Ninja Decks

[Dannyalcatraz]

There are thousands of cards in M:tG. Some are broken in that they just let players run rampant over the competition.

Others are broken in the sense of uselessness...or so it may seem at first.

Have you ever been told a certain card or style of deck is utter junk and then whupped someone with it?

It is a great feeling!

I did it once with a Poison Counter deck, and again with a 5-Color deck when there were very few cards to support that style of building- the only 5 color lands were the City of Brass and Rainbow Vale.

I did it again in a tournament using Living Planes coupled with Pestilence and Lhurqoyfs and Khabal Ghouls- and later with Living Planes and Pyroclasm.

I have some creatureless decks and artifact decks that are either genius or freaking annoying depending upon whom you're asking.

But the most fun may have been using a Lion's Eye Diamond in a mono-Black deck with Nether Shades, Ashen Ghouls, Fallen Angels, Phyrexian Broodlings and Necrosavants.

I do this kind of thing often enough that my playing buddies call them "Ninja Decks" (or substitute my real name for Ninja) because of their surprise value.

What kind of Ninja Decks have you designed.

 

[Aus_Snow]

Heaps of times.

Now I'll have to rediscover / remember what the hell they are / were.

I know I also did the creatureless thing, just to be difficult (the casual playing field has generally been very creature-heavy), and more than once.

 

[Runestar]

Lion's eye diamond was in fact part of a fairly successful deck which also included gustha's sceptor. Supposedly, you used it to store cards, used the diamond for quick mana, then tap the staff to return the card to your hand where you could then cast it. So in the right deck, it is a black lotus and possibly more.

I did use the diamond in a re-animator deck like that. Use gustha's sceptor to store an animate dead. Sac diamond to discard my hand (which hopefully contained fatties, this was one time when the downside to mulligan'ing was negligible since I was going to lose my hand anyways, so it would not matter if I started with 7 or 5 cards), than bring in a big creature like nicol balas or verdant force. Though it was more gimmicky than anything, and not really that strong (not that hard to overcome), but a blast to play.

Here is the relevant article.

"How did Brian Hacker win a game on the second turn when all he played on the first turn was Gustha's Scepter?"

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/arcana/222

While I believe I am not the first to recognize mana severance's benefits, I was the first in my gaming group to point out its advantages.

 

[chronoplasm]

My "Nose-Picker Witch" deck.
It started out as a Golgari deck, but I soon discovered that Nose-Picker Witch along with Dripping-Tongue Zubera could do some pretty mean things at times.
I began to push the deck toward token generation and milling using cards like Altar of Dementia, Oona, Queen of the Fey, and Nath of the Gilt-Leaf.