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With the release of Shadowmoor now behind us, it's time to actually play with the cards. I was tearing through them and found two equally cool yet opposite concepts. There was the super survival instinct of Heartmender using persist and the polar opposite withering wail of the Midnight Banshee. Conceptually the two faced off as near opposites, but ultimately I was torn between which one to cover. So I contacted my favorite collaborative partner and set out to conquer both of these concepts at once.
Apparently now we'll be discussing Heartmender and Everlasting Torment. Sorry for the change-up. I agreed to let my evil Shadowmoor half write the article and he doesn't appear to be very nice. Go figure, I always thought my evil side would be, well, good. Kinda like the whole evil Cartman thing. I guess the evil Cashew is just way evil. In the immortal words of Super Troopers, "my shenanigans are cheeky and fun, his shenanigans are cruel and tragic."
I thought I'd start us off with a pretty amazing quote and a very apt one for today's subject matter. When you're Green and White and pitted into the hellish nightmare that is Shadowmoor, what exactly do you do? Instead of combating the evil, much of Shadowmoor’s Green and White is simply about surviving. From regeneration tricks such as Reknit to mass life gain in several forms such as Dawnglow Infusion and Oracle of Nectars. When the whole plane is gunning for you it really doesn't matter where the threat is from. From the hollow expressions of burnt out Flamekins to the pure malicious stare of the Kithkin, nothing familiar is safe anymore. Take solace in the woods though, the once evil Elves now stand as the lone defenders of all that is pure and good. Amongst the trees and leaves hidden from sight, a last stand will be made. Today I'm going to cover what to me is the most intriguing card in Shadowmoor: Heartmender. One of the few pure Elementals remaining, the Heartmender represents a powerful creature capable of removing the scars on other creatures. Most importantly, the scars on itself. In order to truly extinguish a Heartmender, one must not only kill it, but kill it again when it comes back and before it can heal itself.
The way we're going to use Heartmender is unique; we're going to pull off a Green/White Control deck. Something not really seen since the days of Mirari's Wake and the advent of Solar Flare decks. So hike up your socks, brush your teeth, and make sure you call your mother and let her know that you're about to unleash the good.
This is the White Green version of the deck. The way it works is simple; constant wipes hinder our opponent while Runed Halos provide basic cover from whatever our opponent's major threat is. In the meantime, each wipe only serves to bring our creatures back. If Heartmender is in play on the next turn, the -1/-1 persist counters are removed and our creatures can survive another full wipe as well as generic blocking duties. Granted with so much wiping we won't need that much blocking. There's a total of thirteen wipe spells, and once Twilight Shepherd comes into play the game is locked entirely. Twilight Shepherd and any of the spell wipes means that they become permanent wipes returning to our hand as she comes back into play. There's nothing an opponent can really do.
Obviously the focal creature is the Heartmender, using its -1/-1 counter removal service to keep our creatures virtually free. If you look, you may notice something. Green really isn't that necessary. Sure it brings us Cream of the Crop—which when used with persist can be a thoroughly amazing card filter—the Woodfall Primus, and Rampant Growth, but I want to show you that it can be done just as well without it, though we will have hybrid White/Green cards. After all, besides Cream of the Crop we have Phyrexian Vault that enables card draw and in some cases a necessary sacrifice that can trigger the Shepherd to recover a lost asset or dodge a remove from the game spell.
If you notice, much of this is exactly the same. By losing Green and solely focusing on White we actually gain a little more land acceleration which helps to thin out the deck some. It plays exactly the same, but in this case it plays a little faster. The problem is without Cream of the Crop it's much harder to get the necessary lock into place, relying on Phyrexian Vault alone to cycle through the deck to get Twilight. Regardless, with the 13 wipes there isn't much reason that we can't stall for quite a long time.
Overall it's a fun deck to play regardless of the build and can be very frustrating for opponents who play creatures. Before we depart I want to leave you with a single impression of a card: Runed Halo. While it doesn't really fit the overall theme of persist in this deck, I find it a powerful addition to the game as a whole. The main reason I included it was because we have creatures under control, but we don't have discard/spell-based decks under control. By using the Halo we deny all kinds of things in Standard that people use. Whether it be a Corrupt burn, Demigod of Revenge graveyard recursion, or something as simple as mill. Yes, it can target crucial mill engines as well. Imagine it as far reaching as Legacy where it can deny your opponent a finishing card such as Tendrils of Agony (TPS) or Donate (Trix), and with many decks running only a single kill method the fact that a single card can shut numerous down numerous decks is big.
Truer words have never been so eloquently spoken. Today is all about unleashing my evil, and not just your average "sissy evil," I'm talking pure unadulterated evil. The kind of evil that causes mothers to smother their children in the crib or swerve to hit a passing animal. This isn't Ozzy Osbourne evil or even Marilyn Manson evil, I'm talking Charles Manson here. What? Don't look at me like that, everyone loves Shadowmoor because it's evil, and if Evil Cashew wants to be evil, I'll be evil, got it? You bore me; moving on. How does one accomplish true evil in Magic? Cheating comes to mind, but I'm not sharing those secrets with you. Quite simply I'm going to invoke the very bowels of hell to the surface and unleash it upon the Magic world. Creatures will perish as they are damned while the sulfurous fires from the bowels of the earth rage across the land. Maggots and flies shall pour forth from the dead, and in the last moments of true life, hell itself will be released. In the end, creatures of shadow shall rule the earth while glowing demons dot the sky with their ghastly forms.
I'm sure I have to explain this simple deck to you, so stay still and listen. The deck is evil, that's obvious at least. To play it early on there isn't much to do, getting Dusk Urchins into play is key to begin building up "mean" power. While the main strategy will be to get a Tatterkite, Pyrohemia, and Everlasting Torment in play at the same time, there's plenty of other things to be doing in the meantime. Once the combo is established however you have a constant source of pure devastation as the Tatterkite becomes immune to the withering-enhanced Pyrohemia.
Numerous other insidious interactions exist such as Blowfly Infestation or Kulrath Knight with Everlasting Torment, creating a veritable wall of decay to fight through to even exist. Standard power and mass life removal are also available using the staple Browbeat and brand new Tyrannize to trick opponents out of life, while Profane Command, Damnation, and Liliana Vess do what they do with far less chicanery. Demigod of Revenge provides a powerful and stable means of providing a quick death—if you should feel merciful enough to expiate that matter. Well that does it for evil Cashew, hopefully that's the last we ever see of him. Not that the normal Cashew is that nice. ~Cashew~
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Persistence
Pays Off. 
Beelzebub's
Homecoming. 
