Wasting Away

Named after the Nailbomb song, I built this deck to use Death Pits of Rath and Lashknife Barrier to keep the board free of oppositing creatures, and win via creature attacks. Failing that, just activating Thrashing Wumpus with a Soul Link on it can go a long way.

Rules point: The reason this works is because each activation of the Wumpus resolves one at a time. So activating it three times will do three damage- but only one at a time, which means Lashknife Barrier prevents all the damage!

I'll admit, I was inspired to bring this deck to the limelight because of the video I saw from Strictly Better MTG. That's a Standard legal deck but Wasting Away is definitely mining similar thematic territory: prevent damage to yourself while clearing the board.

Let's start off with my original build.

1 Basilisk Collar

2 Order of Leitbur
1 Order of the White Shield
4 Plague Spitter
3 Thrashing Wumpus
2 Rune-Tail, Kitsune Ascendant

3 Spirit Link
4 Death Pits of Rath
4 Soul Link
4 Lashknife Barrier
1 Noxious Field

4 Dark Ritual
2 Disenchant
10 Swamp
10 Plains
4 Shambling Vent

1 Terashi's Grasp

Now, what this deck doesn't have that the SBMTG deck does is a way to break the game open.

I can establish a soft lock with Wasting Away; Death Pits of Rath and any damage source means that the board is going to stay pretty clear for me. But winning is a bit more challenging-especially since I have my creatures protected far better than myself.

The last update to this deck came around the time of Kamigawa block, though and that was fourteen years ago. Magic has changed a lot since then and I think it's time to see if this deck is still engaging to me.