FNM with MBC

[Crackdown]

I decided that the MW wasn't quite ready, so I played a MBC deck. It did ok for a semi-budget deck, 2-0, 0-2, 2-0, 1-0 (had to leave).

Creatures - 13

2 Ravenous Rats
2 Kiku, Night's Flower
2 Abyssal Specter
3 Nekrataal
2 Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni
2 Nezumi Shortfang

Spells and Equipment - 23

3 Umezawa's Jitte
4 Echoing Decay
4 Rend Flash
2 Eradicate
2 Sickening Shoal
4 Consuming Spirit
4 Distress

Lands - 24

2 Stalking Stones
22 Swamp

Round One

vs. Zubera deck with Yosei oand Oyobi. In game one, he never got rolling as a Jitte and Nekrataal tore through for the win. In game two, the Abyssal Specter with Jitte won.

Round Two

vs. MBC, but with power (Kokusho, Chrome Mox, Cranial Extraction, Persecute). I never had a chance.

Round Three

vs. White Weenie

Game one was removal, Ink-Eyes, capture Masako from graveyard, roll to win.
Game two it was three Consuming Spirits in a row for 19 pts total that ended it.

Round Four

vs. T & N running Urzatron and Eternal Witness. The game was slowed when I distressed a Sylvan Scrying and he pulled multiple Urza's Plant and Mine. I Eradicated his Eternal Witness, he got out T&N. Echoing Decay on Kiki-Jiki and blocked his Darksteel Colossus. He pulled out a Sundering Titan and attacked again with the DC. I was down to 4 life, but a Rend Flesh on his Sundering Titan left a Ravenous Rat with full Jitte to sneak through for the last points of damage.

The deck really seems out of balance. Kiku can be really good. Nezumi Shortfang did nothing. Ink-Eyes won the White Weenie matchup, but didn't do a lot more. Consuming Spirit is a great card with 24 lands, although Stalking Stones never made an impact.

Any help would be appreciated. I am a bit low on power T2 card though. My binder does not have any Cranial Extraction or Chrome Mox, but does sport a few cards:

Kokusho x 1
Royal Assassin x 4
Horobi, Death's Wail x 4
Sickening Shoal x 4
Playsets of all black Ninja and Rats
Playsets of all Betrayers Common/Uncommon

Any help would be appreciated. I'd like to try this one more time, but perhaps it's time to move toward WW or Turtle.dec?

 

[Istanbul]

Your instinct is right. Lose the Stones, put in two copies of the legendary land from Kamigawa that gives a legendary creature fear until EOT.

-2 Ink-Eyes
-2 Sickening Shoal
+4 Hideous Laughter

Hideous Laughter will do a lot more to WW than Ink-Eyes will, and one -X/-X isn't as powerful as a lot of -2/-2s.

-2 Ravenous Rats
+1 Nezumi Shortfang
+1 Abyssal Specter

If you're gonna be discard, be discard. For real.

New decklist seems more focused:

3x Abyssal Specter
3x Nezumi Shortfang
3x Nekrataal
2x Kiku, Night's Flower

3x Umezawa's Jitte
4x Echoing Decay
4x Rend Flesh
4x Hideous Laughter
2x Eradicate
4x Consume Spirit
4x Distress

22x Swamp
2x Shizo, Death's Storehouse

 

[Crackdown]

Your instinct is right. Lose the Stones, put in two copies of the legendary land from Kamigawa that gives a legendary creature fear until EOT.

-2 Ink-Eyes
-2 Sickening Shoal
+4 Hideous Laughter

Hideous Laughter will do a lot more to WW than Ink-Eyes will, and one -X/-X isn't as powerful as a lot of -2/-2s.

-2 Ravenous Rats
+1 Nezumi Shortfang
+1 Abyssal Specter

If you're gonna be discard, be discard. For real.

New decklist seems more focused:

3x Abyssal Specter
3x Nezumi Shortfang
3x Nekrataal
2x Kiku, Night's Flower

3x Umezawa's Jitte
4x Echoing Decay
4x Rend Flesh
4x Hideous Laughter
2x Eradicate
4x Consume Spirit
4x Distress

22x Swamp
2x Shizo, Death's Storehouse

I like some of the changes, but I'm really thinking about going in another direction, away from discard hand disruption and towards black removal and power.

Mumba Demon Beats

Creatures - 22

4 Bile Urchin
3 Royal Assassin
4 Throat Slitter
4 Ogre Marauder
2 Toshiro Umezawa
3 Phyrexian Plaguelord
2 Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni

Spells - 16

4 Echoing Decay
4 Mark of Oni
4 Umezawa's Jitte
4 Horobi's Whisper

Lands - 22

20 Swamp
2 Shizo, Death's Storehouse

The deck has a number of ways to kill, especially with the Plaguelord out. The Bile Urchin can block and sac to a Plaguelord, taking down a critter and 1 life. Mark of Oni can steal a creature and if the Plaguelord is out, sac it (e.g., Kokusho perhaps?). Ogre Marauder is great for ninja, Shizo can give fear to Kiku or Toshiro, ninjutsu out Ink-Eyes and begin stealing the kills from the graveyard and with Toshiro, reusing Horobi's Whisper. Royal Assassin can take out Birds and attackers without Vigilance, a reuseable source of killing.

My biggest concern is Vedalken Shackles as it could easily steal a major card or two. Unfortunately, I don't know what to do about that (I hate the card and blue mages!).

Sideboard isn't started.

Help!!!!

 

[jorael]

Hmm blue with shackes... the only thing I can think of right now is to combat such a deck with discard.

 

[Crackdown]

Hmm blue with shackes... the only thing I can think of right now is to combat such a deck with discard.

It's too early in the morning for irony.

More changes:

-4 Bile Urchin
+4 Nezumi Graverobber, Wicked Akuba or Distress/Waking Nightmare

No one is going to shudder at losing one life and a 1/1 for B just isn't going to cut it. The deck probably needs some discard disruption in addition to the strong creature removal (Eradicate, Oblivion Stone sideboard). I'm just divided over whether to use Throat Slitter or Okiba-Gang Shinobi. OGS comes out for 3B and causes two discards. Throat Slitter comes out for 2B and kills a non-black creature. The other issue is that OGS is a nice one-time discard most likely, but for 2BB, Abyssal Specter will fly over and cause one per turn.

So, I'm back trying to meld discard with destruction. Wish I had more MTGO cards.

Also, I'm concerned that Toshiro Umezawa interferes with the best creature removal spell, Horobi's Whisper, which needs to remove 4 graveyard cards to splice.

Decisions, decisions . . .

 

[Crackdown]

Darn that WoTC, JMS, Nate Heiss and Chris Romeo. I'm hooked on MTGO now.

This deck needed some real work, so onto the Casual room with it. First off, I had to purchase some cards, so a friendly merchant sold me a complete playset of CHK and BoK commons and uncommons. Two Rat's Nest theme decks brought me the two Jitte's and the final rares were one ticket except for three that were 9 total.

MB Beats and Death

Creatures - 17

4 Nezumi Cutthroat
3 Ogre Marauder
3 Royal Assassin
2 Kiku, Night's Flower
3 Abyssal Specter
2 Patron of the Nezumi

Spells - 20

2 Umezawa's Jitte
4 Horobi's Whisper
3 Mind Wrench
1 Mind Sludge
2 Rend Flesh
4 Consume Spirit

Lands

23 Swamp

Starting out in the New Player Casual Room seemed correct since it's supposed to be for theme decks, but I was told a couple of times that Jitte decks are not supposed to be there. After going 17-1 and losing only to a nicely tuned MBC deck, I had to agree.

The next room was for Constructed decks and I let everyone know that I was playing a budget deck.

Game One vs. WWe

This started out ugly as he dropped an Auriok Champion and later followed up with Sword of Light and Shadow. A Jitte'd Abyssal Specter eventually lead a serious charge that just won.

Game Two vs. Black Rats

No contest here. The early Ravenous Rats disrupted my hand, but in this version Echoing Decay removed them and he had no answer for the Royal Assassin and Kiku.

Game Three vs. B/U with Meluko

I'm not sure why he never got going with this, but an early Mind Wrench, Nezumi Cutthroat/Jitte combination took the win. He didn't appear to be too pleased with his drawing (never saw a Thirst for Knowledge though).

Game Four vs. Sunburst

Awesome game. He struggled early as I destroyed his artifact creature threats, but then he cast a couple of Infused Arrows and took out my low toughness creatures. Then began a long period of both players drawing cards but not playing any. In the end it came down to whether I could draw a Consume Spirit or Horobi's Whisper with him at one life, but it didn't happen.

Game Five

Last game of the evening and this is what happens:

Hello and GL

You too.

Turn One: (I go first)

Swamp

His Turn One: Swamp, Genju of the Fields.

I hate seeing that card.

Turn Two: Draw and play Swamp. Cast Mind Wrench. He discards a Swamp and Kokusho. WFT? His discard is probably worth half my deck. I'm clearly in trouble here.

Turn Two: Swamp.

Turn Three: Swamp, Jitte.

Turn Three: Swamp, activate Genju, attack.

Turn Four: Swamp, Ayssal Specter
Turn Four: Swamp, Sickening Shoal on Specter.

Turn Five: Mind Sludge. He discards his hand - Horobi's Whisper x 2, Swamp, Cranial Extraction and Kokusho.

Turn Five: Drops Night of Soul's Betrayal. There goes all my one toughness creatures.

Then he top decks another Cranial and names Ink-Eyes! Wow, I wish. This is a budget deck bro.

I hard cast a Patron of the Nezumi, equip a Jitte and finish him off with a massive Consume Spirit. No question I was lucky against that deck with the Mind Sludge.

The deck seems closer to being ready, but still doesn't have a sideboard and except for discard, doesn't really have an answer to MUC at all. Shackles could easily kill it if it drops and steals a Royal Assassin.

I keep switching around some cards. I like Ogre Marauder better than Nezumi Ronin. Echoing Decay is a great spell, but Consume Spirit gives the deck another win condition as the game grows long and can double as creature removal if necessary. Royal Assassin and Kiku can shut down some White Decks as well as large green creature decks (but probably not T & N unless Eradicate is sideboarded to deal with Darksteel Colossus and Distress/Psychic Spear gets lucky). Nezumi Cutthroat or the Abyssal Specter work with Jitte. Come to think of it, everything works with Jitte.

The deck hasn't been thoroughly tested yet as it previously had Throat Slitter which could come out for 2B and kill a creature, then play possum and sac for a Patron of the Nezumi at instant speed. It doesn't have that threat anymore.

Back to MTGO . . .

 

[jorael]

Very cool update. I like your report on playing the deck.

Mind Sludge is nasty!
Hmm... time again to let MBC loose in my playgroup

 

[Crackdown]

Very cool update. I like your report on playing the deck.

Mind Sludge is nasty!
Hmm... time again to let MBC loose in my playgroup

Thanks. A change:

-1 Royal Assassin
+1 Ogre Marauder

Reason: Kiku and RA have similar purposes but kill differently. Ogre Marauder is a cool card with creature removal.

Game Six:

vs. Shrine Deck

Wow, nice to expose the weakness in a deck! I didn't have a great draw and discarding kept him from finding Honden of Infinite Rage until very late, but the card drawing (with the Top) was too much coupled with Keiga and Patron of Nezumi. He used a Steel Wall early which made Cutthroat useless until it was removed. Game ended with him at 46 life. Sheesh!

Game Seven:

vs. Snakes!! This was going to be a tough matchup I thought, but the Royal Assassin kept destroying his shaman when they tapped. Nezumi Cutthroat and Umezawa's Jitte powered the win, even though I only had three lands the whole game.

Game Eight:

vs. Snakes again! Turn two Wrench Mind should have helped as he threw away a Viridian Shaman and a Wear Away (if I had drawn a Jitte), but all I could get out was one Nezumi Cutthroat as a 2/1 nibbler vs. his Tangle Asp. Mind Sludge keeps him at bay. Finally, he powers out a Plated Slagwurm! I don't have an answer for that (it's a budget deck and has no death cloud or sickening shoal), but I am sitting with two consume spirits and have 7 lands. Two CS later, he's down to 1 life and the Nezumi Cutthroat nibbles home the win.

Made a friend after that Snake battle. Nice guy and we chatted about the decks. That's the part of Magic I like.

Game Nine: vs. Green with Vernal Bloom, Cloudpost and three very nasty critters (Darksteel Colossus, Sundering Titan and Plated Slagwurm).

I didn't take notes, but essentially it was a hard fought duel. I couldn't get out a Nezumi Cutthroat, so an Ogre Marauder backed by a RA was carrying the load with a Jitte. His Sundering Titan took out my land and with it, my CS win condition. He had a Top and in the end, it made the difference between winning and losing as he found a Myojin and my removal was for a 3/3 or less (then the Marauder would not have been blocked and would have come home for the win).

Game Ten: Rematch of Eight. This was a tough battle, but this time I had a better hand with Nezumi Cutthroat and Abyssal Specter. Horobi's Whisper removed a Clockword Dragon potential blocker and another took care of a Thorn Elemental, A Jitte equipped to the Specter permitted a final win. Game ended with me at 12 life and his having a Darksteel Colossus and Plated Slagwurm in hand.


OK, I don't believe that the RA/OM change is huge, so I'll stay with it. However, I wondering if I should change 1 Wrench Mind for one Mind Sludge. That card is simply awesome as people are careful playing out against black. Also, I'm wondering if Wrench Mind should be changed for Waking Nightmare, which costs 1 more mana but doesn't give the option of casting off an artifact instead of two cards.

Side note: One thought the deck should splash blue and add one RA. The thought was that blue could protect with counterspells and also tap a creature so that the RA could destroy it. That might be so, but in a number of games, I've won against a player with untargetable creatures by going to the head with Consume Spirit and that takes only black mana for the X portion (X1B).

What do you all think?

Also, sideboarding will be important here as I'm really weak against Honden decks, untargetable critters and enchantments/non-creature artifacts in general. Death Cloud is certainly an option as is Cranial Extraction, but . . . there goes the budget deck!

 

[jorael]

How many times did you cast a Wrench Mind and the opponent discarded one (useless) artifact?

How many 2-mana cards do you have? If you rather play Jitte or Cutthroat on turn 2, then one less Wrench Mind may be an improvement.

I like Mind Sludge, but to be really effective you should be able to cast it on turn 5-6. That means running 24 swamps at least. I like the card in a black control deck, but I'm not sure if it's better in you deck than early disruption. Playtesting?

PS. Have you tried Distress yet?

 

[Crackdown]

How many times did you cast a Wrench Mind and the opponent discarded one (useless) artifact?

How many 2-mana cards do you have? If you rather play Jitte or Cutthroat on turn 2, then one less Wrench Mind may be an improvement.

I like Mind Sludge, but to be really effective you should be able to cast it on turn 5-6. That means running 24 swamps at least. I like the card in a black control deck, but I'm not sure if it's better in you deck than early disruption. Playtesting?

PS. Have you tried Distress yet?

Well, well, look at this. I loaded the wrong version and was playing with 24 lands. No wonder I sometimes had mana flood. Let's see, the difference is:

-1 Kiku
-1 Royal Assassin
+2 Swamp

Interesting. I didn't realize I had done that. Hmm ... Mind Sludge is definitely better. I have 14 two-drops and 16 3-drops. That's probably why I've managed to win with only three lands for much of a game (only happened a couple of times).

Possible Changes:

Bonesplitter - 1cc
Psychic Spear - 1cc
Distress - 2cc
Waking Nightmare - 2cc
Mind Sludge - 5cc

Psychic Spear was great when it worked, but all too often it missed a Spirit or Arcane Spell. Now if I had Distress to back it up and seen the hand, that might be worth the initial card disadvantage.

Bonesplitter is a great card, but . . . my bigger problem is lack of toughness in my creatures. That's why the +2/+2 of Jitte is such a boon.

Distress, hmm ... always liked that card.
Waking Nightmare ... I would say about 40% of the time I get a single artifact from Wrench Mind.

Mind Sludge - when it casts on turn 5, it just rips apart a hand.

Sensei Diving Top - I have a lot of threats in this deck, but there are many times I wish I had drawn an instant removal or Consume Spirit to win the game, but it didn't come until a turn late. If I play two of these in the deck, what do I take out?

Decision, decisions . . . the fun of Magic.

 

[jorael]

This may be me, but I'd NEVER play Sensei's Devining Top unless I have a lot of library manipulation/shuffling cards (Sakura-Tribe Elder, Kodama's Reach).

Without any way to shuffle you can use the Top once to choose between the top 3 cards. After that you still see only 1 new card each turn you use the Top. Not worth the card. Plain card drawing (Night's Whisper) or more business is just better.

Good luck with choosing what to play with

 

[Crackdown]

Major revamp due to inability to deal with Honden deck.

Lands - 23

23 Swamp

Creatures - 17

3 Nezumi Cutthroat
3 Ogre Marauder
2 Royal Assassin
2 Bloodthirsty Ogre
2 Scourge of Numai
3 Abyssal Specter
2 Gutwrencher Oni

Spells and Equipment - 20

1 Bonesplitter
2 Umezawa's Jitte
2 Mark of Oni
1 Nightmare Lash
2 Wrench Mind
3 Echoing Decay
3 Horobi's Whisper
2 Mind Sludge
4 Consume Spirit

Still not certain about Mark of Oni, but I haven't had the opportunity to capture Kokusho yet.

This iteration of the deck has been amazing to play without a sideboard. Of course, it loses almost all the time to MUC, but even with a sideboard I'd have trouble since most of the black answers to its inherent color weakness are expensive cards (e.g., Death Cloud, Engineered Explosives, Oblivion Stones).

Game One: vs Honden

Wow, I get a chance right out of the gate. In the past, my one toughness creatures died to Honden of Infinite Rage. This time, the beef put early pressure on the Honden Deck, which struggled with Gutwrencher Oni and the equipment. Eventually with 7 Swamps out, I played Nightmare Lash, equipped it to the Oni along with a Bonespliiter and ended the game.

Game Two: vs. White Weenie

This was a terrific game. He came out fast on the first three turns playing Savannah Lions and attacking. I didn't find an Echoing Decay, but put out a third turn Royal Assassin to stabilize the game. He responded by continuing the pressure and the RA took down his Lions. Eventually, I stabilized at 4 life by casting Mind Sludge and he discarded his hand, hit him with a Consume Spirit for 5 and then ended the game with an Abyssal Specter/Jitte.

Game Three vs. Red/Black Control

He hit early with Slith Firewalker which died to echoing decay. He kept find burn to kill my one toughness creatures, but eventually the board stabilized with the ogres and demons, permitting three Consume Spirit to end the game.

Game Four vs. Type 2 Enchantress

In the casual room yet! He spliced Hondens onto an Enchantress engine to reach type 2 legal. The game was a complete blitz for him, although it took until turn 11 to lose. I just don't have answers for enchantments in this deck.

Game Five vs. Underworld Dreams

Well, this went fairly quickly as Underworld Dreams and Teferi's meant a very quick death for me.

Game Six vs. Death Pit Offering (Vanguard)

I added Serra Angel avatar to the deck and played against a Green/Black with Erhnam Djinn avatar. The Serra Angel helped to stabilize the game as the consume spirit cards did their work. A nicely timed Mind Wrench caught his sword of light and shadow. The win was brought home by Gutwrencher Oni equipped with Nightmare Lash and two Ogre Marauders.

So far, I like the way this deck operates much more than the first one. However, I haven't had a chance to test the Mark of Oni creature enchantments. They just haven't come into play yet. If they leave the deck, the question will be for what?

 

[jorael]

Hmm Nightmare Lash may be good enough to add one more? Perhaps instead of only one bonesplitter.

I would rather have some more creatures than the Marks. 17 isn't that much.
Do you have any Nezumi Graverobbers? In the early game they are usually easy to flip, so you have a 2/1 for 2 mana that can get 4/2 by fueling some more mana into it.

 

[Crackdown]

Hmm Nightmare Lash may be good enough to add one more? Perhaps instead of only one bonesplitter.

I would rather have some more creatures than the Marks. 17 isn't that much.
Do you have any Nezumi Graverobbers? In the early game they are usually easy to flip, so you have a 2/1 for 2 mana that can get 4/2 by fueling some more mana into it.

I played a few games with Captain Caveman this afternoon, but I don't believe I gave the deck a chance. The first two games I was just mana short and couldn't get out a demon (only 4 mana). When his Kokusho got out, I captured it with the Mark, but only to show what it could do, because I had to remove the enchantment at the end of my turn.

Really, I also played poorly and made a ton of mistakes.

The third game he got out a Tallowisp and although I've had plenty of removal spells in prior games, nothing came this time until he had used it to find all four of his Cage of Hands. That pretty much ended it for me as all four were on my creatures.

What does Black do about that?

I'm still divided about the Marks. I could see removing them for two more demons, possibly Scourge of Numai x 2 to give the deck a chance to work ogre/demon properly. On the other hand, another lash and sword of light and shadow would be nice. ....

Thanks, Caveman! I'll try to do better next time.

 

[Captain Caveman]

I got pretty lucky, You were short on mana and you had stuff to deal with.

I look foward to playing again. I'm sure things will turn out a lot different next time. I wouldn't think much about the Tallowisp deck, no one is really playing it outside of KBC.

Can't wait to try some Vangaurd next time too.

 

[Crackdown]

So, the deck has morphed in two directions:

Mono-black Ogres/Demons with equipment/discard/removal.

Mono-black with heavier discard and removal.

Interestingly, both decks have seen more than a few wins based upon the nibbling of the Nezumi Cutthroat which then gets powered up by either a Jitte or a Nightmare Lash.

Against black decks though, the wins tend to come from flying over with the Abyssal Specter, equipped, or hitting the opponent with a 4-card discard Mind Sludge at the right moment.

The Ogre/Demon deck really seeks to overpower the opponent with fatties and trample, but the life loss or discarding makes for a demanding interaction between demons and ogres.

Finally, more than a few games end with a powerful Consume Spirit to the head (or two in a row with the Nezumi Cutthroat sneaking in for the final two points).

I've really enjoyed making these budget decks (I count the Jitte deck as budget since the two came in precon theme decks and the total cost was about 35 tickets for the cards used) and they were a hoot to play. However, people like playing against discard second to playing against Counterspell, so I'm going to head off in another direction with the next deck.

Thanks for the all the advice! MTGO is just too darn addicting.

 

[Crackdown]

I decided that the ogre pathway looked best, but needed some consistency in drawing, because I was often mana flooded, waiting patiently for the consuming spirit or fear based Ogre to appear.

So, I used the Top. What a great card, even if you don't have shuffling. The chance to go two deep on a critical draw that could win the game is too good to pass up.

I tested it a little tonight and got my rematches with Caveman. They were fun games and I'm growing fonder of the Top.

 

[jorael]

Hehe, I know enough people who like the Top and creatures with such an ability, like Sage Aven. I'm problably part of a minority not liking the card.

Jay Moldenhauser Salazar used Wayfarer's Bauble in his ogre/demon deck. Gives you early (non-green!) mana acceleration which can be used on turn 2 or 3.

I love the bauble

 

[Crackdown]

Hehe, I know enough people who like the Top and creatures with such an ability, like Sage Aven. I'm problably part of a minority not liking the card.

Jay Moldenhauser Salazar used Wayfarer's Bauble in his ogre/demon deck. Gives you early (non-green!) mana acceleration which can be used on turn 2 or 3.

I love the bauble

Yes, I like the bauble also. Yes, JMS uses it and I don't. He's a better player also. However, the Top appears better suited in my new deck because of it's ability to smooth out my mana and to find a necessary win condition.

The deck usually wins in one of four ways:

1. Evasion creature delivers damage. The deck has creatures with fear and flying that can keep nibbling away at the opponent's life and provide hand disruption. Royal Assassin often holds big creatures at bay while Echoing Decay provides some relief from early tokens.

2. Evasion creature equipped to deliver big damage. I'm often using the top to find Nightmare Lash or Jitte. Lashing an evasion creature is unduly nasty.

3. I need an ogre/demon combination to use Mark of the Oni. The Top again provides some ability to draw into the deck to find them.

4. Consume Spirit to the head quite often finishes a long game. It also gets past the Ethereal Haze/Scepter engine where I don't have any other answer except sideboarding discard. I can't begin to count the number of times I've won close matches with a timely Consume Spirit. Now, I have three chances on a fateful turn instead of just one.

Here is the current version:

Critters - 20

3 Nezumi Cutthroat (Rat)
3 Ogre Marauder (Ogre)
2 Royal Assassin (Human)
2 Painwracker Oni (Demon)
3 Abyssal Specter (Demon)
2 Scourge of Numai (Demon)
3 Takenuma Bleeder (Ogre)
2 Gutwrencher Oni (Demon)

Spells and Equipment - 18

4 Consume Spirit
2 Echoing Decay
3 Mark of the Oni
2 Rend Flesh
3 Sensei Divinig Top
2 Umezawa's Jitte
2 Nightmare Lash

22 Swamp

It's still in development as I really have two different versions of the deck and I'm trying to decide which one is better. I'll post that later.

I'm still undecided between Nezumi Cutthroat and Severed Legion as the critter to carry the equipment.

Deck is still playing well overall, although adding expensive cards will remove some of the weaknesses. I'm still not certain of the mix between Ogres and Demons, but thus far it's worked . . . sort of.

vs. Black Budget

His deck looked like an early version of my MBC, except that he ran 1/1 Bile Urchins while I decided that they weren't worth the cc. A good run of critters and land aided by the Top allowed me to get out a Marauding Ogre and Takenuma Bleeder to support my Painwracker Oni, just in time to weather his Hideous Laughter. The trampler ended the battle.

vs. R/B/U Zubera

Early Zubera development and removal was the trend, until he brought out a Shimatsu the Bloodsoaked, which was forced to block a Demon. Another Shimatsu was too little as the Ogre/Demon combination powered through his defenses (aided by a small Rat Warrior).

vs. R/B Honden Burn

Ouchies, that red Honded does a number on 1-2 toughness creatures. He attacked early and I took some damage, but Echoing Decay removed the greatest threats. The Hondens came out and it was a race to see if I could get the fat out before the 2 discards per turn wiped out my creatures. The Top was perfect in this battle, first permitting the flow of mana and creatures and then going four deep to find the winning card (in this instance, a Nightmare Lash on an unblockable Rat Warrior). My opponent said something about not being able to win against Blind Luck.

I take that as a complement, although I'm not certain he meant it that way.

In some other games, the Mark of the Oni has performed admirably, removing a blocking creature or capturing a particular black, nasty flying critter with the strange Japanese name. Obviously, Death Cloud and Barter in Blood have a disproportionate affect on this deck as it often involves sacrificing the Ogre/Demon Combination, but there are other win conditions. Sometimes, the best Demon to play isn't the one with the best power, but the one that will have a lesser detrimental affect if the Ogres are removed. That's why the deck has four different Demons, two of each vs. three each of two Ogres.

Now, if I were to play this at FNM, I'd have some additional "valuable" cards that could be added to the mix, including a quasi-sweeper in Death Cloud. Unfortunately, no Chrome Mox, Kokusho or Cranial Extractions as yet (well, one Kokusho, but not sure if that makes sense).

As always, any thoughts appreciated, especially if you have some sideboard ideas to handle MUC, Scepter-Haze, Enchantments and non-creature artifacts. Thanks.

 

[Crackdown]

More changes:

-2 Scourge of Numai
+2 Yukora, the Prisoner

This one is almost a no-brainer if you protect Yukora. Nightmare Lash is good for that, as would the swords if I had them. Barter in Blood though . . . not good.

I've decided that I enjoy aggro more than control, so the thought is to gravitate in that direction. The deck remains weak on enchantment and artifact removal. Come on gang, what do I add or sideboard?