Subject: Bottle Dance; the Strategic Followup (long) Date: Thu, 19 Mar 1998 22:06:24 -0600 From: Shining Shadow Thanks for the advice, Drake, but it seems that I should have explained the internal strategy of my deck a little more when I first posted it. Now that I have the time, I will try to do so. To recap, this is the deck listing again: BOTTLE DANCE Standard Format (Type 2) Deck Design Version 1.0 Card Casting Cost Expansion 4 Lab Rats B+4 SH 4 Bottle Gnomes 3 TE 3 Bone Dancer 1BB WL 2 Dauthi Mindripper 3B TE 3 Fallen Angel 3BB 5E 4 Necropotence BBB 5E 4 Grave Pact 1BBB SH 3 Corpse Dance 2B+2 TE 4 Drain Life X1B 5E 3 Nevinyrral's Disk 4 5E 4 Jet Medallion 2 TE 2 Volrath's Stronghold - SH 4 Wasteland - TE 16 Swamp - -- Sideboard (in ongoing development): 4 Salt Flats - TE 4 Gemstone Mine - WL 4 Disenchant 1W 5E 3 Gloom 2B 5E What follows are my scrubby thoughts concerning each card. Lab Rats: These serve the triple purpose of 1) early game weenie 2) expendable mid-game chump blockers and 3) late game food for the Fallen Angel. Since I only want to recurse one, the other three can be considered to have a casting cost of B. Bottle Gnomes: The "drinking buddies" are where the true power of the deck lies. They are big enough to defend against most weenies, and are the fuel for the Corpse Dance and Necropotence combos. Bone Dancer: Actually, I have my doubts about these guys. While they are suitably intimidating :-) and give me free creatures in the mid-to-late game, by that time I will probably be winning anyway. I am considering replacing them with something cheaper and generally more useful, such as Fallen Askari or even the Scroll/Shock resistant Erg Raiders. Dauthi Mindripper: The current version of Hymn and Hypnotic. These are particularly abusive when used with Corpse Dance. Fallen Angel: Flying black fat. They are tough to defend against, and can deliver an enormous finishing attack when fed with a stream of Corpse Danced creatures. They can also self-sacrifice, which is very handy when being Danced themselves. Necropotence: While I am considering dropping these to three, they are still something I want to see early on. The great secret of the Necropotences in this deck is that I don't want to see them go away. Imagine this situation: I have Bottle Gnomes, Volrath's Stronghold, and Necropotence in play. I sacrifice the Gnomes for three life, use Volrath's house to return them to the top of my library, and then Necro for three. I get two new cards, every turn, for no life loss (or one new card and a gain of one life). I also just killed one or more of my opponent's creatures, depending on how many Grave Pacts are in play. If I draw another Necropotence, I might play that too to protect against Disenchant. Ain't Necro fun? Grave Pact: This is clearly the most dangerous weapon in this deck's arsenal. With my creatures constantly hopping in and out of my graveyard, the Pact makes it impossible for my opponent to keep anything in play. When used in multiples, I get a continuous one-sided Wrath of God. There are four in this deck only because I can't legally use five or six. Grave Pact is _that_ good. Corpse Dance: Recursive creature/life/card advantage. The drawack doesn't exist when used on a Gnomes, Mindripper or Angel because those creatures will return to the graveyard to Dance again next turn. Drain Life: Creature removal, direct damage, and life (and therefore card) gainer. The deck is mono-black, so why not four? Nevinyrral's Disk: This is where Bottle Dance gets really interesting. In old-school Necro, the Disk was necessary to remove the Necropotence once its usefulness had run out. Now, I use the Disk as 1) Deterrment against my opponent's permanents, 2) emergency reset button, but especially 3) Disenchant absorption. You never wanted to Disenchant the Necropotence before, did you? No, you waited for the Disk to hit the table. Against Bottle Dance, however, you _should_ do just the opposite. It's the Necropotence that I want to keep for the rest of the game. Go ahead, destroy my Disk. That's one less Disenchant my Grave Pacts will have to worry about also. Jet Medallion: A no-brainer in a mono black deck with buyback spells. Volrath's Stronghold: This is a nice, no-spell way to return valuable creatures to my library, even if they are buried too deep for the Corpse Dance to reach. Besides, using it does _not_ result in the loss of a draw -- the creature was dead anyway. And yes, I want to draw the Bottle Gnomes over and over again with the Necropotence or Grave Pact in play. I can even use it to run my opponent out of cards if I have to. (And then I can say "I decked him with my Necro Deck even though I drew every turn. I finished at 50 life, too.") Wastelands and Swamps: General disruption and mana sources. Sideboard: This can be disregarded for now because it is very subject to change. The Disenchants are a temporary solution to Winter Orb and Light of Day until I find something better. Gloom is anti-Armageddon. Additional comments/advice/verbal scrub-slapping are welcomed. 8-) Regards, The Shining Shadow -- "I can't use what I can't abuse..."