After seven years of playing, I have reached the conclusion that I am an anti-permission Magic mage. This is strange, considering my first deck ever consisted of Counterspells, Power Sinks, Spell Blasts, Giant Sharks, Prodigal Sorcerers, and those blue mana-producing lands... But that was before my experience with the upcoming horrors of cards like Stasis and Force of Will.

Honestly, mono-permission decks drive me nuts, tempting me to wield a virtual two-by-four against the smug, cowardly counter caster. But I digress. The point is, in my aversion to counters, I found myself turning to the color of the night - Black. Black, with its wonderful discarding, counter-stripping strengths. My favorite first turn spell to cast as a black mage? Duress. Good stuff, that spell. Playing first, short of a Force Spike, I get my choice of a non-land, non-creature card to pull. Most of the time, it's pulling counters... Which leads me to the current Type 2 environment.

Diverse as it may be, the overall metagame seems geared towards an Aggro-Control, with various combinations of blue, black, and green. White seems to be playing a supporting color, and red looks as if it's only used in tandem with the occasional green/red beatdown deck. Counters, Deeds, Wraths, and spot removal seem to be pretty commonplace. With that in mind, I had designed a deck tuned towards beating the slower Aggro-Control decks (although slow and aggro seem to conflict in theory).

One thing control decks like to have in hand are solutions to various situations. It's a legitimate strategy - one I decided to combat by begin aggressive with the discard. The less solutions the opponent has in hand, the better off I'll be later in the game. In fact, the two ways to go after control decks are to either limit their mana supply (land destruction) or disrupt their card advantage (hand destruction) Discard, in general, is the more inexpensive strategy and less likely to encounter problems with permission (LD can be Diverted and usually doesn't start until turn 3, when the blue mage has the mana for counters). While discard is a good strategy for forcing the opponent to rely on topdecking, I still needed a win condition.

Enter Magnivore - the best Lhurgoyf in Magic.

Atogs seemed to get more attention in their return in Odyssey, while the lhurgoyfs got tossed aside in the hoopla. And probably for good reason. Despite their mono-color casting cost advantage, the lhurgoyfs are mostly too expensive or inefficient to merit Type 2 play. Let's take a quick look...

Cantivore - The cheapest at a 3 casting cost, the fact that it relies on enchantments in the graveyards really limits it. This would have been better with all of Mercadian's Seals around.

Cognivore - An eight-casting cost flyer that may get beefy, but takes a bit too long to get into play. Especially with the Djinn around.

Mortivore - Basically the same as the original Lhurgoyf, with one less toughness and the ability to regenerate. But then again, it's less effective if the opponent is playing a creature-light deck... And in that case, do you really want to sacrifice your own army to make it beefier? Especially without any evasion ability? Would it have hurt R&D to give it Fear?

Terravore - Tempting, especially with its cheap three casting cost and trample. However, note that this is a mid-game creature, since you really want to go heavy with the land destruction or land sacrificing to make this strong enough to withstand burn spells when it hits play.

The most playable, by far, of the five Odyssey lhurgoyfs is Magnivore - a four casting-cost beastie that pumps from sorceries in all graveyards. And it can go into the Red Zone the turn it comes out! A lot of players have tried to team it up with red's land destruction sorceries, which seems like a natural fit (and it might work in tandem with Terravore). However, land destruction decks, by nature, are a bit too slow to really beat on control decks packing permission. I have found it more effective to link it with black's discard sorceries, which are cheaper and also limits their solutions to the Magnivore.

I designed a deck that has a very simple premise. Strip the opponent's hand. Wipe out any threats on the board. Lay down the Mag, and serve for double digits. Lacking originality, I've just called the following deck - Discardivore.

Discardivore
4 Duress
3 Addle
4 Mind Burst
3 Last Rites
3 Bog Down
3 Pain/Suffering
1 Ostracize (They all gotta win with creatures. Or they usually do.)
1 Firebolt
1 Innocent Blood (The cheaper, sorcery-speed Diabolic Edict can rid things like Spiritmongers and Finkels)
2 Void (Most unexpected use for this? Void for three when the opponent is relying on Ensnaring Bridge)
1 Urza's Rage
3 Phyrexian Arena (After emptying their hand, you want to refill yours faster to keep the heat on)
2 Shivan Zombie
3 Skizzik
4 Magnivore
8 Mountains
10 Swamp
2 Urborg Volcano
4 Sulfurous Springs

Sideboard:
1 Ostracize
1 Demolish (Yes, I know it's one more than Pillage, but the single-colored mana is key)
2 Urza's Rage (Why keep these in the sideboard? With Mind Bursts maindecked? And the Firebolts? - The Ferrett)
2 Firebolt
2 Innocent Blood
2 Lava Blister (those non-basics are rearing their heads everywhere)
3 Earthquake
2 Stone Rain

Right away, it's apparent how discard is a better strategy than land destruction. With three mana available, a Stone Rain gets countered, and ties up all your mana. However, with discard, if Duress gets countered, that still leaves two mana open for another Duress, Addle, or most other discard spells. One way or another, you will strip out additional cards. I've included a motley mix of discard spells, preferring to diversify my spells. The only mandatory four are Duress and Mind Burst... But even the Bursts could be cut, since I've found that opponent's rarely have three cards in hand by the time I get to the third Mind Burst. But then again, it's the cheapest way to pull at least two cards, so it stays at four for now.

Another thing that makes the deck interesting - the very nature of Magnivore means that each discard spell you cast, pumps it into play, or makes it bigger when it finally hits. How's about Duress having a"target creature gains +1/+1" to its ability?

You'll probably notice that this deck is very limited on removal. Firebolt, Innocent Blood, two Voids, and a lone Urza's Rage are the only ways to deal with what's in play. I have covered this in two ways. First, there are multiples of additional removal in the sideboard. Secondly, the faster I strip the opponent's hand, the fewer threats they will actually be able to cast. Those that make into play, I can hopefully deal with by topdecking into removal. It must be noted that even after sideboarding, the deck still dies savagely to a pure aggressive red/green deck.

Running on all cylinders, Discardivore forces the opponent into topdecking mode. Once I clear out whatever threats made it into play, and ensured that their hand is empty (or at one card), I usually serve with a nine- to twelve-power Magnivore charging right out of my hand. On the next turn, if it's not dealt with, that's often game.

As I have mentioned, this deck doesn't perform that impressive against a beatdown deck with cheap creatures that make it out and bum-rush you before you draw into removal. What are other weaknesses? Squirrel Prison decks. While it's quite possible to strip out the Opposition, the sheer number of the pesky things, combined with the Opposition topdecking abilities of that deck, render your discard useless, as well as your more expensive board-sweeping sorcery solutions.

This deck performs at its best when the opponent only has a creature or two in play. Often, it soaks up the early damage, while removing the opponent's hands of threats and answers. The more control the opponent is playing, the better for you, since you don't have to worry about your life bleeding away. Beware however, of the resurgence of Dodecapods in sideboards. If you suspect them, Demolishes, Innocent Bloods, and Voids are really your only ways of dealing with them.

Things to keep in mind when playing this deck: When casting Addle, you choose the color on resolution. Don't let a blue mage sucker you into naming a color until he allows it to resolve. The same goes for Void and the number picked. For Last Rites, cards are discarded on resolution also, so there's no way for the blue mage to know how much you want to Rites for until it's too late to counter. In the mirror matchup... Well, I've actually never run into an identical version, so I really can't say how that'd turn out. In that case, it looks like whoever draws the Magnivore first has a better shot while discard spells are piling up in the graves.

Currently, from my playtesting, I've noted that the deck wins about two-thirds of the time. I'll be the first to admit that it probably has to do with the surprise factors, as many decks aren't really creating sideboards with this in mind. It's fun to win with, and isn't as rare-intensive as many of the Type 2 decks out there (seventeen rares in the maindeck, five in the sideboard) so it's cheaper and easier to build. Basically, this deck has been my toy for the last month, and having done my share of winning with it, I'll let the Magic community take a hack at it and see if can be improved. If the rumors about Torment and its anti-discard mechanic, Madness, are true, then this deck will have a very limited lifespan. But then again, I also hear that Black will be quite potent in the set, so I'm looking forward to seeing what goodies will be brought to the swamps.

Have fun and enjoy the deck; the next time around, I'll be introducing the return of Condamnation in Extended...

Wesley Chang
XangelisX on mIRC

P.S. As a parting shot, as an green/black player, I offer one of cards I have created to even things up a bit in Extended:

Barbed Spider
4GG
Barbed Spider can't be countered.
Barbed Spider may block as though it had flying.
G: Barbed Spider can't be the target of spells or abilities until the end of turn.
R: Barbed Spider gains first strike until the end of turn.
2/5