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The Magic Chest 28: Snowfall

Snowfall 2U
Enchantment
Cumulative Upkeep: U
Islands may produce an additional U when tapped for mana. This mana is usable only for cumulative upkeep. Snow-covered islands may produce either an additional UU or an additional U when tapped for mana. This mana is usable only for cumulative upkeep.

Have you ever played a game of Reverse Magic, where the point is to make the worst deck possible (with certain restrictions to make sure the deck doesn't consist of 60 cards that don't do anything useful)? The way to test whose deck is worse is to exchange decks and play to win. It's surprisingly fun to play with a horrible deck, not knowing what your next draw is going to be.

The time I played it, the deck I had made for my opponent had a lot of cantrips like Flare, Solfatara and Touch of Death, because I figured it would come down to who ran out of cards first. I was wrong. I ended up with a lot of Snowfalls in my hand and losing miserably.

That got me thinking about Snowfall, determined to put it to good use. After I determined that it didn't make for a good drink coaster (too small), I made a list of all cards with cumulative upkeep and started crossing out any that didn't work with Snowfall. There aren't that many cards with cumulative upkeep to begin with and, after crossing out ones with life payment, like Morinfen and ones that used non-blue colored mana for the upkeep, there were very few left. The only ones left that seemed worthy to base a deck on were the three that mess with opponent's mana: Naked Singularity, Reality Twist and Ritual of Subdual.

Reality Twist (plains produce R, swamps produce G, mountains produce W, and forests produce B) seemed like the best bet at first, but during a test game I realized it was too big a gamble. Sure, my Islands were unaffected, but so were my opponent's. Reality Twist is also powerless against decks that use non-basic lands for mana.

So, I ended up with Ritual of Subdual (All mana-producing lands produce colorless mana instead of their normal mana). Sure, it affects me too, but with a few non-land mana sources, that shouldn't be too big a problem.

At first glance, it may seem like Ritual of Subdual and Snowfall don't go well together. After all, how am I going to pay the Snowfall's cumulative upkeep if all my lands give only colorless mana? It's not a real problem, though, because with both a Snowfall and a Ritual of Subdual in play, my snow-covered islands give one colorless mana and up to two blue mana. Luckily, the mana from Snowfall isn't affected by the Ritual according to the rules.

Now, let's look at some math. With one Sky Diamond in play, Ritual of Subdual can be cast on turn five, with two forests and three snow-covered islands in play.

On turn 6, pay the upkeep (2) and use the diamond to cast a Snowfall. On turn 7, the total upkeep is 4U. On turn 8, the upkeep is 6UU. On turn 9, the upkeep is 8UUU, which you can still pay with just the lands you started with.

Now, consider what happens if you also have a way to make sure your next few draws are snow-covered islands. Each turn you play one, you can keep up the lock for one additional turn. With an Elfhame Sanctuary in play, you can get all your islands into play before your lock expires. The Sanctuaries are also useful for getting enough mana early.

But what happens when the Ritual of Subdual finally does expire, after you run out of snow-covered islands in your deck? That's when life gets a little bit tricky, because as soon as the Ritual leaves play, your opponent will have a hand full of good cards and plenty of lands in play to cast them with. The best way to keep damage to a minimum is to cast a second Ritual of Subdual in the same turn. The easiest way to do that is by having a Crystal Chimes in your hand. Cast the Chimes and use it to get all enchantments in your graveyard back into your hand. Then recast the Snowfall and the Ritual you just lost.

At that point, you can sit back and wait until you draw your kill card. An artifact like Black Vise or Millstone or even Soldevi Digger would work, but I wanted to stay with the cumulative upkeep theme, so I used Malignant Growth: (Cumulative upkeep 1. During your upkeep, put a growth counter on Malignant Growth. During target opponent's draw phase, he or she draws an additional card for each growth counter on Malignant Growth. For each card that opponent draws in this way, Malignant Growth deals 1 damage to him or her).

A single Malignant Growth should be sufficient, because I'm using Ancestral Knowledge: (Cumulative upkeep 1. When Ancestral Knowledge comes into play, look at the top ten cards of your library, then remove any number of them from the game and put the rest back on top of your library in any order. If Ancestral Knowledge leaves play, shuffle your library). Blue has better search cards, like Impulse, but Ancestral Knowledge fits the cumulative upkeep theme and it's better than it looks. With a bit of luck, it's like tutoring two or three turns in a row, because you get to manipulate such a big chunk of your deck.

Another way to find the cards you need fast is Attunement: (Return Attunement to owner's hand: Draw three cards, then choose and discard four cards). With a Crystal Chimes, you can get back any enchantments you discarded to it.

Most of the deck is in place now, all that's left is a bit of defense against creatures. Wall of Roots is a good candidate, because it can provide mana as well. I've added a few Jungle Barriers as well, to protect against bigger creatures, like Blastoderms.

Against decks with a lot of creatures, the walls may not be enough, so I put a few Evacuations in the sideboard. Ideally, cast one at the end of your opponent's turn and follow it up with a Ritual of Subdual during your own turn. That way all your opponent's creatures will be stuck in his or her hand.

To finish off the deck, I added four Force of Wills to it. You never know what you'll be up against and a Force in hand is a great way to get out of trouble. I was tempted to use Hesitations: (If any spell is played, counter that spell and sacrifice Hesitation), if only because it works well with Crystal Chimes, but they're not very reliable. A few in the sideboard should come in handy, though.

The sideboard could also use a way to deal with artifact creatures and mana sources, as well as enchantments. I picked Confiscate, because it can also be used as extra creature control and there's enough mana in the deck to make it castable.

Lastly, I'm always worried about land destruction, so a few Skyshroud Blessings round out the sideboard.


The deck:

"Snowflakes Keep Falling on my Head..."
4x Snowfall
4x Ritual of Subdual
4x Elfhame Sanctuary
1x Malignant Growth
3x Crystal Chimes

4x Ancestral Knowledge
2x Attunement

4x Force of Will
2x Jungle Barrier
4x Wall of Roots
4x Sky Diamond
9x Forest
15x Snow-covered Island

Sideboard:
1x Malignant Growth
2x Jungle Barrier
3x Evacuation
4x Confiscate
2x Hesitation
3x Skyshroud Blessing

Have fun!

 
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