I was wholly inspired to build a deck because of a single card: Parallectric Feedback. It may be my first step towards a “Your Tears Sustain Me” deck, which means I could be slipping toward the dark side. Alternately, it could be my version of “Just for the LOLZ.” Part of me wants to call it “If You Didn’t Cry So Much, Mommy Wouldn’t Burn You with the Stove,” but eventually I settled on “You Did This to Yourself.”
Although W/B/R might have some better individual card choices, specifically Delirium and Backlash, W/U/R immediately suggested itself, and that’s what I ran with, what came to me instinctively. Zedruu the Greathearted seemed natural, but I’m finding that guy more and more overdone. I figured Ruhan of the Fomori would have some early game on his own, giving me a chance to be in a position to do what I wanted later. Or more correctly, lay in wait for what I wanted to do later. There were great individual card ideas from the forums.
Although there are copy and control elements, I didn’t want it to be a complete Layer 1/Layer 2 deck, which I also see as vastly overdone. Instead of “copy or steal everything,” I wanted to copy and/or steal the meanest stuff that people play—and then throw it back in their face. The deck is never going to control the tempo of the game. It’s by its nature highly reactive, which is one of the reasons I went with an inexpensive, have-to-deal-with-it General. I can flop that thing out there, also toss out some enchantments, and go to town.
One of the later elements I added was the “everyone attacks all the time” theme. That was inspired by Angel’s Trumpet, which I’ve always thought was interesting. That part of the deck might need a little additional help, but we’ll see.
RUHAN OF THE FOMORI
ARTIFACTS (11)
Angel’s Trumpet: When you have fewer dudes, this can bite you a little because everyone has vigilance, but the payoffs are great. They have to active their dudes that have good abilities on their own turn. Best, unless they have haste, they eat a face full of damage from playing Avenger of Zendikar.
Armillary Sphere: Non-green decks need extra lands.
Boros Signet: Mana Rock, which non-green decks also need. Eventually, they’re getting blown up, but hopefully they’ve helped me survive long enough on early turns to be in the game later.
Darksteel Ingot: This is the one that doesn’t get blown up.
Fellwar Stone: Playing the classic version from The Dark.
Gilded Lotus: The big daddy of mana rocks.
Helm of Obedience: Always a trip, especially when people don’t pay attention and tutor creatures to the top of the library.
Izzet Signet: Yet more rocks.
Mind Stone: A rock that you can do something with later.
Sol Ring: Land, Sol Ring, Signet, go.
Tormod’s Crypt: Other people’s graveyards need to go.
LEGENDARY ARTIFACTS (1)
Mindslaver: This will be the first time I’ve ever played Mindslaver. Stop crying.
CREATURES (13)
Aura Thief: The only time this isn’t serious value is when someone else has one too.
Avatar of Slaughter: Of course everyone attacks and has double strike. How else can I blow you out with damage redirection???
Chromeshell Crab: Individually an okay choice, but I might need more junk to swap. I guess the Crab himself is worth shipping.
Clone: I play this in loads of decks; I always yawn because I play it in so many decks, and I always keeping putting it in so many decks.
Dominus of Fealty: If you hadn’t noticed, this guy steals permanents. In a world where Homeward Path lives, snagging planeswalkers can be a blowout.
Gilded Drake: I’d play Gilded Drake if it cost 3U, so at 1U it’s like cheating.
Goblin Flectomancer: With so many awesome targeted spells to choose from, this guy is going to get value. Alternately, he’s going to keep people from playing stuff—mostly card draw—until they can deal with him.
Izzet Chronarch: There’s not a significant amount of recursion in the deck, and this is one nod in that direction.
Mischievous Quanar: EDH League regular Nathan Fons showed me the magic of the Quanar, and I’ve been a fan ever since. The fact that you can turn it back down makes it a little bonkers.
Sunblast Angel: There’s very little board control in the deck. In fact, I want people to do stuff so that I can hurt them for doing too much. A little control is good, and since the creature count was a little low, I figured I’d go with an Angel. Will probably get replaced.
Tunnel Ignus: Go ahead, Prime Time away.
Viashino Heretic: I’m kind of rediscovering this classic from the format’s ancient days. He’d be funnier if the artifact dealt the damage. I’m looking at you, Blightsteel Colossus.
Willbender: It’s always Willbender.
ARTIFACT CREATURES (2)
Phyrexian Metamorph: This card is so flexible that it’s getting close to Sol Ring proportions in number of includes.
Solemn Simulacrum: I think it’s hot when attractive women wear big, masculine watches.
LEGENDARY CREATURES (4)
Darien, King of Kjeldor: Part of the “must attack” suite. It’ll eat some damage to get an army.
Fumiko the Lowblood: Some defense when the must-attacking comes my way; I find that Fumiko gets killed more often than what it does would warrant.
Gwafa Hazid, Profiteer: Seems funny with Angel’s Trumpet, and it also provides some protection against giant monsters.
Michiko Konda, Truth Seeker: One of the truest rattlesnakes out there. One downside is that there are enough Solemn Simulacrums (Simulacra?) out there that folks don’t mind sacrificing something.
ENCHANTMENTS (11)
Aether Flash: Screw you, tokens!
Copy Enchantment: Nicely priced; although I found that in this particular deck, copying Lurking Predators isn’t all that great.
Grand Melee: Get in there and battle!!!
Karma: If a card is coming out, this is a candidate. I put it in to hurt the Coffers/Urborg guys, but I realize it hurts everyone else as well.
Karmic Justice: The face-plant play will be to Mindslaver someone into destroying a bunch of my stuff when this is on the battlefield.
Lightmine Field: A late addition, this keeps down swarms and coupled with Powerstone Minefield, can start killing even the biggest creatures.
Moat: Have to have a little defense. Plus, it was a birthday present from L2 Judge Bryan Prillaman, so I can’t just have it sitting in the collection. Cards are made to be played!
Powerstone Minefield: People frequently forget the “or blocks” part of this card. Coupled with Aether Flash, it’s already killed Urabrask the Hidden a number of times.
Repercussion: Now we come to one of the real haymakers. Combo with Blasphemous Act or Chain Reaction. Even the little bit of damage from Aether Flash or Powerstone Minefield adds up.
Treachery: Unless I have a strong idea about the deck I want to build, I usually don’t put it together with foils on the first draft. I was flipping through the non-foil Urza’s block box and spotted this in foil, so it seemed like a sign.
War’s Toll: This card is way more annoying than I thought it might be. I focused on the everyone-has-to-attack angle but saw during play that the tap-all-your-lands part is significant. Note that it taps all lands, so if you cast a spell, you’re tapping your Maze of Ith as well.
INSTANTS (11)
Captain’s Maneuver: A little pricey due to the X, although it can be used to cover damage from multiple sources.
Desertion: I’d play this even at 4UU. At 5UU, I might start thinking about it, but it’s always such a turnaround card. Don’t forget that it’s an emergency counter-anything spell.
Honorable Passage: Some measure of protection from anything; there are enough Generals with red in them to be able to provide some good blowback. Honorable Passage deals the damage, so you can’t Generalissimo someone with it, but that’s a small concern.
Master Warcraft: You still don’t decide who they’ll attack. I keep playing this and keep finding it lacking. Honestly, a Holy Day might just be better—although moving around pieces in a combat I’m not involved in is kind of attractive.
Mirror Strike: Unfortunately, this is targeted, so if something is equipped with Lightning Greaves, Swiftfoot Boots, or Whispersilk Cloak, you’re out of luck. Nonetheless, it will often just kill someone who was trying to kill you.
Mystical Tutor: Since there’s little card draw and little other library manipulation, this isn’t actually all that great, but played early game, it can set you up for something later (that hopefully everyone will have by then forgotten).
Parallectric Feedback: The Muse of the deck. Like when I’m playing Cerebral Vortex and ask, “How many cards did you draw this turn?” I want people to flinch a little when I ask “What’s the CMC of that?” Obviously, the real justice here is when someone Coffers/Urborg for a giant Exsanguinate.
Reflect Damage: This one isn’t targeted; it’s just a source of your choice. Costing one more mana than Mirror Strike, it’s even more flexible, since it’s any kind of damage—although in all honesty, we don’t see too many direct damage kills in our League.
Reiterate: Copy that. With buyback. Kkthx.
Reverse Damage: Also untargeted, once again getting around nasssty boots.
Turn the Tables: At first, I kind of discounted this as just an expensive Fog that might kill a creature. Then I realized with Repercussion in play, it turns the entirety of someone’s attack back in their face.
SORCERIES (9)
Acidic Soil: You will ramp, and you will die. Did 38 to the mono-green guy.
Acquire: I didn’t want to do too much stealing of other peoples’ stuff, but the library-searchers seemed quite worthwhile. Getting someone’s Oblivion Stone in an emergency is a good idea. Hanging the threat of someone’s Blightsteel Colossus or Eldrazi over their head is also good defense.
Blasphemous Act: A great board wipe, even better that you almost always do it for R. Doing 13 times the number of creatures to someone’s dome with Repercussion is also insane. Actually had a play where Repercussion was out, mono-green guy had 17 dudes, and I topdecked the Act. Would have been 221 damage to him, until we realized that he had Vigor in play. If I had had some damage reflection at the time, it would have been worth playing to see what happened.
Blatant Thievery: Nothing tricksy about it, just gimme your goodies.
Chain Reaction: See Blasphemous Act with 13x possibly being more.
Knowledge Exploitation: In the games I’ve played so far, this always seems to be used for getting someone else’s reset buttons. I suppose getting someone’s Insurrection would be a kind of justice.
Replenish: There are plenty of enchantments in the deck, and they’re going to get blown up at some point. I gave some thought to Cleansing Meditation, but it doesn’t bring back the stuff that’s already there, just the stuff it destroyed.
Telemin Performance: No one is playing Phage anymore, so I think this is pretty safe. If I can get people to start playing Phage, that’d be awesome. Again, very good with people tutoring up dudes.
LANDS (11)
If you’re going to build this deck, choose a better land suite. This one is there because I’m on my 16th deck, and out of duals and shocklands.
Adarkar Wastes
Azorius Chancery
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Boros Garrison
Command Tower
Glacial Fortress
Izzet Boilerworks
Reflecting Pool
Sacred Foundry
Steam Vents
Vesuva
LEGENDARY LANDS (1)
Academy Ruins: I don’t want to be recurring Mindslaver guy, but I’m okay with being recurring Helm of Obedience guy. Or recurring Tormod’s Crypt guy.
BASIC LANDS (25)
CARDS THAT DIDN’T MAKE IT
Boldwyr Intimidator: Might have to make room for him, since he’s like the real auto-include in a Ruhan deck. There are no creatures which are normally Cowards (not even Norin the Wary!), but with the whole Angel’s Trumpet thing, probably should be some room for the Intimidator. The problem is then I might start sliding down the hillside of a Warrior there, maybe even a Giant Warrior theme. Here are a few cool ones like Hammerfist Giant and Hamletback Goliath. Unblockable Hamletback would be pretty obscene.
Boros Fury-Shield: Couldn’t find one. Stupid commons.
Gather Specimens: Ran out of room. Might have to slip that one in.
Helm of Possession: Might be worth it just for creature control but would require an additional sacrifice outlet.
Justice: Had it in, then realized my own Ruhan (among other things) would wreck me.
Orim’s Thunder: Mostly, the problem was finding a spot for it.
Reins of Power: Already playing it in other decks.
Reroute: A card that’s generally insane value when it gets played; it came out for Lightmine Field.
Spelljack: Couldn’t find one, but as soon as I dig up one, it’s going in.
Sun Titan: It didn’t occur to me during the original design, but after copying and stealing him multiple times, I realize how good he is for the deck. He’ll be making an appearance.
Changes that I see happening are Boldwyr Intimidator, Gather Specimens, Spelljack, and Sun Titan coming in, with Karma, Mystical Tutor, Master Warcraft, and Sunblast Angel going out.
What I found in playing the deck is that other than getting Ruhan going, it’s not much of a threat unless the opponents have big, scary things. I played in a few games where the opponents had kind of low threat density, and there wasn’t a time to play the big, splashy stuff—or at least I didn’t take the opportunity to use the weapons at the right time. It doesn’t have haymakers of its own but is more like Judo—it needs their momentum to be devastating. When people did giant things, like attacking with a 34/34 trampling Omnath, the deck did exactly what I wanted it to do—elicit the roars of approval at having someone getting their stuff sent back at them. It’s a deck with a niche, and it will be fun and entertaining to play occasionally. It might not be part of my first string lineup, but it definitely Embraces the Chaos. With a few tweaks, it will get played regularly.
I wish everyone a safe and Happy New Year. 2011 was a fantastic year for the format, and I promise 2012 will have more of the same.