Subject: budget magic: Blues Date: Fri, 23 Oct 1998 12:33:03 -0400 From: DeAnn Iwan Newsgroups: rec.games.trading-cards.magic.strategy A disturbing trend in the winning decks posted over the last few months is that a higher and higher percentage of them seem to be chocked full of rare cards. Even decks that have lots of common cards--such as sligh decks--are expensive to build because the rares they do have are very expensive rares (eg., scrolls, hammers...). This high price to magic may be only annoying to competitors on the pro tour. Hey, it may even be a boon to the PTQ players by lifting the cost of entry to competativenvess above the casual player's pocket book. But I think it is devestating for getting new players into the game. That philosophy aside, there are some refreshing exceptions. All of them are blue. To those of you who started years ago, the thought of blue being the cheapest color to play instead of the most expensive by far may come as a surprise. But the blue decks are 1/3 the cost of the typical winning decks. One of the best in this category almost looks like it was made for a "starter deck" competition because it has only 3 rares (and not that many more uncommons than expected from pack distribution). For those who haven't seen it, I've copied it from the Dojo below, along with Cloister's latest prices on the individual cards. "Finkel Blue" by P. Grauer cloisters number $card-sum 4 Mana Leak 0.16 4 0.64 4 Counterspell 0.9 4 3.6 2 Dissipate 1.5 2 3 2 Forbid 0.49 2 0.98 4 Legacy's Allure 0.51 4 2.04 4 Impulse 0.1 4 0.4 2 Capsize 0.16 2 0.32 4 Ophidian 0.19 4 0.76 4 Manowar 1.3 4 5.2 3 Suq'ata Firewalker 1.01 3 3.03 3 Waterspout 0.35 3 1.05 4 Mind Stone 0.2 4 0.8 2 Quicksand 1.03 2 2.06 2 Wasteland 1.57 2 3.14 16 Island 0.53 16 8.48 Sideboard: 0 4 Propaganda 1.59 4 6.36 2 Undo 0.14 2 0.28 2 Sea Sprite 0.24 2 0.48 2 Hydroblast 0.22 2 0.44 2 Null Rod 3.54 2 7.08 1 Disrupt 0.09 1 0.09 1 Torture Chamber 1.59 1 1.59 1 Abduction 0.32 1 0.32 75 $52.14 Anyway, if you are trying for a budget deck, try some variety of a blue counter hoard deck. Although this particular deck is very MiViLite, a lot of the blue decks out there are less so. And, the blue tends to generally keep the cost down. Most of the counters are common now, and most of the disruption is uncommon. I particularly like this decks use of Torture chamber (vs, say, Scrolls) in the sideboard. Torture chamber is a lot cheaper, dollarwise, than scrolls because it is less versatile. But it is much better creature elimination for a deck that wants to hold counters (and bluff holding them). -DeAnn (your Garden Variety Mage)