So, it's a Pre-Sixth edition Halloween Party at Castle Sengir this year in Homelands, all the celebration, Baron Sengir is laughing at the inside joke about Ihsan's Shade and explaining it to Miss Endbringer. Mons' Goblin Raiders' waiter is going too slow and might start a riot soon. Grandmother Sengir's wearing her Armageddon Chime around her neck; who does she think she is, Flavor Flav? The Sorceress Queen and Dakmor Sorceress are talking about the best spells, and everyone is wondering where the Urborg Syphon-Mage went off too.

"It's a par...par...*hiccup*... Celebration! Everybody get naked, it'll be great I promise..." here comes Uncle Istvan, drunk out of his mind, the Baron quickly has his men take Uncle Istvan out to the castle courtyard.

"Oh my, Baron, who was that drunk?" Dakmor Sorceress asks. "My uncle... Istvan," he says with some disgust for his own family. The Sorceress' new pet, a Dauthi Slayer named Frank, then asks, "Who invited the drunk uncle?" Baron then looks to his wife, and her short stature. "Most likely my Dwarven wife... regardless, I will recover this when the Syphon-Mage gets here..."

Sadly the Syphon-Mage did not show up this year. He ended up in a Time Spiral and was spit out in a time-broken world, but that's beside the point. The Baron was a very angry man, but I get to sneak in and look for Uncle Istvan, that funny drunk. I also get face time with other Legends of Darkness, including the Endbringer and the Baron themselves, but I also have to talk to my old friend and current pet of the Sorceress, Frank. He is doing fine, he serves her well, and he's glad to see me still breathing. I was glad at this respect as well, but besides that we talked business and on that note…

Cards of the Day: Uncle Istvan and Dauthi Slayer

Well, we have a pair of Black creatures, both are in the new Time Spiral "Time-shifted" set, and as of October 20th are Standard Legal. Let me explain why I chose these two cards and not something else. Uncle Istvan is said to be mocked out loud. Well, I'm going to do my best to fix that and make the Uncle something to think about on that Draft table. Dauthi Slayer is a 2/2 Shadow, who in most Casuals is un-freakin'-blockable (and he is one of my favorite cards).

So, to the idea of a deck for Uncle Istvan...  If I use two colors, I'll have to have fixing, so that's a thought right there. The deck will probably be defensive and slowly move in on field and then attack. I will have some offensive elements besides the finishers, including bleed abilities. White could work fine here, but would risk a lot; I think is the best plan of attack.

I talked with Uncle Istvan about this deck, here’s what he had to say, “Go away you spirit, unless you happen to have a bottle of spirits.” I handed him my flask and he took a swing and said, “Alright, that’s more like it, now whadda ya want?”

I told him about his deck and he said, “Oh, yeah, that stuff, well me and Ja’far are really neat cards, we love to get into the fray hopefully we’ll be threatening enough with Entangler to keep opponents out of the idea of combat. Otherwise Pariah’s Shield and I keep creatures off the red zone. Agent of Masks is our resident bleeder with a really nice end result that helps when we use the Caves for mana. Blind Hunter, Angelic Page, Ardent Soldier, and Bile Urchin are just really easily playable cards, but they can be changed at will, possibly with a better sideboard card. Morning Thrull, and Blood Celebrant... Hey, I’m out of Spirits, I want more!”

I pull out my last flask and give it to him, “Alright, those two are utility for life gain and mana fixing, which can sometimes be a pain, so I’d always want a Swamp in my hand or that Gemstone Array as well. The other bigger friends like the Ghost Council, the Angel, Hunted Horror, and another Timeshifted card, Twisted Abomination, are nicely placed finishers. Soul link is just another life gain utility that is neat with any finisher. Chill to the Bone, Sudden Death, and Chainer’s Edict are all spot destruction that is really cheap. Demonic Collusion and Tutor are, well, tutors so you can get what you need right then. The equipment is for any creature, but Kusari-Gama and the Sword of Kaldra should get rid of anything in its wielder’s way.” Istvan then chuckled on the simplicity and power of the deck.

Now that I've had that covered, I need to find Frank again. I found Frank next to his mistress, the Dakmor Sorceress, whom I asked politely if I could borrow her pet and paid her for his time. We walked out onto the Baron’s veranda, and he said, “I happen to have a idea about a library.”

• Offensive and Mono-black, hits hard and keeps it coming.
• Will need defensive elements to protect creatures and mass life loss.
• Defensive elements will include instants and sorceries; spot destruction is a must.
• If there is a color to splash here it’s Red; it won't be necessary, but it's an idea.

“Go on,” I replied to Frank. He and I go back all the way to my first mono-Black deck that used recursion; here’s his picture.

“Yeah, it kind of takes advantage against decks that don’t defend themselves against Shadow, which is a good number; also, this deck has one of the rarest plays in the game, the first turn Phage. The deck is simple: get us down and swing without opposition. Use the new Overseer to help the cause and the Traitor who can recur itself, myself, Marauder, Warlord, and Ghoul are the main players for attacking along with the Overseer and Traitor. The Cutthroat and Trapper is a creature killing combo, 2B and tap these two means to kill anything, with exceptions. Now the extras are neat just as well as my friends. Our Embrace is powerful enough to work to our offense and defense. Defensively, it can give a creature Shadow so we can block it or use Cutthroat to kill it. Offensively, it can give Shadow to our non-Shadow friends as in Phage, but also in Two-Headed Giant games. Sudden Death, Befoul, Chill the Bone, and Chainer’s Edict are back as spot killing, but become over-powerful with Panoptic Mirror. Plague Wind is mass destruction in the blackest of styles; kill them, not us, and on Panoptic Mirror they are wiped out every turn. I love to quote the card each time, ‘The second wind of ascension is Reaver, slaying the unworthy’.”

My friend chuckles and says, “Isn’t it just lovely?”

Oh! Double Team, the Uncle and Slayer in the same deck. This time it’s all me. I’ve left the party, and have done my deed with face time, but now I have to planeswalk myself back to our plane of existence.

• Both Offense and Defense will be covered well.
• Mono-Black or Black-Green are good colors to use.
• Hit hard offensively, then cool down into a long-defensive game, unless they’re dead before then.

Alright, well, this is just a quick deck I put together and ran three tests, it won within 7 turns, with the best running on turn 5, but that could have been done differently.

My challenge is to drop me a line with a better deck, and I’ll post up the best results in my next article for Forgotten Power, I’ve added a loop in the deck and two uses for the loop, find those first, and you’ll see some fun effects, there’s no limitation with the exception that you must have Uncle Istvan and Dauthi Slayer in the deck, feel free to do any else, even changing the colors. Sadly you won’t win anything except your name on my article, so here’s some more ground rules.

• Member of the Magic Deck Vortex Forums, and PM me. (use the title ‘FP Deck’)
• Must keep at least one copy of Uncle Istvan and Dauthi Slayer in the deck.
• Casual Legal so anything goes, including power nine, but you lose points for using P9 and Unglued/Unhinged sets. (F9 "Fixed Nine" is fine)
• 30 point scale, more original the better, effectiveness is the best way to earn easy points.

Simple rules, right? Now I’m expecting maybe three entries, so I hope I’m mistaken very quickly.

That's all for now.  Have fun remembering and reliving Forgotten Power, even when it jumps back into the mainstream of Magic.

~MZ~

You can discuss this article in the MDV forums here.

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