Sneaky, wacky idea - off-color control?
Deck Help forum
Posted on April 8, 2013, 10:15 a.m. by meecht
Ever have one of those ideas that you can't stop thinking about until you write it down? This is one of those ideas. It's very fragile and NOT viable competitively, but it sounds like fun to try at FNM.
The CMC slot for every color is has gotten really uniform. When you're opponent taps 5 lands including a green source, you pretty much know they're casting Thragtusk . Esper Control tapping 4 lands on their turn is most likely Supreme Verdict . My idea is to keep them guessing.
Play a mono-land deck that's usually not a control color by itself, like red.
Include 4 Chromatic Lantern
.
Rest of the deck is typical control stuff, like Supreme Verdict
, Dissipate
, Murder
, etc.
I'm torn between red and black for the color choice. Black would give access to Mutilate for an extra sweeper as well as spot removal to buy time if a Lantern isn't in your opening hand, but you would probably mulligan if this wasn't the case. Red provides burn as a win con and is a totally unexpected color for control. Make your opponent go "wtf?" when you tap 4 Mountains and cast Supreme Verdict instead of a Hellrider .
Again, the idea would be extremely fragile because you rely on Chromatic Lantern not being removed. You could alleviate the issue by running all dual lands that include the base color, but that takes away a bit of the mystery.
I should have been more clear.
What I meant is that by going black or red, you would only use swamps or mountains, respectively. By using all swamps, you would be able to properly power Mutilate throughout the entire game.
April 8, 2013 10:56 a.m.
MindAblaze says... #5
Hah! A way to play mono-black control without actually playing mono-black...I like it.
The best part is the mind games.
April 8, 2013 11:09 a.m.
ShimmerVoid says... #6
Yes. YES! Do it. And play Phylactery Lich bonded to them Chromatic Lantern for the luls. xD
April 8, 2013 11:55 a.m.
There should be a plus one for ideas just like this one
April 8, 2013 12:02 p.m.
TurboFagoot says... #8
I mean, the idea is kind of cool, but come games two and possibly three they know what you're doing and sideboard for any control match up.
April 8, 2013 12:06 p.m.
cartwheelnurd says... #9
It could be fun for one game, to keep them guessing. There is little artifact hate in sideboards. Funny idea.
April 8, 2013 12:09 p.m.
MindAblaze says... #10
Well, gear your sideboard to turn you into an aggro or midrange deck then. My cousin plays this mono-black attack deck with Geralf's Messenger
, Butcher Ghoul
and Soulcage Fiend
and it's scary.
When you're getting ground down by black weenie, and then it comes down to blocking a 3/2 that blows up for 3 life loss...nevermind the fact his Undying Evil s keep the damn thing coming back...
April 8, 2013 12:12 p.m.
So would swamp-based probably be the best way to go? That's the way I saw it because of the ability to use Mutilate .
Phylactery Lich might be a good addition as a beater, but he'll still die to Mutilate . I think the best bet would be to go for some kind of creature-less win con, probably Nephalia Drownyard . Or, if we're looking for a creature that will survive Mutilates....Worldspine Wurm .
April 8, 2013 12:25 p.m.
pookypuppy6 says... #12
The difficult part is making sure Chromatic Lantern turns up every game; it will turn up often with 4 copies, but not always when you need it. Thoughts? If one goes for red, Desperate Ravings may help, (the flashback can be used once the Lantern is out) but it could also hurt.
April 8, 2013 12:51 p.m.
One bonus of using red would be to easily allow Faithless Looting to help dig in case a Lantern isn't in the opening hand, and to ditch unneeded cards later on.
April 8, 2013 1:28 p.m.
I think this is pretty awesome! I would start with red -I think that would make it funnier. Get your opponent thinking RDW, then pull out the Chromatic Lantern + control card of choice. Then SBing for games 2 and 3 would be a breeze. Either go gruul (which happened to draw for 1st at my LGS last FNM) with cards such as Burning-Tree Emissary and Ghor-Clan Rampager or you could go 'dok rakis' rakdos which can be tweaked ever so slightly to be either aggro or midrange (a versatility strength of that deck) so Falkenrath Aristocrat and Dreadbore
April 8, 2013 3:24 p.m.
April 8, 2013 3:46 p.m.
Curious what the theory was behind the cards you chose aside from the lanterns, the draw/search capabilities, and the control stuff
April 8, 2013 9:20 p.m.
I've added some better descriptions to the deck pages. I tried to keep anything less than 3CMC castable with the basic lands because Lantern doesn't come out until turn 3. I threw Worldspine Wurm in both because I thought it would be funny to cast it outside of its color.
Do you have a specific question about a choice? Keep in mind that these are rough drafts, and are in no way meant to be taken too seriously. I might consider running one of them during an FNM just to see the looks I'd get.
What about running Realmwright in the Red version to enable Mutilate ?
April 8, 2013 10:38 p.m.
These decks will never survive a match-up against aggro long enough to have any fun I don't think. With so very few low drop creatures you'll be relying upon removal very early game. I'm not sure it's enough
April 9, 2013 2:54 p.m.
I know the premise has little to no way of actually being viable, but it's fun to theorize.
Would you recommend cutting out the low-drop creatures entirely and just go straight removal?
April 9, 2013 3:32 p.m.
I've never personally played a control type deck, so I'm not sure how that would work. I would actually start off with like a RDW list...all the low drop haste creatures and then the top end of the deck could be all the lantern, non-red shenanigans. That may allow you to survive long enough for a bit of fun and make your opponent really scratch their head
April 9, 2013 3:37 p.m.
anotherbomb says... #21
I played a similar deck in mono black but found the problem to be mana consistancy without the lantern. Also by turn three you generally need to do something more proactive than play a mana rock. I found running a split of Prophetic Prism and Chromatic Lantern helped a lot (the prisms help to cast Phylactery Lich on curve as well). I added several Trading Post to help with the utility but In the end I found that you saturate your deck with so many mana rocks that you greatly reduce your threat density and end up getting a lot of useless top decks instead of answers.
I want to work on a mono black build that uses 4 of every swamp shock + Woodland Cemetery
+ farseek and big lilly to mana fix and still mutilate.
April 9, 2013 3:55 p.m.
That's what I considered, too, anotherbomb. Having the backbone be a single color, but playing each dual land that includes that color in order to have something to fall back on. I think that takes a way a little of the surprise element, but it increases consistency.
theemptyquiver says... #2
Mutilate would not work because it functions by the number of swamps in play.
April 8, 2013 10:46 a.m.