MP: Blue & White

[Captain Caveman]

I've been trying to come up with a U/W Multi-player deck but I haven't had any luck. Every time I write out a
decklist it ends up looking terrible. Can someone help me with this? I guess some type of Phase/Wrath deck might be
good. What direction should I go with a U/W MP deck?

We changed our MP rules somewhat. Our decks now have to be atleast 120 cards but we can use whatever cards we have. As
a general rule anything considered "broken" is restricted to one(Balance, Demonic Tutor, etc.)but the field is open
to other tutors and such.(Rectors, tutors that put cards
ontop of the library, etc.)[Ya, who's to say whats "broken"
and whats not. Its a judgement call.]

I'm trying to abuse Soothsaying. It seems like a really good card for MP. The longer the game the more effective it
should be. A permanent that lets you stack x cards whenever
you want &/or Shuffle the library for 3UU should be good, Right?

Comments, Suggestions!

Thanx,
Caveman

 

[Mundungu]

First and most important is to know how you plan to kill you r opponents.

Are going to build up behind highgly defensive measure while your opponents go at each other then kill the pesky survivors ?

Are going to sawrm your ennemies over with loads of unstoppable creatures ?

Are planning to establish board control and slow kills ?

Would you like to dek your opponents to death ?

Many possibilities and many way to resolve it.

PLaying blue in MP usually means "hit me". The blue mage counters spells, steal creautres and is annoying as hell.

Key creatures that are good in MP : Morphling and Serra Angel, (can be untapped when you are attacked).

Board control with propaganda?

There is just too many possibilities out there, and you need to choose a path and general idea. Then helped you can be.

 

[Captain Caveman]

Re: Mundungu

"First and most important is to know how you plan to kill your opponents."

I'm not sure.

How about, some Phasing creatures and Mass removal?

partial decklistw/cards I have)[deck has to be 120+ cards]

4 StP
4 Wrath
4 Dismamtling Blow
4 Serra Angel
3 False Prophet
3 Teferi's honor guard
2 Land Tax
2 Cataclysm
1 Balance

4 Soothsaying
4 Fog Bank
4 Counterspell
2 Morphling
3 Palinchron
3 Treachery
3 Rainbow Efreet
3 Dissapate
2 Fleeting Image
1 Desertion
1 Recall

2 Absorb
2 Hanna

4 Chimeric Sphere(WL)[...it can fly]
3 Nevinyrral's Disk
2 Grinning Totem
1 Feldon's Cane
1 Zuran Orb

Mana
18 Island
10 Plains
4 Coastal Tower
4 Faerie Conclave
4 Cycle lands
2 Soldevi Excavations
2 Mishra's Factory
1 Kjeldoran Outpost
1 Tolarian Academy

4 Lotus petal
4 Seashell Cameo

Now you see why I need some help building a U/W MP deck.

Comments, Suggestions!

Caveman

 

[krichaiushii]

With that many cards, cycling can be quite useful. With that many players, white's primary defense can be quite useful (as much as I despise playing them). The Runes of Protection combine both these aspects. While Story Circle can be any color, it is only really useful in a small deck, where versatility is key. With 120 cards, you can afford to be less versatile.

The Crimson and Obsidian Acolytes are simply wonderful, due to their being able to affect ANY creature, not just yours. Heavy Ballista is a great card for diplomacy, as well.

Soothsaying IS good. Play it.

Consider Scour -- especially as most players will likely view the new deck size as an excuse to run four of damn near anything. With enchantments being popular (at least in my experience in MP games), Scour can be useful. Using the same logic, Annul is a cheap counterspell.

Speaking of counters, run Absorbs and Counterspell, and that's it. 12 counters should be ample. Soothsaying and other library manipulation (Sage and Spire Owls are recommended) can get the counters to your hand, while proper judgement uses them best.

Graveyard manipulation might prove a problem -- white has some creature recovery, while blue can get other spells, but artifacts are required to get it all. Once the game gets going, a few reshuffles should be all you need -- cards in play will thin your deck.

Propaganda, Wall of Swords, Wall of Essence, and Wall of Air are dandy multiplayer defensive tactics. Hide behind walls until an offense is formed. Speaking of which, use nontraditional methods to make an offense -- man lands and Kjeldoran Outpost.

In fact, using as many creature-versions of spells as possible might allow you enough room to just overrun opponents with sheer volume. Both white and blue sport a variety of evasion skills (Shadow, Flying, Protection from color, and just plain cannot be blocked), so use them accordingly.

The much-maligned Foresight and Mana Severance might prove beneficial to you, simply due to the deck thinning you'll experience. Consider also maindecking colorhosers (Acid Rain -- zap those evil treehuggers!) and all the other nastiness. To maximize use of color hosers and protection from color creatures, run Sleight of Mind and/or Magical Hack (for land walkers).

Artifact creatures must be considered -- Yotian Soldier and Dancing Scimitar being solid defenses that can attack when necessary. Coupled with a white enchantment or two (Holy Strength, Brilliant Halo, Empyrial Armor, etc.) they can get downright nasty.

Reigns of Power. Trade one guy's army for your own. Attack a second person (ideally with a pyrric victory condition) with the borrowed army. Inflict casualties. Take your original army back at end of turn. Or, add Altar of Dementia, sac the stolen army to start decking someone in a very serious way.

My advice towards overall strategy is to avoid lock and stall decks. While it is possible to win, they annoy the hell out of the other players, and guarantee that you will be the target for the next few games. Stasis and Winter Orb especially!

Wow. A novel.

 

[Gizmo]

Surely UWs multiplayer strength lies in making sure it survives until there are only two players left, then taking it from there?

Don`t piss anybody off, hold back and defend your own stuff. Make sure everybody fights each other while you look strong but unthreatening - don`t killt heir creatures per se, wait until they come at you and your opponent`s will soon learn to steer clear of your side of the board. Deflect attacks coming your way, and encourage people to look elsewhere for easier prey. late game you get awesome power spells like Whispers, Capsize, Desertion etc with which to dominate the game. Keep counters to a minimum cos it`ll annoy people, but play enough to be able to defend your best stuff, and play the ones that actually do something, like Dissipate is very good at breaking up recursion decks, and Dismiss is strong late-game.

Also be a little leery about putting in tons of protection - you make your own enemies that way. Defensive creatures like En-Kor, Blinking Spirit, or big fat walls are one thing, but cards your opponent cannot touch make you a target.

There is also the potential to build some strong self-supporting combinations here. Rector is a godsend, obviously - Ivory Mask is something worth searching out. Personally, for a 120 card deck, you`re gonna need as many of your gateways into the search engine as you can find.
Sounds like a job for Rebels to me.

"Oh, I`m sorry - did I break your concentration?"
4 Counterspell
4 Dissipate
4 Dismiss
2 Misdirection
2 Desertion
(14)

"The truth is in there"
2 Library Of Leng
2 Whispers Of The Muse
2 Merchant Scroll
2 Scroll Rack
4 Impulse
4 Fact Or Fiction
(16)

"If it ain`t broke ... break it."
4 Dismantling Blow
2 Capsize
(6)

"What are you rebelling against, son?"
4 Ramosian Lieutenant
4 Defiant Falcon
3 Lin Sivvi, Defiant Hero
3 Defiant Vanguard
1 Lightbringer
1 Lawbringer
2 Ballista Squad
1 Cho-Manno, Revolutionary
2 Ramosian Sky Marshall
1 Jhovall Queen
(22)

"You lookin' at me?!?"
4 Afterlife
2 Exile
3 Ray Of Command
2 Dominate
3 Rout
(14)

"Up from the ground came a bubblin' crude - oil that is, black gold, Texas tea."
1 Dust Bowl
4 Wasteland
1 Maze Of Ith
2 Kor Haven
1 Kjeldoran Outpost
4 Thalakos Lowlands
4 Adarkar Wastes
4 Coastal Tower
10 Plains
17 Island
(48)

Well, I like it.
And there aint no broken cards in it, neither. Some golden oldies like Scroll Rack, even Maze of Ith - but that there is a pretty new-schoool deck.

 

[Captain Caveman]

Re: krichaiushii

I think Cycling should be good too. Later in the game I can cycle away useless cards.(land, etc.)I'll have to look at
my UBC card lists again.

I can't make up my mind about the Acolyte's. They seem like really good MP cards but thats what I thought about Ghitu
War Cry and I never play with it. I'll keep them in the back of my mind.(fillers)

Soothsaying has to be _good_. (I'll look at the top 10 cards in my library at the EOT and put them in this order.)

I'll probably add a few Scour to whatever deck I end up playing.

12 to 14 counters sound about right to be also.

"Graveyard manipulation might prove a problem -- "

I was kind of worried about that myself. I wanted to use Honor the Fallen but I don't have any. My other options
were Portcullis and False Prophet. Of couse, the Prophet doesn't remove stuff from the grave but he does remove
stuff from the game.

Prop's and walls are good defense but I'm not to sure how many passive spells to run. Prop's are targets and most
walls can't attack. There's not doubt that Wall of Essence is a major deterent and Sunweb can block most attackers and
survive but I'm unsure how many passive spells a MP deck should run.(4-6?)

I agree, Man-lands should be good with a lot of mass removal.

"In fact, using as many creature-versions of spells as possible ...."

I'm not sure what you mean.(man-lands, control magic, dominate, treachey, confiscate, chimeric guys, etc?)


Reins of Power and Altar of Dementia is a great combo but I think that 120+ card decks would be hard to mill. It would
be pretty nasty after a late game Living Death, wouldn't it? I was thinking about running one copy as a defensive
measure. Using it the way you described is a pretty good idea, me thinks.

I await your next novel....



Re: Gizmo

I forgot about Dismiss, Whispers and Capsize. I'll try to work a few of them into whatever I end up playing.

"..but cards your opponent cannot touch make you a target."

To which ones are you refering to.(Morphling, Phasers and Palinchron or do you mean Pro-color guys?)

Big Fat Counter/Rebel: Rebels and Scroll Rack would make a good search engine. I thought about using Lin Sivvi, Defiant
Vanguard and the Queen but never a whole Rebel chain. Will it work in MP? Its worth a try. I'll put some thing together
using the cards I have and give it a whirl.

One question, though.

If FoF is bad for T2 C/R why would it be good in MP? That might be a good slot for Soothsaying. Whatcha think?


Thanx for the help(everyone)
Caveman

 

[arhar]

I wrote an article on this not so long ago (should be in the archives )

 

[Gizmo]

The chain is strong - it`s basically there to recur your Vanguards and Bringers, that`s all - with that defensive threat established you`ll achieve your aim of making sure people attack other people and not you. They won`t hurt you if they know you`ve got two Vanguards waiting for their creatures. Ballista Squad deals with flyers and allows you to be diplomatic and affect other player`s attacks/defenses.
The whole point is to make the deck so disgusting to try and attack that people will simply give up and look elsewhere, leaving you to fight it out at the end with whoever is left standing. Once people have attacked you in orce only to find one guy gets Ballista`d, another Vanguarded, one bounces off Cho-Manno, and the two that are left get Ray Of Commanded into each other - he`ll soon give up and hurt little Timmy on the other side of the table.

Fact Or Fiction is really good in Counter-Rebel, but in a 60 card deck you just don`t have space. In here you`ve plenty of space and more importantly want to rip through your deck ASAP to find the spells you want.

Personally i`d much rather have Scroll Rack/Rebels as my searhc engine than Soothsaying. Cos it searches about as deep, but only uses 1 mana and produces guys into play at the same time.

As for untouchable guys I`ve so often seen people throw in some Paladin En-Vec/En-Kor type deck, and then get smashed by red spells ASAP cos they can`t touch your guys. Morphling is ok, (even poor next to Rainbow Efreet).

 

[rkoelsch]

mass destruction spells draw instant hate. Played a geddon deck once in MP won the first game but never got to 4 mana the next. when I finally died I had 11 lands in my graveyard. I do like the reins of power that would be a neat trick. Grab the player with the most creatures army attack the second player army. who cares if the block and kill each other. Get back you own. I am going to have to make a multicolor deck with that.