Subject: Re: Exodus Comments Date: Thu, 11 Jun 1998 05:05:59 -0700 (PDT) From: "Mike Donais." To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com -------------------------------------------------------------------- Exodus is all about Hatred. Hatred. 3BB, Instant, Pay X life: Target creature gets +X/+0 until end of turn. A lot of people that reviewed the set either ignored or even put down hatred. Hatred, like empyrial armour, is something you must deal with or lose. Second turn duathi, third turn ritual hatred is a third turn kill. It is a 2 card combo because you need a ritual and a hatred. If you don't draw the hatred though you can still have a very good black weenie deck. Here is a sample deck listing: Black Hate: 4 Hatred 4 Dark rituals 2 Mana vault =10 combo 4 Carnophage 4 Sarcomancy 4 Blood pets 4 Duathi 2/1 4 Duathi 2/2 4 Duathi Warlord =24 creatures 2 funeral charms 4 unholy strength =6 spells 16 swamps 4 wastelands =20 lands 26(30 with pets) total mana sources to help ensure casting of hatred as soon as possible. First turn zombie, second turn ritual + mana vault + hatred is a turn 2 kill. Hatred like this is so dangerous you can never let an unblocked creature through. It is an instant so it is extremely dangerous. The deck is so aggressive that you need to tap lands to make some defense for yourself, but at the same time you can not afford to tap out because the hate may come. Depending on the number of mana vaults you run this deck has about a 40 percent chance of killing on turn 3. The blood pets can be used to cast hatred also if it is convenient. They could be changed to some kind of knight if you find they playtest weak. But who knows when you might need to block a ball lightning. The only deck I can see being consistently strong versus this is mono red because they can always fireblast or shock the hatred target. The weakness of this deck is about the same as empyrial armour or bloom decks. You don't always draw the hatred and the mana to cast it. On the other hand the deck is still beatdown without the hatred. Only the mana vaults are weak without hatred. The rest is black weenie. I am guessing that just the potential of this deck existing is enough to change the environment. There are so many decks out there that just lose to this with a good draw. This is the only card in the set that could be banned in my opinion. We will see if 5 mana really is too much or if it is worth it. Note that this deck is almost entirely Rath Cycle. I am sure you will see it in Rath cycle. Here are some other decks I predict we will see, none of them are particularly good against Black Hate. There are 3 great cards for the 187 deck. Equilibirum, Recurring Nightmare, Survival of the fittest. This along with 187 cards like Nekrataal, Gravedigger, Wall of Bossoms etc will certainly pop up in many variations. Also it can easily reanimate big fatties like verdant force. It will take a lot of playtesting before someone finds the best version of this and names it after himself. These seem to slow for Black Hate though. Equilibrium makes 187 decks amazing versus most decks. Black/White Necropotence. This expansion has soo much white life gain cards it is crazy. There are now white creatures in rath cycle that give you life for 1,2,3,4,5 mana. More importantly is peace of mind. Discard a card and pay W for 3 life. Amazing in Black/White necro. Many variants of this will pop up also. It may have trouble with Black Hate. No cards in Hand Decks. Ensnaring Bridge, cursed scroll, bottomless pit (or not), ertai, scalding tongs, null brooch, maybe even pox. Choose a handful and throw them in your 'empty hand' deck. Sylvan Oath: This is a cool deck I made myself on sunday night at the pre-release. It seems no one else has had this take on the card. Card Title: Oath of Druids Card Color: Green Type & Class: Enchantment Casting Cost: 1G Pow/Tgh: n/a Card Text: During each player's upkeep, if that player controls fewer creatures than target opponent, he or she may reveal cards from his or her library until a creature card is revealed. Put that card into his or her hand and the remainings into his or her graveyard. Rarity: Rare Sylvan Library with a consistent shuffler would be great. If you have Oath of Druids and a few gaea's you get this amazing sylvan shuffling effect. All your graveyard gets shuffled in each turn and you get to see new sylvan cards each turn. That would be ok, but not nearly good enough for a deck concept. If you start adding creatures like wall of blossoms you can gain some card drawing for free also. But then your opponent may use the oath, or atleast maintain creature parity so you can not use the oath. If you add verdant force then all your tokens will allow your opponent to oath and with all the bounce these days it will not be consistent enough. So I decided to use creatures that will never be in play during your upkeep or your opponents upkeep unless you want them to be. The first few that come to mind are Spike Feeder and Bottle Gnomes. So every turn I get 3-4 life. Not bad with sylvan. I also can keep them around to block and then sac them or just keep them if my opponent has more creatures so I can Oath for another one next turn. I did look to see if any other creatures also fit this description. Ball Lightning looked pretty good, but hard to cast if I do draw it. Viashino Sandstalker looked amazing. Not only do I get some free beatdown I get it back in my hand! And it is easier to cast then ball lightning. Lastly I noticed mogg fanatic. But he was a little too slow and wimpy so I didn't include him. Some other cards I considered were flame elemental and 187 creatures. But they were not good for the deck. Here is the deck I came up with: Sylvan Oath: 4 Shock 4 Incinerate 2 Firestorm 2 Earthquakes =12 burn (anti-hatred) 4 Spike feeder 4 Bottle gnomes 2 Viashino sandstalkers 1 Ball lightning =11 creatures 3 Sylvan Lbrary 4 Oath of Druids =7 enchantments 2 Shattering pulse 2 Creeping mold 3 Gaea's blessing =7 Utility spells 2 Fetch lands 2 Undiscovered paradise (firestorm) 2 Quicksands 1 mogg hollows 4 Karplusan forest 6 Forest 6 Mountain =23 lands I haven't had a chance to tune the deck yet, let me know if it is as fun to play as it looks. All that free lifegain seems strong with sylvan. --- Here are what people have had to say about hatred in other posts: ---------------------------------------- Hatred. (I Hate this card!), 3BB, Instant, Pay X life: Target creature gets +X/+0 until end of turn. Watch List Hatred, Instant, 3BB, Pay X life: Target creature gets +X/+0 until end of turn. Crap rare. My guess is that has this insanely high CC solely to prevent cheesy combo's. My other guess is that that combo will pop up anyway. It will, however, be on a par with Minion of the Wastes. Hatred Instant {3BB} EX-R Pay X life: Target creature gets +X/+0 until end of turn. Sealed: **** Constructed: ** In sealed, the only problem with this card is that it doesn't produce a gory "fatality" ;) In constructed, simply too expensive. -------------------------------------------