hey everyone. First let me say how sorry I am that it took this long for the third article to come out. I snagged a brand new incredible job and several awesome game design opportunities... Which stole me away from magic for the better part of five months. Again, I'm very sorry it took so long to get written but here it is at last - and three more articles are in the works with one already under editorial review.
It feels good to be back.
Now a note about the deck. The playgroup I tried it out on has fully embraced the spirit of slow multiplayer decks. This version of Dark Side Rising thus doesn't really get going until turn 4+. Some playgroups just aren't as forgiving and run more cheap aggressive strategies (which are pretty bad in multiplayer in most circumstances, but some people just love their Kithkin). To deal with those folks you can try packing spells like Infest, which are weaker but a bit faster too. They're also great against token strategies.
This has been a Dan's Deckshop update. I hope you enjoyed.
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also, i do hope you succeed in becoming the writer for building on a budget, as your description says, because your writing is so much more interesting than Jacob van Lunems
and you actually test the deck before posting...
Niv-Mizzet Ramp 'n' Wheel
Godo: Strap him up and turn him sideways!
(I know it matters significantly less in long multiplayer games, but over half the deck costs four or more mana and my instincts tell me that's probably not a great thing.)
Thanks, glad you liked it.
And yeah, creatureless control is so slick when it works. A real thing of beauty. I love running it too.
Thanks for raising this point. In multiplayer, the demands of the curve really depend on the playgroup. If your group, like the one I played with above, really focuses on end-game power - you can afford not to run anything until turn four. It's not like Fog Bank, Coalition Relic and friends are going to be attacking into you. Also, unless your group is really out for your blood, other people are going to be doing a lot more impressive things than laying a few swamps early on. The thing about the black deck is that no one move it ever does looks that dangerous, even people who know the power of the Dark Side have trouble taking you as seriously at this moment than the guy who just dropped Akroma, Angel of Wrath or Morphling. In fact, often they'll be counting on you to help kill the nasty for them.
However, if your playgroup focuses more on early aggression or fast token generation, you can run things like Infest to drop the curve a little lower. It works really well.
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UW UW Control UW
UWR Jeskai Geist UWR
RWG Naya Burn RWG
EDH
UWB Doomsday Zur UWB
UW Grand Arbiter Augustin IV UW
WB Teysa, Orzhov Scion WB
GX Tron XG
UR Phoenix RU
GG Freyalise High Tide GG
UR Parun Counterspells RU
BB Yawgmoth Token Storm BB
WB Pestilence BW
Don't worry, you're not a downer.
Pox is actually pretty darn different here. For one thing, Pox and Smallpox can really hurt your mana-base when this deck wants as many swamps out as possible. Nether Spirit is also a cool card, but he's just not going to make much of a difference in multiplayer without some serious support - which would take out a lot of deck slots that are already in demand for keeping us alive and killing our opponents.
Pox can certainly do great in multiplayer, but it's a very different strategy. If you have a cool Pox list, feel free to post it. I'd love to take a look.
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3 Bosium Strip
4 Corrupt
4 Tendrils of Corruption
4 Barter in Blood
4 Innocent Blood
4 Sign in Blood
4 Ambition's Cost
4 Beseech the Queen
4 Infest
4 Cabal Coffers
2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
18 Swamp
Amazing no?
That's awesome. Using Urborg to counter the drawback of having Multiple Coffers is slick tech. Too bad it isn't budget. I think you might want to run some more mass-removal and trim down copies of Mirari and Strip to 2 each (you've got way more than enough card draw and tutors after all). Plus, you've gotta try Exsanguinate if you're doing multiplayer it's just WAY too fun!
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1x Dark Ritual (.50)
1x Necropotence (3.75)
I don't know about you, but upping it to
4x Dark Ritual (2.00)
1x Necropotence (3.75)
for less than $6 seems VERY much worth it. It could even be worth the price of less-smart shopping and getting yourself a vanity From the Vault copy of The Skull for $7 and leave the Dark Rituals at home
So, here's my proposed new version of your list:
Something Something Something DARK SIDE....
Mana [29]
25x Swamps
4x Dark Ritual
Pressure [20]
4x Innocent Blood
4x Barter in Blood
4x Tendrils of Corruption
4x Mind Shatter
4x Mutilate
Utility [6]
1x Bosmium Strip
3x Diabolic Tutor
1x Mirari
1x Necropotence
Finish [5]
2x Corrupt
3x Exanguinate
1x Consume Spirit
Here is my list of changes and explanations for them:
*I took out the Syphon Minds. I'm sure this will be controversial. Even in multiplayer, I HIGHLY doubt Syphon Mind will be drawing you more cards than NECROPOTENCE. Especially in a deck like this, where you are nearly maxing out on the suite of cheapo life gain effects in Black
*I upped the Diabolic Tutor count to 3, and lowered the number of bomb artifacts to keep that section of your deck the same size (6 cards). With a Necropotence and 3 Diabolic Tutors, you should find your consistency starts shooting through the roof, and you'll be able to find every single Finisher spell, even though I've reduced the number of them in here too.
*Mind Shatter has replaced Syphon Mind as our discard spell. Funnily enough, I couldn't find anything that actually Mind Twists everyone at once. Apparently Wizards doesn't think Discard should be that strong. So what I settled on was using Mind Shatter to single-mindedly focus on destroying any one threatening player's hand at a time. If you know they are bringing 'loaded gun' decks against you, then sending these to cripple a hand full of threats seems like a better option than getting only 1 card in each hand from Syphon Mind. Your mileage might vary, and I'm willing to concede I might just be WRONG here. Still, consider Necropotence's effect on the deck carefully before you shoot down non-Syphon Mind discard.
*I went completely all-out on the Pressure front, 4-Maxing even the Mutilates. The total cost of this deck is therefore going to be a little higher than the one you posted, but not out of reach, I think, for someone interested in running a deck that is conceptually nearly exactly the same as yours.....
I just added Necropotence 'cuz it happens to be way, way, way more broken than it's $7 FROM THE VAULT pricetag, and you can get it for $4 with patience. And I noticed your deck gains a lot of life
For someone interested in further souping this list up, I would suggest the following changes to MY list:
-2 Swamp
-1 Diabolic Tutor
-1 Mind Shatter
+2 Corrupt
+1 Exanguinate
+1 Consume Spirit
Those finishers are really important, and slimming some of our least necessary cards to increase our Life-gain reach as much as possible to fuel Necropotence seems smart. That 25th Swamp really becomes less important when you have 4x Dark Rituals as well. 2x Tutors was enough for you WITHOUT the Skull, so you can probably run 2 Tutors with the Skull and do quite finely. Mind Shatter, of all your cards, could be your least important, since it is very possible that the single copy of Necropotence suddenly turned this into "Black Channel Fireball" and untapping with an unanswered The Skull yields a straight win.
How is THAT for Dark Side, without a SINGLE Cabal Coffers to boot? Screw the Cabal, I'm keeping MY Coffers full!
People need to read this fanfiction, though:
www.hpmor.com
I am probably every color-combination it is possible to be, though it's really hard to figure out what it would mean to be 4-colored....it doesn't seem logical to be 4-colored without being 5-colored.
Looks like a very fun variant. If you try it out, let us know how it goes!
I'm worried it might be a little light on kill conditions at the moment and Dark Ritual doesn't exactly work well with Corrupt or Mutilate - but playtesting conquers all. I'd be excited to see how this non-budget spin works out.
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I know it breaks $20, but it's still not that bad. I think as long as a complete decklist, rares and lands inc., stays at/under the average price for a non-budget deck's landbase (which is usually $50+), then it can be considered 'relatively' budget if it can actually perform at the same level of crazy expensive decks. Also, when the power:dollar ratio is as imbalanced as it is with Necropotence, it really, really should count as budget. Necropotence might not QUITE be as good as JACE, THE MINDSCULPTOR, but when you can get it for $3.50, The Skull is comparable to, or better than, AT LEAST A JACE?!! That's seriously budget IMO. $30 for a complete deck is .50/per card counting lands. .50 lands is harsh, but if you get all your rare playsets for $2 ea., then .50 lands doesn't look so bad anymore.
Regarding Dark Ritual- there's a couple interesting things here- the 'Swamps matter' theme is important to the deck, that's true- dropping Necropotence, or casting 2 Innocent Bloods for half the price of Barter in Blood, or Mutilating on turn 3 or less againt multiple G/x or R/x decks where Barter in Blood might not be enough if they pack Elf or Goblin tokens&Lords- I think it wise to include at least 2x Dark Ritual- however, taking out a Dark Ritual in favor of putting back another Swamp is also a choice that makes sense.
The spine of the deck is pretty much settled. After that it's simple matter of deciding which cards you believe will be the most important to get the most out of. If the single set of Mind Shatters is really that important for your playgroup, go ahead and trade them out for Mind Twists- though I confess, I'm the kind of guy who can't afford Mind Twist because I refuse to use White-bordered versions, so Mind Shatter was my compromise with Budget. Also, just for the record- Mirari was a From the Vault card too- Relics to be specific. Anyone looking to make there deck look sweet might be interested in that knowledge.
I am going to be looking back at this deck a lot I think
Black is probably one of the best colors to build on a Budget though, after Red, because you can play such a high density of common staples. No wonder that's why the last two Premium Decks were basically 'Red Deck Wins' and 'Black Deck Wins'. I couldn't actually see a similar build being made out of White or Green cards, and PDS: Blue I just can't see looking budget at all...
People need to read this fanfiction, though:
www.hpmor.com
I am probably every color-combination it is possible to be, though it's really hard to figure out what it would mean to be 4-colored....it doesn't seem logical to be 4-colored without being 5-colored.
I want to endorse paying attention to Duel Decks, Commander and the occasional PDS as well. More so with the first two, those decks can often come with great value and can be awesome ways to get power-house cards to expand your collection. You'll notice in coming articles that I grab a lot of Commander cards due to their inexpensive budget reprints.
Thanks. Requests from readers like you were definitely the main reason I started making time for writing again.
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Unfortunately, the days of Jace vs. Chandra or Divine vs. Demonic seem over :/
Let me list all of the amazing Duel Decks cards we've had SINCE then:
Planeswalkers
Mutilate
uhhh
Planeswalkers
xP
I'm not saying the Duel Decks are bad. They are actually really cool. As far as being 'steals for great reprints that we didn't expect would be casually available'...I think we have definitely seen our last Demonic Tutor. At least in Duel Decks. What is the best card you can remember being in a non-Black Duel Deck?
People need to read this fanfiction, though:
www.hpmor.com
I am probably every color-combination it is possible to be, though it's really hard to figure out what it would mean to be 4-colored....it doesn't seem logical to be 4-colored without being 5-colored.
For a cheaper alternative, try Liliana's Specter.
It doesn't matter the tempo of the environment among your play group, if you get stuck on three lands, which isn't even a bad position to be in most of the time, you will stall out. Your threats will never get played, and at best you can Innocent Blood, which will not scare anyone with an actual board position.
What your deck really should be, as mentioned before, is a Pox deck, which is not going to cost you much more money, Pox is easily affordable and blows up multiplayer tables.
You mention being reluctant to run Pox because it jeopardizes your mana base, but you should consider your expensive threats. Corrupt, Tendrils of Corruption, Mutilate, Exsanguinate... these are good cards, but if you run Pox, you can also blow up lands and run cheaper threats. See how that problem fixes itself?
You don't even need to add creatures. Phyrexian Totem allows you to salvage mana and have a beater on a stick. Chimeric Idol is also an absolute brute when your mana base goes thin.
Creatures also worth considering would be Kuon, Ogre Ascendant, Necroplasm and/or Epochrasite, but I will maintain creaturelessness.
Here is my proposition for MBC in multiplayer that is also quite budget.
23x Swamp
4x Bloodchief Ascension
4x Syphon Soul
4x Smallpox
4x Innocent Blood
3x Pox
3x Delirium Skeins
2x Barter In Blood
2x Infest
3x Chimeric Idol
B Infect
BW Death & Taxes
UBR Affinity
R Burn
UBR Sac Land Tendrils
UBRG Oops, All Spells
WUG Phelddagrif
GGG Omnath, Locus of Mana
BBB Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed
RRR Ashling, the Pilgrim
BBW Teysa, Scion of Orzhov
UUU Talrand, Sky Summoner
UUB Vela the Night-Clad
GGB Vhati il-Dal
RUW Ruhan of the Fomori
Yep, Pox is an awesome multiplayer archetype. I wouldn't recommend running Dark Ritual in it, because again - speed is really not nearly as important as in duels. Other players often know this too, so they're less likely to play cheap creatures compared to duels... Meaning powering out an early Pox matters less. But that's an easy change and lets you run even more powerful plague effects.
I'm not really a fan of Pox decks though, because I just don't enjoy playing them. They can definitely work, but they can really kill the fun for a table. Using Corrupt and Exsanguinate to kill people, which pads out your life total by buckets, is seriously sweet. If your playgroup runs much more aggressively than mine, you can just drop the cost of some of the mass removal to lower CMC versions - as mentioned before - or throw out a versatile defensive option. Reflexively changing the entire deck's strategy because your play-group is a bit quicker to one of the more hated archetypes in multiplayer might be a bit of an extreme way to tune for your playgroup. Pox is a very different deck that casual playgroups are more likely to ban - and its key part costs $4 each, plus can't be used in other types of decks very easily.
But of course, both are powerful mono-black control archetypes and both showcase the power of the Dark Side. Thanks for bringing this up for other commentators to see.
That's a card I'd like to combo with Clockspinning... But I say that about all the Myojin.
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That's awesome. I'm officially jealous.
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You stressed the awesome power of lifegain. Consider that the next time you say that, recommend that lifegain serves a purpose and should be tied to winning, rather than gaining life for its own sake.
Gaining life through Exsanguinate is great, because it is reducing opponents' life totals. Even Soul Warden works because it can swing for 1 or chump block, as necessary.
Gaining life through Demon's Horn or Angel's Mercy does nothing to harm your opponents. Dedicating card slots to doing naught but gaining life makes me twitch.
Using extra life alongside Necropotence, Yawgmoth's Bargain, Necrologia, Sylvan Library, and even to win via Felidar Sovereign or Test of Endurance is a better use, in my mind, than just as a shield.
I feel it is important to have a use for all that extra life, because otherwise, it is delay of game, which earns my ire at the table.
Aside from that, it was a fine article, and now I am off to read the rest of your writing.
Cheers!
Krichaiushii on PucaTrade.
Glad you enjoyed the article. And you make an excellent point about life gain. The best way to articulate the concept is the following.
"Gaining life does nothing on its own to change the board state - it doesn't allow you to gain an advantage or take away a disadvantage. That's why it tends to work best when it's either stapled to an already-good-deal (like Kitchen Finks) or comes in MASSIVE doses (Soul Warden in Multiplayer)."
People tend to focus on one or the other. You mention the first, for example, but consider the second as well. Soul Warden does nothing as a single1/1 - you highlight its ability to chump-block... But what is Chump-Blocking? It's proactive life-gain! There's no difference between chumping a vanilla 6/6 and gaining 6 life.
No, Soul Warden's power comes from its ability to generate massive amounts of free life at a nominal cost. And in multiplayer lifegain is great because it expands your options. If you have 100 life, you can treat an attacking 5/5 with the same casual attitude you'd treat an attacking 1/1 usually. No need to throw your useful creature in the way to block it, you can maintain your board presence while smashing other people around.
Exsanguinate does both here - it's a great amount of damage AND a truly massive amount of lifegain. Corrupt is a similarly good deal.
Gaining life is often powerful enough on its own though. Just take a look at the Martyr-Tron deck that preformed so well for Gabriel Nassif. Martyr of Sands and Proclamation of Rebirth - this is an expensive engine that does nothing but gain life. However, it gained truly massive amounts and served Gabriel's strategy. His late-game was the best, so he just needed to gain life faster than his opponents could deal damage.
Here the deck is based around winning a war of attrition. You can take away your opponents' ability to hurt you with your massive card-advantage sweepers and then gain truckloads of life to strain their resources even further. Each 10 extra life you gain gives you more time to draw additional Exsanguinates, Corrupts or Tendrils of Corruption. It's a delicious and subtle synergy.
Now, Dragon's Claw and similar fail because they don't gain you enough life to make their cost worth it in almost all cases, they're conditional and they don't impact the board - so your opponent is probably dealing more damage in combat anyway. However, if lifegain meets either of the two above criteria, it's good - especially in multiplayer for the reasons mentioned. If it's just something pathetic, like Healing Salve, it's not.
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Gthcka! That card is absolutely incredible! Great find, thanks for bringing it to my attention. I'd love to find room for it, or put it in a brand new deck. I'll definitely keep it in mind because... Wow, multiple copies of that would just be brutal. And it's so very budget.
Thanks!
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I am far from a good deck builder, but would this card be good in this deck?
Building on a budget tips:
yakusoku's Budget Guide to Standard
Simon's Budget Guide to Playing on a Budget
10$ Deck Ideas:
Shinbatsu's Budget Deck Challenge
GB Graveyard Shift BG
UBR It's Cloning Time! RBU
Modern:
B Mono Black Infect B
WG Splicers GW
UG Allies GU