Lands:
4 Dimir Aqueduct
2 Gemstone Mine
3 Island
2 Swamp
4 Urza's Mine
4 Urza's Power Plant
4 Urza's Tower
Creatures:
4 Dimir Cutpurse
3 Aeon Chronicler
3 Blizzard Specter
Other Spells:
4 Compulsive Research
4 Dimir Signet
4 Mana Leak
4 Repeal
4 The Rack
3 Muse Vessel
3 Piracy Charm
1 Wit's End
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  UB
Grim Outlook v4.
Description of deck by it's author
(quoted):
While deciding which creature to use for the
last three slots, inspiration hit. I remembered that for a brief time,
there had been a card used frequently with the Urzatron in white-blue
decks. This card was one near-and-dear to my own heart (in fact, my use
of it predated more widespread use), and would be perfect for this deck.
It strips the opponent's hand, is mana-hungry for an Urzatron, and
doesn't have color requirements.
That's right – my old friend Muse Vessel! It was time to
dig the ol son-of-a-Scepter out of retirement and give him a dusting off.
Last time I played with Muse Vessel, my goal was to deny my opponent
lands, use Muse Vessel to strip their hand, and then beat them to death
with their own kill spells.
This time around, Muse Vessel is an improved version of
Disrupting Scepter. Although it costs one more mana than the Scepter, Muse
Vessel has the same activation cost once it hits the table. For that one
mana up-front investment you get the following improvements:
Removing cards from the game rather than discard –
important for Dredge cards, Reanimator decks, or decks that can Recollect
spells.
The ability to, once in a while, use your opponent’s cards.
Note that this time around, Muse Vessel is there to
strip an opponent's hand for The Rack – if #2 happens, it's just gravy on
the train!
Blizzard Specter has the added bonus of working well
with Muse Vessel. In my old Muse Vessel deck, I used Temporal Adept to
both lock down my opponent's mana and feed cards into Muse Vessel against
an empty hand. Blizzard Specter can serve the same purpose, but again it's
mainly there for discard, with the option of bouncing permanents. If I hit
an opponent with both Blizzard Specter and Dimir Cutpurse at the same
time, I can stack the abilities in any order I want – meaning I can have
the Specter bounce a permanent first, and then have the Cutpurse make my
opponent discard that card.
In short, Grim Outlook is a synergy bistro.
Funeral Charm and Piracy Charm are nearly identical,
with the former giving Swampwalk, and the latter Islandwalk. However, if
you have a choice between the two, Piracy Charm is almost strictly
superior. Why? There are a lot more protection from black creatures out
there than protection from blue, and for that reason, a blue removal spell
that mirrors a black removal spell is more valuable. It helps that Piracy
Charm also doubles as discard in a pinch, no?
Of all the decks built for the Ten Decks in Ten Weeks
experiment, this one and the previous one held over the highest number of
cards from one week to the next. Despite this, both decks played
completely differently – the red-blue Aeon Chronicler played control,
creature kill, and then finished the game in one blaze of glory. Grim
Outlook is a lot more foward – I dropped early creatures, attacked my
opponent's hand aggressively, and left them with nothing in the end. If
last week's deck could be categorized as combo-control, then this one
would be an aggro-control deck – I won through aggression, but had control
elements (some countermagic, some discard) to facilitate the victory. |
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