NagaBasmu Writes yet again...

This time it is in response to John Turpish's Warped Devotion deck. Prior to his posting, I had a Warped Devotion deck of my own that I was changing to fit into the new type 2. I also had to drop Waterfront Bouncers and Seals of Removal. I also had dropped Withdraw, which seemed to only see play from me, ever. But when invigorating my Warped Devotion deck and comparing it to John's from the Deviations from the Norm department, I realized that I had huge discard and bounce, but much like John, no real game ender. Sure, a Shadowmage Infiltrator CAN EVENTUALLY get the job done, and Haunting Echoes can be very helpful... but I wanted a bomb in my deck. After a lot of deliberation, I decided to make the deck slightly more control-oriented and add a third color, white. After this, I came up with this deck, which I call:

Warped Wrath with Wings

CREATURES: 8

3 Shadowmage Infiltrator

3 Temporal Adept

2 Desolation Angel

INSTANTS: 12

4 Recoil

4 Counterspell

4 Aether Burst

SORCERIES: 13

4 Vindicate

4 Gerard's Verdict

2 Haunting Echoes

3 Rout

ENCHANTMENTS: 3

3 Warped Devotion

LANDS: 24

4 Caves of Koilos

4 Salt Marsh

4 Coastal Tower

5 Island

4 Swamp

3 Plains

SIDEBOARD: 15

4 Meddling Mage

1 Shadowmage Infiltrator

4 Absorb

2 Hibernation

4 Duress

The creatures:

Shadowmage Infiltrator is great, he is a stand alone card drawing engine, so I must have him in my deck.

Temporal Adept fits too well in this deck, it is a walking Boomerang.

Desolation Angel, my bomb... if you have control and this hits the board, you win.

The Instants:

Recoil- Not only does it fit with the deck idea, it IS the deck idea, I love it.

Counterspell- Every control deck MUST list 4 counterspell, or it isn't control.

Aether Burst- Better than Withdraw, I think this card will be popular.

The Sorceries:

Vindicate is awesome, it can get rid of anything... I couldn't resist.

Gerard's Verdict makes discard even better, you either gain life or force them to discard something useful instead of yet another land.

Haunting Echoes will get rid of all 4 Fires, all 4 Flametongue Kavu, all 4 of their Counterspells... completely decimate their deck!

Rout- a very aggressive creature deck might be able to put out cards faster than we can force them to discard, so when they have covered the board, help them clear it off...                  :)

The Enchantments:

Or should I say enchantment. A Warped Devotion Deck has to have Warped Devotion, that is the whole point. This card helps us make them discard more while we bounce their permanents. When you see that I only have 8 Bounce spells and 3 Bouncing creatures, you may ask why I keep the Devotion. But these 8 Bounce spells can return a total number of 14 Permanents to their owners, and the creatures can bounce as many permanents as you have turns with them on the board. Warped Devotion still fits right in.

The Land:

Every deck has to have land. I dont need to explain the basic land at all, I'm sure everyone gets it. The Coastal Towers and Salt Marshs help to create my colors, and the comes into play tapped drawback is not a big deal with this deck, which doesn't have a first turn drop very often, actually it doesn't have one unless Duress is sided in. The Caves of Koilos do the same, and against aggressive decks might be dangerous to use too often, but are still helpful in smoothing the mana situation.

The Sideboard:

Meddling Mage is useful once you know what your opponent has.

I wanted a 4th Infiltrator, but couldn't fit it main deck, so its in here

Absorbs are extra counterspells, and they help gain life, so they're here just in case

Hibernation is in against agressive green decks

Duress helps against a control opponent

This deck has worked well in testing on Apprentice, and seems to be quite consistent. I am taking it to a tournament as soon as I procure the Infiltrators, which are very expensive at the moment and the Haunting Echoes which I cannot seem to find. If any of you have the cards to put it together, try it out, tell me what you think and how it does. Any questions or comments about the article can be sent to me too. Thanks for reading!

                                                      -Steven Putansu

                                                      AKA NagaBasmu