Many people – well, a few, anyway – noticed that I didn’t do a piece last week. The reason is simple. I was still recovering from my trip to Grand Prix New Orleans! You see, the StarCity folks found out that I had gone to Tulane and hadn’t been back in fifteen years… So they thought that I’d like the trip. Plus, they wanted me to be a tour guide of sorts. How could I say no?
At Nationals last year, I started trading for the Power Nine. Being a judge, you get those nice judge foils and boxes for judging at Pro Tours and Grand Prix – but no old cards. At Reims, I managed to get the last part: A Mox Ruby. Now all I had to do was wait for the new year before I could play with my goodies.
Peasant Magic’s rules are very simple: The only cards allowed are commons from any set (which does include Portal, Unglued, and so forth), and you can also have up to five of any uncommon. No banned list, no restricted list. So simple, so elegant. And ultimately, so wrong.
This is not an archetype to be glossed over. Extended is not nearly the insanely fast format we knew years ago. There is plenty of time for a lock-type deck to operate, and this one is incredibly powerful.
Justice, Finkel, Buehler, Long, Maher – the list of Magic Players who owned the Pro Tour in the past is a nice short one. Right now, only one man rules the Pro Tour and everyone knows his name: Kai Budde.
The deck is surprisingly good, better than I certainly expected. In our testing, it was no worse than 50/50 vs. Rock and U/G Madness, ate Sligh for lunch and gave Oath decks fits. This was before these improvements.
I had put together a synthesis of Rock and Oath I called”Black Oath” back in early December – and I think, in time, it would have become Kibler’s build. That’s sad. With that in mind, here are three decks that I’ve only done some light playtesting on, but I think they have potential.
I believe that my Altar of Dementia deck is more twisted than anyone’s, because I understand dementia… And I’m certainly not an altar boy, but I’m fed up with being told that I am.
I feel it’s time to write another Dilemma article in response to the last segment by my partner in crime, Ken Krouner. I think KK mistitled his article, as it should have been”The Swat Dilemma,” instead of the”The Screeching Buzzard Dilemma” – and once again, I’m on the opposing side of this dilemma.
Why would I declare these decks as the first tier? Is it their power that leads me to this belief? No, not really. While these are all powerful archetypes, the only reason I would present them as tier one decks is simply because – as the Deck Editor who inputs every deck into StarCityGames.com’s Deck Database – these are the ones I find myself entering over and over again.
When I saw Goblin Piledriver, I thought it was a strong card that nevertheless wouldn’t work in Type I. It didn’t occur to me that you could throw them all into a deck and see their individual drawbacks set aside by sheer weight of firepower.
What we need now, is a set like Tempest with lots of cool mechanics and combo cards. God I’m sick of this damn set. I love playing it… But writing about is like stabbing myself in the forehead with a fork. CREATURE TYPE! CREATURE TYPE! MORPH! Blargh.
Moxes are great, sure – we all know that. But in Five Color, Moxes are terribly overrated. The marginal improvement that your deck receives with them is not worth the pain of losing them in ante.
Most combo decks don’t do well in multiplayer for two reasons. Firstly, they get you bashed around next game, unless it’s a small group, and you can survive one player to get the combo out again. Related to that is that it’s hard to get the combo off multiple times. Donate-Illusions of Grandeur is kinda tough to do the second time. Pray to God that you can pull it off a third.
“I figured since most of the legal cards are from far before I started playing, I should stand on the shoulders of giants this time around.”
“So what giants did you stand on the shoulders of?”
“The French.”
“Bold choice, man.”
