The Retired: The Hollows

 Sigh. 

This one was harder to put down, because I liked the central idea. I did a lot of work on it. But I just never wanted to play the damn thing. Something that seemed cooler in concept than it was in execution, I suppose. 

3 Lightning Greaves

4 Flametongue Kavu
3 Dimir House Guard
3 Viashino Sandscout
2 Grave Titan
4 Mardu Strike Leader
1 Flamerush Rider
2 Bane of the Living

4 Death Match

6 Mountain
4 Sulfurous Springs
1 Ebon Stronghold
1 Ghitu Encampment
1 Spawning Pool
7 Swamp
2 Urborg Volcano
1 Rakdos Carnarium
2 Bloodfell Caves

3 Void
1 Torrent of Souls
4 Lab Rats
2 Goblin Offensive

I am proud of the fact that I recognized I needed a lot of land to do what I wanted to do. I still like the basic idea around using Death Match to keep the field clear of creatures, while my creatures were much harder to get rid of. However, this deck has a common problem with many other decks: it's signature card doesn't do anything the turn you play it. 

The Hollows needs me to be in a reasonable position by turn 4 so that I can take a turn off from interacting with the game and cast Death Match, then on turn 5 I can get back to it. Which sounds nice but opponents don't just decide to sit out a turn because you want to do a cool thing. Truth be told, I'm a surprised by this as you are but it's still true.

Which meant that the compulsion to play this deck and do something cool with it just never arrived. Time to let this one go, and invest in an idea that has me interested.