|
Home Decks Combos Articles Visual Spoilers Features Art Links Search Forum |
|
|
|
|
Welcome back, fellow spell casters, to the article series best known for using the cards that most of us don’t. If you haven’t read the first part of this two-part article, you can find it here. Last time we discussed the finer points of our friend the Cytoplast Manipulator, and explored a few ways to use and abuse her creature-stealing ability. We also covered a deck built with the troublesome Dovescape. Of course, I’m sure many of us were left wondering, “Well, what happened to this dragon in the title of the article? I mean, was it all a clever ruse to get us to read this drivel?” In response, I will just have to say, "Maybe." Well… no, we are going to do something dragon-like. But first, we’re going to dust off one of the bad boys of broken cards (cue theme music to Knight Rider): Morality Shift.
Exchange your graveyard and library. Five words. They seem so simple. Being a fan of recursion decks and reanimation combos, I can only see potential in this card. In fact, after thinking on the subject for quite some time I have decided that if it wasn’t for the converted mana cost, this card would be seeing a lot more playing time. Personally, I find the real challenge of building a reanimator to be finding the most effective way of filling your graveyard with worthwhile targets. That being said: Exchange your graveyard and library. Then shuffle your library. I kicked this one around the forums with the Deckmechs. I had this idea, see, that maybe I could just build myself a dragon. The dragon enchantment cycle from Scourge enables just that. One Aura of each color, granting dragon-like abilities to the magically enhanced. Furthermore: When a creature with converted mana cost 6 or more comes into play, you may return Dragon ****** from your graveyard to play attached to that creature. If you could have all these enchantments in your graveyard and play a large enough creature, you could end up with a pretty nasty, hasted attacker. After picking apart several builds we narrowed the field and I walked away with some great card suggestions. So here it is:
The killer combo is casting the Shift with either Tombstalker, Twisted Abomination, or Exhume in your hand. Drop your high cost (or freshly exhumed) creature (corpse) and strap on the enchantments. Dragon Breath is key, much like it is in the Cephalid Breakfast combo. Then your hasted, vigilant, trampling, flying, swamp-cycling Twisted Abomination is ready to go. The nice thing about this build is that it can win with or without the Shift. Using the Top with Counterbalance can, at the very least, buy you some time to build up your combo, or keep the board clear of creatures. Stinkweed Imp makes anyone think twice before they attack you, and Leechridden Swamp can be played to deliver that few last points of damage to your opponent. Drathro took this one for a test drive and suggested using some of the Onslaught Fetchlands; dual lands will always help out a mana base if you have the budget for them. Shriekmaw could also be a good addition, as you could play it for its evoke cost and then, after the Shift, use it to help clear the field as you plow through with your "dragon." So what else could we do with our libraries in our graveyards? Isn’t that the ultimate goal of many Dredge decks? For seven mana I can bypass all that dredging and dump my entire library into the graveyard at once. The official ruling on Morality Shift is that your library is actually put into your graveyard, so Narcomoeba’s ability would trigger, meaning I could have four fliers and a graveyard full of goodies for seven mana. And if you’ve been paying attention since the advent of Future Sight, then you may know where this is going. That’s right, seven mana for an unstoppable Zombie army. If you can just keep the right cards in your library long enough and stay alive, it’s a question of winning the game for two Black and five colorless mana. So now the question becomes: How do you protect yourself while you put this combo together? Let’s try something like this:
The Circling Vultures play an interesting role here. Part of Morality Shift is having to draw on the cards that were so recently spent and sent to the graveyard. The Vultures can trigger token production, serve as one-turn blockers and then return for the late game to help out as flying defenders. If you get a few in the ‘yard before the Shift you then have a hand full of pretty decent one-drops. I admit it’s an odd choice, but I really like the card. It’s the card that led me to this month’s final deck:
Ready, set, go! This one will come out of the gate, nostrils flaring, fangs headed for the jugular. You should be able to draw into enough damage to win you the game, whether you “Husk” someone to death or draw into Mortal Combat/Morality Shift for the win.
Once again we’re running Circling Vultures as an early blocker who “circles” back around to your library after the Shift. Because you can discard him (feeding Mortal Combat) at any time, he’s an easy pick for a one-drop. Also, first turn Blood Pet, sacrifice him, play Circling Vultures and you have a 3/2 flying attacker on turn two. The Stinkweed Imp is another awesome blocker, and if you end up with a few too many creatures back in your library after you cast Morality Shift, you can simply dredge 5, net yourself a blocker with death touch (hopefully dumping a few creatures back in the ‘yard), and wait it out for the win. Festercreep can keep swarms out of your way while you utilize your Shriekmaws for spot removal. With the mana acceleration this one shouldn't take long, but in a pinch you can tutor up a Damnation (if you haven't drawn into one) and reset the board. I want to thank the Deckmechs for their help, and for not jumping ship when I told them that Morality Shift could not be taken out of the deck. Also, Ryuzaki helped out with last minute play testing. I think he laughed quite a bit when I actually played the Shift. In any case, this is your resident box lunch signing off. I’m going to go meditate under a tree until next month and become:
You can discuss this article in the MDV forums
here.
Articles
Spotlights from 2008: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Reanimation
Abomination. 
Be
forewarned: This deck will have you scoping the three top cards of your library
on almost every turn. You will be drawing, rearranging, and discarding, so pay
attention. The idea here is simple and straightforward: Make a giant creature
and send it towards your opponent. Because of the indexing you shouldn’t have
any mana problems. With cards like Brainstorm and spinning the Top every turn,
you can effectively keep your enchantments in your library until you need them.
Ponder even lets you mix it up a bit and start over.
If
you are unfamiliar with the combo, it works like this: You mill yourself
(usually with the dredge mechanic) so that as you dump Dread Return into your
graveyard, you are simultaneously putting any Narcomoebas revealed directly into
play. Once you’ve got your three creatures you sacrifice them to return a
Flame-Kin Zealot to play. If you are lucky you’ve got at least one copy of
Bridge from Below in your graveyard, netting you 2/2 Zombie tokens for your
sacrificed Moebas. With your Flame-Kin and Bridge from Below you now have
anywhere from four to thirteen hasted 3/3’s bearing down on your opponent with a
mana investment of absolutely zero (seven in this case because we are casting
Morality Shift). With this build you are going to again use the Top and
Brainstorm to find your missing combo pieces while leaving the Narcomoebas in
your library. Once you cast the Shift you can relax while your Zombies murder
your opponent. 
