Have you seen the formats for the Magic Invitational? I think Mark Rosewater and the gang have really outdone themselves on the sheer fun factor. Of course, there’s the old stand-by Type 2, and the Invitationally unique (but tried and true) Duplicate Limited. But it’s the other formats that totally rock my socks.
FIVE COLOR!
Is anyone else (besides format creator Kurt Hahn) as completely jazzed as I am about seeing sixteen of the world’s best players throwing down with 250-card decks? I’ve been noodling around with a way to get the Magic locals around here interested in this format… And having the Invitational feature it, bringing it out here in the spotlight of mainstream Magic, is a wonderful boon. Wizards knows that while the pro tour brings marquee splendor to the game, it’s the casual players that are Magic’s bread and butter. They’ve been kicking out cards recently that have been obviously designed with casual players in mind, but their embrace of this format is both smart business and an exciting opportunity for the larger Magic community. I mean, when some of the greatest Magic minds in the game have to turn their creative juices to a more casual mode, things are bound to get interesting.
ODYSSEY ROTISSERIE DRAFT!
Just when you thought they couldn’t put any more spins on draft formats, here comes one out of left field. Drafting the whole set has got to be insanely fun. Strategies for this format are interestingly different; my guess would be for you to take whichever broken rare still happens to be out there as your first pick, and then build a deck around it. Eighth position is probably going to be the catbird seat, since you can judge which two rares still out there work well together and snag both in one fell swoop.
Both of these formats showcase love for the game of Magic, and emphasize the fun of the game instead of just the winning and the cash. But neither of these is my favorite format…
AUCTION OF THE PEOPLE!
Last year they had the Auction of Champions, whereby the giants of the game picked decks from Pro Tour winners past. Cool, but still operating in their own elite, incestuous, closed world. This year they have to pick decks built by people like you and me: Race theme decks, built around a particular creature type. Normally, competitive players simply focus on the best creatures available in the card pool they’re building in and build decks around them. This time, creatures are going to used because of their creature type. Can you get more casual than that? Anthony Alongi must love this.
I mean, is this the Alongi and Hahn Invitational, or what?
The really cool thing is that Mark Rosewater is opening up the Halls of Immortality to us mere mortals. While one lucky winner of each year’s Invitational gets the chance to make his mark on the game with a new Magic card, folks like you and I get the chance to be enshrined as the”Guy who made that cool Shapeshifter deck Zvi kicked ass with.” We get to have a deck forever linked to us and the pro who played it – and to top it off, Wizards gives you a copy of the deck you built, signed by the player who picked it, and enclosed in its very own deckbox. Talk about having something unique and special!
Of course, I wonder what happens to the seventeen deck that doesn’t get picked? How bad would that be? You get selected out of thousands of entries, but none of the pros want to play it. Do you still get the cards and deck box? Does anyone sign it? Maybe Mark Rosewater will sign it with his condolences.
So don’t dally, folks. You’ve got until noon PST September 10th to bum rush the Halls of Immortality and get your scrubby self forever linked to a big name pro. Heck, if he really likes your deck, maybe he’ll even shoot you some tech for your next PTQ. Who knows what doors this might open?
Anyway, I figured I’d share the decks I submitted for those who might be interested:
Deck #1″Sappy Good Times” (Saprolings)
4x Elvish Farmer
4x Wall of Roots
4x Wall of Blossoms
4x Nemata Grove Guardian
1x Verdeloth the Ancient
2x Verdant Force
4x Aura Mutation
3x Sylvan Library
4x Fecundity
3x Spontaneous Generation
4x Saproling Burst
3x Gaea’s Cradle
4x Savannah
4x Brushland
12x Forest
There are lots of tricks from my group game deck here; number one on the”huh?” meter is probably Fecundity, which has always done well by me. Nothing seems to die as fast as little 1/1 Saproling tokens, so why not draw some cards for your trouble? With a Farmer on the board or a Nemata, you can sac Saps to draw some mad cards (which naturally plays into Spontaneous Generation). Heck, with a Fecundity in play, a Burst could net you seven more cards.
The Walls are there to protect from other creature rush decks (a la Goblins, Merfolk, etc). Farmer is critical as a way to gain life, since I suspect the inevitable Goblin deck is going to be chock full of burn (Fireblast, Goblin Grenade, etc)…. Plus, lifegain helps you raid the Library if you need to.
Yeah, I know four copies of a legend (Nemata) might be suspect, but he’s really key to winning with the deck by making your Saps large and generating new ones. Any extras you draw can sit in your hand to feed the Generation.
Speaking of Generation, I’m only including three to take into account the fact that the winning player might have to bid down his hand size for it, so a turn 3 Generation for two critters might be less than impressive.
Aura Mutation takes care of problematic Engineered Plagues, and has great synergy with Sap Burst.
My one worry here is that, while it’s a”Saproling” deck, there are other creature types in the deck that support the theme. While I view that as a strength (making it more resilient to type hosers like Tsabo’s Decree and such), the guys who’re picking the Auction decks may think that’s not appropriate. So I’ve come up with more”ethnically correct” decks:
“Beebles Wobble But They Don’t Fall Down” (Beebles)
4x Bouncing Beebles
2x Bubbling Beebles
4x Counterspell
4x Force of Will
4x Mana Drain
4x Swords to Plowshares
2x Icy Manipulator
3x Dismantling Blow
1x Black Lotus
1x Sapphire Mox
1x Pearl Mox
1x Sol Ring
1x Time Walk
1x Ancestral Recall
1x Time Twister
1x Capsize
1x Stroke of Genius
1x Ashnod’s Transmogrant
1x Maze of Ith
1x Kor Haven
1x Library of Alexandria
4x Tundra
4x Mishra’s Factory
1x Strip Mine
4x Wasteland
7x Island
I thought it would be funny to build a broken Type 1 blue deck, with all the blue power cards… And Beebles as the win condition! Just imagine the hilarity of a bidding war over”The Broken Beeble Deck.” Notice the tech Transmogrant to combine with Bouncing Beebles or Dismantling Blow. Of course, it goes without saying that I would love to have Wizards give me a copy of this deck, and I don’t care if the cards are gold-bordered or what.
“The Horror…” (Horrors)
4x Dark Ritual
4x Duress
4x Engineered Plague
4x Oath of Lim-Dul
3x Ill-Gotten Gains
3x Firestorm
1x Diabolic Edict
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Buried Alive
1x Yawgmoth’s Will
4x Phyrexian Negator
4x Krovikan Horror
1x Witch Engine
1x Bazaar of Baghdad
2x Lake of the Dead
4x Badlands
2x Sulfurous Springs
16x Swamp
This weird deck is built to basically try and abuse Krovikan Horror, which is one of my all-time favorite casual game creatures. Oath of Lim-Dul should definitely qualify as one of those”little played cards.” It’s one of those weird card-drawing engines with a drawback that’s always lived in the shadow of Necropotence, and I’m hoping it’s inclusion wins me some brownie points with Mark Rosewater and the gang (not to mention Witch Engine — when’s the last time you saw THAT in a deck?). The self-recurring Krovikan Horrors help defray the drawback of the Oath while you (hopefully) draw mad cards. Ill-Gotten Gains, Firestorm, and Bazaar of Baghdad also combine synergistically with Krovikan Horror. Playing black also gives you the chance to use the format-defining Engineered Plague.
“Don’t Tread on Me” (Insects)
4x Carrion Beetle
4x Acridian
4x Marker Beetles
2x Pincher Beetles
1x Flow of Maggots
1x Caustic Wasps
4x Saber Ants
1x Mind Maggots
1x Hawkeater Moth
1x Giant Caterpillar
1x Deadly Insect
4x Oath of Ghouls
4x Survival of the Fittest
1x Recurring Nightmare
1x Demonic Tutor
2x Creeping Mold
2x Gaea’s Cradle
1x Phyrexian Tower
4x Bayou
4x Llanowar Wastes
8x Forest
4x Swamp
C’mon — you know I had to figure out an Insect deck to use Saber Ants in! I decided to throw them in a Survival/Oath of Ghouls build. Insects actually provide a good amount of utility — creature generation/defense (Saber Ants), beatdown (Mind Maggots, Flow of Maggots), card drawing (Marker Beetles), even artifact destruction (Caustic Wasps). Pinchers, Moth, and Deadly Insect give you some nice untargetable options. Carrion Beetle makes sure your Oath works just for you.
Anyway, it’s been a blast trying to figure out interesting creature theme decks. I was on MTGnews.com on their ultimate spoiler generator, and one of the things you can filter for is creature types. So I’m scrolling down it and I stumble across”Smith.” Hey, how cool would it be for Bennie Smith to make a Smith deck? (Especially if he was listening to the Smiths when he designed it! – The Ferrett) Looking over the limited options available, a concept coalesced. Hmm… This might work!
“Bennie Smith Smith Deck” (Smiths)
4x Argivian Blacksmith
4x Dwarven Weaponsmith
2x Hyperion Blacksmith
4x Transmogrifying Licid
4x Viashino Weaponsmith
2x Argivian Find
4x Forge[/author]“]Thran [author name="Forge"]Forge[/author]
4x Ashnod’s Transmogrant
4x Shattering Pulse
3x Diamond Kaleidoscope
1x Kaervek’s Torch
1x Sol Ring
1x Mana Vault
1x Urza’s Workshop
4x Mishra’s Factory
4x Plateau
4x Forge[/author]“]Battlefield [author name="Forge"]Forge[/author]
5x Mountain
4x Plains
All right, so the Viashino Weaponsmith is technically a Viashino, but I figure I can get away with it since he’s got the right profession. Besides, he makes a great beatdown critter for the deck. All the”true” Smiths can do cool things with artifacts, so the deck revolves around making creatures into artifacts (mostly mine, but occasionally my opponent’s to be tapped by the Hyperion). With so many ways to make my opponent’s creatures into artifacts (and reusable ways with Thran Forge), I couldn’t resist running Shattering Pulse. Prism tokens from the Kaleidoscope can make chump blockers, sac for colored mana, or be artifact fodder for the Dwarven Weaponsmith. I chose not to run Repentant Blacksmith because it clashed with the Dwarven Weaponsmith’s ability, though if we had sideboards he would definitely be there in case of Goblin decks.
Boy, is this a candidate for the seventeen deck, or what? I imagine this deck would go for twenty life, seven cards easy. Hee!
Anyway, have fun and good luck. Maybe your deck will go down in Magic history!