Subject: 15 Views of the New Type II Date: Mon, 03 Nov 1997 03:08:03 -1000 From: Robert D Bull To: fkusumot@IX.NETCOM.COM Change is inevitable.This has steadily become the unspoken motto of the competitive M:tG player.When faced with any given "new" card pool,we have to take into consideration its impact on the tourny scene. What have we lost? What have we gained? What decks can/can not still be competitive? The Dojo(thanks Frank)always provides us with a wealth of ideas and fledgling deck templates.This in turn helps create more competitive and creative M:tG players.The upcoming format for Standard will have a good deal of change,but in all fairness...not a great deal has changed.The balances of power have simply shifted from the previous Defensive/Control decks to the Aggressive/Beat Down decks.The following decks are merely "glimpses" into our clouded futures as competitive Magic players.Take them to the tables,playtest them,improve on them.........and when you are done..... ..share your knowledge with the rest of us. Dave Bull Team Island Magic 1# ERTOG Deck Type:Black/Blue(Offensive) In previous Chicago PTQs we saw glimpses of how nasty this wonderful little deck can be.Seeing as how a great deal of the effective creature removal in the new Standard format is based in black/red,these decks may very well run rampant at tournys.(They are horribly fun to play as well!)Variants may include the use of Tombstone Stairwells to apply a serious beatdown to opponents.Others may use Altar of Dementia/Living Death as a means to feed huge Necratogs and simultaneously depelete an opponents library of an insane amout of cards.Buried Alive may nolonger be a serious threat,but without any effective way to keep an opponent from using his graveyard as a resource(Save Bazaar of Wonders-see deck type later)....this deck will flourish and thrive as a competitive deck type. Sample Deck: 4 Ertai's Familiar 4 Man O' War 3 Barrow Ghoul 3 Circling Vultures 3 Necratog 4 Skulking Ghost 4 Knight of Stromgald 3 Dark Ritual 2 Altar of Dementia 4 Living Death 4 Nekrataal 3 Gemstone Mine 3 Undiscovered Paradise 2 Underground River 2 Rootwater Depths 12 Swamps #2 FALCONARMOR(SLIGHT/KNIGHT) Deck Type:Blue/White(Offensive) It started with Slight of Mind.....moved onto Mind Bend...and now Tempest provides us with the ever so useful "Whim of Volrath".You thought these decks were annoying before?!Wait till you get beatdown by a seriously huge pigeon that you have absolutely NO WAY to remove.This is going to be more of a metagame move on behalf of experienced players and a simple "fun deck" for younger players who can not afford to buy display boxes of cards.(As this deck is fairly cheap to construct and easy to play)With the addition of Weatherlight's Emyrial Armor,the creatures in these decks will get really ugly...really fast.Expect to see these in the early/middle rounds of various tournys. Sample Deck: 4 Duskrider Falcon 4 Freewind Falcon 3 White Knight 3 Order of the White Shield 1 Power Sink 4 Whim of Volrath 4 Memory Lapse 4 Empyrial Armor 2 Disenchant 3 Armageddon 4 Pacifism 3 Winter Orb 11 Plains 4 Adarkar Wastes 3 Thalakos Lowlands 3 Quicksands #3 NECROPOTENCE Deck Type:Black/?(Offensive) The Necropotence deck IS NOT dead.Granted Lake of the dead,Serrated Arrows,and Contagion are long gone(until 6th edition atleast) but the new Necro is capable of surviving.Thanks to the huge amount of alternate mana sources...Necro decks with a splashing of any other color are easliy tournament worthy.(See the winning deck for PT Chicago...a smidgeon of red easily translates over to the new Standard format)Since many decks will be running on speed kills....it will become increasingly easier to attain that critical "card parity" situation for Necro to get its advantage.....and it will be able to do so with minimal discard spells.This may institute a "hackerpotence" type deck...but it will be an effective deck for the format at hand. Sample Deck: 4 Black Knight 4 Knight of Stromgald 2 Selenia Dark Angel 3 Nekrataal 3 Mindstab Thrull 3 Coercion 3 Necropotence 4 Drain Life 4 Nevinyrral's Disk 3 Dark Ritual 1 Dregs of Sorrow 2 Serrated Biskelion 4 Quicksand 2 Undiscovered Paradise 3 Gemstone Mine 15 Swamps #4 G5C Deck Type:G/U/R/B/W(Offensive/Control) We saw the emergence of the Green five color deck at the US National and National tournys.These decks were mostly effective against Big Blue or slow controling decks.With R/B becoming a huge monster deck type in the upcoming Standard format,this deck may not fare very well.It will be interesting to see what variants arrive though.(Crossbreeds with Stompy and the addition of Static Orbs possibly.)This is still a deck type that will appear at tournys in earlier rounds or late rounds with strong deck type variants. Sample Deck: 4 Quirion Ranger 4 Granger Guildmage 3 River Boa 3 Whilring Dervish 3 Jolrael's Centaur 2 Maro 4 Birds of Paradise 3 Man O' War 4 Incinerate 4 Memory Lapse 2 Terror 2 Armor of Thorns 2 Disenchant 1 Armageddon 3 Winter Orb 4 Undiscovered Paradise 3 City of Brass 10 Forests #5 PROSBLOOM Deck type:B/U/G(Combo) What can you say about this deck?Ever since PT Paris,this deck has been haunting peoples dreams.Recollections of hearing,"I'll Drain Life you for 40" on turn five of any given match are certainly agonizing memories to take home from a tourny.This is the ultimate "goldfish" deck...just set up your combo,pay ZERO attention to your opponent,then kill them in one fell swoop.The card drawing engine on the deck is simply incredible and if you have never seen it...construct one just to see it work.Creations like these are what Magic players live for......and with countermagic at it's weakest..this deck is the big dog on the front porch. Sample Deck: 4 Cadaverous Bloom 4 Squandered Resources 4 Natrual Balance 1 Elven Cache 4 Impulse 4 Prosperity 2 Memory Lapse 1 Power Sink 4 Vampiric Tutor 4 Infernal Contract 1 Drain Life 2 Meditate 4 Undiscovered Paradise 6 Island 8 Forest 8 Swamp #6 SLIGH Deck Type:Mono-R(Offensive) The infamous mana curve!This is another deck type that will flourish in the new format.Though it has some difficulty under a Winter Orb at times(easily handled by Goblin Vandals)when left unchecked,it will apply some serious beatdown.This deck has very few problems in reality and can handle most other decks effectively...just remember...smidgeon of white or black to handle Cop:Red or Honorable Passage. Sample Deck: 4 Mogg Fanatic 3 Goblin Vandal 4 Ironclaw Orcs 4 Ball Lightning 2 Suq ata Lancers 4 Lava Hounds 2 Canyon Wildcat 1 Furnace of Rath 4 Fireblast 4 Incinerate 3 Hammer of Bogardan 3 Kaervek's Torch 4 City of Brass 18 Mountains #7 STOMPY Deck Type:Mono-G(Offensive) Yet another deck type we saw appear at US Nationals and Worlds competitions for 97.(What is it with all the Winter Orb decks anyway)This deck attempts to obtain game control through a creature rush and mana deprivation due to the Orbs...they serve as a pace setting tool.This is a pretty straight forward kind of deck.Open up the can of whoop ass and just start pouring.Simple enough? Sample Deck: 3 LLanowar Elves 3 Quirion Ranger 3 Ghazban Ogre 3 Rogue Elephant 4 River Boa 3 Whirling Dervish 3 Fallow Wurm 4 Harvest Wurm 2 Uktabi Orangutan 3 Mtenda Lions 4 Giant Growth 3 Winter Orb 2 Nature's Resurgence 16 Forest 4 Quicksand #8 SUMU Deck Type:R/U (Offensive/Board Control) The Sumu deck runs off the idea that if it is not neccessary...the blow it up.It's creatures inflict a good deal of damage while the red spells follow through with the kills.The decks tend to feature the ever slippery Frenetic Efreet as a focus creature.These guys can draw alot of usefull direct damage or creature removal spells from opponents tired of calling "heads" or "tails". Sample Deck: 3 Viashino Sandstalker 4 Incinerate 4 Kindle 4 Fireblast 2 Hammer of Bogardan 4 Fog ELemental 4 Memory Lapse 4 Impulse 1 Ancestral Knowledge 4 Frenetic Efreet 3 Nevinyrral's DIsk 2 Quicksand 9 Island 12 Mountains #9 FORGOTTEN ORB Deck Type:B/U (Offensive/Control) The original template for the 4CB deck,the forgotten orb deck functions like other orb decks.Let your opponent cast a spell....counter it....the Orb does the rest by setting the game at a certain pace.The small black creature rush can sometimes descimate opponents befor they even knew what hit them.The 4cb and FOrb decks took a hit with the removal of Contagion,but the decks creature removal is hardly hurt by this. Sample Deck: 2 Shadow Guildmage 4 Fallen Askari 4 Black Knight 3 Knight of Stromgald 3 Nekrataal 1 Necratog 2 Barrow Ghoul 3 Serrated Biskelion 4 Memory Lapse 3 Power Sink 4 Man O' War 4 Winter Orb 1 Bad Moon 2 Quicksand 3 Undiscoverd Paradise 3 Rootwater Depths 4 Underground River 2 Islands 8 Swamps #10 GRINDSTONE Deck Type:U/W (Defensive/Control) This is basiclly the new version of the older Milstone decks we are so familiar with.It attempts to deny its opponent options by Grinding/Miling away all of their options to a Bazaar of Wonders.This can certainly deystroy graveyard and direct damage decks.The pace of the game is set with counter magic and white removal....tutors serve to get out the combo abit faster than drawing might allow. Sample Deck: 2 Milstone 2 Grindstone 4 Wrath of God 3 Pacifism 4 Enlightened Tutor 2 Disenchant 2 Gerrard's Wisdom 1 Greater Realm of Preservation 4 Counterspell 4 Memory Lapse 3 Dissipate 3 Bazaar of Wonders 4 Impulse 1 Ancestral Knowledge 1 Mana Severance 9 Plains 4 Adarkar Wastes 8 Islands #11 SQUANDERSTASIS Deck Type:B/U/G/W (Control/Combo/Defensive) The squandered-stasis deck is actually nothin new to the tournament scene.Similar to the way Turbo-Stasis became a foil for Necropotence decks...the Squandered-Stasis sets it's combo up rather quickly.It will be enetertaing to see these decks come out on top atleast once or twice in tournys.With the addition of Jokulhaups in the deck,this might be very possible. Sample Deck: 4 Memory Lapse 4 Counterspell 2 Dissipate 2 Bommerang 4 Stasis 1 Kismet 1 Equipoise 4 Enlightened Tutor 4 Squandered Resources 4 Howling Mine 1 Feldon's Cane 3 Gerrard's Wisdom 1 Disenchant 8 Island 4 Adarkar Wastes 4 Undiscovered Paradise 3 Gemstone Mine 4 City of Brass 2 Quicksand #12 MAROGEDDON Deck Type:G/W (Offensive/Control) Does anybody remember good ol' Ernham Djinn....man do I miss him.But Mirage was kind enough to bless us with our wood spirit friend Maro.Same casting cost,but has a tendency to be abit beefier than our pal Ernie.Though some of the deck has changed over time...it still operates with the punch it once had.(Minus StP)Miri's Guile just makes life abit easier and can hasten the chance you'll reach that card you need.Variations include the use of Vinyards for second turn Maros followed by the turn 3 geddon. Sample Deck: 3 Wall of Roots 4 River Boa 4 Whirling Dervush 2 Miri's Gulie 4 Jolrael's Centaur 4 Maro 4 Pacifism 3 Armageddon 2 Disenchant 2 Wrath of God 4 Abeyance 10 Forest 7 Plains 4 Brushland 2 Vec Townships #13 HAMMER/RECURSSION Deck Type:R/W/G (Control/Offensive) Alan Comer's "Goofy Gaea's" deck is an excellent example of the possibility of card recurssion in the upcoming environment.With the proper card drawing mechanisms....and blessings...there is the possiblity that one could play a single Incinerate 13 times.Enough said?The deck does have problems against mass land removal,but seems to be able to hand the creature rush of the new type II.With the addition of diamonds,the mass land removal problems are solved and make this deck a vaible competitor. Sample Deck: 4 Incinerate 1 Hammer of Bogardan 3 Kaervek's Torch 1 Aether Flash 1 City of Solitude 4 Gaea's Blessing 3 Creeping Mold 4 Miri's Guile 2 Disenchant 1 Island Sanctuary 3 Gerrard's Wisdom 4 Wrath of God 3 Pacifism 6 Plains 5 Forest 5 Mountain 3 Undiscovered Paradise 3 Gemstone Mine 2 City of Brass #14 4CB Deck Type:B/U/R/W (Offensive/Control) Slemr's win at worlds only reaffirmed the popularity of this growing cousin of the forgotten orb deck.It is a rather effective machine....pounding down on your opponnent with multiple sources of damage,thus making it difficult to sideboard against in an effective manner.Once again the ever present Winter Orb is a pace setting tool for a weenie creature deck.This is another straight forward deck with a simple purpose....pound your enemy to a pulp. Sample Deck: 4 Black Knight 4 Knight of Stromgald 4 Fallen Askari 4 Nekrataal 4 Man O' War 4 Incinerate 4 Memory Lapse 1 Armageddon 3 Winter Orb 3 Serrated Biskelion 1 Fireball 2 Shadow Guildmage 10 Swamp 3 Undiscovered Paradise 3 Gemstone Mine 2 Underground River 2 Cinder Marsh 2 Quicksand #15 THE UNDISCOVERED Deck Type:Unknown These are the decks of the future...the undiscovered,the yet to be created.These are the decks we can only begin to speculate on.How can we use Humility to create a lock?The advantages of Root Maze in a Squandered-Stasis Deck.The Huge number of creature that can be generated between Earthcraft and Sacred Mesa......what are the decks of the future?Speculation and communication of research.It's what this is all about. As I stated earlier,these decks are samples.Outlines for future use or for further brainstorming.Share what you discover with us or feel free to email me with any comments.Good luck in your future Standard endeavours. Thanks Dave Bull Team Island Magic DBull19002@aol.com