Subject: [DECK] Blue Scroll Tech Date: Sun, 23 Aug 1998 19:06:37 EDT From: DrgnMage22@aol.com To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com For those of you who read this, Everybody loves Cursed Scroll, right? If not, you've probably lost something inside you a while ago. I hope none of us Magic fanatics fit into that category. Anyway, as I was saying, nowadays, you can find the Scroll in basically any deck under the sun. Sometimes, they're put into decks that technically shouldn't even have them, like my U/W Control deck. Yesterday, I went to a tournament, and being the procrastinator I am, I didn't do much playtesting beforehand, so I had to take what I already had made. My choices were either my WW or my control deck. Knowing that lots of weenie decks would be played, I decided to play my control deck, but I turned it into a PropGeddon deck with my little twist; Cursed Scroll. As it turned out, I only won one match, got swept once, and ended up with a 4-5 record, but my deck mad a good showing as I defeated one opponent 2-0, and barely lost the other two 1-2, with both games having my opponent get a lucky shot off. In one game, my opponent killed me off by attacking with his one weenie, then casting three Dark Rituals and a Drain Life on me for the killing blow. In the other, I had two Props out, Geddoned once, but couldn't stop him from getting enough land to kill me off with his weenies. In the games I won, I completely stalled the game out due to two Props, having Geddoned twice, and destroying his troops with one of my Scrolls, and then slowly killing him with the Scroll. My presence was noticed, and my deck had performed okay for how untested it was. If you're wondering about how crazy this deck is, let me say this; it works, just not the way you normally run a Scroll deck. The deck contents are as follows: Blue Scroll Tech v.2.0 Counters: 10 4 Counterspell 2 Dissipate 2 Dismiss 2 Forbid Utilities: 16 2 Propaganda 2 Capsize 2 Gaea's Blessing 3 Wrath of God 3 Gerrard's Wisdom 2 Disenchant 2 Armageddon Killers: 4 2 Rainbow Efreet 2 Cursed Scroll Drawers: 6 4 Impulse 2 Whispers of the Muse Mana: 24 8 Island 6 Plains 4 Adarkar Wastes 2 Reflecting Pool 2 City of Brass 1 Marble Diamond 1 Sky Diamond Sideboard: 15 2 Chill 2 Propaganda 2 Disenchant 3 Penance 2 Aura of Silence 2 Armageddon 2 Winter Orb The way I play this deck really depends on what kind of deck my opponent is playing. If they're playing any kind of a weenie deck, then usually the first goal is to get out a Propaganda, or if that doesn't come up, then Wrath to buy yourself some time. After the Prop is out, casting a Geddon slows the opponent long enough to get the Scrolls out and your countering ability up. Then, try to get the other Prop out, because that really slows them down. Once done, go for the kill through the Scrolls and Efreet. When playing against another control deck, I would try to establish counter superiority as soon as possible to prevent them attacking me. First off, I would get my Scrolls into play ASAP. They are lethal weapons against control decks, especially in the late game. Once those are out, get six mana out so you can begin Capsizing his land back to his hand, thus giving you a mana advantage. The Diamonds help with getting the Capsize out early. Once you have a huge advantage, the Whispers help you blow through your deck to kill him off quickly. The Geddons can help you if you are at a disadvantage by blowing the lands up, giving you both a clean slate to start from. Against an Oath of Druids deck, all you really need to do is hope they don't have Scrolls in their deck and Scroll them to death. This deck has an inherent advantage over Oath decks. If the opponent tries to cast a creature manually, cast a Geddon to kill off his mana. Against most of the crazy combo decks, like Pandemonium or ProsBloom, hope you draw a Gerrard's Wisdom early to prevent a bunch of quick damage killing you. After that, try and get a Scroll out to begin pounding the opponent down. Rainbow Efreet late in the game also works okay. Disenchant loves to play against these decks. Some general questions about playing this deck, as I think it is very difficult to play perfectly: When you have the choice of Capsizing, Whispering, or Scrolling, which do you pick? Normally, I would pick the Scroll, as it gets you closer to killing your opponent, but it would depend on the deck your opponent's playing, how close they are to attacking if your Props are out, or if they have a slight mana advantage. Why the Gaea's Blessings? The Blessings are in there for the purpose of decking not being a way to lose. This deck can lose to decking, especially since I would say draw first against a control deck, because of the stalling nature of this deck. It was either place the two Gaea's Blessings in the deck to prevent it, or add two counters and another random card for 61 cards. Because the Blessings give you more of a choice of cards than just two counters and another random card, I went with those, even though it made the deck three color. You put the Geddon in a control deck?! Why?! Simple. It helps to act as an emergency button against another control deck in case I lost the mana advantage war, so I can start the game over at a mana bound phase. The Diamonds speed up my recovery, so I actually begin with the advantage after the Geddon. It also works well with the Props against a weenie or Sligh deck, forcing him to build up his mana before he can attack, giving me a chance to put him on the defense. When do I cast the Whispers? I usually play them when I have no Scrolls out, have a mana advantage, or when the game has stalled out. Generally, I don't cast Whispers unless I have enough mana out to cast it along with using the Scroll or Capsizing. The main reason for this is because when you cast Whispers, all you do is gain a card in hand. This usually doesn't kill the opponent off even though the end card advantage would be deadly, and the Scroll or Capsize work much better for killing him off. What about the Cities and Pools? Never, ever play a City of Brass, unless it is your only land in hand, because the pinging effect can be lethal, or if you have a Blessing to play. As for the Pools, if you're short on either blue or white mana, but have at least one of their appropriate land type, by all means, play it. One thing I do have to say about Cities and Paradises and Pools, generally the City is the best, then the Paradise, and then the Pool, because the Pool doesn't give you any mana if you have four of them on the table. Why did you even make a Control/Scroll deck? Control decks have always been interesting to me, but I don't really like the Tradewind Riders and their bouncing much because of their creature status. I also don't like the big blue decks because I don't like the amount of control they have. If you look at most of my control decks, they almost always have less than 16, many times under 14, and like this deck, sometimes under 12. Too much control in a deck reduces its attacking power, and all decks need some attack power. The Scroll is the ultimate attack spell cause it works with lots of decks. Even though the Scroll isn't superb in this deck until the mid-to-late game, it's power has been felt by many players, especially those people who are unsuspecting to the Scroll in this deck. I love this deck 'cause it's so complex, but once you know how to play it, this deck rocks!!! Have fun! Michael Wasikowski Dragon's Embermage UIN# 2772056