Subject:      Re: can someone post the 'battleford' deck?
From:         ssd133@mail.usask.ca (Shaner!)
Date:         1997/06/04

but, without further adu, here's "The Battleford Deck"!  (with
apologies to Shane Neville if i screw it up... :) ).

4x Giant Growth
4x Llanowar Elf
4x Mtenda Lion
4x Scryb Sprite

4x Armor of Thorns
4x River Boa

2x Foratog
4x Jolrael's Centaur

2x Nettletooth Djinn
2x Hungry Mists
2x Bull Elephant

2x Desert Twister
1x Hurricane

4x Quicksand
17x Forest

The Battleford deck (named after Shane Neville's hometown), is
originally based on the "Winnipeg Deck", which was all critters and 4
GG.  Shane Neville (Nev) decided to take this a little further and add
in 4 armour of thorns, and a couple of desert twisters for control.
Nev also applied the principle of the "mana curve" to the deck, after
having fallen in love with the Geeba style deck.  as you can see, the
cards fall fairly nicely into the mana curve, allowing you to
(hopefully) have something to cast every turn.

there's not really one key card in the deck.  if anything, the main
strategy is swarm.  (see my webpage for an article by Nev on swarm
theory).

there's a few tricks to playing and retooling the Battleford deck.
first of all, resist the urge to take out the scryb srpites.  the
flyers are key in type II now (IMHO), and these little babies are
terrific.

the armour of thorns are an underrated card for this deck.  they turn
every creature into a "must deal with" threat.  they turn a scryb into
a 3/3 critter on the second turn (aka Big-ass scryb), or bring a
foratog out of incinerate range.  also, their "instant-ment" property
gives you another "bluff" type card.

next, resist the urge to go for the big kill with the foratog!  in
play, i've lost games b/c i sac'd all my lands to the f'tog, and then
had it bolted in response.  (believe me, i'm still kicking myself over
that one).

the river boa is a terrific card.  it's undercosted, and therefore
overpowered.  it's also great when your opponent has a Nevinyrral's
Disk out.  just remember to save the mana to regen.

you may ask: why the Desert Twisters instead of the Creeping Mold?
because, the twister has the ability to waste critters.  the biggest
problem that the Battleford has is in the long run.  by the time you
have the 6 mana, you'll need it to ace the biggie that's stopping your
critters, or the one flyer that's out there, or the island sanctuary
that's stopping your hungry mist from floating in.  the creeping mold
is good for the sideboard, depending upon the metagame in your area.

sideboarding is ery much dependent on your local metagame, so i'll
just say that you may want to try Deadly Insects, Barbed Foliage, and
crumbles in there somewhere.

there's plenty of variations on the green critter deck out there.
Craig Sivilis ran a neat version of this with Force of Natures.
There's the Corrupter's Green Machine (at least i THINK that's whose
it is!  my apologies if i got it wrong).  and NEV and i have both seen
and discussed adding Winter Orbs and Icies come the return of IceAge.
but i digress.

anyhow, that's that!  i hope that this helps.  i'm sure that Nev will
see this when he gets his 'pooter back in Van, so HEY NEV!

good luck playin the deck, and remember, tell em Battleford sent ya.

later,
shaner.
--
come see my magic:the gathering pages at:
http://www.cs.usask.ca/undergrads/ssd133/magic/magic.html
email: ssd133@mail.usask.ca
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