This deck has 1 main strategy and 2 side strategies: -1/-1 counters, burn, and cycling/discarding, respectively. The burn and cycling are augmented so that they also instantiate -1/-1 counters. This deck aims to balance "action" and "reaction", action being casting creatures and spawning -1/-1 counters, and reaction being burn spells and spawning -1/-1 counters. As always, I welcome and appreciate any suggestions.
Important Cards
Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons and Nest of Scarabs are basically the backbone of this deck. An army of insects and deathtouch snakes is nothing to sneeze at.
Soul-Scar Mage is the other backbone. It makes my burn spells twice as effective, triggering Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons, Nest of Scarabs, et cetera.
Ammit Eternal allows the other cards to trigger when there are no creatures on the opponent's side of the battlefield to put -1/-1 counters on. Also acts as a "reaction" to threats on the other side of the field.
Obelisk Spider
to add in some life drain. "Your pain, my gain." Effective blocker.
The Scorpion God is a solid creature by himself. Dishes out -1/-1 counters for 3 mana, draws cards when creatures with -1/-1 counters die, and he is very hard to kill.
Archfiend of Ifnir weaponizes my cycling/discarding, dishing out a ludicrous amount of -1/-1 counters. Pairs well with Key to the City, which basically allows me to discard a card for free, triggering Archfiend of Ifnir's ability. This is mainly used as the "grand finale". Not to mention, it's a 5/4 flyer.
Sideboard
Blossoming Defense and Heroic Intervention give my creatures a bit of extra defense. Useful against blue.
In case of a threatening creature that I need to kill immediately, I added Never / Return, which also has the benefit of a chump blocker if needed.
I'm slightly paranoid of those token decks that spawn a boatload of tokens, so to protect myself against this, I included Trespasser's Curse.
Bontu's Last Reckoning, because board wipes.
Future Plans for this Deck
I'm slightly tempted to remove the cycling aspect in favor of more burn or bigger creatures. If you have any thoughts on this, feel free to comment.
As soon as this deck leaves standard, then I'll do a major update - I hear that there are very good cards in modern that fit this deck's theme...
