Megrim deck help

[V.L.Sigma]

hi everyone. I'm trying to build an old Megrim deck, and was wondering if anyone has any advice. Anyway, here's the deck so far...

Creatures:
3 Abyssal Specters
2 Doomsday Specters
3 Silver Wyverns
4 Tempral Adept

Spells:
4 Syncopate
4 Mana Leak
4 Recoil

Enchantments:
4 Megrim
3 Coalition Flag
4 Soul Link

Lands:
11 Islands
10 Swamps
4 Tainted Fields

Total: 60 Cards

The strategy is obvious. You slap a Megrim down and hit your opponent with a specter. they discard, and eat 2 more damage. The Silver Wyvern and adept are for a little board control. Place a coalition flag on the wyvern, and it might stall your opponent from playing any targeting spells (red). The adept bounces any perminent in play, which is nice. Other then that, counters for more control, soul links for life gain, and Recoil for bounce and discard.

Any advice or constructive criticizm is appreciated

 

[DarthFerret]

Warped Devotions, Urzas Guilt, Recoil, etc.....

 

[Oversoul]

Hypnotic Specter > Abyssal Specter

Urza's Guilt is great for this type of deck...

Memory Jar is always great, especially with Dark Rituals for hitting the board early...

 

[Istanbul]

If you can afford them and find them, get Chains of Mephistopheles and Anvil of Bogardan.

Chains of Mephistopheles says that for every card you draw after the first in a draw step, you have to discard a card instead. If you can't, you get milled for a card.
Anvil of Bogardan says, aside from the Spellbook effect, that at the beginning of each player's draw step, they draw a card, then discard a card.

So here's how a turn looks.

Beginning of draw step. Draw a card and discard a card. Take 2 damage from Megrim.
Normal draw. It's the second card you've drawn, so Chains triggers, and you have to discard INSTEAD (or, if you can't, mill for 1). Potential for 2 more damage from Megrim.

What this means is that your opponent gains no cards in hand (+1 -> -1 on the first draw) and might actually lose cards in hand (-1 on the second draw if he had any cards in hand). Not only will he never get any more cards in hand past his draw phase, but Megrim will trigger *every* turn thanks to the Anvil. And after a very short period of time, you'll even begin to steadily mill your opponent to death.

You're welcome.

 

[jorael]

Words of waste + Geth Grimoires

 

[V.L.Sigma]

Originally posted by Istanbul
If you can afford them and find them, get Chains of Mephistopheles and Anvil of Bogardan.

Chains of Mephistopheles says that for every card you draw after the first in a draw step, you have to discard a card instead. If you can't, you get milled for a card.
Anvil of Bogardan says, aside from the Spellbook effect, that at the beginning of each player's draw step, they draw a card, then discard a card.

So here's how a turn looks.

Beginning of draw step. Draw a card and discard a card. Take 2 damage from Megrim.
Normal draw. It's the second card you've drawn, so Chains triggers, and you have to discard INSTEAD (or, if you can't, mill for 1). Potential for 2 more damage from Megrim.

What this means is that your opponent gains no cards in hand (+1 -> -1 on the first draw) and might actually lose cards in hand (-1 on the second draw if he had any cards in hand). Not only will he never get any more cards in hand past his draw phase, but Megrim will trigger *every* turn thanks to the Anvil. And after a very short period of time, you'll even begin to steadily mill your opponent to death.

You're welcome.

it's an interesting idea, but the chains text has been edited to read "If a player would draw a card except the first one he or she draws in a draw step, that player discards a card from his or her hand instead. If the player discards a card, he or she draws a card. If the player doesn't discard a card, he or she puts the top card of his or her library into his or her graveyard."

So, if the anvil is in play, then they would draw a card as the start of the draw step and nothing appens, then draw another thanks to chains changing discards to draws. Then, they draw normally, and have to discard 1, again because of the chains, and take 2 damage from megrim. I'm would be giving them a choice as to what to discard out of 2 new cards. Other than that, my specters would be giving him cards also because of chains in play.

 

[Oversoul]

Originally posted by V.L.Sigma
it's an interesting idea, but the chains text has been edited to read "If a player would draw a card except the first one he or she draws in a draw step, that player discards a card from his or her hand instead. If the player discards a card, he or she draws a card. If the player doesn't discard a card, he or she puts the top card of his or her library into his or her graveyard."

So, if the anvil is in play, then they would draw a card as the start of the draw step and nothing appens, then draw another thanks to chains changing discards to draws. Then, they draw normally, and have to discard 1, again because of the chains, and take 2 damage from megrim. I'm would be giving them a choice as to what to discard out of 2 new cards. Other than that, my specters would be giving him cards also because of chains in play.

Every time a player draws a card, that player must first discard a card from hand. If there are no cards in player's hand, take top card from library and place it in the graveyard instead of drawing. This enchantment does not apply to the first card drawn by a player during the draw phase.

That's the text off Chains of Mephistopheles, since the Oracle text seems to be confusing you (normally the Oracle texts on cards are crystal clear, but Chains is the exception that proves the rule or whatever).

 

[Istanbul]

See above...

...which is why I know this combo works. I had it at one point. And it's uuuuuuugly.

"Hey, would you mind...oh, I dunno...just sitting there and doing nothing while I kill you? Thanks."

 

[TheCasualOblivion]

This hasn't been said so I'll say it.

Best advice for a topic called "Megrim deck help" is simply this:

Megrim sucks, don't use it, and build another deck.

Megrim is another one of those cards where I see people play it and I immediately assume I'm going to win. I'm almost always right.

 

[Oversoul]

Originally posted by TheCasualOblivion
This hasn't been said so I'll say it.

Best advice for a topic called "Megrim deck help" is simply this:

Megrim sucks, don't use it, and build another deck.

Megrim is another one of those cards where I see people play it and I immediately assume I'm going to win. I'm almost always right.

That's pretty cocky, considering that I've won many a game with Megrim and have seen it used successfully by others too. It's not the most powerful strategy in the whole game, but it's not a bad one.

 

[Istanbul]

Use Auriok Salvagers to recycle Necrogen Spellbomb, make them discard at the end of their draw phase each turn.
BAM, you've got a lockdown Megrim kill.
TheCasualOblivion, maybe there's a *reason* nobody said that?

 

[Oversoul]

And then Megrim works well with your regular discard spells (Duress, Hymn to Tourach, Mind Twist, Hypnotic Specter...) and when combined with The Rack ensures that the opponent is going to get caught taking damage (playing cards empties the hand for The Rack, but accumulating cards in hand allows Megrim to take effect when a discard spell hits).

Then there's Urza's Guilt which not only smacks the opponent for 10, but digs through your library as well.

Oh, and Memory Jar now does 14 damage as a bonus to letting you go crazy on your opponent.

Megrim is only bad when used incorrectly.

I have never actually seen Megrim with Chains, but I am picturing it right now and it is beautiful...

 

[Limited]

I love the wyvern coalition flag combo, but it's not for this deck. The splash of white just to get this going is probably better spent on more permission/discard cards.
And, if you are going to play with megrim, put two wheel and deals in there.. gotta love that card.

 

[jorael]

Originally posted by Limited
I love the wyvern coalition flag combo, but it's not for this deck. The splash of white just to get this going is probably better spent on more permission/discard cards.
And, if you are going to play with megrim, put two wheel and deals in there.. gotta love that card.

That sounds like a deck I played against.

You sound like a person I played against.

 

[Limited]

The deck you are thinking of didn't contain a megrim.. just phyrexian tyranny's..
oh.. and hi!

 

[Reverend Love]

This is a underpowered multiplayer discard deck I built for a buddy. Some good stuff in it though.


Spells: 26
4 Barter in Blood
4 Innocent Blood
4 Megrim
4 Unnerve
2 Oppression
4 Cabal Ritual
4 Dark Ritual

Artifacts: 11
3 Anvil of Bogarden
3 Skullcage
4 Geth’s Grimoire
1 Memory Jar

Lands: 23
23 Swamps

 

[Oversoul]

Aren't Hymns still pretty easy to find? They would probably help quite a bit...

Duress and The Rack (if they can be gotten) would probably also make the deck more dangerous, but I'm sure you know that...

I like Barter in Blood. It really is pretty powerful...

 

[Istanbul]

Rev - Why no Syphon Mind? Heck of a way to refill your hand and get some real discard going.

 

[DarthFerret]

My old Megrim Deck (hopes ya likes it, it generally won games)

Creatures:

4 Hypnotic Specters
4 Abyssal Specters
4 Doomsday Specters
3 Zuran Enchanters
1 Cephalid Broker
1 Avatar of Will
1 Nebuchadnezzar


Spells:

4 Megrims
4 Urzas Guilts
4 Warped Devotions
4 Recoils
1 Mind Twist
1 Bottomless Pit
1 Washout
1 Breathstealer's Crypt


Artifacts:

2 Rack
1 Disrupting Scepter
1 Tawnos Wand


Land:

10 Islands
10 Swamps


Sideboard:

4 Dark Rituals
2 Seer's Visions
4 Hymn to Tourachs
1 Sol Ring
4 Counterspells




I know that you might wonder why all the mana accelerators are in the sideboard, but I found that I generally did not need them, but occasionally I would come up against an elf deck or something equally fast and would have to sideboard them in.

 

[Oversoul]

Dark Rit in the sideboard!

And only two Racks?

Also, I hate Abyssal Specter, but the deck does look pretty cool...