Ephraim's Wickedness

[Ephraim]

With the advent of Ravnica, I promised myself that I would build a deck from each of the colour pairs. Black/blue was particularly exciting for me, because I saw an opportunity to use a card that I've been sitting on for six months: Measure of Wickedness. Ravnica introduced several cards that I think make this deck very good. Although I am posting this in the casual forum, I consider this deck to be semi-competitive. It isn't tremendously good at the moment, but I think it has a lot of potential.

Ephraim's Wickedness (Standard Legal)

Spells (27)
4 [card]Measure of Wickedness[/card]

4 Sleight of Hand
4 Telling Time
4 Compulsive Research

3 Remand
2 Hinder

3 Boomerang
1 Disembowel
1 Last Gasp
1 Rend Flesh

Creatures (10)
3 Drift of Phantasms
3 Lore Broker
4 Thought Courier

Land (24)
4 Underground River
7 Swamp
13 Island

***

Prior to turn five, I mostly try to set up some elementary defenses (Drift of Phantasms), draw cards, and play the control game as necessary. With luck, by the time turn five rolls around, I have two Thought Courier and/or Lore Broker on the table and a Measure of Wickedness in my hand. Since I have devoted twelve spaces to card drawing, this scenario is not unlikely. On turn five or six, my goal is to play my first Measure of Wickedness and to hand it to my opponent by immediately casting Sleight of Hand or Telling Time. If necessary, I can use a Courier/Broker to do this, but I prefer to leave them open for shenanigans on my opponent's turn. Optimally, Lore Broker can be used to force my opponent to bounce Measure of Wickedness back to me after the trigger has stacked on his or her turn.

So far, one of the key deficiencies of the deck is anything that lays down several fast, aggressive creatures early in the game. This flaw prompted the inclusion of Drift of Phantasms and, more recently, Boomerang (which can also be used should my opponent manage to cast something like Ivory Mask.) The creature-kill ensemble was initially 3x Disembowel, but I concluded that that wasn't versatile enough. An expensive creature could do me in before I could deal enough damage with Measure of Wickedness, since I frequenly wanted to reserve my mana for casting other spells. The package I have now is adequate against just about anything except for Oni (which are large, expensive spirits.)

Remand is an unusual option, but I think it's uniquely well-suited to this deck. If it didn't replace itself, it would be a coaster. As it is, I think it does its job just right. An oppoent often can't cast the spell a second time and by preventing the spell from hitting the graveyard, Remand can be used to force an opponent to keep Measure of Wickedness.

One idea that I am considering is putting Dimir Infiltrator or Muddle the Mixture into the deck. Dimir Infiltrator can help to get that extra four damage that two Measure of Wickedness leave behind. Muddle the Mixture offers a little more control. Both, however, offer me a way of getting Remand, Lore Broker, Thought Courier, Last Gasp, and Telling Time — and since they discard to do so (albeit with a cost of 3 attached), they can be used to transfer Measure of Wickedness in the process.

[Upinthe]

I like this idea, and I tried to come up with a MOW deck, but it just didn't work out for me. This looks cool, but I don't think it would be able to succeed in Standard right now.   There are a number of problems that I can anticipate that this deck would run into.

First, there are a ton of life gaining cards in Standard right now. Lightning Helix, Loxodon Hierarch, Firemane Angel, etc... I wouldn't be surprised if it took three or more  Measure of Wickedness to kill off some players playing control decks.

Second, if an opponent manages to resolve Cranial Extraction it's over.

Third, both Channel and Transmute can get cards into the graveyard easily. If your Measure backfires, your opponent can probably finish you off easily.