Friday, August 3, 2012

Malfegor's Mindslaver Engine

The final cards making up my Malfegor EDH deck. 6 mana cost cards, plus the last few higher-ups I just threw in for good measure. Feels good to have the entire deck done, now I can work on something else!
Steel Hellkite - You can't get much more awesome than this artifact creature. Colorless mana pumps him up, and colorless mana is all you need to wreck your foes with his second ability. The removal covers just about any concievable threat, from artifacts to enchantments to even planeswalkers. Very rarely I might even be able to knock out a few cards at once. Very similar to Engineered Explosives,  widely considered a holy grail for removal. But unlike the explosives, Steel Hellkite won't touch my own gear. And its a big 6/6 beater all on its own.

Mindslaver - Wrecks havoc with the opponent of your choice. You take his turn, and hopefully use as many of his cards as inefficiently as possible. Best saved for the late game, when people have lots of creatures, lots of mana, and plenty of dreams to stomp on. Might be a good combination with Trading Post and any other creature I can get back into play easily.

Wurmcoil Engine - Ever since I received a copy of this card at the Scars of Mirrodin prerelease, the Wurmcoil has had an honored spot in my deck. Another great card to make copies of.

Life's Finale - Malfegor gives me plenty of opportunity to wipe the board. But Life's Finale is the only wipe to also attack an opponent's deck. And with a cost of only 6 mana, I should be able to get this into play fairly early, leaving room to use those creatures to their fullest.
Charmbreaker Devils - These guys may seem anti-synergistic. I've counted the number of instants and sorceries in this particular deck, and it's not a very large number. But the peculiar wording of the Devils actually makes sparce numbers of instants/sorceries a good thing. "Return an instant or sorcery card at random from your graveyard to your hand" means you don't want a wide selection of little problem solvers to choose from in your graveyard. Because you aren't choosing at all. What you want is one haymaker you can draw out of your deck again and again. And I've tried to make all of my instants and sorceries count.

Sheoldred, Whispering One - Here's a dream. Turn one Entomb. Turn two Reanimate. Sounds like a pretty good deal! Sheoldred will do terrible things any other time as well, helping get my creatures out of the graveyard and putting my opponent's creatures right back in.

Avatar of Woe - Kills creatures of all varieties, over and over again. Usually only costs 2 mana to get out. If you've never sat across the table from an active Avatar of Woe, you are missing out on a great deal of, well, Woe.

Lavaball Trap - Mild boardsweeping power, plus the ability to blow up 2 lands is actually a pretty good deal for 8 mana. But how often am I going to have 8 mana? EDH games almost always go long, so yeah eventually I'm going to have 8 mana. For 5 mana I can also cast it, provided one of my oppoents plays 2 land in 1 turn. This happens far more often then you would think. All the tutor lands will eventually produce this effect, assuming your opponent is staying on his mana curve. And there is even one way in my own deck to push the situation.

Chandra Ablaze - My one planeswalker card. Lets look at the abilities one at a time. 1) Discarding a red card to do 4 damage is pretty good, especially when it gains me loyalty for the other abilities. 2) There will be many times I will have less than 3 cards, and the ability to draw 3 fresh cards out of my library is an ability too good to resist. While I'm drawing cards, my opponents will be discarding cards…since most of them try to keep a full mitt around. 3) This is a problem, since I don't have any good red instants/sorceries in this deck. Except for Lavaball Trap, which would be HILARIOUS to cast from my graveyard, maybe not for the cost of 7 loyalty points unfortunately.

Finally, my deck's general is the mighty Malfegor.

 Malfegor dumps your hand in the graveyard and forces your opponents to sacrifice an equal number of creatures. Your creatures, people usually don't realize, remain exactly where they are. No protection or shroud effects work against this ability, since it does not target. And he's even a flying 6/6 beater all for 6 mana.

Discarding your hand is normally a really grueling penalty. It's terrible, and having no hand to look at afterward gives you absolutely nothing to do. But I've tried to build my deck around this effect as best I can…there will be a silver lining to keep my mind on the bright side. And I've got ways to get a few cards back into my hand fairly quickly.

I think the overall result will be fun, if not necessarily victory.

Thursday, August 2, 2012

Malfegor's Diabolic Phoenix

After a bit of a struggle with 2 cards wanting to be in the same slot, I finally have the 5 drops all laid out.
 Diabolic Revelation - Another new addition, this spell might be reaching just a little too far. 5 mana to get it started, plus additional mana to get your tutor effect. And I better have more mana available than just the one. But there are a few ways my deck might get extra mana, and this is a good way to spend the windfall.

Corpse Connoisseur -Yet another creature tutor. I would be bothered by all the creature tutors in my deck, were it not for all the other awesome creatures. Corpse Connoisseur does his job, and he can even do the job twice. Slight problem is the creatures go to the graveyard. But only slight, since I have so much stuff to haul them back out again. A great card to cast if my Diabolic Servitude gets low on targets.

Hoarding Dragon - An artifact tutor! When he's not flying around, this Dragon is dying and delivering an awesome toy at my feet.

Living Death - Another way for the game to end. Casting Living Death should only be done after carefully examining the contents of everyone else's graveyard. But if all lights are green, this little 5 mana sorcery gets really mean.

Magma Phoenix - I almost used Kudoltha Pheonix in this slot instead. The Kudoltha bird is a little bigger and a bit easier to cast out of my graveyard. But the really nice bit about Magma Phoenix is you can cast him at the end of your opponent's turn. Paying for spells during the upkeep phase is a good way to wreck your turn unless its something very efficient. 4 mana is not efficient enough! I would much rather spend 5 (and be forced to deal with 2 of that being red) if it comes before my actual turn begins. Plus…there's the whole board sweeping effect. If I don't want/can't handle the sweeping effect, I just need to NOT cast Magma Phoenix. My game must be progressing well in such a case.

Siege Gang Commander - A source of 2 11 goblin tokens. The official line, which I am happy to take, also says he can sacrifice himself. It's what the card reads, even though the idea itself draws a very perplexing picture. If he were to somehow be copied…I would have 5 goblins. If I did it again I would have 7. Plus the ability to do just 6 points of damage in one go can be pretty good too.

Worldslayer - Sometimes you aren't looking for profit. Sometimes you aren't looking to win. Sometimes you just want to strap a Worldslayer to a 0/1 Goat and watch the world burn. Whether I'm actually using it, or I just want to have my finger on "the button" for a while, I am confident I can come back from zero land faster than anyone else. And once I get the land, my graveyard has all the creatures I need. A good combination with a suspended Greater Gargadon.