Hello there! I am affbedran, and by the end of this description I guarantee that you will either love or hate this deck.
The reason for that is: This deck is really, REALLY cruel. If you like hard control decks, then you will most likely love this deck. If that is not the case, you will hate the idea that a deck like this exists.
In any case, if you find this deck interesting and/or like the concept, please leave a +1 =)
To the Deck
This deck aims to deny every possible source of advantage the opponent may have. We do this by being both, proactive and reactive, to our opponent's choices. I will be more thorough on that in a moment, but first I will explain (for those who don't know it) what is being reactive, and what is being proactive.
Reactivity- This is our ability to respond to our opponent's choices, that is, having a countermeasure planned in case we fail to be proactive, or receive an unexpected bomb.
Proactivity- This is our ability to influence our opponent's choices by either making pressure with our own choices, or eliminating theirs.
That being clear, we can go to the next section.
Card Choices
In this section I will explain why each card is here, and how it can help with our game plan. I will also mark the specific reactive/proactive card characteristic.
Tidehollow Sculler - Proactive - TS is here for a very important reason: She has a nice body for a lady that old (2/2) and can disrupt our opponent's hand by exiling ANY nonland card. Interaction with Path to Exile allows us to permanently exile one of our opponent's cards and get an extra land.
Brain Maggot - Proactive - BM is a redundancy to TS, but without the cool PtE interaction and a less interesting body.
Spell Queller - Reactive - SQ is a Tidehollow Sculler for SPELLS! It has flash AND flying, and can easily ignore any spell casted by our opponents. It has the advantage of not being affected by uncounterable spells such as Supreme Verdict and Abrupt Decay. Also, he's a 2/3, which can be very relevant. The downside is: You have to keep mana up to use it, instead of maybe casting another spell.
Inquisition of Kozilek + Thoughtseize
- Proactive - Discard spells. Very good on T1 always. I run a total of five, being 3-2. It is also nice to be aware that IoK is better on T1 and Thoughtseize keeps a better performance on the rest of the game(mid/late), so if you can save it, do it.
Lingering Souls - Both - LS has the job to keep us alive for enough time so we can execute our game plan, but can also be used as a board presence strategy or chump blocking.
Geist of Saint-Traft+Celestial Collonade+Creeping Tar Pit - Proactive - Our primary win-cons. These two beauties hit hard and nice on our opponent's face. Also, Collonade flies and can be used reactively if need be. Creeping Tar Pit also ignores any blockers our opponent may have.
Detention Sphere - Reactive - DS is used in case our opponent is a swarm deck like Tokens or in any case if he manages to get something on the board. There are various tips on how to use it, for example if your opponent has a similar deck to yours (Can remove an opposing Geist if you also have one!).
Path to Exile - Reactive - PtE is a very good removal spell, and has some nice tricks with this deck, as I explained above. I currently run 3 of it. Helps a lot against opposing man-lands too =).
Remand - Reactive - If you don't have a Spell Queller, or simply do not have the mana for one, remand works really well as a tempo tool AND gives us card advantage over our adversary. Sets up the field for a well-cast SQ.
Wall of Denial - Reactive - A friggin' good fat-ass to protect you during the game. Can block Tarmogoyf and Celestial Collonade easily (to name a few), and does not die to targeted removal (Suck it burn :*).
Pretty Cool Huh? - But what about sideboarding?
Well, we are still working on that part, so if you can leave a suggestion =)
Wasteland Strangler is a given, as it serves as a removal spell pretty much every time, with a body of 3/2. My only doubt about it is: Should I maindeck it? I have thought about putting him on serum vision's spot.
Zealous Persecution is a very interesting card too. I've seen this card perform really well with B/W Tokens, and it can also help against global toughness-based removal spells such as Pyroclasm.
I've been thinking about some other processors too, and maybe Cryptic Command?
HELP ME PLEASE 8-(
