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BMoor's Magic The Gathering Deck Garage
Tombstalker control
July 5, 2007

I kept this guy waiting a bit too long because I forgot he needed the fix done in time for his tournament.  So I put in a little extra elbow grease over the Fourth of July to get it done, and now you all get to enjoy the article!

You're welcome. ;)
Sorry to keep bothering you with this, but with the tourney coming up soon, I've been testing the deck, and have made some alterations.  I figured that if you were going to fix the deck, then I should give you the new decklist:
 
3x Island
5x Swamp
4x Underground River

3x Watery Grave
3x Dreadship Reef
4x Terramorphic Expanse

2x Stinkweed Imp
4x Street Wraith
3x Tombstalker
2x Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
3x Looter il-Kor
3x Bonded Fetch

2x Damnation
4x Compulsive Research
4x Dread Return
4x Rune Snag
4x Cancel
3x Sudden Death

SB:
4x Tormod's Crypt
2x Leyline of Singularity
4x Circle of Protection: Red
1x Plains
4x Prismatic Lens
 
Teferi gives a bit more control, plus an alternate beater.  The sidedeck here is designed to fight off narcobridge, pickles, burn, and D-strom.

Ah, Tombstalker.  The eternal hope of a 5/5 flier for 2 mana.  Sort of reminds me of my old Odyssey-block deck where everyone was trying to fill up the graveyard as fast as possible, and everyone else was running graveyard hate.  Ironically, your sideboard is geared to go against (among other things) NarcoBridge, despite the fact that your deck starts out fairly similarly.

You see, the NarcoBridge deck wants to fill up its graveyard with all the right cards.  You just want to fill your graveyard, but you need at least six cards  there by the time you draw Tombstalker.  Other than that, you're basically just a control deck.  You can, however, take a page from the NarcoBridge playbook and enable Tombstalker by burning through your deck like a madman.  Full graveyards make the 'Stalker happy, and more draws means you see him faster.  That's why I'd like to see either Bonded fetch or Looter il-Kor replaced with Magus of the Bazaar.  Why settle for one draw when you can have two?  And don't worry about discarding three; you get a free draw at the beginning of your turn anyway, right?

Speaking of drawing, I'm not really sure you need Stinkweed Imp.  Yes, it blocks, but you want to be finding Tombstalker fast, not dredging away cards to get back your blocker.  It could be good once you get your 'Stalker out, but if you leave it in, don't dredge it until you've already drawn what you need to (either 'Stalker or Teferi).  Street Wraith is a decent way to dig that much faster, but that could also become Mishra's Bauble.  They're both free (unless you want a 3/4 Swampwalker), but the Bauble doesn't cost 2 life a pop.  It also goes well in a countermagic-heavy deck like yours, giving you a little warning if they're about to draw a card that needs to be stopped on the stack.  They're both good of course.

As for your noncreature spells, they all look fine except for maybe Compulsive Research.  There's a lot of talk lately about which draw spells are better than which others, and it's got me wondering myself.  Compulsive Research is the best there is for three mana, but unless you have a land in hand it's not even card advantage.  And, needing a land, it essentially costs four.  Then there's Foresee, which costs one more but gives you +1 advantage without any discarding, and has the added power of being able to get you up to six cards into your library.  For faster decks, Tidings can be a welcome refill, but your deck is pretty slow and has little to do turn one, so Sleight of Hand might actually work better.  Then there's also Careful Consideration.  With good digging reach, it's certainly a consideration (no pun intended), and has the extra advantage of being an instant.  In a deck with so much incentive to not tap out (countermagic, Sudden Death, Teferi, and all your other creatures once Teferi comes down), you likely don't want a sorcery for your drawing, and you aren't too worried about the extra discard that comes with playing it out of your main phase either.  You could also try Think Twice or Truth or Tale, but Twice costs more mana overall and the Tale puts too much control (and information) in your opponent's hands.  Telling Time works as well, even though it's rotating out of Standard before too long.
 
That ought to cover everything.  Remember, don’t be afraid to discard a card you don’t need if it gets you a card you do.  As the flavor text of Gamble said, “When you’ve got nothing, you may as well trade it for something else.”
 
~BMoor


 

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