Kirk (sarcastically):”Well now, isn’t it convenient that you drew four Swords to Plowshares by turn 4?”
Me (surveying the game):”Just about as convenient as you drawing four Hypnotic Specters by turn 4, wouldn’t you say?”
Kirk (averting my gaze):”Um oh, um, well, I guess we’re both lucky.”
Me (driving the point home):”Yeah, right Kirk. (Derisive) Lucky.”
Green is one of the more powerful colors in Fifth Dawn. Its commons may not be that exciting, but its rares and uncommons are quite powerful. The artifacts, on the other hand, are much tougher to rate, since many of them use sunburst, which is alternately amazing and awful.
We set up camp that night at the home of Josh Reynolds, a Short Bus member, but an obvious Meandeck sympathizer. Much like the people of Cold Mountain, Josh knew that he needed to be in the good graces of the team if he were to survive the ensuing chaos.
I open some random stuff and Detonate, Solemn Simulacrum, Blinding Beam. Which bomb do you draft?
Anthony:”You’re not playing that Millstone deck, are you?
Me:”Mayyybe. Mayyybe not.”
Anthony:”I’m not playing.”
Me:”I’m not playing it, this is a new deck.”
Anthony:”Okay, fine, I’ll play.”
Me:”Turn one, Mountain, Orcish Spy.”
Anthony:”What the hell? You said you weren’t playing that deck!”
Me:”I changed a card since yesterday.”
Today, with the end of the experiment right around the corner, I thought I would outline a few of the more interesting ideas I’ve received either in the Forums, via e-mail, or online. This won’t be an exhaustive list, obviously, and I’m not going to pursue any of these directions in my deck. Hopefully, though, walking through them will inspire you in your own mad tinkering.
If you are looking for the real scoop on Block Constructed, look no further than Block Pro Tour and Grand Prix winner Osyp Lebedowicz. In his latest masterpiece, Osyp tells you how he won Grand Prix: Orlando, explains why Affinity is still the best deck in the format and includes a complete sideboard for his deck, and shares the usual embarassing anecdotes about Brian Kibler.
Anthony:”Okay Bob, I’m going to Disenchant your Icy Manipulator.”
Bob:”Oh No You Don’t! (Bob liked to shout a lot) In response to that, I tap your Plains!”
Me:”Bob, you can’t Icy a land to stop him from casting a spell.”
Bob: (taking offense)”Who the hell says I can’t?”
Jeff:”Bob, we’ve been over this a million times. Removing the source of an effect doesn’t remove the effect itself.”
Bob:”I’m not removing anything, I’m just tapping it.”
I think I’ve been pretty clear all along in this experiment that I never intended the deck to be played in tournaments. That said, several people have been inspired to bring either my version or their own cog deck to FNM or even Pro Tour Qualifiers. Crazy. Even crazier, some of the results have been encouraging, and enough people have e-mailed me asking my thoughts concerning a sideboard that it feels unavoidable to chime in on the topic.
Today’s double dose of guest writer action answers the question: When you get tired of the game, how do you make it fun again?
I had to take a little revenge, because people were actually telling me how lucky I was that I had this great team to carry me to my PT win. This stung a lot, so I was set on posting a very good result at the next tournament. Too bad for all the other Dutchies, the next tournament was Dutch Nationals. I had two weeks to test for it after I got back from Seattle, so I started as soon as possible. Testing didn’t quite go as well as I had hoped, so in order to find a good deck, all I had to do was talk to the Master.
The goal of this article is quite ambitious: in the middle of the Block Constructed season, with multiple Grand Prix behind us, I’m going to argue that there is a viable (possibly tier one) rogue deck available for Block. It’s a control deck with tremendous utility and a ton of play decisions that has game against all of the most popular decks and favorable matchups against most.
