Down with the sickness

by Puschkin on 09 April 2014

Main Deck (58 cards)

Sideboard (6 cards)

Submit a list of cards below to bulk import them all into your sideboard. Post one card per line using a format like "4x Birds of Paradise" or "1 Blaze", you can even enter just the card name by itself like "Wrath of God" for single cards.


Deck Description

I built this around Spreading Plague. Together with Darkest Hour I can swipe the board regularily, killing all creatures. See "How to play" for more details.

WHAT I AM LOOKING FOR:

1) Not sure about the creature selection. The one-ofs there are just ideas. Ichorid looks perfect on paper but I probably won't have enough creatures to feed him. The Massacre Wurm also looks great in theory but I fear he will hit play way too late. By the time I can cast him, there are probably only a few creatures in play and Spreading Plague keeps the creature count low. The Reassembling Skeletons and the Phylactery Liches however will stay.
I considered Painter's Servant but he is too easy to remove.

2) Not sure about the amount of cards I need to turn creatures black. Without them, my trick does not work. But they become redundant fast. I am especially unsure if I should emphasize on permanent color shifters (Hour, Lens) or instants (Wisps, Touch of Darkness).

3) This deck should be able to handle creatures well and my own offense is robust (assuming my trick works and blockers are scarce for my enemies). However, the deck lacks in most other departments: Lifegain, enchantment, artifact and land removal, card draw, library manipulation. I only of single cards for each of this right now and no room to up the numbers.

4) General improvements, provided, they fit the theme somehow.

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As always, I don't use sideboards, cards in the sideboard are cards I consider adding.

How to Play

(This deck is intended for multiplayer, especially pentagram games)

Spreading Plague:
"Whenever a creature enters the battlefield, destroy all other creatures that share a color with it. They can't be regenerated."

If I have this and Darkest Hour out, every time anybody casts a creature, that creature acts like a Wrath of God, exempting itself. I do have creatures like the Reassembling Skellis that can do that indefinately. If Darkest Hour isn't around I can use Apothic Wisps, Touch of Darkness and Distoring Lens to pick vicitims individually. Even if I can't turn anything black, a Spreading Plague in play means every black opponent will have no chance with creatures and everybody else will still destroy each other's creatures.

Phylactery Lich is your main offense. Being indestructible, Spreading Plague doesn't phase him. Darksteel Brute is on double duty: It is both a prime target for the Lich's counter as well as a creature himself that is immune to the Plague (and most of opponent's removal spells). Darksteel Axe can also provide the phylactery for the Lich and is able to beef up your small recurring creatures.

Distorting Lens can not only be used to turn opponent's creatures black when you play one of yours, in multiplayer, you can also shift creatures to any other colour. This may be used so that player B kills a creature of player C - but remember, sometimes its about politics! You can also use the Lens to SAVE a creature from destruction by changing the colour to something the new creature hasn't.
This is the main reason why I consider adding more Lenses, btw.

Deck Tags

  • Multiplayer
  • Casual
  • Removal
  • Indestructible

Deck at a Glance

Social Stats

6
Likes

This deck has been viewed 2,210 times.

Mana Curve

Mana Symbol Occurrence

004200

Card Legality

  • Not Legal in Standard
  • Not Legal in Modern
  • Not Legal in Vintage
  • Not Legal in Legacy

Deck discussion for Down with the sickness

Well, first obvious suggestion would be darksteel citadel for the lich :D

Akuta might be nice with crucible of worlds?

There's a gargoyle costing 6 or 7 mana or something which is also indestructible, and has flying.

There's also a golem which is all colors (from around the first ravnica cycle)

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Posted 14 April 2014 at 15:10

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Darksteel Citadel is an artifact, too? Cool, didn't know that. Yes, that makes it an auto-addition!

If I play Akuta it will stay as a one-of (and I don't own a Crucible), so not worth the trouble.

Yes, I considered the Gargoyle, but it is too expensive for what I am trying to do.

The golem you are referring to is Transguild Courier and yes, he fits in perfectly, thanx! It is also nice, I suppose, that this is possibly the first time Transguild Courier is used outside of Domain decks :)

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Posted 14 April 2014 at 16:46

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If looking at artifact why not black artifact land

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Posted 27 April 2014 at 02:37

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Because it isn't indestructible. The idea is to put the phylactery counter of the Lich on it. An artifact-land is super-easy to destroy, trying to hide the phylactery on that would be foolish.

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Posted 27 April 2014 at 11:14

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Ok I see now

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Posted 27 April 2014 at 14:42

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What about that black artifact-protecting monkey from arabian nights? You are ancient enough to have it ;D

Aphotic wisp and distorting lense could be replaced with painter's servant, and you could then include the very fancy deathgrip from ye olden times too... (Arti-monkey would be nice with painter)

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Posted 28 April 2014 at 15:48

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Guardian Beast? I have one, yes. But I fail to see why I should add it. To protect Vault of Whispers that could keep the Lich alive? Well, that would be a 3-card-combo just to keep one dude alive ... and the Guardian Beast itself isn't protected and will die to Spreading Plague :P
Nah, your first suggestion (Darksteel Citadel) is well enough, I also have the Darksteel Axes and Brutes, that should be enough targets for the Lich. And I can see Darksteel Pendant in this if this turns out to need more library manipulation.

Painter's Servant is way too fragile to begin with and suffers from the same problem: It paints iteself, too, right? So the next creature that hits play will kill the Servant right away.

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Posted 28 April 2014 at 16:46

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Well, sometimes I think too fast :D.
(And answer slowly???)

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Posted 30 June 2014 at 16:35

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Yes, but we are both getting old :)

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Posted 30 June 2014 at 21:50

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I'm sorry I don't have any input for this one because to me it looks great! I could see me using this against a Goblin deck for sure :)

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Posted 25 June 2014 at 20:18

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You already have 4 Phylactery Lichs, consider adding 4 Gravecrawlers and removing the Ichorid and Necros. Gravecrawler would serve the same purpose as those cards only it is far more efficient (especially with the Lich synergy). Finally, two Unholy Grottos should round out the strategy of always having zombies to play from your grave.
More tutors are never a bad thing either.

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Posted 16 June 2015 at 08:17

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BTW, due to the overwhelming amount of lockdown in this deck, I wouldn't consider this to be casual in the least.

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Posted 16 June 2015 at 12:18

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I don't own neither Grottos nor Gravecrawlers but I am considering getting some Gravecrawlers because I would need them for other decks, too. However, they require me to have a zombie in play in order to come back and the only others are the Liches (oddly I have to say) and that Nim Devourer, so I am unsure how that would work out. But yes, Ichorid would be the first creature to cut. Those Necrosavants, however, have special place in my heart :)

I still consider this casual and here is why:
Yes, if the lock is down, it is pretty nasty. However: It's just a creature lock, not a full lock, and there are many creatures that can slip past the lock. But more importantly: It only works with a Spreading Plague in play. Without the plague this is just a sub-par creature deck with lots of dead cards in it. And I have no ways to bring back lost Plagues, zero ways to protect them and only 2 tutors to fetch them. So, all my opponent has to do is to keep the Plague off the table and the deck is civil.
That's why I always recommend others to run at least some artifact/enchantment removal in their casual decks. If a player doesn't run any, then he has no right to complain about a deck like this. Especially considering how powerful creatures are these days and how easy block mechanics, tribal mechanics and so on can get out of control.

And now you also know why I don't run more tutors: It would make the deck straighter, focussing more on the combo and setting up more pressure on everyone to kill either the Plague or me. And then it wouldn't be casual anymore.

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Posted 16 June 2015 at 12:49

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In that case I would consider running elixir of immortality for mid game once a bunch of your stuff has been picked off. By then you should already have the land out to play whatever you need and many of your best cards will be in your graveyard. Pop and elixir and you'll have a much higher chance to draw those cards than you did initially because you already have other lands in play.
BTW, I think the only deck I have that I would want ot play against this would be my Fat Fat Fatty deck (or my creature-less deck, but that's just cheap). My fatty deck is another one I had on the front page, it's the second deck I ever built and is one that I actually own most of the cards for (though no alpha lands).

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Posted 17 June 2015 at 08:48

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Yes, Elixir is always an option, albeit a lazy one ;)
I'll consider it, especially if the Soulnet prooves to be insufficient. (Sideboard for now)

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Posted 17 June 2015 at 17:43

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I think the added utility of Elixir is really what sells it for me.
Also, it just occurred to me that Demon's horn would be way better than Soulnet in this deck.

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Posted 17 June 2015 at 19:58

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Why? If I bring back Reassembling Skellis bac kto play, I am not casting them. Darkest Hour only works on creatures and therefore wouldn't gain more life than the Soul Net (assuming every creature will die sooner or later anyway).

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Posted 17 June 2015 at 20:13

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Because all of the creatures your opponents play will also be black. It synergises way too well with Darkest Hour.

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Posted 18 June 2015 at 09:13

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Soul Net works on opponent's creatures, too, regardless of colour.

Anyway, the reason I am writing after such a long time is that I will most likely dismantle this deck and build this one instead:
http://www.mtgvault.com/puschkin/decks/the-message/

Which runs the Gravecrawlers you suggested earlier (finally got around to trade for a playset).

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Posted 19 January 2016 at 07:07

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