Call Me Ishmael

Note: The deck within this blog post was inspired from a list posted by Nina Illingworth over on LegitMTG.com in her article Chasing the White Whale. Go check out her article and follow her on twitter (@CardboardWitch). I've certainly learned a lot reading her articles and lurking her twitter conversions.

Back when I first started playing Magic: The Gathering, The Dark had just released and it was my first exposure to black bordered cards. They looked sharp and crisp compared against the rest of my Revised cards. Being young and without the internet, my dual lands saw a lot of unsleeved play, and nothing quite got me as excited to durdle as when I could use my Underground Sea to drop this bad boy on the table:

Salted braaaaains....

As unexciting as these kinds of cards are to me now, there is no way to deny they seeded a deep love of Blue and Black as color combination. Jumping ahead to the Gatecrash spoiler season, I was excited to finally see what options the featured Dimir guild and Watery Grave reprint would open up. As more and more uninspiring spoilers cropped up and time wore on, I was losing hope in my childhood addiction, focusing mostly on what the Orzhov colors might do in a world of Geralf's Messenger and Restoration Angel.

"Kneel before Zod."

Then we finally got to see Duskmantle Seer. The City-Plane of Ravnica's new Dark Confidant, it was a bigger body and had Flying, but gave the additional cards to your opponent as well. I was hooked. I immediately argued with my local players that he was good, but would never see play in the typical decks that Dark Confidant finds play in. Duskmantle Seer would find a home in an aggressive strategy, I was positive. The week before Gatecrash released, Nina posted her article on LegitMTG.com. I devoured the article, and despite the five minute disclaimers she posted along with her decklists, I knew I had to take her 60 and run with it.

Making some tweaks for my own personal playstyle and love for all things Blood Artist, I settled on the following 75, cobbling together a mediocre sideboard for a local meta-environment I wasn't 100% sure on; sleeving the Seers and their Zombie horde up, I trucked off to FNM last night.

DIMIR ZOMBIES
Main Deck
x3 Blood Artist
x2 Bloodthrone Vampire
x4 Diregraf Captain
x4 Diregraf Ghoul 
x3 Duskmantle Seer
x4 Geralf's Messenger
x4 Gravecrawler
x2 Rakdos Cackler
x3 Crippling Blight
x3 Dimir Charm
x2 Sign in Blood
x2 Tragic Slip
x2 Ultimate Price
x3 Cavern of Souls
x4 Drowned Catacomb
x1 Evolving Wilds
x1 Island
x9 Swamp
x4 Watery Grave
Sideboard
x3 Vampire Nighthawk
x2 Appetite for Brains
x4 Duress
x3 Illness in the Ranks
x3 Tribute to Hunger

After the dust settled, I was an unexciting 3-2. Since I've already rambled on long enough, instead of long game by game match reports, I'll give you brief overview.

Round 1: 4-Color Midrange (On the Draw) LOST 1-2
Duskmantle Seer closed out game 1 after my opponent made some iffy plays. Games 2 and 3, I fall to massive life gain and a bad starting hand of 6, respectively.
Round 2: UWR Flash (On the Play) WON 2-0
Fast, swarmy starts both games never allow him to really get online. He does manage to Supreme Verdict my board once, but my onboard Blood Artist deals enough life loss, I can Messenger/Sign in Blood him when I untap.
Round 3: Boros Aggro (On the Play) WON 2-0
Game one my opponent forgets about Blood Artist, and makes some very bad blocks resulting in a 16 point life swing. Game two Messenger/Sign in Blood drain the final points of life the turn after my opponent hits me for 14 out of no where with Hellrider and Battalion triggers.
Round 4: Humanimator (On the Play) LOST 1-2
Game 1 is a text book aggro game. Game 2, my opponent hits his combo early when I try a slower opening seven. Game 3 I realize midgame I've sideboarded completely wrong and can't find an out before he just beats me down with Angels of Glory's Rise.
Round 5: Boros Aggro (On the Draw) WON 2-0
I'm paired against a newer player with an unfocused deck and beat him easily. Before the match he casually mentions to me he hopes he beats me so he can win his first prize pack. As I report the match result to the TO, I make sure the TO knows I want to give my prize packs to my opponent.

FNM MVP

Despite the mediocre result, I'm still very excited about the deck. It had explosive starts, and still packed the reach needed to overcome a lot of speed bumps that could have shut other more linear strategies down. Best card of the night? Hands down, it was Dimir Charm. Removal, pseudo-EOT Ponder, and counterspell. I cast that card using every mode at least twice over the five rounds. Considering upping the card to a four of, but I do like the current spread of non-Creature spells as they are.

The card that performed the least? Surprisingly, Duskmantle Seer itself. Ironic that the card that ultimately inspired the deck should be the worst. In all but the very first game of the night, DMS was either not cast or I was too far behind for it to really matter when it did hit the battlefield. That said, I'm not gonna drop the Vampire Wizard from the deck yet; there is still much to see.

Where I am gonna make some changes is in the lands and the sideboard. All night, I never had an issue casting the Dimir Charms off my dual lands, and the Evolving Wilds/Island actually caused some small hiccups in my curve for getting my Geralf's Messengers on the table in a timely fashion. Changes there are pretty straight forward: -1 Island, -1 Evolving Wilds, +1 Cavern of Souls, +1 Swamp. The sideboard itself is another matter.

The only cards I felt completely confident boarding in were the Vampire Nighthawks, and those for against the aggro decks, dropping the Seers for a tighter curve and the Lifelink. Duress was underwhelming against the Flash deck, and were useless against the Humanimator. Cutting those for 2 more Appetite for Brains opens up two 'board slots, perhaps to customize my removal package a bit. I like the Illness in the Ranks, and really think that we'll see more token strategies moving forward. With Sacred Foundry now powering the Burn at the Stake combo decks and Godless Shrines making Lingering Souls a more consistent hard cast/Flashback card, I'll gamble on leaving them in there for another week.

Will Bant Auras and Boros Aggro/Red Deck Wins warrant the keeping of Tribute to Hunger? I'm not sure, and I'd love to hear some feedback. Check out the tweaked version of the deck I'll be playing at next week's FNM here, and as always, feedback and comments on the deck or this blog are welcome.

Thanks for reading!

-Ben