We're back from the Grave with our first deck in ages.. Well, I say our deck... this one comes from Sheffield's Max Chambers and while it has a few pricier cards in its midst... I will say that anyone who follows his advice and build will reap the rewards as the mid range rares go through the roof post Friday's GP Honolulu
Max Calls it
Deck of the Dead
4 Diregraf ghoul
4 Gravecrawler
3 SnapcasterMage
3 Diregraf Captain
4 Geralf'sMessenger
2 Phyrexian Obliterator
2 Phantasmal Image
3 Distress
2 Doomblade
2 Go for the throat
3 Tragic Slip
2 Sword of War and Peace
3 Smallpox
4 Darkslick Shores
4 Drowned Catacombs
3 Ghost Quarter
10 Swamp
2 Island
Sideboard
3 Mental Mistep
3 Vapor Snag
2 Ratchet Bomb
3 Liliana of the Veil
2 Curse of Deaths Hold
2 Negate
Phantasmal Image is very good in the UB deck. Copying a messenger is
powerful, and you know its good against titans, thrun etc.
Snapcaster is the best card in blue at the moment. It gives so much value that
there isn't any reason not to run it. It not being a zombie isn't really
an issue, when you can cast all the spells in your yard twice.
The captain makes their wrath effects hurt. Even though this deck isn't
bothered as much as other aggro decks, enough sweep will slow you down
and allow them to stabilise. It also helps you power through blockers.
Having it in play makes it hard for them to profitably block your guys.
Distress is good against ramp. Disrupting their ramp of turn 2 or 3 really slows
them down. It also hits other stuff that this deck has a hard time with,
like planeswalkers, mirran crusader and grafdiggers cage after board.
The swords are excellent equipment. They increase your clock massively,
help you win races, give you evasion against tokens, and gives
protection against celestial purge, which causes problems for the deck.
Ghost quarters blow up wolf run and moorland haunt, don’t really hurt too much
and so are worth running.
I think evolving wilds are probably a little to slow.
The deck wants to curve nicely and wilds stops this happening.
The blue is only a splash, so I don’t think the extra fixing is needed.
The sideboard probably needs some work, but testing will help with that.
The mental misteps are for post-board grafdigger's cage, which wrecks all of this decks nice interactions, and so is worth dealing with. Its free to cast too, so you don’t have to keep mana up for it.
Vapor snags are for aggro match ups. Being able to keep them off tempo is useful. It also helps against mirran crusader, which is a big problem for this deck. Bouncing an obliterator in the mirror is good too.
Ratchet bombs are excellent against tokens, especially when this deck isn't that bothered by its stuff dying. It either comes back by itself or you play it again.
Also deals with crusader and grafdiggers cage.
Liliana is good disruption which helps slow down control and ramp. She's also good against midrange decks, but not so much against aggro, which the format is dominated by at the moment, which is why she's not in the main.
Curse is good against tokens again, but I'm not sure about its inclusion.
Negate is for control match ups. You run enough removal that creatures aren’t so much of a problem, but planeswalkers are.
Any ideas on how to improve would be appreciated.
4 Gravecrawler
3 SnapcasterMage
3 Diregraf Captain
4 Geralf'sMessenger
2 Phyrexian Obliterator
2 Phantasmal Image
3 Distress
2 Doomblade
2 Go for the throat
3 Tragic Slip
2 Sword of War and Peace
3 Smallpox
4 Darkslick Shores
4 Drowned Catacombs
3 Ghost Quarter
10 Swamp
2 Island
Sideboard
3 Mental Mistep
3 Vapor Snag
2 Ratchet Bomb
3 Liliana of the Veil
2 Curse of Deaths Hold
2 Negate
Phantasmal Image is very good in the UB deck. Copying a messenger is
powerful, and you know its good against titans, thrun etc.
Snapcaster is the best card in blue at the moment. It gives so much value that
there isn't any reason not to run it. It not being a zombie isn't really
an issue, when you can cast all the spells in your yard twice.
The captain makes their wrath effects hurt. Even though this deck isn't
bothered as much as other aggro decks, enough sweep will slow you down
and allow them to stabilise. It also helps you power through blockers.
Having it in play makes it hard for them to profitably block your guys.
Distress is good against ramp. Disrupting their ramp of turn 2 or 3 really slows
them down. It also hits other stuff that this deck has a hard time with,
like planeswalkers, mirran crusader and grafdiggers cage after board.
The swords are excellent equipment. They increase your clock massively,
help you win races, give you evasion against tokens, and gives
protection against celestial purge, which causes problems for the deck.
Ghost quarters blow up wolf run and moorland haunt, don’t really hurt too much
and so are worth running.
I think evolving wilds are probably a little to slow.
The deck wants to curve nicely and wilds stops this happening.
The blue is only a splash, so I don’t think the extra fixing is needed.
The sideboard probably needs some work, but testing will help with that.
The mental misteps are for post-board grafdigger's cage, which wrecks all of this decks nice interactions, and so is worth dealing with. Its free to cast too, so you don’t have to keep mana up for it.
Vapor snags are for aggro match ups. Being able to keep them off tempo is useful. It also helps against mirran crusader, which is a big problem for this deck. Bouncing an obliterator in the mirror is good too.
Ratchet bombs are excellent against tokens, especially when this deck isn't that bothered by its stuff dying. It either comes back by itself or you play it again.
Also deals with crusader and grafdiggers cage.
Liliana is good disruption which helps slow down control and ramp. She's also good against midrange decks, but not so much against aggro, which the format is dominated by at the moment, which is why she's not in the main.
Curse is good against tokens again, but I'm not sure about its inclusion.
Negate is for control match ups. You run enough removal that creatures aren’t so much of a problem, but planeswalkers are.
Any ideas on how to improve would be appreciated.
