“WotC has practically built the decks for us!”
So the common refrain has gone. True, with the cross-color game breaking rares printed in Apocalypse, building powerful decks based around these cards hasn’t been that difficult… But, as always, the devil is in the details.
But first, have you ever heard of Baron von Leibniz? Probably not. He was a prominent 19th century German mathematician who discovered calculus. What, you say? I thought Isaac Newton discovered calculus! Well, he did. Both Newton and Leibniz came up with calculus independently of each other — however, since Newton was tight with the Royal Mathematical Society and Leibniz wasn’t all that well liked, Newton got the credit and the glory.
This is relevant, not just because it’s a nice tidbit of information that might come in useful when you get on Jeopardy! and the subject is Ancient Mathematicians — but rather, it’s a nifty segue into my first B/W idea. I was working on a deck that incorporated the Apocalypse black/white bombs along with Nether Spirits and Chimeric Idols, and lo and behold, the good Rev. Toby Wachter beat me to the punch, publishing his version of a B/W Nether Spirit deck that was almost card-for-card identical to mine.
Almost.
My first pass at the deck, as seen below, looks quite Wachterian (or Wachteresque, depending upon what edition of Strunk & White’s The Elements of Style you have):
4 Duress
4 Addle
4 Gerrard’s Verdict
4 Wrath of God
4 Death Grasp
4 Vindicate
4 Phyrexian Arena
4 Chimeric Idol
3 Nether Spirit
2 Disenchant
9 Plains
10 Swamp
4 Caves of Koilos
The one major difference between Wachter’s version and mine is replacing Dark Ritual with Addle. I was looking for a little more discard, and I’ve generally soured on using a card like Dark Ritual in a more controllish deck like this one. That, and I replaced the two Dromar’s Caverns with two more plains.
But, as I learned in preliminary testing, and one I should have remembered — heck, I’ve been playing since 1993 — is that this is essentially a Necro deck, with Phyrexian Arena replacing the fearsome Skull. And as we’ve all learned from playing Necro, a first-turn Necro fueled by a Dark Ritual is much, much better than a third-turn Necro played with three swamps.
So the Rituals went back in, and the Addles sadly left.
But I’ve made a few other tweaks to the deck:
Dave’s Necro2K1
4 Duress
4 Gerrard’s Verdict
1 Persecute
4 Wrath of God
4 Chimeric Idol
3 Nether Spirit
4 Dark Ritual
4 Phyrexian Arena
3 Vindicate
4 Death Grasp
2 Orim’s Thunder
4 Sulfurous Springs
4 Caves of Koilos
8 Plains
6 Swamps
1 Crosis’ Catacombs
I still am infatuated with discard, so I put in one Persecute in favor of one Vindicate, one of the few cards Dark Ritual does not synergy well with in the deck.
I also replaced Disenchant with Orim’s Thunder. I originally thought this to be mostly a fodder card from Apocalypse, 14th pick material. But my opinion of the card has changed as of late; mostly as a result of being worked by the two-for-one nature of the card lately when drafting. Blow up an enchantment, kill a critter. Works for me. To fuel the kicker, I replaced four swamps and one plains with four Sulfurous Springs and one Crosis’s Catacombs.
More testing is clearly called for, but so far this has shown itself to be a fun little deck to play.
So how about IBC? Grand Prix Denver is only two months away, so it’s never too early to start planning, and I’m rather infatuated with — big surprise — a B/W build. But this is more of a aggro-control deck; drop a few bears and clear the path with Vindicate and Death Grasp to roll to victory.
The following is more-or-less based on a few decks being played down at my local store, and I’ll throw out the names of Nick Young and Chris Jenks, since it’s they’re decks that I’m, uh,”borrowing” from. I’m sure they’ll appreciate the publicity.
IBC B/W (Until I Come Up With Something Catchier)
4 Putrid Warrior
4 Spectral Lynx
4 Phyrexian Rager
4 Phyrexian Scuta
2 Desolation Angel
4 Gerrard’s Verdict
4 Death Grasp
4 Vindicate
2 Orim’s Thunder
4 Urborg Volcano
4 Caves of Koilos
2 Crosis’ Catacombs
6 Swamp
10 Plains
I think Putrid Warrior is a decent bear — he can give you a little life gain or extra damage when attacking. Spectral Lynx; this little guy needs no introduction. Pro-green and regeneration = some good.
Side note: Y’know, I grew up in bobcat country (I attended Central Oregon Community College for two years, and their mascot was the”Bobcats,” so you did get to see them on occasion). A bobcat is the size of a housecat…A very, very large housecat, mind you, but still basically a big cat. Lynxes run around forty pounds. So, why oh why, is the art for Spectral Lynx remarkably correct in proportion and the Penumbra Bobcat looks like a freakin’ Dodge Dakota? Okay, that’s my little rant, we now return you to the article in progress.
Since, as we’ve learned, a third-turn Phyrexian Arena isn’t that great, and since we have no Dark Ritual in the environment, we aren’t running it in the IBC version. Instead, we go with the underrated Phyrexian Rager. A Gray Ogre that draws you a card? Not bad.
For fatties, we have Phyrexian Scuta, who we’re all familiar with, and Our Blessed Lady of the Armageddon, Desolation Angel. She’s almost worth casting sans kicker (although this is not recommended).
The discard element is well represented in Addle and Gerrard’s Verdict. And why is Orim’s Thunder in this decklist as well? Because Dodecapods are everywhere! It’s like”Invasion of the Body Snatcher” out there! Everyone’s gonna run four of the side, and I won’t be surprised if they find their way into main decks by the time IBC season rolls around. To fuel the kicker, Urborg Volcano and Crosis’ Catacombs is added in lieu of additional swamps.
I’m still working on the sideboard. By splashing red, I have access to Terminate in addition to Vindicate if extra removal is needed. I think Night/Day might have a place here, and two extra Orim’s Thunder and (duh) four Dodecapods will probably be there.
So, will B/W be the defining combination in the post-Apocalypse Standard environment? Quite possibly. I’m not sure if this is the optimal version of IBC B/W, but I have a feeling that B/W decks may yet be the defining format.
No, really.