It’s Monday morning and all is right with the world. I’ve never understood why some people don’t like Mondays. It gives you a chance to see people you haven’t seen in several days. You also get a slate of new Magic articles, at sites like StarCityGames.com.
In that spirit, I am writing this daily series. Actually, I’m super-busy the week you are reading this, and this daily series was written several weeks ago. Of course, that doesn’t matter, because all I ever do for these is build decks.
The concept of my dailies is simple. I write a deck a day, every day. What I need now is a deck. That’s why every time I think of a nifty decklist or idea I write it down, so I’ll have it available when I do my next daily series or article featuring decks.
Unfortunately, I cannot find said list. So I have to make a brand new set of decks. Therefore, I need to mine for deck ideas. Where should I start? How about the Coldsnap list? I’ve not built many Coldsnap decks yet, why not take a look there and see what I can find?
I’m bored with Coldsnap. I’ve written three Coldsnap articles for StarCityGames.com, and one for Scrye, in the last few weeks. I may return to Coldsnap in a later article, but for now, let’s do something more interesting.
Lots of my previous decks have been built around random themes, and let’s make this week no different. I am going to head into the SCG spoiler maker move my mouse the creature type selection with my eyes closed. Then I’ll build a theme deck around the randomly selected type. Makes sense, right?
I try it, but the problem is that it doesn’t feel random. I move my hand, up, I move my hand down, I move my hand up, etc. I know where I’m at in the list. I need another random generation.
I head over to Wizards and find the recent Mistform Ultimus Watch. This lists all of the creature types in a wider space.
Now this should work. I close my eyes and move my mouse.
Today’s random creature type: Carriage
Do you know how many Carriages are in Magic? There’s only one: Black Carriage.
That should make this all the more challenging, eh?
Creatures (22)
- 4 Bronze Horse
- 1 Grandmother Sengir
- 2 Cemetery Gate
- 1 Baron Sengir
- 1 Veldrane of Sengir
- 1 Irini Sengir
- 4 Clockwork Steed
- 4 Black Carriage
- 2 Abyssal Gatekeeper
- 2 Phyrexian Driver
Lands (24)
- 24 Swamp
Spells (14)
This mono-Black deck is designed around Black Carriage, the only carriage in the game. Let’s see what I did with it.
Using a Replicator or a Lab, you can make more carriages. These are important for several reasons. First of all, you need fodder for the Black Carriage. The Black Carriage needs to sac a creature in order to untap, so you can make creatures with these artifacts.
Then, another reason that these artifacts are important is because they make carriages, and we obviously need a bunch of carriages, certainly more than the basic four we get from Black Carriage.
Every carriage needs something to pull it. Enter Bronze Horse, Clockwork Steed and Ebony Horse. The Bronze Horse and Clockwork Steed each have some uses, although the Bronze Horse is obviously a bit expensive for its ability (see also: Ebony Rhino).
The Clockwork Steed is a solid creature, one of the best in the deck.
Ebony Horse can save one of your attackers. Feel free to attack with, say, two Black Carriages. Untap and remove from combat (the untap part is nice because you don’t have to sac a critter to untap a Carriage) the one that gets blocked by Akroma.
If it snows, the carriage is no good, so we’ll need a sleigh, and lucky for us, Arcum’s Sleigh is around to save the day. Don’t worry, artificial horses like Ebony Horse, Clockwork Steed and Bronze Horse can pull in the snow just fine.
Every carriage needs a driver and we have a Phyrexian one, on loan from Yawgmoth himself. This driver can drive your carriage around, and looks cool to boot.
The Black Carriage is the means of transportation for Baron Sengir and his family, so let’s make sure we have one of each member of his family represented. The Carriage can carry old Grandmother Sengir to her herbal spa at the An-Havva Inn.
Every carriage needs a creaky gate to drive through. Here we have two options. The first is a Cemetery Gate, for when the Sengir family want to party like its All Hallow’ Eve. Another option is to head for the Gate to Phyrexia. Don’t worry about getting lost because the Phyrexian Driver knows the way.
Every gate needs a gatekeeper, so here with have an Abyssal Gatekeeper to open the gates for the good carriage as it rolls through.
The beauty of this deck is that a lot of cards work together. Gate to Phyrexia needs a creature to sacrifice to pop artifacts, and there are two artifacts that make creature tokens. Abyssal gatekeeper needs to die to have an effect, and the Gate to Phyrexia and Black Carriage have sacrifice effects. Then you’ll have to sac a creature to the Gatekeeper, so just use a token.
The best part about this theme deck is that you can build your play area around the deck. Have your Black Carriage in the middle. Put a Driver on top of it. Line up horses in front of it, leading it. Toss ol’ Irini in the Carriage. Through a Gate up ahead of them, and a Gatekeeper beside it, opening it up.
Good luck with all of your carriage decks!
Until later,