Lands:
5 Swamp
3 Mountain
3 Tainted Peak
4 Badlands
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Terramorphic Expanse
Creatures:
4 Mephidross Vampire
4 Deathbringer Thoctar
4 Vampire Aristocrat
4 Shadow Guildmage
4 Blood Pet
3 Rakdos Ickspitter
3 Vampire Nocturnus
3 Mesmeric Fiend
1 Mirri the Cursed
1 Ascendant Evincar
Other Spells:
3 Gorgon Flail
3 Grave Pact |
  Death's
Theatre of Night.
Description of deck by its author
(quoted):
When night falls onto the planes... The
so-called "good" humans and humanoids don't rule the planes anymore, and
the hunt begins. For the creatures of the night, the damned, and those
that chose the path out of free will crave something... Some lust for
blood, others for might, others are simply willing to be sacrificed in
order to fulfill one last purpose, in their death, and serve their dark
masters. Other creatures of the night are just... there... Part of a
theater of horrors. Nightmares are as much part of the dream world as
shadow is part of a world bathed in the sun's light. But you will not
see the sun's light here...
All of them creatures have one thing in common... They
want the night to be THEIRS, and THEIRS alone. Whoever has even the
slightest aura of "goodness, purity or galantry" about them... Doesn't
belong in here, and has to die. Be consumed by the night. For the
theater of night paints the stage red with the essence of life itself...
Gameplay: Your early drops are usually a couple of
cheap creatures, and if need be, pingers or the Gorgon Flail. That one
curves nicely with the pinger routine of Ikspitter and Guildmage. At 7
pingers, chances are, one sticks. Your opponent WILL have to handle that
one, if the flail is around. Swiftly.
The deathtouch equipment goes so well with Mirri its
not even funny. She is practically unblockable safe from Pro-Blackers,
and can serve as a super-enhanced blocking machine you simply cannot get
past. I always wanted to put her to good use, and here, she finally
shines. I might edit the deck at a later point, as I am not happy with
her as a one-of, as she goes awesomely well with the pinger routine,
too. We shall see.
The ultimate goal of the deck is, of course,
Deathbringer Thoctar. Beeing decently obnoxious, he cleans the board
pretty much as soon as he hits it, or one turn after that. Usually, you
have either drawn into Gorgon Flail for pinging dead each and everyone,
if you please, OR you have drawn the super-cool Mephidross Vampire,
which means you can go on all day long as you never run out of counters.
Either way: Board control ought to be doable, with that one in addition
to Grave Pact, 7 Pingers, a deathtouch equipment and 2 legends that can
REALLY offset the balance. The first counter is provided by one of the
several weenies that die, or by killing an opposing creature with one of
the rest of the team. Which goes pretty darn well with Grave Pact, as
you'll get 2 counters out of it, that way, one for your own creature,
one for the opposing one. As has been said by Someone (sameone) Serious:
"Double the Gun, Double the Fun..."
Synergies: Grave Pact and sacrifice effects are
awesome. Plain Awesome. If they curve nicely, thats even better. If you
happen to run out of sacrifice effects, and you have gravepact on the
board, you can always use your pingers for a one-use-only Chainers
Edict, in that they can ping themselves. Since you REALLY have a decent
board control routine, the Grave Pact can really shine, as you are sorta
certain you will be hitting something decent. All small guys will die to
the pingers or the Evincar, probably. The Gravepact gets pretty good,
too, when you have gotten the Deathbringer Thoctar onto the board. You
get twice the counters, can take down pretty much most of the board
after a few sacrifices, too... Or simply enjoy your large beast and the
ability to hit your opponent post-attack for one for each counter on it.
Usually should be enough in a few attacks, really.
The Vampire Nocturnus is really really really useful,
here. Of course... When Vampire Aristocrat gains flying and +2/+1,
alongside a 5/4 flier, and a deck full of expendables... Things can get
out of hand very swiftly. But even cooler is the synergy bonus of 8
fetch lands and knowing the top card of your library at all times.
Really helps a combo deck, you know... But it gets REALLY exiting in a
31 creature deck when you manage to drop a Mephidross Vampire. You see,
30 creatures, quite a number of them beeing rather small, have been
chosen for a reason. When you get to 6 mana (sometimes aided by
I-allow-for-a-gap-in-the-mana-curve Mr Blood Pet himself, who goes VERY
well with Thoctar even IF you have 6 lands in play, but also goes well
with Death Pact no matter how many lands you have in play), your team
will suddenly fly with the nocturnus. And have a decent front. Not
always you have to wait for the Thoctar to take the game. Mephidross and
Vampire Nocturnus is so much part Overrun you will win games with your
weenies just because of their number.
Aristocrat and Mesmeric Fiend allow for the classic
trick of sacing the Fiend before its comes into play trigger resolves,
permanently ridding your opponent of a card and gaining +2/+2 in the
process. Had to be done, you know...
Ikspitter has been chosen over the much-more-powerful
Goblin Sharpshooter for three reasons (the least important one first): I
expect to see him in this contest a LOT. Wanted something else, for
flavor reasons a thrull seemed perfect, even though he HAS already been
posted... But oh well... Second, I wanted as many cards in the deck to
be black, to really pull the Vampire Nocturnus trick as often as
possible. And, most importantly: I wanted the deck to have a REALLY
really really really BLACK feel to it. A creature dissolving from the
inside and spitting toxic remains of itself just went so well with
Nightmares, Grave Pacts, Vampires, and Zombies. The deck managed to
really wonderfully FEEL and play like a night underminded by Vampires,
as soon as Mephidross hits, and turns everything INTO a vampire...
That's so much fun... So I didn't want to spoil the flavor by card
choices for power reasons. The Sharpshooter simply didn't seem sinister
enough for my purposes... |
