Deface

Sorcery

Choose one —

• Destroy target artifact.
• Destroy target creature with defender.

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Arena	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Dandan	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Gladiator	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Historic	Legal
Judge's Tower	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Pauper	Legal
Pauper Duel Commander	Legal
Pauper EDH	Legal
Pioneer	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (6)

zAzen7977 on zAzen7977

3 years ago

Hey casual_competitive, I’m not sure what your question is, but I can talk about standard. I’m no expert, since I drop off from standard from time to time, but I have a few tips that I’ve picked up other the years.

And Scallywallwest, thank you very much!!! I would be happy to talk about using black.

First of all, I’ll discuss deck building. These same principles apply regardless of the format. It’s important to review the entire card pool in the format. To know what to build, you have to know what you will be up against. Also review popular existing decks so you know the main archetypes and the most popular color combinations. If you’re new to the game, I recommend copying an existing deck and modifying it as you learn more.

Then if you are building a deck from scratch, choose a few cards that work together. Mono-color decks can’t address as many threats as multi-colored decks, but they will always have more consistent mana bases (you only have to worry about one land type). In standard you are limited to whatever lands are available, so that will be another thing to consider. Dual lands (like Blood Crypt and fetchlands (like Fabled Passage) are critical for making multi-colored decks consistent.

For example, in my Liliana’s Embrace deck, I chose Liliana, Waker of the Dead, Archfiend's Vessel, Demonic Embrace, and Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger. Liliana is the focus I built the deck around. Liliana discards a card from my hand, withers creatures based on the number of cards in my graveyard, and can eventually reanimate a creature every turn. So a deck with Liliana should focus on reanimation to utilize her most effectively. Her ability lets me discard Vessels and Kroxa so I can bring them back later. Once I have those cards down, I can add more details. Other utility cards like Thrill of Possibility help you dump cards and draw more. Since I anticipate going up against creature-heavy decks, I also added removal like Eliminate and Bedevil.

Once you have a working concept, you need to be able to win. Choose a few ways to win so you won’t be limited to only one path of attack. Magic is a fickle game and you need to have multiple plan B’s if things don’t go as planned. For example, in my deck I include Doom Whisperer as a finisher, because it is a powerful flying 6/6 trampler and allows me to Surveil at will. Kroxa and demon tokens from the Vessels are other win cons. Plus I run Maximize Velocity and Unleash Fury for good measure. Every deck will be different, but there must be a clear endgame.

Another important consideration is the mana curve. You want cards with affordable mana costs (1-2 mana) that you can cast early in the game, as compared to waiting around doing nothing turns 1-4. In Modern, most decks play at least 1 land and 1 spell every turn and gain serious momentum by turn 4, and if your curve is too high, you will not be able to compete. But you don’t want to burn out too quickly either. You’ll need higher mana cost cards for the late game. If you run cards that cost 5 or more mana, run at least 24 lands. If you are running lean (less expensive cards) you can reduce that number. Cards costing 7 or more mana are generally unusable unless you are playing ramp (lots of cards that generate additional mana besides only lands).

Black is an interesting color in any format because you have to think outside the box. First, choose your focus: Either creature-heavy aggro, control (very few creatures), or midrange (which is a mix of both, starts slow at first but picks up by turn 4). Black decks usually rely on creature removal, hand discard, creature sacrifice, life loss, controlling swamps, or devotion (having lots of black cards in play at the same time). Mono-Black is more consistent than other black color combinations but lacks the ability to deal with artifacts or enchantments effectively. That’s why white, green, and red are popular splash colors. White gives you access to Path to Exile and Disenchant, while red gives you burn and artifact removal like Deface, and green provides removal like Assassin's Trophy and Naturalize.

When you play black, you have to be ready to sacrifice your own resources. You can’t be emotionally attached to a particular creature or planeswalker. It’s just like chess - sometimes you must sacrifice your own pieces. Your life total is also a resource for you to utilize and spend, hence the term “suicide black.” Death's Shadow is an example of this archetype. You need to be able to walk right up to the cliff without falling off. It takes practice to know when you’ve gone too far.

Check out my decks for examples of zombie decks, black midrange devotion, and 8-Rack hand discard control. I like creating variations with different colors.

I hope my comment was helpful!

LadyZ on Omnath, All You Can Eat Lands

4 years ago

Cards I'd cut:

- Mana Geode , Gruul Locket , Gruul Cluestone . You're going to want to run land based ramp. the only mana rocks I'd put in are Sol Ring and maybe Gruul Signet

- Deface . It looks decent, but you won't really run into many creatures with defender unless you play against Arcades, the Strategist . More often than not it will end up being a weaker, less flexible Vandalblast

- Elvish Rejuvenator . Searching the top 5 cards, there's a pretty decent chance he whiffs. if you want creatures to search your deck for lands, maybe replace with Wood Elves , Pilgrim's Eye , Solemn Simulacrum

- Arboreal Grazer . Putting lands from your hand into play isn't really that useful, in a 100 card deck there's a good chance you don't get him when he's useful.

If you'd like, I can give you more suggestions for cards to add, those are the cards I know for sure I'd cut. Best of luck, I'm more than happy to help where I can

Argy on Sarkhan's Dragon Den

5 years ago

Panda I can't see that Deface will offer me the flexibility that Shock does.

At best it would be a Sideboard card, but there aren't enough Artifacts or Creature being played in my local meta to justify it over the other Sideboard cards I have.

feedingjungler I'm glad that going suits your playstyle but that's not how I play this deck.

It's all Mountains to give me extra cards to discard to Sarkhan, Fireblood and Dismissive Pyromancer . All also facilitates an early Shock .

Panda on Sarkhan's Dragon Den

5 years ago

Deface Would add a way to deal with artifacts and worse case scenario you can use it to crack open your own eggs. I play a deck with dragon eggs in it and always find a use for the two deface I run main deck. If I don't need help cracking eggs or busting up artifacts I just side them out.

Loizo on Drama Instills Violent Attributes

5 years ago

Deface instead of Lightning Strike made me think you must have an Arcades at your table but Star of Extinction and no Golden Demise or Price of Fame ? Good luck with your representations :)

UnwittingHero on [RNA] Jund-Dragons

5 years ago

Hey! I love this deck list. I think this jund dragons archetype is the most underrated deck in standard right now.

I was playing Jund Dragons before the last rotation with a lot of success against competitive decks, including Aggro Red and Esper Control, the two dominant meta decks at the time. Then came a three-month hiatus, and now I've spent my afternoon trying to figure out how to update my list.

Aside from smashing people in the face with dragons (especially Demanding Dragon ), my deck used 4x Spit Flame as discard fuel and 4x Dragon's Hoard for consistent draws. 4x Glorybringer was amazing for tempo. I ran 2x Lathliss, Dragon Queen and 2x Vaevictis Asmadi, the Dire , but they were ultimately placeholders for 4x Verix Bladewing , which were not at any LGS in my area. I ran 2x Sarkhan, Fireblood , and in hindsight, I should have run at least one more. The fun thing with these core cards is that both discard fatigue and casting waste are reduced. You don't need more than one or two big dragons at any given time, and better still, Spit Flame is a gift that keeps on giving. And giving. And giving. I cannot understate how useful Spit Flame can be. This property of the deck gives the Sarkhan, Fireblood cycle ability so much value.

Given this solid core, the rest of my deck was devoted to tech cards. Goblin Chainwhirler removes the wide boards Spit Flame can't. Banefire flexibly finishes off threats.

Rotation added: - Shock Lands, and with them, much-improved mana balancing. - Several Dragons. Skarrgan Hellkite and Hellkite Whelp are the only ones that don't require splashing blue. - Many, many possible tools that I haven't decided how I want to use.

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In attempting to revamp my old take on the deck, my issues are as follows: 1. The selection of useful 1- and 2-CMC cards is extremely difficult. 2. Without Bomat Courier , I risk losing too much card advantage on discard plays. 3. I am uncertain as to what can replace the loss of Glorybringer , the best tempo card in the deck.

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I'd love to hear of any changes you've made to your list. I'm going to continue working on mine. However, I have a bit of feedback: - You crushed the mana balance problem I was trying to figure out. I've been testing starting hands with your lands, and I get the mana I need every time with at most one mulligan. - I didn't realize how useful Riot could be, but it makes every dragon so much better. Do you think it should be part of the core of the deck, or just something used occasionally? - I would definitely add Risk Factor , because it can make or break your endgame, either refilling your hand or getting you closer to lethal. - I want to say, "Sideboard Rhythm of the Wild ," but I'm not sure. You won't need the counterspell-proofing in every matchup, and as useful as Riot is, you will always get more benefit from other 3-drops like Dragon's Hoard , Sarkhan, Fireblood , or even Goblin Chainwhirler . That said, it makes Incubation Druid into a powerhouse and gives your big guys haste. More on this later. - Cut Gruul Spellbreaker altogether. It's great on its own, but in this deck, there are always going to be better Turn 3 plays, and you'll want to use your mana from later turns tossing dragons onto the battlefield. - Cut Domri, Chaos Bringer . You have better ways of getting mana and card advantage. For tempo, replace with Demanding Dragon . For card advantage, replace with Risk Factor . For mana ramp, replace with Incubation Druid . On that note... - Cut Thrash/threat. If you play well, Thrash/threat is almost never going to be as good as Demanding Dragon , which also comes with a 5/5 flying body. If you're playing it in the early game, Thrash won't be dealing much damage, and once you have enough mana for dragons, Threat pales in comparison. - Unless you are getting constantly beaten by wide boards, sideboard Ritual of Soot and Cry of the Carnarium . The better of the two is likely Cry of the Carnarium , because it stops any Golgari graveyard play, Boros weenies, and any deck with a Phoenix. - Bedevil should be sideboarded and might be worth cutting. If you need artifact tech, sideboard Deface . Most giant creatures can be stopped using your Spit Flame or Banefire . Likewise, Banefire will take care of most low-CMC planeswalkers, while your dragons will almost certainly be able to manage any higher-CMC walkers later on. - Incubation Druid is a solid 2-drop, but you must either use it in conjunction with riot or lose it...

I really need to bounce ideas off people, so let me know what you are up to!