2012)

The Guidelines:

1: Start with a preconstructed deck and play it, unedited.
2: Play it for a minimum of five games.
3: Change no more than five cards at a time.
4: Build a respectable deck that’s fun to play.
5: Build an affordable deck.

Too much? Too soon? No idea who I am or what I’m doing here? Perhaps I should back up and explain my purpose for this article. My name is Rodney, and I’ve been playing Magic off and on since Revised. This doesn’t mean that I’ve been good at it for any stage of my playing, it just means that I remember rage quitting a game because that stupid Gaea’s Liege kept turning all my lands to Forests. I’ve come into this game three times, have left it twice, and am currently in my longest stint of continual playing/keeping up with the game that I’ve ever done. While that may be interesting to me, I doubt that it is to you, so I will move into why I’m writing this article.

When I came back into Magic for the third time, it was during Ravnica previews. This was a great time to be coming back in, because dude. Ravnica. There are two things that I remember as being huge reasons I got back into this game. The first reason was the first preview card I ever saw: Watchwolf. (Apologies to J. Sukenik92 over on SCG) The concept, the art, the stats…they blew what little hair I had at the time straight back. The second reason was an article series on dailymtg.com called “Building on a Budget”, as written by Jay Moldenhauer-Salazar.

His articles were, in my humble opinion, the pinnacle of Magic Writing on the InterTron, and it was a sad day indeed when he chose to stop writing articles. (On a side note, do you think it’s coincidence that Jay Moldenhauer-Salazar and Jace the Mind Sculptor have the same initials? I don’t.) I’ve not found anyone that has picked up his formula for writing articles, and it saddens me. I know that I have neither the deckbuilding chops nor the writing chops to write the articles that he could. But. I don’t see anyone else doing it, and I’ve very recently moved into playing on MTGO, so I have a newly minted chance to bring back a type of article that I’ve missed. This article will be my attempting to replicate his formula. So, let’s begin!

My completely arbitrary numeric point will be 20 dollars. That is, I will spend 13 on the deck from the MTGO store, and then I will allow myself up to 7 dollars in tickets to tweak the deck. Given how new I am to MTGO, this will also allow me to use my budget in a way that I think will be much more fun for me than just randomly surfing and buying new decks and cards.

For my jumping in point, I’ve selected the Innistrad theme deck “Deathly Dominion.” I do this for a couple of reasons. I want a deck that has fairly obvious themes for the starter and I want a deck that I’ll enjoy playing. Black/Green has always been a favorite of mine, so why not start with something right in my sweet spot. One of the first things that JMS did in his articles was to examine the deck for themes, both major and minor. Seems like now is as good of a time as any to do that.

Deck List!
Deathly Dominion, Stock.

Lands
13 Forest
11 Swamp

Creatures
1 Ambush Viper
1 Brain Weevil
2 Devouring Swarm
2 Disciple of Griselbrand
2 Festerhide Boar
2 Hollowhenge Scavenger
2 Lumberknot
1 Moldgraf Monstrosity
2 Morkrut Banshee
2 Reassembling Skeleton
1 Skirsdag High Priest
1 Somberwald Spider
1 Typhoid Rats
2 Warpath Ghoul
2 Woodland Sleuth

Artifacts
1 Demonmail Hauberk

Enchantments
2 Dead Weight

Instants
1 Altar's Reap
1 Doom Blade
1 Naturalize

Sorceries
2 Caravan Vigil
1 Make a Wish
1 Prey Upon
2 Rampant Growth

So, tapping my lip, I look upon these cards and I see a few themes. The central theme of the piece seems to be morbid. Yes, this is why I get paid the big bucks around here, for incisive insight! I count twelve cards with the morbid ability, which is used for various types of effects. The most common is to make the creature bigger with a whopping three cards. A touch of life gain, a touch of recursion, a touch of ramp, a touch of token producing, and a touch of removal. What I like about morbid, at least from the comfort of my extra large computer chair, is that it is a varied and versatile ability. What do I want to use this extra life energy for? I think I’ll (insert whatever effect).

The secondary theme to the deck is sacrifice. Just like any good overlord, you choose when to make something else do the sacrificing in your deck. Seven cards have the word “sacrifice” as part of a cost, meaning that it shouldn’t be terribly difficult to trigger morbid at a time and place of your choosing. (That, kids, is known as “Foreshadowing”) Of course, just sacrificing to sacrifice seems somewhat silly. Extra cards, pumping an evasive threat, a touch more life gain…again with the varied abilities. Also, Mr. Lumberknot appreciates your continued sacrificial support.

Recursion is the tertiary theme that I see within the stock deck. Woodland Sleuth, Make a Wish, Mr. Moldgraf Monstrosity, and Reassembling Skeleton all love to see things come back from the graveyard to where you can put them to good use. Of course, I always prefer them to go back onto the battlefield, but free cards are free cards, and I’ll not pass up the chance to put them back into my hand. At least, I won’t pass it up yet.

There are a couple of minor themes that I don’t feel like I have to spend much time on. Green deck equals ramp, at least in a minor dose. One thing that I have a habit of enjoying is a light splash in an otherwise two color deck, using the green ramp and selection to make it much easier for the splash to occur consistently. A great example of this is the splash of black in the Innistrad Event Deck “Deathfed”. Green/Blue with a touch of black in the late game for access to splashy effects, just my speed.

Black kills creatures, green kills artifacts, and can do it at instant speed. Instant speed utility is always nice, and it plays into the major themes. If only I was good at comedy, I’d make a joke at DoomBladeGuy. [Editor's note: You know, the dude who just claims creatures are bad because they “die to Doom Blade” - he's on Twitter, look him up] Oh well, lost chances.

From my chair, I see a couple of cuts that I’d like to make already, but that’s not how this works! First, I have to play some games to see how the deck runs! Off to Just for Fun!

Game 1 – Green/black/blue/white Flare type deck
He wins the roll, starts with GW fastland and Llanowar Elves. My turn one, typical for a black deck, is to kill the elves with a Dead Weight. Man! I’m good at this game! He plays a Forest and passes turn, which I come back strong from with a second swamp and a Reassembling Skeleton. He plays a Sunpetal Grove, I lay a third swamp and get in for one. Turn four goes much the same, except he plays Razorverge Thicket instead, and I lay a fourth swamp and Brain Weevil hits the board. Turn five, the first interesting play happens when a Parallel Lives hits the board. Spiders? I play a forest for my land drop, get in for 2, then use Weevil to see him bin Sheoldred and Wurmcoil Engine. So, okay…spiders with awesome freaking creatures? Seems somewhat good.

He lays a Darkslick Shores for his 6th turn, while I make a gamebreaker of a play in casting Make a Wish with only two cards (Dead Weight and Brain Weevil) in my graveyard. Variance? What’s that? Turn 7 means that he plays another Razorverge and then Acidic Slimes my only forest. Not to fear though, because I’m good at this game! I rip a forest off the top (like a champ) and lay it on the ground! I hit Dead Weight to remove his Slime, then I cast Brain Weevil. I get in for my accustomed 1, then I notice that he only has two cards in hand. I try to remove the variance and just make him discard all his cards by activating my Weevil. He discards Evil Twin and Wurmcoil Engine, and makes me feel all proud by complimenting my play. However, he’s pretty good at this game too, as he promptly rips an Acidic Slime to destroy my only Forest.

At this point, my hand has four green spells/creatures in it and a Devouring Swarm. I play the Swarm and pass. Then, his deck decides to dye its hair blonde and go Super Level 4 on me. He casts Unburial Rites (who saw that coming? You? In the back? Sit down.) targeting a Wurmcoil, and we move to the downhill portion of the game. I get another Skeleton, he reanimates Sheoldred. Seems a fair trade, amirite? So, he wins. Very fun deck, cool dude.

Game 2 – UG Proliferate/Infect
Long story short: He gets an early couple of poison counters on me, then grinds out the win with a Contagion Clasp. For the second game in a row, I prayed for the one of Naturalizes to come to me….it didn’t happen. He had Necropedes and Glistener Elves. I had Reassembling Skeleton and a Lumberknot showed up to do some campaigning with the kids. But for the second out of two games, I had issues getting out the second forest that I needed. It would stand to reason that the reverse would be true, since I have more forests than swamps. But nope! Also of note here is that I have yet to even draw a way to sacrifice. I’ve had a Banshee in hand both games and couldn’t activate the morbid to kill something.

Game 3 – UW weenie control?
I finally drew more than one forest in my open, good sign! He leads on Plains, I play forest. He says Alabaster Mage, I say Reassembling Skeleton (hereon known as Skeletor, the Younger Years Edition). He drops an island, makes a Phantasmal Bear, and swings. I block with Skeletor the Younger, then reply with Dead Weight on the Mage. He swings with the bear, I EOT Skeletor back to the field, then drop both a Typhoid Rats and Disciple of Griselbrand. He plays a Benalish Veteran, I come back with a Demonskin Hauberk, immediately equipping to my Typhoid Rats via Skeletor’s brave and noble sacrifice. He brings out Gideon’s Lawkeeper, which threatens to ruin my Ginormous Rat Strategy. I Make a Wish, returning both Dead Weight and Skeletor to my hand, then make the Lawkeeper Dead Weight. Budget cuts, you know.

I eventually win this game, after playing creatures and swinging. One notable sequence was when he Mind Controlled my Warpath Ghoul, then I Naturalized to get it back. I could have played it better by either sacrificing the Ghoul out from under the Mind Control, or by waiting for my opponent to untap before Naturalizing. Of course, I figured out both plays 3 seconds after clicking the Okay button. Maybe this article will make me get better at this game.

Game 4
Nothing to see here. Run over promptly by a dude playing UW hexproof. Geist, Stalker, Pike, War and Peace. Nothing to see, move along.

Game 5 – R Burning Vengeance
Strangely, I didn't feel like I was ever really out of this game until he stuck a Charmbreaker Devils. Then, the recurring spells were a bit much for me. He did get out the namesake of his deck, and I was a little frightened, but then I remembered that I had a Naturalize in my hand, and, well....got his enchantment closer to nature. Skeletor's ability to be a general annoyance was wonderful here, as there were several times that a 12/4 Charmbreaker was coming in, but since there was no trample to be found, Skeletor took a (He-)Manly punch for me instead. Seemed like a fun deck, and not one that I think my deck auto loses to. The world for an Altar's Reap to turn on my Banshees... any thing for a sac outlet.

Okay, so that was five games. What I noticed was what was obvious. Inconsistent deck is inconsistent. Either I drew a high number of morbid cards, or I drew several ways to sacrifice creatures, but never the two and never at the same time. Also, for a black deck, I certainly seemed to have a hard time removing problematic creatures that I could target. Game 4...well...nothing to see, move along. So, what types of changes do I want to make? Well, that's going to depend heavily on what themes I want to play up. Morbid is a lot of fun, thematically awesome, and right in the colors. It is, however, a sorcery speed ability. Given how much of Standard right now leans toward instant speed and high pressure aggro, I have reservations against pushing a theme that keeps me at sorcery speed. But it is a huge reason that I picked up the deck in the first place, so morbid it is! Besides, this first round of cuts is going to be aimed at consistency, not at theme. Make deck play better!

+2 Altars Reap = .06 +2 Doom Blades = .06 +1 Ambush Viper = .03
-2 Warpath Ghoul -1 Moldgraf Monstrosity -1 Prey Upon -1 D. Swarm

So, why did I do what I did?

OUT
-1 Prey Upon: If I'm in green/black, I have much better options for kill spells. If they can be targeted, Doom Blade and Go for the Throat do a much better job of killing it dead than Prey Upon, which is too reliant on other green things being around. Not interested in playing a strictly inferior card. Now, if I was going mono green ramp and big monsters...that would be different.

-1 Moldgraf Monstrosity: Why would I get rid of the biggest creature? The biggest source of creatures back onto the battlefield, not even to my hand?!? Well, the triple green was a source of concern for me, given that five games have shown me an issue with getting out the appropriate mana. Maybe the Altar Reaps will help with the card draw (and by maybe, I mean they should) and I'll be able to bring him back in when I'm thinking about how I'll actually win games. But right now, there's more of a need for me to be able to draw cards, activate morbid, and get to a point where the extra cards and recursion can do something for me. Definitely something to keep in the back of the head.

-1 Devouring Swarm: Three mana, two of which is colored, for an evasive threat that I can use to kill my plentiful creatures (sac!) for a +1/+1. I'd rather find other, better effects to get out of my sac outlets than +1's.

-2 Warpath Ghoul: Fairly efficient, good beater, but boring and doesn't fit into any theme that I wanted to have. I hate that I've now murdered my my mana curve, but we'll see if we can't address that at some point.

IN
+2 Altars Reap: Morbid does me no good if I can't trigger it on a whim. Altars Reap can be used in response to all kinds of nasty effects (burn, kills, bounce, whatever), provides gas for the massive bonfire (Bic lighter) that is my deck, and lets me play a little more at instant speed.

+2 Doom Blade: Kill spell kills creatures. I like killing creatures. And I follow this guy on Twitter, so seems like a good place to get him in.

+1 Ambush Viper: Hexproof seems like it's going to be an issue for me. I don't have any edict effects (yet) and until I hit the “late” game, my creatures tend to have one power, which doesn't do me tons of good against Geist of St. Traft. Green's Doom Blade seems like an inclusion that I'll be happy to use. Also, the instant speed is again a huge plus in a deck that is built around a mechanic that stays sorcery speed.

Deck List
Deathly Dominion Version 1.1

Lands
13 Forest
11 Swamp

Creatures
2 Ambush Viper
1 Brain Weevil
1 Devouring Swarm
2 Disciple of Griselbrand
2 Festerhide Boar
2 Hollowhenge Scavengers
2 Lumberknot
2 Morkrut Banshee
2 Reassembling Skeleton
1 Skirsdag High Priest
1 Somberwald Spider
1 Typhoid Rats
2 Woodland Sleuth

Artifacts
1 Demonmail Hauberk

Enchantments
2 Dead Weight

Instants
3 Altar's Reap
3 Doom Blade
1 Naturalize

Sorceries
2 Caravan Vigil
1 Make a Wish
2 Rampant Growth

So, taking another look at my deck, I like the changes in theory. Speeding up my options, a little more card draw that fits the theme, more kill spells should all help me defend myself a little better. However, my three slot on ye ol' mana curve has only one Devouring Swarm holding it down. I'm also not sure how I'll actually get to the point that I start to win the game. I'm thinking that it's going to be either Hauberk equipped onto whatever or 4/4 Banshees and 4/5 Scavengers randomly beating down. I haven't drawn the High Priest in a position to use him yet, so I'll let him go on a round of cuts.

I think that close to 3000 words should be enough for the first article. If there is anyone that actually reads this (and made it all the way to the end, thanks for the perseverance), my burning question is: how much detail goes into a good game recap? Do people prefer the complete turn by turn breakdown or the key points? I've tried a range of level of details in this article, to get precisely that feedback. Also, any other feedback (voice, tone, what you liked/didn't like) is always welcome. Please understand that constructive criticism is welcomed...the other type is not. I know asking the internet to be gentle is spitting in the wind...but please. Be gentle.

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