Poison decks. Mathematically, they appeal to players since 10 damage is easier to deal than 20 damage. The downside is that there are significantly less sources of poison than regular damage. Cards with the capacity to give poison counters to the opponent are in black, green, and artifacts.
That hasn't stopped players from trying however.
Today I will be covering a card I've seen in poison decks as a way to deal the last few bits of poison damage to your opponent.
Livewire Lash is an equipment with a casting cost of 2 and an equip cost of 2. It's overall cheap cost allows it to be played and equipped on the same turn much like Umezawa's Jitte or Bonesplitter.
As far as its abilities go, it first gives a +2/+0 power boost--not bad for giving 2 more poison counters per each attack.
The second ability is what appeals to poison players. Whenever the equipped creature becomes targeted by a spell, the equipped creature (not the equipment) deals 2 damage, meaning it can either give 2 poison counters or 2 -1/-1 counters even if the creature ends up removed.
Before I get more indepth about using the Lash, I'll talk about the two categories of poison decks I see working:
Fast Poison - Primarily green for pump with possible red for Assault Strobe. Focuses on killing in one or two turns through excessively powerful infect creatures striking.
Slow Poison - Primarily black with blue for proliferate. Focuses on getting a counter on an opponent the chipping away with attacks and proliferation.
I see Livewire Lash working better with fast poison decks. The primary reason is that fast poison decks pack spells that want to target your own creatures. Slow poison can benefit from the 2 power boost, but I don't see slow poison using the damage upon targeting to its full potential since there aren't many desirable spells to target your creatures with that fit the theme.
That's the basics. I've got two sample decks for your perusing (note that they're untested as they are intended to display basic synergies):
| RG Livewire Lash | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lands | Creatures | Spells | |||
| 4 | Copperline Gorge | 4 | Cystbearer | 3 | Livewire Lash |
| 4 | Smoldering Spires | 4 | Ichorclaw Myr | 3 | Vines of Vastwood |
| 4 | Rootbound Crag | 4 | Putrefax | 4 | Groundswell |
| 8 | Forest | 3 | Corpse Cur | 4 | Assault Strobe |
| 3 | Mountain | 4 | Lightning Bolt | ||
| 4 | Flame Slash | ||||
| 23 | Cards | 15 | Cards | 22 | Cards |
 Display Deck Statistics | |||||
To download the file for Magic Workstation: Livewire RG Poison
RG Livewire Lash:
Even without Livewire Lash, RG is still a threat. The deck can win in one just from a direct attack with a Putrefax boosted by an Assault Strobe. Smoldering Spires can help get the horror through.
As mentioned previously, green offers spells that you want to target your own creatures with, thus setting off Livewire Lash. The extra damage from Lash acts like proliferate in other decks -- providing that extra reach you may need to seal the deal.
Vines of Vastwood is one of the best cards here. It acts as both pump and as a way to protect your creatures. It can insure your win if your creature can swing for lethal by shrouding your creature with other pump spells. Expending your hand does not matter if you're going to win the game.
The rest of the deck is just efficient creature removal. Feel free to add more removal since right now I think there's too much creature pump there right now.
| UB Livewire Poison | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lands | Creatures | Spells | |||
| 4 | Darkslick Shores | 4 | Contagious Nim | 3 | Contagion Clasp |
| 4 | Drowned Catacomb | 3 | Hand of the Praetors | 4 | Distortion Strike |
| 2 | Island | 4 | Ichor Rats | 4 | Grasp of Darkness |
| 13 | Swamp | 4 | Ichorclaw Myr | 3 | Livewire Lash |
| 4 | Plague Stinger | 4 | Steady Progress | ||
| 23 | Cards | 19 | Cards | 18 | Cards |
| Display Deck Statistics | |||||
To download the file for Magic Workstation: Livewire UB Poison
The main reason I see people playing Livewire Lash in UB is for Distortion Strike. The combination produces 3 more infect damage (2 from the Lash power boost and 1 for the Distortion Strike power boost). If the combination isn't answered, then the creature can kill in one turn due to both the rebounding of D Strike and the unblockability of the creature.
Besides that, it's got the standard Ichor Rats/Hand of the Praetors synergy. Probably needs the max number of Hands, but that'll be your call.
Summary
I wouldn't call Livewire Lash a "build around me" card or an "I-win" card. While it will increase the speed of poison decks, I don't see it as a staple card like Hand of the Praetors. Livewire Lash simply has a few cool combos that can help a poison deck succeed.
Until next time,
@shadowsketched
I think you can build around Livewire Lash. I've built a R/U deck that is pretty brutal even if sometimes you can't get livewire lash out. Here it is:
ReplyDeleteLivewire Lash x4
Call to Mind x2
Cancel x2
Distortion Strike x4
Ichorclaw Myr x4
Corpse Cur x3
Vault Skyward x3
Disperse x2
Fling x1
Bull Rush x2
Assault Strobe x3
Necropede x3
Guard Gomazoa x2
Island x16
Mountain x9
Had one game with Corps Cur out, and 5 mana(3 red 2 blue). Threw Distortion strike on it, Bull rush, the Fling after combat damage. Most rounds only last till round 5.
It looks like those AIR aka All in Red decks from Extended. Pretty much a one turn high-risk/high-reward.
ReplyDeleteI do like the use of Fling + Infect, I'm writing that down.
fling does the damage not creatures...
ReplyDeleteNo poison unless damage comes from creature, fling is damage not poison
ReplyDelete