Nin, the Pain Artist

Holy crap, a new decklist! I haven’t posted one of these in a while, but to be fair this deck was a bitch to get into working order. It’s still a long way from “perfect” if such a state can even be said to exist in this format, but I have finally managed to win exactly ONE game with it. It was a hard-fought battle, uphill all the way, and required some of the tightest play I could pull off to get that one win. In short, I had to play like I was in the Top 8 of a high-level tournament with fat stacks of cash on the line. I had to focus and play the best Magic I’m capable of, but in the end I got there.

The only problem is, I play EDH to avoid having to play tight, optimal games. I play to relax and have fun, so eking out such a grueling, hard-fought win is satisfying but not the experience I was hoping to craft.

That said, I knew the deck was far from perfect, and was going to be one of my weaker decks, and I was specifically playing it to “stress test” it to really find out what it was made of, so to speak. And I got a really good sense of that. I played another game with it that I came fairly close to winning but couldn’t quite get there. With just those two games, I got enough data to make a few more changes to the deck and now I think it is finally ready to be shared with the world.

Again, it’s still not “complete” but it’s definitely playable at this point. I expect it to undergo quite a few more changes over the next few months, and depending on what happens in Dragon’s Maze it may wind up being drastically altered… but that’s mere speculation at this point. The gist is, there are obviously some existing kinks that still need to be addresses, but at least it’s not a steaming pile of garbage.

Few decks have puzzled and plagued me the way this one did. I’ve actually had it sleeved up since shortly after AVR came out, but it was just basically an unplayable piece of crap until the Return to Ravnica brought new Izzet cards. In the end, I didn’t actually include that many RtR cards, but regardless, the set did inspire a shift in direction and helped guide me to the point it’s at today. In the end I had to make some really tough choices and abandon a bunch of really cool ideas, but there was no way to make the deck do everything I wanted it to do. I needed to narrow down the focus to make it good at executing a plan, rather than being capable of half-assing a variety of different plans.

Anyway, without further ado, here’s the current list:

General: Nin, the Pain Artist

Creatures

Snapcaster Mage
Gilded Drake
Jace's Archivist
Lunar Mystic
Archaeomancer
Talrand, Sky Summoner
Aeon Chronicler

Guttersnipe
Charmbreaker Devils

Nivix Guildmage
Izzet Chronarch
Mercurial Chemister
Dominus of Fealty
Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind

Solemn Simulacrum
Stuffy Doll
Psychosis Crawler

Spells

Rapid Hybridization
Pongify
Cyclonic Rift
Frantic Search
Repulse
Oona's Grace
Undo
AEtherize
Mystic Retrieval
Deep Analysis
Leyline of Anticipation
Jace, the Mind Sculptor
Reins of Power
Evacuation
Spelltwine
Time Spiral

Mizzium Mortars
Recoup
Increasing Vengeance
Chaos Warp
Wheel of Fortune
Repercussion
Past in Flames
Chandra, the Firebrand
Wild Ricochet
Mass Mutiny
Vicious Shadows
Insurrection
Blasphemous Act
Devil's Play

Cerebral Vortex
Prophetic Bolt
Epic Experiment

Sol Ring
Izzet Signet
Izzet Keyrune
Basilisk Collar
Lightning Greaves
Runechanter's Pike
Illusionist's Bracers
Magebane Armor
Staff of Nin
Sphinx-Bone Wand

Lands

Steam Vents
Sulfur Falls
Shivan Reef
Izzet Guildgate
Izzet Boilerworks
City of Brass
Thawing Glaciers
Terramorphic Expanse
Riptide Laboratory
Desolate Lighthouse
Homeward Path
Reliquary Tower
13x Island
13x Mountain 

So, as you can see, it’s a bit ugly. I am still struggling to make Nin more important and useful, and to make winning a bit easier without the game turning into a gruelingly long and grindy ordeal. Stuff like Insurrection should help with that, but Insurrection is notoriously unreliable in my group due to the high popularity of sac outlets in my group. Stuffy Doll is cute and can kill of one player but is unlikely to outright win games. I think the best win con at the moment is Blasphemous Act + Repercussion, but that has to be timed just right – when you have few or no creatures, and you opponents have several. And, again, they have to not have sac outlets.

No clue yet if Epic Experiment is going to be any good, or a total dud. I haven’t even drawn it yet.

There are a few notable cards that I really think need to be in here, but haven’t yet acquired:

Chamber of Manipulation
Consecrated Sphinx
Plagiarize
Venser’s Journal

Chamber of Manipulation seems incredibly useful here. Constipated Sphinx is an over-played “good stuff” card, but you have to admit, the synergy with Nin is irresistible. Plagiarize is a cute trick and nothing more, but I have to try it out. Venser’s Journal actually seems pretty good here, or at least has potential. The deck definitely needs more Reliquary Tower effects, and the lifegain from the Journal should also be very relevant as this is an incredibly slow deck.