Book Burning of the Invincible Undead

[bowwing333]

I believe I'm a bit too new to magic and a bit too over enthusiastic about creating decks and discovering new ways to work the cards, so I apologize in advance for this deck. It seems pretty interesting...and I think what I'm trying to do with it works, but its most undoubtedly too inefficient to be practical...and for all i know not even legal.

But here it is regardless...any real magic veterns please school me, because I do wish to know what I'm talking about.....eventually...perhaps someday go to a real tournament.

http://www.mtgvault.com/ViewDeck.aspx?DeckID=15572

Main Deck (50 cards)Artifacts
4x Grindstone
1x Library of Leng
2x Lich's Mirror
4x Painter's Servant
Creatures
4x Magus of the Mirror
4x Waning Wurm
Enchantments
2x Dystopia
2x Lich
2x Eyes of the Wisent
Land
1x Forest
3x Island
1x Mountain
3x Plains
5x Swamp
2x Arcane Sanctum
1x Exotic Orchard
1x Reliquary Tower
1x Unstable Frontier
Planeswalkers
1x Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker
Spells
2x Guttural Response
1x Brilliant Ultimatum
0x Deathmark
1x Sunscour
1x Syphon Life
1x Talara's Bane


Sideboard (12 cards)Sideboard
1x Nip Gwyllion
1x Divinity of Pride
1x Boon Reflection
1x Double Cleave
4x Dark Ritual
2x Abandon Hope
1x Kiss of the Amesha
1x Soul Reap


I really don't understand the sideboard...so i just use it to put ideas or swap cards there...i was thinking of also thowing in (or using it as a replacement for something) devoted druid and quillspike...as a dastardly back up plan and cheap monsters to throw in the way if need be.

I think i have a bit too much land now...and it would be nice to restrict the colors a wee bit...though i could just throw in dual lands instead..

But if anyone gets a kick out of my attempts and think I might be on to something actually useful with a bit of adjustment...please feel free to hack away at 'er.

[bowwing333]

Well here's a bit of an update...not sure if it helps or makes things even worse...mana is a bit cumbersome sometimes

Land:
2x Arcane Sanctum
1x Exotic Orchard
1x Shelldock Isle
2x Reliquary Tower
1x Lake of the Dead
4x Island
4x Vivid Marsh
1x Unstable Frontier
5x Swamp

Creatures:
4x Waning Wurm
4x Magus of the Mirror

Enchantments:
2x Eyes of the Wisent
2x Lich

Spells:
1x Brilliant Ultimatum
4x Glimpse the Unthinkable
2x Talara's Bane
1x Syphon Life
2x Gutteral Response
1x Sunscour

Artifacts:
4x Grindstone
4x Painter's Servant
2x Lich's Mirror
1x Library of Leng

Planeswalkers:
1x Nicol Bolas

Sideboard
4x Dark Ritual
2x Abandon Hope
1x Nip Gwyllion
1x Kiss of the Amesha
1x Divinity of Pride
1x Double Cleave
1x Boon Reflection

[NightLoki]

Couple things, if you'll let me be so bold. Uno: your deck's not 60 cards. I don't know if that matters with people you play with, but if ya wanna be technical, 60's min. Ok, now for the stuff worth paying attention to :P I am personally not a huge fan of shelldock isle, but if it's working for you, that's a personal thing. 21 land's just a tad bit short, 23-24's actually a really good number, especially for your deck type. Umm, lesse...swap grindstone for sanity grinding perhaps? That's all I've got for ya, hope this helped

[bowwing333]

60 is min? i thought 40 was...alrighty then..well more land yay...and there was a few cards i wanted put in there ...i don't know what sanity grinding is ..so i'll go check that out and see what i can do... Thanks for your help! If ya think of anything else..lemme know!

[bowwing333]

Ok...i'm not sure this would work with my deck, as i don't have many blue cards in my deck..and painter's servant doesn't change the color of the mana only the color of the card (well it doesn't change anything..just adds a color) which works great with grindstone...as grindstone, if left unchecked will destroy an opponents entire library in one go.....the problems you run into with grindstone is if you hit a land or artifact or something else that doesn't have a color....painter's servant takes care of that problem because its ALL whichever color you want it to be. So when that triggers..its pretty much game over next turn for one of your opponents, unless they can do something radical about it.
Now this would be pretty cool if i had lots of blue mana cards in my deck. However having painter's servant and grindstone is about all the library burning one could ever need. So I'm inclined to stick with that....thanks though! ^__^

[NightLoki]

yep, 60's min after 5th edition came out. Wait, painter's servant + Grindstone...Wow. I like it! I mean, it turns lands to a color....that's a one turn game right there. spiffy.

[bowwing333]

Alright next update: Took out the Planeswalker...added some land and a couple cards from my sideboard.

so this is what i've got now

Land:
2x Arcane Sanctum
1x Exotic Orchard
1x Shelldock Isle
2x Reliquary Tower
1x Lake of the Dead
4x Island
4x Vivid Marsh
3x Unstable Frontier
5x Swamp

Creatures:
4x Waning Wurm
4x Magus of the Mirror
1x Divinity of Pride
2x Nip Gwyllion

Enchantments:
2x Eyes of the Wisent
2x Lich

Spells:
1x Brilliant Ultimatum
4x Glimpse the Unthinkable
2x Talara's Bane
1x Syphon Life
1x Sunscour
2x Dark Ritual

Artifacts:
4x Grindstone
4x Painter's Servant
2x Lich's Mirror
1x Library of Leng


Sideboard
2x Dark Ritual
2x Abandon Hope
1x Kiss of the Amesha
1x Double Cleave
1x Boon Reflection

I think this is starting to shape up...a bit at least!

[NightLoki]

I'm slowly getting towards what you're going for with this deck, and I'm for it. With Lich and Lich's Mirror, you're basically just stalling for the grindstone/painter's servant combo, which basically says 'you win' right there. Might I recommend Platinum Angel if you wanna add some more stall? The sunscour's great, Wrath of God/Damnation would go far here as well. I'd Mainboard all the Dark Rituals myself, it's great mana production and speeds up your play considerably. Great deck, love the concept (now that I'm paying attention enough to see it XD) and the name is completely appropriate.

[bowwing333]

I'm glad you're starting to get the idea and I'm really happy for the input! I was going to throw in the actual Book Burning card, but ...well I'm still thinking about at least just tossing it in the sideboard...prolly really isn't needed..but eh*shrugs* lol...anyways..
Platinum Angel is scarey lol...but its quite expensive (well i guess many things in my deck are as well...) So I'm not quite sure....I'll keep that card in mind for the next few updates though for sure....sounds annoying enough that it feels right for the deck, heh heh.
And I agree with you on removing Dark Ritual from my side board completely and just putting it in my main board. I had that thought all along..but somewhere it ended up in my side board and stayed there. Next update its goin in there surely.

Oh there is a promo-card for the upcoming Magic 2010 that would be sweet...
Silence (one white to play) Instant- No spells may be played this turn by opponents...with that, i could pull of some of these combos with a lot less fear of countering, etc. just an ebil ebil white card.

(and these which are also in the next core set)

Black Knight- (two black) Creature-Human Knight 2/2 First Strike and Protection from White With that i could damn his creatures with my white eliminato spell and still have something effective there

and the Planeswalker Jace Beleren ...if any planeswalker i guess should go in this deck its probably him.

http://www.wizards.com/magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/feature/27a
(in case you wanna check my source...pretty neat article..makes me rather excited)

ok ...i'd better submit this now...lol...getting distracted looking at cards now...Thanks for your help!

[bowwing333]

ooh just thought of something else....check out Tsabo's Assassin ...makes sense with painter's servant heh~ its dangerously puny though at 1/1 and a bit expensive at 2BB but still ...

[NightLoki]

ah, tsabo's assassin. Yes, that could work quite well. As for Jace, I'm for it! Just use his -1 to up your draw power and give your opponent nothing but a big target that's not your face.

As for the price of everything in the deck, mana accel would be good....ooh, cabal ritual could work. Oh snap, just thought of this, Damnation for creature removal! that'd be amazing.

[bowwing333]

I posted this on another magic forum as well to see what they think....got this just now..

"If you're playing Grindservant, then you should focus your deck on that. You don't need all that extra stuff in there that doesn't help you.

You'll probably have better luck playing just blue and black. Have some counterspells handy to stall, preferably ones that draw you a card like Remand. Blue can also draw you cards. Brainstorm and Ponder are both pretty awesome. Black tutors can be nice to help you find the combo. Dark ritual should probably be a 4 of here to speed you up into the kill. Something like Damnation will help a lot too. "


Damnation popped up again...the fact that dark ritual should be completely in my mainboard is just a plain damned fact now lol.....likin the ideas with the library manipulation and drawing cards...

I think I'm going to update my deck here again pretty soon...take out what i don't need but thought what-the-hey....and put in some suggested cards to make this a more streamlined machine..

Cards like Stromgald Cabal and Cabal Ritual would work......hmmm boy there is alot i could do here...

[bowwing333]

Time to update a little more! Slowly but surely its getting a little better...

Land
3 Arcane Sanctum
2 Shelldock Isle
1 Reliquary Tower
4 Island
4 Vivid Marsh
2 Unstable Frontier
7 Swamp

Creatures
2 Waning Wurm
2 Magus of the Mirror
2 Royal Assassin
2 Nip Gwyllion
2 Stromgald Cabal

Enchantments
2 Lich

Spells
1 Brilliant Ultimatum
1 Damnation
2 Cabal Ritual
4 Glimpse the Unthinkable
2 Talara's Bane
4 Dark Ritual

Planeswalker
1 Jace Beleren

Artifacts
4 Grindstone
4 Painter's Servant
2 Lich's Mirror

Sideboard
1 Kiss of the Amesha
1 Divinity of Pride
3 Damnation
1 Book Burning
4 Double Cleave
1 Boon Reflection
4 Ponder


Realized that Painter's servant doesn't apply to cards IN play...DOH! oh well ...no Tsabo's Assassin!

[bowwing333]

I was just re-reading the text for Painter's Servant...

it states:

"As Painter's Servant comes into play, choose a color.
All cards that aren't in play, spells and permanents are the chosen color in addition to their other colors."

Does this mean that it paints over ...basically everything...library..graveyard...removed from the game....cards in hand....land in play.....creatures...artifacts...that counter spell my cousin is playing on me right now...everything?

if thats true....Tsubo's Assasin works fine...among anyother color specific card (so long as you choose that color of course)

Does anyone get what its saying?

[NightLoki]

Ok, let's make this clear: everything in every zone is the color you choose for painter's servant. Cards that aren't in play (including lands), spells (including those on the stack), and permanents (including artifacts and lands). So, Tsabo's assassin works.

I'd swap brilliant out for ponder and/or brainstorm, it's just too expensive. The idea that the other forum had for cutting white is not a bad one, though you'd have to rework your sideboard too.

[bowwing333]

ok then....my sideboard really can be thrown out all together....its just there right now anyways....

I think the only reason I have white still left is because of painter's servant
but I'm not above pulling it for something thats better.

I'm still thinking that white is the color that painter's servant will paint over so I can use things like Tsabo's Assassin ,etc... Maybe protection from white...if that would work or just bounce back in my face, i'm not sure yet. I suppose I can just use creatures like Black Knight or something.

I think the deck will get a major restructuring after all the help and advice I've gotten from everyone. (thanks guys! ^__^ )

[NightLoki]

black's not a terrible idea to paint over, since you're not running terror, why not cripple theirs? When it comes down to it though, painting over is a case by case basis, per deck played against.

[bowwing333]

So what you're sayin is I should sideboard cards that would work in different situations...Take out color specific cards from my main board and put them in my sideboard? If I need to paint white...then i'd have my sideboard selection ...like Tsabo's Assassin and Black Knight...if I need to do Black..I'd have something that triggers with black ....stuff like that?

[NightLoki]

something like that, though color specific can be tricky depending on what you're working with. If memory serves, Tsabo's Assassin works no matter the color, just make sure that when you're painting, you put your opponent in a bad position. Black if they're running terror and other non-black kill cards, that sort of thing. If they're running protection from a certain color, change the color to something else.

Really, it's just game 2 & 3 strategy, side board's more for what you're expecting to play against and how to counteract it.

[vgaforest]

another card you might consider is spell syphon, works amazing with painters servant.