Subject: Yet Another Stronghold thoughts post Date: Sun, 22 Mar 1998 14:13:23 -0500 From: Zack Weintraub I'll try and keep this as brief as possible. No color by color, and card by card breakdowns. Just a few cards that strike me as interesting, some deck ideas that may or may not work. Stronghold as a whole doesn't look like it will have too big of an influence on the type 2 scene. No real environment changers. Sure the discard stuff may be nice, but Bottomless Pit just isn't fast enough to really disrupt speed decks. Ensnaring Bridge is pretty good, and will probably see the same use as Propaganda, but suffers from the same drawback. You can't count on it to fend off creatures by itself, because of Disenchant or the possibility that you won't draw one. The Spikes and en-kors probably won't see any use as a real theme, but individuals will be found. Warrior en-Kor is STRONG in a white weenie if you can drop a Priest and/or White Knight. Even without a protection from the appropriate color creature, the redirect ability is still close to first strike (except against a Ball Lightning or somesuch). The Slivers are also not too bad now. There will probably be some rainbow weenies with 4 Crystaline and 4 Muscle Slivers in them. Maybe even winged (create-a-frenetic). My friend was testing a Sliver Queen as a finisher in one of his 5 color decks. It was just a joke at first, but he found it effective (not too hard to cast with like 12 multi-lands, plus basic islands and plains). But then again, he was also using an Evil Eye in that deck at one point ;) Why is everyone so excited about using Shock in mono-red over Kindle. The one mana doesn't make that big of a difference. The mana-curve has been so skewed, and the idea of Sligh (creature control that can double as opponent kill; creatures used for utility, stopping creature-oriented decks) has been so misfigured that there is no reason to try and find cards that look like Bolts. Modern mono-red is all about the Jakal Pup/Ball Lightning/Double Fireblast now, as opposed to the Dwarven Soldier/Orcish Artillery/Bolt deck of old. Kindle does more damage (on average) than Shock, is better if your opponent is playing Kindles also, and the cost isn't too prohibitive if you plan to end with a Fireblast anyway. I see Mogg Flunkies, on the other hand, being useful here (first turn Conscript, 2nd turn flunky, third turn ball lightning, forth incinerate/fireblast). Mind Games is GOOD. A cheap buyback cost, it is great with an array of cards. Great against opposing artifacts, you can really slow down stuff like Cursed Scroll. They have one card in hand? Tap the scroll them right after their draw phase if they don't use it during their upkeep. They don't have anything in hand? Tap the scroll before they draw. Oh, did you summon a Ball Lightning? Tap it. You need one more land to geddon and screw me over? You aren't casting it yet! Did I just play a couple Medallions? Tap all your creatures this turn, or enough land that you can't attack with my Propagandas. Tap you into Mana Leak range. I'll tap your Ensnaring Bridge, and bum-rush you. Don't argue with this until you've tried out Mind Games. They are GOOD. Oh, and I'll keep the best use for them to myself for now. Go ahead, figure it out. Mana Leak is good in mono-blue. It isn't a replacement for counterspell, of course, but it is good with it. Depends on the deck. I like it better than Dissipate cause hammers aren't real big now, and it works a turn sooner. Sure, for 5cu a dismiss or dissipate is better, but in blue beatdown (Spindrifts, Cloud Elemental, etc...) On to the new deck ideas. I guarentee atleast 1/2 of these will never be seen :) Mulch/Scroll Rack This deck can take many forms, but the most effective I've found is G/W/r with Wraths, Wisdoms, Pursuit of Knowledge/ Sylvan combo, Blessing/Mulch combo, Firestorm, and Incinerates. AMAZING synergy, and you will find yourself with 2138 cards in hand most of the time. Ensnaring Bridge/Hannah's Custody Ok, stop laughing. The main problem with the Bridge is it being destroyed while your hand it empty, so you can't protect it. The Custody gets around that, and protects your Cursed Scrolls and Disrupting Scepters. There's gotta be some way to abuse this :) Awakening/Capsize Of course, this combo is fairly obvious. Works well with Mind Games also. Tradewinds are also helped by the Awakening, though not in multiples. Awakening is also great for being able to cast a spell, then have mana for a counter on theirs. Maybe stuff like Spindrifts or *gasp* Force of Nature would work well with Awakening (well, maybe not the force :) en-Kor/Furnace and Intruder Alarm decks. Not worth the bandwidth Rainbow Weenie I've always wanted a pure 5 color deck, without a base :) Go for the Crystaline/Muscle/Winged Sliver combo here, along with incinerates, edicts, mana leak, mulch, disenchant, man-o-war, Mogg Fantastic, Derelor, or whatever else you want. hell, throw in a geddon or something :) Blue/Green Land Control This deck is highly experimental. Winters Grasp/Wasteland are the only land destruction cards now, but Tradewinds help take advantage of that early game boost. Propaganda, Mana Leak, maybe Fallow Earth, with Wall of Roots and Wall of Blossoms as good early blockers. Green Heavy Land Usually green has been notorious for having very little land (5cg, Stompy), but with Mulch/Gaea's Blessing, Constant Mists, and MAYBE (testing) Horn of Greed, a winning deck may be found (a winning green deck? nah, couldn't be). Another color is probably best for a beatdown method while the Mist recurs. Evil Eye, Air Elemental, or whatever. White might be good with Shadow creatures, Wisdoms, and Tithes. I also have a couple of decks I'd rather keep to myself for now (at least till Stronghold has been out for a couple weeks). One of them has the possibility of a 2nd turn kill!!!!!! and averages at about 4th or 5th. New Prosbloom? Maybe. It's just as easy to disrupt (actually, about 10 times easier, but I'll have to work on that). Hope I didn't bore you all, or kill you with laughter at these crappy decks :) If I think of any more, I'll send them in. ---Zack Weintraub ICQ UIN# 1877572 Scrub #03018 http://www.users.fast.net/~gandalf/index.html "To raise my grades, I must lower my standard