Recycle

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Captain Caveman

Guest
When Tempest came out I heard several talk about how interesting Recycle would be. To this day I haven't seen a
deck built around it nor have I seen anyone use it in a deck. Whats the story? Is the playable at all?

Some time ago an interent friend told we about an Artifact deck he was experimenting with that used Recycle but
we lost touch and I never found out what was in the deck. Was there a Tempest Block, Extended or old Type two deck
that use it?

Today while hunting through my pile of janky rares, looking for card to put in my U/W MP deck, I found a few copies of,
you guess it, Recycle. It got me to thinking(something I rarely do)Recycle/Aluren & a 3cc Gating Creature would allow
you(me)to draw my library.(Assuming its not countered and Recycle will trigger under Aluren.)If this works, it would
be a fun casual deck.

So.......

Does it work and can we abuse it?

Thoughts, Comments!

Caveman
 
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Thallid Ice Cream Man

Guest
I frequently use Recycle in green decks where I can cast things as fast or almost as fast as I draw them. I once saw a Stompy deck get DECKED because it played its library with Aluren + Recycle. (Of course, this person, who is ON the CPA but who shall remain nameless:D, could have played around it, but didn't.)

The problem with that is the excess lands; I suggest Abundance to deal with them.

Anyway, I think a Recycle or Aluren+Recycle deck might have been at its best from the release of Legacy (and maybe before 6E) in Type II, but since then it has been best in Extended.

I also have a mono-green deck (I alternate between the two) that gets lots of land out, enough to get huge amounts of mana every turn and cast expensive but worthwhile spells, and Recycle fits very well into this. This is compounded when I draw multiple copies of Recycle, which happens very often.

At any rate, none of these decks are truly viable from a tournament point of view, because Recycle is so expensive. Some elf deck might be able to construct a god draw around it, but other than that, I don't forsee it making an impact on the Extended tournament scene, unfortunately.
 
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Mr_Pestilence

Guest
In case you didn't see my post under Aluren, I'll repeat it here. Aluren/Recycle is a fun and deceptively powerful combination. I use it in a Sliver deck, which seems the best application to me.

Here's the basic list:

3 Aluren
2 Recycle
4 Muscle Sliver
4 Crystalline Sliver
10-15 other Slivers of your choice
1 Sliver Queen
4 Harrow

Add other stuff to make it your own deck.

Enjoy!
 
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Captain Caveman

Guest
Re: Mr_Pestilence

I checked out your post but thought this idea might take us down a different road. I've come to realize, Slivers _are_
the best use for the Recycle/Aluren combo.

Thanks for the basic decklist. I'll add a few Horned Kavu and a few Heart Slivers. Its gonna be fun to watch my
opponents reaction when I play out the whole combo and attack with all of my hasted Slivers.

Caveman
 
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fuzzy510

Guest
Originally posted by Thallid Ice Cream Man
I frequently use Recycle in green decks where I can cast things as fast or almost as fast as I draw them. I once saw a Stompy deck get DECKED because it played its library with Aluren + Recycle. (Of course, this person, who is ON the CPA but who shall remain nameless:D, could have played around it, but didn't.)
I'm not afraid to say who it is - me. That's right, me. When I was a newbie to Magic, I didn't see that if I played everything, I would get decked. I was in some deep s*** that time.
 
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Tyriax

Guest
Recycle in a tourney deck is not that great. Recycle in a multiplayer deck? Broken. People have refused to play my G/R/W deck. Others have built decks made especially to deal with my deck. Tormod's Crypts have started popping up in a lot of casual decks in my area, just because of my deck. It's a big 100 and some odd card deck, but the basic idea of it is dropping either fervor or fires of yavimaya along with a whole bunch of mana elves, using recycle to cycle through my entire library(fastbond and gaea's touch work very well to allow me to drop extra lands), till I get down to the last couple cards. I go through an infinite vitalize combo, tapping all my elves for insane(100+ per cycle) amounts of mana, using 1 green to vitalize, then diggering the vitalize back into my deck, drawing it again with the next vitalize I cast. Once I have a nice infinite amount of mana, I blaze, fireball, disintegrate, volcanic geyser, or energy bolt all of my opponents, 15 minutes after the start of my 4th or 5th turn. Of course there are times when I can't go all the way through my library, and that's when recycle is vulnerable. One stupor ruins your day. A balance when someone's hand is empty screws you. Which is why you play with alternate card drawing. My personal favorites include urza's bauble(zero cc artifact, I use it for the card drawing ability, I mean, how important is it to just LOOK at one card in someone's hand?)fecundity/claws of gix/lifeline, which works exceptionally well with junk diver and any of my 0cc artifacts(sac lotus petal for 1 mana to sac junk diver to claws, draw card for fecundity, return petal to your hand, play petal again and draw yet another card, and if my turn ever ends, I get the diver back to do it all again) Library of Leng and Anvil of Bogardan allow me to skip my discard and avoid discarding down to 2, which is important if I get out multiple recycles or have been heavily using fecundity or other card drawing. Then anvil also speeds up my drawing so I can get to recycles faster, and once I get a soldevi digger, I can have back whatever I discarded anyway. I think recycle is one of the best spells ever.
 
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Captain Caveman

Guest
Re: Tyriax

Your deck sounds very interesting. I'll put something together that is similiar and give it a try.(hope you don't
mind)Reading your discription reminded me of the 2 Junk Diver/Alter of Dementia/Aluren combo I used to run until
we did away with infinite combo stuff. I really like the idea of using the Anvil and Recycle in the same deck.
(assuming the anvil eratta hasn't messed things up in some way. That combo works, right, guy's?)

Anyway, thanks for the idea.

Caveman
 

Spiderman

Administrator
Staff member
The combo will NOT work. Here's the current Anvil:

Anvil of Bogardan
Color=Artifact Type=Artifact Cost=2 VI(R1)
Text(VI+errata): Players have no maximum hand size. ; At the beginning of each player's draw step, that player draws a card, then discards a card from his or her hand. [Oracle 00/02/01]

If the draw part of the effect is skipped due to a replacement effect like Island Sanctuary or such, the discard part of the effect is not skipped. [bethmo 97/09/13]
The draw and discard during the draw step are controlled by the controller of Anvil of Bogardan. This means the discard is forced and can trigger Sand Golem or Mangara's Blessing. [D'Angelo 98/05/12]
And here's Recycle:

Recycle
Color=Green Type=Enchantment Cost=4GG TE(R1)
Text(TE+errata): Skip your draw step. ; Whenever you play a card, draw a card. ; At the end of your turn, discard all but two cards from your hand. [Oracle 99/05/01]

Does not let you draw for cards that are simply "put into play", such as with Eureka. [Aahz 97/11/04] Or Rampant Growth. [bethmo 97/12/02]
Countering a spell that has been played will not prevent you from drawing the card. [D'Angelo 97/11/10]
Works when playing a land card from your hand as normal. Does not work if a land is put into play by an effect. [Duelist Magazine #23, Page 23]
As you can see, the Anvil has been changed to "no maximum hand size". So the discard effect of Recycle will still still take effect.
 

Spiderman

Administrator
Staff member
How is that confusing?

Basically the Anvil has been changed from affecting the discard step to not (because there is not discard step anymore). So Recycle now affects the player.
 
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Captain Caveman

Guest
Well poo....

I though I'd seen something about the Anvil being errata'ed in the way Spiderman has shown. (thanx)

Boy do I have egg on my face. I had no idea they did away with the discard phase(step). Maybe I should brush up on
the rulz.

Caveman
 
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Tyriax

Guest
use recycle to cycle through your library until you get down to 1 or 2 cards. Blow all card drawing except for 1 recycle via the claws of gix(other recycle, horn of greed), tap all elves for mana(varies depending on the number elves in play, number of forests, etc.), use 1 of the 80 or so mana you produce to vitalize, draw a card with recycle, use 2 to use the soldevi digger on vitalize, so vitalize is the only card in your library. Tap all elves, then vitalize again, drawing first vitalize. Repeat the whole process until you have as much mana as you want, then blaze, disintegrate, energy bolt, fireball, or whatever x burn spell you want to kill your opponent. For multiple opponents, digger blaze and repeat.
 
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Duel

Guest
There are simpler ways:
Recycle x 2
Concordant Crossroads/Fires of Yavimaya
Soldevi Digger
Vitalize/seeker of skybreak/priest of titania
And run Collective unconscious, to prevent stalling.

Or, if you're really into it, TURBO-ZVI!!!!
 
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Druidelder

Guest
I once ran a recycle deck (non-tournament legal) that had only eight lands (two sets of urza's and two forests). The rest of the cards were as follows, two recycle, one city of solitude, 4 feldon's canes, two ashnod's altar, one disintigrate, a couple of other cards, and about 40 0 casting cost artifacts. It worked about 30% of the time. (It was just for fun) It often won even when it didn't work right because in casual play people that had not seen the deck before would sometimes make mistakes because they were trying to figure the deck out. (People think it's strange when you can play your entire hand with no mana....)
 
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Killerbob

Guest
I also made a recycle deck with elves, concordant crossroads, fastbond and vitalize some years ago. The hard part is to get both the elves and recycle into play. If you manage to do that, gaeas blessing, regrowth and revive are key card for making the infinite mana combo and not decking yourself. These cards are really great (actually they read: 2-cycle for 2 cards. Use later for the kill) . If you use the allmighty MAGMA MINE you dont need to splash red for the kill.
 
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