Since returning to Magic in the last couple years, I've really appreciated the opportunity to go through the past event coverage archives that Wizards maintains. I'm fascinated by the decisions players made about optimal decks in the different constructed formats, be it the control-oriented nature of Pro Tour Yokohama or the way Gruul and Zoo decks blew through the field at Honolulu.
The deck breakdown coverage for Pro Tour Kobe 2004 addresses the quirky field that was Mirrodin block constructed in the days of Mirrodin, Darksteel, no Fifth Dawn, and no bannings within Block. Naturally, it was a field rife with Affinity and Green-Red, Red, or Green anti-Affinity decks, but it also had a few standouts, including Gabriel Nassif's second-place finisher TwelvePost, which did shockingly (at the time) well. Fascinating, right?
I was especially interested in this quote from the breakdown:
Death Cloud - 12
Poor Death Cloud. Such a big effect. So slow. Ben Stark's Affinity deck killed a Death Cloud deck on turn four despite being hit by Barter in Blood. On paper the deck looks very powerful, but it just doesn't seem to have the tools to survive the mid-game. Some players have tried augmenting it with some cheap red removal, but it might not be enough.
This led me to wonder...what was a Death Cloud deck from that format like?
We'll go over to the extended for the answer.
It took me quite a while to find any decklists at all for Death Cloud from anything approaching this format. I finally found this article by Ervin Tormos, describing his performance with a Mirrodin-Darksteel-Fifth-Dawn-era Death Cloud deck at a PTQ. I'll begin with Ervin's closing remarks on the deck:
The Cloud deck was alright, but I recommend another deck if you really want to qualify. Any kind of counter is really bad for this deck and it often has problems keeping up if on the draw.
Indeed. Here's the list:
| 8 Creatures: |
| 4× Solemn Simulacrum |
| 4× Greater Harvester |
| 28 Spells: |
| 4× Guardian Idol |
| 4× Talisman of Dominance |
| 4× Wayfarer's Bauble |
| 4× Night's Whisper |
| 4× Barter in Blood |
| 4× Death Cloud |
| 4× Echoing Decay |
| 24 Land: |
| 22× Swamp |
| 2× Blinkmoth Nexus |
| 15 Sideboard: |
| 4× March of the Machines |
| 4× Terror |
| 4× Shattered Dreams |
| 2× Grim Reminder |
| Island |
I admit, I'm not clear on how this is meant to really survive against Affinity decks -- or, for that matter, against Big Red decks packed with burn. And that's with the addition of Fifth Dawn.
In contrast, I would have imagined that the entire point of a Death Cloud deck is to generate asymmetry by getting ahead in some way such that you'll definitely be ahead when you hit a Death Cloud. Looking at the Mirrodin-Darksteel card pool, I'm unclear on how this works with mono-black. Instead, I would have gone with black/green (yes, I'm doing B/G again...shocking).
B/G Death Cloud
| 8 Creatures: |
| 4× Viridian Shaman |
| 4× Solemn Simulacrum |
| 28 Spells: |
| 4× Oxidize |
| 4× Echoing Decay |
| 4× Journey of Discovery |
| 4× Pulse of the Tangle |
| 4× Darksteel Ingot |
| 4× Serum Powder |
| 4× Death Cloud |
| 24 Land: |
| 12× Swamp |
| 10× Forest |
| 2× Blinkmoth Nexus |
| 15 Sideboard: |
| 4× Nourish |
| 4× Tel-Jilad Chosen |
| 4× Terror |
| 3× Chalice of the Void |
This is obviously still not optimized, and I made a conscious effort to not think about the at-the-time of Kobe unknown quantity that was Twelvepost. Still, the basic point ought to be clear -- we have Serum Powder to set up a good starting hand, and Darksteel Ingots and Journey of Discovery to get ahead on the board. We have Viridian Shaman and Oxidize against Affinity in the maindeck, as well as Echoing Decay as generic removal. I've done a bit of low-key testing of this against Kuroda's Big Red and Stark's Affinity, and it does pretty well. When it works, you keep up with removal and get well ahead in terms of land, which then lets you Death Cloud their entire manabase and hand away while leaving you with several lands in play. From there, you can finish with a Pulse or a creature.
It still might not be an optimal choice for a PT like Kobe, but I feel like it's clearly a better choice than mono-black given the expectation that Affinity will be everywhere. Had I been around and competing in the PTQ season at the time, maybe I would have taken something like that to the tournaments.