ShadowScrub WormGeddon

Although I began playing Magic a little under 13 years ago, and have lurked on this forum at various points throughout my MTG playing history, this is my first official post on The Mana Drain. I will seek to conform with forum rules in the hopes avoiding the posting requirements posts that one or two of our self-righteous Adepts always seem to remind people of.

Background -

Ok, back to my post. I began playing MTG during the days of Fallen Empires, right when the initial boom in popularity profited our dear masterminds from WotC. I played Magic obsessively, often spurning my lovely girlfriend for all-night playing sessions. I loved the interactions of cards, and smiled when someone showed us to put a Lure on Thicket Basilisk and how all our defending creatures died. Those were some amazing days, but we weren't wielding the Power yet, and this was before Combo took hold, or decks even had names other than, "This is my Black and Green Deck." There was no Pro Tour yet. There were Geeks who liked cards, and I was one of the most fanatical I knew.

My Magic playing continued for several years, as did my understanding of the game, and my card collection blossomed considerably. I got married, finished college, got a real job, but still loved the game enough to buy cards, or to buy complete sets of Cursed Scrolls off Ebay. I eventually traded my way into a set of the Power 9, 36 dual lands, and countless rares. I played every color but white it seemed, stayed in touch with current deckbuilding trends, and boasted a vast array of competitive decks. I prided myself on being a "rogue" deckbuilder, as I loved the synergy of particular cards and discovered combinations that I found attractive, playable, and Fun. I witnessed the rise of the Internet, and how that killed Creativity in the card shops, but improved the Competition. I rarely busted out an Archetypal deck, until I fell in love with the Toolbox quality of the RecSur engine. From there, I began playing with more formulaic, successful, if less creative decks. I played Hatred, Sligh and other decks that were prominent at the time in the Extended format. I won tournaments in my card shop, and played in a Pro Tour Qualifier, and won the majority of the games that I played. I had learned A LOT about a Card Game that was purely bonus to the Free Time that I didn't have so much of anymore. It was time to take a break. In 2000, my wife had my first child, and my time in the card shops vanished. I've only played occasionally since then, but have never gotten rid of my cards. Now, in 2007, I find myself drawn to build decks again.

The Present -

I'm way out of touch. I've been patrolling the forums here lately looking at current Vintage builds (All my cards are Vintage now, it seems) and trying to figure out what I've missed. It surprised me to see that very few cards have been added to the Restricted List in the years since I've played, and I guess this stems from WotC's desire to make Less Broken Cards. I applaud that on their part, and the sheer volume of expansions released means that there are lots of new cards to play with. But I won't be playing with too many of them... From a cost perspective, I can't really justify the expense anymore. I already have tons of cards that I don't play with. But I am still fascinated by the myriad options deckbuilders have at their disposal today so I'm doing research to see what tools are out there that I might be interested in trading for...

I've built a few "typical decks" in the last couple of weeks, but find myself drawn back to the spirit of "Rogue" deckbuilding. Last night, I sat down and devised the following deck. I, in no way, believe this is an Optimal deck, or worthy of anything other than playing with your friends on Friday night. But I have been struck by the deck's reliability, consistency, and the Clock that it establishes. I'm not running any Power in this deck, as I've allocated all my Power cards to other decks, and don't own multiple copies of my Moxen. This is a deck for fun, minimal on disruption, but very solid in its ability to do what it does. So, now, without further adieu, here is the decklist, and I will follow that with particular commentary on the deck in general, and some particular card choices. I'll be curious to see what, if any, observations or improvements will be tendered. This deck is not fine-tuned, or overly powerful, but it is remarkably stable and effective in the few "in-house" games that it has been play-tested.

ShadowScrub WormGeddon

The Troops -

4 Dauthi Horror
4 Dauthi Slayer
4 Soltari Monk
4 Soltari Priest
4 Soltari Champion

The Spells -

1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Mind Twist
1 Purify
2 Disenchant
2 Death Stroke / Terror (undecided)
3 Worms of the Earth
4 Diabolic Edict
4 Armageddon

The Land -

4 Scrubland
4 Caves of Koilos
2 Reflecting Pool
6 Plains
5 Swamp

General Commentary -

The theme of the deck is self-evident. Put out an army of Shadow Creatures and Attack. Pretty basic. Not very flashy. Cast Worms of the Earth if you can (I've loved this card for a long time, but have yet to use it in a deck until now). Play Armageddon not long after. If all that resolves, you've proceeded to ANNOY your opponent, but also in the meantime, you have been attacking with a fleet of unblockable creatures, establishing a pretty consistent clock that they must deal with. The WormGeddon trick is actually pretty secondary to this Fleet of soldiers. Now granted, having all shadow creatures means you can't Block either... This deck tries to "goldfish," and could really care less what the opponent is doing. Hence my choice to run minimal disruption. Duress is a mighty fine card, but having a soldier out doing his business seems even more pertinent with this deck's strategy. So, I've run minimal disruption, and packed the deck with creatures. Devising a sideboard would be contrary to the "point" of a purely fun deck like this one.

Particular (Maybe even BAD) Card Choices -

Worms of the Earth - Is Rad. Period

Death Stroke / Terror - Targeted removal. Don't like Terror's limitation concerning black creatures. Death Stroke is Scrubby, for sure, but pretty reliable. I don't like the lifegain that Swords to Plowshare will give the opponent which begs the question as to what to use for targeted creature removal.

Mind Twist - Now UN-restricted... I don't even know if I want this one, but it fills the void.

NO Duress / No Moxen / No Sol Ring? - Yes... I know... Crazy... But this deck doesn't like colorless mana as much as it likes Black and or White Mana. I would much prefer having a Soltari/Dauthi dude out brandishing its weapons than a Mox Ruby in play that serves little purpose. This deck also doesn't run very much disruption, due to its singularity of purpose. ATTACK... What the opponent DOES is really inconsequential... They may Win, but if they don't do it fast, I'm likely to win the game myself.

Low Mana Count - This deck wants 4 or 5 lands in play in order to gain advantage for the Armageddon, but I've kept casting costs low so that it would function well on less mana. In the meantime, I summon 16 creatures that cost only 2 mana, and are largely unblockable. Armageddon and Worms are not the win condition at all, but I love the synergy of those cards, so they've been included as the icing on the cake, and to offer something of a "control" element to a weenie rush deck.

Soltari Champion - Are you KIDDING me? Well, no... Serves as basically a Crusade/Bad Moon for all my attacking shadow creatures (besides himself, of course). From a purely mathematical standpoint, his 3 mana cost for a 2/2 that boosts everybody else pays off. Definitely a Junk card by himself. But he seems fabulous in association with the other attackers.

Well, that's my thoughts on this deck... I'll be curious to see if I get any replies...

This is Scrubalicious, I admit. But it's awful consistent, and that sometimes means more than Brute Firepower.

Thanks for reading my thoughts on ShadowScrub Wormgeddon, my new rogue deck in development.