{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. They contain, at most, eight to twelve rares. 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 Wildfire, Llanowar Wastes, or Birds of Paradise. The decks are also tested by the author, who isn’t very good at playing Magic. His playtest partners, however, are excellent. 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.}
If you read last week’s column – and if you didn’t, I hope Mr. Hankey the Christmas Poo leaves you a loaded dirty diaper for Chrismahannakwanika – you know that I was trying to develop a cheap “creatureless” Mono-Black Control deck. This is how I left the deck last time:
None More Black, v.2.1
24 Lands
22 Swamp
2 Quicksand
36 Other Spells
3 Genju of the Fens
4 Phyrexian Arena
4 Darkblast
2 Disembowel
4 Hideous Laughter
3 Night of Souls’ Betrayal
4 Consume Spirit
4 Cruel Edict
2 Diabolic Tutor
4 Kiku’s Shadow
2 Nightmare Void
There were some great suggestions in the forums and in e-mails. “If discard is good, you should use Honden of Night’s Reach.” That was a common one. I’m tellin’ you, the Void is better. Sure, the Honden is free once it hits, but the Honden lets them choose what to drop. With the Void, I choose. Given how many decks run Green, I expect to see tons and tons of Naturalizes coming out of the sideboards once I start in the Tourney Practice room. I want to be able to take them from their hands before I cast my enchantments.
As for my rumination about what to do about nasty enchantments and artifacts, well, I kinda had an idea about that one, but it looks like the overwhelming favorite is Plague Boiler. I know that it’s not Black, but it acts Black. You know, like Eminem. Think about it. It blows stuff up. Sure, it will blow up my stuff, too. I guess I’ll have to deal with it. Black has a great, big hole there, and there’s nothing I can do about that. (Of course, you could spend about $150 on tickets and get four Llanowar Wastes and four Overgrown Tombs, play it as B/g, and throw four Naturalizes and/or Wear Aways into the sideboard. That’s for someone else’s column, though.) First, though, I have to figure out if I can actually afford the Boilers. How many tickets do they cost? I’ll find out later. First, I have a few dozen games to play.
Game 21: Wow. A Dimir decking strategy that actually worked. He had multiple Glimpse the Unthinkables, Traumatize, and, of course, all of the Transmute spells. Again, I lost. Again, I didn’t feel that bad about it since I can take care of this sort of thing with the sideboard by bringing discard like Persecute and/or Blackmail. I hope. (0-1)
Game 22: Another U/B deck. Must be Dimir week on MTGO. This one mixed Dimir with its Transmute cards and unblockable creatures with Ninjas like the Deep Hours and Okiba-Gang Shinobi. Even though I stupidly kept a one-land hand (after mulliganning to six), I had Darkblasts and Kiku’s Shadows in hand. I drew another land and then another. He tapped out to drop into combat a Ninja of the Deep Hours and then recast the Infiltrator. I got a Phyrexian Arena through and soon had a Nightmare Void to make sure anything that I needed would hit. Consume Spirit dropped his life by half, brought mine up to fourteen, and allowed me to send in a very large Genju-Swamp. (1-1)
Game 23: This is the matchup that I want this deck to be able to win: Flores Blue. (Yes, in the Casual Room. Go figure.) And it did. It seemed that every one of my spells was bad for his deck. He had to use a counterspell on almost everything. Night of Souls’ Betrayal was awful for him because he couldn’t make Meloku tokens. Without those, the only thing that he could sacrifice to Cruel Edict was Meloku or Keiga. Nightmare Void made sure that my Consume Spirit was safe. Then, I hammered him with a Genju-Swamp. (2-1)
Game 24: Who woulda thunk that a Llanowar Elves and some 1/1 tokens could do so much damage? I kept a two-land hand with Darkblast, Kiku’s Shadow, Phyrexian Arena, Night of Souls’ Betrayal, and Consume Spirit. I figured I was golden especially when he dropped a Kird Ape on turn one. I got it with Darkblast. I didn’t use Kiku’s Shadow on his second-turn Llanowar Elves because I figured (a) I’d need it for something bigger and (b) the NSB would come online in a couple of turns to wipe out the 1/1. *bzzzzzzt* I didn’t get a third land for three more turns. By then, he had a Fists of Ironwood on the Elves, giving him two more 1/1’s, and followed it with a Scatter the Seeds. When I finally got my fourth land, I was so low that pretty much any burn he drew would kill me. He got Volcanic Hammer and brought it back with Recollect. (2-2)
Game 25: You know what this deck doesn’t have a good answer for? Genju of the Cedars. Rather, it doesn’t have enough of them since Disembowel is a great answer. I need more of those. Hey, you know what I just realized? I haven’t seen a Diabolic Tutor yet. Let me check my deck and make sure they’re in there. Yup. Hmmmmm… (2-3)
Game 26: Uh-oh. Hondens. Fortunately, it wasn’t the five-color kind. This was just G/W, but that’s bad enough because of the four life he was gaining each turn. At least my NSB kept the tokens from blocking my Genju-Swamp because that stupid thing was all that was keeping his life in check. He’d gain four; I’d swing for four. Then, I got an Arena. I dropped a land almost every turn, nibbling into his life total. A Consume Spirit for six kept my life high enough that I could keep drawing cards (and, thus, Swamp) without dying. Each turn, the Genju-Swamp would hit for a bit more until it was lethal. Again, though, no Tutor. (3-3)
Game 27: This was one of those games that I didn’t mind losing. He was playing the Warp World – Hunted Dragon combo, which I didn’t recognize early enough because all I saw at first were Civic Wayfinders and Saproling tokens. If I had figured out what he was doing, I would have killed those puppies ASAP. Of course, he came out on the winning side of any Warps, what with me only having lands and maybe an enchantment out when they hit. Oh, well. (3-4)
Game 28: I really abhor keeping two lands and then not seeing another until turn five. It’s even worse when the other guy has land destruction, even if just a little of it. I never got more than two lands on the board at once. (3-5)
Game 29: Finally! A Diabolic Tutor. Too bad it meant diddly-squat because I was so far behind when I cast it, even a Consume Spirit would only have postponed the inevitable. Again, I’d like to thank my agent, Mana Hose. You’ve always been there for me. (3-6)
Game 30: Holy steaming turd on a stick. Now I can’t even beat a Zubera deck?!? Are you kidding me? This is getting ridiculous. (3-7)
The record for the third ten games was the same as the second. So, why do I feel so much worse about the deck? Mostly because, in the games I lost, I never felt like I was in them or had a chance to come back. The thing is, I can’t tell what needs to go. The Tutor didn’t seem to do squat, so that seemed to be an easy drop. What to replace them with, though, that was the question. I brought back in the fourth Night of Souls’ Betrayal because it’s too good against too many decks not to have four of them. You want this to hit ASAP. The other one became Exile into Darkness. That card worked quote well for me this summer during KBC season. Would it matter, though?
None More Black, v.2.2
24 Lands
22 Swamp
2 Quicksand
36 Other Spells
3 Genju of the Fens
4 Phyrexian Arena
4 Darkblast
2 Disembowel
4 Hideous Laughter
4 Night of Souls’ Betrayal
4 Consume Spirit
4 Cruel Edict
1 Exile into Darkness
4 Kiku’s Shadow
2 Nightmare Void
Game 31: When I saw a first-turn Festering Goblin, which warmed the cockles of my heart, I thought I was facing yet another mono-Black deck. Turns out it was G/B. I had a suite of removal topping out with Night of Souls’ Betrayal which pretty much shuts down any X/1 tricks from Sakura-Tribe Elder to Shambling Shell to Festy himself. After that, it was just a matter of letting the Genju and the Consume Spirits do their tricks. (1-0)
Game 32: This was another control-on-control matchup. I was very afraid when he tapped out to cast Enduring Ideal. Then, he grabbed Form of the Dragon. With seven lands on board and a Consume Spirit in hand, my only fear was Disrupting Shoal. He didn’t have it. (2-0)
Game 33: This was a great G/W deck that featured lotsa tokens. I was able to take care of his beef – Watchwolf, Loxodon Hierarch – but I lost because of my Phyrexian Arena. I need to take a new approach to playing that enchantment. If I haven’t cast one before I’m below ten life, I don’t think I should do it. Case in point: this game. His 1/1’s and my Arena killed me. Of course, on the flip side, since I didn’t get a Hideous Laughter or NSB with the Arena out, I know I wouldn’t have gotten one in time anyway. So, maybe the point – as Joey says – is “moo.” Just like a cow’s opinion, it doesn’t matter. (2-1)
Game 34: How can an Owl be so deadly? And it’s not even a real owl. It’s a paperweight. Anyway, his was a U/W Milling-Ebony Owl Netsuke deck. With his hand full all of the time thanks to Howling Mine and Mikokoro, Center of the Sea, I could never squeeze through an important spell. (2-2)
Game 35: This was a Snake deck, and it scared me chipless. Why? Because there’s almost no creature in there that I can kill with a single Kiku’s Shadow. Yeah, Night of Souls’ Betrayal and Phyrexian Arena can help me, but mono-Green can pack maindeck enchantment removal easily. He did. He also had a twist: Ornate Kanzashi. Sure, there isn’t a lot in my deck that can help him; Consume Spirit needs nothing but Black mana to work, for example. However, he can deprive me of their use. His first activation of the Kanzashi hit a Consume Spirit. Ugh. In the first ten times he used it, he took two Consumes and two Genjus. Since I’d already used one Consume Spirit but had yet to see a Genju, I had two win conditions left in my deck. I could kill anything he dropped, but he’d probably deck me if he hit the other two win conditions or if he had another Wear Away for the Genju. He didn’t, and I won with eleven cards in my deck. *whew* (3-2)
Game 36: When he couldn’t find a third land before turn 5 while I had hit every time and had a Night of Souls’ Betrayal out, I offered him a do-over. I hate winning when my opponent is mana-hosed. It doesn’t really help with the data; it just gives me a cheap win to pad the stats. He declined, and I found out why. He was playing land destruction. He hit his third land and cast Stone Rain. Between his Stone Rains, Demolishes, and Seismic Spikes, I had a tough time keeping my lands and was as low as two at one point. Fortunately, Night of Souls’ Betrayal killed his Goblin Pikers and other X/1 creatures. After that, all I had to do was take care of Shivan Dragon (Kiku’s Shadow) after Shivan Dragon (Cruel Edict). It was quite a long game, but I ran him out of cards in hand, putting him in topdeck mode, gained life from Consume Spirit, and won with a Genju-Swamp. (4-2)
Game 37: My opponent in this one was playing another deck that relied on a series of X/1 creatures. He had Elder Pine of Jukai, Vitu-Ghazi, the City-Tree, and others. I, of course, had Night of Souls’ Betrayal. He conceded. You know, it’s funny. I’m looking at Ravnica cards, and, yet, the MVP is clearly Night of Souls’ Betrayal. Why did I ever drop that to three copies? (5-2)
Game 38: For the first time, Exile into Darkness showed up (not surprising since there’s only one copy in the deck), and the timing was perfect. This was a Boros Deck. You know, the kind that empties its hand, and nearly every creature costs three or less to cast? I won. (6-2)
Game 39: My first Jitte in this set. Heck, my first one in, geez, I don’t know how long. He was playing U/B deck with his own Genju, this one was of the Falls variety. Now, given that I had a Night of Souls’ Betrayal on board and that he had seen a Darkblast, I don’t think it was too smart of him to activate a Genju. I ended up killing all of his Islands. He had other sources of Blue mana, but he was way behind on the mana base. When he cast Mindslicer while I had an Arena out, I knew it was over. I killed his Slicer. We pitched our hands. He drew nothing of importance. I drew two cards. Like I said, I knew it was over. (7-2)
Game 40: More Saproling tokens. Night of Souls’ Betrayal. Less Saproling tokens. (8-2)
This, folks, is why testing data can be misleading. Then again, maybe it’s right on. All I did was take out two cards that were tutors (in other words, they should let me get anything I needed) and replace them. One of the replacements was a card that had been in there before. The other is a single copy of a card that came up once in ten games. Yet, the deck went from two 3-7 ten-game spreads to 8-2. I decided to monkey with that one slot. Exile into Darkness is very situation specific. Dimir Machinations, though, is not. My opponent should always have cards in their library, and I should always have a Phyrexian Arena that I can go grab. So, I played a few like this:
None More Black, v.3.0
Spells (36)
We Interrupt This Column . . . .
I hate to seem like I’m channeling my inner Rizzo, but I have a confession. I’ve never considered myself a pervert. Moreover, I’ve never found Gwen Stefani to be hot. (I love her voice, and she’s definitely attractive. But hot? Not to me.) Last night on the Billboard Music Awards, though, seeing her a little pregnant, I couldn’t help but thinking she was really, really hot. I don’t know if it’s because she’s filling out or because of the short skirts or because of her legs look as good as Gabrielle Reece’s did when she was still playing volleyball, but, man, Stefani was smokin’. Am I a bad man?
Game 41: I kept a two-land hand, and then got so mana-hosed that it was actually funny. By the time I’d gotten my third land on turn 8, he’d actually played Confiscate – yes, Confiscate – on one of my Swamps. He followed that up with another Confiscate on another Swamp. I built up to a whopping three lands and cast Phyrexian Arena. He Confiscated that, too. Worse, he played Copy Enchantment and made a copy of the Arena. He was also playing Followed Footsteps on a series of X/1 creatures like Archivist. Of course, I had Darkblast, and I used it. He never got a copy of anything, but I was in a bad way. I Transmuted Dimir Machinations to get another Arena, but it was immediately Naturalized. Then, I noticed something. He had no offense, and he had no lifegain. He was losing two life every turn, drawing through his deck like crazy, and was either going to kill himself or deck himself. He killed himself. (1-0)
Game 42: This was a mostly-Kamigawa-Block Spirit deck with a few Ravnica cards. Lotsa his Spirits were X/1’s like Hana Kami and Soilshaper. He had maindeck Wear Away, but I got Nightmare Void and used it to take them before he could kill my Night of Souls’ Betrayal or Phyrexian Arena. With no offense and no way to withstand what I was drawing with my Arena, he was toast. (2-0)
Game 43: Blue/White decks are normally more control-oriented. This one was very aggressive. When he tapped out on turn 3 for a Pegasus Charger, I snuck in a Phyrexian Arena. When he tapped out the next turn for Marble Titan, a good call in this environment (just not against a creatureless deck), I got Night of Soul’s Betrayal out. That pretty much wiped him out, although the Titan could actually now keep attacking. The game went on long enough that a Consume Spirit for about eleven ended it. (3-0)
Game 44: Why is it that when I face land destruction decks, I also get land hosed? I kept a two-land hand, but didn’t draw a third until turn 5. Meanwhile, he got Stone Rain on turns 3 and 4. (3-1)
Game 45: Ninjas are apparently still very popular, and I understand why. They’re fun! The hero in this game was Hideous Laughter. I was able to wipe out several Ninjas and Ninja enablers at once. This meant that he was going to have to hardcast Ink-Eyes and Higure. When he tapped out to cast Higure, I was able to kill it with Kiku’s Shadow and Darkblast (in that order). On his next turn, Ink-Eyes came down. She was met by a Cruel Edict. Then, I got an Arena through, and that was that. (4-1)
Game 46: I’m impressed by the variety of Selesnya decks out there. This one focused on the 1/1 tokens from the Evangel and the City Tree to help with Glare of Subdual. Normally, Night of Souls’ Betrayal would take care of this. However, he had Nullmage Shepherd. No problem, I figured I’d just draw something to kill it, and then cast the NSB. Nope. The game went twenty-three turns because I couldn’t kill the Shepherd. The first NSB kept the tokens off of the board, but then he drew Crown of Convergence. The Crown gave his creatures +1/+1 long enough to allow him to make two tokens and kill the NSB. Even though I was more than halfway through my deck (I had twenty-eight cards left in my library when the game ended), I saw only the single NSB all game. No Arenas. No Genjus. Nothing. (4-2)
Game 47: I’m so petty sometimes. The first non-land permanent this guy cast was Umezawa’s Jitte, and my first reaction was, “I can’t wait to wipe out every single one of his creatures before they ever get a chance to attack.” Since he was also mono-Black, I didn’t have to worry about anything killing my enchantments (other than Plague Boiler which I didn’t think such an aggressive deck would have). I curved out like I’d stacked the deck. He followed his Jitte with a Graverobber which was met by a Darkblast. On his next turn, he cast some other d00d that got swallowed by Kiku’s Shadow. He didn’t cast a creature on his following turn, so I safely dropped an Arena. Between two very big Consume Spirits, I ended the game at thirty. His Jitte never got a counter on it. (5-2)
Game 48: Sometimes I just don’t get people. This guy was playing another mono-Black deck, Rat Ninjas. He flipped a Graverobber on me. He dropped Ink-Eyes. He even got to hit me with an Okiba-Gang Shinobi once. Yet, he seemed quite upset that I would be packing creature destruction. He conceded, which was fine with me. (6-2)
Game 49: People are going to eleven tonight! Another mono-Black deck. This one was all about discard and decking. He had Duskmantle, House of Shadow, and Hypnotic Specter. There were also the typical Rat Ninja suspects. I picked them all off. Sadly, he conceded before I could swing with a really huge Genju-Swamp. (7-2)
Game 50: When G/B maindecks enchantment destruction, it worries me a lot. However, thanks to Nightmare Void, I was able to do what I hoped. That is, I was able to pull the Wear Aways from his hand before they killed my important stuff. Okay, so he got a bit mana flooded, but that was helped by his Howling Mine and my Nightmare Voids taking stuff he could cast. (8-2)
At this point, I was fine with how the deck was playing. There are a thousand tweaks I could make, but there just isn’t time or space. I want to get into the Tournament Practice room. That means that I need to figure out a sideboard. Three cards are easy: Plague Boiler. I found those for three tickets each. I also need something to hose up those players that muck with their graveyard. Normally, I’d suggest Reito Lantern since it’s immune to most creature kill. (Don’t say “Putrefy.” That’s why I said “most.”) This deck flips that around, though. In game two, people will be dropping their creature kill against None More Black. So, I’ll bring in the best graveyard hoser since Withered Wretch: Nezumi Graverobber. Against control, that Nightmare Void was huge. Heck, any discard is great in that case. I’m adding the third Void from way back in version 1.1 as well as four Blackmails. In case the enchantment kill gets out of hand, I think the sideboard needs that fourth Genju. Finally, a lot of the uncommon Ravnica lands are showing up and causing problems as are the Legendary Kamigawa block lands. The final two sideboard slots go to Befoul. Thus, the sideboard appears, well, thusly:
15 Sideboard
2 Befoul
4 Blackmail
1 Genju of the Fens
4 Nezumi Graverobber
1 Nightmare Void
3 Plague Boiler
I’ll be honest. The Tourney Practice room scares me with this one. There are really only two different win conditions totaling seven cards. Cranial Extraction could be a big, big problem. In addition, as I’ve pointed out many times, I sideboard like a blind guy having a seizure. It really isn’t pretty. How will this all end? Tune in next week to find out.
As usual, you’ve been a great audience. Now, “give me some money.”
Chris Romeo
CBRomeo-at-Travelers-dot-com
Hidden Bonus Track
Speaking of Rizzo, his past few columns have been about using Ichorid in an Extended deck. I like Ichiro, too. He’s a great singles hitter, has a great arm, and has done a great deal to bring baseball back to life in Seattle. Lately, our local gaming store, Up All Night, has been sanctioning Extended tourneys on Friday nights (7 PM, sharp). I didn’t really have anything to play last week, but I did still have my version of Noir left in its little box. It’s rare-heavy, so, please, don’t hate me. I put the deck together years ago over many months with great deals (like getting four Braids, Cabal Minion, for a total of six bucks). Here’s what I played:
24 Lands
4 Caves of Koilos
4 Tainted Field
1 Plains
15 Swamp
20 Creatures
4 Mesmeric Fiend
4 Phyrexian Rager
4 Stinkweed Imp
4 Ichorid
4 Braids, Cabal Minion
16 Other Spells
4 Duress
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Vindicate
4 Smother
As you can see, John, I did use Dredge in here. (Sorry, no Crypt KEEPER, though.) It was fun. How’d I do? Oh, let’s say I went 3-0, and swept the Top 4. It’s Christmas. You can give me that, right?