I have a list of around twenty different article ideas sitting by my computer. Article ideas pop out everywhere. I have already written most of several additional”Your First Five” articles in my mind, and I just await the motivation to put them down on paper. (Or computer screen, as the case may be.)
A short while ago, a gentleman posted his Five-Color deck online in the Five-Color Forums. This gentleman, who went by the screen name of Arbiter, posted his deck in the hopes that someone would give him suggestions, ideas, and comments. Here is exactly what he said:
“I have been meaning to post my Five-Color deck, but haven’t had the time until now. I am just an average player without the power cards. My friends have a few duals and I don’t mind; I’m just trying to get some rhythm going in this deck, so any help is greatly appreciated.”
In order to keep to Arbiter’s card stock, I will not add any rares unless they are really cheap and readily available. Likewise, I will not use older commons and uncommons that are more difficult to acquire. There’s no sense making suggestions when a person can’t meet them!
Arbiter’s 250+ cards seem like a perfect example of a Five-Color deck that has some potential, but also some flaws. In fact, I suspect that most of the problems with these deck are common amongst players who throw together a quick Five-Color deck. Reviewing this deck should prove highly useful to anybody looking to build quality into their large decks.
Without further ado, let’s take a look at the decklist:
White (19)
2 Seal of Cleansing
3 Dismantling Blow
1 Balance
2 Route
4 Swords to Plowshares
1 Ray of Revelation
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Land Tax
3 Wrath of God
Black (22)
4 Contract from Below
1 Mind Twist
1 Demonic Consultation
3 Buried Alive
4 Krovikan Horror
4 Chainer’s Edict
4 Diabolic Edict
2 Zombie Infestation
Blue (42)
1 Thirst for Knowledge (wouldn’t mind playing more, but don’t have much of new set)
1 Wonder
1 Time Spiral
4 Exclude
1 Braingeyser
1 Tinker
4 Counterspell
3 Deep Analysis
1 Mystic Tutor
4 Probe
4 Impulse
2 Concentrate
4 Circular Logic
1 Windfall
3 Quiet Speculation
4 Frantic Search
3 Fact or Fiction (need to get another)
Green (24)
3 Krosan Tusker
2 Genesis
4 Werebear
4 Roar of the Wurm
4 Harrow
3 Deep Reconnaissance
1 Hermit Druid
3 Sylvan Library
Artifact (38)
4 Urza’s Blueprints
2 Pyrite Spellbomb
1 Erratic Portal
3 Zuran Orb
1 Mirari
1 Tormod’s Crypt
3 Worn Powerstone
1 Sol Ring
1 Lotus Petal
1 Scroll Rack
3 Voltaic Key
1 Black Vise
1 Icy Manipulator (would like to add more)
3 Fellwar Stone (would like to have 4)
1 Grim Monolith
1 Talisman of Impulse
1 Talisman of Unity (would like to increase talismans)
2 Masticore
1 Crystal Shard
1 Temporal Aperture
1 Mind Stone
1 Bonesplitter
1 Jeweled Bird (just in case)
1 Urza’s Bauble (its like getting a free card)
Red (16)
3 Urza’s Rage
4 Flametongue Kavu
2 Covetous Dragon
4 Lighting Bolt
1 Arc-Slogger (what the hell, why not)
1 Gamble
Multi-Color (13)
4 Terminate
3 Prophetic Bolt
1 Sterling Grove
4 Psychatog
1 Eladamri’s Call
Two-in-One cards (5)
4 Fire / Ice
1 Spite / Malice
Land (89)
5 Mountain
4 Swamp
10 Island
4 Plains
9 Forest
1 Faerie Conclave (would like to add more)
3 Ghitu Encampment
1 Treetop Village
1 Mountain Valley
1 Grasslands
4 Rocky Tar Pit
1 Bad River
1 Flood Plain
4 Elfhame Palace
2 Shivan Oasis
4 Coastal Tower
2 Salt Marsh
4 Urborg Volcano
1 Strip Mine
1 Nantuko Monastery
1 Krosan Verge
1 Riftstone Portal
1 Kor Haven
1 Dustbowl
1 Volrath’s Stronghold
1 City of Brass
1 Darkwater Catacombs
1 Sungrass Prairie
2 Shadowblood Ridge
1 Great Furnace
1 Vault of Whispers
1 Tree of Tales
2 Ancient Tombs
4 Karplusan Forest
3 Forge[/author]“]Battlefield [author name="Forge"]Forge[/author]
3 Sulfurous Springs
When I look at this decklist, two things jump out at me: Consistency and Quality. This deck needs more of both.
Consistency
Start with the number of cards in each color that this deck contains. Remembering that a deck must have at least eighteen cards of each color in Five-Color, where is this deck’s focus? Although Blue is a high color, no color has the bare minimum. Since gold and split cards can count for either color, there are arguably twenty-five to thirty cards in each color. We need to cut down the reliance on colors in order to create consistency.
Next, take another look at the mana base. For a while, it looks like a Highlander deck – there are so many one-ofs! Additionally, many of the lands used are highly suspect, like the artifact lands. Why are they there?
The third issue with consistency lies in the actual choice of cards. Almost every entry in a deck like this should have one copy or four, with exceptions only made for cards you’re short on. Admittedly, there are other exceptions that occasionally occur; if you only need three more red cards, for example, no sense in playing four of that last card and put yourself at nineteen, just run three.
The fourth and final issue is the colors and mana costs. White appears to be the least-used color, and yet we have several cards with double-White in the cost. This needs to be cleared up, but we have to stay within the initial constraints of the Arbiter’s request.
Now, let’s take a look at each of these issues of consistency individually:
Colors
Let’s begin with red, shall we? You’ll quickly note that this deck includes sixteen exclusively red cards, plus an additional eleven red cards that are either split or gold.
Twenty-seven cards? That’s nine too many.
This deck looks to be control-oriented, so we’ll need to keep all of the obvious control elements. Since we will focus around Blue and probably another color, we need to minimize red as much as possible, and that means looking at what is essential and jettisoning the rest.
These cards should stay:
1 Gamble
4 Fire/Ice
3 Prophetic Bolt
Here we have eight cards that fit perfectly into our mana and our needs. None of these cards cost too much, and four of them can be played even if Arbiter gets unlucky and doesn’t draw any red mana. This is a good start. Now, we’ll probably want some more removal:
4x Terminate
4x Flametongue Kavu
Each of these cards gives us good removal, and the FTK doubles as a good enough creature to usually trade two-for-one. That brings us to sixteen total cards. Looking at the other cards Arbiter uses, I know that we’ll end up with a lot of basic lands, and he also likes recursion. With that in mind, I think that we need two additional cards to help out:
Arbiter can Buried Alive or discard the Anger – and then, if he needs a Mountain, he can cycle the Chartooth Cougar. The Cougar can also be cycled away, so you do not need a Mountain out to use him. Additionally, a cycling creature has synergy with the recursion that he uses. Normally, if Arbiter used a lot of duals, I would push the landcycling up significantly, but here, it just serves as a way of getting a mountain, filling up the red spots, and interacting with recursion.
You’ll note that we removed all of the burn and a few creatures. Something like Covetous Dragon is never reliable in an environment as random as this without complete dedication to artifacts, which we simply do not have here. The Arc-Slogger is amazingly good when you have 250 cards in your deck, but it costs double-red and we need consistency. What we are left with is more streamlined.
Next, I turn to White. We have nineteen exclusively White cards with two White gold cards. You might think that little needs to be done here – but here, we’ll need to apply that fourth issue of consistency: Namely, jettisoning the cards with a double-White cost. Here is what we have left after trimming the fat:
2 Seal of Cleansing
3 Dismantling Blow
1 Balance
4 Swords to Plowshares
1 Ray of Revelation
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Land Tax
1 Sterling Grove
In addition to the Wrath of God effects, I also removed Eladamri’s Call, which I really don’t think is that strong. What we are left with is a hodgepodge of cards. Ideally, I’d want to add an Academy Rector, but that’s rare and I don’t know if Arbiter has access to one. Another thought is Vindicate – but again, that’s cost-prohibitive for many, even if Vindicates don’t cost as much these days. A winning condition like Eternal Dragon would also be useful, but again, it’s rare.
That leaves us with enchantment and artifact removal. I really like Ray of Revelation because it can trade two-for-one, and it can be used if you have a discard outlet without access to White mana – again, in case of an unlucky draw. I also really like Orim’s Thunder more than Dismantling Blow, but I’ll let Arbiter make the call in this case and go with the Dismantling Blow. The Blue kicker is more likely to see play anyway, since that is his focus color. Therefore, I’d add a Dismantling Blow and three copies of Ray of Revelation.
Now we have a choice – which color should supplement this deck and its Blue base? Black or Green? Both have potential. Ultimately, I think that we need more Green than Black for this deck. So, let’s work on reducing our Black. We have twenty-two exclusively Black cards, plus we have five more Black cards that are split or gold. Additionally, we are playing with four Terminates that have Black in the cost, although we are counting them as red. This is not normally a good idea to use gold cards from two splash colors, but in this case we need to keep spot removal since we took out the burn and the five Wrath effects.
The Krovikan Horrors and the Zombie Infestations just feel like they are relics from a previous build. Although the Infestation is a useful madness outlet, you can get madness outlets from other colors and it is not like the fragile 2/2 that is made is usually worth the investment of two cards.
Let’s start with the basic requirements for the color. These are cards that need to be in the deck for various reasons:
4 Contract from Below
1 Mind Twist
1 Demonic Consultation
3 Buried Alive
1 Spite / Malice
Ten cards. Now, I want to add to this list before we turn and look at what he has. One card that I would love to add is Demonic Tutor, but I recognize that to be a more expensive uncommon from ages of old. Another card that I’d want is a Vampiric Tutor – but again, we are limited by cost. Diabolic Tutor, however, is readily available in Odyssey or 8th Edition form. Yawgmoth’s Will and Recurring Nightmare are two other cards that I’d like to see, especially Will; unfortunately, both are prohibited by cost.
With our addition of Diabolic Tutor, we are sitting at eleven cards. We have several options. Arbiter likes Psychatog and we could run four of them easily… Or we could run with a bunch of Edicts, which Arbiter is currently running. I like going with the four Psychatog supplemented three Edicts of Arbiter’s choice. I prefer Chainer’s Edict, however, so that is what I am going to list.
And we are done with fixing the colors.
Quality
Now I am going to jump over to card quality and hit the other issue that this deck has; I can’t go over the mana base until we have a more dedicated and streamlined decklist from top to bottom.
We still have three areas to look at – Green, Blue, and Artifacts. In each area, we have some substandard selections, and we also have a lot of needs. Let’s begin with removing the chaff.
Because Mirrodin is so artifact-heavy, a lot of players have really started throwing Mirrodin artifacts into any old deck. We have to make sure, however, that our artifacts are the best available, and get the job done, no matter what set they are from.
And this decklist has some questionable card choices. Pyrite Spellbomb, for example, will hit for two damage occasionally and always cycle. But is a sorcery-speed cycler what we want from an artifact spot? Surely we can do better.
Other examples are the following artifacts from the decklist: Urza’s Bauble, Temporal Aperture, Lotus Petal, Erratic Portal, and Crystal Shard. None of these artifacts does something that another card wouldn’t do better.
Then there are synergy issues. Urza’s Blueprints, for example, is a strong card in a deck dedicated to abuse them… But generally, it’s about as useful as an Archivist otherwise, and almost as fragile. For twelve mana, Myr Incubator will produce at least twenty-five to thirty creatures. With a Planar Portal, for twelve mana you have the exact card that you need from your deck. Which is better: Inspiration or Demonic Tutor?
There’s really nothing for the Voltaic Keys to abuse either, except for the rare occasion when both ‘Prints and the Key hit the table. As you can tell, this decklist has a lot of artifact tricks – Worn Powerstone, Temporal Aperture, Blueprints – but none have any real power to them. In fact, I think the Powerstones need to go as well. We’ll cut down on casting costs of cards, and the expensive tricks have been removed, so the Powerstones can go with them.
I like Black Vise in an aggressive deck, but not this one. I’d like to have another graveyard-destroying Tormod’s Crypt, so we’ll simply add another. Here are the artifacts that are left that I would consider for our final decklist:
3 Zuran Orb
1 Mirari
1 Tormod’s Crypt
1 Sol Ring
1 Scroll Rack
1 Icy Manipulator (would like to add more)
3 Fellwar Stone (would like to have 4)
1 Grim Monolith
1 Talisman of Impulse
1 Talisman of Unity (would like to increase Talismans)
2 Masticore
1 Mind Stone
1 Jeweled Bird (just in case)
With nineteen artifacts, we might want to come back and reassess the cards here later. The list still looks clunky to me, but it’s a lot better.
Turning to Green, I see a strong list of cards. In fact, we will expand Green to fit our needs. The only card that I would cut is Deep Reconnaissance; it’s too slow. Instead, I’d use Lay of the Land, which would be one of the few one-drops in the deck. Other methods, like Land Grant and Landcyclers are less useful because there are no dual lands to acquire. Rampant Growth is good and it accelerates your mana, but it will also compete with other two-drops. (There may not be many two drops now, but I’m going to add some.)
Last we look to Blue – a large list of cards. The Blue is good in many places because it includes a lot of drawing effects. However, the list is a bit random.
Starting with the drawing effects, I would keep every card-drawing effect listed here except for the Concentrates and the Frantic Searches. The Concentrates have a double-Blue cost combined with a sorcery-speed effect, and that just doesn’t do it for me. The Frantic Searches just don’t have the impact of other cards in this build.
I would also want a fourth Deep Analysis. It’s a great drawing mechanism, it makes a good Quiet Speculation target, and with some discard outlets, you can use it really early to try and draw some lands.
I question the inclusion of Tinker and the Windfall. I’m not sure how either would be very helpful in this deck. The Tinker does get a Masticore or an Icy, but you have to sacrifice an artifact, and there just aren’t that many. Your artifacts are all cheap to drop, so I don’t see why a Fabricate wouldn’t be a better choice because it’s a pure tutor without any additional requirement. How often the Windfall is useful depends on your deck, and I remain unconvinced that this deck has the mileage for it… So I am pulling out both.
Let’s bump up your Quiet Speculation count to four and that will finish off our cuts of the color Blue.
1 Thirst for Knowledge (wouldn’t mind playing more, but don’t have much of new set)
1 Wonder
1 Fabricate
1 Time Spiral
4 Exclude
1 Braingeyser
4 Counterspell
4 Deep Analysis
1 Mystic Tutor
4 Probe
4 Impulse
4 Circular Logic
4 Quiet Speculation
3 Fact or Fiction (need to get another)
Let’s take a look at the new totals for the deck:
- Red: 18
- Black: 18
- White: 18
- Green: 24
- Blue: 37
- Artifact: 19
- Total: 134
- Target number: 160
- Vacancies: 26
Adding Consistency:
There are a few things missing that we will need in those twenty-six cards. We need a few discard outlets, we need more early defense, and we need winning conditions. Let’s add them in.
There are two creatures that act as discard outlets and also are pretty good creatures: Aquamoeba and Wild Mongrel. Luckily, they are both in our colors, and both can serve as early protection. Adding in four of each gives us eight cards and leaves us at seventeen left.
For early defense, nothing beats good old Wall of Blossoms. Two mana, 0/4, and it cantrips. It’s just too good not to play. I wouldn’t play too many exclusively defensive creatures because you can run into creatureless decks… But a Wall that isn’t even a commitment to using a card? That’s never useless.
We have fourteen cards left. Note that the twelve cards used thus far are all quick defense, so we needed less additional help. However, this deck is in serious need of some winning conditions. Let’s add them in.
Arbiter mentioned Grizzly Fate in his original post. Now that Green has been moved to a major color, the double Green cost should be more easily found. I really like at least three Grizzly Fates.
The Blue section has a lot of card drawing and some countermagic, but doesn’t take advantage of its natural tendency to fly over others with big nasty creatures. Here, different players really like different things from their creatures. Depending on your card pool and preferences, there are things to like about Quicksilver Dragon, Avatar of Will, or something simpler like Mahamoti Djinn. Personally, for a deck that quickly achieves threshold, I’d like Possessed Aven, which for four mana is a 4/4 Black creature that can tap to kill Blue creatures. Other options include Zanam Djinn or Cloud Djinn. I would play four of a Blue flyer with at least four mana. Since I like Possessed Aven, I am adding that, but spice with whatever you have access to.
I would then add four of a Blue flyer that’s cheaper to play. Something that can mug up the sky or serve more quickly. You could go for offense with something like Rishadan Airship, or you could go in the opposite direction and look for a defensive creature like Ghost Ship. If you go that defensive, however, you might as well toss in a cheaper wall like Wall of Fog (which can be burned away, however).
Obviously, I am trying to stay away from quick but older rares like Serendib Efreet, which would otherwise be the perfect combination of speed and size for this last flying slot. Preferring a quick card to a slow one, I would use Gaea’s Skyfolk. We’ve focused on Blue and Green as our main colors, so there is a very good chance of getting the flying elves down on turn two.
We now have three spaces remaining. Here are some cards that I would recommend, in the following order:
Future Sight
Since Arbiter mentioned in his original post that he had a Future Sight, I’d play one now. If you add in an Academy Rector, then you also want one as your best Rector target. In most decks, there is no better Rector target than Future Sight. I think that you’ll find it easier to play now that your deck has focused on its mana.
Living Death
Although you usually want to avoid cards in splash colors having double-colored costs, you actually have twenty-two Black cards already, making it your middle color. A few double-Black cards with a significant impact would be playable… And nothing has the game-changing impact of a Living Death.
Compulsion
As a generic addition to your deck, Compulsion would be pretty good. Whether they act as a discard outlet or a threshold enabler or a cycling mechanism doesn’t matter, because it’s a good card. Use this to fill dead spaces in the deck.
Filth
Along with Genesis, Wonder and Anger, you may want to consider running Filth, which essentially makes your creatures unblockable against dual land-packing decks. This is a great Buried Alive target to alpha strike your opponent from nowhere.
Mana Leak/Arcane Denial
Countermagic that doesn’t cost two Blue mana would probably be extremely helpful for the early game, and I would prioritize them in this order.
Knowing that you have a Future Sight, our last three cards are the Sight and two Compulsions, which I also know that you have. I like these cards in the above order, so we can hit this list up if we clear out any spaces in the next stage. Cards added overall:
4 Wall of Blossoms
4 Wild Mongrel
4 Aquamoeba
4 Possessed Aven
4 Gaea’s Skyfolk
3 Grizzly Fate
2 Compulsion
1 Future Sight
Mana
We now head into the area of mana. Here are the new numbers for our deck:
- Red: 18
- Black: 18
- White: 18
- Green: 39
- Blue: 48
- Artifact: 19
With the spikes in the number of Green and Blue cards, we’ll obviously want to bias our lands in those directions. And obviously, any land that produces both Green and Blue is extremely helpful.
Our original decklist includes a lot of random lands, and we really want to shore that up. To begin, we won’t need Ghitu Encampments. We have neither enough red mana to activate it nor enough of a use for the red mana it produces. The same is true of the Nantuko Monastery and White.
Next, any filter land is less useful than most basic lands. Weakening a hand at the beginning of the game is simply not tolerable. In other land news, the artifact lands serve no useful purpose aside from being vulnerable to more of your opponent’s removal. Let’s take those out. The Ancient Tombs simply do not feel in the style of this more controllish deck. Leave the damage to aggro or combo.
Here is what we have left looking at painlands, manlands, taplands, and a few extra lands here and there:
1 Faerie Conclave (would like to add more)
1 Treetop Village
1 Mountain Valley
1 Grasslands
4 Rocky Tar Pit
1 Bad River
1 Flood Plain
4 Elfhame Palace
2 Shivan Oasis
4 Coastal Tower
2 Salt Marsh
4 Urborg Volcano
1 Strip Mine
1 Krosan Verge
1 Riftstone Portal
1 Kor Haven
1 Dustbowl
1 Volrath’s Stronghold
1 City of Brass
4 Karplusan Forest
3 Forge[/author]“]Battlefield [author name="Forge"]Forge[/author]
3 Sulfurous Springs
There are a lot of red sources up in here, and I’m not sure that’s a good thing. Honestly, the balance of the non-basics needs recalibrated towards Green and Blue.
Forty-three lands total thus far. We need forty-seven more. If we have more Treetop Villages, then play as many as possible. Other ideas include Yavimaya Hollow, Yavimaya Coast, maybe a few Treva’s Ruins to smooth out the color requirements. But I don’t know that Arbiter has any of that, so:
7 Swamp
5 Plains
5 Mountain
13 Forest
17 Island
And there we go.
Whew! Rebuilding a Five-Color deck is a lot more work than a simple sixty-card deck – it’s also a lot more rewarding! Arbiter now has a much more streamlined deck that should function more smoothly. I stall have concerns that his creature count is a bit low and he could use some more winning conditions, but I’m not sure. Obviously, the deck is ready for play, but a lot of tweaking could still be used.
I’d like to thank Arbiter for allowing me to spend thirteen typed pages analyzing his deck and refurbishing it. We may revisit this topic at a later time, but for now, I am getting a little drowsy from working on this article this evening. So, without further ado:
Until Later,
Abe Sargent
Oh, in case you want to see the entire deck in its refurbished state, allow me to present the Appendix:
Red (18):
1 Gamble
4 Fire / Ice
3 Prophetic Bolt
4 Terminate
4 Flametongue Kavu
1 Anger
1 Chartooth Cougar
White (18):
2 Seal of Cleansing
4 Dismantling Blow
1 Balance
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Ray of Revelation
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Land Tax
1 Sterling Grove
Black (18):
4 Contract from Below
1 Mind Twist
1 Demonic Consultation
1 Diabolic Tutor
3 Buried Alive
1 Spite / Malice
4 Psychatog
3 Chainer’s Edict
Green (39):
3 Krosan Tusker
2 Genesis
4 Werebear
4 Roar of the Wurm
4 Harrow
3 Lay of the Land
1 Hermit Druid
3 Sylvan Library
4 Wall of Blossoms
4 Wild Mongrel
4 Gaea’s Skyfolk
3 Grizzly Fate
Blue (48):
1 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Wonder
1 Fabricate
1 Time Spiral
4 Exclude
1 Braingeyser
4 Counterspell
4 Deep Analysis
1 Mystic Tutor
4 Probe
4 Impulse
4 Circular Logic
4 Quiet Speculation
3 Fact or Fiction
4 Possessed Aven
4 Aquamoeba
2 Compulsion
1 Future Sight
Artifact (19):
3 Zuran Orb
1 Mirari
2 Tormod’s Crypt
1 Sol Ring
1 Scroll Rack
1 Icy Manipulator
3 Fellwar Stone
1 Grim Monolith
1 Talisman of Impulse
1 Talisman of Unity
2 Masticore
1 Mind Stone
1 Jeweled Bird
Land (90):
7 Swamp
5 Plains
5 Mountain
13 Forest
17 Island
1 Faerie Conclave
1 Treetop Village
1 Mountain Valley
1 Grasslands
4 Rocky Tar Pit
1 Bad River
1 Flood Plain
4 Elfhame Palace
2 Shivan Oasis
4 Coastal Tower
2 Salt Marsh
4 Urborg Volcano
1 Strip Mine
1 Krosan Verge
1 Riftstone Portal
1 Kor Haven
1 Dustbowl
1 Volrath’s Stronghold
1 City of Brass
4 Karplusan Forest
3 Forge[/author]“]Battlefield [author name="Forge"]Forge[/author]
3 Sulfurous Springs