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BMoor's Magic The Gathering Deck Garage
10/10s From beyond the Grave
April 9, 2009

Before I get to today's fix, I'd like to just say a few things about my articles in general. I hope you'll bear with me for this, but I'm sure you will since you've bore with me through my frequent failures to update for weeks at a time and my increasingly repetitive articles.

Maybe my articles aren't really that repetitive, but they do sort of feel that way to me. The decks are different, of course, but I do the same things to them. And it really makes me feel like my Deck Garage is suffering for it. I want to do more for these articles. I also want to get better at writing them more often, but I've been trying to do that for so long I'm not sure if it's a realistic goal. So instead I want to do more to make sure that if I'm keeping you waiting, I deliver something worth reading when I do update.

For starters, I want to do another contest like the Stuffy Doll contest a few years ago. I've wanted to for a while now, but no card has moved me the way Stuffy Doll did-- mostly because no one card has been submitted to me so frequently. But I will have another contest, and soon. As soon as Alara Reborn is released, since I have something in mind, and it's multicolor, so I want to make sure there are plenty of multicolor cards for folks to work with.

But other than that, I'm kind of sorry that this article isn't more like some of the more entertaining things I've read or seen on the Internet. Lately I've been getting into the Spoony Experiment, and I'm always impressed with how funny all his videos are. I'd love to bring the Deck Garage up to that level, but first I'd have to figure out how to change fixing Magic decks into a video format. What would I show, pictures of cards? I can just do that now with embedded images. Also I don't have a videocamera.

I first got into Pojo and deck fixing when I was younger and still played Pokemon cards. I loved reading the fixes by Clefairy Doll and Dr. Crash Landon, because they were informative, and also funny. Dr. Landon even had extra characters-- his secretary, and his pet Hypno. I'd love to try something like that, but where to begin? And besides, I know that if I make each article more work for myself to write, it's not going to help my lackluster update frequency.

If anyone has anything to say about this, feel free to contact me about it. I do this for you guys and girls, after all, and so it makes no sense to make a lot of changes if that's not what you all want.

But anyway, I've been keeping today's client waiting for too long.

> Hi! My name is Alex. I recently created this tournament-level deck
> (Not DCI sanctioned, so there's no restricted/banned list). The idea
> is rather simple: Use Putrid Imp, Stinkweed Imp and Corpse Conoisseur
> to get Doomgape, Skyshroud Behemoth and in the Graveyard, Then use
> Victimize, Diabolic Servitude and Vigor Mortis to put them into play.
> Another option is Shifty Doppleganger. Here is My Deck List. Help is
> appreciated, and my budget is rather high, but i cannot obtain cards
> like Akroma and Darksteel Colossus.
>
> Spells
>
> 4x Vigor Mortis
> 2x Victimize
> 4x Diabolic Servitude
>
> Hard-Cast Creatures
> 4x Stinkweed Imp
> 4x Putrid Imp
> 4x Corpse Conoisseur
> 4x Shifty Doppleganger
>
> Resurrection Creatures
> 4x Polar Kraken
> 4x Doomgape
> 4x Skyshroud Behemoth
>
>
> Thank You! Help is Very appreciated.
>
> -Alex

Well, a few things stick out when I look at your deck, Alex. It isn't actually a "deck" per se. It's a list of cards. You didn't mention any lands, or any support spells that would do anything but allow you to discard and reanimate 10/10's. And as cool as that is, you are going to need some support spells. Preferably something to draw you into your combo, or maybe a few kill spells to keep the enemy at bay for a while?

Well, let's start with your reanimator spells. Vigor Mortis is nice, but if you're not playing with green mana, it's a little unimpressive. You might as well get Zombify and not need double-black. Shifty Doppelganger is also cute, but I'm worried-- when it's not Shapeshifted, it's a 1/1, and you need 3U to shift it and and protect it from a stray Shock. It gets you your big bad for a turn, and transfers your 10/10 from your hand to your graveyard eloquently, but it seems like you'd do just as well with Body Double.

Also, both Doomgape and Victimize expect you to sacrifice creatures to them. This means you need to produce a decent amount of creatures. For this, my personal favorite is Nether Traitor, who combos excellently with... another Nether Traitor. Having two of these to bounce back and forth is a good way to fuel almost any engine, and their price has likely come down since they rotated out of Standard.

It'd be better, though, if you had a way to produce Elementals to sacrifice. Then you could supplement your current 10/10's with two other big 10's: Nova Chaser and Supreme Exemplar. Most effects that do that, however, are either so costly and make such big tokens that you're better off keeping them (Call the Skybreaker, Din of the Fireherd, Walker of the Grove), or make tokens and remove them from the game at end of turn (Elemental Mastery, Sparkspitter). Sparkspitter might be a good way to get a 10/10 in the graveyard as well as an Elemental in play to champion to it, but personally Rakka Mar looks like the surest way to me to ensure yourself Doomgape Fuel. If only they had higher toughness....

And since that would require red mana in addition to your current requirements of black and blue, you could look into some of Grixis's new toys, like Grixis Charm. Your choice of Pyroclasm, -4/-4, or a Boomerang would help keep you in the game. But that's assuming you want to add Elementals for Supreme Exemplar and/or Nova Chaser. It isn't necessary.

But at the very least, try something like Telling Time to help you smooth out your draws. Nothing hurts worse than a string of nothing but lands. Except maybe a 10/10 attacking you.

Good luck!

~BMoor