Date: Sat, 13 Sep 1997 09:52:15 -0700
From: Craig Mason <cmason@sol.co.uk>
To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com
Subject: Sandsipoise T2 deck: Julian Haigh

After reading the articles on Sandsipoise decks I have decided to post my 
comments and ideas for this deck.

The deck has several weaknesses; protection from white creatures, 
untouchable creatures and pitch cards. I have playtested the deck since 
sands and equipoise came out and the introduction of weatherlight 
certainly helps but I think this deck will really become tournament 
worthy once Alliances leaves the Type 2 scene (contagion, pyrokinesis and 
force of will).

Many people think this has to be a blue/white deck but I have found 
red/white to be the strongest version I have made to date. The Taniwha 
version is weak as it relies on the Taniwha surviving to have the lands 
phase out.

The most important thing about the deck is to blitz the land early on and 
quickly put the lock down before your opponent can recover, use diamonds 
and kismet to help with this. Once the sands and equipoise are out, 
armageddon again to take control of the game.

With two diamonds, sands and equipoise out you never lay another land 
(hence your opponent cannot break up the lock).

With sands equipoise out you can lay a land, bring in the city of 
solitude, next turn geddon again. Then sandstalker your opponent to 
finish him off. Millstones provide an alternative kill.

The argivian finds are excellent for putting the lock back together if it 
is disrupted and the creature destruction deals with all the problem 
creatures.

Other cards that can be good are quicksand, fireblast (excellent for 
losing land during your upkeep in order to phase out more of your 
opponents.

Deck listing

White

3 Equipoise
2 Argivian Find
2 Enlightened Tutor
4 Armageddon
2 Abeyance
2 Kismet
1 Gerrard's Wisdom
1 Aura of Silence
3 Disenchant

Red

2 Earthquake
2 Pyroclasm
2 Viashino Sandstalker

Green
1 City of Solitude

Artifacts

3 Sands of Time
2 Millstone
3 Fire Diamond
2 Marble Diamond

Land

4 Gemstone Mine
10 Plains
7 Mountains
2 Lotus Vale

I haven't done much sideboarding with the deck as I reckoned it would be 
best to get the deck working first then strengthen it. But possibly

1 Jester's Cap
2 Wrath of God
4 Pyroblast
1 COP Black
1 COP Red
3 Fireblast
1 Disenchant
2 Earthquake

Real problem cards for this deck also are crumble and emerald charm due 
to the casting cost. The kismet is the key to stopping this and also 
works well with the Lotus vale, allowing you to play with one card in 
play. This deck is difficult to play and requires practice to play and 
when. Often sands before equipoise works best.

Don't play the city early on, wait until the lock is down and don't be 
afraid to wait for key cards to come up before playing anything once the 
sands/poise/geddon has happened. Any comments welcome.

Julian Haigh