Subject: Decks ("Cannibal/Nightmare", T/S/E) Date: Thu, 17 Sep 1998 10:47:17 +0100 From: David Sutcliffe To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com Cannibal/Nightmare by David Sutcliffe Somebody (sorry, don`t know who) posted a deck a week or so ago which used Anarchist/Cannibalise/Spike Cannibal. Although I didn`t like what his deck did, it set me thinking, becuse this combo seemed perfect for what I wanted to do in Rathi. I had been trying to use Spike Cannibal for a while, because I knew it was very strong against the Survival/Nightmare decks, but so far had done nothing more than play one main deck in my own Survival deck. It was when the article pointed out that Cannibalise removed the creature from the game so they couldn`t just recur it, that a small animated lightbulb appeared six inches above my head - I got a lot of strange looks, I can tell you... What I suddenly saw was this - Spike Cannibal (good metagame card, already in my Survival/Nightmare deck) + Cannibalise (removes creatures from the game, feeds the Cannibal) + Recurring Nightmare (top card, already in the Survival/Nightmare deck) + Anarchist (recur the Cannibalise, already in the Survival/Nightmare deck) = Kill, Rape, Pillage, Slaughter...! The following deck took very little time to build, and is basically Survival/Nightmare but with Cannibalise in place of Hermit Druid, and I found space for a few Cannibals. It carries most of the strengths of Survival/Nightmare (all it loses is the Hermits) and carries more creature removal for against Survival/Nightmare and Awakened Rider (I remove your Tradewind, put two +1/+1 counters on your Wall). The Cannibalise is used in a cycle either with Recurring Nightmare/Anarchist, or with Living Death/2 Anarchists. Repeated Living Death/Cannibalise tricks will quickly give you card advantage as you draw from your Walls/Automatons and recur Sorceries, whilst simultaneously removing their creatures from the game (often 2 or 3 each turn). If you are really desperate there is no reason why you can`t Cannibalise your own creature to put more counters on your own Spike Weaver or so on. The Cannibalise works in this deck on so many levels, you have to play it to see the combinations. One uncomfortable element is how your Cannibal might be unplayable because it will kill your own Spikes, especially when you need the Weaver. The common way I get around this is by either 1. Cannibalising the Cannibal, or 2. Recurring Nightmare the Weaver back into play after the Cannibal has arrived. Remember that when Living Death goes off all the +1/+1 counters go straight to the Cannibal, before they get to use any of the effects of things like Feeders/Automaton. This is true, as it all resolves as triggered effects of the Living Death, and there is no point where you can begin a new batch until all the triggered effects have finished resolving. Oh yes, and one Cannibal will eat all the other Cannibals when they come into play as well, you can only have one Cannibal in play at once (unless one gets a permanent Toughness boost), even after Living Death. THIS DECK IS GOOD! I REALLY, REALLY MEAN IT! THIS COULD BE AN ARCHETYPE! Look what it offers - the surefire combo of Survival/Nightmare PLUS added removal against the growing threat of Tradewind/Awakening PLUS metagame slaughter of other Survival/Nightmare and Spike/Grindstone decks with Cannibalise and Spike Cannibal MINUS an extremely large graveyard thanks to Hermit Druid (okay, so the deck might not throw out a horde of angry men on turn 5, but that rarely matters when you have control as this deck manages to) The Deck List Black 1 Thrull Surgeon 1 Coffin Queen 1 Stronghold Assasin 3 Spike Cannibal 4 Cannibalise 3 Recurring Nightmare 3 Living Death Green 4 Wall Of Blossoms 1 Wood Elves 2 Spike Feeder 1 Spike Weaver 1 Verdant Force 2 Mirri's Guile 4 Survival Of The Fittest Red 2 Anarchist Blue 1 Tradewind Rider White 1 Cloudchaser Eagle Artifact 2 Mindless Automaton Land 2 Volrath`s Stronghold 3 Pine Barrens 9 Forest 9 Swamp Sideboard (very definitely a W.I.P.) 2 Oath Of Ghouls 2 Thrull Surgeon 2 Nausea 3 Verdigrit 2 Tranquility 1 Respite 1 Cartographer 1 Scrivener (? to recur Verdigris/Respite ?) 1 Altar Of Dementia David Sutcliffe, M.O.B. Team Member and Deck Wizzard dsutcliffe@spindle.net