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Lately I've been making decks using only cards from 8th edition and earlier. I find it challenging to build decks that actually stand a chance against the newer cards and I like the older, sometimes tacky artwork.
This deck has been a work in progress for a long time and continues to be. As it began, it remains a multiplayer deck based on Desolation, which has proved to be a challenging card to work with. If I play it too soon I'm instantly targeted by all opponents and also risk having no mana myself, but play it too late and opponent's have enough mana to cast powerful spells. I've tried to find a balance of mana suppression (Desolation, Pox), mana advantage (Lotus Blossom, Dark Ritual), creature suppression (Tainted Æther, Forced March) and life advantage (Syphon Soul, Drain Life, Subversion). Winning with this deck probably won't happen, which I'm okay with. I would like it to at least mess the game up though.Open to any suggestions.The deck is named after the flavor text on Desolation :)
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Dingus Egg? Dingus Staff? If you start punishing your opponents for losing permanents then you might have a better chance of winning. Unnerve and Cackling Fiend can keep your opponents disrupted as you build towards grinding them out.
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Those are all really good suggestions. Dingus Egg would hurt me as much as my opponents unfortunately. Dingus Staff needs to fit in here somewhere for sure. Unnerve is also a good fit. Cackling Fiend could be good early in the game, but wouldn't be great after Tainted Æther is on the field. I'll do a bit of fiddling.Thanks bananamancer.
Sure.I figure with the life drain you have, the egg might not bother you as much, same with tainted Aether- you could just sac the fiend when it comes in. Spoils of Evil might also be a decent card to include, as might Charcoal Diamond and/or Black Mana Battery (to help you avoid tapping lands, but your mileage may vary)
Yeah, Dingus Egg would probably hurt opponents more, but it seems when I play this I get attacked by little creatures or burned. The few life gain cards I have barely keep me on top. I know I could just sac Cackling Fiend, but then I'm paying 4 precious mana for opponents to choose and discard 1 card and if Desolation is on the field I'd have to sac a land too. Spoils of Evil is tempting. I had considered it when first starting to build this deck. I'll have to try it out.Charcoal Diamond was in the deck, but I pulled it and Lim-Dul's Hex at the same time because almost nothing costs 1 mana.Black Mana Battery was another consideration some time ago, but after Desolation is in play it becomes almost worthless.
Black Mana Battery and charcoal Diamond are nonland sources of mana, which helps you get around Desolation, as well as being repeatable where Dark Ritual and Lotus Blossom aren't, so there's that, even if they don't give you loads of mana, having enough of them can help you cast some of your spells without tapping a single land. But the battery especially is slow, so if you'e having problems with weenie rushes it might not be the way to go. :/
Having a large storage of mana is really useful with Drain Life. Lotus Blossom is the best fit for the deck because of that reason. Black Mana Battery would be good early game until I play Desolation, but after it's on the field I would only pay 2 mana to add a counter if I'm already casting a spell and have to sacrifice a land anyway. Generally I don't have that much mana to spare. When I had Charcoal Diamond in the deck it seemed I would only play it early in the game. Since it only produces 1 mana (which all of my spells cost more than) I always have to sacrifice a land because of Desolation anyway.
That's fair, though my thinking was that multiple mana rocks would help you cast more mana rocks and/or your lower-cost spells like Innocent Blood, Desperate Research, even Pox if you had enough of them out. You probably need to draw extra cards to make that happen, though. Hmm...If it were me building around Desolation, I would try to get more nonland sources into the deck and maybe avoid big X spells (assuming that you're playing multiplayer with 20 life) and maybe use spells like Soul Feast to finish opponents, if not Dingus Egg or Ankh of Mishra with the Subversion-type effects you already have.
If I could get out 2 or 3 Charcoal Diamonds in a game they would be very beneficial, but that won't usually happen because like you mentioned I don't have a way to draw cards. I put Drain Life in here because it can be used against a creature or player. You're probably right about Soul Feast, Dingus Egg and Ankh of Mishra. I'd love to see your version if you ever feel like creating it. I was going to put Ankh in here actually, but I already have a creatureless deck that uses it and didn't want this deck to be too similar to that one.I might reconsider some of your suggestions in the future, but I'm going to get a few of the cards I'm missing in this version (Innocent Blood, Spoils of Evil and Dingus Staff) and see how it plays. I played it with 3 friends the other night without those cards and the game was really close, so I think I'll be happy with it. Thanks for all your help bananamancer!