| [Before I start, I will warn you guys that when I start to explain the deck, I start to take a sarcastic tone. So, bear with me. Thanks.] Today, on Rise From the Dead, Part II, I will be discussing a deck that I have no part in creating but I just want to show you its history because when someone has a good idea, it can keep going regardless of numerous amouts of bannings. (On a related note, my Suicide TInker deck is now dead with the banning of Metalworker in extended. What I had overlooked was the infinite mana combo with Metalworker and Voltaic construct for infinite mana. With my decklist, replacing some cards for the combo engine would allow me to win in turn 2, witch is WAY to fast for a healthy enviroment.) The deck I will be discussing is the Angry Ghoul combo deck. It's origin and the way it has evolved. In the begining... The deck first sprung up in Pro Tour Houston 2002 where it was the first tourny after the extneded rotation. The deck was run by only seven people at Pro Tour Houston but one managed to top eight (Bob Maher Jr.) Here is the decklist from the event: Bob Maher Jr. - Angry Ghoul 1 Underground River 2 Reflecting Pool 4 Bloodstained Mire 4 City of Brass 2 Darigaaz's Caldera 4 Llanowar Wastes 1 Tarnished Citadel 4 Forsaken City 1 Mountain 4 Hermit Druid 2 Anger 2 Sutured Ghoul 1 Avatar of Woe 2 Verdant Force 1 Krosan Colossus 2 Cabal Therapy 4 Exhume 4 Entomb 2 Reanimate 1 Krosan Reclamation 4 Duress 4 Mox Diamond 4 Vampiric Tutor Sideboard: 3 Chill 4 Defense Grid 2 Naturalize 1 Ray of Revelation 1 Seal of Removal 1 Addle 1 Phantom Nishoba 1 Engineered Plague 1 Swamp This is the first decklist and it has 2 ways to win. The first is the combo. Hermit Druid seems like an average card, I mean look at him: Let's see, a two-drop that mills away your deck looking for land. Hey! Wait! It says BASIC land. So, if my deck has nothing but nonbasic lands, he can drop my deck into my graveyard. That was the original permise. With your entire deck in the grave, you can cast Reanimate or Exhume and drop this bad boy into play: If you have been paying attention, you will realize that if you slap a bunch of high power and toughness creaures to remove, you will have a HUGE creature. But wait, with my deck empty, how will I win? Glad you asked, with the original build in mind, it ran four Bloodstained Mires and one Mountain for Anger in the deck. The only problem is if you do not get your mountain in time, you need to activate the Driud twice or rely on a weaker Sutured Ghoul. It can even win without drawing an Exhume. After milling your whole deck, you can flashback Krosan Reclamation for two Exhumes setting you up to combo next turn. But the deck also functions as a Reanimator deck with a bad mana base. Another thing you will notice is the Mox Diamonds. Not only do they allow the casting of a first turn Hermit, it allows rediclious plays. One in particular is when Bob Maher played a first turn Entomb followed by a Mox Diamond into Reanimate. This unlucky player was facing down a 7/7 that created little hell-spawns each upkeep before he took his first turn. Now as we all know, Entomb was banned in extended, but the hermit was left alone, so the combo was still viable it just lost it's backup plan. So, this incarnation of the deck was brought about: Mike Abraham - Angry Ghoul Part II 4 City of Brass 4 City of Traitors 4 Llanowar Wastes 4 Underground River 2 Vault of Whispers 2 Ancient Tomb 2 Darigaaz's Caldera 1 Yavimaya Coast 4 Hermit Druid 3 Krosan Cloudscraper 2 Sutured Ghoul 1 Woodripper 4 Mox Diamond 4 Vampiric Tutor 4 Corpse Dance 4 Buried Alive 4 Duress 2 Reanimate 3 Mystical Tutor 1 Cabal Therapy 1 Dragon Breath 1 Krosan Reclamation Sideboard: 4 Chill 3 Defense Grid 2 Naturalize 1 Serenity 1 Coffin Purge 1 Krosan Reclamation 1 Ray of Revelation 1 Cabal Therapy 1 Fire/Ice First of all, the deck was actually faster in this incarnation, instead of needing a Mountain and Anger, it used Dragon's Breath, an enchatment from Scouge witch returned to play when a creature came into play that had a converted mana cost of 6 or more. This allowed whenever you got that first turn Hermit Druid into play and it survived, you would be able to combo on turn 2. The deck above is unique in the fact that it runs Buried Alive. It can tutor for 2 Krosan Colossuses and a Ghoul. So when you reanimate it it is a 26/26 trampling monster. Needless to say, they banned the Hermit and some thought the deck to be dead. But they were wrong. The deck above had the right idea with the idea of playing Buried Alive for 2 Krosan Colossuses and Sutured Ghoul. So, the japanes developed that idea, streamlined it, and made the deck below: Chikara Nakajima - Dancing Ghoul Ver1.7 1 Island 2 Swamp 1 Mountain 4 City of Traitors 3 Underground River 2 Sulfurous Springs 1 Shivan Reef 3 Polluted Delta 3 Bloodstained Mire 4 City of Brass 2 Sutured Ghoul 3 Krosan Cloudscraper 4 Brainstorm 2 Mystical Tutor 4 Vampiric Tutor 4 Corpse Dance 4 Duress 3 Buried Alive 1 Fling 1 Overmaster 4 Burning Wish 4 Mox Diamond Sideboard: 1 Ray of Revelation 1 Cabal Therapy 1 Exhume 1 Decompose 1 Buried Alive 3 Overmaster 1 Pyroclasm 4 Defense Grid 1 Damping Matrix 1 Brush with Death It is a Burning Wish build that looks to combo as fast as possible. In testing, the win happens so fast it's disturbing. An idea game goes like this: Turn 1: Land, Mox Diamond, Discard Land, Burning Wish for Buried Alive Turn 2: Cast Buried Alive for the Trio ( 2 Krosan Colossuses and Sutured Ghoul, duh.) Turn 3: Cast Vamp Tutor during my upkeep for Corpse Dance. Play it and win. And this has happened more than once. So, as a closing note, when someone has a good idea never abandon it. Just keep making changes untill it works and you just might make a good deck. Mr Pink out. |
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| Rise from the Dead! Part II |
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