Infect… poison… necrotic ooze… sometimes in the wee hours of the night, waking from a fevered slumber, I don’t know if I’m brewing something for States or living a nightmare as a nurse battling the Super Flu during the first third of
The Stand. Captain Trips was a bitch, but it was only the beginning.
Baby, can you dig your man? He’s a righteous man… I think we can all be thankful Mr. King took up a career as a novelist and not a songwriter — not least of all, Mrs. King.
Cooling the Infection
The righteous man in me has settled in on Necrotic Ooze for
The 2010s State Championships, though the rhythm of that groove has yet to be determined. I really wanted to go with an infect-based deck, because I’m pretty sure most people have dismissed it as just not good enough. Regrettably, too many people have written about Infect with the deadly
but
— as in, “infect just doesn’t have enough good cards to be a good deck,
but…”
The deadly
but
of you better still be prepared for the bad players playing the bad deck that just might get there because they drew the lucky double Giant Growth hand.
Yeah, I’ll blame Zac Hill for that one, Zac’s Mono-Green Weenie Infect plus about one million instant Giant Growth effects, the deck he brought to the Prerelease and then
splashed all over Wizards’ home page:
The problem I see with this sort of deck is that it’s fragile as all heck, and there are obviously terrible situations where you end up drawing all your creature pump spells and your couple of creatures get killed early and you’re floundering around with not much to do. It’s good for a surprise, and it’ll probably make FNMs for the upcoming two years a scary place sometimes… but saying
Surprise!
the second time isn’t nearly as fun. People are on the lookout for the tricks.
The beast is loose in the streets of Bethlehem, the rats are in the corn.
Instead, I think perhaps you’ve got to take some lessons from the Hatred deck from years ago. There are some parallels, no? You’ve got weenie creatures and then
BOOM!
Out of nowhere, you’re dead a lot quicker than you’d expect.
Brian David-Marshall wrote about
the Hatred deck back in 2002
and it’s an interesting read. Here’s the deck in question:
Creatures (16)
Lands (20)
Spells (24)
- 4 Duress
- 4 Sarcomancy
- 4 Dark Ritual
- 3 Unmask
- 4 Demonic Consultation
- 1 Spinning Darkness
- 1 Kaervek's Spite
- 3 Hatred
Sideboard
I think you’ve got to have disruption — a way to know if the coast is clear for you to go all-in on your fragile poison-bearer. What do we get if we use Hatred as an example?
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Twenty creatures |
Your infect crew, TBD |
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Four kill cards (Hatred, Spite) |
Groundswell if we have enough landfall, or Giant Growth |
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Four acceleration spells |
Lotus Cobra offers pretty explosive mana |
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Seven disruption spells |
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One removal spell, four tutors |
Other Stuff, including four more lands, since Hatred ran twenty |
So using Hatred as a guide, how about something like this?
Creatures (23)
- 4 Lotus Cobra
- 4 Ichorclaw Myr
- 4 Plague Stinger
- 3 Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon
- 4 Hand of the Praetors
- 4 Cystbearer
Lands (25)
Spells (12)
Pleased to meet you, Lloyd. Hope you guess my name.
Livewire Lash doesn’t really fit the model, but it’s the perfect card for this sort of deck, boosting an infect creature’s power, allowing your equipped infect dude to lash out for two if he gets targeted by your opponent, or just combo with your own Groundswell. A flying Plague Stinger equipped with the Lash and pumped with a landfall-enabled Groundswell is worth nine points of poison!
I was torn between loading up with more smaller infect dudes (which is more true to the “Hatred” style of deckbuilding) or going big with Skithiryx… but I eventually decided that today’s Standard is so filled with really good small creatures that bending your deck so far in that direction could really open yourself up to a Pyroclasmatic disaster. I’ve also come around on Ichorclaw Myr, since you’d really prefer to keep infect dudes around as long as possible, and Ichorclaw is harder to kill in combat than Necropede.
Of course, given all the thought I’ve put into infect, I still waver. I mean, I never played Hatred back in the day. I’m not a beatdown kinda guy. The mechanic is far from under the radar, and it’s not even being all
that
underestimated as a deck, even though I think the infect cards are definitely being underestimated.
Oozing on a Saturday Afternoon
So, my new friend Necrotic Ooze… how am I going to win with you?
Exploring options with the Ooze has been both fun and frustrating. First of all, researching all the creatures in Standard that have activated abilities yields an interesting list of possibilities. Here are the ones I found worth considering:
- Bazaar Trader
- Birds of Paradise
- Bloodshot Trainee
- Bloodthrone Vampire
- Cunning Sparkmage
- Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief
- Fauna Shaman (naturally)
- Geth, Lord of the Vault
- Gigantomancer
- Hoard-Smelter Dragon
- Kalitas, Bloodchief of Ghet
- Molten-Tail Masticore
- Myr Propagator
- Reckless Scholar
- Royal Assassin + Merfolk Seastalkers (heh)
- Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon
- Soliton
- Spawnsire of Ulamog
- Sphinx of Magosi
- Spikeshot Elder
- Steel Hellkite
- Stoneforge Mystic
- Sylvok Replica
- Vampire Hexmage
- Vector Asp + Magmaw?
- Vengeful Archon
There are a ton of fun and interesting interactions here… but which ones are strong enough to build a competitive deck around that could win States?
One other thought I had was trying to abuse some leveler action, since levelling’s an activated ability. So using Transcendent Master in the graveyard for cheap colorless Leveling of the Ooze you, could quickly turn on the abilities of Enclave Cryptologist, Joraga Treespeaker, Kazandu Tuskcaller, and Brimstone Mage. Nothing too earth-shattering there, but they could be handy.
One very interesting card on the list is Soliton, which obviously begs the question—is there a way that we can make Necrotic Ooze tap for two mana, one of which is blue, to generate an amount formally known as infinite mana? I only see two options, one of which involves Soliton and a Mul Daya Channelers in the graveyard, one in play so you can reveal the top of your library, and a land revealed on top.
Creatures (31)
- 4 Llanowar Elves
- 4 Elvish Archdruid
- 3 Nissa's Chosen
- 4 Joraga Treespeaker
- 4 Mul Daya Channelers
- 1 Spawnsire of Ulamog
- 4 Fauna Shaman
- 1 Sylvan Ranger
- 3 Necrotic Ooze
- 2 Ezuri, Renegade Leader
- 1 Soliton
Planeswalkers (3)
Lands (24)
- 16 Forest
- 4 Swamp
- 4 Verdant Catacombs
Spells (2)
So the idea with the infinite mana is to use Spawnsire’s twenty-mana ability to unlock your sideboard and start dropping Eldrazi beatings: All Is Dust if you need it, then Emrakul, Ulamog, and Kozilek — why not get the band back together?
The other option I see is Soliton and Harabaz Druid in the graveyard with at least two Allies in play:
Creatures (36)
- 2 Kabira Evangel
- 4 Kazandu Blademaster
- 4 Ondu Cleric
- 4 Oran-Rief Survivalist
- 3 Sea Gate Loremaster
- 4 Hada Freeblade
- 4 Harabaz Druid
- 1 Tuktuk Scrapper
- 1 Spawnsire of Ulamog
- 4 Fauna Shaman
- 1 Sylvan Ranger
- 3 Necrotic Ooze
- 1 Soliton
Lands (24)
The approach here is similar, though I tried to lean more towards an Ally beatdown start with a combo finish if necessary. What’s kinda funny in both decks is the Necrotic Ooze being able to gain abilities from dead Elves or Allies that count the number of Elves or Allies in play, but not being able to count towards the total.
What the hell are you doing? Don’t screw with my disco, Nadine!
Necrotic Elves is probably a stronger build, needing less funky mana and only having to play three non-tribal cards — since Fauna Shaman is an Elf, not an Ally.
(Well, that and the Ooze itself — T.F.)
Still, there’s some strong appeal for the Necrotic Ally deck, with its cross-set craziness — Zendikar’s allies, plus M11’s Fauna Shaman, plus Scars of Mirrodin’s Necrotic Ooze, with Rise’s Eldrazi finish.
Of course, I am still kicking around my “Oooze Rock” deck, which isn’t looking to go arbitrarily large. Pretty much the best silliness it’s going to go nuts with is making a bunch of 7/7s to regulate life totals.
Creatures (32)
- 4 Birds of Paradise
- 4 Lotus Cobra
- 2 Vampire Hexmage
- 4 Arrogant Bloodlord
- 1 Cadaver Imp
- 1 Gigantomancer
- 3 Vengevine
- 4 Fauna Shaman
- 1 Steel Hellkite
- 2 Sylvok Replica
- 1 Molten-Tail Masticore
- 4 Necrotic Ooze
- 1 Myr Propagator
Lands (24)
Spells (4)
Arrogant Bloodlord got added once I realized I didn’t exactly have any decent-sized creatures before I got to four mana, and even then all of my fours died to Lightning Bolt. A 4/4 for three that can’t be hit with Doom Blade is actually quite resilient, provided he’s not having to run up against Wall of Omens. Leatherback Baloth is an even better option — but that three green mana might be a bit much when I’m need two black mana for Oozing.
Myr Propagator is an experiment, considering it might be helpful to make copies of the Ooze you can then sacrifice as a Vampire Hexmage or Replica over and over for just three or four mana.
Strangely enough, I’m not really digging Vengevine too much in these builds, especially considering the best “engine” you can cook up to reliably gravespring the Vines in black/green is Cadaver Imp. Cutting that part gives you four slots you can use for a few more sturdy creatures like Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief; Malakir Bloodwitch, or even Obstinate Baloth.
Of course, maybe I’m trying to play too fair here. The only rumblings I hear about Necrotic Ooze besides my own are folks considering it for the “Dredge Vine” decks. Take a look at something like this:
Creatures (36)
- 4 Birds of Paradise
- 4 Hedron Crab
- 4 Lotus Cobra
- 4 Enclave Cryptologist
- 1 Gigantomancer
- 4 Renegade Doppelganger
- 4 Vengevine
- 4 Fauna Shaman
- 3 Molten-Tail Masticore
- 4 Necrotic Ooze
Lands (24)
I have mega-respect for this archetype after one guy playing the very first incarnation had to mulligan down to three cards and
still
kicked my ass… And that was after I nuked his first two lands with Terastodon.
Of course, going “all-in” on a graveyard strategy scares the crap out of me considering the caliber of graveyard hate available with Bojuka Bog and Nihil Spellbomb (and how easy either of them are to search up with Primeval Titans and Trinket Mage). And it’s not as if this basic strategy isn’t well known by now. Even so, it’s hard to argue that this might not be the most powerful option for playing Necrotic Ooze.
As I write this up, I’m still desperately trying to figure out something that feels good to me — like many of you probably are, too. Hopefully though, by the time you read this on Friday, I’ll have settled on something fun and powerful that’ll give me another shot at States glory. Second place last year certainly reignited the desire — but will I have the skills, cards and luck to make the Stand?
M-O-O-N, that spells State Champ! … or maybe 0-2 drop, not quite sure yet! Good luck everyone, and check my Twitter if you want to see how my day goes. If you’re coming to
States in Richmond, come by and say hello and don’t forget that StarCityGames.com
holding a PTQ in the same spot on Sunday, so stay overnight and kick some Limited behind!
EDH Post-Script
So last week I tried my hand for the first time setting up a poll on Google Docs. The question was
Which Scars of Mirrodin legend would you most like to see me build an EDH deck around?
The votes have been tallied and…
We have a tie. Apparently the black legends have their fans!
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251 |
31.0% |
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251 |
31.0% |
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238 |
29.4% |
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70 |
8.6% |
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Kemba put up a strong fight, though — less than two percentage points behind the leaders — so I definitely think I’ll take the time to sleeve together a Kemba EDH deck down the road, but for now it appears that I’ll be crafting both a Geth and a Skithiryx to play and share with you all in the very near future.
By the way — no love for Ezuri? Talk about getting smoked in the polls! Of course, I guess it wouldn’t be but so interesting cooking up another mono-green Elf deck.
This was my first experiment with setting up a poll form through Google docs so it was funny that I somehow accidentally included an extra field below the multiple choice section called Sample Question 1 that people could fill in if they chose. I even tried to delete the field when I first noticed it, but then I started getting some amusing random comments from you all so I left it up to see what you all might say when given the chance to just riff on an open field. Here’s a sample of what was shared:
Bennie, are there enough cool X effects now for a Rosheen Meanderer EDH deck?
Sure, why not?
Do you think people don’t play enough graveyard hate?
In EDH? Probably not. Which is fine, considering I love my graveyard with all my heart.
HORRAY
Holla!
How do I shot web?
Step 1: get bit by a radioactive spider.
meow
Tom Gustafson, please don’t shave your poor snoring cat this winter!
more cowbell
Always can use more cowbell, Larry Underwood.
poop
Benjamin J. Bleiweiss, is that you?
Proliferate!
Yeah!
Proliferate, proliferate, proliferate!!
HELL YEAH!!
So, Chainer is better in a lot of ways, but this Guy can unearth Artifacts, pls something with Oblivion Stone/Nevinyrral’s Disk and so on to get ya Opponents Artifacts in Grave, maybe Gate to Phyrexia xDDD*I know he mills too*^^
Hold up Geth’s card next to Chainer’s card. Who looks like the bigger badass? We all know who…
toilet extravaganza
I do believe I’ve never seen those two words put together before! Bravo!
What is the flight velocity of a laden European Swallow?
It depends on whether you are talking about an African or European swallow. The airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow is roughly eleven meters per second, or twenty-four miles per hour, beating its wings seven to nine times per second (rather than forty-three). But please note that a five-ounce bird cannot carry a one-pound coconut.
what is this?
You stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.
Who was phone?
Sorry, Alex — I got nothing.
Will this be the block that makes colorless EDH viable? Karn for general, 2011!!
Dude named Josh kicked our asses a few times with an EDH Karn deck a couple years back, so I think it’s already viable, if you can pull the mana base for it together.
Words!
What would we say without them?
Yes!
I take it you like the open field? Maybe I’ll keep including it on future polls… then again, maybe I’ll be unable to figure out how
not
to include one…
Are you familiar with the literary land where Lt. Dan met Mr. Hand?
Take care,
Bennie
starcitygeezer AT gmail DOT com
Make sure to friend/follow me at:
http://twitter.com/blairwitchgreen
http://community.wizards.com/blairwitchgreen
New to EDH? Be sure to check out my EDH Primer,part 1,
part 2, and part 3.
My current EDH decks:
UNDER CONSTRUCTION!!!