The Magic Chest 2: Dual Nature

Like last week's Rhystic Study, this is another card that hasn't been in the environment for very long. Its potential for tournament play is probably not very high, because of the sharing nature of the card. You may be getting twice as much out of your creature cards, but so is your opponent. Not to mention that you need to devote a significant part of your deck to ways of finding and casting this enchantment just to make sure your deck runs smoothly.

So, how can you use Dual Nature effectively? To answer that question, first note that the token copies are removed from the game if their original leaves play. Although it means the tokens are extra vulnerable, it doesn't have to be a drawback. Every bit of creature removal you have now gets rid of two creatures. Or even more if you have more than one Dual Nature in play. So, playing with a lot of creature removal is a good idea.

Now consider that creatures with comes-into-play abilities work twice as well under a Dual Nature. Let's consider some cards:

Bone Shredder: It's creature removal and it's a creature. What's not to like? Well, it doesn't get rid of black creatures, but you can deal with those in other ways. The echo is a bit steep as well, considering you'll have to pay it twice under a Dual Nature. By that time, though, your Bone Shredders will have done their job, so it's no big loss.

Ghitu Slinger: To take care of anything the Bone Shredder can't handle. Under a Dual Nature, you can either get rid of two weenies or one bigger creature. Any black creature with 5 toughness or more could be a problem, but those are pretty rare and you'll have enough chump blockers to safely wait for a second Dual Nature or Ghitu Slinger.

Mogg Fanatic: A mini version of Ghitu Slinger. It doesn't pack quite the same punch, but it's easier to cast. I wouldn't play it in the main deck, but perhaps in the sideboard.

Umbilicus: This allows you to reuse selected creatures, while possibly providing some disruption. You probably don't want to see this too early in the game, so don't play too many of them.

Vampiric Tutor: As we're already playing black, this is probably a better choice than Enlightened Tutor. It can fetch an Umbilicus if you need one or even the right creature to solve a problem.

Academy Rector: Although this is a good tutor for Dual Nature, it doesn't fetch anything else. As such, I wouldn't bother splashing white for it. The double effect under a Dual Nature is very impressive, but because you'll only fetch more Dual Natures, it's not useful enough.

Creeping Mold: Necessary to get rid of bad enchantments, artifacts or lands. It'd be more fun to use a card like Monk Realist for enchantments and Uktabi Orangutan for artifacts, but that would require more slots and you could easily end up having to destroy your own Umbilicus or Dual Nature when the copy comes into play.

Yavimaya Elder: Because you're playing three colors, you'll need this to get some color consistency. It doesn't hurt that under a Dual Nature the Elder can give some serious card advantage. Even if most of it is just thinning lands out of your deck.

Yavimaya Granger: For extra mana consistency.

Heart Warden: It could give you quite a bit of extra mana, but you don't really need it that badly and it would be vulnerable to removal. The extra cards you can draw are nice, but that still isn't enough to use this.

Spike Feeder: Some lifegain is nice and being able to make one of your creatures big is pretty nice as well. Still, you probably won't need it most of the time.

Bottle Gnomes: Worse than Spike Feeders in most cases.

Avalanche Rider: Spot land destruction is always useful. Against certain decks you probably want four, so reserve some sideboard slots for them if you don't want to play with all four in the main deck.

Thran Lens: An obvious sideboard card against black.

Nekrataal: The extra black hurts a bit, but if four Bone Shredders aren't enough, some Nekrataals in your sideboard should do the trick.

Ravenous Rats: The synergy with Dual Nature is good, but these are only good in tournament decks, because your opponent usually accumulates a few dead cards in his or her hand in casual play, or in dedicated discard decks. You need discard you can count on.

Thrull Surgeon: This is much better for the deck. Still, I'd only play a few in the main deck and bring in more against control decks.

The finished deck becomes something like this:

Twice the Fun
4 Dual Nature
2 Umbilicus
4 Vampiric Tutor

4 Bone Shredder
4 Ghitu Slinger
4 Yavimaya Elder
4 Yavimaya Granger
2 Avalanche Rider
2 Spike Feeder
2 Thrull Surgeon

4 Creeping Mold

15 Forest
6 Swamp
3 Mountain

Sideboard:
2 Mogg Fanatic
2 Avalanche Rider
2 Spike Feeder
4 Thran Lens
4 Nekrataal
1 Thrull Surgeon

Have fun!