Hello friends, and welcome back to the column that always has time for a spot of tea and a biscuit. And when I say biscuit, I mean this hard cracker/cookie thing that tastes delicious. And when I say tea, I mean Darjeeling, it’s delicious. And when I say time, I mean let’s play Magic.
Magic + tea and biscuits = yummy.
I love Alpha, and just last week, WotC reminded us that they have sheets of cards from the first set in their offices. They used the set as inspiration for the new M10, which sounds like the highway that goes through Ypsilanti, by the way (Michigan State Route 10). Let’s go drive the M10.
I agree that Alpha is really amazing and I used it a little as a pattern for my hypothetical set from last year (which you can find the first entry here if interested).
Since we all apparently love the first set so much, let’s do something about it! Let’s build decks around cards from the first set! Doesn’t that sound fun? I hope so!
Wrathing Since 1993
4 Wrath of God
4 Jade Statue
4 Guardian Idol
4 Opal Acrolith
2 Commander Eesha
2 Eternal Dragon
4 Wind Shards
4 Aura of Silence
2 Rout
2 Decree of Justice
3 Weathered Wayfarer
1 Kor Haven
1 Maze of Ith
4 Secluded Steppe
4 Drifting Meadow
15 Plains
This deck is built around Wrath of God and Jade Statue. It wants to play Wraths, then still have creatures out with Jade Statue, Guardian Idol and Opal Acrolith. It only has seven cards that are actually creatures, and the Eternal Dragons come back post-Wrath with a little investment of mana.
Commander Eesha and Weathered Wayfarer are important enough to get their name called, to my mind. Each adds something nice to the deck, especially the Wayfarers. With one out and active, you can get cycling lands to draw cards, a Kor Haven or Maze of Ith to stop attackers, and either gives you some nice options. I love activating it turn after turn for cycling lands. Between the Eternal Dragon and the Wayfarer, you can strip a lot of lands from your deck, allowing you to draw just the goods.
Joining Wrath of God is a pair of instant-able Routs. I’ve often said that Rout may be the best Wrath of God in multiplayer because of its instant-capability. Perhaps you might want to experiment with Final Judgment, or Hallowed Burial, or Kirtar’s Wrath.
The Statue, Idol, and Acrolith can make a force powerful enough to deal some damage post-Wrath. When no one has creatures, a 2/4, a 2/2 and a 4/6 can rule the world.
I added some additional removal. Wing Shards is great at ending threats of attackers. Maze of Ith and Kor Haven encourage opponents to play extra creatures in order to get through, and then they get extra hurt by the Wrath of God. Wing Shards contributes to this by having the capability to take out two or more attackers.
Aura of Silence can slow down an Artifact or Enchantment deck, while also being a nice Seal of Cleansing against anything you find too indigestible.
Decree of Justice is a great surprise and a lovely post-Wrath gift. You can end games quickly with a horde of 1/1 tokens in a field of nothing but lands, artifacts, and enchantments (and perhaps the odd Planeswalker).
This gives you a nice little powerful Mono White package. If you wanted too, you could add more Wraths, perhaps some more beaters, and continue to modify the deck for even more beatings.
Geddonning Since 1993
4 Armageddon
4 Consecrate Land
1 Sol Ring
3 Marble Diamond
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Aura of Silence
4 Icy Manipulator
4 Savannah Lions
4 Blade of the Sixth Pride
2 Jotun Grunt
4 Darksteel Citadel
22 Plains
After building a Wrath of God deck that used another card from Alpha to go with it, I decided to do the same with Consecrate Land and Armageddon. Then other cards from Alpha slid in, like Swords, Sol Ring, Savannah Lions, and Icy Manipulator. Substituting in some power, like Balance, Mox Pearl, and such — you could have built this deck wholly from Alpha.
Geddonning IN 1993
4 Armageddon
4 Consecrate Land
1 Sol Ring
1 Mox Pearl
1 Balance
3 Serra Angel
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Disenchant
4 Icy Manipulator
4 Savannah Lions
4 Black Vise
26 Plains
This deck would win games all the way back from Alpha. Ouch.
Anyway, the first deck rocks a lot of cards you expect to see. Aura of Silence is better here than it was in the first deck, because mana is more important. I included Icy Manipulator to tap opposing lands, but it works fine to tap down a creature, an artifact, especially a mana producing artifact.
Savannah Lions is a great early drop with the ability to swing while your mana is involved in other things. The same is true of Blade of the Sixth Pride and the 4/4 Jotun Grunt.
Consecrate Land is played to make a Plains indestructible and thus keep you rolling in enough mana to keep playing. Darksteel Citadel likewise provides you with indestructible lands. With the Sol Ring and Marble Diamonds, you should have several mana left post-Geddon — enough to keep going.
Swords to Plowshares is ideal at ending the lives of early foes, and very light on the mana too. This is a great card to have in your hand for someone’s annoying early drop that stops your offense (like a Wall of Roots).
The second deck slides into Black Vise, which might make the deck better, but it is a lot nastier in its killing-ness. You could also add Ankh of Mishra or even Dingus Egg.
I thought it would be nice to go Armageddon after doing Wrath of God. Okay, let’s leave White behind for the next deck.
Raging River Since… Well… Never
4 Raging River
4 Gravity Sphere
4 Elven Riders
4 Treetop Rangers
2 Two-Headed Giant of Foriys
2 Jiwari, the Earth Aflame
4 Siege-Gang Commander
4 Goblin Marshal
2 Warbreak Trumpeteer
2 Grizzly Fate
2 Sylvan Might
2 Goblin War Drums
4 Shivan Oasis
4 Karplusan Forest
10 Mountain
6 Forest
I wanted to build a deck around Raging River since I can’t recall ever seeing it in play. I’ve seen people play Farmstead, and I’ve never seen Raging River get played. I wanted to build a quick deck around it as a result.
At first, I decided to add in Gravity Sphere. Removing the ability for defending flyers to jump from one side of the River to the other seemed wise. Since I was removing flying anyway, it seemed like a good idea to toss in Elven Riders, Treetop Rangers, and Jiwari, but I wanted to stop there. This was not a Gravity Sphere deck, but it was a Raging River deck with Gravity Sphere as a sidelight.
No matter what side of the River things get assigned to, Treetop Rangers and Elven Riders will get through for some damage if Gravity Sphere is out. Note that with the change in Reach, not even a Giant Spider type creature can block the Riders and Rangers now. Remember that the Riders can be blocked by walls, though.
After that, I wanted to up my creature count, so that I can abuse Raging River. Let’s suppose that your opponent has just one creature out. You can always get your army through. They choose to defend the left side or the right side, and you send your troops down the other side of the river. You will be splitting their army in half, so make sure you have a nice, large army to abuse it.
Siege-Gang Commander, Warbreak Trumpeteer and Goblin Marshal will make you some lovely goblin tokens. Feel free to serve or just pop them for two damage each to take out key defenders and send the rest through. You might even just luck into a burn win by blowing them out with Siege-Gang damage.
I also included a pair of Grizzly Fate for some beefier mass token production. Perhaps I could also have looked at One Dozen Eyes or Symbiotic Wurm.
I wanted Goblin War Drums. After splitting up their defense, and removing the ability of flyers to river hop, you can then further splinter them by forcing their creatures to double block, allowing more of your forces to leek through.
I even tossed in a pair of Sylvan Might to give you a nice surprise at keeping one or two attackers alive while doling out some additional damage.
Jiwari is mentioned above, but he can act as an emergency instant Earthquake, and if Gravity Sphere is out, you can take out most creatures at instant speed. I think he’s better if you play him, then Blaze-kill opposing creatures. The deck does not have a lot of mana guzzling except for Siege-Gang, so you can keep the mana open for Jiwari, then tap him to Blaze a creature to death.
This is our third deck of the day. How about more?
The Blackening of Jason Tolbart
4 Cyclopean Tomb
4 Anaconda
4 Karma
4 Stern Judge
4 Mire Boa
4 Angry Mob
4 Warthog
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Harmonize
4 Elfhame Palace
10 Plains
10 Forest
This deck is simple enough. You want to play Cyclopean Tomb, and then abuse your opponent’s Swamps by playing creatures with Swampwalk and Karma and such.
Note that Cyclopean Tomb changes the land to a Swamp, so it can be used to lock off someone’s mana, special lands, and so forth.
It seems like every deck so far has had at least one more card from the original set besides the card I built around — in this one we have Swords to Plowshares and Karma.
Harmonize and Swords round out the deck. Stern Judge adds to your density of creatures and is a great backup Karma. Mire Boa, Warthog and Anaconda are all Swampwalkers that can hit unblocked through the Cyclopean Tomb lands. They also can add to your creature base and can play defense, especially the Mire Boa. It can sit at home and block attackers as you have need.
Angry Mob becomes a beater on offense but is just a 2/2 trampler on defense. This means that Mire Boa becomes even more valuable as the only creatures that can really play defense well in the deck. However, the deck does have 20 creatures, so there are a nice selection of two-, three-, and four-drops for the deck.
The deck stays clear of the more expensive creatures, so you can use your mana for regeneration and using your Tombs.
The result is a janky little deck that could surprise people with its subtle power.
Note that Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth is a bad combo with Karma.
Let’s do one more.
Wrath of the Siren
4 Siren’s Call
4 Moment of Silence
2 Festival
2 Commander Eesha
2 Lieutenant Kirtar
4 Wing Shards
2 Swords to Plowshares
4 Dismantling Blow
2 Keiga, the Tide Star
2 Battlegrace Angel
4 Tidings
4 Counterspell
4 Tundra
1 Kor Haven
1 Prahv, Spires of Order
4 Coastal Tower
7 Island
7 Plains
This deck relies on an old combo. Play Siren’s Call, which forces all non-walls of your opponent to attack. Any that do NOT attack are killed, except for walls and creatures that came into play that turn.
However, when you play something like Moment of Silence, you really screw up their plans. Now, they have no combat phase with which to attack. As such, all of the creatures will die, again except for new creatures and walls. This makes Siren’s Call + Moment of Silence (or Festival) into a one person Wrath effect.
In multiplayer, it only hits one opponent. This can really open them up for numerous attackers, but it is not going to kill the world or anything.
Note that there are a few ways to get around this. Your creatures can regenerate, so it won’t kill anything your opponent put a regeneration shield around. It also won’t stop indestructible creatures.
Still, for what it does, it can prove quite powerful, perhaps even devastating.
You have a few creatures that can act as defense or offense, including Commander Eesha, Lieutenant Kirtar, Keiga, and the Battlegrace Angel. We are also rocking Wing Shards, Swords, and Dismantling Blow for removal, which gives you a lot of options.
Kor Haven and Prahv add to the defense of the deck. Between these, the removal suite, the defensive creatures and the Call/Moment or Festival, you have a lot of ways of keeping creatures off your back. You can even use a Festival or Moment of Silence as a Fog for a turn if you absolutely have to. However, I suspect you’ll be able to set up and get ready for a Wrath of the Siren.
I tossed in a few extra cards, such as Tidings and Counterspell to give you a more rounded deck. You could easily play more card drawing at the expense of Counterspell, or more counters at the expense of Tidings if you chose. The deck itself does have a lot of card advantage already built in, with Dismantling Blow, Call + Moment, Wing Shards, and Keiga all providing card advantage of one sort or another.
This would be a good deck to put Moat in, if you had it. Siren’s Call loves Moat, and you have no ground creatures.
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Alright, with that, we come to the close of another article. I hope you enjoyed today’s mining of days passed. It was a lot of fun to write this. We’ll catch you next week!
Until later…