Lengthy Article

[Anonymous]

Hey, this is funnest deck I have ever played in my life.  I just made it in 1 night, and it’s really good.  It’s a first draft, so it’s not going to be super, but it is pretty good.  I tested it out on some decks, and it’s incredible!  I love coming up with deck lists that aren’t very common or popular and watching them kick ass.  Oh, and by the way, this is just casual; I’m not going to play this in a tourney (possibly).  Here it goes:

LAND:

20 Swamps

SPELLS:

4 Buried Alive
2 Cabal Therapy
2 Strong arm Tactics
4 Duress
4 Dark Ritual
4 Hymn to Tourach
2 Tainted AEther
1 Demonic Tutor

CREATURES:

4 Devouring Strossus
4 Aboroth
4 Endless Wurm
4 Sutured Ghoul

I don’t really have a sideboard yet, but this is what I came up with so far:

SIDEBOARD:

4 Wonder
2 Cabal Therapy
2 Tainted AEther
1 Strip Mine
4 Wasteland
2 Anger

(Don’t comment on sideboard unless you have a good card against Sui please, just focus on the deck itself)


     Ok, there it is.  This deck is really crazy.  Last week, I played against a stompy, and I had a 54/54 Trample out on turn 4!  I’m not kidding.  It’s a fun deck to play against and to play with.  What I need right now is  a way to make it faster, or anything else you see.


CARD BY CARD ANALYSIS:

Swamps:  There are tons of non-basic hate in my weekly tourny’s I go to.  I find that basics are the way to go.  My metagame has lots of annoying things like Back to Basics, and most people have Wastelands.

Buried Alive:  This should require no explaniation.  This card is the most important spell in this deck, and I only use it to get as many of the 9/9 creatures into my graveyard.  Just 1 of these can produce a 27/27 Sutured Ghould with Trample, but I could have more for fun, and that happens often.

Cabal Therapy:  This is an extremely underated card, and I’ve never heard of it used in a deck.  This card is very useful in my opinion, and serves two purposes in this deck.  One purpose is to make your opponent discard 1-4 non land cards from their hand, which is annoying for them, I know.  It works great if you just play a duress, so you can pick out their hand.  The second purpose, and maybe some will disagree that this is wise, is to clean out your OWN hand of any 9/9 creatures you have, making it sometimes a B casting Buried Alive, just a little worse.  I like it.

Strong Arm Tactics:  This card also serves as a kind of Cabal Therapy, useful for discarding a 9/9 creature from your hand, and making your oppenets do so.  Hurts them if they can’t or won’t discard a creature because they lose 4 life.

Duress:  Should be in any black deck.  One of the best 1 mana casting cost spell in the game.  Very useful.

Dark Ritual:  This card is a very good mana burst, but the trick with this deck is to know when to use it.  I think you generally want to try to save 1-2 Dark Rituals if you have them for the Sutured Ghoul.  You want that guy out as soon as possible.  Don’t try to use these for Tainted AEther and Buried Alive, or else your going to get the Ghoul out on turn 7 which would suck.  So know when to use it.  Also, I need additional comments on how to make this deck more mana effective and faster.  

Hymm to Tourach:  Possibly one of my favorite cards.  I love it.  With this deck, it is imparitive to band your oppent with constant disruption until you can get something out.
I think 4 should be good.

Tainted AEther:  I don’t know about his one.  For my metagame, it’s good because many decks are always bringing out creatures, while this deck only gets out one.  It doesn’t matter if you play Sutured Ghoul and have to sac a land: because you’ve already won with the next turn, probably.

Demonic Tutor:  This deck really needs it.  I also need more comments on how to make this a better drawing engine.  Any black deck needs this.

The Twelve 9/9 Creautres:  Obviously, this shouldn’t require an explanation.  You obviously need these, and with a buried alive or two (or three ), you looking at a seriously dangerous Sutured Ghoul that is at least a 27/27 Trample (sometimes a lot more, also).

Sutured Ghoul:  The game winner.  A very good card, very good.  Hell of a lot better than Revenant.

SIDEBOARD:

Wonder:  Need this in sideboard more than anything else.  Haha, this is great for moat, then you have a 20 something/20 something with Trample an Flying.  Great card.

Strip Mine and Wasteland:  Some non-basic hate, it always works.  Strip Mine maybe could go into the maindeck.

Anger: Not sure this deck needs him.  Could be good, never tested him.  Heh, make Sutured Ghoul a Flying, Trample, with Haste.  Haha.

The extra Cabal Therapies and Tainted AEther:  Since in game two, you know their deck, Cabal Therapy should be good.  Also, Tatined AEther kills creature and mana dependent decks.

Ok, there it is.  Obviously this deck needs work, but it does kick totall ass, belive it or not.  Just focus on the deck itself, not the sideboard.
   And as I said before, I need ways to improve the speed, mana, and ANYHITNG YOU WANT.  I really need comments please.  Thanks.

[Puschkin]

I really appreciate the wy you present your deck!

Ask yourself: what does this deck do if it doesn´t draw Buried Alive or Surtured Ghoul? What if they get countered?

So, your main problem is that: Only one way to put creatures from your library into your graveyard. Maybe add that new Buried Alive that costs only one and puts one creature in the grave.
You have ways to discard your creatures from hand but they are not that effective. There are cards out there that do something productive and have discard as a side effect or activation cost. Cabal Therapying yourself is indeed a waste of cards. Remember this for the next paragraph.
Since your whole trick bases on the Ghoul you need something to backup that, too. I recommend Corpse Dance which can kill the opponent within 2-3 turns with your deck.

Next problem: Your critters are uncastable. This gets important if your main trick doesn´t work. Mind you, you might get duressed yourself and people do counter your stuff or disrupt you otherwise. The Arboroth for example costs six mana which is manageable, especially with Dark Rituals. But you have no green mana. Try to include fatties that are not total useless besides of their trick. Avatar of Woe and Might are examples. You could as well include green mana sources since green has the best fatties. Now remember what I said above. If you included Survival of the Fittest, you would not only fill your graveyard with fat, you would also be able to fetch the Ghoul or utility creatures if you included them.\n\n

[bebe]

So here is a list that is very rough of a new combo for Type 1. So far it has proved to be a little fragile
but it can combo out as early as Dragon.
The original deck did not have the Masks
but it seemed lo9gical to add them as a secondary
win condition

a. Bury the Ghoul and two Naughts.
Shallow Grave or Necro the Ghoul -
24/24 trampler on the table.

b. Play as a Mask deck.

"Sutured Ghoul"
Info: Color = Black
Type = Creature - Zombie
Cost = 4BBB
Edition = Judgment (JU)

Errata: */*, Trample. ; As Sutured Ghoul comes
into play, remove any number of creature cards
in your graveyard from the game. ; Sutured Ghoul's
power is equal to the total power of
the removed cards and its toughness is equal
to their total toughness.
(A * on a card not in play is 0.)



4 Shallow Grave
4 Necromancy
4 Buried Alive

4 Phyrexian Dreadnought
2 Sutured Ghoul

4 Duress
4 Intuition
4 Illusionary Mask
2 Unmask
Hoodwink
Demonic Tutor
Merchant Scroll
Mystical Tutor
Ancestral
Mind Twist

4 Underground Sea
4 Polluted Delta
4 Swamp
3 Island
2 Moxen
Black Lotus
Sol Ring
4 Dark Ritual

Sideboard:
3 Defense Grid
3 Dystopia
3 Diabolic Edict
3 Tornod's Crypt
3 Powder Keg

This deck might be a better way to abuse your Ghoul. You have two win conditions as it palys as a Mask deck and a Ghoul deck. If Masks are just out of reach agg Hyppies and Negators in those spots.

[Anonymous]

Yes, that deck is better, I know that.

But, I have no Ancestrals, Lotus, or the Necromancys, or the Illusionary Mask.  If I had them, the build would be something like this.

My deck (the 1st Draft) is mono black and I'd like to keep it that way.  

Puschkin offered some ideas that I could put into my deck, and I'll test them out.  I'll also try to include some of Bebe's suggestions.  I'm going to post the deck after I try to upgrade it, then you can comment on it again (please!)

[Puschkin]

Yes, do that, it´s always good (for training purposes) to stick to your deck and try to improve it (no offense, BeBe   ). But please post it here, don´t make a new thread.

[Sylvester]

Erhm..How do those wonders and anger in your SB wok when you only have swamps!?

[bebe]

Well, the deck can play as mono-black, BTW.
 - Ancestral, Mystical, Merchant, Hoodwink, Intuitions, Illusionaries, Necromancies, Shallow Graves

+ Tainted Pacts, Negators, Animate Deads, Reanimate, Necro, Vampiric, Yawg's Will, Mishra's Factories, big black fat for Reanimation ( the life loss is okay if you kill your opponenet in two turns but Shalloow Grave is better)  

Add Snow-covered Swamps, Mishras, Wastes, Strip and Swaps to mana base.

Still a strong deck using the basic Ghoul principal. The substitutions will weaken the deck a bit but it will be consistent and nearly as fast.

@ Puschkin - I wasn't really trying to take away his main kill condition.  But he needs a better way to get Ghoul into play for the deck to be competive.

[Puschkin]

He said casual and that he´s not going to play it in tourneys and that it already does well vs. his current competition.

[Anonymous]

Quote (Sylvester @ Dec. 11 2002,08:55)Erhm..How do those wonders and anger in your SB wok when you only have swamps!?

Wonder doesn't actually get played. It just gives all your creatures flying if it ends up in your graveyard, which as he said, he can force himself to discard it.

[Anonymous]

He needs to have an Island in play for it to take effect, otherwise the Incarnations would have been to strong

Card : Wonder  
Cost : 3U  
Type : Creature - Incarnation  
Power : 2/2  
Wording : Flying As long as ~this~ is in your graveyard, and you control and Island, creatures you control have flying.    
Edition : JU - Judgment  
Rarity : Uncommon  
Colour : Blue  
Mana : 4  
Flavor : ?The awestruck birds gazed at Wonder. Slowly, timidly, they rose into the air.? ? Scroll of Beginnings    
Artist : Rebecca Guay

[Anonymous]

Is that true?  I need to have an Island for wonder to be in my graveyard?  I only would want it to give my ghoul flying, agianst a moat or something.  

Oh well, anyways I upgraded my deck a little.  I'll explain the changes in a bit.  

First of all, I added Shallow Grave to my deck and I can't believe i didn't have that in beforehand.  Thanks Puschkin.  I really now center my deck around the ghoul and Shallow Grave.  I also tested my deck a little more and found out that while most of the time I can get a 27/27 Trample with Haste out on turn 3 or 4, sometimes if I get bad draws then the deck stalls.  The only real way to cope with this in my deck are the pro-active disruption like Hymm, Duress, and Cabal Therapy.  I've also noticed that Strongarm Tactics is pretty good in situations where I have a 9/9 in my hand.  Anybody got suggestions on how to make this deck a better drawing engine and/or anything else?  Thanks to you guys, it's fast now (I call a 27/27 Trample with Haste on turn 3 or 4 fast   )  More suggestions would be greatly appreciated.  This deck still has away to go.

Note:  When I say it has Haste, I'm reffering to the Shallow Grave play.  The Shallow Grave puts a creature into play from your graveyard and gives it haste.  It is removed at the end of the turn.

Although the add-ons that I have made have greatly improved the deck, it confused me alittle by knowing how many 9/9 and Sutured Ghouls to put in.  I Actually tried 1 Ghoul and three 9/9's, but it seems I was on crack.  I think I really need 4 or 3 Ghouls with somwhere around six 9/9's or around there.  If I'm wrong about this, please tell me, and tell me how many of these creatures and Ghouls should be in here.  Thanks.

Ok, here's the second draft of my deck.  PLEASE, just tell me what could be better, anything you want to know, or suggestions of any kind.

LAND:

20 Swamps
1 Strip Mine

CREATURES:

4 Sutured Ghoul?
4 Aboroth?
2 Devouring Strossus?

SPELLS:

4 Duress
4 Dark Ritual
4 Hymm to Tourach
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Shallow Grave
3 Strong Arm Tactics?
1 Demonic Tutor

SIDEBOARD:

Same as before (if taht guy above me is wrong, I'll be foreced to take out Wonder)

CHANGES:

1)  I took out the Tainted AEther.  For one, I thought they belonged in the sideboard, and tow, I think they are just too weak and too much.

2) I added 2 more Cabal Therapies.  A couple reasons are that:  (1)  The card could deprive your oppenent of some card taht could ruin this decks strategy, like Moat, Counterspeels, etc.  You don't want to face those.  Also, works good with Duress because you already know what's in their hand.

3)  I'm not so sure about the creature changes.  I'll have to get help with that (such as how many to put in).  I could use some advice.

4)  I added a Strip Mine:  Just a good card.  Should've been in there in the first place.

5)  Maybe 1 more Strong Arm Tactics.  I got frusterated at times when I had too many 9/9's in my hand and was stuck with them (Note:  That was the earlier deck: this one doesn't have as much.  I think this deck is a little better).


Ok, there is the 2nd and certainly not final draft of this deck.  I just have a couple other comments.  

Please feel free to talk about his deck in any way.  Comment about it, and try to make it better in every way you can think of.  Just keep it mono-black and mostly unpowered, please.  Second, Puschkin, nice idea with the Survival of the Fittest, but I'm not putting that in there.  I'm keeping it mono-black, and don't have the duels for b/g.  Good idea though!  That would work good.  Thanks, just try some other things you can think of.  

Note:  This deck is surprisingly good.  This is really unique (from what I have ever seen) and it kicks ass.  It can adapt well enough to most decks.  This just totally kills.  Oh, and I might use this for tourneys.  I'll just need this to get good criticism.  Thanks again, and I hope you all help out.  I love it!

PS  I'm waiting for a membership, and have been waiting for about over a month now.  I know Steve is busy, but I can't wait!

[Anonymous]

Heh, I still need 5 cards in the maindeck.  But if you ahve any suggestions, just fill those slots in, but really concentrate on the voerally deck.  Sorry.

[Anonymous]

Did you take buried alive out, or did you just forget it? It definately belongs i think, and you may want to consider entomb as well (gets one card from your deck to your graveyard at instant speed).

For drawing, if you don't want to splash blue or green, maybe infernal contract? The paying life can be harsh, but you should win the same turn if you draw the right cards with it.

[Anonymous]

Get rid of the Strong Arm Tactics, there just bad, add entomb, buried alive and as a techy thing maybe run blackmail, targeting yourself to discard a fatty or use it against you oppenents already weak hand (from earlyer disruption)

[BurningIce]

You need an Island in play and Wonder in your graveyard to give all your creatures flying, and you need a Mountain in play and Anger in your graveyard to give all your creatures haste.  The only uncommon Incarnation that works with Swamps is Filth, who gives Swampwalk.  The Rare Incarnations don't need the lands, I don't think, but they do require White and Green mana to activate them (Genesis and Glory).  So if you want to keep the deck mono-black, you now have 6 free slots in the sideboard.\n\n

[Anonymous]

Yeah, I actually forgot the Buried Alive's.  How could I?  That's one of the most important cards in my deck.  

Ok, I guess I won't be using Wonder unless I sideboard some splashes in or something.  The maindeck I want mono-black, still.

I'm gonna post my third revision of this deck so far, and will list the changes below again.  Please comment!


LAND:

20 Swamps
1 Strip Mine

CREATURES:

4 Aboroth
2 Devouring Strossus
4 Sutured Ghoul

SPELLS:

4 Buried Alive
4 Entomb
4 Shallow Grave
4 Dark Ritual
4 Duress
4 Hymm to Tourach
3 Blackmail
2 Cabal Therapy

SIDEBOARD:

Same as before, and maybe I'll amke changes to include Wonder or other things in it, but later.  Just focus on the maindeck.

CHANGES:

Entomb:  Good card.  Didn't know it existed, and it provides a better chance of burying a creautre soon, and can get that extra creature you need in the graveyard whenever.  Low casting too, which is always good.

Blackmail:  It's alot better than Cabal Theraping yourself, thats for sure.  Thanks for the name of this card: it proves to be usefull.  Can get those annoying 9/9 creatures and Ghoul out of your hand on turn 1.  I don'y know if 3's the right #, but ok.  Just testing.

Ok everyone, I'm still trying for this deck to be great.  Looks unique and surprisingly good.  I'm probably going to try it in a tourny soon enough.

PS.  I still need lots of advice!!! Thanks.

[Anonymous]

LOL..i could log on, but i'm going in a few seconds, anyway:)

You're palying black, and you're playing a semi-comboish deck... Where are your tutors!?  Vampiric Tutor, Demonic Tutor, demonic consultation... Tainted pact might work too! It'll add a lot of consistency to the deck. However, you seem very low on disruption(some discard), while using a concept that isn't very robust: any kind of creature kill means major card and tempo advantage for the opponent.

[Anonymous]

Hmmm, you're right, I need more drawing in here.  Good thinking, I'm going to put in Vamparic Tutor and maybe some Tainted Pact.  Definetly Vamparic Tutor, but how many Pacts?  I don't really like Demonic Consulation:  It's too risky.  I'm going to post my fourth edition of this deck after I get alot more comments.  Thanks.

[Anonymous]

Haha, I'm actually looking back on my first reply by Puschkin, and he suggested Survival of the Fittest.  I didn't really like it at the time, as I wanted to keep it mono-black, but I'm really looking at it now and thinking it should go it my deck.  Any ideas on how to include it in my deck?

I have an idea, but maybe it's not as good as the origanal.  If it isn't, just say so and comment on the mono-black one.

LAND:

4 Duals?
4 Painlands?
12 Swamps
1 Strip Mine

CREATURES:

4 Aboroth
2 Devouring STrossus
4 Sutured Ghoul

SPELLS:

4 Survival of the Fittest
4 Dark Ritual
4 Duress
4 Hymm to Tourach
2 Cabal Therapy
2 Blackmail
4 Buried Alive
4 Entomb
4 Shallow Grave
2 Corpse Dance

No need for sideboard right now

There it is, and if it's worse than my current deck, then just tell me, and if it's not, comment on it.  Just give me advice!  I'm thinking of being competitive with this sometime soon.

[Jesse Driggers]

If I were you I'd Drop the Aboroth's for Phyrexian Dreadnaughts.  If you get a first turn Buried Alive, you can win 2nd turn off shallow grave.

[BurningIce]

I think Tainted Wood would wook really well here.  Along with 4 Bayous if you can get them.

[Anonymous]

Jesse Driggers, I'm curious.  How can I get a second turn win?  Sounds good!  If you could post the decklist you're thinking of, that would be great.

And everyone esle, you're still free to comment on whatever you want.

[Anonymous]

Ok, nevermind, I know how a second turn kill is possible.  But I'm not sure if Survival of the Fittest chould go in here?  Should I put 4 of them in here then 4 Bayou's and 4 Tainted Wood?  Or just keep my most current one with the changes made?  Please comment.


This is a deck I'm thinking of.. tell me what you think.  If you think the other deck was better, just comment on that and say so.  If you want ot comment on this, good.

LAND:

4 Tainted Wood
4 Bayou
1 Strip Mine
11 Swamp

CREATURES:

2 Devouring Strossus
4 Phyrexian Dreadnaught
4 Sutured Ghoul

SPELLS:

4 Survival of the Fittest
4 Dark Ritual
4 Duress
4 Hymm to Tourach
2 Cabal Therapy
2 Blackmail
4 Buried Alive
2 Entomb
4 Shallow Grave
2 Corpse Dance
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vamparic Tutor



Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Hmm, I'm thinking about the 2nd turn kill, and I actually realize that this could get a first turn kill (obviously it would be somewhat rare to get this hand) with 7 cards.  Would be kinda hard to get 1st turn, but this is it.

OPENING HAND:

1 Swamp
2 Dark Ritual
1 Phryxian Dreadnaught
2 Entomb
1 Shallow Grave

....Heh.

First turn kill, pretty cool.  Anyway, just a thought.  Keep the comments coming!