I think the biggest changes happened after I decided to swap out Warden of the Wall for Vessel of Endless Rest. I really liked the Wardens. They did a lot on defense, they were extra bodies to sacrifice to the Falkenrath Aristocrats, but they were just too slow. Vessels are also 3cc, but at least they come into play untapped. There are many 1cc removal spells in this deck and coming into play untapped is kind of a big deal.
Vessels can also tap for mana of any color. Together with Evolving Wilds this means the mana base is blown wide open.
The third reason to include the vessels is because they can shuffle any important curses from your graveyard into your library that your opponent was able to destroy. There are so many 1-of curses in the deck that this ability which makes this ability very good. This ability can also be turned on your opponent to get rid of any scary cards sitting in an opposing graveyard. Put this altogether and I now have many reasons to swap out Curse of Oblivion for Curse of Exhaustion.
Pillar of Flame is just really good against lots of creatures that used to give this deck problems.
Appetite for Brains instead of Devil's Play. Devil's Play used to be more important as a secondary win condition, but you really only needed to use them after your Curse of Thirst was destroyed. With the Vessels of Endless Rest, you can just cycle the curse back in.
Lastly, I think the single copy of Killing Wave does a lot of good things. It's acts as a 5th copy of Blasphemous Act (kinda) and it's a cheap way to sacrifice your own guys. I also decided not to include Bonfire of the Damned because it doesn't let you suicide your own guys and kill opposing creatures at the same time.
edit: Decided to ditch the Curse of the Nightly Hunt. Without a full set of Wardens of the Wall, this curse became less good.
Overall, I think this version is better than the old one and it can be pretty good if you get the right draws, but it's still never going to be a tier 1 deck
So I wanted to have some fun last night and I ended up throwing together a curse deck... and I ended up going 10-0 for the night. First, let it be known that I didn't see a single Witchbane Orb the entire time. So funnily enough, if there are absolutely zero Witchbane Orbs played against you, I actually think the curse deck is quite strong.
The main win condition is to use Bitterheart Witch & Curse of Misfortunes to get Curse of Thirst into play along with 2-4 other curses and burn them to death. The secondary win condition is to beat down with Falkenrath Aristocrats and then finish them with a Devil's Play. Curse of Bloodletting helps.
Curses
No one wants to attack into Black Cats, Bitterheart Witches, or Wardens of the Wall, and Curse of the Nightly Hunt just forces the issue. This also is great in forcing your opponent to attack into a wall of wardens.
Curse of Oblivion is self-explanatory, but only good if you get it down early.
Curse of Bloodletting is a beating and pretty much ends the game 1 turn earlier.
Curse of Death's Hold is obviously great against tokens. I started out with 4 of them and slowly cut back on them one by one. It's just not necessary when you also have 4 Blasphemous Act. I'll still side in another one against tokens, but only 1 in the main deck.
Curse of Echoes is such a funny card. It feels like the best curse to get after a big Blasphemous Act when there's no pressure currently on board.
Curse of Misfortune is self-explanatory, but remember that its effect tiggers on your upkeep, not your opponent's. This makes it a little slower, but is still a prime target if you can instantly sacrifice a Bitterheart Witch with either Altar's Reap or Falkenrath Aristocrat.
Curse of Thirst and Curse of the Pierced Heart are self-explanatory, but it's important to note that it deals damage not loss of life. This is important because they both combo with Curse of Blood Letting, but more importantly, the damage can be redirectly to opposing planeswalkers. I side in both Curse of the Pierced Hearts against any deck with planeswalkers.
More Notes
Warden of the Wall is just a great defensive creature as it clogs up the skies against tokens and conveniently ramps up to all your 5 drops. It can also be sacced to the aristocrat on your opponent's turn to get yourself an indestructible blocker.
You can get your Bitterheart Witches to die with plenty of cards, including Altar's Reap, Falkenrath Aristocrat, or a big Blasphemous Act.
Black Cats + Blasphemous Act are just awesome against tokens. Black Cat might be the only creature a Doomed Traveler is scared to attack into.
It should be noted that every creature in the deck either wants to die or can survive a Blasphemous Act. Wardens aren't creatures on your turn, aristocrats can be indestructible, and Trees of Redemption can get 14+ toughness.
Falkenrath Aristocrat is mainly in the deck as a instant sacrifice outlet. It's sad when one of the witches get Sever the Bloodline played on it and the aristocrat gets around this (getting a +1/+1 counter in the process). Getting in an early hit or two is also nice, but the sac effect is very important.
I started off with 4 Ancient Grudge instead of Naturalize, but quickly learned how annoying Intangible Virtues can be. But this deck is mainly defense, so Tree of Redemption fits in nicely.
Like I said, I think it's a good deck. It's a fun deck. And it also helps that everyone else's decks are geared toward dealing with tokens right now. While this deck is essentially a "creature-less" deck and lots of their cards are dead draws against this.
--But it's a shame Witchbane Orb exists because the orb hoses it so completely.
In summation.....Star Trek wins a prolonged naval battle against superior, yet less technologically advanced, numbers, with Picard leading the assault, while Kirk takes your soul by laying out Solo and probably his manservant Chewy as well, before impregnating and ditching your Princess.
Played against something like this aswell few days ago.
he told me he created it to be anti geist decks that deck did also run lilliana and tribute to hunger.
i think lilliana could be something worth giving a try?
Something else that deck included and maybe worth testing:
Curse of Bloodletting + Stensia Bloodhall
i do notice its a bit high on mana costs, is this ever a problem?
I was thinking Liliana as well, but with such a tight mainboard I'm not so sure where he'd slip it in. Maybe in Altar's Reap's place?
The curve actually isn't that bad at all. He has seven 1 CMC removal spells for the first few turns and Devil's Play can burn out weenies and dorks on turns 2-3, plus Black Cat coming down on turn 2. He doesn't get rolling until turn 3-4 anyway, so just playing draw go for a few turns at the beginning (barring a Black Cat in hand) seems pretty great.
URGImperial AnimarGRU BRGProssh, Tokenmaker of KherGRB WURNarset NostalgicRUW UBR"I like your deck better" JelevaRBU UBlue BraidsU GAzusa, Lost but RampingG
WUHanna, Pillowfort's NavigatorUW WBRAleshacratsBRW UBRGrixis Pew PewRBU URGYasova the ThreateningGRU BGGlissa the ArticiferGB WUSygg MerfolkUW RSquee, Value NabobR
I don't really know how Witchbane Orb factors in, but when you get spirits from them casting Lingering Souls and Midnight Haunting, it could get pretty frustrating on their end.
URGImperial AnimarGRU BRGProssh, Tokenmaker of KherGRB WURNarset NostalgicRUW UBR"I like your deck better" JelevaRBU UBlue BraidsU GAzusa, Lost but RampingG
WUHanna, Pillowfort's NavigatorUW WBRAleshacratsBRW UBRGrixis Pew PewRBU URGYasova the ThreateningGRU BGGlissa the ArticiferGB WUSygg MerfolkUW RSquee, Value NabobR
I could probably squeeze in a Stensia. The deck is actually pretty smooth on mana. There are really only 4 spells that have double colors and it has a blue splash. But 2 of the 4 double color spells (and the blue splash) can be fetched and aren't even hard cast most of the time.
-Witchbane Lock?
I guess that doesn't make sense the way I wrote it. The particular game I was thinking about was against a Boros deck (not Sorin) that beat me one game with some burn. So I cleared the battlefield with a Blasphemous Act and dropped a Witchbane Orb and had Curse of Echoes in play. He was out of gas and in top deck mode so he just conceded.
If the battlefield is clear and you're not under any pressure, this feels like the best curse to get (over Misfortunes, Death's Hold, or Thirst).
-High Mana Curve
You definitely taking an extra mulligan or two more than a normal deck, but it's really not that bad. If you think about it, the entire deck is 4cc or less except for Blasphemous Act, Devil's Play, and seven 5cc cards. The Blasphemous Act and Devil's Play don't really count and all of the 4cc or under cards are just there to stall until turn 5+.
Here's a pic to better see the curve:
Falkenrath Aristocrat was the last card I added to the deck and she's awesome. She consistently snipes Garruks and Sorins and Sever the Bloodline was a big problem before. The instant sac with her and Altar's Reap are a must for the deck.
--Again, I have to say that this isn't competitive if you're staring down an opponent who's playing Witchbane Orbs. But I played 5 or so more games and I only lost once (against Witchbanes). This included a G/W Humans and GBW Control/Planeswalkers. People just aren't playing the orbs now that Burning Vengeance feels like it's gone. In this current meta, this deck feels really good.
I'm looking for suggestions mostly for the sideboard:
I think the 1x Curse of Death's Hold and 2x Curse of the Pierced Heart are correct, but everything else it is kind of up in the air.
I also think Witchbane Orb + Liliana is a thing against slow control decks with lots of enchantment hate (and opposing Witchbane Orbs). If they spend multiple draws on Naturalize, Urgent Exorcism, and Paraselene, your orb usually survives the Naturalize and then you just nuke their permanents w/ Liliana.
I'm also considering a transformational sideboard that sides out all the curses & Bitterheart Witches (11 cards), turns all their curse hate into dead draws, and still has decent win conditions... It might even be better to go the full 15 and transform the deck into something completely different. (I figure Falkenrath Aristocrat will be the centerpiece in an aggro type deck, but I haven't cracked it yet.)
If you could add 11 cards to the following decklist (and have the option of swapping 4 more) to make a decent deck, what would they be?
I've only played a few games so far with mixed results, but here's what I'm playing with:
Side Out:
-4 Bitterheart Witch
-1 Curse of the Nightly Hunt
-1 Curse of Oblivion
-1 Curse of Bloodletting
-1 Curse of Death's Hold
-1 Curse of Echoes
-1 Curse of Misfortunes
-1 Curse of Thirst
-1 Warden of the Wall
-1 Island
-1 Swamp
-1 Mountain
Side In:
+3 Skirsdag High Priest
+2 Lingering Souls
+4 Midnight Haunting
+2 Falkenrath Noble
+1 Mikaeus, the Lunarch
+1 Plains
+2 Isolated Chapel
Mixed results because I've only played a few games, I made a couple mistakes, and I wasn't playing against top tier decks. But the idea worked. I still won a couple matches with them having dead draws in hand.
(This was in the Practice Room and I played a WU Spirit deck, GW Humans, and a weird, RUW self-mill deck with Chalice of Life and Increasing Confusion. I was waiting for them to cast the white spell that gains 2 life for each card in their graveyard, but my curses killed them before that happened.)
I think I'll have to mess with it a little bit more because there were at least a couple times when I sac'd a rat and got them to discard a Ray of Revelation. The rat's ability is pointless if they're just discarding dead cards.
As for the cards I picked, I figured Skirsdag High Priests can always bring a beating with demons, especially in a deck that easily gets morbid. Mikaeus instead of Intangible Virtues because the whole point is to get away from Naturalize and the like. And Falkenrath Noble seemed kind of good with lots of tokens and Blasphemous Act.
I think I'll have to change it up in a way to get rid of the rats. Maybe just ditch the whole white splash. (Also, Urgent Exorcism might not have curse targets, but it can still hit the spirit tokens.)
I would think that a more traditional control route (from the sideboard) would probably be the better way to deal with curse hate. That'd be things like Olivia, Liliana, Desperate Ravings and such. I think that that'd probably take up fewer sideboard slots without being much worse against the decks that board in the orb.
Have been playing this list, it's fun. not tier 1 or anything, but definitely produces some lol moments. people are maindeck ray of revelation now, which is a bummer for us
Have been playing this list, it's fun. not tier 1 or anything, but definitely produces some lol moments. people are maindeck ray of revelation now, which is a bummer for us
Because every black deck runs Curse of Death's Hold to keep tokens down even WB Tokens.
Out of the blackness and stench of the engulfing swamp emerged a shimmering figure. Only the splattered armor and ichor-stained sword hinted at the unfathomable evil the knight had just laid waste.
Why would you get a curse of echoes over a curse of misfortunes on an empty board, under no pressure? You could just get curse of misfortunes, and fetch the echoes on your upkeep.
That way, you now not only have a curse of echoes in play (same as before), you also have them on a 3 turn clock (fetch thirst, deal 3, fetch bloodletting, deal 8, fetch X, deal 10)
The problem is if you don't get the Misfortunes off a Bitterheart Witch, you give your opponent a 1 1/2 turns to cast spells. And there are definitely times I was sure my opponent had a Naturalize/Urgent Exorcism, so I went for the Echoes instead and when they went to kill it, I got to copy the spell and take out one of their Intangible Virtues as well.
But you might be right. Most of the time Echoes is really just a win more card to slap down once you're in the lead when Curse of Thirst needs 2-3 more turns to get the job done.
Quick Bitterheart Witches and a way to bring them back cheap for more curses.
Just think about that curve. Summoning, into T3 Witch.
The deck actually started out with 4x Heartless Summoning and I found 2 problems:
The Summonings don't get good unless you get 2 of them into play. The first one just turns the witches into 0/1s and turns off their deathtouch.
There are only so many do-nothing cards you can put in the deck until the deck just does nothing. And the curses already fill up that slot.
Tor those wonder on my transformational sideboard, I've still be experimenting, but can't find anything I like. The last thing I tried was 4x Invisible Stalker + 4x Butcher's Cleaver for the free win. Remember, this is after game one where they've seen nothing but Black Cats, Bitterheart Witches, and Wardens of the Wall. So hopefully, they sided out things like Tribute to Hunger and their own Curse of Death's Hold.
Since you already have an island in the deck, it's easier on the mana (over the white I was experimenting with). It kind of worked, but I don't think it was good enough. Maybe a normal sideboard is still the way to go. Not sure yet.
How do you guys think this deck will perform post-bans? It looks like a ton of fun.
post bans? which cards will banned? i'm excited to play this deck as it very budget-friendly. the only cards that cost something are the aristocrats (and they don't cost that much).
regarding removing all curses for the SB, i suggest we go the humans route as this would really pump ms. aristocrat. plus you've already tried going the invisible route.
post bans? which cards will banned? i'm excited to play this deck as it very budget-friendly. the only cards that cost something are the aristocrats (and they don't cost that much).
regarding removing all curses for the SB, i suggest we go the humans route as this would really pump ms. aristocrat. plus you've already tried going the invisible route.
URGImperial AnimarGRU BRGProssh, Tokenmaker of KherGRB WURNarset NostalgicRUW UBR"I like your deck better" JelevaRBU UBlue BraidsU GAzusa, Lost but RampingG
WUHanna, Pillowfort's NavigatorUW WBRAleshacratsBRW UBRGrixis Pew PewRBU URGYasova the ThreateningGRU BGGlissa the ArticiferGB WUSygg MerfolkUW RSquee, Value NabobR
Played against something like this aswell few days ago.
he told me he created it to be anti geist decks that deck did also run lilliana and tribute to hunger.
i think lilliana could be something worth giving a try?
Something else that deck included and maybe worth testing:
Curse of Bloodletting + Stensia Bloodhall
i do notice its a bit high on mana costs, is this ever a problem?
post bans? which cards will banned? i'm excited to play this deck as it very budget-friendly. the only cards that cost something are the aristocrats (and they don't cost that much).
regarding removing all curses for the SB, i suggest we go the humans route as this would really pump ms. aristocrat. plus you've already tried going the invisible route.
Now that Intangible Virtue & Lingering Souls are gone, I think I'm ready to hop on the Liliana of the Veil bandwagon. I could see this deck running 1-2 Liliana, but it then comes down to cutting Curse of the Nightly Hunt, Curse of Oblivion, and/or Dead Weight. (It also bumps up the $$$ of the deck significantly.) Curse of the Nightly Hunt might be an easy cut, but Oblivion is just a lot of fun and very effective against the right deck. I also want to keep the curse count up, if possible.
Either way, I won't be posting any updates to the deck until the Avacyn Restored previews are done. I wish they were going to print new curses, but I doubt it. Thematically, curses don't really fit with AVR and practically, it doesn't make too much sense since AVR is drafted separately from ISD & DKA.
I'm glad other people are having fun with the deck.
I knew there would be any more curses in Avacyn Restored, but now that the set is almost fully spoiled, it looks like the pickings are slim when updating the deck list. The cards I'm looking at are these:
Appetite for Brains - I'm considering replacing some rats for this, but that means less chances to making Falkenwrath Aristocrat indestructible and also lose the ability for instant discard on your opponent's draw step.
Barter in Blood - Not too exciting, but worth thinking about.
Killing Wave - I'm very interested in this card. Not only is it mass removal/damage to the face, but it's also an option to kill off your own Bitterheart Witches for as little as 1 black.
Vessel of Rest - I'm thinking about adding 1-2 copies, just to help the Warden of the Walls get to the critical 5cc spells. It also helps in recycling any curses your opponent managed to destroy which are then easily tutored for again.
I'll post an updated list some time after the full spoiler is out.
i threw together a similar deck for a block league my LGS has been running for the last 2 weeks. i played heartless and bloodgift as well as bitterheart. it does alright and i am still looking to improve it. i have quite a bit of early removal and sweepers, the problem is that i really dont do anything until i hit 5 mana. how do you guys mull? what are you looking for in an opener? a lot of the time when i lose its cause i didnt have enough early removal while i waited 5 turns to drop a witch or curse or i had removal for a few things but ran out before i got a curse or two to stick.
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i threw together a similar deck for a block league my LGS has been running for the last 2 weeks. i played heartless and bloodgift as well as bitterheart. it does alright and i am still looking to improve it. i have quite a bit of early removal and sweepers, the problem is that i really dont do anything until i hit 5 mana. how do you guys mull? what are you looking for in an opener? a lot of the time when i lose its cause i didnt have enough early removal while i waited 5 turns to drop a witch or curse or i had removal for a few things but ran out before i got a curse or two to stick.
Yeah, I'm trying to find something I like but it's probably going to be forever stuck as a joke/casual/gimmick deck in block.
What I was hoping for most was a talisman or signet or Sphere of the Suns type card in Avacyn Restored. Warden of the Wall is nice, but what this deck really needs is mana acceleration that comes down on turn 2 for all the reasons you posted above. This deck needs to get to 5 mana and if it doesn't, you usually lose.
But, I am a casual player. And I always buy up at least 1 block deck per block (in physical cards) after the last set is released and The Curse Deck is going to be that deck for me in Innistrad.
What about Demonic Taskmaster? It's a sac outlet for our Witches and Cats, doesn't sacrifice Warden!, and can just be sacced if you land an Aristocrat instead. In the meantime, he's eating Delvers for lunch. Maybe it's worth giving it a try.
I think the biggest changes happened after I decided to swap out Warden of the Wall for Vessel of Endless Rest. I really liked the Wardens. They did a lot on defense, they were extra bodies to sacrifice to the Falkenrath Aristocrats, but they were just too slow. Vessels are also 3cc, but at least they come into play untapped. There are many 1cc removal spells in this deck and coming into play untapped is kind of a big deal.
Vessels can also tap for mana of any color. Together with Evolving Wilds this means the mana base is blown wide open.
The third reason to include the vessels is because they can shuffle any important curses from your graveyard into your library that your opponent was able to destroy. There are so many 1-of curses in the deck that this ability which makes this ability very good. This ability can also be turned on your opponent to get rid of any scary cards sitting in an opposing graveyard. Put this altogether and I now have many reasons to swap out Curse of Oblivion for Curse of Exhaustion.
Pillar of Flame is just really good against lots of creatures that used to give this deck problems.
Appetite for Brains instead of Devil's Play. Devil's Play used to be more important as a secondary win condition, but you really only needed to use them after your Curse of Thirst was destroyed. With the Vessels of Endless Rest, you can just cycle the curse back in.
Lastly, I think the single copy of Killing Wave does a lot of good things. It's acts as a 5th copy of Blasphemous Act (kinda) and it's a cheap way to sacrifice your own guys. I also decided not to include Bonfire of the Damned because it doesn't let you suicide your own guys and kill opposing creatures at the same time.
edit: Decided to ditch the Curse of the Nightly Hunt. Without a full set of Wardens of the Wall, this curse became less good.
Overall, I think this version is better than the old one and it can be pretty good if you get the right draws, but it's still never going to be a tier 1 deck.
4 Falkenrath Aristocrat
4 Doomed Traveler
2 Bitterheart Witch
Curses (7)
1 Curse of Stalked Prey
1 Curse of Exhaustion
1 Curse of Bloodletting
1 Curse of Echoes
1 Curse of Death's Hold
1 Curse of Misfortunes
1 Curse of Thirst
4 Gather the Townsfolk
2 Tragic Slip
4 Banishing Stroke
1 Devil's Play
1 Faith's Shield
4 Blasphemous Act
Artifacts (4)
4 Vessel of Endless Rest
Land (23)
1 Slayers' Stronghold
1 Stensia Bloodhall
1 Vault of the Archangel
4 Isolated Chapel
4 Clifftop Retreat
4 Swamp
4 Mountain
4 Plains
Notes:
I think this is the final version. I posted more notes on the deck here:
http://www.casualmtg.net/2012/08/ida-curse-deck.html
4 Black Cat
4 Bitterheart Witch
2 Falkenrath Aristocrat
Curses (7)
1 Curse of the Pierced Heart
1 Curse of Exhaustion
1 Curse of Bloodletting
1 Curse of Death's Hold
1 Curse of Echoes
1 Curse of Misfortunes
1 Curse of Thirst
4 Pillar of Flame
4 Tragic Slip
2 Appetite for Brains
4 Blasphemous Act
1 Killing Wave
Artifacts (4)
4 Vessel of Endless Rest
4 Evolving Wilds
10 Swamp
9 Mountain
1 Plains
Many Changes:
Notes:
Overall, I think this version is better than the old one and it can be pretty good if you get the right draws, but it's still never going to be a tier 1 deck
4 Black Cat
4 Bitterheart Witch
2 Falkenrath Aristocrat
Curses (7)
1 Curse of the Nightly Hunt
1 Curse of Oblivion
1 Curse of Bloodletting
1 Curse of Death's Hold
1 Curse of Echoes
1 Curse of Misfortunes
1 Curse of Thirst
3 Dead Weight
4 Tragic Slip
4 Blasphemous Act
2 Devil's Play
Other (6)
2 Altar's Reap
4 Warden of the Wall
4 Evolving Wilds
12 Swamp
7 Mountain
1 Island
Win Conditions
The main win condition is to use Bitterheart Witch & Curse of Misfortunes to get Curse of Thirst into play along with 2-4 other curses and burn them to death. The secondary win condition is to beat down with Falkenrath Aristocrats and then finish them with a Devil's Play. Curse of Bloodletting helps.
Curses
More Notes
Like I said, I think it's a good deck. It's a fun deck. And it also helps that everyone else's decks are geared toward dealing with tokens right now. While this deck is essentially a "creature-less" deck and lots of their cards are dead draws against this.
--But it's a shame Witchbane Orb exists because the orb hoses it so completely.
Thread | Draft
MTGO Block Contructed 2-man queues.
I was thinking Liliana as well, but with such a tight mainboard I'm not so sure where he'd slip it in. Maybe in Altar's Reap's place?
The curve actually isn't that bad at all. He has seven 1 CMC removal spells for the first few turns and Devil's Play can burn out weenies and dorks on turns 2-3, plus Black Cat coming down on turn 2. He doesn't get rolling until turn 3-4 anyway, so just playing draw go for a few turns at the beginning (barring a Black Cat in hand) seems pretty great.
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Modern: BRGLiving EndGRB
Legacy: UBGShardless BUGGBU
BRGProssh, Tokenmaker of KherGRB
WURNarset NostalgicRUW
UBR"I like your deck better" JelevaRBU
UBlue BraidsU
GAzusa, Lost but RampingG
WBRAleshacratsBRW
UBRGrixis Pew PewRBU
URGYasova the ThreateningGRU
BGGlissa the ArticiferGB
WUSygg MerfolkUW
RSquee, Value NabobR
I don't really know how Witchbane Orb factors in, but when you get spirits from them casting Lingering Souls and Midnight Haunting, it could get pretty frustrating on their end.
Living End Contributor and Enthusiast
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Rules Advisor
Modern: BRGLiving EndGRB
Legacy: UBGShardless BUGGBU
BRGProssh, Tokenmaker of KherGRB
WURNarset NostalgicRUW
UBR"I like your deck better" JelevaRBU
UBlue BraidsU
GAzusa, Lost but RampingG
WBRAleshacratsBRW
UBRGrixis Pew PewRBU
URGYasova the ThreateningGRU
BGGlissa the ArticiferGB
WUSygg MerfolkUW
RSquee, Value NabobR
-Stensia
I could probably squeeze in a Stensia. The deck is actually pretty smooth on mana. There are really only 4 spells that have double colors and it has a blue splash. But 2 of the 4 double color spells (and the blue splash) can be fetched and aren't even hard cast most of the time.
-Witchbane Lock?
I guess that doesn't make sense the way I wrote it. The particular game I was thinking about was against a Boros deck (not Sorin) that beat me one game with some burn. So I cleared the battlefield with a Blasphemous Act and dropped a Witchbane Orb and had Curse of Echoes in play. He was out of gas and in top deck mode so he just conceded.
If the battlefield is clear and you're not under any pressure, this feels like the best curse to get (over Misfortunes, Death's Hold, or Thirst).
-High Mana Curve
You definitely taking an extra mulligan or two more than a normal deck, but it's really not that bad. If you think about it, the entire deck is 4cc or less except for Blasphemous Act, Devil's Play, and seven 5cc cards. The Blasphemous Act and Devil's Play don't really count and all of the 4cc or under cards are just there to stall until turn 5+.
Here's a pic to better see the curve:
Falkenrath Aristocrat was the last card I added to the deck and she's awesome. She consistently snipes Garruks and Sorins and Sever the Bloodline was a big problem before. The instant sac with her and Altar's Reap are a must for the deck.
--Again, I have to say that this isn't competitive if you're staring down an opponent who's playing Witchbane Orbs. But I played 5 or so more games and I only lost once (against Witchbanes). This included a G/W Humans and GBW Control/Planeswalkers. People just aren't playing the orbs now that Burning Vengeance feels like it's gone. In this current meta, this deck feels really good.
Thread | Draft
If you could add 11 cards to the following decklist (and have the option of swapping 4 more) to make a decent deck, what would they be?
4 Black Cat
2 Falkenrath Aristocrat
Control (13)
3 Dead Weight
4 Tragic Slip
4 Blasphemous Act
2 Devil's Play
2 Altar's Reap
4 Warden of the Wall
Land (24)
4 Evolving Wilds
12 Swamp
7 Mountain
1 Island
edit: I'm also considering -2 Devil's Play and +2 Brimstone Volley. With Curse of Bloodletting and easy access to morbid, this might be better.
Thread | Draft
Side Out:
-4 Bitterheart Witch
-1 Curse of the Nightly Hunt
-1 Curse of Oblivion
-1 Curse of Bloodletting
-1 Curse of Death's Hold
-1 Curse of Echoes
-1 Curse of Misfortunes
-1 Curse of Thirst
-1 Warden of the Wall
-1 Island
-1 Swamp
-1 Mountain
Side In:
+3 Skirsdag High Priest
+2 Lingering Souls
+4 Midnight Haunting
+2 Falkenrath Noble
+1 Mikaeus, the Lunarch
+1 Plains
+2 Isolated Chapel
Mixed results because I've only played a few games, I made a couple mistakes, and I wasn't playing against top tier decks. But the idea worked. I still won a couple matches with them having dead draws in hand.
(This was in the Practice Room and I played a WU Spirit deck, GW Humans, and a weird, RUW self-mill deck with Chalice of Life and Increasing Confusion. I was waiting for them to cast the white spell that gains 2 life for each card in their graveyard, but my curses killed them before that happened.)
I think I'll have to mess with it a little bit more because there were at least a couple times when I sac'd a rat and got them to discard a Ray of Revelation. The rat's ability is pointless if they're just discarding dead cards.
As for the cards I picked, I figured Skirsdag High Priests can always bring a beating with demons, especially in a deck that easily gets morbid. Mikaeus instead of Intangible Virtues because the whole point is to get away from Naturalize and the like. And Falkenrath Noble seemed kind of good with lots of tokens and Blasphemous Act.
I think I'll have to change it up in a way to get rid of the rats. Maybe just ditch the whole white splash. (Also, Urgent Exorcism might not have curse targets, but it can still hit the spirit tokens.)
tl;dr
Still working on it.
Thread | Draft
Draft it on Cubetutor!
Because every black deck runs Curse of Death's Hold to keep tokens down even WB Tokens.
If I were to try to build this I think I would throw in Heartless Summoning and a couple Havengul Lich.
Quick Bitterheart Witches and a way to bring them back cheap for more curses.
Just think about that curve. Summoning, into T3 Witch.
i suggest you try spiteful shadows as it combos well with blasphemous act. that's 13 to the face!
The problem is if you don't get the Misfortunes off a Bitterheart Witch, you give your opponent a 1 1/2 turns to cast spells. And there are definitely times I was sure my opponent had a Naturalize/Urgent Exorcism, so I went for the Echoes instead and when they went to kill it, I got to copy the spell and take out one of their Intangible Virtues as well.
But you might be right. Most of the time Echoes is really just a win more card to slap down once you're in the lead when Curse of Thirst needs 2-3 more turns to get the job done.
The deck actually started out with 4x Heartless Summoning and I found 2 problems:
Tor those wonder on my transformational sideboard, I've still be experimenting, but can't find anything I like. The last thing I tried was 4x Invisible Stalker + 4x Butcher's Cleaver for the free win. Remember, this is after game one where they've seen nothing but Black Cats, Bitterheart Witches, and Wardens of the Wall. So hopefully, they sided out things like Tribute to Hunger and their own Curse of Death's Hold.
Since you already have an island in the deck, it's easier on the mana (over the white I was experimenting with). It kind of worked, but I don't think it was good enough. Maybe a normal sideboard is still the way to go. Not sure yet.
Thread | Draft
post bans? which cards will banned? i'm excited to play this deck as it very budget-friendly. the only cards that cost something are the aristocrats (and they don't cost that much).
regarding removing all curses for the SB, i suggest we go the humans route as this would really pump ms. aristocrat. plus you've already tried going the invisible route.
Intangible Virtue and Lingering Souls were banned in block constructed.
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Now that Intangible Virtue & Lingering Souls are gone, I think I'm ready to hop on the Liliana of the Veil bandwagon. I could see this deck running 1-2 Liliana, but it then comes down to cutting Curse of the Nightly Hunt, Curse of Oblivion, and/or Dead Weight. (It also bumps up the $$$ of the deck significantly.) Curse of the Nightly Hunt might be an easy cut, but Oblivion is just a lot of fun and very effective against the right deck. I also want to keep the curse count up, if possible.
Either way, I won't be posting any updates to the deck until the Avacyn Restored previews are done. I wish they were going to print new curses, but I doubt it. Thematically, curses don't really fit with AVR and practically, it doesn't make too much sense since AVR is drafted separately from ISD & DKA.
I'm glad other people are having fun with the deck.
Thread | Draft
I'll post an updated list some time after the full spoiler is out.
Thread | Draft
Yeah, I'm trying to find something I like but it's probably going to be forever stuck as a joke/casual/gimmick deck in block.
What I was hoping for most was a talisman or signet or Sphere of the Suns type card in Avacyn Restored. Warden of the Wall is nice, but what this deck really needs is mana acceleration that comes down on turn 2 for all the reasons you posted above. This deck needs to get to 5 mana and if it doesn't, you usually lose.
But, I am a casual player. And I always buy up at least 1 block deck per block (in physical cards) after the last set is released and The Curse Deck is going to be that deck for me in Innistrad.
Thread | Draft
4 Black Cat
4 Bitterheart Witch
2 Falkenrath Aristocrat
Curses (7)
1 Curse of the Pierced Heart
1 Curse of Exhaustion
1 Curse of Bloodletting
1 Curse of Death's Hold
1 Curse of Echoes
1 Curse of Misfortunes
1 Curse of Thirst
4 Pillar of Flame
4 Tragic Slip
2 Appetite for Brains
4 Blasphemous Act
1 Killing Wave
Artifacts (4)
4 Vessel of Endless Rest
4 Evolving Wilds
10 Swamp
9 Mountain
1 Plains
Many Changes:
Notes:
Overall, I think this version is better than the old one and it can be pretty good if you get the right draws, but it's still never going to be a tier 1 deck.
Thread | Draft