It is 10:36 pm on Sunday evening and I am filling in for another writer, so I have to spin off this deck in as few minutes as possible in order to give Craig the time he need to edit and whatnot. As such, I hope you are fine with me eschewing the normal “beginning-of-article-banter” and heading right into the juice of the piece, eh?
For today’s deck building fiesta, I am going to go back to an old feature – the bad rare deck. I am going to reach into my box of, um… low-value rares and grab one, building the first deck that comes to mind in seconds. Ready?
In goes the hand and out comes…
Righteousness is a great surprise… but after you play it once, the gig is up, and your opponents will play around such tricks in the future. I’ll want to make sure that this deck does not suffer from that problem. I also want to ensure that playing the Righteousness is a good deal by having it do more than just punish an attacker. I’ll team it with Gallantry, which replaces itself, but just pumps defenders +4/+4. What can I combine this with?
I am going to reach into my typical deck building experience and grab my most common color combination – Red and White. However, I’ll also invite another color to the party. Let’s take a look at the deck.
Creatures (16)
Lands (24)
Spells (20)
This deck uses surprise Righteousness and Gallantry in order to pump creatures, and then uses that high power for something. In this case, that something is usually Fling or Cyclops, or even a Fire-Eater. A blocking Fire-Eater that becomes Righteous will not only kill whatever it blocked, but also tap and sac for nine damage to someone’s dome.
To support this theme I tossed in several pumpers, including that old classic Dragon Whelp plus a pair of grown Shivan Dragons. Sandstone Warrior also comes to call. The Sandstone Warrior combines first strike and inflating to create a powerful presence on the ground. The Shivan Dragons are a nice backup, plus you can always pump and Fling one for mad damage.
This deck does have an obvious weakness. Once someone attacks into a Righteousness or Gallantry, they may be much more leery of attacking in the future. How will I get creatures to attack? Simple; I splash Imps’ Taunt as a great buyback method to goad opposing creatures into attacking into our deck.
Between Fling and Bloodshot Cyclops, there are plenty of ways to sacrifice your big guns in this deck. Never be afraid to sacrifice a creature that is about to die. Pump a Whelp a few times then pop it for four or five damage.
There are other options that you might want to think about, including Bloodfire Infusion. That might be a nice option as a way to clear out ground creatures. Deadshot is useful with the pump creatures, but its sorcery status relegates it to unplayed status because it will never play well with Righteousness.
It is now nearing the deadline for updating, and I need to send out this article, well… pretty much now. A deck article written in record time! I apologize for the brevity, but I’m sure you’ll understand under the circumstances. Apparently, the guy I replaced has been spending most of the weekend placing highly at Pro Tour Honolulu. Some folk have no priorities.
I’m joking, of course.
I’ve enjoyed this quick trek through a bad rare, and let’s see what the rest of the week holds!
Until Later,
Abe Sargent