Creature Void

Seeing as how the last two decks were both Mono coloured (B and G respectively), I thought that this week we could try combining them to create something different. I use the term `we`, but really a good portion of today`s deck theory was done about 20 years ago; drawing its strategy from The O`Brien School of Magic. As we`ve seen time and again, Black excels at land destruction, while green excels in the creature department. When combined, we get a deck that allows us to play our spells while our opponent doesn`t. Pretty awesome, eh? So with that intro out of the way, let`s delve into Creature Void.

Defining the deck [and its name] is Nether Void - an oft-forgot Enchant World from Legends that counters every spell that it can unless the caster pays an additional 3 mana. There are a couple of plans here, depending on your opening 7. The first is to ramp your mana into an early Void, then grind out a win against an opponent who can’t cast their spells. The other option is to deny your opponent access to their mana as you wait to either draw and/or cast a Nether Void and win.

Drop of Honey. So why Drop of Honey? Another obscure oldie, Honey is actually quite incredible in the right deck. If you don’t have a T1 Dark Ritual, then this is the card you want to be casting. Yes, the opponent can play around it by not casting a creature, but then y’know what you just did? Stalled the board as you build your mana towards a Nether Void! Pretty clever, wouldn’t you say? This is just one of its uses, as the card can really help you clear any sort of board an opponent might have cobbled together before you cast the Void.

Alright - we’ve talked about the power of Nether Void, so the question then becomes how do we use this to our advantage? The answer is in our win conditions. Blurred Mongoose is rarely talked about, but in a deck like this, the card is a powerhouse. It’s an uncounterable threat  is also untargetable. The latter of which can be quite relevant against an opponent who managed to scrounge enough mana for a Swords to Plowshare or Lightning Bolt. I had considered a higher number of uncounterables in the list, but decided to go with manlands instead, as they can also be used to get our own spells out past Void.

I would call the rest of the deck pretty self-explanatory. The Rituals help cast your hand on T1 and T2, while the rest aim at destroying your opponent’s resources. Engineered Plague can be a pretty important card vs cheap aggro builds because they are exactly the kind of deck that we want to a-Void (sorry).

Mox Diamond? Sol lands? I wasn’t sure if I wanted to include Diamond or not. There is a high land count to support it, but you tend to want those lands in play because of Void. Not including them was not an easy decision, as the card does offer some nice T1 plays, so you might want to consider it. The Sol lands can also be nice and I think they warrant consideration as well. Happy Brewing!

Creature Void

Land

4 Bayou

3 Swamp

2 Forest

4 Mishra`s Workshop

1 Treetop Village

4 Wasteland

7 Fetch lands

Total: 25

Creatures

4 Blurred Mongoose

1 Vexing Beetle

Total: 5

Spells

4 Nether Void

4 Dark Ritual

4 Duress

4 Drop of Honey

4 Hymn to Tourach

4 Sinkhole

3 Engineered Plague

Total: 30

Sideboard

4 Tormod’s Crypt

4 Naturalize

4 Innocent Blood

1 Engineered Plague

2 Vexing Beetle