B/U Cycling Death
Created by Sp1k3 Cann1bal
Main Deck
Phyrexian Tower x 2
Reflecting Pool x 4
Underground River x 4
Swamp x 6
Island x 8
Drifting Djinn x 4
Cloud of Faeries x 4
Pendrell Drake x 4
Sandbar Serpent x 4
Palinchron x 4
Yawgmoth's Will x 2
Living Death x 4
Dark Ritual x 2
Intuition x 4
Frantic Search x 4
Sideboard
Dark Ritual x 2
Nevinyrral's Disk x 4
Engineered Plague x 3
Dread of Night x 2
Gloom x 2
Chill x 2
Coments : This deck is, at its heart, a Living Death deck. A goodly number of Living Death decks tend to be Mono-Black, despite the number of fatties available to other colours. Cycling Death is a deck that makes use of Blue cards to obtain and discard the fatties needed to make the deck effective while, of course, using Black to re-animate them.
Cycling Death plays with only 22 lands, an amount that can sometimes cause problems if a bad shuffle takes place. If you’re starting hand contains only one land then it might be advisable to take a mulligan, especially if you are facing a fast deck. If you’re initial draw contains only two lands and a number of you’re cycling creatures then things should be okay. Any more than two lands in you’re initial hand should be fine, although a hand full of land isn’t much use either. The Phyrexian Towers are useful when used in conjunction with the Clouds of Faeries. This will be explained below.
The deck contains 20 fairly large Blue creatures. Most of them have cycling (Excluding the four Palinchrons) and flying (Excluding the four Sandbar Serpents) and as a result they are easy to drop into the graveyard and fairly effective attackers as well. Although a recent ruling has declared that the fairly notable untap land ability sported by Cloud of Faeries and Palinchron no longer activates when they are brought into play from the graveyard, they remain fairly efficient creatures. The Faeries, in particular, are useful as early blockers. Cloud of Faeries can be especially useful if a Phyrexian Tower is in play. You may the play you’re Faeries, untap your lands and, if you have three or more lands untapped, cycle another creature. During you’re opponents turn block with the Faeries and then sacrifice them to the Phyrexian Tower to get two Black mana, useful for cycling another creature. You can send as many as four creatures, including the Faeries, to your graveyard over a two turn period like this.
The spells contained within Cycling Death generally allow you to complete your early preparations just that little bit quicker. Frantic Search allows you to discard two creatures and still have land available to cycle at least another. Palinchrons are, in general, the best creatures to discard this way, since they lack in any ability to cycle themselves. Intuition has two uses. It allows you to search your library for more creatures to cycle and has the added benefit that two of the creatures you select will automatically be sent the graveyard. It can also be used to find Living Death. Since casting Living Death on the 5th or 6th turn is, usually, essential for victory Intuition should only be used in this way if Living Death has not made its way to your hand by the draw phase of your 4th turn. Dark Ritual is useful for casting Living Death when you are short on lands or playing Yawgmoth’s Will. Yawgmoth’s Will is available in the event that you need to cast Living Death a second or even third time. Yawgmoth’s Will is also useful for re-using cards like Frantic Search or Intuition. In an emergency it can even be used to resurrect your Clouds of Faeries. The main deck has no control spells because they could work against you. Sending an enormous creature to the graveyard only to watch it return to play when you cast Living Death is not the kind of situation you are playing for.
The sideboard is, generally, built to deal with fast swarm decks. Engineered Plague works well against most decks of this type. Dread of Night and Gloom are useful against White and Chill slows down Red decks. Nevinyrral’s Disk helps remove annoying enchantments and artifacts from the game and two more Dark Rituals are present if even more speed is required.
The overall strategy when playing this deck is to cycle your creatures whenever possible. Get every creature you draw into the graveyard as quickly as possible. You should still play your Clouds of Faeries whenever you draw them, since they make cheap early blockers, which will, nevertheless, make their way to the graveyard very quickly. As I mentioned above, if you don’t have a Living Death by your 4th turn then it is advisable to Intuition for one, especially if you are playing against a fast swarm deck. In general, by the time you cast Living Death there will be a number of large creatures in your graveyard and from the moment of re-animation on the tide should turn against your opponent. When playing against heavy-duty control a different strategy should be adopted. Instead of cycling your creatures play them as normal. Your opponent will either have to counter some, or all, of your creatures, wasting cards they need for dealing with your Living Deaths, or allow them to enter play and face the risk of being overrun by large flyers.
Another strategy that can be used when playing Cycling Death against a deck heavy in counters is that of smoking your enemy out. This strategy is best used, however, when you have a Living Death in your hand. Otherwise, it might not be 100% effective. When you have a Death proceed to use you’re card drawing spells in an attempt to get another. The control player will often counter these spells since, in many cases, a full hand means a large number of threats to the control player. I you have used Intuition to get a Living Death and cast it, only to watch it be countered, then control player will be quite wary of your Yawgmoth’s Wills. Of course, they may allow your Will through only to counter a recast Living Death. This, at least, will burn yet another of your opponents counterspells and, if you’re lucky, open the path for the one in your hand. This strategy and other similar ones can be used to good effect when trying to get by a control player.
Any suggestions? Email the author at jorgs@iafrica.com