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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