Wendell was up visiting from San Diego, and he brought his up-to-date collection. Naturally, the fever spread. Wendell, M^2 and I spent the better part of the weekend looking through cards, constructing decks, and playing each other. Good fun.
(This post covers our Saturday play. Also, I naturally remember my deck and its victories more than Wendell's or M^2's.)
We played decks from our collections. My cards got a little mixed up, so I threw together a quick black deck (my usual) to play, but it wasn't tuned. After a few rounds, Wendell helped me give it a massive overhaul -- some advice that I knew but had forgotten, some that was completely new to me. A light discard base with some deck-thinning, mixed support critters and a bona-fide contingency plan. The deck worked very well, much more so than either of us anticipated. (Though it would have gotten stomped, I think, by some of Wendell's tougher decks.) Here's what I remember of it (I may correct this list this evening):
- Everyone's bane: 4x Hypnotic Specters
- Additional card denial: 4x Hymn to Tourac, 1x Mind Twist
- Utility Critters: 2x Fog of Gnats, 2x Order of the Ebon Hand
- The quick and the (un)dead: 4x Ashen Ghoul, 4x Nether Shadow
- Library management: 1x Demonic Tutor, 2-3x Demonic Consultation, 1x Night's Whisper
- General-purpose direct damage: 2x Drain Life
- Creature hate: 1x Serrated Arrows, 2x Ashes to Ashes
- "Oh shit" buttons: 2-3x Nevinyrral's Disk
- Support mana: 4x Dark Ritual, 1x Sol Ring
- Game over man, game over: 1x Kaervek's Spite
- Lands: 1x Urborg, 2x Barren Moor, 19x Swamp
There may be a bit of tuning to do on this deck yet, but it's played wonderfully so far (perhaps a bit of luck involved in that). I somehow forgot about the Nevinyrral's/Larry Niven's a long time ago, and they work so well in this deck -- it let's me clear the board, but most of my creatures can either avoid it (regeneration) or come right back (Ashens, Nethers).
Here's what blows me away: this deck, built on a black discard base, dominated three multiplayer games (all three of us playing) in a row. M^2 had some amazing bad with draws, to be fair, but this still seems strange. Black decks are typically the live fast / die young sort, and you need more conservative play to survive in multiplayer. I was able to consistently cycle Nether Shadows and Ashen Ghouls, however, typically getting several uses out of each. I popped 1+ Nevinyrral's every game, and in some cases won just by the sheer unstoppable force of Fog of Gnats and Nether Shadow (both 1/1 creature, the smallest offensive unit possible!).
At one point I actually had all eight of the self-resurrecting creatures "active" (5 in play, 3 in the graveyard), which is a huge, unstoppable force when you're far into a 3-way stalemate game and everyone is playing an empty hand.
Again though, to be fair, I think M^2's deck had some terrible draws, and is still on it's first iteration. Wendell was also using the least-obnoxious (though still highly-effective) deck in his arsenal.
The credit really goes to Wendell -- I knew what I wanted in the deck, roughly, but he knew how to actually make it work. Adding the Nevinyrral's, bringing me a fourth Nether Shadow (YAY!), helping me cull the cards that didn't help, swapping in Drain Life for Paralyze (great card, but only a quick-fix)... that's what made the deck finally work.
Also: I'm sure there are (newer) cards out there that would work even better, but I was trying to build the deck out of cards I have. Wendell did bring me the fourth Nether Shadow (so happy about that!) and the Night's Whisper, though.
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