Subject: Champions Block - Black Suicide Black Suicide seems to be back in Kamigawa, and frankly, it's an odd deck since "oni" is Japanese for ogre, yet in Kamigawa they're demons..sigh. Anyways: Land: 22 Swamp Shizo, Death's Storehouse Creatures: 24 4 Blood Speaker 4 Gutwrencher Oni 4 Nezumi Ronin 4 Nezumi Graverobber 2 Painwracker Oni 2 Seizan, Perverter of Truth 4 Villainous Orge Spells: 14 4 Swallowing Plague 4 Souless Revival 4 Distress 2 Honden of Night's Reach Objective is simple: Use your spells to get rid of whatever you can the opponent has in his hand. In the meantime, come third turn or so, bring out a slew of cheap, overpowered black creatures to run over the opponent. Don't block. Seizan, Nezumi Ronin, Nezumi Graverobber, and Gutwrencher Oni are all cheap creatures in terms of their power. Gutwrencher Oni's similar to a Masticore, although still not as good, it can still do quite a bit of damage. For the same cost, Seizan offers more, if not a little drawback in helping your opponent. The Graverobber's outstanding, as the turn after you play it, it can usually transform by then into something very nasty. Nezumi Ronin's the same thing as well. People never tend to block creatures with Bushido, since it's like free pumpage for the battle, so on average, you might get 3 damage across easily. The ogres used to help control the oni aren't exactly the best, nor the cheapest, but they get the job done. Blood Speaker will fetch you a Gutwrencher or Seizan pretty easily, and with one of those out, not only will you get that Speaker back, but a Villainous Ogre will certainly be very powerful addition to our force, since regeneration is something not seen that much in Kamigawa. Since Suicide Black doesn't block, hitting harder and faster than they can is the key against them. For White Weenie, this can be easily amassed and swarm to kill. For Green Snakes, they can possibly do the trick with the numerous token creations they have, along with their strong mana acceleration. Unfortunately, red wins the best thanks to Black Suicide's low toughness; easy burn targets. Honden of Infinite Rage forces the Nezumi to be held back and the Ogres are prime targets for Glacial Ray and Yamabushi's Flame. Red also has its share of powerhouses. The various Ronin Samurai, Hearth Kami, and Brutal Deceiver are fast and can hit hard. Bombs like Kumano can easily take over the board and leave Suicide Black with nothing. Blue needs to focus on the best ways to control the oni. Bounce spells like Eye to Nowhere and Consuming Vortex played after upkeep means the oni's effects will have to take place. Countering them is convenient since the powerhouses are all spirits, allowing Hisoka's Defiance to easily dominate them. Black can't really turn on itself that easily. While the kill spells black has no longer apply to the usual "non-black creature," they've gotten more narrow into certain types it can target. Discard may be a decent way to control the situation, but once they're on the field, Black cannot really get rid of them at all. - Natsume NOTE: This is just my version of what the deck should be, as well as my thoughts on playing with the deck and against it, although I think playing with it is self- explanatory. Should there be any concerns or better ideas, feel free to tell me so at FORTRAN_MAN@hotmail.com _________________________________________________________________