2 Birds of Paradise
2 Cabal Trainee
2 Carrion Feeder
3 Desecration Elemental
2 Festering Goblin
1 Karstoderm
1 Pentavus
4 Phyrexian Plaguelord
2 Ravenous Rats
2 Rukh Egg
4 Sakura-Tribe Elder
4 Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker
1 Summoner's Egg
1 Triskelion
4 Wall of Mulch
2 Spawning Pit
8 Swamp
2 Mountain
8 Forest
4 Llanowar Wastes
2 Mirrodin's Core |
   The
Weak Shall Inherit.
Description of deck by it's author
(quoted):
The nice thing about a new Magic set is that it always provides new
best friends to some old, lonely creatures. Not Gottlieb. But some more
socially adjusted fellows like, in this case, Desecration Elemental. You
want to play the 4-mana 8/8 fear creature. I know you do. (I'm a
cranially-enhanced chimp. We can tell these things.) But you don't
because it'll kill all your other stuff and then itself. So, Desecration
Elemental has a drawback. That's not anything you have to worry about
anymore now that Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker is in town. Whenever any of
your 1-power creatures die, you get them back for free. Whenever any of
your 0-power creatures die, you get them back for free. Unless your
opponent plays half a dozen spells a turn (like a Shrieking Drake or
something), Desecration Elemental won't run out of fodder. Note the time
delay on Shirei—you're not going infinite off this thing. But you can
still have fun.
I have two words for you: Rukh Egg. Find a way to sacrifice it (Spawning
Pit? Phyrexian Plaguelord?) and you get a 4/4 flying creature token
every turn. And not just every one of your own turns—Shirei pulls your
creatures back at the end of every turn. Sakura-Tribe Elder gets even
sillier than it was. Daring Apprentice has to grapple with summoning
sickness each time it comes back, but if it counters more than one
spell, you're ahead of the game. Wall of Mulch lets you pay to draw a
card every turn of the game—and it blocks, too.
How about naturally 0/0 creatures that come into play with counters? The
Affinity deck is too fast to add a 5-mana 2/2 creature, but casual decks
can combine Shirei with Arcbound creatures to good effect. Karstoderm
comes into play as a 4-mana 5/5; after it wastes away to nothing, Shirei
restores it to full vigor. Triskelion can ping your opponent or his
creatures twice each turn, then ping itself so it dies and comes back
refreshed.
Plaguelord is the secondary centerpiece of that deck. It often owns the
board by itself, so it's sick when paired with Shirei. There's a whole
Shirei-Summoner's Egg-gigantic stuff deck out there; Gottlieb skipped it
this time out but kept an Egg in there just for fun. The little
creatures are… um… they're there to… heh, they're small. Wittle, tiny
creatures. Hello, Birds of Paradise! Hel-looooo! They're not answering
me. Birdie, birdie, birdie. Whoa. What's happening to me? I suddenly
feel like watching NASCAR and buying lottery tickets. Aw, damn, it's a
whole Flowers for Algernon thing! Blast you Gottlieb for making such a
crappy smart ray! And blast you for being so predictable! Who didn't see
this coming? Who? Whooo? Whooo-hoo-haaa-haaaaaaaa!
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