What was your first deck...that you loved?

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depolarization

Guest
OK, I bet this may have been asked before, but I'm new and I'm tired to staring at Excel all morning.

I started back when revised was released.

I remember my first starter and a few packs I bought...boy was I ignorant then.

My two money cards were Shivan Dragon, and Tundra. Wow was the art on Tundra boring, but a freaking dragon, SWEET!

So I built a reddish deck without regards to consequence that still managed to do pretty well but I can't remember the ratios.

It had the dragon, fireballs, lightning bolts, disintigrate, kird apes, craw wurms, dragon welp, juggernauts, Black Vise and hell if I know what else anymore. All I remember is that I had no clue to what I was doing other than burning things. Green/red is still strong and doesn't seem to have changed much these 10 years. Glad to see the ape is back.

As time went on I found black to be very effective, and that singles could increase deck consistency. Probably my favorite deck way-back-when, before the days of multi-play was this:

4 sinkholes
4 hymn to tourach
4 icy manipulator
4 hypnotic specter
4 dark ritual
1 nightmare
2 black knights
4 terrors
1 black vise (restricted then but it made people weep 1st turn
1 demonic hordes
1 sol ring
4 drain life
4 Order of the Ebon Hand
2 Nevinnyral's Disk (just in case I need a reset)
1 Zuran Orb (was restricted)

4 strip mines
15 Swamps
1 Maze of Ith
(back when you can play 20 land in a deck...)

I know I know I'm killing their hand at the same time I'm playing black vise...I was still young. The land destruction kept their hand fat enough though.

Necropotence still owned me many a time but I could win here and there. I beat most decks that didn't field time-twister control combos. Those moxes were lightning fast and I didn't care for their price tag either. This was my first tourney deck that underwent some tweaking until I understood what I was doing. Unfortunately about that time Homelands came around and I was pissed at wizards for such a crappy deck and keeping the tournament scene stagnant for more than a year. (anybody remember the Dugout in Ellicott City?)

Damn I wanted Juzams then...but they were $150 a pop...no way!

Now all of that's been sold about 5 times over (I seem to sell my collection every 2 years for some income and I get tired of R&D's bad choices and tourney scene).

I've found white to be a more comforting companion than black. Every once in a while I'll get the urge to go back to my first love...but as many of us know...it almost never works out like in the chick-flicks ;)
 

Spiderman

Administrator
Staff member
I'm pretty sure this question has been asked before but apparently not often enough to make it Classic... a quick search isn't turning up anything though.
 
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Notepad

Guest
You know, depolarization, this in itself is a nice foundation for an article. Add a little more, and it makes for a nice nostalgia piece, the likes of which has a representative on the front page right now. :D

I dunno know how many people are after strategy and the likes, but personally I like reading nostalgia articles way over reading tournament reports.
 
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depolarization

Guest
Looks like Eric Turgeon wrote about his early days in the scouts already on an article submitted Wednesday. I didn't reven realize the nostalgia juices were flowing. I guess highlighting spreadsheet cells will do that to your brain.

I'll have to talk about the geeks that hung out in the highschool library before and after school and then played m:tg during the lunch breaks...often enough every day.

I'll see what I can do. I guess I can talk about how the new player grows into strategy, focussing decks you love, understanding card synergy and growing with the rules...then just plain throwing it all out the window so you can play pretty pictures :D

Mainly what I was curious about is what decks did people really attach themselves to in the beginning of their magic playing eras.

I remember my friend who had a mean white/red deck with mana flare, granite gargoyle, that fugly regenerating troll, serra angel, disenchant, fireball and other horrifying things. He also taught me about control with his counterspells (which I couldn't believe how powerful that spell was), mana leaks, boomerangs and air elementals.

Magic's fun times, and I'm glad casual brought me back to it.
 
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Gizmo

Guest
I played Stretch Armstrong, a U/B discard control Rack deck that ran 4 Counterspell and 4 Hymn with no dual mana at all. And was 70 cards. Including the Norritt. but only 3 Hypnotic Spectres because I didnt think they were very good, I'd rather have the Norritt.

Still came 3rd with it though.
 

Killer Joe

New member
I'll be mindful that you wrote "fell in love with." Because my first real deck that worked for me and the deck I first loved are different.

My first love.....**big inhale**.......
It was called "Five-Color Green" and I pretty much can remember the main deck list:
2 Derelor
3 Man-'o-War
4 Tradewind Rider
4 Birds of Paradise
4 River Boa
4 Granger Guildmage
4 Uktabi Orangutan
4 Wall of Blossoms
3 Quirion Ranger
4 Incinerate
4 Armageddon
9 Forests
1 Reflecting Pool
2 City of Brass
4 Undiscovered Paradise
4 Gemstone Mine

I played in so many tournaments with this deck and would beat better players just because my deck was better and I was lucky. As a player I was horrible back in 1997-98 but when you put a horrible player together with a Teir 1 deck then that spells *trouble* for the 'regulars' down at the shop. I was the first ~Random Mexican~ to beat a local pro-tour type guy in 1998 at ACME Games in McKeesport, PA. This guy was playing "Sligh" and he had smacked me with a Ball Lightning in game one. After that game but before going into game 2 he leaned back in his chair and said to his buddy in another match, "This ~Random~ didn't know to ping my Ball Lightning when I attacked." or something to that effect, so I figured out he was talking about my Granger that pings for 1 damage and I take 1 damage.

I beat him game 2 and never saw his Ball Lightning because I think he got mana flooded and I ended up by getting a CHILL on the board and plopped down a Tradewind with some Blossoms and sent everything back. Game 3 I see his Ball Lightning and my Granger is set, he swings and I say, for the first time ever, I have a response......***PING!*** the Ball Lightning dies, my opponent is stupified and I Armageddon and eventually the Tradewind does its THANG!

I loved that deck, in it's early stages before I had all of the rares in it that it called for, I lost it at the Duquesne University library and I swore I would build it again as fast as I could. It took me two months and a fist full of CA$H.
I was down to getting the last three Tradewinds I needed to complete this deck and i walk into a game shop in Mt. Lebanon (a seriously RITZY suburb of Pittsburgh) and saw Teen Titan-types in there playing and abusing littler kids and I said, "Twentey bucks for anyones Tradewind Rider." I go home with a completed deck and even though I was out $60 it was worth it.

Eventually the day came when the DCI announced the whole "rotation" thing and I couldn't believe it, my deck would not be Type II legal anymore........THAT, was a sad time in my Magic life.

[weepy *sigh*]

Every now and again I put it together and play it much to the annoyance of my opponents at the various shops I've played at throughout the years. I sometimes try to make it more modern but alas I always make it into it's original form.

:)
 
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Nightstalkers

Guest
It is my old n00b rooter... also known as the first deck I ever really made... I don't have the exact deck list anymore, but it was one of those old cheesy decks that we used to make way back when.
 

Ransac

CPA Trash Man
Well, during the Rath Cycle, when I started to pay attention to the Tournament scene, I (of course) build a sliver deck with everthing: Sliver Queens, Winged, Muscle, Crystalline, Acidic, Painlands, Reflecting Pools, etc. It was five-color and I loved it...


...then my idiotic friends through my backpack out of my moving car, and I lost that deck AND my necro deck. I gave them wedgies and an earful for a while.


Ransac, cpa trash man
 
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Notepad

Guest
I was really fond of my RG weenie deck. Stuff like Lightning Bolt, Kird Ape, Bloodlust, and even Grizzly Bears and Thallid. It did really well, as the other players at my high school played more slowly, thinking that it was fine to sit and do nothing for the first five turns. I think I still have the deck, which I have since drawn on and lit on fire. The remnants would make for some funny pictures! :D
 
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orgg

Guest
The first deck I 'tuned into' that actually won a few games was a Black/Green deck. I actually took it to my first Type 1 tournament and went 3-2 with it; needless to say, information and Type 1 has changed quite a bit since that day.
 

Oversoul

The Tentacled One
An awkward Sliver Queen/Heartstone/Ashnod's Altar deck. I altered it and even managed to keep it around for quite some time. It was considered good in junior high.
 

TomB

Administrator
Staff member
Prolly my Pony deck, a deck that uses Sacred Mesa and Mana Flare, along with lots of red and white control and man-lands to keep from getting overrun while waiting on the combo pieces. It won me a couple tourneys back in the Mirage/Tempest era, both as a T2 deck and with an extended version as well, but that's not why I loved it. I loved it because no one, and I mean NO ONE, was playing anything like it at the time, and it took them ALL by surprise when I played it.

I love being rogue...;)
 

Spiderman

Administrator
Staff member
Dang it... I know an older thread is out there... now this will bug me :)

The first deck that I loved was pretty much my first deck (at least, I think so that I can remember). It was R/G/W - green because I had a couple of Elephant Graveyards and so I needed War Mammoths, red for direct damage and Kird Apes, and white for he occasional Serra, Swords, and Resurrection (as a rough sketch of the deck). The reason why I say "occasional Serra" is because my friends and I played for ante and this one Serra kept popping up as the ante and our decks were pretty evenly matched so it kept switching between us.
 

Killer Joe

New member
My first deck to do me well was "Senor Stompy" it had Wurms and Elephants and Giant Growths. This was my first "Information" deck ;)
 
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depolarization

Guest
Spiderman said:
<snip> The reason why I say "occasional Serra" is because my friends and I played for ante and this one Serra kept popping up as the ante and our decks were pretty evenly matched so it kept switching between us.
Wow, I remember the original rulebook did specify rules for playing for ante to the effect of shuffle, cut and take the card out and set it aside into the ante pile.

I think I may try to write an article (may be a bit lengthy). And probably want to talk to my "old guard" of highschool friends...a sort of where-are-they-now type thing.

I know one of my main partners-in-crime moved to the west coast, is getting a ph.d. in mathematics and hasn't returned an email in a long time (eh, he's busy and got a new life over there). He's the one with the dual lands and time-twisters. Don't know if he sold them yet.

Another is a part-time physics student (about 8 years so far in college) that's never sold his cards and probably bought one pack a year after highschool, if that, just so he could see if there was anything good out there. Pretty much I would like to see his decks again and inspire myself to see the old faded pictures of the revised set (I miss those green serendibs).

I'm the impulsive wretch whose whimsies ebb and flow with how my life changes every few years or so. I guess I could also write about the periods of magic in which I got tired of the game, sold it all and waited for R&D to make something to bring me back.

Many folks think it was dumb to sell so many times. That my old collection would mature and those sinkholes I had would be selling for a lot more than I got them (about $5 a piece then). Probably was dumb, because I've probably had a net-loss of several hundred dollars over the years. But I figure, losing several hundred dollars in 10 years (maybe as much as $500...though magic does seem to recoup me at least 30% of the cost) is better than some folks I see throwing away several thousand a year on booze, marijuana, cigarettes and other things which give you a minor buzz once and then it's pissed away in one form or another. Investing $40 in those pieces of cardboard usually see a lot more replay than a carton of cigarettes :rolleyes:

Note that I'm not bashing smokers and party people, I'm just justifying my hobby people see me dump money into...it's like I've told my sister who's just getting into college: Smoking pot's cooler than playing magic it seems (though I very strongly feel it shouldn't be this way). In fact she told me this up-and-coming civil engineer she has her eyes on told her that he "used" to play magic...and then got jeered by a roomie that he was playing "just the other day." I cracked a huge smile and am glad she's not dating a drinker and a toker anymore...score one for M:TG!

<begin tangent...the previous was just a ramble>
...and besides, it's making fantasy art more and more mainstream which is always making me happy. That and fantasy art is shifting from male-fantasy-sex a la vallejo and frazetta (though the magic they stroke on a canvas is still amazing!) to a grittier battlefield where everything is debated and explored from morals and ethics, to fighting evil, brotherly conduct, strong female roles and just a much more complex drama than the evil sorcerer has taken your girlfriend so you must don your armor and sling your spells to win her back from his evil clutches (I really cracked when my friends told me about "Drawn Together" and why Xander broke up with his girlfriend over the phone). Though I've never been, I've heard that Balticon is still going very strong and sees increased attendance which is good for the artist. (I may have to write on that as well though it's bit complex and would probably have to do emails with willing art-directors, students and willing artists).
<end tangent>

I also have some friends that have played magic for a long time and will probably pump them for their first-love stories.

If the formula works well for Hollywood, I'm sure I can hack an ok CPA article...or series.
 
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YoungBeard

Guest
Back during the fallen empires glut, when I could get packs for a buck or less, I put together theme decks for all the FE tribes. FE was the first "Tribal" set and I was pretty new to Magic at the time. Thallids, thrulls, goblins, orcs, soldiers, merfolk, you name it, I had a deck of them. Well, I fell in love with the Thallid deck, especially when I realized a few Ice Age cards would really soup it up. For example, Skull Catapult. It's the only deck from that era that has survived to this day. I've added a few new cards here and there but basically the same old FE/IA core. Doubling Season looks like a good pick from Ravnica for this deck.

My first tourney-worthy deck was basically a copy of "Denver Sligh" from the "School of Sligh-Kimes" article. Those of you around back then remember it I'm sure: http://www.qtm.net/~jboes/Magic/Sligh.txt. I printed that article out and studied every word. I really learned a lot about mana curve and tempo from playing the heck out of that deck, and, later, many of my own variants of sligh and deadguy red. I remember when Tempest came out and I was so excited about Jackal Pup and Mogg Fanatic that I just had to get four of each as quickly as possible. With assorted other fast red creatures, incinerates and fireblasts, that deck did pretty well in local tournaments IIRC. Since then I've almost always played the same style of deck in tournaments, either red aggro or aggro/control. Ahh, those were the days. I don't compete in tourneys much any more, but I'm thinking I might get back into it since the Ravnica Boros guild seems to be perfect for Sligh-type decks.
 
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jorael

Guest
I learned the game together with a friend during 4th edition. We meet a few times a year to play some games with a few other casual gamers (some old school, others still buying, like me).

Green was my favorite color. I didn't get much fliers so a simple 2/2 flier spelled my doom. D - O - O - M. My friend learned some tactics from friends at his school and he collected all the cards for a black discard deck (hippies, hymn, the rack, stupor, ugh). My green deck had some excellent cards against that deck (so I thought): Whirling Dervish, Crumble, Desert Twister.

The deck contained at least the following cards:

Llanowar Elves
Whirling Dervish (mono black? Muhahaha)
Jolrael's Centaurs (This creature was awesome then and still is)
Giant Spider
Hurricane (When I learned that it killed me too, I stopped playing it. After a while I figured out this was still a very good card)
Crumble
Desert Twister
Serrated Arrows (a good Homelands card)
Giant Growth (I thought they were great with the Dervishes)
Leaping Lizard (I really liked this 2/3 creature that could become a 2/2 flier)
Craw Wurm
 
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sageridder

Guest
Well I started around late unlimited and early 4th.I went up and down as my interest waned and ebbed winning some local tournys, and being eliminated first or second round. ( I only had one store to play at and Ken Kroner was a local at the time)(most ugly defeat was to fruity pebbles before anyone knew what it was)but such is life,the first deck I loved was a merfolk deck not the first I did well with but the first I could play and win with that just ran so smooth that i didn't have to think about, I just put it up for shuffle and it just ran by itself.Guess it just fit me at the time, the choices just didn't matter it all clicked.The closest after that was an elfball deck I liked for speed.
 
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