Exodus: Signed, Sealed and Broken: Part 2: Black, The Recurring Nightmare

Part 2: Black, the Recurring Nightmare

If Blue was the Infinite Dream in Exodus, Black is the Recurring Nightmare. Black got a lot of playable cards, and while I don't view them as being as interesting as Blue's, a lot of them fit right into Necropotence and Suicide Black decks. Monoblack decks are going to be a major deck type, and are now so fast that decks are going to have to change to accommodate them. Before, TurboZvi saw a Swamp turn 1 and knew it had its four turns, and almost certainly five. Now, I'm not sure I have three turns, and I might not even have two. And there IS a chance in hell I don't even get one.

I'm using the conventions I used in the first section (blue), and I'll assume that everyone knows what every card I've already talked about does (if you don't, just look at the spoiler lists). I'll end with a discussion of a disturbing trend: The encouragement of bad play by recent cards. The two 'deck cards' are Hatred and Recurring Nightmare, although the Recurring Nightmare deck isn't meant to be played in its current form, so give those a thought first.

Camophage, B, 2/2, During upkeep pay 1 life or tap Carnophage Specialized, but Very Strong in one deck This card is viable for Suicide Black even if the "or tap Camophage" text wasn't there; that means the card is a problem. This gives Black eight 2/2 creatures for one mana, with no drawbacks other than damage to the controller. Black is no longer a "slower sligh". I could list a sample suicide black deck with the Exodus cards, but it's just cramming Sacromancy, Camophage, Bad Moon, Dark Ritual, Unholy Strength, more black weenies, Dark Ritual, a few removal and Necro. This is one of the decks every deck will have to deal with. Note, however, that Comophage has no place outside of a suicide black type deck.

Cat Burglar, 3B, 2/2 , 2BT: Opponent discards. Weak In general, four mana is too much for a 2/2 creature. The ability is nice, of course, but consider Zuran Enchanter (and Disrupting Scepter and Abyssal Specter). All of them are clearly better cards, yet they are almost never played. Therefore, this card will almost never be played.

Culling the Weak, Mana Source, B, Sac a creature: BBBB. Weak Every now and then someone decides he needs huge amounts of fast black mana, and starts looking over spells like Songs of the Damned. Culling the Weak just doesn't work when you need it too most: on turns one through three, when you need to get your first creature and such down. Might see a place in an 8-drain life Necropotence deck, but I don't think it has a place in serious Type II play. Note, however, that anything producing that much mana that fast HAS to be considered for Necro decks, because once you throw card economy out the window you never know what'll happen next. Also fizzles buyback spells without any way to counter it.

Cursed Flesh, B, Creature Enchantment, -1/-1 and Fear. Weak One of those 2-edged swords that work in draft and sealed but not in constructed. Avoid.

Dauthi Cutthroat, 1B, 1/1 Shadow, 1BT: Destroy target creature with shadow. Average There are enough shadow decks now that this is a decent card, partly because anything with Shadow is annoying against any deck without any Shadow at all. Probably very effective in weenie battles involving Shadow. A good anti-Shadow SB card, maybe. Great in draft and sealed, of course.

Dauthi Jackal, 2B, 2/1 Shadow, BB, Sacrifice Jackal: Destroy target blocking creature. Weak General Rule In Constructed: Any card that depends on blocking is Weak, because it depends on your having a creature, your opponent having one, you attacking and his blocking. Just doesn't happen that much. In addition, the ability is nothing to write home about even if it works, especially if they do see it coming, which they will.

Dauthi Warlord, 1B, */1 Shadow, * = # of creatures in play with Shadow. Average Don't get greedy with this card! If you get to 2, you're about even. At 3, you're ahead. In an all-shadow deck, should be a staple. In anything with under 12 or so, I'd stay away.

Death's Duet, 2B, Sorcery, Raise Dead twice. Weak This card is better than Disturbed Burial in one specific situation. But it's VERY limiting. No buyback. No raising just one creature. No cheap activation for 1B. And Disturbed Burial isn't a constructed card. There are better graveyard manipulation cards both already out there and in Exodus.

Entropic Specter, 3BB, */* Flying, * = # of cards in opponent's hand, if it damages it Sceptres. Weak A five mana creature shouldn't be dead the moment your opponent empties his had. At */*+1, it would be overpriced. At */*, it's unworkable.

Fugue, 3BB, Sorcery, Target Player Discards 3 Cards. Average Sort of a poor man's Stunted Growth, but you don't have to play Green to use it. If you can get to five mana, you can cast Necrologia or a threat. If you're playing black control, this is alright. But also, discard that doesn't happen early does very little in the new environment.

Grollub, (the spoiler says 3B, I think it's 2B), 3/3, For each damage dealt to Grollub, each opponent gains one life. Weak At four mana, the card is in Wall of Wood range. At three, it has a drawback that makes it worthless in the kind of deck that can use fast creatures well. Could, however, be a good defensive creature in some situations, for control decks.

Hatred. (I Hate this card!), 3BB, Instant, Pay X life: Target creature gets +X/+0 until end of turn. Watch List CHANNEL ALERT! CHANNEL ALERT! CHANNEL ALERT! There, I've said it. Five mana is no defense for a Channel, especially with Howl from Beyond in one neat package. This card isn't just good in general, it allows first turn kills and a significant number of turn two and three kills. For example, this deck:

Simple Idea: Very quick kills. First turn, Petal, Ritual, Ritual or Vault, Goblin, Hatred, game. Second turn: Mystical on first turn, no petal required. Later, you can Spinning Darkness to get your life lead back and remove a blocker. Abeyance vs. a counter deck. Hydroblast vs. a red deck. You have 8 tutors, use them wisely. How often does it work? I'm not sure, but I've been told that first turn is very unlikely. To do a rough guess, assume that you draw 7.5 cards out of 60. Each card has 4 copies, so it comes up once per 15 cards. That means the probability of each card is slightly under 1 in 2 (duplicate draws). So if you need Petal, Ritual, Goblin, Vault, Hatred, that's one in 2*2*2*2*2, or 1 in 32, about 3%. For turn 2, you can tutor for any one card, and you have 12 creatures to choose from, and the Mana Vault can replace both rituals if you don't need to tutor. Basically, assume that any one part of the combo can be replaced, and you get 1 in 2*2*2*2, five times, or 5 in 16, or about 30%. On turn 2. This kind of math should have gotten the card out of the set. If you want protection, you can tutor for it and wait an extra turn. Also note that it looks like a bad 5CB deck until you win, so they might still tap out on turn 2 or 3. If anyone does an extended Goldfish test with this deck before I finish this series and start testing decks again, or a variant of it, send it straight to The Dojo.

Keeper of the Dead, BB, 1\2, BT: Bury target nonblack creature if you have at least two more creature cards in your graveyard than your opponent. Strong An excellent ability, and if a black deck can spare a few slots, it can add 4 Phyrexian Furnace to lock up the title of graveyard king. Reasonably priced, too.

Mind Maggots, 3B, 2/2, When cast, it gets 2 +1/+1 counters for every creature you discard. Average A weak Hidden Horror at 4/4, too many eggs in one basket at 6/6. But with Necro, a good idea, and not totally a lost cause if it is 2/2 every now and then.

Nausea, 1B, Sorcery, all creatures get -1/-1 Weak Didn't like it with its old name, either.

Necrologia, 3BB, Instant, Play only during your discard phase. Pay X Life: Draw X Cards. Average The CC makes it impossible to use this to get out of mana problems, the way you would with Necropotence. It can be compared to Infernal Contract, which isn't as good a deal on life but is similar, can get you out of early problems and isn't ever used outside of combo decks. Necrologia will see play, because it wins games like Necro wins games, but not as a real staple card.

Oath of Ghouls, 1B, Whoever has more creatures in his graveyard Raises on each of his upkeeps. Watch List Other than a few decks, most have 22 or less creatures. And those that have that many use them as a resource, removing many from the game. If you have more than that, this card becomes wonderful. This is true especially when combined with Phyrexian Furnace, milling cards like Mulch and Hermit Druid, creatures that can be sacrificed like Thrull Surgeon (see below), discard effects like Hidden Horror and Vampire Hounds, Forbid, Volrath's Dungeon, etc. If this card works for you, you get a good card every turn. Every black deck with a significant (12+) number of creatures should sideboard this card.

Pit Spawn, 4BBB, 6/4 First Strike, Upkeep: BB, Removes any creature it damages from game Weak Seven mana is too much to cast, and its upkeep keeps it from being a good Godzillaish creature. Verduan Force is better anyway.

Plague Bearer, 1B, 1/1, XXB: Destroy target nonblack creature with total CC equal to X. Strong A Mox Monkey for creatures, this card could singe-handedly shut down a signifigant number of decks in the late game. A must for black creature decks that don't automatically use up all their mana, especially if they pack Rituals for extra mana. Combine this with Diabolic Edict to kill the bigger creatures.

Recurring Nightmare, 2B, Sacrifice a creature, boomerang Recurring Nightmare: Put target creature card from your graveyard directly into play, play this ability as a Sorcery. Watch List An early spoiler had this card as: Sac a creature: Put a creature into play. It took about one min to come up with: Forest, Petal, Ritual, Blood Pet, sacrifice Blood Pet, Wall of Blossoms, draw, Petal, Recurring Nightmare, draw the whole deck, Petal, Petal, Ritual, Ritual, Cadaverous Bloom, Drain Life. (Don't worry about it, but it's good for a laugh). As it is, the card is still very dangerous: for three mana, you get to work magic with uncastable creatures, or work the "come into play creatures". Those creatures got a few useful companions in this set, and several ways to abuse them, especially this and Equilibrium; those two are also good together! I'd like to suggest the 5CN deck, which stands for Five Color Nightmare, partly as a joke but partly seriously:

The idea on this deck is to do anything and everything with 'coming into play' effects. Using Birds of Paradise, Firestorm. Merfolk Looters and Hidden Horror to stay alive and build a graveyard, it then starts to do whatever it desides it wants to do today. Creatures (nonblack ones) a problem? Recurse Nekrataal. Artifacts? Uktabi Orangatang. Sligh annoying you? Staunch Defenders. 5CU? Ravenous Baboon. Propogandas? Cloudchaser Eagle. After SB, you have 4 of what you want and 0 of what you don't. Eventually, either you win with Equilibrium, or Pandemonium, or a creature rush. Or you can put a Sliver Queen in. Doesn't matter. Needs a lot of work, obviously. But the idea is there.

Scare Tactics, B, Instant, all your creatures get +1/+0 this turn. Watch List. Breakes the game! Gives black decks just the push they need to finish you off. This card is going to have everyone splash black to ritual out Light of Day; imagine it in multiples! Fits right into Suicide Black. Remember, you could be dead, just like that!

Slaughter, BB2, Buyback - 4 life. Terror. Great in sealed, not bad in general if for some reason a black deck isn't killing itself anyway. But it probably is.

Spike Cannibal, BB1, 0/0, Comes with a +1/+1 and all other +1/+1s. Average Silly wabbit, tricks are for kids! Either totally stupid or a silver bullet, but nice if you're giving him those tokens. For example, with Aku Dijin, or Cannibalize. Then use Scare Tactics for the kill.

Thrull Surgeon, B1, 1/1, 1B and Sacrifice it: Coercion. Strong Especially good as a recursion creature, it is a 2-mana creature that has to be countered. And that has to be good. Also useful because it's a spell that counts a creature card, and creatures can be useful just for being creatures.

Vampire Hounds, B2, 2/2, Discard a creature: +2/+2 until end of turn. Strong A solid card, good with graveyard recursion cards and effects. Another quality way to empty your hand for fun and profit. If you don't lose a card when you discard a creature, this is wonderful. (For example, Shard Phoenix).

Volrath's Dungeon, BB2, Enchantment, On your turn you can kill it for 5 life, Discard: Target opponent puts a card on top of his library. Watch List Any time you have the advantage, you can drop this and burn your whole hand. Not only does this empty your hand (can be good), it forces your opponent to pay 5 life and then wait while redrawing his cards. Outright devastating with Necropotence and Necrologia.

Summary of Black: Black has a few cards that fit into Suicide Black, one of the most powerful decks in the new environment. It also has some extremely nasty ways to reclaim creatures, and to discard them for fun and profit. The true Necro deck's best friends, however, lie in White, whose sealed and draft solid gold I'll tackle in Part 3.

An end note: The last few sets have had a disturbing trend: They reward you for having less of something. This includes less life, less cards in hand, and less creatures and lands in play. At the same time, they reward you for having wasted the most creatures. In addition, they punish you for Nonbasic lands. Then come the cards that reward you for having no hand at all: Scroll Rack (a 1-card hand), Null Brooch and Ensnaring Bridge are all artifacts. Together, they encourage fast, wasteful, mindless monocolor decks, especially black and red ones. I just finished playing a qualifier for the Battletech worlds, and in Battletech there are no rewards for not having things, or global effects that destroy mechs (which are similar to creatures). It's a refreshing break. This is probably the real reason they banned Cursed Scroll in Rath Cycle: They couldn't deal with so many rewards for empty hands. Of course, this opens up opportunities to catch players with mass destruction spells like Wrath of God, Jokulhaups and Nevinyrral's Disk. But I'd very much like to see this trend reversed for Urza's Legacy. How about Oaths that reward good play instead of bad play? Why are we bringing Balance back with a few new categories, in however piecemail a way?