Lands:
24 Plains
Creatures:
4 Onulet
4 Carrier Pigeons
2 Cloudchaser Eagle
4 Defender En-vec
4 Icatian Javelineers
4 Venerable Monk
Other Spells:
4 Blasting Station
4 Lifeline
1 Scroll Rack
1 Land Tax
3 Enlightened Tutor
1 Worthy Cause |
 Onulet.
Description of deck by it's author
(quoted):
 Onulet is one of a category of rares that
isn't so much bad as it is “not good.” It's not really bad, and it'd
make a fine common creature in an artifact-heavy set; it's just nothing
to write home about. For an investment of Pearled Unicorn- and Grey
Ogre-sized proportions, you get the same return – namely, a 2/2 creature
that's more fragile due to its artifact nature. In return, when it dies,
you gain a pair of life.
It's like the Venerable Monk of ungood rares. Now I have to find a way
to harness its, um… Power.
It's not easy to find an Onulet combo. Its power is too large to use
with Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker. It doesn't work as well as Venerable
Monk with Angelic Chorus and other “comes into play” cards, and it's
just the same as the Monk in decks that have “leaves play” or other
sacrificial effects. Goblin Bombardment will work just as well with
Onulet as it will with Venerable Monk. I need something that takes
advantage of its artifact nature, where the lifegain might be helpful.
I immediately light upon AEther Storm – and my lightbulb goes on.
See, back in the days of pre-Sixth edition rules, AEther Storm did not
affect artifact creatures, which you could cast without a care. I
wondered whether they had changed it to all creatures or kept it
functionally the same by adding the non-artifact creature line. Alas, I
looked it up and saw that they had indeed changed what the card did once
Sixth came out. Blasted Oracle!
That leaves me down an idea. Racking my brain for a bit, I realize that
I don't have to compete with Venerable Monk; I can supplement it.
This deck tries to use Lifeline tricks to establish a dominant board
position. With a Blasting Station out, this deck can sacrifice creatures
to deal damage before bringing them back with Lifeline.
Venerable Monk and Onulet serve as medium-sized creatures that can act
as speed bumps before dying to the cause with Lifeline. I wanted to have
duplicated effects centered around several key cards. The Onulets and
Monks serve that purpose.
A Worthy Cause backs up the Blasting Station. If you can't find a
Station (or can't keep one on the table), Worthy Cause can sacrifice
creatures for life so that they can come back. There's just one Cause,
but it's a backup effect.
A trio of Enlightened Tutors serve as, well, Tutors for key components
of the Lifeline engine. If you get one half of the Land Tax/Scroll Rack
combo, you can tutor for the other half. You have card advantage through
other means, so this combo is merely a backup… But you almost have to
include it in a deck that has so many tutors.
Your card advantage engine surrounds the normally-bad Carrier Pigeons.
On your turn, with a Lifeline and Blasting Station out, sacrifice
Carrier Pigeons. At the end of the turn, they come back and the Station
untaps. On your opponent's upkeep, you draw a card. Sacrifice the
Pigeons and get them back so that on your turn, you'll get another card
during your upkeep. Since this combo requires no mana, you can do it on
every player's turn – which rocks at a multiplayer table. If there are
five players, then you draw five cards and deal five damage.
There are a few other creatures that can be similarly abused with the
Lifeline out. Icatian Javelineers can tap to deal a point of damage to a
creature or player, but they can only do it once. Once they're used up,
though, sacrifice them to reload. They allow a slow way to burn a player
out with a Worthy Cause after a Blasting Station gets offed. Another
option is Cloudchaser Eagle, which can pop enchantments. You only have
one enchantment – Land Tax. Usually the Eagle will only pop opposing
enchantments. Occasionally, you'll be fine taking out your Land Tax in
order to get a 2/2 flyer – one of your few evasive creatures.
Lastly, Defender en-Vec seriously clogs up the ground while preventing
damage from burn or evasive creatures. It dies easily thanks to its
fading – but it also comes back easily.
The deck that you see has a variety of tools available. It was hard to
find a deck idea at first, but after I came up with the initial pairing,
the rest of the deck built itself.
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