Spoilers for the podcast Welcome to Night Vale Below
This deck draws inspiration from many sources, so it might seem a bit all over the place, but in playtesting, I have found it to work quite well. Before I start, there are two things that need to be understood: Firstly, it is extremely budget. I know that Phyrexian Obliterator is an obvious upgrade, but I don't have that kind of money. As in, any at all. Try to keep suggested cards under ten dollars, or possibly just say, "hey, by the way, this card that I am suggesting isn't budget," since I might put non-budget upgrades in the maybeboard. The second thing is that every card in this deck has a nickname based off of the podcast Welcome to Night Vale. Unfortunately, gameplay trumps flavor, so please no, "play Card X because it's a perfect representation of Carlos." I am struggling with nicknames for more than a couple cards, though, so I would appreciate any help with that. Also, if you think any of my nicknames suck, I'm open to other suggestions.
So. To start with, this deck draws heavy inspiration from SaffronOlive's modern "suicide black" deck. I have also drawn heavily from pauper Mono-Black Control (MBC) as well as having subthemes of Madness Decks and Mono-Black Devotion. After many iterations, this deck has settled down as an aggro-control deck, leaning more towards aggro than control. As a deckbuilder, I have many flaws, one of which is that I miss obvious auto-includes. If it seems like something is missing from the deck, chances are that it is. Please tell me if I've missed something. I am quite oblivious.
Now as for the actual deck.
Bloodsoaked Champion AKA The Interns- This card gets stuff done. It gets in there, it eats your opponent's life total, it's discarded to discard outlets very well. Most importantly, it's gets killed again and again and refuses to actually die. I originally started it at only a 3-of, but it's too good not to be a 4-of. The reason for the nickname is that it does whatever job you ask it to do, and usually dies in the process. This Intern, however, isn't your average Intern Jeremy or Svee. This one's an Intern Dana Cardinal or Intern Kareem, the one that keeps getting put in harm's way and somehow turns out fine.
Asylum Visitor AKA Old Woman Josie- A solid aggressive beater that gets better later in the game. The madness is usally less relevant than I'd want it to be, but it's still pretty good when you can discard and then pay its madness cost. Honestly, I should probably bump it up to a 4-of, but this deck already has enough 2-drops. The reason for this nickname is that this card just kind of looks like an Old Woman Josie, plus I couldn't think of a better nickname for it. Whenever you draw a card from its ability, it isn't Josie assisting you, but the Angels (which don't exist, shhh).
Pack Rat
AKA The Faceless Strangers or The Smiling God- Pack Rat is one of the unifying parts of this deck. It gets out of control very fast, enables madness well enough, and its copies actually count towards devotion. It's a great card that either gets killed immediately or wins the game. The nickname on this one was tough. If it's the faceless strangers, it makes sense because they take the citizens of Night Vale and convert them into more faceless strangers, and then proceed to destroy everything. If it's the smiling god, it consumes all and destroys everything. The problem with both the Strangers and the Smiling God is that I want a nickname that's on the side of Night Vale, and those are both "villains".
Gatekeeper of Malakir AKA The Sherriff's Secret Police- This card is just generally good. It's a solid bear that can come with a removal spell when you kick it. It also gives a nice 2 black mana bump in devotion. Nothing more to say about it. The reason for the nickname should be fairly obvious. It comes in and silences one of your opponent's creatures.
Abyssal Persecutor
AKA The Angels (which don't exist)- If you haven't watched the SaffronOlive's suicide black deck tech, I can sum up his reasoning for playing this card like so: It's a 6/6 flier with essentially no downside. You slam this card down on turn 4 and win the game unless your opponent kills it or has already played something bigger. Yes, I can hear you thinking, "but it says you can't win the game!" and I know. Fortunately, this deck plays so much removal that it doesn't matter. It ends up being killed by a Victim of Night or Gatekeeper of Malakir after you put your opponent down to 0. It's important to note that you shouldn't play more than one of them unless you also have two removal spells in hand. The nickname, just like the card, makes no sense at first. It's clearly a demon, not an angel. But if you actually think about it, we're only told about the angels more or less secondhand by Cecil, a lifelong resident of Night Vale. What else do we know about them? They fly, do favors for people, are looked down upon by the City Council, emit black light, and fought against a Smiling God. That sounds enough alike to me that I would call this an "angel". As for the reason that the angels don't let you win the game, it's simply that you can't win the game if you acknowledge the existence of angels. One of my favorite interactions is when I play the Sherriff's Secret Police to make me "forget" about the existence of angels, and then win the game.
Geralf's Messenger AKA Message From City Council- Oof. This card. This card is a monster. It just comes in and smacks your opponent silly. Then it trades for a snapcaster and comes back to smack your opponent silly again. On top of that, it adds a whopping three devotion. I should be running more of these, probably 4, but I can't find any more nearby. The nickname is one of my least proud. I feel like there's something else that makes more flavorful sense, but I just saw messenger and now I can't think of anything else.
Gray Merchant of Asphodel AKA Steve Carlsburg- Good ol' Gary. I originally started with 4, but the problem is that when you really want his ability is when you're behind. With this deck, though, your board is either next to empty, giving you little devotion to work with, or you're ahead. I might even knock it down to only one or two. Still, the draining is nice, especially against aggressive decks, and a 2/4 body is surprisingly relevant in my local meta. I love the nickname for this card because it just makes too much sense, and it's fun to say. Think about it. It literally drains the life out of your opponent based off of what's going on in Night Vale. Then it just sits there and is a super annoying blocker. Even the fact that I want less of this card in my deck makes flavorful sense if it really is Steve Carlsburg.
Call to the Netherworld
AKA the Glow Cloud (A L L H A I L)- This card is so good. It gets back an aggressive card that died, it gives you card advantage when discarding to
Call the Bloodline
or
Pack Rat
... there hasn't been a game that I've drawn Call to the Netherworld and been sad about it. I don't know how to tell you how good this card is, but take how good you think this card is and multiply that times 10. And oh, the nickname for this card is so on point and so not at the same time. Look at the art and tell me that you don't see at least one glow cloud in there. Plus, it takes back the creatures from your graveyard to your hand, making it literally rain dead bodies on you. The only problem there is that when you cast them, the creatures you got back are alive, so maybe it's a Reverse Glow Cloud?
Murderous Compulsion
AKA Clone Sandstorm- I like this card. Nobody else does. I'm probably wrong for liking this card. The thing is, it's basically trash if you can't madness it out, so then why not something like Go For the Throat? If you can madness it out before blocks to kill a problematic attacker and get the value from Call the Bloodline or Pack Rat, it's excellent. But maybe I live in Magical Fairy Christmas Land. Anyway, I don't like the nickname I made for this card. The nickname is clumsy and the only reason that I have that I might call it the Sandstorm is because the art looks kind of like a sandstorm clone attacking a normal person, possibly? I really need a better one.
Victim of Night AKA ???- This almost always hits everything. Treat it as an unconditional 2 mana removal spell at instant speed. Even when it occasionally doesn't hit the threat that you want it to take down, it just ends up as tier 1 discard fodder, which isn't that bad in this deck. As for nicknames... I couldn't think of one. The best I could come up with is "A Night Vale Welcome" or "Turned Into Decoration For the Desert Bluffs Radio Station" but, with the first one, I want my nicknames to reference a specific characters or events from the podcast, and with the second one, it's just way too long and clunky.
Call the Bloodline
AKA the Night Vale Radio Station- I have mixed emotions about this card and really need help evaluating it. On the one hand, it sucks in multiples and does very little initially. On the other hand, it generates madness value, helps me get the edge against aggressive decks, and counts towards devotion even after most board wipes. I'm currently running 3, and probably don't want more, but I'm not sure if I should cut any. As for the name, I think it makes sense because it's a structure that's always there in Night Vale, safe from most of the tragedies of the outside world. The tokens you make are interns, unimportant ones who usually die immediately, but not before giving you valuable information represented by lifelink. The cards you discard are the stories you send the interns to investigate, and sometimes the people in those stories come along and are relevant later in the podcast, as expressed with madness costs.
Mortuary Mire AKA The Dog Park or Alternate History Day- Mortuary Mire is another card that I'm not sure if I'm evaluating correctly. There are very few times when I want a tapped land, but returning a card to the top my library can be invaluable. My gut says throw it out, but it has helped me win a couple games, so maybe I might even want to play more. As for the nickname, I can't decide whether it should be the Dog Park or Alternate History Day. The Dog Park is an actaul place, and I guess the flavor would be that when you played it, you learned that your creature hadn't died but instead wandered into the Dog Park and got stuck in the desert otherworld. The flavor there seems kind of sketchy. Alternate History Day, on the other hand, isn't a place, but makes more sense, with the alternate history being that your creature did not die.
Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx AKA Town Hall- I am suspicious of this card. I don't like that it doesn't tap for black in a deck that needs consistent black mana and only black mana. It's also a legendary land, so if you have more than one of it in your hand, you're probably screwed. That being said, it's also a driving force of the deck. More consistently than you'd think, it's the reason that you can do very supid things with Bloodsoaked Champion,
Pack Rat
, and madness cards that end up winning you the game. If you rip two, the second one can be discard fodder or back up if your opponent has a Ghost Quarter for your Nykthos. I think 2 is a good number for Nykthos, but I could be wrong. As for the nickname, Town Hall just kind of made the most sense. The more of the town that you have involved, the more likely that the City Council is going to help.
Swamp AKA Swamp- I mean, it's a swamp. What more do you want out of me? This deck needs black sources that enter untapped consistently. What else is there to say about it?
ECH. Sideboards. Me and sideboards... we're not friends. We don't get along. So, my sideboard isn't exactly what you'd call optimal, and it's definitely skewed because of my local meta. A lot of the time, especially against decks that you can't out-aggro, you want to side out into a more controlly build, taking out things like Bloodsoaked Champion which can't block and Asylum Visitor which makes you lose life over time. Additionally, just in case there is the occasional problematic creature that isn't dealt with by Victim of Night, the various removal spells in the sideboard can also be substituted in. My sideboard is especially where I need the most help, since I'm not the best at making sidebaords.
Flaying Tendrils AKA Street Cleaning Day- Sadly, this card is a nonbo with the rest of the deck. It exiles Bloodsoaked Champion and creatures on your side that could be returned with Call to the Netherwold. The only reason that it's even run is the prevalence of Melira Combo where I play. I might be overdoing it with 3, but there really is a lot of Melira. As for being called Street Cleaning day, utterly destroying everything in your sight that can't stand the -2/-2 seems to fit Street Cleaning Day pretty well.
Duress AKA Report to Reeducation- If you feel like you can get away with siding this in, side this in. Just do it. There are so many games that Duress has just won me the game. If you can take a combo piece or even something like a draw spell, a removal spell, an artifact... it's usually worth it. The nickname shouldn't need explanation.
Bile Blight AKA the Plague of Buzzing Boils- A removal card. If your opponent is playing enough cards that are under 3 toughness that you want dealt with, you'll probably want this one in. It's especially good if you think you'll be able to 2-for-1 your opponent with it, or get rid of lots of tokens. The nickname seems to fit well enough. It's a disease that will one day kill thousands, and annoy many more.
Smother AKA Trapped in the Library- A concession to the sheer amount of aggro in my local meta. If it kills everything your opponent has, side it in. If not, don't. The name comes from the fact that anybody who goes into a library in Night Vale has to deal with the vicious killer librarians. Some are strong enough to make it our alive, but few are, hence the requirement of cmc 3 or less.
Asylum Visitor- Just in case you think that you might be able to out-aggro your opponent, an extra Asylum Visitor can help you race more efficiently.
Call the Bloodline
- Side this in against burn and other aggressive decks. The lifelink adds up more than you'd think.
Geth's Verdict
AKA A Visit From the Secret Police- These are a concession to Slippery Bogle in my local meta. It might also be slightly useful against Tron. The nickname comes from the fact that it has basically the same ability as the Secret Police when you kick them.
Hero's Downfall AKA Bought by Strexcorp- Side this in if you so much as smell a planeswalker. This deck doesn't need its time diverted to trying to take down a planeswalker over multiple turns, so Hero's Downfall is your answer. I think Bought by Strexcorp is a poetic name for this card considering everything that we have learned about poor Kevin and Desert Bluffs. Not to mention what Strexcorp almost did to Night Vale.
Gray Merchant of Asphodel- Gary is a doubtful choice, but if you think you can survive until turn five against an aggressive deck and get it out, you might want to side this card in. It's also good in the few grindy matchups I have seen.
Ghost Quarter AKA Old Night Vale- Tron and other land based decks will hate this card, but it messes with your own mana. I might want more if Tron ever becomes a relevant threat in my local meta, but right now it isn't, so I'm only devoting one slot to it. It's called Old Night Vale because of the art more than anything else. I feel like there could be a better nickname for it, but it's one of those cards that I have a nickname for and now I can't think of anything else that I could call it.
Finally, since I'm new to TappedOut, if there's anything I've done that is wrong or taboo, just tell me and I'll do my best to change it.
