Peter discusses three”cute” decks that he idly considered bringing to States but had to discard in the course of testing – decks like the Pentavus/Mana Echoes infinite mana combo, the Zur’s Weirding lock deck (with, of course, Words of Wisdom), and U/R Land Destruction with Mindslaver!
I set out to break two cards – Timesifter and Soul Foundry – with one deck. The deck worked, and worked well, mainly because of some synergistic effects. The deck could win by taking infinite turns, while removing the opponent’s libraries from the game. It could also control the board or smash face with a variety of creatures.
Back when the Onslaught spoiler came out, I wrote a review from a multiplayer perspective. I ranted about Blatant Thievery and Insurrection, and some other cards that I thought were just wrong for the format. The Ferrett brought the article to Randy Buehler’s attention and suggested that Wizards use a multiplayer group to playtest future sets… And he picked ours.
Now excuse me for a moment while I scream about these new cards, which I’ve known about for a year and have never been able to say a dang thing.
The new set is out, and I actually got some time to play multiplayer games with the new cards… And I have enough experience with it to say that one card in Mirrodin is every bit as insane in multiplayer as it seemed when we first heard about it. I think it is the best multiplayer card ever printed. Period. No question. No quibbles. No exceptions. It’s way better than Verdant Force. It’s better than Pernicious Deed. Every multiplayer deck I can think of would be better with four of this in it. Every single one.
In Part I of this article, I discussed the why and how of rogue decks, and provided some general rules for their construction. Now I’ll build one, to provide a practical example of the process. The trick was to find a rogue deck concept that hasn’t been thoroughly discussed in articles and forums already. I think I have one: Intruder Alarm, Squirrel Nest, and something to animate lands, like Vivify. So what happened when I tested this deck in a modern Standard environment, what were the two pitfalls I had to avoid – and how did the deck turn out?
Recently, several writers have been debating the best cards for multiplayer. Any best card list like that is going to be difficult, and will be missing a bunch of cards due to brain farts, but those lists do stimulate discussion. Now me, I’ve written mine already, but I want to weigh in on the debate, so I’ll take a different approach. I want to talk about the best mechanics and effects for multiplayer – with a few cards thrown in for good measure.
This article has three parts: It begins with a discussion of the reason some players find playing rogue decks a moral imperative. The second part looks at the advantages and disadvantages of playing a rogue deck, while the third section looks at the steps necessary to build and tune a rogue deck.
Anthony Alongi considers Lifeline to be a pretty stupid multiplayer card; he’s right in many ways. Lifeline is pretty close to a mistake. It is way too easy to abuse. If you play a Lifeline deck, have fun – because your opponents won’t.
You’ve played Peasant Magic, of course – but what about Kings’ Magic? Or Third World Kings’ Magic? ABC Magic? Lich? The hyperphenomenal Blitz? 237? Siege? Rainbow? Legend of the Elder Dragons? Peter gives you a bunch of weirdo formats to spice up your weekend!
I have playtested this for weeks, and it goes 7-3 vs. MWC, 8-2 vs. Goblins, 9-1 vs. Beasts and crushes Zombie Bidding.
Cool, huh?
Frequently, the deck is not cool. It is not even good. And it raises one fundamental question: If the deck is that bad, how did he get numbers that good? Is he hallucinating, or lying? The answer is neither; he probably got results like that because he violated most of the rules of tourney preparation. So let me show you how to do it right.
Every year at Origins, PES holds a casual tournament for prizes – and this year it’s Creature Feature, a format that is all creatures, no spells… And no nonbasic lands. What does the metagame look like for this oddball format, and how can we break it wide open?
At the risk of looking like a scrub (okay – more like a scrub), I am going to build dragon decks. This is partly because the new set is so dragon-friendly – and partly because I am getting some flak for playing too many combo decks. Even my beatdown decks generally have some”surprise, you all lose” elements. I’m trying to build something that only wins by beating down.
I’m talking about Dan Bock. He was the guy who played an all-land deck at a previous Pro Tour in Japan. Now, normally I don’t beg decklists from people who play all-land decks in major tournaments… But this was a special case. Dan qualified playing Full English Breakfast at the last Extended PTQ where Survival of the Fittest was legal. Since that time, he has recreated FEB several times – in Extended without Survival, in 5-Color, and in T1. Now he has built it in Highlander format, and it’s now kicking serious butt with Phage.
My goal that day was a winning record. I knew that I hadn’t playtested enough and would get caught by tricks and sideboards I had not anticipated. I also figured to lose one or two matches to manascrew, since I was running a two-color deck with non-aligned colors and no Birds of Paradise. That about summed up the day: Winning record, lost two matches to my errors, one to mana screw. But along the way, I learned some lessons about Rob Dougherty’s Elvish Succession, some changes in the metagame that have weakened it, and some tricks on playing it properly.
Here’s the dirty little secret to casual and multiplayer games – people do not want to think long and hard. If you present them with a mess like a Spike Feeder, a Seal of Strength, and a Wild Mongrel, they are not going to attack you – they will attack someone else who doesn’t force them to do as many mathematical calculations. In most cases, you don’t need to have an indefensible position – a complex position is often enough redirect attacks. It sure works for me.
