Here, have some tokens! Whoops, they're dead...
The basic idea is to abuse the "Hunted" creatures to give my opponent tokens, have those tokens immediately die due to Virulent Plague and Illness in the Ranks, get lots of death triggers off of Blood Artist and Malakir Cullblade, and be left with a powerful and undercosted creature, while my opponent has jack squat. The token-giving isn't limited to the "Hunted" creatures either! Rapid Hybridization, Beast Within, Swan Song and other such spells work as painfully cheap removal, while giving tokens that will immediately die!
Illness in the Ranks and Virulent Plague are what make the deck work. Weakens or outright kills all tokens that we give to the opponent, making the removal, counterspells and "Hunted" creatures even better then they already are. These cards are essential to the success of this deck, and so
Commune with the Gods
is here to search them out ASAP; they also have the ability to grab a cool creature later in the game, if I already have an enchantment or two on the board.
Hunted Horror, Hunted Troll and Hunted Phantasm are massively strong creatures that give my opponent several creature tokens as a "downside". Phantasm is my preferred of the three, as he makes five 1/1's that all instantly die if I have either token-weakening enchantment on the board.
Blood Artist and Malakir Cullblade are here to abuse to multiple deaths that occur from spawning 0/0 tokens everywhere. Artist drains huge chunks of life, and Cullblade becomes a massive beater.
Mercy Killing
, Rapid Hybridization, Swan Song and Forbidden Orchard are all powerful cards that give my opponent creature tokens as a "downside".
Mercy Killing
and Rapid Hybridization kill strong creatures, Swan Song stops disruption and Forbidden Orchard poops out a 1/1 Spirit just about every turn, which is hilarious in conjunction with Blood Artist and/or Malakir Cullblade, who both appreciate a good death. Beast Within is a strong candidate to replace
Mercy Killing
, but I prefer giving multiple 1/1's over a single 3/3, and there's always the sideboard should I really need to destroy non-creature permanents.
Here's a fun example of how this deck is meant to run;
T1: Forbidden Orchard, Illness in the Ranks, token dies.
T2: Land, Blood Artist, token dies.
T3: Land, Hunted Phantasm, all six tokens die, steal six life and get an unblockable 4/6.
T4:
Mercy Killing
, target creature is sacrificed, all the tokens die, steal X+1 life (where X was the sacrificed creature's power), swing for 4.
Just an example.
