Didn't end up making the Modern tournament in time. I did finish getting my playset of foil Deathrites for Legacy, and got a custom mat from Steve Argyle. More relevant to the thread, managed to get another Damnation. To be completely honest, I have a strong temptation to run 3 main, though I imagine that it wouldn't work out the best going that route preboard. I'll post a list and writeup Tuesday night (or Wednesday if I get home from it late).
Bucher's are a must. Anafenza was not really underwhelming, just not needed. As the article states, Whip decks are not a problem at all, and so having her didn't provide any real advantage. Treasure Cruise is getting cut simply because it's always a struggle to cast it. I am going to add another Tasigur. That dude is the bees-knees. I only cast him in one game today, but he was amazing when he hit the table. The only real bad scenario with him is if you end up with one of your mana dorks in your graveyard. So after tonight the changes are to add Butcher x3 back to the main deck, -2 Anafenza, -2 Treasure Cruise, +1 Tasigur.
I think some of it is matchups, and some of it is rust/lack of familiarity with the deck. Before TC showed up I wasn't nearly experienced enough with the deck as it was, and then not playing it at all during the Cruise days didn't help me get any better. So I'm definitely as much to blame as the matchups. The lack of the extra copies of Damnation is just a lack of me owning any more yet, which I will be rectifying this weekend at GP San Jose. Gonna make a trip out there to get some more progress on foiling Deathblade, play in a Legacy side event and a Modern side event if I have time for that one. I'll post another write up if I do. Worst case scenario: newer players to the deck can learn from some of my mistakes.
I'm about to try this this week. Changes I've made to the list were to cut the Butchers, 1 Fleecemane, and the Jets, and added Anafenza x2, Torrent Elemental x2, Tasigur x1, and 2 Treasure Cruise. Just testing those cards out, hence the strange numbers. My shop does run a pretty high amount of removal so getting mid to late game Delve enabled shouldn't be an issue for me. For a bigger tournament outside of my shop I'd cut the Cruises out and run either Strikes or mainboard the Downfalls.
Played in local weekly tournament tonight. Went 0-2-2 lol. Same list as I ran for the GPT since I haven't had a chance to really make any changes.
Rnd 1: I decided to name this deck Bant-er the Battlefield. Snapcaster, Flickerwisp, Voice, Restoration Angel, Obstinate Baloth, Wall of Omens, and a UW control shell around those. Went to time after a really back and forth game 1 that he won. G2 was much more firmly in my control, Torpor Orbs messed his tempo up a lot and he had to use Krosan Grips on them, but it was still a grindfest.
Rnd 2: Burn. 0-2. Didn't get a Leyline or Courser game 2. I was at 12 with a Knight of the Reliquary in play. Ended up taking damage to cast a second one because at the time my hand was dead against anything he had on the board, and I figured my only out would be to draw a land, activate a Knight to tutor for Vault and attack with the other one for lifelink. Instead he hit me for 9 at my end step and Bolt in his upkeep.
Rnd 3: Mono green aggro. This one was surprisingly hard post board. Dryad Militant caused a lot of problems that resulted in me having to burn spells to get her off the table before being able to cast my Dredgers, so the tempo loss hurt. I ended up being stuck dredging and recasting Stinkweed Imp due to a Grafdigger's Cage shutting off the rest of my graveyard, and dredged my Damnation's. Not sure if I was on the right path since he only had 2 creatures in play, or if dredging for the Imp was the right move. Rancor ended up being what did me in.
Rnd 3: Soul Sisters. Game 1 was over very fast. Game 2 I couldn't get enough removal and he was able to keep recurring his creatures from the yard. Eventually he got double Archangel's in play and attack for 2 points over what I was able to gain with the Vault. Game 2 ended right at the end of the round.
Going forward I'm going to add a 3rd Leyline to the sideboard and probably adding another Damnation as well. Leyline of the Void is going to come out for now, and I might cut the Raven's Crime for another Decay or Maelstrom Pulse.
This is how I ran the list today. What a day it ended up being, in a not so good way but I still enjoyed myself and enjoyed playing this again.
1) Good news and bad news. The good news is that I feel this deck is still a really good choice to play, and I think is still definitely competitive. The bad news is that it's been five months since the last time I played it, and I didn't get any better with it by not playing it.
2) bGnomes was right about the extra colorless being a little sketchy. It wasn't oppressive to me, but there were definitely times that it was made awkward. I managed to get out of screwing myself on mana by Quartering myself to fix. That's not exactly where I want to be though. -1 mainboard Ghost Quarter for sure.
3) The third Inversion worked really well for me, but I can definitely get behind cutting to two after I pick up an extra Haakon.
4) I did spend a moment considering Muten Yoshi's idea of Tasigur. However I couldn't think of enough cards that we would actually want to Delve away. Decay, Smallpox, Liliana and Damnation would be the only targets I'd be okay with getting rid of, and at that point Tasigur no longer becomes the early game value card he's designed to be.
In the tournament I end up going 1-2, and in the last round conceded to my opponent after third and fourth place drew to lock up top 8. It was a weird tournament, with a lot of the local Modern players out of town for a PPTQ instead of the GPT (it was for Kyoto, so it makes sense). We almost didn't get the 8 needed for it, but last minute two showed up so we had 9 players. I was really shocked by the small tournament as the shop seems to have a pretty robust Modern scene.
Round 1: Steven playing Merfolk
G1 he got an early head start, but Smallpox, an Abrupt Decay, and 2 Nameless Inversions let me stabilize at 14 life. I Loam'd and got Haakon and Knight in the graveyard on the same turn, playing Haakon and keeping the board clear with Inversion. He scooped rather than let it drag out which I thought was pretty nice of him. I did a terrible job at sideboard notes all day, so this is off memory. G2 I brought in Maelstrom Pulse and took out Raven's Crime, also bringing Stony Silence. This game was pretty brutal, as he got 2 Aether Vials online and just dumped too many creatures for me to handle, and I didn't draw into a Damnation in time. G3 I sided out the Maelstrom Pulses feeling like they were too slow, can't remember why I thought this was a good idea, or what I brought in. This was definitely our grindiest game, and was really tense thoughout. I ended up having a pretty stacked graveyard after he used his Relic early in the game, and cleared the board with both Damnation's. In the last turn, at 3 life I was trying to figure out how to not lose to his Reejery and Cursecatcher. I punted by main phasing a Darkblast to target his Cursecatcher. I didn't have a second one, and forgot that Reejery is a lord effect. I intended to Blast and Smallpox, taking me to 2 and leaving both creatures dead. In the end, I think the only out I would've had would be if he sacced Cursecatcher and kept me at 3 life.
Round 2: Thomas playing Affinity
This was a really easy win for me. Game 1 he mulled to five with me on the play. A few Nameless Inversions, 2 Lingering Souls, and a Knight of the Reliquary were all it took for him to scoop. He didn't see Stinkweed Imp, Loam, or Haakon so he thought I was just running Knight and tokens. Game 2 I kept a 2 land hand, and took what might've been my riskiest line of play for the day. Turn 1 I Darkblasted his Signal Pest. Turn 2 I cast Smallpox, he sacced his Inkmoth Nexus and a Vault Skirge, keeping a Steel Overseer. He then played cast Ensoul Artifact on his Darksteel Citadel. I topdecked a Marsh Flats and Smallpoxed again, and he scooped. I think the rage quit might be my best win condition with this deck.
Round 3: Chris playing Living End
This was just terrible for me. I lost game 1 pretty handily in spite of a turn 3 Bojuka Bog (he'd already had his graveyard pretty loaded up). I didn't see a Knight of the Reliquary or a Life from the Loam soon enough and he filled his graveyard back up and cascaded for the win. Game 2 I think I went too aggressive with my Smallpox and ended up mana screwing myself.
Round 4: UWR Flash
After I conceeded we played this one for fun. Both games were pretty grindy, with my using Haakon and Dredge to burn him out of counterspells. He ended up with the win due to outresourcing me by a hair. Game 2 I cut Smallpox for Raven's Crime, Darkblast, and Maelstrom Pulse. This game I think I kept a hand that was just too slow, and he was able to get a pair of Resto's on the field before I was able to eventually resolve anything. He ended up winning with the Angels and Lightning Bolts.
Conclusion: This deck is better than I currently am with it. I think my biggest issue is being too eager to Smallpox so that's something I need to put more focus into. Also I need to write down sideboard guides, because without them I have commitment issues with taking cards out. I'm the exact opposite of the guy/gal who over-sideboards. I'm a little bummed that I didn't get into the top 4 since everybody knew I was moving to Japan in time for GP Kyoto and I would've gotten the byes, but I didn't honestly expect to do good enough to get there with my current level of experience with the deck. I'll start grinding the weekly events here to get more practice with the deck, and get better at writing more concise reports.
My thinking with the Crime was rationalizing how much I like having one opening hand. So shoving my bias aside I'll cut one of them out, and go with the 4th Smallpox and 4th Knight, dropping the Knight if I pick up a Haakon.
This leave my with one spot to fill. I may even go as far as doing something as silly as putting Siege Rhino in that slot. There is one more store I just found out about nearby that supposedly has a huge collection of singles, so tonight I'll check there. I haven't played at this shop for Modern before, so going in blind I expect to see Dredgevine, Tron, Twin, and Storm. I'm sure there'll be some number of Junk Midrange as well. I'm hedging a little heavier towards Twin, Tron, and Dredge decks I think.
If you see anything glaring (besides fetchland distribution. Catacombs seem to be harder and harder to come by locally) let me know.
Well I spent all day scrambling to pick up the last pieces I was missing to finally be fully un-proxied for a GPT this weekend. And I'm one Haakon short. Unless somebody near Fresno/Lemoore, Ca area has one they just reeeeeeeally wanna loan me? Lol. I might see if I can make this at least 'not' terrible with 2 Haakon's. Either way I'm still playing this weekend to celebrate the absence of Pod and Treasure Cruise, I'll let you guys know how it goes.
Dark Deal might be worth looking into. It would have to end up hurting our opponents more than us, which won't always be the case. Plus being on turn 3 to cast means we'll probably already be all in on our board control plan, so using a turn to Deal would hurt us more in that scenario. I'm never one to say no to trying something new though. It could be pretty decent against specific matchups if you resolve it, like UWR control.
I think some people have tried Obedience in this thread, but you'd have to go back and check. Once again, I'd rather spend turn 2 removing threats than playing an enchantment though. It does have merit, especially with Extort. Personally I haven't seen it as something I'd want to try.
Any thoughts on making the deck more dredge-heavy? Golgari Grave-Troll is unbanned now, which gives the option for a 6-dredger. Not that he would have much of a role in this plan (not running too many creatures) but he can get thru the deck faster for setting up much of the effects in here. Then again, Stinkweed Imp makes a good case for owning that spot anyway. Might even have the option of visiting an Unburial Rites / huge creature combo.
At a glance, I can't see a way that you get a benefit from running GGT. The Dredge 6 is nice, as is his regenerate. Stinkweed Imp is as good as he is in this deck because of the Deathtouch. There are definitely places in Modern for GGT aside from the obvious choice of Dredgevine, but I don't think Haak-Loam is where I'd start with him.
I tried a lot to make the deck work in the post-Khans meta, and the result I found was that the delve draw spells pushed out all of our best matchups (any kind of control), while making the few remaining okay matchups much harder because of how badly Raven's Crime interacts with those delve spells. Also the fact that burn went up in popularity quite a bit made the deck much worse overall.
HOWEVER. Now that BOTH delve draw spells are banned, I think this deck is very much playable again, and just as strong as it ever was. And with the Birthing Pod banning as well (an even-tough matchup, depending on the flavor), I think Junk Haakon Loam is back on the map, with a very strong chance to be a real contender.
Now, as far as changes to accommodate the new meta, here are my thoughts moving forward:
With UR Delver weakened and all Pod variants gone, Darkblast becomes worse.
The major contenders moving forward (off the top of my head) are as follows:
Abzan midrange: The only top tier deck to not lose anything, I definitely think we need to work on deciding how our removal suite matches up against Siege Rhino, and whether we need to start shifting some of it more towards things like Maelstrom Pulse. The fact that it tramples also makes our previous gameplan of stalling with Lingering Souls tokens much less reliable against that style of deck.
Scapeshift: Loses a little, but still a good deck. Without Dig Through Time, instantly goes back to being one of our best matchups.
UWR Geist: I feel like the thing holding this deck back was its abysmal Pod matchup, so I expect to see a lot of this moving forward.
Splinter Twin: Might be held back by all the Abzan moving forward, but I expect this is a tried and true option a lot of people will turn to.
Vengevine decks: I will be watching these closely, as I am not sure how good they will be moving forward. Will probably put Leyline of the Void back in my sideboard, at least while the hype about them lasts.
Infect: I think this deck gets a little better with less of UR Delver's Lightning Bolts and Pod's creatures gumming up the ground. Plus they still get to play a delve spell!
I'm sure there are some other decks that stand to gain quite a bit moving forward, but those are the few off the top of my head. I look forward to going back to working on the deck full time in a meta that isn't nearly as hostile!
As soon as the announcement showed up, I immediately said to myself "Now I can finish building this deck and get rid of my proxies." Super excited that we get your baby back!
For me it's mostly come up against Pod, especially on the Voice. Plus following it up with a Darkblast when convenient gets rid of the token. Other than that, I'm honestly not extremely impressed with it and generally wish it were another Nameless Inversion or Darkblast instead.
Yeah the Affinity matchup without Damnation seems very rough. Are you running any Drown in Sorrow in its place? You need to mulligan VERY aggressively against Affinity, pretty much throwing back any hand without a Darkblast or a sweeper. Lingering Souls+removal can sometimes get there, but the matchup is just so much more in your favor when you have one of those effects in your opener. I have been losing to Affinity more than I am comfortable with recently, and I think it might be time to add some dedicated hate in the board (probably Creeping Corrosion).
While Death Cloud is a powerful card, I don't think it helps any of the problem matchups, and getting it hit by a Remand or Mana Leak feels pretty awful. I think it is very good against nonwhite BGx decks (which are pretty popular right now), but it is too easy to strip out of your hand before you can cast it, seeing as it costs 5+ but is still hit by Inquisition of Kozilek. I also don't really like playing lategame-only cards that don't do anything in the graveyard because our lategame plan is to dredge every turn. This means that, in order to actually cast this card, it had to be in our hand in the early turns of the game before we start dredging. That being said, I really like how this card provides a very powerful effect that we can cast and recover from even through a Grafdigger's Cage.
At the moment I'm running a combination of Nameless Inversion, Darkblast, and Crib Swap as my main board removal. Mostly I wanted to see how far I could push it without using a sweeper effect (Also short one of my Damnation's which was a contributor to that effort lol, even though I have a few Drown's I've been considering using). I think you are probably spot on with Death Cloud though, but I think I'll still toss it in for a few games just to see firsthand if it falls shy of being effective. I don't expect much from it, and will probably move it out as soon as I can get a hold of another Damnation. Or Drown in Sorrow until I get one.
Been working on this myself lately. My meta consists of mainly Affinity, Pod, and Storm. I've been having reasonable success against Pod and Storm, but Affinity has been wrecking me (currently not running Damnation). However, I've been considering trying 2 Death Cloud. Any thoughts against? With the recurring engine this deck has I don't see it as being that bad for us, and feels like a good main board card that could be sided out for a sweeper against aggro matchups.
Rnd 1: I decided to name this deck Bant-er the Battlefield. Snapcaster, Flickerwisp, Voice, Restoration Angel, Obstinate Baloth, Wall of Omens, and a UW control shell around those. Went to time after a really back and forth game 1 that he won. G2 was much more firmly in my control, Torpor Orbs messed his tempo up a lot and he had to use Krosan Grips on them, but it was still a grindfest.
Rnd 2: Burn. 0-2. Didn't get a Leyline or Courser game 2. I was at 12 with a Knight of the Reliquary in play. Ended up taking damage to cast a second one because at the time my hand was dead against anything he had on the board, and I figured my only out would be to draw a land, activate a Knight to tutor for Vault and attack with the other one for lifelink. Instead he hit me for 9 at my end step and Bolt in his upkeep.
Rnd 3: Mono green aggro. This one was surprisingly hard post board. Dryad Militant caused a lot of problems that resulted in me having to burn spells to get her off the table before being able to cast my Dredgers, so the tempo loss hurt. I ended up being stuck dredging and recasting Stinkweed Imp due to a Grafdigger's Cage shutting off the rest of my graveyard, and dredged my Damnation's. Not sure if I was on the right path since he only had 2 creatures in play, or if dredging for the Imp was the right move. Rancor ended up being what did me in.
Rnd 3: Soul Sisters. Game 1 was over very fast. Game 2 I couldn't get enough removal and he was able to keep recurring his creatures from the yard. Eventually he got double Archangel's in play and attack for 2 points over what I was able to gain with the Vault. Game 2 ended right at the end of the round.
Going forward I'm going to add a 3rd Leyline to the sideboard and probably adding another Damnation as well. Leyline of the Void is going to come out for now, and I might cut the Raven's Crime for another Decay or Maelstrom Pulse.
3 Marsh Flats
1 Verdant Catacomb
4 Windswept Heath
2 Overgown Tomb
1 Temple Garden
1 Godless Shrine
1 Plains
1 Forest
2 Swamp
1 Stirring Wildwood
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Vault of the Archangel
2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
2 Tectonic Edge
2 Ghost Quarter
2 Stinkweed Imp
4 Knight of the Reliquary
2 Haakon, Stromgald Scurge
Spells (27):
3 Liliana of the Veil
3 Abrupt Decay
2 Darkblast
3 Nameless Inversion
4 Life from the Loam
3 Lingering Souls
3 Raven's Crime
4 Smallpox
2 Damnation
2 Stony Silence
2 Leyline of Sanctity
2 Leyline of the Void
2 Torpor Orb
2 Maelstrom Pulse
2 Ghost Quarter
1 Darkblast
1 Courser of Kruphix
1 Raven's Crime
This is how I ran the list today. What a day it ended up being, in a not so good way but I still enjoyed myself and enjoyed playing this again.
1) Good news and bad news. The good news is that I feel this deck is still a really good choice to play, and I think is still definitely competitive. The bad news is that it's been five months since the last time I played it, and I didn't get any better with it by not playing it.
2) bGnomes was right about the extra colorless being a little sketchy. It wasn't oppressive to me, but there were definitely times that it was made awkward. I managed to get out of screwing myself on mana by Quartering myself to fix. That's not exactly where I want to be though. -1 mainboard Ghost Quarter for sure.
3) The third Inversion worked really well for me, but I can definitely get behind cutting to two after I pick up an extra Haakon.
4) I did spend a moment considering Muten Yoshi's idea of Tasigur. However I couldn't think of enough cards that we would actually want to Delve away. Decay, Smallpox, Liliana and Damnation would be the only targets I'd be okay with getting rid of, and at that point Tasigur no longer becomes the early game value card he's designed to be.
In the tournament I end up going 1-2, and in the last round conceded to my opponent after third and fourth place drew to lock up top 8. It was a weird tournament, with a lot of the local Modern players out of town for a PPTQ instead of the GPT (it was for Kyoto, so it makes sense). We almost didn't get the 8 needed for it, but last minute two showed up so we had 9 players. I was really shocked by the small tournament as the shop seems to have a pretty robust Modern scene.
Round 1: Steven playing Merfolk
G1 he got an early head start, but Smallpox, an Abrupt Decay, and 2 Nameless Inversions let me stabilize at 14 life. I Loam'd and got Haakon and Knight in the graveyard on the same turn, playing Haakon and keeping the board clear with Inversion. He scooped rather than let it drag out which I thought was pretty nice of him. I did a terrible job at sideboard notes all day, so this is off memory. G2 I brought in Maelstrom Pulse and took out Raven's Crime, also bringing Stony Silence. This game was pretty brutal, as he got 2 Aether Vials online and just dumped too many creatures for me to handle, and I didn't draw into a Damnation in time. G3 I sided out the Maelstrom Pulses feeling like they were too slow, can't remember why I thought this was a good idea, or what I brought in. This was definitely our grindiest game, and was really tense thoughout. I ended up having a pretty stacked graveyard after he used his Relic early in the game, and cleared the board with both Damnation's. In the last turn, at 3 life I was trying to figure out how to not lose to his Reejery and Cursecatcher. I punted by main phasing a Darkblast to target his Cursecatcher. I didn't have a second one, and forgot that Reejery is a lord effect. I intended to Blast and Smallpox, taking me to 2 and leaving both creatures dead. In the end, I think the only out I would've had would be if he sacced Cursecatcher and kept me at 3 life.
Round 2: Thomas playing Affinity
This was a really easy win for me. Game 1 he mulled to five with me on the play. A few Nameless Inversions, 2 Lingering Souls, and a Knight of the Reliquary were all it took for him to scoop. He didn't see Stinkweed Imp, Loam, or Haakon so he thought I was just running Knight and tokens. Game 2 I kept a 2 land hand, and took what might've been my riskiest line of play for the day. Turn 1 I Darkblasted his Signal Pest. Turn 2 I cast Smallpox, he sacced his Inkmoth Nexus and a Vault Skirge, keeping a Steel Overseer. He then played cast Ensoul Artifact on his Darksteel Citadel. I topdecked a Marsh Flats and Smallpoxed again, and he scooped. I think the rage quit might be my best win condition with this deck.
Round 3: Chris playing Living End
This was just terrible for me. I lost game 1 pretty handily in spite of a turn 3 Bojuka Bog (he'd already had his graveyard pretty loaded up). I didn't see a Knight of the Reliquary or a Life from the Loam soon enough and he filled his graveyard back up and cascaded for the win. Game 2 I think I went too aggressive with my Smallpox and ended up mana screwing myself.
Round 4: UWR Flash
After I conceeded we played this one for fun. Both games were pretty grindy, with my using Haakon and Dredge to burn him out of counterspells. He ended up with the win due to outresourcing me by a hair. Game 2 I cut Smallpox for Raven's Crime, Darkblast, and Maelstrom Pulse. This game I think I kept a hand that was just too slow, and he was able to get a pair of Resto's on the field before I was able to eventually resolve anything. He ended up winning with the Angels and Lightning Bolts.
Conclusion: This deck is better than I currently am with it. I think my biggest issue is being too eager to Smallpox so that's something I need to put more focus into. Also I need to write down sideboard guides, because without them I have commitment issues with taking cards out. I'm the exact opposite of the guy/gal who over-sideboards. I'm a little bummed that I didn't get into the top 4 since everybody knew I was moving to Japan in time for GP Kyoto and I would've gotten the byes, but I didn't honestly expect to do good enough to get there with my current level of experience with the deck. I'll start grinding the weekly events here to get more practice with the deck, and get better at writing more concise reports.
3 Marsh Flats
1 Verdant Catacomb
4 Windswept Heath
2 Overgown Tomb
1 Temple Garden
1 Godless Shrine
1 Plains
1 Forest
2 Swamp
1 Stirring Wildwood
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Vault of the Archangel
2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
2 Tectonic Edge
2 Ghost Quarter
2 Stinkweed Imp
3 Knight of the Reliquary
2 Haakon, Stromgald Scurge
Spells (27):
3 Liliana of the Veil
3 Abrupt Decay
2 Darkblast
3 Nameless Inversion
4 Life from the Loam
3 Lingering Souls
4 Raven's Crime
3 Smallpox
2 Damnation
2 Stony Silence
3 Leyline of Sanctity
2 Leyline of the Void
2 Torpor Orb
2 Maelstrom Pulse
2 Ghost Quarter
1 Darkblast
1 Courser of Kruphix
This leave my with one spot to fill. I may even go as far as doing something as silly as putting Siege Rhino in that slot. There is one more store I just found out about nearby that supposedly has a huge collection of singles, so tonight I'll check there. I haven't played at this shop for Modern before, so going in blind I expect to see Dredgevine, Tron, Twin, and Storm. I'm sure there'll be some number of Junk Midrange as well. I'm hedging a little heavier towards Twin, Tron, and Dredge decks I think.
If you see anything glaring (besides fetchland distribution. Catacombs seem to be harder and harder to come by locally) let me know.
I think some people have tried Obedience in this thread, but you'd have to go back and check. Once again, I'd rather spend turn 2 removing threats than playing an enchantment though. It does have merit, especially with Extort. Personally I haven't seen it as something I'd want to try.
At a glance, I can't see a way that you get a benefit from running GGT. The Dredge 6 is nice, as is his regenerate. Stinkweed Imp is as good as he is in this deck because of the Deathtouch. There are definitely places in Modern for GGT aside from the obvious choice of Dredgevine, but I don't think Haak-Loam is where I'd start with him.
As soon as the announcement showed up, I immediately said to myself "Now I can finish building this deck and get rid of my proxies." Super excited that we get your baby back!
At the moment I'm running a combination of Nameless Inversion, Darkblast, and Crib Swap as my main board removal. Mostly I wanted to see how far I could push it without using a sweeper effect (Also short one of my Damnation's which was a contributor to that effort lol, even though I have a few Drown's I've been considering using). I think you are probably spot on with Death Cloud though, but I think I'll still toss it in for a few games just to see firsthand if it falls shy of being effective. I don't expect much from it, and will probably move it out as soon as I can get a hold of another Damnation. Or Drown in Sorrow until I get one.