First off, let me preface this post with some disclaimers. I don't believe this deck to be Tier 1. It possibly could evolve into a Tier 1 deck, but I doubt it. It is in some ways a hate deck. It is designed to outdraw and outcounter control in most forms (fish, landstill, 4cc, etc.) and it can pretty easily deal with most combo, but the tradeoff is that it dies a horrible death to any sort of fast aggro. Also, please note that this is deck is quite rough and several of the card choices are open for debate (especially in the board).
Now that the cover-my-ass-from-flames portion of this is over, lets go on to the deck presentation. A good place to start would be a decklist.
Pink Eye
Draw
4x Bazaar of Baghdad
4x Standstill
2x Intuition
1x Library of Alexandria
1x Ancestral Recall
Kennys
4x Squee
3x Krovikan Horror
Counters
4x Force of Will
4x Circular Logic
2x Daze/Forbid/Foil/Stifle
Kill
4x Zombie Infestation
Utility
2x Wonder
1x Time Walk
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Strip Mine
Mana
4x Underground Sea
4x Volcanic Island
4x Polluted Delta
5x Island
1x Black Lotus
4x Moxen (-Pearl)
Sideboard
4x Fiery Temper
3x Wasteland
2x Teferi's Response
2x Rack and Ruin
2x Misdirection
2x Daze/Forbid/Foil/Stifle
The deck's name "Pink Eye" is a reference to the South Park episode of the same name. The Squees and Horrors just seemed so much like Kenny (die every turn and come back the next one) that the reference to turning Kenny into a Zombie was too good to pass up.
The basic game plan of the deck is to draw ginormous amounts of cards with Bazaar and your 7 Squees and then build up Zombie tokens the same way while countering enough of your opponents spells. If you can stabilize and get in control, this deck can out draw pretty much any other deck. I was routinely drawing 2-4 extra cards *every* turn, and often I would have over 10 cards in my hand by the end of my upkeep.
Anyway, lets go on to specific card choices:
Bazaar: This functions as both a huge card advantage machine and a discard outlet for Logics and Tempers. This card is essential to the workings of this deck.
Standstill: Since, once you've laid an Infestation, none of your proactive goals are spell-based, this card has amazing synergy.
Intuition: This card lets you set up your draw engine. Intuitioning for 3 Squees is some good with a Bazaar or Infestation on the table.
Library of Alexandria: This card is an auto-include simply because you will almost always be at 7 cards sometime in the beginning phase once you've got going.
Ancestral Recall: Is explanation needed?
Squee/Horror: These are the heart of the deck. I think 3 is the right number for Horror because it is a little harder to use than Squee. Squee can be discarded with madness spells without losing it to oblivion. However, Horrors do come back twice as often as Squee.
Force of Will: Duh.
Circular Logic: Once you have a discard outlet and 3 or 4 cards in your graveyard, these are effectively 1 mana hard counters.
Daze/Forbid/Foil/Stifle: I'm not quite sure which of these is the best in this slot. I've been running Dazes and I'm not impressed. They are pretty much dead after the first couple turns. I think Dazes are a run 4 or run 0 card. Stifles are cool for the random first turn striping a fetch, but on the whole are rather unflexable and narrow. Foil and Forbid are two options that I haven't really tested, but they seem promising. Foils would be more free counters for the early game if you have a Squee. Forbid would be a great way to prevent miraculous late game recoveries by your opponent. Some input on this issue would be greatly appreciated.
Zombie Infestation: The kill. This too is a great permanent way of generating card advantage, although it doesn't come in the form of actual cards in your hand.
Wonder: This is mainly for the Fish matchup. Not being able to block two thirds of their creatures is a bad thing. You could probably shuffle these to the sideboard or out of the deck altogether if you aren't expecting much Fish.
Time Walk, Demonic Tutor, + Strip Mine: More duh cards.
Sideboard cards:
Fiery Temper: Creating a Zombie Token to block and madness bolting the blocked creature at the same time is a really strong play against the aggro-control decks. If you have a Wonder in the graveyard, you can kill Exalteds with it too. This might belong in the maindeck, but I'm not really sure what to swap them for.
Wasteland: These are boarded because the Bazaars already squeeze the manabase somewhat. I included them pretty much for the Landstill matchup where the lands are threats too.
Teferi's Response: Wasteland counter/Bazaar protection.
Rack and Ruin: Artifact hate. Perhaps I should have more? Only two cards to hate out artifacts seems kind of low.
Misdirection: More free counters. Also you can do fun tricks like stealing Fish's Curiositys.
Well, I hope I provided enough information for an engaging discussion. Overall, I feel this deck is quite fun to play, and has some serious merit.
Oh, credits:
This deck was evolved from decklists posted on
this TMD thread and (though I'm ashamed to admit it)
this Brainburst thread. My contributions to the deck have been the additions of Standstill, Forbid, and Wonder.
