This deck is the evolution of what was previously my Xiahou Dun list, which can be found here. It's more refined, it's a lot more potent, and it's every bit as balls-to-the-wall crazy as its predecessor. If you like fast cars, tough decisions, or playing Magic while jumping a fiery train over a river of gasoline, then this might be the deck for you.
This deck is primarily geared toward a 1v1 environment. I'm guessing it would be significantly worse when faced with multiple opponents.
Basically, the name of the game is to use quick, vicious hand disruption to cripple your opponent so you can burn through your deck and life total without too much interference. As a rule of thumb, use cheap targeted discard to hit your opponent's mana accelerants and permission, then (if possible/necessary) hammer away the rest of their hand with something like Persecute or Mind Twist. Refuel with Necropotence or Infernal Contract, and you're off to the races. It's actually quite easy to get supreme card advantage, provided you aren't afraid to pay large quantities of life.
Sometimes things don't go as planned, though. Maybe you don't curve out, or your opponent has just too many quick threats of their own, or they quickly recover with a big card draw spell. In these cases, you can either try to race them (risky... but fun) or play the control game by tutoring out "silver bullets." Your arsenal includes, but is not limited to: Innocent Blood (for pesky generals like Uril) Damnation (to deal with untargetable generals or creature swarms) Damping Matrix (to put a stop to all sorts of nonsense) Bojuka Bog (gets rid of all manner of Genesis-esque things) Boseiju, Who Shelters All (Blue mages should learn to counter the Vampiric Tutor) Oblivion Stone (to handle just about everything else)
Well, stopping your opponent is all well and good, but how do you actually seal the deal?
The Three Primary Routes to Victory
You have a decent variety of win conditions at your disposal and plenty of library manipulation to find what you want, and it probably sounds like a cop out to say just do what the situation demand, but that's really how it works. Really. Okay, I'll break it down a little more than that. However, fair warning: there are no infinite combos -- that would be too easy and obvious. You have to make the right decisions and fight for the win each and every game. It's not uncommon to almost kill yourself (or, sometimes, actually kill yourself) while racing toward victory, but therein lies the fun!
Doomsday is just an absurdly powerful card if you build around it; on the other hand, it's just flat-out busted when used in conjunction with Hellcarver Demon. The price for using either of these cards is high, though, so be sure you know what you are doing.
Here's an example. If you don't have anything else, wait until the coast is clear and you have enough mana and set up your initial Doomsday pile to be something like:
1. Night's Whisper
2. Hellcarver Demon
3. Lightning Greaves
4. Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
5. Mirror of Fate
The following turn, draw a few cards, cast Hellcarver Demon, and suit it up with some fancy boots. Swing with the Demon, *cast* Emrakul for the extra turn, and use Mirror of Fate to set up a game ending Hellcarver combo immediately.
Insidious Dreams can function as a makeshift Doomsday, as well. Just have fun with it, and don't be afraid to experiment.
A slightly more orthodox approach is to, well, not use Doomsday. Many of the combos in this deck overlap with each other, so don't be surprised if you use different combinations of the same cards to get the job done. Just to highlight some of the interactions to keep in mind:
1. Repay in Kind, kill with Wound Reflection
2. Repay in Kind, kill with Spirit of the Night
3. Tendrils of Agony, kill with Wound Reflection
4. Temporal Extortion, kill with Wound Reflection
5. Repay in Kind, kill with Tendrils of Agony
6. Null Profusion, set up lethal Tendrils of Agony
7. Tendrils of Agony, Ill-Gotten Gains, Yawgmoth's Will
On a less lethal note, Eternity Vessel has its merits when you're paying large quantities of life, and Skirge Familiar really works his magic when you're going off with Null Profusion.
I guess this is a fairly obvious route to victory, but it's a very viable option and will come up quite often. You can generate mana like there is no tomorrow, and the beatsticks in this deck will end the game in a hurry. If you get an opening hand full of stuff like Mana Vault, the playing Spirit of the Night on turn 3 or 4 can be tough to manage. Later on, you can use your general in conjunction with Nightmare Lash to put your opponent on a 1-turn clock.
Oh yeah, and sometimes I win because I just cast Emrakul. I'm so good at Magic.
The Pros and Cons
Heavy Disruption
A plethora of discard effects and choice removal spells really gives you the edge in some matchups. In particular, other combo decks will really suffer when you hit them with Thoughtseize or Mind Twist. At best, they are forced to use a counterspell. At worst, they're completely out of gas and you get 4 or 5 turns to do whatever you want.
Powerful Library Manipulation
You're packing enough card draw and tutors to go toe-to-toe with even most blue decks in the format, so ideally you're never out of things to do. Of course Necropotence is still one of the most powerful card advantage engines ever printed, but even the spells with more hefty drawbacks (Infernal Contract, Demonic Consultation) are quite good and have proven their worth in the combo decks of old.
Versatile Gameplan
Strangely enough, this deck is capable of playing aggro, combo, or control to a fair amount of success. Combo is what you really want to be doing, but going aggro with your general is scary enough (remember: 2 swings with Nightmare Lash, and he has haste). Even sitting back and playing control with Damnation and Damping Matrix is acceptable until you have the tools to change gears, but don't chill out for too long or your dwindling life total will catch up to you.
Surprise Factor
This deck is packing some very underplayed cards, so it is always a possibility that your opponent will not assess or react to them correctly. When you play Pain's Reward, just how much life is worth four cards? Should your opponent counter Demonic Consultation? Will your opponent see your general and dismiss your deck as "casual jank?" And no one, I mean no one sees the Hellcarver Demon + Doomsday combo coming. These little mind games can really add up as long as you play tight Magic.
Decks with a High Damage Output
These decks can exploit the pain you inflict on yourself. Stuff like Sygg, River Cutthroat aggro or Eight-and-a-Half-Tails equipment can pile on the beatings and make Necropotence seem pretty bad. Heck, even burn decks are a lot more effective than usual. The solution here would be more lifegain -- right now, all you have is Tendrils of Agony, but maybe something like Loxodon Warhammer would be in order.
Early Planeswalkers Thoughtseize and friends go a long way toward preventing this train wreck, but without lots of creatures of your own, a turn-3 Jace the Mindsculptor is freaking problematic. You need to do something fast, or you simply will not be able to win the attrition war. Spirit of the Night is a decent solution, but that requires a nine mana investment. Your only other option is Oblivion Stone, so find it and pop it fast.
Oath of Druids
As I recently discovered, a dedicated Oath of Druids deck can be difficult to stop if it gets a good hand. Okay, so you can Thoughtseize on turn 1 or whatever... okay, the Enlightened Tutor in response. Now what? Whew, at least I don't have any creatures... oh wait, there's Forbidden Orchard, giving me a token. I can Snuff Out the token, but that just buys me a turn. I can Strip Mine the Forbidden Orchard, but it already gave me a token. I can pop Oblivion Stone, but I have to find it first, and it takes 8 mana, and it's only turn 2 or 3. It's just a really awkward strategy for us to deal with... makes me want to include Sadistic Sacrament or something.
Mana Denial
I haven't run into this too much, but lots of LD and artifact destruction will most likely keep you from doing much at all. Cabal Coffers is pretty important, but unfortunately it will be the first target for opposing Strip Mines and Wastelands. Right now, I'm only running Petrified Field to get it back in an emergency, but Crucible of Worlds might be in order should you add fetchlands to the deck. Again, use your discard to prevent this as much as possible.
Vendilion Clique
The real terror of 1v1. I don't know how this deck continues to fly under the radar, but the consistency of Clique is frightening. In case you don't know, the Clique deck plays nothing but countermagic, bounce, and card draw and simply aims to kill you with general damage. It's not the fastest kill in the world (turn 10 at the earliest, usually), but the entire deck is nothing but disruption. That being said, experience has shown that this deck can beat bad Clique decks/pilots without too much fuss (i.e., Clique decks without Strip Mine, or Clique decks who always play their general on turn 3). Boseiju, Who Shelters All is your friend here -- use it to set up an uncounterable Persecute or Mind Twist and aim to win before they recover. Also, consider adding Desert or Maze of Ith, then bait their Strip Mine with Cabal Coffers. Even Darkblast might be acceptable, though the recent banning of Rofellos makes it a lot worse.
Alternate Card Choices
Sorin Markov -- Essentially Repay in Kind #2. Scroll Rack -- it was solid, and might still have a place in the deck Word of Command -- does anyone have experience playing this card? Seems like useful disruption. Dark Tutelage -- I haven't tested these enough, simple as that. Grim Tutor, Imperial Seal, Mana Crypt -- I'll keep dreaming All is Dust -- would replace O-Stone. Uncounterable via Boseiju. Not destroying artifacts could be good, or could be bad.
Also, it should be noted that my playgroup doesn't use the modified rules for 1-v-1 play. Thank goodness; this deck would be a lot worse without Sol Ring, Mind Twist and the like. Anyway, thanks to Khymera, Aitrus, Aryakin, and everyone else over at mtgsalvation that answered my call in the other thread. Also, thanks to Evergreen (the premier Iname, Death Aspect pilot) for showing me that mono-black combo is a viable archetype. There is no way I would've gotten this thing off the ground without your help!
I'm planning to refine and expand the "Pros and Cons" section as I playtest more, but feel free to leave a comment anyway. I'm sure there is still a long way to go, but it's an absolute blast to do stuff like Demonic Consultation for Mirror of Fate, and (believe it or not) I'm actually learning how to play the deck. Thanks for reading, and thank you in advance for any input you might have; it will be much appreciated!
I'm shocked you haven't gotten more responses - this list is freaking awesome. Sorry I never responded to your Xiahou Dun threat (I took a break from MTG at the time and am just returning as of last week), so I'm still getting back into the swing of things. I'm going to proxy this up sometime and see how it runs. Since I replaced every card in my X-D deck with foils, I should still have the majority of these in non-foil sitting around.
Looks like a blast to play, much like your old X-D list. Why did you drop that btw?
I'm shocked you haven't gotten more responses - this list is freaking awesome. Sorry I never responded to your Xiahou Dun threat (I took a break from MTG at the time and am just returning as of last week), so I'm still getting back into the swing of things. I'm going to proxy this up sometime and see how it runs. Since I replaced every card in my X-D deck with foils, I should still have the majority of these in non-foil sitting around.
Looks like a blast to play, much like your old X-D list. Why did you drop that btw?
Hey dude, thanks for the reply! I'm not playing Xiahou Dun anymore because my copy of the card got lost in the mail. I got a refund, but seeing as how I didn't feel great about spending that much on a single card in the first place, I won't be doing it again any time soon. It's a bummer, because Xiahou Dun is easily the best general for a deck like this.
As far as the replacement is concerned, I'm playing Spirit of the Night because:
1. It can win via general damage much more easily than X-D ever could, sans Hatred;
2. Not many people have ever heard of Spirit of the Night, and only Magnus Magicus has actually built an EDH deck around it;
3. Seizan, Perverter of Truth seemed bad for 1v1;
4. Maralen of the Mornsong seemed bad for 1v1, and was already claimed in my area anyway;
5. Phage the Untouchable, though flavorful, doesn't actually do anything;
6. Spirit of the Night has really unique and creepy artwork. His right eye is a freaking nautilus shell! WTF?
I really could use your help on tuning this thing, though -- I'm sure there are some improvements that can be made. Just for your reference, some of the more questionable (as in, not 100% awesome) cards are: Tainted Pact Skirge Familiar Petrified Field
However, it can't be too bad, since all of the games I've lost with this deck have been strictly due to misplays on my part: not setting up the right Doomsday pile, using a tutor too early and getting the wrong card, forgetting I had Lightning Greaves on the table, etc. Oh, and one game where I Demonic Consultationed for Tendrils of Agony with my opponent at 2 life, and Tendrils was the third card down. Again, thanks for your feedback!
Massive updates. Out goes a lot of the chaff and some clunky stuff, in goes more streamlined awesomeness. After winning some EDH side events at SCG Open: Charlotte with Gaddock Teeg, I had store credit enough to get a Maze of Ith and Dark Confidant.
Skirge Familiar --> Dark Confidant
I love the Familiar to death, and it's really handy when I get Null Profusion online. However, it's clunky in every other scenario. Bob, on the other hand, costs less mana and is very widely useful.
Doubling Cube --> Basalt Monolith
Cube was always lackluster here compared to my Rasputin deck, which is basically "win more" incarnate. Basalt Monolith is solid and helps ramp into Spirit of the Night.
Jet Medallion --> Voltaic Key
Too many black mana symbols for Jet Medallion to be truly stellar. However, with the plethora of mana artifacts, Voltaic Key is always useful.
Damping Matrix --> Infernal Darkness
Damping Matrix was never actually a dead card, but it often hosed me as badly as the other guy. Infernal Darkness is brutally powerful and on-theme.
Plunge into Darkness --> Addle
Plunge was fun, I'm not gonna lie. However, in this deck, it was always a strictly worse Impulse. Addle is basically Distress number two, aka Thoughtseize number five. It's always been useful in testing.
Temporal Extortion --> Sudden Death
Extortion typically did nothing outside of the combo kills with Wound Reflection. Instead, Sudden Death provides additional disruption/removal and is pretty good in most blue matchups.
Necrologia --> Ambition's Cost
Decreasing the average CMC of the card draw (and the deck in general) seems like a good idea. Not as crippling to get AC countered as Necrologia.
Pain's Reward --> Phyrexian Arena
Pain's Reward is stellar against bad or uneducated players. Four cards for three life? Yes, please (true story). However, good players are not afraid to pay as much life as you are, or even more considering that you're down three mana and a four cards (3 cards you DONT draw, and Pain's Reward itself). Why even give your opponent the option?
Eternity Vessel --> Maze of Ith
Vessel is cute above all else. It did win games with Necropotence, but somehow I think Necro would've won the game by itself. In short, six mana is too much. Maze of Ith, on the other hand, is an awesome silver bullet against a good chunk of aggro plans.
Mirror of Fate --> Lake of the Dead
Ah, Mirror of Fate, I will sorely miss you. It was spectacular with Doomsday, but then I thought, hey, shouldn't Doomsday just win by itself? The answer is yes, by the way. In its place comes Lake of the Dead, a fun and on-theme card with awesome artwork that is simultaneously another tribute to Evergreen.
The big SCG event gave me ample opportunity to pilot and playtest this deck, thankfully to a great degree of success! A good blue permission package with CA and a clock (think Clique, or Niv-Mizzet) still gives this deck a hard time. Early Oath of Druids is also a big problem. Any suggestions on how to deal with Oath? For that matter, I'd love to hear your thoughts on the deck in general!
If you're really trying to fine tune the deck for tournaments, is there a reason you're not playing with snow-covered swamps?
I'm sure you already know how great snow-covered lands are with extraplanar lens.
Yes, I am well aware of this fact! The main reason I'm playing regular Swamps is that I have one of each of the full set of Arena promo swamps, which helps pimp out the manabase a little. Foil promo swamps tap for better mana than regular ones, didn't you know?!
But you're right, snow-covered swamps would probably be preferable, unless people start using the "reverse psychology" thing with their lands like Evergreen did in the last MWS tournament.
Also, one other change I forgot to mention: Tainted Pact --> Worn Powerstone
Pact is fun, but whiffs too much. Running lots of nonbasics or splitting the manabase for half snow-covered swamps works against Extraplanar Lens, Cabal Coffers, Lake of the Dead, etc. However, Worn Powerstone is awesome, because a bad Sol Ring is still probably a good card.
I love this deck to bits, I think its soo cool. I have no experience with Doomsday, but I have one sitting in my binder waiting to be loved. The list looks really tight, the only thing missing is Magus of the Coffers, which although expensive produces ridiculous amounts of mana, and the 4/4 body is annoying to deal with. Also, you run Bob and Arena, why no Dark Tutelage? It has all the benefits of Bob but with the resilience of an Enchantment, which in my experience are the hardest permanents to deal with.
I love this deck to bits, I think its soo cool. I have no experience with Doomsday, but I have one sitting in my binder waiting to be loved. The list looks really tight, the only thing missing is Magus of the Coffers, which although expensive produces ridiculous amounts of mana, and the 4/4 body is annoying to deal with. Also, you run Bob and Arena, why no Dark Tutelage? It has all the benefits of Bob but with the resilience of an Enchantment, which in my experience are the hardest permanents to deal with.
Why thank you so much! I tried Magus of the Coffers in my original build and found it to be too clunky/fragile, but I'd be willing to give it another go because a lot has changed since then.
I actually prefer Bob to Dark Tutelage because it's easier to kill! Once I burn myself down below 10 life, I'd like to be able to get rid of it -- my only answer to Dark Tutelage is Oblivion Stone, and that completely resets my board position! However, I'm finding that Bob is so freaking good that Dark Tutelage might still be worthwhile. What do I cut for it? The worst cards in the deck are Ill-Gotten Gains, Wound Reflection, and Lightning Greaves, and those are either to fun for me to cut (IGGY) or enablers for combo kills (Reflection, Greaves).
And if you haven't played Doomsday yet, you should. It's very fun and very skill intensive.
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Oooh I like it man! If you ever want to do any testing let me know.
Will do! If you ever see me online, just shoot me a message! I'm not the best player in the world, but I'm always willing to sling some cards!
Lastly, I could use some help with my selection of spot removal. Right now, it's:
French EDH BRGW Saskia the Unyielding BRGW GUWB Thrasios, Triton Hero // Tymna the Weaver GUWB B Braids, Cabal Minion B G Titania, Protector of Argoth G R Zurgo Bellstriker R
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This deck is primarily geared toward a 1v1 environment. I'm guessing it would be significantly worse when faced with multiple opponents.
The Decklist
1 Spirit of the Night
Creatures (3)
1 Dark Confidant
1 Nirkana Revenant
1 Hellcarver Demon
Mana Ramp (12)
1 Dark Ritual
1 Cabal Ritual
1 Bubbling Muck
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Vault
1 Grim Monolith
1 Basalt Monolith
1 Worn Powerstone
1 Everflowing Chalice
1 Voltaic Key
1 Extraplanar Lens
1 Gauntlet of Power
Disruption (18)
1 Thoughtseize
1 Duress
1 Inquisition of Kozilek
1 Distress
1 Addle
1 Hymn to Tourach
1 Persecute
1 Mind Twist
1 Mind Shatter
1 Innocent Blood
1 Devour in Shadow
1 Go for the Throat
1 Grasp of Darkness
1 Sudden Death
1 Snuff Out
1 Damnation
1 Oblivion Stone
1 Infernal Darkness
1 Necropotence
1 Phyrexian Arena
1 Night's Whisper
1 Sign in Blood
1 Ambition's Cost
1 Ancient Craving
1 Infernal Contract
1 Doomsday
1 Null Profusion
1 Ill-Gotten Gains
Turning the Tables (6)
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Nightmare Lash
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Repay in Kind
1 Wound Reflection
1 Yawgmoth's Will
More Library Manipulation (10)
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Expedition Map
1 Demonic Consultation
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Cruel Tutor
1 Beseech the Queen
1 Diabolic Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Insidious Dreams
1 Shred Memory
1 Cabal Coffers
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Lake of the Dead
1 Ancient Tomb
1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Strip Mine
1 Reliquary Tower
1 Maze of Ith
31 Swamp
Playing the Deck
Sometimes things don't go as planned, though. Maybe you don't curve out, or your opponent has just too many quick threats of their own, or they quickly recover with a big card draw spell. In these cases, you can either try to race them (risky... but fun) or play the control game by tutoring out "silver bullets." Your arsenal includes, but is not limited to:
Innocent Blood (for pesky generals like Uril)
Damnation (to deal with untargetable generals or creature swarms)
Damping Matrix (to put a stop to all sorts of nonsense)
Bojuka Bog (gets rid of all manner of Genesis-esque things)
Boseiju, Who Shelters All (Blue mages should learn to counter the Vampiric Tutor)
Oblivion Stone (to handle just about everything else)
Well, stopping your opponent is all well and good, but how do you actually seal the deal?
The Three Primary Routes to Victory
You have a decent variety of win conditions at your disposal and plenty of library manipulation to find what you want, and it probably sounds like a cop out to say just do what the situation demand, but that's really how it works. Really. Okay, I'll break it down a little more than that. However, fair warning: there are no infinite combos -- that would be too easy and obvious. You have to make the right decisions and fight for the win each and every game. It's not uncommon to almost kill yourself (or, sometimes, actually kill yourself) while racing toward victory, but therein lies the fun!
Doomsday is just an absurdly powerful card if you build around it; on the other hand, it's just flat-out busted when used in conjunction with Hellcarver Demon. The price for using either of these cards is high, though, so be sure you know what you are doing.
There are many different ways to go about this, and I'm not sure if one is more correct than the others, but Wound Reflection is often a key player. Some possibilities include:
1. Using Repay in Kind with Wound Reflection to kill your opponent outright
2. Using Ritual effects, Tendrils of Agony, and Yawgmoth's Will to drain them out
3. Using Hellcarver Demon and Mirror of Fate to do a bunch of broken stuff for free
3. Setting up a Temporal Extortion/Wound Reflection surprise
4. Casting Demonic Consultation and activate Sensei's Divining Top for an anticlimactic ending!
5. etc. etc.
Here's an example. If you don't have anything else, wait until the coast is clear and you have enough mana and set up your initial Doomsday pile to be something like:
1. Night's Whisper
2. Hellcarver Demon
3. Lightning Greaves
4. Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
5. Mirror of Fate
The following turn, draw a few cards, cast Hellcarver Demon, and suit it up with some fancy boots. Swing with the Demon, *cast* Emrakul for the extra turn, and use Mirror of Fate to set up a game ending Hellcarver combo immediately.
Insidious Dreams can function as a makeshift Doomsday, as well. Just have fun with it, and don't be afraid to experiment.
1. Repay in Kind, kill with Wound Reflection
2. Repay in Kind, kill with Spirit of the Night
3. Tendrils of Agony, kill with Wound Reflection
4. Temporal Extortion, kill with Wound Reflection
5. Repay in Kind, kill with Tendrils of Agony
6. Null Profusion, set up lethal Tendrils of Agony
7. Tendrils of Agony, Ill-Gotten Gains, Yawgmoth's Will
On a less lethal note, Eternity Vessel has its merits when you're paying large quantities of life, and Skirge Familiar really works his magic when you're going off with Null Profusion.
I guess this is a fairly obvious route to victory, but it's a very viable option and will come up quite often. You can generate mana like there is no tomorrow, and the beatsticks in this deck will end the game in a hurry. If you get an opening hand full of stuff like Mana Vault, the playing Spirit of the Night on turn 3 or 4 can be tough to manage. Later on, you can use your general in conjunction with Nightmare Lash to put your opponent on a 1-turn clock.
Oh yeah, and sometimes I win because I just cast Emrakul. I'm so good at Magic.
The Pros and Cons
A plethora of discard effects and choice removal spells really gives you the edge in some matchups. In particular, other combo decks will really suffer when you hit them with Thoughtseize or Mind Twist. At best, they are forced to use a counterspell. At worst, they're completely out of gas and you get 4 or 5 turns to do whatever you want.
Powerful Library Manipulation
You're packing enough card draw and tutors to go toe-to-toe with even most blue decks in the format, so ideally you're never out of things to do. Of course Necropotence is still one of the most powerful card advantage engines ever printed, but even the spells with more hefty drawbacks (Infernal Contract, Demonic Consultation) are quite good and have proven their worth in the combo decks of old.
Versatile Gameplan
Strangely enough, this deck is capable of playing aggro, combo, or control to a fair amount of success. Combo is what you really want to be doing, but going aggro with your general is scary enough (remember: 2 swings with Nightmare Lash, and he has haste). Even sitting back and playing control with Damnation and Damping Matrix is acceptable until you have the tools to change gears, but don't chill out for too long or your dwindling life total will catch up to you.
Surprise Factor
This deck is packing some very underplayed cards, so it is always a possibility that your opponent will not assess or react to them correctly. When you play Pain's Reward, just how much life is worth four cards? Should your opponent counter Demonic Consultation? Will your opponent see your general and dismiss your deck as "casual jank?" And no one, I mean no one sees the Hellcarver Demon + Doomsday combo coming. These little mind games can really add up as long as you play tight Magic.
These decks can exploit the pain you inflict on yourself. Stuff like Sygg, River Cutthroat aggro or Eight-and-a-Half-Tails equipment can pile on the beatings and make Necropotence seem pretty bad. Heck, even burn decks are a lot more effective than usual. The solution here would be more lifegain -- right now, all you have is Tendrils of Agony, but maybe something like Loxodon Warhammer would be in order.
Early Planeswalkers
Thoughtseize and friends go a long way toward preventing this train wreck, but without lots of creatures of your own, a turn-3 Jace the Mindsculptor is freaking problematic. You need to do something fast, or you simply will not be able to win the attrition war. Spirit of the Night is a decent solution, but that requires a nine mana investment. Your only other option is Oblivion Stone, so find it and pop it fast.
Oath of Druids
As I recently discovered, a dedicated Oath of Druids deck can be difficult to stop if it gets a good hand. Okay, so you can Thoughtseize on turn 1 or whatever... okay, the Enlightened Tutor in response. Now what? Whew, at least I don't have any creatures... oh wait, there's Forbidden Orchard, giving me a token. I can Snuff Out the token, but that just buys me a turn. I can Strip Mine the Forbidden Orchard, but it already gave me a token. I can pop Oblivion Stone, but I have to find it first, and it takes 8 mana, and it's only turn 2 or 3. It's just a really awkward strategy for us to deal with... makes me want to include Sadistic Sacrament or something.
Mana Denial
I haven't run into this too much, but lots of LD and artifact destruction will most likely keep you from doing much at all. Cabal Coffers is pretty important, but unfortunately it will be the first target for opposing Strip Mines and Wastelands. Right now, I'm only running Petrified Field to get it back in an emergency, but Crucible of Worlds might be in order should you add fetchlands to the deck. Again, use your discard to prevent this as much as possible.
Vendilion Clique
The real terror of 1v1. I don't know how this deck continues to fly under the radar, but the consistency of Clique is frightening. In case you don't know, the Clique deck plays nothing but countermagic, bounce, and card draw and simply aims to kill you with general damage. It's not the fastest kill in the world (turn 10 at the earliest, usually), but the entire deck is nothing but disruption. That being said, experience has shown that this deck can beat bad Clique decks/pilots without too much fuss (i.e., Clique decks without Strip Mine, or Clique decks who always play their general on turn 3). Boseiju, Who Shelters All is your friend here -- use it to set up an uncounterable Persecute or Mind Twist and aim to win before they recover. Also, consider adding Desert or Maze of Ith, then bait their Strip Mine with Cabal Coffers. Even Darkblast might be acceptable, though the recent banning of Rofellos makes it a lot worse.
Alternate Card Choices
Scroll Rack -- it was solid, and might still have a place in the deck
Word of Command -- does anyone have experience playing this card? Seems like useful disruption.
Dark Tutelage -- I haven't tested these enough, simple as that.
Grim Tutor, Imperial Seal, Mana Crypt -- I'll keep dreaming
All is Dust -- would replace O-Stone. Uncounterable via Boseiju. Not destroying artifacts could be good, or could be bad.
I'm planning to refine and expand the "Pros and Cons" section as I playtest more, but feel free to leave a comment anyway. I'm sure there is still a long way to go, but it's an absolute blast to do stuff like Demonic Consultation for Mirror of Fate, and (believe it or not) I'm actually learning how to play the deck. Thanks for reading, and thank you in advance for any input you might have; it will be much appreciated!
Draft my Mono-Blue Cube!
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Looks like a blast to play, much like your old X-D list. Why did you drop that btw?
One-Eyed Black | Orzhov Combo | Ooze Reanimator | Mindwheeling Pain
Hey dude, thanks for the reply! I'm not playing Xiahou Dun anymore because my copy of the card got lost in the mail. I got a refund, but seeing as how I didn't feel great about spending that much on a single card in the first place, I won't be doing it again any time soon. It's a bummer, because Xiahou Dun is easily the best general for a deck like this.
As far as the replacement is concerned, I'm playing Spirit of the Night because:
1. It can win via general damage much more easily than X-D ever could, sans Hatred;
2. Not many people have ever heard of Spirit of the Night, and only Magnus Magicus has actually built an EDH deck around it;
3. Seizan, Perverter of Truth seemed bad for 1v1;
4. Maralen of the Mornsong seemed bad for 1v1, and was already claimed in my area anyway;
5. Phage the Untouchable, though flavorful, doesn't actually do anything;
6. Spirit of the Night has really unique and creepy artwork. His right eye is a freaking nautilus shell! WTF?
I really could use your help on tuning this thing, though -- I'm sure there are some improvements that can be made. Just for your reference, some of the more questionable (as in, not 100% awesome) cards are:
Tainted Pact
Skirge Familiar
Petrified Field
However, it can't be too bad, since all of the games I've lost with this deck have been strictly due to misplays on my part: not setting up the right Doomsday pile, using a tutor too early and getting the wrong card, forgetting I had Lightning Greaves on the table, etc. Oh, and one game where I Demonic Consultationed for Tendrils of Agony with my opponent at 2 life, and Tendrils was the third card down. Again, thanks for your feedback!
Draft my Mono-Blue Cube!
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Skirge Familiar --> Dark Confidant
I love the Familiar to death, and it's really handy when I get Null Profusion online. However, it's clunky in every other scenario. Bob, on the other hand, costs less mana and is very widely useful.
Doubling Cube --> Basalt Monolith
Cube was always lackluster here compared to my Rasputin deck, which is basically "win more" incarnate. Basalt Monolith is solid and helps ramp into Spirit of the Night.
Jet Medallion --> Voltaic Key
Too many black mana symbols for Jet Medallion to be truly stellar. However, with the plethora of mana artifacts, Voltaic Key is always useful.
Damping Matrix --> Infernal Darkness
Damping Matrix was never actually a dead card, but it often hosed me as badly as the other guy. Infernal Darkness is brutally powerful and on-theme.
Plunge into Darkness --> Addle
Plunge was fun, I'm not gonna lie. However, in this deck, it was always a strictly worse Impulse. Addle is basically Distress number two, aka Thoughtseize number five. It's always been useful in testing.
Temporal Extortion --> Sudden Death
Extortion typically did nothing outside of the combo kills with Wound Reflection. Instead, Sudden Death provides additional disruption/removal and is pretty good in most blue matchups.
Necrologia --> Ambition's Cost
Decreasing the average CMC of the card draw (and the deck in general) seems like a good idea. Not as crippling to get AC countered as Necrologia.
Promise of Power --> Ancient Craving
Same as Necrologia. Also, Promise of Power was sometimes randomly difficult to cast.
Pain's Reward --> Phyrexian Arena
Pain's Reward is stellar against bad or uneducated players. Four cards for three life? Yes, please (true story). However, good players are not afraid to pay as much life as you are, or even more considering that you're down three mana and a four cards (3 cards you DONT draw, and Pain's Reward itself). Why even give your opponent the option?
Eternity Vessel --> Maze of Ith
Vessel is cute above all else. It did win games with Necropotence, but somehow I think Necro would've won the game by itself. In short, six mana is too much. Maze of Ith, on the other hand, is an awesome silver bullet against a good chunk of aggro plans.
Mirror of Fate --> Lake of the Dead
Ah, Mirror of Fate, I will sorely miss you. It was spectacular with Doomsday, but then I thought, hey, shouldn't Doomsday just win by itself? The answer is yes, by the way. In its place comes Lake of the Dead, a fun and on-theme card with awesome artwork that is simultaneously another tribute to Evergreen.
Petrified Field --> Swamp
Derp.
I will update the OP with these changes soon.
The big SCG event gave me ample opportunity to pilot and playtest this deck, thankfully to a great degree of success! A good blue permission package with CA and a clock (think Clique, or Niv-Mizzet) still gives this deck a hard time. Early Oath of Druids is also a big problem. Any suggestions on how to deal with Oath? For that matter, I'd love to hear your thoughts on the deck in general!
Draft my Mono-Blue Cube!
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I'm sure you already know how great snow-covered lands are with extraplanar lens.
Yes, I am well aware of this fact! The main reason I'm playing regular Swamps is that I have one of each of the full set of Arena promo swamps, which helps pimp out the manabase a little. Foil promo swamps tap for better mana than regular ones, didn't you know?!
But you're right, snow-covered swamps would probably be preferable, unless people start using the "reverse psychology" thing with their lands like Evergreen did in the last MWS tournament.
Also, one other change I forgot to mention:
Tainted Pact --> Worn Powerstone
Pact is fun, but whiffs too much. Running lots of nonbasics or splitting the manabase for half snow-covered swamps works against Extraplanar Lens, Cabal Coffers, Lake of the Dead, etc. However, Worn Powerstone is awesome, because a bad Sol Ring is still probably a good card.
Draft my Mono-Blue Cube!
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BRRakdos, Lord of RiotsBR
Why thank you so much! I tried Magus of the Coffers in my original build and found it to be too clunky/fragile, but I'd be willing to give it another go because a lot has changed since then.
I actually prefer Bob to Dark Tutelage because it's easier to kill! Once I burn myself down below 10 life, I'd like to be able to get rid of it -- my only answer to Dark Tutelage is Oblivion Stone, and that completely resets my board position! However, I'm finding that Bob is so freaking good that Dark Tutelage might still be worthwhile. What do I cut for it? The worst cards in the deck are Ill-Gotten Gains, Wound Reflection, and Lightning Greaves, and those are either to fun for me to cut (IGGY) or enablers for combo kills (Reflection, Greaves).
And if you haven't played Doomsday yet, you should. It's very fun and very skill intensive.
Will do! If you ever see me online, just shoot me a message! I'm not the best player in the world, but I'm always willing to sling some cards!
Lastly, I could use some help with my selection of spot removal. Right now, it's:
Innocent Blood
Devour in Shadow
Hero's Demise
Sudden Death
Snuff Out
Snuff Out and Devour in Shadow are excellent, so they stay. The others are up for debate. What about Grasp of Darkness? Slaughter Pact? Diabolic Edict? Smother? Darkblast? Sickening Shoal? Spinning Darkness?
Draft my Mono-Blue Cube!
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FALSE! Phage is a fantastic general!
BRGW Saskia the Unyielding BRGW
GUWB Thrasios, Triton Hero // Tymna the Weaver GUWB
B Braids, Cabal Minion B
G Titania, Protector of Argoth G
R Zurgo Bellstriker R
Founding Father of [Team Stepfathers]: We beat you and you hate us
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