Urza's Saga: Carpe Diem 4
Urza's Saga: Carpe Diem Part 4: No one here is exactly what he appears: Recurring Nightmares!
I have heard this statement, in various forms, from various posts and people: Living Death decks are dead.
Wrong.
There are a three old decks that stand out in the wake of Urza's Saga. One is Prison, because Echo will make many decks more vulnerable. The second is Tradewind decks, for many similar reasons - bouncing cards is a lot stronger now. The third is the Nightmare. I wouldn't give all this away, but it's so obvious that hiding it is hopeless.
Let's analyze what happened to the Recurring Nightmare deck.
It lost Uktabi Orangatang. Unfortunate. But the main reason it needed the Orangatang was Nevinyrral's Disk. It now has a better answer (keep reading).
It lost Nekrataal. It got Dark Hatchling. Putting it into play from your hand is harder but far from impossible. From the graveyard it's actually stronger. Again, unfortunate, but far from fatal.
It has to face Presence of the Master. Not. It also faces Tranquility, Serene Offering, Allay and all the other main deck enchantment removal. Plus, they all get sideboarded in so you can cast a 4-cost spell that only helps if it doesn't get killed right away. Meaning Survival isn't on the table, and you're lucky, or you have 6+ mana and the game was over a while ago. Even if Presence was actually used, it would only stop the decks without white sources.
It has to face Planar Void. This is the one that everyone thinks is the most important. And I admit, this one looks pretty bad. If I wanted to stop graveyard recursion, I might turn to this card as a cheap, effective solution. But no one who knows the way spells resolve is very worried. If you can cast Monk Realist, which is a lot easier than Cloudchaser Eagle, you can kill it and lose nothing. If one is in your graveyard, or Survival is in play, you lose one (probably irrelevant) creature. Only if this spell is PROTECTED, by countermagic, will it be a serious problem. Without Gemstone Mine and Undiscovered Paradise, I have my doubts. Suppose it stays on table. You can't go infinite, true. You can't bring in the big fatties, true. But how many cards in this deck are now useless? Possibly none. Zippo. Zilch. Recurring Nightmare still works unless you have nothing in your graveyard at the time, somewhat likely. Survival can't stack but still searches. With Survival, all your creatures are good. In fact, they're removal for Planar Void. Living Death becomes Wrath of God if the Void comes out turn 1, or a 1-shot deal first if some stacking has already taken place. A well-designed deck will be weakened but not defeated.
And, of course, you won't face Planar Void. Not unless the Nightmare deck is a major factor, since it isn't a cantrip and only works on a few weird irrelevant decks other than Nightmare. Even then, it will be a dedicated card that only U/B counterspell decks can really abuse. Compare that to Phyrexian Furnace. That card was so good a cantrip it could be main decked. It was an artifact. It dealt with cards already in the graveyard. It replaced itself if it was killed. It dealt with a card the moment it hit the table. It could counter a recurring nightmare. It was better.
And those are the down sides.
It gained Great Whale. Two Great Whales in your graveyard, a creature in play, Wall of Blossoms available, and Recurring Nightmare in your hand is game with 4 lands on the table as long as you have the tools in your deck to finish your opponent off.
In other words, the deck that couldn't goldfish to save itself now has the following RELIABLE 4th turn kill: Turn 1: Land Turn 2: Land, Survival Turn 3: Land, Survive Any->Whale->Whale->Wall Turn 4: Land, Wall->Priest of Gix/Ornithopter, Gix/Ornithopter, Nightmare, Recurse the 2 Whales for infinite mana, recurse Wall to draw your deck, use CMU's Breeder/Fanatic road to victory. In other words, you need 4 lands in 4 turns, Survival of the Fittest on turn 2, Recurring Nightmare on turn 4, a creature in hand turn 3. That's it. Two enchantments and any creature in the deck.
That's with the addition of four cards to the deck, MAXIMUM. If you're worried about red, play the Nightmare before the Ornithopter instead of a Priest of Gix and burn won't matter until after you have infinite mana unless he can do 7 to a creature as an instant. You can resume things with another creature.
It got Victimize, a combined Necromancy and Recurring Nightmare for 3 mana. As a sorcery for Anarchist.
It got Monk Realist, which is much easier to cast than Cloudchaser Eagle.
It got Monk Idealist, which makes the next 4 creatures a must counter one once you counter a Nightmare if Survival is out.
It got Priest of Gix, which plays for free and combines with the Nightmare to filter your mana from colorless to black.
It might be able to abuse Remembrance. Note the absence on the spoiler of the words 'from play'.
It might be able to use Abyssal Horror, Argothian Enchantress, Phyrexian Colossus and Endless Wurm. It might be able to use Sneak Attack and Fecundity.
For Part 5 I will begin the card by card analysis. I'll use letter grades this time, with the additional "watch list" rating, instead of the three level Strong/Average/Weak I used last time. But I'm not going to be a generous grader. If the card isn't type II, it's a failure. If a card makes the watch list, that means 'I think this card has great potential in either Extended or Type II. I may or may not be attempting to build that deck. Some just aren't my style. In addition, I won't do the rares at all. They don't impact on local tournaments very quickly, since no one knows which ones to get, and their weird effects makes them have the vast majority of the impact on Extended. After Part 10, I'll decide whether to continue.
If you have questions, suggestions, requests, deck ideas, or anything like that, feel free to e-mail. The subject heading should be four words (none of which are Zvi, Hello, Help, Urza, Saga, Carpe or Diem).