2001)

I see dead people...

Haley Joel Osmont must’ve been onto something with this line. He must’ve played Magic and seen the full potential of the Necro. (Hmm... Necropotence – ce + ial = Necro potential)

Well it hasn’t been so long since my last article, but in that short time frame I’ve come to a revelation: Graveyard recursion decks rule. I found this out after visiting my local DISCOUNT HOBBY, WHERE I GO FOR ALL MY GAMING NEEDS AT AN AFFORDABLE PRICE AND SERVICE WITH A SMILE! (That plug should get me some store credit), and I had been thumbing through the $0.10 box when suddenly I had noticed there were 4 Buried Alives and 4 Hidden Horrors in the Weatherlight section and 4 Exhumes in the Urza’s Saga section. The words: graveyard deck and Jones Soda constantly passed my mind. I had hit a dilemma…should I purchase some Jones Soda or some cards that would be the glue to what has now become one of my favorite decks? Well I went with the cards, but my thirst was not in vein. This deck was GREAT! Almost every game went like so…

Turn 1) Let’s say you get a Dark Ritual, Buried Alive, 3 Swamps, Exhume, and Nether Shadow. (Which in most cases for me I get at least a Buried Alive and Dark Ritual turn one) Play Swamp, tap it, add 1 black to mana pool. Use 1 black to cast Dark Ritual for 3 to cast Buried Alive. Plop 3 big creatures into your graveyard.

Turn 2) Exhume a big creature. Check and Mate. Most decks aren’t prepared to deal with an 8/8 trampler on turn two. If they are, you can still put a dent into their strategy. Works pretty well since you got 2 other beefy creatures in the graveyard.

You live, you’re buried alive, you’re exhumed…We all know the story

Black (25)
4:Dark Ritual (Fast mana)
4:Hidden Horror (Quick Beef)
4:Exhume (Plops beef into play early before a big creature is in their graveyard)
4:Buried Alive (3 delayed Demonic Tutors for 2B)
2:Diabolic Intent (Even Better than the Tutor)
1:Phyrexian Plaguelord (Helps put the creatures into the graveyard and weaken theirs)
1:Fallen Angel (a bit of an old school beating)
2:Living Death (Instant army, just add dead guys)
2:Nether Shadow (Great when creatures pile up on top of him
1:Corpse Dance (Buyback Shallow Grave)

Green (11)
2:Birds of Paradise (Fast Mana; Easily subbed with Quirion Elves if you wish)
2:Avatar of Might (8/8 trampler very good)
1:Verdant Force (Gives you a horde of 1/1s, plus he’s a 7/7)
3:Mulch (Helps you ditch cards)
2:Primal Growth (Helps thin deck, sacrifice a creature)

Blue (3)
2:Deep Spawn (Helps you ditch cards and is a 6/6 trampler)
1:Paradigm Shift (Yes, you can run low on cards)

Artifacts (4)
4:Anvil of Bogardan (One of the few decks to fully utilize the Anvil)

Land (18)
10:Swamp
4:City of Brass (1 damage seems petty after a while)
4:Pine Barrens (Hey if you got Bayou put it in, same with Bazaar of Baghdad)

The Anvil may very well be one of the key cards because it works so well. You get an extra draw, and get to ditch a creature. The boom they’ll be seeing it again with Exhume, Corpse Dance or so.

Remember that resurrection isn’t just Black’s forte. Would you be shocked to know White can really dish it out when it comes to Recursion? Oh yes, they do quite well. Miraculous Recovery, Argivian Find and even Ressurection itself add to White’s arsenal. This White Deck shows that white has a hand in resurrection and restoration.

Golden Retriever

White (21)
4:Argivian Find
4:Miraculous Recovery
4:Enlightened Tutor
4:Disencahnt
3:Gerrard’s Wisdom
2:Hidden Retreat

Blue (8)
4:Reconstruction
4:Tinker

Artifacts (13)
3:Colossus of Sardia
3:Phyrexian Colossus
4:Voltaic Key
3:Steel Golem

Land (18)
10:Plains
8:Island

This deck doesn’t necessarily use creatures to attack from the grave, but more or less create a defense too. Hidden Retreat will pop an artifact back on top of the stack so you draw it again. Cast Gerrard’s Wisdom right when your hand if full of artifacts brought back from Argivian Finds and such. Then gain the life and ditch the artifacts. Miraculous Recovery fetches you that Colossus or Golem. The coolest thing about the Golem is that is says you can’t play CREATURES. You aren’t playing the creatures, your Recovery is. Plus Voltaic Key untaps your colossuses for the attack and block. Plus untapping them for 1 is better than 9 or 8 life.

Then also take into consideration, recursion also uses Blue for the infamous Browse Digger deck. Veterans know I’m talking about. What you do is use Browse to look at the top 5 of your deck, take a key card like Counterspell or Incinerate, then ditch the useless filler. The Digger is used once the deck is fully browsed and your graveyard is full of essential spells. Then your draws are nothing but clear skies. A good form of control plus a fun theme makes for a fun game.

Browse Digger (There should’ve been a catchier title, but you can’t mess with history). This deck is a newer version of an older theme.

Blue (20)
4:Counterspell
4:Browse
4:Boomerang
4:Impulse
4:Whispers of the Muse

Red (12)
4:Shock
4:Incenerate
4:Blaze

Artifacts (8)
4:Soldevi Digger
4:Thran Turbine

Land (24)

11:Island
9:Mountain

This deck starts out a little slow and we ALL know what havoc a red Sligh deck can wreak against slow decks. But once the combo has taken its toll, you’ll have a pretty firm grip on the game.

Thran Turbine really speeds up the process by fueling the digger. It also speeds up the Browse to hurry up to rid your deck of useless cards.

The card drawing in this deck becomes obsolete once the combo is in place, but is effective to put it into play. All the direct damage helps put the burn on your opponent and blue’s countermagic helps control the game too.

Those are the main types of Recursion. I’m sure green has a form of Recursion with cards like Mulch, Regrowth, Elven Cache, Reclaim and Revive. The infamous Fruity Pebbles deck is another clever form of recursion. See, when most players think graveyard manipulation, they think black. Well there are these and so many others that say any color has a hand in Recursion. But you gotta love the fatties. Watch out for Planar Void, Rapid Decay, Carrion Beetles, Phyrexian Furnace, Tornod’s Crypt, etc. They are built to put a headlock on this type of deck. Those are the kind of cards hosers use and no one likes to play Foil decks, it takes the fun out of the game.

That’s all for me, this was nickropotence (Nick Rohr), reminding you to put the ones you love into the graveyard and Exhume them. (Card-Shark.com is not responsible for dead relatives, fiancees or friends that were attempted to be exhumed…Card-Shark.com does not condone this and a disclaimer must be placed here. By saying the ones you love we mean BIG, EXPENSIVE CREATURES that you obviously must love to spend all that money on them.)

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