Newsgroups: rec.games.trading-cards.magic.strategy From: Kendall Redburn Subject: The Redburn Mana Engine Date: Tue, 05 Aug 1997 11:20:30 -0400 Well, gosh, after a long losing streak at the local store (nine months and not a single 8 player bracket win :-( I finally pulled one out of the air and won the Dela Where? state championship Type II. 72 people attended so we had a really good turnout. But that's another story. I was playing a modified pox/buried alive deck with a few key cards and a mana engine that just purred like '69 'Vette. I thought I would share the engine as my contribution to the meta-game. The deck was mostly black, with 3 Abeyance and 2 Man-o-War, no worbs or other artifacts except a single furnace in the side. All spells cost at most 2BB to cost. Which was Nekrataal. Note, when I mention black/swamps, that you can use it with any color combos. The Engine: Undiscovered Paradise (3) Gemstone Mine (4) Sheltered Valley (3) Underground River (3) Swamp (8) The key, is to play 1 swamp, 1 gemstone and 1 valley. You may, under extreme conditions play a second swamp, but you don't want to unless you absolutely have to. In retrospect, remove the Underground River and substitute in Quicksand. You may also get a 1 time colorless boost by tapping the valley, laying another valley, which kills the first, and then tapping the second. Once the 3 main land cards are in play, you start putting down and picking back up the Undiscovered Paradise. Each turn, you want to lay down the Undiscovered Paradise, and make sure that you will be using it that turn. Even if you cast it for black. This leaves the gemstone mine untapped for both Swords, or Abeyance, two cards no deck should be without! Then, each turn you pick up the UP, gain 1 life from the Valley, drop the UP, and cast another spell. When you draw extra land, hold onto it in case your opponent starts targeting yours. Now of course, the deck has to have only spells that cast 4 or less, or in extreme with dark rituals. The dark rits help you conserve your colored mana and gemstone mines or to make a first turn quick play, but are not there to cast 5+ spells or drain lifes. Consider your opponents mana web, so what? tap the sheltered valley, no other land can produce colorless. Need colored? Fine, tap your mine and other basic land then drop the UP. You still have 1 of any color and 1 other for any spell you might need during their turn, such as Arcane Denial? Forgotton Orb? Excuse me, is there a mana shortage somewhere? Were you planning to deck me. Every time the opponents deck stalls, you start gaining life back. I was playing black, so my opponent side boarded in Karma, failing to notice I only placed 1 swamp down the entire game. He had 12 plains down when I drew mind bend. Armageddon, oh wow, you got my four lands, bummer, in response, I'll swords your maro/lurghoyf, and on my turn, oh look, I've been holding another sheltered valley. You do not have to limit this engine to black, however, it is not going to work well with burn decks, or other large X spells. What it works really well with is Buried Alive, Green Horde, Balduvian Hordes! Stampeding Wilderbeasts, and other fast creature decks that keep your opponent on the defensive while you gain tremendous life advantage. It allows you to have a main color (or two!) with 2CC in the casting cost without getting mana screwed, and you can splash just about anything without really hurting yourself. Incinerate, terror, Swords, Memory Lapse, Giant Growth, Aberyance, Serrated Arrows, Even the BBB spells of black were easy to cast. If you use this engine, please email me and let me know how it does, and what the deck looks like. Kendall Redurn