Topic: Would this work?

So I've been going through a bit of a bout of insomnia tonight, and my brain started toying with some deck ideas.  Most of them were, well, kinda meh, but one stuck out to me - I want to build a deck around Megrim...but not a discard deck.  The key concept is to reduce their maximum hand size with Gnat Miser, and maybe Locust Miser (although the latter's converted mana cost seems a bit high for my liking), then use spells like Stroke of Genius to force them to draw before their discard phase and have to discard down.  Spells that have a targeted draw and discard effect (ie Careful Consideration) would also make a good fit.  I'm also thinking of splashing red for Cerebral Vortex, and possibly a couple burn spells.  The real question though is simple - would this work?  I'm not looking to win a tournament or anything with it.  Basically, I've just really liked Megrim since I first saw the card, but despite many attempts, I just can't seem to put together a viable, fun to play discard deck...figured I might as well try a new twist to see how it would work out.

Re: Would this work?

It could work, you just have to be able to defend yourself in some way.  Depending upon what direction you want to take there are tons of cards you can add.  Forced Fruition to make them draw way too many cards, Curse of Exhaustion to stop them from playing all of them, and other things like that.

But again, your biggest issue is going to be stopping them because you will possibly be giving them all the answers they need by making them draw.

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Re: Would this work?

If this is your method, then you may also want to consider the following:

Chains of Mephistopheles
Effectively this card makes each extra draw during a turn require them to first discard a card. If they have no cards in hand to discard while this is resolving, then they mill a card instead of drawing.
Forms a lock with Anvil of Bogardan turning everyone's (including your) draw phase into draw, discard, draw, discard.

Liliana's Caress
Same as megrim only costs less to play

Underworld Dreams
Makes opponent's draws hurt

Last edited by Sillvva (2012-10-23 15:23:37)

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Re: Would this work?

Oooh! Some good ideas there!

Forced Fruition - Wow, what an awesome idea!  Every spell they cast they draw 7 cards...that's a quick way to deck oneself if they're not careful, and I haven't seen much enchantment elimination in my casual group, outside of a single Nevinyrral's Disk in one of my buddy's decks.  This would absolutely brutalize most opponents!

Curse of Exhaustion - Great idea to defend against whatever Forced Fruition pulls, but at the same time it would mean splashing white into a deck that may already run three colours.  I might consider it if I don't run red, but I don't think this should be more than 2-3 colours if it can be helped.  Of course,  I could always use tutors to ensure I have what I need to cast it...

Chains of Mephistopheles - While I really like the card, I don't really want to spend $70/card to get it in a casual deck.  Also, with the idea of making the opponent draw only to discard in their discard phase, Anvil of Bogardan kind of goes against the whole theme.  I would definitely like the combo better if I was planning this as a regular discard deck, but with this theme, it's not so good.

Liliana's Caress - This one I actually had in mind, I just couldn't remember what it was called (just recently found one in a collection I bought, hopefully there's more in the boxes I didn't go through yet).  Figure I'd probably run both just to double up the hurt.

Underworld Dreams - Oh man, why didn't I think of this?  If I'm gonna make them draw in order to discard and take damage, I might as well make the draw take damage too!  That would definitely belong!

As for defenses, with blue it's not hard to run Counterspells and the like, or Boomerang to take care of any problems that arise.  Norn's Annex or Crawlspace would definitely help as far as incoming attacks, black has Darkness, a ton of spot removal for creatures, and some generally nasty tricks up it's sleeve.  There's also plenty of options in red if I decide to go with the tri-color path, and there's always the artifact option...an Isochron Scepter with Darkness or Counterspell on it would definitely ruin someone's day tongue Not too worried on the defensive side of things at this point smile

Re: Would this work?

I would probably suggest Ensnaring Bridge over Crawlspace.  If you play out your hand there is almost no way for them to attack you at all.

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Re: Would this work?

True, but the counters and such would be cards I'd want to keep in my hand.  I could always use Murder or Lightning Bolt or something to deal with attackers, there's tons of options really, so I'd want to keep my hand stocked just in case.

Re: Would this work?

Allowing them to attack with a bunch of easily blockable small guys because you have a couple counters in your hand is probably far better than letting them attack with a couple gigantic tramplers.

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Re: Would this work?

Check out my rats EDH deck. It's got some of these hand size manipulation themes in it. Nezumi Shortfang, Megrim, Liliana's caress, underworld dreams, howling mine, temple bell and gnat miser and locust miser is kinda awesome.

Re: Would this work?

Two of my favorite cards to run with Megrim is Bloodchief Ascension and Burning Inquiry.   The bloodchief gets stacked with counters pretty quick and then does some awesome damage, and with the burning inquiry its usually game over pdq.

Re: Would this work?

After looking up those cards, Bloodchief Ascension got me all giddy, like "oooh, that's mean!" Burning Inquiry would be a pretty good fit in the right build, but the fact that both players have to randomly discard cards makes me leery.  I could add in a few cards to retrieve spells from my graveyard, but that may detract from the deck's focus.  As it is, I've slotted it in as a "maybe," because it does have potential.  Once I put something together I'll post a deck list and go from there.

Re: Would this work?

another fun choice and good for black color EDH Sheoldred, Whispering One

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Re: Would this work?

Figured I'd bump for a bit of feedback on the deck.  It's by no means final, and I had to drop some cards that I really liked to keep it at 60 cards, but I'd like to think it's more or less where I want it.  The current build is Black/Blue with a splash of red.  I thought about running it without red, but I considered Cerebral Vortex to be an important card to keep in the deck, so yeah, red stayed.  I also know there's some glaring weaknesses, but I'm not particularly worried about them in the casual group I play in...at least not at the moment.  Just thought I'd post it to see what people think.

Re: Would this work?

I can't see a link to a deck list, am I missing it or is it not listed?

http://deckbox.org/users/imsully2

Re: Would this work?

Naw, I'm an idiot and forgot to paste it tongue

http://deckbox.org/sets/251771

Re: Would this work?

I don't have a lot of time to dig for stuff but right off the bat Jin-Gitaxias seems like a good fit in this deck, and I'm surprised no one has mentioned Blightning, other cards to fill everyone's hand include Font of Mythos, Temple Bell (Has the additional benefit of being instant speed so you can activate it during your opponent's turn during their end phase before they discard.) and finally Otherworld Atlas, these in concert can be a powerhouse, if you like this idea Psychosis Crawler is an absolute house, you smash each opponent for like 5-6 per turn just during your Draw Step, you can also include Venser's Journal/Ivory Tower for life gain in this strategy.

http://deckbox.org/users/imsully2

Re: Would this work?

I have a somewhat similar deck, and here are some cards I run:

Confessor
   Thinking about pulling this in favor of Bloodchief Ascension, but it is a chump blocker if needed.
Windfall
   Derptastic amounts of draw on the cheap.
Jace's Archivist
   More of the same.
Geth's Grimoire
   Gets ridiculous on the draws sometimes, and combos well with the Anvil.

Last edited by varble (2012-11-25 06:08:15)

Re: Would this work?

I actually considered Jin-Gitaxis, but the deck doesn't really have any mana acceleration, so a 10 mana creature, no matter how well it fits, would come into play so rarely in this build that it isn't really worth adding (unless the needed tweaks are made to bring it in faster).  As for the other suggestions you made Sully, I must say I like the idea of making both of us draw, especially with Venser's Journal thrown in there...however, I would lean more toward running Ivory Tower and Spellbook to preserve the mana curve in there.  With all the draw in the deck, it shouldn't be a problem to pull both out at some point.  And you're right about Psychosis Crawler...that thing is a beast! 

Varble, I like Geth's Grimoire out of those suggestions.  Confessor would be good, but I dropped white out of the equation, so I'm not really wanting to work it back in.  The others won't really work with this setup, as I don't really want to discard too many of my own cards.  That is, unless I make a bigger deck or something.

Anyway, based on these suggestions, I've made the following changes:

-1 Howling Mine in favor of +1 Font of Mythos
-2 Stroke of Genius in favor of +2 Temple Bell

I really want to do a bit more than that, as I like the suggestions...I just need to go through and see what sort of changes should be made to incorporate them.  Perhaps throwing in my Demonic Tutor, or something to that effect.  Really though, I'm not sure what to take out to make things work.