Subject: [DECK] T2 Necro-Bloom Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1998 17:00:39 EDT From: Jaybooty@aol.com To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com The core of this deck is ripped straight off of a deck that made top 8 in Brazilian Nationals. It's since been morphed quite a bit through play- testing. I post it here in some detail as it looks like I'm not going to get to many Standard tournaments before MirViLite is bumped out (though it would probably be very playable in Extended, too), and my hope is that someone will pick it up and have some fun with it in some tournaments before the Urza Cycle comes in. As played by Thomas Felsberg in Brazilian Nationals: 4 Necropotence 4 Peace of Mind 4 Wrath of God 4 Volrath's Dungeon 4 Enlightened Tutor 3 Stupor 3 Bottle Gnomes 2 Cadaverous Bloom 2 Drain Life 4 Dark Ritual 4 Mox Diamond 14 Swamp 8 Plains 4 Abeyance 3 Perish 3 Disenchant 3 Aura of Silence 2 Light of Day With changes I've made: 4 Necropotence 4 Peace of Mind 4 Wrath of God 4 Lobotomy 2 Enlightened Tutor 3 Vampiric Tutor 2 Coercion 3 Bottle Gnomes 1 Cadaverous Bloom 1 Drain Life 1 COP: Red 1 Light of Day 4 Dark Ritual 4 Mox Diamond 12 Swamp 6 Plains 2 Underground River 2 Undiscovered Paradise 4 Abeyance 4 Disenchant 2 COP: Red 2 Light of Day 1 Drain Life 1 Cadaverous Bloom 1 Coercion In terms of play strategy, the deck wins with the combo Necropotence-Peace of Mind to draw insane amounts of cards, and wins with Bloom-Drain. Anything else is fairly obvious or comes out quickly as you play the deck. Card Choice Volrath's Dungeon vs. Lobotomy: I discovered in playtesting that the Dungeon was not a sure-fire bet to draw a counter, as if your opponent (playing blue) has at least the same number of cards in hand as you, he or she will let the Dungeon go through, discard all but a counter of some type, and be waiting for you with plenty of denial once you manage to top-deck something worth countering (you having discarded your hand). Therefore the Dungeon is really only effective once Necropotence is in play, and if that has happened, the game should be just about sealed anyway. Lobotomy will always draw a counter, cannot be Disenchanted, and generally hurts a lot more if it gets through. It also is very effective in trying to force through a Necropotence, and can be played 2nd-3rd turn with Mox Diamond or Dark Ritual. In my opinion, the disadvantage of playing with multi-lands is outweighed by the advantages gained by Lobotomy Stupor vs. Coercion: Coercion is a must-counter card. Stupor isn't. It came down to that difference for me. Most other changes are minor. I went down to one Drain Life and one Cadaverous Bloom main deck, because the only time you'd really want two is when you're facing an opponent playing Coercions or Bottomless Pits, both of which are rare in Standard and sideboard cards, besides. Vampiric Tutors made sense because they fetch Lobotomy, Wrath of God, or Dark Ritual, all of which can be crucial. I thought Aura of Silence was overkill, and green really hasn't presented enough of a problem to play Perish, especially since Vamp Tutors can find me my Wraths. Blue mana count may be a bit low, but I wouldn't add more than one more multi-land. The main-deck COP: Red and Light of Day are the only ways I could think of to beat red and black speed before sideboarding. Problem match-ups: Forbid-Ophidian: (I playtested against Jon Finkel's Nationals deck.) About a 50-50 chance in a match. The outcome, unless your opponent taps out early and lets you play Necropotence, is entirely draw-dependent. If you can get a Necropotence through with a Dark Ritual or Mox Diamond before your opponent gets to two mana to counter, you win. If not, and you don't draw significant hand disruption, you lose. My strategy would be to abuse the Paris Mulligan to get you as many chances as possible to get a Ritual and Necro in your first hand. It's a fine line to walk, though. (Much of this strategy also applies to playing against Draw-Go.) Sligh/SRB: Before sideboarding, you've got about a 50-50 chance to get the COP: Red out in time (without the COP main deck, you might win one duel in four). After you add two more COPs from the sideboard, win percentage goes to over 60%. When sideboarding, it's the hand destruction that goes out, so fill the extra slots with Disenchants to take care of Disks (you should be able to handle Scrolls via life gain once the COP is down). You can use the Paris option here, too, to find an opening hand with a COP or a Tutor, but don't go below six cards, as you've got to have a good flow of lands to make the COP work for you. Suicide Black: First duel of a match, you should be able to win 70% of the time by finding and dropping the Light of Day. After sideboarding, it's a race to see whether you can play Light of Day before your opponent plays Gloom (Forsaken Wastes is particularly ugly, too). Definitely side in the Disenchants, and hope for Dark Rituals if the Gloom comes down first. It's a bad matchup for duels two and three, but hopefully you're 1-0 by that time and only have to take one more duel for the match. Paris abuse comes in handy yet again here. ProsBloom: Side in the Abeyances and Disenchants, and you shouldn't have any major problems. If you've got a chance to Lobotomy first turn in this match- up, even if it takes you down to two cards in hand, I'd recommend doing it. It's great for shock value, even on the off chance that you don't completely destroy your opponent's strategy. Well, again, I hope someone picks this up and goes somewhere with it. Please send me an email if you do. In my opinion, it's about ten times as much fun to play as regular old Bloom, and should do just about as well. Have fun! Jared Butt Currently unaffiliated jaybooty@aol.com, jbutt@haverford.edu