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Hello and welcome back to Out of the Blue.  Last week I built several decks around Felidar Sovereign, a fairly under-utilized Mythic.  This week I'm interested in an uncommon which has seen even less play.  In fact, I'd go so far as to say it's one of the least popular cards since Steamflogger Boss.  Now there's a card that was ahead of its time.  Literally.

Have you ever found money in the street?  I don't mean a couple of coins, but a note or two of decent value?  Enough to make your day, but not enough to be worth handing in to the local police (assuming you're honest enough ever to consider that anyway).  I remember finding five pounds as a kid, and it keeping me in sweets and comics for a few months.  Good times.  Well drawing cards for free in Magic gives me much the same feeling. That's why we like Arcanis the Omnipotent, a leveled up Enclave Cryptologist and Pauper hero Mulldrifter.  In short, drawing cards equals good.  So a card which states 'skip your draw step' sounds pretty bad.  The rest of its text had better say something pretty amazing like 'you win the game and get to push your opponent off his chair and then steal his girlfriend' for it to be even borderline playable.  There's an idea for the next Unhinged set Wizards, you can have that one on me. Well today's card isn't quite that ridiculous, but it can still get pretty silly.  But don't take my word for it.  Let's have a look.

Have you guessed what card I'm talking about yet?  It is of course the wildly ignored Dragon Appeasement.  When first released it was met with initial excitement as its properties are so unique, then confusion as no-one could do anything useful with it.  Finally it slipped out of general consciousness, and now languishes in the bargain basement, all but forgotten (currently priced at $0.04 each on mtgotraders.com at the time of writing).

It's problem largely was that there weren't enough reliable ways to create cheap and bountiful creatures to sacrifice.  Flavour wise, though, the card's great.  Feed some little expendable guys to the Dragons, and they'll repay you with spells.  Lots of them.  Sounds delicious.  So we need ways to conjure up lots of little expendable guys.  While that wasn't a feature of Standard when Alara Reborn was released, things have since moved on.  Now Standard is positively bursting with token producers, and ways to appease those dragons.  Which is good news for Dragon Appeasement.  In fact, there are so many ways to generate tokens, the hardest part is deciding what to leave out.

Before I go further, here's the decklist I came up with:

 

I wanted to show Dragon Appeasement with the list, but for some reason the link to the picture is broken, so you get to look at the similarly cheap but effective Butcher of Malakir instead.

 

How Does it Work?

Survive the early game with Lightning Bolt, Terminate and cheap blockers like Nest Invader.  In the middle game build up a hoard of tokens, but be wary of sweepers.  This deck doesn't like things like Day of Judgment, All is Dust, Consume the Meek or even Pyroclasm.  If you suspect your opponent may be packing some of those, by all means get those tokens out there, but keep some in reserve too. 

Once your board's nice and full, lay down a Dragon Appeasement and go off.  Each time you sac an Eldrazi token, you'll draw a card, and conveniently get a colourless mana to help pay for it.  If you've got the Butcher out too, saccing those tokens should quickly clear your opponent's board.

 

Win Conditions

		Sarkhan Vol is pretty nuts here, either stealing your opponent's best creature for a quick beat, or more often pumping your board full of spawns up for an alpha strike.  And of course he'll win the stalemate for you with his ultimate.
		Mortician Beetle can get huge fast, and pretty much forces an unfavourable block.  It's not unusual to have twenty or more spawn on the table, and the Beetle can be pumped at instant speed by saccing tokens for a neat combat trick.
		Provided your opponent isn't removal heavy, Mycoloth can win games by devouring a few tokens, then coming down fat and pregnant with Saprolings, which those Dragons are equally happy to be appeased with, incidentally.
		Beastmaster Ascension can win the game the turn it comes down, requiring only seven attackers to do its thing.
		And of course Butcher of Malakir can be a one sided sweeper.  It's unlikely your opponent will have more creatures than you have saccable tokens, unless you're in an unlikely mirror match.
		I was initially dubious about Rapacious One due to his cost, but trust me, he's fantastic here, especially if Sarkhan's on the table to give him haste.  He belches out tokens like nothing else, and is a decent beater to boot.

 

Weaknesses

As I said, the deck doesn't love those sweepers, but you can play around them.  Don't over-commit in the early game, which is good advice for any creature deck.  Once the Appeasement is down, you can go nuts and fling those spawn creators around with gay abandon, since a sweeper now is too late.  If your opponent treats you to a Wrath effect now, just sac those tokens in response, draw a bunch and reset.  If you don't get a win condition, you'll be guaranteed another handful of critters to try again.

The worst thing that can happen is to run out of creatures and get low on cards with the Appeasement out.  You shouldn't let yourself get into that position, but with cards like Mind Sludge around, it's not impossible.  This is why we have Mold Shambler in the deck.  In this instance, he can be kicked to target your own Dragon Appeasement, and you're back in the races.  Behind, probably, but at least not dead in the water.  The playset of Acidic Slime in the Sideboard is also partly there for that reason.

Speaking of the sideboard, Blightning comes in against control and Bituminous Blast comes in when you just need a little more removal (is that the most obvious statement I've ever made?).  In fact the sideboard plan is pretty obvious all round.  I'm also tempted by a transformational sideboard, mostly because I can't believe I've built a deck in Jund colours without any of those cards maindecked, or Bloodbraid Elf anywhere to be seen.  There could be something to be said in surprising your opponent game 2 by taking out 3 x Dragon Appeasement, 1 x Mycoloth, 2 x Butcher of Malakir, 2 x Rapacious One, 2 x Brood Birthing, 1 x Awakening Zone, 2 x Mold Shambler and 2 x Emrakul's Hatcher and adding in 4 x Blightning, 4 x Bloodbraid Elf, 4 x Putrid Leech and 3 x Broodmate Dragon.

Although that might just be an admission that the standard Jund deck is better, and if we go down that route Magic becomes a very stale and dull place.

So, let's stick with the deck as it is, and see how it fared in my test games.

 

Games

Game 1 vs. vampirehouse (Esper Aggro Control)

I open a decent hand of Mold Shambler, Rapacious One, Sarkhan Vol, Terminate, 2 x Savage Lands and Akoum Refuge on the draw.  Vampirehouse gets a turn two Ethercaste Knight, followed by a turn three Esper Stormblade, which I Terminate when it attacks alone on turn four.  It gets Unsummoned in response, giving me a nice tempo gain.  Sure enough, it returns on turn 5 after the Knight has reduced me to 17.  On turn six I again Terminate the Stormblade as it attacks alone.  And there's the disadvantage of an Exalted deck with little counter backup.  Vampirehouse finishes his turn with a Soul Warden, which is actually bad news against my deck, with the number of creatures I'm intending to pump out.

On my turn six I finally make a positive play with Rapacious One.  I'm holding both copies of Sarkhan Vol, but can't cast him unprotected.  Next turn my opponent casts Clone, copying my six mana beater.  Hmmm, that's not ideal.  Next turn I cast Sarkhan and use his second ability to temporarily steal my opponent's Rapacious One, and attack with both, knowing I'm about to create a wealth of tokens to protect my planeswalker.  They both get through unblocked, but the damage is immediately offset by lifegain from the Warden.  Still, I'm up by ten tokens.  I finish my turn by casting Mortician Beetle.

On turn eight Vampirehouse attacks with everything.  I block his Rapacious One with my Beetle, and sac five tokens to make it 6/6, killing the clone.  Unfortunately the other two attackers finish off Sarkhan.  I tap out and sac another token in order to cast Butcher of Malakir, intending to clear his board.  My spell gets Cancelled.  Instead I attack with my now 7/7 Beetle and Rapacious One, which creates more tokens, and after more annoying lifegain leaves my opponent only one life below me on 16.  On my next turn I cast another Sarkhan Vol, and immediately activate his first ability, giving my team (including nine spawn tokens) +1/+1.  A flashed in Ethersworn Shieldmage helps with the blocks, I get more tokens, and my opponent is down to nine life.  I win on turn ten by turning giving everything (including a freshly cast Kozilek's Predator and friends) +1/+1 and haste, and sending them all into the red zone.

So no Dragon Appeasement this game, but Sarkhan + tokens is exactly as deadly as expected.

 

Game 2 vs. Gutto (Mono Black)

I'm on the play with 2 x Terminate, Awakening Zone, Brood Birthing, Dragon Appeasement, Savage Lands and Akoum Refuge.  A slightly shaky opener, but if I can draw a land by turn three I'm in decent shape.  My opponent immediately removes Awakening Zone with Duress.  He follows this up on turn two with Quest for the Gravelord.  I don't get my next land drop until turn five.  On turn six Gutto casts Nirkana Cutthroat, pumping her once.  I Terminate her immediately.  On turn 7 I cast Kozilek's Predator. By turn nine, thanks to Rapacious One and Brood Birthing I have eight tokens out.  My opponent just has the 5/5 Zombie token from the popped Quest on his board.  It's looking good for me.  Then he plays Infest.  I didn't see that coming.  Come to think of it, I didn't remember it when I was considering the deck's weaknesses either.  That'll teach me.  I'm down but not out, as long as I have the Rapacious One on my side.  Gutto finishes his turn with Diabolic Tutor.

I'm still holding an Appeasement I want to cast, so I need tokens.  The 5/5 Zombie has effectively switched off my attack for the moment, so I cast Mortician Beetle and Nest Invader.  Gutto spends his next turn casting Liliana Vess, which I'm assuming is what he tutored up last turn.  She politely asks me to discard something, and since I'm a sucker for a pretty lady with red glowing eyes, I demure.  It's a choice between Dragon Appeasement and Butcher of Malakir, and given my token light board at the moment I grit my teeth and discard the enchantment.

On turn eleven I gratefully rip Sarkhan Vol off the top, take temporary control of the Zombie token and aim most of the team at Liliana, doing some light damage to my opponent with Nest Invader.  I repeat the trick on turn twelve for the win.

Disappointing then not to be able to cast the Appeasement, hopefully it'll prove its worth soon.  On the positive side, Sarkhan shines again.  Turns out planeswalkers are good, who knew?

 

Game 3 vs. momomcphee (Bloody Expensive Gruul)

I open a one land hand, and keep the next six of Rapacious One, Terminate, 3 x Evolving Wilds and Akoum Refuge.  A shaky six, but better than a random five.  I'm on the draw, and will hope to rip some action from the top.  I manage a turn three Nest Invader, whilst my opponent has just been laying Mountains so far.  My critter and his token companion are quickly dispatched with Pyroclasm, so I'm playing another deck with sweepers, oh joy.  Fortunately for me, momomcphee seems slightly mana screwed, and remains on three Mountains, whilst I cast Emrakul's Hatcher on turn six.  The Hatcher himself soon leaves play arm in arm with Lightning Bolt, but the tokens remain (for now).

On turn seven, my opponent Harrows his way to lands he needs, including two Forests.  He casts Scute Mob, which will soon get out of hand.  I tap out and sac a Spawn to cast Rapacious One.  On turn eight my opponent places four counters on the Mob, then casts a foil Vengevine, a card that's worth more than my entire deck.  He attacks with it, leaving the Mob home on defense, evidently not liking the look of my Rapacious One.  Wanting to keep my Spawns intact, I take the four damage and go to thirteen.

On my turn I Terminate the Scute Mob before it gets silly, and attack with Rapacious One, sending momomcphee to fifteen and generating another five tokens.  I tap out and sac three tokens to cast Butcher of Malakir, figuring it's my best way to keep a recurring Vengevine at bay.  The Butcher is soon butchered by a combination of Lightning Bolt and Staggershock, but at least he takes Vengevine with him.  On turn nine I attack for another five and a bunch of tokens, and cast Awakening Zone.  Now I have at least some sort of sweeper immunity. We reach turn ten, and my opponent targets the rebounding Staggershock at Rapacious One, and finishes it off with another Lightning Bolt.  That's two spells, but doesn't really count as card advantage for me as the Staggershock was already a bonus effect.  I'm left with nine pretty, but ultimately non-threatening Eldrazi Spawns.  I cast Mold Shambler to at least mount some sort of offense, destroying one of my opponent's two Forests in the process, figuring it might make it harder for him to cast more creatures and recur that Vengevine.  Momomcphee casts Lord of Shatterskull Pass on his turn, which also has the potential to wipe my board.  On my turn eleven I rip Mycoloth like a champ.  I have ten tokens in play, and I devour seven of them greedily.  Mycoloth comes down as an 18/18.  I don't think he can have many ways to deal with a creature that size in his colours.  Evidently he agrees, and he concedes.

Time to take stock after three games played.  I'm liking the deck, but it's slightly disappointing I can't get Dragon Appeasement into play.  I don't think that's the fault of the deck, we obviously have multiple ways to win, and the Appeasement, whilst the deck's signature trick, is merely one of them.  I'm feeling grossly underwhelmed by Mold Shambler though, and feel that Broodwarden is an obvious replacement.  I'm able to get huge numbers of tokens out, and Broodwarden will make them work harder for me.  I'm still happy to sac them when needed, but this way I've also got the option of sending them into the red zone, without having to rely purely on Sarkhan.   Out: 2 x Mold Shambler In: 2 x Broodwarden

 

Game 4 vs. ameehan (G/B Eldrazi)

I keep Mycoloth, Brood Birthing, Lightning Bolt, Sarkhan Vol, Terminate, Savage Lands and Forest on the play.  He lays a turn two Overgrown Battlement, followed by a third turn Elvish Piper, which I Bolt.  Next turn I cast Nest Invader, and he responds with Awakening Zone.  On turn five I lay down Sarkhan Vol, and turn my team sideways, the spawn getting through for one.  On his turn, ameehan casts a Nest Invader of his own.  On turn six I cast Kozilek's Predator, which doesn't stick around thanks to Doom Blade.  I activate Sarkhan's first ability, but keep my team back to protect my planeswalker, now that he's do close to his ultimate.  Ameehan's evidently desperate to cheat something nasty from his hand into play, as he aims Rise from the Grave at the Elvish Piper in his graveyard.  I'm less keen, so Terminate it on my turn, then pop Sarkhan for five 4/4 Dragon tokens.

A Fog prevents my win next turn, and an Assassinate means he goes down to three, rather than below zero the following turn.  I'm briefly threatened by an Eldrazi Conscription on his Nest Invader, but another Terminate means it's a two for one for me.  My Dragon tokens take my over the finish line on the following turn.

 

Game 5 vs. Ali_St.Lunatics (Eldrazi token Ramp)

I'm on the play with Butcher of Malakir, Brood Birthing, Terminate, Lightning Bolt, Evolving Wilds, Dragonskull Summit and Forest.  Not much action, but decent mana and early defence.  My opponent casts a turn three Awakening Zone, a play I'd frankly like for myself.  He follows this up with a fourth turn Growth Spasm, and fifth turn Rapacious One (a card I think I'm beginning to fall in love with), which I immediately Terminate.

On turn six I finally do something positive with Broodwarden.  It has nothing to pump yet, but hopefully that's a matter of time.  My opponent casts Ondu Giant.  Next turn Broodwarden is allowed through for four damage, and I cast Kozilek's Predator, which brings two saccable Grizzly Bears with it.  Ali casts Emrakul's Hatcher, which I remove with another Bolt.  He's up to eight tokens now though.  Whatever his strategy is, I'm betting it's coming out soon.  On turn eight I send Broodwarden through.  It eats a Staggershock and is blocked by the Giant which I'm forced to Terminate to preserve my creature.  I cast Brood Birthing for three more tokens.  My opponent's strategy becomes evident on his turn, as he taps out and sacs a few tokens for It That Betrays.  And I've just cast my last Terminate.

On turn nine I empty my hand by casting the Butcher I've been holding all game.  I want to sac tokens to remove that Eldrazi, but we both have exactly four, which won't help me, and Awakening Zone will only exacerbate the situation.

Ali plays Elvish Piper on his next turn, a card that really needs to die immediately.  My hand's empty, but fortunately so is his.  He attacks with his Eldrazi, and I sac two tokens to the Annihilation.  My Butcher ensures that he follows suit.  I block with another spawn, which means he has to send another to the bin too.  I draw a useless Forest next turn, and attack with my team, leaving a spawn back on defense.  He blocks Broodwarden with another spawn, going down to eight life.  I just need to get his creature count low enough for my creature losses to force him to sac that annoying Eldrazi.  Next turn he casts Kargan Dragonlord and levels it up twice.  It That Betrays attacks again, and I sac a Forest and Kozilek's Predator.  Do you see my mistake?  I don't mind him taking my land, but the Predator defects to his side, giving him two more tokens.  I was supposed to be reducing his creature count!  I block with a spawn, but now he has six creatures to my two.  I need tokens, lots of them, and fast.

On turn eleven I topdeck a beautiful Emrakul's Hatcher.  First I attack with my team.  He double blocks Broodwarden with my turncoat Predator and his Piper, which I don't mind a bit.  Butcher gets through for five thanks to evasion, and I cast my Hatcher, immediately saccing the tokens to clear his board, including of course It That Betrays.  He concedes.

 

Conclusions

I played many more games than I've shown here, and frustratingly, not once did I manage to get my signature card into play.  Although the deck was good at winning games, I have to brand the theme a failure since though I rarely drew Dragon Appeasement despite its fairly generous three copies, even when I did draw it, I was either unable or unwilling to cast it.  And more damningly, when faced with Blightning or similar discard effects, the Appeasement was almost always the first thing I felt able to live without.

It could potentially work as a singleton copy to act as a surprise element, but if I wanted to make the deck more consistent, I'd probably remove all three in favour of something more consistent.  So those Dragons will have to remain unappeased for the moment.

This deck is able to pump out a huge number of tokens, and there are lots of cards in Standard ready and willing to abuse that for us.  One option would be to add more Beastmaster Ascension, or even Eldrazi Monument, perhaps over Broodwarden, since artifacts and enchantments are harder to remove than creatures.  I would like to see more Awakening Zone in the deck, so perhaps another copy would help.

Other decent options to make us of those tokens are:

Or of course you could add something large and shiny like Emrakul, the Aeons Torn, and use their mana generation effects, although I'd keep the mana intensive Eldrazi to a single copy, as the ramp strategy really requires a different overall build.

So that's it for this week.  The deck performed well, but strangely also failed.  Perhaps I was unlucky, let me know if you give it a go and have better luck.  I'm sure someone somewhere has got it to work, after all the deck has existed on the fringes of various sites and forums for several months, without ever really entering the mainstream consciousness.  Next week I begin a series on powerful mono-colour strategies, which I'm confident will enjoy more success.

 

Splendid Belt

www.splendidbelt.com