I normally try to stray away from Planeswalkers in my Duel Decks. I feel like they enforce to much of a limit of the decks you can build. However, I really like Koth, and have wanted to do a duel deck with him for a while. But, who could offer an interesting match-up with Koth? After much debate, I came up with Ashiok, and a plot that could explain why both parties don't use as many spells from their home planes to create this duel. So, without further adieu, this is Koth Vs Ashiok. Enjoy!
Koth: http://www.mtgvault.com/ciaranmadgrin/decks/duel-deck-koth-vs-ashiok/
Plot:
This cave has been the perfect hideout for a while now. Ashiok smiled as another lost traveler slips into madness, curled up in a ball on the ground. Another fool's worst nightmares made real, another nightmare added to Ashiok's armies. This was the perfect place indeed, thought Ashiok as he examined his newest nightmare. No one knew about this place, so the soldiers of Akros couldn't come barging and ruin Ashiok's little operation, and a steady number of lost men and women kept coming in, never to leave. But, Ashiok was growing restless. The dreams he kept gathering weren't strong enough. Nothing truly terrifying was being added to his arsenal. Ashiok had been considering moving locations for a bit now, not sure as too where he could go to satisfy he cravings. As Ashiok dragged the traveler towards the bowels of the cave, a burst of magical energy ripped through the cave. Ashiok, who was almost thrown off his feet, turned to find a very strange man running a few steps, and then collapsing to the floor. Interested, he dropped the traveler and walked over toward the new intruder. As he touched him, visions shot through Ashiok's mind.
Terrible metallic creatures, horrifying flesh-less monsters, and more embraced Ashiok as he gazed into the man's dreams. These creatures were even horrifying to Ashiok! As the vision faded, Ashiok calmed himself, only to find his pulse racing. He had finally found something more terrifying than anything else! Desperate for more, he tried to pierce the man's mind, only to be blocked off by mental walls of stone. Furious, Ashiok, pulled out a knife from his robes, almost losing his composure. As he started to bring it down, Ashiok had to catch himself from killing the man. He had never lost control of his emotions like this before. It filled Ashiok's dark heart with delight, for he knew that if he was this emotional, these nightmares were more powerful than anything he had ever seen before. So, he walked away from the man, and began to set up his gauntlet of terror. If he couldn't penetrate the man's mind, he would just have to let him wake up and experience the terror of facing Ashiok. And the more fear consumed him, the easier it would be to enter his mind. And Ashiok will enter this man's mind and add these horrors to his collection, for the very few he had just acquired were far to promising. Ashiok laughed to himself quietly as he watched the man rise to his feet, already conjuring one of his new nightmares to greet his guest....
Ashiok's strategy is a vicious dismemberment of Koth's thoughts, using fear and psychic power to grind Koth's spirit into dust. The magical energies Ashiok haunted this cave with drain Koth of recent memories and dreams, feeding Ashiok a little bit of power to create some of Koth's more recent nightmares. And with these new toys, you will rip all hope out of Koth and replace it with fear! Ashiok's deck has a few winning conditions, but his most powerful is milling out Koth's deck. This means forcing Koth to take the top cards of his deck and put them in the grave, and Ashiok has plenty of cards that help this strategy flow perfectly. Dream Twist and Thought Scour are early game pickings at Koth's deck, but your most powerful tool for this is Grindclock. This artifact adds counters to itself, and when you have a good amount, you can start tapping to to force Koth to mill that many cards every turn! With your mill cards constantly taking spells from Koth's arsenal, you can almost guarantee victory! However, koth's deck can easily decimate these plans, and if he does, don't panic, Your deck is filled with nightmarish horrors of great strength! To help stall until these horrors can manifest, you have a wide variety of Defenders, cheap creatures that can only block but have high toughness. After stalling long enough, just started sending our cards like Dinrova Horror to ravage Koth's forces. If all else fails, remember that you can rely on Ashiok himself to end Koth's resistance. Ashiok can exile cards from koth's deck and recreate them as Nightmares, which fuels both your mill strategy and your beatdown strategy, so if he's out, you can rest easily, as the game will most likely be over soon. Koth may be mighty, but all bow before the power of fear!