E
Ephraim
Guest
This deck is 100% for fun. You may notice as you read through the list that there aren't very many good cards in the deck. In fact, the deck is almost characterized by its lack of good cards. The fun of this deck is in beating down an opponent with his or her own threats. This is not, however, a typical Control Magic / Bribery / Reins of Power deck, as you shall see.
Creatures (20)
3 Dwarven Trader
2 Merfolk Traders
4 Spawnbroker
4 Vedalken Plotter
3 Merfolk Thaumaturgist
2 Quicksilver Wall
2 Fickle Efreet
Spells (17)
2 Political Trickery
3 Legerdemain
2 Avarice Totem
1 Cultural Exchange
4 Schismotivate
4 Peel from Reality
1 Amulet of Unmaking
Land (24)
8 Mountain
16 Island
***
As the name of the deck suggests, the goal of this deck is trading permanents with other players. The trick in making the deck even a little bit effective lies in making sure that your opponent gets less out of the trade than you do. It is the nature of this deck that even when you come out ahead in a trade, the novelty of the chaos that you're creating will even out any hard feelings you may have engendered.
The card that inspired me to create this deck is Spawnbroker. It is very obviously a Johnny card. Sure, there are lots of utility creatures with low power that are worth having, but if your opponent has just played Silvos, Rogue Elemental, your Dwarven Trader is going to seem puny and ineffectual. My first trick, therefore, to make the most of Spawnbroker, is Schismotivate. It increases the cost of the trick substantially, but it turns that Dwarven Trader into a 5/1 and Silvos, Rogue Elemental into a 4/8. Spawnbroker can facilitate that trade! Schismotivate, of course, has additional functionality. It can quickly turn the tables on an opponent during combat even if you aren't able to later make a trade because of it.
Merfolk Thaumaturgist is also an effective way of using Spawnbroker to make trades. One, your opponent's creature may have high power and low toughness. Two, I have Quicksilver Wall in the deck. As long as my opponent doesn't currently have 4 mana with which to bounce the wall, I can make it a 6/1 creature, which is big enough to trade with a great many other creatures. Better yet, I can bounce the wall at some later time and replay it on my side of the board!
Finally, I can often trade Fickle Efreet in a pinch. It might result in me later taking 5 damage (unless I have a Quicksilver Wall on the board) but at least I have a 50/50 chance of getting it back then. That is preferable to my opponent having a better beatstick on his or her team.
Peel from Reality is the last link in Spawnbroker's chain. After I've made a trade (frequently handing over Spawnbroker, Merfolk Traders, or Vedalken Plotter in exchange), I can return the swapped creature and another creature to my hand, leading to another round of trading.
Most of the other cards in the deck are extremely straightforward. Vedalken Plotter, Political Trickery, Legerdemain, and Cultural Exchange all yield trades in a predictable way. Legerdemain is a good backup plan for those times when Spawnbroker just isn't enough to get me the creature that I want.
Avarice Totem is somewhat more subtle. Of course, I lack any acceleration, so I can't play this trick as often as I like, but if I have enough mana to activate it twice (and my opponent happens not to have enough mana to activate it once) I can stack its effect such that it trades one of my permanents for one of my opponent's and leaves the Totem under my control. (In addition to being a fun toy with which to play, I find the artwork and flavour text of Avarice Totem to be very evocative.)
Speaking of Flavour, that's the biggest reason why Dwarven Trader and Amulet of Unmaking* are in the deck. I probably should take out at least one Dwarven Trader and replace it with a third Merfolk Traders. They're just as flavourful and are a better card.
(*The flavour text of Amulet of Unmaking reads, "Trade to trade, not to keep. -- Suq'Ata motto.")
Creatures (20)
3 Dwarven Trader
2 Merfolk Traders
4 Spawnbroker
4 Vedalken Plotter
3 Merfolk Thaumaturgist
2 Quicksilver Wall
2 Fickle Efreet
Spells (17)
2 Political Trickery
3 Legerdemain
2 Avarice Totem
1 Cultural Exchange
4 Schismotivate
4 Peel from Reality
1 Amulet of Unmaking
Land (24)
8 Mountain
16 Island
***
As the name of the deck suggests, the goal of this deck is trading permanents with other players. The trick in making the deck even a little bit effective lies in making sure that your opponent gets less out of the trade than you do. It is the nature of this deck that even when you come out ahead in a trade, the novelty of the chaos that you're creating will even out any hard feelings you may have engendered.
The card that inspired me to create this deck is Spawnbroker. It is very obviously a Johnny card. Sure, there are lots of utility creatures with low power that are worth having, but if your opponent has just played Silvos, Rogue Elemental, your Dwarven Trader is going to seem puny and ineffectual. My first trick, therefore, to make the most of Spawnbroker, is Schismotivate. It increases the cost of the trick substantially, but it turns that Dwarven Trader into a 5/1 and Silvos, Rogue Elemental into a 4/8. Spawnbroker can facilitate that trade! Schismotivate, of course, has additional functionality. It can quickly turn the tables on an opponent during combat even if you aren't able to later make a trade because of it.
Merfolk Thaumaturgist is also an effective way of using Spawnbroker to make trades. One, your opponent's creature may have high power and low toughness. Two, I have Quicksilver Wall in the deck. As long as my opponent doesn't currently have 4 mana with which to bounce the wall, I can make it a 6/1 creature, which is big enough to trade with a great many other creatures. Better yet, I can bounce the wall at some later time and replay it on my side of the board!
Finally, I can often trade Fickle Efreet in a pinch. It might result in me later taking 5 damage (unless I have a Quicksilver Wall on the board) but at least I have a 50/50 chance of getting it back then. That is preferable to my opponent having a better beatstick on his or her team.
Peel from Reality is the last link in Spawnbroker's chain. After I've made a trade (frequently handing over Spawnbroker, Merfolk Traders, or Vedalken Plotter in exchange), I can return the swapped creature and another creature to my hand, leading to another round of trading.
Most of the other cards in the deck are extremely straightforward. Vedalken Plotter, Political Trickery, Legerdemain, and Cultural Exchange all yield trades in a predictable way. Legerdemain is a good backup plan for those times when Spawnbroker just isn't enough to get me the creature that I want.
Avarice Totem is somewhat more subtle. Of course, I lack any acceleration, so I can't play this trick as often as I like, but if I have enough mana to activate it twice (and my opponent happens not to have enough mana to activate it once) I can stack its effect such that it trades one of my permanents for one of my opponent's and leaves the Totem under my control. (In addition to being a fun toy with which to play, I find the artwork and flavour text of Avarice Totem to be very evocative.)
Speaking of Flavour, that's the biggest reason why Dwarven Trader and Amulet of Unmaking* are in the deck. I probably should take out at least one Dwarven Trader and replace it with a third Merfolk Traders. They're just as flavourful and are a better card.
(*The flavour text of Amulet of Unmaking reads, "Trade to trade, not to keep. -- Suq'Ata motto.")
