1 Aladdin's Ring
3 Barl's Cage
1 Myr Matrix
2 Consumptive Goo
4 Nantuko Shade
2 Thrashing Wumpus
4 Rend Flesh
2 Kokusho, The Evening Star
4 Consume Spirit
1 Demonic Tutor
2 Diabolic Tutor
4 Drain Life
4 Mind Sludge
22 Swamp
4 Cabal Coffers |
 Barl's
Cage.
Description of deck by it's author
(quoted):
Barl's Cage was printed as a rare in Fifth
Edition, and that's the version I pulled out of my box. Barl's Cage is,
um…. Really not that good. It consumes mana like daybreak consumes
dreamers. I need to find a way of making a lot of mana regularly. There
are several options, but I decided to go with a particularly dark
version…
I decided to use Cabal Coffers as my mana production land of choice.
With a Coffers and several swamps in play, you can easily keep a pair of
creatures permanently locked down with the Cage.
One I had the Coffers/Cage engine down, I needed to flesh out my deck.
From there, it was a simple matter of playing other Black control
elements. I knew that I wanted my Coffers to tap for as much mana as
possible, so I chose to go with a mono-black build. I could have
splashed Green for Bayou and Overgrown Tomb, but I decided to stick with
something simple.
I tossed in a full set of Drain Lifes and Consume Spirits. With a trio
of Tutors, I felt comfortable dropping my Cage count to three. I can
always Tutor for one if I have significant need – but I can also tutor
up Aladdin's Ring, Myr Matrix, or removal.
I also tossed in a nice suite of Black control creatures in the form of
Consumptive Goo, the Wumpus, Kokusho the Broken Star, and a full set of
Nantuko Shades. Although the creature count is light, you have enough
removal and lockdown from the Cage that you should be able to get in
some hits. Even if you can't, you can burn opposing players out.
Myr Matrix will give the deck some added staying power and slowly build
up an army. Aladdin's Ring can kill off creatures or players with
aplomb. Rend Flesh rounds out the deck as emergency removal, and Mind
Sludge to give you a tool to hurt opposing control decks.
There are a lot of ways that this deck could have been built. I also
considered a Nether-Go style deck, using Nether Spirit as its only
creature card. Another option could have been to use the old Ashen
Ghoul/Nether Shadow trick and run the Cage to slow down opposing
creatures.
Outside of mono-Black, the aforementioned Green splash could have added
several mana-generating cards while also increasing our removal options.
Even a simple Naturalize would make our deck much stronger. Creeping
Mold might be a nice touch as well. Defensive creatures like Silklash
Spider or Wall of Blossoms could help in the early game, while Winter
Blast could tap a bunch of creatures, enabling the Barl's Cage to work
better. (Yes, I know that Word of Binding would do the same in Black,
but Winter Blast might actually kill creatures instead of merely tapping
them.)
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