Halloween is the most interesting holiday of the year, and no card is more Halloween-flavored than Illusionary Mask (except for All Hallow’s Eve, of course). For all you fans of that crazy Mask card (hit the link and look at the picture!), you are all in for a Halloween treat.
Simply stated: Mask is back.
One of the time-tested faiths of Vintage was that Combo always beat Aggro. Pull those Masks out of your trade binder because for the first time in the history of Type 1 we have an Aggro deck that is going to give the best Combo decks a very rough road. Dragon and Long.dec, watch out! After I introduce the post-Mirrodin MaskNought, we are going to look at a few critical card choices, explain how to play the deck, how to sideboard against the more difficult matchups, and offer a budget build for those of you who have the Masks, but not the power.
I proudly present:
Spoils-Mask
Created by Team Meandeck and the MeanAgons
Road To Victory:
4 Illusionary Mask
4 Phyrexian Dreadnought
4 Phyrexian Negator
Roadmap To Victory:
4 Spoils of the Vault
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Consultation
1 Necropotence
Ways to Deal With Speed Bumps:
4 Duress
4 Unmask
4 Hymn to Tourach
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
Accelerators:
4 Dark Ritual
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
1 Black Lotus
Sightseeing:
15 Swamps
Sideboard:
3 Chalice of the Void
3 Tormod’s Crypt
3 Lightning Greaves
3 Chains of Mephistopheles
3 Metagame Slots
We’ve come full circle with this article. My very first article was on MaskNought, and anyone who remembers that article gets a warm fuzzy from me.
Just to update those of you who are wondering in amazement what this deck does: quite simply, it seeks to play an Illusionary Mask and plop down Phyrexian Dreadnought without the drawback. The actual card text on Mask is completely wrong – so here is the Oracle text:
Illusionary Mask
Artifact. Casting Cost: 2
Text {X}: Put a creature card with converted mana cost X or less from your hand into play face down as a 0/1 creature. Put X mask counters on that creature. Play this ability only any time you could play a sorcery. You may turn the creature face up any time you could play an instant by removing all mask counters from it. [Oracle 2002/10/01]
- The counters are added to distinguish the card from Morphs.
- This card allows you to put a creature card into play without playing it and while ignoring the colored mana requirements in its cost. [D’Angelo 2001/08/15]
- The creature is considered to be a 0/1 colorless creature with no name, creature type, expansion symbol, or abilities, and a mana cost of zero. None of the true characteristics of the card apply. This is true as long as it is face down. [CompRules 2001/07/23 – 504.2]
- The creature enters play face down, so none of its”comes into play” abilities will trigger or have any effect. [CompRules 2001/07/23 – 504.2] Also none of the”If this would come into play” abilities apply. [D’Angelo 2002/05/15]
- The controller may turn it face up any time that player has priority. This action does not go on the stack. [CompRules 2001/07/23 – 504.3]
- The creature’s”comes into play” abilities (and any other abilities relating to the creature coming into play) do not trigger when it turns face up. [CompRules 2001/07/23]
- Only the controller of the face down creature can look at it. [Onslaught Rules 2002/09/15]
This deck is a work of art. MaskNought is an elegant and absolutely beautiful machine of pure destruction. Thank you, thank you, thank you Mirrodin! The combo is simple and straightforward and so the rest of the deck design must pack the maximum punch. The three critical components of any Mask deck are:
1) Disruption. You must Counterspell answers to your threats or proactively remove them from you opponents hand.
2) Tutors to facilitate the combo. Vengeur Masque uses Survival of the Fittest to find the Dreadnoughts and Volrath’s Shapeshifter as a substitute Mask. Tainted Mask uses Tainted Pacts as a complement to Type 1’s standard bearers: Demonic and Vampiric Tutor. Spoils is the most recent addition to this entourage.
3) Ancillary Threats. This is perhaps one of the most difficult elements of building MaskNought. Tainted Mask’s biggest problem was finding a second good threat. The problem with Phyrexian Negator was that you really didn’t want Negator as a four of in the deck. The reason was that Tainted Pact severely distorted deck construction so that only the absolutely critical cards existed in copies of four: Duress, Tainted Pact, Illusionary Mask, Phyrexian Dreadnought, and Dark Ritual. Spoils Mask does not have this problem.
The addition of Spoils of the Vault has now replaced Tainted Pact by giving us four new Demonic Consultations. The result has been a total reconfiguration of this deck. The old Mask deck was built upon the idea of maximizing the effect of Tainted Pact. That meant using lots of one-ofs, two-ofs, and three-ofs and very few four-ofs. Now we have a deck built as it should be in Type 1: In ones and fours. The result is profound. Let me explain the key changes.
Unmask
Believe it or not, in some matchups and with some hands, Unmask is preferable to Duress. The reasoning is rather simple – in those hands the acceleration lost by having to invest mana in Duress is worse than having to pitch a card to Unmask. Additionally, the fact that Unmask can nab a Gorilla Shaman or a Goblin Welder is no small matter. This deck prides itself on acceleration. Although we ran three Unmask in the old Tainted Mask build, I never was a big fan of it. Unmask is now a must-have.
Hymn to Tourach
With Misdirections practically absent from the format, this is one of the best disruptive spells playable in the format. Generally your Mask game will begin by either Unmasking or Duressing an opponent. At that point, you will have nabbed the biggest threat in their hand. But if you really want to stunt their development (which is the primary aim of Mask), Hymn to Tourach is a great follow up. It will either rob them of some key mana, possibly stunting their development until it is simply too late, or it will remove any key answers/draw/tutors they may have. For our purpose (efficient disruption), it doesn’t get much stronger than the only remaining playable Fallen Empires card. (Please don’t attack me if there are other Fallen Empires cards used.)
Spoils of the Vault
Oh brother, does that card make this deck consistent. I really hope that Wizards doesn’t restrict Spoils of the Vault, as it would be a terrible blow to this burgeoning deck. Type 1 needs a good aggro deck, and it’s still really good without Moxen since Mana Crypt, Dark Ritual, and Sol Ring are amazing (unless they restrict Dark Ritual – but we hope not). Simply put, this card gives you consistency and power like no other.
One of the tricks with this deck is how to Spoil. Some math by ElricDjinn of the Mana Drain:
I can answer the question of how often you will kill yourself with a single Spoils. If you go first, and play land, Spoils for a card that you have four of left in your deck (out of fifty-three cards), then there is an 15.873% chance that the Spoils simply kills you. If you go second and Spoil for a card that you have four of with fifty-two cards left in your deck, then there is only a 15.115% chance that spoils kills you. There is a 74.792% chance that you lose fifteen or less life from the Spoils and there is a 49.118% chance that you lose eight life or less from the spoils.
In other words, on average, you can expect to lose eight life from each Spoils. In other other words, it’s amazing! Generally, it’s quite obvious what to spoils for. If you have Mask in hand, you Spoil up the Dreadnought and vice versa. Sometimes you may just want Dark Ritual or a Duress, and sometimes you may just want a Phyrexian Negator.
One of the threats to this deck is Rack and Ruin – and so, once in a while, Negator might actually be the creature of choice. One of the more difficult decisions is what to do if you have both Demonic Consultation and Spoils of the Vault in hand. I think the jury is still out on this question, but the preliminary answer is that you Consult first. The reason is that your Spoils becomes less dangerous when your deck is thinner, and Consult is less dangerous when your deck is thicker. Further investigation will probably confirm this assessment.
It’s absolutely critical to your survival, however, that you shuffle your deck well before each game. Any clump of Masks and Dreadnoughts could leave you Spoiling to the death. It’s also worth remembering that if you cast a lethal Spoils for a Mask or a Dreadnought, Tainted Pact probably wasn’t going to dig nearly as deep before you hit a duplicate card.
Cabal Therapy
This is a strong contender. I know I am not using this card, but if you find that you don’t like Hymn to Tourach, this is a possible replacement. Since this deck has four Duress and four Unmask, chances are, your Cabal Therapy is going to be very strong. Sometimes you might Unmask them and see, say two Burning Wish and a Lion’s Eye Diamond. You can snag the Lion’s Eye Diamond with the Unmask, and then Cabal Therapy away both Wishes.
So how the heck do I play this thing?
You’ll be very happy to know that MaskNought is a relatively straightforward endeavor. The downside is that the most important decisions are made on turns 1 and 1. If you happen to make the incorrect decision on those turns against one of the more difficult matchups, it could very well cost you the game. The good news is the correct decision is almost always determinable.
Obviously your end goal is to get the combo into play as quickly as possible. But against the best decks, that is usually not enough. Against random decks, turn 1 combo is almost always game. But unless you want to risk walking into a Force of Will, a bit of disruption is almost always appropriate.
You have enough acceleration so that you can almost assuredly drop a turn 1 Mask. Sometimes, however, the best play is not to cast Dark Ritual, Mask, Naught – but instead to cast Dark Ritual, Duress, Hymn to Tourach. A lot of this decision-making is matchup dependent. Disruption followed by a Negator is often the best course of action if you know that the opposing deck is not going to be able to recover from heavy disruption followed by such a large threat.
In general, this deck is designed so that you get a hand with one combo part, a tutor, some acceleration, and some disruption. If you get two Spoils, you have a very risky decision to make. I am of the opinion that the risk is too high to spoils for both combo parts. Another Spoils decision is whether to Spoil for a second Dreadnought; my opinion is that this is just greedy. If you have a Dreadnought beating down, then they probably only have one more turn to live anyway, and Spoiling up a second isn’t actually going to impact the game in a positive way – it only opens up the unnecessary risk that you might die prematurely.
One of the keys to doing well in the most difficult Type 1 matchups is correctly using your discard. Take the time to think ahead with each discard spell. Remember that your games are going to be relatively short in turns, but each turn could take half a dozen minutes as both players stress trying to figure out the optimal play. Making the most effective use of each spell immediately will make your late game a breeze, and you’ll have plenty of time to grab a bite to eat between rounds.
One of the harder decisions with this deck is figuring out the proper time to play Hymn to Tourach, and possibly the most difficult play is deciding whether to cast a Mask or a Hymn on turn 2. Luckily, if this comes up, it means you’ve done something already on turn 1 by casting either Unmask or Duress. Use the information that you’ve gained to answer this question. If you are playing against a deck like Dragon, the Hymn to Tourach could really bite you in the butt by helping them drop a Worldgorger Dragon in their yard. However, against a Mishra’s Workshop deck, the Hymn could nail some key threats/mana sources and sufficiently slow down their game that you can easily combo out and win on subsequent turns.
Don’t be afraid to play and attack with Phyrexian Negator. With twelve dedicated discard spells, this deck has the most heavy discard component of any deck that I am aware of. Negator will present a serious threat to almost any Control, Workshop, or Combo deck after even minimal disruption. Also, don’t forget that when you play a Negator under the Mask, you never have to flip it up. That means you can use it as a 0/1 blocker, should you be forced to do so, and not have to sacrifice any permanents.
The final key consideration is when to mulligan. There are two major elements to figuring out when to mulligan. The first is knowing the matchup. If you have no disruption, but have turn 1 combo, and are playing against a budget aggro deck, you are probably in great shape. But if you have that same hand against a power Control or Workshop deck, you need to think long and hard. The second key to mulliganing is recognizing the difference between the play and the draw. A disruptive strategy of Duress, Hymn off of a Dark Ritual is much less powerful if the opponent has already had a chance to unload their hand on turn 1. In that sort of situation, targeted discard like Unmask might be superior to both Duress and Hymn, as it allows you to play your combo out as early as possible.
The Difficult Matchups
I’m only going to take an in depth look at the most difficult matchups. Most decks cannot handle the power of MaskNought, and many sideboard decisions will be obvious. For instance, against Stompy, you’ll want to sideboard in three Chalice of the Void.
Control
Keeper
Keeper is a beast right now. Fortunately, I think Mask is, in part, a good metagame consideration because of Keeper.
One of the biggest threats Keeper has is Chalice of the Void. Chalice for one is absolutely brutal. If they do this before you get a turn, you may look at your hand and cry after seeing Dark Ritual, Duress, Spoils, Mask, Naught and one Swamp. The Mask deck loses Dark Ritual, Duress, Spoils, and Vamp. Your best shot is to then be very lucky and play Mask off a Mox and a Swamp with a Dreadnought the following turn. The problem is that you are too slow, and Cunning Wish for Rack and Ruin is just game over.
Fortunately, the”Chalice for one” is only maximized if the Keeper player is playing first. If you go first, you have a very good shot at making that play irrelevant and then snagging their Cunning Wish or Swords to Plowshares with your discard. On the whole, your speed is going to be absolutely brutal in combination with your disruption. Negator is also incredibly strong. Keeper can still attempt to cycle a Decree of Justice in response, but your goal is to keep the disruption coming to clear the way.
Pre-sideboard, you have a favorable match because you are just so fast and so disruptive. Post-sideboard, you need to look for ways to negate the Keeper Rack and Ruin/STP strategy. Perhaps Lightning Greaves is the answer.
Conclusion: Pre-sideboard: Favorable
Post-sideboard: Even/Slightly unfavorable
Psychatog
Tog has gone into hibernation for the winter while the icy world of Mirrodin has Magic in its grip. Nonetheless, you might see it. Just because ‘Tog doesn’t like Chalice of the Void doesn’t mean some tournament player won’t abuse the hell out of that toothy critter. If they resolve a Tog, it’s really not that big of a deal to get the Tog as large as a Dreadnought. Fortunately for you, you have plenty of disruption and speed. Speed is you biggest ally. While this deck really doesn’t win until turn 3 or 4, you have a fundamental turn 2, because by that turn you have sufficient pressure on the board that you are just going to seal the deal. Consider siding in Lightning Greaves against this deck as well as Keeper.
Conclusion: Slightly Favorable
Workshop Prison
The prison matchup is really complicated. Much of what determines the outcome depends on who goes first. Mask and Workshop prison are highly opposed strategies. The goal of Workshop prison is to play spells that affect the board by destroying and locking down the opponent. The Mask player attempts to play its primary combo threat as quickly as possible and use the very best discard as key disruption. The biggest key to winning this matchup is winning the die roll. All varieties of Workshop Prison run the five key lock components: Chalice of the Void, Smokestack, Sphere of Resistance, Tangle Wire, and Goblin Welder.
If you go first, you should be able to nab any one of these cards that you perceive to be the biggest threat. But in fact, the biggest threat to them is usually the fact that your game plan attempts to make those lock parts ineffectual, (a side effect of the MaskNought combo is that you attempt to play multiple permanents in the first few turns) but unlike most combo decks, you only need to untap one of them twice: The Phyrexian Dreadnought.
The fact is, if the Mask player goes first, they have likely played at least part of the combo, or accelerated sufficiently that the combo is forthcoming, and used discard to proactively neuter the Workshop player’s hand. If the Workshop player goes first, they are going to want to play a key lock part such as a Sphere, Chalice, and Smokestack, with the Tangle Wire getting played on the following turn unless they feel it necessary to play it immediately. For the most part, Smokestack without a Tangle Wire or other heavy disruption is generally too slow. Tangle Wire by itself is also extremely slow. If Mask player goes according to plan with Mox, Swamp, Ritual, Mask, ‘Nought with a discard spell or Spoils in there somewhere, Tangle Wire is simply too slow to prevent the MaskNought player from untapping that lone Dreadnought enough times to get Smokestack into a threatened position.
A turn 1 Chalice for one is probably the most effective threat outside of a turn 1 Sphere that can be played if the Workshop player is going first. Neutering Spoils, Dark Ritual, Vampiric Tutor, and Duress means that you probably will be unable to cast a heavy disruption spells like Hymn and be unable to get the combo into play.
The one thing the Mask player must always keep in mind is how the Workshop decks operate. The Workshop decks are built upon the premise of evading the drawbacks of highly symmetrical cards by being permanent heavy and by using a very small, but absolutely critical selection of mana accelerants like Mishra’s Workshop. The reliance on these accelerators to play extremely costly lock parts is the real weakness of the Prison decks, because it makes them inconsistent, and moreover, makes them vulnerable to Wastelands.
As such, they attempt to play as many of the artifact accelerants as are available to Type 1 (I call them the terrible twelve) – the twelve restricted artifact accelerants. The reason this is important to keep in mind is that you cannot simply think about how the lock parts are going to affect you – when casting Unmask or Duress, you need to consider how they will affect the Workshop player, should they play any particular part. If you are unable to take a key lock part, then taking away a spell which makes their lock parts more symmetrical is something to keep in mind.
A first-turn Sphere is about as brutal for you as turn 1 Chalice for one. The other advantage of both spells is that they are tappable or saccable to subsequent Wires and Stax. The only advantage of Sphere is that it affects them as well, slowing down their later turns. A Sphere by itself is not even close to being sufficient enough to stop you. Unfortunately, a second Sphere on turn 2 takes them most of the way there. The real key is getting Tangle Wire going followed up by a Smokestack to clear the board (they work very well together – you just move counters from Tangle Wire to Smokestack each turn).
MaskNought has fifteen swamps so that your chances of playing more Swamps is very good. One reason for keeping this deck mono Black was to keep the deck invulnerable to Wasteland – a trait that really shows up in this matchup, the Keeper matchup, and the Welder Mud matchup.
The good news is that Meditate is really risky for the Stax player. The bad news is that Meditate radically increases their chances of finding more Tangle Wires. If you have a decent draw, their best shot is really to mise into a second Tangle Wire, followed by Smokestack. I have also found that Phyrexian Negator is a very good card in this matchup if played following some heavy disruption. Hymn to Tourach is incredibly conditional against the Workshop decks. One of the key elements to these decks is getting the mana they need to make their lock parts asymmetrical – if you have the pressure that this deck has combined with the denial of resources with Hymn – Hymn can just win games.
Finally, one tactic that Stax has at its disposal that Welder Mud really lacks, is the Welder + Draw 7 threat. It plays out like this: They play a Welder and then a Draw 7 with the hope of depositing an artifact in your graveyard. If it works, they can make your combo dead by Welding out your Dreadnoughts and then systematically destroy the rest of your artifacts by welding the Naughts back in. After sideboarding, it gets worse for you, as Rack and Ruin is incredibly strong.
Welder Mud is very close to Stax in many respects, but it lacks many of the advantages that Stax has in this matchup, and compensates for this by one big bonus: Powder Keg. Powder Keg is obviously a brutal threat to this deck for two reasons. First, it quickly kills Dreadnoughts. The Second reason is that in combination with a Goblin Welder they can keg away one of your Moxen and suddenly you’ll find your entire combo worthless with Goblin Welder, making your Dreadnoughts dust.
The disadvantages are as follows: In most matchups, the Welder Mud game plan often relies on playing a turn 1 Metalworker off of a Workshop, followed by a brutal unloading of combo parts – Wires, Stax, Spheres, Chalices, and cards like Grafted Skullcap. The vast majority of the time, this plan is far too slow to win against MaskNought. The reason is simple: You have (or attempt to have) most of your combo, if not the whole thing, in play by turn 1. If the Smokestack goes active, start sacking swamps, but try and avoid sacking Moxen or combo parts because if they have an active Welder your combo is toast.
If you go first and you have the Mask, most of the cards that Welder Mud could play become much worse – and the problem is that the few key lock components that still retain their strength: Tangle Wire, and Goblin Welder with Powder Keg, are harder to find because you have a much worse draw engine than Stax.
The reason is rather straightforward – Welder Mud attempts to slow the game down instead of playing massive card drawing spells, and then lets Grafted Skullcap do its job. If the Mask deck is playing first, the biggest threat is Tangle Wire, followed by another Tangle Wire and Smokestack. That is as close to unwinnable as it gets when you are playing first, because at that point, both Chalice and Sphere are too slow and Goblin Welder does nothing by itself. Also, Grafted Skullcap is almost laughable if you have a ‘Nought on the board. Stax has a much better shot of”breaking the serve,” so to speak, because they run massive draw spells like Timetwister and Meditate.
When all is said and done, don’t keep a hand that will lose when playing first, and win the die roll.
Conclusion:
If Going First, Favorable.
If Drawing, Unfavorable.
On the Whole, Slightly Unfavorable. The Workshop deck will”break serve” more often than you will – but even if going second, you still can win the match.
Sideboarding suggestions. I don’t have all of these perfectly ironed out, but one big threat you must expect is Rack and Ruin. This card costs three, but is an absolute beating in Type 1 right now. This card can also take down your whole combo at instant speed. One way to beat this card is Lightning Greaves. It will also make your ‘Noughts Welder-proof and possibly give them haste and speed up the win.
Something you need to keep in mind is the enormous difference between playing first and second. If you are playing first, I would seriously consider sideboarding in Chalice of the Voids for the Hymn to Tourachs. The reasoning is simple: It is another permanent that taps down to Tangle Wire, but also makes their spells far more symmetrical by negating most of the non land accelerants like Black Lotus. With a deck as heavily oriented towards the first three turns as this one, Chalice seems like a solid choice for slowing down the opponent just enough so that they cannot recover.
Combo
Dragon
There is a widespread impression that Dragon is among the best of the best. That impression is correct, since this deck only gets stronger in a heavy Chalice environment. One of the things I found most impressive about the MaskNought deck though, is that it has the best shot against Dragon of any aggro deck that I have seen outside of a pure hate deck. The key is to get the combo to act as a two-turn clock. In combination with some very selective discard targeting either a key tutor or an animate spell, you can make time run out for them.
Be careful not to Hymn away a Dragon and give them the win though. Keep the pressure up and then sideboard in Tormod’s Crypts, and you’ll find yourself moving on to the next round with a win. My testing has this matchup at about 60-40 in favor of MaskNought. In-person testing against one of the creators, Richard Mattiuzzo, out of ten games, had me winning five to four with one draw (Dragon does that to prevent losing games that appear unlikely to be won. Yes, I know that’s broken).
Conclusion: Slightly Favorable
Long.dec
Unfortunately, a clock of two turns is just not fast enough, even after disruption, to stop Long. Your best shot is to hope that sideboarding Chalices, Chains, and Tormod’s Crypt is enough to do the job. I think the best hope, however, is that Lion’s Eye Diamond gets restricted so you don’t even have to consider this deck anymore. If you happen to come across Long.dec in a tournament, your best shot comes from having actually playtested this matchup. Try and figure out what cards worked best for you, whether it was Duress + Hymn or Unmask and Duress, or a combination of other threats and stick to the plan.
Budget Build
Mask is probably the among the very best budget decks you could build (although Mask itself is no longer really a budget card). Spoils of the Vault has made this deck much less reliant on power since it is just as fast off a Dark Ritual. If you have Masks, but no power, here is a build I would endorse:
Spoils-Mask
Created by Team Meandeck
Road To Victory:
4 Illusionary Mask
4 Phyrexian Dreadnought
4 Phyrexian Negator
Roadmap To Victory:
4 Spoils of the Vault
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Consultation
1 Necropotence
Ways to Deal With Speed Bumps:
4 Duress
4 Unmask
4 Hymn to Tourach
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
Accelerators:
4 Dark Ritual
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
1 Lotus Petal
Sightseeing:
15 Swamps
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
In many ways, a budget build of this deck gets some huge benefits against certain matchups. The ability to fit Wasteland comfortably into this deck could be a huge benefit in any given matchup. One of the more frustrating aspects of Type 1 tournament play (but especially in power tournaments) is that the people who own power have the best chance at winning more power and thus expanding their collection. Well, this deck gives all you budget players an excellent shot at those prizes too.
Development
When it was announced on the DCI judges list that Illusionary Mask could be used to play Phyrexian Dreadnought in the fall of 2001, few were paying attention – and even fewer took the initiative to come up with a deck. Harold Ringstrom of Norway put together an early build and Chris Flaaten added the Tainted Pacts. Paul Mastriano and myself tuned their build a bit adding Phyrexian Negator as alternate finishers. Their list paved the way for a GenCon Type 1 Championship Top 8 Tainted Mask:
8th Place: David Allen, Mask/Dreadnought
4 Illusionary Mask
4 Phyrexian Dreadnought
4 Hypnotic Specter
4 Duress
3 Hymn to Tourach
3 Tainted Pact
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Consultation
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Necropotence
1 Time Walk
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
1 Ancestral Recall
2 Recoil
4 Dark Ritual
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Sol Ring
3 Mishra’s Factory
1 Strip Mine
3 Wasteland
4 Underground Sea
2 Polluted Delta
2 Bloodstained Mire
2 Snow-Covered Swamp
1 Snow-Covered Island
2 Swamp
1 Island
Sideboard:
2 Bottle Gnomes
1 Recoil
4 Phyrexian Negator
2 Withered Wretch
4 Smother
2 Hurkyl’s Recall
This build is a direct descendent of the deck Chris, Harold, Paul, and myself put so much hard work into. Early on, Chris, Paul, and I used Mishra’s Factory for two primary reasons. First, they were effective as finishers should your Dreadnought be killed, and second, they were insurance against Diabolic Edict – something most Keeper builds sported at the time. You could animate the Factory and then save your Dreadnought. David’s major change was the addition of Wasteland. The one other thing you have to realize that I’ve already explained, but should be more obvious after looking at this list, is how deck design is heavily constrained by Tainted Pact. You can’t really have four of any card except for the biggies. Underground Sea doesn’t really become a four-of because you fetch it out first.
Time Walk is the best Blue card you could ever imagine in a deck like this, and the low cost of adding Blue seemed to suggest that it was requisite – that was one of the changes that Paul and I made to the deck. When Mirrodin was leaked, the very first card I was told about was Spoils of the Vault, and the very first thing I said was”Oh my God, that replaces Tainted Pact in Mask.” Well, after the whole set was released, here is what I threw together for a first trial run:
4 Chrome Mox
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mana Crypt
4 Dark Ritual
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
4 Underground Sea
4 Polluted Delta
3 Swamp
4 Illusionary Mask
4 Phyrexian Dreadnought
4 Phyrexian Negator
4 Spoils of the Vault
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Consultation
1 Necropotence
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
1 Time Walk
1 Ancestral Recall
4 Duress
2 Unmask
4 Hymn To Tourach
After a dozen test games, I came to some preliminary conclusions which held true. Spoils of the Vault was amazing. Chrome Mox seemed decent, but made the deck inconsistent. Unmask was incredible… And the blue just didn’t work anymore.
Getting multiple Chrome Moxen just didn’t work at all, as there weren’t two cards you wanted to pitch to get it active. Cutting them for Swamps was the final major change this deck needed. I found myself imprinting Ancestral Recall onto the Chrome Mox (and Time Walk) because I preferred to play the combo on turn 1 against a prison deck than a power card. Miraculously, after we made the necessary adjustments, the deck ended up exactly as we wanted it.
Chrome Mox is generally a better card in Type 1 than Mox Diamond. The reason is rather straightforward – Type 1 decks have a tendency towards less lands, rather than more – and Combo, the Type 1 deck that could best use more Moxen, are inherently land light. As such, Mox Diamond is almost always a heavier burden to bear than Chrome Mox at getting one mana for the cost of two cards.
It is my sincere hope that Spoils of the Vault does not become a candidate for restriction simply because it’s a cheap tutor. If you have a situation where you know you’ll win if you just get that Black Lotus, with Demonic Consultation you can tutor it up, and as long as it’s not in the top six cards, you win. With Spoils, tutoring for restricted cards is far, far too risky unless you are absolutely desperate in the worst way. Since Spoils targets are, by necessity, unrestricted cards, I don’t think Spoils of the Vault will be a problem at all as long as Lion’s Eye Diamond is restricted. Spoils is the truly balanced tutor Type 1 has needed.
I highly recommend this deck as a tournament deck. If two Mask decks can make top 8 at GenCon before Spoils was introduced, and considering how much the deck has improved with the addition of Spoils of the Vault – maybe you should seriously consider playing it now. When Lion’s Eye Diamond is restricted, this is going to be strictly A-list material. If you enjoy smashing face as much as I do – and by smashing face I mean crushing someone so hard that it’s demoralizing, I highly recommend you try this deck.