This deck at its core is a MILL DECK. Plus you get to play with your Duskmantle Seer!
It simply wants to delay the opponent by countering, or preferably, bouncing off threats. Normally bounce/counter is not a good strategy as it eats up your resources, and soon enough, you get overwhelmed quickly. Not so in this deck.
BATTLEPLAN:
- Bounce as many cards our opponents play as we can.
- Counter when necessary.
- Cast whispering madness to discard the hand we force fed our opponents while simultaneously replenishing our own.
- Opponent draws a bunch as well, we just repeat steps 1-3.
- Find Traumatize.
- Seal the deal (second Traumatize /
Whispering Madness
/ Duskmantle Seer / Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver)
- Win.
CARD DISCUSSION:
1. Bounce - The ability to bounce up non-land permanents help us deal with most threats our opponent sends our way.
Voyage's End
, though limited, helps us sculpt our top deck for answers or win cons, but also helps us avoid potential big damage from upkeep triggers of Duskmantle Seer. Overloaded Cyclonic Rift is the bomb here as it sets up massive
Whispering Madness
draw/discards for us while emptying our opponent's board.
2. Counter Magic - Equipped with 7 countermagics, we are able to be more liberal in choosing our targets. Though, it's really preferably reserved for those with ETB effect permanents, burn, discard, protecting Duskmantle Seer, or ensuring our
Whispering Madness
/ Traumatize resolves.
3. Card Draw - Pilfered Plans smooths out draws while innocuously drains our opponent's library.
Whispering Madness
wins us games by replenishing resources or directly by milling. Duskmantle Seer generates cards that should be tolerable to our life total with a little help from our scry. Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver is technically not a draw spell, but it creates card advantage by "creating nightmare" version of your opponents cretures without spending a card on your side.
4. Life Gain - Elixir of Immortality provides a hefty 5 life, while refilling our library, which is a good thing considering all the draw this decks does. Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver like all planeswalkers, "gains" us life if our opponents focus on them.
5. Win conditions - Duskmantle Seer is an efficient flying beater with the ability to draw us extra cards, "mill" (opponent draw, which we will just bounce or discard later), and "burn" (manacost). With the overabundance of our bounce spells, Duskmantle Seer will rarely have any opposition hitting our opponent for four per turn. Traumatize puts our opponent to a precarious state where death by mill is a reality.
Whispering Madness
, especially on cipher with our Duskmantle Seer, or post Traumatize, or repeated multiple copies cast, drains our opponents brain really fast. Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver, uncontrolled wins games or at the very least grinds answers off our enemies deck.
POWERFUL INTERACTIONS / INNATE ADVANTAGES (TL:DR)
- Multiple Bounce +
Whispering Madness
-
Whispering Madness
+ Cipher to Duskmantle Seer
- Scry + Duskmantle Seer upkeep triggers
- Duskmantle Seer + Bounce = "Unblockable"
- Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver + Multiple Bounce spells = protected Ashiok
- Immunity to Doom Blade /
Ultimate Price
- Moderate Resistance to Supreme Verdict (lack of creatures and bounce in response)
- Anti-aggro bounce
- Draw-Go
- Mill Win Condition
SUGGESTIONS AND COMMENTS ARE WELCOME!!! I'm a rouge, and a way better deck builder than a player. Please credit me as the deck creator (markr3ymd) if you will use this list. Thank you! Hope you have a blast to play this as well as I do!
With the exception of the dual lands, this deck is pretty cheap and easy to build. If you are on a budget, you can simply adjust the lands to play guildgates or just basics.
Check the budget version here! (Click below)