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You CAN Play Type I #118 – Back to Basics, Part VIII: Revisiting Card Advantage

To begin, I’d like to go back to something I glossed over in”Counting Card Advantage.” A lot of the forum discussion touched on”virtual” card advantage, but I doubt all readers know exactly what this is. It was a term coined by Eric”Danger” Taylor in”Virtual Card Advantage in Urza’s Block, a Sub-Category of Card Advantage Theory” (The Dojo, August 4, 1999). EDT’s classic article actually discussed two specific sets of scenarios, and the first concluded:

You can’t ignore tokens when counting card advantage.

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Oscar Takes On All Comers!

When you read this, I’d like you to e-mail me the most confusing, perplexing, tooth-gnashing, ball-breaking card advantage conundrum you can think of. And I’ll do my best to explain it to you in one stroke, using a very short checklist. In other words, I’d like you to help me write the next column.

If I can’t – again, take note of the grain of common sense needed – then I admit defeat and will shut up.

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The Comprehensive 8th Edition Draft Review: Artifacts

The colorless cards in 8th Edition are a mixed bunch. There are some very good, first-pick quality cards. There are also a large number of awful cards. Here are some points to note about artifacts in the format. Note that I have also included the non-basic lands in this section, for the sake of completeness. Not that there are enough of them to interfere with the flow of the article much.


  • Some artifacts should be picked higher than the equivalent colored card, because they don’t commit you to a color. Phyrexian Hulk for example is a perfectly acceptable first pick, because it is going to make your deck and be a reasonable card regardless of what colors you end up playing.

  • On the other hand, when using artifact creatures, remember that Naturalize and Shatter can rain on your parade just as well as any creature destruction spell. Bear this in mind when setting up gang blocks or alpha strikes.

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Mixed kNuts: Season’s Beatings For One and All

Wow, I can’t tell you the last time I wrote an actual”Mixed kNuts” column. You know, the kind with the Kitchen Sink, and the Cheesecake, and the randomness generally associated with, uh, me? Since it’s Christmas, I’m gifting myself (and verbing too) the time to write something fun, and since it’s not particularly fair to post some other writer on Christmas (nobody reads Christmas Day, silly), I’ll proudly fill the void.

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Power, Consistency, and Resiliency – Dabbling With Desires In Extended, Part Two

Metagame/hate decks are something I never recommend for the reason that they aren’t very powerful – and even if they are, they usually don’t even approach the power level of the targeted decks. Despite effective hosers, the lack of inherent power is most visible in match-ups outside the scope of its hate. Another risk is that you may not even play the deck you are supposed to be hosing. The second reason is that in degenerate formats, more powerful decks have the best chance of just being more broken and faster than another incredibly powerful deck.

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Konfrontin’ Kartin’ Ken and his Krazy Konklusions

I want to talk about how Ken Krouner isn’t right when he says Green is the best color in Mirrodin draft.

One of the things posted recently in response to an Eisel article on Red pick orders was that when you argue with someone, you’re saying they’re”stupid and wrong.” I feel Ken is wrong in his observations – but I don’t feel Ken is the least bit stupid. The man is known for being somewhat unorthodox and at times even a little ahead of the curve; neither of which are attributes I personally find offensive in writing. That being said, I do disagree. And I do bite my thumb at him.

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Sullivan Library: Who Needs A Way To Win? Just Win…

In essence, this deck does what Baron Harkonnen did back in 1997. It tries to devote itself to just making sure that the opponent does not win. When you play Chronoscepter, your basic plan is this:


  • Have enough countermagic to stop the opponent’s plan, even if only temporarily

  • Start gaining card advantage (real or virtual) off of card draw or using a Scepter

  • Use Cunning Wish to access a direct answer to any threats, or if there are none, to lock up the game

  • Once the game is locked, kill the opponent as an afterthought

If you are looking for a completely rogue creation to play both before and after the Bannings, don’t miss this article!

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From Right Field – Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!

Of course, we headed right back down the yellow-brick road to my old stomping grounds in Louisiana. Yep, we headed to the Swamps. Looking down bayou way gave us access to creatures that allowed us to sacrifice that stolen critter. We had Carrion Feeder, Nantuko Husk, Fallen Angel, and Phyrexian Plaguelord. (Thank you, 8th Edition!) The great thing about those last two was that, while they’re rares, they’re rares that are cheap. Not cheap like a truck stop floozy. I mean, inexpensive to purchase.

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High Treason Against Type I

Is it just me, or has the Type One community seemed particularly irate these past few weeks? Some advocates of Type One have been whining more than my four-year-old sister when she wants cheese. What is all of the hullabaloo about, anyway? Mark Rosewater reprinting an article with a few extra blurbs? This article, however, is not really geared towards people who have their minds made up, so don’t confuse them with the facts. Instead, it is focused on the average person whose head is spinning from all of the Type One Speak. I will try to speak English to you, and in doing so, will probably annoy an entire chunk of the Type One community.

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Yawgmoth’s Whimsy #86: Merry Christmas!

In the spirit of the holidays, and the whimsy title, I am going to do a Christmas theme deck. It will be Red, Green and White, and all the cards represent Christmas themes or characters. That’s easy. Making it playable is harder, but I’ll do that, too.

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A Little Holiday TLC from the JMF

Last month, Will Rieffer provided us a Twelve-Land Charbelcher (TLC) build featuring Lightning Rift, Grid Monitor, Sulfuric Vortex, and the usual suspects. I had already been playing my version of TLC for about three weeks prior to his article, which didn’t have many of the cards present in his build. After some testing, I came to the conclusion that if you’re going to run TLC, you should be using every possible card to further the end of activating Goblin Charbelcher and killing your opponent. Cards like Grid Monitor, Hammer of Bogardan, and Shrapnel Blast, while all useful in their own right, do not further this end. Also, Will’s build didn’t have any redundancy built in to recover Goblin Charbelcher in case it was destroyed or countered, but this was less of a problem due to the random smattering of other damage sources in the deck.

I have won three local Standard tournaments with this build of TLC and have placed in the top 4 one other time. I originally just wanted to have fun playing the deck, but it ended up far more competitive than I anticipated.

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