Back when magic was in its infancy we did not have access to a “spoiler season” like we have today. Wizards of the Coast tried diligently to keep the cards from being revealed until the day the set was released. I remember being excited when we found out the card list for 5th edition a couple of days before it was released. Then of course the initial disappointment when we learned that Lightning Bolt was being removed for being too powerful. Despite not knowing cards weeks in advance there was still the same excitement at seeing what the new cards would bring.
With M11, there were three cards that really stood out for me when they were spoiled. When you look at all of the set reviews found on the internet, these cards, with Fauna Shaman being the exception, are considered to be not as good as their predecessors were in their day. I have to disagree on their power level as they all provide a very powerful effect if left unchecked.
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Drawing cards is never a bad thing and black has always been willing to exchange life for cards.
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Blue has always loved drawing cards and this card can do a good job of it.
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There are many creatures in magic that would love to transform into something more threatening and Fauna Shaman can make that happen.
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Let’s look at each of these cards in more detail.
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Dark Tutelage is a card that is being dismissed by a lot of people in the Magic Community. I am not completely sold on it being unplayable, but at the same time I am not positive if it will be any good. Way to take a stand I know!
Drawing cards is the best thing you can do in a game of Magic and with Dark Tutelage certain decks will be able to do so.
Paying life for a card has a long history in Magic going all the way back to the Ice Age card Necropotence. You simply skipped your draw step and paid 1 life to exile the top card of your library. You then put it in hand at the end of your turn. This ability was only limited by the amount of life you had to pay. Of course Nevinyrral’s Disk allowed the Necro player to get rid of Necropotence when it became unwieldy. There is nothing in Standard right now that will do the same thing. Here’s hoping for a reprint in Scars.
You also had Yawgmoth’s Bargain that allowed you to pay one life to draw a card and it came to your hand immediately. This was supposedly a fixed Necro, but was immediately abused as well.
Dark Confidant and Phyrexian Arena are the two cards that people seem to be comparing Dark Tutelage to. This is a fair analysis, but most are dismissing the new card as being inferior to both. “Bob” was relatively easy to get rid of when he became to dangerous, but Tutelage is not. Its benefit is quite good though as some decks run out of gas and Tutelage will give them the extra reach to finish the game. And obviously paying 1 life for a card, like the Arena allows, is much better than paying possibly more. However, Dark Tutelage’s mana cost of 2B is much easier to splash.
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These decks are all untested as they are not available on MTGO yet and having five children makes play testing real cards extremely difficult. With that in mind please take a look at these deck ideas.
This deck has a relatively low casting cost so the life loss from Dark Tutelage should be kept low. I do realize that both Consuming Vapors and Tendrils of Corruption have a cmc of 4, but their life gain certainly counteracts any life loss they may cause. The Vampire Nighthawks should also help in that regard as well. This type of deck really benefits from Dark Tutelage as it can run out of gas rather quickly and the card advantage can really help squeak out the win. There is some debate as to whether Sigh in Blood should replace the Tutelage, but only testing will decide that.
I have also thought about Abyssal Persecutor, but even if the opponent is “mostly dead” you run the risk of killing yourself with the Tutelage before finding a way to get rid of the Persecutor. I think he may find a place in the sideboard for RDW as you will most definitely be taking the Tutelage out against that deck. Also in the sideboard will be cards like Duress, Deathmark, and Mind Sludge. You might even put in Haunting Echoes for Vengevine decks.
The next deck is an update to my goblin deck. You can read all about it here.
This deck, I believe, will be the one that benefits the most from Dark Tutelage. One of its main weaknesses is just running out of gas. This gives the opponent a chance to stabilize at around 4-5 life. The extra card from the Tutelage should give goblins the ability to keep pressure on the opponent. I removed the Siege-Gang Commanders as losing 5 life is pretty rough, but I do not think he will be missed as he rarely lives to use his ability anyway. Adding black also gives us access to Deathmark and Lavaclaw Reaches.
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Ophidian was a powerhouse in its day and Scroll Thief is a strict upgrade that allows you to draw a card while still damaging the opponent.
The Magic meta game is a different animal than it was in Ophidian’s day. He found a home in more controlling builds, while Scroll Thief will find a home in more of a midrange/aggro deck.
I also foresee him maybe making it into some sort of U/R control deck, but I am not sure what that might contain. It will probably play 4 x Jace though.
I would like to put him into a U/W Control deck as I used to play a Vintage Ophidian deck that was an absolute blast to play. Of course this was back in the day when Morphling was still good.
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I do realize that Jace adds a huge price increase to this deck, but I do not think that it will perform as well without him. If you want to replace Jace I would suggest adding some more bounce, maybe in the form of Aether Adept. While this deck can be fast it has more of a midrange feel to it on paper. I am only putting in 4 counter spells, but your main concern is Day of Judgment and the Mana Leaks are good at stopping that. With the levelers you might also consider upping the land count to 25, but I am not sure what I would take out.
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Fauna Shaman, I believe, will provide the most utility of the three in this article. Survival of the Fittest was a strong card in a very broken format. It was hard to remove, compared to the Shaman, and could be used multiple times a turn. The strategy was to discard huge creatures and search out any utility creatures that may be needed to control the board. The player would then use Recurring Nightmare to resurrect whichever creature was need at the time to keep board control or to bash.
It’s ironic to me that many pros feel that Fauna Shaman being a creature is its weakness, but not being a creature is Dark Tutelage’s. Fauna Shaman also has the drawback of only being able to use its ability once per turn.
I am probably going to be wrong, but I do not think a deck will be able to be built around her. Instead she will be added to decks that can benefit from the ability without being dependent upon her. The obvious decks are of course Next Level Bant and Next Level Naya. I hear discarding Vengevine is good.
Maybe she will find a home in a “junk” deck. There are some nice creatures available in green, black, and white. You have cheap mana creatures to speed out threats, while having access to Knight of the Reliquary, Vengevine, Abyssal Persecutor, and Baneslayer Angel.
Instead of just posting Bant or Naya I will post a mono green deck I am looking at building for FNM.
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This deck looks like a lot of fun, while at the same time putting some serious pressure on the opponent. Side board cards might include Mold Shambler, Obstinate Baloth and Grazing Gladehart. You can see that while the shaman can be put to great use, the deck will run quite well without her. If she lives to untap, the game gets ridiculous as she can replace herself if needed or just search for another Vengevine.
I hope these decks have given you some ideas to mull through and feel free to give me some suggestions for the decks in the comment section.
I also want to commend all of the authors here on Puremtgo for the work that goes into publishing their articles. Writing takes quite a bit of time and coming up with interesting topics is tough as well.
Don
8 Comments
Hi Don.
I'm toying with a Mono Black Suicide type of Aggro deck too and I have a few suggestions for you if I may.
First the obvious: You really want low cost cards with Tutelage. Consuming Vapors and Tendrils are really not the best options for that deck. There can be games in which you draw your Consuming Vapors and that card will kill you instantly before even you can use it.
I suggest testing cards like Executioner's Capsule, Brittle Effigy (not a whole playset but 1 or 2), Gatekeeper and Nighthawk (those 2 you have in your list) but also Kalastria Highborn and Basilisk Collar too. Especially the Collar.
Other good cards to consider are Consume Spirit, Quest for the Gravelord and at least 1 or 2 Death's Shadow.
For the sideboard, instead of Mind Sludge you should try Mind Shatter. Instead of Leyline of the Void you should try Relic of Progenitus (or maybe even Suffer the Past; it's an instant by the way!). Vampire Hexmage must be in the sideboard against planeswalkers. Deathmark and Duress should also be there too of course.
Hope this helps.
LE
Lord Erman,
Thanks for the comments and suggestions. I do agree that both cards cmc can be very dangerous and upon further reflection I do not think I would run both. I think it would be a good idea to remove the tendrils completely and drop the vapors down to maybe two. I just think the life gain from it is to good to pass up.
As far as the Basilisk Collar, I completely forgot about that piece of equipment. It definately needs to go in the deck. The Highborn is a great suggestion as well. I think I will just add 4 to replace the Tendrils.
Creatures
4 Black Knight
4 Bloodghast
4 Nantuko Shade
4 Gatekeeper of Malakir
4 Vampire Nighthawk
4 Kalastria Highborn
2 Consuming Vapors
3 Basilisk Collar
1 Grim Discovery
3 Dark Tutelage
3 Disfigure
22 Swamp
2 Dread Statuary
After I designed the deck I discovered a thread on Mtgsalvation discussing the archetype in great detail. They will probably have it figured out before the cards get online.
Thanks again for the suggestions as your decks are all very creative and function quite well. I still occasionally play the BRW deck you wrote about in a previous article.
What are your thoughts on Scroll Thief? That is the card I really want to see do well as Ophidian is my 2nd favorite card.
Scroll Thief... hmmm.... the next generation Shadowmage Infiltrator it is NOT. Sad but no. Infiltrator had fear, Magpie had flying and even Lu Xun had horsemanship. But this one is just a better Ophidian. The power level of creatures is now insanly high and I don't think this one is good enough.
There are, however, two decks I can think of that can play this one, and one is obviously a Mono U fish deck. But I'm not so sure how well it would do against the field. Levelers aren't that great in competitive environment nowadays and sadly Coralhelm Commander is all about leveling. Why spend so much mana in sorcery speed for a creature that will surely get Terminate'd or Path'ed, whereas I can just play Vengevine and/or Bloodbraid Elf, or Baneslayer Angel and just hit hard and win?
The second deck that can use him is a UR midrange/control deck. Red clears the table and Blue protects your Thief and as a reward he will give you cards. Maybe Kiln Fiend too? Hmm... now this would be nice.
Bottom line: Just because Scroll Thief is better than Ophidian and just because he has a relevant tribe doesn't make him an auto Tier-1 creature. I'm not so sure about Merfolk in Standard, but the UR Kiln Fiend/Scroll Thief version could really be an interesting deck.
LE
I have been playing a U/R Kiln Fiend deck online in the casual room, but it is quite fast. It might do well at a lower level event like FNM. I actually just placed an order for real life cards to build both the Kiln fiend deck and the merfolk deck.
I will try throwing him in the Kiln Fiend deck and see how he does at FNM. I tend to play less than tier 1 decks at FNM since I only own "good" cards online.
thanks again for the comments
Thieves and Tunnelers ftw?
My first reaction was a GB Deck (Vengevine, Bloodghast, Bloodthrone Vampire) with her as a way to fetch the 'Vines and 'Ghasts.
"Paying life for a card has a long history in Magic going all the way back to"... Greed, in Legends. Also Sylvan Library in Legends.
I enjoyed the article overall! Just don't forget to fact check :)
I stand corrected. I forgot about those two cards. I even played with Sylvan library in my zoo deck a long time ago. I will chalk it up to being old:)