Sideboard

Creature (3)

Instant (3)

Sorcery (2)

Enchantment (3)

Artifact (4)


Maybeboard

Creature (1)

Sorcery (1)

Land (1)

Instant (1)


I set out to build a mid-range Mirage/Tempest block deck with no 4-ofs. I managed some of that and wound up with a deck that takes advantage of the Pandemonium/Phyrexian Dreadnought combo for a (hopefully) quick win. This deck is not meant to be taken seriously, but suggestions are always welcome!

You've probably worked it out already, but we want to get Pandemonium into play and then cast or reanimate Phyrexian Dreadnought twice for 24 damage.

Pandemonium is, of course, our win condition and Phyrexian Dreadnought and Aboroth are the creatures to trigger it. I can hear you laughing at poor Aboroth, but it's simple math. 12 + 9 = Dead. And, while we never hope to need to, we can cast it with our Lotus Petals and it's a little easier to get out than Crash of Rhinos (the only other creature in these blocks that can combine with Phyrexian Dreadnought for 20 or more damage).

We have a couple of options to find the pieces we need in Vampiric Tutor and Buried Alive. Vampiric Tutor can get anything we need, which is usually Pandemonium. Buried Alive puts our creatures in our yard which, with all of the reanimation, might as well be in our hand. Not to mention that when the game goes long 3 Dreadnoughts in the graveyard with a Living Death in hand is very exciting.

The rest of our deck is dedicated to bringing our creatures back from the dead to strike again. Reanimate and Shallow Grave are straightforward reanimation for 12 damage. Living Death makes for much bigger swings when needed (or for fun), and Corpse Dance is repeatable reanimation for the long game (assuming your opponent doesn't have a win condition and you get to the long game).

Rounding out the non-basic slots in the deck are Cinder Marsh, Rocky Tar Pit, and Lotus Petal for getting the we need, and Dark Ritual for fueling the turn 1 victory.

Winning on turn 1 is simple, you don't even need 7 specific cards! You only need 6 specific cards and you have an option for the 7th! You just need an opening hand of Swamp, Dark Ritual, Dark Ritual, Lotus Petal, Pandemonium, Phyrexian Dreadnought, and either Reanimate or another Phyrexian Dreadnought. See how easy that is!?

There are no free counters in Mirage/Tempest block constructed, so you get the turn 1 win almost every time (if you ignore the times you don't).

Let's call this a transformational sideboard... There's no need to worry about normal sideboard cards because our plan is to win or lose as quickly as possible. That said, it seems silly to just scoop to opponents who don't care about damage.

Our backup plan is to mill them out with Altar of Dementia. Since we'll need a lot more total power from our creatures, the sideboard is focused on repeatable reanimation with the rest of the playsets of Corpse Dance and Living Death. Oath of Ghouls is slower, but still repeatable and should effectively let us mill our opponent for 9 or 12 per turn per Oath.

We also complete our playset of Aboroths so that we have maximum power to sac to the Altar.

Have two Phyrexian Dreadnoughts in the graveyard, cast Living Death and when the Phyrexian Dreadnoughts come into play sacrifice Dreadnought A to Dreadnought B and beat down with a 12/12 trampler.

No, it's not a great plan. That's why it's Plan C.

I played around with the idea of making the deck () to use things like Hermit Druid and Mulch to fill the graveyard with creatures and make Living Death more impactful. This would mean winning with Altar of Dementia is much more likely so we could even drop Pandemonium so we don't need .

I feel like a version of this deck could be less of a joke, but relying on Pine Barrens as our on-colour dual land is brutal.

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Casual

94% Competitive

Top Ranked
  • Achieved #41 position overall 6 months ago
Date added 6 months
Last updated 3 weeks
Legality

This deck is Premodern legal.

Rarity (main - side)

20 - 15 Rares

13 - 0 Uncommons

8 - 0 Commons

Cards 60
Avg. CMC 1.97
Folders Pre-Y2K
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