Today's deck looks nothing at all like the Squirrel deck I fixed a day or two ago, yet I think they both suffer from the same problem: crippling overspecialization.

Hello BMoor,
This is my multiplayer deck that I created based around the new RoE enchantment Baneful Omen. There isn't any real format where I play, so there aren't any restrictions on what can or can't go in. This is the list:

//Enchantments
4x Baneful Omen

//Creatures
4x Agent of Masks
4x Mesa Enchantress
4x Vigilant Martyr
4x Academy Rector
4x Lost Auramancers

//Other Spells
4x Doom Blade
4x Dimir Signet
4x Replenish

//Lands
12x Plains
8x Swamp
4x Arcane Sanctum

The idea of this deck is pretty simple, try and sneak Baneful Omen onto the field by using cards such as Academy Rector, and Lost Auramancers, and then start chipping away at everyone's life total. Agent of Masks is a bit of a filler right now, until I can find something more useful. I have always liked the idea of a deck based around this card, and I thought that this could be a good start. Thanks for the assistance!

--
-Taylor

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A fitting deck to feature during the Summer of Multiplayer! Given that my tenure here at Pojo.com essentially started with an article I wrote about a single card (Last Laugh, if you're curious), I can always appreciate somebody who sets out to build a deck focusing on a single card. Trouble is, you can get carried away. Your deck must be able to hold its own even if the headliner card never gets to take the stage, due to failure to draw it, not enough mana to cast it, an opponent savvy enough to recognize it as the right spell to counter, or Cranial Extraction. It also needs some way to cope with the fact that the folks at the table with you will have their own fiendish plots, and you may decide you'd like to be able to hinder them somehow instead of just relying on drawing your secret weapon before they draw theirs.

Taylor, your specific problem seems to me to be that you have four each of Lost Auramancers, Academy Rector, Vigilant Martyr, Mesa Enchantress, and Replenish, but only four enchantments in your deck total. You have TWENTY card slots devoted to four cards in your deck. And the worst part is, if you put Baneful Omen into play with the Rector, Auramancers, or Replenish, you didn't cast it and therefore Mesa Enchantress won't trigger. Take out the Enchantresses, the Martyrs, and the Auramancers. Replenish and the Rectors will be plenty, even after I add in some more enchantments.

First, if you want to draw cards, there's really only one option: Phyrexian Arena. You've already got Agent of Masks (who, by the way, I think should stay in the deck) to counteract the life loss, and the Arena will draw you an extra card every turn whether you cast an enchantment or not.

Next, it occurs to me that you've got lots of ways to get Baneful Omen out, but very few ways to ensure that you flip something other than lands or low-cost cards. Add in a playset of Beseech the Queen. The advantages here are twofold. It allows you another way to search your library for your Omen, if you have mana to cast one, while still being useful if you already have enough Omens or need something else more. And, it's a card with converted mana cost 6 that you don't actually have to pay 6 for, meaning that on average it'll increase the life loss from your Omens without making your spells too pricey to play.

Next, since this is multiplayer, you'll have multiple people who could potentially decide to send their Dragons and Saproling armies knocking on your door... with their combat damage. There are plenty of enchantments in black and white that will scare them off. White tend to be preventative, with Ghostly Prison or Reverence, while black tends to be punitive, with Hissing Miasma or No Mercy. Any of those should convince your opponents that your Agent of Masks isn't a big enough threat to worry about, when they could so easily just attack each other instead.

You'll also want creature kill-- some way to wipe that threat of your opponent's right off the table. Pillory of the Sleepless is a tempting choice. It renders a creature harmless, provides some extra damage against its controller, and if your opponent gets rid of it, your Replenish will bring it back. Sound good? It does to me.

I'm also a big fan of Judge Unworthy. Sure it's not an enchantment, and sure it can only hit creatures that are attacking or blocking, but the Scry aspect can help you secure good draws and set up a backbreaking Baneful Omen life loss!

Although, this is multiplayer we're talking about. You can't expect to make 1-for-1 trades when you've got 3 or 4 opponents at the table and you need enough resources to take them all down. I'd say what you really need is a way to take out every creature on the board. Wrath of God, Day of Judgment, Damnation? Any one will handily eliminate entire armies, while also triggering your Rector. Or, if you want your boardwipe to also be an enchantment itself, there's always... Last Laugh.

Good luck!

~BMoor