Hot Tub action

[jorael]

Some opponents don't like it when they spot some silver boarded card full of crazyness so I'm having mixes feelings about incorporating silver bordered cards in my decks. Somehow they aren't 'real' magic cards and I feel prohibited to use them. They all do something crazy and especially some of the rares are combo broken. But since Unhinged came out I wanted to do something with Urza's Hot Tub (www.wizards.com/hottub). When I aqcuired the invasion Battlemages I knew I had my deck concept. Someone told me not to make a 5 color battlemage deck, because that won't work. He tried it during Invasion block, I did it last week with some Unhinged tech. And that made all the difference.

Hotscape Tubmages
3 Plains
3 Island
3 Swamp
3 Mountain
12 Forest

4 Kodama's Reach
4 Aphetto Dredging
4 Urza's Hot Tub

4 Sakura-Tribe Elder
4 Sunscape Battlemage
4 Thornscape Battlemage
4 Thunderscape Battlemage
4 Nightscape Battlemage
4 Stormscape Battlemage

The Battlemages can destroy lands, enchantments, artifacts, creatures, gain life, bounce creatures, let an opponent discard and draw you cards. And with the Hot Tub you can select what you need There are only 4 Hot Tubs in the deck and no tutoring, but most of the times the Battlemages you draw will be usefull enough. When you have a Hot Tub in play you can tutor for pinpoint removal. Very nice.

Paying for all the kickers require a boatload of mana so there's plenty of mana development in the deck. A nifty trick when you have enough mana is to use the Hot Tub to filter the lands and landsearcher from your deck (use the tub by discarding a forest to search for a forest, repeat).
Aphetto Dredging let you return any Battlemage (all wizards) from the graveyard, so you don't need to be too conservative with the Hot Tub or with chumb blocking.

It's a blast to play and the deck won't go down without a fight. Opponents may frown when they see the silver cards (and start gunning for you even more), but they can probably appreciate the interactions of the deck. Besides, when playing casual, this should be okay

 

[jorael]

I deceided to necro this thread to share my latest Hot Tub invention. That card is the best of the Unhinged bunch if you ask me. It rewards carefull deck construction, forces you to look for a completely different card aspect and is, naturally, very fun!

Without futher ado, I present a Hot Tub from Hell:

Blood Bath
14 Swamp
4 Tainted Peak
6 Mountain

4 Urza's Hot Tub
4 Genju of the Fens
4 Blood Frenzy
4 Flame of the Blood hand
4 Innocent Blood
4 Barter With Blood

4 Blood Speaker
4 Grinning Demon
4 Havoc Demon

As you probably noticed, 'Blood' is the important word in this deck. It connects a whole lot of card together. One of them being Blood Speaker, which you can use to tutor for a Demon. And playing a demon lets you return the Blood Speaker to use again!

Flame of the Blood Hand is a nasty surprise for any casual player who abuses cards like Kokusho and Congregate, but with the Hot Tub it can fetch you any Blood card and the black Genju (which conveniently dodges all your mass removal ). Blood Frenzy is a nasty multiplayer trick too. When an opponent bashes another opponent you can punish them both at the same time. If a creature comes your way, you can always cast this after damage is on the stack, so you can kill it without taking 4 more damage. Grinning Demon is there for early beats and Havoc Demon is a 5/5 flyer that can really create a blood bath when it 'goes to the graveyard' ability triggers.

When you feel the urge to turn your local multiplayer game into a flavorful massacre, try this! *evil grin*

 

[jorael]

Another one for those who enjoy bathing (...and R.E.M.).

Nightswimming
14 Swamp
6 Plains
4 Tainted Field

4 Nether Shadow
4 Feral Shadow
4 Shinen of Star's Light
4 Shadow Rider
4 Angel of Light

4 Urza's Hot Tub
4 Sword of Light and Shadow
4 Kiku's Shadow
1 Shadow of Doubt
1 Gilded Light
1 Holy Light
1 Tempest of Light

"I’m not sure all these people understand"
This time the word-theme is Light & Shadow. The Sword of Light and Shadow can fetch any card, and more important most of the cards can be used to fetch the Swords. The idea is to plumb your creatures in the graveyard to fetch the card you need. The swords can return them after that (if you get to deal combat damage with an equipped creature). A nice little trick is to fetch all your Nether Shadows and always have one in play.


"These things, they go away, replaced by everyday"
Other interesting cards that could be used:
-Devouring Light (this build doesn't have enough white mana for it)
-Devour in Shadow (the Swords can offset the life loss)
-Bathe in Light (fits the Hot Tub perfectly!)
-Altar's Light (expensive, but diverse and effective)



"Nightswimming deserves a quiet night"