EDH Deck Profile: Nin, the Pain Artist

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

GP Charleston and Why I Hate Cavern of Souls

Quick intro and then I'll get to rambling. This blog is aimed to be a random gathering a Magic from a few players of various skill levels and experience. We all have different views on the game, the formats we like, and play styles. We hope to give you a few various perspectives into the game.

I'm Alex. I love EDH, I hate Cavern of Souls, and am pretty rubbish with any deck that has 60 cards in it.

The lot of us attended GP Charleston the weekend before Thanksgiving. If you've ever considered going to a Grand Prix, I would highly suggest checking it out. Even with the unexpectedly low turn-out, the even was a ridiculous amount of fun.

In the weeks leading up the tournament, I was playing a pretty heavy U/W control deck with a miracle emphasis using Terminus and Entreat the Angels. The deck aimed to control the board with Azorius Charm and Feeling of Dread, before wiping up and landing a big finisher to clean up a match.

Then, of course, Adam Prosak had to come along with his new U/W Flash list. I was instantly in love with the grinding card advantage and finally feeling like I could play counter magic without feeling like I was totally impotent. Unfortunately, I was not the only person who felt this way, as all the hype of the deck leading up to the GP netted the deck a pretty substantial following and became the deck to beat for the weekend.

Here's the list: U/W Flash

Aaaaaand Here's the enemy: Cavern of Souls

Regardless of my 1-4 record, the deck played beautifully. Of my 5 matchups for the day, I played 1 Reanimator(L), 1 Jund(W), and 3 G/W Agro(L,L,L). Both Reanimator and G/W Agro is a pretty bad matchup for this deck. Post Sideboard, it gets a little more fair, but if you cant find your Verdicts or your Rest In Peace, you find yourself quickly in a very bad position.

I admit my poor performance was a result of lack of practice with the deck as well as being blinded to the meta hate by my love for the deck. 

What I like:

• The creature synergy is just incredible. Every bro you have the the board is ecstatic to see one of his friends show up. Snapcaster > Rewind, Restoration Angel > Snapcaster > Syncopate all in one turn will make you smile, and your opponents will cry.
• Sphinx's Revelation. My only regret is I didn't play 5.
• Having a varied counterspell loadout gives you so much versaility and allows you to seamlessly change out after Sideboarding.

What I don't like:

• Cavern of Souls and Loxodon Smiter blank out a lot of your cards. It's awful to have a handful of countermagic and to see the Cavern naming Beasts on turn 5. 
• The deck would love some targeted hard removal. CharmScour is good and ambushing with Restoration Angel is fun, but sometimes you're just stuck durdling against aggressive and midrange decks.
• No Lingering Souls and no Mana Leak

What's Next?

 Ideally, I would love to splash some black in for an Esper Flash deck. I've seen a few shells floating around and I think the inclusion of Ultimate Price would let this deck put in a ton of work. In addition to trying that out, I would also like to dabble in some Lingering Souls based token agro in Esper Colors. That's still in the very early stages though and more than likely just a pipe dream.

That's all I got for today. 

~Grim