Subject: Decks to Peruse Date: Wed, 12 Nov 1997 11:18:20 -0800 From: Claude Mona To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com Just wanted to pitch in my two cents on the emerging deck types to look out for. Permarang!: Ugly deck that can put the screw to you starting with second turn boomeranging of land. Supported by the solfatara / stone rain stunting, Capsize recursion can start while the opponent has no more than 2 land in play. Propaganda will keep you safe. Has some problems with weenies and mana creatures (makes mana dep. much harder), but some current versions run tremor against elves and shadow knights, and the addition of earthquake does a lot to help out in the early to mid game. A bit fragile still in its current form, but it could go places. U/R 4 Solfatara 4 Stone Rain 1 Scorched Earth 2 Earthquakes 3 Propaganda 4 Boomerang 3 Political Trickery 3 Capsize 4 Ophidian 1 Tradewind Rider 1 Meditate 3 Memory Lapse 3 Counterspells 2 Miser's Cage 3 Undiscovered Paradise 8 Mountain 13 Islands Sideboard to taste: Aether flash, energy flux, shimmer!, pendrell mists, hydroblasts, etc Here!: Another ugly deck that is in its infancy. I don't know how it will do against the emerging Living Death decks, but it is a serious pain in the ass for control. Lots of creatures, Jinxed Idols, Disturbed Burial, Zur's Weirding makes for a really annoying deck. You must have artifact removal to survive. I'm not really sure about the exact contents (the owner is jealously guarding the exact contents) B/U/? 4 Jinxed Idols 2 Helm of Posession 4 Brood of Cockroaches 4 Black Knights 4 Knights of Stromgald 3 Gravediggers 2 Sengir Autocrat 4 Nekrataal 3 Daluthi Mindrippers 2 Zur's Weirding 3 Disturbed Burial 2 Coffin Queen 4 Diabolic Edicts 3 Slight of Minds 2 Nev's Disc Pillar Tombs are in the sideboard for sure, the rest is unknown. Grape Jelly: One of the stronger emerging vinyard decks that I've had the opportunity to play. It takes a fairly fast and not too color dependant deck to get out from underneath the vinyard. It forces the opponent to play his/her hand rather quickly to avoid the mana burn. This plays into the card advantage aspect of the deck. Grindstones were added as an afterthought, but they keep people from playing mana severance. They have worked out really well. Oh yeah...Rootwalla rules! 4 Vinyard 3 Gaea's Blessing 4 Rootwalla 2 Maro 2 Sylvan Library 4 Creeping Mold 1 Sacred Mesa 4 Gerrard's Wisdom 4 Wrath of God 1 Island Sanctuary 1 Emessi Tome 2 Jayemdae Tome 2 Disrupting Sceptres 2 Grindstones 1 Zur's Weirding 3 Undiscovered Paradise 3 Quicksand 6 Plains 8 Forest 3 Brushland Sideboard contains Armageddons, Abeyance, Disenchant, Honorable Passage, Phyrexian Furnaces...other stuff too. Fools Gold: So named because any fool can be golden with this thing. It is vulnerable to the usual stuff, but if it gets the jump on you, look out! I have only seen it played, so the exact contents aren't known. Basically, the faster you go, the more cards that you get to draw. Scalding Tongs can be a huge pain. It seems like his hand was always empty, and yet he was casting two and three spells a turn, drawing off the Fool's Tome. 3 Scalding Tongs 2 Telim Tor's Darts 3 Fools Tome 2 Ruby Medallions 2 Furnaces of Rath 3 Fireblast 4 Kindle 4 Incinerate 4 Hammer of Bogardan 2 Lightning Blast 3 Abeyances 3 Disenchant 3 Wrath of God 2 (?) Forsaken Waste 2 (?) Vampiric Tutor These last ones could have been sideboarded in against the gerrards deck that I saw him play against...tough to say. anyway...just a scouting report. I know there will likely be more rogue decks on the horizon, and these will likely mutate further. Claude