Smash face, make your opponent discard cards, and proliferate!
Concept
The idea is to take advantage of the fact that all the creatures work with +1/+1 counters.
Cards that help those 'enhanced' creatures are: Oona's Blackguard,
Ordeal of Purphoros
, Exava, Rakdos Blood Witch, Volt Charge and
Tezzeret's Gambit
.
The latter two for example should usually double as a
Titania's Boon
.
Oona's Blackguard is who turns them into the titular (nonflying) 'pseudo-specters'.
Card synergies and combos
Oona's Blackguard discard pressure
Oona's Blackguard
+
Rakdos Cackler
: Decent opening. Costs most opponents a card, either on hand or on the field.
Clockwork Beetle
+
Oona's Blackguard
: Similar situation, although you'll want to cast an Ordeal on T2 if you got one.
Oona's Blackguard
+
Stormblood Berserker
: Very brutal if he's bloodthirsty.
Oona's Blackguard
+
Sygg, River Cutthroat
: Lets Sygg join the +1/+1-counter club.
Oona's Blackguard
+
Thought Gorger
: Trample makes a discard more likely.
Oona's Blackguard
+
Taurean Mauler
: Makes the Changeling bigger and even more threatening when unblocked.
Desecration Demon
+
Oona's Blackguard
: The opponent eiher loses blockers or at least 6 life. Eventually attacks with multiple counters.
Oona's Blackguard
+
Ordeal of Purphoros
: Turns herself into a (growing, evasive) specter!
Oona's Blackguard
+
Oona's Blackguard
: Gotta love cards that synergize with themselves.
Mark of Mutiny
+
Oona's Blackguard
: Steal a potential blocker, enhance it with a +1/+1 counter and start a devasting discard assault! (Even works on Birds of Paradise :D)
(Potentially) Immediate Ordeal cracking
Clockwork Beetle
+
Ordeal of Purphoros
/Clockwork Beetle
+
Ordeal of Erebos
: Can crack the Ordeal immediately as early as T2.
Ordeal of Purphoros
+
Stormblood Berserker
/Ordeal of Erebos
+
Stormblood Berserker
: More immediate cracking potential!Ordeal of Purphoros
+
Rakdos Cackler
/Ordeal of Erebos
+
Rakdos Cackler
: Slower, but builds pressure quickly.
Ordeal of Purphoros
+
Ordeal of Purphoros
/Ordeal of Erebos
+
Ordeal of Purphoros
: Luckily, these cards synergize with themselves.
Ordeal of Purphoros
+
Taurean Mauler
/Ordeal of Erebos
+
Taurean Mauler
: Simply wait until it's big enough.
Stormblood Berserker bloodthirst synergies
Clockwork Beetle
+
Stormblood Berserker
: Provides T2 bloodthirst potential.
Rakdos Cackler
+
Stormblood Berserker
: More T2 bloodthird opportunities.
Lightning Bolt
+
Stormblood Berserker
: A certain T2 bloodthirst enabler.
Stormblood Berserker
+
Volt Charge
: A nice synergy in either casting order.
Sygg, River Cutthroat extra cards
Lightning Bolt
+
Sygg, River Cutthroat
: Turns bolts into slowtrips!
Sygg, River Cutthroat
+
Volt Charge
: More slowtrips!
Ordeal of Purphoros
+
Sygg, River Cutthroat
: Can just be cracked during your turn, but will ensure you the extra card.
Crack The Earth shenanigans
Crack the Earth
+
Ordeal of Purphoros
: Make your opponent sacrifice something, then sac your Ordeal and thank him with a lightning bolt.
Crack the Earth
+
Postmortem Lunge
: Make good use of the reanimated after attacking before it goes to exile.
Crack the Earth
+
Mark of Mutiny
: If you really want to piss off your opponent.
Maybeboard Ideas
Thought Gorger extra cards
Ordeal of Purphoros
+
Thought Gorger
: If you happen to topdeck it, the counters will provide extra cards once the Gorger dies, and it'll likely go off as well.
Thought Gorger
+
Volt Charge
: Similar principle - more counters, more cards.
Tezzeret's Gambit
+
Thought Gorger
: More card advantage!
Postmortem Lunge
+
Thought Gorger
: Minor topdecking synergy.
Corrosive Mentor and Wither proliferation
The deck can be altered to have only/mostly black creatures, and the wither effect gets gradually more useful in a deck running seven proliferate spells (
Tezzeret's Gambit
, Volt Charge).
Exava, Rakdos Blood Witch: haste enabler
She's decent by herself, and gives haste to most creatures that come after her.
The problem is that on turn 5, there aren't necessarily that many left. She's still faster than
Desecration Demon
, but probably doesn't have as much of an impact in the long run.
Stormkirk Noble and Slith Firewalker
Here are some 'growers' that can collect lots of counters when out early.
The downside is that they don't immediately have them, which makes them visually useless when played later, and the FIrewalker is hard to get out on turn 2.
Ogre Slumlord's quagmire
Ogre Slumlord
+
Oona's Blackguard
: He's on the expensive side, but he's a rogue and gives your opponent the choice to either discard and take damage, or block and provide me with deathtouching rats.
Flipping Nezumi Shortfang
Nezumi Shortfang
+
Oona's Blackguard
: He's a rogue, a decent card by itself, and when flipped - which can be achieved faster with Oona - turns into a big guy and The Rack.
Stabwhisker the Odious
+
Sygg, River Cutthroat
: More card advantage if your opponent dares to empty his hand.
Necroplasm skipping waves
In general somewhat slow, but can be devasting against some decks. Also a secret token hoser.
Necroplasm
+
Ordeal of Purphoros
allows me to skip one
Wave of Terror
and immediately do the next. (Which can also allow him to grow beyond three counters and destroy cc4+ creatures.)
Shimatsu the Bloodcloaked being awful
Dammit Kamigawa! You and your overcosted Spirits!
Shimatsu the Bloodcloaked
could actually have been a nice fit in this deck for R only.
Despite using counters and being an Ordeal-enabler, I don't need a
Wood Elemental
Kami! Nobody needs a Wood Elemental Kami.
