This Show is Sick
This is the list I've been grinding Arena with. The goal is to get down a deathtouch creature or two, start getting card advantage with
Theater of Horrors
, and keep their threats out of play while mid-range beaters combine with targeted burn to drop them.
The star feature of our show is
Pestilent Spirit
, and this guy has everything (except toughness). 15 main-deck instants and sorceries give the spirit a toolkit for inflicting maximum carnage to both the opponent's board and his face. With a spirit in play, Carnival//Carnage is potentially the best card in the deck -- instantly ping anything without hexproof/indestructable for a single mana and kill it, ping the opponent and trigger spectacle... or just Blightning for 4 if their hand is getting too heavy.
Dual Shot
also does work here, clearing two roadblocks for 1 mana, and again, instant speed.
Radiating Lightning
is an instant 4-mana wrath, at instant speed, for ONLY THEM, AND it domes them for three. Round out the burn package with a couple shocks and a few skewers -- not quite as impressive as the others, but they can always go face, can kill smaller guys all on their own, and they're still 1-mana kill spells when Pesty is on the field. With on-board menace and deathtouch, the spirit is a deceptively powerful combatant even without a spell handy. Especially if he's angry --
See Red
doesn't get the same love/hate that
Curious Obsession
has rightly earned, but functions quite well with a deck full of deathtouchers. Menace, of course, makes him unblockable unless there are two or more guys across the table, and a first-strike deathtouch ghost with 5 power creates a blocking nightmare for most anyone, especially with an unrevealed card or two in hand. 95% of the time he'll simply go unblocked until he's threatening lethal.
The star needs a stage though, and
Theater of Horrors
is an excellent way to get access to more cards without cluttering up the hand, and it can proc spectacle itself. They work just fine in pairs or triples too, unlike some other enchantment-based engines in the format. Just keep an eye on the library to avoid decking in long matches, not always a great idea to drop a third theater.
Rix Maadi Reveler
,
Hired Poisoner
,
Rekindling Phoenix
, and a single
Isareth the Awakener
finish up the cast. Phoenix is Phoenix. Poisoner is a great on-curve drop to place a See Red on, and then swing into any one-drop in the format (and most anything else missing first or doublestrike). Reveler pairs nicely with Theater, letting you draw three without necessarily losing access to a bunch of cards. Isareth is in as a 1-of and an additional 3-drop deathtouch -- not as synergistic an ability as the spirit's, but Pesty has a YUGE target on his back, and Isareth can give the deck a bit of much-needed recursion. A trio of memorials in the land base assist with that role as well.
Finally, I've got a single copy of
Angrath, the Flame-Chained
. He's new to the deck, but the one game I got him out he rocked. His second ability didn't do much as my opponent couldn't keep a creature around, but the first ability pairs nicely with a Carnage or two to keep them out of answers while keeping spectacle rolling, and if I ever face an opponent that survives long enough for him to ultimate, I certainly hope it's game ending.
Strengths and Weaknesses
The main strength is that it's a quick deck with a variety of on-curve, hard-to-block threats to put on the pressure, and at the same time it blanks most creatures with the overload of kill spells -- even a table full of carnage tyrants, Vine Mares, and Nullhides scoop to an instant Radiating Lightning -- without the condition that they ever need to attack like with Settle the Wreckage. A Theater or two can come down early and keep the fire fueled against more controlling opponents, and creature decks are in big trouble when Pesty comes out turn three.
The deck is still jank though, and heavily reliant on a few cards to make it work-- namely Pestilent Spirit and Theater of Horrors. Rix Maadi Reveler can occasionally be clutch if it gets stumped on 2 lands, as 3 mana is very important to getting off to the races -- unlike mono blue, red, or white -- but even his loot for one is a pretty weak dig. At three the sprit, Phyrexian Are... I mean Theater, isareth, and the spectacle sorceries come online, and that's usually good enough to stay in a game till phoenix and radiating lighting can come down, but 2 mana is a bad place to be. I'm considering a couple cuts to up the land count, as well as perhaps a couple Light Up the Stages or other effect to shore up this weakness.
Main deck, we can't do anything about indestructible targets (of which there are blessedly few in standard) except hope to outrace them. Most game ones against control will come down to whether they can deal with Theater. If they can, and you don't get a very aggressive open, it's likely a lost cause. We don't pile the burn like a red deck or have the disruption of a black or blue deck. Exile effects are also dangerous, as we bank on a relatively small number of rattlesnake creatures that discourage trading, along with a bit of recursion for when they get targeted, so be cautious of swinging into a possible Settle, and even Seal Away and Vraska's Contempt can be costly. I generally don't swing into white mana with more than a single phoenix or spirit unless they have zero cards in hand.
Sideboard
Still working on this end, as I'm trying to get enough games under the belt to identify the more difficult matches. I might go up to the full compliment of duress and/or drill bit, as so far control has been way more dangerous than aggro or midrange matches. Banefire seems like a good bet against blue, along with a fourth theater to keep questions outpacing their answers. Twilight Prophet is there as a flyer blocker with lifegain, damage and card draw -- the deck has a robust number of cards with a higher CMC than they actually play for, and while ascending can be a bit slow, its by no means impossible. Vraska's, Moment of craving, and Mark of the Vamp all assist with keeping ahead of other aggressive decks, but so far I haven't needed them very much.
All told, I'm all ears for further suggestions, for the deck as a whole, but especially for the board.
