{From Right Field is a column for Magic players on a budget or players who don’t want to play netdecks. The decks are designed to let the budget-conscious player be competitive in local, Saturday tournaments. They are not decks that will qualify a player for The Pro Tour. As such, the decks written about in this column are, almost by necessity, rogue decks. The author tries to limit the number of non-land rares as a way to limit the cost of the decks. When they do contain rares, those cards will either be cheap rares or staples of which new players should be trying to collect a set of four, such as Dark Confidant, Birds of Paradise, or Wrath of God. The decks are also tested by the author, who isn’t very good at playing Magic. He will never claim that a deck has an 85% winning percentage against the entire field. He will also let you know when the decks are just plain lousy. Readers should never consider these decks “set in stone” or “done.” If you think you can change some cards to make them better, well, you probably can, and the author encourages you to do so.}
A few weeks ago, I tried to create a deck either based around or at least using Necrotic Sliver. In case you don’t remember, let me remind you that I called Necrotic Sliver one of the two best non-rare creatures in Planar Chaos, the other being Stonecloaker. (I also like Sulfur Elemental, but I’m pretty sure I put it a notch below these two.) The problem was that I couldn’t get it to work in a deck. As we all know, if the card isn’t being used in a deck that can win a tourney, well, most people won’t say that the card’s any good.
Case in point: Plague Wind. Did you remember that Plague Wind is Standard legal? Is that not one of the most powerful cards you’ve ever seen? Of course, it is. It’s a one-sided Wrath of God. Don’t hide behind that casting cost, either. People found a way to make Tooth and Nail work, and that also costs nine mana if you play it with Entwine, which, of course, you will want to do. So, Plague Wind’s really powerful, but it never made it into a top-tier deck. Therefore, Plague Wind actually stinks.
Heh. That’s kinda punny ‘cause if you got a whiff of a wind of plague, I’m guessing it would be nasty. Like when I have to clean out the kitty litter. No, not like your kitty litter. I have five cats, one of which loves milk but is lactose intolerant. Nasty, nasty stuff.
I couldn’t let the Necrotic Sliver go, though. I keep saying it, and so do hundred of other players. It’s Vindicate on a stick! How is that not a good thing?
Because I couldn’t make a deck with that card work, and I spent two weeks of my life on it.
After the end of those two articles, I sent out the call for ideas to get this to work. I don’t want to single out any particular person because every idea had multiple proponents. If you want to see who contributed, check the forum posts on that final column of the set. Suffice it to say I got lots of ideas. I did indeed try them. The three best ideas were a heavy discard theme, adding Green to get Gemhide Sliver and Putrefy into the deck, and the third one that is one of the best decks I’ve played in a long time. So, I’ll surprise you at the end.
I do want to say this before we get into these decks: man, you guys are good.
Necrotic Sliver: Harbinger of Discard
At this point, I can’t even remember if I thought about a major discard theme with the Necrotic Sliver the fist time around, but it doesn’t really matter. I didn’t go that route. Several of the forum hounds suggested going that way, though. Like putting ketchup in a squeeze bottle, it made perfect sense once someone brought it up. Smack their hand like a misbehaving brat, and then kill anything that happened to squeak through. That second part would be up to Mortify and Necrotic Sliver, hopefully over and over thanks to Debtors’ Knell.
Creatures (12)
Lands (24)
Spells (24)
Let’s be honest, I couldn’t even think about bringing this version into the Casual Decks room. There are certain tactics that aren’t “casual” no matter how few rares you use. The three that leap to mind are land destruction, countermagic, and, of course, discard.
You can argue about the definition of “casual,” but a completely unscientific poll of people that I know shows that ninety per cent say that decks focused on LD, counterspells, and / or discard are not casual. And then there’s my brother. I should have asked him first because he will always take the opposite view of the majority. Case in point: my brother says that neither Halle Berry nor Catherine Zeta-Jones is attractive. Not “I don’t find them attractive, but I can see how others can.” He says they are flat out unattractive. Also, he doesn’t think they can act. And neither can Jody Foster, he says. Four Oscars among those three, but none of them can act. Whatever.
Regardless of the hotness of Halle Berry, I wasn’t going to take this deck into the Casual Decks room, even if I posted “STD — I play lotsa discard. You have been warned.” I’m just not that guy.
So, it was off to the Tournament Practice room, sans sideboard. I let all of my opponents know that I was just testing the main deck and that this didn’t have a sideboard. Most didn’t sideboard for games 2 and 3, but I didn’t fault the ones who did. After all, they’re doing tourney-level testing, too.
In ten matches, this deck went 5-5. That’s pretty solid given that a couple of opponents sideboarded. In one match, it mattered. Persecuting this deck, naming Black, is nastiness cubed. The other one either didn’t matter, or he didn’t get his sideboard cards because this deck was the match winner in two games.
Mostly, the other decks were Dragonstorm and Dralnu with a couple of aggro decks thrown in. Zoo and Jamie Wakefield new Elf deck (now with Blue!) are horrible for this deck because Necro-Discard has no mass removal. Then, again, neither wants to face extra Persecutes from the sideboard.
All in all, I was pretty happy with this deck. It screams for The Rack, but I wasn’t going to add it. If I did, I’d just run Black Rack and be done with it. This deck wasn’t about that.
The Black/Green/White Non-Teneb Necrotic Sliver Deck
After the success of the Ritual of Rebirth Precon-Decon, you do not know how hard it was for me to see people suggesting the addition of Green to a Necrotic Sliver deck and yet to keep Teneb out of the deck. But, I did it. I’m just that mentally strong.
Essentially, the math behind adding Green went like this:
Gemhide Sliver = Earlier Debtors’ Knell;
Therefore, Green = Good.
Here’s the deck I started with:
Moldy B/W Slivers, v.1.1
4 Llanowar Wastes
2 Caves of Koilos
2 Brushland
1 Selesnya Sanctuary
1 Golgari Rot Farm
1 Orzhov Basilica
3 Terramorphic Expanse
3 Plains
3 Forest
4 Swamp
4 Mindlash Sliver
4 Gemhide Sliver
4 Basal Sliver
4 Necrotic Sliver
3 Debtors’ Knell
4 Mortify
4 Putrefy
4 Harmonize
3 Orzhov Signet
2 Golgari Signet
Look at that list. The only non-land rares are three (cheap!) Debtors’ Knells. Even the lands aren’t that expensive, at least not compared to their Ravnica Block counterparts. If you want to add in Overgrown Tombs, Temple Gardens, and Godless Shrines, feel free. Just know that I never had any mana problems when testing this.
I was so excited by this deck that I skipped the Casual Decks room completely and headed right for Tournament Practice. The first deck I faced was a G/B Reanimator (not “Dredge,” Bennie!) deck. Thanks to Gemhide and Basal Slivers, I got a fourth-turn Knell. My opponent, who continued Dredging, tried to make it through a couple of more turns and then conceded the entire match. “The Knell wrecks my deck, and I don’t have answers. GG.”
On the one hand, I was quite happy. A top-tier deck just conceded a match to my deck during game 1. Suh-weet! On the other hand, you’re playing Green, and you don’t have Enchantment destruction in your sideboard? Really? Really?!?
Next up was a mono-Red burn deck. Necrotic Sliver and Company came out quickly, so I took out the lands as quickly as I could. When Debtors’ Knell hit, he was still in decent shape. Then, a second one hit. He was a trooper, trying to play through the fact that he’d never have more than one land on board, but he couldn’t make it. He also conceded after the first game.
This match did point out that the creatures were a tad flimsy. I would often take damage so that I could keep one on board. I needed either lifegain to negate the damage or something to pump up the creatures. Lifegain it was! Thus, the deck became:
Creatures (18)
Lands (24)
Spells (18)
By the way, the addition of Harmonize to the deck has been a huge boon. Instead of waiting three turns for three cards and losing three life as you would with Phyrexian Arena, you get the cards now. Yeah, I know it’s obvious. Sometimes, though, the power of the obvious doesn’t strike you until you see it in action.
Essence Sliver helped enormously. Being able to play fast and loose with your life total is a fantastic benefit. Browbeat? Sure, I’ll take five. Attacking with two Kird Apes? Send ‘em on over. I won’t stop them.
The temptation was to add the Grave Pacts back in since there were eighteen creatures. I decided not to do that. There’s simply nothing I want to drop. If I added the Pacts, I’d probably only use two copies. What would I drop? A Putrefy and a Harmonize? I just can’t bring myself to pull those particular triggers. You can try if you want, but I am almost completely satisfied.
Almost?
Yeah. ‘Cause I still haven’t won a tournament with it. Of course, I haven’t played in a tournament with it, either, and that’s kinda a prerequisite to winning a tournament.
(Funny Match Story: I was lambasted by a guy who called this a “netdeck.” I did my best Socratic Method routine to get him to realize that he was full of chips, but I don’t think it worked. “Really? A netdeck? I’m sorry. I would never have brought a netdeck into Casual. Can you tell me where you saw this list published?” Of course, he couldn’t. “Well, do you know who won a tournament with it?” He didn’t know any names. “Could you tell me what tournament it was used in so that I can look it up? I don’t want to be bringing ‘netdecks’ into the Casual room.” His response was “Slivers are a netdeck. Learn magic noob. Welcome to my blocked list.” Yeah, how sad for me. Anyway, I mention this because I can’t remember the last time that someone yelled at me — me, of all people — for having a “netdeck” in the Casual Decks room.)
(By the way, what exactly is the definition of a “netdeck”? I mean, is it any deck that’s been written about on the Internet? Or does it have to be one that’s also won some high-level tournament? I really need to know, because if any deck written about on the ‘net regardless of how well it does in tourneys is a netdeck, then I can’t play my own decks anymore once my StarCityGames.com column about them drops. That would be sad.)
(Yeah, that was pretty much rhetorical. But, really, dubya-tee-eff, folks? Do you really cuss out people for playing with Gemhide and Necrotic Slivers in the same deck? Or do you think it was just Slivers in general that bothered him? If so, does he also block people who play Humans? How about Shamen? Horrors? Or is it just “famous” Tribes like Elves, Goblins, and Zombies?)
(Not that I really care about this individual, mind you. I’m glad to be on the guy’s “blocked” list; proud, even. I should never have to play him again unless we somehow get paired up in a tournament. I’m actually more interested in the thinking of the persons who say those things. How does a person who thinks that Moldy B/W Slivers is a netdeck — and who gets so worked up by playing against such a deck — how does that person ever enjoy the game of Magic Online?)
What If You Use the Two Best Non-Rare Creatures in the Same Deck?
The best deck of the three we came up with uses, not surprisingly, some of the best cards. As one reader put it “If you’re using White, why not use the other Planar Chaos creature that you think is so good, Stonecloaker?” That tripped a memory of the B/W Teysa deck that I played against when testing RoR uf da Vurm. (See my column from two weeks ago.) Check this monster out:
Creatures (22)
- 4 Ravenous Rats
- 4 Dark Confidant
- 3 Plagued Rusalka
- 3 Teysa, Orzhov Scion
- 4 Necrotic Sliver
- 4 Stonecloaker
Lands (23)
Spells (15)
I stopped after my twentieth game with this deck. I lost three. That was it. One was to complete mana hosing. I went down to four cards to get a land, and one land was all I got. Another was to a Dragonstorm decks whose hand I couldn’t hurt badly enough quickly enough. The third was — you guessed it — to a Dralnu-Teferi deck. The game, though, did take a very, very looooooong time to play, as often happens with control on aggro-control.
Why is this deck so good? It draws cards. It hurts the other guy’s hand. It’s resilient to mass removal. It can make big fliers quickly. (4/3 flying Bob on turn 3, anybody?) It kills Dralnu and Teferi without giving them a chance to stop it. It does all this with only nine rares that aren’t dual lands. Boo and yah.
What the *&^%* Happened?
So, how did the forum hounds come up with better decks in a few hours than I did in a couple of weeks? Focus. I had the deck going in too many directions, and none of them were solid. I was too wedded to the Sliver idea, and, thus, I couldn’t pull back and think outside the box. You guys did, though, and I am mighty proud, especially that last one. Whoa.
As usual, you’ve been a great audience. Keep your chins up.
Chris Romeo
CBRomeo-at-Travelers-dot-com
PS: Future Sight becomes Standard legal this weekend. To be honest, I haven’t looked at that set from the perspective of how it might help one of these decks. Plan on seeing that in the future, though.