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BMoor's Magic The Gathering Deck Garage
Dee's Dead Again
2.21.06

Here's a deck fix that showcases the kind of fix I can do when I know what kind of opponents the deck to be fixed will be going up against. It also ties in with Akubare Shino(note to Pojo staff:make sure that's spelt right please)'s articles on building rogue decks-- it's easier when you know what you'll be up against.

"Hi,

I just play magic against friends, specifically my boyfriend...and he nearly always kicks my butt with his green/white deck. I am using a black deck mostly, and the huge downside of these is that there doesn't seem to be anything to kill off enchantments/artificats. This means, every time he brings out coat of arms I'm dead...because he invariably has 5 billion saporlings that are boosted to ridiculous power/toughness...when I usually have 3-4 creatures of different types. He also has a card which is something along the lines of "whenever life would be reduced to less than 1, it is instead reduced to 1"...so even if I am winning, the situation is now unwinnable as he just whittles me down whilst I am unable to get rid of that card. I have this problem against enchantments/artificats with other decks as well, and it's really a major hole in my deck :(

I'm currently pretty much using the base "Dead Again" 9th edition theme deck. I added in a couple of my own cards, but nothing which has any bearing on this issue. You can find the deck list here[see below]

Um so my question in short is...how can I beat enchantments and artifacts? Also, if you wanted to "garage" the Dead Again deck in general I'd be keen for that   :)

Budget wise....if I have to actually buy the cards, then I would like something not too expensive or hard to come by. I also play over OCTGN though, so price wouldn't be a problem there :)

Thanks in advance for any help you can offer!

Dee.

Dead Again 9th Edition precon decklist:

1 Drudge Skeletons U
2 Foul Imp C
2 Serpent Warrior C
1 Deathgazer U
2 Gravedigger C
2 Highway Robber C
1 Nekrataal U
2 Hollow Dogs C
1 Nightmare R
1 Phyrexian Gargantua U
1 Raise Dead C
1 Unholy Strength C
1 Contaminated Bond C
1 Dark Banishing C
1 Underworld Dreams R
1 Consume Spirit U
1 Tanglebloom U
1 Demon’s Horn U
17 Swamp"

Well, Dee, I’d be happy to help you tame your boyfriend’s Saproling swarm, and work on a Core Set precon in the process. Core Set preconstructed decks are different from other decks, in that they only have forty cards. This means that there’s twenty slots to fill, so I’ll just add twenty cards.

Now, as far as your question of “how does black kill artifacts and enchantments” goes, the answer is, it really doesn’t. The best you could hope for is discard spells like Blackmail, Distress, or Nightmare Void to get the cards out of your opponent’s hand before he can even cast them. One of the best such cards in 9th Edition is Hypnotic Specter, a 2/2 flyer that makes your opponent discard every time it deals damage to him or her. This is useful because even if your opponent already discarded his or her whole hand, the Specter can still swing for two damage while Blackmail would be dead in your hand.

As far as Saproling armies are concerned, two cards spring to mind. The first is Night of Souls’ Betrayal. With a Night in play, Saprolings come into play as 0/0’s and die immediately as long as Coat of Arms isn’t already out. And if it is, your opponent would need to put multiple Saprolings into play at the same time to have them survive, because the Coat bonus and the Night minus happen simultaneously. The trouble is, the Night would kill a lot of your own creatures as well; you’d have to take out every creature in your deck with a toughness of 1 (Drudge Skeletons are no big loss, but Nekrataal is). A better option might be Aether Snap; it’s a Sorcery, so once you did it your opponent could just make more Saprolings, but it’s guaranteed to kill every last Saproling no matter how big or numerous. Remember to yell “Ohh, snap!” when you play it ;)
And that horrendous white enchantment you mentioned? It’s called “Worship” and as it happens you already have an answer to it in your deck. Worship stops all damage that reduces a life total to less than one, but not life loss. Anything that specifically says “lose life” instead of “damage”, such as Highway Robber, will be able to kill an opponent even with Worship on the table. If your boyfriend has told you otherwise, he’s either lying or unfamiliar with the rules. Send him to gatherer.wizards.com to look up Worship and see for himself if there’s a difference of opinion.

One more thing, since you mentioned that your most common opponent is your boyfriend’s Green/White deck, I’d like to suggest you look into creatures with Protection from White. They’re very common in Black, and the one that first comes to mind is Hand of Cruelty, a very efficient Black creature. Protection from Green is much harder to come by, sadly, in any color.
One last thing, the Dead Again deck comes with almost all its cards as only one or two copies. Running only one copy of a card is a bad idea, since it lowers your odds of drawing it. Drop the creatures that don’t do enough to make room for additional copies of the ones you like more. I recommend dropping Serpent Warrior, Drudge Skeletons (unless he often holds off much larger creatures), and Hollow Dogs for more Foul Imp, Nekrataal, Nightmare, and Deathgazer. Why these creatures? Because they all have abilities that make them harder to block (or less advantageous for the defending player to block). Why pay 3 life for a creature that just attacks into a fresh Saproling each turn when you can pay 2 life for a creature that flies over them? The same goes for your non creature spells, drop the ones you're rarely happy to draw, and add more of the ones you find yourself hoping to draw.

I hope that these suggestions and rules of thumb will put you on track to improving your deck. Good luck to you!

Send your decks in need of work to me at bemore4096@yahoo.com
  

Anyone else who would like my help with their deck can reach me at bemore4096@yahoo.com.  Thank you, BMoor