In my last article I mention tweaking and testing our budget mono black list, and that’s exactly what I’ve done. Though work commitments keep me from attending the EDH league held every Thursday night at Armada Games, I was still able to get plenty of testing done Friday before the PTQ in Tallahassee and Saturday late into the night.

After only a few games I noticed several cards that, to be honest, either were ineffective or just not as fun as I had initially hoped. The situations where these cards have been most useful for me were in two player games, which is definitely not the norm for EDH in my area. If your local meta-game is mostly comprised of duel decks then many of these choices should continue to make the cut.

[deck title="EDH - Maga, Traitor of Mortals V2" author="Ben McDole" align="right"]

1 Maga, Traitor to Mortals

1 Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni

1 Helm of Obedience

1 Mindslaver

1 Mind Twist

1 Coffin Queen

1 Grim Discovery

1 Beacon of Unrest

1 Mirari

1 Myojin of Night’s Reach

1 Mind Shatter

1 Chainer, Dementia Master

1 Puppeteer Clique

1 Promise of Power

1 Undead Gladiator

1 Phyrexian Arena

1 Wound Reflection

1 Tainted AEther

1 Mind's Eye

1 Whetwheel

1 Polluted Bonds

1 Helldozer

1 Syphon Mind

1 Sign in Blood

1 Relic of Progenitus

1 Mind Sludge

1 Tower of Murmurs

1 Mutilate

1 Damnation

1 Hero’s Demise

1 Tendrils of Corruption

1 Decree of Pain

1 Duplicant

1 Death Cloud

1 Oblivion Stone

1 Neverinyrral’s Disk

1 Bane of the Living

1 Consume Spirit

1 Corrupt

1 Barter in Blood

1 Innocent Blood

1 Reiver Demon

1 Hideous Laughter

1 Tower of Fortunes

1 Magus of the Coffers

1 Solemn Simulacrum

1 Coalition Relic

1 Extraplanar Lens

1 Gauntlet of Power

1 Prismatic Lens

1 Mind Stone

1 Coldsteel Heart

1 Liliana Vess

1 Crucible of Worlds

1 Expedition Map

1 Journeyer’s Kite

1 Demonic Tutor

1 Beseech the Queen

1 Diabolic Tutor

1 Demonic Collusion

1 Planar Portal

1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

1 Cabal Coffers

1 Shizo, Death’s Storehouse

1 Temple of the False God

1 Vesuva

1 Unholy Grotto

1 Urza’s Factory

32 Swamp[/deck]

The first card which ended up being very disappointing was Eternity Vessel. Maybe I had my hopes set too high for this one, but I just had visions of dropping the vessel turn 3-4 when in a multiplayer format I’m either still at 40, or maybe higher due to a well timed Tendrils. The reality of the situation is that when I cast Eternity Vessel the aggro players seemed to view the card as something of an affront and would band together to show me that while landfall is great with this card, if I die before it's my turn I can’t get another land into play anyway.

My replacement for Eternity Vessel helps solve a large problem in our area, graveyard recursion. The league I play in is typically wide open as far as deck construction goes, though graveyard recursion is a pretty common theme. Prevalent in almost all colors, the ability to return creatures directly to the battlefield can be very problematic, especially with my only mass graveyard removal being Relic of Progenitus.

My experience is that the MBC deck is very adept at killing creatures, but not so adept at keeping them killed. Green proves especially troublesome with Genesis and Eternal Witness leading the charge. While is no slouch with reanimation either, usually returning a Reya Dawnbringer to do their dirty work, though sometimes a simple Emeria, the Sky Ruin will get the job done. Debtor’s Knell also seems to rear its nigh unkillable (for us anyway) head. With these thoughts in mind I realize that it would be easier to simply rid the graveyards of the reanimation targets.

I spent a while looking for a suitable answer for creatures which would also be fun. My initial reaction was to use Nezumi Graverobber, but after a little time I ended up discarding the idea. Graverobber is flexible in the fact that he can remove multiple targeted cards each turn, but limited in the fact that once he flips I can no longer remove cards. His ability as Nighteyes the Desecrator (which is a pretty awesome name), is useful and potentially game breaking, but once a mass removal effect has hit the creatures are going to be right back in the graveyard where they started, taking Nighteyes with them.

With Grave Robber discarded I turned to Coffin Queen. A quick checklist for Coffin Queen:

1. Removes creatures from graveyards. (check)
2. Provides an advantage to me in doing so. (check)
3. Budget (check, under three dollars)
4. Cool looking art that reminds me of Shiva the destroyer (check)

From here it looks like Coffin Queen has all the bases covered. Eternity Vessel is out, Coffin Queen is in. There are a few quick notes on Coffin Queen, all of which are great for us. Coffin Queen’s current creature type is 'Zombie Wizard,' meaning we can pull her back with our Unholy Grotto! Also, if Coffin Queen becomes untapped before the creature she’s returning actually makes it into play then the creature will not be removed. Good times if we decide to do something tricky, perhaps Thousand-Year Elixir is in our future.

The second card that has been underwhelming has been Sanguine Bond. I had big ideas about Sanguine Bond and Wound Reflection with Consume Spirit just outright crushing dreams. The problem is that this deck just doesn’t gain enough life to have the payoff of Sanguine Bond be worth the slot. By the time all of those cards are in play with enough mana to power out large spells the odds are pretty good that the Consume Spirit itself is enough to kill your opponent, no tricks necessary. I am cutting Sanguine Bond for a card that helps the consistency of our deck on two different fronts, Grim Discovery.

Grim Discovery helps our deck in two separate but important ways. First and foremost Grim Discovery gives black a way to retrieve lands that have been destroyed. Cabal Coffers is enemy number one once people see the absurd amount of mana it can produce. In the past week I’ve had more Acidic Slimes, Strip Mines, Wastelands, and Woodfall Primus type effects sent my way than I care to think about and Grim Discovery will go a long way to combat the issue. Additionally, Grim Discovery allows us to get back a creature, which can allow for some great card advantage interactions. Undead Gladiator and Puppeteer Clique both love to be returned for future use, with the Clique being particularly devastating.

I want to list the next two cards to be cut together, because they have the same functional effect, Nightmare Incursion and Neverending Torment. Nightmare Incursion is very good at making someone your dedicated enemy. Again we go back to the idea of wanting to spread around an effect, and Nightmare Incursion doesn’t allow us to do that. If you have a combo player in your area and are concerned about needing a way to remove those pieces then Nightmare Incursion should probably stay in your deck, but that instance aside, it has been much less fun than I expected.

Neverending Torment has the same issue as Nightmare Incursion, but with the added drawback of essentially removing you from the game. The other Epic Spells can be great fun. I’ve cast Eternal Dominion in games and ended up having a blast because I was still actively doing something each subsequent turn, even if I could no longer cast spells. Neverending Torment does not grant that sort of flexibility. Each time my epic trigger resolved I essentially looked around the table to decide who I was going to be a jerk toward this turn, not something you want in a fun, casual format.

Our replacements on the other hand, provide some welcome relief in a few problem areas. In place of Nightmare Incursion I now run Tainted Aether. Token decks are very big in our league with phrases like “Cycle Decree of Justice for fifteen” happening a little too often. Now token players are forced to decide if they’d rather have that army of 1/1 creatures, or the lands to be able to do something productive afterwards. Tainted Aether should go some distance toward keeping large Living Death type effects in check as well, something Sheldon Menery is famous for in our area.

Another difficult situation to overcome is opponents who are able to dominate the game through card drawing. Unfortunately black does not have a lot of mass card draw and can quickly get behind, particularly since drawing lands is integral to the success of our deck. While we need lands to function we need business spells to make actually have something to do with that mana. In comes Mind’s Eye. I liken Mind’s Eye to Rhystic Study for blue decks. Mind’s Eye lets me use my opponent’s own card drawing against them, filling my hand as well as theirs. Once my hand is full, it’s not difficult to produce some mass discard effect to gain more card advantage. So out with Nightmare Incursion and Neverending Torment, in come Tainted Aether and Mind’s Eye.

Another card that hasn’t quite lived up to what I had hoped is Altar of Shadows. Maybe I’m just a dreamer, but I was hoping Altar would be not just a creature destruction card, but a fuel source for those large Magas I hoped to cast. Instead Altar ended up sitting in my hand with me wishing it were anything else. I guess even in EDH paying seven mana to destroy a creature, no matter how large, just is not worth the investment.

Instead of Altar of Shadows we look to a different Mirrodin card along the same lines, Tower of Fortunes. Tower of Fortunes lets us pay one more mana for four cards at instant speed. Opportunity makes the cut in blue decks, I think by the same logic Tower of Fortunes is about as good as we can hope for instant speed card drawing. Additionally, the addition of Tower of Fortunes bumps the total number of towers in the deck to two, which gives us the option of some twin towers type nickname. If I end up including Reliquary Tower the possibilities are limitless (get it, like my hand size!).

The final card which needs to be changed is Infest. While I respect the effort Infest is putting in, it’s just not up to par with the format. The effect is fantastic, but I just think we can find a better option. With our deck tooled to make gobs of mana I have no problem paying one additional mana for Infest at instant speed. While Infest has tried its best, Hideous Laughter is coming in. A great side effect of Hideous Laughter, is the option to splice onto arcane, should we decide to go that route later on down the road. In short, I just feel Hideous Laughter is a stronger card for the needs of my league.

I’ve received a few e-mails asking me about some members of the league at Armada, so I’d like to take a second to describe them a bit further. The godfather of our team (and of EDH in general) is Sheldon Menery. Sheldon founded team Lives in the Red Zone, whose members are dedicated to living in the red zone whenever possible. Our team motto is you must attack each turn if able, which makes for some pretty wacky antics. Obviously Sheldon and I are team members, with the other two being Brennan De Candio, another local L1, and Todd "Woody" Palmer.

Todd "Woody" Palmer was once Todd "Jazzhands" Palmer, a nickname given to him since at the outset of EDH Todd didn’t live in the red zone so much as occasionally jazz hands his way through. Todd’s partner in crime is one Matt Williams. Matt had originally been given the nickname "Mrs. Jazzhands," but through bribery and skullduggery he managed to get rid of it. One fateful evening Matt decided that watching Toy Story was more important than EDH and was thus saddled with the nickname 'Woody.' Once I realized that if I renamed Todd “Woody” I could nickname Matt with the name of the female cowboy from Toy Story 2 and thus keep the husband/wife dynamic intact. I acted immediately. Todd became "Woody" and Matt became "Jesse the Yodeling Cowgirl," which I had to Wikipedia to find. Imagine my delight when Matt’s new nickname was greater than his old nickname!

Next week I hope to get some great EDH in at PT Austin with a lot of high level judges. With any luck I’ll be able to report back that budget MBC held its own, and maybe even have a list of further improvements. If you plan on being in the Austin area and want to chat about EDH make sure to come and find me and I’ll be happy to talk with you.