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WB Life Drain/Demon Rush with a little bit of control - MTG Standard

niedude

Don't forget to grin
Let me list the deck first and comment on it later.

Creatures: 17

Bloodgift demon x2
Desecration Demon x3
Griselbrand x1
Disciple of Bolas x2
Geralf's Messenger x2
Vampire Nighthawk x2
Elite Inquisitor x3
Mikaeus the Lunarch x2

Planeswalkers: 2

Sorin, lord of Innistrad x1
Liliana of the Veil x1

Enchantments: 7

Curse of Exaustion x2
Oblivion Ring x3
Underworld Connections x2

Instant: 7

Faith's Shield x2
Tribute to Hunger x2
Victim of Night x3

Sorcery: 8

Essence Harvest x3
Killing Wave x2
Sign in Blood x3

Lands: 24

Plains x10
Swamp x12
Vault of The Archangel x2



As you can see, this deck is incomplete. VERY incomplete. it is pretty much just a draft, but here goes my strategy:

It all revolves around getting one of my demons out, using their effects for my personal benefit and either sweeping for attacks or wearing my enemy down with life drain spells. Bloodgift Demon gives me card advantage and a good 5 beater for minor life loss (which is more than nulled by my life drain power, a similar thought reasoning follows the usage of Sign in Blood as a draw engine) and will make it easier for me to draw into my other demons, preferably Desecration.

Desecration is my star. It is a VERY cheap MONSTER. My opponents will want to sacrifice their own cards to stop him, but doing so will only buff my monster up while wearing down their field. Victim will target the creatures my enemy won't want to sacrifice while Tribute to hunger targets the few creatures my enemy will have after all of this (maybe even one that can't be targeted by Victim) and fuel my life back up, which is always a plus. Also, it gets buffed up to hell and back with Mikaeus and provides some pretty cool combos with my entire deck, which just evolves around him.

Griselbrand is just... A beast. It's insanely powerful, it contributes to my life gain mechanic and... do I need to mention his draw engine, and how well it compliments my deck? I don't do I?

My planeswalkers are there to fuel my control aspect and, in Sorin's case, to buff up Essence Harvest, provide a life gaining weenie (good if my opponet does something unorthodox, like barter in blood, to get me rid of my creatures)

Oblivion Ring is another Control aspect I believe benefits this deck and helps me justify bringing in White for Sorin and Vault of the Archangel. While I was on this "White Control" mentality, I came across Curse of Exhaustion and... I loved it. Seriously, if I get this up, my opponent will be unable to do anything to stop me. And will be forced to side in Enchantment hate on a rematch, which could end up making him board out some other threats.

Faith's Shield is a cool tool that I want to experiment with. It provides defense should my Demons get targeted by Victim of Night or Ultimate Price, and could help me swing a Bloodgift demon or Griselbrand through some bad blockers for game. It may not be worth it, but its an option I want to try out.

Last, but not least, Vault of the Archangel...
Lifegain to give me survivability and Deathtouch, to either make my opponent decide not to block or end up destroying all his threats?
Yes. ****ing. Please.
 

Kamotz

God of Monsters
You should swap out 4x Plains for 4x Isolated Chapel.

I'm not sure what White is really giving you. I think you're missing things like Unburial Rites and Lingering souls, which are the best reasons to play BW. You're running a lot of partial sets, so your draw consistency will be very janky.

Curse of Oblivion isn't really a card. People are rarely playing more than 1 spell per turn anyway.

I mean...I can't find a specific thing "wrong" with this build other than the fact that it would (or could) be just better as Esper Control-Reanimator.
 

niedude

Don't forget to grin
Well, yeah, I thought of this with a budget in mind (you know me xO) hence the lack of isolated Chapel and only one Griselbrand.

White is giving me... access to Vault and Sorin. other than that, I do have a hard time justifying its existance, other than it giving me a few good creatures for early game (which this deck really lacks ever since I cut Demonic Taskmaster from it) and Mikaeus, which just makes my Demons become even more demonic. It also gives me more control in the shape of O'Ring, and I thought about adding Fiend Hunter there.

This deck does need to cut a few cards and obtain a focus, though. Curse of oblivion was, to me, a way to keep out Counters and Removal and slow down ramp and late and midrange decks (which, admitedly, will already have quite the field by the time that curse comes in... hmm....)

Right now, White doesn't really have as much synergy with this as I thought. I hope that the release of Gatecrash will change that by giving me some Orzhov material to play around with.

Regardless, I've always wanted a WB Demonic deck, and this is a good start to one, I think, even if it does need a lot of help from you guys.
 

the3rdH0kage

Turn my Swag on!
To power up your demons a tad more, have you though about throwing in 2 or 3 Mikeaus, the Unhallowed. It gives +1/+1 and Undying to all Non-Humans. Just a thought.
 

the3rdH0kage

Turn my Swag on!
ooohhh ok just a thought.

uuummm (Kamotz will hate me for this)but Warclamp Mastiff. a nice 1-drop with First strike
 

Kamotz

God of Monsters
You don't need much early game. You have nighthawk. It's resiliently anti-Aggro. If you can hit Desecration Dmon by T4, you're in decent shape. The rest is fixed by having 4 copies of lingering souls.

"Weenie-stall" isn't really a strategy. Weenies are useful as a horde-overrun strategy, but there isn't much more than that. You shouldn't play cards that just help you "survive" the early game. Cards should have a real purpose beyond that. When I drop a Loxodon Smiter I do it because it's a baller card. And it puts my opponent on alert. When I play Huntmaster, it puts out bodies, gains me life, and forces my opponent to play one spell each turn or face it flipping.

What you're essentially describing is a Combo deck, but you need to really be able to go off in a combo deck. Essence Harvest is BUSTED when it combos with Corpsejack Menace and Primordial Hydra. And it's doable because you can get all those pieces out very early. Hydra on turn 3 (for 1), Menace on T4 (hydra=2). T5, Hydra=6. T6, Hydra=18. On Turn 6 you have an 18/18 with trample. You can swing, hit trample damage, and then Essence Harvest. That's how a combo works.

Or the Deadeye RUGw combo deck. Using Deadeye to combo with Zealous Conscripts into infinite mana (Gilded Lotus), stealing all your opponent's creatures (Restoration Angel), and making "1U = 5 life and a 3/3 beast" (Thragtusk)...and you can do this all at the same time.

What you have is several combo pieces and decent cards...but no "going-off" move. There's no "I play this card/ability and win the game." Without that, a combo deck just falls victim to possible fizzling out. You end up pitting your Griselbrand or Desecration Demon against their Detention Spheres, Oblivion Rings, Selesnya Charms, or Board Wipes. Or you'll just never get to that mana amount and fall victim to an onslaught of Hellrider, Falkenrath Aristocrat, and Geralf's Messenger.

The more I look at this the more it seems to strike me as wanting to be a Control deck. Esper (or possibly Grixis). You want the ability to drop a bomb. That's what demons are, pretty big bombs.
 

niedude

Don't forget to grin
I can definitely see this deck benefiting from being more Control oriented. I already felt some Control aspects on it even as I built with with another strategy in mind, hence the title of the thread.

What should I do do ramp up the control feature, then?
Should I just go mono black, forsaking Vault and Mikaeus for more Black control? (simultaneously denying me access to White's O'Ring and Fiend Hunter in the process...)

Though the idea of controlling the board long enough to drop a big bomb and call game does really appeal to me!
Any ideas on how I should start? Creatures to add/remove, spells and combos to take advantage off...
 

Kamotz

God of Monsters
I wouldn't go Mono-anything right now. With RTR (and GTC right around the corner) the ability to play multicolor decks is at an all-time high.

Add a color. Either go Esper or Grixis. Those let you keep running your demons that you like. Esper Reanimator/Token/Control or some combination therein is very interesting, and you can realistically play your Sorin and Liliana to maximum effect. Grixis let's you play Niv-Mizzet and Bolas too. Or even Olivia if you want to drop the $ on her. The cards in both are very fun.

Either way, use some counterspells and Guild-charms (depending on which build). Because neither are running green, you won't have to worry about falling short of Thragtusk cash, and though Esper certainly benefits hugely from cards like Angel of Serenity, you can probably go without it.
 
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