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The Magic Chest 9: Mind Swords
At first glance, this looks pretty bad. I even gave it the lowest possible marks in my Nemesis review. I'm having second thoughts about it now, though. Sure, it looks like Stupor is usually a better choice, not to mention Hymn to Tourach, but Mind Swords has a few unique features. First of all, unlike Hymn to Tourach, it's splashable. Ok, that's not very impressive, but Mind Swords also has an alternate casting cost, allowing it to be cast for no mana at all and the cards aren't discarded, but removed from the game. Against cards like Squee, Goblin Nabob, Ashen Ghoul and Necrosavant, that's a distinct advantage. What kind of deck would work best with Mind Swords? The big drawback of having to discard from your own hand as well is easiest to deal with if your hand tends to be empty fast. To make the alternate casting cost potentially useful, the deck needs quite a few cheap creatures as well. It's easy to see that a black weenie deck with heavy discard as disruption works best in this case. Let's make one. Stupor: A good discard spell, which should get you card advantage. Hymn to Tourach: Almost strictly better than Stupor, but it's a bit too good in fun games. There's nothing particularly fun about a second turn double hymn, so I try to avoid using these as much as possible. If the deck turns out not to be strong enough against your opponents, consider exchanging the Stupors for Hymns. Duress: Normally a very good black discard spell, but it doesn't fit in this deck. If you're both living off the top of your deck, you don't want to draw a Duress if your opponent only has a creature in hand. Ravenous Rats: The synergy with Mind Swords is beautiful. After an explosive first turn, a second turn rats, followed by a Mind Swords, sacrificing the rats, usually removes most of that player's ways of dealing with your army. Even if they decide to keep that Wrath of God, they'll have a heck of a time casting it with one or two lands. Funeral Charm: More discard and spot removal if you need it. It can also do 2 extra surprise damage and even make a creature unblockable against a black opponent. This is just a very good card. Dark Ritual: An obvious card in a black weenie deck. The potential for explosive first turns makes all the difference. An ideal opening hand could even go: swamp, ritual, ritual, carnophage, slayer, ravenous rats, mind swords (saccing the rats). You have a 5 turn clock on the table and your opponent starts with a 4 card hand. Snuff Out: It's always good to have a way of dealing with blockers. The alternate casting cost means it's a great way to get rid of Rancors and it can be cast even if you need all your mana to empty your hand on turn 2. Carnophage: The drawback is hardly worth mentioning, so it's just a 2/2 for 1 mana. That's pretty good. Dauthi Slayer: Playing with shadows often means your opponent will have no way to block, making his creatures mostly useless, because few decks can race this one. Dauthi Horror: More shadow is good. Priest of Gix: It's a 0-casting cost 2/1, but only if you have a ritual in your opening hand and some good cards to spend BBB on. It works great in suicide black, but this deck is focused more on disruption. Ideally, you get out some threats in the first few turns and then keep your opponent from dealing with them by making him discard either his ways to deal with your threats or the mana needed to cast them. The Rack: With the amount of discard in this deck, this could be quite a threat. It's also good to have a non-creature threat in the deck so a single Wrath won't put you back at square one. Wasteland: A bit of land destruction will make your opponent think twice before discarding lands to one of your discard spells. If they're allowed in your local group, you can add Stripmines as well. Peat Bog: If you don't get a Dark Ritual, it's still nice to have 3 mana available on turn 2. These need to be tested, though. They might even slow the deck down because they come into play tapped, so caveat emptor. Ticking Gnomes: These have a variety of uses in the sideboard. They can be additional big creatures if you have trouble punching through your opponent's defenses. They can also be some non-black creatures if you're facing a lot of protection from black. And they can even take out Mother of Runes, Nightwind Glider and Soltari Monk. Black Knight: A good blocker if you're playing against another black weenie deck (side out Snuff Out), a good attacker against white decks (side out The Rack. Your opponent won't know and will keep a Disenchant handy) and it can be used with Ticking Gnomes to change the deck into a normal black weenie deck by taking out most of the discard. Perish: Green could just possibly outrace you if you aren't careful, but a few Perishes in the sideboard will stop them cold. Misinformation: An Alliances card that allows you to put three cards from target opponent's graveyard on top of his or her library. I put these in the sideboard mostly because they can be so much fun to cast in a deck like this, but they aren't necessary for the win most of the time, so I don't want to put them in the main deck. It can be a good card to bring in against decks that run cards you really have no way of dealing with. One misinformation buys you thee extra turns, which should be plenty to win. Even in normal circumstances, it can be quite a nasty surprise against a player who was running low on land (helped by your discard, no doubt) and hoping to top-deck some.
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