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Otherworldly Debt.

Description of deck by it's author (quoted):
I, like most of my friends, immediately dismissed Debtor's Knell. ""Seven mana? Stupid ability? Meh. See you at the casual tables.""

But no, my friends. No.

This card is utterly and completely amazing. At a mere seven mana, it's one more than a 5/5 Flying Legendary Dragon Spirit and, better yet, it keeps them coming back time and time again.

You want to see Gifts howl in pain? Drop Debtor's Knell and watch them Death Denied all of their creatures just so you can't have them. Few still play that deck, but those who do have nightmares over this one.

Simply speaking, you have a hard time playing any sort of Control deck in the new metagame if you don't have Dragons in it. Sorry, that's the facts. There is so much removal in this format. Putrefy and Mortify will be in so many decks, you'll need something that will fire off when it dies to counter this sort of removal.

With Debtor's Knell you actually look forward to having your Dragons destroyed (Putrefy, Mortify, Wrath of God, how you doin?). Because they'll come back… and few decks have an answer to Debtor's Knell [apart from Mortify that'll be in so many decks… - Craig, feeling frisky] Most Green mages aren't even packing Naturalize anymore, because who needs that silly thing when you can run Putrefy, which is obviously the better spell! Duh, right?

Right. Which, of course, makes them all the more scared when you drop the enchantment which they Can. Not. Stop.

I haven't even spoken of the New Fantastic Tech: Blind Hunter. This ugly dude just wins games. Let's take a look:

Most people realize Ghost Council of Orzhova is amazing, one of the best Limited cards you could ever hope for (future W/B/g Ravnica-Ravnica-Guildpact Draft deck, I love you). But in Constructed, it normally plays like this:

- Play Blind Hunter. You lose two life, I gain two life.
- Play Ghost Council with a mana up. You lose one life, I gain one life.
- Sacrifice Blind Hunter with Ghost Council. Haunt my Dragon, or one of your creatures. When Ghost Council comes back you lose one life, I gain one life.
- Sacrifice my haunted creature or kill yours with Mortify. You lose two life, I gain two life.

That's a six-point swing with two creatures. That's tricks that you don't just see in your mind's eye; they're tricks you'll be pulling off game after game.

Oh, and Otherworldly Journey? Everyone falls for Otherworldly Journey. Right now we call this ""The Fringe"". Everyone thinks that's a silly Kamigawa block card, no one plays around it, and Blind Hunter is the best enabler you could possibly hope for.

True story time: I was playing against Enduring Ideal. Dude drops his 2nd Form of the Dragon to try and finish me off. I'm at eleven.

I play Otherworldly Journey on Blind Hunter at the end of their turn. They're at three. I'm at thirteen.

I swing with Blind Hunter. They're at one.

I play Ghost Council. They're at zero, I'm at fourteen. Good game, sir.

The tricks and synergy in this deck build and build until there's nothing the opponent can do. The obvious synergy with Nekrataal and Otherworldly Journey. The atomic bomb that is Debtor's Knell (get em now while they're cheap!). The Haunt goodness. The huge Dragons that always end up in your opening hand, or ripped from the top when you need them the most.

Wrath of God with a Debtor's Knell in play is not only cruel and unusual… it's also punishment.

The most important thing to take from this deck is that synergy is only good when it can be spread across multiple cards. When you take a look at the deck, it pays to think of interactions and not just the cards by themselves.

I was thinking of adding Phyrexian Arena to this deck as well, but feel free to experiment and see what you can do. This deck is just potential building on potential.

Have a casual deck you want to submit to MDV?  Go here.  Do you see an error on this page?  Email it to this address.   

by Evan Erwin @ www.starcitygames.com

RECURSION: Debtor's Knell - Yosie / Kokusho / Ghost Council of Orzhova