Subject: [Deck]
Date: 17 Sep 1998 22:33:00 CDT
From: dread@outpostmn.com
To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com

		An original Type 2 deck, "Nistler's Revolt"


	Some time ago I was looking at a Tempest spoiler list and was studying 
the cards in it.  One card that stood out to me was Recycle.  Its benefit of 
never running out of spells to cast seemed a great benefit to any deck.  However 
for the Recycle to be effective, you must cast more than one spell per turn, 
because you draw one card per turn anyway.  Now I have heard of the famous
Aluren/Recycle combination, but it seemed too unlikely to me.  Sure it works...
for a while.  Sooner or later you are bound to get bogged down with land.
	I took it as a challenge to create a deck to make maximum use of 
Recycle's ability.  A few obvious cards popped into mind like Lotus Petal, 
Summer Bloom, and Gaea's Blessing.  The whole point of the deck was to go
through your library and put all permanents into play.  But how to win?  
With hordes of land in play, I thought of Nature's Revolt.  Since lands are
colorless sources of damage, Circle of Protection Green would prove useless 
against it.  Of course the lands must be able to attack the turn they are 
played, so Concordant Crossroads went it.  Later, when the deck became Type 2,
the Crossroads came out for a Fervor with little damage to the deck's 
performance.  Because the deck would be totally hosed if no Recycle was drawn,
Enlightened Tutor was added.  Even when going for the kill, the Tutor could be
used for getting the death cards (Nature's Revolt & Fervor).  After I played in
several tournaments with it, my deck became known as "Nistler's Revolt".

Here is "Nistler's Revolt":

4 Recycle
2 Wood Elves
1 Nature's Lore
1 Harrow
4 Wild Growth
4 Summer Bloom
1 Early Harvest
1 Reclaim
4 Wall of Blossoms
4 Gaea's Blessing
4 Llanowar Druid
1 Nature's Revolt
2 Enlightened Tutor
1 Fervor
4 Lotus Petal
3 Helm of Awakening
19 Forest

Now a breakdown of the cards:

Recycle:  The engine.  Must have one in play to win.

Summer Bloom:  Keeps the turn going and enables you to play forests for future 
spells.  Running out of untapped land is bad.

Wild Growth:  A "free" card, as the one mana used to cast it will replace itself
in the forest it is enchanting.

Llanowar Druid:  Critical card that keeps the turn going when you run out of
mana.  The deck will run out of mana fast if you don't have these in play.  
Also untaps all forests before the attack phase.

Natures Lore, Wood Elves, Harrow:  Get forests into play.  To start the kill 
the best, you must have enough mana to cast the Recycle and have a few mana 
left over to start casting spells.

Wall of Blossoms:  Pre-Recycle it buys time.  Post-Recycle it increases your
hand size by one.

Gaea's Blessing:  Ensures that your key cards keep being drawn (Summer Bloom, 
Lotus Petal, Llanowar Druids).  Also increases your hand size by one.

Helm of Awakening:  To win you need to have one of these in play while going
for the kill.  Without one, your spells will deplete your land faster than you
can play the land.

Lotus Petal:  Another "free" card.  No cost, and it replaces itself.  Necessary
to cast Fervor and Enlightened Tutor.

Reclaim:  Recover cards you need right away.

Early Harvest:  Cast when your Llanowar Druids have summoning sickness.

Enlightened Tutor:  Get Recycle when you don't have it.  Otherwise get Helm of
Awakening.  If you have both, get the death cards before you deck yourself.

Fervor:  Without this, your land/creatures are useless.  A Fervor with Llanowar
Druids and a small deck usually means the end for your opponent.

Nature's Revolt:  The death card. 'nuff said.


How to play "Nistler's Revolt":

	If playing with mulligan, use the Paris until you get Recycle in your 
hand.  But mulligan no more than 2 times!  The combination will not work well 
with too few cards in hand.  Cast Llanowar Druids early, you need them to be 
able to use their ability soon after Recycle is cast.  They can be sacrificed to
cast Recycle at about the 3rd turn, but this is not recommended unless you are
facing death.  Save the Lotus Petals unless you need to cast Enlightened 
Tutor!  Instead play them as soon as you cast the Recycle, because they replace
themselves with useful cards to start the endless turn.  Cast the 
"mana-fetchers" as soon as you can, because if you cast Recycle using all your
mana, you will have to discard down to two, and may severely hurt the play of
the deck.  Never block with the Druids, but feel free to block with the Wood 
Elves and Wall of Blossoms, as they have fulfilled their purpose once they are
in play.  If your opponent is mana hosed or has little threat to you, wait until
you can go for the kill in one turn.  If you can catch your opponent tapped out,
all they can do is watch while you take a 5 minute turn, put all your land into
play and steamroll over them.  Most people don't know how this deck wins when
they see it for the first time.  Like ProsBloom, all this deck superficially 
appears to do is take a large turn and put the whole library into play, but 
your opponent is in for a nasty surprise.  Once you have enough land for the 
kill and a Revolt in play, definitely start the attack.


Things to be careful of when playing "Nistler's Revolt":

	This deck takes skill to play.  These are some ways I lost while 
playtesting. I cast Nature's Revolt without Fervor and my lands could not 
provide mana because of summoning sickness.  I didn't use Gaea's Blessing on 
other Blessings, causing me to run out of Lotus Petals and Llanowar Druids.  
I locked myself by casting Recycle when it was the only card in my hand.  I had
two Recycles in play and I decked myself.  Nature's Revolt was the bottom card 
in my deck, and I lost when I cast it.  I cast Helm of Awakening too soon, and
my opponent swarmed me with many creatures a turn.


Notes on "Nistler's Revolt":

This deck works well against Sligh and Suicide because it has blockers available
and it wins in a single turn, there is no time for those decks to continue the
beatdown.  Like other combo decks, countermagic is the enemy of the deck.  If 
the blue player keeps mana available to counter, you're stuck.  Creature based
decks will not work well against this deck because by the time they have 
creatures in play, the combination is usually rolling along.  The sideboard 
should be set to the local metagame, but Creeping Mold is a good choice in my
opinion.  Just one Creeping Mold can be recursed to eliminate the opponent's
land/creatures and Propaganda.  The look on an opponent's face is astonishing
when they realize how you are going to kill them.  To the best of my knowledge,
this deck is completely original, I did not copy any part of this deck from 
anywhere.

Ideal game for "Nistler's Revolt":

Turn 1: Forest, Wild Growth on that forest.
Turn 2: Forest, Helm of Awakening, Llanowar Druid.
Turn 3: Forest, Tap all forests, Sacrifice Druid, Recycle with mana to spare.
And it begins......

I hope you have as much fun playing this deck as I had designing it!

Mike Nistler
dread@outpostmn.com