Welcome back to the dungeon, young explorers. Today, we'll be going on a little witch hunt. An old Bitterheart Witch has been causing trouble in the lower levels, putting curses on everyone she sees. Your job is to find her, and if you're lucky, maybe you'll learn a few of her secrets along the way.

Curse of Thirst will be the main win condition for the deck. It will dish out damage very quickly, often killing your opponent in just four turns. In multiples, your opponent can be dead in half that time.

Curse of Bloodletting doubles the damage Curse of Thirst dishes out. Although Curse of Misfortunes requires you to find cards with different names, Curse of Bloodletting effectively gets around that by serving as a second copy of Curse of Thirst.

Curse of the Pierced Heart is a cheap Curse that you can drop early to start dishing out the damage. Since it deals 1 damage each turn by itself, it's as though it counts twice for Curse of Thirst.

Curse of Death's Hold will keep your opponent's creatures from dealing too much damage, and it will even kill smaller creatures. It also combines well with damage-based sweepers, making larger creatures a bit easier to take down.

Eyeblight's Ending and Rend Flesh can take care of nearly any large threat at instant speed, making sure that anything big enough to survive an Earthquake won't cause you too much damage.

Worn Powerstone is among the most powerful ways to accelerate your mana. Most of the Curses cost 5, and this will jump you straight there on turn four even if you don't have a fourth land drop. Coldsteel Heart can also get you to 5 a turn early. Although it doesn't produce as much mana, it can also make sure you have the colors you need.

After adding in a suite of black- and red-producing lands, you should end up with something like this:

"Curses!"

• Creatures (4)
• 4 Bitterheart Witch

• Spells (32)
• 2 Rend Flesh
• 2 Eyeblight's Ending
• 2 Earthquake
• 2 Pyroclasm
• 3 Curse of Bloodletting
• 3 Curse of Death's Hold
• 4 Curse of Misfortunes
• 4 Curse of the Pierced Heart
• 4 Curse of Thirst
• 3 Worn Powerstone
• 3 Coldsteel Heart

• Lands (24)
• 7 Swamp
• 9 Mountain
• 4 Akoum Refuge
• 4 Rakdos Carnarium

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Burn at the Stake is very powerful burn spell that has the ability to kill your opponent in one shot if you have seven creatures. Although you'll almost always want to be aiming this at your opponent's face, it's worth noting that you can use it to kill a creature as well if it becomes necessary.

Since you can only play for copies of the main win condition, Marton Stromgald serves as a second way to kill your opponent in a single blow. With the same seven creatures you'd need to instantly kill your opponent with Burn at the Stake, Marton Stromgald will allow you to swing for more than 50 damage.

Dragon Fodder boasts the same efficiency as white cards such as Gather the Townsfolk and Raise the Alarm, making a pair of 1/1 creatures for 2 mana. That's about as good as you're going to find, and I only wish we had more cards as efficient as this.

Mogg Alarm costs an extra mana over Dragon Fodder, but it does let you cast it for free if you sacrifice two Mountains. This allows you to make two more creatures and kill your opponent with Burn at the Stake immediately rather than having to wait to untap your mana.

Spawning Breath only makes one token, but it can often kill an opposing creature for you as well. More importantly, it makes an Eldrazi Spawn token, allowing you to set up our next card.

Brood Birthing will sometimes make only one token, but if you already have an Eldrazi Spawn from something like Spawning Breath or a previous Brood Birthing, you get three of those tokens instead. Making one token the first time and three the second means that it averages out to be about the same as Dragon Fodder, making a total of four tokens with two 2-mana spells.

Mogg Infestation will double the number of creatures you control, and in a pinch, it can turn your opponent's army of massive creatures into a swarm of tiny Goblins. With this, even an opponent who's gained a massive amount of life won't be out of reach.

Kher Keep is an easy way to make more tokens if you run out of cards. Although 3 mana for one creatures isn't ideal, this card has almost zero opportunity cost, so there's no reason not to include it.

After throwing in some Mountains, the list looks like this:

"Witch Hunting"

• Creatures (15)
• 3 Siege-Gang Commander
• 4 Emrakul's Hatcher
• 4 Mogg War Marshal
• 4 Marton Stromgald

• Spells (21)
• 4 Spawning Breath
• 1 Mogg Infestation
• 4 Brood Birthing
• 4 Burn at the Stake
• 4 Dragon Fodder
• 4 Mogg Alarm

• Lands (24)
• 21 Mountain
• 3 Kher Keep

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Now it's time for these two decks to battle it out in the arena. Will the witch be burned at the stake, or will her curses overwhelm the angry mob? Let's find out.

Game 1

The angry mob won the roll and started off with a Mountain. The witch hid out in an Akoum Refuge, gaining 1 life. The mob went to Kher Keep and gathered some Dragon Fodder, and the witch moved to a Rakdos Carnarium.

The last Goblin attacked, and another Mogg War Marshal joined the fight. The witch cast a Curse of the Pierced Heart, and the mob attacked for 3 before sending out a Mogg Alarm. An Earthquake for 1 took care of that problem.

A Spawning Breath brought out another token, and the witch cast another Curse of the Pierced Heart.

The token was sacrificed to bring out a Siege-Gang Commander, and the witch found a Worn Powerstone. The Goblins dropped the witch to 9, and Marton Stromgald threatened to end it next turn. A Rend Flesh got rid of him, but after an attack, Siege-Gang Commander was able to fling a pair of Goblins for the win.

Game 2

Another Akoum Refuge gave the witch 1 life, and a Curse of Thirst put the mob on a three-turn clock. The mob dropped to 10, and sacrificed two Mountains for another Mogg Alarm. Then, the mob cast Burn at the Stake, which was enough to drop the witch to just 2 life.

The witch wasn't done yet, however, and cast a Curse of Bloodletting to finish off the mob on its upkeep.

Game 3

Marton Stromgald threatened to end it, but an Earthquake stopped those plans. The witch then cast a Curse of Misfortunes to start bringing the pain. The mob started its recovery with a Mogg War Marshal and Brood Birthing. Curse of Misfortunes found a Curse of Thirst, and a Bitterheart Witch came down.

The mob sacrifice a pair of Mountains for a Mogg Alarm, then cast Burn at the Stake to drop the witch to 3. Curse of Misfortunes searched up a Curse of Death's Hold to wipe all the tokens away, and after searching up Curse of Bloodletting the following turn, the game ended in short order.

It looks like the witch won this time, but I'm sure the mob will be back for revenge. Make sure to visit the dungeon again in two weeks, when we'll be exploring some of the new cards from Planechase 2012.