[deck] The Turk

[racoooon!]

Everyone knows how orgasmic a turn 2 kill is, even a turn 3. Nowadays Magic is so clunky that we are missing out all the fun speed decks used to give. After many many years trying to turn hatred into a viable card (impossible thanks to fow) I finally gave up and turn my attention into other possibilities. I have assemble a deck that, not only assures a very plausible turn 2 kill, is a combo deck that packs 8 – 4(plus tutors) pieces of the combo and, my favourite part, can render your opponents sideboard useless. The deck I call The Turk, is actually two different decks (old school Count Chocula and MaskNaught) which can be switched by simple sideboarding . But let me start by posting the main deck list:

combo:

    4   Buried Alive
    4   Corpse Dance
    4   Shallow Grave
    4   Phyrexian Dreadnought
    2   Sutured Ghoul

other spells: 
 
    4   Hymn to Tourach
    4   Duress   
    4   Unmask
    1   Demonic Tutor   
    1   Demonic Consultation

mana sources:

    12   Swamp
    4   Ancient Tomb
    4   Dark Ritual
    1   Black Lotus
    1   Mox Sapphire
    1   Mox Emerald
    1   Mox Jet
    1   Mox Pearl
    1   Sol Ring
    1   Mox Ruby
    1   Lotus Petal


The deck basicly needs to bury alive two dreadnoughts and a sutured ghoul and then corpse dance/ shallow grave the ghoul for a 26/26 trample haste creature. Ok, but know you will tell me: yeah the deck is cute but what about graveyard removal? Yeah that kind sucks but since nobody plays graveyard hate maindeck (which assures you game one stability) when you feel that your opponent is gonna pack that kind of stuff you change your deck completely. Here’s the sideboard and how:

sideboard:

    4   Illusionary Mask
    4   Spoils of the Vault
    4   Hunted Horror
    1   Necropotence
    1   Mind Twist
    1   Vampiric Tutor

Transforming the deck

    +4   Illusionary Mask
    +4   Spoils of the Vault
    +4   Hunted Horror
    +1   Necropotence
    +1   Mind Twist
    +1   Vampiric Tutor

    - 4   Buried Alive
    - 4   Corpse Dance
    - 4   Shallow Grave     
    - 2   Sutured Ghoul
    - 1   RANDOM SLOT

So the second version of the deck should be:   


spells: 
 
    4   Illusionary Mask
    4   Spoils of the Vault
    4   Hunted Horror
    4   Phyrexian Dreadnought

    4   Hymn to Tourach
    4   Duress   
    4   Unmask
    1   Demonic Tutor   
    1   Demonic Consultation   
    1   Necropotence
    1   Mind Twist
    1   Vampiric Tutor


mana sources:

    12   Swamp
    4   Ancient Tomb
    4   Dark Ritual
    1   Black Lotus
    1   Mox Sapphire
    1   Mox Emerald
    1   Mox Jet
    1   Mox Pearl
    1   Sol Ring
    1   Mox Ruby
    1   Lotus Petal


It kind looks like a MaskNaught decklist doesn’t it? So hypothetically if your opponent has sideboard, let’s say planar void, he not only will be playing a different deck (which is bound to mess is whole strategy) he also has 4 obsolete cards (the voids).

I’m not gonna give you a card by card break down because I think all the cards are pretty obvious.  So let’s discuss this deck, feel free to question and to suggest.

[netherspirit]

Why are Necropotence and Vampiric Tutor in the sideboard? I personally would put both of them in the main, they're just so powerful.

Other than that I'd suggest cutting 5 or 6 Swamps and replacing them with fetchlands.

[Shock Wave]

You have absolutely no library manipulation or draw, so you're essentially relying on your opening 7 to disrupt enough and resolve a Buried Alive. That's rather terrible, no?

[Harlequin]

Starting with your list - here is what I would run...

4 Bazaar of Bagdad
3 Urbrog, Tomb of Yawg
2 Swamps
1 Scrubland
2 bloodstained mire
2 Ancient Tombs
5 Moxen
2 lotus & Petal
3 Sol Ring, Mana Crypt, Mana Valut
4 Dark Ritual
 -- 28-

4 Buried Alive
3 Corpse Dance
2 Shallow Grave
4 Dreadnoughts
2 Sutured Ghoul
 -- 16-

3 Hymn to Tourach
4 Duress
 -- 7-

4 Dark Confidant
1 DT
1 Demonic Consultaion
1 Vamp tutor
1 Necropotence
1 Entomb
 -- 9 = 60
---------------------------------
4 Mask
4 Hunted Horror
4 Unmask
3 Vindicate / Engineered Explosives
=================================


I Really think that bazaars are critical to the deck preboard.  One of my main concerns is that pre-board you HAD to resolve a Buried Alive but you didn't see to feel like the extra tutor or draw power was worth it.   Then post board, when you were still basing your entire plan on 4 cards (resolving mask) you boarded in the spoils.   

If anything I think the pre-board deck needed the spoils more, because you HAD to find and resolve buried (in your list).  With this list you have Bazaar (and entomb) as alternate ways to assemble your combo in the yard.  In addition to that you have Confidants.  So with those two cards online your filtering 4 cards and keeping 1. 

My biggest concern about the deck is not the GY hate, its going to be mask hate.  Unfortunenately, the mask combo has been around for a long long time, so the surprize factor might not be there in game 2.  I know personally, that Naughts are dead give-away to mask.  So even if I don't see a mask in Game 1, I am assuming you run it... and I would probably assume you run it maindeck and just didn't see one game 1.  So I think the biggest stumbling block for this deck is going to be getting around Null Rod or Pithing Needle.  This is why I put Vindicates in the board. 

If I don't expect to be facing Null Rod, then I could concivibly put Engineered Explosives in that spot.   Now for game 2 I really have 2 ways to win.  #1 - Mask+Fatty (3 mana), and #2 Hardcast Horror and pop EE for 0 killing the tokens (4 mana).  Also, If I have the combo 1 all set up and they have a Needling naming mask... then EE @ 1 will take care of that as well.  EE even gets around Chalice @2, because to kill any chalice you just need to drop EE @ 0.

The one glaring problem is that EE makes you totally at the mercy of null rod... so it means you auto-loose to a deck that packs both Null Rod and GY hate.

[racoooon!]

Why are Necropotence and Vampiric Tutor in the sideboard? I personally would put both of them in the main, they're just so powerful.

Other than that I'd suggest cutting 5 or 6 Swamps and replacing them with fetchlands.

Yeah they’re powerful but since I’m a coward player I rather stick with the 12 disruption spells just in case. Necro, a card that’s always powerful, isn’t silly powerful in this deck (in the buried alive form) since i plan to end the game as soon as possible and even tho necro does that and much more I think it’s just a fringe card in the original form of the deck. Ok I’m starting to contradict myself. Vamp tutor (see my comment below) and Necro are gonna go maindeck.

+1 Necropotence
+1 Vampiric Tutor

-2 Hymn to Tourach

I will test this.

About the fetchlands, are they really essential if you only plan to go as far as turn 3? I mean, thinning my deck is irrelevant in that situation.

You have absolutely no library manipulation or draw, so you're essentially relying on your opening 7 to disrupt enough and resolve a Buried Alive. That's rather terrible, no?

I should had pointed that this deck requires frantic mulligan. The first version of the deck even packed Serum Powder. But you are right, absolutely right. I run 8 corpse dance and 6 buried alive (consultation and DT), but even with those numbers I find myself screwed in some games. But what shall we do? Here’s a list of possibilities:

Vamp tutor
D consultation
D tutor
Necropotente
Tainted pact (swamp count should be fixed)
Imperial Seal
Night’s Whispers

Et cetera. Let’s just see what we can do staying mono black for now.

I Really think that bazaars are critical to the deck preboard.  One of my main concerns is that pre-board you HAD to resolve a Buried Alive but you didn't see to feel like the extra tutor or draw power was worth it.   Then post board, when you were still basing your entire plan on 4 cards (resolving mask) you boarded in the spoils.   

If anything I think the pre-board deck needed the spoils more, because you HAD to find and resolve buried (in your list).  With this list you have Bazaar (and entomb) as alternate ways to assemble your combo in the yard.  In addition to that you have Confidants.  So with those two cards online your filtering 4 cards and keeping 1. 

My biggest concern about the deck is not the GY hate, its going to be mask hate.  Unfortunenately, the mask combo has been around for a long long time, so the surprize factor might not be there in game 2.  I know personally, that Naughts are dead give-away to mask.  So even if I don't see a mask in Game 1, I am assuming you run it... and I would probably assume you run it maindeck and just didn't see one game 1.  So I think the biggest stumbling block for this deck is going to be getting around Null Rod or Pithing Needle.  This is why I put Vindicates in the board. 

If I don't expect to be facing Null Rod, then I could concivibly put Engineered Explosives in that spot.   Now for game 2 I really have 2 ways to win.  #1 - Mask+Fatty (3 mana), and #2 Hardcast Horror and pop EE for 0 killing the tokens (4 mana).  Also, If I have the combo 1 all set up and they have a Needling naming mask... then EE @ 1 will take care of that as well.  EE even gets around Chalice @2, because to kill any chalice you just need to drop EE @ 0.

The one glaring problem is that EE makes you totally at the mercy of null rod... so it means you auto-loose to a deck that packs both Null Rod and GY hate.

Buried alive is a more inyourface card and with a simple spell I can achive 50% of the win. Bazaar is to situational and random (even with entomb as a fix). But that’s a new possibility and, except for the confidants, I like the decklist. It’s a diferrent approach to my narrow minded decklist. Just tell how the confidants work in a quick pace deck.

There is no Mask hate. There’s just some cards aimed towards other decks that can’t stop Mask. The opponent isn’t going to pack both gy hate and Mask hate, so it’s up to you, the turk player to find a strategy to render that hate useless by choosing the right type of deck. That’s the fun part of playing this deck. You are totally right when you say you auto-lose against someone who plays both null rod and gy hate, but remember this deck is rogue, nobody will be expecting this and if they see you cast buried alive they will think you don’t run mask for the Naughts but that you kill with ghoul. And vice-versa.

Thanks guys for all your help. I will post an updated decklist soon. And feel free to post your own decklists and join the discussion. The deck can’t be full proof but at least is a new concept.

Thanks

[Harlequin]

I guess my main point is that withouth Buried Alive resolving, how do you win?  If I duress you on turn 1, and I see some lands, some disruption, an animate, and a Buried Alive ... I'm taking the BA.  When you cast Buried Alive - as a player, I'm not just going sit around and say "I'm gunna see where this is going..." I'm going to counter that. 

Also, alot of decks run both GY and artifact hate.  Basically, every deck does.  So its not a matter of choosing, its a matter of boarding in moderation (which most players do when facing a rogue deck).   

The confidants are part of the plan B.  And a part of plan B in two ways.  Firsly they smooth your wins, and give a hope to win after your opening hand has been fully depleated.  Secondly Land Mox Confidant + other cards, its easily a keepable hand.   So it weakens some of the restrictions on how much you need to mull. In short he timewalks you every turn - so how could that be considered slow?  Lastly, he can swing in there for the win.  If you drop a turn 1 confidant against shop on a bad draw, you may take the game in 10 turns, even if you can't resolve or cast anything else.

Let's just talk theory for second - decks that have an extremely narrow win, with no chance of a backup plan, typically don't work.  All of the sucessful decks on the market run several maindeck wins.  Narrowing yourself to a win that can ONLY win IF it resolves Buried Alive is poor design in my oppinion.