Lich World Domination Tour 2007

Written by CMA-Flippi on April 01, 2007

by CMA-Flippi

Similar to 2006, I write about one specific card that I see as enthusiastically as Zur's Weirding.
Also, this article is not the original version. The original was written by me in German and can be found here.
I will not describe very strong decks; instead, I will give insight into the unnatural parts of the everyday life on tournaments. I am someone who does not participate in tournaments to necessarily win them. Instead, I want to see how my latest ideas work. A tournament is also successful when the own ideas prove to work.

My article deals with the Nefarious Lich.

It is commonly said that Jonnies are combo players. Actually, they just try to combine particular cards with already existing decks (Kiki-Jiki in Tooth and nail, Bidding in Goblin decks or Wildfire in Angel Control decks), or find peripheral cards that have synergy with the card. The latter variant often manifests in combo decks (Heartbeat, TPS) and less often in control- or aggro decks (Astral Slide).
The difference between a Jonny and a Spike is clear. The Jonnies build their decks, while the Spikes just configure existing decks. In this article, I try to make use of the pictured card in some kinds of decks possible with it, I write about my predecessors and I will introduce my own experiences with the deck and its development.

Lich in Control Decks

Let me start with the deck Mark Gottlieb describes in his article about the tribal format and where he shows the possibility to use the card in a control deck.

Wizards LICH Tribal
Main Deck		Sideboard
4 Swamp 4 Ancient Spring 1 Darkwater Catacombs 4 Salt Marsh 2 Seat of the Synod 4 Sulfur Vent 3 Underground River 2 Vault of Whispers 1 Avarice Totem 2 Chain of Vapor 1 Counterspell 1 Delusions of Mediocrity 4 Diabolic Tutor	2 Echoing Truth 1 Nefarious Lich 4 Stupefying Touch 2 Aphetto Exterminator 1 Archivist 1 Cabal Patriarch 1 Puppeteer 1 Riptide Director 4 Thought Courier 4 Trinket Mage 3 Urborg Emissary 3 Vedalken Mastermind

The deck tries to take control of the game with its wizards and then triggers a negative effect at the opponent's side with one of the enchantments and Avarice Totem (works like Donate). It gains control by annulling any of the opponent's threats. The best way to do this is to continuously bounce your own Urborg Emissaries with the Vedalken Masterminds. When you're safe, you exchange control of your Avarice Totem and your enchantment in play. In response, you activate the Totem again, this time to gain control of one of your opponent's permanents. Once the Stack is empty, your enchantment is now controlled by your opponent and you can win with any of the bounce cards.
In short, the deck works like the trix-deck (Illusions - Donate) from Leg

acy or Vintage.

Lich in Combo Decks

The combo players found another way.
Markus Bell (German Nationals 02), Klaus Huebert (GP Milwaukee 02) and Florian "Zilla" Liederbach (in a German article) are just a few examples of the infinite options to combo with the Nefarious Lich.

Bell and Huebert sacrifice their lands to Overgrown Estate. However, the Lich will turn each land into a living Ancestral Recall! They draw three cards per land sacrificed. There will be a Sickening Dreams in the drawn cards that can finish their opponents off. But why doesn't that Sickening Dreams make the game drawn?
Nefarious Lich replaces the damage its controller would be dealt. Instead being dealt damage by Sickening Dreams, they can remove the cards they had previously discarded as additional cost. That way, the player survives and the game does not end in a draw.

Markus Bell Feature Match at Nationals '02
Main Deck		Sideboard
4 Tainted Wood 9 Swamp 1 Plains 1 Llanowar Wastes 2 Tainted Field 3 Forest 3 Sungrass Prairie 4 Duress 4 Rampant Growth 4 Chainer's Edict	2 Innocent Blood 4 Overgrown Estate 4 Tainted Pact 3 Sickening Dreams 2 Far Wanderings 3 Sterling Grove 4 Nefarious Lich 1 Pernicious Deed 2 Persecute

Klaus Huebert GP Milwaukee Top8
Main Deck		Sideboard
1 Forest 1 Plains 4 Sungrass Prairie 16 Swamp 3 Chromatic Sphere 3 Duress 4 Ensnaring Bridge 1 Far Wanderings	4 Insidious Dreams 3 Nefarious Lich 3 Overgrown Estate 3 Persecute 4 Rampant Growth 3 Sickening Dreams 3 Skeletal Scrying 4 Sungrass Egg	4 Tsabo's Assassin 1 Haunting Echoes 4 Heroes' Reunion 1 Millstone 4 Orim's Chant 1 Reclaim

Both decks are similarly built. Duress and Persecute avoid an interruption, or even worse: destruction of the combo parts. Both decks have some way to tutor, Bell's more colored version can in fact support Sterling Grove. Klaus Huebert uses the combo of Insidious Dreams and Skeletal Scrying. Rampant Growth not only fixes their mana, it also provides three more cards during the combo (lands sacrificed)

"Due to the lack of Donates, the Lich is treated with more respect than a cheap, homeless crack-whore."

Lich 0.1 pre Alpha
Main Deck		Sideboard
4 Gemstone Mine 4 City of Brass 4 Grand Coliseum 8 Swamp 3 Confessor 3 Phyrexian Walker 3 Ornithopter 3 Shield Sphere 3 Skirge Familiar 2 Library of Leng 3 Spellbook	3 Legacy Weapon 3 Diabolic Intent 3 Dark Ritual 3 Culling the Weak 4 Memory Lapse 4 Counterspell 3 Drain Life 3 Sickening Dreams 3 Peace of Mind 3 Nefarious Lich

Here we have another version of a Lich Combo Deck.
With Skirge Familiar, Confessor, and Nefarious Lich in play, you can start with any card and draw your deck.
You discard a card for one black mana and one life - well, no: a new card. You repeat this process about a thousand times (with Legacy Weapons recurring). Eventually, an infinite Drain Life is the win condition. Unfortunately, it only works in theory, but not in practice.
Let me quote Liederbach at this point:
"I have this pile of random cards. Let me grab some cards out of it, add random basic lands and i have the lich-killer ready - what a pity."

Tournament Reports

Like I announced at the beginning, the article also includes some tournament reports. Knowingly, I just take into consideration the interesting, funny or other scenes worth mentioning.
It started at the German Legacy Championships in Aschaffenburg (place of the 06' Nationals)

First, there was an idea: Nefarious Lich + Nourishing Shoal + Autochthon Wurm.
The idea developed in my team N! (Jens Jäger, Florian Liederbach, Christan Jäger, Illjitsch Moradi and myself), and we emphasized the deck on a fast kill with Lich. The Deck is untested at that point, which means that any thinking on it was done on paper and in our heads.

Lich
Main Deck		Sideboard
2 Bayou 4 Scrubland 1 Underground Sea 1 Savannah 4 Bloodstained Mire 4 Windswept Heath 2 Phyrexian Tower 4 Autochthon Wurm 4 Academy Rector 4 Nefarious Lich 4 Nourishing Shoal	4 Duress 1 Overgrown Estate 4 Dark Ritual 2 Zuran Orb 2 Gerrard's Verdict 4 Lotus Petal 2 Sickening Dreams 1 Tendrils of Agony 4 Cabal Therapy 1 Form of the Dragon 1 Moat	3 Forest 1 Order of the Ebon Hand 1 Bottle Gnomes 3 City of Solitude 1 Zur's Weirding 4 Engineered Plague 1 Decree of Silence 1 Cabal Therapy

(The Forests represent cards I don't remember anymore.)

Let me explain the random sideboard choices: Bottle Gnomes is the pet card of Jens Jäger, who borrowed me a third (the land third) of all cards for the deck. I just like the evil picture of the Order of the Ebon Hand and the Zur's Weirding can't be missing on any of my deck concepts ideological.

I combine Nourishing Shoal and Autochthon Wurm in order to draw fifteen cards and end the game with a big Sickening Dreams.

I think it was already during round one when I had a turn two killing hand on the play. Unfortunately, my opponent reacts on my Swamp with Plains, Chrome Mox and Kami of the Ancient Law, which makes my hand (Swamp, Dark Ritual, Nourishing Shoal, Autochthon Wurm, Nefarious Lich) pretty much useless. I see the only opportunity for a win in team=blocking the Spirit with two Academy Rectors, but because some more creatures come into play at this side, I can't use it. After a disappointing confrontation with Goblins and Blood Moon, I am paired against an unusual BW Aggro deck. Interesting here is the interaction of the Nefarious Lich. He never deals damage to me, since the Nefarious Lich replaces the damage. The damage never happens, so Mourning Thrull, Exalted Angel and Umezawa's Jitte never trigger. A Vindicate on Moat however end the match.

The most entertaining situation of the event for me, the spectators and probably the involved Judge too occurred in round five, in a match against Lukas Preuss (played Thresh). Having emptied his hand with Gerrad's Verdict and Duress, there were multiple Nimble Mungoses and Basking Rootwallas in play. After several attacks, I was at six life and there were ten damage on the stack.

He wonders: How can BW discard (Verdict and Duress) survive that ?

I have a solution, for flavor reasons a little bit delayed (damage on the stack ? ... thinking..):
Nourishing Shoal + Autochthon Wurm for fifteen life.
First, he is just perplex and stunned.
What would you do in that situation? Correct, first read the two unknown cards.
Realizing that I would survive his attack with that trick, he calls a judge. He took into consideration that I could've cheated that trick into my deck and hand.

Let me try to quote the judge call (keeping the sense):
Lukas P: "Judge, Judge, so my opponent, I assume he plays BW Suicide, well..and ..suddenly, out of nowhere, he plays that Shoal, the green one from Kamigawa...*stuttering*..and then, suddenly, there appeared that WURM!!! and I ask myself, well,..*stuttering*, I don't want to appear unsporting or something like that..but..*stuttering*.."
Me: "He doesn't believe me, that I play this incredibly good tech."
Judge (knows my deck from IRC): "Yes, Shoal and Wurm are part of his deck"

Even so the judge call was solved, he is still confused and incredulous, but since my life-gain tech kept only two turns, he still wins that game (in game two, I resolved the combo, but he won the final game). In the following round, I played against Sven Müller, who immediately wanted me to IDraw (he was a spectator during my previous round). I refuse because I want to play and finish the tournament with a (for Lich's first tournament) respectable 3-5.

Of Chinese Liches and Creature Removal

The second tournament with the now improved Lichdeck followed in Iserlohn in August 2006.
The advantages of an unknown deck became apparent there.

Lich 2.0
Main Deck		Sideboard
4 Bloodstained Mire 4 Windswept Heath 1 Swamp 1 Plains 4 Scrubland 1 Bayou 1 Phyrexian Tower 1 Starlit Sanctum 2 Flooded Strand 3 Academy Rector 4 Autochthon Wurm 4 Nefarious Lich 1 Tendrils of Agony	1 Overgrown Estate 1 City of Solitude 1 Gerrard's Verdict 4 Nourishing Shoal 2 Sickening Dreams 2 Night's Whisper 3 Duress 4 Dark Ritual 2 Zuran Orb 3 Lotus Petal 2 Mox Diamond 4 Cabal Therapy	1 Bottle Gnomes 1 Order of the Ebon Hand 1 Moat 1 Gaea's Blessing 1 Serenity 3 City of Solitude 1 Duress 1 Form of the Dragon 4 Engineered Plague 1 Zur's Weirding

I hope it was not the version of the card I used (traditional chinese) that kept my Rifter opponent from sideboarding his Disenchants and Abeyances in. He can slow me down a bit with Chalice of the Void (x=1)(Duress, Teraphy and Dark Ritual), but his idea does not affect the combo itself, so I can easily win that matchup.
Some rounds later, I am paired against Solidarity. He has two Islands in play, when I resolve the Nefarious Lich with Dark Ritual. In response to the Shoal, he High Tides into Reset, followed by a Cunning Wish on Chain of Vapor. Valuing this loss in proportion to all games played with Lich, the probability to face Liches leave play trigger is still very harmless (1:30).

Lich in Vintage

Even while the deck is unpowered, the tutors in Vintage promise more consistency for the deck

Team N!'s Vintage LICH
Main Deck		Sideboard
4 Bayou 5 Swamp 3 Bloodstained Mire 3 Windswept Heath 1 Polluted Delta 2 Peat Bog 4 Autochthon Wurm 4 Nefarious Lich 4 Nourishing Shoal 4 Soul Spike 2 Zuran Orb 4 Dark Ritual	3 Cabal Ritual 4 Duress 1 Demonic Tutor 1 Vampiric Tutor 3 Night's Whisper 1 Skeletal Scrying 1 Yawgmoth's Will 1 Lotus Petal 1 Chrome Mox 1 Mox Diamond 2 Tendrils of Agony 1 Sickening Dreams	3 Xantid Swarm 2 Cremate 4 Lose Hope 2 Engineered Plague 4 Tel-Jilad Justice

All in all, the deck works more consistent, but the increased power level also counts for my opponents. A possible FRK (First Round Kill) got thwarted by Trinisphere after Mishra's Workshop. My other lost games were lost against Sphere of Resistances or Smokestack. On the other hand, that tournament in Bambers was also lucky in some aspects. Since my WW opponent played his only Plains instead keeping it in his hand (he had Abolish), I was able to win turn one and turn two.

The first trial to use Lich in extended failed abysmally in late summer of 2006

Flippi Lich
Main Deck		Sideboard
4 Polluted Delta 4 Bloodstained Mire 4 Overgrown Tomb 2 Llanowar Wastes 5 Swamp 4 Autochthon Wurm 4 Dark Confidant 4 Nefarious Lich 4 Nourishing Shoal	4 Soul Spike 2 Sickening Dreams 1 Tendrils of Agony 4 Duress 4 Night's Whisper 1 Skeletal Scrying 4 Chrome Mox 3 Cabal Ritual 2 Cabal Therapy	3 Xantid Swarm 4 Tel-Jilad Justice 3 Infest 1 Gaea's Blessing 4 Engineered Plague

I lose one round versus Autochthon Wurm (Tooth and Nail) until I get the embarrassing matchup in round five: Cats tribal.
Even so I can make optimal use of Engineered Plagues (naming cats) I lose the match against equipped (two Leonin Scimitars) Leonin-Den Guards.

The tournament showed that the deck definitely needed tutors, but Dark Confidant is way too risky (Wurm and Soul Spike).
I continued testing it online, won several minis on here and came to the conclusion that I'd take the following version to an Extended PTQ:

Team N!'s Lich Combo
Main Deck		Sideboard
3 Polluted Delta 3 Bloodstained Mire 3 Swamp 3 Overgrown Tomb 2 Godless Shrine 3 Snow-Covered Swamp 1 Shizo, Death's Storehouse 1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth 4 Autochthon Wurm 3 Sickening Dreams 4 Chrome Mox	2 Skeletal Scrying 4 Night's Whisper 4 Nourishing Shoal 4 Nefarious Lich 4 Tainted Pact 3 Desperate Research 1 Soul Spike 2 Moment's Peace 4 Lotus Bloom 2 Smother	4 Duress 3 Pithing Needle 4 Orim's Chant 4 Krosan Grip

After an impressive 3-1 start (no no-shows), my opponent has an early Tendril's of Agony for thirty on me. I have the complete combo in my hand but just don't realize that it would make me survive his combo (Shoal puts me on 35 life). TEPS may be still a turn faster than Lich, so I am at 3-2. My own play-skills, Counterbalance and Chalice of the Void (x=2) shatter my dreams of winning Top8ing that PTQ, and I can't win any more matches.

The Extended Season is now over, but I will work on that Extended concept again for sure.
In Legacy, my teammate Jens Jäger developed the deck and could make a Top8 finish at a major Legacy event with 3-1-1, using that list:

Team N!'s N!A
Main Deck		Sideboard
4 Scrubland 4 Polluted Delta 3 Bloodstained Mire 2 Phyrexian Tower 3 Swamp 1 Bayou 4 Autochthon Wurm 4 Academy Rector 1 Overgrown Estate	4 Nefarious Lich 4 Nourishing Shoal 2 Sickening Dreams 4 Grim Tutor 4 Night's Whisper 4 Cabal Therapy 4 Duress 4 Dark Ritual 4 Chrome Mox	4 City of Solitude 1 Moat 1 Seal of Cleansing 4 Dodecapod 4 Orim's Chant 1 Ivory Mask

I hope the rest of the year 2007 will include, next to our aimed LICH World Domination Tour, some more innovations in every format. Even so it needed at least one year to get an acceptable result off an idea "playing Lich," it was worth every work, because not only the answer of the problem "playing Lich," but especially the outcome (playing with the deck) was great fun.

The most important thing (for me) at magic is not winning. It is having fun with whatever you're doing.

Le me now round up my article with a quote:
[15:15:26] Ayahuasca: "Actually, the pile doesn't win against anything, but the mirror is very balanced."

I hope you enjoyed reading my article and I'd be pleased if you give me feedback, either in IRC, in the comments or via mail (cma.flippi@web.de).

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