The Delight

Most of the time, I test things (you test things, we all muck about with decklists, right?) and the results are less than awesome.

That's the nature of brewing, hell, even of playing. Lots of stuff doesn't work out. You lose more than you win and hopefully the lessons are more fun than frustrating.

Sometimes, though, you get lucky and things work out really, really nicely. In this particular case, I didn't even know how nicely until it happened!

Readers may recall I had some concerns about Treacherous Pit-Dweller being used against me. And in a game against Matt, this is exactly what happened: after a few attacks, the Dweller was killed and poof, came into play under Matt's control.

By then though, I had enough mana to cast a Gutwrencher Oni, so I would have a demon in play, and the turn after, cast Mark of the Oni, taking back my Dweller.

And that's when I saw it: the solution. Mark of the Oni wants me to have a demon under my control.

Treacherous Pit-Dweller is a demon. I didn't have to wait for the Gutwrencher at all! Once I control the Dweller, the Oni's condition is fulfilled.

This was so exciting for me, because it meant that I could really push Dirge hard into an aggressive role. It might even be worth cutting Deathrender and adding in a third copy of both the Dweller and the Mark. Matt pointed out that I'm spending five mana to get a 5/4, but what he missed is that I'm spending five mana to get a 4/3 and a 5/4.

More testing will tell if this is good.