Hi,

      I like your site and submissions from your writers inspired me to try an article of my own, so here it is...

 

"Hari-Kari" as a Viable(?) Deck Archetype

 

     It all started with the release of Fallen Empires, back in the spring of '95 when i opened my first Revised deck and two packs of 'Empires.  In the deck was a Lord of the Pit, Nether Shadow, Sengir Vampire, a Black Knight, a Hypnotic Specter, a drain life, an unholy strength, and two(!) Dark Rituals.  My first pack of Empires had a Breeding Pit, Hymn to Tourach, and a Derelor; and the second had an Ebon Praetor, another Hymn and a pump knight.  The lords of Magic had sent me a message, one i always felt in the cold darkness of my soul:  I was to be a black mage, and sacrifice was my game.  In time, i was to become a master...

     It all started with that Pit Lord.  Sacrifice a creature?  Small price to pay for SEVEN DAMAGE!!  Who cared about the drawbacks?  Creatures were cheap, and so was life...Next, i sought the services of the Erg Raiders and, when Chronicles came out, the infamous Yawgmoth Demon demanded blood payment - asking nothing more than my lowly Unholied Ornithopters and the occaisional Onulet, to our mutual satisfaction.  It didn't stop there.  I soon enlisted the services of the "black Tim", the Coumbajj Witches:  the ultimate black multi-player game cheap creature.  I was...satisfied.  However, being a black mage satiety doesn't last long...soon, i wistfully gave more of my soul to Mirage and Tempest-block creatures...my favorites being Kezzerdrix, Flesh Reaver and one still in print, the awesome Bellowing Fiend.  My deck was complete!  I had reached my objective:  Bringing my opponent to zero life, while simultaneously

     The trick is to always double-cross your employees...that's right, be willing to go postal on your own workers!  Any true black mage knows that all contracts are made to be broken.  Once you've sold your only soul, further deals with demonkind can be made with impunity!  Keep all your creatures under your thumb, ready to be Skull Catapult material at any time - or sacrificed to your bigger, hungrier creatures.  There is ALWAYS a bigger, hungrier creature ready to top-deck at any time...or a Forbidden Ritual to feed, a Reanimate to retrieve those you shunned in haste, or a farm to Plow somewhere on the plains for those looking for shelter via the federal witness relocation program...

     As with any deck, the suicide deck (black or red, usually - though i once had a good blue one...) needs a well-rounded mana curve.  The big bonus with playing black "pain" creatures, though, is that their power-to-casting-cost ratios are simply amazing!  The drawbacks are worth it - if you plan for it.  Use life as a resource, much as outlined for Hatred decks and Sligh decks on the web - but your ability to take on serious damage from your own creatures far exceeds the damage a typical Sligh deck will do to itself.  The obvious card to use in black to compensate is, of course, drain life (or my fave, Death Grasp); and when playing black at least two should be in any suicide deck.  However, good artifact sources help considerably, such as Bottle Gnomes (which block pro-black critters admirably) and especially the Claws of Gix, which not only give you life for permanents but get rid of (YOUR!) troublesome pests if need be!  Another thing i usually do 

 

4 Erg Raider

3 Kezzerdrix

3 Flesh Reaver

2 Bellowing Fiend

1 Lord of the Pit

3 Bottle Gnomes

3 Death Grasp

2 Worship

4 Swords to Plowshares

2 Spirit Link

1 Claws of Gix

1 Story Circle

3 Phyrexian Negator

2 Vindicate

2 Armageddon

4 Caves of Koilos

4 Salt Flats

2 Forbidden Watchtower

8 Swamps

4 Plains

1 Dustbowl

1 Volrath's Stronghold

 

Sideboard:

4 Duress

1 Bottle Gnomes

1 Phyrexian Negator

1 Death Grasp

2 Perish

2 Story Circle

2 Vindicate

2 Diabolic Edict

 

As you can see, this deck definitely can deal out the damage...both to your opponent and to YOU!  It is fun to play, and who knows, maybe with a tweak or two it could be tourney worthy...OK maybe not, but it sure shocks people the first game!!!  And if they play a creatureless deck and you have out Kezzerdrix - how about sideboarding in Sleeper Agent?  Hmmm...with a Spirit Link on it it could work...

 

Later,

da Black Mage

(still upset over the loss of the pentagram from Unholy Strength...)