Deadguy Ale

Deadguy Ale was a pretty original deck when Chris Pikula debuted it back in 2005. Legacy was in its infancy, and Pikula had decided to bring his brew to one of the early Legacy Grand Prix events. At the time, Goblins was considered THE deck to beat (it won the tournament actually). People were intrigued by Chris’ deck though, and it had them talking!

The concept is based off using land destruction and discard spells to control your opponent’s board. How? by not allowing them one! It does so via cards such as Hymn to Tourach and Gerard’s Verdict, which can really help gain card advantage. Hymn in particular is great as it has the added bonus of possibly mana screwing an opponent. Vindicate is another strong catchall sort of spell because it can destroy any type of permanent. The deck wins by denying your opponent a board state and then crashing in with its main win conditions: Hypnotic Specter and Nantuko Shade, or by shocking them with Cursed Scroll.

The main difference between an Ancient Deadguy Ale deck and Pikula’s original is that he was able to use 4 Dark Confidant. Other than that, every single card in his main board was Ancient legal. I decided to add 4 Mother of Runes to help protect creatures from top-deck removal, and/or to just bash through their defenses – especially with Hypnotic Specter.  Another option is to remove the 4 MoRs for Mishra’s Factory. The deck has a lot of room for customization, depending on what you choose to focus on. Happy brewing!

Deadguy Ale

Land:

4 Scrubland

4 Wasteland

5 Fetchlands

4 Swamp
4 Plains

Total: 21

Creatures:

4 Mother of Runes

4 Hypnotic Specter

4 Nantuko Shade

Total: 12

Spells:

4 Sinkhole

2 Cursed Scroll

4 Dark Ritual

4 Swords to Plowshares

4 Duress

4 Hymn to Tourach

1 Gerard’s Verdict

4 Vindicate

Total: 27

Siderboard:

4 Engineered Plague

4 Tormod’s Crypt

4 Diabolic Edict

2 Phyrexian Negator

1 Ostracize