B.Y.O.B

[Captain Caveman]

Last week my brother and I decieded to try a new Format. The idea was to help improve_my_ deck building
skill(really the lack there of) This new format is call; Build Your Own Block(B.Y.O.B) My goal was to get
a better understanding of deck building. Unfortunatly for me, I just can't build an orginal deck. Now, Ive tryed
(there listed below)but they don't appear to be any good. The reason I'm posting this is to ask for your help. I'd
like for someone(anyone) to discuss the art of "orginal" deck building. Do you have to have the "eye" or is
something you can learn? Is there a templet you follow when analyzing the environment, to find the best deck
type?


I'd also like a few tips on what errors I've made in my analysis of_our_ environment. I realize this is kind of
subjective but if you can explain why ~this~ card is a bad choice it might help me to overcome this tendency
to build bad decks. If you'd like to give a better example of the deck in question, feel free to do so. I know
several people, here at the CPA, that are_great_deck builders so if you'd like to offer a deck of you own
design please follow it up with an explaintion of why it is the deck to beat.


This is the B.Y.O.B we decieded to use: Urza's Saga, Weatherlight and Prophecy. No other cards are allow
and none of the cards in these sets are Banned.(Ya, Saga has some powerful cards but for now, nothing is
banned.) Oh, we'll probably have to ban Fluctuator after Wednesday but I hope thats all.

I've tryed to do my own analysis and here's what I came up with. Morphling, Aura of Silence and Worship
should be pretty strong. Morphling is good in any envirnment but in this block it should be really hard to
remove.Next, Saga has several enchantment and the Aura is pretty hard in enchant based decks so it has
to be good too. The block is also light on burn so Sligh variants shouldn't be to much of a problem and of
course Worship kind of kills it anyway. Those three cards and Fluctautor seem to be the most powerful.
Thats probably a weak analysis but I'm not any good at this kind of thing,

Here are the decks I built:

Fluctuator
4 Pendrell Drake
4 Sandbar Merfolk
4 Drifting Djinn
4 Disciple of Law
4 Wild Dog
4 Disciple of Grace
4 Fluctuator
2 Scrap
2 Dark Ritual
1 Haunting Misery
1 Windfall
1 Abeyance
1 Ill-gotten Gains

4 Blasted Landscape
4 Polluted Mire
4 Slippery Karst
4 Drifting Meadow
4 Remote Isle
3 Smoldering Crater
1 Swamp


Green
4 Endless Wurm
4 Argothian Wurm
4 Cradle Guard
4 Wild Dogs
4 Elvish Lyrist
4 Albino Troll
4 Greater Good
4 Fortitude
4 Briar Shield

20 Forest
4 Gaea's Cradle


White
4 Smokestack
4 Monk Idealist
4 Monk Realist
4 Duskrider Falcon
4 Mind Stone
4 Brilliant Halo
4 Peacekeeper
4 Aura of Silence
4 Abeyance

20 Plains
4 Blasted Landscape


Blue
4 Foil
4 Pit Trap
4 Morphling
4 Rescind
4 Abduction
4 Spiketail Hatchling
4 Ribbon Snake
3 Annul
3 Withdraw

22 Island
4 Blasted Landscape


G/W
4 Argothian Enchantress
4 Faith Healer
4 Worship
4 Brilliant Halo
4 Monk Realist
4 Duskrider Falcon
3 Albino Troll
3 Smokestack
2 Argivian Find
2 Gaea's Blessing
2 Opal Archangel

7 Forest
10 Plains
4 Gemstone Mine
3 Serra's Sanctum


G/R
4 Argothian Enchantress
4 Vereran Brawlers
4 Task Mage Assembly
4 Chimeric Idol
4 Orcish Settlers
4 Rhystic Lightning
3 Albino Troll
3 Mana Web
2 Scrap
2 Gaea's Blessing
2 Calming Verse

7 Forest
10 Mountain
4 Gemstone Mine
3 Gaea's Cradle


Well, those are the decks I'm probably going to play Wednesday night. I'm sure you've noticed there are several
cards that I'm not playing with(Yawgmoth's Will, Befoul, Aether Flash, Time Spiral, Stroke and on & on).
I'm still trying to put together decks and if I figure out something I'll post it. I'd like to make a few non-allied
color decks but nothing comes to mind.


Thanks for reading and please remember I really want to become a better deck builder between now and
my next B.Y.O.B experience so your help is needed.

Caveman

 

[Riva Iron-Grip]

well caveman, there are some things that you need to know when building decks. first, what deck type are you creating: weeny, control, destruction, etc. Next, get cards that either help do direct damage, cheap casting, help you draw cards, or help you to power housing. Next, the game of magic was designed to help kids learn math. so get cards that can win the game withing a certain amount of time, no matter what you draw, or what the other player is playing. also, look at your colors. try to get cards that cover most colors in the field. the best way to do this is to play with a 3 colored deck. sometimes it helps, sometimes it doesn't. i hope that this helped.

 

[Chaos Turtle]

There really is a format called "B.Y.O.B." (Bring Your Own Block) which was used at the Magic Invitational. There have also been some online tournaments hosted my e-League and i-Magic; also, our local Arena group is trying this format out this season.

But it looks like you've made up your own format, and givien it a very similar name.

I might be able to offer guidance on the actual B.Y.O.B format, but I really have no idea what you're trying to do here...virtually all of the decks you have listed would be illegal in a real B.Y.O.B. environment.

 

[Captain Caveman]

CT,


All I'm tring to do is pick 3 sets, call it a block and build orginal decks from those cards.

I'm not trying to play any "tournament" format. I had no idea that name was taken or I would have
called it something else.

Caveman

 

[Gizmo]

--*@:/begin data download/*--

A lot of your decks use bad cards, that is not a good start. Try to avoid bad cards at all times - it`s a simple rule but usually a good one.

I think this is actually going to be the hardest possible way for you to begin to learn how to deckbuild, most players generally agree that the 3-expansion Block Constructed tournaments are the hardest to prepare for, and you are trying to do so without the benefit of information recieved from the Block Constructed format with only 1 or 2 of the blocks in which would set a good idea oft he metagame. You are forced to create your own metagame and that is 1000% harder than building a deck. More to the point it is a situation you will never encounter in real Magic life. Its like learning how to gargle Sufuric Acid in preparation for going out for a drink.

The best way to learn to deckbuild is to approach an existing environment.

1. What are 'The Decks' in the field. And how much of the field do they make up?
Just as importantly, how much of the field will they make up where you are in the Swiss standings. Fires and Rebels are big decks right now, probably about 40% of the field. But if you are on 4-0 then Fires and Rebels will be about 70% of the field, if you are on 1-3 then they will be only 10% of your field.

Are you expecting to win?
If not, ignore The Decks and metagame against Tier-Two decks or scrubby green monster decks that small children play. You won`t win the tournmanent, but you might make 4-2 and get blown out of the Top-8 by the Fires deck who will win the tournament.

You should now know what your target decks are.

2. What are their weaknesses/strengths. Do they share any weaknesses with each other that you can exploit to beat them all?

3. Pick a card/theme that you think the decks you are aiming for cannot handle. Build that deck. Keep it tight, don`t wastes slots on luxury spells, always take the cheapest card that will do the job for you. Consider every angle of every card. For every single deck I build, every single slot, I go through my entire collection and see if there is a card I have never used before (and so forgotten exists) which fills the gap I am looking at.

Question every card. Not in a 'Where were you on the night of the thirteenth? Any witnesses to that?' kind of way, but in a 'Why the hell am I playing with you?' kind of way.

4. Play it. And then change it.
This is a 1-2 combination. You can`t do one and not do the other, because you won`t get anywhere. When you finish building the deck pick up all the cards that are lying around that you were thinking of putting in, and stick them with your deck so that they are always around. That way halfway through the playtest night, when you are thinking 'no, I really need some Disenchants in here because I can`t handle xxxx', you can just put them straight in and try the new version.
Don`t be afraid to change. Give your current config a chance, but when you see a hole that needs filling, don`t hesiate to change. The faster your deck evolves, the better it will become.

My friend builds decks that are okay, and with tweaking they could be great but he spends weeks saying 'I keep meaning to try this with Accumulated Knowledges in' before he ever actually gets around to trying it. If he changed faster he might find that early card drawing is good for him, but that he cannot afford 2cc spells, and try Opt instead. Which likes more but is a little weak and so he gives Soothsaying a try and suddenly his deck rocks. I would possibly make all those steps in one playtest session, but it would take hm two months to do the same.
Don`t be afraid to try new stuff and lose. The results that matter are the 6 matches on Sunday, not the 37 games on Wednesday night.

BUT

Don`t change the deck just to beat what you are playing against. Sideboards exist for a reason, and usually you playtest without them. So if you are playing Rebels with 2 Disenchants in the maindeck, and you happen to be playtesting aginst some sort of Ancestral Mask deck, don`t immediately dump another 6 Disenchants/Seals Of Cleansing in the deck. Accept that, yes, you will struggle to beat him because his deck is wierd - but carrying 8 maindeck Disenchants will mean you beat him but lose to everybody else. If desperate is it usually possible find a card that is good against him, but also not wasted in other matches (some point-removal like Afterlife is just as effective against Ancestral mask, for instance).

5. Sometimes deck just don`t work. The weakness you aimed for was illusionary, or your finished deck cannot attack it as strongly as you hoped. Pack it in and start again. Pick another weakness, or a different way to attack it and begin again.
The most important thing is practice, and repetition of the routine.

Four years ago I, literally, built three new decks every day. Not everybody is a lay-around student who can afford to do that but the principle remains the same even if the pace differs. Build new decks is the easiest way to learn how to build new decks.
I built three a day, then broke them up in the evening and began again. Now I can build a deck in five minutes, and it`ll be damn good. I usually have 56 cards in the deck within 60 seconds and spend the next nine minutes trying to find ways around weaknesses in the current list, either that or I got to 50 cards and realised it wasn`t going to work out after all.

--*@:/data download complete/*--

 

[Captain Caveman]

Re: Gizmo

Ok, I'm pretty sure I understand what your saying. You've give me some very useful pointers in deck construction. But
now I have to wonder if I've ask the wrong questions. Do you believe is possible to build a good deck without analyzing
the Meta-game? Can a person look at 3 different(random)expansions and build a really good deck. You gave me what
I was asking for but what I really need is a templet for general deckbuilding. I know that probably sounds silly but I
can't think of any other way to put it. I should have never started talking about analyzing anything. I want to be able to
sit down with a 3 different checklist and put together a_good_deck.

Caveman

 

[Gizmo]

But what is a good deck?

A solid deck with a theme, I guess. But that is hard enough to do when you know what other decks you will face.

I guess, from the top of my head, I would look at Saga/Weatherlight/Prophecy (BTW, good job of picking a really sucky combination of crap expansions what did Tempest/Visons/Destiny do wrong?) and say:

Saga
I want to play with the broken cards.
Good 1cc creatures (Cadet, Patrol, Jaguar, Dogs) but nothing to support an aggro deck in any colour.
No support for a counterspell deck.
Sneak Attack

Weatherlight - Almost all the cards are bad.
Firestorm combos up to Time Spiral and Windfall nicely to protect our combo from weenies..

Prophecy - ALL the cards are bad. There is one good card in the whole set, Mageta. But creatures are weak in this expansion so I don`t care.

In all honesty, I think it is almost impossible to build a 'good' deck from this expansion. You could probably find some way of putting Academy/Monolith/Key/Fluctuator/Windfall/Spiral/Turnabout/Stroke into a broken combo deck, and nothing else would have a hope against it.
All you can do is build a deck that is good in the metagame, because all the other decks will be weak and have huge holes to attack, but without a metagame to attack that strategy is worthless.

 

[Gizmo]

Good Burn deck?

4 Patrol
4 Cadets
4 Lava Hounds

4 Parch
4 Thunderbolt
4 Rhystic Lightning

And then we run out of even halfway-playable cards.

MY GOD!

I can`t believe how bad this combination of sets is!
I`ve been sat here for an hour and a half writing these two posts, and I still can`t get more than 20 good cards into a single deck. There are no dual lands so you have to play mono, and there aren`t enough good cards in any one colour to do that properly. Saga was full of half-assed mechanics (Opals etc, Cycling) and broken combos. And Wildfire is probably broken.

Weatherlight had the worst theme in the world (use the graveyard, but in a way that it doesn`t matter what other cards you are using so there is no way to build synergy into the deck) and absolutely NO good monsters. Gaea`s Blessing is awesome, though. Put into a block with Oath Of Druids it wouldn`t be so bad, Weatherlight has nice support spells. But it is put in a set with no strong core, so it is being forced to provide the meat, and it has none to give.

Prophecy was, if anything, even worse. It only has four good cards, and one of those sucks! It didn`t even have a theme, just a bunch of bad cards.

Choose another combination of sets, for God`s sake, and probably make a ruling that the Ice Age/6th dual lands are legal as well.

Tempest/Visions/Destiny would be a powerhouse set, full of really harsh Sligh and Tradewind decks. This block would be able to build powerful decks in any number of ways...Scrolls, Fireblasts, Tradewinds, Masticores, Negators, Treachery, Vampiric Tutors

Mirage/Legacy/Exodus would be a bit more calm. None of those sets were particularly fast. Mirage is possibly a little weak though, and could do with Visions to back it up with some power.

Ice Age/Visions/Exodus could be very interesting. A slow main set with the fast support sets, a great blend of decktypes probably. No Wrath Of God type in IAge, though, if I remember rightly, which is bad.

I`m not griping, but I think you have got the worst combination of sets you could have chosen, from the point of view of building 'a good deck', apart from Masques/Homelands/Weatherlight - which would be a nightmare of themes working at cross purposes to each other.

 

[Captain Caveman]

"I can`t believe how bad this combination of sets is!"

You know, Its kind of funny you should say that. My brother is a Rogue deckbuilder and had his decks
together within a short period of time and I'm sure he can't understand why I can't come up with some,
what I believe would be, good decks.

I think you have to move away from conventional deckbuilding and except combination you would never
play in a predetermined block given to us by WoTc.



"Gaea`s Blessing is awesome, though."

I was looking at this card as well. I thought there has to be some kind of Whetstone, Blessing, Academy
combo deck, thingy.



"Choose another combination of sets, for God`s sake, and probably make a ruling that the Ice Age/6th dual lands are legal as well."


I would normally agree with your advice but this is the Block we agreed on so I'm going to stick with
it until I(you/anyone)comes up with the best possible decks for this block. Its kind of a challenge.

I'm sure that my brother will come up with some Rogue decks that will be a lot of fun and he will
probably play combonations I never would and he will win with them.


Its a challenge. Take a combination of non-allied cards(block wise)and build a gauntlet of decks that
should, in theory, be the best.


"Good Burn deck? "

I had a Sligh deck together(well almost)but I couldn't figure out how to finish it.

Wan-a-be sligh
4 Patrol
4 Raiders
4 Lackey
4 Vandal
4 ?????????????????
2 Lava Hounds

4 Parch
4 Thunderbolt
4 Bravado
4 Rhystic Lightning
2 Arc Lightning

18 Mountain
2 Blasted Landscape


Well, thats enough of my rambling on.

Btw, Riva Iron-Grip; that was some good advice and I'm trying to follow it.

Caveman

 

[Gizmo]

Vandal is only good if the field has some nasty artifacts, which this doesn`t. Saga - Smokestack, maybe? Otherwise nothing. It`s just a 1/1 for 1. And so is the Lackey. 1/1 monsters do not make for much of a threat. I think I`d stick to those 3 creatures I mentioned as being the only ones worth using. Chimeric Idol got forgotten though, so did Fault Line.

4 Patrol
4 Cadets
4 Idol
4 Hounds

4 Parch
4 Rhystic
4 Arc
4 Fault

3 Shivan Gorge
19 Mountain

Getting closer...
Burn is so weak in these sets as well. I forgot Arc Lightning, though, which was my bad. Bravado is probably really bad.

I`m looking at your decks, the Fluctuator one is probably crazy-broken good. Any reason why this doesn`t win first turn with a Ritualled Fluctuator? But it has no search engies so is totally inconsistent.

If you want general hints as to how to approach a block the most important thing is to work out how fastest the fastest deck is. That sets your 'clock' and shows how much you can afford to mess around in the first few turns. MBC has a much longer clock than TSE for instance.

Without search engines your complicated decks will fall over, that much is certain. Keep it simple. But there is no good LD in this block, no good discard, no good mass removal. Nothing good at all in fact. No strategy cards whatsoever exist in your cerated block. Any PT player approaching this block of cards would throw his hands up in horror, there is no way for skill to affect the result of a match. Just throw 36 cards into your deck that are guaranteed to trade 1-1 with their cards and you will be on to a winner.

Critique your decks:
Fluctuator
4 Pendrell Drake
4 Sandbar Merfolk
4 Drifting Djinn
4 Disciple of Law
4 Wild Dog
4 Disciple of Grace
4 Fluctuator
2 Scrap
2 Dark Ritual
1 Haunting Misery
1 Windfall
1 Abeyance
1 Ill-gotten Gains

4 Blasted Landscape
4 Polluted Mire
4 Slippery Karst
4 Drifting Meadow
4 Remote Isle
3 Smoldering Crater
1 Swamp

This deck probably wins the turn it casts Fluctuator. Which is almost certainly turn 3. But it only draws Fluctuator 50% of the time, and will pretty much auto-lose the other 50% of matches. Might as well be called HeadsOrTails.dec.

Green
4 Endless Wurm
4 Argothian Wurm
4 Cradle Guard
4 Wild Dogs
4 Elvish Lyrist
4 Albino Troll
4 Greater Good
4 Fortitude
4 Briar Shield

20 Forest
4 Gaea's Cradle

Solid, but Greater Good is terrible. So is Fortitude. There HAS to be better cards in Saga than this. I also wouldn`t use the Wurms because their drawbacks are terrible. Prophecy gives you Wild Might - use it, it`s awesome.
This could be SO much better:

4 Jaguar
4 Wild Dogs
4 Rogue Elephant
3 Elven Lyrist
4 Albino Troll
3 Harvest Wurm
3 Living Terrain

4 Briar Shield
4 Wild Might
2 Symbiosis
3 Hurricane

4 Gaea`s Cradle
18 Forest

Is probably as fast as you can get a deck in this block. I actually like the above list quite a lot. Terrain (can attack as if it had Haste because the land was already in play at the start of the turn) and Hurricane should be the unexpected damage sources you need if they clear your initial threats (extremely unlikely as there is no mass removal and your creatures are almost certainly bigger than theirs.

Your other decks don`t even merit discussion. Especially the white one, oy-vey!

But that green deck looks violent. Try it. If their decks are even slightly bad this will go through them like a knife through butter.

 

[immortal grave walker]

gizmo
caveman

being the rogue deckbuilder brother of caveman. We picked this type of thing to try something new. I can throw a deck together with in sevral minutes. The reason is I dont have all the main cards to build all the main decks. i build decks with the cards i have at hand. Every time its the same ole story. I have built decks that have crushed top 8 decks,however when we go to tournaments i always get bad draws. Every single time. im just the kind of player that uses cards that no one would think someone would use. im not a bad player nor good player im just a player. Far as the urzas,wl,py. I dont thinkit was a bad choice over all, we still plan to mix up the sets in the future.
Here are a few decks i put together for byob.

humunculus humor

4-hazy homunculus(armor up)
4-rethink
3-spikeetail hatchling
2-vodalain illusionist
1-annul
1-sage owl
1-horseshoe crab
1-alexi,zephyr mage
1-telepathy(why not)

4-empyrial armr
4-opal titan
4-diving griffen
4=-angelic renewal
3-excise
1-aura fracture
2-disenchant
20-lands

------------------------------------

black control

4-dark ritual
3-yawgmoths will
2-persecute
1-ill-gotten gains
1-no rest for the wicked
4-duress
4-flay
1-dark hatchling

4-abyssal gatekeeper
4-tendrils of despair
3-nakaya shade
1-chilling apparition
2-order of yawgmoth
2-unnerve
1-abyssal horror
1-expunge
2-wall of junk
-----------------------------------

buried alive

4-voltaic key
3-temporal aperture(maybe tolarian winds)
4-phyreexian colossus
3-?(might be serra avatar)

4-buried alive
4-dark ritual
4-exhume
4-festering evil
2-diabolic servitude
1-avatar of woe

4-argivian restoration
3-rethink
1-rhystic deluge
------------------------------------

 

[Captain Caveman]

"Your other decks don`t even merit discussion. Especially the white one, oy-vey! "

Ouch, the true hurts.

Re: The Green deck
"Solid, but Greater Good is terrible. So is Fortitude. There HAS to be better cards in Saga than this. I also wouldn`t use the Wurms because their drawbacks are terrible."

Probably true but I though Endless/Fortitude is an easy combo and without a Fortitude, Endless/GG is an
easy combo. But of course you have to draw it!


Which brings us to this:
"Without search engines your complicated decks will fall over, that much is certain. Keep it simple."

Gotch ya!


I'm a little surprised Duel, Zadok001, galtwish, PJ and several others haven't suggested anything. I
always look foward to reading there replies too.

Oh well, thanks Gizmo and Riva Iron-Grip.

Caveman

 

[Gizmo]

I think I scare people off.


The single most important part of deckbuilding is to make sure that deck is either:
1. Able to defend itself from the fastest deck in the field
OR
2. IS the fastest deck in the field

Make the fast decks first, then work out ways to beat them. Sitting down to look at a whole block is insane because there are too many cards, and this is especially bad if you can`t immediately tell good cards from bad cards.

Have you goy anything that can reliably beat that green deck? I`m trying to think...

Red
Arc and Parch are too weak. Rhystic is good. Fault Line will be too slow
Wildfire is excellent
Why has nobody built a Wildfire deck yet, BTW? Wildfire + 28 lands or Powerstones is usually all you need.
Wildfire might beat Green, nothing else in red would.

Blue
No defense to speak of, Energy Field would be a wrecking ball but we have Lyrists and they probably can`t keep cards out of their graveyard forever. Somnophore is good but would be too slow. Countermagic is all very late apart for Sink. Will lose to the green deck.

White
Catastrophe is VERY slow. No CoPs. No good weenies. Generally bad news all round. Worship, but again we have Lyrists.

Black
Pestilence, but that`s a heaping helping of damage. No Terror, no cheap removal at all in fact. Corrupt is really good, but we have nothing to tie it in to.

2 Vebulid
4 Skittering Skirge
4 Chimeric Idol

4 Duress
4 Dark Ritual
2 Yawgmoth`s Will
3 Expunge
3 Persecute (almost all decks will be virtually mono)
3 Pestilence
4 Corrupt

26 Swamp

Perhaps?

 

[John`O]

pleasenonullrodnononotthat.dec

4 Tolarian Academy
19 Mountain
4 Worn Powerstone
4 Mind Stone
4 Wildfire
4 Crater Hellion
4 Fault Line
4 Temporal Aperture
4 Rain of Salt
4 Chimeric Idol
2 Phyrexian Furnace
1 Karn, Silver Golem
2 Mishra's Helix


Firestorm is a good red card that you might use
again green.
Green stompy is probably best?
Academy/Stroke combo nearly works but probably
isn't that great.
Ophidian+Morphling+Foil looks promising at first
but I think it needs wither good counterspells
or disk/keg.


John

 

[Gizmo]

Much more like it.

This looks more like a proper Block Constructed deck. Notice how few non-Saga cards it uses, thus increasing it`s power exponentially in this set of expansions.

Oh, and I might have made a Boo-Boo with my Green deck, because Hurricane isn`t available is it? Hmm, not good. Not sure what the replacement is. Maybe Gaea`s Embrace.

 

[Captain Caveman]

"I think I scare people off."

Nay, I doubt if they care about some made-up, no good, silly wanna be block idea. ya, thats it!


I really like John`O's Wildfire deck. I looks pretty darn good to me. Thanks!!!!


"Have you got anything that can reliably beat that green deck? I`m trying to think... "

Ok, I agree the Green deck looks pretty good but Hurricane is not in our Block. Do you think it
would matter very much to the overall effectiveness of the deck? Speed Kills but is it enough?


"Make the fast decks first, then work out ways to beat them. Sitting down to look at a whole block is insane because there are too many cards, and this is especially bad if you can`t immediately tell good cards from bad cards."


Ya, 350 + 167 + 143(counting land)= lotsa cards. Its a challenge though. Even if a quality tournament
deck can't be built from this group of cards I have to build 3 or 4 of the best decks I can.

I'm going to play atleast one deck from eack color Wedneday. I've got a Stompy and Wildfire deck now,
even though thier not really "mine." BUT, I'm learning. That has to be good.

Caveman



e.i. Hurricane, I think we were both online at the same time.

Now were rollin, Black, Green and Red that just leaves Blue and White.

[Edited by Captain Caveman on 01-15-01 at 03:30 PM]

 

[Gizmo]

I wonder if people actually know who JohnO is?
Hmm...
It would be SO funny if they didn`t.

 

[galtwish]

Control/Big Blue
4 Foil
4 Powersink
4 Fog bank
4 Somnophore
4 Ophidian
2 Morphling
4 Chimeric Idol
4 Withdraw
4 Recind
2 Stroke of Genius
24 Island

SB
4 Hibernation
3 Confiscate
4 Annul
Phrexian Furnace?

Burn is actually pretty decent
4 Goblin Patrol
4 Goblin Cadet
4 Goblin Lackey
4 Chimeric Idol
4 Lava Hounds
4 Thunderbolt
4 Arc Lightning
4 Rhystic Lightning
3 Scrap
3 Lay Waste
21 Mountian
1 Shivan Gorge

SB
4 Scald
4 Phrexian Furnace
4 Orcish Settlers
3 Firestorm

Will is just asking to be broken
4 Duress
4 Skittering Skirge
4 Chimeric Idol
4 Steel Golem
4 Expunge
3 Befoul
2 Spinning Darkness
4 Corrupt
4 Dark Ritual
3 yawgmoth's Will
24 Swamp

SB
2 Spinning Darkness
1 Befoul
4 Unnerve
2 Gallowbraid
?

Stompy Sucks
4 Dogs
4 Jags
4 Lyrist
4 Troll
2 Acridian
4 Idol
4 llanowar Sentinel
4 Briar Shield
4 Symbiosis
4 Mana Web
4 Gaea's Cradle
18 Forest

Any others? I hate the card set, with Prophecy being worse than Weatherlight, and that says a lot. Maybe you should consider a First-second-third group of expansions rather than a first-third-third set.

Erik

 

[Captain Caveman]

There he is,_the man_ of a million deck ideas.

All of those decks look pretty good to me. I was thinking about Idol/Golem. Since the Idol is an
Artifact(not Artifact Creature) it doesn't effect the Golem. The only thing that I was worried about
was Worship and Dustrider Falcon. But White seems so weak its probably doesn't matter. Great deck.


Did you use some sort of templet or pull your ideas out of the air? How did_you_deciede what was playable?


"Any others? I hate the card set, with Prophecy being worse than Weatherlight, and that says a lot. Maybe you should consider a First-second-third group of expansions rather than a first-third-third set."


Gizmo said the same thing. We'll probaly try it that way next time.

 

[Gizmo]

The Black deck isn`t very good. To abuse Will you need cheap spells, and this block doesn`t really give you any. I don`t like Erik`s green deck either - Wild Might is SO good. And Mana Web is SO bad. And Acridian and Llanowar Sentinel? I`d much rather use Rogues and Terrains. Terrains should be phenomenal.