I've always been a fan of psychology and skill-testing situations in Magic games. The concept of bluffing, and being able to manipulate both your opponents and the current game state can give you that winning edge (and makes for great practice for poker and Risk-style games). So naturally, I somewhat drawn towards the "auction"-style cards (like Illicit Auction) and "hard choice" cards (like Fact or Fiction).
They take skill: the auction cards require psychological skill (even if resources are unequal), and the hard choice cards require an ability to assess the game state. Imagine my surprise when Saviors introduced not only one of these cards, but one of each in Pain's Reward and Choice of Damnations.
Now, while the need for and development of skill are both excellent things, we don't want to leave any opening for our opponent to out-play us if we can avoid it. After all, Magic isn't about having fun at all - especially not casual games, and doubly so for games involving silver-bordered cards. So why not take away all of the chance that our opponent might actually out-play us, using a silver-bordered gem?
Yes, it's Frankie Peanuts. With him on the board, Pain's Reward effectively reads: Either your opponent loses the game, or you draw four cards. And Choice of Damnations reads: either your opponent loses the game, or sacrifices all of his/her permanents. In addition, My First Tome reads: 1,Tap: Draw a card (provided you have two differently-named cards with flavor text in your hand - which is not hard when roughly half of your deck has flavor text).
So what's the secret, you ask? Easy. During your upkeep, if you want to draw a card with My First Tome, ask: "If you are required to guess a card's name, will you guess <cardname>?" If they answer yes, when you activate My First Tome, read another card. If they answer no, read that card.
But we're not just interested in drawing cards, we want to use Frankie Peanuts to help win the game.... so instead, you ask this very special question.
(I'm not going to tell you the Very Special Question, just in case you'd like to figure it out yourself. It's at the end of the article.)
Then, during your turn, either play Pain's Reward to either kill your opponent or draw four cards, or play Choice of Damnations to either kill your opponent or wipe his board clean.
The rest of the deck is mana-fixers and accelerants, as well as Tutors in case you need to find either Frankie or one of the kills. Choice of Damnations works best here, since even with a clear board across from you and a 2/3 on your side, winning should be inevitable. By the time your opponent can recover, you should have found another kill spell.
The deck is extremely simple to play, as your typical game will consist of the first few turns being spent on mana development (and possibly tutoring), while working to get six mana and Frankie Peanuts on the board. Running Vine Trellis and Sakura-Tribe Elder give some early blockers in case they are needed in the first few turns, while eight tutors and four My First Tomes help to guarantee you can find the combo pieces.
The ideal game looks something like this:
Turn 1: Forest, Birds of Paradise
Turn 2: Land, Vine Trellis/Sakura-Tribe Elder/Birds of Paradise (plus Vampiric Tutor for a combo piece if you're missing one)
Turn 3: Land (a Plains or Tendo Ice Bridge if you haven't got two white sources yet), Frankie Peanuts (Vampiric Tutor can go here as well)
Turn 4: Ask this very special question during your upkeep, Land, Choice of Damnations for either a kill or reset on your opponent's side, or Pain's Reward for the kill if the "correct" answer (for you) was given.
This deck does have issues with disruption - but if you're playing with silver-bordered cards, I find that disruption capable of stopping this deck is somewhat limited, as players are more interested in getting interesting and amusing card interactions/play situations. Fast weenie decks can also pose a difficulty - but if you can hold out until turn 5, you can usually play Choice of Damnations to win or clear the opponent's board.
For black-bordered only games, the combo can still work, but it's much more fragile, and takes more mana/set-up. If you pull out My First Tome and Frankie Peanuts, replacing them with four Mindslavers and Vedalken Orrery, the combo becomes an auto-kill if you pull it off. Just make your opponent lose all his life by activating Mindslaver with Vedalken Orrery in play, then play either Choice of Damnations or Pain's Reward during his/her controlled turn. I haven't played with this version beyond goldfishing a few games, though (to see how long the combo takes), so it probably needs even more work.
There is an upshot to this more serious build, however; since it no longer requires white for Frankie Peanuts, it allows for smoother mana - and therefore fewer mana-fixing cards (although acceleration becomes more important).
In all, it's a fun deck to play, and the combo will quite often surprise your opponent. And sometimes when it does work, you get to say, "I killed my opponent with Pain's Reward." How often can people claim to have killed someone with an auction-style card?
-Matthew Scholte
The Very Special Question:
The question, for those who want to know, is this:
"Whenever I say a number, the next time you are required to choose a number or make a bid, will you choose or bid a higher number than the one I said?"
If the answer is no, you can say "zero" for both Choice of Damnations (to sweep your opponent's board) and Pain's Reward (for a four-card draw for only the three mana paid for the spell).
If the answer is yes, when you play Choice of Damnations, just say their life total before it resolves (if they gain life, you will need to say a different number the next time you get priority; in this way, you can even win against Life decks).
If you play Pain's Reward, just make your first bid during the resolution their life total.
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