What he said. Once NPH is released, that's a far too easy kill combo. Can have both cards out by turn 2 and win by turn 3 with any number of monoblack cards (Duress anyone?) or with a bolt if you're splashing red.
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First edit: -3 Ichor Rats, -1 Swamp, +4 Tumble Magnet.
3 Traumatize is likely too many. By the time you're casting it the third time, the gain would be so little that you'd be better off with a card like Tome Scour or Archive Trap. Call to Mind would be a good replacement, as you could retrieve a cast Traumatize or other spell as necessary.. it's a little more versatile anyway.
Now with black for removal. Haunting Echoes is another card that I think would work well in this deck, particularly after a Traumatize.
Thinking of removing the 2 Foresee and replacing with 2 more See Beyond. I'm finding that I'm often getting 2 or 3 Distortion Strobe or Assault Orb in my hand, and See Beyond is a great way to get rid of one of them.
Curious if anyone has any other suggestions...
So far, as long as I can pull a Kiln Fiend, Assault Orb and Distortion Strobe, getting that one-turn win is pretty consistent. It's the games were all four Kiln Fiends are sitting at the bottom of the deck that kill me. Any suggestions on how to improve the draw engine in this deck?
I had Corrupted Conscience in the original, and forgot to add it here. It's back in now. Thanks.
Also, I want to keep this deck in Standard. Mostly because I've only just gotten back into MtG since having quit when Homelands was released and not wanting to shell out a lot of money for older cards (which is why I had quit in the first place).
Awesome deck! I began playing MtG when Revised was released and quit when Homelands came out, so this deck brings back a lot of (painful) memories of playing against decks with Nether Void.
I wanted to maximize the number of cards that have infect in them to capitalize on the Hand of the Praetors ability to give poison counters when casting those cards.
In a BU control-based infect deck, the combo of Hand of the Praetors, a pair of Corpse Cur, and a Throne of Geth can net you a lot of poison counters pretty quickly should you have the mana to run it. WIth even 4 mana, you're adding two poison counters each turn. With just one Hand in play, the Corpse Cur is 3/3 and can block smaller creatures without dying (or block bigger ones before sacrificing it to the Throne of Geth).
I've built a similar deck (http://www.mtgvault.com/ViewDeck.aspx?DeckID=169465) but with reduced creatures (only Kiln Fiend) and more draw cards (Preordain and Foresee). I'm also running Turn Aside and Negate specifically as anti-removal cards to keep the Kiln Fiend around long enough to one shot an opponent with it.
Have removed all creatures with the exception of Kiln Fiend. The emphasis now is on one-cost instants for a turn 3 win, provided I can get Kiln Fiend out on turn 2 and have Distortion Strike and Assault Strobe in my hand. What the deck still needs is a little bit of staying power in the event that I need to wait for a few rounds to set up.
Thanks. Updated it a bit - replaced Prodigal Pyromancer with Cunning Sparkmage and added the Kiln Fiend. Also remove some burn spells for Preordain and Foresee.
Thanks for the comments. Both Jace Beleren and Consecrated Sphinx are on the wish list for the deck, but as I don't have either right now, I did not include them. The Consecrated Sphinx would pair nicely with Reckless Scholar as well - force the opponent to draw one card and then discard one while I draw two and mill them for two cards for each Jace's Erasure in play. If their hand is empty to begin with, even better. I had considered Grazing Gladeheart but couldn't fit it into the deck. The extra life would be handy to stall though...