Do we always need to do big things, though? Certainly they’ll win us the game. An Insurrection which isn’t responded to has basically always won a game I’ve been a part of. Casting Traumatize on yourself as a Bruna, Light of Alabaster player is usually all it takes. Casting Time Stretch and copying it with Riku of Two Reflections? Winner. Is that necessary, though? I mean, certainly big, gratuitous plays are amazing and feel great and you should being trying to make plays like that. But are they the only way to win? Can we accumulate enough smaller effects we can dominate the game to the exact same extent? After all, people aren’t comboing off with Mind's Desire these days, they’re using Tendrils of Agony or Grapeshot. You’re not going to cast Grapeshot with a 0 storm count if you don’t have to, but if you can do enough on your turn, you can accumulate enough copies of Grapeshot so what you do equals a Channeled Fireball. Accumulating small effects can equal big ones, and that’s just as good.

75% decks are all about creativity because it’s a lot harder to build an unconventional deck that’s still powerful enough to win semi-consistently. In order to avoid building an obvious, linear deck which plays the exact same way every time, we have to look at different ways to build. I was sent a deck to look at by redditor /u/g1yph that takes small effects and stacks them in such a way you can get a lot of bang for your buck. Tapping a Prodigal Sorcerer to deal 1 damage to a creature or player doesn’t seem that effective. What if that creature has a Basilisk Collar, though? What if you have an Intruder Alarm and five Tims? All of a sudden those small effects don’t look so small. They look game-breaking.

/u/g1yph’s deck uses Nin, the Pain Artist and a host of pingers as well as various means to amplify the smaller effects into bigger ones. He asked me to critique the list and see if it’s a good example of a 75% build and maybe make a few suggestions. I’m more than happy to do all of that. I personally run a similar deck with Olivia Voldaren and a ton of Deathtouch equipment because I get to run Deathbringer Thoctar and that makes me happy. However, adding Blue lets you run Intruder Alarm which also makes me happy. This could end up being a lot of fun.

/u/g1yph says, “I took an old favorite deck I used to play in high school during Mirrodin that used pingers and cards like Fractured Loyalty and scaled it up to EDH. It's not great, tends to run a little too slowly, but hey, it's nostalgic and sometimes I get to activate a Humble Defector a bunch of times with Illusionist's Bracers and Thousand-Year Elixir then threaten to ping him if the person I pass him to doesn't play nice!”

Nin , the Ping Artist ? EDH | G1yph

• Commander (1)
• 1 Nin, the Pain Artist

• Creatures (27)
• 1 Arcanis the Omnipotent
• 1 Archivist
• 1 Cunning Sparkmage
• 1 Dreamscape Artist
• 1 Endbringer
• 1 Furystoke Giant
• 1 Gelectrode
• 1 Heartless Hidetsugu
• 1 Humble Defector
• 1 Jaya Ballard, Task Mage
• 1 Jushi Apprentice
• 1 Mercurial Chemister
• 1 Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind
• 1 Prodigal Pyromancer
• 1 Prodigal Sorcerer
• 1 Psychosis Crawler
• 1 Razorfin Hunter
• 1 Rootwater Hunter
• 1 Spikeshot Goblin
• 1 Suq'Ata Firewalker
• 1 Temporal Adept
• 1 Thornwind Faeries
• 1 Viashino Heretic
• 1 Vithian Stinger
• 1 Vulshok Sorcerer
• 1 Willbreaker
• 1 Zuran Spellcaster

• Planeswalkers (1)
• 1 Ral Zarek

• Spells (33)
• 1 Chaos Warp
• 1 Domineering Will
• 1 Evacuation
• 1 Grab the Reins
• 1 Intellectual Offering
• 1 Polymorphist's Jest
• 1 Reality Shift
• 1 Turnabout
• 1 Clone Legion
• 1 Fabricate
• 1 Pillage
• 1 Rite of Replication
• 1 Aggravated Assault
• 1 Dismiss into Dream
• 1 Fervor
• 1 Gratuitous Violence
• 1 Intruder Alarm
• 1 Repercussion
• 1 Basilisk Collar
• 1 Commander's Sphere
• 1 Hammer of Purphoros
• 1 Illusionist's Bracers
• 1 Izzet Signet
• 1 Magewright's Stone
• 1 Mana Vault
• 1 Mimic Vat
• 1 Neurok Stealthsuit
• 1 Rings of Brighthearth
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Staff of Domination
• 1 Sword of Kaldra
• 1 Thought Vessel
• 1 Thousand-Year Elixir

• Lands (38)
• 12 Mountain
• 13 Island
• 1 Balduvian Trading Post
• 1 Blighted Cataract
• 1 Blighted Gorge
• 1 Caldera Lake
• 1 Cascade Bluffs
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Desert
• 1 Desolate Lighthouse
• 1 Reliquary Tower
• 1 Shivan Reef
• 1 Keldon Necropolis
• 1 Rath's Edge
• 1 Shivan Gorge

Buy This Deck

This deck has some powerful synergies. Using Thousand-Year Elixir, you can make sure your pingers come out swinging and can untap again if need be. Sword of Kaldra, Basilisk Collar and Dismiss Into Dream make sure one shot is all you need. Repercussion means you chip at their life total at the same time you murder their creatures, meaning you can work toward winning the game at the same time. Thought Vessel and Reliquary Tower help you flip Jushi Apprentice, which can dig for what you need to finish your opponent off.

The deck runs slowly, but that might not be a problem. You will be under the radar and your finishes should be explosive, which means you can get off to a slow start because you can do a lot of powerful stuff with 2-card combos. I think what the deck could use is a few more powerful effects so going slow isn’t as punishing. If we include cards like Mind Over Matter, which synergize with the whole deck rather than just combo explosively with one card, we can have something to do other than tutor for combo pieces or hope we draw them. And I think we can make a few better choices in the creature department. Here’s how I would tune it up a bit to run a little more 75%.

75% Nin, the Ping Artist ? EDH | Jason Alt

• Commander (1)
• 1 Nin, the Pain Artist

• Creatures (27)
• 1 Arcanis the Omnipotent
• 1 Archivist
• 1 Cunning Sparkmage
• 1 Dreamscape Artist
• 1 Endbringer
• 1 Furystoke Giant
• 1 Gelectrode
• 1 Goblin Sharpshooter
• 1 Heartless Hidetsugu
• 1 Humble Defector
• 1 Jaya Ballard, Task Mage
• 1 Jushi Apprentice
• 1 Mercurial Chemister
• 1 Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind
• 1 Prodigal Pyromancer
• 1 Prodigal Sorcerer
• 1 Razorfin Hunter
• 1 Rootwater Hunter
• 1 Spikeshot Elder
• 1 Spikeshot Goblin
• 1 Suq'Ata Firewalker
• 1 Temporal Adept
• 1 Thornwind Faeries
• 1 Viashino Heretic
• 1 Vithian Stinger
• 1 Willbreaker
• 1 Psychosis Crawler

• Planeswalkers (1)
• 1 Ral Zarek

• Spells (33)
• 1 Chaos Warp
• 1 Domineering Will
• 1 Evacuation
• 1 Intellectual Offering
• 1 Polymorphist's Jest
• 1 Reality Shift
• 1 Turnabout
• 1 Clone Legion
• 1 Pillage
• 1 Rite of Replication
• 1 Aggravated Assault
• 1 Curiosity
• 1 Dismiss into Dream
• 1 Fervor
• 1 Gratuitous Violence
• 1 Intruder Alarm
• 1 Mind Over Matter
• 1 Repercussion
• 1 Basilisk Collar
• 1 Commander's Sphere
• 1 Hammer of Purphoros
• 1 Illusionist's Bracers
• 1 Izzet Signet
• 1 Magewright's Stone
• 1 Mana Vault
• 1 Mimic Vat
• 1 Quietus Spike
• 1 Rings of Brighthearth
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Staff of Domination
• 1 Sword of Kaldra
• 1 Thought Vessel
• 1 Thousand-Year Elixir

• Lands (38)
• 11 Island
• 12 Mountain
• 1 Arcane Lighthouse
• 1 Balduvian Trading Post
• 1 Blighted Cataract
• 1 Blighted Gorge
• 1 Caldera Lake
• 1 Cascade Bluffs
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Desert
• 1 Desolate Lighthouse
• 1 Reliquary Tower
• 1 Shivan Reef
• 1 Hall of the Bandit Lord
• 1 Keldon Necropolis
• 1 Rath's Edge
• 1 Shivan Gorge

Buy This Deck

There were not a lot of obvious cuts or obvious inclusions he missed, frankly.

First of all, Goblin Sharpshooter should be in a deck with pingers and Deathtouch equipment. If you’re going to get off to the occasional slow start, being able to wipe the entire board is paramount and Goblin Sharpshooter can do that for you. He also synergizes well with Willbender and a sac outlet or Dismiss Into Dream, etc. Intruder Alarm can help him untap also, so he’s going to spend a lot of time untapping and re-tapping.

I added Spikeshot Elder because Sword of Kaldra can turn him into a game-ender. Spikeshot Goblin is the same way. I considered adding Coat of Arms because there are a lot of humans and wizards in the deck, but ultimately decided against it. We prefer not to have to attack but we should certainly have the option, and buffing toughness so we don’t lose our team to damage spells as easily is attractive. That’s an option if you find that inclusion could shore up a weakness you have with the deck.

I think Curiosity and Mind Over Matter are fine, here. It’s a 3-card-combo that forces you to mill yourself quickly, and, without a ton of massive card drawing or tutoring, you won’t get it that often. Both of the cards synergize with the rest of the deck nicely so they won’t be useless when you are waiting to draw the other piece of the combo, and that’s ideal for a 75% deck. Curiosity is a bit problematic with Niv-Mizzet but, again, combos are fine, even 2-card ones because we’re not tutoring. If you win a game with Niv-Mizzet (who isn’t even your commander in this deck) and Curiosity, cool. If you win two games back-to-back, people are going to get a little bored. We’re aiming to win 1/x games where x is the number of players at the table, and a combo like this helps us wrap a game up quickly without doing it consistently. What could be more 75% than that?

Quietus Spike was a good add if you ask me because it’s more Deathtouch equipment but it can also help us Heartless Hidetsugu them if we have to win by attacking. If we wipe the entire board with our pingers, being able to ping our opponents to death is cool but being able to attack for 1 and take half of their life will make that very manageable. Having two Hidetsugu effects is good, especially since Basilisk Collar isn’t nearly as effective at killing players as it is creatures and it’s very slow to do this with pingers without help.

All in all I think this deck might still be a little bit slow, but I think with the ability to have an explosive finish from a relatively-small board, slow is OK. If you’re underestimated as a threat, you should be able to win some games. Is this more good than it is fun? No, but fun is OK, too. We’re aiming for a deck that can win 1/x games and I think this is more than capable, especially since it has a ton of powerful synergies. It may take a few turns to slam Dismiss Into Dream, but once you do, it’s a shooting gallery. Draw cards, kill creatures and ultimately have fun abusing Intruder Alarm, a card that’s in my top 10 favorite cards of all time. If you get enough pingers out, they won’t be able to lay any creature without you being able to instantly murder it. Not bad at all!

Got a deck you’d like me to take a crack at? Send me a list and it could be featured in an article someday. Until next time!