Subject: Phat Trip Update Date: 8 May 1998 18:42:07 GMT From: jaa3m@faraday.clas.virginia.edu (James A. Abele III) Newsgroups: rec.games.trading-cards.magic.strategy Hello nature lovers... I saw that some of you took a liking to my phat trip green card advantage deck. Almost all cards have a 2 for 1 value in either drawing more cards,or a critter with a spell effect built on. I cast lots of spells and my hand is usually no smaller than 4 and often full. The way to play this deck is slow and conservative, pressing the advantage when you can. Its NOT lay as much fat as possible and keep going. Only deploy what you have to and play reactively. You constantly draw new critters, and the heirophants ensure a beatdown critter is available when you need one. Let the opponent use up his hand getting rid of the first salvo, then keep going. Slow and steady wins the race. Often hide behind lots of walls after doing 10 damage or so here and there and build up for a big hurricane finish. It wins most of the games, believe it or else. He who has the most cards wins..... Well, I 've been playing the hell out of it for weeks now and have morphed and changed it up quite a bit. Here is the newer version I'm playing. I'll explain the changes I made and why the new version is by far superior Phat Trip v.2 ------------- 4 Maro always 4/4 or bigger and undisputed fatty master. 2 Wildebeests cut down on beests since I got screwed by them a few times 2 Wall of Roots 3rd turn Maro is often key. Good defense to hoard life 4 Wall of Blossoms Trips! oppressed by the cherry trees Ackkk! 4 Sylvan Heirophant More trips!When will other people realize he kicks ass? 3 Hermit Druid And More Trips!draw lots of cards, hurricane for more..... 2 Spike Feeder great utility w/ beests and hurricane 2 Bottle Gnomes more disenchant targets and 3 toughness is big 3 Uktabi Urangatans sex monkeys = card economy "OOoo..AhhAhhhh" (monkey love sfx mandatory when it enters play) 3 Nevs Disc mop up their board and redeploy a new truckload of threats 3 triangle of war spot removal in a monogreen deck! 1st turn play! 2 Feral Instinct Trips! He's foaming at the mouth! Ackk! 2 Gaea's Blessing Lots of Trips! recursion is good 1 Mirri's Guile 1st turn play. excellent w/ druid 2 Hurricane ends 95% of my games. don't leave home without em 4 quicksands essential for shadows, ball lightnings and early game defense 3 wasteland kills strongholds dead 14 forests hermit's best friend 60 cards total -------------- 26 creatures 13 utility/removal 21 lands Okay... The hermit druid is a green thawing glaciers but faster. Yes, he draws removal sometimes, but sometimes not and it pulls it away from the fat. One of the biggest problems I had in the old version was midgame land glut. Not anymore, as this guy thins my deck of land, digs through the Guile crap I don't want, recurses the blessing, draws an extra card every turn and makes Maro grow quick, yadda yadda yadda. This guy is sooo much more useful than just a combo piece in piley blast. Druid/Blessing is not counterproductive to the heirophant either, as new critters usually wind up in the graveyard in the same batch of effects. Sometimes he puts criiters in the trash for the heirophant real early before anything dies, and gives me great selection. Ahhhh, drool. This card fits the card drawing advantage cantrip nature theme so well. This will be the next Stronghold card the masses discover is essential. Its only a mtter of time. I even have a japanese and italian one, Druido Eremita. Bellisima! Gaeas Blessing recursion is nice. i prefer casting it and only putting in what I want, as the druid thins the deck quick and makes the selection intense. No more than two, cause like I said, you don't really need to recurse your whole graveyard, just bits here and there. Quicksands, discs and triangles are the usual suspects. I used to complain about first turn plays. I had none before. Now I have 3 triangles of war (mediocre 1st turn play, but not too bad) and 1 mirris' guile (awesome 1st turn). Much cooler. The triangles can be real nice, usually to rub out utility critters like stronghold assasin ( I hate that guy), pingers, opposing hermit druids, or other stuff that won't attack or block that i can't beatdown on the battlefield with fat or qsand. Often i get maro beatdown and they keep getting chump blockers to delay the inevitable, and I just triangle the damn thing and attack for 8 or 9 (druid makes the 9 possible and easy). The heirophant or gnomes can kill creatures w/ 1 toughnesss and not die with the triangles, and the phat can take out almost anything. Feral instinct if you gotta to live through a grudge match in the traiangle. Also, in the old form, the only disenchant targets I had were the disks (and gnomes, but people usually don't bother), so they got toasted all the time, which sucks. Now i have 3 discs, 2 gnomes, 3 triangles, and the guile (plus recursion). Now the disenchants are spread around more and the disks sneak through when I need them more often. I lost boas, bears, 1 hurricane, 1 disc, 1 feral, and the charm for the druids, blessings and the guile, but this configuration is way better. The cantrip count is about the same and the druid will often pay for himself in card advantage quickly if left around a few turns. Less discs and hurricanes was a tough call, but i had to make space, and with gaea recursion and a little library manipulation, I usually see one when I need it. I like the wildebeests, but 4 was too much. Maro kicks ass whenever I play him, so I filled the deck out with 4, while dropping the beests from 4 to 2. This is the right number, especially with heirophant recursion. Multiples in hand are almost unplayable (not true about Maro) and sometimes hes the only critter I've got (or only grren critter w/ gnomes) and ends up being a very expensive blocker I have to recast each turn. Also, here's one of my least favorite situations with the beest: I have a beest in play and one other critter. My turn, return critter to hand, opponent edicts. Bye bye beest. The blossom combo is strong, but not vital at all. Trample is huge often to end wall of blossom stalemates though. so what do ya'll think? Its real fun to play and wins quite a bit against a variety of decks. Sligh, slivers, and LD go down easy, blue bounce is pretty hard but doable, and fish is perhaps the trickiest of all. Fun Factor is very high, as you always have options. I might take out a forest for another guile, but am scared of early land screw, I don't need much to get started, but if i don't have a green by turn 2, i'm dead in the water. another guile would make the library manipulation a lot more consistent though, and it kicks with the druid. I was playing a G/w version of this replacing dics with wrath (no wait to mop up, can't be disenchanted), feeders w/ wisdom, and afew disenchants. The land mix worked fine w/ pools, painlands, fetch and the druid, but I really wanted the Monogreen to work just on sheer principle and it is more consistent and more fun. Triangles really help out alot even though they aren't red burn. Any removal is better than no removal at all. Suggestions, comments, flames, and donations encouraged. Sideboard recommedations appreciated. Citing Perish as the reason this deck sucks will not be tolerated. Green bashers will be dealt with. Long live the Fairies! James A. Abele III Reality is only a game, Colonel Friday, University of Virginia and the rules are simpler than you Philosophy '98 might think. jaa3m@virginia.edu -Quimper, from The Invisibles (804)293-8498