(EDITOR’S NOTE: From Right Field is a column for Magic players on a budget or players who don’t want to play netdecks. The decks are designed to let the budget-conscious player be competitive in local, Saturday tournaments. They are not decks that will qualify a player for The Pro Tour. As such, the decks written about in this column are, almost by necessity, rogue decks. They contain, at most, eight to twelve rares. When they do contain rares, those cards will either be cheap rares or staples of which new players should be trying to collect a set of four, such as Wrath of God, City of Brass, or Birds of Paradise.
(The decks are also tested by the author, who isn’t very good at playing Magic. His playtest partners, however, are excellent. He will never claim that a deck has an 85% winning percentage against the entire field. He will also let you know when the decks are just plain lousy. Readers should never consider these decks "set in stone" or "done." If you think you can change some cards to make them better, well, you probably can, and the author encourages you to do so.)
One of the most common Magic-related conversations I’ve had over the past couple of weeks goes like this:
FANBOY: “Hey! Romeo! How’d you do at Regionals?”
DR. ROMEO: “Didn’t lose a match.” (ROMEO winks.)
FANBOY: “Wow! So, you’re the Champ of your Region? Sweet!”
DR. ROMEO: “No; I didn’t get to play, actually.”
FANBOY: “That is soooooooo lame. What happened?”
DR. ROMEO: “Life happened, Fanboy. Life.”
As much as I love this game, as wonderful of a creative outlet as it’s been for me over the past six years or so, it’s still just a game. Sometimes, life happens, and Magic takes a back seat. I don’t want or need to go into any details. Suffice it to say, I didn’t make it to Regionals. Maybe next year. Of course, there’s always States in the Fall.
However, had I made it to Regionals, I’m sure I wouldn’t have done as well with my White Skies deck as Chris Byer or Colin Del Degan did with their White Weenie decks. Those two won the Indianapolis and Orlando Regionals, respectively. My heartiest congratulations go out to those two as well as to the many other folks who finished in the money with a deck archetype that many – if not most – pundits and pros said couldn’t cut the mustard. To the naysayers, I say *thhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhppppbbbbt* Opus-style.
I’m impressed with Chris’ deck because his name is Chris. Okay, it’s really because he used – yes! – Master Decoy in his maindeck. “Kokusho go where? Not into the Red Zone, that’s fo’ sho’!” He also had Damping Matrix, albeit in the sideboard.
On the other hand, Colin was able to fit in a complete set of four Hokoris. Yep, four. In a twenty-land deck. He’s gonna miss Chrome Mox come October 20th.
However, for the months of July and August, I’m in KBC (that’s Kamigawa Block Constructed) mode. So, forget the Standard stuff; that was Regionals.
Of course, Kamigawa block has done an awful lot of good for White Weenie decks. Lantern Kami is Suntail Hawk that can be Soulshifted back to your hand.
Samurai of the Pale Curtain, on the other hand, is the new Swords to Plowshares effect. Nothing with goes-to-the-graveyard triggers work when he’s in play. Kokusho is not a life-sucking machine. Zuberas become overcosted Woodland Druids. Hana Kami isn’t recurring anything more than once.
And then there’s the Equipment.
No, I’m not going to extol the virtues of Umezawa’s Jitte in White Weenie again. I think that’s as self-evident as the fact that Rachel Hunter’s still hot hot hot. Besides, neither the Jitte nor Ms. Hunter come cheap. There are a couple of less expensive pieces of Equipment that help White Weenies out, and I’m going to take a look at those.
Ronin Warclub, however, is not one of them. Let me say this. I’ve tried the Warclub in a few weenies decks. Only Ninjas can really use it well because of how many of them come into play instantly. White Weenie (and Red, too) don’t want to cast a piece of Equipment on turn 3 and do nothing else.
The first type of mono-White deck I tried was – I’m sure you’ve guessed – a Samurai deck. When I finally got bored, this is what the deck looked like:
Creatures (22)
- 3 Eight-and-a-Half-Tails
- 4 Samurai of the Pale Curtain
- 4 Nagao, Bound by Honor
- 3 Masako the Humorless
- 4 Araba Mothrider
- 4 Hand of Honor
Lands (22)
- 20 Plains
- 2 Eiganjo Castle
Spells (16)
(This deck’s real name is Tom Cruise ’cause it’s cheap and has white samurai.)
The deck performed reasonably well, leaving me at just over .500 (17-16 because I know how to quite when I’m ahead). I was, as I mentioned above, bored in the end, though. There was nothing special about the deck. It was just beats, beats, beats. The games this deck (and its many predecessors) won tended to be as expected: quick beats with some Equipment and Call to Glory backup. The losses were also predictable. The opponent would be able to neutralize the White Weenies or clog up the ground and then win with bigger creatures than I had.
Sure, I could have added the Jitte, but I had already promised myself not to do that. The Jitte continues to be an expensive card to try….
What the flock?!? Is that Masako the Humorless?!?
Oh, yeah. Just noticed that card in there, have you?
She was a blast to play with. I’d send over a bunch of weenies that would either kill the opponent’s stuff if they blocked or with Call to Glory in hand just in case. When they got through unmolested, I could see my opponents light up with glee. They were gonna pound me. They would swing but not with everyone. No need to over-commit. Heck, I might have Ethereal Haze. So just enough to deal some real damage or kill me, leaving back a couple of blockers. Down would come Masako, and the tapped Samurai would go to work, blocking up a Bushido storm.
Completely Random Flashback
When I first blocked with tapped guys, I as reminded of a video game that I used to play (was it Tekken III?) in which one of the fighters that you could unlock was this little dude whose fighting style was to lie on the ground. He was so hard to beat because you could essentially only attack him by stomping on him. Boy, oh, boy, could he attack you, though. So, you had to pretty much wait for him to jump up and attack you, beating him bloody when he did. It just felt like being that little guy when a Hand of Honor would reach up from a prone position to smack the crap out of a Hearth Kami or Gnarled Mass.
Still, it wasn’t anything that made my palms sweaty. I’m sure that I’ll get six thousand suggestions on cards to add (mostly rares), and I suggest that you test your ideas. Me, like I said…. yawn.
We Are Spirits in the Material World
(It’s a good day when I can work Police lyrics into my writing.)
I was more stoked about working on a Tallowisp deck. The thing that’s surprised me about all of the decklists that I’ve seen is that they only use eight enchant creature cards: four Cage of Hands; and four Indomitable Wills. Tallowisp allows you to get any enchant creature card. Why use just eight? Why not add Ward of Piety?
Partly, it’s because you need Spirit and Arcane spells to make it all work. Each enchantment added to the deck is one SpArc spell that it doesn’t have.
However, Ward of Piety can be a breaker of stalemates. With enough mana available, your opponent dares not burn out the Warded creature. It does require mana, though, and that’s typically not something that White Weenie decks have extra of. So, after some testing, I’m only going to get two copies of the Ward in here:
This deck, (cleverly called "Ghost in the Machine," from the Police album with the song “Spirits in the Material World”) is a blast to play.
It’s also nerve-wracking. There are no huge beasties that can dominate the board. The closest thing this deck has to that is Waxmane Baku. This li’l flower child, however, can indeed rule the board. It can tap down all of the potential blockers, allow your guys to swing, and then tap down all of the potential attackers, too.
Of course, the deck is also fragile. Hideous Laughter is A Very Bad Thing if you don’t have a Will to save something. Ghost-Lit Raider owns this deck. Yet, it can pull out spectacular and fun wins.
When I was testing, I quickly found that the deck ran best when it could cast a lot of Spirit and Arcane spells. Sounds simple, right? Of course it does. How do you do that in a deck with no card drawing? You Splice Arcane spells.
This is how I hit on adding Spiritual Visit. The Visit can be spliced onto Otherworldly Journey or even onto itself. This enables both the Waxmane Baku and the Tallowisp to go into overdrive. The Tallowisp also has the added benefit of thinning the deck of enchantments which means you draw more lands. This, in turn, gives you more mana to cast additional spells and use the Ward of Piety.
A Very Special Episode of Punky Brewster
Here’s a great tip for playing the Waxmane Baku’s ability when you have more than one out. If you can afford the mana, don’t rip all of the needed counters from just one Baku. Spread it out. Why? Look at this example:
You have two Waxmane Bakus out. One has three counters and one has four. You have lots of extra mana, and need to tap down three guys. If you remove all of the counters from the one that only has three, the Baku with the four counters now has a huge target on its belly. Should your opponent be able to kill it, you lose four counters.
On the other hand, if you remove two from the one that has four and one from the one with three, a single Rend Spirit can only rob you of two counters. Think about it.
What About Hokori?!?
If you got some, sure, try to fit them in. However, don’t be shocked if they end up hindering you more than your opponent. You want to be able to cast a SpArc spell, grab a Cage of Hands, and enchant an opponent’s creature all in the same turn. Won’t happen with Hokori out.
What if you had, say, some artifact mana? I mean, Hokori didn’t hurt Chris or Colin because they had Chrome Moxes. Of course, there’s only one artifact in the entire block that produces mana: Honor-Worn Shaku. The Shaku allows you to make mana equal to the number of untapped Legendary permanents you have on the board.
If only Kamigawa Block had some Legendary permanents we could use…
Okay, this one’s janky. I admit it. It’s even more fun than Tallowisp.dec.
Creatures (21)
- 3 Eight-and-a-Half-Tails
- 3 Hokori, Dust Drinker
- 4 Faithful Squire
- 2 Isamaru, Hound of Konda
- 3 Nagao, Bound by Honor
- 2 Masako the Humorless
- 4 Lantern Kami
Lands (23)
- 21 Plains
- 2 Eiganjo Castle
Spells (16)
I haven’t tested this much, but the testing I have done shows that the interplay among the cards is very entertaining. Check this play out:
I swing with everything, knowing I can’t kill my opponent. He lets it all through since he can kill me on my next turn. I tap my Honor-Worn Shaku and four Plains, casting a White Shrine and Isamaru. I have an untapped Isamaru, the Honden, an untapped Plains, and one card in hand.
Everything else on my side is tapped. He figures the worst that I can have is Ethereal Haze. He swings with just enough guys to kill me, just in case. I tap the Plains. I tap the Hound to untap the Shaku. I tap the Shaku for mana. I tap the Honden to untap the Shaku. (Yes, you can.) I tap the Shaku for mana. With the 2W in my mana pool, I cast Masako and block in such a way that I kill all of his attackers while leaving my flipped Faithful Squire and Lantern Kami to kill him next turn.
Cool, no? I tapped a Shrine to make mana! The lifegaining Shrine turns into the life-saving Shrine.
To reiterate, I haven’t tested this much, but, so far, it’s been fun. (Yes, adding the Jitte gives you another Legendary permanent to use with the Shaku. Go ahead. If you must.)
A (Hopefully) Last Note on Shrines
There were a ton of comments in the forum and in e-mails regarding the Shrine deck with Enduring Ideal called The Pilgrimage. Since a lot of them asked the same types of questions, I wanted to address them to everyone. That way people who aren’t forum hounds can see what’s what.
First of all, I don’t like the idea of Genju of the Realm in that deck. Sure, it can hit pretty hard. It may even end the game the first time it hits. The problem is cards like Rend Spirit completely neuter it. Once it’s back in you hand, it can’t be recast. (The presumption is that an Ideal’s already resolved.)
I also don’t like Reverence in this deck. Heck, I don’t like Reverence much at all. Wizards had a great idea with this one and made it cost too much. By the time it gets cast, any weenies that can do damage to you have probably already done so. Besides, the abilities of Ghostly Prisons are cumulative; Reverences’ are not.
Whatever you do, if you decide that more Hondens or other enchantments are needed, don’t – for the love of Jessica Alba – don’t drop the Ethereal Hazes and Kamis of False Hope. This deck needs to survive, life intact, for the first few turns. If you get hit by burn and weenies for the first four or so turns, you will probably lose.
Finally, Sensei’s Divining Top was mentioned a lot. I will never pooh-pooh the Top again. Given this deck’s ability to shuffle itself via the Sakura-Tribe Elders and Kodama’s Reaches, it could be very nice. If you can find a slot for it without hosing yourself, do it, and let me know. However, I still don’t like the Top much in decks that can’t shuffle themselves.
And a Rave About Ninth Edition
Presuming the spoilers on the ‘net are right, Flowstone Slide will be in Ninth Edition, and I’m as happy as Stephanie Seymour’s thong. One thing that’s I’ve always hated about Red is that it’s the only color with removal (Green’s not invited) that didn’t have a mass removal spell that could deal with creatures with protection from that color. For example, White can kill pro-White creatures with Wrath of God, Rout, and Final Judgment. Blue could get rid of pro-Blue creatures with Evacuation or Upheaval. Black can give all creatures –X/-X, a la Mutilate or Hideous Laughter, or just kill them outright with Plague Wind, even if they were all White Knights and Auriok Champions.
Red never had that.
It had Earthquake, Fault Line, and the like. Those all removed creatures via damage, though, so, pro-Red creatures would stay on the board. Until Nemesis, that is. I loved Flowstone Slide. I could wipe out hordes of Rebel weenies, even the pro-Red flyer, and keep my big guys.
Well, it looks like it’s back in Ninth. I can’t wait to start designing creatureless Red control decks that feature the line “4 Flowstone Slide.”
In other words, go ahead and order them from StarCityGames.com right now while they’re still just a buck each. Yes. Really.
As usual, you’ve been a great audience. Join me next week when I look at a variation on the Dampen Thought/Ire of Kaminari deck that’s been floating around, courtesy of a faithful reader. Until then, vote for Pedro. He offers you his protection.
Chris Romeo
FromRightField-at-AOL-dot-com