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You may recall this POST back in October when I gave you a look at the unimaginatively-named 'GhastLord' deck. AS I had indicated in the post at that time - these casual decks are always evolving. To this end, we have another update to provide on this deck.During the Shards of Alara spoiler season, I had become rather interested in the big FUN factor promised with Quietus Spike . . .
Quietus Spike, Artifact - EquipmentALA Rare / Cost : 3 Mana
Equipped creature has deathtouch.
Whenever equipped creature deals combat damage to a player, that player loses half his or her life, rounded up.
Equip 3 Mana
I contemplated just how nasty this card could get if equipped to an unblockable creature. After installing this evil component into the GhastLord deck which runs several unblockable creatures, I felt satisfied that it may provide a good showing at FNM. Well, I was just a bit off base, the new inclusions provided a GREAT showing at FNM with four straight match wins to bring us to top 8 at which point in time I got my butt kicked - - I give my evening with Quietus an 'A+' based on the fun-factor.
Lands
10 x Swamp
10 x Island
Creatures (in order of casting cost)
4 x Oona's Gatewarden
4 x Tidehollow Strix
4 x Inkfathom Infiltrator
3 x Sygg, River Cutthroat
4 x Wasp Lancer
2 x Oona, Queen fo the Fae
3 x Ghastlord of the Fugue
Other Spells
4 x Spell Syphon
4 x Helm of the Ghastlord
4 x Quietus Spike
Sideboard
Again - I am embarrassed to mention as it is currently a mess. I will admit that there is some damage control with Silvergill Douser.
I will be posting another 'What I'm Playing' soon - this time my take on a 'Bant Crasher' deck.
Looks like a really serious deck. We should get together and play sometime . ;-)
ReplyDeleteI'm looking forward to seeing your bant beat down. I like the idea of those cards together.
this looks like a fun deck. i'd been wondering how best to use quitus spike too. fun looking card. i was thinking a red-hasty deck but i like the unblockable route.
ReplyDeletewhat deck did you lose to?
I have been playing with a similar list, although I really like yours. If I had one suggestion (just a suggestion!) I would swap out the Tidehollow Stryxs for Inkfathom Witches.
ReplyDeleteThey have fear and can really hurt your opponent with your list of unblockables.
Since most of your creatures already have 1 toughness, the 4/1 vulnerability isn't really a drawback.
What do you think?
Hey there Ryan . . . You and I are on the same channel - I was running a deckset of Inkfathom Witch which worked out quite well. I eventually swapped it out to make space for Sygg Cutthroat just simply because I like getting the card-draw instead. The Witches are still in the side-board however. :-)
ReplyDeleteHi there again--I think the addition of the Syggs is great.
ReplyDeleteDo you find that the stryx ends up being more useful than the witch? I like the witch because with the infiltrators it can quickly become a threat that has to be dealt with or game over. The downside is that it takes 4 to activate, so the stryx has a speed advantage and still decent evasion. Is that why you run them instead?
I actually run 4 pestermite, 4 witches, and 4 infiltrators.
I'm really liking your suggestions there Ryan. I think the Tidehollow Stryx came into the mix after I started seeing big beaters, Dragons and Empyrial Archangel getting more play here locally.
ReplyDeleteAh I see :) So you run the Stryx for the same reason I run Pestermite.
ReplyDeleteI was encountering some dragon problems too but I found that most of the time by the time they got the big guns out, they were only a few turns away from scooping (since unblockables tend to put the hurt on fast in the early game), and so most of the time it was a matter of just stalling them out for a few more turns. For that reason, I went with pestermite because it stalls out big beaters, but it also ended up having other applications (like tapping blockers!) that could be used even if no big baddies ended up coming my way in a game.
Empyrial is an issue, though I often find a witch can end up boosting damage enough to drop them. Not the most reliable way to deal with them though. ;P Do you want me to send you my decklist?
Hey there Ryan -
ReplyDeleteDo you want a separate post for the deck-list or want to have it posted in with the comments here ?
I'm thinking that this sounds win.
Here is my build:
ReplyDelete4 Inkfathom Witch
4 Inkfathom Infiltrator
4 Goldenglow Moth
4 Pestermite
1 Plumveil
1 Shapesharer
1 Mirror Entity
1 Godhead of Awe
1 Purity
1 Mistbind Clique
=22
4 Ponder
2 Broken Ambitions
2 Trip Noose
2 Oblivion Ring
2 Hindering Light
2 Thieves’ Fortune
1 Fathom Trawl
1 Mindspring
1 Scourglass
1 Notorious Throng
=18
5 Plains
9 Island
2 Shimmering Grotto
2 Vivid Meadow
1 Arcane Sanctum
=20
I don't know if you'd want to post it here, or just keep it private; I'll leave that up to you, but I'm interested to see what you think! You'll notice that I actually don't run the quietus spike in my quietus deck anymore, as this build actually kills people dead faster than when I tried running them.