A long time ago a little uncommon card made its mark with me, there was little more feared than play a swamp, tap it, cast dark ritual, cast Hypnotic Specter ! There was little more feared when I first started playing magic so many years ago. Whilst Royal Assassin was the first rare I pulled from my box set, it was one of the uncommon’s that made me smile. So ever since I returned to the game and found Specter’s had rotated back in since my return I have been trying to come up with a lethal deck around them to varying degrees of success. However, Time Spiral tipped the balance and brought back another old favourite in the Rack. That settled things, I just had to find a Specter deck that worked or better still build one myself. After looking around the net I found very meagre pickings and pretty much nothing on the online metagame, so I decided I would use what was out there and see what I could do with it. My first choice was to decide on which colours, do I go black-red or black-white for a discard burn or discard control strategy. I decide n the discard control option with white but hey, may have a go with black red another time.
Creatures
Hypnotic Specter
Okay these babies are in and four of them. My only question is which versions do I use. I mean I have a play set of revised, 4th ed, a DCI promo, my foil 9th edition, the Russian, Spanish, French, German, Chinese and Japanese one. Alas the Korean one seems to have been lost in the post. I could break out the Beta, Unlimited versions or the signed by Douglas Shuler one.
Ravenous Rats
Pretty much a no brainer and the rats are in. Keep the curve low and deny an opponent a card. Have produced some surprising beats in the past.
Angel of Despair
Incredibly versatile late game as it can finish off the opponent as well as removing any permanent that is proving to be an annoyance.
Dark Confident
Nope, Bob doesn’t like me and the Angel just prohibits his use.
Mind Slicer
Offers some good beats and scares opponents of blocking if they think they will lose their hand but overall wasn’t as effective as first envisioned.
Shrieking Grotesque
Provided some early flying beats and limited discard, missed the final cut put part of me still says maybe they should make a return.
Dimir Guildmage
Sorecry speed to send other cards to the bin and some beats. Has never made the deck but part of me thinks I should find space for it, therein lies the problem finding space as is it better than what I have. Then the manabase starts to become an issue as I am tempted into three colour blue for its second effect.
Phyrexian totem
Okay not exactly a creature but can provide some serious beats, problem s to use effectively need to have opponents hand gone or can be counter productive.
Thunder totem
Doesn’t seem to offer an effective solution to creature beats and on the whole deck has a better options for 3 mana.
Akroma, Angel of Wrath
Yes, the big babe herself. I have to stop myself from putting in the big hitters regularlyand have switched for an Angel of Despair on a few occasions. When she comes out she just breaks the game, more often than not thought you just don’t see her. She may make sideboard tech for sligh decks though yet.
Spells
The Rack
Again this card is going in the deck and you need four of them. My addicition to foreign cards means there is some timeshifted Russian madness coming and some early Chinese craziness.
Persecute
The staple card of any discard deck, just has to make the deck for its brutal efficiency.
Castigate
For a while I ran without this baby and paid the price. Once it came in the insight into opponents deck and removal from game proves invaluable.
Wrath of God
Aggro just hates this solid card and as the deck isn’t creature heavy it has proved to be essential.
Debtors knell
Sometime’s the rack on its own struggles to deal the damage or the discard runs dry late game. Well a stream of cycling rats soon has opponents wincing and returning Angels is no fun for anyone.
Stupor
Oh this card is just insane, lose a card at random and choose a card to lose. The three casting slot is held firm with this card.
Mortify
It’s creature removal and has another hat of enchantment removal. Will miss this card when Ravnica goes.
Black Mail
Was tempted but really not as efficient as the other options though a one drop discard is worthy.
Cry of Contrition
Another card I like that comes back but feel the other discard suite are more effective at what they do.
Mind Stab
Even with suspend not sure on this card.
Megrim
Additional damage when the cards are discarded, I love megrim but have never found it work consistently at tournament level. Local events and casual it is fine though.
Sacred Ground
Sideboard tech for land destruction.
Funeral Charm
Toyed with main deck after my friend Mike mentioned it. Certainly is a pain for many players when you fire it off after they have drawn their card.
Sudden Death
Stuffy Doll and oh so many other creatures have no response to this card. Into the board she goes.
Leyline of the void
Strictly board tech and saw a dredge renanimator player concede second game and consequently the match before playing a turn when I played this.
Cruel Edict
It’s removal for those critters who just cant be targeted normally and solid sideboard choice.
Crime/Punishment
Unless go three colour it is only for the crime aspect but all in all prefer the Knell main deck.
Phyrexian Arena
Dabbled with this card in the main deck as it did pull a lot more cards, eventually though the life loss caused me to lose more games than I won.
Soul Spike
It can remove creatures, it can finish games and can be cast by pitching. It has been running in sideboard for quite a while until funeral charm kicked it out.
Condemn
Actually works more against the deck than with it as life loss can sometimes be a patient affair and giving extra life can be counter productive.
Land base
After much deliberation decided on running the stock 24 land, lower land totals just misfired too often so it’s a bog standard make up of Godless Shrine. Orzhov basilica, Caves of Koilis, Plains and Swamps with an Orzhova, Church of Deals thrown in for good measure. Flagstones don’t really have much to draw apart from plains or godless shrines , vesuva is nice but not convinced unless go for third colour blue and little else could really add to the deck.
So after recent testing over a couple of months this is the latest incarnation of the deck.
Current Decklist
4 Ravenous rats
4 Hypnotic Specter
4 Angel of Despair
3 Persecute
3 Castigate
4 Wrath of God
2 Debtors knell
4 Stupor
4 The Rack
4 Mortify
4 Godless Shrine
4 Orzhov basilica
4 Caves of Koilis
1 Orzhova, Church of Deals
6 Swamp
5 Plains
Sideboard
4 Sacred Ground
2 Funeral Charm
2 Sudden Death
1 Persecute
3 Leyline of the void
2 Cruel Edict
1 Akroma, Angel of Wrath as I couldn’t not play her, a weakness I know.
And there she is, a deck that puts quite a lot of D in Discard.
And this was where I had left the article for publication and took the deck to a couple of events with mixed success. I have also played it at local club deck testing and whilst it does well it soon became apparent it really suffered against blue card drawing decks to nullify the racks and life gain decks could also provide stiff opposition. Fast forward six weeks and Planar Chaos is out and we have some more cards to throw into the loop so I have some new cards to add to the mix.
Damnation
Lets be honest black white control is a lethal combination and potentially now can sweep the aggro decks that come in front of the deck. Damnation and Wrath also use the mana base better as the deck is closer to the darkside.
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
All lands become swamps, to be honest it is a no brainer as the deck runs more black than white spells.
Extirpate
This card just rocks, split second and does a cranial extraction from the graveyard. Better still it comes in as a 1c slot. I’ve run these in testing and they are very scary, you get to scout the deck and see your opponents hand as it resolves and those pesky blue players cannot counter spell it.
Circle of Affliction
Not certain if this would be a good choice when all is said and done but with the extra removal from Damnation, the latter may be the better choice.
Kor Dirge
A nice trick which could be useful but maybe not in this deck as few creatures.
Magus of the Tabernacle
May be worthwhile as a sideboard card for use verses creature heavy decks.
Magus of the Coffers
A good card for producing mana but then the deck really only has Angels of Despair after four mana so may be a luxury.
Mirri the Cursed
Could add beats but does not aid the discard.
Necrotic Sliver
Can remove anything in play if it sticks but maybe the Angel of Despair still holds its value.
Whitemane Lion
You see, the ravenous rats are good and so are the shrieking grotesques but they only work once as tend to be used as chump blockers and not much beating. Likewise the Hypnotic specter’s are targets for removal. The Lion could be the trick this deck needs to replay the discard creatures or the Angel late game.
Since the first article was drafted some interesting variants have been run to see how they work and if they increase the power level. I tried to Smallpox – Flagstones of Trokair model which worked quite well but didn’t seem to have the same resilience as the core build. One change I have considered is adding momentary blink for “Blink rats” though this wouldn’t work with the Shrieking Grotesque’s. I could also add in my other shock lands that are sat in the folder doing nothing Hallowed Fountain and Watery Graves to allow the flash black. One side issue is by bringing in the blue I may remove the two slot castigate as it removes from the game rather than discard to put in Glimpse the Unthinkable as it would ditch plenty of cards to the bin and then the Extirpate targets would be sufficiently greater.
However, the current build looks like follows.
Qty Card name
4 Ravenous rats
4 Hypnotic Specter
2 Angel of Despair
4 Shrieking Grotesque
3 Damnation
2 Castigate
3 Wrath of God
4 Stupor
4 the Rack
3 Mortify
3 Extirpate
4 Godless Shrine
4 orzhov basilica
4 caves of Koilis
1 Orzhova, Church of Deals
7 Swamp
3 Plains
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
How does the deck play ??
Aggro
Plays pretty well as opponent doesn’t normally have a way to stop the discard and then the rack starts to bite when their hand has been emptied coupled with over commitment on the ground making vulnerable to Damnation and Wrath of God. Confident of a win verses most aggro.
Blink Riders
It’s a race, if you can discard and extirpate before the land destruction starts to work its game over for them. Sideboarding Sacred Ground in works like a dream though is prone to suspended riftwing cloudskates. A friend has been running this deck and now beat it consistently more than I lose.
Control
Works a lot better now with Extirpate as once the graveyard has a target it can be removed from game and all its little mates. Card drawing was the biggest weakness of the deck but once the first Ancestral Vision resolves no more will be played. Could be better.
Dragon Storm
Castigate the Dragonstorm turn 2 or Stupor it turn 3 and opponent can have problems. If you have the play and opponent has cards in graveyard Extirpate can kill the deck. No Dragon Storm, a dragon or loss of mana acceleration and the deck can be left with little opportunity to win. At least now with Extirpate its chance of winning increases significantly.
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
