Hello kind folks! Everybody has a ton of bad rares…er…um…low value rares sitting around and collecting dust. We all have this untapped resource at our command, but we just don’t have a lot of ideas. How many decks can we build around Moonlace anyway? This series began with a challenge during one of my Daily articles a long time ago, when I grabbed a random bad rare and built a deck around it. Ever since, I’ve really embraced the idea of taking these cards and making decks from them. It’s just a great way to refresh some of these cards, and you never know what direction I’ll go with a deck. My goal is to make a legitimate deck with the card I flip.
I have a long box of bad rares that I never use next to my PC at work. (Shhh.) What I intend to do is reach in and grab a random rare sight unseen. Then I will be forced to build a deck from the card. As long as the deck is viable, I’m happy. Every few sets, I add a bunch of recent chaff to the box and bulk it up. We’ll do this experiment a few times and see what inspiration strikes when I am forced to build around a certain card.
I reach into the box of bad rares and grab a card with its back to me. I flip it and…
I flipped Tivadar, and building a deck around him was fairly easy. I want to destroy all Goblins as often as possible. I use Unnatural Selection to give you Goblins to destroy. Since I’m making you play with Goblins anyway, Foothill Guide slides right in, all nice and tasty.
My favorite trick here is to play Xenograft naming Goblins and then send it to you with Donate. Now you have Goblins permanently, and I don’t have to tie up my mana. Since you now have Goblins permanently, say hello to the ouch of Tivadar’s Crusade. I don’t mind if I do! (You do not want your Donate countered; that would be rough.)
Since this deck is built around Tivadar, I wanted to use and reuse his enter the battlefield (ETB) ability. Enter Momentary Blink. It will also work with Mulldrifter and War Priest of Thune for triggers. I am playing the War Priest because it has a may trigger, so you can still play him when you are the only one with enchantments out. Feel free to Blink them for their ability or to save a creature.
Once I had my deck built, I added some Ponders, Tortoises, and lands, and we were ready to rock. This deck started as a low-value rare deck, and it ended with low-value rares as well. Unnatural Selections are a buck each; Tivadar is just fifty cents; Xenograft clocks in at fifty cents as well, and Tivadar’s Crusade, which is actually an uncommon, is the second most expensive card in the deck at a buck and a half. Only Donate is worth anything at a buck and a half as well for a moderately played one and three for a near mint copy. This whole deck could be purchased for very little outlay. What deck better represents a bad rare challenge?
This deck was an obvious direction for a Tivadar deck. Hopefully, the next card will require more deckbuilding gymnastics to work. I reach back into the box and…
Creatures (14)
- 2 Commander Eesha
- 2 Eternal Witness
- 4 Covert Operative
- 2 Magnigoth Treefolk
- 2 Mulldrifter
- 2 Wall of Denial
Lands (26)
Spells (20)
After flipping Stony Silence, it was rough for a bit. It’s hard to find a way to use cards that are obviously hosers and impact you as well. They have a symmetrical effect that allows a cheap cost for tournament play. In casual land, I’d much rather play this card for three mana and have it just work on other players. I initially look through Masques block to see if there are any artifact abilities I want to shut down because there are a lot of cards there that have abilities that can be used by everyone. I can’t find anything. If I turn all creatures to artifacts to shut down your abilities, mine shut down too. Plus, you might not have any creature abilities anyway, so it wouldn’t do anything. However, if I turn lands into artifacts…
And, that’s my deck idea. Once I’ve gotten those two cards in play, there are basically two ways I can win the game. The first is by attacking with creatures already out and killing my foe. I could add cards like Savannah Lions to the deck to round it out. The Silence and Mycosynth Lattice act like an expensive Armageddon; you play some beaters and stop anybody from making mana until you win. That works. What I wanted to do was to find a way to keep making mana after the hammer falls. Symmetrical ways like Magus of the Vineyard won’t work because you want to keep your foe from playing stuff as well.
Enter Carpet of Flowers. Unlike other mana generation effects (like Black Market), the Carpet of Flowers will make mana of any color. The only restriction is that your foes must have Islands out. I can do that in one of two ways. Play cards that force my opponent to have Islands without activation costs (such as Quicksilver Fountain) or play a card like Magical Hack to make my Carpet work on whatever lands my foe has out. I also include a pair of Urborgs, so if I manage to find and play one, I can Spectral Shift it to Islands and leave my Carpets alone. Then I get mana for every card in play.
Once I am making a bunch of mana, I need things to do with it. The rest of the deck is dedicated to card drawing and creatures. I want defense and offense. The perfect combination is Commander Eesha. She’ll block virtually anything and then swing for two through any defense. With my foe unable to make mana or activate anything, she is immune from removal, Maze of Ith, and other things. She’s perfect for this deck. Covert Operative can swing for three unblockable damage turn after turn until my foe is dead. It won’t take long. With three colors in the deck, Magnigoth Treefolk is likely to be unblockable as well. If Urborg has been changed to Islands, the Treefolk will definitely hit.
After those beaters, I have Wall of Denial for blocking early and often, Mulldrifter to draw cards and add another body, and Eternal Witness to bring back a crucial card while also notching up my creature count. I rounded out the deck with a full set of Fact or Fiction to give me good raw card drawing. I don’t want anything to cost more than five mana in the deck if it is intended to be played after the combo comes down. I don’t know how much mana I’ll be making each turn, and my foe is hardly going to help me out by playing more lands. I can draw a better combo later. If I have to Spectral Shift a Carpet of Flowers to Forests because my foe has out three Forests, a Mountain, and a Gruul Turf, I’m only netting three mana a turn, but I can draw Urborg and Spectral Shift later to make all lands Forests. (Or a second Carpet of Flowers—ouch.) I have later options, and my foe should not.
Anyway, I reach into the box of odd cards and grab a card, sight unseen. I pull it out, and it’s…
You’ve Got Your Kookus in my Cookie and you Smell Real Ookie
4 Kookus
4 Keeper of Kookus
4 Mana Flare
2 Lightning Greaves
2 Loxodon Warhammer
2 Fatal Frenzy
2 Shivan Dragon
2 Sandstone Warrior
2 Wave of Indifference
2 Goblin Offensive
2 Warbreak Trumpeter
4 Intimidator Initiate
4 Fire Diamond
24 Lands
After flipping Kookus, I immediately tossed in Keeper of Kookus, but then what? Where does that take the deck? Since Kookus has both trample and firebreathing, I decided to make a bunch of mana and swing in one shot to kill someone. With that being the goal, I also included a few other firebreathers just to make sure I had enough to rock it.
The obvious friend for Kookus and firebreathers is Mana Flare. With every land making an extra red mana, we can quickly overwhelm a defense. Lightning Greaves and Loxodon Warhammer make these folks even more of a threat. Sandstone Warrior has first strike, which is deadly with firebreathing. Then add both trample and lifelink, and that is game over. The Greaves are here to enable a quick strike and to prevent our core folks from being taken out by targeted removal.
Because we have a lot of mana anyway, in went my Goblin makers—Warbreak Trumpeter and Goblin Offensive. Each can add a cavalcade of token bodies to the field, ready to caravan their way into the red zone. Preventing a few key creatures from blocking can really hamper a foe’s ability to defend against a giant firebreather, so I tossed in Wave of Indifference and a full set of cheap Intimidator Initiates.
I just had a pair of cards left in the deck, so in went Fatal Frenzy, red’s answer to Berserk. This guy can completely win a game from nowhere with all of the high octane offense going on. Suddenly a 10/5 Kookus becomes a 20/5 domination engine. Then you trigger Intimidator Initiate and stop something from blocking and bam! Game over!
I figured this would be a fun way to build a Kookus deck. Now it’s time to flip that fourth card from our bad rare box. My hand snakes in and comes out with…
Creatures (6)
Lands (25)
Spells (29)
When I flipped Convalescent Care, I immediately knew the best way to use it was to force myself to have a low life. I thought about Worship and Platinum Angel and then hit upon Lich. Lich sets my life total to zero, and then when I gain life, I draw that many cards. With a Lich out, each upkeep, Convalescent Care draws me FOUR cards. That is a powerful combo to build around! If Lich dies, you die. Also, as you lose life, you sacrifice permanents. You need to combat that with several ways, and white can aid in that.
There are a lot of ways to build around this combo, and I went with a heavy enchantment theme, with Rectors, Replenishes, and many enchantments that will stop my foes from damaging me. Since I was playing a pricey Lich anyway, I didn’t spare any expense. A pair of The Abyss will take out creatures and keep a horde from overwhelming you. Every creature in the deck (all six of them) will happily die to The Abyss. Story Circle can stop attackers from damaging you or jump in to stop burn.
Meanwhile, Privileged Position will keep everything you have from being targeted (including the precious Lich) while Leyline of Sanctity stops you from biting it as well. I wanted to add green to the deck for cards like Exploration to drop extra lands drawn each turn and cheap artifact creatures to play and keep alive through The Abyss. I ran out of space because I was emphasizing defense.
This deck wins by playing Kokusho and killing it to a certain Abyss, and then bringing it back with Volrath’s Stronghold for another run. Each time it dies, you will drain five life from your foe and convert it to cards! Finally, Death’s Grasp can act as a Blaze/Braingeyser to kill off someone and draw a ton of cards.
If you don’t have duals or The Abyss, no matter. You can play other cards or even combine Convalescent Care with Nefarious Lich for a different style of deck that uses a similar mechanic. Anyway, I think the deck might want a way to not draw cards in case you endanger decking yourself. The card drawing is not optional. Don’t put in Words of Wisdom! Perhaps an outlet to use extra cards and restocking your library would be useful. (Maybe Pursuit of Knowledge or Island Sanctuary. Actually, Island Sanctuary might be a good replacement for The Abyss for those who don’t have one, as long as you still have ways to prevent decking from cards like the Care.) Finding a discard outlet would be fine. I thought about adding Reliquary Tower but didn’t want to hurt my lands too much. (Peace of Mind breaks my head—holy crap that’d be awesome with the right support.)
(This deck might also benefit from Serra’s Sanctum.)
Actually, I like the idea of a Nefarious Lich / Convalescent Care combo enough to make my last deck another deck around the Care.
Creatures (6)
Lands (25)
Spells (31)
What disappoints me about Nefarious Lich is that you still lose the game when it goes away. That’s annoying, since it doesn’t take your life to zero along the way, making it much weaker. It also exiles cards from your graveyard instead of sacrificing permanents. That’s just odd. I guess it was bad in Odyssey land with all of that cool threshold action. In this deck, many cards need to be changed. This deck wants to draw a ton of cards and discard them in order to fuel the Lich. It still needs protection, and we’ve added some friends. I also made this version more budget-friendly. We kept in cards like Gilded Lotus, Vindicate, and such but pulled the Alpha duels and The Abyss.
I needed a way to drop my life down to the right number, and Plunge into Darkness just fell into my lap. If you are at twenty life, feel free to pay fifteen life and dig to find a card. Since the other cards are exiled and your graveyard is exiled to N. Lich as well, I expected a ton of cards to go to the exile zone. What we need is a card that puts all exiled cards into your graveyard. That would be hot. My answer is Mirror of Fate. You play the Mirror, and sacrifice it to bring back any seven exiled cards to make a new deck, but you also exile the rest of your library. This can allow you to find the right cards. The Mirror itself is not exiled. Sure, virtually everything is gone, but in this deck, we have Academy Ruins taking the place of Volrath’s Stronghold. Just bring it back and use it again and again to stock your deck with what goodies are appropriate. The Mirror also keeps your graveyard alone, allowing you to take damage to the N. Lich.
The Plunge also serves as our sacrifice outlet for a Rector. With these increased tutor effects, I dropped the number of cards in our combo to give me more room for other things. Fountain Watch is new and helps to protect stuff and give us a body. With all of the exiling, a Kokusho recursion engine is not a great kill condition. I tossed in a Subversion instead, as a card drawing and life losing card for game. The aforementioned Island Sanctuary replaces The Abyss and takes the edge off the combo going into overkill mode. I also rolled a single copy of Words of Waste to give the deck a way out of decking itself. This deck wants mana even more, so Serra’s Sanctum would be good if you have them.
This is a different deck that is still built around a powerful core combo. I hope that you enjoyed it, and all of the other decks today!
Until later,
Abe Sargent