Ok, so my first meeting with the Fateful Hour mechanic left me distinctly unimpressed. "You have to be on death's doorstep for this to work, I'd rather be winning than trying to stay alive." However, Phyrexian mana found on both Immolating Souleater and Hex Parasite allow you to turn it on when it's convenient for you rather than waiting until your opponent is just about to destroy you, allowing you to make some very unexpected swings and seizing victory out of nowhere. Even without burning yourself, this deck can still swing a victory on turn 4-5 so you don't auto-fold to RDW.
This deck hasn't received much testing yet, so the sideboard is still in development, but so far it's been performing very well. The key is assessing your opponent's deck and position in relation to your hand and board, and if you have the hand for it, and especially if you think the Souleater will get through, go for Fateful Hour. Gather the Townsfolk allows this deck to destroy decks out of nowhere when you follow it up with any pump in the deck, Rally being my favorite (now with more flashback!). The land count may need to be upped, and I'm still debating over the black splash to flash back Lingering Souls, so that may change in the future as well. Also, Midnight Haunting is not good enough for MB, to warrant it you'd need more burn or protection like Faith's Shield giving you reasons to play on their turn as the current build should be tapping out on all of the 4-5 turns it takes you to win.
Run Hex Parasite instead of the soul eater. It's cheaper and the ability to snipe off planeswalkers makes it a better topdeck. Plus, like I said, it's one less mana, so you can get it off t1 if you don't see a Traveler.
"My blade slices the air, sakura petals scatter, crimson blossoms appear on the ground..."
Autumn, the season of the Harvest and Falling Leaves... Song of an unreachable dream...
Just a thought : don't know if it exists, but an instant granting lifelink could be nice.
Drop to 5, benefit from Fatefull Hour, swing and profit with your lifelinked-pumped creatures.
The folding part: Gutshot the Souleater in response to pump, Brimstone your for 5. And there is an awfull lot of Gutshot/Brimstone in the meta.
Spellskite ? Vault Skirge ? The idea is sweet for kitchen play, but it needs to be more resilient and "stable" (consistant ?)
I don't like using the Souleater as a win condition for that exact reason. I think you can get there with tokens alone. As for the Volley, that's why I recommended Phyrexian Unlife.
If they're playing red, you wouldn't want to even try for fateful, as this deck can still crash in for huge damage out of nowhere thanks to Rally and Hellrider. I only go for fateful if they're tapped out, not playing red, and I can get through. Even if this only happens 1/3 of the time I play Souleater, it's still a viable option. If they can't push the damage in one turn and I can drop a Gather the Townsfold with a pump in hand, it's game over. Think about it, if Increasing Devo only cost 2 it would be the most format warping card since JtMS. That's the primary reason to go fateful, if that's not gonna cut it and they're playing lots of wipe, just slow roll and you can still spike them out of nowhere. I'll give Hex Parasite a try, there was a BUW superfriends at FNM this past week and several who seemed inclined to build a similar deck.
Ok time to bring this idea back to light. I have been testing out a WU versoin of this deck with some pretty interesting resulsts. Mainly I abuse cards such as champion of perish, gather the townsfold, and domsayer to make a presance that can often swing for over 20 damage in a turn. Then using break of day, shield of fate, and snappies to keep urself alive. I actually have been winning most of my testing games and want to get this deck to be FNM ready.
Once I get home I will post my current decklist and such since using my phone for internet sucks... but looking for others to think about this idea and get rdy to try it out with me.
Phyrexian Unlife + Melira, Sylvok Outcast means you can't die. (At least not while both are on the field.) However, assembling the pieces to make Fateful Hour work either aren't consistant enough or take too long to get moving.
But there has to be a way to break it. Why else would it be in the game if not for players to break? :-D
I feel like this is viable. Thraben Doomsayer and Faith's Shield are good cards on their own. You could do a solid G/W build with this. Turn 2 doomsayer is pretty excellent.
Essentially you have a very quick human deck that can abuse Hex Parasite/Souleater to trigger fateful hour. You really have to try to win in the first 4-5 turns, but this deck can do that quite often. It's actually pretty good vs. other aggro strategies since your deck will suddenly power up once you hit 5 life. Control can be tougher (obviously, Day of Judgement kinda hurts you) but the deck can run very fast.
As for Fateful Hour - turn 1 Hex Parasite can be very interesting. I've played a few games where I put myself to 4 on turn 1, then cast Gather for 5 tokens, then Doomsayer on turn 3 and swung for 18. In addition to the 1 you deal on turn 2 from Parasite, that's 19 damage. Hence why you need Gut Shots! Because I got Day'd the next turn and couldn't win! Also Gut Shot is very good vs. Elves and Birds, things you really need to kill. Maybe considering going up on those.
In my opinion, I like Souleater over Spellskite, mainly because I don't think you can just Spellskite yourself down to 5 or 4 without a target (correct me if I'm wrong)
Anyway, this deck is pretty fun and worth a shot. I feel like it could work in the right metagame. For those saying that a Brimstone kills you, there's some truth to that, but if they play a first turn Mountain maybe don't Parasite yourself to death. Post-sideboard you can transform this into a traditional Humans deck too. But Faith's Shield/Gather/Doomsayer are pretty good on their own.
Also I want to point out how important Gix. Probe is in this deck, since it'll tell you exactly what you need to do to win. Again, if you don't win in the first 4-5 turns you probably arent going to win at all so the amount of things you need to concern yourself with are pretty small.
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4 Isolated Chapel
4 Clifftop Retreat
10 Plains
4 Mountain
1 Swamp
4 Doomed Traveler
4 Gather the Townsfolk
4 Lingering Souls
Damage Spikers: 13
4 Signal Pest
4 Break of Day
3 Thraben Doomsayer
3 Rally the Peasants
3 Hellrider
2 Oblivion Ring
2 Mortarpod
Fateful Hour: 4
4 Immolating Souleater
This deck hasn't received much testing yet, so the sideboard is still in development, but so far it's been performing very well. The key is assessing your opponent's deck and position in relation to your hand and board, and if you have the hand for it, and especially if you think the Souleater will get through, go for Fateful Hour. Gather the Townsfolk allows this deck to destroy decks out of nowhere when you follow it up with any pump in the deck, Rally being my favorite (now with more flashback!). The land count may need to be upped, and I'm still debating over the black splash to flash back Lingering Souls, so that may change in the future as well. Also, Midnight Haunting is not good enough for MB, to warrant it you'd need more burn or protection like Faith's Shield giving you reasons to play on their turn as the current build should be tapping out on all of the 4-5 turns it takes you to win.
Questions and/or Suggestions anyone?
GVorinclex Control & ConquerG
BWVish Kal: Drinkin' Your MilkshakeBW
Standard:
GU Prophet
Legacy:
WBU Shared Fate
Trades
Standard:
BWB/R Eldrazi AggroBR
Modern:
UMerfolkU
"My blade slices the air, sakura petals scatter, crimson blossoms appear on the ground..."
Autumn, the season of the Harvest and Falling Leaves...
Song of an unreachable dream...
How so?
Standard:
GU Prophet
Legacy:
WBU Shared Fate
Trades
Vault of the Archangel perhaps
I don't like using the Souleater as a win condition for that exact reason. I think you can get there with tokens alone. As for the Volley, that's why I recommended Phyrexian Unlife.
Standard:
GU Prophet
Legacy:
WBU Shared Fate
Trades
GVorinclex Control & ConquerG
BWVish Kal: Drinkin' Your MilkshakeBW
Once I get home I will post my current decklist and such since using my phone for internet sucks... but looking for others to think about this idea and get rdy to try it out with me.
EDH
BU LazavUB
GU Momir VigUG
But there has to be a way to break it. Why else would it be in the game if not for players to break? :-D
4 Hex Parasite
4 Gather the Townsfolk
4 Champion of the Parish
4 Thraben Doomsayer
4 Doomed Traveler
3 Accorder Paladin
2 Immolating Souleater
4 Honor of the Pure
4 Faith's Shield
3 Oblivion Ring
2 Gut Shot
Essentially you have a very quick human deck that can abuse Hex Parasite/Souleater to trigger fateful hour. You really have to try to win in the first 4-5 turns, but this deck can do that quite often. It's actually pretty good vs. other aggro strategies since your deck will suddenly power up once you hit 5 life. Control can be tougher (obviously, Day of Judgement kinda hurts you) but the deck can run very fast.
As for Fateful Hour - turn 1 Hex Parasite can be very interesting. I've played a few games where I put myself to 4 on turn 1, then cast Gather for 5 tokens, then Doomsayer on turn 3 and swung for 18. In addition to the 1 you deal on turn 2 from Parasite, that's 19 damage. Hence why you need Gut Shots! Because I got Day'd the next turn and couldn't win! Also Gut Shot is very good vs. Elves and Birds, things you really need to kill. Maybe considering going up on those.
In my opinion, I like Souleater over Spellskite, mainly because I don't think you can just Spellskite yourself down to 5 or 4 without a target (correct me if I'm wrong)
Anyway, this deck is pretty fun and worth a shot. I feel like it could work in the right metagame. For those saying that a Brimstone kills you, there's some truth to that, but if they play a first turn Mountain maybe don't Parasite yourself to death. Post-sideboard you can transform this into a traditional Humans deck too. But Faith's Shield/Gather/Doomsayer are pretty good on their own.
Also I want to point out how important Gix. Probe is in this deck, since it'll tell you exactly what you need to do to win. Again, if you don't win in the first 4-5 turns you probably arent going to win at all so the amount of things you need to concern yourself with are pretty small.