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BMoor's Magic The
Gathering
Deck Garage
"My Deck is like the Catholic Church in the Middle Ages..."
March 24, 2009
> Dear Bmoor,
>
> If you're reading this, then thanks a ton! My name is
Robert and I
> come from Massachusetts, so here is my deck!
>
> Creatures (23)
>
> 4x Dark Supplicant
> 3x Cabal Archon
> 3x Rotlung Reanimator
> 2x Orzhov Pontiff
> 3x Souls of the Faultless
> 3x Vile Deacon
> 3x Blind Hunter
> 2x Scion of Darkness
>
> Artifacts (1)
>
> 1x Coat of Arms
>
> Enchantments (5)
>
> 2x Grave Pact
> 3x Conspiracy
>
> Instants (8)
>
> 4x Dark Ritual
> 4x Unmake
>
> Lands (25)
>
> 4x Starlit Sanctum
> 5x Plains
> 16x Swamps
>
> What i hope for is a turn one Supplicant, then another one
on turn
> two.
> On turn three I want to play dark ritual and get out
conspiracy,
> choosing clerics(conspiracy is where i got the name :-) ).
> Turn four, I want Rotlung,
> followed turn five by either another Rotlung or an Archon.
Then I get
> another cleric and get out my Scion, but then i get three
zombie
> CLERICS. At this point I haope to have an Archon, and then
play a
> Grave pact, so i can have: B; gain 2 life and target
opponent loses 2
> life, and each opponent sacs a creature.
>
> However, this deck doesn't work for a few reasons. One is
that
> sometimes i can't get my combo, and then I usually either
do okay or
> absolutely die. Another thing is that this deck gets
killed by weenie
> rush, burn, and flying decks. Also, when my opponents get
their big
> creatures out, sometimes i don't have Unmake handy, and am
pulverized.
> I feel i need more creature control. Also, i usually don't
play the
> Coat (either i don't need it or my opponent has a tribal
deck), and
> extra copies of conspiracy go unused. I feel I could cut
white, it
> currently doesn't do much for the combo. Also, getting my
combo out
> faster would be nice. By the way, I know i need more
copies, but I am
> on a sort-of-low budget*. I have four Willow the Wisps,
and one
> Damnation I am considering.
> I also have another Vile Deacon to add. I already read the
other
> cleric deck you did, but the strategy was different. Also,
I do
> casual play, so any card from any expansion is useful.
> I'm a big fan of your articles, and if you are reading
this, THANK YOU
> in advance.
>
>
>
>
> ~your humble fan, Robert
>
> P.S. If I sac my scion as a cleric for Dark Supplicant,
and he goes
> to the graveyard, can i use the ability to bring him back?
Well, Robert, first I'll answer your last question:
yes, you can sacrifice a Conspirator Scion to Dark
Supplicant and then search your graveyard for that same
Scion. The Supplicant's ability doesn't target the Scion in
any zone, it just says to search those zones for a card
named Scion of Darkness. Since the Scion will be in one of
those zones by the time the ability resolves, you can get
him back into play.
Now then, onto your deck. I've said it before and I'll say
it again: if your deck relies on a combo, you need the rest
of your deck to support that combo. The first way to do that
is to HAVE FOUR COPIES of the Supplicant, Archon, and
Reanimator. Conspiracy I'm not too worried about, since
you've slipped in a decent Plan B: Scion of Darkness
beatdown. You dont really need your Zombie tokens to be
Clerics too if you're just going to bash face with that guy,
so it's alright if you don't have four of Conspiracy. You
also don't need four Scion, solely because your combo finds
him for you no matter where he is.
Next, you need to increase the probability that you'll draw
your combo pieces, or find ways to tutor for them. Black can
draw cards if it's willing to pay life, but it's better at
tutoring. Add in some Diabolic Tutor wherever you can find
room. The best way to make room is to drop the white cards.
They really aren't doing anything for you. You can also drop
Coat of Arms, since it doesn't do much for you either.
You can further enhance your capability to draw your combo
using mroe draw power. In black, that usually means trading
life for cards. Fortunately, there's a Cleric that can do it
painlessly-- Disciple of Malice. Cycle it if a 1/2 with
pro:white isn't what you need at the moment and get yourself
one card closer to comboing out. Or if you already have the
Archon and Reanimator, play it, sacrifice it, and upgrade it
to a 2/2 Zombie Cleric... which you could then sacrifice and
get another one back, and so forth.
So, that'll speed you up a bit. Now for those problem areas:
weenie rush, burn, and flying decks. Your deck is a bit of a
weenie rush itself, needing so many Clerics out. But in all
three of these match-ups, the problem is the same-- your
opponent can deal a lot of damage to you.
My recommendation here is life drain abilities: if you gain
more life than they deal damage, you live long enough to
combo out. The Archon helps out a lot with that-- another
reason you need a full four-- but since we dropped Blind
Hunter, we'll need to replace it with something.
Consume Spirit is an old favorite, but a bit pricey. My
personal favorite is Feast of Flesh, as its cheap and it
scales well over the course of the game, but the first one
looks pretty anemic at only 1 damage/1 life. It could take
out a few early weenies or small flyers though, which lets
it pull double duty against those decks. Trouble is, it can
only hit creatures, so against creature-light burn you may
find yourself desperate to cast it and lacking in targets.
I've recommended Syphon Life before, and while that one can
only hit the opposing player, it can also reuse itself with
discarded lands. And speaking of lands, Tendrils of
Corruption made a big hit in Time Spiral block for its
ability to take out an offensive creature as well as give
you a sudden jump up in life. It really depends on what
target you need to drain your life out of, and how big of a
blast you want to hit it with. Against weenie rush I'd say
Feast of Flesh, against burn Syphon Life, against flying
decks either Feast or Tendrils, and against players with big
6/6-and-up monstrosities Tendrils. As for Consume Spirit, I
don't actually like it that much. It's the most versatile of
the above listed spells, but as a result it tends to be
pretty overcostly compared to any other drain life spell at
the same size. Compare it especially to Tendrils of
Corruption, which will count all your Swamps but only ask
you to tap four of them.
Honestly, I would recommend cutting Dark Ritual for the life
drain. Why? Because a) four Unmake just isn't enough to keep
you safe, and b) Dark Ritual just doesn't do too much for
you. It gives you one big turn, but so many of your spells
are cheap anyway that you'd be better off drawing another
business spell than a spell that just gives you more mana
for another spell that turn.
Give these changes a try, Robert, and see how they work for
you. Hopefully you'll be showing your opponents the light,
or in this case the Inquisition, soon enough.
Good luck!
~BMoor
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