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BMoor's Magic The Gathering Deck Garage
Last Tuesday I fixed a White
damage prevention deck, and
mentioned that while the
deck could stay alive for a
long time, it couldn't
really finish off the
opponent. Some of you may
be thinking that having no
way to finish off the
opponent sounds like an
incredibly wimpy problem to
have, and that only the
pacifist White deck could
ever find itself in that
situation. Surely an
aggressive color like Black
or red couldn't have that
problem, could it?
I have to say, the Earthblighter land destruction concept is something I hadn't seen before. It looks powerful, but this deck has one big problem. It can destroy opponent's lands to the point where they can barely play anything, but it can't do anything to kill them once that happens. And since you can't reliably start destroying lands until Turn Three, anything they played up until then can kill you, even if it takes a while. So you need what is known as a "win condition". Anything that can pretty much win the game for you. It could be a Dragon or a Demon, Fireball or Consume Spirit, just about any powerful card. Now, in a few months' time, the third set of the Ravnica block will be released, and will bring with it lots of Red/Black multicolor cards. I'm sure there'll be some cards there that this deck will love, including new land destruction spells and a massive win condition. In the meantime, I'm going to drop Goblin Lackey and Mogg Conscripts for two copies each of Wildfire and Soul Feast. Wildfire is not only a potent land destruction card, but also can rid the board of troublesome creatures. And Soul Feast lets you completely ignore things like blockers, damage prevention, and Worship. My first impulse was to go with big power gamer cards like Form of the Dragon and Plague Wind. Then I was afraid that you might not have enough mana yourself, since I knew I wanted to put in a symmetrical land destruction spell to compliment your Crucible of Worlds. Finally I decided to make the symmetrical land destruction spell one of your win conditions. Now, for the rest of your noncreature spells. All you've got is land destruction and Crucible of Worlds. That's good, but it doesn't give you any utility with which to deal with any nonland card your opponent might play. That's what I like about Wildfire, it stops those "fast creatures" that get into play before you can start your assault on lands. Also, you've got 17 land destruction spells not even counting Earthblighter. The average Magic game is over in about ten to twelve turns, so you don't really need that many land destruction spells. I'd say drop Rain of Tears, since Sinkhole does the same for one less, Stone Rain doesn't need as much colored mana, Pillage can hit artifacts, and Molten Rain can do damage. With the three slots from Rain of Tears and the two left over from dropping Goblin Lackey and Mogg Conscripts, we've got five slots to play with. There's no end to what we could put in those five slots:
Volcanic Hammer
Last Gasp
Dark Banishing
Rend Flesh
Anarchist
Cruel Edict
Zombify
any of the wonderful cards that Dissension will no doubt bring.
Pick whichever ones you
like.
Now, for your mana. I understand what you're trying to do with Peat Bog, Sandstone Needle, and Crucible of Worlds, but the fact is that the "depletion lands" just aren't good enough, even when you can play them again from your graveyard. They come into play tapped, and that's a problem. Especially with this deck; on turn two you want to be able to play Sinkhole for BB, then on turn three you've got Molten Rain for 1RR. This deck is very heavy on cards that need a lot of specific colors of mana, and as such is very vulnerable to color screw. That's why I cut Rain of Tears. You really should invest in four Sulfurous Springs for this deck. I know they're expensive, but you did say budget wasn't a big deal. And this deck can really benefit from them. More than most of the decks I see come through here, actually. In a few months you'll have Rakdos Signet, Rakdos bouncelands, and some Red/Black hybrid cards to take some of the pressure off, but even then I still advise in favor of the Springs.
All in all, I'm very happy
about how this deck shaped
up. This is actually
getting me excited about the
Red/Black cards coming out
soon, and I'm a Simic man
myself. Good luck!
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