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By: Lord Erman, Nafiz Erman
Mar 31 2014 12:00pm
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Hello dear readers and welcome back to Rogue Play. This week I will be showing you a couple of decks I built around my latest obsession; Gift of Immortality. I actually find this very normal because "blink decks" were always one of my favorite deck types of all times. I was one happy mage when I first saw Venser, the Sojourner in Scars spoilers and built many decks around him during his stay in Standard; and I enjoyed every one of them.

I remember that I was playing my Venser_Blink.dec the day before Venser, the Sojourner was going to leave Standard, and I was a very "sad panda" when it left eventually. Even now, when I work on some decks for formats where Venser is legal, that card is one of the first ones I pick and work on.

Venser, the Sojourner
Definitely one of my all-time favorite cards.

And considering all of the above, the fact that I find Gift of Immortality very "attractive" doesn't surprise me and neither should surprise you. But of course I am aware that Gift of Immortality is no Venser, and any deck that is only built to abuse it, will fail horribly. There are a thousand (or maybe even more!!) ways to disrupt it, and therefore one must be very careful when toying with Gift of Immortality.

The most important rule here is this: The deck should be able to work perfectly fine without Gift of Immortality. It simply shouldn't fall into pieces the moment you lose it; or it gets countered, or the creature destroyed, bounced, exiled.... you get the idea.

As I said, Gift of Immortality is not Venser, the Sojourner. It's not even Mistmeadow Witch. This should always be kept in mind when building around this card. Yes, the deck should almost only have "enters the battlefield" creatures. And yes, there should be some sac' outlets to abuse Gift of Immortality. But all of these should also be able work in harmony without it. 

Sounds easy? Of course not!! But let's see what I did with it.

 

DECK #1
Rock Gifts

The reason I chose Black as the second color was because of this one only:

Shadowborn Demon

Ever since I saw this card, I was thinking of ways to abuse its game text. Yes, even on its own it's a great creature. A nice body with a nice cost and a very nice game text. But it's a demon after all and just like every demon out there, you have to make some sacrifices to keep it working for you. And I thought that I could turn this into my advantage if I used Gift of Immortality with it. And that's how the deck started.

But I knew very well that adding four copies of each to the deck was not going to happen. Which meant that I was in need of more targets. Many other "enters the battlefield" creatures actually. Which led me to these cards:

Pharika's Mender Sylvan Primordial Centaur Healer Ashen Rider

All very good creatures with very powerful and useful "enters the battlefield" abilities. These and Shadowborn Demon were going to be enough to abuse Gift of Immortality. And as I said at the beginning, these creatures are still very powerful and useful even if you don't have Gift of Immortality on them. A Sylvan Primordial is enough threat for the opponent on its own. But a Sylvan Primordial enchanted with a Gift of Immortality, and a sac' outlet somewhere out there? Oh God. 

Speaking of sac' outets... I actually went over all the options carefully. Shadowborn Demon was already in the deck and it was going to be one of my sac' outlets. But of course I needed more. I tried a few "wrong" cards during testing such as Bubbling Cauldron, Scourge of Skola Vale, Blood Bairn and I even tried Gnawing Zombie, but found out that none of them was the one I needed. But after a long search, I eventually found what I actually needed. These I mean:

Korozda Guildmage Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord

I like it when cards do many things and have multiple uses. An example which happened during early testing: My opponent played Elspeth, Sun's Champion and made three tokens. He thought he was safe. On my turn I played Korozda Guildmage and gave my previously played Pharika's Mender intimidate with it. His precious Elspeth died in one swift strike, and my opponent saw that he wasn't safe at all.

So yes, Korozda Guildmage's main purpose is to be a sac' outlet for my creatures with Gift of Immortality on them, but she has other uses than that as well. Same with Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord. He's in the deck to serve me as a sac' outlet but sometimes, like probably most of the times, he's just a 7/7 or 8/8 monster killing stuff; or my opponent of course.

I think I talked enough about my card choices. There are a few more things to be said, but first let's take a look at what I did:

 

In order to play my monsters, I had to have cards to allow me to ramp. Those "mana dorks" serve that purpose. Karametra, God of Harvests do that too. Most people underestimate her but that's a huge mistake. Below in the testing section you will see why and you will see what she's capable of. 

Speaking of testing, let's move onto the test games and see this deck in action.

 

GAME 1:
Against RUG Midrange

Just when he thinks he has everything under control, he finds himself looking at this:

Of course he doesn't give up, but a couple of turns later things look like this:

He insists on not giving up, kills a bunch of stuff of mine but then has to deal with this:

Oh God, I love this game.

Overall: 1-0

 

GAME 2: 
Against Mono Black Devotion

Well, I love telling you in my articles how I crush top tier decks, and thankfully this is one of them. Early turns I fight his Nightveil Specters and play my mana creatures in the meantime. My Centaur Healer comes in but goes out the moment he "touches" the table. But I'm still not sad because I know I will face Gray Merchant of Asphodel at some point, so any and all life gain is welcome. 

I'm sure I annoy him enough with my Abrupt Decays targeting his Nightveil Specters, so he decides to bring in something that is out of its range; Desecration Demon of course. I allow him to hit me with his demon twice because I need mana and can't sacrifice my mana creatures. Finally I play my Sylvan Primordial but it also goes to the graveyard in light speed. But next turn I deal with his boring demon creature for good.

He allows me to hit him twice with my Ashen Rider and I also play my Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord as well. Next turn he plays his third Nightveil Specter and I make a choice between going out all offensive or staying with my Ashen Rider and waiting. I choose the former option, cast a Gaze of Granite with = , and continue attacking.

My opponent doesn't like this and casts two Devour Fleshs and clears the table. But I bring back Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord from the dead and a few turns later game ends like this:

I just love winning against those tournament decks. It doesn't happen always but when it does, it gives me huge pleasure.

Overall: 2-0

 

GAME 3:
Against Esper Humans

So we start and I quickly realize that he's playing that Esper Humans deck. But as usual, I have no intention of giving up without a fight. After a couple of turns, the board looks like this:

Not very promising, I know. But nothing a well-timed Gaze of Granite can't handle. But just when I think I'm gaining the board advantage, he brings in Obzedat, Ghost Council and then Desecration Demon joins the party. First I deal with Obzedat, Ghost Council...

... and then play my Sylvan Primordial who has Reach of course. A couple of turns later he eventually kills it but that "pause" gives me enough time to find me a second Hero's Downfall. Finally my Shadowborn Demon kills his freshly-played Xathrid Necromancer and thus I force him to sweep the board with Supreme Verdict.

From there things get only better for me. Pharika's Mender comes and gets back my Sylvan Primordial to my hand. Then using it, I kill his Gideon, Champion of Justice while Karametra, God of Harvests makes sure I literally swim in a sea of mana!

And the game ends when things look like this:

Nice! And look at all that mana I have. That's of course Karametra's work. She's just amazing. 

Also as I said in the beginning, this deck must win without Gift of Immortality. It shouldn't rely on it to win. This game was therefore a nice test in my opinion. I didn't even draw one and yet managed to win against a top tier deck.

Overall: 3-0

 

GAME 4:
Against White Weenie

Fast decks I can handle but sometimes they get that dream starting hand, and then it becomes almost impossible to stop them of course. Two Boros Elites and one Phalanx Leader and some pump spells targeting the Phalanx (who then pumps all the others), quickly seal the deal. A Gaze of Granite would be sweet, but that doesn't happen.

Overall: 3-1

 

GAME 5: 
Against BUG Midrange

It's only turn five when I do what you see below (you can see it on the left lower corner):

So whoever out there thinks Karametra, God of Harvests is a bad God, please think again.

Of course he fights back, kills my Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord and annoys me a bit with his Prophet of Kruphix and his flash creatures, but I am better in this "game of attrition", and eventually manage to bring him to two life. And then, at the end of his turn I get my Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord back to my hand from the graveyard, and sacrifice Centaur Healer to it and seal the deal.

Overall: 4-1

Alright, I have to cut the test games here because I still have lots to talk about and don't want to turn this into one of those never-ending articles.

 

DECK #2:
Gift of Orzhova

When I say "Gift of Orzhova", I don't actually mean the card called Gift of Orzhova. I mean a colored deck that abuses Gift of Immortality. And the main engine of this deck are these two cards:

Cartel Aristocrat Xathrid Necromancer

The dream play here is to enchant Xathrid Necromancer with Gift of Immortality and abuse it with Cartel Aristocrat. And let's see right now how I'm doing that:

 

I know very well the list raises some eyebrows, so some explanations are in order.

First of all, contrary to the first deck I showed you, this one likes its creatures dead. Most of them do something when they die, so that's why you don't see many "enters the battlefield" creatures. Just imagine yourself playing against this deck and you face High Priest of Penance with a Gift of Immortality on him. Yes I know, "ouchie!". Now imagine there is also a Xathrid Necromancer standing next to it. Every time High Priest of Penance dies, it destroys something and then it comes back and there is a new 2/2 token. Yes, "double ouchie!" or even "triple ouchie!".

Also please do not underestimate Syndic of Tithes dear readers. It's one of those cards that doesn't look like much in theory but totally shines in practice. I started with two in the deck, then it became three and finally ended up with a full playset. 

Corpse Hauler may look like another "draft leftover" to you, but please imagine it with a Gift of Immortality and being sac'ed to Cartel Aristocrat all the time. That becomes very useful during late game when you have two or even three Xathrid Necromancers in graveyard. Getting one back is nice, but getting them all back one after another, is even nicer.

And that's also the reason why I have Immortal Servitude in deck. Most of my creatures cost two mana, and the rest costs three. So it's always, and I mean always, a mass resurrection spell.

Alright, I guess I talked enough about the deck. Let's see it in action and see what it can do.

 

GAME 1:
Against Scary Zoo

I trade a High Priest of Penance for his Fleecemane Lion, then he kills my Banisher Priest trying to banish his Voice of Resurgence, but then I take everything under control.

His creatures look impressive, but not impressive enough for the church of Orzhova.

Overall: 1-0

 

GAME 2: 
Against Mono Blue Control

Tons of bounce, Clone, Domestication... Well, mono Blue Control doesn't work like that these days. I showed you one option last week (in this article), so that's how it works. But this version; nope. 

Long story short, I keep killing my own creatures he steals from me (or the ones he Clones), and Syndic of Tithes keeps "biting" him bit by bit all the time; both with extort and with attacking. Finally a = Immortal Servitude brings all my dead creatures back on table, and not even his Whelming Wave can save him.

Overall: 2-0

 

GAME 3:
Against Four Color Possibility Storm

Finally someone who earns my respect! I get the maximum joy when I play against other rogue deck builders and not even losing the game can ruin my fun.

I feel very confident when I play my second High Priest of Penance and enchant the first one with a Gift of Immortality, but his Possibility Storm bringing into play a Worldspine Wurm ruins everything.

Still, I congratulate my opponent and move on. And if only everyone would play such creative decks...

Overall: 2-1

 

GAME 4:
Against Mono Green Monsters

And finally the dream play!

Kalonian Tusker and Kalonian Hydra, Reverent Hunter, Polukranos, World Eater... all very scary for sure but nothing my removal spells and my Zombie army can't handle. 

They hit pretty hard though and at one point my opponent brings me down to six life but at the end my Zombie army simply overwhelms him.

Overall: 3-1

 

GAME 5:
Against Rakdos Midrange

Think of all the playable Black and Red removal spells and put them in one deck. Then put some card drawing in it such as Read the Bones and Toil/Trouble. And finally put also the Festering Newt / Bogbrew Witch annoyance in there too. That's what he's playing.

So basically everything I play barely touches the table and leaves immediately. And it takes a total of eleven turns for me to get the game to this:

I don't think those "maniacs" of Rakdos can do any serious damage to the church of Orzhova anyway!

Overall: 4-1

 

DECK #3:
Ajani's Gifts

I call this deck Ajani's Gifts but it has actually nothing to do with the planeswalking Catman. The reason why I'm calling this deck Ajani's Gifts is actually this card:

Ajani's Chosen

From the very first moment I saw this card, I knew that one day I was going to working on it. And when I started working on this Gift of Immortality project, I also knew that the time had come. And even though there were many different ways to abuse Ajani's Chosen, I decided to use it with these:

Gift of Immortality Detention Sphere Mana Bloom

I seriously thought about Ephara's Enlightenment as well, but during testing I saw that Mana Bloom was enough. Oh and in case it's not clear, I cast Mana Bloom for = , and so it comes back to my hand at the beginning of my next turn. Which mean "moaaarrrr" tokens of course!

And here's what I did with this idea:

 

Gift of Immortality here plays actually two different roles. I can either use it on Ajani's Chosen and keep blocking with it, only to make moaarr more tokens. Because every time Gift of Immortality enters play, Ajani's Chosen gives me another token. Or I can just use it on either Sylvan Primordial or on Lyev Skyknight and keep sacrificing them to Bubbling Cauldron while bashing the opponent with them. Both ways work.

And of course, just because Ajani's Chosen is a bit fragile, I have two Simic Charms in the deck. Simic Charm has many other uses, such as protecting my Detention Sphere from a Disenchant effect, but mainly it's there to keep Ajani's Chosen away from harm.

At the beginning I had two copies of Gods Willing as well, but in testing I saw that I was in need of Supreme Verdict against some certain decks, so Gods Willing went out at the very last minute.

Alright, now it's time to see this one in action.

 

GAME 1:
Against Selesnya Good Stuff

The screenshot below sums up everything:

I would have been dead without Gift of Immortality but I had not one but two on table!

Overall: 1-0

 

GAME 2:
Against RGu Monsters

And in this game I do the same thing with Sylvan Primordial:

It takes about ten turns for me to get there, but once there, there is not much my opponent can do about it.

Overall: 2-0

 

GAME 3:
Against Rakdos Aggro

All I see is a bunch of crazy(!) fast Rakdos creatures with Unleash. I sacrifice two Sylvan Caryatids, one Lyev Skyknight and use a Detention Sphere on one of them. But they just keep coming...

Overall: 2-1

 

GAME 4:
Against White Weenie

And finally, after three games, Mr. Ajani's Chosen decides to show up!

Even though I'm playing against a fast Aggro deck, I manage to do all my tricks. Lyev Skyknight with a Gift of Immortality makes my opponent think twice before attacking, and Ajani's Chosen keeps giving me token after token thanks to my two Mana Blooms.

Overall: 3-1

 

GAME 5:
Against Gruul Aggro

Those Bloodrush creatures hurt a lot and I can only stop him -or slow him down rather- when I'm down to five life. But then Ajani's Chosen comes down and starts doing his thing.

Overall: 4-1

 

WRAP UP 

So those three decks were what I did with Gift of Immortality. There are still many options possible of course and by no means I'm done with this card! It will be Standard legal for another one and a half year, and you can be sure that you'll read more about it from me. In fact, I'm currently working on a second Bant deck using Gift of Immortality and also another Orzhov deck as well. And if I come up with something working, I'll show that to you too sometime in the future. 

The first deck I showed you in this article is actually a nice Rock Midrange deck. Gift of Immortality isn't the center of it; it is only enhancing it and making it better. Check back the first game report again if you want to see what it does to the deck when I draw it. But the deck works perfectly fine without it; as a matter of fact it is built to work without it.

The second one is a bit more dependent on Gift of Immortality. In fact, it is using three copies of it for consistency's sake. But still, it is also perfectly capable of working without it. 

And the final deck is built around Ajani's Chosen and as a matter of fact that deck is the deck where Gift of Immortality shines the most. I personally liked all those three decks and playing all three of them were huge fun. But if you ask me which one is my favorite, I can say that the Rock version is a bit ahead of the others in terms of fun. 

 

VORTHOS SECTION

Just like I did last week, there is something I want to show you before I say goodbye. You saw my "death_dec" last week (link is here if interested). And this week I will show you one other of my crazy Vorthos decks. This one below is a Standard deck

Check it out first:

Nostalgia in Standard
A Standard Legal Vorthos Deck by Nafiz Erman
Creatures
4 Angelic Wall
3 Serra Angel
3 Clone
2 Cinder Elemental
2 Shivan Dragon
14 cards

Other Spells
4 Shock
4 Inspiration
3 Opportunity
3 Pacifism
3 Arrest
2 Last Breath
2 Syncopate
1 Spell Blast
22 cards
Lands
9 Plains
8 Island
7 Mountain
24 cards
 
Serra Angel

 

I'm sure you don't see what this deck has anything to do with nostalgia. I'm sure you ask "Shivan Dragon and Serra Angel? That's it?". Well of course not. Now please check this screenshot below of my starting hand. Maybe it'll ring a few bells.

You see it? Do you see what I did here? No? Bah, you guys are impossible!!

Alright, check this screenshot then:

You must see it now! Look at the cards I have in my hand, the ones in play and the ones in my graveyard. Do you see it now? Yes? Oh, thank God!

Well yes, this deck is Standard legal but it only has cards with the old card frame. There are actually not that many of them, and that deck above was the best one I could build. It's a very nice and totally casual Control deck with some nice card drawing and removal. And then it finishes with two of the most iconic creatures of Magic; either Serra Angel or Shivan Dragon

But of course sometimes it wins with a Cloned Desecration Demon. Ah well...

And that concludes this week's article.

Thanks for reading.

See you online
Nafiz Erman, aka Lord Erman