DETH’S SERVANT
So, I haven’t been playing a ton of legacy lately as I was spending a good portion of my magic time preparing for the limited portion of GP Vegas. However, the last time I did I was able to turn a few heads with an even CRAZIER brew of DETH. For those of you that are in “the know”, read on, for those of you that are soon to be in “the know,” this link is for you. I shall attempt to impart a modicum of wisdom here with the hope that you come away from this enlightened, excited, and above all else, ready to play some DETH’s Servant. What is DETH’s Servant? Well, for an in depth conversation about this deck, the card choices, an overview of the matchups, sideboard and a whole lot of laughs, I would first advise you to listen to Leaving a Legacy . Jerry Mee and Pat Euglow invited me to come on the show to highlight this particular list. I did, and it was awesome. Have you listened to it yet? I’ll wait…
Here is the link again. I’m not messing around, you’re going to want to check out that podcast.
Okay, I think it’s safe to assume that by now you’ve checked out the origin story and listened to the podcast. We’re now prepared to dive into the depths of DETH. Today’s dive will include the changes I made and why, mulligan decisions and general sideboarding strategies.
THE ADDITIONS
Why did I add a fourth combo? Well, aside from my bottomless need for attention, there were also a couple of other legitimate reasons. First and foremost: what I learned in my initial build was that the more combos I added, the better the deck seemed to get. Keeping this in mind, I decided to add yet another combo and see if the trend continued in a linear fashion or started to pass the apex of the theoretical combo parabola.
X axis = number of combos
Y axis = deck performance
The first league I played I was able to secure a 5-0. This continues to suggest that the graph on the bottom is, in fact, the correct one. So, it follows that, if I could conceivably cram an infinite number of combos into a 60 card deck, I would never lose. I am currently working on this theorem, and feel I am close to a breakthrough.
The next reason has to do with decks that tax. Eldrazi and Taxes, Death and Taxes, Death and Taxes and Taxes (this is when you are actively being audited by your D&T opponent),lands, mono red prison, you get the idea. Essentially, I wanted a cheaper combo that wouldn’t be as punished by cards like Thalia, Guardian of Thraben or Thorn of Amethyst. I also wanted a viable way to win the game if my opponent resolved a Gaddock Teeg game one with a Wasteland up (which happens more frequently than one might think). Additionally, having another two card combo that can potentially win the game on the spot helps even out the Sneak and Show match up. Your opponent now has to gamble with Show and Tell if you have even one of the following cards in play: Painter’s Servant, Grindstone, Leyline of the Void, or Helm of Obedience.
The other addition that I made was Echo of Eons as a one of in the main deck. My reasoning for this doesn’t amount to much more than these two reasons and in this exact order: I thought it was cool. Second, I found that in match ups where my opponent thwarted my turn two kill and was grinding me down, I did not have a way to bounce back into the game effectively. I see my Echo of Eons as the fourth quarter Hail Mary against these long game strategies. However, it is also quite good against any deck that has minimal interaction on your turn. Does it get stuck in my hand sometimes? Absolutely. This, however, brings me back to the number one reason I decided to run it, which is that it is in fact, very cool. Not much on this Earth beats waiting until your opponent is tapped out, playing your hand, drawing 7, playing another hand and usually just winning on the spot.
The last change that I made was cutting two duress for two Inquisition of Kozilek. This was mostly due to a drastic shift in the meta. I was playing against delvers and True Name-Nemesis quite frequently. I wanted a way to strip early pressure out of my opponent’s hand to allow the deck to draw into its win conditions. The downside to this change is, of course, that inquisition does not hit Force of Will, which is often a primary target.
MULLIGAN DECISIONS
With any deck your starting hand and the decisions you make to keep or mull are extremely important. It is no different here, in fact, I believe it is even more important. It is also a little more complex than most linear decks. There are hands that are easy to keep, of course. For instance, when you have a turn one kill or a turn two kill, no problem.
This is a turn one kill and an example of those easy keeps I mentioned above. On the play in game one, my approach is to always jam. You will get blown out by Force of Will from time to time, but you will win way more often. Sadly, most of the time you will not have a turn one or even turn two kill. Which hands you decide to keep depends greatly on what you are playing against, which makes your game one decisions even more crucial.
When you play with a linear deck, your deck does a thing, let’s call it X. When you draw a hand if you think your hand will allow you do X it is a keep, if it does not do X then it is a mulligan. DETH differs from this in the sense that it is looking to do W,X,Y, or Z. So, when you draw a hand does none of those things it does not mean you should mulligan those hands 100% of the time. For example, if we think of Leyline/Helm and Painter/Servant, Depths and Stage/Hexmage as two card combos and LED/Ritual/Tutor as a three card combo we can assess our hands in valuations. For instance, here is a sample hand that I kept in the blind against an opponent game one.
This hand I can look at as ⅔ x and ½ y, or ⅔ storm and ½ depths. What this means is that on my first draw of the game I can draw 12 cards that will complete one of these combos(all copies of LED, Ritual, Stage, Hexmage, and Plunge into Darkness). That is nearly 25%. The disruption can slow down my opponent and help set up my win. This hand is especially nice because you have a back up plan, go all-in with Depths. It also has potential versatility. If I cast Thoughtseize and I see my opponent is sitting on Wasteland and Knight of the Reliquary I will be looking to complete my storm combo. I may play out my Depths to bait their Wasteland to buy another draw free of pressure and clear the way for my lake of the dead. As it panned out, this particular opponent was playing UW control and I was able to strip away meaningful cards turn one and two and use Infernal Tutor discarding my hand to LED for Hexmage to attack for 20 on turn 4.
This hand may be an obvious keep as it contains ½ Helm combo, full Depths combo and ⅓ storm combo. I am only including it here to discuss the power starting with Leyline in play. Not only do we have a good aggressive plan, but beginning the game with Leyline of the Void in play enables much of our deck to function at a much higher efficiency (It is also noteworthy to mention that simply by starting with a Leyline in play you will receive a concession in roughly 4-5 percent of your game ones). Even if one or both Depths and Stage were swamps, I would likely keep this hand, especially in game one. Leyline of the Void enables our Ill-gotten Gains as well as our Helms and turns them into “your opponent exiles their hand and you get three sweet cards back from your graveyard.” Even if you get your Helm of Obedience surgically extracted you can still storm off without fear of the FOW once you resolve your first Ill-gotten Gains. As it turned out, this game actually ended on turn three with another 20/20. Let’s look at one more example.
This is a hand I would ship back. It only has ⅓ storm. If I knew that I was playing against storm, I would probably keep this, but game one, I would mulligan.
Hopefully this gives you an idea of how I evaluate hands with DETH. It is built in such a way (that is without brainstorms, ponders, or any efficient cantrip) to maximize the value of the top card of your deck. So, if you’re starting hand doesn’t have the win in it, but has varied pieces of your combos, do not despair. As George Michael would tell you, “you gotta have faith.”
SIDEBOARDING
“You must do what you feel is right, of course.”
- Obi Wan Kenobi
Sideboarding with DETH can be a tricky endeavor. There are a few certainties, but many more uncertainties. For example, against control, I will always bring in Hymn to Tourach. Against elves I will always bring in Toxic Deluge. Against Mono red Prison I will always bring in Phyrexian Obliterator. Aside from these type of examples the rest of my sideboarding strategy is greatly dependent upon what happened game one and two. This differs from many sideboard strategies in the sense that I don’t necessarily do the same thing match to match, or even game to game. For instance, if I beat my opponent game one with my Dark Depths combo and they only see cards that could viably be in Turbo Depths, I may lean away from that strategy in game two(especially if they have Wasteland and Karakas), anticipating that my opponent will side heavily into stopping that particular win condition. If I happen to storm out my opponent game one, I might side out my storm combo completely and lean into my Painter/Grindstone combo with Obliterators for back up. It is a game of cat and mouse. Against control I may side out three or all of my lotus petals on the draw as I want my cards all to impact the game state in a meaningful way, where as I may bring them in on the play in an attempt to win before they can develop their board. My best advice is to think about the game that was just played and consider these factors:
- What combo did I win with (if you won)?
- What cards did my opponent see (if you lost)?
- What combo is my opponent’s deck most vulnerable to?
- What strategy are they likely to take against me?
- What do they expect that I will do?
It’s important to remember that as difficult as it can be to sideboard with DETH, it is also difficult to sideboard against. The benefit of having four distinctive modes to victory is that many of the strategies do not share sideboard cards. Your opponent’s strategy versus storm and Painter/Grindstone, for example, are not going to share many cards. Make the best decisions you can with the information you gathered during game one and remember that your opponent has some difficult choices to make as well.
CLOSING REMARKS
That’s the crash course on DETH’s Servant. If you have any questions or remarks please feel free to ask below in the comment section. You can also find me on Twitter @traswidden and I am traswidden on twitch.