I'm sure many of you have heard of the Journey Into Nyx "DEFEAT A GOD" challenge deck. The thing's pretty mean, but different kinds of decks have very different strengths measured against the Xenagos deck than they would a human opponent. You can't kill Xenagos with an Extort deck, for instance, but cards that blow the board up are far more valuable than they normally would be. The Xenagos deck has a speed no mortal can match, and hits really hard really fast. I've tried beating it with some of my decks, and lost... often. Sometimes barely, but usually before turn 4.
I realized eventually, in my frustration and pettiness, that I wanted to even the odds against this challenge deck, so I made a deck specifically to give it a really good fight. It was quite interesting, because a lot of the cards that I'd never play with against people suddenly have a new life when you look at them in the specific light of "would this help me strangle Xenagos."
Here is my deck, in its most current iteration. Every card in there is selected for either speed, desperately-needed card advantage, or its ability to withstand Xenagos' revellers.
I was able to use several of my one-ofs in this deck, and a lot of my "junk" cards actually gain new life when you look at them in this context. It's actually refreshing to play this deck because it takes many more risks and is much more tolerant of Black Mana's self-destructive nature than what I normally prefer.
We care more about bodies on the field than effects, more about speed than power, need to kill very specific creatures, and want to find ways to make every turn and every land count no matter what the price. Those who run out of gas will ALWAYS be killed by Xenagos, so we must be consistent, fast, ambitious, and can never look back.
We will suck the life from his followers, cripple him progressively until our second-class critters can kill him, and call upon some of the most perilous spells you can cast in this game. This might be the "Blackest" deck I have ever created!
Tell me what you think!
What's the best deck you've got against Xenagos?
