For our first week I won’t be starting with evolving Intro packs right away. I have been playing a deck lately that’s been built using my rules (see the About page) and that’s a lot of fun. I need to note that it was built before Avacyn Restored came out, but since then I haven’t seen cards that can really improve the deck as it is (but I bet some of you will disagree).
Enough talk, let’s take a look at the decklist
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Neverdead |
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| 16 Forest 8 Mountain 24 lands 4 Young Wolf 22 creatures |
2 Culling Dais 4 Mortarpod 2 Whipflare 4 Brimstone Volley 2 Gutter Grime 14 other spells |
Price wise, this deck easily meets my rules: it’s only around 5 tickets from bots. Dollar wise, you can get this deck for less then $20, a lot less depending on where you buy your singles (in both cases I’m assuming you already own the basic lands).
The deck is build up of roughly 3 parts. The first part I’ll call the Sacrifices. These are creatures that don’t mind dying, either because they have Undying and just come back for another run, or have powerful effects that trigger when they die. This group includes Perilous Myr, Pyreheart Wolf, Strangleroot Geist and to a lesser extent Flayer of the Hatebound.
Part two I like to call the Sacrificers. These are Mortarpod and it’s twin double, Culling Dais. These cards allow the deck to sacrifice it’s creatures whenever it wants for some very useful effects.
Lastly, there’s the Revelers. These are cards that have dying creatures as their trigger. They include Lumberknot, Rage Thrower, Brimstone Volley and Gutter Grime.
The deck works by sacrificing your Sacrifices to your Sacrificers, letting your Revelers trigger and thus reap some powerful rewards. It’s not unheard of to sacrifice your Perilous Myr with Mortarpod to take out a 1 toughness creature, a 2 toughness creature and see your Lumberknot gain 3 +1/+1 counters (1 from the Myr and 2 from your opponents dead creatures). That’s some great card- and board advantage that you can ride to victory.
Sylvok Replica and Whipflare may seem like strange choices, as they don’t fall into one of these 3 groups. They are there as answers to cards like Intangible Virtue and token/weenie decks
To give you and idea of how the deck plays, I documented 10 games. Below are brief summaries of them.
Game 1 B/G Undying
We both open with a Young Wolf after which we do some trading. I manage to take out his Young Wolf and Strangleroot Geist quite effectively thanks to Mortarpod and some clever blocking. Lumberknot comes down for me and starts growing as I use Mortarpod and Perilous Myr to take out 2 of his creatures. I had to take some damage to set this up, but it pays off. He then drops Geralf’s Messenger and then another. I manage to take one out thanks to another Mortarpod, Lumberknot blocking and Whipflare. This draws a concede. Apparently his hand was full off crap, cause he had 6 to my 0.
Game 2 B/U Control
I manage to get a few small creatures down before he completely blocks the board with countermagic. I manage to bring him all the way down to 4, but he recovers with a few Tribute to Hungers. Had I played smart, I could have maneuvered a Brimstone Volley through there right at the point where he was at 5. Alas, I spot the chance to late. I then slowly lose ground and finally get decked by a Jace, Memory Adept.
Game 3 U Control
She was playing some sort of library emptying deck of a sorts. Two Solemn Simulacrums come down in quick succession as I drop a Mortarpod, 2 Perilous Myrs and a Gutter Grime. Once she attacks with one of the Simulacrums, I double block to take both out and do some damage to my opponent and get two 2/2 slime tokens. I drop Flayer of the Hatebound and luck out on her not having counter magic. She then taps out to play Divination and Conjurer’s Closet. I do the math and see I can kill her right now with a attack and moving the Mortarpod to the Flayer afterwards, sacrificing it and using the damage it deals as it returns to finish her from 13 to -1.
Game 4 B/U Control
I’m guessing my opponent didn’t get out all the cards she needed, because in the end she had only played Unsummon, Bloodseeker, Distress and Mist Raven. She did seem to keep mana open for counter magic, but I had enough mana to evade a potential Mana Leak, which I’m guessing was in her hand. I wasn’t drawing any sacrifice outlets, just creatures and lands though. Luckily this deck can turn into a sub-optimal beatdown deck as a plan B. In the end I rode my horde of Young Wolfs, Strangleroot Geists and a Perilous Myr to victory.
Game 5 B/U Control
What’s with Black/Blue control these days? That’s the 3rd one in 5 games! Anyway, I keep a hand with 1 Forest, but with a Young Wolf, Perilous Myr and Mortarpod. I draw a Mountain as I was hoping for and manage to quickly get out a lead. She plays Ponder and Gitaxian Probe, giving her info about my hand. Still, once Mortarpod and Culling Dais are out, all her removal is easily dodged. Barter in Blood does pose me with a short thought, but Strangleroot Geist and Perilous Myr are happy too take one for the team, the Geist even returning. Remember when playing the deck, your sacrifice tricks can’t dodge spells like Barter in Blood and Geth’s Verdict, so don’t waste cards by trying. eventually we end up with no creatures on either side and I finish the game with a Mortarpod/Brimestone Volley one-two punch.
Game 6 G/W Tokens?
I keep a decent hand with some good creatures, but no sacrifice or death trigger effects. My opponent doesn’t really get off to a good start, playing a Ring of Valkas and the next turn a Crusader of Odric, equipping the ring next turn. This does absolutely nothing for him, as it isn’t red. I just keep beating unblocked thanks to Pyreheart Wolf. My opponent also plays a Farseek and a Divine Verdict on a Strangleroot Geist, but it just comes back stronger. That’s all I see and I beat my opponent into the ground before he can mount any real defense.
Game 7 U/R Combo Something
I open with a Young Wolf hoping for a Mountain while my opponent plays a Invisible Stalker. I realize aside from Whipflare, a suited up Stalker is my Achilles heel and expect to lose in quick order. I don’t. She keeps attacking for one while I attack for a bit more. She drops Gilded Lotuses and a Soliton but still doesn’t enchant or equip the Stalker. Once I have her at 10 life, I attack one last time with my small men and then use two Mortarpods three times and a Brimstone Volley to end the game before she can untap into a heap of mana.
Game 8 B/W Exalted Tokens
My opponent opens with 2 Intangible Virtues and I curse the fact I’m not holding Sylvok Replica or Whipflare. My opponent then starts dropping tokens, but also cards with Exalted. He then attacks with single creatures, despite the fact that he has a small group of 3/3 vigilance creatures, some with flying (Lingering Souls, what else) to my minimal defense. I manage to stop a few of these attacks with clever uses of Mortarpod. Remember kids, when you attack with your one creature, the exalted triggers go on the stack and your opponent can just kill the creature out from under it by dumping removal on top of that stack of triggers. In the end, I get overrun by tokens when my opponent realizes that he doesn’t need all those exalted triggers when he can just swarm me to death.
Game 9 B/U Exalted
My opponent opens with a Duty-Bound Dead and enchants it with Dark Favor. I manage to buy some time with Perilous Myr and Germ tokens from Mortarpods. However, once Mark of the Vampire joins the board, things go downhill. Lucky, I’ve been charging up my Culling Dias and I manage to draw some answers. I use a Young Wolf + Brimstone Volley to take out the Dead and gain major card advantage. She drops a Harbor Bandit, but it quickly dies to Perilous Myr + Mortarpod, just as she wants to enchant it with a Mark of the Vampire, teaching her the downside of auras. I then start dropping creature after creature while my opponent is in top deck mode and quickly end the game.
It’s these games I really like with this deck. You think your done for, but thanks to the many tools the deck has and some clever play, you bounce back and still win.
Game 10 R/U Control
I get of to a decent start with Young Wolf and Perilous Myr, but as he plays spells and lands, I become convinced that he’s got a Mana Leak in hand. I therefore work around it without much trouble, getting card advantage where I can. A Mana Leak slows me down a bit when I have to pay for it, but card advantage is card advantage. Then, as he taps out for a Mindclaw Shaman, I only reveal a Flayer of the Hatebound and a Pyreheart Wolf. This means no spell for him and after I draw my sixth land next turn, I drop the Flayer. This basically turns all my undying creatures into Perilous Myr’s. I quickly ride this advantage to victory.
End result: 8:2
I really enjoy playing this deck, because of its many interactions and emphasis on clever play. Even after 50 games, I am still finding new ways to combine cards and out play my opponents. Plus, the fact that it costs less then a Snapcaster Mage makes occasionally winning against them a lot of fun.
I hope you’ll give this deck a try and share your experiences in the comments. Join me next week when I bring together a bunch of Solitary Fiends and try too make them into a effective team.
Vedalken Treehouse 