“Good day. Please have a seat around the fire, where the man with the Boone County accent is about to entertain with his deck building delights.”
Wednesday brings tidings that the end of the week is in sight. It also brings the next installment of our daily excursion into all things deck. Today, I was looking for inspiration, and for some reason, my eyes flitted about the office. I came across a box of Ravnica uncommons sitting here beside my computer, and I decided to mine them to see if I could find a nifty deck idea.
How about Cleansing Beam? No, too difficult. Dowsing Shaman, then? Nah, it’s way too easy. I look through, but I don’t find inspiration here. What else do I have that might spark my mind? I have a stack of cards that were taken out of Abe’s Deck of Happiness and Joy or foiled up… let’s see if inspiration lies in this selection of cards.
I pass by many good cards. Tainted Pact, Bosh, Masticore, Urborg Justice, Ideas Unbound, Teferi’s Honor Guard, and many more. Yet, despite all of my searching, I yield no treasure.
I am Single White Male in search of Deck Ideas.
I check a few more cards, and then inspiration comes in the form of an Exodus uncommon – Keeper of the Mind. The Keeper never got the love that I thought she deserved. She’s always been a good friend to me and my decks, and I figure that I should give her the spotlight on this Wednesday.
Keeper of the Mind allows you to tap her and draw when target opponent has two or more cards than you. She also requires two Blue mana. That means she needs a heavy commitment to Blue mana while needing a different strategy than many Blue decks. Where Blue traditionally wants to keep as many cards in the fist as possible, she wants you to liberally play your spells and then thanks you by giving you cards.
What sort of deck can I create that does this? Well, let’s just say that a little friend from Exodus has come to help.
Creatures (26)
- 4 Lord of Atlantis
- 4 Man-o'-War
- 2 Manta Riders
- 4 Tidal Warrior
- 4 Keeper of the Mind
- 4 Coral Merfolk
- 4 Vodalian Zombie
Lands (24)
Spells (10)
This deck tries to blow through cards as fast as possible in order to use the Keeper and Oath’s abilities. I think the Oath of Scholars is a highly underused card, often overshadowed by its brother Oath of Druids. I’ve successfully used Oath of Scholars in many decks, and it seems to fit here as well.
Ideally, this deck will dump a bunch of early creatures, then drop a Keeper or Oath and keep playing cards as quickly as possible. Once an Oath hits, you drop everything that you can, then on the next turn, you discard and draw three new cards from the Oath, plus a fourth card from the deck.
In order to work, both the Keeper and the Oath require an opponent to have more cards in hand. You could be playing against a cheap casting cost deck or another deck that can empty its hand. Therefore, you need tools to slow down your opponent and fill their hand. That’s where bounce comes in.
Man-o’-War is great because it not only adds a threat to the table, but it also bounces a creature to your opponent’s hand. That’s a net swing of two cards (minus-one card from your hand, plus-one card in your opponent’s hand), which will likely allow you to use the Keeper of the Mind. Even better, in some circumstances, is Undo. You can bounce two creatures, which can really slow down your opponent. It can also open up a hole in your opponent’s defense, allowing you to get a hit in.
I chose to go with the merfolk theme because all of the creatures are cheap. I love Tidal Warrior because he does several things well. He can give an opponent an Island, allowing your merfolk under the influence of a Lord of Atlantis to attack with Islandwalk. He also can slow down some opponents in the early game by giving them an Island instead of a Forest, so they can’t cast their spell. When this slows them down, they keep more cards in hand, which fulfills the purpose of the Keeper and the Oath.
Lord of Atlantis, Vodalian Zombie, and Coral Merfolk are all two-power merfolk for just two mana. This gives the deck significant power in the early game. I also had room for a pair of Manta Riders, which gives you an aerial option against more ground-oriented decks.
I tossed in Haunting Misery as a backup winning condition. If you have been using Oath liberally, you’ll likely have a very full graveyard. Even if you haven’t, I suspect that you’ll often find that you have enough creatures in your graveyard to kill someone. Suppose you deal ten damage early, then your opponent stabilizes. You draw Haunting Misery and realize you can win. You attack with everything, hitting your opponent for two damage and lose three of your creatures. Then you cast Haunting Misery for nine and kill your opponent in one go.
Although this deck began as a mere Keeper and Oath deck, it has evolved quickly into a synergetic merfolk deck with several interesting tricks to try. I wish you luck with it!
Until Later,
Abe Sargent