[Deck] BDSM

[KDenz81]

This is a fun little deck I threw togeather while I was at a friends house.  We were discussing deck themes and original ideas.  I was thumbing through his cards and decided to make a deck using old school cards like Black Vise, The Rack, Iron Maiden, and other things that could be associated with torture and bondage.  

This is what the deck runs.

Blue

4X Arcane Denial
4X Mana Drain (Proxied)
4X Force of Will
4X Prosperity
4X Copy Artifact
2X Counterspell
2X Capsize
2X Fabricate
1X Time Walk (Proxied)

Artifact

4X Misers' Cage
2X Skullcage
2X Thought Prison
2X Iron Maiden
1X Black Vise
1X Sol Ring
1X Mox Sapphire (Proxied)
1X Candelabra of Twanos (Proxied)

Land

8X Island
3X Urza's Tower
3X Urza's Powerplant
3X Urza's Mine
1X Mishra's Workshop
1X Tolarian Academy

SB

4X Vedelkan Shackles
2X Thought Prison
2X Skullcage
1X Braingeyser
 

Amazingly enough this deck holds it's own against some rather competitive decks. As always my designs and ideas are always up for revision so if you have any suggestions feel free to reply.

Denz

[Bram]

This is a fun little deck (...)

Moved to 'fun' a.k.a. casual.

[Ape]

Could you first maybe explain some of your card choices? Which cards are suiting well in this deck, how does the deck play, what would you want to change, et cetera.

This can hulp us, the other users of TMD, to finetune your deck and help you

Ape.

[KDenz81]

Well when I first started putting this deck togeather, I was going to use The Rack, Black Vise, and Cursed Rack because they all have the same dummy getting torn aprart.  I added Iron Maiden because it does the same thing as the Black Vise but for all my opponents, and it's not restricted.  I put in Copy Artifacts to copy the Vise mainly, or secondarily copy any threat Artifacts my opponent would play, ie; Plats, Pentivus, Colossus.  I went with Misers' cage because card advantage is what most Type 1 decks work on, so if they have 5 or more cards they take 2 damage.  The same applies to the Skull Cage.  

Now if my opponent is clever and gets his hand down to 3 or 4 cards is when the deck suffers a bit.  None of my artifacts are doing any damage.  This is where I decided to put in Thought Prison.  This really inhibits my opponent from playing multiple spells per turn to take less damage from the Vise and such.  

The Mana Drains, Candelabra, and Prosperity are key elements to the deck, if I can get a good amount of collorless off a Drain I can filter it into my Candelabra to produce even more and Prosperity for a bunch.  

Capsize and the counters are really my only board control.  Capsize comes in handy when my opponent is tyring to reduce their hand size.

The deck's only problem is massive amounts of creatures.  This is why I chose to sideboard the Shackles, this way I can board them in and steal some creatures.  

I'd say that the card choices I made for the deck are suited properly.  I wouldn't run The Rack because of Capsize and Prosperity, my opponents don't have that few cards in their hands.  The deck plays great and is a real thorn in the side of my opponents.  I like using Fabricate over Tinker, because I don't want to give up an Artifact that will potentially do damage.  Fabricate might be 'slower' but if I can get it off early game and dig up a Candelabra and go into Urza Tron Produciton it's just nasty.  

Besides that, my friends just get a kick out of the fact that I built a deck around Bondage and Massichism.

Denz

[KDenz81]

 Blue

4X Arcane Denial
4X Force of Will
4X Copy Artifact
4X Capsize
2X Prosperity
2X Fabricate
2X Brainguyser
1X Time Walk (Proxied)
1X Ancestral Recall (Proxied)

Artifact

4X Misers' Cage
2X Skullcage
2X Iron Maiden
2X Howling Mine
2X Vedalken Shackles
1X Black Vise
1X Staf of Domination
1X Sol Ring
1X Mox Sapphire (Proxied)
1X Candelabra of Twanos (Proxied)

Land

8X Island
3X Urza's Tower
3X Urza's Powerplant
3X Urza's Mine
1X Mishra's Workshop
1X Tolarian Academy

SB

4X Mana Drain
2X Iron Maiden
2X Booby Trap
2X Skullcage
1X Braingeyser

I have revised the deck as of recently.  I took out Thought Prison entirely.  It's a cool card, but costs too much and takes cards out of my opponent's hand, when I want them to have lots of cards in their hand.  I don't know why I didn't have Ancestral in the deck, and Vedalken Shackles main deck.  I put Booby Trap in my sideboard because it can deal 10 damage, and with all the cards my opponent draws, I might get lucky, also I get to see what my opponent is drawing regardless.

[Bean]

No Bullwhip?

That is a horrible, horrible first post. You're on my watch list.  - Bram

[Anusien]

What about Arcane Laboratory?  It both forces your opponent to keep their hand size up and helps make sure they can't slip anything past you.  I might also suggest some Manlands in the place of some of your other manabase to let you attack without casting spells (to help with the Lab).  How is the Urzatron working out for you?  I'd think it would be a juicy waste target, and you seem very heavy with the colored mana requirements, otherwise.  I'd similarly look at Shop as dangerous; you might have better luck with something like Ancient Tomb/City of Traitors which also helps out with Fabricate and Prosperity.

[KDenz81]

Urza Tron is sick if I can get it in an early game scenario.  I just drop down my damage sources and then Prosperity for plenty to pound my opponent into submisison.  However, I am running some high casting cost artifacts, so if I don't get Tron, I have to get Workshop or Tolarian.  If not, I'm kinda screwed because mana accelerates this deck alot.  Especially with the amount of cards being drawn, mana is key.

Arcane Lab is a great idea, I don't know why I'm not running it.  After a large Prosperity It shuts me down slightly, but I can pick and choose what cards I need to win at that point.  This way Prosperity doesn't end up killing me by giving my opponent what they need to kill me. 

Bullwhip?!  Shackles is so much better.  Or I could go really old school and do Caltrops + Siren's Call.  However these cards only partially have something to do with the deck theme of bondage.  So does Jinxed Choker.  That doesn't mean I'm going to use those cards.  I really want to punish my opponent for having cards in their hand.  A Mindslaver might even be cool in this deck, I steal their turn and keep lots of cards in their hand.  Or if they have something that draws them cards, and use it on them.

[Ephraim]

I'm afraid that what I'm seeing here is a very poorly focused theme deck. There isn't anything wrong with including a few options that deviate from the theme, but I don't feel as though this deck remains focused on its theme at all. More of the deck is occupied with blue control cards than it is with cards that seem to fit the BDSM theme. That leaves me with the impression that rather than being a BDSM theme deck, this is a bad, blue, counterspell deck that happens to use BDSM themed cards as its win condition.

I'm going to study the deck and offer some suggestions shortly, but I am going to warn you in advance – they're going to involve cutting a lot of the counterspells, bouncing, etc. to make room for more themely, but certainly less powerful spells. I won't be doing this "just because I don't like blue control." I'll be doing it because this deck doesn't feel casual to me, at all. It feels like a bad, competitive deck.

[asmoranomardicodais]

Run mailgnant growth. I don't care that you don't have green right now, run malignant growth.

Also, run standstill. They'll either sit there, taking black vise damage, or let you ancestral, either of which isn't a bad trade.

I agree with everyone else, run artifact lands instead of the Urzatron. The artifact lands help tolarian, and the Urzatron just is too fragile to be worth it.

Why no stroke of genius?

Also, since this is casual, I frown upon power proxies. That may not be how you feel, but I would say that the deck could walk without using expansive card proxies as crutches. If you have them, great. If not, just find a slightly worse use for their slot. Besides, if you were proxing random stuff, why not Timetwister?

On the same lines, you want them to have lots of cards in their hand, where's Time Spiral?

What about Wheel and Deal?

Okay, I'm done. Good luck!

[KDenz81]

Milignant Growth?  Are you serious.  I'm not going to splash another color just to play an high costing enchantment with a cumulative upkeep just so my opponent can draw some more cards.  If I was going to splash Green, I'd put in Storm Seeker instead of the Growth.  Howling mine is working fine too.  Standstill is a good option, combined with Arcane Lab, if they play a spell, I get to draw 3 cards and they can't play anything else.  Or, if I play a spell they are forced to draw 3 cards and can only play one spell their turn. I was able to fit in 3 Seat of the Synod and leave in two full sets of Urza Tron.  That's all I'd need anyways. 

I've thought about what you commented on Ephraim and I've already made some cuts of my own.  I've realized that creatures are my biggest threat.  I first considered Evacuation, this would be great because I would put all their creatures back in their hand and my Artifacts would deal plenty of damage.  However it doesn't exactly fit the theme so I tried to think of something else that might tie into the theme.  Then I remembered the old Reins of Power and Altar Dementia combo.  Since I'm forcing my opponent to draw so many cards, having them mill for a bunch would help greatly and it gets rid of the creature threat.  Two more Vedalken Shackles would also be effective in an early game scenario.  Another creature control option I considered was Portcullis.  Once there are 2 creatures in play, the rest get set aside under it. 

I'll probably leave in the Arcane Denials, just because I need some sort of counter, and my opponent usually draws the extra cards.  Force of Will is coming out, Capsize is going into Sideboard.  And that's about all I've done to the deck.
Any other suggestions are welcome.
Denz