Panduh Deck

In searching for Type 1 tourneys I found a place that has Type 1.5's regularly. I showed up with my oath deck and did reasonably well (2nd)- but I left with a need to play something more agressive.

   My usual meta includes a variety of stores. I expect about 1/3 substandard aggro, 1/3 good aggro, 1/3 combo. Combo I usually play agaonst is turbo land/ tricks / and a little enchantress. I'm usually the only control player at tourneys.

   Rack/Tax is pretty strong looking for 1.5. I didn't want to play defensive ( ala parfait), so I looked at the red/white archtype that Bhuler (?) won something big with. I tend to lose to combo- so that is a major consideration. R/W tax doesn't have the raw speed of sligh, since it has no Ball Lightnings and less fireblasts, so it can't handle combo well.

   I want to try a black heavy tax/rack deck. It should have strong enough discard to disrupt combo decks. I also want some draw power to pull ahead in the mid game against everything else.

Discard
4 Hymn
4 Duress

The Combo
4 Land Tax
3 Scroll Rack

The Attack
4 Savannah Lions
4 Hypnotic Specter
2 Wretched Anurid
2 Skittering Skirge
2 Carnophage

Creature Kill
3 Diabolic Edict
3 Swords to Plowshares

Other
3 Dark Ritual ( 2 or 3 off the draw is too many)
3 Vindicate (never tried it - too slow?)

Lands
4 Polluted Delta
4 Scrubland
1 Plains (To tax for if scrub is destroyed)
7 Swamps
3 Wasteland

Side

1 Aura Fracture
3 Seal of cleansing
1 Gerrard's Verdict
3 Planar Void

1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Contagion
1 Spinning Darkness
1 Perish
2 Engineered Plague
1 Zuran Orb

Other Comments

Only 3 scroll racks concerns me a bit- I have no search or tutors. I know that I'm not helpless without them, but they are part of the plan.

The only creatures I'm sold on are the lions and specters- the rest are speculative. I play against enough aggro to be weary of negators, but is is cool that you can sac your land with 'em. Wretched Anurid seems playable.

The creature kill may seem excessive (3 swords + 3 Edicts + 3 vindicates), especially for a guy who wants to beat combo, but I think that the high percentage of aggro decks and the ability to often rack them away when unwanted makes them OK.

I think that only 8 basics are plenty. I know that others disagree, but I think that the ancestral-like action of rack/tax is powerful enough that the deck doesn't need to be thinned.

Thanks,
Lord Baltimore