Cold Death (Casual Snow Pestilence)

[Curby]

I like using this deck against some of the casual folks I play with, cause they tend to use creature-heavy decks. Keeping with the theme of Cold Death, and keeping it pretty cheap (to build), how might I improve the consistency of the deck? The overall goal is to kill all the creatures and swing through with some regenerating fat.

Current List:

// Mana (26)
20 Snow-Covered Swamp
4 Dark Ritual
2 Blood Pet

// Defense (10)
4 Shield Sphere
4 Diabolic Edict
2 Chainer's Edict

// Offense and Tricks (24)
4 Crypt Rats
4 Withering Wisps

4 Twisted Abomination
2 Ashenmoor Gouger

4 Sword of Light and Shadow
3 Animate Dead
3 Beseech the Queen

Original List:

// Lands (20)
20 [CS] Snow-Covered Swamp (Brr, cold)

// Creatures (18)
4 [SC] Twisted Abomination
4 [VI] Crypt Rats
4 [CS] Zombie Musher
4 [AL] Shield Sphere
2 [TE] Blood Pet

// Spells (22)
4 [R] Dark Ritual
4 [TE] Diabolic Edict
4 [IA] Withering Wisps
3 [PLC] Vampiric Link
3 [R] Animate Dead
2 [TE] Sadistic Glee
2 [TO] Chainer's Edict

Card Discussion:

Twisted Abomination This is generally used to Swampcycle in the early game, then is a prime target for reanimating. However, it can be hardcast in the late game to swing for the win. The ass of 3 and regeneration helps survive Wisps (note that 1/1 Regeneraters are just about useless here).
Crypt Rats This is stupid fun with Vampiric Link and recurs with Animate Dead, and activating all at once can occasionally be useful.
Zombie Musher More of a theme card than anything great, Mushers are another ass-of-3 Regenerater that can help live through Wisps activations. I'm willing to get rid of it for a better alternative though.
Shield Sphere for the Groan-inducing first turn Swamp>Ritual>Wisps>Sphere.
Blood Pet Another way to get a second turn Wisps on the field when I don't draw a Dark Ritual.
Thrashing Wumpus I honestly don't see the appeal. He kills himself like Rats, is Boltable and Swordsable like Rats, but is a full Ritual slower than Rats.

Diabolic/Chainer's Edict For opposing regeneraters, Protected creatures, fatties, etc. that survive the Wisps
Withering Wisps Sure I could make this into Pestilence, but I'd like to see how good a Wisps deck can possibly get. The problem here is I can't use Cabal Coffers, Extraplanar Lens, etc. On the other hand, this is great in keeping the deck within budget.
Pestilence I might have to add a few to keep myself consistent, but I hate drawing multiples.
Vampiric Link In a pinch this can be used as "removal," but it's mostly to keep ourselves alive or to throw on Rats for stupid fun.
Animate Dead I had these lying around, so I threw them in. Reanimating Twisted Abomination is too painful, and Reanimate is too expensive for a budget deck. =)
Sadistic Glee Probably win-more, but sometimes I need these just to race for the win.

This list is basically unchanged from when I first built the deck out of random cards last year, but I hope to improve its consistency. Even without opposing disruption, the deck is not consistent enough. If I can get a Wisps into play the first few turns I usually win, but that is no sure task. Also, fast aggro can sometimes do enough damage that I stabilize but am at so little life that it's still an uncertain race to the finish (they can easily win off the topdeck). Usually I'm ok if I can land a quick Wisps, but getting that into play is the problem.

I've recently turned a Chainer's Edict into a Beseech the Queen and am hoping that it will help, because the only things I'd be searching for are low-cost spells. I could use Diabolic Tutor as well. Infernal Tutor is bad because I will hardly ever see Hellbent in any game.

Please keep the following in mind:

I'd like to keep the deck based around Wisps instead of Pestilence if at all possible.
Along those lines, I'd like to use/abuse other Snow cards.
The primary goal is improving the consistency of the deck. Better mana fixers, tutoring, and card drawing might help.
The deck needs early defense to help against aggro rushes. Shield Spheres help, but hopefully there's better.
Try to keep suggestions cheap! The deck is meant to be a budget deck competing against other casual/budget decks.

Thanks!

[Media314r8]

Swarmyard + Crypt Rats = Great sucesssssss! (plus lifelink in this deck)

$.50 rares FTW!

[el simoon]

Circle of Affliction has a very good synergy Withering Wisps. It seems perfect for this build.

Wall of Bone could be a good alternative to Zombie Musher.
Cemetery Gate may be good for its pro-black ability.

[Willoe]

If you want to go all common, you can Vampiric Link and Blessing of the Leeches the Crypt Rats. But assuming you don't Swarmyard works just that good. Recurring Rolling Earthquakes, mmh...

Run more discard. In fact, you ought always run Hymn To Tourach in mono black builds. But maybe, that's just me.

[Clark Kant]

I like the swarmyard+crypt rats, withering wisps, edicts, reanimates and dark ritual.

Everything has got to go imo. The other cards seem way to crappy.

Really, I see no reason this should be in a legacy forum. It's an extremely casual deck.

Offtopic, but I feel like Swarmyard is just begging for a better way to abuse it than Crypt Rats.

Any ideas? Any one?

[Isamaru]

Withering Wisps and Hecatomb have been my favorite 1BB obscure black enchantments for a while.

Your deck looks fine, but take out Zombie Musher for Augur of Skulls.

The first deck I ever built when I started this game was Fungusaur + Rite of Passage + Thrashing Wumpus + Pestilence. Such wonderful memories...

[Curby]

Swarmyard + Crypt Rats = Great sucesssssss! (plus lifelink in this deck)



Whoops, I even had it played against me once. Swarmyard is a great suggestion, thanks.


Circle of Affliction has a very good synergy Withering Wisps. It seems perfect for this build.

Wall of Bone could be a good alternative to Zombie Musher.
Cemetery Gate may be good for its pro-black ability.

Yes, Circle looks like great fun. I wonder what to take out for it though. I usually don't mind symmetric losses as I will usually drop a regen guy and swing for the win, but a generally creatureless idea may work. The only problem is the defense.

Wall of Bone is cheaper, but Mushers can attack so I think it's worth more in the end.
Cemetery Gate has always been a Pesty deck standby, but for a purely defensive solution, Shield Sphere works alright. I usually don't Pesty for too much per turn anyway so the Problack isn't all that important. 4 on each player's turn ends up being a 3 turn clock!


If you want to go all common, you can Vampiric Link and Blessing of the Leeches the Crypt Rats. But assuming you don't Swarmyard works just that good. Recurring Rolling Earthquakes, mmh...

Run more discard. In fact, you ought always run Hymn To Tourach in mono black builds. But maybe, that's just me.

In spite of my other threads I'm not trying to make this all-commons, as Wisps isn't a common so that's out the window.

Heh I'd rather focus on getting my core strategy to work consistently before focusing on other avenues of disruption. Thanks for the suggestion though.


I like the swarmyard+crypt rats, withering wisps, edicts, reanimates and dark ritual.

Everything has got to go imo. The other cards seem way to crappy.

Really, I see no reason this should be in a legacy forum. It's an extremely casual deck.

Offtopic, but I feel like Swarmyard is just begging for a better way to abuse it than Crypt Rats.

Any ideas? Any one?

Is this a troll? Honestly? I'm looking for specific improvements, not blanket dismissal. Saying most of my original decklist has got to go is fine, but also offer ways to improve the effectiveness. Regardless of whether the deck meets your standards, it belongs in this forum (whose description specifically mentions "casual and budget decks"). Lastly, ending an irrelevant/unhelpful reply with an attempt to derail seems like a bit much. From reading some of your other posts, you seem to know your stuff and able to offer helpful advice. Unfortunately, this isn't one of those posts.


Withering Wisps and Hecatomb have been my favorite 1BB obscure black enchantments for a while.

Your deck looks fine, but take out Zombie Musher for Augur of Skulls.

The first deck I ever built when I started this game was Fungusaur + Rite of Passage + Thrashing Wumpus + Pestilence. Such wonderful memories...

Will Augur really be better? I have a playset of the also-obscure Will O' the Wisps and thought to throw those in (8 Wisps!) but it quickly became apparent that for every activation of Withering Wisps, I'd have to spend another mana to Regenerate the Will. This is why I mentioned in the first post that regenerating */1 guys don't fit the deck, and why the deck has */3 Regeneraters. How do you see Augurs working here? If it's pure discard, Hymn is probably better. I see that they work with Crypt Rats, but that's only half of the story.

Thanks for the suggestions! Swarmyard looks like a definite winner. I'll have to think about where Circle of Affliction can come in. Hopefully I'll have a revised decklist soon.

[Clark Kant]

The reason I couldn't offer helpful advice is because I really didn't understand what the deck's focus was.

At first it seemed like you were after board control.

But then there is random life gain cards, and Animate Dead effects.

If the purpose of the deck is board control, then I suggest playing some discard to disrupt your opponent and give you a shot against combo decks too.

Here are some cheap cards well within your budget worth considering...

4 Duress
4 Hymn to Tourach
4 Hypnotic Specter

Or if you want to go a board control route, you might be better off with sweepers than creatures...

Innocent Blood, Infest, Mutilate, Barter in Blood and Nev's Disk are all strong options.

[FoolofaTook]

Very nice casual deck for making people howl.

How about replacing Animate Dead with Grim Harvest? Believe me, that card makes people really howl once you have a few mana on the board.

[Maëlig]

Gangrenous zombies?
Myr servitor? In that case scarscale ritual (pretty good with gangrenous zombies or crypt rats too)
Rimebound dead?
Unearth replacing animate dead (for gangrenous zombies or crypt rats)?
Mishra's factory (if only to make sure withering wisps stays on the field)?

Gangrenous zombies + crypt rats + withering wisps seems a bit too much though...
By the way, just making sure, you have to check wisps' ability at the end of EACH turn, right?

[mujadaddy]

By the way, just making sure, you have to check wisps' ability at the end of EACH turn, right?Certainly.



On the card suggestion front:

Wall of Souls
Treacherous Link

[GenioDeArena]

Have you considered Bubbling Muck? its a very budget Cabal Cofers And does wonders to Consume Spirit wich, by the way, should also be considered unless you are in a misdirecition//commandeer infested area.

[Curby]

At first it seemed like you were after board control.

But then there is random life gain cards, and Animate Dead effects.

If the purpose of the deck is board control, then I suggest playing some discard to disrupt your opponent and give you a shot against combo decks too.

Innocent Blood, Infest, Mutilate, Barter in Blood and Nev's Disk are all strong options.

Life gain isn't random with the Wisps out, and if you read the rest of this post, neither are the Animates. The only randomness with the Vampiric Link is that there's 3 of them. Admittedly, the Links and Glees could be cut, but definitely not the Animates.

In a creature-heavy meta, Pesty decks are indeed all about board control. Discard is traditionally wonderful, but I'm hoping to first focus on making the core theme more consistent before addressing resilience to disruption. In other words, goldfishing isn't everything, but it sucks when I can't find a Pestilence effect for the first 10 turns. If I can't pull off consistent Pesty effects with 60 cards, reducing that headroom to disrupt my opponent will likely make the core theme even weaker.

Hypnotic Specter: I deal too much damage to all creatures to run him.
Innocent Blood/Barter: I'm not that interested in saccing my own guys, so I'm more likely to use more Edicts instead. In this mana-heavy deck, I can afford the extra mana to cast an Edict.
Infest: Really nice, actually! Cheap, effective against swarms, and kills regenerating weenies while my */3 regenerators survive. I'm wondering if it's better than the current creature kill though. If I'm relying on Pesty effects to sweep the board and Edicts to wipe up, I shouldn't actually need too many minus-toughness sweepers. E.g. Neither Wisps nor Infest will kill Dreadnaught, but an Edict will.
Mutilate: As above, but kills my own regenerators.
Disk: If only it left enchantments and land alone, but alas it kills my Wisps and other helpful enchantments.


How about replacing Animate Dead with Grim Harvest? Believe me, that card makes people really howl once you have a few mana on the board.

The Raise Dead family is nice, but the Animate Dead family does more tricks. I can Animate my Swampcycled Abominations, I can Animate the opponent's Edicted fatties, and I can recur my Rats. Grim Harvest will make the Rats recur better, but I might as well use Swarmyard and keep the other uses of Animate.


Gangrenous zombies?
Rimebound dead?
Unearth replacing animate dead (for gangrenous zombies or crypt rats)?
Mishra's factory (if only to make sure withering wisps stays on the field)?


Yeah, Gangrenous zombies don't look too good in this deck. Since I expect to have access to heaps of mana, dealing X damage is better than dealing 2. However, it's a great Snow card. Thanks for the suggestion!
Rimebound Dead doesn't work for the same reasons that other */1 Regenerators don't work: for every mana into Wisps, you need another mana to Regenerate.
Unearth doesn't work on the opponent's dead fatties, nor does it work on my own cycled Abominations.
Mishra's Factory: might actually work if it turns out I don't need as much black mana. (Urborg doesn't work cause I need the Factories to turn into Snow-Covered Swamps.)



Wall of Souls
Treacherous Link

Wall of Souls is pretty hot. I don't normally activate Wisps for more than 3 a turn anyway. Would you run these over Shield Spheres? I can't Ritual out a first turn creature+Wisps that way though. =\
Treacherous Link is probably not ideal. First, the point is to kill all their creatures. The Sith don't say: "Wipe them out. Some of them." :tongue: Also, there's a certain amount of inevitability to the Wisps anyway, so I'd rather find ways for Wisps to be more deadly through consistency, not pure damage multipliers.


Have you considered Bubbling Muck? its a very budget Cabal Cofers And does wonders to Consume Spirit wich, by the way, should also be considered unless you are in a misdirecition//commandeer infested area.

High Swampy Tide is neat, as it lets me do things like cast an Abomination with 4 Swamps or go nuts with a huge Rats activation. However, I'm not sure if it's worth taking out other cards for it. Two Swamps and a Blood Pet can give me a second-turn Wisps. Two Swamps and a Muck can't. Three Swamps and a Muck can give me a Zombie Mushers, but so can three Swamps and a Pet.

Thanks again for all the suggestions, and please keep them coming! If you think my arguments are full of crap, please argue. :laugh:

Oh holy shit: Sword of Light and Shadow on a Rat becomes UberWumpus. Rat kills your guys without dying, swings in for a few damage, Raises my Swampcycler to my hand, and keeps me from dying. And like all good combos, the pieces are useful by themselves.

How about:

// Lands (20)
20 [CS] Snow-Covered Swamp

// Creaturesa (18)
4 [SC] Twisted Abomination
4 [VI] Crypt Rats
4 Wall of Souls
4 [AL] Shield Sphere
2 [TE] Blood Pet

// Spells (22)
4 [R] Dark Ritual
4 [TE] Diabolic Edict
4 Withering Wisps
[I]3 Sword of Light and Shadow
3 [R] Animate Dead
2 Beseech the Queen
2 [TO] Chainer's Edict

With this list, most of my goals are met: it's still pretty cheap (SoLS is a few bucks), it's more consistent (2 tutors), it's better-defended (with Wall of Souls), and SoLS on a Rats is just as fun as Vampiric Link on a Rats. Suggestions, please! Do I need to fit Swarmyard when I have SoLI, Tutors, and Animates? What would I take out? Is SoLI enough life-gain?

[Aggro_zombies]

Dimir Machinations tutors for all the relevant combo pieces here. You could also use Diabolic Tutor. Running either of those two on top of Beseech effectively increases the amount of life gain you run, so just SoFI should be sufficient.

I'm assuming you don't want to splash? Sphere of Grace is retarded with Withering Wisps, as is Obsidian Acolyte.

EDIT: I should probably mention that Sphere costs only a single :w:, so you can cast it entirely off of artifact mana sources: Orzhov Signet, Coldsteel Heart, and that one mana filter one from Time Spiral.

[Curby]

Dimir Machinations tutors for all the relevant combo pieces here. You could also use Diabolic Tutor. Running either of those two on top of Beseech effectively increases the amount of life gain you run, so just SoFI should be sufficient.

I'm assuming you don't want to splash? Sphere of Grace is retarded with Withering Wisps, as is Obsidian Acolyte.

Mmm.. Machinations does seem like fun. Grabs equipment or either of our pesty effects. Too bad you can only transmute as a sorcery. I like that using it over Beseech makes the deck more ghetto. :wink:

The white splash opens up many options for us for sure, but it's probably not necessary. SoLS>Acolyte for protecting Rats, and other creatures probably don't need it as badly. Sphere is fun, but hopefully swinging with Abominations and SoLS lifegain will be enough.

[Aggro_zombies]

The white splash opens up many options for us for sure, but it's probably not necessary. SoLS>Acolyte for protecting Rats, and other creatures probably don't need it as badly. Sphere is fun, but hopefully swinging with Abominations and SoLS lifegain will be enough.
Well, if you do add Sphere, Thrashing Wumpus is probably better than Rats because Sphere will trigger separately for each activation, whereas (if I remember correctly) Rats has an activation cost of X for X damage, netting you only one trigger...unless you want to spend two mana a whole bunch of times, which is perfectly legit.

[Michael Keller]

If you decide to run Hecatomb, you've got to play Sengir Autocrat! :cool:

[Curby]

I'd like to consider adding 2 Swarmyards to the new list in the OP. Should I take out two Edicts or the Blood Pets? I'd like to have a good chance of getting a Ritual or Pet in the opener so I can get a second turn Wisps, so I rather like the Pets. OF course, there are a lot of Edict targets out there too, so who knows.

Should I be running mostly Chainer's Edicts? The ability to cast it twice seems significant, and with my high landcount and Abomination fetching + SoLS recurring, it seems like something I could support easily.