Some of these decks are funny enough that I thought to include a few for your enjoyment. These are examples of the absolute worst draft decks ever, and I hope that you enjoy them. To better illustrate how I got from three sealed booster packs to forty-five cards of poo, I’ll tell you how the draft started, what went wrong, and more.
Way back in Duelist #4, Chess Magic made its debut. The idea behind Chess Magic was simple – try to create a format specifically designed to recreate the feel of Chess. The goal of the format is not to exactly duplicate the Chess game, but simply to give a Magic game the feel of a good Chess game. It’s high time that we had an updated version of this really nifty variant, so I am updating the older rules and streamlining the process a bit.
Today Abe covers bad rares, 5-Color, and various elements of his personal life as they relate to Magic.
Once again, Abe returns to the Bad Rare Box, stocked with every crap rare in existence. Whatever card he pulls, he must build a deck around. This time, he will find a unique use for Elder Druid (and it’s not what you expect), a Thran Weaponry targeted at the wrong person, a fiendish use of a Volcanic Eruption… and three more bad rares!
As the guy with the Portal ramblings here on StarCityGames, as well as a former member of Beyond Dominia (the place for Type One tech), I feel like I should comment on what Portal means to Type One and other formats as well. The biggest impact will be in, not surprisingly, 5-Color.
I love the Avengers. The super-hero team of Marvel’s Mightiest Heroes has been a favorite of mine for a long time, going back to my childhood in years past. I have virtually every Avengers comic printed, including most comics printed that include an Avenger in them. For this final entry in our deck-a-thon, I decided to figure out whether it was possible to build a Magic deck based around the Avengers theme, with unique cards for each character.
Various and sundry people have written in suggesting that perhaps the decks I am offering in the series are a bit too expensive for most people to play. Since I try to be receptive to reader wishes, today I am going to try and build a solid, playable, winnable budget U/B control deck. I chose U/B control because I haven’t played one in a while, and I am itching to play a deck of my own. As such, I will be building with an eye to possibly playing myself.
Today I wanted a more casual, laid back sort of deck. I decided to build a humble theme deck, but like any theme deck, there is your typical Abe-twist. We’re going to harness the tribal theme to play with a rather interesting creature type. Today I am working on a modern day Shapeshifter deck. Although it is meant to be fun, there are several powerful wining conditions here. Let’s take a look at the deck:
As many readers will already know, I began the bad rare challenge as the last article in my first run of A Deck a Day. The bad rare challenge is simple. I pull a bad rare out of my “low value rare” box in order to build a deck. I cannot refuse any rare. The idea of bad rare deck building appealed to me so much that today I’m writing a follow-up article for it.
Ah, good old cards, how I love thee. I was perusing my deck stock binder, trying to find an idea for today’s article, when I espied Homarid Spawning Bed. This gem from the past allows you to sacrifice Blue creatures for 1/1 tokens equal to the casting cost.
I immediately thought about good ol’ Scornful Egotist, the eight-mana 1/1. I’ve never actually built a deck with Scornful Egotist, but this feels like as good a time as any.
I always wanted to remake the classic Prison deck in the wake of Mirrodin block. Now is my opportunity to do so with several crucial card being reprinted. The Prison deck is one of the first deck archetypes, and it was known for it’s ability to lock down the game with relative ease. It used Icy Manipulators, Winter Orbs, Armageddon, Relic Barriers, Howling Mines and are to lock you down, then played a Song of Titania and swung with a bunch of artifacts for game. This time around we’ll vary the parts a bit with some newer cards and see how effective this old archetype can still be.
Before I begin today’s deck, I want to mention that the idea for this deck came from my friend Aaron. Aaron witnessed me playing a Symbol Status for 12 creatures and declared it to be broken. Of course, I agree. I’ve always thought that Symbol Status was one of the best cards in Unhinged.
I was considering ideas for the next entry in the daily deck-a-thon, when I decided to use a Betrayers card as the theme to the next deck. Of course, I didn’t know which card to use, so I took a look at a list of Betrayers cards until something jumped out at me. It always will, if you stare long enough.
Welcome back comrades! Gather ’round, for thy daily dosage of deck hath returned! Verily, our good captain Ted of the Knutsons hath summoned me for another round of writing, and my heart warms so follow along as I update my favorite deck of all time.
