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4 Arrogant Wurm
4 Basking Rootwalla
4 Bladewing's Thrall
4 Eternal Dragon
4 Undead Gladiator
4 Wild Mongrel
4 Dark Ritual
4 Narcissism
4 Reaping the Graves

11 Forest
4 Scrubland
9 Swamp
Reap What You Sow.

Description of deck by it's author (quoted):
Reaping the Graves: Not very flashy, I'll admit. I mean, I never play Raise Dead in its pure form, since you just get a card for a card at sorcery speed, which is unspectacular at best. Nevertheless, I see this as the best deal, in multiplayer, for storm. Some of that is the instant speed, and the storm mechanic itself. But there are still two reasons why Reaping is best... reasons specific to this card:

First, the turns that will give you the largest storms are nearly always those turns in which the most creature removal (and responding) spells have been played. Misdirection on your Desert Twister? Go get three dead creatures. Terminate your first creature, nod when you Terminate back, and then Diabolic Edict. you? Go get four. Wrath of God meets Counterspell meets Absorb meets... I don't know -- Mudhole? Who cares, go get five. Removal spells get reactions - someone pumps in response, or bounces, or retaliates. Mass removal spells get even more attention and stack-piling.

If you believe what I've said so far, then stick with the logic a moment longer. A card that retrieves dead creatures is more likely to benefit from multiple copies in a given turn than other sorts of spells. Storm is useful anyway, but when it helps you recover from the most popular sorts of spells out there, it gets a bonus. Recursion and storm go together like threshold and cycling, or the Magic game and pizza, or my dog's hair and everything else in the house.

The second reason sort of sneaked up on me, and it took watching a bunch of Prerelease matches (I'm a judge) to sort it out: Unlike the other eleven storm spells (with the possible exception of Sprouting Vines), it makes virtually no difference when you play this card. Sure, you'll want to try to play it at the end of an opponent's turn because that's just plain good technique - but you don't have to pinpoint an exact moment during combat, or wait until your main phase, or check how many lands are untapped over there, and so on for it to be effective. You can play it in response to a Withered Wretch (good idea!) or at the end of a combat that went bad so you can quickly recast your army or just when you happen to have 2B open and don't want to pass up the opportunity.

Reaping the Graves gives you the freedom you want with a storm card -- you determine when it's best to cast, so that you can balance the storm mechanic with your need to replenish your creature stock.

On top of that, it's almost certain to get you back your two or three best creatures, and it plays right into a color combination (black and green) that has gotten incredibly strong over the last two or three blocks.

. 

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arrogant_wurm.jpg (18664 bytes) basking_rootwalla.jpg (18668 bytes) bladewings_thrall.jpg (43055 bytes) eternal_dragon.jpg (17254 bytes) undead_gladiator.jpg (19049 bytes) wild_mongrel.jpg (18716 bytes) narcissism.jpg (18230 bytes) reaping_the_graves.jpg (24119 bytes)

by Anthony Alongi @ www.magicthegathering.com

RECURSION: Reaping the Graves

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