Survival of the Undead

For a long time, I’d been trying to find a home for Ichorid in Ancient. There’s no denying the card’s awesome, but it’s one of those build-around-me types of awesome that require a lot of synergy built around it. Because Ichorid has a fairly unique ability, it took some time figure out a way to get it right. So how did I finally do it? If you must know, I suggest you continue reading about today’s list: Survival of the Undead.

To the surprise of no one, a deck with Ichorid in it must have (at least) some focus on the graveyard. Despite its unique recursion ability, Ichorid is not the only creature that is able to rise from the grave. As such, I focused on finding other creatures that don’t mind being dead (both for offense and to ensure Ichorid can reliably come into play from the ‘yard). With that problem solved, I shifted my attention to the next challenge of the deck: in a game where you normally want to keep your creatures in play, how do you get them into the graveyard in a way that benefits you and not your opponent?

As I seem to be pointing out obviously awesome build-around-me cards today, allow me to talk about another one: Survival of the Fittest. While the first thing the deck needed was a bunch of creatures with graveyard recursion, the next thing was a reliable way to get them there. SotF is perfect for this, as it actually generates a sort of card advantage when combined with the aforementioned creatures. I felt that the deck wanted another option as well however, to help ensure more reliable opening hands. The solution to this problem was to add a Bottomless Pit to the list. Originally there were more than one, but I decided to lower the number of them because you mostly want to cast it once you are both in top deck mode.

Despite not being a land destruction deck, Survival of the Undead does contain several ways to stifle an opponent’s land count and slow them down. Hymn to Tourach, Pox and Wasteland all act as ways you can [potentially] attack an opponent’s mana resources. Two of them even allow you to do so if their mana comes from a creature, such as Birds of Paradise. Doing so not only gives you more time to grow your graveyard, but it also ensures Bottomless Pit remains relevant throughout the game.

I believe the deck to be pretty self-explanatory, but I want to mention a couple of cards I’d considered that didn’t make the cut. The Abyss is an excellent enchantment, but I thought it to be unnecessary with all of the other ways the deck has to deal with creatures. Strongarm Tactics was another consideration (go ahead, google it), but decided against it as it essentially gives you a 1-for-1 exchange at best. Of the two, The Abyss might well be worth it, and I definitely encourage others to try it out and let me know what you think. Happy Brewing!

Survival of the Undead

Land

8 Swamp

1 Forest

4 Fetchlands

4 Bayou

4 Wasteland

Total: 21

Creatures

4 Ichorid

4 Ashen Ghoul

4 Nether Shadow

1 Nether Spirit

2 Mindslicer

4 Krovikan Horror

Total: 19

Spells

4 Survival of the Fittest

1 Bottomless Pit

3 Pox

4 Innocent Blood

4 Duress

4 Hymn to Tourach

Total: 20

Sideboard:

4 Tormod’s Crypt

4 Naturalize

4 Pernicious Deed

3 Ostracize

UR Welder

One of the funny things about the Urza Block was the reception of its creatures. Despite introducing several of the games’ strongest 1-drops, they went largely unnoticed because of the OTHER cards in the set. Among those creatures was a little gem called Goblin Welder.  Sure, he could be used to counteract Tinker.. but he could also be used to enable his own combos and win you the game. Today we’re going to explore a deck that does just that! Ladies and Gentlemen, allow me to introduce UR Welder.

I’ve never been a fan of decks that rely on a single card to win you the game; they just seem too fragile to me. As a result, I often focus on synergy when creating decks that incorporate such win conditions. If the deck can win without it, then adding in a card that does powerful things is just icing on the cake. A lot of welder decks can be pretty narrow, as they often focus on the Welder combo in order to beat down the opponent. So how do you create a deck with lots of artifacts, that doesn’t focus on being an artifact deck? That’s where it can get tricky.

Focus. The deck has a few areas that it tries to focus on. Getting out big threats is certainly one of them, but finding the right pieces and protecting them once they’re in play are equally important (if not more so). With its emphasis on artifacts, I decided to incorporate the colour most often associated with them – Blue. Intuition and Brainstorm both allow you to find these pieces, with the latter also working with Welder to get your expensive artifacts into the graveyard/play. The 1-of Masticore also helps, as its low CMC means you can get it out and working pretty early on.

The mana base. This was actually harder than you might think. How do you balance a deck that plays 2 colours, while including Sol lands to help power out its many artifacts. The short answer is: thank goodness for fetch lands. The combination of Sol lands into the deck allows many cards to be played early in the game. This isn’t just true when it comes to artifacts either, as Intuition can be played on T2 thanks to Tomb/City. Combine that with a T1 Welder and you’ve got yourself a game. They have the added bonus of allowing your own cards to be played with a Sphere or two in play.

Defense. I decided to add Sphere of Resistance for a few reasons – not only does it provide some defense in the form of slowing down your opponents, but it also acts as a cheap source of artifact-ness for your Welder. Mage’s Guile.. need a second to check that up? I don’t blame you. Believe it or not, it actually came down to a decision between Guile and Mana Leak. I ended up choosing Guile because a) you mostly want either of them to protect your creatures, b) it’s not conditional protection and c) it can be cycled for cheap if you want to dig.

So what are you defending? The creatures of course! Goblin Welder should be your go-to for getting creatures into play, but the deck also contains 4 Metalworkers as well. These 2 creatures allow you to play the very high CMC threats of the deck very early on. I decided to go with some variety in which threats I put into the deck, as Welder + graveyard = toolbox (sort of). If you want more consistency however, then it’s definitely worth taking a look at other options. Happy Brewing!

UR Welder

4 Volcanic Island

1 Mountain

1 Island

7 Fetch lands

4 Ancient Tomb

4 City of Traitors

4 Wasteland

Total: 25

4 Goblin Welder

4 Metalworker

2 Phyrexian Colossus

1 Colossus of Sardia

1 Masticore

2 Triskelion

1 Tetravus

Total: 15

4 Intuition

4 Sphere of Resistance

1 Voltaic Key

2 Smokestack

1 Tangle Wire

4 Brainstorm

4 Mage’s Guile

Total: 20

Sideboard

4 Tormod’s Crypt

3 Pyroblast

2 Red Elemental Blast

2 Chain of Vapor

4 Force of Will

Pandemonium!

Imagine if every creature in your deck was an improved version of Flametongue Kavu. That’d be pretty awesome, right? Since we’re dreaming here, perhaps there are a few things that could improve FTK. If you ask me, the most notable improvements would be a wider range of targets, a cheaper casting cost and/or recursion. Now here’s the really cool part.. you can actually take all of these things into account when designing this deck. I hope you enjoy a bit of chaos in your magic, because we’re about to enter Pandemonium!

To start things off, let’s talk about the namesake linchpin of the deck: Mountain. They’re pretty good lands, which can allow you to cast some sweet spells. In fact, they’re quite important when casting the other key card of the deck: Pandemonium. For 3R, this enchantment enables a creature’s controller to deal damage equal to its power upon entering the battlefield. Sound familiar, FTK? The problem is that both players are able to use this, and thus you must build around the card in order to abuse its potential and gain the advantage over your opponent.

Recursion. This is perhaps the most important aspect of creatures in the deck. Why? Because Pandemonium is dead on its own, so you want creatures you can use again and again in order to overcome the card disadvantage. In fact, almost every creature in the deck returns to your hand for re-use. Viashino Sandstalker and Viashino Sandscout are amazing here, because they offer a high offense at a low mana cost. Imaginary Pet does as well, but it is more of a defensive card that is meant to help buy time. It is good on offense as well however, as it can also be used in conjunction with Pandemonium for some very cheap direct damage.

Power. Remember how I mentioned that almost every creature in the deck has some form of recursion? There is 1 exception, and it is arguably the coolest creature WotC has ever printed: Phyrexian Dreadnought, which is just incredible here. Think about it - that’s [at least] 12 points of damage for 1 (multiple Pandemoniums stack). I also added some Stifles to the package as a sort of alternative win condition, as I didn’t want the Dreadnoughts to be completely dead cards without the enchantment in play.

Considerations. Early on in development, I had initially included Ball Lightning. The card only has a cmc of 3 and is very strong with (or without) Pandemonium in play. In the end however, its RRR mana cost and lack of recursion made me pass on it. I think B. Lightning could have potential however, and would love to see others try it out. Another card I’d considered was Flametongue Kavu, as the amount of value you can get out of him is incredible. I think there are several different avenues for building this deck, and encourage everyone to do some testing of their own. Happy Brewing!

Pandemonium!

Land

1 Island

3 Mountain

4 Volcanic Island

4 Ancient Tomb

1 City of Traitors

7 Fetchlands

4 Wasteland

Total: 24

Creatures

4 Viashino Sandstalker

4 Viashino Sandscout

2 Phyrexian Dreadnought

4 Imaginary Pet

Total: 14

Spells

4 Pandemonium

3 Stifle

4 Brainstorm

4 Mox Diamond

4 Lightning Bolt

3 Fire // Ice

Total: 22

Sideboard

4 Tormod’s Crypt

4 Blood Moon

4 Force of Will

2 Pyroblast

1 Red Elemental Blast