New Death/Darkness Deck: I call it "Lovecrafts Tomb"

[inktomi]

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4vj 4vj 52g 52g 52g 52g 52g 52g 52g 52g 52g 52g 52i 52i 52i 52i 52j 52j 52k 52k 52k 52k 52n 52n 52n 52q 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5ul 5ul 5ul 5ul 5um 5um 5um 5um 5un 5un 5un 5un 5up 5up 8pt

I'm taking any and all constructive criticisms. Thanks!

The deck has held up in L2 grinding and a few L3's. But I seem to get "mana-screwed" sometimes. Thats an old Magic term from when I used to play magic.

The setup is easy. Some field control with virus and parasites. The devourers give me early mana rush and if I can get a dragon out fast I can turn the tide early in the match. This is all dependent on my "quantum" control from the start.

One question: Why doesn't Nightfall stack? graveyard stacks but I feel that nightfall should. It would make the deck monstrous quickly. Since Graveyard and other enchantments stack, shouldn't nightfall? Or would that be too imbalanced?

Let me know, I'm new and I love this game.

[inktomi]

This is a pic of it in action.

[xdude]

Erm... It's 60 cards. 60 cards decks are really exposed to bad draws and to getting "mana-screwed".You're mixing 2 different concepts here: quanta denial and vulture growing/skelly generation. I know it's fun to use more cards and watch their effects, but the deck isn't so good with so many of them. And not being able to own lvl 3 with 90%+ success rate sucks.

[inktomi]

ok, you made a good point. The devourers are good for early quanta raising and denial. If you would drop cards, how many and how much?

[Baily18]

Drop novas, all but 1 Nightfall, 1-2 dragons, flesh spiders and 2 steals.

[xdude]

Well, you want a growing vultures deck or a denial deck?

[Glitch]

Why the heck do you have novas in there?

Take the following cards out:

Nova
Flesh Spider
Minor Vampire (unless you are trying to use them for heals, in which case add more)
Arsenic


I see what you're trying to do with this deck,  but it's not working because you have the cards off balance.  How I would do it:

Mark of DEATH
Death Pillars x 5
Dark Pillars x 5
Parasite x 6
Boneyard x 5
Night fall x 3
Steal x 2
Drain Life x 2
Wall of Bone x 1
Dusk Mantle x 1

Use your Parasite as a consistent way to kill creatures, and swarm with skeletons.  I know it's a low pillar amount, but they account for 1/3 of your deck, mathematically you should have two of one pillar and one of the other in almost every draw, and none of those cards costs more than three mana anyway.  It's thin, so you'll get the combo you want faster.  Mark of death so poison will work.  I didn't put in vultures because this deck is going to be poison heavy.  Most of the cards in here are dark.  Wall of bone in case the poison gets going, Dusk mantle in case you can't afford the high costing death card.  Rest is in there for creature/permanent control, so your deck can be more versatile.

[PuppyChow]

I would say that 5 pillars of each isn't very good. Here's what I would do for an unupped dark/death:

Mark of Death
8x Dark pillars
6x Devourer
5x Black Dragon
4x Bone pillars
4x Parasite
3x Boneyard

[Glitch]

Five of each = 1/3 of a 30 card deck.  All of those cards are 2-5 quantum.  You'll get two of one pillar and one of the other in every hand mathematically, meaning a card almost every turn.  It's a great rhythm/balance.

[PuppyChow]

You run into a problem when you get all death cards and all dark pillars, or all dark cards and all death pillars.

1/6 of each card is a dark pillar. 1/6 of each card is a death pillar. Those aren't good odds to me.

As to two of one and one of the other, even if that's true, averages rarely play out. You're probably just as likely, if not more, to end up with 0 of one type.

All in all, duo decks generally either need one element to be powered solely by mark, or more pillars overall than a mono using the same total quantum.

To the quantum cost, parasites also have 1 death/turn for the ability, and paying for that (even just with 2-3 parasites out, which is really the minimum for them to be useful) will likely take away your ability to play other death cards.

[inktomi]

Lovecrafts Tomb 2.0
Mark of Darkness
7x Dark pillars
8x Bone pillars

1x Dusk Mantle
6x Parasite
4x Boneyard
1x Bone Wall
4x virus
4x Steal
2x Darkfall
2x drain life
1x arsenic

sideboard
5x Black Dragon
2x drain life
1x dark pillar

Runs about 40 cards and can handle a L2 no prob. I can do L3's but have run into a few smackdowns. The deck does run more smoothly with less cards. I was a magic player for a while so 60 cards felt more comfortable to me. Unlike Elements, you couldn't hold the mana past a round. Takes some getting used to and I will continue testing/plugging and playing this deck. It's a lot of fun.

Thanks for all your help. =)

[Glitch]

One of the things you get used to in Magic is the notion of short-game mid-game and long-game.  As mana is accumulative in Elements, and you can drop more than one per turn, there's really no such distinctions.  Once you can break that mindset, you stop putting so many cards in, and realize you can practically fill a deck with a combo.

Also, I suppose the 5 of each is a personal choice, but I've found it to be the perfect balance.