As I mentioned in my first article, I am an avid EDH
enthusiast. I cycle through decks pretty regularly, but have been pretty locked
into the three decks I have now for a while. My most recently built deck is a Norin, the Wary deck that is a competitive version of my usual chaotic play
style. Before that, I built a from scratch Jarad, Golgari Lich-Lord deck from
my newly acquired Dual Decks: Izzet v. Golgari, that plays like a more classic
EDH deck with large combo driven creatures and swinging into the red zone to
take opponents down.
My favorite deck, by far, is my UR Nin, the Pain Artist deck. The reasoning being that it plays like a completely different type of EDH
deck in my favorite color combination using a peculiar strategy that I suppose
I will coin as “Chaotic Control.”
Decklist: Nin, the Pain Artist EDH
Most EDH decks, indeed Magic decks in general, fall into
one of three categories: Agro, Control, Combo. While, Nin falls into the
control category, it doesn’t do so in the normal sense. Most control decks can
be placed into a few different categories. An “Orzhov Control” style looks to wait
until a board state gets disadvantageous for a player and then wipe with Wrath of God effects to bring things under the player’s control and to catch other
players off guard if they happen to over extend. There is also the “Azorius
Control” style that turns to prison and lockdown effects to muck up a board and
turn an advantage. Finally there is the classic “Permission” control that aims
to land big threats and protect them with a strong countermagic suite.
The way this deck plays is between the black and white
ideas of a board state. Orzhov Control wants you to play your cards so they can
catch you on a back foot with a board wipe. Permission and Azorius control do
not want you to play your cards. This Chaotic Control method that Nin seeks to
capitalize on wants to keep a balanced board state in play and keep players
from overextending and taking over a game. The idea is that Nin keeps
everything in flux; board states constantly shift, as do hand contents. Nin has
a knack for causing players to play their cards instead of spending a match
masterly crafting the perfect hand, yet think twice before attempting to cast
that Genesis Wave for X = ALL THE CARDS.
This is done in an almost purely reactive way. Very
little countermagic is played in Nin, and most of it comes in at the 6 spot.
This is for two reasons: 1) Counterspells are used to stop a player from taking
over a game, but are done in a swingy way with cards like Counterlash and Time Stop to order to generate advantage past a 1 for 1 Mana Leak and 2) I in order
to not put a large target on your head for being that annoying player playing a buyback
Forbid. This makes counterspells valuable at points in the game and you will
need to be reactive to know when to start digging for that time stop. This is
also through a multitude of Wheel of Fortune type cards such as Jace's Archivist, Whirlpool Warrior, Teferi's Puzzle Box, and Reforge the Soul.
As you may have been able to discern from the last few
points, the deck is very easy to pilot, but very difficult to be successful
with. Nin is very political and relies both keeping a controlled board state to
not get blown out, as well as proper threat assessment to avoid both wasting
cards and unnecessarily making you a target.
The most difficult part of Nin is usually just finding a
way to win. The deck does a ton of different things, but utilizes
non-traditional win cons to finish up a game. Every game becomes a puzzle and
you have to figure out a way to make the pieces fit together into a win.
However, although difficult, it means that most games play out and finish in
vastly different ways. I have never won a match with Nin the same way twice. A
few examples,
·
A Karthas player plays Praetor's Counsel in order
to draw up his deck with an arbitrarily large amount of mana on the field. He then
drops Kilnmouth Dragon to threaten lethal for everyone on the board. The rest
of the board can’t do much and as the turn passes around to me, I drop Teferi’s
Puzzle Box. This causes to the Karthas player to bottom his giant hand and draw
33 cards of the top of the deck and swing with the dragon for lethal, to which
I show him the Runeflare Trap.
·
Match against a Child of Alara ramping deck and
Jarad deck. I have a Stuffy Doll on the board pointed at the Jarad player. I
have Thought Reflection on the board and paly Reliquary Tower, suspend Aeon
Chronicler for 1. Next turn, draw a card off Aeon Chronicler to go to 9 cards,
Whirlpool Warrior to 18, crack the warrior to go to 36, swing with the
Chronicler at the Child player for 36, then Blasphemous Act and Reverberate it
to deal 26 to the Jarad player to finish both of them off.
The deck is a blast to play, and I’m pretty sure everyone
looks forward to playing it for the huge swings in board state, the ability to
draw a ton of their own cards, and hopefully to end up losing with a “wtf just
happened” and a smile on their face.
Or at least a smile on my face. Screw those guys.
~Grim
~Grim
