Subject: Deck listing"Rath cycle" Date: Fri, 16 Oct 1998 00:55:12 +0200 From: Gilles Tuinman To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com Hi All. I was planning on playing some Po Tour Qualifiers this time(I don't have much time usualy). I made a few decks and some of them turned out pretty well. The following deck is a landdetruction deck,a theme that isn't very common in Rath cycle,but I thought it was worth a try,since a few of the common Rath decks are very mana intensive(countershard for exaple) First I will give the deck listing. 3 Winter's Grasp 3 Flowstone Flood 2 Aftershock 4 Stone Rain 2 Anarchist 4 Erratic Portal 3 Spike Weaver 4 Spike Feeder 3 Shard Phoenix 4 Wall of Blossom 4 Oath of Druids 3 Wasteland 2 Reflecting Pool 2 Mogg Hollows 10 Forest 7 Mountains Sideboard: 4 Shock 2 Tranquility 2 Scragnoth 2 Shattering Pulse 1 Aftershock 4 Boils The way to play the deck: Against White Weenie,Mono Red,Suicide Black or other speed decks you should't focus too much on the landdestruction,just try to setup some defense,best way to do that is let the Oath of Druids set up your defense by putting creatures in play like the Spike Weaver or Shard Phoenix,and start the landdestruction in the midgame. A very important card in this deck is the Erratic Portal,you can use it for the obvious reason...returning your opponents creatures when he is out of mana,but,the portal is mostly used to return your own creatures. You can return the Wall of Blossom for extra cards,the Spike Weaver in he mid/end game "infinite"fog,the Spike Feeders for life and of course the Anarchist for your landdestruction cards. Against control decks you should ofcourse focus on the landdetruction from the start. Against Countershard you should try to get rid of the red mana and against Living dead,get rid of the black mana. The biggest problems for this deck are,Soltari Priests,Tradewinds and 2nd turn Hatredkills:) I haven't found anything real good against the Soltari Priests(tried almost everything from Torture Chambers to Helm of Posessions). Against Hatred(suicide)decks the Shocks are great,if they can't get the Hatred out,theydon't have much change against this deck. Against anything with Tradewind Riders in it I added the extra aftershock and the 4 Boils. The Scragnoth's are also great against most decks based on Tradewind Rider,just "pump"him with a counter from one of your Spike's and he has a power of 4 wich should be enough to tear down the walls:) The Tranquility's are ofcourse for the Humilty/Orim's Prayers deck...2 is enough,because you can get them back with the Anarchist if needed. I had a lot of fun with making and playtesting this deck,it turned out to do pretty well. Pitty is.......I never got the time to play a Pro Tour Qualifier.....some people are just too busy:( Greetz,and till next time. Gilles(tjov).