Combo Craziness 4

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squire1

13 September 2010

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Here we are again. Another attempt at making underplayed cards work for us. This time we are all in for some real fun because this card can go in so many directions. So all of you Johnnies out there get your combo hats on and get ready to find a way to make use of this card.

As a reminder, we are attempting to build a casual legacy legal deck that actually works. The goals of this exercise are 1.) to evaluate cards that are often overlooked, 2.) think about new ways of building and designing decks, and 3.) expand our knowledge of cards out there for use.

So for this week we have a real gem of a card. I have tried to pick some "bad" cards over the last couple months, I know I am picking on the card that is most often declared the worst card ever made. Going way back to The Dark we have....

Oracle Text:
Tap: Choose two target blocking creatures an opponent controls. If each of those creatures could block all creatures that the other is blocking, remove both of them from combat. Each one then blocks all creatures the other was blocking.
Whenever Sorrow's Path becomes tapped, it deals 2 damage to you and each creature you control.

That's right folks, Sorrow's Path. Well in preparation for this article I read a lot of other peoples' articles about this card, most often they were joking and making the worst deck they could. This is indeed a bad card on the surface. It is hard to work with and has no simple and immediate tourny capable abilities; that said, you can use this card and use it effectively. Before we begin with building, let's analyze the card a bit to see what we are working with.

The good

The good part of this card is somewhat disguised. On the surface we can see that it allows us to rearrange blockers, so if I have some beefy guy who is being blocked by a chump and a weenie that is being blocked by beef, I can switch that around and take some of my opponent's creatures down. Not that exciting. But as we will see later, the huge drawbacks of this card will be its saving grace.

The Bad

When I use this card to switch up blocker, I get a fun little surprise of a personal Pyroclasm and Shock just for me. Wow, that really sucks, I mean, I can't really use it in a weenie deck and using it every turn is a personal 10 turn clock. Oh but it gets worse.

The ugly

The bad part offends most people enough but there are two worse aspects of the Sorrow's Path ability that I need to point out.

1. It sucks up a land drop, and does not produce mana.
   This is forgivable for Dark Depths which gets you a 20/20 bomb, but not here. Here we get blocker switching.
2. Now the real kicker. It does not say that you and your creatures take the damage when you activate the ability. It says "when Sorrow's Path becomes tapped". Great to hear, love it. So an army of Fatestitchers can single handedly kill me off with this card out. Fun, fun!

Ways to make it work for you

So after that depressing breakdown, lets start turning our frown upside down and use this to our advantage. How can we use these effects to our advantage, honestly my head is going in a lot of directions. I am thinking that we could 1.)use the damage it deals to our advantage, 2.)redirect the damage to other targets, 3.)try to avoid the damage and use the card what it wants to do, 4.)ignore the damage and use it anyway, or force the damage on others.

Note that none of these solutions deal with the no mana drawback, because let's face it, do you want to risk tapping this thing for mana.

Use the damage

The first way that Sorrow's Path could be used is with cards that thrive on taking damage. We could use it to untap our Deep-Slumber Titan, draw cards (Swans of Bryn Argoll *list*), make copies of our Phytohydra, gain life (Wall of Hope), make our Protean Hydra or other creatures bigger (i.e., Rite of Passage or Vigor). All of these are viable options; however, there are a couple that stand out as better than others. Phytohydra is to naturally weak to make this work, Wall of Hope does not help unless you have multiples out really, and Rite of Passage seems expensive for what it does.

To me the best bang for your buck here is Deep-Slumber Titan, Swans of Bryn Argoll *list*, Protean Hydra, and Vigor.

Redirect the damage

Next up is our option of redirecting damage. Now there are two kinds here: 1.) passive and 2.)active redirects. Passive redirection happens just by you sitting there and using Sorrow's Path. Active redirects are cards that you must pay a cost in order for you to redirect. For passive redirects we have the ever popular Stuffy Doll, Pariah, and Spitemare. in addition there is Mogg Maniac. Mogg Maniac is not a great choice as is, but may be useful with support cards.

Some of the active options are Mirrorwood Treefolk, Razia, Boros Archangel, General's Regalia, Kor Dirge, Kor Chant, and Captain's Maneuver. I am not a huge fan of the active choices overall. If I go in this direction though, I would use Razia, Boros Archangel.

Along with the passive and active, we have utility cards that will help make the most of things. I love the idea of switching blockers around to kill one of my four Blazing Effigys, staking the damage, putting it on a Mogg Maniac and hitting it with Crushing Pain. We could also use a similar tactics (not as fun, but similar) with Burning-Eye Zubera.

Avoid the damage

Now a card that should really be considered for this application does not avoid damage to our creatures, but it will make the damage to us a moot point. I like to use it similarly in Manabarbs decks, Tamanoa. This little bad boy will have you gaining life like crazy with Sorrow's Path if you have a whole bunch of 3/3s or 2/2s with a Leyline of Vitality out. i would say that he is an auto add if we play the colors.

Ignore the damage

Our next option is to ignore the damage and use Sorrow's Path for what it states, let's switch some blocker.

"But squire1 , who the hell blocks these days"

That is a great question. The answer is, you do. This is when utility cards become really important. Cards like Hunt Down, Feral Contest, Irresistible Prey, Nacatl Hunt-Pride, Master Warcraft, and Bloodscent we can control who and what is blocking, leaving ample opportunity to throw people around and block what we want. Now lets have them block some rampage creatures (I love rampage, why did it go away) like Teeka's Dragon, Horrible Hordes, Craw Giant, Wolverine Pack, Gorilla Berserkers, Gabriel Angelfire, Frost Giant, AErathi Berserker, Rapid Fire, or Balduvian War-Makers.

Ok, so you don't like rampage, fine. How about deathtouch, anything with deathtouch. Or even slap a Sword of Vengeance on that rampage creature. Yeah, now your talkin'.

Force the damage on others

Now for all you blue players out there, I am sorry i kept you waiting. This was my first idea, but the beats had to come first. So the idea is give it to that guy. The card is so bad that I want my opponent to have it. Sure i will even put it up for ante. Why not trade?

Use Political Trickery or Vedalken Plotter to give away your Sorrow's Path and get one of those lands that makes mana from them, as a last ditch effort forget about trading and just hand it to them with Bazaar Trader.

Once they have Sorrow's Path use any variety of tapping devices to kill them and their creatures, like: Fire / Ice, Dream's Grip, Fatestitcher, Rimewind Taskmage, Pestermite, Gigadrowse, Telekinetic Sliver, or Scepter of Dominanceetc. Personally, i would also have a couple Candelabra of Tawnoss or Magus of the Candelabras out to be able to untap and tap their Sorrow's Path multiple times.

So here is what I came up with. Not sure how it will work, but I kind of went with everything this time around. It may need some mana fixing and to focus a bit more. Nonetheless sorrow, so sorrow is the deck.

As always I look forward to feedback from everyone, please post comments on the article so that we can all have a lively discussion. Also please post decks that you have created using Sorrow's Path I hope that I have inspired you to drop Sorrow's Path at your next casual game, allow the laughing to die down, and Dominate them.

Also remember that i am always looking for card ideas for the next article. Please post them on my page.