I have a love/hate relationship with technology. One would be under the impression that if your e-mail is only seventy-four percent full, that over the course of one day, it wouldn’t become overfilled. Well you would be wrong if you had the same e-mail as me. I had my e-mail on lock down only to have those evil minions at MSN open it back up and reveal that my entire inbox was blank. Yes, the entire inbox. Man, was I pissed. I had my column saved in my e-mail as well (my PC is so anti-fat kid and makes me do things like that), so I had to write this column all over again. I’m not sure if I got e-mail bombed or what, but either way I’ve lost plenty of important e-mails. If you happened to have e-mailed me in the past week or so and haven’t heard a response, then please understand that I’m not ignoring anyone. I’ve just lost your e-mail. Feel free to re-email me on anything, if this column doesn’t answer anything for you.
Despite my hopes and wishes, Arcbound Ravager is just flooding the field. This is by no means breaking news to anyone who has played in a Type Two tournament lately. Regardless, it’s still upsetting. I don’t plan on whining about how this and that should be banned, because that accomplishes nothing. Instead, I would like to give everyone a quick update on Lynch Mob and let everyone know how the deck has evolved in light of the newest changes in the metagame. Below, you’ll find my newest and most tweaked list. I still believe in this deck and feel it can contend with the rest of the field.
Lynch Mob
4 Rotlung Reanimator
4 Withered Wretch
4 Headhunter
4 Dark Supplicant
3 Carrion Feeder
2 Greater Harvester
4 Skullclamp
4 Smother
3 Gravepact
4 Chrome Mox
3 Death Cloud
1 Scion of Darkness
3 Unholy Grotto
3 Blinkmoth Nexus
15 Swamp
Sideboard
1 Gravepact
4 Persecute
3 Oblivion Stone
3 Noxious Ghoul
3 Echoing Decay
1 Death Cloud
Where are the Dross Harvesters? I know. I know. I miss them as well, but they became a card that I found was easily getting me killed time and time again. In place of them I’ve used Death Cloud, and it works fairly well, thus far. You would think that leaving in the Dross Harvesters in combination with Death Cloud would be good and all, but I’ve had a hell of a time trying to figure out what you could drop in place of it. Many people seemed to like playing Disciple of the Vault in the deck and dropping Headhunter. I could see a fair argument on that. My biggest problem with doing that is losing your game against the Mono-White Control decks, Astral Slide, Green/White control, and any other decks that Headhunter excels against. The Disciple is a great weapon against Brilo (a.k.a. Ravager Affinity), but isn’t all that great against the control decks. So far, I’m going to stick with the Headhunter, but you never know. I could change.
Another honorable mention for this deck is Cabal Archon. I would love to add this guy to the deck. When I dropped him in for playtesting though, he slowed me down, or just ended up being a Gray Ogre. Other times, he ended up being stellar. In combination with the Skullclamps, he could work overtime, and even win a game or two on his shoulders alone. I also like how the little guy gives you game when the board is all locked up, and provides life gain. He’s also wonderful to see when you have a Gravepact out.
So why am I not running him, if he has all of these benefits? Well, it’s because he takes away from the deck’s ability to be an aggressive beatdown deck. You need cheaper drops against the control decks, and when I look at the list, I find myself wondering what could be dropped to add this guy? Lifegain is also something this deck has lost with Dross Harvester being dropped. Man, that sounds stupid to say, but it’s the truth. The Harvester was a life-gaining machine at times, but with his absence and the introduction of Death Cloud, I may have to think more strongly about the Archon. Time will tell where I want to go with this guy.
Another new addition to the deck is Greater Harvester. Nothing is more satisfying than dropping this guy after you’ve just cleaned the board with a Death Cloud. When you have a Grave Pact out, then his drawback isn’t even an issue. Many times, this guy just serves as a finisher. He drops down, takes over matches, and does some heavy duty work. I’ve tried Phyrexian Plaguelord in this spot and found that he was okay, but the Harvester’s six toughness makes it a much better decision in a field laced with Shrapnel Blasts.
Smother has came in over Dark Banishing. Simply put, there’s more targets to Smother right now. The slimmer casting cost is also another benefit of the Smother, which helps with the speed issue. Dark Banishing will be missed against decks that run Exalted Angels and Eternal Dragon, as well as other big monsters, but the format demands the Smother right now.
I dropped the Polluted Deltas for another Swamp and a threesome of Blinkmoth Nexi. I don’t think there’s enough White right now to justify adding the Deltas and Mind Bends to the deck and sideboard. The Nexus can also be a win condition after a massive Death Cloud and gives us an extra target for Skullclamp, when you need it. If White starts to surge in popularity and we see more control decks pop up and more Black hate, then we may have to go back to the Delta’s and Bends.
Okay, so we have the main deck done now. Let’s go ahead and take a look at the sideboard and see what changes have been made there. Here’s the sideboard again for easier reference.
Sideboard
1 Grave Pact
4 Persecute
3 Oblivion Stone
3 Noxious Ghoul
3 Echoing Decay
1 Death Cloud
First off, we have the very reliable fourth Grave Pact. This card still does what it has done from the start and that’s punish the other creature decks. The Death Clouds up the power of this card and the Greater Harvesters work well with them. Ken Krouner said something about making a good deck is not getting two cards to work together, but instead instituting synergy throughout the whole deck, and that’s what I think many of these new changes have accomplished.
Next up, we have Persecute. If there is anything I won’t budge on right now with the sideboard, it’s this card. Persecute continues to win me games on the basis of playing it third turn and just wrecking my opponent. With Brilo being so popular, you might think that Persecute wouldn’t be as strong, but believe it or not, I see lots of decks where this card can be overwhelmingly good. This is my biggest answer to control decks like Astral Slide and such.
Oblivion Stone is one of the few ingredients in this sideboard that makes me a little sad. I have lots of permanents in this deck, as you can easily see. When I go to blow up Oblivion Stone, I seem to lose so many more cards than I want to, but in return, I’m usually getting rid of a major threat or something that Black can’t deal with. The Stones are more of a safety issue for me and I like having them there”just in case.”
Noxious Ghoul should be named Counter Bidding. That’s what this guy does. He hits the board and holds some ground, then drops in the grave and waits for your opponent to think about casting Patriarch’s Bidding. I know the Withered Wretch is good for stopping Bidding as well, but that can tie up your mana and against Goblins, you don’t have the ability to do that too often. He’s not too bad against Elves either.
The next card we have is Echoing Decay. This is the slot I seem to be changing the most. I’m about certain that when the time comes for Regionals, this slot will be one that you’ll have to dedicate to what your gut instinct expects to see in the metagame. I like Echoing Decay right now, because it works well against many of the popular decks and keeps you from losing to Decree of Justice.
The fourth Death Cloud is there to come in against the creature heavy decks and Brilo. The deck recovers quickly from Death Cloud and having a fourth one isn’t that bad of an idea.
So there you have it. That’s where I’m at right now with Lynch Mob. I could be making some more changes as I continue to work with the deck and if I do, then I’ll make sure and touch on it, in my future columns.
For those of you looking for some originality in decks and like to try something new, then I have something for you to try. This past Friday, I played a deck that I had worked on for a little bit and decided to give a go. At first glance, it looks like a scrubby little deck that you might find floating around the 0-3 brackets of a random JSS event, but when you play the deck, you start to feel a sense that it can do so much more. Take a look at what I call…
Reactorsaurus Rex
4 Darksteel Reactor
4 Sun Droplet
4 Pulse of the Fields
4 Renewed Faith
4 Wing Shards
4 Well of Lost Dreams
4 Wrath of God
4 Dismantle
3 Words of Worship
1 Akroma’s Vengeance
1 Obliterate
4 Blinkmoth Nexus
4 Secluded Steppe
4 Mirrodin’s Core
2 Mountain
2 Ancient Den
9 Plains
Sideboard
4 Sacred Ground
4 Damping Matrix
4 Scrabbling Claws
3 Circle of Protection: Red
The main objective of the deck is to abuse Darksteel Reactor by playing a turn 2 Sun Droplet and then a fourth turn Darksteel Reactor. You would be surprised the amount of damage counters that pile up on the Sun Droplet. The Renewed Faiths and Pulses, help keep you alive while the damage counters build up on the Sun Droplet. Then you just Wrath away the field and Dismantle the Droplet, sending the counters to the Reactor. If you don’t win right then and there, then you should in just a few turns. The Well of Lost Dreams helps you dig through the deck and get the cards you need, and it even works while you have Damping Matrix in play.
If you get the Words of Worship and Well of Lost Dreams in play at the same time, then you get to have lots of fun by gaining ridiculous amounts of life and still drawing extra cards. If your Droplet has a billion counters and no Reactor to put them on, then feel free to Dismantle the Droplet and put the counters on a Blinkmoth Nexus and serve for the win. This often catches people by surprise. You can also Dismantle the Reactor when it has ten counters and just win by doubling the counters to twenty. The Obliterate is there to just win the game by decking your opponent or winning off of the Reactor, whichever comes first. Either way, this deck is just fun to play and it’s very competitive as well.
Well, that’s all for this week. I hope I’ve answered some of the questions about Lynch Mob and I hope some of you can have some fun with the Reactorsaurus deck. Until next time, take care and have fun.
Richie Proffitt
[email protected]
*Feel free to send all flames, comments, and suggestions to the above mentioned e-mail address.