[Primer] Nether Void

The Nether Void Primer

Part 1:
Construction: Before I begin with the actual card choices lets give the basic Idea of the deck a going over. Nether Void, at its center specializes in black’s innate ability to be a thorn in one’s side. Disruption via discard effects, land destruction, and the ever scary thought of seeing a Pernicious deed or Nether Void hit the table. With that said we have yet to include the ability to have main-deck graveyard kill with Withered Wretch, additional hand disruption with Hypnotic Specter, or bludgeoning with rocks (Aka Nantuko Shade). Without further mumbling I give you . . . Nether Void.

Nether Void

8 Swamp
4 Bayou
1 Llanowar wastes
2 Bloodstained Mire
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
1 Dustbowl
1 Mox Jet
1 Black Lotus
4 Dark Ritual
4 Sinkhole
4 Duress
4 Hymn To Tourach
3 Pernicious Deed
3 Nether Void
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Necropotence
2 Skeletal Scrying
4 Nantuko Shade
3 Withered Wretch
3 Hypnotic Specter

Sideboard
2 Planar Void
2 Contagion
2 Chains of Mephistopheles
2 Choke
3 Diabolic Edict
3 Naturalize
1 Pernicious Deed

Mana Base:
8 Swamp
4 Bayou
1 Llanowar wastes
2 Bloodstained Mire
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
1 Dustbowl
1 Mox Jet
1 Black Lotus
4 Dark Ritual

Looking at the overall base, the twenty-seven mana producing cards, one could say that the amount of black sources is too low, an illusion. The deck vary rarely is black screwed. Void is designed to draw enough mana to open explosively, employing Ritual, lotus, and Jet to accelerate. It is important for the pilot of void to know how to manage a mana base such as this. Fetching for Bayou is not always the right play, and often is very costly when played poorly. You will probably notice mishra’s factory is missing from the deck. This is addressed under beatings. I will not go over the land kill here, they will be featured in Disruption.

Disruption:
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
1 Dustbowl
4 Sinkhole
4 Duress
4 Hymn To Tourach
3 Pernicious Deed
3 Nether Void

Lets begin with land kill. Nether Void always features the nine LD cards (4 sinkhole, 4 wasteland, 1 Strip mine). Were not playing total land kill here so don’t try for it. It’s about keeping opponents off balance. Example, against GAT trying to keep them off green is the way to go. One, it keeps them searching for more green, because they need dryad, and all the time they the dryad wasn’t on the board is time she was not gaining counters. Now, in this build we feature one of the strongest and most commonly forgotten cards, dust bowl. Again, your goal is not to keep them on no land with this card, first we don’t have enough land to do that, and your committing tons of mana to this task. Ill say for the last time, it’s about keeping them off balance.

Next item on the list is hand disruption. You know why people don’t like playing against void?. . . Land, ritual, duress, hymn to tourach. The duress’s are your best friend. Simply stated, Duress can win games. Be careful about casting a Hymn, if you are feeling the misdirection, then be wary. Keeping hand quality and size down is an ancient and well proven magic strategy. In many match’s its important to open strongly in this area, as well as keeping it a constant factor in the opponents mind.

Now onto the goods. First up Pernicious deed, the strongest single card in the deck. Its presence in the deck is disruption, because it’s a must counter for so many decks. There Is no need for a fourth deed in the main-deck. One reason being, like void, you don’t want to see one in the opening hand 9:10 times. Generally you aren’t going to deed twice either. The fourth deed lives In the sideboard where it should. Nether Void, the namesake of the deck is the last item on our list of disruption. The void is closing the door on your opponent. The most optimum way to use void is disrupting early, lay a treat(s), and then when the opponents is down, and you have establish a quasi board control; seal the game with void.

Brokenness and Good things:
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Necropotence
2 Skeletal Scrying

Wait!, something missing. Where is the Demonic consultation. That’s right, your not blind. Consultation is always played as a last ditch effort to save yourself. Using it as a tutor is not a good play, nor is it worth it. Therefore I cut it in favor of cards that win, and help. Instead of a card built on saving one’s ass. With that said, I also choose against Vampiric tutor, because it doesn’t synergize well in here. The Demonic tutor is standard fair, and can be used of course for a deed if needed, and works great as utility. The Yawgmoth’s will and Necropotence are basic, hence I will not go into detail about those. Skeletal Scrying is my own touch to the deck and an MVP in many tournaments. The card is incredible, and makes it much easier to have three deeds. Worst-case scenario it cycles, and it only gets better and potentially refills an entire hand. Be careful early on about what you’re removing, don’t forget you may draw into the yawg will. I have had a very expansive amount of testing with scrying and I give it an A+ on card quality. Just run it.

Beatings:
4 Nantuko Shade
3 Withered Wretch
3 Hypnotic Specter

Where is our good friend negator? Well he’s gone, want a reason? Fire/Ice. This card is running overly rampant in so many many places, and he makes negator very scary to run. He is hard to side in against control because they all have fire/ice to deal with him. Mishra’s factory has also become sub optimum. To the shades, well, they are a strong whipping. You drop a shade, and people, especially control, start to think differently. He is hard beating and gets four slots. The Wretch, WOW, a really solid card. First off he shuts off dragon combo, and is really solid during the game as a use for untapped mana. Its just mean to make peoples yawg will useless using his ability. In essence he is a 2/2 for BB and has an awesome ability, Solid. Hypnotic Specter is the last of the beating and has been standard fair for a long time. His effect changes the play of any deck until they can remove him. Hippie is a heavily feared card, and deserves three slots. The last card that I’ve fooled around with is blurred Mongoose. He is solid and I still throw him in every once and awhile for hippie just to mess with folks. He works good, but is not optimum right now. First off he messes with the mana base, which is very fragile if altered to much, and secondly there are to many wastelands. Granted it is incredible under void, but the deck is not meant to be always have void on the board.

Sideboard:
2 Planar Void
2 Contagion
2 Chains of mephistopheles
2 Choke
3 Diabolic Edict
3 Naturalize
1 Pernicious Deed

Granted this is going to change heavily from deck to deck, but there are several that should almost always be present. First is Naturalize, Naturalize is needed against many arctypes and is a staple board card. Generally three is the number to have, unless your meta is heavy on artifact based decks, where four might be the choice. Second is the fourth deed, there are going to be times where you want it. Another is Diabolic edict, two to three is the right number. The last card that should be in the board is Chains of Mephistopheles, it helps with the control match.

The rest of the sideboard I will leave up to your meta. Some good choices are planar void(usually over ground seal), Choke, Masticore, Contagion, Null Rod, Dystopia, Chainer’s edict, blurred mongoose, sylvan library, and dustbowl. But ill Let you determine what suites your board best.

Part 2:
Basic Play Tips, and Theory.

Now that construction and chard choices have been made its time get some play experience. Lets walk through a very entertaining match for both players. I will walk through basics for game strategy, and thinking in the aggressive control mindset.

Example Nether Void Vs Grow-A-Tog:

The Match for the Void player is a very entertaining and winnable match 70% of the time. Against Grow the main concern is keeping the board clear (on their side) of critters, and the opponent’s hand size down. These will allow for void to safely play an aggressive match against GAT. It is very important to keep aggressive against GAT, letting the game go too long will almost always result in loss of board control and loss of games.

Keeping the board an open range for the shade beating can be accomplished fairly simply. First, use early game land kill to keep GAT off a green Land source. This will keep them off balance and constantly looking for green. This search for green will in turn make the dryad threat much lower, because of the delay in her hitting the board. Remember, grow isn’t really about Tog, its about that bitch in green. When the dryad does hit play the shade army can usually take her out via the opponents need to block (“I’ll chump with dryad” . . . HAHA). If things go bad, and deed becomes the option then be sure to precede the casting with duress or hymn. Also beware of the main board stifle, or the cunning wish when using the deed. Lastly, don’t commit to heavily to the board, especially early game. This makes deeding much less painless.

The oldest and best way to keep blue based decks, such as GAT under control is with hand disruption. Use the hippies and the eight other discard spells to keep them constantly loosing cards. Combine with keeping them off balance via land D, this tactic will often throw them very far off track.

Another huge tip is to use the wretch. Especially against Hulksmash and GAT. They love building up grave yards for Yawg will and the Tog. Use any spare mana on the wretch and constantly be checking for huge grave’s. This also makes a tog blocker a lot easier for shade to run over.

Side boarding against GAT is pretty mean. I usually bring in the Chokes, Chains of Mephistopheles, Contagions, and Diabolic Edicts. I don’t bring in the last deed because the plethora of other creature hate does a better Job. Trimming out cards will depend heavily on the individual build, however cards to think about taking out in moderation are: 1-2 sinkhole, 1 hymn, 1-2 skeletal scrying, 1 Dustbowl, 1 necropotence, 1 nether void, 1 hippie, 1 deed?

Example Nether Void Vs Workshop Based Builds:

I’ve grouped together all workshop based decks in this section because play against them is pretty standard. Workshop presents a very hard match for void. There are several key points that if accomplished can lead to victory.

First, keep the frigging Workshops off the board. Workshop builds like to be speedy in the begging and have tons of mana throughout the game. These are both aspects that Void doesn’t like dealing with, but can play against using the proper tools. Void includes nine land destruction cards not including the dustbowl, so the odds are in our favor for dealing with the four workshops. Nether void packs no additional land hate in the board, but the arsenal in the main deck is sufficient.

Next comes dealing with the welders. This is a fairly easy operation; game one deed and hymn to tourach are the only ways of doing so but far more options come later. However if the welders cannot be kept of the board, then take away the targets. Grave yard control is very potent against many workshop based builds, severely hurting their ability to function.

Lastly against Workshop based decks is the proper use of Pernicious deed. I see a lot of players trying to use deed against Triskelion or even higher casting cost artifacts. Except in dire need, hopefully just the first game if ever, that is not the correct usage of deed. A deed for 1-2 is much better and takes out the stuff that helps out the workshop player’s and leaves our beatings alive. Deed can be a very key card against these decks and needs to be addressed properly.

Finally an overview of side boarding against the workshops. Adding Edicts and contagion is very solid. Contagion is pimp against welder, and edicts is good to have around in this match as insurance. I would also add Planar Void to shut of welders, and really hurt them. Naturalize is an obvious addition because of the nature of the artifact heavy opponent. The last deed varies against opponents but should be given consideration against these decks. Cards that can be trimmed are similar to against GAT.

Example Nether Void Vs Hulksmash:

Too many people take this match far to casually, it can be easily lost if you let them get out of hand. First off, Duress just became the best card in the deck, and you are generally in a bad way if you don’t see one in the opening hand. Ideally early game features a Duress, a successful hymn (by this I mean not misdirected), and a hippie or shade. In this match Void really wants to move into an aggressive mode. Why? Because of hulksmash’s ability to end the game in one swift turn, that unfortunately can come all to quickly.

All your creatures are of good in this match. Hippie is always scary to control and this match is no exception. Wretch is very good here. Always use spare mana to start removing their grave. This makes the one potent swing much harder to pull off, and generally will make cunning wish, Berserk a need for the kill. Lastly the shade is always good for smashing in heads.

The match will generally rock back and fourth as far as who has the upper hand is concerned. The key is to viciously attack the opponents hand. If you always have them searching for cards it makes their tempo poor and play off balance. Sideboarding for this match goes as follows: Chains of Mephistopheles, and choke are must haves. I would also bring in 2-3 Diabolic edicts, this allows for a new way to kill the tog, and is usually unexpected following early togs. It also makes deed a lot less painful. Sinkhole and dustbowl can come out against tog, possibly 1 hymn and 1 nether Void.