It seems that someone has made a Demonic Pact and now the Krampus is in town. Gain his sympathy or it will be a harsh Christmas.
Ok, so the idea of this deck is to win in a funny way. To that end, we abuse Demonic Pact's last option with Sky Swallower or Puca's Mischief to pass the bomb to the opponent.
I also want to make it a little bit psychological, tempting my opponents to risk on whether to take advantage of the drawbacks that my spells bring to me first, or renounce to a possible game-winning lock in their favor and make them remove those cards.
I have been in free for all multiplayer games where i had an Abyssal Persecutor in play, and i got two opponents down to negative life, and told them "protect me, or we all die". It is a fantastic feeling (btw, another player killed me, and the three went down :P).
Since this deck is casual, i want to keep it as budget as possible. It is a control deck, so it is slow and tends to win on turn 7-9.
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Win-cons:
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A) Gifting Demonic Pact to the opponent.
B) Reducing opponent's life to 0 using Abyssal Persecutor, Demonic Pact'first option and thirdly Sky Swallower.
You can take the enemy's life down to 0 and then bounce your Abyssal Persecutor with your Blue spells to instantly win.
We can also delay our opponent from winning by gifting him an Abyssal Persecutor. In multiplayer games, if you are getting beaten up, you can pass it with a Puca's Mischief to a player with little removal in order to have him "shield" you. Also, its flying body makes him a great defender.
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Helpers:
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Rudolph, the Simic elk Sky Swallower
Just play it when you are sure that you can win on the next turn. Else, it is pretty much GG. Has the surprise factor as an advantage over Puca's Mischief
The dutiful elves Puca's Mischief
Since both its ability and Demonic Pact's ability trigger at the beggining of your upkeep, you can chose the order in which you put them in the stack. That allows you to make use of the third option first and afterwards pass it with the fourth option pending.
On the other hand, although we barely have nonland permanents to swap, there are times that you can exchange an Abyssal Persecutor for an opponent's wincon. Just for the lulz.**
Game plan:
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Early game (T1-T3): Bounce, stall, kill.
Mid game (T4-T5): sign the contract, summon the Krampus and/or his assistants.
Late game (T6-T8): Midnight. Rudolph arrives with the presents.
Not to do:
Since this deck is double-edged, it can blow in your face too. So, one must avoid doing the following plays:
If you have a Puca's Mischief in play in order to pass them a Demonic Pact or Abyssal Persecutor, then dont use the Sky Swallower, because you will pass the Puca's Mischief aswell, letting the opponent return you your bad presents.
If you have an abyssal persecutor under your control, make sure to get rid of it before you pass the opponent a Demonic Pact. Else, he wont lose the game.
Always have one or two bounce spells at hand before playing a Demonic Pact, in case you dont find in time a Puca's Mischief or a Sky Swallower.Also, when playing against counterspells, wait till the opponent is tapped out to pass the pact, even if you have to pass it earlier. You dont want to get your Skyswallower countered and lose to your own card.
We prefer bounce over kill, since we might need to return our own permanents to our hand in order to win (return an Abyssal Persecutor when the opponent's life is 0 or less) and avoid losing (return a Demonic Pact before the last option). That being said, this are the best removal options I found:
Bounce:
Into the Roil Best bounce. Instant, Cheap (money and mana wise), it targets nonland permanents (we dont care about bouncing lands) and at later turns it gives us draw power.
Echoing Truth: Great against tokens, it is also excellent for bouncing multiple Demonic Pact and Abyssal Persecutor, as long as they are all on your side.
Vapor Snag: instant creautre bounce. Can be swapped for Unsummon
Void Snare: cheap bounce. Since it is a sorcery, it will be used mostly as an emergency card to bounce our own permanents in case something goes wrong.
Kill:
Go for the Throat Most convenient alternative. Although a litte expensive, few decks play artifact creatures, and the lack of the "non-black creature" target restriction allows us to target our own Krampus after he has swinged for lethal.
Reality Shift: Against regenerable or indestructible creatures. 2-of is fine because I can't afford to give them too many creatures to attack. Also, i can block them with the Abyssal Persecutor.
Drown in Sorrow: Pseudo board wipe. The scry is very useful. It covers the 3cmc slot.
EDIT: Replaced it with Far / Away. It is more versatile in the sense that it is an instant, it gives me a 2cmc spell and a 3cmc spell, a mana dump to cast them fused for 5cmc (they also complement each other since you can bounce a creature to get the enemy to sacrifice the one you want). Also, sacrifice gets around better against indestructible and hexproof.
Manabase:
The actual lands are what i found to be the cheapest combination without losing consistency. The lifegain from the Dismal Backwater somehow compensates the Underground River lifeloss.
EDIT: Swapped Underground River for Drowned Catacomb. No more lifeloss, cheaper and 90% of the time enters untapped.
Temple of Deceit is another interesting option to replace Dismal Backwater, but its upside is not that big considering that i want to keep the deck cheap.
Sideboard:
Turn Aside: Against Control
Tormod's Crypt: Against graveyard decks
Elixir of Immortality: Against mill
Dragon's Claw: against RDW.
Outwit: Against control and burn.
Dispel: Against control aswell
Crux of Fate and Whelming Wave: Boardwipes and multiplayer. The latter is cheaper and more effective against indestructible and tokens. It also has the upside that it doesnt bounce Sky Swallower
EDIT: In time, money in between, i will add 2x Spellskite to the sideboard in place of 1x Dispel and 1x Outwit. That would take it out of the budget league, so i will leave it aside for the moment.
It will come very handy against burn, boggles and infect.
Hope you like it. If you do, please +1 so i can get more feedback. Thanks!