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It was a while ago, but in a “recent” Raiding the Dollar Bins article, I posted a poll asking all of you, my faithful readers, what you’d like to see come out of my column. The results were tallied, and the consensus is this: you want to see Nephilim decks! Well, that’s good, because I’ve got some really fun decks cooked up for Nephilims (Nephili? Nephilati?). In fact, I’ve got so many decks that I’ll have to spend a few of the upcoming Raiding: the Dollar Bins to cover them all! Ready for Nephilim action? I hope so, because here it comes! The Nephilim are an interesting cycle of cards for a variety of reasons. They’re the only cards that are four of the five colors, and they all have some very impressive abilities. Nephilim are powerful in the right deck, and back when Ravnica was in Standard, they were my favorite cards. I started a collection of the buggers, and to this day I have a few pages full of Nephilim in my rare binder. Interestingly enough, the word Nephilim comes from the Hebrew Bible texts. It is a word that has a few disputed meanings, possibly either “those causing others to fall” or “wondrous ones.” The Nephilim are considered by some to be the progeny of angels and man, powerful creatures whose existence defies their holy heritage.
In the storyline of Ravnica: The City of Guilds, the Nephilim are awakened after the fall of the Guildpact, and begin to wage war on the Guilds. They are “the old Gods,” expressing their unending rage towards the magic and the Guilds that have suppressed them for 10,000 years. They take the form of Ravnica herself, some part of the Ravnica before the Guilds. Made up of pieces of wood and concrete, bubbling masses of oil and ink, and appearing as giant monstrosities, the Nephilim are truly the “wondrous ones.” They strike fear and anger into the hearts of the guilded. Their power is immense, and if the Guilds don’t do anything to stop them, they will cause the destruction and “fall” of all the Guilds. As for cards, well, they’re pretty sweet. Each Nephilim has an ability that is pretty sweet. The problem with the Nephilim is that their cost is such a drawback. We’re going to be working around that today, and hopefully we’ll be doing some damage to whatever casual deck comes our way.
This week, we’ll be working with Dune-Brood Nephilim. Dune-Brood Nephilim cares about two things; combat damage, and the number of lands you control. This is great, because his ability wants you to have extra land, so acceleration is just what the deck builder called for. It also needs to deal combat damage, which is slightly trickier. Perhaps some Auras might help? Enough talking, I’m ready to get to deck building. Ready for it?
This deck uses Sakura-Tribe Elder and Civic Wayfinder along with Kodama’s Reach to fix your mana in order to play Dune-Brood Nephilim. Vinelasher Kudzu also appreciates the land acceleration, and is your other win condition for the deck. In order to get Dune-Brood Nephilim attacking through opposing creatures, Armadillo Cloak and Shield of the Oversoul have been included in this deck build. Shield of the Oversoul makes him a flying, indestructible 5/5, which I hear is pretty good these days. Armadillo Cloak is by far the better Aura for this deck, because it can give all of your creatures lifelink and trample. An Armadillo Cloak on Civic Wayfinder can sometimes be enough to get the job done. Instead of using my old standby Worldly Tutor, I decided to run with Congregation at Dawn this time around. It costs an extra 2 mana, but it’s a lot cheaper for your budget Planeswalkers out there. It also helps you find not one, but three, count them, three Dune- Brood Nephilim. Now that’s a lot of Nephilim. Once you’ve gotten an attack or two in with your Dune-Brood, you’re going to have Sand tokens sitting about being giant… lumps of sand. So, put them to some good use with Overrun. That way those little harmless silica particles become trampling 4/4s. Ouch. Things to Remember 1) Use your Guild-lands to bounce Gemstone Mine. The Mine gets reset, and you get to use its multicolored-ness another three times! 2) Play Vinelasher Kudzu before you play lands. It really is that simple. If you play it turn three, play it, then play your land for the turn. You’ll thank me, I promise. 3) Only use Putrefy on things you really can’t handle. Combo pieces, gigantic game winning creatures, and other things that threaten to ruin your day immediately are what you should be taking out with Putrefy. Don’t waste it on little dorks unless you absolutely have to. Card Suggestions
If you’re up against some really enchantment heavy decks, Mortify is always an option, although if you’re going to be spending 1WB, I’d rather go for Vindicate. Decks that keep you from attacking like Astral Slide decks or Ghostly Prison decks usually need enchantments, and since you need to attack to get your Sand tokens, packing Naturalize or Viridian Zealot in the sideboard might not be a bad idea. Civic Wayfinder can be replaced by a few cards. My favorite is Yavimaya Elder, although the new Farhaven Elf from Shadowmoor or Yavimaya Granger can also do the trick. That’s all for this week. Check back next time for more Nephilim action. Until then, never forget that casual Magic fun is only a dollar bin away. ~Death_By_Beebles Alex Hoffman has been parading around with the pseudonym of Death_By_Beebles for three years now. He’s a writer for Magic Deck Vortex, and can often be found tinkering with his latest decks and studying for biochemistry. He is the author of Raiding the Dollar Bins and Going Blind series at MDV, and the recent startup series Pauper Chronicles. Alex likes kittens, reading, and generally enjoying life. He doesn’t like Brussels sprouts. You can send him deck ideas, combos and suggestions at deathbybeebles@yahoo.com.
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Spotlights from 2008: | |||||||||||||||
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Feels
Like a Bag of Sand. 
Guild
Shock lands (like Godless Shrine, Sacred Foundry, or Overgrown Tomb) will really
help your mana issues, and will allow you to
play
better splash cards. These guys have gone down quite a bit in price, but they’re
still expensive, so expect to pay out the nose for a playset of them.