Painful Crush, aka "I'm crushing your head!"

M

Mur

Guest
A black/red deck can be designed to (at least) two different archtypes:

  • Aggressive creatures: such a deck tries to deliver 20 points in a hurry, using efficent (usually small) creatures and burn
  • Anti-creatures: disrupts other creature-based strategies to change the playing field.

The idea is that if the R/B deck can destroy every creature played, preferably with reusable damage sources, then it can deliver a knockout punch with burn. Meanwhile the burn acts as "counterspell" to the early creatures, and the reusable damage as backup "punch" if the opponent can't or doesn't play creatures. I call such decks "hostile environments", because the idea is to create an environment where life just doesn't get a chance to take root unless it is *very* tough. One early attempt at such a deck involved things like AEther Flash (WL enchantment) and Pestilence. The problem with those was always that they did nothing once the creature count dropped to zero.

Here's something I started kicking around on MTGO recently. It isn't going to win any prizes, but it does get annoyed mutterings from anyone playing with */1 creatures as their base. Like many of my casual decks, it doesn't involve any critical rares!

Crushing Your Head, V1.0


Qty,Card Name
10,Swamp
12,Mountain
4,Wayfarer's Bauble

1,Panoptic Mirror
2,Pyroclasm
2,Honden of Night's Reach
3,Honden of Infinite Rage
3,Hideous Laughter
2,Granite Shard
3,Earthshaker
4,Ragged Veins
2,Inflame
4,Glacial Ray
4,First Volley
4,Crushing Pain

It's a bit of a combo deck, although I have won games without seeing the Crushing Pain/Ragged Veins combo show up. The ideal situation is to get out a Granite Shard early to control small creatures, then a pair of Hondens which strips the opponent's hand of larger stuff before he can cast it AND adds a couple more repeatable damage. Once you make it up the mana curve, Earthshaker is a pretty tough customer backed up with a red Honden and/or a Shard, and an Arcane spell. The "style points" combo is to attach a Ragged Veins to an opponent's creature, ping it, and then inflict Crushing Pain for a total of at least 7 points to the head (and usually a dead creature).

At the moment the deck is trying to be a "splice onto Arcane" deck, too, which I think may be trying for too much. Barbed Lightning belongs in here, but since it's not Arcane, I have resisted. Hideous Laughter is a reset button that I don't always like to see, since sometimes I *want* an opponent's creature to stick around for a while. I wanted to add Talon of Pain, but I think it's too slow. I'd love Earthshaker even more if it was a non-creature; with only three creatures in the deck, it won't live long against a Black deck. There's no card-drawing or tutoring, which makes for a wild ride in terms of consistancy. Duplicate Hondens in your hand are pretty annoying; I don't have any Mirror Galleries on- or off-line, and besides they are a little costly in this deck.

But the deck shows some promise, at least by being a Scissors in a world of Paper, so I'll continue to tinker with it. Comments invited.
 
J

jorael

Guest
The deck has a nice theme, but it can do better I think (without adding too much rares)...

Mur said:
...It's a bit of a combo deck, although I have won games without seeing the Crushing Pain/Ragged Veins combo show up. The ideal situation is to get out a Granite Shard early to control small creatures, then a pair of Hondens which strips the opponent's hand of larger stuff before he can cast it AND adds a couple more repeatable damage. Once you make it up the mana curve, Earthshaker is a pretty tough customer backed up with a red Honden and/or a Shard, and an Arcane spell. The "style points" combo is to attach a Ragged Veins to an opponent's creature, ping it, and then inflict Crushing Pain for a total of at least 7 points to the head (and usually a dead creature)...
That takes 2 cards just to deal 6 more damage. That isn't very productive. A glacial ray and some more arcane spells can do more for you. And it wouldn't be dead cards like Crushing Pain if you don't have a granite shard or red Honden in play. Inflame doesn't do much too if you don't have a earthshaker or a pyroclasm. Even with a granite shard, it's just 2 more damage for 1 card.

I like the way how a hideous laughter with a earthshaker will kill all 1-4 toughness creatures. Looks like great creature control. I'd use 4 and drop the pyroclasms. Speaking about creatures, I'd add some. They are best at dealing damage. Have you considered soulles revival? It's arcane, spliceable and makes sure you can play some creatures. After they get destroyed (by your opponent or yourself) you can just return them. I recommend Hearth Kami: not only a nice early beater, but it will give you some artifact kill too :)

Baku Altar might give you a steady flow of 1/1 creatures, especially if you add more arcane spells and spirits. It's a rare, but not a very expensive one!

Good luck with the deck.
 
M

Mur

Guest
Thanks for the suggestions. A couple of comments:

Yes, the Crushing Pain/Ragged Veins combo is fragile. It's the "stylistic center" of the deck, but not the main path to win. Ragged Veins is there to help convert the Earthshaker's creature-directed damage into life loss for the opponent. Notice that Earthshaker + Ragged Veins + First Volley + Crushing Pain is a grand total of 12 damage to the opponent; it does require that the target of the Ragged Veins have more than 3 toughness. You can substitute any non-Arcane spell or damage (e.g., Granite Shard) and still get 9 points.

Crushing Pain hasn't been a dead card for me too often yet, unless I have 3 of them in hand at the start of the game. Between the Red Hondens, the Granite Shards, and the various cheap direct damage spells, I have lots of ways to get the Pain delivered. As to using multiple cards to take out a big creature, consider facing a 6/6 with two Incinerates in hand. Now replace the Bolts with a First Volley and a Crushing Pain. Even better, a Granite Shard and a Crushing Pain. Crushing Pain in this deck makes every pinger better.

Inflame is even worse than you state, because it's not Arcane. I'll have to replace it with something that is, or maybe a couple more Shards.

Pyroclasm is a necessity, even though it is not arcane, because I need early creature control against things like Snake or Spirit tokens. If Earthshaker was, oh, say a 2/3 for 4 mana, then I could sub out Pyroclasm, but I need a way to survive to turn 7 or 8. Pyroclasm also has the strong difference of affecting flyers, so down come the 2/2's.

Baku Altar was considered. It's not got great synergy with the Earthshaker, though.

One reason I didn't use a lot of creatures was that it makes for a lot of dead cards in hand for the opponent. This was conceived as a creatureless deck, and I folded in the Earthshakers because they fit. Another way would be to pull them in favor of Vulshok Sorcerors or Frostwielders, but I think they would be far more fragile.

If it helps, you can think of this deck as a sort of R/B equivalent to the old style control decks, which were mostly U/W. Clear the board, reduce the opponent's life by a large chunk while doing so (e.g., with Glacial Ray spliced onto First Volley), then drop Earthshaker and finish.
 
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