“Fof rolls down stairs, alone or in pairs,
and over the neighbor’s dog.
It’s great for a snack, it fits on your back,
It’s fof, fof, fof.”
– The Fof Song from”Ren and Stimpy”
We know Fact or Fiction is good – but does it belong in every deck? Let’s see if we can have our cake and eat it too…
(Of course, there’s no harm in having the ability to sideboard Gainsay either.)
First up, a deck known as”Sonne GR.” But it’s only really been known as that for the last week or so, because that’s how long it’s been since Jon Sonne won a cool two fiddy with it.
“Sonne G/R”
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Wild Mongrel
4 Call of the Herd
4 Flametongue Kavu
4 Beast Attack
2 Thornscape Battlemage
2 Thunderscape Battlemage
4 Firebolt
4 Violent Eruption
4 Karplusan Forest
2 Mossfire Valley
2 City of Brass
10 Forest
6 Mountain
Mana (excluding Birds of Paradise):
18 Green
14 Red
Now lets try it with Fact and/or Fiction:
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Wild Mongrel
4 Call of the Herd
4 Flametongue Kavu
4 Beast Attack
4 Firebolt
4 Violent Eruption
4 Fact or Fiction
3 Shivan Reef
3 Yavimaya Coast
3 Karplusan Forest
3 Mossfire Valley
1 Crosis’s Catacombs
1 Shivan Oasis
5 Forest
4 Mountain
1 Island
Mana (excluding Birds of Paradise):
15 Green
15 Red
8 Blue
Pulling the Battlemages means there is little need for the Brass Cities. Nine painlands will deal only slightly more damage than four or five painlands and two Cities, so the mana isn’t as painful as it looks. As much as I dislike a”comes into play tapped” lands here, I can tolerate a Shivan Oasis if it means avoiding ten painlands. Of course, the Battlemages may still be useful in the sideboard – and the reason I’ve chosen:
1 Crosis’s Catacombs
5 Forest
4 Mountain
Over
1 Treva’s Ruins
4 Forest
5 Mountain
is because the black kicker is better than the white if it ever comes down to it.
Next up is the BR deck known as”Kibler Braids”… But apparently, not enough people know this, and when you tell someone on Magic Online that you’re playing versus”Kibler Braids,” they think you’re actually playing Brian Kibler, a.k.a.”Kird”. It’s also been seen with white instead of red, which helps shore up the deck’s weakness when faced with Compost, Worship, and CoP: Black.
“Kibler Braids”
4 Nantuko Shade
4 Mesmeric Fiend
4 Ravenous Rats
4 Phyrexian Rager
4 Braids, Cabal Onion
4 Flametongue Kavu
3 Shambling Swarm
2 Ichorid
3 Duress
4 Chainer’s Edict
4 Tainted Peak
4 Sulfurous Springs
2 Mountain
14 Swamp
Mana:
22 (18) Black
10 Red
“Not Kibler Braids”
4 Nantuko Shade
4 Spectral Lynx
4 Mesmeric Fiend
4 Phyrexian Rager
4 Braids, Cabal Onion
3 Shambling Swarm
2 Ichorid
3 Duress
4 Chainer’s Edict
4 Vindicate
4 Tainted Field
4 Caves of Koilos
3 Plains
13 Swamp
Mana:
21 (17) Black
11 White
It’s important to note that while the decks look like they are abundant with black mana, those tainted lands don’t work without swamps; they merely help with the off color, and provide second and third black sources. The numbers of individual lands that provide black mana have been included in parenthesis. Unfortunately, replacing either the white or red mana with blue/X multilands will shorten the deck’s supply of black mana, and the Shambling Swarms and Nantuko Shades might complain to their union somewhat… So here is what it might look like with blue instead of the other colors:
4 Nantuko Shade
4 Mesmeric Fiend
4 Phyrexian Rager
4 Braids, Cabal Onion
3 Shambling Swarm
2 Ichorid
3 Duress
4 Chainer’s Edict
4 Recoil
4 Fact or Fiction
4 Tainted Isle
4 Underground River
2 Island
14 Swamp
Mana:
22 (18) Black
10 Blue
But perhaps a B/u/r Braids deck could work…
4 Ravenous Rats
4 Mesmeric Fiend
4 Phyrexian Rager
4 Braids, Cabal Onion
4 Flametongue Kavu
2 Shambling Swarm
2 Duress
4 Chainer’s Edict
4 Recoil
4 Fact or Fiction
2 Tainted Isle
2 Tainted Peak
4 Shivan Reef
2 Crosis’s Catacombs
1 City of Brass
1 Underground River
12 Swamp
Mana:
20 (16) Black
10 Blue
9 Red
And finally, one last… Mad creation.
Here is a strange G/B madness deck that looks like a lot of fun, but tends to run out of gas a good twenty feet from the station, so to speak.
4 Basking Rootwalla
4 Wild Mongrel
4 Call of the Herd
2 Shambling Swarm
4 Arrogant Wurm
3 Spiritmonger
3 Roar of the Wurm
4 Chainer’s Edict
4 Zombie Infestation
3 Strength of Lunacy
1 Pernicious Deed
3 Tainted Wood
4 Llanowar Wastes
10 Swamp
7 Forest
Mana:
17 (14) Black
14 (11) Green
But never fear! Up steps doctor Fof, and his Fact and Fiction!
4 Basking Rootwalla
4 Wild Mongrel
4 Call of the Herd
1 Shambling Swarm
4 Arrogant Wurm
3 Spiritmonger
3 Roar of the Wurm
4 Chainer’s Edict
4 Zombie Infestation
4 Fact or Fiction
1 Pernicious Deed
3 Yavimaya Coast
3 Llanowar Wastes
3 Underground River
1 Darkwater Catacombs
1 Treva’s Ruins
1 Darigaaz’s Caldera
7 Swamp
5 Forest
Mana:
15 Black
13 Green
8 Blue
But either way, Fact or Fiction or no,
(and I bet your opponent could wish for that”no” option over the other two piles)
I wish you all the best of luck at your Regionals.
(Especially because you’ve read this far, and not just copied and pasted the decks into a dot dec file translator.)
Until next time,
Ray
(beep)
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