Fedger's Fiddlin': Dark Sacrifice

Hi there.  Welcome to the second edition of Fedger’s Fiddlin’.  This time around I’ll be having a look at tuning up Dark Sacrifice’s efficiency, focus and consistency.  Like last time, I follow 4 rules to keep the deck balanced at the Kitchen table:

1.      The deck may contain up to 4 rares.

2.      Of the 4 rares, 1 may be mythic.

3.      Only a single copy of each rare is allowed.

4.       The deck must be legal for Standard.

The cards in Dark Sacrifice can roughly be divided into three groups; Fodder, Sac Outlets, Beneficiaries.  The fodder contains all creatures that give us a benefit when they die, i.e. Doomed Traveler.  Sac outlets are cards that allow us to ‘sacrifice a creature’ for benefit such as the Skirsdag Flayer.  Beneficiaries are creatures that do not cause the deaths of our creatures but benefit from them like Village Cannibals.  Then there’s everything else which can be put into a fourth group; ‘Support’.

Fodder

I want cheaper and more numerous fodder. For this reason I am losing both Elgaud Inquisitors, Mausoleum Guard and both Elder Cathars.  The elder cathar does give a nice bonus on his way out; but his price tag of three mana is enough to put me off.  I don’t want to pay that much for a creature I plan to sacrifice.   The fodder must be human so Lingering Souls is out.

To fill the gap in the Fodder package I’ll add a Gather the Townsfolk, 2 Doomed Travelers, Thraben Doomsayer, a Selfless Cathar and an Increasing Devotion.  Selfless Cathar, although not technically fodder, has been included as he’s so cheap.  1 Mana is a good price for fodder and his ability will come in handy on occasion.

Sac Outlets

Not too much change here as I’m mostly happy with it. 

Dropping from this group will be the Fiend of the Shadows (she’ll probably sit on the sideboard for playing against W/B decks) and Disciple Of Griselbrand (I’m not a fan of lifegain and would rather have aggressive sac outlets.)  I’ll also be dropping one Falkenrath Torturer in favour of a Skirsdag Flayer.

Coming in to replace these is an extra Altar’s Reap (for lovely card draw) and a Ravenous Demon.

Beneficiaries

Not much change here either; I’m happy with the Unruly Mobs and the Village Cannibals.  Galvanic Juggernaut performed admirably in the playtest so he’s earned his spot for now.  I will, after giving it much thought, be dropping the Champion of the Parish.  He’s a great card and fits well from a purely mechanic viewpoint.  You’ll never be disappointed to see him in your opening hand, but for me he doesn’t quite fit with the feel of the deck.  Plus I need him to make room for the Skirsdag High Priest! With the amount of sacrificing and tokens knocking about, shouldn’t find it too hard to summon us a demon most turns.

Support

That just leaves support, for starters I’m getting rid of the expensive Death’s Caresses, the unrelated Night Terrors and Avacyn’s Collar.  I’ll also be dropping the recursion (Unburial Rites, Gravepurge).  In favour of a playset of the brilliant Tragic Slip and a playset of Bonds of Faith.  The latter being a nice flexible Pacifism for our enemies or Giant Strength for our humans – though I’ll probably keep a playset of pacifisms on the sideboard in-case my opponent uses a Humans deck.

Land

With no mana fixing I’m going to take out the Haunted Fengraf and make the land count 13 Plains, 11 Swamp.

The final list looks like this:

4 Doomed Traveler

2 Selfless Cathar

2 Skirsdag Flayer

2 Unruly Mob

1 Skirsdag High Priest

2 Falkenrath Torturer

1 Thraben Doomsayer

2 Village Cannibals

2 Galvanic Juggernaut

1 Ravenous Demon

4 Tragic Slip

4 Gather the Townsfolk

4 Bonds of Faith

3 Altar’s Reap

1 Increasing Devotion

1 Demonmail Hauberk

13 Plains

11 Swamp

There it is! I dub this deck: “Lather the Townsfolk.”  Not the soapy definition of lather, the other one. (Look it up, I did).

I’ll be playtesting Lather the Townsfolk this week and will post the results either next friday or the friday after.  I recently went to my first draft event and want to write a post on that while it's still fresh(ish) in my mind - so that may come first.

Cheers for reading!

Fedger

Dark Sacrifice Playtest

Oioi!  Welcome back to Fedger’s Furnace, where this week I’ll be playtesting Dark Ascension’s Dark Sacrifice.  My opponent today is Kelly and her undead hoards from Relentless Dead.  For a detailed rundown on the cards in both decks, check out these articles on Ertai’s Lament; Dark Sacrifice Review & Playtest, Relentless Dead Review & Playtest.  The foremost also contains a look at the history and controversy in games which have the occult theme present like Dark Sacrifice.  A good read that.

Now, on to the playtesting!

Game One

No time for a warm up game to decide who goes first – so we roll off.  Kelly wins the roll and goes first.  I mulligan away my first hand – and then stick with the second; a Champion of the Parish, a Doomed Traveler, a Skirsdag Flayer, a Galvanic Juggernaut, a Plains, a Swamp and a Haunted Fengraf.  Not too shabby!

Turns 1-2

Kelly opens with a Swamp into a Diregraf Ghoul.  I hit back with a Plains into a Champion of the Parish.  With the 2 humans in my hand, he’ll be outclassing her ghoul in 2 turns.  Kelly’s turn 2 consists of her attacking me with her Ghoul, which I let through, and then summoning a Screeching Skaab, which mills her two swamps.  Over to me and I cast the Skirsdag Flayer which pumps the Champion up to a 2/2.

Turn 3

Straight to Kelly’s attack phase where she attacks me with both zombies for 4.  I decline any sort of trade for my Champion or Flayer and take the 4 damage which puts me on 14 life.  She then adds a Walking Corpse to her growing ranks of undead and passes to me.  I draw and play a Village Cannibals which pumps Champ to a 3/3 hopefully halting Kelly’s advance for now.

Turn 4

Not quite!  Kelly summons a Diregraf Captain who gives all of her zombies a power & toughness boost.  Her three zombies are back on even footing with my champion.  She attacks with the Skaab, the Ghoul and the Corpse for 9.  Not wanting to lose any of my creatures – who all have their part to play – I decline the block and take 9 damage.  At the end of Kelly’s fourth turn she is winning 20-5.  Something must be done.  A plan formulates in my head and I lay the groundwork with a Haunted Fengraf, and pass to Kelly.

Turn 5

Kelly heads straight to her combat phase and attacks with 3 of her creatures (keeping the Captain back out of harm’s way).  I block the Corpse, the Ghoul and the Skaab with the Cannibals, the Flayer and Champ respectively.  Before the damage step I activate the Flayer’s ability (sacrificing himself) and destroying her Diregraf Captain.  This has a couple of knock on effects:

     1)  Her zombies revert back to their more manageable power 2 states. 

     2) My village cannibals grow to a 3/3 as they feast on the fallen Flayer.
 

My two remaining blockers outclass their zombie counterparts and when the dust settles Kelly is left with just the Ghoul.  Kelly replaces her Screeching Skaab with a Headless Skaab one and ends her turn.  Wary of my life total I opt to keep Champ on defence and send in the Village Cannibals for 3.  Kelly has no blockers and takes her first damage of the game putting her on 17.  I then add a Doomed Traveler to my force.   Champ, at 4/4, is happy to see him.

Turn 6

Kelly’s sixth turn is a blank except that I activate the Haunted Fengraf’s ability at instant speed to return the Skirsdag Flayer from my graveyard to hand.  On my turn I summon both the Skirsdag Flayer and an Elder Cathar.  Champ is now a 6/6 so I send him in to the red zone to cause mischief.  Kelly opts to gang block him with both Headless and the Ghoul, and she casts Corpse Lunge flinging her fallen Screeching Skaab at Champ.  Champ bravely fights on, taking down the headless skaab but succumbs to his wounds and heads to the graveyard.  On the plus side, he makes a fine meal for the Cannibals (4/4 now).

Turn 7

Another blank for Kelly.  I activate Skirsdag Flayer’s ability, this time sacrificing Elder Cathar (who adds three +1/+1 counters to the village cannibals all told) and destroying Kelly’s only defender.  The Cannibals take Champ’s place as my offensive threat (now at 7/7) and together with the traveller attack Kelly for 8.  After turn 7 the score is 9-5 to Kelly who needs an answer soon.

Turn 8

Kelly adds a Cellar Door but alas, is stuck on 4 land and cannot try for a zombie token.  I attack with everything for 9 on my turn and Kelly is unable to do anything about it.  Round 1 to Dark Sacrifice.

Game 2

Having no swamps or white spells I mulligan.  The next hand is a fair bit better; a Disciple Of Griselbrand, Galvanic Juggernaut, Unburial Rites, a Selfless Cathar and one each of a Swamp and Plains.

Turn 1 – 2

The first two turns consist of both of us hitting our land drops, Kelly summoning a Walking Corpse and me getting a Selfless Cathar and Skirsdag Flayer. 

Turn 3

Kelly plays Forbidden Alchemy discarding a Black Cat, a Swamp and a Diregraf Captain. She then attacks wi- wait, a Diregraf Captain!!??  Whatever she kept must be pretty special. I’m slightly worried.  Anyways, she attacks with the corpse what walks and I’m down to 18.  I return fire with the Flayer and the Cathar taking her down to 18 also then, I add a Disciple of Grieselbrand to the team.

Turns 4-5

Kelly attacks once again with the corpse for 2, and adds a Makeshift Mauler to her team.  I answer her 4/5 Mauler with my 5/5 Juggernaut and pass back to Kelly who’s turn is a blank.  I draw my foil rare: Fiend of the Shadows. Having hit all of my land drops I have just the right amount of land for it.  The Juggernaut attacks on its own volition, there’s nothing I could do even if I wanted to stop it and gets blocked by the Mauler.  Kelly finishes my Juggernaut off by Corpse Lunging her dead Diregraf Captain at it.  I end the turn on a high and summon my Fiend of the Shadows! The Shadow? The Shadow.

Turn 6

Kelly adds two ready-tapped zombies in the form of a Diregraf ghoul and a Headless Skaab.  I attack with the Fiend on my turn taking Kelly down to 15 and making Kelly exiles a Moan of the Unhallowed from her hand.  I like the fiend’s ability; it’s fun and can produce all kinds of random results.  When it comes to Fiddling with this deck I reckon she’ll be a sideboard though, brought in only if I’m playing against a Black or White deck to get consistent results. If I was playing against an off colour, I’d have to be lucky enough to get them to exile the correct land first.  After the fiend’s attack I bring back my Juggernaut with Unburial Rights.

Turn 7

Kelly plays an Endless Ranks of the Dead with much whimpering from me.  I need to start whittling those zombies down before it can have too much of an impact.  Currently she has 3 zombies which will net her one token next turn.  I summon an Unruly Mob (just in-case something dies) and the attack with my Fiend and Juggernaut for 8.  Kelly gang blocks the Juggernaut with her Headless Skaab and Diregraf Ghoul, currently forcing a trade (ghoul for Juggernaut).  The Selfless Cathar sees this and says “No”. He valiantly sacrifices himself for the greater good and gives everyone +1/+1.  This makes all the difference as now I can kill her headless Skaab and the Juggernaut lives to fight another turn.  A few other side effect from the Cathar’s demise include:

       1)        The Unruly Mob get a +1/+1 Counter.

       2)         The Fiend hits for 4 rather than 3.

       3)       The Juggernaut untaps

Thank you Selfless Cather, you’ve done a great thing on this day.

Oh and the Fiend makes Kelly exile a card from her hand!  At the end of turn 7, Kelly’s at 11 life and I’m at 16.

Turn 8

Kelly’s Endless Ranks enchantment spawns a Zombie token.  She then adds a Ghoulraiser to the party.  The ghoulraiser brings a zombie back from the graveyard to her hand though she knows it will eventually fall into my grasp via the Fiend.  I opt to attack with everyone bar the Skirsdag Flayer.  Kelly gang blocks the Unruly Mob with 2 of her zombies but the Skirsdag Flayer evens up the score by Sacing off the Disciple.  The mob grows to a 3/3 and dispatch the remaining zombie with ease.  Meanwhile, the Juggernaut and the Fiend hit for 8, the Juggernaut untaps and the Fiend forces Kelly to Exile a headless skaab from her hand.  I end with a Gravepurge to return the selfless Cathar and disciple to the top of my deck – ensuring I’ll have humans to sacrifice for the next couple of turns.

Turn 9

Kelly gets another zombie token from her enchantment and adds a Havengul Runebinder.  Over to me, I re-summon the selfless Cathar and attack with the Mob, the Fiend and the Juggernaut.  Kelly scoops.

Game 2 and set to Dark Sacrifice.

Game 3

Relentless dead is down two, can Kelly pull one back and avoid a 3-0 defeat?  I mulligan my first hand again and stick with a Doomed Traveler, Skirsdag Flayer, Gravepurge and Unburial Rights figuring I could probably use the recursion to keep sacing the traveler for removal.  Kelly starts.

Turns 1-2

Kelly has no one-drop so the first play is my Doomed Traveler.  Kelly sees my traveler with a Black Cat and declines the trade when the traveler attacks next turn.  Then, I summon my Skirsdag Flayer.

Turn 3

Kelly counters with the Cat for one and summons a walking corpse. She’s not willing to face a 1/1 flyer so she lets my traveler through again for 1.

Turn 4

Kelly hits back with both the cat and the corpse, hitting me for three, and Dead Weights my Flayer.  Unwilling to let him die for nothing I cast Altar’s Reap and get two cards for him (regrettably more land).   My turn 4 is a blank.

Turn 5

The Walking Corpse and pet zombie cat both attack me again for 3. I block the cat with the traveler hoping that the random discard will be one of the many lands occupying my hand.  Alas, Gravepurge hits the graveyard.  A 1/1 Spirit is my consolation prize.  Kelly ups her board position and zombie making potential with a Havengul Runebinder – uhoh!  I attack with the spirit on my turn and needing to answer that Runebinder sooner rather than later I reach for the only removal available to me, the Skirsdag Flayer via Unburial Rights.  The actual removing will have to wait one turn unfortunately.  The score is 17-14 to Kelly.

Turn 6

The Runebinder performs his Necromancy and brings forth a Zombie token and buffs both zombies to 3/3.  The Corpse then hits me for 3 reducing my life to 11.  Facing two 3/3 zombies is bad enough, I really don’t want to be facing three plus 4/4 Zombies so the Flayer bites the sacrificial dagger and takes Kelly’s necromancin’, runebindin’ wizard down with him.  My life isn’t looking too great so I keep my Spirit back for defensive duties.

Turn 7

Without hesitation Kelly attacks with both zombies, one of them gets chumped by the spirit, the other gets through putting me on 8.  Horrifyingly she casts Endless Ranks of the Undead.  I respond with a Fiend of the Shadows.

Turn 8

The hoard begins to grow as Kelly gets a free zombie token from the Endless Ranks enchantment.  The 3/3 zombies hit me for six which I allow through putting me on 2.  Relentless dead lives up to its name when a Moan of the unhallowed is cast adding two more zombies to the rapidly increasing horde.  My turn and what I wouldn’t give for a Fateful Hour Gather the Townsfolk or two.  All I can manage is flashbacking unburial rights to return Doomed traveller and playing a Lingering Souls to get two spirit tokens.

Turn 9

The ranks of undead swell to 7, 5 of which can attack and with only four blockers 2 damage gets through and Kelly wins.

Fedger’s Thoughts

Wow, I friggin’ love this deck – it’s so fun to play!  I’m always going to enjoy a deck with synergy, and this deck oozes the stuff.  Setting up big plays like on Game 2 Turn 7 is both satisfying and rewarding, where just the activation of the Selfless Cathar’s ability had so much knock-on effect – providing you have the time to set everything up! 

In the first game, Kelly had me down to 5 life before the Sacrifice engine started moving.  One turn longer and the outcome would have been completely different.  Game three also demonstrated well what happens when you don’t quite have the right components in place.

The star of the playtest for me was the Skirsdag flayer; his repeatable removal is a bit pricey but worth it given the environment he is performing his rituals in.  More often than not, activating his ability will be doing more than just destroying an opponent’s creature.

Timing is everything in this deck. You really need to squeeze as much as you possibly can out of each sacrifice.  One can’t just go activating sac effects willy-nilly.  If you can use them at instant speed, then wait until the sac’d creature chump blocks an opponent’s beater or sac a creature that has been targeted by an opponent’s removal.

Another card I really enjoyed was the Galvanic Juggernaut.  Firstly he’s a 5/5 for 4 colourless mana; a great deal!  Secondly, given that we frequently have the ability to sac on demand we have control over his taps/ untaps.  Even when he’s tapped an opponent will think twice before counting him out of a block if they suspect we have some instant speed sac ability lurking in our hands (or in plain sight on the battlefield).

Fiend of the Shadows worked well against Relentless dead.  Our colour in common meant that (had I needed to) I could have cast the exiled cards. Relentless Dead doesn’t have much in the way of anti-air so she was sailing over the zombies, combat phase after combat phase.  I’m not sure she would be as good against other decks so she’s likely to live on the side board in the future.

All in all, this deck is both fun and tactically rewarding.  I look forward to tweaking the deck list to really tighten up the synergy between the cards.  I’ll post the results next week.

See you then!

Fedger.

  

Fedger's Fiddlin': Eldritch Onslaught

Welcome to the first edition of Fedger’s Fiddlin’.  In the following blog I will be fiddling Inistrad’s ‘Eldritch Onslaught’ to hopefully make it more focused, efficient and consistent.  There are a couple of restrictions to my Fiddling:

1. The deck may contain up to 4 rares.
2. Of the 4 rares, 1 may be mythic.
3. Only a single copy of each rare is allowed.
4. The deck must be legal for Standard.

Efficiency

Firstly I want to up the mill efficiency.  Self mill tends to be an adverse affect in most decks, consequently if a card forces you to mill (as opposed to ‘target player’) we generally get a benefit.  No card demonstrates this better than the Deranged Assistant.  I want to make our mill options always give us extra benefit to really squeeze us much effect out of each card.  So here are the changes to the mill package:

Cut                                                                  Add

2 Merfolk Mesmerist                                       1 Dream Twist

1 Ghoulcaller’s Bell                                          2 Armored Skaab

1 Cellar Door                                                  1 Deranged Assistant

2 Curse of the Bloody Tome

I’m not too worried about the loss of pure mill power here as in previous tests it was too easy to deck myself (especially with a bloody tome).  Cellar door does give us an additional benefit to each mill but the price outweighs the bonus, and there aren’t enough creatures in the deck to consistently get that zombie token.  With all the flashback in the graveyard we should not be needing it as a mana sink either.

I also want to limit the amount of cards that are useless to me when they are in the graveyard.  For this reason I’m cutting Harvest Pyre and Into the Maw of Hell.

Consistency

Once the deck’s combo engine gets going it works amazingly. With Burning Vengeance active we get a ridiculous amount of bang for our mana with flashback spells so let’s add 2 more of them.

Focus

As it stands the deck isn’t too focused.  Yes, we have a good Self-Mill – Flashback – Burning Vengeance Combo but we need something else.  I don’t think burning our opponents to death on Burning Vengeance damage is effective enough a tactic on its own. More often than not I need to use the burn to take out/ finish off an opponent’s troublesome creature. 

I propose instead, that we use beaters as our way of winning and use the deck’s ample bounce’n’burn cards to eliminate any potential blockers.  To this end I add the following cards.

4 Civilized Scholar // Homicidal Brute

This guy is a great 2 for 1 in my eyes.  In his Dr Jekyll form he gives us effective mill with the added bonus of being able to choose what hits the graveyard and in the event that we pitch a creature he transforms to his Mr Hyde side making him a beefy 5/1!  Given that we’re aiming to remove blockers, his 1 toughness shouldn’t be too big of a down-side.

1 Skaab Ruinator

This thing is also a great fit for the deck because he can be cast from the graveyard.  This means when we are effectively searching for him when we self-mill and he sets off burning vengeance when we cast him.  His drawback cost (exile three creatures) might stop us casting him if drawn early but the mill package should keep our graveyard nicely stocked with creatures for at least 1 or 2 castings of him.

Combined with the Charmbreaker Devils and 2 Murder of Crows already in the deck this completes our beater package.

To make room for these cards, I am removing the defensive minded Fortress Crabs, the Pitchburn Devils, Sturmgeist and Scourge of Geier Reach. The last three have nice abilities but they don’t quite fit with the deck’s goal in my opinion – so they are cut.

Remove Blockers

Without the Merfolk Mesmerists and Ghoul Caller’s bell to force an opponent to mill, I see little benefit in having Grasp of Phantoms over Silent Departure.  So I’m going to go ahead and replace both Grasps with Silent Departures.  If your opponent is top-decking, then the Grasps would be preferable but this is not something to rely on and we’re focusing on removing blockers in the most efficient way.

I’ve also added 2 Nightbird’s Clutches for block denial and also some repeatable burn in the form of a Grim Lavamancer from magic 2012 who will give us some use for the unfortunate burning vengeances and lands that end up in the graveyard.

Support

As a bit of land fixing, I’ve gone ahead and added a Sulfur Falls.

Here's all the cuts/adds:

Cuts                                                             Adds

2 Merfolk Mesmerist                                     2 Armored Skaab

1 Ghoulcaller’s Bell                                        1 Deranged Assistant

1 Cellar Door                                                4 Civilised Scholar

2 Fortress Crab                                             1 Skaab Ruinator

1 Pitchburn Devils                                          1 Grim Lavamancer

1 Sturmgeist                                                   2 Burning Vengeance

1 Into the Maw of Hell                                   2 Silent Departure

1 Scourge of Geier Reach                               2 Nightbird’s Clutches

1 Harvest Pyre                                               1 Dream Twist

1 Mountain                                                     1 Sulfur Falls

I’m so excited by the synergy in this deck I went ahead and drew a flow diagram picturing all the interactions in this deck.

Now all that remains is to rename it, given that it’s no longer the same Eldritch Onslaught deck I purchased.  In lore terms, the library is often likened to the Planeswalker’s Mind. Since we are sacrificing our ‘minds’ for power I name this Fiddled deck:  “Mind for Mayhem”.

I’ll be playtesting Mind for Mayhem this week and will post the results on Friday.

Thanks for reading!

Fedger

Eldritch Onslaught Playtest

Welcome to my first ever Magic the gathering intro pack playtest where I’ll be pitting Inistrad’s ‘Eldritch Onslaught’ against ‘Deathly Dominion’ from the same set. Piloting Deathly Dominion is my good friend Mr Chris. I will be taking the reins on Eldritch Onslaught. Check out Ertai's Lament for a review of the cards in both decks and a whole bunch of Playtests (Eldritch Onslaught, Deathly Dominion).


Now without further ado:

Game One

Turns 1-3
My opening hand consists of a Murder of Crows, a Silent Departure, A Curse of the Bloody Tome, 2 Islands and 2 Mountains. We both lay lands on our first two turns with Chris getting an extra one from a Rampant Growth. On turn three I curse myself with the Curse of the Bloody Tome and Chris responds with a Reassembling Skeleton.


Turn 4
The Curse Mills an Into the Maw of Hell and an Island and I summon a Fortress Crab. Chris sacrifices the Skeleton in order to play an Altar’s Reap to draw 2 cards. Chris admits that he misses the Skeleton and taps two to bring him back.


Turn 5
An Island and a Deranged Assistant get milled by the Curse and I draw a mountain. I tap the Fortress Crab and send him in for first blood and follow up with the Murder of Crows. Chris attacks with the Skeleton on his turn and, like a fool, I block it with the Crows. I completely forgot about his deck’s mechanic and under-estimated Chris here. I figured (without too much thinking on my part) that he hadn’t noticed the Birds on my side of the field (!?). The crows suffer for my mistake when he busts out a Morkrut Banshee – the morbid activated effect ending my aerial threat. The crows’ ability did allow me to draw a Rolling Temblor and Pitch my Silent Departure though.


Turn 6
Another Island and a Fortress Crab hit the graveyard and I draw my foil rare, the Sturmgeist, which hits the battlefield as a 3/3. Chris casts Demonmail Hauberk and that pesky skeleton makes a sheepish return to the battlefield.


Turn 7
“NOOOOOOOOO” – The curse puts a Burning Vengeance and an Island into the graveyard. Sad times. I draw a Grasp of Phantoms and send the Sturmgeist in for 4 damage, which takes Chris down to 15 and lets me draw another grasp of phantoms. I then proceed to make a play I immediately regret – using the Grasp Of Phantoms to return his Morkut Banshee to the top of his library. Bounce removal’s not so hot when the creatures have ‘enters the battlefield’ abilities. I think Chris forgot about his Demonmail here as he uses a Prey Upon (Sturmgeist vs Skeleton) to activate Morbid, in any case the effect is the same and back comes the Morkut Banshee to take down another flyer. Sorry Sturmgeist, my bad.


Turn 8
A mountain goes to the graveyard along with a Desperate Ravings, then I play another grasp of phantom returning the Banshee to his deck again. I promptly forget to attack with the Fortress Crab and pass to Chris.
Chris’s skeleton makes its way back to the field and is joined by a Devouring Swarm.


Turn 9
I mill another desperate ravings and an Island. I play a freshly drawn Cellar Door. Your move Chris. The Skeleton Perishes in preparation for outfitting the Demonmail to the Swarm I quickly put the Devouring Swarm on to the Harvest Pyre in response. Just to be sure, I exile 12 cards to pay for it. He then plays a Woodland Sleuth whose morbid ability allows him to return a creature card at random to the field; sadly it’s the Devouring Swarm (as opposed to the Skeleton). Before the end of his turn I activate Cellar Door to mill a Silent Departure from the bottom of my library,


Turn 10
Two islands hit the graveyard at the beginning of my upkeep. I flashback desperate ravings to draw a Ghoulcaller’s Bell and my other rare: the Charmbreaker Devils. The Scourge of Geier Reach reach is randomly discarded. Over to Chris and the earth shakes as the Moldgraf Monstrosity is summoned. Chris then taps the Swarm to hit me for 2 and I’m down to 18. We are now at 18 – 15. I activate the Cellar once more and turn a deranged assistant into a 2/2 Zombie.


Turn 11
I mill a mountain and a Dream Twist and tap six lands to bring out the Charmbreaker Devils. Chris brings out the Lumberknot which could be an issue; its Hexproof means that I can’t simply bounce it back into his hand when it grows too big (heh). The skeleton makes a brief return and then perishes whilst outfitting the Demonmail to the Devouring Swarm. I’m not sure what a Swarm of insects would do with a suit of armour but it seems to grant them great strength. The Swarm is now a 6/2 and the Lumberknot becomes a 2/2 due to the sacrificed Skeleton. Chris sends in the Swarm and, with no aerial blockers I’m down to 12.


Turn 12
The Charmbreaker Devils return a Silent Departure back to my hand, the curse mills a Murder of Crows and a Deranged Assistant. I cast a Ghoul Caller’s Bell and then Flashback a silent departure to return the Molgraf Monstrosity to Chris’s hand, making the Charmbreakers 8/4. I grow it further by casting a Silent Departure the old fashioned way to bounce back his Woodland Sleuth making my Devils a 12/4. The Devils and the Zombie token turn sideways, the Lumberknot chumps the Devils and the Zombie scratches Chris for two. Over to Chris, who’s Skeleton makes another brief visit only to be Devoured by the Swarm (making them 7/3) which then proceed to nip at my health with fervour. I’m down to 5. With Morbid active his Woodland Sleuth comes back and brings with it a creature from the graveyard.


Turn 13
I’m feeling fairly confident here; Chris is on 14 life so I should be able to bounce his only defender back to his hand and cast enough spells to grow the Devils power and send them in for lethal. Charmbreakers return a grasp of phantoms, the curse mills 2 lands. I cast the grasp to put the Sleuth on Chris’s Library and grow the Devils to 8/4. I activate the Ghoulcaller’s Bell to rid the game of the Sleuth, I mill a Merfolk Mesmerist. A Think Twice lets me draw a Geistflame growing the Devils to 12/4. I then attack with the Devils and the Zombie for 14. Aha! Victory…
…almost. Before the Devils can do their nasty work they get ambushed by a Viper with Flash and deathtouch. Ach So close! On Chris’s turn I’m powerless to stop the swarm and they finish me off. First match to Mr Chris!

Game 2

My opening hand consists of a Burning Vengeance (Woo-Hoo!), Silent Departure, Dream Twist, a Harvest Pyre, a Mountain and an Island. Excited by the Burning Vengeance I elect to keep the hand and go first.


Turns 1-3
I Dream Twist a Desperate Ravings, Island and Armored Skaab into the graveyard. Chris then returns fire with a Typhoid Rats. I manage only land on my second turn and Chris plays a Skirsdag High Priest on his. He also sends the Rat in for 1 point of damage. On my third turn, I cast Burning Vengeance; hoping that I will see some action from the deck’s showcase combo. Chris attacks with both the rats and the Priest and I’m down to 17.


Turn 4
I pass to Chris after laying land and he attacks with both creatures again. I take the 2 damage and hit Chris with 2 of my own damage when I flashback my dream twist. A Ghoulcaller’s Bell, Cellar Door and a Mountain get milled before I play Think Twice from my hand to draw a Merfolk Mesmerist.


Turn 5
I play Rolling Temblor to wipe out Chris’s Rat/Cleric double act. Chris squeezes one more bit of use out of the Rats by sacrificing them to an Altar’s Reap and draws 2 cards. I summon a Merfolk Mesmerist. Chris’s summons a Reassembling Skeleton.


Turn 6
I’m pleased to see a Deranged Assistant make his way into my hand and eagerly cast him. I send the Merfolk Mesmerist into the Red Zone to take Chris down to 17. Over to Chris who attempts to make his Skeleton fight my Deranged Assistant with a Prey Upon. To save my Assistant I flashback a think twice and use the Burning Vengeance damage to take down the skeleton before the Prey Upon resolves. I get an Island from the think twice. Chris still gets the desired result as the death of the Skeleton causes Morbid to go live, allowing Chris’s Woodland Sleuth to randomly return a creature to his hand. After the creature is randomly (and secretly) returned from the graveyard I rejoice when I see it is not the Preist.


Turn 7
I tap the Assistant for Colourless mana and mill a Grasp of Phantoms which gets flashbacked (Burning Vengeance Damage goes straight to Chris’ face) and the Sleuth sleuths back to the top of his library. I attack Chris with my Merfolk taking him down to 14. Chris’s turn. He casts a Reassembling Skeleton from his hand (the Woodland Sleuth’s effect must have returned said Skeleton) and passes to me.


Turn 8
I draw a Silent Departure and flashback desperate ravings doing 2 damage to Chris’s life a la Burning Vengeance. A murder of Crows and a Mountain get drawn and my Harvest Pyre gets discarded. I silently depart the Skeleton, the deranged assistant mills an island, the merfolk mesmerist attacks Chris for 1 and I summon a murder (of crows). Chris Dead Weights the Murder of Crows making it a slightly less fearsome 2/2 and re-summons his Skeleton. At the end of the turn its 15-11 to me.


Turn 9
Fortress Crab hits my hand.*sigh* Now is not the time for a defensive play dammit! With all the bounce in my hand and graveyard, not to mention the burn increments I get from burning vengeance, what I really want are some beaters. I attack with the Mesmerist and the Crows taking Chris down to 8. I then play a Silent Departure to bounce the dead weighted crows who immediately get replayed. I much prefer them in their 4/4 state. Chris elects to attack with his Skeleton, I block with the deranged assistant, activating its ability on its way out to mill a desperate ravings. The dead Assistant and Skeleton trigger the Crow’s ability twice. In my eagerness to use the Crow’s ability I lose it again, to the same trick from game one! The Morkrut Banshee makes her first appearance this game and gleefully Murders my murder, again. In retaliation I flashback desperate ravings drawing a mountain and a Pitchburn Devils and discarding said mountain. Chris takes two more direct damage.


Turn 10
I draw a Mountain, I summon Pitchburn Devils. Over to Chris who returns the Skeleton to the field and summons a Woodland Sleuth, no Morbid triggered recursion this time. Before the end of Chris’ turn I activate the Merfolk’s ability to Mill a Think Twice and an Armored Skaab.


Turn 11
I draw a Grasp Of Phantoms which I use to return the Morkrut Banshee to the top of his deck, I flashback silent departure to return the Sleuth to his hand and 2 damage bringing Chris down to 4 and with his Skeleton still tapped Chris has no blockers to stop the Mesmerist and the Devils from attacking for lethal. Game 2 to me and we’re tied at 1-a-piece.

Game Three; Match Point

I mulligan and then stick with a Ghoul Caller’s Bell, Desperate Ravings, an Armored Skaab, a Fortress Crab, 2 Islands and a Mountain. Chris opts to go first.


Turns 1-2
Chris has no turn one play. I manage a Ghoulcaller’s Bell which makes Chris mill an Ambush viper on his turn; good to know that’s not lurking in his hand. I mill an Island. I cast Desperate Ravings on my turn – drawing a Deranged Assistant and a mountain. I discard an Island.


Turn 3
Chris has hit all three of his land drops so far, however none have been swamps. I tap the ghoulcaller’s bell again to force myself and Chris to mill a Geistflame and Devouring Swarm respectively. I play an Armored Skaab milling a Curse of The Bloody Tome, Think Twice, Silent Departure and a Mountain (not a bad haul of Flashy-backers)!


Turn 4
“Hurr-aaay” Chris hits his first swamp and immediately turns it into a Disciple Of Grieselbrand. Over to me and I draw a Deranged Assistant and send the Armored Skaab in for 1. Chris opts to block the Skaab with his Disciple, then, activate the disciple’s ability to sacrifice it and give Chris one life I summon a fortress crab and pass.


Turns 5-8
Over the next few turns Chris does not make any plays. He’s stuck on two swamps and is waiting for a third. Over the course of the turns I summon a Deranged Assistant and another Fortress Crab attacking him each turn with the mighty power 1 creatures. I contend myself by playing various draw/mill cards such as Desperate Ravings and Think Twice and remember to activate Ghoul Caller’s bell each turn which , infuriatingly for him, makes Chris mill many, many swamps. On turn 8 Chris casts a Rampant Growth and gets the third land he’s been waiting for (Though it comes into play tapped – “Next turn”, he vows). I finally get a proper beater in the form of a Shiny Sturmgeist which comes into play as a healthy 4/4.


Turn 9
Chris’s first turn with three swamps. He’s been waiting for a suitable Doom Blade victim to activate Morbid for his Morkrut Banshee. Like a magnet to metal the Doom Blade rushes for my Sturmgeist. Chris follows up with the Banshee who gives -4/-4 to my deranged assistant. He then uses prey upon to force my Armored Skaab to fight his banshee. Just like that, in one turn I’ve gone from 5 creatures to 2. I ring the Ghoulcaller’s bell and we both mill land. My turn and I put Chris’ banshee on top of his library with a grasp of phantoms, and complete the removal by ringing the bell yet again and making him mill it. I mill a merfolk mesmerist and send in the Fortress Crab twins for 2 taking Chris down to 6.


Turn 10
Chris enchants one of the crabs with a dead weight – making it a 0/2. He then summons a Festerhide Boar to try and get some board presence. Before the end of Chris’ go I cast a Desperate Ravings (drawing a mountain and Charmbreaker Devils and discarding land. I cast said Charmbreaker Devils on my turn and decide to put Chris’ boar on the Harvest Pyre (exiling 6 cards to be sure). Chris sacs it off with Altar’s Reap before the Pyre gets near. I then attack Chris for 1 with the healthy crab and he’s on 5. (Getting there!)


Turn 11
Chris plays another Deadweight; this one finds the Charmbreaker Devils making it a 2/2. Next he summons a Hollowhenge Scavenger. But it’s too little too late, all I need to do is cast grasp of phantoms on his lone blocker which pumps the Devils to 6/2 and send them in for lethal. Game three to me.

Fedger’s Thoughts

I really enjoy playing this deck. The act of milling my deck in search of flashback options is a refreshing way of playing and can be surprisingly effective when it works. You get amazing value for mana and synergy once you have some cards ready for flashback, burning vengeance and a decent beater ready to take advantage of a red zone recently vacated by bounced or burnt blockers.


Its main weakness (as demonstrated perfectly in the third game is its lack of offense). Chris’s only defence for 9 turns was a lonely disciple of greisband and yet I was only able to chip away at him slowly with power one creatures.


It takes some patience to get the combo going and there will be games where both burning vengeances and charmbreaker devils get milled but when used right it is both rewarding and a damned fun deck to play.


Check out my next blog on 13/02/2012 where I’ll be replacing some cards in this deck with others from Inistrad and Magic 2012 to really maximise the synergy between the cards.


See you then and thanks for reading!
Fedger