MTG Salvation

Why not take a hint from the legacy version and play Veteran Explorer? It ramps you up to your shenanigans earlier, and people will love you for it in multiplayer.

Quote from Xyx

If you just want to cheat a fatty onto the battlefield, then Animate Dead is far more efficient. The point of Recurring Nightmare is to abuse creatures with triggers again, and again, and again. It's a value card, not a combo card.

Yes I agree, that's why I'd rather play it with something like SotF than with Careful Study. Recurring Nightmare is slower than other reanimation, but it's a whole engine that can be exploited many times each turn, which becomes even more interesting in multiplayer. That's what I was trying to say.

After some testing i've decided the the core of 4xKokusho, the Evening Star, 4xSurvival of the Fittest, 4xDemonic Tutor, 4xRecurring Nightmare and 4x insert sac outlet here (ie Bitterblossom, Blooghast) is basically mandatory for the deck to function well. Assuming that's the shell, now we just need other cards to build it around. Now let me just start by saying with those cards I mentioned you basically are gonna win most games that start with SotF into Nightmare, even without any kind of insta kill Ooze combo. And disregarding Ooze combo, because it's too fast/non interactive, I think we need more cards to work well with SotF and Nightmare, probably 3 enabling spells(maybe careful study could work here) and And considering legacy reanimate runs with around 11 reanimate spells, I think we could probably work with more than 8 (considering demonic tutor), or at least some kind of back up plan. I think the creatures themselves arent as important, and are really to each persons tastes, what's really important is how the deck's engine runs. Oh and I think Solemn Simalacrum is always pretty legit in this style of deck.

Quote from Xyx

If you just want to cheat a fatty onto the battlefield, then Animate Dead is far more efficient. The point of Recurring Nightmare is to abuse creatures with triggers again, and again, and again. It's a value card, not a combo card.

I agree mate. My frind has a Living Death Reanimator deck which can go T1 - Dark Ritual, Stinkweep Imp (discarding random fatty) and Exhume/Animate Dead. Sick.

Quote from Blue_Meanie

Why not take a hint from the legacy version and play Veteran Explorer? It ramps you up to your shenanigans earlier, and people will love you for it in multiplayer.

Well this is because he sucks as a late game drop and I'm fuelling my play groups resources. We play mostly with Basics so not so good. There was an excellent point where this is a house in Nic Fit because almost no one is legacy uses Basics

Anyways, thanks for all your input guys. I proxied a few cards I'm missing and did a test run of the deck over the weekend. Just a few games nothing serious.

A few observations I made:

The deck is either too slow (against the more creature based decks) or if your already winning its overkill.

Against fast aggro like zoo variants (i know right? my playgroup likes to use SP decks in MP so well...), I'm usually very very low on life by the time I recur my 1st creature. Well you know how table politics work. Finish the guy with the potentially strong deck 1st while he has like 5 life left. Kokusho helps somewhat but it gets abit untenable/boring to keep trying to recur him to just survive. I'm usually also on defense because my board presense just isnt there. I have 1 or 2 creatures on the table at most. I find Bloodghast to be better simply because of the life issue.

Against the slower combo decks, this deck owns. The target is always their lands. Its insane especially with Woodfall and if you can recur the dude 2 times, your usually home.

My playgroup sometimes mixes in Mill decks as well (we have Merfolk Mill) and just general mill because brain freeze is crazy in MP. I was thinking of adding like some of the Eldrazi critters to recycle my yard.

Finally, this deck has issues with discard especially if they strip Recurring Nightmare on T1. Its gg (i dont run the demonic tutors).

So yeap. I think this deck can be strong(er) but right now I kind of like the MP Stoneblade version better. I was also thinking of running a GWU Survival Blade thingy if that even makes sense:D

Let me know what you guys think!

Finally, this deck has issues with discard especially if they strip Recurring Nightmare on T1. Its gg (i dont run the demonic tutors).
I think that this is the core problem, we cant have a "Recurring Nightmare deck" We need to have a deck where Recurring nightmare is very strong.

Quote from rougesareth

Finally, this deck has issues with discard especially if they strip Recurring Nightmare on T1. Its gg (i dont run the demonic tutors).
I think that this is the core problem, we cant have a "Recurring Nightmare deck" We need to have a deck where Recurring nightmare is very strong.

Well there are several things you can do about that... Regrowth and Eternal Witness can help you get back the Recurring Nightmare.

Also, you can run tutors that are not Demonic Tutor.

Running cantrips and four copies of Recurring Nightmares would allow you to draw a second one.

But then what happens when the enemy goes first turn Duress, Second turn Extirpate? i'm just saying that we need a backup plan.

Quote from rougesareth

But then what happens when the enemy goes first turn Duress, Second turn Extirpate? i'm just saying that we need a backup plan.

Well that would shut you down, but are there many multiplayer decks who are going to do that on you? also what happens if the Recurring Nightmare wasn't in your opening hand? Or what if one of the player plays mono blue and is ready with a bunch of counterspells that he's keeping only for your Recurring Nightmares?

Of course a Recurring Nightmare deck can be stopped, doesn't mean the deck won't run well most of the time..

The back up plan could be to hardcast the creatures and/or to have some more revival.. but I doubt that's even needed.

Quote from rougesareth

But then what happens when the enemy goes first turn Duress, Second turn Extirpate? i'm just saying that we need a backup plan.

Agree with jbl. I don't know of many MP groups that will do what you suggest and if that is the case then that pretty much shuts down any engine deck. If that is the case then concede that you lost that round and be ready to shuffle up for next game.

I know it's kind of an edge case, but I do like having a back up plan. Even if Duress>Extirpate is not that likely, alot of guys in my playgroup play with Leyline of the Void and alot of guys play with permission. Those two things together do the same thing. My point is that in my experience having a deck that is too single minded, especially in MP where you never know what's gonna happen, is just too risky. Just my 2 cents really, i've been playing with nightmare as my main engine in a couple of decks for a long time, and having my deck revolve around JUST Nightmare is just asking for trouple in my opinion.

I've been playing a version of Recurring Nightmare + Survival of the Fittest. Last night it won 3 from 3 5 player multi games. Even the last game where it took on a fair bit of hate.



It is very mana intensive and plays as a slow rolling combo / control deck

I believe its strength is that it has a lot of versitiy and doesn't lean heavily on the enchantments. It's weakness is graveyard hate but in that case you can just ramp into Kokushos.

The +1/+1 combo is an istant win with Melira, the Seer, and the Redcap which can all be tutored for with the Survival of the Fittest

Quote from rougesareth

I know it's kind of an edge case, but I do like having a back up plan. Even if Duress>Extirpate is not that likely, alot of guys in my playgroup play with Leyline of the Void and alot of guys play with permission. Those two things together do the same thing. My point is that in my experience having a deck that is too single minded, especially in MP where you never know what's gonna happen, is just too risky. Just my 2 cents really, i've been playing with nightmare as my main engine in a couple of decks for a long time, and having my deck revolve around JUST Nightmare is just asking for trouple in my opinion.

I guess your backup plan is to use SotF a lot and just hope to land your threats the hard way. You're never going to be able to stop every potential threat to the combo.
I ruined one of my buddy's RN decks once by Scouring one off the table when he left it out for a turn... he pretty much scooped on the spot.

After some thought and testing, this is the list I have come up with.

Some great additions to this list are
Sun Titan
Ashen Rider
Nightmare Shepherd
Stoneforge Mystic

And if you're running mystic then you should probably run Skullclamp, Heirloom Blade
and of course Helm of the Host for all the other ETB and LTB abilities.

Jace's Archivist and Buried Alive make for some of the best ways to fill your graveyard and I've always liked Tortured Existence for making your graveyard an extension of your hand- or vice versa.

I went with white because it opens you up to some great creatures. Also, every creature in the deck can be cast in case you come across an opponent with Rest in Peace.