Fato Stellarum: A Black/White Constellation Deck

Motivation

As the planet revolves around the stars in a never ending cycle, the stars also follow their own orbit.  These stars, as the Greeks watched over them with awe, eventually became memorable figures based on their mythology and called them constellations.  These constellations marked both the fall of heroes or terrible beasts.  Journey Into Nyx unleashed these constellations of their own, as these same great heroes and terrible beasts now walk on the Plane of Theros damning and boosting foe and enemy alike.  The stars have forseen the fate of your opponent and plans have been put into motion as the Fato Stellarum (fate of the stars) deck will soon reveal their only fate is submission.

Deck Contents

Land (22)

• 13- Swamps ($2.60)
• 9- Plains ($1.80)

Creatures (29)

• 1- Fate Unraveler ($0.30)
• 1- Atheros, God of Passage ($16.89)
• 1- Archetype of Courage ($0.37)
• 1- Archetype of Finality ($0.19)
• 2- Eater of Hope ($0.38)
• 2- Forlorn Pseudamma ($0.12)
• 2- Dreadbringer Lampads ($0.18)
• 2- Thoughtrender Lamia ($0.22)
• 2- Akroan Mastiff ($0.18)
• 2- Odunos River Trawler ($0.24)
• 3- Underworld Coinsmith ($0.54)
• 3- Nyx-Fleece Ram ($0.72)
• 3- Doomwake Giant ($0.69)
• 4- Grim Guardian ($0.36)

Spells (9)

• 1- Dictate of Erebos ($1.35)
• 1- Skybind ($0.19)
• 2- Font of Return ($0.18)
• 2- Oppressive Ray ($0.18)
• 3- Banishing Light ($4.47)

Total Cost: $32.15

Ways to Improve the Deck

Land

• 4- Temple of Silence ($19.92)
• 4- Mana Confluence ($50.48)
• 2- Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx ($10.80)
• 2- Mutavault ($51.00)

Creatures

• 3- Fate Unraveler ($0.90)
• 1- Atheros, God of Passage ($16.89)
• 2- Forlorn Pseudamma ($0.12)
• 1- Doomwake Giant ($0.23)
• 1- Nyx-Fleece Ram ($0.24)
• 2- Erebos, God of the Dead ($12.86)
• 2- Heliod, God of the Sun ($8.92)

Spells

• 1- Dictate of Erebos ($1.35)
• 1- Skybind ($0.19)
• 4- Doom Blade ($0.88)
• 4- Silence the Believers ($3.16)
• 2- Spear of Heliod ($2.18)
• 4- Claim of Erebos ($0.28)

Potential Sideboards:

1) Spell Focus

• 4- Claim of Erebos
• 4- Doom Blade
• 2- Spear of Heliod
• 1- Dictate of Erebos
• 1- Skybind 
• 1- Atheros, God of Passage 
• 2- Forlorn Pseudamma 

2) Creature Focus

• 3- Fate Unraveler 
• 1- Atheros, God of Passage 
• 2- Forlorn Pseudamma 
• 1- Doomwake Giant 
• 1- Nyx-Fleece Ram 
• 2- Erebos, God of the Dead 
• 2- Heliod, God of the Sun 
• 3- Claim of Erebos 

3) Hybrid

• 1- Dictate of Erebos 
• 1- Skybind 
• 2- Doom Blade 
• 2- Silence the Believers
• 1- Fate Unraveler
• 2- Forlorn Pseudamma
• 1- Doomwake Giant
• 1- Nyx-Fleece Ram
• 2- Erebos, God of the Dead
• 2- Heliod, God of the Sun

Strategy of Play for Base Deck:

The key to success to this deck is having a strong starting hand: Three mana (1 swamp or plains, the rest filler), an Underworld Coinsmith and one Grim Guardian.  Any of your other cards can be of any variety, but as long as you have a solid hand like that, you will begin to notice your constellations rolling.  If your hand comes with two Grim Guardians, Coinsmiths or Nyx-Fleece Rams you would have an exceptionally strong start.  Rams will prevent early aggressive play and allow you to burn your mana on your Coinsmith for aggressive early play.

There are several card combos in this deck that allows your constellations to constantly roll out besides standard enchantments and creatures.  When the Forlorn Pseudamma untaps, you may pay three mana (1 swamp and 2 colorless) to place a 2/2 Enchantment Zombie card in play.  With two Pseudammas in play you can trigger all of your constellations twice for six mana (2 swamps and 4 colorless).  On top of that combination, you also have a strong synergy with Dictate of Erebos and Eater of Hope.  When you spend for Eater of Hope's three mana ability (1 swamp and 2 colorless) you must sacrifice two creatures, our zombies, and you can destroy a target creature your opponent controls.  When Dictate of Erebos is in play, your opponent will be losing three creatures for a total of nine mana every round (3 swamps, 6 colorless).  

Not only does this create an opening in your opponent's defense, but combined with Doomwake Giant, you can clear most of his defense by reducing their effectiveness by -6/-6 when two of your zombies come into play.  For larger creatures and flyers, your choices are using Akroan Mastiffs, Oppressive Rays, Banishing Light, Skybind (for non-enchantment flyers) and finally Eater of Hope.  You can easily shift into aggressive play by using your control spells to prevent your opponent from having creatures in play, but thanks to Dreadbringer Lampads and the Forlorn Pseudammas you have a potential of having six creatures in play that have Intimidate.  This allows for heavy pressure against any non-black deck.

Conclusion

The deck has two weaknesses: Being milled by a Blue/Black deck and flyers. This deck was built on a dream of a five color Constellation Deck that just didn't seem to work, but you can easily build a Blue/Black, Green/Black, Green/Red or even Blue/Green Constellation deck.  I would not recommend White/Red, simply because their constellations are not fantastic.  White only has access to two Constellation cards while Red only has access to one Constellation card, which does not build a strong synergy.  In a Red/White Aggressive deck, you could easily sink in the Red Constellation, because it allows Bestow creatures to "nuke" when coming into play.  Otherwise, the deck itself is a little slow, but it does allow you to stall out the game and aggravate your opponents by slowly seeping away at their life, until you can land your coup de grâce.

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