Who doesn’t like watching movies? They define our popular culture like few other entertainment mediums. I’ve heard people say that movies have the highest per hour impact upon our culture. (In other words, a TV show may have an impact, but it is usually over several episodes or an entire season, whereas a 100 minute movie may have the same emotional impact).
I love Magic and I love the movies. Isn’t it about time that we combined the two? I took five classic lines from movies both recent and of yore. Those five lines form the title of five different decks. Each of these theme decks, therefore, revolves around that classic line.
Building these decks should be fun. Try them out at your next casual night, and see if others can guess the movie quote. Anyway, let’s begin:
“Dog and Cats, Living Together, Mass Hysteria!”
4 Wild Dogs
1 Mossdog
1 Mad Dog
1 Watchdog
1 Blood Hound
2 Mongrel Pack
4 Wild Mongrel
1 Timber Wolves
1 Kasimir the Lone Wolf
1 Aspect of Wolf
4 Scarred Puma
1 Scoria Cat
1 Guma
1 Lynx
4 Canyon Wildcat
2 Chartooth Cougar
1 Waiting in the Weeds
1 Mirri, Cat Warrior
4 Mass Hysteria
1 Tigereye Cameo
1 Lion’s Eye Diamond
4 Mirrodin’s Core
9 Forests
9 Mountains
The theme of this deck is obviously a classic quote from one of my favorite movies of all time -“Ghostbusters!” The deck takes the concept of dogs and cats together with Mass Hysteria. Each”side” in the war has their own general – Mirri or Kasimir. I used only cats and dogs that had relatively low amounts of aggression in the art. I also wanted my cats and dogs to be normal – not gigantic mutant lightning dogs or anything. Therefore, a nice, calm Mtenda Lion takes precedence over, say, Springing Tiger. Use Waiting in the Weeds as a surprise to gather Cat tokens. Aspect of Wolf can make a creature, especially one of your land-walkers (Like Canyon Wildcat or Mirri) pretty big as a surprise. Mirri, Cat Warrior with an Aspect of Wolf? It truly is Mass Hysteria!
“Here’s Lookin’ at You, Kid”
4 Wandering Eye
4 Evil Eye of Orms-by-Gore
2 Eye Spy
2 Keeneye Aven
2 In the Eye of Chaos
1 Mind’s Eye
1 Blind Seer
2 Seer’s Vision
4 Diabolic Vision
2 Magus of the Unseen
1 Vision Charm
1 Xiahou Dun, the One Eyed
2 Wu Spy
1 Stromgald Spy
2 Neurok Spy
2 Spy Network
4 Eye of Ramos
1 Eye of Yawgmoth
12 Island
10 Swamp
What would our list be without the most classic line from all moviedom? The concept of this deck is simple – to look at people. You have various spies, seers, and eyes to help you along. Your leaders are the Blind Seer and Xiahou, the One Eyed. You might think that Xiahou doesn’t really belong in a deck about seeing, but remember, in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.
“Say Hello to my Little Friend”
2 Pygmy Allosaurus
2 Pygmy Troll
2 Pygmy Kavu
1 Pygmy Pyrosaur
4 Pygmy Razorback
4 Shrink
1 Dwarven Song
1 Dwarven Landslide
1 Dwarven Catapult
1 Balthor the Stout
1 Dwarven Armory
1 Dwarven Armorer
2 Dwarven Nomad
4 Dwarven Grunt
1 Dwarven Recruiter
1 Dwarven Sea Clan
1 Dwarven Thaumaturgist
2 Dwarven Trader
2 Dwarven Bloodboiler
2 Dwarven Hold
4 Dwarven Ruins
From Scarface, this little number is interpreted two ways to give us this Red/Green theme deck. The first interpretation is of little things, represented by the Pygmy creatures and Shrink. The other way to look at the quote is about little people – namely dwarves. Your leader is Balthor in his pre-defiled days. There are a variety of dwarven cards to help you out, along with some pygmy assistance.
“Hello, My Name is Inigo Montoya. You Killed My Father. Prepare to Die!”
4 Vengeance
4 Just Fate
2 Righteousness
1 Squee’s Revenge
1 Akroma’s Vengeance
2 Wrath of God
1 Kirtar’s Wrath
1 Akroma, Angel of Wrath
2 Justice
2 Decree of Justice
1 Fiery Justice
2 Hand of Justice
2 Harsh Justice
1 Karmic Justice
1 Mob Justice
4 Pilgrim of Justice
1 Primitive Justice
1 Balance
1 Anger
1 Seething Anger
4 Undiscovered Paradise
12 Plains
8 Mountains
Isn’t it great to have a theme deck that can legitimately run Akroma, Angel of Wrath? This quote was voted in Entertainment Weekly’s column by Stephen King to be the best, most memorable in all movies of all time. How could we leave it off our own list? This deck has an awful lot of removal, from Fiery Justice to Balance to Wrath of God to Vengeance and Just Fate. Inigo is pissed and he wants revenge. From Harsh Justice to Seething Anger, this deck is all about killing the six fingered man who killed your father and left you with two long scars on your face.
“You Know How to Whistle Don’t You? Just Put Your Lips Together and Blow”
2 Dismantling Blow
1 Lightning Blow
1 Tornado
1 Cyclone
1 Typhoon
1 Hurricane
1 Katabanic Winds
1 Storm Elemental
1 Tornado Elemental
1 Blessed Wind
1 Denying Wind
1 Vitalizing Wind
1 Crosswinds
1 Freylise’s Winds
4 Desert Twister
1 Maddening Wind
1 Splintering Wind
1 Tolarian Winds
2 Tradewind Rider
1 Whirlwind
1 Windborn Muse
2 Wind Dancer
1 Windfall
1 Windscouter
1 Winds of Rath
4 Wind Spirit
1 Words of Wind
1 Blizzard Elemental
1 Cloud Elemental
1 Thundercloud Elemental
1 Tropical Storm
1 Strom Front
1 Energy Storm
1 Ice Storm
1 Sandstorm
1 Storm Seeker
1 Arcum’s Whistle
4 Storm Spirit
4 Coastal Tower
1 Tundra
1 Savannah
1 Tropical Island
4 Yavimaya Coast
8 Island
11 Forest
This deck is a little oversized, because the concept is so interesting. Lauren Bacall gave us this immortal line in the 1946 classic movie”The Big Sleep.” [Great movie. Better dame. – Knut] Here we are focusing on the”Blow” part of the quote, but I tossed in a whistle as well. The deck revolves around blowing, and wind, and creatures that thrive there. There is a ton of removal for flying creatures, removal in the form of cards like Desert Twister and Dismantling Blow, a good selection of creatures, and a few surprises. Some of your flying hosers can also hose your own creatures, so be careful.
Well, that it! Play any or all of these five great theme decks from five great movie quotes. Good luck trying these decks out!
Until Later,
Abe Sargent