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by Gandalf
Deck Genesis: Gandalf's Strategy from 0 to 60 I have always been in favor of the weenie-swarm concept, ever since I first made my Super Six-Turn Goblin Deck, and for weenie decks you basically get three choices: Black, Red, or White. These are often the best choices because: White has Swords to Plowshares, Savannah Lions, Wrath of God, and Armageddon; Red has countless Direct Damage spells, and Black has discard, Drain Life, Hypnotic Specter, and Dark Ritual. Green or green/white has been popular recently with Snake Basket, Sacred Mesa, and Kjeldoran Outpost to supplement the usual Elves, Dervishes, and Centaurs. Fifth Edition, however, has shifted the balance. White Weenie decks lose Savannah Lions and StP, and Red loses Dragon Whelp and Lightning Bolt. Black loses the Hypnotic Specters that went so well with early Dark Rituals, but gains the Abysmal (uh, Abyssal) Specter, Knights of Stromgald, Necropotence, and Pox. Although Necro is back, I don’t think that the original-style Necrodeck could be resurrected with no Hymns, Hyppies, Strips, Zuran Orb, Ivory Tower, and only 4 Pump Knights; so I don’t plan on using it unless I end up using some bizarre Sligh-Necrodeck (read: Bentley’s Necro), and I would rather use Pox as a wicked equalizer for a weenie deck. Pox is easily one of the most destructive cards in the game, right up with Balance, as it affects lands, creatures, cards in hand, and life totals. And no Black deck would be complete without the usual 4x Nevinyrral’s Disk, giving anti-permanent abilities to an otherwise weak color for card-removal. So far I will plan on using several defensive spells: 4x Nevinyrral’s Disk, 2x Pox, and 3x Choking Sands for the Glaciers and Outposts that turn up everywhere. 4x Stupor for the usual early- to mid-game disruption, and 4x Quicksand plus a Contagion for additional creature control. The Quicksands will be great against the Orders of the White Shield that are bound to pop up, as well as for Ball Lightnings and Viashino Sandstalkers. So far, I am planning on making subtle card-advantage techniques build up, one by one, to create a strong advantage in the late game. Disks can blow up whatever hits the table, Pox can be wisely used to have a greater effect upon them than it has upon me. Stupor for the ususal one-for-two trade, and a Contagion that can kill or negate two creatures for the cost of one card. I will also use 2x Thawing Glaciers, which allows for better late-game draws and again falls into the slow card advantage concept. Some would call this merely card efficiency, but the effect this can have upon the late game is pretty strong, if the game drags on that long. Visions has granted a boon on this type of deck; two great, cheap creatures (Tar Pit Warrior and Fallen Askari), Nekrataal (fits into the card-advantage and creature removal themes), and the Pillar Tombs of Aku. Tar Pit Warriors, called derisively by some Arm Pit Warriors, are great, cheap creatures unless you’re playing against a deck that can easily and cheaply eliminate them by their target effect, and with Icy Manipulator, Serrated Arrows, and Erhnam Djinn rotated out of Type II play, most decks won’t have a efficient way of dealing with them that is different from how they handle normal creatures. Fallen Askari is a good, cheap creature that just brushes right past Pump Knights thanks to its Flanking abilities; and I greatly prefer them to Erg Raiders for their flanking effect and also becuase you may choose not to attack with them. If an Amber Prison hits play when you have a Raiders, it’s just not pretty. I’ll plan on 2 Nekrataals, as the cost is a bit high to use more. The Pillar Tombs of Aku will only make it if I have plenty of creatures, even though the Pillar Tombs-Nevinyrral’s Disk combo definitely beats Kaervek’s Spite in usefulness. So far my planned creature base is 4x Abyssal Specter, 4x Fallen Askari, 2x Nekrataal, 4x Tar Pit Warrior, and 4x Knight of Stromgald. That makes for 18 creatures, definitely classifying it as a weenie deck, so I will use the Pillar Tombs if I haven’t run out of cards already.
That makes 36 nonland cards. As this is a weenie deck, mostly cheap spells, I can get away with having only 20 lands that produce mana, plus the 2 Thawing Glaciers, because I can live without having exactly 4 lands in play by turn 4. There is no need for Diamonds, as this should develop rapidly enough and they get wiped away by the Disk. That leaves me the room I need for 2x Pillar Tombs of Aku, which wil work wonders at whittling defenses away for my creatures or costing my opponent 5 life, damage that cannot be Shadowbaned, CoP: Blacked, or Greater Realmed away. And with my own 18 creatures, I can be certain that my opponent has fewer than me at all times, especially thanks to my slow-building card advantage theory. The final deck, then, is:
The deck statistics look like this:
Very nice. The few artifacts and enchantments mean that most of my spells will have an immediate effect upon the game by either attacking or providing some other instantaneous function. For a weenie deck, this is pretty close to target, although a straight Blitz deck would have 4 or 6 more creatures, such as Black Knights, Skulking Ghosts, and Cadaverous Knights. The high level of card advantage / card efficient cards is very high, which again shows the possible advantages that can be reaped in the late game. Several of my creatures don’t fall directly into that theory, such as the Pump Knights, which can again be used to reap an advantage by their Protection from White, Inflatability, and First Strike abilities, or Fallen Askari with its Flanking ability. The high level of card advantage possibilites make this deck playable two ways: as either a straight weenie deck, with the usual fast offensive/Disk letting creatures get through early and often, or as an intelligent weenie deck, like the Necrodeck. The Necrodeck usually has very few sources of card advantage, usually just the Necropotences themselves, Disks, and maybe a Contagion or two. The high level of card advantage possibilities could slowly reap in a solid advantage; while the Necrodeck is blatantly obvious in its card-drawing abilities while trying to maintain card parity with the opponent, this weenie deck is more subtle and can often lead to similar results in the late game by breaking past the card parity concept to create a card advantage without the help of cantrips, Jayemdae Tome, or Necropotence. I like it, because that means that players will be less prepared for it when it strikes. In the first game, a White player will save the Disenchants for a Necropotence that will never come, hesitating at the Disk and Pillar Tombs as they consider which card is the greater threat. The cool part is, that it can work both ways. This deck, with the sole exception of the Chicken Riders instead of my poor lost Hypnotic Specters, is a classic fast weenie deck. But another player can win just as well by using the card-advantage opportunities to win in the late game, although it should also hit early against opponents who are not using a fast weenie deck, such as Counter-Hammer or Counterpost. Now, as to a sideboard..... White permanents, such as Karma, will give this and every other straight-black deck serious problems, so the customary 4x Dystopia will fit in here. Perhaps 2 Glooms as well, to muck up the Sacred Mesas, Greater Realms and COP: Blacks that will be floating around. 2x Disrupting Scepter for Counterspell decks, which work great if dropped early, especially through a Dark Ritual on the first turn followed by fast mana development. 2x Contagion to replace the Nekrataals against other black decks, and also against straight weenie decks. Another Choking Sands, or perhaps 2x Desolation, for against slow-developing decks or more white decks. Desolation should also work well against counterspell decks, forcing them to sacrifice a land if they wish to be able to counter my spells. An Evil Eye of Orms-By-Gore against decks that use one or more Wraths or Disks, as his drawback is small if I have no other creatures. With 2 spots left, I would use 2x Lodestone Bauble for against Armageddon and Jokulhaups decks, although that spot may change to 2x Anvil of Bogardan if I have problems with Necrodecks rather than mass-landkill decks.
Now, going back to Deck Genesis #2 for my Fifth Edition updated deck listing. As I suspected I am running with more Counterspells than before, and I was unable to satisfactorily replace Mishra’s Factory. The deck looks like this at the moment:
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