Magic Deck Vortex: Alternate Vortex #4 - Entering the Dark Pools

As you pass through the central hub of the Alternate Vortex Network, you see a man clad in a pitch black midnight mechanized suit. You also see a tram, old, rusty, and seemingly forgotten. You’ve passed through here many a time, hoping that the tram would be working. Every time, however, you find him, standing before you, barring your path to the tram.

[I've personally never heard of a "tram".. so I linked to it's definition above if you are in the same boat I was. Call me strange. I've never been to Disney World (sob)... ~Streetz~]

This time, though, he is inside the tram. You see him push a few buttons, and you see the tram roar to life. He reaches over to a microphone and says:

I, Yusuke, Vortex Guardian, am here to guide you through 6, count em, 6 DECKS based around that evil ninja herself, Ink-Eyes! Now since it’s been awhile, let’s see what she (and the rest of this article) is all about.

"Dark Pools"
Deckbuilding Competition

GOAL: Create a deck that will work well with the Ink-Eyes Vanguard card pictured above based on the criteria below.

I am using Death_By_Beebles (man, that’s the third time!) scoring method, and this what he said.

I will judge all submissions, graded on a scale of 30, with modifiers changing the final total score. In addition to the modifiers mentioned above, any participant who is given a perfect in any category will be given a +1 modifier for each perfect score. Any participant who receives a 0 in any category will receive a -1 modifier for each failing score.

Focus: 6/6
Cohesivity: 6/6
Balance: 6/6
Creativity: 6/6
Overall-Playability: 6/6

In addition to that, I will be adding these modifiers:

The deck limits are at least 60 cards and no more than 100 cards. 15 card sideboards are allowed. The contest will be Invasion up (which I believe is Post-Rotation Extended).
A title is MANDATORY, as well as a short description (1 to 2 paragraphs). I need to know how they work! Any deck that does not have these will be disqualified automatically. Anyone who has a catchy title that deals with Ink-Eyes will get a +1 modifier.
The main reason I'm updating this contest was to encourage those of you out there to NOT go with a discard theme. Yes, it does help the Vanguard, but it doesn’t help with your creativity factor. I would rather be giving 5’s and 6’s in creativity rather than 0’s. You will get a nice +1 modifier for going non-discard.
Anyone who uses a combo that works well with Ink-Eyes will get a +1 modifier for each combo. Anyone who does an infinite combo will get another +1. However, anyone who uses an infinite life combo will not get the infinite combo bonus. I will allow it, but I highly recommend not using one, for it makes it seem too easy to use the vanguard (it was used by Bennie Smith on magicthegathering.com in his articles).
The contest will end in ONE WEEKS TIME from this update (Sunday, September 4th), so send em on in! You can email them to this email address.

What??? You say you’ve forgotten how the Vanguards work? Then read my first article, click here! That’ll put you up to speed on this.

Now I understand that it has been a while since I last wrote an article. This is mainly because school has been a priority to my life. Other personal problems (which will remain unsaid) have kept the Guardian from his duties. But now he’s back, ready to pick up where he left off.

His description was limited, but got the point across. Unfortunately, the description never mentioned Ink-Eyes! The closest it came to mentioning the queen of Rat Oni thingy Ninjas was saying they needed to discard a fatty. If they don’t have a fatty, how are you gonna win?

Your utilities are minimal, with the closest guarantee to getting a fatty that might not even be there is Weird Harvest. It’s a nice touch, and it raises your score, but I can see some better uses with it. I like how you referenced Wheel and Deal to help utilize Weird Harvest, so I’ll give you the combo modifier for that.

He had a nice description, but again, the deck doesn’t utilize Ink-Eyes as was intended for the deck.

His description was riddled with so many strategies I could barely find Ink-Eyes in there! He basically built mono black draw discard deck and threw in Grave Pact to satisfy creature control. When Ink-Eyes should have been the main concern throughout the entire deck, it was entirely the last concern.

Our third deck comes from someone a little more recognizable: Lionden_56! His deck is called Recurring Heartbeat..

I like this deck. The first one with no discard! YAY! Lionden_56 said that the main focus of the deck is to get a Heartbeat, then put Nourish on the Mirror. I’ve found, however, that Annihilate is almost better! Although you don’t get the 6 life, you can kill a creature AND draw an extra card. Nice right there. Unfortunately, the only way to kill your opponent is to hope they have crits or swing with the Tribe Elders.

Hopefully these past three decks could help you get the idea of what it takes to win.

Our next deck is from JSweeney, who named it “Eyes of Thundera, Give me Sight Beyond Sight”. Although I like the Thundercats reference, Ink-Eyes is a rat XD.

This is yet another deck that utilizes the power of Grave Pact. Although the deck can only utilize Ink-Eyes to its fullest if there is a big creature, it does have an alternate win condition that some of the other decks didn’t: lots and lots of critters! With the amount of Bile Urchins and Zubera dying every turn, along with our buddy Shirei, the utilization of the spirits is undeniably cool.

Another final touch I like: Once you reanimate with Ink-Eyes, you can Cranial Extract the rest of the copies from their deck entirely! Also no discard!

Our fifth deck comes my good article buddy, Death_By_Beebles, who named his deck “Red Eyes, Dark Heart”.

May I be the first to announce that this is the first to get the cool name modifier! Some of you may be wondering why the others didn’t. Well, the closest one to getting one was JSweeney, but he had a Thundercats reference. Again, Cat < Rat XD.

This deck was a BLAST to test. Not only does it use Myr Servitors, it uses Dross Harvester! Dross Harvester!

Lemme repeat. DROSS HARVESTER! Who uses Dross Harvester? The mind of a Johnny is vast and endless... I would know, I am one XD.

The tutoring was nice and consistent, and the life gain was superb. And if they didn’t have big crits for them to discard with Mind Slash or Doomsday Specter, Kokusho fit the bill.

All in all, Ink-Eyes was the main focus, since the deck is dead without the life gain to fit either aggro or Ink-Eyes’ bill. Props to you man. Man you guys are good!

Finally, we have our last deck, submitted right before the end date. This one’s from Adam Petraitis, with “The Blizzard”!

Now this by far, although there have been 6’s in creativity, takes the cake. While scanning the decklist before testing, I saw Weird Harvest and then looked for Wheel and Deal or more massive discard cards. It wasn’t there. He made me go through the trouble to play Iwamori and Hunted Wumpus! That was always hilarious. I’d be like Weird Harvest for 3, and they’d be like SWEET. Id be like Wumpus, and they would go like Serra Avatar! Then I’d play Terminate. Wumpus and Avatar FTW!!! There was no real tutoring, although there was land fixing, which is always great. Not getting a Weird Harvest always hurts tho… so points of for that. However, there was no life gain! And NO DISCARD! I LOVE this deck. It’s abstract. It’s fun. It’s my official deck. No questions asked XD.

Focus: 5/6
Cohesivity: 6/6
Balance: 4/6
Creativity: 6/6
Overall Playability: 4/6
Modifiers: 1+1=+2
Overall Score: 27

Other contests hosted on this website don’t give prizes, saying the fact that you won is awesome enough. I agree. But, I still have something for the winner anyway. I give to the winners, Death_By_Beebles and JSweeney, an Alternate Vortex Pass! For more details on Alternate Vortex Passes, visit this link.

Thank you, and expect my next article soon! Please send your comments to panda.yususke@gmail.com or post your comments here.

-Yusuke, Vortex Guardian