"No, please, I insist"
is the rallying cry for this Grixis standard-era Donate deck. We may not have Illusions of Grandeur, in fact this might be the product of
Delusions of Mediocrity
, but we're going to give it a go nonetheless.
So last standard we had
Demonic Pact
. It was awesome, but once you'd had your fun you had to tear up the contract (so to speak.)
I was looking at Midnight Oil and trying to find efficient ways to do the same to take advantage of the temporary personal
Howling Mine
effect.
AEther Tradewinds
and other bounce effects, destruction, sacrifice, whatever.
But Harmless Offering seems to be the answer I was in search of. Since we're already running now, we may as well go ahead and mix some into the mix too. We'll want to be drawing a lot of cards anyways to hunt down our core combo. Also, countermagic! Who doesn't love countermagic. Well, aside from the people who don't get to cast spells. Moving on.
Countermagic, card draw, an ugly double-edged sword of an enchantment, and a way to pass the buck when it gets ugly. Now, what are we missing? How do we clean up this mess. Well, for one, sweepers! Flaying Tendrils out of the board, and Radiant Flames maindeck. Sneak in some Unlicensed Disintegration and you've got a stew going.
Of course, if we're inviting the Izzet to the party, I think we should probably plan for some Fevered Visions while we're at it. Fun fact: the stack is your friend! Note the emphasis. Since Visions triggers at the beginning of the end step, once they have a low-oil situation going they'll end up drawing just to discard. Sure, they might snag some instants, but more often than not you're just fueling the fire. Which is ironic, since they're almost out of oil on the other side of the table.
The whole thing is a little on the clunky side, and definitely not elegant. Right now, the core is Midnight Oil, Harmless Offering, and Fevered Visions is like, half core. Get oily, and then hand that mess to someone else.
What I'm looking for are better ways to protect the combo / components, better spell packages, and better alternate closers. Enjoy!
