Negative Life deck (Modern)

its an interesting idea and I think it has some possibilities but from a purely competitive standpoint I think you have some trouble as the deck stands right now. So while it may work as is for a kitchen table type setting I'll be discussing alittle more of a competitive mindset.

I would personally break it down into three key issues.
1) Your Mana Base
2) Your Card Cost
3) Your disruption

Your current mana base runs no shocks. While this is not necessary in a mono coloured deck given that you WANT to be hurting yourself anyway Shocks are a must. Right now is a good time to get into them as they will be about the lowest they'll ever be. For similar reasons City of Brass or other pain lands may be worth while if you want to spread into the two color pool. Two colors opens up alot for you and it isnt that hard to pull off in modern so I would encourage you to try for it. Finally you're running what amounts to Black Tron but you dont have Expedition maps to fix your lands. You really want Expedition Maps to fix your lands.

Your average CMC is 4 mana. While this could work if you get your Tron up its still tight. you're competing against stuff like T3 Karn so alot of what you're trying to play doesnt really stack up too favorably. I would focus on coming up with ways to stall out the game and then use the tron to win instantly.

Your Disruption is limited. Your opponent has more or less free reign of the board until you start getting your tron stuff off and even than your disruption amounts to "I do alot of damage" and "I regain my life." Black has some good removal and so does white I would recommend going into a W/B type deck.

Your points are all good, I wouldnt bother with Darksteel Forge since it doesn't protect against Exiling or sacrificing effects which are quite popular and doesn't further your game plan any.

I would look into the following cards.
-Path to Exile
-Victim of the night
-Go for the Throat
-Expedition Map
-Angel's Grace
-Isochron Scepter
-Profane Command
-God's willing
-Killing Wave

Last edited by TRZ (2013-10-30 11:22:06)

NP.
If I have some spare time I'll tool around with a copy of the deck to see if I can make something I like.

Edit:
Also Orzhov charm would be awesome for this deck.

Last edited by TRZ (2013-10-30 11:31:26)

I had more time than I expected this morning and this deck idea really tickled my fancy.

I dont think its highly competative but you may be able to make it better than what i've come up with. I'd look at something like this: http://deckbox.org/sets/519084

the most expensive cards are Karn and Emrakul. Emrakul could easily become any of the legendary Eldrazi. Karn would be harder to replace.

Last edited by TRZ (2013-10-30 12:56:31)

If the idea is to get to a negative life total, or near death experience, then phyrexian mana is your friend.  I suggest making your deck smaller with Gitaxian Probe.  The information it gives you is also worth the two life.  In addition, other threats that let you channel out life at will include Moltensteel Dragon, Hex Parasite  and Immolating Souleater. 

You may also want to consider protecting your creatures with shroud or giving them haste.  Lightning Greaves and Hall of the Bandit Lord come to mind.  Note that you cannot pay the three life if you don't have it, even if you have a Platinum Angel on the field, but it can help you reduce your life quickly to be more aggressive.

Also be careful with Angel's Grace.  It doesn't reset you to one, it just prevents you from dying to damage, or losing that turn.  You can still go negative and lose on your end step if you lose life or pay life.

If you want to make it more competitive and aggressive there are builds that use Thoughtseize Plunge Into Darkness, Spoils of the Vault and Ad Nauseam (This is where that Angel's Grace thing comes into play.  You can go negative with Ad Nauseam and keep going, you don't lose the game until the spell finishes resolving and state based effects are checked.  If you Angel's Grace first, let it resolve then cast Ad Nauseam you can go negative, and assuming you can win that turn you're good, but if you end the turn you lose). If you want to splash red you can use Fling to kill and avoid the whole combat step thing.  Also Rite of Consumption is sort of like fling but can put you back to the positive on life. 

With the Ad Nauseam // Angel's Grace combo you can can dig until you are far into the negative, cast a Death's Shadow and it will actually be LARGER than 13/13 because your negative life total adds to it's power.  The problem then is just giving it haste, or flinging it.  The Thoughtseize and Gitaxian Probe make sure you know when to combo out.  This requires nine mana though to do it all on one turn (4BBBBW), so it would be easier to just use it as a draw engine, and not a massive combo machine.

Last edited by gumgodMTG (2013-10-30 19:47:34)

So long as hes not paying the life. He can still lose life that takes him below 0 is my understanding?

So like as long as he doesnt lose for being at 0 and he gets attacked for 5 with no blockers that would take him down to -5.

You're both correct.  So you can't pay the life if you don't have it (Phyrexian Mana for example), but if you're losing life as part of an effect (Ad Nauseam)  you can choose to keep going and go into the negatives.  This is because you're not paying life to gain the card, you're losing life based on the card's mana cost.

There are several sources out there where this has already been done.  I compiled a quick list of cards that were common inclusions.  I put links in the comments of the decklist with other lists and a couple of articles.
http://deckbox.org/sets/519457

Last edited by gumgodMTG (2013-10-30 21:04:19)