In this experiment, we petition and petition, through the clouds, sun, and moon.

In that case, Dark Petition would start to look a lot more like a Demonic Tutor, but it would allow decks in older formats to take advantage of it. Imagine casting a Preordain on turn one and a Manamorphose into Dark Petition on turn two. The way it’s printed, though, you’ll still need that up-front 5 mana.

However, this wording let us take advantage of it in a different, less competitive way. Consider Arcane Melee. Now our Dark Petition costs and gives us back (assuming we are spell masters). If we find another Dark Petition, we can cast it and repeat—until we run out of Dark Petitions from our deck. And we really won’t have gained much of anything.

I suppose we could trigger prowess four times at no loss of mana. I’m sure Soulblade Djinn would appreciate it.

But let’s add in another cost-reduction effect, such as Helm of Awakening or Cloud Key (choosing sorcery). Now Dark Petition costs and yields and a card. And when we search up more copies of Dark Petition, each casting will leave us with additional . Of course, we’re still going to run out of Dark Petitions . . .

. . . until we add in Wheel of Sun and Moon. Now we really just need two Dark Petitions: Cast one for, find the other Dark Petition and make , and then put the Petition we just cast on the bottom of our library. Repeat.

What Sorcery Is This?

The interesting thing about playing a bunch of cards that reduce the costs of our spells (Helm of Awakening for everything, Cloud Key for our sorceries, and Arcane Melee for all instants and sorceries) is that we are now incentivized to play a bunch of cost-reduced spells.

In addition, as a combo deck that needs to assemble a few things (3 mana’s worth of cost reduction, Wheel of Sun and Moon, and Dark Petition), we’d love to draw some cards. Since we’re already playing blue for Arcane Melee, and since blue is the color of card-draw sorceries, let’s play some.

Deep Analysis — For one card and , we can draw four cards with 3 cost reduction. We have to pay 3 life as well, but Deep Analysis has always been a good deal—now it’s even better. Paying (with 2 cost reduction) and 3 life for four cards isn’t bad either.

Plea for Power — This is a kind of Concentrate that costs instead of , making it basically better for our deck. And, occasionally, we may be able to take an extra turn with it instead. That requires both choosing to take an extra turn and convincing our opponent it’s in his or her best interest that we do so. In multiplayer, things can become a bit more interesting, but I like interesting.

Foresee — This is for only two cards, but we can look at up to six: by scrying away four and then drawing the next two. Ideally, it won’t come to that, but man is that a lot of cards.

Thoughtcast — I decided to go with one of these, and maybe there should be more, but I’m not sure two cards is enough given the potential available to us. Cost reduction is doubled for this one (except with Arcane Melee), which is the reason I have one in here, but it may not be worth it. (On the other hand, maybe it’s the best and there should be more!)

Urban Evolution — We have to play either green or white for Wheel of Sun and Moon, and green seems to be a better option for card-draw and acceleration. White isn’t particularly good at either of those things. Urban Evolution can cost as little as , and it draws us three cards while also letting us play an extra land so we can cast another draw spell.

Day's Undoing — This new Timetwister ends our turn immediately, which is a pretty big downside, and it may not be worth it. However, we may sometimes need to put something from our graveyard back into our library (a spent copy of the following card or a needed Dark Petition). Also, it refuels us if we happen to run out of gas or if we need to drastically up the odds of finding a combo piece at a crucial time.

Stroke of Genius — This is card-draw and a spell and our win condition. That’s a pretty good package. Braingeyser might be a better choice since it’s a sorcery and will synergize with our usual selection on Cloud Key. So play the one you have or think is better—or split them in case of the occasional Meddling Mage or Alhammarret, High Arbiter. Stroke of Genius’s single colored mana in its cost is the upside versus Braingeyser’s sorcery type line, but both have Xs in their costs and can target an opponent for the win when we have infinite black mana off a Dark Petition loop.

Awkward Mana

I bounced around between a lot of options of color for this list. Obviously, we need to be able to cast Dark Petition and Wheel of Sun and Moon. Both are mana-intensive, though the Wheel gives us an option between green and white.

Arcane Melee is a good cost-reducer, though, as is Goblin Electromancer. But do we really want to play red as well? What if we skipped blue and made this a Jund deck, using Thunderscape Familiar to reduce the cost of our Dark Petitions and Harmonizes? As you can see, there are certainly some options available.

However, for the three colors we do have, here some lands I want to call out.

Sunken Ruins — This one generates plenty of blue for all our card-draw sorceries, but when we want to get started with a Dark Petition, just one of these Ruins can generate both the we need.

Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth — Speaking of individual lands that give us all the we need, Urborg can certainly do the trick. (Of course, we’ll still need multiple lands in either case—this is no Phyrexian Tower.)

Tolaria West — Here’s some blue mana-fixing that lets us find the Sunken Ruins or Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth we need—or, you know, a Hinterland Harbor when we just another need .

Dark Sorcery ? Casual | Andrew Wilson

• Spells (37)
• 2 Stroke of Genius
• 1 Thoughtcast
• 2 Day's Undoing
• 4 Dark Petition
• 4 Deep Analysis
• 4 Foresee
• 4 Plea for Power
• 4 Urban Evolution
• 2 Arcane Melee
• 2 Wheel of Sun and Moon
• 4 Cloud Key
• 4 Helm of Awakening

• Lands (23)
• 1 Forest
• 3 Island
• 2 Tolaria West
• 4 Breeding Pool
• 4 Hinterland Harbor
• 4 Sunken Ruins
• 4 Temple of Mystery
• 1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

Buy This Deck

Let’s do another ideal game run-through:

Turn one: Hinterland Harbor

Turn two: Sunken Ruins; Helm of Awakening

Turn three: Island; Cloud Key for sorceries; Thoughtcast

Turn four: Hinterland Harbor; Arcane Melee; Plea for Power

Turn five: Island; Wheel of Sun and Moon; Dark Petition loop for infinite ; Stroke of Genius for infinite

Turn five isn’t super-early—we could easily be dead by then. And this is an ideal scenario. I don’t know how frequently with the deck will be able to perform at that speed, but we do have a lot of card-draw. I think playing a turn-two accelerant is important, but unfortunately, Helm of Awakening is all we have in this version. Realigning the colors might help, as it could potentially give us access to Thunderscape Familiar and Jet Medallion as additional turn-two accelerants.

Also consider something like Drain Life as a win condition in a version like that to make use of all that .

So if you want to loop tutors, if you want to use your Arcane Melees, or if you just have Cloud Keys sitting around from Time Spiral days, give this deck a try.

Andrew Wilson

@Silent7Seven

fissionessence at hotmail dot com