He’s the King of class, he’ll kick your ass, sea bass! Mr. Vault Ninja, the Ultimate Headache of Wizards of the Coast! Whole formats were built and then were banned based on this little one mana creature, and now he’s ready for some more action. He’s back ladies and gentlemen, for the first time since… wait, what’s this? He never left? Well, oops. That’s rather embarrassing.

Embarrassing, but true. Vault Ninja, for those of you who don’t know, is Disciple of the Vault (who was printed and got his nickname before Ninjas were actually a type in Magic, go figure), and he was at the root of some of most broken decks in a Standard format long ago and far away. Ravager Affinity, or just Raffinity, used this little dandy along with Arcbound Ravager and cheap Affinity artifacts to pump out a deadly stream of creatures that would eventually culminate in 11 or 12 +1/+1 counters on an Ornithopter, equipped with Cranial Plating swinging at your face (to add a cherry on top of that pain sundae, you had probably already lost 10 life from the Vault Ninja).

Raw power is what the Vault Ninja is, and we’re going to tap into that power for this week’s Raiding the Dollar Bins.

Disciple of the Vault started out kind of like Necropotence did. People thought it was an interesting card, but it didn’t seem all that powerful. Then, someone came along and broke it, and created the mess of Ravager Affinity that we know and despise today. Vault Ninja is one of the main reasons why you’d lose so quickly to Ravager Affinity, because he’d make an aggro deck into an aggro combo deck. All Ravager Affinity had to do if they had Disciple of the Valut in play was to attack once or twice with a creature or two, get your opponent down to about 12 life, and then sacrifice your entire board to deal the rest of the 12 in life loss. Not a very fun game to play against, let me tell you.

Back during that time, I was playing Bw Clerics, and it got to be so terrible to play against Raffinity that I was playing 4 of my own Disciple of the Vault, and 4 Misery Charm (which kills a Cleric, which fortunately enough, was what Disciple was) MAIN DECK! It was ridiculous. Those were not fun times.

Eventually though, Wizards of the Coast decided that the Vault Ninja was losing them money, so they banned all of the Artifact Lands, Arcbound Ravager, and Disciple of the Vault in one fell swoop. It was a necessary evil. Vault Ninja and friends had destroyed Standard.

That was in March of 2005, and the power of Ravager Affinity and of Disciple of the Vault has not been forgotten. At least not by me, anyway! This week, we’ll be looking a deck that likes Artifacts. It likes Artifacts a lot. A whole lot.

This deck works in one of two ways. It can;

1) Build up a giant mass of artifacts and play out the deck’s Affinity creatures and Nim Shriekers, attack and win.

OR

2) Build up a giant mass of artifacts, use Atog’s ability with Disciple of the Vault in play to deal a butt-load of life loss to your opponent, and then swing in for the win with a giant Atog.

Use your opening hand to determine what course of action works best for you.

This deck isn’t really mono-black, as the name would lead you to believe. I’ve added a red splash for Pyrite Spellbomb and Atog. Come back to me later in Card Suggestions, and we’ll talk about what you can do with the splash, and maybe some cards to add if you’re looking to change things up a bit.

Frogmite and Myr Enforcer are pretty standard Affinity creatures, and since this is an Affinity deck, it makes plenty of sense to have them in the deck. This deck is an Affinity deck like the Affinity decks before Darksteel. The deck isn’t based on the power of Ravager. Rather, it’s going to use cheaper cards to win, like Nim Shrieker. This is the reason why there are extra mana producers in the deck like Leaden Myr and Talisman of Indulgence. While Nim Shrieker and Vermiculous are cheap monetarily, they certainly aren’t mana-wise. Leaden Myr and Talisman of Indulgence are in the deck to help power out these game winning creatures earlier, and they do a pretty good job of it.

I’ve added a small Equipment package to the deck in order to boost its offensive powers. Cranial Plating is amazing, and equipping it to Nim Shrieker with a few Artifacts in play is normally what I like to call game over. Cranial Plating turns an ordinarily sub-par creature like Leaden Myr into a powerhouse. That’s not something your opponent is going to expect any time soon. Likewise, Bonesplitter is terribly efficient for a one mana Equipment, and it often gives you an offensive edge in the early game. There’s nothing like playing out Bonesplitter turn one off of an Artifact Land, follow it up with another artifact land and a Talisman, and getting a free Frogmite that can be equipped with Bonesplitter. I’ll take a second turn 4/2 any day.

Things to Remember

1) As flattering as it may be for me, don’t take this deck to an Extended tournament. Disciple of the Vault is banned in Extended, and has been for quite some time.

2) Don’t hold back Artifact Lands. You want to be able to get the most out of your Affinity creatures, and Artifact Lands are the prime way to do this. Also, you need them out on the table in those cases where Nim Shrieker or Atog are out on the field. And, if you do hold them back, you can only play them one a turn, which doesn’t help Vermiculous all that much, let me tell you.

3) If your opponent is removal heavy, try to lead out with smaller dudes and Equipment and keep your win conditions back for when they’ve run out of removal. Your win conditions are fairly fragile in this deck. Nim Shrieker only has one toughness, and Vermiculous is fairly week when you first play it. Try to keep them safe until you know you can beat face with them.

Card Suggestions

This deck can’t go a lot of different directions without becoming Ravager Affinity from the days of old. A lot of your better Affinity cards, if added in the right combination, will make the deck an entirely different entity, rather than make it an improved version of its current build. If you’re interested in other Nim, there are quite a few that can fill the same slot as Nim Shrieker. Nim Shambler and Nim Devourer are both Nim that have abilities that make them a tad more resilient than your average Nim.

Shrapnel Blast could definitely make this decklist but, due to color consistency, I didn’t add it to the final list. Swap out your Leaden Myr for some Iron Myr, and give it a whirl. Shrapnel Blast is arguably one of the best burn spells in Extended, and given the right conditions, it can be stellar in this deck.

Earlier on, I told you that I had a different build for the deck. Instead of playing Red, you play Blue, and you switch out a few things, including your win conditions. Let’s take a look at that deck.

I’m not going to spend a lot of time on this deck, but the main idea here is focusing on playing a late game Broodstar and building up an Artifact mass. This deck keeps some of the same elements as the previous deck, but plays quite a bit differently. Unfortunately, due to a lack of good sacrifice outlets, Disciple of the Vault didn’t make the cut in this list. Thoughtcast and Irradiate give you a bit more of a control feel, and the deck plays a lot differently. It’s a bit slower, and isn’t nearly as explosive as the first deck, but it doesn’t randomly roll over to a solid aggro deck either.

So… which deck do you think is better? Let me know with the poll, and check out the forum thread and talk it up. I’ll see you all next time.

~Death_By_Beebles

Alex Hoffman has been parading around with the pseudonym of Death_By_Beebles for three years now. He’s a writer for Magic Deck Vortex, and can often be found tinkering with his latest decks and studying for biochemistry. He is the author of Raiding the Dollar Bins and Going Blind series at MDV, and the recent startup series Pauper Chronicles. Alex likes kittens, reading, and generally enjoying life. He doesn’t like Brussels sprouts. You can send him deck ideas, combos and suggestions at deathbybeebles@yahoo.com.

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