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BMoor's Magic The Gathering Deck Garage
Holy Decay
March 1, 2007

I have a 60 card, type2 deck that I've dubbed "Holy Decay", this was my first deck ever and to be honest it was pretty horrid at first. Over the months I've improved upon it and it has gotten a lot better, but it doesn't seem to win that often. My friends(who have played since Magic's beginning) tell me to scrap it, not worth, not gonna work, and so on. I REALLY want this deck to work as it was my first deck and all. But I don't find myself winning but half the time or less. Not sure if it's that my friends have played years longer and their decks are just plain better or what. Please help as any info would be helpful. And I do want to keep this deck type2 legal.

Here's my list:

20 - Total Land
5 - Plains
5 - Swamps
4 - Godless Shrines
4 - Caves of Koilos
2 - Orzhov Basilica


16 - Total Creatures
4 - Mourning Thrull
4 - Souls of the Faultless
4 - Blind Hunter
4 - Agent of Masks

2 - Total Artifacts
2 - Defense Grid

4 - Total Instants
4 - Mortify


18 - Total Enchantments
2 - Spirit Loop
4 - Contaminated Bond
4 - Hissing Miasma
4 - Pillory of the Sleepless
4 - Faith's Fetters


The overall idea I had was to hurt my opponent slowly, while gaining life myself and not really having to attack at all. Early on use my Mourning Thrull and Souls of the Faultless to buy myself some time. Use Defense Grid and Mortify to get rid of any chances they have at throwing me off. Use Contaminated bond on any flyers they have as my Souls of the Faultless will cover the ground creatures. Then get my Blind Hunters, Pillory's, and Hissing Miasma's to make them lose all hope. I think the biggest problem is the time it takes to play. This deck seems way too slow, which is why I took away 2 Spirit Loops and added the 2 Defense Grids I have now to slow my opponent down with me. I was also somehow wanting to fit in some Ghost Council of Orzhova. But I have no idea what I need to lose, what I need to keep. This seems to be my biggest problem when building decks is what to have and what not to have. What to have 4 of and what to have 1 or 2 of. Idk, I'm no expert. But any advice would be great!

Thanks in advance!  =D

--
-Lantz
Well, Lantz, this deck seems alright-- in fact, it's not ovious why this deck wouldn't work as it's supposed to.  It'd be more helpful if I knew what kinds of decks your friends play, but you did mention that the deck needs to be faster, so that's how we'll fix it: with an eye towards speed and general explosiveness.
 
The trick about bleeder decks, you see, is that by their very nature they win slowly.  A point of damage here, a point there, and before you know, you're one attack away from winning.  So trying to "speed up" a deck like this will be very difficult.  But fear not-- it can be done.
 
We'll start with your enchantments.  Faith's Fetters and Pilory of the Sleepless are both fine, but Spirit Loop, Hissing Miasma, and Contaminated Bond aren't.  Spirit Loop doesn't really do anything except act as another means of life gain, of which you have several already.  And Contaminated Bond and Hissing Miasma both do nothing to stop your opponent's creatures, only to make them lose life.  Aggressive decks will often attack anyway, knowing that they're doing more damage to you than they're taking simply due to the sheer number of creatures they are able to produce.  You can't expect to have enough Souls of the Faultless to block everything, so often 1 life per attacker is a fair price to pay for 4 attackers, each with a power of at least 2.  And controlling decks often pin their hopes on one or two very large creatures, so losing 3 life off a Bond to attack with a 6/6 is a fair trade if it means the opponent can save their counterspells for your Mortifies, Fetters, and Pillories.  Which is another good point; you've got enough cards to outright stop a creature that you don't need Contaminated Bond or Hissing Miasma.  The Bond I'd like to see you replace with Orzhov Signet, to help you get the mana you need faster.  And the Hissing Miasma you should replace with another enchantment that costs 1BB-- Phyrexian Arena.  With all your various means of gaining life, the one point per turn is a small price to pay for an extra card each turn.  Remember, the more cards you have access to, the better your odds of winning.  The Spirit Loops we can find a replacement for shortly.
 
Now let's look at your creatures.  We've covered two of the three tenets of speeding up a deck already-- getting mana out quickly and drawing extra cards.  The third tenet is your mana curve-- we don't want too many needlessly expensive spells if we can help it, especially if that leaves us with not enough to do in the early turns.  What I'm getting at is that I'm suspect about Agent of Masks.  Her ability is fine in a big multiplayer game, but she's still a 2/3 for five mana.  In fact, all your creatures are a bit on the small side-- a 2/3 is your biggest one, and you're hardest to kill is a 0/4 with an ability that no good player will ever trigger.  Either your creatures need to get bigger, or their costs need to come down.  Fortunately, you can do both by replacing Agent of Masks with those Ghost Councils of Orzhova you've been wanting.  Another way to bring down costs would be to swap out Souls of the Faultless for Order of the Stars or Will-o'-the-Wisp.  Yes, they're both 0/1's, but the extra three toughness rarely matters compared to protection from whatever color you need or regeneration, and the Wisp can even block flyers.  That brings us to those two extra slots-- a deck with ghost Councils likes to have a good number of creatures on hand to sacrifice, so you should put creatures in those slots.  Some suggestions would be Orzhov Guildmage, Orzhov Pontiff, or Sengir Autocrat.  Or, if you decide you'd like a big, flashy finisher, try Skeletal Vampire or Sengir Nosferatu.  I wouldn't advise running more than two of anything that costs five or more, however.  Ideally, by turn four or five, you should be capable of casting any one card in your deck.
 
That should just about do it.  Keep in mind the three tenets, and don't be afraid to try and win through attacking with 2/2 flyers and 4/4's if the bleeder plan isn't going well.  Good luck!
 
~BMoor


 

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