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BMoor's Magic The
Gathering
Deck Garage
10/10s From beyond the Grave
April 9, 2009
Before I get to today's fix, I'd like to just say a few
things about my articles in general. I hope you'll bear with
me for this, but I'm sure you will since you've bore with me
through my frequent failures to update for weeks at a time
and my increasingly repetitive articles.
Maybe my articles aren't really that repetitive, but they do
sort of feel that way to me. The decks are different, of
course, but I do the same things to them. And it really
makes me feel like my Deck Garage is suffering for it. I
want to do more for these articles. I also want to get
better at writing them more often, but I've been trying to
do that for so long I'm not sure if it's a realistic goal.
So instead I want
to do more to make sure that if I'm keeping you waiting, I
deliver something worth reading when I do update.
For starters, I want to do another contest like the Stuffy
Doll contest a few years ago. I've wanted to for a while
now, but no card has moved me the way Stuffy Doll did--
mostly because no one card has been submitted to me so
frequently. But I will have another contest, and soon. As
soon as Alara Reborn is released, since I have something in
mind, and it's multicolor, so I want to make sure there are
plenty of multicolor cards for folks to work with.
But other than that, I'm kind of sorry that this article
isn't more like some of the more entertaining things I've
read or seen on the Internet. Lately I've been getting into
the Spoony Experiment, and I'm always impressed with how
funny all his videos are. I'd love to bring the Deck Garage
up to that level, but first I'd have to figure out how to
change fixing Magic decks into a video format. What would I
show, pictures of cards? I can just do that now with
embedded images. Also I don't have a videocamera.
I first got into Pojo and deck fixing when I was younger and
still played Pokemon cards. I loved reading the fixes by
Clefairy Doll and Dr. Crash Landon, because they were
informative, and also funny. Dr. Landon even had extra
characters-- his secretary, and his pet Hypno. I'd love to
try something like that, but where to begin? And besides, I
know that if I make each article more work for myself to
write, it's not going to help my lackluster update
frequency.
If anyone has anything to say about this, feel free to
contact me about it. I do this for you guys and girls, after
all, and so it makes no sense to make a lot of changes if
that's not what you all want.
But anyway, I've been keeping today's client waiting for too
long.
> Hi! My name is Alex. I recently
created this tournament-level deck
> (Not DCI sanctioned, so there's no restricted/banned
list). The idea
> is rather simple: Use Putrid Imp, Stinkweed Imp and Corpse
Conoisseur
> to get Doomgape, Skyshroud Behemoth and in the Graveyard,
Then use
> Victimize, Diabolic Servitude and Vigor Mortis to put them
into play.
> Another option is Shifty Doppleganger. Here is My Deck
List. Help is
> appreciated, and my budget is rather high, but i cannot
obtain cards
> like Akroma and Darksteel Colossus.
>
> Spells
>
> 4x Vigor Mortis
> 2x Victimize
> 4x Diabolic Servitude
>
> Hard-Cast Creatures
> 4x Stinkweed Imp
> 4x Putrid Imp
> 4x Corpse Conoisseur
> 4x Shifty Doppleganger
>
> Resurrection Creatures
> 4x Polar Kraken
> 4x Doomgape
> 4x Skyshroud Behemoth
>
>
> Thank You! Help is Very appreciated.
>
> -Alex
Well, a few things stick out when I look at your deck, Alex.
It isn't actually a "deck" per se. It's a list of cards. You
didn't mention any lands, or any support spells that would
do anything but allow you to discard and reanimate 10/10's.
And as cool as that is, you are going to need some support
spells. Preferably something to draw you into your combo, or
maybe a few kill spells to keep the enemy at bay for a
while?
Well, let's start with your reanimator spells. Vigor Mortis
is nice, but if you're not playing with green mana, it's a
little unimpressive. You might as well get Zombify and not
need double-black. Shifty Doppelganger is also cute, but I'm
worried-- when it's not Shapeshifted, it's a 1/1, and you
need 3U to shift it and and protect it from a stray Shock.
It gets you your big bad for a turn, and transfers your
10/10 from your hand to your graveyard eloquently, but it
seems like you'd do just as well with Body Double.
Also, both Doomgape and Victimize expect you to sacrifice
creatures to them. This means you need to produce a decent
amount of creatures. For this, my personal favorite is
Nether Traitor, who combos excellently with... another
Nether Traitor. Having two of these to bounce back and forth
is a good way to fuel almost any engine, and their price has
likely come down since they rotated out of Standard.
It'd be better, though, if you had a way to
produce Elementals to sacrifice. Then you could supplement
your current 10/10's with two other big 10's: Nova Chaser
and Supreme Exemplar. Most effects that do that, however,
are either so costly and make such big tokens that you're
better off keeping them (Call the Skybreaker, Din of the
Fireherd, Walker of the Grove), or make tokens and remove
them from the game at end of turn (Elemental Mastery,
Sparkspitter). Sparkspitter might be a good way to get a
10/10 in the graveyard as well as an Elemental in play to
champion to it, but personally Rakka Mar looks like the
surest way to me to ensure yourself Doomgape Fuel. If only
they had higher toughness....
And since that would require red mana in addition to your
current requirements of black and blue, you could look into
some of Grixis's new toys, like Grixis Charm. Your choice of
Pyroclasm, -4/-4, or a Boomerang would help keep you in the
game. But that's assuming you want to add Elementals for
Supreme Exemplar and/or Nova Chaser. It isn't necessary.
But at the very least, try something like Telling Time to
help you smooth out your draws. Nothing hurts worse than a
string of nothing but lands. Except maybe a 10/10 attacking
you.
Good luck!
~BMoor
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