Soon everyone's entire online activity will be under a single name/account!
DEATH TO ANONYMITY!
Hasn't the Equifax thing or the Sony hacks demonstrated most companies don't give a rat's behind about security? This is all about tracking people for advertisement purposes.
Underworld Dreams, Skullcage, and Seizan, Perverter of Truth was all it needed at the time.
These days you can probably add Master of the Feast and Fate Unraveler. Spellskite to block early and protect your stuff.
I would add blue instead of red. Counterspells. Kami of the Crescent Moon, Clutch of the Undercity.
1. Hard to put a percentage on it and I don't keep detailed logs (maybe I should?). I'm assuming you're talking about the Jeskai version that's been popular the last couple months. It really depends on if I can keep Nahiri off the board while maintaining board presence. Path is scary for this deck, obviously. Emissary shines, because even if they Path it, I still get a land. Game 2 is a little easier because I can board out one ozze for the other and eat their spells, making Snapcaster Mage useless. It also makes them reconsider Path targets if they understand how my deck works. Which means more nibbles at their health. Surgical Extraction takes care of Nahiri or Command. Heck, I'll take Remand or Mana Leak too. Really depends on the state of the match.
2. Super-fast aggro decks are HARD! Easiest to hardest: Merfolk > RED > Robots. I'm actually going to say this deck is favored against Merfolk. As long as you take out the Vials and trade with creatures long enough to play Death Cloud, it goes pretty smooth (and that's often how this deck plays, anyway). The other two decks are trickier. That's why I have Damnation in the board. Because sometimes you just need to wipe the battlefield on turn 4 or lose. And often against aggro, your life total is too low by the time you can Cloud. Necroplasm is good against Red decks because it kills half their team if it lives until your next upkeep. And if they do kill it, your other guys are not and can then can block. Most have innate recursion. Against Robots,side in Extraction and Fulminator. Take out Inkmoths and Cranial Plating. Smart blocks. Keep recurring Necroplasm. Hope for the best.
3. I've always liked Messenger in my monoblack decks. And in this deck it just seemed to fit. Its under 4 mana, sticks around after Cloud/Plasm. And because I needed 2 drops, I figured Geist would fill a similar role. The crazy mana requirements haven't been a problem since I usually don't plan on casting Messengers. Either CoCo or recursion (meaning I'll discard them to Cloud and hang onto recursion). Geists are just so good to drop before a Plasm.
4. Damnation in the sideboard. Death Cloud is a sweeper, of sorts.
5. Most definitely. There have even been games where good blocks, timely removal, and lots of annoying recursion will win the day. I've won games without seeing Cloud, Plasm, or CoCo. This deck has no problem blocking large creatures with a couple small ones as long as they kill it. Its all part of the plan.
This isn't a ramp version of Cloud. It's a variant. If the point of contention is between using it as ramp or as a blocker/attack, then my variant wants Emissary over Tribe-Elder. Think of my deck like Zapp Brannigan going to war. Heroically throwing wave after wave of his own men at the killbots until they shut down.
Against Tron/Eldrazi, I side Plasm out for Fulminator, Decay for Acid-Moss, and Rager for Extraction depending on the presence of Mindslaver.
On Turn 1 I'm more concerned with setting up my mana. So its a Fetch or Shock land more often than not. And turn 2 is a Geist, Emissary, or Grim back a Fetch. Depending on what's going on.
I don't run LOTV because Necroplasm already gets stuff into my graveyard, one way or another. But something I have been thinking about testing is
-2 Rager
+2 Lotleth Troll
This would give the deck another 2 drop. It regenerates. I can discard creatures (Plasm) and make it bigger. But I'd lose a way to bring Necroplasm back. Or draw a card off CoCo. Ghost Quarter is good main deck against Tron/Eldrazi. Especially off a Grim/Pulse.
3 Viridian Emissary
3 Strangleroot Geist
3 Necroplasm
3 Eternal Witness
2 Phyrexian Rager
2 Kitchen Finks
2 Geralf's Messenger
2 Filigree Familiar
SPELLS
3 Abrupt Decay
2 Grim Discovery
3 Maelstrom Pulse
2 Recover
2 Pulse of Murasa
2 Collected Company
3 Death Cloud
4 Swamp
4 Forest
4 Woodland Cemetery
4 Overgrown Tomb
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Ghost Quarter
3 Fulminator Mage
3 Scavenging Ooze
3 Surgical Extraction
3 Damnation
3 Mwonvuli Acid-Moss
In case you haven't figured it out, this is a classic-style attrition deck. In the early game, you want to play your 2 drop guys, removal, basic Magic stuff.
Until you have a chance to drop Necroplasm. Over any other 3 drop. Over anything but removal on a major threat. You're going to drop Necroplasm. Let me tell you why.
At the end of the turn you play Necroplasm, ALL TOKENS ARE DESTROYED. No messing with sideboard stuff. You have a main deck answer aside from Maelstrom Pulse. You know what else it gets rid of? Ornithopters and Memnites. While the latter two aren't a big deal, tokens certainly are. Especially for a deck that wants to wipe the board with Death Cloud. And Death Cloud takes time to ramp into. Necroplasm fixes this problem. And every upkeep, it gets a +1/+1 counter. At EOT, everything with a CC = to the number of counters is destroyed. This messes with the opponent's creature curve. It also does 9 damage if left unchecked (2+3+4).
But wait... there's more.
T1: Fetch a Tomb.
T2: Play a land. Drop an Emissary.
T3: Play a land. Swing for 2 (2). Play Necroplasm.
T4: Play a land. Play Strangleroot Geist. Swing for 6 (8).
T5: Play a land. Swing for 7 (15). EOT Geist gets bigger, you get a land.
T6: Swing, cast Death Cloud, whatever.
9 cards used of 12 seen on the play.
Sounds like Magic Christmas land, but its more likely than you think. Other times, you're going to be on the back foot, grinding it out until your opponent runs out of threats. Here's how that works...
Eternal Witness, Grim Discovery, Pulse of Murasa, Recover, and special guest Necroplasm.
When casting Death Cloud, you want to try to keep at least one of these cards in hand. And there really is no reason to never have a Necroplasm in play or in hand unless you haven't seen one all game or they've been exiled. Did I mention Necroplasm has Dredge? Its one tough creature to remove. Even worse, its surrounded by other things that come back. So like I said, its always going to return without help. But what if it wants some help? Glad you asked. Recover cantrips. So get that Eternal Witness out of your yard, mill a couple (the party begins!) and get Necroplasm back too. Play Necroplasm. And then play the Witness and get Recover back. Your opponent will probably be pretty mad at this point. Especially post Death Cloud.
Or cast Pulse of Murasa for Phyrexian Rager. Mill two cards, get Necroplasm back, gain 5 (6-1) life. Play Necroplasm again. Got a black eye yet?
See if you can get away with casting Filigree Familiar after that. If Necroplasm has lived a full life, it'll kill the Familiar... and then you mill 2 and get it back.
Eternal Witness can also get removal back in the pre-Cloud game. I tend to save Recover/Murasa for post-Cloud. Grim Discovery pre-cloud keeps you hitting land drops and fetching dead Witnesses to replay removal. Finks and Familiars are the next priority (never waste recursion spells on Necroplasm unless you're using Murasa on their EOT for life gain and/or they've got tokens running amok).
Don't forget Collected Company is also in this deck. Hit a Witness in the top 6 and you get your CoCo back. The other creature is just a bonus and should usually be a... do I have to say Necroplasm again?
Tl;Dr: This is an absolutely bonkers variation of Death Cloud. There are so many neat interactions I could write about it all day. And Necroplasm is like The Dude's rug. Really ties this deck together. So if you have the cards or use Cockatrice, take it for a spin and let me know what you think!
15 Swamp
4 Piranha Marsh
3 Leechridden Swamp
CREATURES
4 Pulse Tracker
4 Mardu Shadowspear
4 Dauthi Slayer
4 Nether Traitor
4 Geralf's Messenger
3 Spiteful Returned
3 Brutal Hordechief
4 Bad Moon
REMOVAL
3 Unmake
3 Hero's Downfall
2 Profane Command
Also tried Bile Urchin, Death Cultist, Vampire Nighthawk, Bump in the Night, and Alms of the Vein. There's also Infectious Horror but for what it's worth, Spiteful Returned is a MUCH better "4-drop".
Bad Moon is pretty great. Makes these pesky little guys bigger, with the downside of also buffing the opponent's Black creatures. At this point, Bob and a couple Eldrazi are the only things seeing widespread play.
It's a fun deck. Straight forward gameplan. And just steals games with all the fetch and shock lands in the format. Also, it's a decent budget deck. Around $70-90.