But hey, it's been a while since I've wrote an article about creating and analyzing a deck so I thought I'd jump into it again, focusing on my favorite card from Innistrad.
When this card was spoiled my inner Johnny yelped with glee. I immediately went to deck creation using the obvious cards for the deck. Perilous Myr becomes a free shock that isn't detrimental to cast normally. Rune-Scarred Demon becomes a 5/5 flyer for 5 that tutors something to your hand, frost titan becomes a 5/5 frost titan for 4. and Phyrexian Metamorph becomes a really … really degenerate clone spell.
My first list looked a lot like the budget deck that Jacob Van Lunen posted on the Wizards website some time ago.
The Old Heartless Summoning
TheWillRogers Type II
Main Deck:
1 Frost Titan
1 Grave Titan
1 Massacre Wurm
2 Perilous Myr
4 Phyrexian Metamorph
4 Rune-Scarred Demon
3 Solemn Simulacrum
2 Black Sun's Zenith
3 Divination
1 Doom Blade
1 Go for the Throat
4 Heartless Summoning
4 Mana Leak
4 Ponder
1 Victim of Night
4 Darkslick Shores
4 Drowned Catacomb
1 Ghost Quarter
7 Island
8 Swamp
This deck did me well at a failed to launch FNM(got 7 players, people would rather draft, standard is just too expensive) and has served me very well at the local college where I play casually and test against a few other good players(better than me, and that's all the counts.) There are like 20 people who play magic there, seriously, it's alike a mini PTQ every single day. only about 5 of us have a shot in a real PTQ, and one of them has even reached top 8 in a PTQ. i'm not saying i'm testing with the pros, but i could be testing with worse.
The deck runs very few kill spells and a lot of draw, most of the time I was just hoping to divinate into what was needed if I didn't have heartless out with a Rune-Scarred in hand. I also found myself mana starved quite a bit, sometimes cloning a Solemn to get a 5th land to drop a Rune-Scarred Squadron Hawk. Victim of night has gotten less good now that we have Tragic Slip. The Draw power given by Divination is not needed if the curve is corrected. Not to mention we got an amazing new toy in Dark Ascension.
What a beauty of a card. When a lot of people saw it they thought of EDH, when I saw it I though of a 3/3 for 3 that made my hand really really really really big.
(yup, that's my hand.)
With Havengul in the list Snapcaster Mage becomes a simple inclusion. 1U to give any spell flashback, at instant speed. This makes for a little more Snapcaster shenanigans than delver decks. Near infinite kill and counterspells. you'll have no problem flipping those Werewolves back over. that is, if they don't die.
Snapcaster also allows for this ridiculous kill.
Black Sun's Zenith is a phenomenal card that will swing the game to you against any other deck that uses creatures. Who cares if your stuff dies as long as you have a Rune-Scarred Demon in hand to drop next turn, followed by a slew of clones.
(ok, it's a bad shop of a bad joke of an ok fighting game...)
Massacre wurm, even though it stops Township and spirits seems like a lot of time sitting in your hand if you're matched against something else. It's great for the sideboard though. Rune-Scarred Demon has been a fantastic Squadron Hawk on steroids but at the same time he still costs quite a bit to drop, but his effect is fantastic when it hits so we don't want him gone all the way, but drawn a little less.
Grave Titan went in because I was confident I would rarely have 2 summonings on the board, but it happens more than I wanted to see. So that brought me to another point in my brain storm; How to make the deck so that the creatures are not crippled by multiple (no more than 2!) Heartless summonings on the board at the same time. So I looked at everything with 2 in play.
Myr – still a shock
Havengul – a 2/2 for UB with a good effect. Sure, everyone plays galvanic blast but this wont be too terrible.
Grave Titan – 4/4 deathtouch for BB, with no board impact. It's nice, but it doesn't really get anywhere and just trades up with a regular titan.
Metamorph – U or 2life clone. Deal, next.
Rune-Scarred – 1BB 4/4 flying d-tutor. Still good
Solemn Simulacrum – 0 to get a land and then draw a card, or with lich on the board and the need for land with no myr in graveyard, 1 for a land and a card. Trigger for tragic slip as well.
Frost Titan – UU for a 4/4 quasi-tapper. Pretty good, but sadly the 2UU for a 5/5 frost titan is significantly worse. He's good in specific matches but there is a reason this guy is only 2 bucks a pop. He doesn't do too much against aggro, high creature count decks.
Dungeon Geists – first time i've mentioned this new toy in the article. With 1 heartless he's a 2/2 flyer for UU that locks a creature until it dies. Sadly he is very detrimental with two heartless, he is nothing more than a 1/1 flyer for UU that locks a creature. He dies easily to gut shot, Geistflame, and tragic slip. Although, he does make great bolt bait(i know there's no bolt in standard right now … it's an expression.
So with some number evaluations, some cuts, and some influence from a few daily decks, I give to you Havengul Summonings.
Havengul Summonings
TheWillRogers Type II
Main Deck:
1 Consecrated Sphinx
1 Dungeon Geists
3 Havengul Lich
2 Perilous Myr
4 Phyrexian Metamorph
2 Rune-Scarred Demon
2 Snapcaster Mage
4 Solemn Simulacrum
2 Black Sun's Zenith
4 Heartless Summoning
4 Mana Leak
4 Ponder
3 Tragic Slip
4 Darkslick Shores
4 Drowned Catacomb
1 Evolving Wilds
1 Ghost Quarter
6 Island
8 Swamp
Sideboard:
2 Doom Blade
1 Dungeon Geists
1 Frost Titan
3 Geth's Verdict
2 Go for the Throat
1 Massacre Wurm
3 Ratchet Bomb
2 Spellskite
I haven't brought anything up about Consecrated Sphinx yet, but she fits pretty well in the deck, and can easily be switched out for the first titan in sideboard or a second Dungeon Geists for going against a more aggro flying deck. Tragic Slip's most important trick in the deck is to kill Birds of Paradise before a sword is tossed onto them. Because by now we should all be fearing birds with colourful swords.
The sideboard is constructed to beat the decks that have been placing the most lately, Geth's Verdict helps against decks putting swords on invisible stalker, or simply just delver decks. Also helps if your opponent has shown luck getting swords onto his Birds of Paradise. Go for the throat and Doom Blade and Frost titan are for when your opponent is playing a slower deck like solar flare. Something that just drags the game out. Play they're game against them. We can almost do it better. Ratchet Bomb is for any token deck. Spellskite is for against most blue decks or green decks, green may have naturalize in their sideboard to deal with swords and the rare Heartless player. Spellskite draws that away from your summonings. Massacre wurm is another card geared toward the Tokens match ups. Nothing like your opponent having 5, 4/4 flyers when you drop a massacre wurm, and clone it.
Less in depth as my past few write-ups have been but just wanted to get something out. I will be testing this deck for a bit and post back when I have a good 50+ games logged.
I'll leave with a question. What deck is your favorite deck in the current(or past) Standard formats?
