The Kitchen Table #123: Deck Smash!

Welcome back to another week with your injection of all things casual, courtesy of most people’s second or third favorite casual writer for this here site here.

I came to realize this week, after reading The Ferrett point about the difference between casual and competitive audiences, that I may be the casual writer who most resembles competitive writers. I don’t usually dally around with random thoughts, and instead head straight into said article. I’m also not funny. Usually, at least. Should I add more? My one diatribe on the Nephilim touched off a nice (minor) controversy on the forums. Would you like similar preambles? Let’s try one this week, just for size.

On Alfred Hitchcock

To me, Alfred Hitchcock is simply the best English director of all time (second overall, but I can talk about who I think is best in a later column). When I say English, I mean any director whose films are largely, or exclusively, produced in English.

Hitchcock was a clever director in many ways. His scripts and dialogue are amazing, with great, crisp lines and interesting scenarios. He also seemed to get the best from his actors and actresses. Jimmy Stewart overacted in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington or It’s a Wonderful Life, but just watch Vertigo, directed by Hitchcock, to understand that Stewart was an amazing actor when used properly.

The same is true of, say Cary Grant. Compare the acting in An Affair to Remember with Notorious, done by Hitchcock. Both are similar roles, with Grant really nailing the role in Notorious but falling flat in Affair… except in the first fifteen minutes of the movie, which has some pace and wit to it. North by Northwest, another Hitchcock movie, is the best role I’ve ever seen Grant in.

Hitchcock was also well before his time. Take, for example, The 39 Steps, from the mid thirties. You could keep the same scripts, the same cinematography, the same scenes, and just recast it today, in color, and you’d likely have a summer blockbuster on your hand. It hits all of the formulas of good, popular movies from today.

He can do romance (Rebecca) and suspense (Psycho) with equal zeal, giving everything a touch of the Hitchcock spin. For my money, nothing beats a Hitchcock film, even today.

Abe’s official film of the week: Rent Vertigo this week and watch it. It is one of Hitchcock’s best, on the American Film Institute’s Top 100 list, but rarely mentioned by many. Most people haven’t seen it, like they’ve seen, say, The Birds or whatnot. Rent and watch Vertigo. At the end, remember this Jimmy Stewart was the same actor who starred in two of Kafka’s most beloved films, yet really sings under Hitchcock. You might not even believe that he is the same actor.

End Hitchcock Comments

Is that something that you are interested in for the future? I mean, I could take a few minutes out each week and talk about cinema, or something? Let me know if the forums. Now, where was I? Oh yes, I was writing an article on Magic…

I was looking for inspiration for this week’s article when I read Mark Rosewater column during Swap Week.

As part of Swap Week, Mark had to write an article as Jay Moldenhauer-Salazar. He decided to smash together a pair of preconstructed decks and try to make it work. That sounded like a great idea to me, so I decided to write an entire article of deck smashes.

In his article, Mark espouses several rules for deck smashing, and many of them make sense for anyone doing this exercise. You can’t add any cards to your new deck from outside the two decks. The card total has to be the same for the new deck as it is for the old. Also, normal deck building convention still applies. If I combine two decks with four Incinerates each, I can still play only four Incinerates in the new deck.

However, I am not going to limit myself in one key area like Mark did. I am going to feel free to reinvent the new deck. If I can get a deck with a different feel, and it works, then I’ll go for that.

How am I going to get my decks? Well, that’s simple enough. All of my previous entries in “A Deck a Day” are going to be eligible. I’ve written tons of daily decks, and now it’s time to bring them back. I will roll randomly among the decks, using a d100, to figure out what decks to smash.

Are you ready for our experiment? Here we go….

Deck Smash #1: Shifting Knowledge

I roll a 69 – which is deck number 35 alphabetically. What deck is that? Wild Knowledge.

Wild Knowledge tries to use Wild Research to create a nice engine with cards like Accumulated Knowledge and Kindle assisting. It is a U/R deck that uses countermagic, Shard Phoenix and burn to establish control. Let’s take a look at the decklist:

What deck will get combined with Wild Knowledge? Let’s roll the dice and find out…

The second deck rolled a 57, which is deck 27 alphabetically. What deck is this? Shifting Allegiances.

Shifting Allegiances is another Blue/Red deck, this time an uber-casual deck built around shapeshifters. Let’s take a look at the deck:

Let the Smash Begin!

I’m lucky that I rolled two decks with the same color combination for the first time. I can get used to combining cards without having to worry about color. Since both decks have an element of control and use the same colors, I’ll try to keep a bit of the flavor of each.

I want to keep a shapeshifter theme, while also working the Wild Research. What cards in the first deck are essentials to the Wild Research theme?

4 Wild Research
4 Accumulated Knowledge
4 Kindle
4 Fiery Temper
2 Circular Logic

These eighteen cards will absolutely stay in my deck. It does not appear that I have any shifters that fit this theme. The only creatures in the first deck were Shard Phoenixes. In this new deck, we need a shifter theme. I decide that some shifters are better than others:

4 Clone
2 Vesuvan Doppelganger
4 Duplicant

These creatures are a cut above the rest in the deck. I decide to add these ten creatures to the deck. I may also add a few more creatures when I finish fleshing out the deck, but these will suffice for now.

I want to add a bit of control. Each of these decks has some control, and we’ve kept a lot of those elements alive so far. Now I want a bit more of that control:

4 Counterspell
3 Forbid
2 Polymorph

I toss in these cards. Counterspell and Forbid should have obvious uses. Polymorph is great for this deck. If I play it on one of my creatures, I know that I’ll get a way to kill a creatures (Duplicant) or a copy of that creatures (Clone, Doppelganger), which allows me to neutralize virtually any attacker. Of course, I can always use Polymorph on an opponent’s creature as well.

I am at thirty-seven cards for the deck. I need to cut something. I decide to pull a Wild Research, since the entire deck is no longer geared around that one card. Here is the final decklist:

There is your new deck. The entire deck has a very Izzet feel to it, ironically enough. It feels less smooth, instead looking more chaotic. It will be interesting to see how it plays out.

Well, that was fun. Now let’s try again:

Deck Smash #2: Token Breeze

I pick up my trusty dice and roll them. I get….

48 – That’s deck number 24. I check and deck number 24 in my list is Token Resistance.

Token Resistance is a deck built around Symbol Status and getting as many permanents from various expansion sets into play in order to cast Symbol Status to get many 1/1 Expansion-Symbol creature tokens into play. This is a mono-Green deck mostly; it does splash a couple of Red cards. Let’s take a look at the original deck:

It will be interesting to see what deck Token Resistance will combine with. I grab my trusty dice, give them a shake, and drop them on the desk….

17 – Deck number 8. Brokencaller. This will be an interesting combination…

Brokencaller is a Blue/Green deck built around Oboro Breezecaller and various combos that one can do with it in order to make bunches of mana. Let’s take a look:

As you can see from Brokencaller, I used a lot of Fastbond, Azusa, Lifegift, and so forth. Let’s combine our decks and see what happens.

Let the Smash Begin!

Both decks use Green, so I’m obviously focusing on Green with a sidelight of Blue. One thing I could do is build an odd, Blue/Green control deck with an Oboro Breezecaller winning condition and a Symbol Status highlight. Let’s see how that works.

From Token Resistance, I know that I want a few cards:

1 Regrowth
4 Symbol Status
3 Birds of Paradise

These eight cards will make the cut in practically anything that I build. Let’s view Brokencaller for inspiration:

1 Fastbond
4 Oboro Breezecaller
2 Azusa, Lost but Seeking
1 Braingeyser
1 Stroke of Genius

These nine cards are the heart of the Oboro-control deck. That gives me seventeen cards, with plenty of room to grow. First I’m going to want to use whatever control that I have. Unfortunately, I don’t even have so much as a Naturalize in these decks (I do have Artifact Mutation and Taiga, so keep that in mind for later).

When you are building a controllish deck but you don’t have traditional control cards, you need creatures that control the board. What can I play?

4 Patron of the Moon

I begin with a quartet of Patrons. As a 5/4 flyer, they qualify as a beatstick. They also support the Breezecaller engine.

2 Llanowar Elves
1 Fyndhorn Elves

I decide to include these three mana producers to help the control part of my deck get online sooner and provide bodies in the early game. They come from Token Resistance.

I am at twenty-four cards, and still have plenty of room. I decide to toss in a few control creatures from Brokencaller:

2 Oboro Envoy
2 Soratami Savant

Not only do these creatures add bodies to the deck and flyers to my arsenal, but they also have nifty defensive abilities that can help me set up.

I am going to lean into Token Resistance one last time before looking at the mana:

1 Sylvan Scrying
4 Call of the Herd

These five cards really help a lot. Calls are nice early creatures and fine late creatures. The Sylvan Scrying gets a land, and the Breezecaller section of the deck likes specific lands. It can also help to smooth mana.

I am at thirty-one cards, and I now seek to wrap up my non-lands.

2 Lifegift
2 Heartbeat of Spring

These two enchantments really help make the Breezecaller engine go. Lifegifts can help stall until you get to enough mana to win, and Heartbeats can accelerate you into your combo while also helping you with the combo itself.

Mana:

2 Gaea’s Cradle (one from each deck)
4 Yavimaya Coast
2 Oboro, Palace in the Clouds
2 Scorched Ruins
1 Lotus Vale
7 Forest
7 Island

Let’s combine it:

For info on how to play either half of the deck, check out their individual daily entries (especially the Brokencaller entry, because it can be a tough deck to play).

Deck Smash #3: Caribou Shot

Let’s do one more of these before retiring for the day. I grab my purple and orange dice and give them a roll.

06 – Deck number three. Poison Shot, from just last week. It’ll be interesting to see me reuse a deck from last Friday so soon. This is a Blue/Green deck that works by tapping Green creatures to deal damage directly to opponents and give them poison counters. Let’s take a look just to refresh your memory:

The deck I roll will hopefully be able to mix well with this. Let’s see…

I roll a 59 – deck number 29, step right up. Ah yes, I remember this deck fondly. Caribou Tribe. This was the very first bad rare deck challenge I ever faced. This is a mono-White deck designed to make Caribou Range an acceptable card. Let’s take a look:

Wow, this will not be an easy smash. Let’s get started.

Let the Smash Begin!

There’s no initially obvious way for me to begin. There are only four Green cards in the entire mix (Naturalize, Seeker of Skybreak, and the two poison counter creatures).

One thing I notice is that my Caribou deck has a few creatures that tap for an ability, and my Poison Shot deck has a lot of ways to untap creatures. I’ll make that my angle.

Let’s start with the Caribou deck and see what gets added:

1 Atalya, Samite Master
1 Hazduhr the Abbot
4 Hand of Justice

And from Poison Shot:

4 Aphetto Alchemist
4 Puppeteer

We’ll hold off on Green for the time being.

Alright, now I need white creatures to use with the Hand of Justice, so let’s add:

4 Caribou Range

That should make all of the people happy. Now, let’s add a few cards from Poison Shot:

2 Serpent Generator
4 Hermetic Study
4 Psionic Gift

Not only does this give me a token generator, but I also get two enchantments that work with the whole tapping and untapping theme. I am at twenty-eight cards. Let’s see what else gets tossed in:

1 Healer’s Headdress
1 Jareth, Leonine Titan

That brings me to thirty cards. The Headdress fits the tapping theme while Jareth is just good. I need to finish this deck:

4 Serra Angel
2 Skull Catapult

The Serra Angels can be equipped or enchanted, attack, then later tap for an ability. The Skull Catapults can throw caribou tokens at people to supplement the damage dealt by tapping with the enchantments.

Let’s take a look at the finished deck:

That’s an odd deck if I’ve ever seen one. It’s not something that I’d ever build myself. I wonder how it plays.

With that, I am done with this experiment. If you liked it, I’d be willing to do it again. Just let me know in the aforementioned forum. I wish you all a pleasant week.

Until Later,
Abe Sargent