...of the Gathering. But we'll get to that.

  First off, I wanted to introduce you to a certain something. I consider myself something like Chaotic Neutral, but everyone has their little angel and devil on their shoulder. I believe everybeing is fully capable of both good & evil, its up to you really. And if any of you have noticed, I do have this shtick of typing in different tones & colors, and that's what that is. Different personas if you will. Widdershins is sort of my angel... which should leave you a bit worried about my demon... there is a little bit in everybeing, I suppose... you'd be lying to yourself if you didn't admit it. Wouldn't want you to inflict that self-hatred on yourself like that, would we?

  We've all lost ourselves a bit. Maybe lost our patience, perhaps took a little too much glee in stomping a bug until nothing but a smear was left. Perhaps wished that annoying coworker would... not be lucky in their own endeavors. There's anger... and then there's darkness. Everything might have a silver lining, but there's also a dark core... 

  A dark core that not only shows your depth of character, but makes the positive look all that much more unique & glorious!

 Stop that. There's a part in all of us that wants to see suffering. That embraces unending pain. Be it intentionally eating food you know is bad for you or gives you a headache every time, you still go back to it. Or maybe you like comedy. Like seeing some Stooges constantly injure themselves, delight in the suffering your television characters and how they keep getting themselves into trouble & strife, if only they had been intelligent enough to think beforehand, but no... these tropes keep getting used over & over again... because it sells. You all eat it up like livestock. Life revolves around pain...

  Which makes you stronger, last longer, and enjoy the happiness that life has to offer! Life would be such a boring snoozefest if we didn't have some sort of a plotline for to give the story of our lives more entertainment! Pain lets you Live!!!

 STOP getting your Chaotic Good in my Chaotic Evil! You're ruining my Nihilistic Insanity with your Whimsical Madness! Flame! Death! Destruction! The Black Flame rages within m-...

  Puppies n' Kitties! Puppies makin' poopies on your best rug because dey just too sweet n' innycent to know any betta! 

     It's all about balance, I say. But the reason I bring this up, of course, is because of a minor hobby I have. I make Magic:The Gathering decks out of my major characters. Now for those of you uninitiated in what that game is, simply put, its a trading card game that's been around for a good long while. Just about a bajillion cards so far, so It makes sense that there's a card for pretty much anything, and with as emotion-centric as my "Big Three" (as I ironically call it) its a fun job to theme a batch of cards around a personality. Say, you have a happy sort of fellow then there's some cards out there, i'm sure, about dancing or just summoning things you find funny like goats or squirrels. And no where is the line drawn so well there as in what the Black cards do in the game. They're all about "removal" of your opponent's creatures (or maybe sacrificing your own minions for better benefits), manipulation like forcing cards to be discarded before they're even played to their full value,  weakening or erstwhile just being malicious & enjoying it! Maybe it would help if you were somewhat familiar with the game, but that's less important to me than the theming around what they do. So it's that I seek y'all help with.

  The First Option, of course, is to just do simple black stuff. You know, Specters, Horrors, Constructs, creepy stuff. That's what Solumn is after all. Throw in some basic removal black cards, maybe a little bit of discard stuff... play that off with Triumph of Cruely & Megrim to add more injury to insult... and, for icing on top, have my legendary, my "boss" or sorts be a good, hefty, basic threat. To Whit:

 Beautiful, isn't she? Either a hard enough threat to rip face with, or just decide to skip that, to drop the hammer down on any pitiful minions that dare get in my way. But...   That IS rather dull.  I wouldn't be torturing anyone. And where's the fun in that?

 No... needs something a little bit more than just basic threatening. Not evil enough.

  What does work pretty well, is some more creative stuff I picked up from the plane of Kamigawa. There's another... "general" that I feel works just as well with Visara.

 Hold back a bit, keep your tricks close to your proverbial vest, and you've got a big beater too. Add onto that...

 That added on, last ability, kind of feels like a  "Oh, Oh. You're winning are you? Well, guess I'll just blow myself up in your face as a final blow then."

  Add onto that, and there's a handful of other stuff Kagemaro comes with. More general weakening, some cards that deal damage with how much you have in hand or even forcing others to beat themselves in the face for your amusement. Perhaps toss in a few ugly rat people to add in something scary for your opponent to stare at. Amusing.

But doesn't feel quite... manipulative enough.

   There is, however, one option I do feel is more "creative." But, it comes with the risk of dabbling into red. Being pure black seems a bit more flavorful for this; Red feels a tad too passionate.

 I call this strategy a bit more something like... "Bleeding." And who else embodies things coming with a price as a fully fledged demon lord!

 Best thing about him too, is that you can very easily murder yourself if you leave him up on the field too long! Power for a priiiccce...

  Maybe work on the mechanic known as Bloodthirst, give a boost to my own minions triggered by dealing a pitiful bit of damage to my opponent with a whip, perhaps keep piling on usually innocuous one damage a turn from Curse of the Pierced Heart... until more come on... to where you can't staunch the bleeding. Even turn their very resources into a liability with Evil Presence, the weakening and two-damage a turn of a Stab Wound, a mindcontrol like Enslave... or just simply add more blood!

 Taste of Blood, Blood Reckoning, Searing Blood, Blood Crypt, Stensia Bloodhall... Blood for Blood! And my personal favorite.. Rush of Blood.

" Sometimes it's not for sustenance or to feed the dependency. Sometimes it's just to feel again."  Vampires do know how to rationalize well.

    But that does leave a gaping hole. A wounded one, but none the less gaping. Your opponent still is a threat after all that. Simply pinging for damage is far too common. It doesn't get you anywhere but potshots. No... perhaps something a bit more involved...

  Curse of the Nightly Hunt to force your foes to attack whether they want to or not... Weaken them down or control with what else you have, A Sinister Possession to make them pay all the much more when they have to... and run them into a few Abattoir Ghouls. Have their minions forcibly run themselves into my zombies that not only get the First Strike in, but carve them up into life for myself which I can then turn into yet more advantage with Kothophed up there. But... that's a fine line to tread. One of my strategies a bit too complex to fall apart if a piece gets taken out.

  So what do you think? Beater & Blow Up, Mind Tricks, Basic Bloodthirst, or Feeding off the Rage. Or whatever else you can think of around those themes or just taking as much advantage around those legendaries as I can.

   Maybe, if anybeing is interested, I can post some of the decks of my more, uh... well, Less "Violent" characters. Still playing with Widdershins's deck. Makes sense that his would be in constant flux. Ironically enough, he's also black! Hey, maybe chaos is colored black! 

                                                    ...and yes, I will eventually get back to my "You Might Be a.." series. Haven't forgotten that!