{"ops":[{"insert":"Hello! Welcome to my omega convoluted Serpent Society deck. There is A LOT going on here but hopefully you will have a good idea of how to play this deck after reading this primer!\n\n"},{"insert":{"card-link":"The Serpent Society"}},{"insert":" \n"},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"To start, what is this deck's goal? "},{"insert":"\nMy goal with this deck was to fit as many sub-themes in here but still make a deck that flows smoothly. It is built as a control/toolbox deck that generally has options into most matchups you can play. I'm not sure where it has landed in Bracket 2/3 yet. There are 7 different sub-themes starting with...\n\n"},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"Deathtouch"},{"attributes":{"list":"ordered"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"This deck is built with The Serpent Society as the commander. It does quite a few things in the command zone that we REALLY like. It's a variation of grave pact. If we fill our deck with a lot of creatures with deathtouch, then we get access to this really powerful effect that punishes the opponent for killing our creatures. This could be through kill spells, one-sided board wipes, blocking, or even attacking into us. If they attack into us and we block with a small deathtoucher, then they lose 2 creatures in the exchange. It gives some pseudo protection to our creatures, and will noticeably save our life total more. We also have really good deathtouch synergies with "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Hooded Blightfang"}},{"insert":" , "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Bow of Nylea"}},{"insert":" , and "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Ohran Frostfang"}},{"insert":" which rewards us for attacking proactivley. The last main deathtouch synergy is "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Fynn, the Fangbearer"}},{"insert":" which leads us to our next subtheme. \n\n"},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"\t\t2. Poison/Infect"},{"insert":"\nBecause of all the deathtouchers we naturally want in the deck, Fynn is a fantastic inclusion to help give poison counters to the opponent. If we have both Fynn and Serpent Society in play then it forces the opponent in a really awkard spot. If they block, they lose 1-2 creatures on the board. If they don't block then they take damage AND poison counters. Against decks that don't build a wide board, this combination can be really devastating turn after turn. \n\nSerpent Society also gives poison counters as a ward cost, so if we don't include any ways to give poison counters, each player gets to remove the serpent society once each game freely. Leaning into this gives a win condition to build around, but in the context of this deck you only need to get the opponent to 5 poison counters. This is because we play "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Emrakul, the Promised End"}},{"insert":" as our true win condition. Being able to take over a player's turn is already very strong, but it becomes even better if we have a kill button on the board. If we take over someone's turn and have them target The Serpent Society twice, they die from Poison. Putting someone to 5 poison counters should almost always be guaranteed death, but you also get to use their resources against the other players before killing them. \n\nSo with the natural inclusion of Infect creatures like "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon"}},{"insert":" and "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Phyrexian Hydra"}},{"insert":", this leads into subtheme #3. \n\n"},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"\t\t3. -1/-1 Counters"},{"insert":"\nBecause infect deals -1/-1 counters to creatures, we can take advantage of this with other synergies. Because of the Auntie Ool precon, -1/-1 counters got a lot of really cool cards recently that makes this theme worth playing. My favorite is "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Dread Tiller"}},{"insert":" giving us extra ramp to accelerate into Emrakul faster. You also get access to a really cool recursion piece in "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Dawnhand Dissident"}},{"insert":" which gives top deck manipulation, ways to apply counters, and reanimate options to bring back deathtouchers/poison creatures. There are also a few cards that get Finality counters which can be removed from Dissident. The big synergy piece that makes this theme run well is "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons"}},{"insert":". Every time we apply a -1/-1 counter, we make a deathtoucher. This is really good for our previous themes. \n\n\nThese are our main themes that we are trying to build the deck around, but we also have four more themes in here that help gel the deck together starting with\n\n"},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"\t\t4 . Reanimation/Recursion"},{"insert":"\nThis section will be split between Reanimation and Recursion. I see the difference as reanimation being a way to cheat creatures into play, while recursion gives you options to add or cast cards from graveyard. They are similar but can perform VERY differently.\n\nLets start with Reanimation. Reanimating in this deck isn't like pure reanimate decks. It is primarily used here to maintain engines/key pieces. For example, "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Persist"}},{"insert":" is a cheap reanimate the has a -1/-1 counter on the thing it revives. This will end up synergizing with the -1/-1 counter cards from earlier. There are also reanimate cards that sacrifice a creature like "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Cauldron of Essence"}},{"insert":" which can bring back the creature it sacrificed. It can function as a blink spell that triggers Serpent Society. The last one I want to talk about is "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Wake the Dead"}},{"insert":" which is a massive bomb in this deck. It can be a defensive piece to bring back a board of blockers, but if those blockers are also deathtouchers... you can wipe the board for everyone. Not to mention the creatures die at end of turn anyway, so you can use this at instant speed board wipe, and trigger death and enter effects. It's a very fun card to use in here.\n\nThe next portion is Recursion. For this deck I value recursion a lot to be able to get unique tools back into our hand for varying situations. To start I really love "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Shigeki, Jukai Visionary"}},{"insert":" since it can add back anything at instant speed for 4, or if you have the spare mana you can add more. Shigeki is somewhat a bridge in this deck since a lot of instant speed regrowth effects can only add creatures or permanents. "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Eternal Witness"}},{"insert":" is always amazing, especially since we have quite bit of reanimation. We can turn any reanimate to a "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Regrowth"}},{"insert":". If we look at Wake the Dead again, we can use it essentially as an instant speed Eternal Witness at any point. A fun card that functions sometimes way better than Shigeki is "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Reap"}},{"insert":". At instant speed and for only 2 mana you can very often grab multiple things from your graveyard at once if there is one other black player in the pod. It can become a a huge toolbox once the engine is running, or if you run out of gas you can add everything back. There is a lot of cool decision making you get from playing a lot of these recursion pieces without the pain points of tutors. \n\nNow with all this graveyard synergy we obviously have to play cards that...\n\n"},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"\t\t5. Self-Mill"},{"insert":"\nThis section is pretty self explanatory. We need cards in graveyard to revive or add back to hand. From our previous sub themes, there are quite a few cards that overlap really well like "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Mire Triton"}},{"insert":", "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Deathcap Marionette"}},{"insert":", "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Barrowgoyf"}},{"insert":", "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Kagha, Shadow Archdruid"}},{"insert":", and "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Vile Entomber"}},{"insert":". All of these are deathtouchers that mill supporting the gameplan very naturally. There are some burst mills like "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Corpse Churn"}},{"insert":" and "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Grapple with the Past"}},{"insert":" that instant speed mills, and also adds any creature back to hand. You can re-add shigeki to then use to grab something else (obviously a ton of mana but it's an option). Outside of those we also want varying card types for Emrakul since it gets cheaper the more card types in the graveyard. Currently there are 8 we can have, and we play them all. So in the best case it'll be 5 mana, but most of the time it'll be 7-8.\n\n\t\t6 . Sacrifice\nThe next theme is less needed, but there are some sacrifice cards in here. This deck doesn't produce a ton of bodies at once, so a lot of the sacrifice effects in here are replacing the creature you sacrificed. A very funny one is "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Infernal Offering"}},{"insert":" which is a sacrifice to reanimate + draw 2, but someone else also does it. This isn't the end of the world though since it can give opponents more targeting effects for Emrakul to use on Serpent Society. You also make them sacrifice a creature from the commander making the reanimate not a +1 to board. The only repeatable and instant speed sac outlet in here is "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Flesh-Eater Imp"}},{"insert":" since it can be a huge burst of poison counters to one player. It can either knock them out or setup for an Emrakul knockout. The sacrifice effects on all these cards are secondary to their main effects, but you can still take full advantage of it.\n\n\t\t7 . Lifegain\nOur last sub-theme is lifegain. Lifegain is very interesting in this deck because of what was stated at the top. Players are incentivized to not attack you, so in the meantime you can gain life and could eventually turn the corner on players not being able to kill you anymore. A lot of the lifegain in this deck is built for 3 key pieces to work well. "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Witch of the Moors"}},{"insert":" gives addtional edicts, and recursion. So you can eventually turn Witch of the Moors into a mini engine with Shigeki to add back any other card to hand afterwards. "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Moseo, Vein's New Dean"}},{"insert":" is another one that can pretty consistently revive a 1-2 drop but sometimes bigger if you see any of the big healers like Barrowgoyf, Scout the City, or Bow of Nylea. Lastly if we have all this life and don't get pressured out, we can use "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Beledros Witherbloom"}},{"insert":" to use that life to massively ramp. \n\n\n"},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"How this deck end ups playing"},{"insert":"\nThis deck plays as a grindy control deck that can toolbox into a variety of different answers and eventually bursts people out of nowhere through Poison and Emrakul. It is slow and takes a while to get off the ground, but the protection from Serpent Society and the Deathtouchers make it easier to coast through the mid game. \n\nThere also may be some shortcomings since there is A LOT going on in the deck. You may end up not finding all the right pieces, but that can make games feel very different since there isn't an optimized definitive early game this deck is trying to do. You mostly build whatever engine is given to you and Segway that to a win down the line. The general goal though is to setup deathtouchers early, mill/draw, and build out your engines from there. You may be given an aggressive poison start though and could try to push someone to a lethal threshold very early on. Whatever you are given you will have to adapt on the fly which is what makes this deck SO FUN. \n\nThank you for reading and I hope you have as much fun as I've had playing this deck :D. \n"}]}