Nether Void Primer

[Zherbus]

Nether Void Primer

Steve ‘Zherbus’ O’Connell

History of Nether Void

I would write a history of the deck, though I feel a superior version of the history will always exist in the Nether Void primer by Matt D’Avanzo. So rather than attempt to out do his outstanding work, I'll leave his primer to be a great source of reference.

The cards that make the void deck:

1. Creature Base.

Phyrexian Negator – It’s a 5/5 for 3 mana. Nether Void has a tendency of making burn players scream in frustration. 4-5 casting cost bolts are hardly efficient in a deck that runs about 22 mana. Under a Void, this creature is simply the game ender. Unfortunately, he doesn’t exist to flourish as a bad ass in every situation and like his flavor text; he sometimes ceases to exist at all.

Nantuko Shade – The insect really only has two problems. First, its only deals 2 damage if you need to continue to pound your opponent with disruption, whereas Negator deals 5 with ease. Secondly, it has horrible artwork. I’d like to somehow transpose my ‘Butcher’ Order of the Ebon Hand pictures on to this card. I have since, through testing, learned that the Shade allows your Void to do things it couldn’t before with Negators. My deck leaves the Negators in the side now.

From an argument when shades were first printing. Oddly, my position has obviously changed on the Shade vs. Negator issue, but my points still remain valid.

“As everyone knows, I play Nether Void a lot and of course have tested the cute little bug.

Against control and combo, you regret putting them in the deck.

- Nether Void runs lots of colorless sources, so usually turn 4, you’ll have an average of 2-3 sources of black mana. Yes, this is either with ports or Mishra's. In short, this kind of brings a reality to the theory that turn 4, you can make him a 5/4.

- Nether Void rather enjoys using its mana for other things. 2 lands (only one black usually) are tied up if you are porting lands on upkeep, or activating Mishra's.

…

- Early game, you can bust out a Negator and not give it the attention it cries for. Let us say this creature spot is more of a girlfriend. Shades are clingy, they love to be hugged, reassured of their worth, and they liked to be told often that:
      1. You do love them.
      2. "No, Angelina Jolie is not prettier than you."
      3. "No, that doesn't make you look fat."

Anyways, more to the point, you are just stuck with a plain 2/1 when you are running your opponent through the storm. Turn 1, you can grind him out after duress with a ritual. Then next turn he's just a 2/1 because you really want to sinkhole, or lay a keg etc.

Negators don’t need attention and you just hope for the best, if they fuck you over and cheat on you, sac a boat load of perms (dead wastelands, Nether voids that have over stayed their welcome, the guy on the couch, and Mike Brady's hair.) Often, against more dominant Type 1 decks, they make the best bed partners and end the game (get you off?) fast.

In a more REAL Type 1 Environment when not everyone is running academy, keeper, ophid-blue, or OSE, they just make more sense. You can hold mana back to beef them in response to a bolt, you can use dead rituals as giant growths, and often opponents just WON’T block em. They don’t want you to beef it to beyond the blockers toughness so they'll just eat it the first few times.

Online, where mysteriously everyone is playing control or something more combo-esque, you want Negators. So basically, the answer to whether one should include them is dependant on your meta, obviously...”

Against control, Negators are preferable. In a realisitic environment, however, you will face more than simple decks with counterspells. Shades are still good against control, yet are excellent against aggressive decks.

Hypnotic Specter – With Nantuko Shades printing, many people proposed cutting these guys in favor of the insect. This effectively left an 8 creature base consisting of 4 Negators, and 4 Shades. I feel, mostly from experience, that Lord Hypno belongs to add to the already devastating disruption. I am not against running the more aggressive creature base; I just prefer the crippling flyer over the faster game ender.

Masticore – These guys are more of a sideboard option than main deck. Your kegs should take care of the little guys that Masticore is intended to deal with.

I once ran a version of Nether Void Similar to Matt D’Avanzo’s ‘Null and Void.” In the place of Negators, which made his deck suffer to random aggro things, I had Masticore. I called the deck, “NetherCore.” The deck performed better against aggro, but still lost to randomness and suicide black. In addition, this took a deck that's decent against control and made its matchups worse.

Phyrexian Warbeast – Quite simply there is absolutely no need for these guys. Sure they survive abyss, but you really shouldn’t be worried about the Abyss. Your disruption should prevent it ever hitting play and even if it ever does, your Void kills it Cloudchaser Eagle style.

Phyrexian Scuta – Believe me on this one. Don’t do it. He seems to have promise in a mana heavy deck, but in reality will just suck. 4 mana can’t be ritual’d out, and under a void 7 mana is hard for even your mana heavy deck to achieve to end the game quickly.

Juzam Djinn – Style points is all you’ll get. See Scuta’s reasoning.

Zombie’s – Carnopage and Sarcomancy will actually make this deck suck against EVERY type of deck, I promise. As someone who has played more Void variants and has done more testing of individual cards in Void than most, I’ve witnessed this first hand.

2. Disruption

Duress – It’s simply the best disruption card in the game. A pro-active counterspell, a game stopper, and the reason most of your devastation gets pushed through. Always use 4. I admit that often against aggro, I have cut these in favor of creature control from the SB.

Hymn to Tourach – The best thing when it connects. It hits like a baseball bat to the nose. It helps your cause beyond simply hand disruption, and often kills a land before it hits play.

Sinkhole – There is no substitute. Only the best LD spell makes the cut in this tight deck.

Icequake/Rain of Tears/Rancid Earth – There are some versions of void that actually run more mundane land kill, lower mana counts and a pair of Nether Voids. They are known as aggro-void, and concentrate on attacking the opposing mana base relentlessly. This strategy is fine in some environments, but this deck solely relies on Powder Keg and Rancid Earth for anti-creature measures.

Strip Mine/Wasteland – You know…I have seen people only run 3 wastelands. Even in an environment filled with basics, you need 4. They help protect the Mishra’s you’ve yet to play at the very least. Also, remember that this deck can use colorless mana like no other mono-black deck.

Nether Void – This the absolute core of the deck. How good would a lightning bolt be that costs 4 mana? A stroke for 2 that costs 8 mana? A fact of Fiction for 7? Even a 2/1 for 4 mana? It helps protects you and it seals your lead.

Rishadan Port – Stay away from this. It changes your deck from the aggressive monster you want it to be into a control black deck that ends up just dying to randomness.

Mind Twist – Simply unneeded. Hymns, Duress, and Hippie are all you’ll need. I would consider it if you went with the Negator/Shade configuration of creatures.

3. Utility
Powder Keg – This, combined with Nether Void itself are the reason you should beat aggro decks as easily as you should beat control decks. Incidentally, I’ve used this equally as much as a wrath of moxen or just a lone mox-sinkhole more than for killing critters.

Tutors[/i]

Demonic Tutor – This is really a no-brainer. Get anything you want. No card disadvantage.

Demonic Consultation – Many people avoid this card for traumatic reasons. My Void runs it over a 4th keg and has proven its worth many times over. It costs 1 black mana, and can set up some devastating plays.

I have used it to pull out of already lost games on its own. Consult for a Necro, if control already has you beaten. If you're already dead, how much harm can it do?

Vampiric Tutor – You generally can’t afford the card disadvantage and life loss. Still viable, I just wouldn’t touch it.

Other Utility[/i]

Yawgmoth’s Will – As D’Avanzo said in his primer, it’s at worse an icequake under a void. It simply belongs in any deck with 4 rituals, and pre-void offers at least the same brokenness as it would in suicide.

Necropotence – This seals your lead against non-burn decks by refilling your hand after it has been emptied it the first three turns. If it hits play against control, they usually just concede. In a mono-black mirror, I would play this first turn to help negate opposing discard.

4. Land/Mana

Dark Ritual – I’ve heard people say that this should be cut from Void since its useless post void. Whoever thinks that needs his hands run over by a bus filled with fat downs syndrome kids. That way they can never type such crap or play magic again.

Moxen[/i]

Mox Jet – If you have it, use it. This is like a more improved dark ritual #5.

Other Moxen – Don’t do it, it offers nothing for a deck that needs so much black mana. It may look good on paper, but in reality, these things are $100 hindrances.

Other Mana[/i]

Black Lotus – Super ritual #6! Like the Mox Jet, these are very helpful to the deck, though the two power cards can easily be substituted with simple swamps. Unglued, Beta or Foil will do.

Sol Ring – Here is another good one. People actually don’t play with a card that almost negates the negative effects of a Void. While it’s true it does little to help you pre-Void, but it helps accelerate the landing of Void which is crucial in many cases.

Mishra’s Factory – This is your #9-12 creature slots. It brings you to 30 mana sources, effectively being one of the most mana intense deck in type 1. The slot Mishra’s belongs in usually replaces Rishadan Port. It will help block early critters, as well as accelerate your win.

These guys slip out from under counterspells, your own void, and the Abyss lock. What’s better, is that they pump each other making them all that much more flexible. Simply by using these, your win percentage will improve as will every mirror match up.

There has been questioning to as whether these guys are the right choice in Nether Void as it cuts 4 “Land Kill” spells in favor of more aggressiveness. Also, the fact that they are non-basic land has also been brought up. Yes, wasteland under a void can toast these guys.

If your opponent wants to blow away a colorless source of mana to deal with Factories…all the power to him, it just set him back a turn.

Incidentally, Matt D’Avanzo, the much respected author of the original Nether Void primer is more in favor of Rishadan Ports for these same reasons. He has tried both, so I won’t say his decision is made out of ignorance, maybe just a mixture of bad results crossed with a batch of bad luck. Quite the opposite of myself, I might add.

Anyways, an interesting quote from the old BD boards on the subject when he changed his Nether Void to work in Mishra’s. By Matt D'Avanzo (Matt) on Thursday, February 22, 2001 - 10:55 pm:

“I did find that I liked Port in combination with Nether void, but something had to go (originally it was lands, but 23-4 doesn’t cut it except in aggro-void) so I am trying out only Hyppies (no Pump Knights or Negator) as critters. Factories take the port slot to help out with damage and block weenies. I don't feel factory is a reliable win condition (can be killed for free under void with strip/waste), but your opponent, by wasting/stripping it (under the void) IS giving up a valuable colorless mana (going towards that 3), which, often is all Port did. In any case I'm going to give this a try.”

He did test them and found he didn’t like them. I rebuilt Nether Void, and found myself winning a lot more. I even found the control match up much easier. No longer would I lose to a random bad red deck.

Swamps – Don’t try to get fancy and add stuff like Urborg or other non-sense like Lake of the Dead and Cabal Coffers. You want to keep your basic land count high to keep you as safe from common non-basic hate as possible.

Dual lands – This means you are adding a color. You shouldn’t be doing this in the first place, but if you do these are a no brainer.

An optimal deck list for today’s environment:

Devil's Bile, by Zherbus

Creatures (12)
4 Nantuko Shades
4 Hypnotic Specters
4 Mishra's Factory

Disruption (15)
4 Sinkhole
4 Hymn to Tourach
4 Duress
3 Nether Void

Removal (3)
3 Powder Kegs

Broken (4)
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Yawgmoths Will
1 Demonic Consultation
1 Necropotence

Mana (26) (30 w/Mishra's)
4 Dark Rituals
1 Strip Mine
4 Wasteland
1 Sol Ring
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Jet
14 Swamps

Next section : Sideboarding and match up analysis.


(Edits for my own reference

1. Opening paragraph
2. Consult sentence
3. Added the word 'good' where missing
4. "5/4"
5. A deck THATS decent...
6. Is-Are (negator)
7. Costs's - costs (consultation) )

[drkavngr]

Steve,

  I took your advice and tried this deck out.  The only question that I have is why not 2 Powder Kegs and one Diabolic Edict in the removal. (for that I must kill that one big creature that slipped out on my bad draw)

  I also choose Vampiric Tutor because of the fact that I agree that this is a disruption not a combo deck, in my eyes Demonic Consultation works in combo better.

  The last consideration I gave (I am serious here) is Lake of the Dead, why? because under low or high mana it works, the main beatstick here is Nantuko Shade, with a lake in play it means game over much faster.  Under the void it can make the difference in getting out a critical spell, or just use it as another mana.

  Over all I love this deck, it takes the best aspect of blacks blazing speed and locks it down.  I prefer black because it is the fastest color in magic (because of dark ritual) and speed kills.  Unfortunately it tends to have a big opening game and then fades out quick, void fixes that problem.\n\n

[Zherbus]

Quote (drkavngr @ July 15 2002,12:21)Steve,

  I took your advice and tried this deck out.  The only question that I have is why not 2 Powder Kegs and one Diabolic Edict in the removal. (for that I must kill that one big creature that slipped out on my bad draw)

  I also choose Vampiric Tutor because of the fact that I agree that this is a disruption not a combo deck, in my eyes Demonic Consultation works in combo better.

  The last consideration I gave (I am serious here) is Lake of the Dead, why? because under low or high mana it works, the main beatstick here is Nantuko Shade, with a lake in play it means game over much faster.  Under the void it can make the difference in getting out a critical spell, or just use it as another mana.

  Over all I love this deck, it takes the best aspect of blacks blazing speed and locks it down.  I prefer black because it is the fastest color in magic (because of dark ritual) and speed kills.  Unfortunately it tends to have a big opening game and then fades out quick, void fixes that problem.

I have tried edict in the deck, and I have realized its no good in my build for the following reasons.

1) It makes consult worse, forcing you to run Vampiric, which in turn makes the deck slower and weaker versus aggro.

2) Kegs kill Moxen just about as often as they kill weenies...Edict doesn't

3) It was rare that something I could not deal with came into play before I had them pinned. Edict wasn't needed.

As far as Lake of the dead goes...It severly hurts you against opposing land kill. You kill a land to bring it into play, first off. Secondly, it WILL be wasted causing a 2 for 1 land kill advantage for the opponent. If your not careful, THEY could be playing the aggresive mana denail and not yourself.

[drkavngr]

I found the error of my ways, Demonic Consultation IS indeed better here because of 1) the speed, 2) cost, 3) there are alot of 4x and 3x copies of cards here.

  In retrospect useing kegs as moxen removal does come up more often and yes if this this deck is working right then you shouldn't need an Edict.

  Lake of the Dead is also not a consideration for me anymore, the Void player needs to build his manabase while disrupting his opponents.  Sol Ring fills the gap under the Void.

[Rico Suave]

Quote (Zherbus @ July 15 2002,11:52)It cost’s 1 black mana, and cant set up some devastating plays.

Small typographical error.  When discussing Demonic Consultation under "tutors" you wrote what is in the quote.  I believe it should be "can" set up...

Nitpicking is fun.

Otherwise, it's very nice so far.

[riverboa11]

Quote (Zherbus @ July 15 2002,11:52)It may look on paper, but in reality, these things are $100 hindrances.

I think you forgot to put 'good' in that sentence, describing the other moxen.

Looks good so far.  

[Grollub]

Quote (Zherbus @ July 15 2002,11:52)- Nether Void runs lots of colorless sources, so usually turn 4, you’ll have an average of 2-3 sources of black mana. Yes, this is either with ports or Mishra's. In short, this kind of brings a reality to the theory that turn 4, you can make him a 5/6.

He'd be 5/4 then.

Its looking very good and well written so far, looking forward for the rest, as you know, I'm looking for all the Void information that I can get.  

Good job so far!

[Cavalry19D]

Any new developments on an Optimal Sideboard ?

and how to use it against specific matchups ?

[Zherbus]

Quote Next section : Sideboarding and match up analysis.

There ya go.

[Matt The Great]

Quote 4-5 casting cost bolts is hardly efficient in a deck that runs about 22 mana

'Bolts' is plural, so your verb should be 'are'.

Quote Demonic Consultation – Many people avoid this card for traumatic reasons. My Void runs it over a 4th keg and has proven its worth many times over. It cost’s 1 black mana, and can set up some devastating plays.

"costs"

Quote Whoever thinks that needs his hands run over by a bus filled with fat downs syndrome kids.

"Mongoloids"
 

[bebe]

Excellent build and article. As you know already I used to play this deck with 'Cores in the Shade spot until Shades were printed. I never was that fond of of MD's deck.
Now for my small reservations:
The deck never worked well in my metagame which is heavy with control and Sui. I would like to see a section on the match ups of the deck with strengths and weaknesses.
I ended up siding Addles, Rancid Earth, Edicts and Negators. I really had good answers for heavy control except hoping for Negator draws but they play U/r here and a bolted Negator hurts.
Nice start...    

[Os-Vegeta]

Very nice start!  I really like it so far, and I hope the next part is just as good.

[Phyrexius]

Great primer  !!! I'm looking forward to reading part 2!

[42up]

hmmmm, more shade propaganda I see  

Negator can allow a void deck to pull off the turn 5 win (or faster with multiple negators).  

The shade forces a void deck to go into the heavy disruption route all the time.  There is no such thing as a turn 7 or less win with shade.

Negator is explosive, shade is conservative.

Actually, negator is not as horrible vs random aggro as you make it out to be.  Just rely on your support (i.e. disruption and factories).  Heck, if the game starts to be a stare down... (which happens when the void player has 1-2 factories and a negator vs a little aggro horde) all the better since you will have more time to get that keg or drop a void on aggro.

But otherwise, fairly sound.  IMO, you hit the nail on the head with masticore.  And I particularlly liked how you explained juzam and scuta away (I still see these played though....  )

[Zherbus]

Trust me, I dont speak out of ignorance. It took me a while to switch to shades, and Ill never turn back.

[drkavngr]

I too was a scuta/juzam player, along with the shades with tons of disruption.  It did fairly well, but I really didn’t have the locking mechanic that I needed.  

  I used cursed scrolls, and kegs, for support, and laid the quick fattys down, with the aid of rituals, to put my foe on a 4 turn timer, while disrupting them with duress/hymns.  Side boarding in negators against control.

  Once I looked at what Steve was doing, it all made sense to me.  His devil's bile gave me the locking down mechanism that I needed to seal victories.

  I now see it as a type of control deck rather then an aggro.
If you think about it, the deck is very similar to keeper.  They both counter lock there opponent and beat them down.  One does it with counter spells, and the other counters with void and duress.  The beat sticks (shades) are a little diffrent but I think they both have there advantages.

[Rakso]

As an overview comment of sorts, I don't think you should approach it directly with a card-by-card.

You need to say something about the overall strategy and emphasize how it's more than a collection of cards.

[Zherbus]

Yeah, part 2 is sideboarding and matchup analysis, and part 3 is all about theory and reasonings of the deck and why its better than suicide.

The initial part was to provide a general run down of the cards, and provide the decklist. The whole history thing was skipped because Matt D'Avanzo really covered that (and other aspects) really well in his primer.

[42up]

I can give you a few reasons why it is better than sui......

I finally got my playset of shades 2 weeks ago and have started running them through the guantlet.... I doubt though, that I will change my apprentice void.

I do not know though..... with shades, I hate having to worry about them.  mid-late game though...man they are strong.  We will have to see.

[Os-Vegeta]

What I don't like about Negators are their vulnerability to Sligh and Holy Tommygun.  I'd rather run Shades over Negators, especially since my metagame still seems to be heavy Sligh.

[Black Knight]

Great discussion
I know this is a mono black void line. So I hope this is the place to post this. I have had good success over 3 tournaments with what I call Nether Deed.
I switched 3 kegs for 3 deeds and added 4 bayous and an emerald(sol ring). plus regrowth(consultation).
the deeds clear everything on the turn it comes into play, can pull the necro if I need it to and removes all those evil enchantments. Negates a lot of opponent sideboard options without having to side anything. It works and doesn't disrupt the deck.
I am thinking of going to only 2 and 2 kegs because sometimes the keg is a cheaper ticket to kill the moxen,zorbs etc. But I like having one to tutor for.
I have been playing the ports and I am going to put in the factories as per this discussion. I got run over by suicide last week. I needed more creatures.
I will post the decklists from the tournment later. suicide was second, Trix first.
Looking forward to the sideboard and strategy posts. Keeper and funker are problems for me. Keeper leans me toward Negators but I am thinking that the factories plus the shade flexibility will leave the shades in. Comments anyone?

 

[Zherbus]

Believe me when I say that going multi color in Void causes for some head aches. I personally rule out anything that cannot take advantage of a dark ritual or a lotus.

You want to be explosive, and you want to play as few non basics as possible. This helps immensly...mind posting a list? You could have to few mana and/or threats which is common in Void.

Part 2 is ready, but I have had to deal with the site so expect it to be posted in a day or two once things smooth over.

[Os-Vegeta]

Zherbus, you might want to go into where multi-colored Void fails in T1 and why it's not only safer but more optimal to play mono-black.

[Zherbus]

Quote Yeah, part 2 is sideboarding and matchup analysis, and part 3 is all about theory and reasonings of the deck and why its better than suicide.

That includes multicolored Void.

[Big Blue]

According to my experience in T1 (and also in T1.5, where I have a 100% win ratio (i.e. I have won the 2 tournaments that I played in this format in the last year with NetherVoid) Ports are superior: not only do they help tremendously against Control, they are also very important against Sligh. With 4 Sinkholes on top of your 5 Strips you cannot hope to mana screw them completely, but with Ports you can. How do you plan to win against Keeper without Ports? You are playing essentially a weak version of a Suicide deck if you play Factories against Keeper.

I really like Factories, but in T1 I do not see place for them in NetherVoid (in T1.5 you can play 2 of them on top of your Wastes and Ports).

Negator in Nether Void is NOT BAD against Sligh. Granted, some of them are sided out (usually I play 2 post-SBing), but mostly because one SBs about 10-12 cards against Sligh, so you need some space. Of course, you must not start with first turn Ritual/Negator, but you would not do that with Shade either versus Sligh, right? You play the Negator after you have obtained the lock.

Somehow, the 2 issues are related: Negators are mostly good against Sligh, because Sligh usually cannot cast anything under a Void, PROVIDED YOU PLAY PORTS! Yes, occasionally Sligh will bolt the Negator, even under a Void (although I do not recall such a situation from my last 3 tourneys). But this takes time, and time is something you do NOT have with an opposing Negator. Moreover, usually you can switch into suicide mode and just sacrifice 3 lands - after all, you are not planning to cast more threads. And last but not least, if Sligh finally manages to cast that final Bolt usually you die anyway, because you stabilize most of the time in the 1-3 life region...

Also in mirror matches Negator seems superior.

[Zherbus]

Your arguement is flawed.

First, you assume Void will always be cast. Secondly, last time I checked - half of the cards in sligh were instants. Port doesnt stop instants.

Quote Negator in Nether Void is NOT BAD against Sligh. Granted, some of them are sided out (usually I play 2 post-SBing), but mostly because one SBs about 10-12 cards against Sligh, so you need some space. Of course, you must not start with first turn Ritual/Negator, but you would not do that with Shade either versus Sligh, right? You play the Negator after you have obtained the lock.

Correction: Negator isnt useless against sligh. I would STILL use negators had I not have to worry about completely random decks that Void is famous for losing too. Negators are completely acceptable.

Your also stuck in the mindset that Void needs to be more controlling than aggressive. Sure, with either version you can get a softlock, but I have won more games by playing it as Suicide when land kill and Voids just arent there. Mishra's make this possible.

Except for the fact that ports cant stop slighs instants, sligh dies to my Void just as easily as it died to port Void...it just dies faster now.

I'll say this again, as many know, I RAN ports for quite sometime. While Void was good for beating on control, it just lost to random things. I hate losing to random things, and in a real environment, you play against random things.

In other words, Ive been there and so hasnt many others. We just arent going back.

[Ex-Spectator]

Big Blue,

i think you make some valid, well thought out points but there are some equally good points IMO as to why factories can be beneficial.

i must admit that when Zherbus started advertising factories i was a little skeptical; (i was thinking, "why not just play suicide") but i put them in and they're really pretty good. they just took a little getting used to.

factories have obvious strengths against aggro as both a free removal spell and threat under a void. cutting ports does make the deck play a little differently as in some cases you'll have to rely more on getting void into play ASAP to balance out the lack of mana denial; but i've never had a problem with that so far.

one of the biggest benefits i've noticed is in the match up with mono blue. even with ports the task of mana screwing mono U is an uphill battle to say the least. though with factories, you  get an uncounterable way to stop ophidians which has been damn usefull. i still wouldn't consider them 100% reliable as threats since BtB is there, but BtB doesn't stop them from stopping phids.

now i would say the only decks i would rather have ports in against would be (and i'm sure this is debatable) keeper and combo. the extra edge that ports can give here has been valuable more often than having the extra threat. keeper at times can withstand the "normal" disruption thrown at it and can negate the effects of void enough to climb out in time to save itself. with ports in play, the extra mana denial is usually just enough to hold them down long enough to get the win. to a similar degree, the same could be said for combo as well. this is why i don't believe that Null and Void is as bad of a deck as it's been made out to be lately. as stated in the primer it was a deck made to combat a metagame full of keeper and combo. and although somewhat outdated, i think it does a good job at what it was intended for.

all in all, i think that between both primers written on nether void, that two different but valid points of view are created....it's just that one (Null and Void) concerns a rather uncommon metagame while Zherbus' represents a more seen, "realistic" metagame.

anyway, just my 2 cents. -Ex

[Big Blue]

Quote now i would say the only decks i would rather have ports in against would be (and i'm sure this is debatable) keeper and combo.

Even without debating this statement I think these are 2 very good resons in favour of Port. If you do not want to lose to random decks once in a while you will have to play Keeper rather than NetherVoid. And a typical SB should take care of random decks (WW can be very painful, for instance).

I am tacitly asuming that Keeper and Control are among the mayor decks that you want to beat (and you should not auto-lose against Combo neither). The Unholy Trinity Negator-Void-Port helps a lot in all these matchups.

Yes, it is an uphill battle against mono-U, but I do not see how Factory helps here much. It replaces disruption by a 2/2 critter which is vulnerable to 0-Kegs and LD. The argument that it blocks Ophidian is true but not very strong, as I experience that most of the time you lose when Ophidian resolves and can be protected. Waiting usually helps mono-U more than NetherVoid (talking about uphill...).

I really love the Factories in Void and as I said, I play a couple (or rather: a Couple) of them in 1.5. But Ports are simply too good to be omitted in this deck.

As for the Instant-issue: it is true, that it does not prevent you from Instants, but it buys you 1 turn, which quite often is crucial (especially with a fast clock like Negator) - simply because your opponent has to wait for his next upkeep when he plays the fourth land. Be honest: how often have you won/lost by 1 turn?

Regarding whether NetherVoid resolves - against Sligh it ALWAYS resolves (apart from the games were you are dead on turn 4 anyway) - with 3 Voids and 2 Tutors it should not be too hard to miss it. Ports are important to prevent the first creature, after you have cleared the board with a Keg/Contagion/Spinning Darkness/whatever else.

I do not want to challenge your personal deck, but I think a primer should maybe reflect a more general perspective - as little biased as reasonably achievable.

[Zherbus]

Quote Regarding whether NetherVoid resolves - against Sligh it ALWAYS resolves (apart from the games were you are dead on turn 4 anyway) - with 3 Voids and 2 Tutors it should not be too hard to miss it. Ports are important to prevent the first creature, after you have cleared the board with a Keg/Contagion/Spinning Darkness/whatever else.

When your spending time scrambling for a void, you have to generally have to ignore the 2/1's beating you down. Then playing Void after board position is in favor of void is either a far ballsier move than I would make, or spending extra time to keg properly (Thus giving sligh an extra turn to burn you out)...either way its lose/lose.

Quote As for the Instant-issue: it is true, that it does not prevent you from Instants, but it buys you 1 turn, which quite often is crucial (especially with a fast clock like Negator) - simply because your opponent has to wait for his next upkeep when he plays the fourth land. Be honest: how often have you won/lost by 1 turn?

With Null and Void, games won versus aggro such as sligh was very close. With my Void, I generally have the upper hand well before I deal the final blow.

Quote Even without debating this statement I think these are 2 very good resons in favour of Port. If you do not want to lose to random decks once in a while you will have to play Keeper rather than NetherVoid. And a typical SB should take care of random decks (WW can be very painful, for instance).

I generally don't like losing to randomness. If I simply wanted to play something to beat keeper or combo, would play mono blue with 4 maindeck b2b. This, in my eyes, is a cop out reason not to tweak void to do well against the general field.

Matchups against control are still extremely favorable, and dare I say even better. Keepers matchup is better since they are one a shorter clock before they, like Ex-Spectator said, dig them selves out.

Combo's matchups haven't changed a damn bit.

Quote Yes, it is an uphill battle against mono-U, but I do not see how Factory helps here much. It replaces disruption by a 2/2 critter which is vulnerable to 0-Kegs and LD. The argument that it blocks Ophidian is true but not very strong, as I experience that most of the time you lose when Ophidian resolves and can be protected. Waiting usually helps mono-U more than NetherVoid (talking about uphill...).

Not at all. Factories not only block ophidian, but deter kegs enough that shade is safe. If mono blue cannot deal with a shade and lots of black mana, I dont care how many tricks they can do with morphling, they wont win. Can negator charge through a Morphling?

I've even had games where Ophidian WAS drawing off me, and I simply had to nail the player a few times with Nantuko Shade before he was done with, since his life total was initially whiddled by Factories.

Quote I do not want to challenge your personal deck, but I think a primer should maybe reflect a more general perspective - as little biased as reasonably achievable.

The other prospective is Matt D'Avanzo. He wrote an excellent primer. In fact, he presented his version so well I could not hope to cover what he covered in mine, so (as said in the primer) I leave what was done well to him. I also am convinced that ports are generally junk, simply by changing the way you play the deck, and altering the creature base (including mishras over ports) I have won matches that aren't favorable to the rishadan port version.

Look at my matchups for example. Against the suicide mirror, trading a 3/3 blocking mishra for a negator is always a good idea. Otherwise in the case of a first turn ritual-negator, you simply eat 15 damage until you build keg to 3. This also addresses your statement as to what wins the mirror matchup, incidentally.

[Big Blue]

Concerning the mirror you could be right. Factories seem to be better most of the times. Incidentally, I finally decided to give up playing NetherVoid in our T1 environment, after having played against 3 mono-B decks in a single tourney. But in my 1.5 version I play 4 Ports and only 2 Factories while facing a lot of aggro.

Against Keeper - having tried both versions - I noticed Ports as being crucial and Factories, while dealing some damage, were most of the time essentially useless against Keeper.

Probably you play this deck quite differently from the way I do - after the inital disruption I try to play Nether Void ASAP, typically before playing a creature. It is a mono-B control deck with the potential of aggressive turn 1-plays the way I play it and not a controlish Suicide deck with excellent Abyss-defense as it seems to be in your case.

As for the Sligh-matchup: Sure, until I can play Void safely I am usually down to 1-5 lifes - but so what? My opponent is not going to play anything anymore in general.

Regarding the random-decks: I assume you mean random-aggro decks, since random control and random combo decks should be easy for you. Well, as I said, the SB should take care of them (Dystoptia, creature removal, more LD). A 2-1 win is still enough, and often you can steal the first game if your opposing deck is truly random. I do not see the point in making your deck stronger against weak decks while making it weaker against strong decks, but probably you disagree on the second part of this statement. Moreover, I am not even sure that Ports are really worse than Factories against aggro. I can give an example from my last 1.5 tourney: in the final round I had to play against a 1.5-Patriot version and it was crucial that I could deny him 2 mana with Ports, because otherwise he could have played his Serendibs (he would have had a Bolt against my first Factory and there was no way that I outraced him in damage). I sealed the game with a NetherVoid and a Spinning Darkness on his Lion (which had been attacking since the beginning). With Factories, I would have lost the first one in an attempt to block and 1 turn later I would have had to face a Serendib. I know that this is just an example and that you will find other examples, where Factories saved the day and Ports would have been bad.  I just want to make clear that it is not granted that Factories are always better versus aggro and almost certainly not against Control/Combo.

Let me finally point out that even in Suicide-mode (i.e. after a rather disruptive start with a first turn creature which resolves) Ports are very helpful, since you deny them 1 main-phase mana without having to fear a Mana Drain, which for most practical purposes is like a timewalk (e.g. Keg is not coming on round 2 but mono-U will have to wait till round 3, which is usually too late).

On a sidenote: the worst card (for me) that I have encountered in an opposing random deck was Stormbind - you simply lose with NetherVoid when this resolves, having absolutely no Enchantment defense (apart from Enchant Worlds).