[deck] Fallen Angel

[Kasuras]

I'll just start with the decklist:

Fallen Angel, by Kasuras
//  Mainboard:
1 Strip Mine
2 Wasteland
4 Flooded Strand
1 Polluted Delta
5 Island
2 Underground Sea
2 Volcanic Island
3 Tundra
1 Gorilla Shaman
2 Exalted Angel
3 Gifts Ungiven
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Crucible of Worlds
2 Cunning Wish
1 Sol Ring
3 Skeletal Scrying
1 Fire/Ice
1 Decree of Justice
1 Balance
1 Black Lotus
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Lava Dart
4 Mana Drain
4 Force of Will
1 Mox Ruby
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Jet
4 Brainstorm

//  Sideboard:
SB:  1 Gifts Ungiven
SB:  1 Crucible of Worlds
SB:  1 Skeletal Scrying
SB:  2 Fire/Ice
SB:  1 Hurkyl's Recall
SB:  3 Energy Flux
SB:  1 Swords to Plowshares
SB:  3 Rack and Ruin
SB:  1 Cranial Extraction
SB:  1 Fact or Fiction

Why this name? Well first of all because the kill condition is an Angel together with a black drawing engine, the Scrying. But also because of the other engine in this deck: Gifts Ungiven. And Fallen Angel's gifts (living in paradise and stuff) are taken away (ungiven). Of course, you might as well just call it "just another variant of keeper" or "that bad deck in that closed thread in the newbie forum". Whichever you prefer.

Why do I think this deck is viable? I think this has a place in the tier2 or perhaps even 1.5 of our format simply because it's a keeper variant. Now, I’ll just explain the main differences in the former keeper (GermBus) first:

-Not 4 Wasteland. In my opinion; key in winning the match versus Workshop.dec is surviving the mid-game. If you get there, you can cast an Angel and outdraw them. Since your draw engine is way better than that of Workshop.dec, that is very much possible. And I don’t think the 4 Wastelands will help you better in surviving than 2 extra Islands. Of course, more Wastelands help you kill their Workshops. But they usually have 3 Crucibles or more so that’s not as effective as surviving yourself.
-5 Islands: see above. I tried to push in as many Islands as possible, and I think 3 is the minimum, at least. But I feel more comfortable with 5 myself.
-Gifts Ungiven. This may seem a bit strange at first, but it actually makes sense if you think about it: keeper is a deck with lots of random broken cards and 1 to 2-ofs, this card helps you find them. It’s also very good in finding Lava Dart, which is awesome in about every game I played so far, it finds your Strip Mine if you have Crucible out and of course: it’s very good together with the other draw engine in this deck, Skeletal Scrying. It nets you 2 cards and is just 1 mana more than Intuition so I think Gifts is just better in this deck.
-No Cities anymore. Simply because Titan is not by far as prominent as Crucible + Wasteland.

Those are the main differences, there are of course a lot of other details such as Lava Dart. Most help I need is for those details.

Matchups:

(Disclaimer: I can’t say that much about the matchups since this deck is not in its final form, not by far, and also because I’m not yet that experienced with keeper.)

-Workshop.dec: you’ll have to outdraw them and get to the midgame, getting an Angel as fast as possible is quite important in this matchup. I didn’t add the 3rd angel though; it would mean your manabase should probably have more white sources which cannot be done. The Decree is the best runnerup probably although Goblin Trenches might be good too.
-ControlSlaver: your draw engine is good enough to let you keep up with them and since you have quite some removal, especially the second match, killing their Welders combined with a draw engine good enough to keep up with them should steal the match.
-TPS: your creature removal won’t do anything versus them but a fast Angel could mean trouble. I don’t have any experience at all versus TPS I’m afraid.

Those are the main decks probably. The other decks’s matchups probably didn’t change that much since it’s still essentially keeper.

Because I’m not in a team and I just don’t have the time (or skill) to improve this deck on my own, I post it here in the hope of people helping me out and perhaps I’ve found a way to bring keeper back? I highly doubt it but keeper is the deck that probably is the best deck ever and I think it should deserve a place in the metagame. It seemed quite promising in my limited testing.

Thanks in advance,

Kasuras

[Anusien]

I probably have my history wrong, but I remember an article where Smmenen was talking about how Tog was better than Keeper in just about every way.  Keeper's kill is slower so it has to run more creature kill, diluting the draw, was one of the primary reasons.  So here's my question.  Why is this better than something like, say, Tog, fighting for the title of "Drain-powered decks that aren't CS or Oath"?  Access to white decks you Balance and a different kill mechanism, as well as Swords.  Tog could get Snuff out to replace Swords in color and not worry about Balance.  For that matter, Drain in here is strictly worse than Drain in Tog, because Tog can go Intuition -> AK or something equally broken.  All Keeper can do is Exalted or Decree, neither of which are scary. Tog also has better draw and more of it (AK, Intuition, Deep, Brainstorm, Cunning Wish) as well as maindeck Duress.  I'd like to hear why you think that this can compete with Tog.

With that said: Why no library?  Sure, in many of your matches it's not useful, but it would probably help versus Control Slaver.  I also really dislike your draw: 3 Gifts, 1 V. Tutor, 1 Mystical, 2 Wish, 3 Scrying and then Ancestral and Brainstorm.  Your reliance on Gifts Ungiven makes the deck look a little wonky, and I'd be worried about blowing it because you have no way outside of Yawg Will to get some things back, like Crucible or Extraction (which is just a 1 of).  Not sure what would be better in the Draw slot.

[Kasuras]

kill is slower so it has to run more creature kill, diluting the draw, was one of the primary reasons.

No. This deck is not worse than Tog just because it has creature removal. The power of this deck is that it has removal. We all know Psychatog just isn't near as good in removing creatures as keeper is: Tog died to fish for heaven's sake!

All Keeper can do is Exalted or Decree, neither of which are scary.

Although they're not "scary": they make you survive way longer. And not ending dead yourself is quite important too. Once Exalted is resolved: there's almost no deck in the format that can recover from it. All you have to do with a resolved Psychatog is counter their draw spells or make sure they won't cast any.

I'd like to hear why you think that this can compete with Tog.

More removal and a kill condition that doesn't need any additional cards to win so you can focus on staying alive while killing the other player instead of making sure that your Psychatog survives another dawn.

With that said: Why no library? Sure, in many of your matches it's not useful, but it would probably help versus Control Slaver.

Because it's not good in many of the matches: it's not mainboard. It's been in the sideboard of an earlier build though, can't remember why I removed it: probably because I wanted to test out Cranial Extraction.

I also really dislike your draw: 3 Gifts, 1 V. Tutor, 1 Mystical, 2 Wish, 3 Scrying and then Ancestral and Brainstorm. Your reliance on Gifts Ungiven makes the deck look a little wonky, and I'd be worried about blowing it because you have no way outside of Yawg Will to get some things back, like Crucible or Extraction (which is just a 1 of).

I'm not that reliant on Gifts as you make it sound; it's nice when you resolve one, and it's usually good game after on. But they're not essential. I've been thinking about removing 1 Gifts MB for the FOF sideboard, and then put something else (LOA?) in the sideboard. You're right that I need more ways to get back my stuff though, but adding green just isn't a possibility.

That said, I'm not yet happy with the draw engine either but it has been sufficient, and isn't that all that is necessary? Someone on -5 life while you have 9 cards in hand has the same effect as him on exactly 0 with just a Drain in hand, especially in this deck.

Edit: removed a useless [/quote]