Hello and welcome back to the daily series where we provide you with your daily injection of deck. Here we will build decks around concepts both old and new, borrowed and blue. Today we feature something both old and Blue.
I’ve always been a fan of Winter’s Chill, but I have never found the right deck. Of course, I’ve never really sat out to build a Winter’s Chill deck either. I think that it is high time that I used an obscure card to good effect. The Chill has several abilities, so let’s take a look at it.
Snow-covered lands were a nice concept that I would like to see rejuvenated at some point in the future. They were never really used well, but they certainly could be. The problem with Winter’s Chill is the limiting effect that playing snow-covered lands provides. However, if the entire deck ran these lands, that limitation would be muted.
That means that we are simply unable to run non-basic lands. Any multicolor deck would want tap duals, fetch lands, pain lands, or something. Therefore, let’s work with just a mono-Blue deck.
I was wondering what I could combine with Winter’s Chill. You want your opponent to not have a lot of mana available when they attack. How could I massage the game state into making it work for me? Once I figured that out, I knew what kind of deck I wanted to build.
The Chill Rushes In
4 Winter’s Chill
4 Propaganda
4 Power Sink
3 Pendrell Mists
4 Genju of the Falls
4 Capsize
4 Counterspell
3 Treasure Trove
3 Whispers of the Muse
1 Palinchron
1 Ambassador Laquatus
25 Snow-covered Island
The ultimate idea behind this deck is to force opponents to tap mana with the Pendrell Mists, Power Sinks, and Propagandas. You then hit them with a powerful Winter’s Chill to off some creatures. The deck wants to slowly gain momentum until it dominates from a very powerful game state.
With 25 lands, you know that you will be drawing a lot of land. That’s fine, because this deck can really use it. Power Sink, Capsize, Whispers and Treasure Trove all benefit from more mana. You can also use the Genju while holding open defensive mana.
You want to establish a dominant board position by having out a Mists and Propaganda. If your opponent’s creatures take a mana each just to stick around and another pair of mana each to attack, there won’t be much attacking. Your opponent will have to spend a lot of mana just to keep creatures in play.
Don’t play the Mists early in multiplayer. It will paint you as target #1. You don’t want to entice attackers, just send them elsewhere. Playing a Proaganda on the third turn is your ideal play. You can even use Laquatus as an early blocker. Don’t be afraid to toss out a Whispers or a Capsize early in order to find the cards that you need.
Later in the game you will want to use your various renewable resources to gain an advantage. Capsize, Trove, Whispers and Laquatus can all be used to slowly mount an advantage over your opponent.
I included a Palinchron as a late game creature. It didn’t really matter to me which decently-sized creature that I played, so I decided to use one that would let the player still have mana afterward to protect it. It also has a built in protection ability, akin to Morphling and Rainbow Efreet. With its bounce ability, it can make a very effective wall. Remember to bounce it after damage goes on the stack it blocks something like a Cockatrice. You can chump block Mahamoti Djinns and Shivan Dragons with it effectively. Since you untap mana when it comes into play, it only costs you four mana a turn to continually block a creature, which is pretty fair considering the mana your opponent will be tapping just to stay in the game.
In case you wondered why, I tossed in a Laquatus as an alternate route of winning. A Propaganda or two will keep creatures from attacking while Winter’s Chill can actively pop attackers. However, a large contingent of creatures can build up on your opponent’s said of the table. If Capsizes were played early and the flyers can’t get through, then you have a back up option.
With 25 lands, you should feel free to activate your Genju and trade with creatures. Trading a land or two for creatures is a fair play. Use all of the resources at your disposal to get the middle game, when you can drop Pendrell Mists and begin Capsizing with buyback.
If you play Winter’s Chill once effectively, your opponent will look for it for the rest of the game. If your opponent holds mana to keep some creatures alive through a Chill, and also needs mana for Propaganda(s) and Mists, then you know you’ve most likely got the game. You’ve successfully forced opponents to play your game, not vice versa.
There are other cards I thought about. I really like the interaction between Winter’s Chill and some of these cards with Winter Orb or Rising Waters. Another option would be to add the three Rishadan creatures from Masques that force your opponent to pay mana or sacrifice a permanent (Rishadan Brigand, Rishadan Cutpurse, and Rishadan Footpad).
Another set of options include the Rhystic Spells from Prophecy. I especially like Rhystic Deluge or maybe Rhystic Study. A few other cards that I thought of that might fit are Rishadan Port, Mana Web, Dream Tides, Invoke Prejudice, Temporal Distortion or Sunken Hope.
I hope that this deck spurs your creativity. Whether or not you play The Chill Rushes In, I wish fun decks for you always.
Until Later,
Abe Sargent