Blog Elemental – Knocking Off My Block
July 26, 2004
First off, there’s been a request to list my current decklist at the beginning of each week. Here ’tis:
Nuts And Bolts V.2.1
Critters (18):
4 Leonin Elder
4 Leonin Squire
4 Trinket Mage
4 Auriok Salvagers
2 Qumulox
Non-Critters ():
4 Aether Spellbomb
4 Chromatic Sphere
2 Artificer’s Intuition
2 Salvaging Station
1 Conjurer’s Bauble
1 Leonin Bola
1 Pyrite Spellbomb
1 Scrabbling Claws
1 Sunbeam Spellbomb
1 Engineered Explosives
Land (24):
10 Plains
4 Island
4 Ancient Den
4 Seat of the Synod
2 Great Furnace
You may have noticed that every single card in the deck is currently from the Mirrodin block (that is, Mirrodin, Darksteel, or Fifth Dawn). This isn’t hugely surprising since the deck is based around the cog mechanic, a mechanic first seen in Fifth Dawn with most of the usable cogs either in that set or in the form of Mirrodin‘s Spellbombs. However, it bugs me that no other Standard-legal cards have thus far made it into the deck. Can it really be true that nothing from Eighth Edition, Onslaught, Legions, or Scourge is worth including?
Here are some brainstormed ideas of cards from recent sets outside of Mirrodin block that might fit the deck:
Creatures: Air Elemental, Ageless Sentinels, Clone, Eternal Dragon, Exalted Angel, Intrepid Hero, Mahamoti Djinn, Phantom Warrior, Planar Guide, Quicksilver Dragon, Riptide Shapeshifter, Serra Angel, Spiketail Hatchling, Sunweb, Wall of Hope, Wall of Swords, Weathered Wayfarer, Windborn Muse.
Card-drawing: Catalog, Concentrate, Future Sight, Inspiration, Read the Runes, Trade Routes.
Counterspells: Complicate, Discombobulate, Mana Leak, Rewind, Stifle.
Land: City of Brass, Flooded Strand, Grand Coliseum, Secluded Steppe.
Other Stuff: Boomerang, Brain Freeze, Chain of Vapor, Choking Tethers, Evacuation, Gilded Light, Renewed Faith, Spellbook, Star Compass, Unsummon, Wing Shards, Words of Wind, Words of Worship, Worship, Wrath of God, Zur’s Weirding
Some of these suggestions are a lot wackier than others (the idea of adding Zur’s Weirding, for example), and some (*cough* Wrath of God and Exalted Angel *cough*) definitely feel like they make the deck a lot less”casual.” In addition, I didn’t include splash-cards of other colors outside of White and Blue, but truly the deck has access to all five colors of mana.
I’m obviously just thinking out loud here. It just seems silly to have a Standard deck only drawing on cards from three different sets. I’m tempted to keep the deck Block-legal, but there’s no point in me doing so. I like Standard more than any other format, and if I focus on MD5 (that’s Mirrodin Block Constructed for you beginners), I will be able to find a lot fewer games in the Casual room.
If you have non-Block cards you think fit into the deck, either from my above list or otherwise, please speak up in the Forums. I’ve got some ideas I’ll likely pursue tomorrow or Wednesday, but I always appreciate the feedback.