My mono-B nethervoid attempt at waterbury

[feral]

I went 5/3 and two of those three were what I consider pretty broken draws.  Excuses aside I had a blast and am considering retooling the deck somewhat to better compete.  In the current meta (which is pretty slow) I'm not too worried with this deck.  I have at leat 5/5 matchups with everything except for the venerable TnT which still takes me 3/7 (I do 10 game playtests).

List

Mana - 19
1 Black Lotus
1 Jet
1 Sol Ring
4 Dark Ritual
3 Fetchlands
9 Swamps

Broken - 1
1 Yawgmoth's Will

Straight Disruption - 6
3 Nethervoid
3 Powder Keg

Card Economy - 4
1 Necropotence
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Death Wish

Land Destruction - 10
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Strip Mine
4 Wastelands
4 Sink Hole

Hand Destruction - 8
4 Duress
3 Hymn to Tourach
1 Mindtwist

Critters - 12
1 Juzam Djinn
1 Withered Wretch
3 Hypnotic Spectre
3 Nantuko Shade
4 Mishra's Factory


SB - 15
3 Dystopia
3 Tormod's Crypt
3 Null Rod
2 Diabolic Edict
1 Chainer's Edict
2 Razormane Masticore
1 Masticore

1 - 0
1st round - Hulk Smash 2 - 0
I didn't get to see much of this deck but everything I saw of it was pretty typical.  Land + Hand disruption + resolved hypnotic spectre = dead.  This is one of the easiest matches for me, I sideboarded in a couple crypts and a single diabolic edict just in case ... didn't matter hulk never hit the table.

1 - 1
2nd round - R/G Aggro 0 - 2
Nethervoid has problems with any sort of aggro matchup, and this was no exception.  He killed me with river boa's and mox monkeys ... it was totally embarrassing.  My SB didn't do much for me second round and I sat on a hand I should have mulliganed away.  I suck

1 - 2
3rd round - B/R/??? welder? 1 - 2
I wasn't sure what this deck type was but I've seen it around (can anyone give me the name?).  The only win condition I saw was a tinker + collossus.  The only thing I saw the welder for was a memory jar ... not sure what else.  Anyhow he dropped a first turn collossus on me and I checked out (my only maindeck answer is a deathwish + edict ... which didn't happen).  Second round the collossus came out early again but I edicted (which he countered) so I yawmoth's and edicted again which took out the thing.  Then I ate him with a juzam and a nantuko.  Third round  I kept a hand I shouldn't and the collossus came and I was behind on mana and had nothing going.  

2 - 2
4th round - mono-U  2 - 0
This was another slaughter.  I resolved a nethervoid in both games, and I've never lost a game where I've resolved that stupid thing.  Anyhow again hand + land destruction killed the hell out of control.

3 - 2
5th round - Sui Black w/G for deeds??  2 - 1
This was a little scarey because suicide can really give nethervoid a headache with faster creatures and more of them ... not to mention its not fun eating duresses and hymns.  Anyhow first game he came out swinging with a duress (which took my duress ... lol) and we exchanged disruption  until I laid down a crucible which won me the match.  Second match I had my edicts and a razormane maindecked and I just made a bad play by chainer's edicting away a critter and then forgetting I could flash it back.  Sure enough he dropped a critter I could have chainer's-ed away but I just forgot I had that.  3rd round he resolved a 1st turn negator which I answered with a 2nd turn mishra's factory.  He attacked and I let him discard his land and then next turn laid down another factory.  Eventually he decided the negator was a bad idea so I laid down a hyppie and a nantuko (that he couldn't block with the negator since he had too few permanents) and I laid waste to him.

3 - 3
6th round GAT - 0 - 2
I just got annihilated by some pretty sick hands.  1st round he dropped a dryad and had it up to 5/5 before I could do much of anything.  I probably should have mulliganned better but whatever.  2nd round I got off a first round duress and he says "sorry" and lays his hand down: mox, lotus, land, timewalk, regrowth, ancestral, dryad.  I didn't know the right answer so I took the recall figuring it would slow him enough.  Anyhow the dryad came out turn 2 and then due to regrowth + timewalk + yawgmoth's will he proceded to take 4 turns in a row (it might have been 5, I don't remember) and wasted me with an 11/11 berserked dryad at the end.        

4 - 3
7th round Control slaver -  2 - 0
He got off an early welder which I answered with an early Wretch.  At that point he told me there was no way for him to win which I really couldn't comfort him if my 2/2 Withered Wretch can beat his deck.  In any case he didn't do anything and I ran him over with a juzam.  2nd round I add more graveyard hate and the null rods.  I resolve a 2nd turn nethervoid and win the land war and he gives up when crucible hits the table.

5 - 3
8th round 4CC control - 2 - 0
I layed into him with the disruption and it worked fine.  I drew a lotus 3rd turn and used my mindtwist to empty his hand and I had spent the previous two rounds destroying lands.  It was over.  2nd round he put a morphed exhalted angel in play which was going to kill me until I resolved a crucible and then put a nantuko in play.  He soon had no lands and I killed him with only 4 life (his morph had pounded me for 5 or 6 rounds).
     

The deck has major trouble with aggro decks, because creature control is just not it's forte.  The 3 masticores and edicts can usually give me enough delay to have a chance, but it's nothing too special.  Combo can give it headaches if it doesn't get good disruption.  Same goes for TnT, fast fatties is too much for this deck.  Everything else is at least a fair matchup if not favorable.  

The death wish always come out for S/B cards, its there purely for a 1st turn s/b answer if necessary, it's saved me before.  The crucible just wins games.  It turns my mishra's into infinite blockers and is obviously nice with the fetch/waste/strip effects.  This deck is also mostly immune to enemy wastelands since swamps are really all that matter.

[shaq]

Wouldn't it be better had you maindecked 4 negators?  
Nice job, feral; Those reports keep demonstrating how insane is crucible+striplands.

[feral]

Wouldn't it be better had you maindecked 4 negators?  
Nice job, feral; Those reports keep demonstrating how insane is crucible+striplands.

haha ... yeah I hear you.  The deck doesn't need a crucible for defense (9 swamps) but I can't tell you how often I win with something like Tutor + crucible after enough directed disruption to hate our any counterspells on hand (or a nethervoid).  It's funny but black just ignores counterspells because there's just too many things that are "must-counter".  A duress or sinkhole or hymn or mindtwist or hyppie or nethervoid ... all pretty much are "must counter" and I just have more.

Anyhow this deck (or any nethervoid deck) isn't quite competitive just because it has a few too many bad matchups.  It can get damaged by combo (FoW is the only thing to trully stop combo) and aggro.  I've been trying to rework it to have a shot against those kinds of decks but it may not happen.  Also I've been very hesitant to splash any other colors in this crucible + strip happy environment.  Having 9 basics has been a huge advantage thusfar due to the popularity of crucible ... big enough I think to outweighs the advantage of the extra color.

[Goose]

...Having 9 basics has been a huge advantage thusfar due to the popularity of crucible ... big enough I think to outweighs the advantage of the extra color.

Answered the question I was just about to ask.
So crucible is the only reason keeping this deck from adding a little support...
But could the help of say White, or Blue even outweigh the setback of 1 card?

[feral]

...Having 9 basics has been a huge advantage thusfar due to the popularity of crucible ... big enough I think to outweighs the advantage of the extra color.

Answered the question I was just about to ask.
So crucible is the only reason keeping this deck from adding a little support...
But could the help of say White, or Blue even outweigh the setback of 1 card?

Well the "Standard" nethervoid is supposed to play green for artifact/enchanment hate and pernicious deeds instead of powder keg (although to be honest I've found powder keg to be better/faster and do almost everything I need anyhow).  I just didn't see green being useful enough.  

White is an interesting idea, I mean moat or wrath would help this deck immensely as it has creature problems to begin with, and resolving an armageddon with a nethervoid and a weenie in play would definitely give you an insta-win ... but with the void in play you have no excuse to lose anyhow.  White I hadn't considered much.

Blue, on the otherhand, is worth thinking about.  I mean what deck can't use a timewalk and an ancestral?  There is also a lot of synergy with standstill with this deck (look at all of the utility-lands).  Nethervoid is a rather successful deck simply relying on top-deck glory, so give it some card acceleration and you should be guaranteed a win.  Also lim-dul's vault is a highly underrated card that any deck would love to play and mana leak is viable in a splash.  I would have to seriously rework the deck to work in serious blue disruption of any kind (mana drain, FoW), but just splashing blue is viable I feel ... again at the cost of land security.  

So I am probably going to toy with blue here ... which as far as I know is rather unprecedented for nethervoid.  I'm hopeful it can make the deck competitive tier 1 ... but I honestly don't know.

[potm]

I'd be wary of splashing blue for power. Running duals (*at least*  4 seas, if not pain as well) drags a lot of unnecessary risks along such as mainboarded blood moons, back to basics and wastelands. Either way, making decisions like that certainly depends on how your metagame is. Admittedly  I personally liked the idea lots of splashing blue, but it does bring forth complications that a normal straight-forward nether void deck shouldn't encounter. I do like the notion of running standstills, but again, I'm not very comfortable with the damage it could do before it even hits the game. In addition, it might waste the speed of the deck-- since it's absolutely crucial to get the Void in play ASAP.

The other side of the coin, is that 4 seas should be enough, as long as you've got deltas running along as well. Running blue powerhouses to stablise the defense is something to consider in itself, since more often than not I do find myself asking Baby Jesus himself to please topdeck that Powder Keg or whatever else I need when I get pummeled by aggro.

So the cards we'd look after would then be....


Mox Sapphire
Ancestral Recall
Time Walk
2-3 Standstill
2-3 Mana Leak
4 Underground Sea
+1 Polluted Delta/Bloodstained Mire (change this back to Delta should you decide to run at least one extra island)

I reckon running Timetwister isn't a very wonderful idea since it'll fetch your opponent nothing but troublemakers while you're likely tapped out anyway. If you're not, and still haven't got what you're looking for, then you've done something awfully wrong, and the Twister won't help you there either.

What else kind of options have we got? Running Shadowmages maybe? Mystical Tutor surely assists for looking up Will or Demonic Tutor perhaps. Maybe even running one or two brainstorms could tip the scales significantly, especially with the sacland effect of shuffling the deck.

:EDIT:

Oh just wondering-- is there a valid reason why you chose not to run Sphere of Resistance, or Chalice of the Void, in your mb void? The prior is absolute staple against aggro and even measures up against the power of Nether Void against for example sui or sligh, and the latter is another word for "scoop" against complicated combo decks such as tendrils and whatnot. This means setting the Chalice at 0 before you've casted void, and setting it at 1 after-void (if you can, anyway). Duress/Ritual are pretty useless once Void's casted anyway.

[tito del monte]

hey there, nice report!

was just wondering, if you don't want to go the route of adding a second colour - would a few chains of mephistopheles in the side board not be a quick hoser against combo decks? pretty easy to lay 1st or 2nd turn, allowing you some breathing space to set up a void or crucible lock on them.

[Jacob Orlove]

This thread is half a year old.

potm: do NOT bump old threads like this. Start a new one if it's that important. It saves you from asking why he was playing with cards that weren't legal at the time.

Closed.