Is She Finally Ready?

You planning on playing at an FNM or something with your deck? 

I've seen a few versions of these decks and even played one my self to some moderate success at FNM. 

There are 2 main versions of the deck i've seen, the version with unburial and the more midrange version.  I'll make some quick Critiques, then talk about the versions.

A word on the master.

You're really committing to the master of cruelties plan, I think that card is deceptively bad. I could be wrong.  I've seen people try to play it at our LGS and it just does nothing.  I've never been scared of a master of cruelties on the board in any of my decks. You're mileage may very on the creatures, but I see master as being inconsistent at best.

• Some notes on the creatures -   Olivia is much much better here than master imo.  Also, you really need to include a couple obzedats. In my list I ran an aurelia, sire and angel of serenity as well (i just recently changed it, to focus on something else)  I'd consider these creatures as well.

• I see the plan with stuffy doll and reckoner, but the redundancy with the doll is not necessary for the blasphemous act combo. Really,  you want blasphemous act as a sweeper and the combo is just icing.  Trust me here.

• Speaking of sweepers you need at least a couple more.  2-3 Mizzim mortars will help a ton.

• One of the most glaring omissions from your list is lingering souls.  I can't imagine playing the deck without them.  Combo'd with sorin they have won games for me by themselves.

• Vault of the archangel is a must, it does what the Master does, but it's repeatable and it does it for every creature, and life gain can't tell you how awesome it is with some 2/1 lingering souls.

• Removal,  dreadbore, pillar, blasphemous act, searing spear are all totally valid removal choices.  You should also consider tragic slip, some edict effects(like tribute to hunger, devour flesh), mizzium mortars (all day every day), warleader's helix

The midrange version of the deck focuses on a game plan that's very similar to the Jund midrange.  Heavy removal, powerful value added creatures and life gain.

I prefer the reanimator version and plan to update and play it a few more times before rotation happens. It uses faithless looting unburial and angel of serenity with a lot of the strong removal, lingering souls for value.  It's a real strong version of the deck.  See my list below.

http://deckbox.org/sets/378031

Cards that really need to go.

Toil and trouble... not enough value you here.  You'd be better off with almost any of the other spells I listed.
Faith's Sheild, it's cheap and it can help protect your creatures, but if you need that then boros charm does that much much better.  You'd honestly be better just running rogues passage if you stay on the master plan.
Boros Charm - I know I just praised it, but boros charm is really an agro card or even aggro-mid-range.  I don't think it's right for this deck.  It does double strike, but the creatures you're running already have half of that with first strike.  It does indestructible, which protects them from the blasphemous act combo, but you're better off just not playing every creature if you have the combo, and just playing one after the board is empty instead of dedicating a card to just the combo. It does 4 to the dome... true, but obzedat does 2 and gains you 2 and provides a decent threat on the baord, olivia is flying and so are the tokens they go over the top.  I've never needed to burn my opponent to finish the game. It's a one shot and done card and there's no getting it back, I think those 4 slots would be better served by putting solid creatures or spells like lingering souls in.

maybe needs to go

Rakdos's Return - it's a solid burn card.  With a great effect.  I might main deck one side the other? dependson your meta and if control is prominent.

side board. 

You need something aginst Ætherling - pithing needle works here, also stops any crazy maze's ned decks.
You def need something for reanimator matchup.  If you go midrange, rest in peace is great, if you go reanmiator version then purify the grave is where it's at.

sin collector is okay against control, but what would you side out for him, he's got a weak body though and won't trade well.

Last edited by elpablo (2013-06-20 19:12:44)

Just some notes on the dega deck as I've played it at FNM. In my experience, it works well against other mid-range decks, like jund, and especially bant (it eats bant).  It's very solid against aggro, but it is moderately week to control, in a heavy control meta, i would want some more edict effects (for those running geist of saint cheater poop), rakdos return and slaughter games really wrecks control on the side,  Nevermore can go in too.

IMO best cards against control... sire of insanity + cavern of souls... mmm, sire is delicious.

penance is really just a strange form of removal.  And putting him on the board means your opponent can play around it or just remove him and then you get no value out of it, other than them wasting a removal spell on your little dude.  At least in masters case, he has to be answered or he can potentially get out of hand.   Which is why i like the reanimator version,  I can generally put my threats back on the board making they're removal useless. 

If you put an obzedat and Olivia in there, you wont' regret it.   I guarantee it. 

Olivia with vault of the archangel is mean, death touch machine gun?  yes pls.  She also combos with reckoner, ping your own reckoner to pump her and just have the damage redirect to your opponent. 

Obzedat is hard for control decks to deal with, and jund has to use their instant removal to catch him on the exile.

Also, just because you can't surprise people with sire doesn't mean he isn't good.  You're deck has the ability to top deck well like jund so pitching your hand isn't as hurtful for you as it is for those control dudes. 

Even on the master plan, there's nothing wrong with adding in sorin and lingering souls as chumps/flyers.  souls also makes blasphemous act damn near free.   Although sorins emblem is irrelevant with masters abilities.  He works for everyone else.

Last edited by elpablo (2013-06-20 20:04:41)

Money is always a problem isn't it?

Souls are more important than sorin, imo.

the deck got a full blown makeover due to my good friend here!  here we are: http://deckbox.org/sets/411103