Welcome to another installment to Precon Recon. This week as promised, I am taking a peek inside New Phyrexia’s intro packs, and gearing it up for some serious play. This modification will be for Standard play, that way we can take full advantage of the new set, New Phyrexia. This week, I am taking a look at the Feast of Flesh intro pack. For the original deck list, check it out here: http://www.wizards.com/Magic/TCG/productarticle.aspx?x=mtg/tcg/newphyrexia/themedeck#deck3.

Main Deck

60 cards
11 Mountain
13 Swamp

2 Blistergrub
2 Blisterstick Shaman
2 Caustic Hound
1 Chancellor of the Dross
2 Entomber Exarch
2 Flameborn Viron
2 Furnace Scamp
2 Phyrexian Rager
1 Prodigal Pyromancer
1 Scoria Elemental
2 Tormentor Exarch

2 Artillerize
1 Despise
1 Disentomb
1 Enslave
1 Fling
2 Geth's Verdict
1 Go for the Throat
1 Ichor Explosion
1 Morbid Plunder
2 Parasitic Implant
2 Shrine of Burning Rage
1 Tower of Calamities
1 Whipflare

 
     Now onward. This deck is solely based on damaging your opponent with creatures, and then sacrificing them for more damage. However it stops short of being able to do it effectively, since it has just one Fling, and only two Artillerizes. And that’s just to start. There are several options that this deck ‘should’ have added, but neglected. Luckily, that’s what I am here for, to point that out to you, the reader, to fix, and kick some butt!
 
    So let’s get to the pulling. There’s not much sense to having a lot of high cost creatures, since the deck should win fast. Therefore, Flameborn Viron and Scoria Elemental have no place in this revamp. Some other things that need to go would be the Tower of Calamities due to the fact it is a lot of mana for the Tower, and a lot of mana to use the ability. Despise, Disentomb, Enslave, Whipflare, and Morbid Plunder are all good cards, just not for what we are trying to accomplish, and should therefore be removed. While the card draw from the Phyrexian Rager is nice, hurting ourselves is not, and will be pulled. This frees us up eleven spaces to put to optimal use.
 
    So, what replaces what we removed? Obviously, certain rares would really vamp this deck. If possible, getting your hands on Urabrask the Hidden and Royal Assassin’s to fully make this deck fire on some interesting gears. And of course Sheoldred, Whispering One suites this deck perfectly. However, let’s look at some relatively cheaper options. For starters, since the deck so strongly keys on us sacrificing our own stuff, let’s get the Fling’s up to four by adding three more. This leaves us at eight more cards to add. For me, these additions are quite simple. The one card overlooked that I don’t understand is Mortis Dogs. The ability to pump it when it attacks, and then when it dies it deals damage based on what it’s power was when it died is incredible. Pumped by the Tormentor Exarch, this could be a decent hit indeed. I believe that four work best with the revamp. Another decent option to replace something we removed earlier is Valakut Fireboar. It is a decent defender if need be, yet when it attacks, it becomes a mammoth that in the event it becomes blocked makes some great firepower for a Fling. For the last two cards I added in Chandra’s Spitfire. The reason is because you can get some damage on your opponent before attacking would pump the Chandra’s Spitfire, which then leads to another decent target for a Fling.
 
     There you have it. With these simple additions this deck becomes much meaner, and more easily playable. The addition of certain creatures such as the Mortis Dogs and Chandra’s Spitfire gives you some options that your opponent really doesn’t want to deal with. And of course there is never any certainty for them that if they block they won’t take the damage anyways, and even if they accept the damage, you can always finish them off. So put your opponent on there heels, and keep up the pressure to make it a true, Feast of Flesh!
 
     Who knows what I will cook up next time, but should you have some suggestions of decks you would like me to get around to tweaking, be sure to send us an e-mail, and I will get right on it. Just let me know what format you would like to see it redone in, either standard, vintage, extended, etc. urza_90@yahoo.com

     So until next time, keep safe, and keep gaming!