//CASUAL TRYHARD DECK//
Only make deals with demons if you have the utmost intention of never holding up your end of the bargain.
The old mage furiously leafed through the tome, eager to finish it before the candle would perish. It had to be in one of these, he was sure of it. Another way, a loophole. In his dreams, his opium-fueled Serum Visions, he could see it so clearly: the exquisite clarity and wisdom he longed for, he would do anything for. It flew away from him on two great wings, posing riddles as the great Prognostic Sphinxes of old. He needed more knowledge, more power. One more deal, one more Demonic Pact. His soul was already consigned to Damnation, but perhaps, if he could obtain such enlightenment, he could banish his ill fate with an Echoing Truth, or dissolve his debt by other means. He had to find a way to beat the devil at his own game. For he knew, if his last mortal hour came, endless torment awaited him in the next life...
v4.5, currently.
Scry and draw or tutor towards the main win cons in the deck: Demonic Pact + Harmless Offering.
Basically, you want to play Demonic Pact, hold out three turns by choosing the good options for yourself, and then cast Harmless Offering on it for the win, or Teferi's Time Twist it to reset all your options, or Echoing Truth to return them to your hand before they expire.
THE ENCHANTMENT
Demonic Pact is honestly the coolest card in the game, folks. The flavour is so real. Sure, it's a do-nothing enchantment that costs 2BB and has to wait till your next upkeep to come online, but damnit, we're not here to win, we're here to play some gorram Magic. And to win. By playing a card that blatantly says 'You lose the game'. If your opponent lets it stick on the field though, hoo boy does this thing create some value. 4 mana for draw 2, deal 4/gain 4, discard 2? It's pretty great. This is where the deck started for me, once I saw it I immediately wanted to make a deck that's all about making shady deals for power and knowledge and having no intention to pay for it all.
(THE OTHER ENCHANTMENTS)
Founding the Third Path is a flexible way to double up on our interaction spells or get an important spell back from the yard.
Search for Azcanta
signifies our old mage's search for forbidden knowledge, and his eventual arrival at an ancient depository of occult knowledge. In more practical terms, it helps us find the spells we need just in time to pay the piper. Sometimes you really need that kill spell next turn, or you need to get rid of that Pact, but you don't have the means to do so in hand. Search for Azcanta gets you there.
INSTANTS
The deck features several counterspells, removal spells and modal spells to control the board.
Lightning Bolt removes critters and zaps planeswalkers. It can close out those final few life points after the Pacts have gotten in there. I really don't need to tell you how good Lightning Bolt is.
Counterspell speaks for itself as well.
Drown in the Loch will counter or kill mostly anything, once the game gets going. Not too hot in your opening hand though, unless you have a fetch-heavy meta.
Echoing Truth will usually function as removal and occasionally bounce 2 or even 3 creatures at that. It can also get you out of a bind with your own Demonic Pact.
Teferi's Time Twist is a card I've been hoping they would print for a long time. For the first time in the history of Demonic Pact, we can just flicker it at instant speed to reset all the options without having to spend a boatload of mana to bounce it and recast it.
Terminate kills most things you want killed straight dead.
Silundi Vision
finds our answers when our Pact clock is ticking down. It's also a blue mana source if need be.
Memory Deluge will get the answer. If not on the first go around, then on the flashback for sure.
SORCERIES
Bloodchief's Thirst is cheap removal for most creatures in Modern, Wrenn and Six... and expensive removal for whatever else. But versatility is golden.
Serum Visions smoothes out our early game, fixing our draws for minimal cost. It's also nice in the late game, where it combos well with Demonic Pact to sculpt your hand.
Harmless Offering is a mean card for mean people. Never accept gifts. Trust no one. (But seriously, give someone an expiring Demonic Pact with this, it feels so nice.).
Damnation, aside from being the dreaded fate of our old mage, is also an unconditional board clear. No high toughness or tribal mismatch to dodge it, just destroy everything.
Dark Petition is how we find that board wipe or that Harmless Offering we need.
THE CREATURES
Hullbreaker Horror is the thing that you don't want to encounter on your sea voyage to that island with all the arcane secrets. It wrecks board states, life totals and eats up tempo as our opponents have to cast their spells multiple times to have them finally, maybe, resolve.
Murktide Regent is the thing you don't want to encounter on your voyage, except it also flies and comes out on the cheap.
Snapcaster Mage functions much the same as Founding the Third Path does, except it can be used reactively as well. It's also a really good pivot from playing defence to offence by going Bolt-Snap-Bolt on our opponents' end steps, threatening 8 damage out of nowhere.
STRATEGY
Use your Demonic Pacts aggressively. Sure, you can wait to drop one until you have an answer for it in your hand, but they're slow to get started and you'll most likely draw into an answer while enjoying the perks of your deal with the devil. It's also a lot of fun to play one and not know for sure if you can get rid of it in time. It makes for exciting games! You'll lose some, sure, but it's all about the fun anyway.
A good starting hand is generally three lands (a Swamp being one of them to bring your Drowned Catacombs and Dragonskull Summits online), a kill spell, a counterspell, a draw/selection spell and a win con.
The game ain't over till you're dead. This deck plays it real risky and quite often, you'll be pulling off comebacks from as low as 1 life. Don't be afraid to use your life total as a resource, you can get a lot of it back with your Pacts. Let some damage through if it means you can wipe the entire board next turn and save a kill spell for a rainy day. Live fast, die a cheating old bastard.
THE SIDEBOARD
Miscast is just here to stop counterspells. Our other counters cost more to cast, having a cheap narrow one for the sole purpose of sealing the deal helps when people wisen up and sandbank all their interaction for the turn before our Pact expires.
Thoughtseize can strip our opponent's answers straight out of their hand, and gives us valuable information about what they plan to do the coming turns. Casting this off the back of the discard mode of the Pact will ensure our opponent has no choice but to accept their fate.
Rakdos Charm is a neat little card. It can exile a graveyard, which is mostly what we'd side it in for, but artifact hate is either a dead mode or super crucial (therefore side not main), and sometimes you just get the token player out of nowhere.
Test of Talents might every once in a while exile a bunch of problems or answers to our own win conditions, but it's mostly just an easier to cast Counterspell against most forms of interaction.
Underworld Breach is for if we ever come across some disgusting value deck and we need to be able to compete in card advantage.
Brotherhood's End is a cheaper wrath to cast than Damnation, and while not clearing the entire board as often will still generally be a 2-for-1. Also good for clearing artifact-type hate pieces.
Ashiok, Dream Render is mainly here to answer graveyards, but turning off fetchlands and other tutors is a very decent upside.
Prognostic Sphinx is immortal. It has a big butt, it flies, any card in your hand gives it hexproof whenever. Oh, yeah, and IT SCRIES 3 EVERY TIME IT SWINGS. This guys ends games. Get you that cool Clash Pack promo version. He deserves it. You deserve it. Slot it in if your opponent likes their kill spells a bit too much or if they are beating you down with smaller creatures. Ol’ Prognostic eats ‘em for breakfast.
The Scarab God is one of the ancient sources of knowledge we can turn to in hopes of weaseling out of our deal. Also: won't die, gets out of control when we untap with him and start bringing back all our opponent's bombs we've been killing/discarding all this time, scrying, getting in for 5, looking all dope...
Kiora Bests the Sea God is the tale of how our mage, on that sea voyage mentioned above, has to overcome great odds. Divine intervention, looking to strike him down before he escapes his rightful damnation. But our mage knows of the magic of the gods, and has learned well how to shield himself against them... Also, a hexproof 8/8 tends to be a really secure win con, and we can flicker the enchantment to get repeat effects.
Well, that's the deck. It won't win you a GP anytime soon but it sure is a lot of fun to pilot. I hope that you either want to play it, or brew a variation on it, or that it inspired you to just build something fun instead of optimal but flavourless. Have fun with it.
