[Editor’s Note: Okay, I have to apologize to Jay here up front. First I forgot to send his article to Ferrett when F was covering for me on Friday. Then I got too busy at Origins to edit this myself for Monday and still didn’t remember to send it to Ferrett when he was covering Monday. Nor did I forward his other Blog to Ferrett because I was too tired to mess with any editorial stuff at Origins. Therefore, I’m giving you a huge heaping helping of JMS today. Enjoy, kiddies, and once again, my apologies to Jay.]
The Madness of DoctorJay – 30 Decks in 1 Day
June 25, 2004
I’ve tried a lot of odd writing experiments over the years. One of the ones people still want to talk with me about is my”30 Decks in 10 Days” explosion, in which I build three decks a day for two weeks after the release of Invasion.
Odd that there’s no link to those articles here, eh? That’s because when StarCityGames.com went over to its new servers, some of the old content was lost including – you guessed it – those ten articles.
I was cleaning out some old files the other day when lo and behold I found the full series. Here they are. All of them. Please keep in mind that a) these are pre-edited, b) Invasion wasn’t legal in Standard yet so the truly awesome cards hadn’t been revealed, and c) four years ago I maintained a vague hope of being useful to the tournament player (the ratings are downright embarrassing). A lot still makes me smile about these articles, chiefly my plea at the end of the series.
Enjoy.
Hello.
I’m paying attention to Magic again, and my how things have changed. For those of you who don’t know me, I wrote for StarCity about three sets ago, right up until the release of Nemesis. I quit the game and sold my cards for some better balance in my life. I have that balance now. Thanks for asking.
I’ve been playing Magic online, not owning a single card, for a few weeks now. I don’t know the metagame. I don’t know what cards are currently popular. But I have carefully considered the coming Type 2 in my wee little brain, have been playing quite a bit, and I do have a few deck ideas. In fact, that may be understating things a bit.
Back when I wrote for this distinguished website on a weekly basis, I always considered my raison d’etre to be promoting innovation in Type 2. I was tired of stagnant metagames and of people thinking they were being creative by changing two cards on the Washington State Champion deck. I played, and wrote about, the wacky decks I created and then threw into tournaments. I wanted to promote what I affectionately called”rogue-itis.”
I am, for better or worse, still infected with rogue-itis. I still want to see people creating and playtesting their own deck ideas. And so, after a prolonged hiatus, I have decided to try something… ambitious.
Over the next ten business days, I’m going to throw thirty decklists at you for the new Type 2. That’s three a day for you math majors. I won’t go into each deck in the amount of detail I used to because, well, there’s that life balance issue (and I’m doing thirty for cripe’s sake!). When I’m done, you likely won’t be hearing from me until the next set gets released. But I will give some idea as to how to play the deck and what level of success I’ve had with each online.
I hope that the decklists will get you thinking about cards you hadn’t considered before and about more than just Rebels, Ponza, Waters, Control White, Blue Skies and Snuff-o-Derm (okay, okay, a few people have told me about the possible metagame) for the coming Type 2.
Without being an ass, I respectfully ask that you not e-mail me about these decks. I am putting all of my free time into this little endeavor and won’t be able to respond if you do write. Instead, I ask that you use the StarCity discussion forum to pick these things apart. I’ll check into the forum from time to time and put in my two cents if people are actually interested in a discussion.
Feel comfortable with what I’m trying to do? Great! Let’s get started!
Deck 1: 3cMASSACRE
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Utopia Tree
4 Rith, the Awakener
4 Verdeloth, the Ancient
4 Tsabo’s Web
4 Artifact Mutation
4 Aura Mutation
4 Spontaneous Generation
2 Revive
3 Brushland
3 Karplusan Forest
4 Tinder Farm
16 forest
Of all the decks I’ve made, this is maybe the most fun to play. But also potentially the most devastating to one’s psyche. The strategy here is to either overrun an opponent with Saprolings, a big legendary fattie, or both. It is also highly versatile with both Mutation spells in it. The problem is that many, many spells–such as Earthquake, Massacre, Cave-In, Thrashing Wumpus… heck, even Simoon–can clear your side of the board. Thus the name of the deck. The only good news is that even after getting swept of critters, the deck has the potential to recover quickly. It also has a 6/6 flier and a 4/7, neither of which is going to be affected by any of the above spells. The four copies of each legend and the Mutations may seem a bit odd, but the deck doesn’t mind having a full hand when Spontaneous Generation is around. Tsabo’s Web protects the very fragile mana base a little. One note on playing the deck: It is _very_ tempting to wait and not play Verdeloth until you have some extra mana for his Kicker cost. Don’t. Play him as soon as you can. He is a 4/7 monstrosity on his own and there are no less than sixteen other spells to create 2/2 Saprolings. Besides, he’ll likely draw a removal spell and then you can play that other one in your hand with Kicker.
Deck 2: ASSAULT AND BATTERY
4 Kavu Titan
4 Nomadic Elf
4 River Boa
4 Yavimaya Barbarian
4 Chimeric Idol
4 Blastoderm
4 Shock
4 Assault/Battery
3 Wild Might
3 Fires Of Yavimaya
4 Karplusan Forest
4 Shivan Oasis
10 Forest
4 Mountain
Did you play back during Mirage? Do you remember the classic R/G speed decks in that block? Playing this deck reminds me a lot of those days. There isn’t a tremendous amount of versatility here; The strategy is pretty much just to drop critters and get blockers out of the way. But the deck is still loads of fun. A well-placed Void is depressing, especially when a Kavu Titan costs the same as a Nomadic Elf. Teferi’s Moat, too, can really slow the deck down. But that’s what sideboards are for, am I right? Hell yeah! Ahem.
Anyway, you will keep most decks on their heels. I find in playing the deck that I cast Assault and Battery about the same amount of time, making it one of the better split cards. Fires of Yavimaya is truly amazing, and I personally think Nomadic Elf is one of the truly underappreciated cards from Invasion. Especially in a deck with a low mana curve, you don’t care about the inefficiency as much as you do the mana consistency the Elf can give when it isn’t being a Grizzly Bear. A good testament to this deck is that when I have lost with a weird experimental deck, I often whip out this one to beat my opponent and make myself feel better.
Deck 3: BLUE VISE
4 Waterfront Bouncer
4 Indentured Djinn
4 Viseling
4 Opt
4 Seal Of Removal
4 Accumulated Knowledge
4 Boomerang
4 Wash Out
2 Distorting Wake
2 Misdirection
4 Rishadan Port
4 Saprazzan Skerry
16 Island
In beating three different opponents with this deck in one night, each used the exact same line:”I can’t believe I’m going to lose to Viseling!” It was a little spooky, actually. Honestly, the Viseling only wins the game half the time. The other half an Indentured Djinn mugs an opponent while the bounce keeps her or him from responding. Accumulated Knowledge might seem a tad slow for this deck, but I find it makes perfect Waterfront Bouncer fodder and, mid-game, can fill my hand with just enough bounce to win the game. I haven’t decided whether I like Distorting Wake in the deck or whether another card like Dominate should take its
place. I have decided, however, that Wash Out is great even if it is a sorcery and, like Nomadic Elf, is a currently overlooked card in the set. All permanents! Of the same color! Viseling is COLORLESS! How great is that? And yes, this deck might need some countermagic other than Misdirection, but I like the more
aggressive strategies which is why they currently haven’t made the cut. I wanna _DO_ stuff!
There are three ideas to raise an eyebrow or two. You’ll notice that I don’t suggest sideboards. I avoid speculating on sideboards for two reasons: First, the Magic Encyclopedia games don’t use sideboards so I haven’t needed to think about them. Second, not including a sideboard makes you (let’s call you”the reader” if you don’t mind) playtest the deck to see its potential weaknesses before taking it to a tournament. I can speculate on sideboards for each of the thirty decks I’m going to list, but since this is more of a thought exercise than anything else I won’t.
Tomorrow… three more decks to shake up your thinking!
Jay Moldenhauer-Salazar
“doctorjay” on Magic Encyclopedia
Hello True Believers!
Yes, it’s me again. You are going to get very sick of that silly smiling picture of me over the next two weeks. Or are you sick of me already? How about now? How about now? How about now?
If you don’t know what this”Thirty Decks in Ten Days” thing is about, check out my last article <link to last article>. There you’ll find all of my caveats and explanations. Above all, you’ll see the first three decks. Hey, speaking of decks, look what I found…
Deck 4: COASTAL FISH
4 Vodalian Merchant
4 Rootwater Thief
4 Lord Of Atlantis
4 Galina’s Knight
4 Disenchant
4 Angelic Shield
4 Armageddon
4 Gush
3 Exile
2 Disrupt
4 Adarkar Wastes
4 Coastal Tower
10 Island
5 Plains
Most of the merfolk decks I’ve been seeing online have been U/B. I can see the temptation, and in fact have a U/B fish deck myself. But don’t overlook the U/W possibilities.
First of all, you get Galina’s Knight. Protection from red is the best of all protections because red’s only removal is based on damage and it also happens to be the color that can give merfolk absolute fits. Second, you get Angelic Shield. The Shield is quite possibly a weenie deck’s best friend, making the fish not only un-Shockable, but also acting as a Seal of Removal. Third, you get Disenchant. For a deck that can lose to Teferi’s Moat (mostly, although the Thief can fly), Story Circle, even Chimeric Idol, the Disenchant becomes a great Answer. Finally, with white you get Armageddon. A game-breaker, there is something obscene about Gush and Geddon being in the same deck. The addition of Geddon makes this deck play a lot like the White Weenie decks of old; Drop a few creatures, pump them up with the Lord, then Geddon and win before an opponent can recover. Simple, really. Exile gives some honest-to-goodness creature control, though it isn’t really the reason to play white.
Once again, I am playing blue without any significant countermagic. As I’ve said before, I like aggressive strategies. This should not dissuade you from trying the old tried-and-true Counterspell, however, even if it isn’t my style. I have had great success with this deck online, and it’s one of my more polished decklists.
Deck 5: CRIMSON
4 Crimson Acolyte
4 Thermal Glider
4 Scoria Cat
3 Warmonger
4 Seal Of Fire
4 Distorting Lens
4 Marble Diamond
4 Task Mage Assembly
3 Disenchant
2 Spirit Link
16 Mountain
9 Plains
Okay, this deck might need some explaining. It is possibly one of the strangest decks I have ever thought up. In fact, it took me a little while to get up enough guts to play it against a stranger. Surprisingly enough, it has managed to win far more matches than it has lost.
Upon first glance, the deck looks like it is simply built to be a red hoser deck. And make no mistake, it does hose red decks. But more than that, it is a R/W control deck with a lot of strangely beautiful synergies. Crimson Acolyte plus any combination of Distorting Lens, Warmonger and Task Mage Assembly is the deck’s primary strength. Thermal Glider also works well with these cards and gives the deck some offense before Scoria Cat hits the table. The Cat also likes Task Mage Assembly. Warmonger and Spirit Link is a fun, casual-play kind of combo that gets even better with the Acolyte on the table, but Spirit Link is also a versatile card that can be used lots of different ways. Marble Diamond is there because you mostly want to tap out to attack with the Cat while saving white mana for the Crimson Acolyte on your opponent’s turn.
This deck is awfully fun when it works, and it works a heck of a lot of the time. The problem is really that playing the deck makes my head hurt; There are a _LOT_ of decisions to be made. Make them right, and you will have your opponent scratching his or her head wondering how such a pile won.
Deck 6: DARKFIRE
4 Hate Weaver
4 Shivan Zombie
4 Cinder Shade
4 Skizzik
4 Dark Ritual
4 Seal Of Fire
4 Shock
4 Stone Rain
3 Backlash
2 Recover
1 Keldon Necropolis
4 Sulfurous Springs
4 Urborg Volcano
7 Mountain
7 Swamp
Good old B/R speed. Unlike the previous deck. I don’t think this one needs a whole lot of explanation. The strategy here is quite simply to do 20 damage as quickly as possible. Two colors give the combination of black’s mana acceleration with red’s direct damage and also allows access to gold spells. In addition, two colors diversify the kind of sideboard options available to the deck. Hate Weaver, in my opinion, is the best of the weavers. I have become increasingly impressed with Cinder Shade. Originally, believe it or not, Blazing Specter was in the deck instead of
Skizzik. The Specter is a fine card for both beatdown and control, but Skizzik is clearly the better beatdown machine.
Probably the only two spells that really need explaining are Backlash and Recover. The latter is mostly used to retrieve a Skizzik or Shade without losing card advantage, but could just as easily be Flame Rift. Backlash is an amusingly effective card. At first there was only one in the deck, but every time I drew it the card helped me win the game. So then I went to two copies. Then finally three. Backlash will, more often than not, either do the last points of lethal damage or remove the last blocker for your final assault. Either way it is the deck’s finisher card. Three are in the deck because you almost always want one, but having four would probably flood your hand with them. It’s no Recoil, but it works just fine here. Generally speaking, it is hard to lose with this deck.
Voila! Three more decks, all of the two-color variety. I’m just getting warmed up here, so strap yourself in and tune into StarCity every day until the new Type 2 becomes official in November. You haven’t seen some of my more embarrassing monstrosities yet (ghoulish laughter)…
Have fun!
Jay Moldenhauer-Salazar
“doctorjay” on Magic Encyclopedia
Day Three, and I’m still feeling full of vim and vigor. What is vim, by the way?
Again, if you are just jumping into this”Thirty Decks in Ten Days” thing, check out my first article <link to article> to get an introduction. For those of you who have read decks One through Six, get ready for three more decks. Today I’ve got more friendly two-color decks because, well, they’re just darned easy to make in the new Type 2.
Deck 7: DARKFISH
4 Vodalian Merchant
4 Rootwarer Thief
4 Lord Of Atlantis
4 Vodalian Zombie
4 Urborg Drake
4 Counterspell
4 Sleeper’s Robe
4 Recoil
2 Undermine
1 Crystal Spray
1 Lobotomy
4 Salt Marsh
4 Underground River
10 Island
6 Swamp
This deck is perhaps more typical of the merfolk decks you might see online. I even used Counterspell, which is normally against my Magic religion. The strategy here is one of aggro-control; The deck is designed to drop enough creatures to be Scary, and then protect those creatures with some minimal countermagic and bounce. Most merfolk decks use about 12-16 creatures and about 8-10 counterspells, and I–as I am want to do–have leaned towards a slightly more aggressive balance. My reasoning is that with Sleeper’s Robe being such a key spell in the deck, you _always_ want something to enchant. But I’m also not kidding myself: I just like critters.
Three cards stand out as slightly different from other U/B merfolk decks. First, every fish deck I have seen online has somehow overlooked Urborg Drake. True, the Drake isn’t a merfolk but it is also a hugely efficient creature. Flying makes him markedly better than Erg Raiders and worth the extra blue mana. Every fish deck I’ve played against has, I think, been convinced that the Drake belongs in it. Well, the deck didn’t actually
decide that for itself, but you get my meaning.
It seems odd to have only one copy of both Crystal Spray and Lobotomy. And I suppose it is odd. Crystal Spray itself might raise a few eyebrows. The Spray is actually one of my favorite cards from Invasion so I just had to include a copy. It can be aimed at a Vodalian Zombie to save it or, more preferrably, at a Lord of Atlantis to give all your critters the landwalk they need for the final assault. Lobotomy fits perfectly in the deck’s theme and it is easy to argue for more copies. If you must(sniff), swap out the Spray for another Lobotomy.
Deck 8: DEJA VU
4 Nether Spirit
3 Squee, Goblin Nabob
3 Pyre Zombie
2 Necrosavant
4 Dark Ritual
4 Death Pit Offering
4 Void
3 Cremate
3 Charcoal Diamond
3 Snuff Out
3 Massacre
4 Sulfurous Springs
4 Urborg Volcano
3 Mountain
13 Swamp
This deck could also be called Black Hammer. I must admit that I did not think of the core idea for this deck–Death Pit Offering and Nether Spirit–on my own. I can’t actually remember when I played against a deck with that particular combo, but it got me inspired enough to make this version. The basic idea here is to use a few unkillable creatures as offense until Death Pit Offering can give you a few GIANT unkillable creatures as offense. A lot of the creature removal like Massacre and Void might kill your own critters but who cares? They get better!
Void is a particularly impressive card. If you haven’t played against a deck packing Void, you have saved yourself a great deal of stress. I think it may be undercosted by one, but you might as well use that to your advantage. You can clear their side of creatures like Blastoderm, clear their hand of spells like Armageddon _and_ see what else is in their hand to boot. All in one tidy spell! I have yet to play a Void when it wasn’t the main reason for my winning the game.
A note on the creature balance: Pyre Zombie is pretty good, but in my experience not quite good enough to justify four copies. Squee is a funny choice because he is actually meant to be a beatdown machine here. I take strange pleasure in attacking with a 3/3 Squee. Necrosavant is one of those Sixth Edition cards that I think a lot of people have forgotten about, which is a shame. Even with all of the restless creatures, it is possible against discard or mass removal to get Nether Spirit”stuck” in
your graveyard. Cremate is a late edition to the deck but serves the valuable purpose of solving those situations.
Deck 9: ELF-HELP (Get it? Self-Help? Get it?)
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Llanowar Elite
4 Elvish Archers
4 Nomadic Elf
4 Llanowar Knight
4 Elvish Champion
2 Caller Of The Hunt
4 Wild Might
4 Aura Mutation
4 Armadillo Cloak
4 Brushland
4 City Of Brass
4 Elfhame Palace
10 Forest
Yes, I like Lords. Mostly, I like theme decks and the Lords just give me an excuse to build them without feeling like a scrub. I’ve already made a deck around Verdeloth (deck 1) and two merfolk decks (decks 4 and 7) and I bet there will be more to come. That said, an elf deck, like those others, is perfectly viable in the new Type 2.
The elf base, twenty in all, probably won’t get changed a lot. They are all solid elves and pretty much stand head and shoulders above their brethren. Quirion Elves doesn’t provide enough offense, but is the one elf that might be worth consideration. Llanowar Elite might look a bit absurd, but I have won _many_ games with a Wild Might-ed Elite. You see, the little fella has trample whether you pay his ridiculous kicker or not (which I have never done). I admit that Caller of the Hunt is a sentimental choice and should be something like Armageddon if you actually want to win games in a tournament.
Who has played with Armadillo Cloak? Raise your hands. Keep them up. Okay. For those of you who have your hands down, are you shy or just stupid? (Little joke there. I have the utmost respect for all of you. Except maybe you in the corner). The Cloak is sooooooo unfair. I weep every time it’s played against me. I weep even when it’s played on a Birds of Paradise. Make no mistake, the elves are just a nice way to give the Armadillo Cloak a target and it is far and away the most game-breaking card in the deck (unless you sub Geddon for the Caller, in which case it’s close). I believe anytime someone sees an Elfhame Palace
or Brushland hit the table for years to come, they will begin to fear and play around Armadillo Cloak.
I hope you are still with me. Twenty-one decks from my fragile psyche are still looming on the horizon. Don’t forget: If you have comments on any of the decklists, use the StarCity discussion forum and we can share some thoughts.
Your rogue-ific writer,
Jay Moldenhauer-Salazar
“doctorjay” on Magic Encyclopedia
Howdy folks!
Day Four of my little thought experiment. If you haven’t been in on the previous three days, start from Decks 1-3 <link to article> so you can be sure get the full introduction.
I am so disappointed in myself. Today all of the decks might be
considered archetypes, even if each does have my rogue-ified spin.
Deck 10: GOTHAM GREEN
4 Birds Of Paradise
4 Quirion Elves
4 Chimeric Idol
4 Blastoderm
4 Goham Djinn
4 Dark Ritual
4 Harrow
4 Stupor
4 Snuff Out
4 Rishadan Port
10 Forest
10 Swamp
This is my own personal version of Snuff-o-Derm. Mostly I wanted to try and use the new Djinn and the deck started to resemble the more classic Masques Block deck. I am still not convinced that the Djinn is worth some of the extra allowances this deck makes, but it has won enough games online to suggest otherwise.
The basic strategy here is to drop a big meanie (read: Blastoderm or Djinn) and protect it with disruption like Stupor and Port and removal like Snuff Out. Birds, Elves, Ritual and Harrow all help the deck cast a Djinn as early as the third turn. The problem is that the deck can really get mana flooded if for some reason your big meanie does get killed or never shows up in the first place. Thus Vampiric Tutor or more removal like Massacre might be worth replacing some of the mana consistency.
Harrow is the likely culprit for replacment.
This deck is a classic example of the way I think Type 2 is headed. It has some big threats, some attention to mana consistency, and a lot of versatile and utility-focused spells. Creeping Mold, for instance, might be perfect in the deck instead of Harrow. Especially with all of the crazy things you can do in decks these days, utility is the key to a long run in a tournament.
Deck 11: GREEN TEK
4 Birds Of Paradise
4 Utopia Tree
4 Blastoderm
2 Rith, The Awakener
4 Disenchant
4 Harrow
4 Urza’s Rage
4 Snuff Out
4 Fact Or Fiction
2 Elfhame Sanctuary
1 Chromatic Sphere
4 City Of Brass
14 Forest
1 Island
1 Mountain
1 Plains
2 Swamp
I think people try to make 5cGreen too complicated. What I do is use green’s mana consistency as a base and way to get access to all five colors, then I use four copies of each color’s best spell. The result, I think, is a deck that benefits from the strengths of each color without losing reliability. And really, isn’t that what 5cGreen is all about?
To sum up, then: Birds, Utopia Tree, Harrow, Elfhame Sanctuary, Chromatic Sphere and City of Brass all provide the stable mana base. Blastoderm and Rith can be considered the deck’s core offense, although it’s not inconceivable to be throwing 10-point Rages around either. Disenchant, Urza’s Rage and Snuff Out give the deck the ability to deal with almost any threat. Fact or Fiction is the deck’s main source of card-drawing power. Quite a potent combination. I tried out Zanam Djinn in the blue slot, but I think card-drawing is more important than added offense. Oh, and I used to have Tek in place of Rith which accounts for the deck’s name. Finally someone online told me that while Tek is cute, it isn’t a dragon legend. Quite right. I appreciate feedback like that.
As with any deck overly concerned with its mana, this deck is particularly vulnerable to land destruction and can be prone to mana flooding without producing much oompha. Hopefully other decks in the environment are dealing with similar issues to balance the scorecard a little bit. Besides, the overall ability to win any matchup with a fair amount of consistency outweighs these kinds of dangers.
Deck 12: ICK
4 Chimeric Idol
4 Plague Spitter
3 Thrashing Wumpus
4 Dark Ritual
4 Addle
4 Vicious Hunger
4 Stupor
4 Rain Of Tears
2 Vampiric Tutor
2 Recover
3 Peat Bog
4 Rishadan Port
18 Swamp
This deck has gone through a lot of iterations and I am still not sure I have it quite right. It is, of course, a pretty basic Control Black deck. It didn’t start out that way, though. The deck began with an emphasis on Plague Spitter and Noxious Field and initially met with pretty good success before getting absolutely smoked several games in a row. After many attempts to improve the decklist, I finally am about eight cards short of a horribly boring and standard Control Black deck. Poop. It happens.
You don’t need me to tell you how to play Control Black, but I will pay attention to a few potentially overlooked card. The first is Plague Spitter, the original inspiration for the deck. A first turn Ritualed-out Spitter can cause an awful lot of havoc for an opponent. Suddenly Birds of Paradise, Apprentices, Llanowar Elves, etc. all become unplayable. While the Spitter is keeping the board clear, it is a 2/2 that can attack. In my opinion, the Plague Spitter would get a lot more use if Thrashing Wumpus wasn’t in the environment. As it is, the Wumpus is just plain better albeit a tad slow.
The second card worth some attention is Addle. Addle is a geniusely balanced card. In the former Type 2, Addle would be extremely powerful because almost every deck around was monocolored. Now, though, you must play a turn or two before deciding what color to announce and even then you might not get it right. For instance, if an opponent drops a first turn Elfhame Palace, what do you do? Or even worse, a City of Brass!
More often than not Addle will pick off a problematic spell, but in an environment with most decks using two or more colors, it is just balanced enough to net you absolutely nothing occassionally. Personally, I think these aspects make the card more strategic and thus more fun.
Bah. Boring. This will be probably be the only day in which I retread on some old themes, so I hope you enjoyed it. Tomorrow I will turn to something quite a bit different.
Until then, have fun and be creative,
Jay Moldenhauer-Salazar
“doctorjay” on Magic Encyclopedia
Hiya Ferrett,
Have I mentioned that it’s unnerving to know someone only as”the Ferrett”?
Here are the ratings I would give decks 4-12. You can see where the ratings go (right below the title) from the following article, which is for day 5. Good idea on the ratings!
Deck 4: COASTAL FISH
Tourney Play Rating: 8
Casual Play Rating: 5
Deck 5: CRIMSON
Tourney Play Rating: 5
Casual Play Rating: 7
Deck 6: DARKFIRE
Tourney Play Rating: 9
Casual Play Rating: 5
Deck 7: DARKFISH
Tourney Play Rating: 7.5
Casual Play Rating: 5
Deck 8: DEJA VU
Tourney Play Rating: 7
Casual Play Rating: 8
Deck 9: ELF-HELP
Tourney Play Rating: 7
Casual Play Rating: 8
Deck 10: GOTHAM GREEN
Tourney Play Rating: 8
Casual Play Rating: 5
Deck 11: GREEN TEK
Tourney Play Rating: 8 (6 with Tek)
Casual Play Rating: 6 (8 with Tek)
Deck 12: ICK
Tourney Play Rating: 7
Casual Play Rating: 4
_________________________________________
Hello again, you innovative deckbuilders, you.
Today I reach the half-way point in my”Thirty Decks in Ten Days”
endeavor. If you don’t know what the heck I’m talking about, check into my first article four days ago <link to article> and we’ll all let you catch up. It’s okay. We’ll wait for you.
Good, now ready? Here are some new and (hopefully) interesting deck ideas…
Deck 13: KAVOOOOO!
Tourney Play Rating: 4
Casual Play Rating: 8
4 Quirion Elves
4 Kavu Titan
4 Rogue Kavu
4 Raging Kavu
4 Kavu Monarch
3 Hunting Kavu
2 Rooting Kavu
4 Shock
3 Assault/Battery
3 Fires Of Yavimaya
2 Artifact Mutation
4 Karplusan Forest
4 Shivan Oasis
8 Forest
7 Mountain
Probably the most fun thing about this deck is saying it’s name. You really have to howl it for the name to intimidate an opponent, though. Despite my love of Lords, this deck really wasn’t inspired by Kavu Monarch. Instead, the card that inspired it was Shoreline Raider.”Protection from KAVU?” I thought to myself,”Why? Did someone in R&D Future League make a Kavu deck so dominant as to warrant an anti-Kavu creature? Or is someone just messing with my head? Hmmmmm… I better see if Kavu are any good.” That was my thought process.
In truth, Kavu aren’t all that great. Kavu Monarch is actually a pretty spiffy idea for a Lord since it actually is a Kavu itself and gets bigger rather than pumping its subjects. Kavu Titan is clearly good, as it Rooting Kavu in a creature-heavy deck. Rogue Kavu is okay in a creature-light deck (which this isn’t), or as something to provide early offense while the rest of your deck sets up. Hunting Kavu provides marginally decent creature control, and Raging Kavu–while no Simian Grunts–isn’t bad for its surprise value or its offensive punch.
Above all, the cards that make the deck scary are the support cards. Shock, Assault/Battery, Fires of Yavimaya and Artifact Mutation are all top-tier cards. With them and a steady creature onslaught you are bound to win a few games, though if you’re serious about a tournament you should likely turn your attention more to something like Deck #2.
Deck 14: LIME LD
Tourney Play Rating: 7
Casual Play Rating: 4
4 Birds Of Paradise
4 Quirion Elves
4 Chimeric Idol
4 Benalish Emissary
4 Blastoderm
4 Wax/Wane
4 Creeping Mold
4 Armageddon
2 Disenchant
2 Armadillo Cloak
4 Brushland
4 Elfhame Sanctuary
10 Forest
6 Plains
This deck is mostly effective because of the presence of Armageddon. Any deck with Armageddon and Blastoderm is just silly. Add Benalish Emissary and Creeping Mold to squash any attempts at recovering from a Geddon, and you have a recipe for success. Benalish Emissary, I’ve found, is a funny card. I never want to play it without the Kicker, and it certainly isn’t
an offensive threat. But there is something about getting a creature _and_ destroying a land that somehow makes five mana worth it. I have never been sorry to draw one, although I admit it looks on first inspection like the shakiest card in the deck. Armadillo Cloak, as always, works just as well on a Birds or Elf as it does on the Emissary.
This deck is excellent to test against because it possesses so many aspects of typical Type 2 decks for the new environment. Is has Blastoderm, Chimeric Idol and Armadillo Cloak, all of which you must be able to handle. It has land destruction, which you must be able to overcome. And it has loads of enchantment destruction, which can ruin your deck’s strategy. If you can prepare for all of these cards, you have yourself a winning recipe and need only worry about discard and countermagic. On the other hand, you can also just go ahead and play this deck and hope your opponent hasn’t figured out an answer to one of the above tricks.
Deck 15: NIGHT POWDER
Tourney Play Rating: 6
Casual Play Rating: 9
4 Ravenous Rats
3 Scandalmonger
3 Delraich
2 Avatar Of Woe
1 Greel, Mind Raker
1 Volrath The Fallen
4 Dark Ritual
4 Charcoal Diamond
4 Howling Mine
4 Snuff Out
4 Ashen Powder
3 Strands Of Night
4 Peat Bog
19 Swamp
Now hold on a second before you get all high-and-mighty telling me what a pile this is. This deck has consistently surprised me with how well it can handle opposing strategies. In fact, it has not lost a game in six attempts against various online opponents. My thinking in making this deck was this: A lot of decks I had been seeing online involved winning in Timmy, Power Gamer fashion. Many used legends, or Flowstone Overseers, or Blastoderms, or some other monstrosity to bowl over an opponent. Only Rebels, merfolk and Blue Skies tried to win with weenies, and even those decks had their”feature creatures.” The stage had been set to finally use a card I have liked for a long time: Ashen Powder. If I could only get those feature creatures into a graveyard, I could have them myself for a mere four mana. I will be Master Timmy!!!
Thus the idea here is to get your opponent dumping stuff into his or her graveyard. You don’t care if they draw cards too, as long as they are dumping some in the process. You don’t even mind dumping stuff of your own, and in fact doing so might help you use Strands of Night (another Sixth Edition discovery) to get a fast Delraich into play. I have won by dumping two Avatars to a now 22/20 Volrath, by grabbing two successive Delraich out of my graveyard with Strands of Night and by stealing an opposing Wumpus. If the deck has weaknesses it is 1) in eary defense and
2) that it can do absolutely nothing to combat either Teferi’s Moat or Story Circle. Originally I had Flowstone Thopter in the deck for explicitly this purpose, and they worked well until embarrassment sent them away. Other spells that have briefly made appearances are both Worry Beads and Stupor. The former gave way to Howling Mine and the latter eventually became Scandalmonger.
I don’t usually discuss sideboard options, but Massacre and Perish seem to me like must-haves. Use Massacre and Perish. Rebels and most things green can often overwhelm you before you start doing Timmy moves of your own. That Timmy kid… he’s cool.
Whew! Half-way there! Quite a strange menagerie I have concocted so far, and there is plenty more strangeness to come.
Good luck and have fun! Check in tomorrow for three more decks! If you think things can only get less weird, you are sorely mistaken.
Jay Moldenhauer-Salazar
“doctorjay” on Magic Encyclopedia
[This article is continued in Part B.]