[Deck] A Bitter Ordeal

[Lurker101]

This is a deck that revolves around the card Bitter Ordeal from Future Sight. Here it is:

I built this to take out Vault/Key and Mana Drain based decks but it also works well against Oath (even Progenitus) and Tendrils. The deck utilizes cards like strip mine, wasteland, smallpox and balance to allow you to achieve large gravestorm and extract all the win conditions out of your opponents' deck. Extirpate helps by getting rid of Drains, FoW, and other disruption. Dark Confidant is utilized as a draw engine and Phyrexian Negator is your main win condition along with Bitterblossom. The rest of the card choices should be obvious.
//Lands: 15
5 Swamp
3 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
2 Polluted Delta
4 Scrubland

//Creatures: 7
4 Phyrexian Negator
3 Dark Confidant

//Other Spells: 38
3 Extirpate
2 Duress
3 Hide/Seek
1 Balance
3 Bitterblossom
4 Bitter Ordeal
1 YawgWill
4 Thoughtseize
4 Dark Ritual
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
4 Smallpox
4 Null rod
1 Mox Jet
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Pearl

//Sideboard:
2 Pox (builds bigger gravestorm but has a high mana cost to go with it and seems a little win more)
1 Hide/Seek
4 Vindicate
4 Tormod's Crypt (Grave hate that also builds gravestorm)
2 Diabolic Edict (against Oath)
2 Damnation    (against Fish, Goblins, Zoo, etc.)

EDIT: Changed decklist to add Null Rods and Mox Pearl

[Blue Lotus]

Needs MUCH more mana.  And basic Lands.  Also dark ritual would be good, ie
Turn one: Swamp, go (or duress, whatever)
Turn two: Wasteland, Rit, Bitter Ordeal, grabbing Vault, DSC, and TEZ

Also 4x Null Rod is amazing. 

Extirpate is card disadvantage and Crucible doesn't do anything

Though I think Bitter Ordeal really needs to be an instant for this idea to be successful

[Lurker101]

Needs MUCH more mana.  And basic Lands.  Also dark ritual would be good, ie

I already have 4x Dark Ritual in there.  Crucible could be cut but Extirpate can remove all the Mana Drains and FoWs that stand in your way. I agree with the manabase criticism though. I know it needs to be addressed but don't know what to cut (aside from crucible which I would cut for 2 of the 4 null rods).

[silvernail]

An alternate combo for Bitter Ordeal that a local guy near me uses is Wild Cantor + Enduring Renewal to get infinite gravestorm. Just a possibility.

[Lurker101]

An alternate combo for Bitter Ordeal that a local guy near me uses is Wild Cantor + Enduring Renewal to get infinite gravestorm. Just a possibility.

I don't think that works because Wild Cantor would go straight to your hand, wouldn't it? So it wouldn't go into the yard.

[nineisnoone]

An alternate combo for Bitter Ordeal that a local guy near me uses is Wild Cantor + Enduring Renewal to get infinite gravestorm. Just a possibility.

I don't think that works because Wild Cantor would go straight to your hand, wouldn't it? So it wouldn't go into the yard.

Goes to the graveyard first.

[Lurker101]

An alternate combo for Bitter Ordeal that a local guy near me uses is Wild Cantor + Enduring Renewal to get infinite gravestorm. Just a possibility.

I don't think that works because Wild Cantor would go straight to your hand, wouldn't it? So it wouldn't go into the yard.

Goes to the graveyard first.

My bad.  Enduring Renewal is a little expensive for this deck though and after you gravestorm you're going to want to be able to draw and play your creatures, unless you can go all the way with Bitterblossom. Also Wild Cantor requires a green splash that this already weak manabase can't handle. Thanks for the suggestion though.

[the_lord_shaper]

Cabal therapy seems like it would be very good in this deck and for the side board either Ronom Unicorn or Kami of Ancient Law.

[Random Noob]

I like Negator very much in this list. Unlikely Bitter Ordeal is no Instant, but i guess if they block Negator with a 4/5 Goofy maybe, play Ritual and Bitter Ordeal. Perhaps Tomb of Uranami may be playable with this in mind too.

[Mantis]

I really don't like this approach. If someone plays an aggro deck with 20 win conditions you are just screwed up. I mean what is your plan, dodging aggro decks/Fish decks for 9 rounds (including T8)? That said, this strategy will probably have a 60/40 matchup against Drain and TPS at best, so you can't even count on winning all of those matchups.

Anyway, perhaps Bazaar of Baghdad with a more Dawn of the Dead like approach could work?

[arik124]

This actually looks kinda neat.  Against most decks you ideally want a storm of about 4-5 game 1: tezz (2), time vault, DC or 7/10.  This ideally happens if you can get wasteland, which is why i would go up to 4, and possible run 1 ghost quarter.  Also, no reason not to run a lotus petal.  Additionally, the back up plan of negator might be better as goyf, so i would add green, and possibly keep white, or even throw in red (Greater Gargadon, akki blizzard herder, or my personal favorite, TREMBLE!!).  I think that flagstones of trokair might be playable here too as it works nicely with smallpox.  You also probably don't need this many discard effects, and extirpate is kinda silly as your win condition doesn't lose to counters. 

Also i think your ideal play is turn 2 crack a fetch, waste a land, rit storm.  Additionally you almost always want to drop a creature turn 1.  Also you can always waste a fetch, as that works just as well.

4 Dark Confidant
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Bitter Ideal
4 Dark Ritual
3 Thoughtseize
2 Cabal Therapy
4 Small Pox
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Crop Rotation
1 Regrowth
1 Life from the Loam
4 Null Rod
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Emerald
1 Black Lotus
1 Lotus Petal
1 Fast Bond

2 Windswept Heath
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Bayou
1 Forest
2 Swamp
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Volrath's Stronghold

[Lurker101]

I really don't like this approach. If someone plays an aggro deck with 20 win conditions you are just screwed up. I mean what is your plan, dodging aggro decks/Fish decks for 9 rounds (including T8)? That said, this strategy will probably have a 60/40 matchup against Drain and TPS at best, so you can't even count on winning all of those matchups.

Anyway, perhaps Bazaar of Baghdad with a more Dawn of the Dead like approach could work?

That's why I have Pernicious Deed in the deck now and Damnation in the board but yeah this is bad vs Aggro.
Here's the decklist I have now, taken from some of the suggestions people have given
A Bitter Ordeal.dec
//Lands: 20
2 Swamp
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
4 Polluted Delta
1 Forest
4 Bayou
1 Scrubland
2 Windswept Heath
1 Volrath's Stronghold

//Creatures: 7
4 Tarmogoyf
3 Dark Confidant

//Other Spells: 33
1 Balance
4 Bitter Ordeal
3 Thoughtseize
4 Dark Ritual
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
4 Smallpox
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Pearl
1 Black Lotus
1 Lotus Petal
4 Null Rod
2 Cabal Therapy
1 Crop Rotation
1 Fastbond
2 Pernicious Deed

//Sideboard:
4 Tormod's Crypt
3 Diabolic Edict
3 Bitterblossom
2 Pernicious Deed
2 Damnation
1 Ronom Unicorn

[LotusHead]

You guys do realize that GraveStorm applies only to permanents put in grave, not on Dark Rits, Crop Rotations or Duresses, right?

Anyways, going with the Wild Cantor angle (for the mini-beatdown, mana fixer and GStorm), you could consider stuff like Mogg Fanatic, tormod's crypt.

[BruiZar]

I was just about to say the same thing LotusHead..

I'd play a build with Knight of the Reliquary so you can crack fetch, crack fetched land, fetch strip, strip, then cast bitter ordeal for 4.

[Thegreatgonzo]

Bitter ordeal could be sweet in a affinity shell (clamp, ravager, maybe gargadon).
Also, but I could be wrong here, it seems that in order to trigger gravestorm, permanents don't need to be in play before going to the graveyad. If this is so, then oath of druid might be the right shell.

Just my two cents

[Dr.KnowMaD]

You guys do realize that GraveStorm applies only to permanents put in grave, not on Dark Rits, Crop Rotations or Duresses, right?

Anyways, going with the Wild Cantor angle (for the mini-beatdown, mana fixer and GStorm), you could consider stuff like Mogg Fanatic, tormod's crypt.

Of course the land of the crop rotation counts but not playing crop rotation. 

The card says permanents that go to the yard.

Ravager or Atog is an idea. 

I like the card and it could work good with something. 


Dr.KnowMaD

[KingHeavy]

Ive loved Bitter Ordeal since it was printed and have been trying to figue a way to break it.  I had a deck with extirpates, extracts, and hide//seek but it was to slow.  Now Im trying, and its just a suggestion, to get a fastbond, zuran orb, crucible combo going for infinite life and gravestorm, I know its a four card combo, but with four offs of each piece except fastbond it might be doable even if adding some explorations. 

CORE
4 bitter ordeal
4 crucible of worlds
4 zuran orb
1 fastbond
3 exploration
4 dark ritual
4 tombstalker
4 wasteland
1 stripmine

so without bond/exploration, but with an orb and crucible you can get storms for four or five fairly easily while gaining life to help against aggro if you get the full combo with no ordeal, you gain infinite life (and infinite mana if you want) which stops TPS and aggro anyway, since you're storming on lands 9sphere doesnt effect you and if the parts are in play, neither can countermagic. Lotus, swamp, ritual, bond, orb, crucible, ordeal for the nut draw first turn kill.......

Tombstalker works really well with this kind of build since you want stuff in the yard anyway and is a pretty fast clock if you dont just deck your opponent

-king

[tomjoad]

Bitter ordeal could be sweet in a affinity shell (clamp, ravager, maybe gargadon).
Also, but I could be wrong here, it seems that in order to trigger gravestorm, permanents don't need to be in play before going to the graveyad. If this is so, then oath of druid might be the right shell.

Just my two cents

A permanent is only a permanent if it is in play. Otherwise, it's just a Land/Creature/Artifact/Enchantment card.

[Harlequin]

Needs more Chrome stars + Salvage Titans.  I'm not sure what the deck was, but for a while I was looking at running something similar to this.

It was like...
18 lands
5 Mox
2 Lotus, petal
4 Chromatic Star

4 Dark Rit
4 Salvage Titan
4 Tomb Stalker
2-3 Bitter Ordeal
2-3 Extirpate
1-2 Darkblast

Some sort of draw engin Thirst and Thoughtcast? 
Some control cards, probably Force + Duress.

[Qube]

Card that could be considered:
Krosan Wayfarer
Skirk Prospector
Wild Cantor
Gorilla Shaman
Mogg Fanatic
Blood Pet
Phyrexian Negator
Seal of Fire
Tormod's Crypt
Mox Diamond (if you don't discard a land, it just went into grave as a permanent)
...

[nineisnoone]

Something in the same vein (but I suppose completely different deck), but Jester's Cap costs you only 1 more than Bitter Ordeal and auto-removes 3 cards.

[Harlequin]

Something in the same vein (but I suppose completely different deck), but Jester's Cap costs you only 1 more than Bitter Ordeal and auto-removes 3 cards.

Well.... that's a real strawman analysis of it.  It costs 1 more mana and 1 more turn, or 3 more mana.  Also in a deck not running explosive mana we might be comparing the differance between Turn 2: RFG 2 cards, and Turn 4: RFG 3 cards.  In vintage I think it's safe to say that against most decks hitting two cards on turn 2 is more relevant than hitting 3 on turn 4.  Oath and Combo come to mind as deck where the differance between turn 2 and turn 4 is monumental.  Tezz is kinda the middle of the road, Getting Tinker + Key on turn 2 is definatly a really strong play.  Its not an "IWIN" button, but it definatlly puts them on the ropes, esp if backed by a beater clock.

[Qube]

why not run both? Yester's Cap and Bitter Ordeal? There will be any option

[FlyFlySideOfFry]

Needs more Chrome stars + Salvage Titans.  I'm not sure what the deck was, but for a while I was looking at running something similar to this.

It was like...
18 lands
5 Mox
2 Lotus, petal
4 Chromatic Star

4 Dark Rit
4 Salvage Titan
4 Tomb Stalker
2-3 Bitter Ordeal
2-3 Extirpate
1-2 Darkblast

Some sort of draw engin Thirst and Thoughtcast? 
Some control cards, probably Force + Duress.

Salvage Titan OMG Salvage Titan.

Cut the extirpates in my opinion (or run 1 as a tutor target) go to 4 bitter ordeals and run 4xChalice 3xNull Rods to support salvage titan in addition to stalling for a bigger ordeal. If possible I would try to go 3-color but the big splash color would have to be white. Jotun Grunt does the same thing as extirpate while providing a win condition and another card for a huge gravestorm if you don't pay the upkeep cost. It also gives you Ethersworn Canonist as another artifact to sac+lock piece until the big turn. Canonist works since many of your permanents that hit the graveyard can either do it by themselves or you can feed canonist to titan. White gives you a ton of good creatures to improve your aggro matchup while still being good for the combo without running jank like negator. Its worth noting that Grunt is not only about as big as goyf but he also makes the dino smaller each turn while also being good against Ichorid, Welder, and YWill. I'd then probably go down to 2 tombstalkers and run a full suite of restricted tutors. Also now that you're running so many creatures you can justify cabal therapy.

I'm not sure how good Confidant would be since he could just end up being win more in most of your games. By the time he comes online you may be wishing he was either a combo piece or did something by himself to stall for a gravestorm. Then again he could be useful against aggro to draw you into more dudes so IDK.

Sample decklist in my opinion would look like:

4xScrubland
4xPolluted Delta
4xWasteland
2xSwamp
1xStrip Mine

5xGood Moxen
Lotus Petal
Black Lotus

4xSalvage Titan
4xJotun Grunt
4xEthersworn Canonist
3xOrzhov Pontiff (can be like a 1-sided WoG against weenies [where gravestorming doesn't matter] or beef up your clock)

4xBitter Ordeal
4xThoughtsieze
4xCabal Therapy
4xChalice of the Void
3xNull Rod
1xVampiric Tutor
1xDemonic Tutor
1xExtirpate
1xDiabolic Edict

That or if you don't expect a lot of weenies replace Pontiff with 1xImperial Seal, 2xDiabolic Edict or something like that I guess. Chromatic Stars might just be win-more and counter-intuitive with Null Rod but you never know they might prove useful. Confidant seems like he is worth testing and if possible running 4x of him. He might work better with my proposed Null Rod/Chalice control pack than in your original faster version.

Edit: Pontiff also takes down Welder/Gorilla Shaman/EtW tokens/Bobs/etc. and then after dying to either getting attacked or sacced to therapy his haunt gives you another WoG.

[Lurker101]

Bob and 4X salvage titan might hurt a bit too much.

[FlyFlySideOfFry]

Bob and 4X salvage titan might hurt a bit too much.

Ya that is what my reasoning was for not including it in the sample list. As the decklist is though I'd be worried about a draw engine since there isn't one.

[the_lord_shaper]

I surpised no one has mentioned Greater Gargadon, yet.

[wjcuttler]

I surpised no one has mentioned Greater Gargadon, yet.

Reply #10.

[Prodigal_Sorceress]

Something that may be interesting is using a mainly artifact base, then Salvage Titian / Bomberman combo / Leviathan for the win.

4x Dark Ritual
4x Duress / Sieze

5x Moxen
1x Lotus Petal
1x Black Lotus
4x Chromatic Star
1x Inkwell Leviathan
1x Tinker
4x Salvage Titian
4x Bitter Ordeal
1x Mana Crypt
1x Mana Vault
1x Sol Ring
1x Ancestral Recall
1x Brainstorm
1x Engineered Explosives
2x Trinket Mage
2x Auriok Savagers
1x Pyrite Spellbomb
1x Sensei's Divining Top
1x Time Walk

2x Seat of the Synod
2x Vault of Whispers
4x Wasteland
1x Strip Mine
3x Polluted Delta
3x Swamp
2x Island

What I did here is I took the combo idea and put it into a control - lite bomberman shell. Explosives + top with the combo allows you to draw your deck (as well as a number of the 1-drop artifacts in here). Tinker/Leviathan is a mid-late game threat, although if I find it mana light, I will cut him for lands. Salvage Titian allows for a turn 1-2 ordeal for at least 4, more if you have extra chromatic stars. I will test this, and tweak it as I can. Thoughts?

[LotusHead]

A bomberman shell with 2 salvagers is fine, less than 4 trinket mages is sacrelige.