Explorations #18 - -1/-1 Counter Control

Today I am going to make a control deck.  On top of that, I've decided that I want to make a control deck that doesn't play Cryptic Command.  In today's world of super-easy mana, it's just way too easy to throw Cryptic Command into anything resembling a control deck.  In the olden days people used to love splashing for cards that cost one colored mana, be terrified of splashing for cards that cost two colored mana, and shove everything that cost three colored mana into their trade binders.  Nowadays things have changed, big time, and I think that I'm letting it hurt my style of casually-competitive deckbuilding.

I've noticed a somewhat disturbing trend in what happens when I lay out decks, and I'm going to start working to fix it.  Here it is.  I come up with an idea for a deck and open up the deck editor in MTGO.  I add in some Reflecting Pools, shard lands, vivid lands, filter lands, and basic lands.  Now I can cast pretty much any spell that I want.  Then I add in the two most ridiculous cards in the format: Bitterblossom and Cryptic Command.  I follow this up by adding in a few copies of Mulldrifter and Shriekmaw - those guys provide awesome utility and double as threats, they are the kind of card that I am very much drawn towards.  And then... well I've got like twenty slots to actually make a deck. 

This reminds me a lot of playing Vintage where many of my card choices are basically predecided for me due to the card pool and format.  Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love Vintage (and all eternal formats) - but the fix that I get there is completely different from the fix I am seeking while making, playing, and writing about casually competitive decks.  Today I'm going to do my best to avoid the Reflecting/Bitter/Cryptic trap and make something that feels fresh.  Please forgive me a bit of complaining, I am just a little sick of three, four, and five color decks at the moment.

So what do I do when I'm getting a little sick of the state of Magic and want to come up with something to respark my interest?  That's easy.  I turn towards the black cards.  I've wanted to try out these two guys for a while now:

 

For some reason, black cards that provided a way to gain control over a creature have always appealed to me.  As a small child, Ritual of the Machine was amongst my favorite cards - and Necroskitter is sort of like an updated version.  Just in case you didn't have the pleasure, I can assure you that there's not much better than sacrificing a Breeding Pit token to take control of someone's Shivan Dragon.  Quick aside: Ritual of the Machine was in Master's Edition I and Breeding Pit was in Master's Edition II - so if anyone has interest in reassembling this sweet combo from the past, then just fire up those classic cards!  You'll just need to find some poor sucker dropping Shivan Dragons.  Silly red mages!

I'm also a huge fan of black-flavored card drawing.  Dark Confidant, Phyrexian Arena, and Necropotence are some of my favorite cards of all time.  Dusk Urchins is probably not in the same league as the aforementioned powerhouses (especially Necropotence), but it's still a really fun card that I would like to try out.  Time to get both of these guys into a deck!

Alright, so assuming that we're playing with Necroskitter and Dusk Urchins - what else do we want in our list?  The first obvious idea is to tie these cards together with the -1/-1 linear that Wizards introduced in Shadowmoor.  Time to check out a few cards that should play well in this deck.  I'm going to stick with cards that are either pure black or hybrid black.

Scar
The simplest card in Shadowmoor's -1/-1 linear.  Seems like a fun combat trick, helps trigger a bunch of related synergistic cards, and gives us a decent one drop.

Blowfly Infestation
If we Scar a creature and then destroy it later, we get to transfer over the Scar token to a new creature of our choice.  Very strong against the token creature strategies that are popular these days.

Corrosive Mentor Turns every creature in our deck into a -1/-1 counter producing machine.  Makes combat math very difficult for our opponents.  We only want to run this guy if we end up with a bunch of non-wither creatures. Soul Snuffers Another creature that's fantastic against token strategies, distributes a ton of -1/-1 counters to push forward our linear. Midnight Banshee This card seems like a ton of fun to me.  Sits at the top of our curve and makes life Hell for our poor, non-black opponent. Kulrath Knight We're talking about running lots of ways to spread -1/-1 counters onto our opponent's creatures, doesn't a one-sided Moat sound pretty good?

Grave Pact
Necroskitter becomes an absolute monster with Grave Pact in play.  Given all of the ways to place out -1/-1 counters we've discussed, Grave Pact becomes like a weird version of Ritual of the Machine.

Corrupt
We're going to be running a lot of Swamps, and Corrupt can provide quite a bit of reach.

Scarscale Ritual
It's tough to find card draw in black, but Scarscale Ritual is a quality option.

Crumbling Ashes
This card is tough for me to evaluate; I'm not sure how it stacks up against Blowfly Infestation.  Neither one provides any real immediate action, and both have a chance of forcing us into harming our own creatures.  Blowfly Infestation keeps the -1/-1 counter action going, and Crumbling Ashes tends to reduce the number of -1/-1 counters around.  I'll have to pay attention to how often game situations come up where I would want one option over the other.

Bloodied Ghost
I love the art on this card.

Gwyllion Hedge-Mage
Will almost always come into play along with a targeted -1/-1 counter.  Not sure if that makes it good enough, probably not?

Incremental Blight
In this deck it has a great potential to be a three-for-one, and Necroskitter can bring some (or all) of those three over to our side.

Puppeteer Clique
We're going to be killing a lot of creatures with this deck, and Puppeteer Clique can bring them to fight on our side in a slightly different way than Necroskitter.

Grim Poppet
Costs seven mana, but instantly gives us a strong creature and three -1/-1 counters to distribute as we see fit.

Liliana Vess
Provides an alternate route to victory, and is just a strong and versatile card overall.

Fleshbag Marauder
If we have Grave Pact in play, then the Marauder becomes extremely powerful.

(Bone Splinter)
Like Fleshbag Marauder, combos well with Grave Pact.  Also combos well with Necroskitter.

Terror
I'm not sure if this deck wants to run more conventional creature removal in addition to our -1/-1 attack.

Profane Command
This card isn't seeing quite as much play as it used to, but that doesn't mean it isn't still amazingly powerful.

Here's my first shot at a deck: 

-1/-1 Control

Steve Gargolinski - Standard Legal

Creatures 3 Dusk Urchins 4 Necroskitter 4 Soul Snuffers 3 Kulrath Knight 2 Puppeteer Clique 2 Midnight Banshee 18 cards Other Spells 4 Thoughtseize 3 Mind Stone 3 Scar 2 Blowfly Infestation 2 Grave Pact 2 Liliana Vess 1 Corrupt 1 Profane Command 18 cards

Lands 18 Swamp 2 Leechridden Swamp 4 Mutavault 24 cards

 
The numbers are a little wonky in this first decklist, but there are a ton of cool cards that I want to try out.  I added in two copies of Liliana Vess to provide some long term power if I have my opponent locked down under Kulrath Knight, with the ultimate ability serving as an alternate win condition.  I decided to run a 1/1 split of Corrupt and Profane Command, with the theory that each one provides a significant amount of reach, and I can use Liliana Vess to grab whichever one is more important at the time.  Maybe after a few test games I'll adjust these quantities.

I'm not really sure about the idea of running Scar, but it seems like a fun combat trick that has a lot of synergy with other cards in the deck.  I'll try it out and see how things go.  I'm also running a few Mind Stones, which should help us get to something like Mindnight Banshee or Kulrath Knight quicker as well as providing a way to instantly draw a card that we've tutored for with Liliana Vess.

Normally I would start writing up game reports, but this time I have something a little bit different.

Bonus Footage

Ok this week I've decided to try something new and add in some video footage to my article.  I love the idea of adding some video content to show how the deck plays, which provides a unique view that seems fairly difficult to capture in words.  Just to get it out of the way now, I don't know anything at all about video editing - so please bear with me while I try to figure some of this stuff out.  If you know what you're doing when it comes to video editing, then PLEASE let me know if you can send some tips my way; I can definitely use all of the help I can get.

Also, I'm not 100% sure of the form that the video content of my articles should take.  To start off I've decided to produce a "feature match" video along with each article.  Instead of just giving text-based game reports, I'll substitute a video for one of the games.  These videos will include commentary, and maybe some additional information.  Who knows what the future may bring?

Enough talk, here's my first shot at one of these bad boys.  I decided that the first time out I would make a video of the very first game that I played with the deck.

Game 1 vs Many Non-Basic Lands

Here's the link if you want to watch it directly:  www.youtube.com/watch - and please subscribe to my channel!  Tell your friends!

I recommend watching it in HD (from the link above, click "watch in HD" just to the bottom-right of the video), it's much easier to make out the cards.  Or, you can watch it embedded here:



The main bummer of this video is that the game was not very competitive.  My original idea was to make a video of my first game with each week's deck - but maybe in the future I should play a few until I get one that's interesting?  Or do people like the idea of taking a look at the first thing that happens as I take each deck into the practice room?  That seemed like kind of a neat goal, but it may not be the best approach.  I'll have to think about this one.

I'm 100% open to suggestions about the best way to use video to supplement these articles.  What do you guys think of the video content?  Anything about the above video that should change?  Any other segments that would benefit from a video supplement?  Let me know!

Game 2 vs BR

I start off by casting Thoughtseize to strip away Nameless Inversion.  The only other card that I saw of note was Vein Drinker, so I'm not worried about dealing with a blazing fast start.  I play down Mutavault, Mind Stone, Necroskitter and Liliana Vess in that order which gives me a strong board position.  My opponent uses Raven's Crime and tosses two lands to strip away the rest of my hand (Midnight Banshee, Leechridden Swamp, and Swamp).

Liliana keeps my opponent's hand mostly empty while I topdeck and play out Grave Pact.  Blightning hits me for zero cards, but redirects to Liliana to keep me off of her ultimate ability.  Hoarder's Greed gives my opponent a couple of cards, and shows me Blaze and Dusk Urchins off the clash.  I cast out Dusk Urchins, but Nameless Inversion takes the 4/3 out.  Viscera Dragger comes into play and I tutor up Profane Command to take down the Dragger and bring the Dusk Urchins back from the dead.  I attack a few times for the win.

Analysis: After two games I haven't been able to pull of any sweet -1/-1, Necroskitter, or Blowfly Infestation tricks despite having plenty of these cards in both games.  I need to play an opponent who is interested in casting creatures!

Game 3 vs Jund I start off with Leechridden Swamp and then Thoughtseize away Shock.  My opponent uses Terramorphic Expanse and then casts (Dragon Fodden).  I use my second Thoughtseize to take down Marsh Flitter and then clear away all of his tokens with Soul Snuffer.  I get Kulrath Knight into play, but Puncture Blast takes that big guy down before he can do any real damage. Shriekmaw comes down for my opponent and I play out Mind Stone into Dusk Urchins.  Shriekmaw trades with the Dusk Urchins and then Necrogenesis hits the table, which is unfortunate since now my Profane Command is MUCH less useful.  Fleshbag Marauder comes down which leaves me with exactly zero creatures after the sacrifice, while my opponent makes a Saproling to send to the graveyard...  and then another few for the beatdown.  He follows up with Liliana Vess and I am in huge trouble. Thankfully I have a combination of cards that gives me some chance to win: Profane Command and Corrupt.  Thankfully my opponent attacks with everything and doesn't leave a blocker for Mutavalt.  The 'Vault brings my opponent down to twelve, Profane Command takes down his Marauder and bashes him down to six life, while giving me just enough life to stay alive at one, untap, and then Corrupt for exactly enough damage to win.

Analysis: Towards the end I really did not think I was pulling that one off.  I was low on life (thanks, in part, to my two early Thoughtseizes) and facing down some serious offense.  If my opponent had played any more conservatively then there's no way that I could have won, and it certainly did not look good - but I made the right decisions to pull off the win as the stars aligned.  Not only did I have to do this through Liliana Vess discards, but also offensive pressure and the inability to use Profane Command to resurrect my fallen warriors.  Even towards the end I thought that I would come up one point of damage short... but then I realized that Leechridden Swamp counted as a Swamp.  I guess I should have figured that out from the name, but I'm so used to non-basics being, well, non-basic.

After a couple of games, I'm going to make a few changes.  Scar seems to just be underpowered, and it hasn't been very useful thus far - so I'm going to take it out of my list.  I'm going to add in two copies of Shriekmaw and another copy of Corrupt.  I know I said that I didn't want to run Shriekmaw in every list, but it's obvious this one wants the 3/2 badly - I'm not just running it because there's black mana around.  With Necroskitter out, it's really important that I'm able to finish off a creature that has received one or more 1/-1 counters.  I also love the idea of tutoring for Shriekmaw with Liliana, firing off Mind Stone to draw, and then bringing Shriekmaw down to convert a troublesome creature to my side.

Out:  3x Scar
In:  2x Shriekmaw, 1x Corrupt

-1/-1 Control v2

Steve Gargolinski - Standard Legal

Creatures 2 Shriekmaw 3 Dusk Urchins 4 Necroskitter 4 Soul Snuffers 3 Kulrath Knight 2 Puppeteer Clique 2 Midnight Banshee 20 cards Other Spells 4 Thoughtseize 3 Mind Stone 2 Blowfly Infestation 2 Grave Pact 2 Liliana Vess 2 Corrupt 1 Profane Command 16 cards

Lands 18 Swamp 2 Leechridden Swamp 4 Mutavault 24 cards

Back to testing...

Game 4 vs Thousand-Year Something I play Mutavault and my opponent plays (Kithkin Daggerdale).  He casts Thousand-Year Elixir and I get out Necroskitter and Blowfly Infestation, which is a pretty awesome combo.  He plays Woodland Changeling and then Treefolk Harbinger, but I use Soul Snuffers to totally demolish his team with Necroskitter and Blowfly counters (bringing the Kithkin and Changeling onto my side and neutering his Harbinger).  He plays Hunter of Eyeblights and I respond with Grave Pact as he uses Lignify to get rid of Necroskitter's cool ability.  For some reason he uses Hunter of Eyeblights to take out my Soul Snuffers, which triggers Blowfly Infestation and Grave Pact - wiping out his team.  He concedes. Analysis: Finally I'm starting to get things going with this deck.  I had most of the major components working in this game, and I love the interactions that arise.  I was a bit surprised when he voluntarily triggered the demise of his entire team, but I guess I probably shouldn't be.  Cards like Necroskitter, Blowfly Infestation, and Grave Pact really push players out of their comfort zones and into a place where decisions aren't quite as clear to them as they normally are.  This is where players make mistakes.

Game 5 vs Red Aggro

My opponent starts off with Spark Elemental, and I am psyched.  I'm curious to see how this deck does against a full-out aggro deck, and turn one Spark Elemental is a pretty sure indication that I'm up against aggro.  This point is reenforced as my opponent plays out Heartlash Cinder and Mogg Fanatic before I make a single play.  My first play is a strong one in Necroskitter, which forces my opponent to use Flame Javelin in order to get the 1/4 out of the way.  I cast out a second Necroskitter, followed by Dusk Urchins.

My Dusk Urchins go down to a combination of Magma Spray and Mogg Fanatic before they have a chance to draw me a card, but I topdeck and play out another copy of Dusk Urchins.  My opponent uses Incinerate to take this one out, and it's obvious that the momentum of this match has swung heavily into my favor.  If my opponent is sending burn at my creatures, then he's not sending it at my face - which is always good when battling aggro.

I use Soul Snuffers to take out (and then steal) Heartlash Cinder and go on the offense.  Shock takes out my Soul Snuffers to slow me down a bit, and Stigma Lasher comes down as my opponent's last chance to get something going...  but I use Profane Command to take down the Stigma Lasher and bring Dusk Urchins back into play.  What a backbreaker of a card.  I cast Kulrath Knight and my opponent concedes.

Analysis: I'm definitely happy with my deck's peformance in the first matchup against full-out aggro.  Necroskitter is basically the worst nightmare for a deck that's trying to get in with a bunch of 1/1 and 2/2 creatures, and thankfully I drew two of them - with an option for a third with Profane Command.  Speaking of Profane Command, I'm definitely questioning my decision to add a second copy of Corrupt instead of a second copy of Profane Command.  They're both strong depending on the situation, but I think that overall the Comand is the stronger card.  I'll keep this in mind as I play more test games.

Game 6 vs White Weenie

My opponent plays Akrasan Squire and then Dispeller's Capsule while I play Mind Stone and then Necroskitter.  He uses Dispeller's Capsule to take down my Mind Stone and then plays out another Akrasan Squire, but I use Soul Snuffers to steal his entire team and he concedes.

Analysis: Life is difficult as an X/1 creature in the hostile NecroSnuffer world - these cards are just nightmare against any sort of little dude strategy.  It is also definitely not good, while playing white weenie, to tap out on turn three to take out an opposing Mind Stone.  That is not a sign that the game is headed in the right direction.

One major bummer so far is that I haven't been able to cast Midnight Banshee a single time!  I've only had her in my hand once in these six games so far, and she was stripped away early with Raven's Crime.  Hopefully I draw into the nightmare 5/5 pretty soon.

Game 7 vs Jund Something

I get out a second turn Mind Stone, and then third turn Necroskitter.  My opponent casts Dragon Fodder on the second and third turn, but I get all four tokens for myself as Soul Snuffers hits the table.  I have been hitting it big so far with the Necroskitter/Soul Snuffers combo.  My opponent comes back with Nantuko Husk and Sarkhan Vol, stealing and sacrificing my Necroskitter.  I'm able to take out the Planeswalker with Dragon Fodder tokens and then trade Soul Snuffers for the Husk, which brings the board back to a somewhat stable state.

My opponent plays down Goblin Assault, and I finally get Midnight Banshee into play for the first time - and she absolutely takes over the game.  He tries to come back Sprouting Thrinax, but I get Blowfly Infestation into play and just start eating his team alive with -1/-1 counters.  I topdeck and cast Necroskitter, which gets the concession.

Analysis:  It is never good when you play out a spell that results in giving your opponent creatures every turn.  Midnight Banshee is just as good as advertised, and in this game completely took over.  She's very tough to remove as a black creature with 5 toughness, attacks for a ton of damage, and weakens your opponent's entire team.  Quality card.

Alright, I had planned to evolve this deck into a different color combination (maybe green for Flourishing Defenses, red for cards like Puncture Blast and Stigma Lasher, or blue for Leech Bonder), but I'm going to call it quits here.  It took me way too long to make that video (thankfully I know enough now that the next one will be WAY faster) and I kind of just want to get this article out.  If you guys want to read a follow up article with one of those combinations then post in the comments and I'll give it a shot in the future.  Also I kind of want to move onto thinking about Conflux.  I'm going to go over a budget version of the deck and then call it quits.

There's not a ton to do to the manabase in this deck, that's the beauty of a monocolored design:

Out:  4x Mutavault
In:  4x Swamp

Let's start off towards the top of the mana curve.  Profane Command is awesome, but if you're working on a budget then I'd just go ahead and replace it with another copy of Corrupt.  The deck is now running a full twenty-two Swamps (plus two Swamps with leeches), so that's a ton of potential damage.

Out:  1x Profane Command
In:  1x Corrupt

Puppeteer Clique is a ton of fun, and I'd recommend investing in a playset if you're into that type of card at all.  Midnight Banshee was so impressive in the one game where I did get her into play that I have no reservations in ramping up to the full playset if you want to save some cash.

Out:  2x Puppeteer Clique
In:  2x Midnight Banshee

Grave Pact is a bit expensive at $2 a piece, and its' a fairly unique card without many replacements.  One option discussed above that may be fun is Crumbling Ashes.  This gives us a way to take out creatures without having to completely kill them, just a small -1/-1 counter will do.  Combos in a really brutal way alongside Midnight Banshee, Soul Snuffers, etc.

Out:  2x Grave Pact
In:  2x Crumbling Ashes

Alright, we're down to the following 'expensive' cards:  4x Thoughtseize ($8), 4x Necroskitter ($4), 2x Liliana Vess ($3), 3x Dusk Urchins ($1)

Thoughtseize is a strong turn one drop, and isn't easily replaced in the current Standard.  With the addition of Crumbling Ashes, the power of Scar goes up a notch - so I'm going to swap out those two playsets.

Out:  4x Thoughtseize
In:  4x Scar

The more I think about Crumbling Ashes, the more I like it.  I'm going to go up to the full playset by taking out the two copies of Liliana Vess.  It combos with basically everything in the deck, and seems like a lot of fun to play.

Out:  2x Liliana Vess
In:  2x Crumbling Ashes

Now we're down to the Dusk Urchins and Necroskitter, which are the cards that I originally built this deck around.  I definitely recommend picking up a few copies of these two cards (they are a blast to play!), but if you're really going for a budget then I guess you need some options.  I'm going to leave in two copies of Necroskitter - at least give me that much!

If you're looking for a straight up Dusk Urchins budget replacement, then the most obvious thing that I can think of is probably Scarscale Ritual.  It isn't nearly as exciting, but will certainly draw you some cards.

Out:  2x Necroskitter, 3x Dusk Urchins
In:  2x Shriekmaw, 2x Incremental Blight

And then to top the list off I want to throw in a singleton copy of some truly wacky power: Pyrrhic Revival.

In:  1x Pyrrhic Revival

If you cast this with a Necroskitter and a Soul Snuffers in the graveyard, then you gain control of all of your opponent's previously-dead, two-toughness creatures.  I have no idea how good this is, but it seems like a lot of fun!

Ok here's the final budget list: 

Budget -1/-1 Control

Steve Gargolinski - Standard Legal

Creatures 4 Shriekmaw 2 Necroskitter 4 Soul Snuffers 3 Kulrath Knight 4 Midnight Banshee 17 cards Other Spells 4 Scar 3 Mind Stone 4 Crumbling Ashes 2 Blowfly Infestation 2 Incremental Blight 1 Pyrrhic Revival 3 Corrupt 19 cards

Lands 22 Swamp 2 Leechridden Swamp 24 cards

I hope you enjoyed this article, I certainly had a lot of fun playing the deck.  Yep, it's still true - I love the black cards.  Thanks for reading!  Join me next time for something a little bit different.

Steve Gargolinski
spgmtgo@gmail.com
youtube.com/mtgexplorations