For some time now I’ve felt like the archetypes of Ravnica were clearly defined and there was little room to wiggle in terms of creativity during drafting or deckbuilding. All of the common archetypes have been discussed by me or by other regular writers already and I think we’re all eagerly awaiting the release of Guildpact to shake things up a bit.
As far as rogue archetypes in this format, Ken Krouner did an interesting piece on the Cloudstone Curio and Savra archetypes, and there has been some other writing out there as well. Triple Ravnica just doesn’t have the room for innovation that other stand-alone sets have had in the past in my opinion.
This week I wanted to discuss an archetype that is somewhat rogue, but still well known and that is the U/B aggro deck. Most players are now well aware of the power of U/B mill in RRR, and some also like to draft the aggro deck, but what I want to discuss is something entirely different.
Say you get into a draft and you start off taking some Dimir cards and looking to hopefully draft the mill archetype. For whatever reason, things go bad and you end up having to take all of these marginal cards like Thoughtpicker Witch that aren’t really that good in the mill deck. Eventually you decide to switch out and try to salvage some sort of aggro build since you know it’s too late in the draft to get enough mill cards to form a solid deck.
It’s at this point that most of you are missing some very viable options in the U/B aggro builds! The U/B aggro deck is well suited to “audible” into a weird combo deck yet most people never do it.
Sure, we all know Snapping Drake and Dimir House-Guard are good evasion creatures, but my suspicion is that most people don’t know the ins and outs of the aggro archetype because they are so used to drafting the mill deck (and rightly so).
Ladies and Gentlemen, please let me introduce you to a well-kept secret.
Necromantic Thirst
You’ve met this little guy before, it’s the card you end up passing 14th a lot that nobody ever ends up playing. Some of you probably still don’t even know what it does because you’ve never actually seen it in play.
This card is the backbone of the audible plan I talked about above and you can set up a number if interesting combos with it. The first and most obvious is to just put it on an evasion creature and use it to get back guys that have died so that you will ensure that you win any attrition war. Don’t forget that you’re also doing damage while digging back men.
The best target by far for the Thirst is the Dimir House Guard, since once it is on him only a few cards in the format can actually stop him from getting to work. He regenerates from pretty much everything and also can no longer be targeted by Brainspoil thanks to the enchantment. Of course any evasion creature will work here and the Dimir Infiltrator is a saucy little target as well as sometimes the House Guard won’t be able to get through.
Another important use of the Thirst is that it can allow you to create a soft lock in combination with Thoughtpicker Witch to keep your opponent from drawing anything good. Since you’ll be casting a cheap creature for free every turn you can use that to deny your opponent any good draws off of the top.
Of course you’ll want to watch out for getting two for one’d in the process of playing the Thirst, and it may be advisable to first put a Strands of Undeath on the Thirst target so that you can clear out your opponent’s hand as well as have regeneration online.
Sadistic Augermage
Yes, this guy is pretty much terrible on his own.
However, when you combine him with Necromantic Thirst and a sacrifice outlet, you can draw step lock your opponent for the rest of the game. The best way to assemble this combo of course is to put the Thirst onto a House-Guard and then simply sacrifice the Augermage every turn at the end of your opponent’s turn (so that he can still block and stack damage if necessary) and dig him up and replay him on your own turn. Once your opponent gets down to zero cards in hand, you can simply start sacrificing him during their draw step to ensure they never see a new card again. This is, of course, provided that the board is stable in your favor.
If you can’t get a House Guard for whatever reason, you can simply put the Thirst on another evasion guy, preferably Dimir Infiltrator, and use Thoughtpicker Witch to start the engine.
One of the other nice things about this combo is that you’re almost guaranteed to get one or two Necromantic Thirsts since nobody else takes them (and I wouldn’t play more than two) and if not you can simply Transmute for your lone copy with Perplex or Drift of Phantasms.
Dimir Infiltrator
This is where the other benefit of the Necromantic Thirst comes in, as you can use Transmute to generate card advantage by then digging up the Drift or Infiltrator later on in the game.
The Infiltrator serves so many purposes in this deck, whether it’s carrying a Necromantic Thirst, searching for Last Gasp, or again just Transmuting to generate card advantage later in the game. Don’t forget that if nothing else, he’s still a 1/3 unblockable that will add to your clock and I’d be happy to play multiples of this guy every time.
Surveiling Sprite
This card is always mediocre for me in the mill archetype, but really shines in the aggro build.
Notice that it serves a lot of the same purposes as Dimir Infiltrator and is also a combo with the Necromantic Thirst and a sacrifice outlet to start allowing you to draw two cards a turn while also using Thoughtpicker Witch to keep your opponent from drawing out of the soft lock. This guy is simply excellent in the archetype even if he is doing nothing more than chump blocking and coming back later.
Thoughtpicker Witch
I’ve been talking about this card throughout the article so far and she really is a valuable piece of the puzzle if you choose to go down this path during a draft. She provides a sac outlet while also setting up your opponent’s draws and possibly even providing a win condition by himself. It’s because of this card that I’ve splashed multiple Golgari Germinations into the same U/B deck in the past as well as tried out other cards like Bloodbond March (which works well with lots of Infiltrators).
Lurking Informant
This guy is still being underrated and he is just spectacular in any U/B build. I’ve used multiples of these guys to lock people out of the game whether I’m in the mill deck or not. He works well in combination with Thoughtpicker Witch and Wizened Snitches too, and both of those are good cards in this archetype. I would pick this guy relatively highly and I like having one or two in any type of U/B deck.
So hopefully you get the idea here behind the basic combo you can employ into an otherwise normal U/B aggro deck. Some other nice creatures to recur with the Thirst are Infectious Host, Keening Banshee, or Netherborn Phalanx.
You can do some other interesting things with this deck by discarding a large monster to Compulsive Research (Mindleech Mass perhaps) and then reanimating it on turn 4 with Vigor Mortis. The same trick works with Dimir Doppelganger and either Lore Broker or Compulsive Research, as I’ve had an attacking Szadek, Lord of Secrets on turn 4 before using that combo. Finally, you could go for broke and Transmute Grozoth and then reanimate it. I’m not sure what this would accomplish, but at least it would be funny.
Your main intentions when drafting this deck still are to pick up the evasion creatures and removal first, and then look to draft the combo pieces with your later picks as it makes it harder for opponents to defend against your deck when you come at them from a lot of angles. If they just think that you are an aggro deck they may make a play that leaves them completely open to getting locked out of a draw step or otherwise abused by the Thirst.
Removal comes first and then Dimir House Guard, as he is the leader of the pack in terms of evasion creatures. You should be able to pick up plenty of Thoughtpicker Witches and Necromantic Thirsts on your later picks so I wouldn’t be too worried about not getting those. Don’t be afraid to splash some Green for Golgari Rotwurm or Shambling Shell, or even Savra if you get a chance at her.
Finally, don’t forget that you can use your own milling effects to power up a Necromantic Thirst if you don’t have any good targets in the graveyard already. I find that Dredging a Stinkweed Imp usually does the trick in this situation.
Here’s a sample decklist:
2 Thoughtpicker Witch
Surveiling Sprite
Roofstalker Wight
3 Dimir Infiltrator
Drift of Phantasms
Stinkweed Imp
Sadistic Augermage
Snapping Drake
Moroii
2 Dimir House-Guard
Tattered Drake
Netherborn Phalanx
Vedalken Dismisser
Disembowel
Last Gasp
Compulsive Research
2 Necromantic Thirst
Strands of Undeath
Hopefully I have provided some new things for you to think about when you decide to draft U/B in triple Ravnica. Remember too that you can still use things like Vedalken Entrancer in this deck as an alternate win condition in combination with Thoughtpicker Witch or Lurking Informants. I suggest that you at least try out the Necromantic Thirst plan, but make sure that you also have other things going on in your deck or it will be too easy for someone to disrupt it.
The information I’ve provided here should supplement the basic U/B aggro strategy, but remember that your main goal is still usually to win with evasion creatures and removal.
Nick Eisel
Soooooo on MODO
[email protected]