In this experiment, we make our opponents’ creatures lash back with brutal visions.

So Visions of Brutality is a pretty innocuous uncommon. Some say it parallels the strength of Pacifism in Limited, especially in an aggressive deck. But of course, we’re not just using it as a Pacifism, and in fact, we won’t even be particularly aggressive.

Instead, we’ll force our opponent’s creature to trigger the Visions, making our opponent lose life equal to the creature’s power—but do we really want to take the damage? Nah, I don’t think we do.

And just as a heads up, this deck is built around using effects like Visions of Brutality, which means we’ll need opposing creatures to enchant. Sure, we could play things that give our opponent creatures to work with, but instead, we’re just going to have to gamble we’re not up against a creatureless deck or a bunch of tiny tokens.

Backlash

The best synergy we’ll be hoping to pull off is Visions of Brutality with Backlash. Imagine casting Backlash on a Visions of Brutality–enchanted Fire Elemental. Backlash will make the Elemental deal 5 damage to its controller, and when it deals damage, that will trigger the Visions, making the opponent lose another 5 life.

Traitor's Roar — This is basically another four copies of Backlash for only 2 more mana! What a deal! Oh, there’s conspire, too. That means, for the low, low price of tapping two black and/or red creatures, we can have another copy of the spell. Since the target has to be untapped, we’ll need our opponent to have two creatures, and it’s unlikely they’ll both be suffering from Visions of Brutality, but life-loss is life-loss.

Spiteful Shadows — This one looks similar, but it works pretty differently. When the enchanted creature takes damage, it deals that much damage to its controller. Binding Agony, Ragged Veins, and Treacherous Link look similar, but its key here that the Shadows has the creature deal the damage—that means, if it’s also enchanted with Visions of Brutality, it’s controller will then lose that much life. So if the creature takes 2 damage, it will deal 2 damage to its controller, causing its controller to lose 2 life, for a total of 4 life lost.

Lightning Diadem — Here’s the (electric) gem for this deck. It’s probably also the worst card, but I’ve been enamored with it since it was released, and I’m happy to find even a little bit of a home for it. Basically, the idea is this works with Spiteful Shadows. It’s a guaranteed way to deal some damage to the creature. Of course, we have to ask, How is this better than Shock? Well, it probably isn’t. Remember how I said it’s still the worst card in the deck? Feel free to just replace these . . . But the +2/+2 could be useful here as well, either to pump up our own creatures (we’ll get to them eventually) or to pump our opponents’ to power up the Backlashes.

Phthisis — So this one is pretty different from the above, but it works in a similar vein in that it makes our opponent’s creature’s size work in our favor. And the +2/+2 from Lightning Diadem means 4 life lost from our opponent’s total! Phthisis can be used in a couple ways: As a removal spell, it can keep us from dying, perhaps at a critical point, and as a life-loss spell, we can use it to close out the game. The most exciting resolutions of this spell will probably involve both. The suspend makes it especially interesting—and tricky—to cast, especially considering that steep mana cost.

Blocking

While we’re busy not killing our opponent’s creatures while they’re trying to kill us, we’ll probably need something to block. Incidentally, we’ll also need some things around to conspire with.

Will-O'-The-Wisp — This is a cheap regenerating creature that can also cover attacking flyers. We’ll probably be spending a lot of mana, so a cheap regeneration cost is important.

Wall of Bone — Here’s another 1-mana regeneration creature. It’s a 1/4 instead, so we won’t always have to regenerate it. Also, it has a point of power, which is great when we have Spiteful Shadows on a creature.

Sedge Troll — This one isn’t quite as defensive, as it’s a 3/3 for 3, but it’s super-efficient and, again, it has a 1-mana regeneration cost.

Wall of Dust — This doesn’t regenerate, but it solves an interesting problem the deck’s premise creates. With so much resting on our game plan of casting Backlash and Traitor's Roar, we’ll need big, juicy, untapped creatures to target. With Visions of Brutality around, our opponent might be disincentivized enough to keep an untapped creature around, but otherwise, Wall of Dust can do the rest of the work. The Wall might die when it blocks, but it will ensure the attacking creature doesn’t attack on the following turn, letting us drop the Lashhammer.

Kyren Negotiations — Oops, we ran out of creatures. But with all these defenders around, they’ll just be sitting there (when they aren’t conspiring). It would be nice to hit a creature—not to kill it, but just to trigger Spiteful Shadows—but the slow bleed should help us out in between the big chunks from Backlash, Phthisis, and various combinations.

Brutal Backlash ? Casual | Andrew Wilson

• Creatures (15)
• 3 Sedge Troll
• 4 Wall of Bone
• 4 Wall of Dust
• 4 Will-O'-The-Wisp

• Spells (21)
• 4 Backlash
• 3 Phthisis
• 4 Traitor's Roar
• 2 Kyren Negotiations
• 2 Lightning Diadem
• 2 Spiteful Shadows
• 4 Visions of Brutality

• Lands (24)
• 3 Mountain
• 3 Swamp
• 2 Molten Slagheap
• 4 Akoum Refuge
• 4 Blood Crypt
• 4 Bloodfell Caves
• 4 Dragonskull Summit

Buy This Deck

So if you like playing Rakdos-colored decks that win without attacking, if you love awkward, bad enchantments, or if you just needed a reason to bust out some Limited Edition Alpha Trolls, Wisps, and Walls, give this deck a try.

Andrew Wilson

@Silent7Seven

fissionessence at hotmail dot com