Subject: My analysis of the Tempest Card Pool for Tempest Constructed Date: Tue, 24 Mar 98 15:56:15 CET From: Brick@wiwiss.fu-berlin.de (Daniel Brickwell) Newsgroups: rec.games.trading-cards.magic.strategy Hi, here is my prelimminary analysis of the Tempest Constructed card pool, enjoy! It is part of my preperation for L.A. I hope it will be useful for people trying to qualify for Chicago! Each color will be first structured by Types of Spells then follows a short analysis with the IMO best cards highlighted... Artefacts: ------------------ Creatures: 1 CC: Metallic Sliver 2-CC: Manakin 3-CC: Bottle Gnomes Patchwork Gnomes Coiled Tinviper Watchdog 4-CC Telethopter Energizer (Tranquilizer, here come the MIB...) 6-CC Phyrexian Hulk Flowstone Sculpture Creature Removal 1-CC Cursed Scroll 3-CC Puppet Strings Torture Chamber 4-CC Helm of Possession Manaproduction ----------------- 0-CC Lotus Petal 2-CC Medailllons Manakin Life Gain/Damage Prev. ----------------------- 1-CC Squees Toy 2-CC Essence Bottle 3-CC Bottle Gnomes Direct Damage ---------------- 1-CC Cursed Scroll 2-CC Scalding Tongs Thumbscrews Jinxed Idol 6-CC Booby Trap Mill Effects --------------- 1-CC Grindstone 2-CC Altar of Dementia Card Drawing/Lib. Manip. ------------------------- 2-CC Scroll Rack 3-CC Phyrexian Grimoire 4-CC Fools Tome Emmessi Tome Creature Enhancer ------------------- 2-CC Mogg Canon Phyrexian splicer Excevator 4-CC Cold Storage Environment -------------- 3-CC Static Orb Analysis: Artefacts ----------------------- Cursed Scroll rules, we knew that... Other Damage Dealers ----------------------- Jinxed Idol (sideboardable, ag. U/W control, also ag. Daylight) Phyrexian Hulk Flowstone Sculpture (both sideboardable for Black against Daylight) Thumscrew/Tongs ? Good Enough? Can get by Counters... Life Gain ---------- Bottle Gnomes are good! (atleast sideboardable ag. weenies...) Essence Bottle (only for control decks... and then instant artefact destruction is its bane...) Card Drawing ------------- Emmessi Tome (I played this in Deep Freeze the Preconstructed Deck and in Control ag. Control its all about the tome, much better than Whisper recursion and in control ag. control less vulnerable!) Scroll Rack (there are only few ways to abuse this card in the environment, most of them are green Harrow, Rampant Growth, Wood Sage, Intuition... probably not good enough, but on the other hand it is one of the few cards in the environment which can help with color or mana screw, the others are once again green...) Fools Tome (perhaps a great addition to the weenie scroll deck, have to test that...) Phyrexian Grimoire (4 to use is a bit expensive, on the other hand the cards you get are going to be much better! Have to test it against the tome, both are probably useful for control decks...on the other hand Grimoire might be better for beatdown decks... or not good enough at all...) Environment: -------------- Static Orb - shuts down scroll shuts down your defence against creature hordes, unless you also have Propaganda. It's a combo card in an enviroment which has very little Libary Manipulation (Just Dream Cache, Intuition, Scroll Rack really see Scroll Rack for combos with Scroll Rack...) Mana Production ------------------- Saphire Medaillon and Pearl Medaillon are worth it because you can play almost exclusively white or blue all other colors either don't really need the Medaillons (Red or Green) or need another splash color Black (or is a monblack weenie possible inspite of Daylight...) Creature Control ------------------- Puppet Strings (probably worth it in the right deck absolutely necessary for blue ag. Scragnoth...) Torture Chamber (sideboardable against real weenie decks, good enough for main deck?) Helm of Possession (unless you can produce creatures somehow this can backfire a lot with everyone running anti-artefact spells...) Bottle Gnomes (Board Control against Sligh) Watchdog (good against Shadow and Sligh...) Mill Effects: --------------- Grindstone -- a good manasink for control decks to get some rest between rounds should they win... Altar of Dementia-- cries for Living Death but see my note with Static Orb about Combo Decks. In tempest Constr. I think every part of a combo has to be strong by itself, because you can't garantuee combos coming together...) Black! Whats not to love about black, blacks themes are discard, creature removal, cheap fatties and good weenies, speed mana and card advantage via creature removal, graveyard recycling or just card drawing... Creatures: ----------------- 1-CC ------ B 1/1 Blood Pet - manasource B 0/1 Pit Imp - flying pump. B 2/2 Sacromancy - ping yourself 2-CC ------ B1 1/1 Leeching Licid- blocker, pot. direct dam. B1 1/1 Carrionette - pot. Creat. remov. B1 1/1 Clot Sliver- reg. for 2 B1 1/1 Dauthi Ghoul - counters, zombie! B1 2/1 Rats of Rath -anti capsize, allure B1 2/1 Dauthi Horror - shad., white can't block BB 2/2 Dauthi Slayer -shad., has to attack 3-CC ------ B2 1/1 Coffin Queen - recylcles graveyard B2 3/1 Dauthi Marauder - shad. B2 2/1 Dauthi Mercenary -shad., pump. 1B B2 1/1 Maddening Imp - flies, Creat. rem. B2 2/2 Mindwhip Sliver - pot. Discard B2 3/3 Servant of Volrath - sac. disadv. BB1 2/2 Knight of Dusk - pot. unblock. 4-CC ------ B3 1/1 Darkling Stalker - Pump., reg. B3 2/1 Dauthi Mindripper - sac. discard 3 own choice B3 2/2 Gravedigger - grav. recycl., Zombie B3 3/2 Marsh Lurker - pot. unblock. B3 2/2 Souldrinker - counters - 3 life BB2 2/2 Bounty Hunter - Creat. Remov. BB2 4/4 Kezzerdrix - FS, pot damages controller BB2 2/2 Screeching Harpy - flies, reg. 1B 5-CC -------- B4 3/3 Bellowing Fiend -xtra dam. if blocked to both players BB3 3/3 Skyshroud Vampire - Flies, pump, dicard Creat. card. 6-CC ------ BBB3 7/5 Commander Greven - pot. unblock., sac a creat. BBB3 X/X Minion of the Wastes -- Trample, X equals life paid Color Hosers --------------- 1-CC B Dread of Night 3-CC B2 Perish Graveyard Recycle -------------------- 1-CC B Reanimate 2-CC B1 (3) Disturbed Burial (3 Buyback) 3-CC B2 Coffin Queen B2 (2) Corpse Dance 4-CC B3 Gravedigger 5-CC BB3 Living Death Discard: 3-CC B2 Coercion B2 Mindwhip Sliver 4-CC B3 Dauthi Mindripper X-CC B1X Abandon Hope Speed Mana ---------------- 1-CC B Blood Pet B Dark Ritual Creature Enhancers ---------------------- 1-CC B Sadistic Glee 2-CC B1 Spinal Graft 3-CC B2 Dauthi Embrace X-CC BX Endless Scream Utility ---------- 3-CC BB1 Rain Of Tears Creature Removal -------------------- 2-CC B1 Carionette B1 Diabolic Edict BB Fevered Convulsions, BB2 to use BB Enfeeblement B1 (3) Imps Taunt 3-CC B2 Dark Banishing B2 Maddening Imp BB1 Reckless Spite 4-CC BB2 (3) Evincars Justice BB2 Bounty Hunter 5-CC BB3 Living death X-CC B4X Dregs of Sorrow Environment 5-CC BB3 Death Pits of Rath BB3 Living Death (kind of) Analysis: Black ------------------- Discard ---------- Discard is hit because of Cursed Scroll, Abandon Hope might help you empty your own hand, but against Counter Decks I don't know... Probably the only dicard spell worth running and then perhaps only sideboard is: Coercion! Creature Removal: -------------------- 1) Dark Banishing 2) Diabolic Edict 3) Evincars Justice The three pack if you run heavy black IMO. A two pack if you splash black. Also possible 1 Dregs of Sorrow, Living Death and perhaps Fevered Convulsions... Sideboardable: ----------------- Perish Dread of Night Coercion Dauthi Mindripper?? Tournament Creatures (? are borderline ?? very borderline) -------------------------------------------------------------- All in all black creatures are not that strong this year too many X/1s which die to Fireslingers, Moggs etc. Few creatures which don't die to Cursed Scroll also...) Sacromancy (should play Gravediggers) Dauthi Horror Rats of Rath (anti-capsize) Dauthi Slayer (prob. best black shadow) Clot Sliver ? Dauthi Marauder Servant of Volrath (Hes 3/3 without a terrible drawback in some decks) Knight of Dusk ? Mindwhip Sliver ?? Gravedigger Kezzerdrix ? (perhaps in a B/W deck) Dauthi Mindripper ? Skyshroud Vampire Greven il Vec? (Perhaps also in a B/W deck) Minion of The Wastes ?? well if you Corpse Dance enough Bottle Gnomes... Graveyard Manipulation ------------------------- Corpse Dance and Living Death is huge. The game swing that Living Death can cause in some situation is just undescribable! Here is part three: Blue! Everyone who agrees, that blue got some of the hottest constructed cards send me money, please.... ;) Creatures: ----------------- 1-CC ------ U 1/1 Mantariders - fly for U U 1/1 Rootwater Diver - sac. return artefact fr. gravey. 2-CC ------ U1 2/2 Skyshroud Condor- flies, cast. only with other spell U1 1/1 Stinging Licid - licid, pot. dam. U1 1/2 Thalakos Sentry - shadow U1 1/1 Wind Dancer - flies, gives Flying U1 1/1 Winged Sliver - flies UU 1/1 Thalakos Seer - shadow, if he leaves play draw a card 3-CC ------ U2 1/4 Horned Turtle U2 2/2 Mnemonic Sliver - 2, sac: draw a card U2 1/1 Rootwater Hunter -pinger U2 2/2 Rootwater Shaman - your ench. can be play. as instants U2 1/1 Thalakos Dreamsower - Shadow, kind of thirst U2 2/1 Thalakos Mistfolk - shadow, put back on Lib. U2 2/2 Wind Drake - flies UU1 1/3 Fylmarid - flying, colors stuff blue, unblock. by blue 4-CC ------ U3 1/4 Tradewind Rider - flies plus Bounce U3 0/1 Unstable Shapeshifter - unstable, adapts to new creatures UU2 2/4 Fighting Drake - flies UU2 2/3 Rootwater Matriarch - gain control of creat. with ench. 5-CC -------- U4 3/3 Giant Crab - potentialy untargettable UU3 3/3 Mawcor - flies, pings UU3 3/4 Escaped Shapeshifter - plus add. abilt. of opp. creat. 6-CC ------ UU4 6/6 Seamonster - can't attack unless opp. controls islands 8-CC -------- UUU5 7/6 Benthic Behemoth - Islandwalk Color Hosers --------------- 2-CC U1 Chill 3-CC U2 Insight Creature Stealing -------------------- 2-CC UU Legacy Allure 4-CC UU2 Legerdemain UU2 Rootwater Matriarch Counterspells: ------------------- 2-CC UU Counterspell U1 (Interdict) 4-CC UU2 Dismiss X-CC UX Ertais Meddling UX Spell Blast UX Powersink Creature "Removal" -------------------- (see also Creature Stealers...) 2-CC U1 Volraths Curse 3-CC U2 Gaseous Form U2 Propaganda U2 Rootwater Hunter U2 Thalakos Dreamsower Card Drawing -------------- 1-CC U(5) Whispers of the Muse 2-CC U1 Mana Severence (kind of...) UU Thalakos Seer (with Bounce) 3-CC U2 Meditate 5-CC UU3 Duplicity Libary Manipulation --------------------- 2-CC U1 Mana Severence 3-CC U2 Dream Cache- sorcery U2 Intuition - instant! 5-CC U4 Precognition- ench., only opp. libary Utility ---------- 1-CC U Shadow Rift - Cantrip U Shimmering Wings - returnable 2-CC UU Steal Enchantment 3-CC UU1(3) Capsize 4-CC U3 Tradewind Rider 5-CC UU3 Time Warp - cantrip relentless assault (kind of) Bounce/Stall -------------------- 3-CC UU1(3) Capsize U2 Time Ebb 4-CC U3 Tradewind Rider Analysis: Blue ------------------- Sideboardable ---------------- Well the color hosers ofcourse, but don't forget Steal Enchantment against Enchantment heavy decks, or Ertais Meddling against other Counter decks or possibly Rootwater Shaman if you are running artifacts against artifact destruction... Creatures and spells: ------------------------- I find that the creatures in spells in blue tend to separate into to two categories, a small but growing number of blue beatdown cards (see the growing number of fish decks in constructed) and the old larger group of control cards... Beatdown Cards Skyshroud Condor Wind Drake Legerdemain Time Ebb Time Warp Not much this time around.... Control Rootwater Hunter Fighting Drake Rootwater Matriarch? Tradewind Rider !!! Giant Crab? Mawcor Escaped Shapeshifter Legacy Allure Capsize !! Propaganda Card Drawing/Libary Manipulation: ----------------------------------- The main card is Whispers of the Muse. I don't think you can break Duplicity in the format. Mana Severence might be abusable as there is no global land destruction except Apocalypse... Intuition is the sole combo getter, but the graveyard manipulation to really abuse it is mostly missing (except for creatures...) Counters ----------- Counters are strong in Tempest Constructed, if and thats a big if, if you can establish control against creatures as well as Cursed Scroll.... Combos: ---------- Blue has a lot of combos in this format especially because of the bounce cards... Thalakos Seer Capsize- Tradewindrider, Duplicity - Capsize or Tradewind, Intuition, Porpaganda, Static Orb... the list is quite long, if you add more colors it gets longer, Hand To Hand Propaganda comes to mind... Research has to be done into which combos are strong enough by themselves to be viable in an environment without much libary manipulation... here is part 2: Green, I am not going to say anything about green, everybody seems to have a set opinion anyway so why bother.... Creatures: ----------------- Oh yeah I will use effective power and toughness, a Spike Drone is a 1/1 in my book not a 0/0 with a +1/+1 counter and so forth... 1-CC ------ G 1/1 Spike Drone - 2 mana: transfer +1/+1 counter G 1/1 Skyshroud Ranger - elf, put an extra land into play = way around capsize lock (?) 2-CC ------ G1 1/1 Skyshroud Elf - elf, prod. G, colors W and R without tap G1 1/1 Bayou Dragonfly - flies, swampwalks G1 1/3 Canopy Spider - can block creat. with flying GG 2/2 Eladarmi Lord - legend, elves are untarg. and gain forestwalk G1 2/1 Heartwood Dryad - can block shadow G1 2/2 Muscle Sliver - gives +1/+1 to other slivers G1 1/1 Nurturing Licid - blocker, reg other creat. G1 2/1 Seeker of Skybreak - elf, untap target creature 3-CC ------ G2 2/2 Horned Sliver - all slivers gain trample G2 3/1 Pincher Beetle - untarget. G2 2/2 Rootwalla - pump. once 1G for +2/+2 GG1 3/3 Trained Armodon 4-CC ------ GG2 5/4 Apes of Rath - Spectral Bear GG2 3/3 Crazed Armodon - once plus +3/+0 and trample G3 2/2 Elven Warhounds - unblockable G3 2/3 Flailing Drake - flies, in combat oppos. creat. gain +1/+1 G3 3/2 Fugitive Druid - if target of suc. ench. draw a card GG2 3/4 Heartwood Treefolk - Forestwalk G3 4/1 Mongrel Pack - 4-pack in combat GG2 3/3 Skyshroud Troll - 1G reg. G3 3/3 Trupmpeting Armodon - 1G target creature must block Armodon 5-CC -------- GG3 4/4 Charging Rhino - block. only by one G4 3/4 Dirtcowl Wurm - +1/+1 counter each time opp. plays land GG3 4/4 Heartwood Giant - tap, sac a forest 2 dam to target opp. G4 3/4 Scragnoth - prot. from blue, non-counterable 7-CC ------ GG5 6/6 Rootbreaker Worm - trample 8-CC ------- GGG5 7/7 Verdant Force - prod. a 1/1 creat. each players upkeep X-CC ------- GGX X/X Kraiklin - 1G reg. Color Hosers --------------- 2-CC G1 Reap 3-CC G2 Choke 5-CC G4 Scragnoth Environment -------------- 1-CC G Rootmaze G Vineyard 4-CC GG2 Alluren 5-CC GG3 Natures Revolt Libary Manip./Card Drawing ----------------------------- 1-CC ----- G Mirris Guile 2-CC ------- G1 Rampant Growth 3-CC ----- G2 Harrow 4-CC ------ G3 Fugitive Druid 6-CC ----- GG4 Recycle Mana Production ------------------ 1-CC -------- G Skyshroud Ranger G Vineyard 2-CC ------ G1 Skyshroud Elf G1 Rampant Growth G1 Earthcraft 3-CC ------ G2 Harrow Creature Enhancers ------------------- 1-CC G (4) Elvish Fury G Frogtongue G Spike Drone 2-CC G1 Nurturing Licid GG Eladarmi Lord G1 Seeker of Skybreak 3-CC G2 Broken Fall 5-CC ------ GGG2 Overrun!! Utility --------- 1-CC G Stormfront 2-CC G1 Reality Anchor 3-CC G2 Needle Storm GG1 Winters Grasp G2 Verdigris Creature Production --------------------- 4-CC ----- G3 Mongrel Pack 8-CC GGG5 Verdant Force Analysis: Green ------------------- Sideboardable ---------------- Well Choke is pretty evil should mono-green decks make a showing at PT LA, Scragnoth might even be worse... Reap is a joke... Pincher Beetles might also be a huge problem for some decks, but are too good not to rain main deck. Creatures ------------ Among the low casting cost creatures Muscle Slivers Stand out and I am not sure if the Skyshroud Ranger is not worth it. You get the speed of the extra land you put out plus the 1/1 to attack with, on the other hand the speed adavantage peters out, perhaps in a Duplicity or Whispers Deck where you draw lots of cards you want to cast? Perhaps not... Heartwood Dryad and Seeker of Skybreak could provide early fast beatdown but are susceptible because of their one toughness. In the Medium casting slots green has the best creatures, Trained Armodon, Pincher Beetles, Apes of Rath, Skyshroud Troll and Heartwood Treefolk are all worth it. Rootwalla is also good, but not as good as the Beetles or the Armodon IMO. In the higher Casting costs Scragnoth appears very tournament worthy and perhaps you could combo Capsize Lock Dirtcowl Worm, but does the Capsize lock need a biggie?. Verdant Force would be good but it costs 8 mana, 8 thats too expensive. Environment cards ------------------- Green has a lot of intresting environment cards but except for Vineyard I don't think we will see them played... Card Drawing/Lib. Manip. ------------------------- In the Libary Manipulation Department shuffle effects is the best we got, but on the other hand they are also speed mana, so I think that a U/G deck is waiting out there... Another point, can recycle be Broken? It costs 6 mana so the deck has to be very fast mana oriented as a defensive stance does not combine well with recycle. Recycle does work well with the scroll though!! Hmmh, something to think about. Which brings us to: Mana Production ------------------ Rampant Growth is definitely worth it as one of the best speed mana producers in Tempest. Harrow hits the same spot, but hurts if countered, instant though! Creature Enhancers -------------------- Overrun is a must for the really green mage I think, Elvish Fury is also very good. And Broken Fall could combine well with Recycle... here is part five: red, The color of raging fire, the color of destruction. yours or mine, that remains to be seen... Creatures: ----------------- 1-CC ------ R 2/1 Jackal Pup - take 1 dam. for each dam. assigned to Pup. R 2/2 Mogg Conscripts - can only attack the round you cast another creat. R 1/1 Mogg Fanatic - sac. for ping R 1/1 Mogg Raider - sac goblin to give target creat. +1/+1 until end of turn 2-CC ------ R1 0/5 Wall of Diffusion - wall, can block shadow R1 1/1 Shocker - if it dam. player he disc. his hand and draws new hand R1 3/3 Mogg Squad - gets -1/-1 for each other creature in play R1 1/1 Heart Sliver - all slivers no summ. sickness R1 1/1 Fireslinger - pinger for ouch R1 1/1 Enraging Licid - blocker, no summ. sickn. ench. R1 2/1 Canyon Wildcat - mountainwalk 3-CC ------ R2 2/2 Barbed Sliver - all slivers gain 2, pump +1/0 R2 2/2 Opportunist - ping target which has taken dam. R2 X/3 Pallimud - X is the number of opp. tap. lands RR1 2/2 Starke - legend, Tap to destroy creat. or artifact, opp. gets Starke 4-CC ------ R3 5/4 Wild Wurm - 50/50 if it really enters play RR2 1/3 Sandstone Warrior - first strike, firebreathing RR2 5/5 Rathi Dragon - sac. two mount to play it, flies RR2 4/3 Lowland Giant - R3 4/1 Lightning Elemental - no summon. sickness RR2 3/3 Flowstone Giant - pump for R for +2/-2 R3 1/1 Firefly - flies, firebreathing RR2 3/3 Chaotic Goo - flip during upk. for +1/+1 or -1/-1 RR2 1/2 Canyopn Drake - flies, 1, disc. a rand. card +2/0 5-CC -------- RR3 3/4 Flowstone Salamander - pings blockers for R RR3 3/3 Flowstone Wyvern - pump for R for +2/-2 RR3 X/X Magamasaur - X equals number of counters has 5 counters remove one each upkeep or earthq. for number of counters. R4 3/3 Renegade Warlord - First Strike, each other attacker gets +1/0 Color Hosers --------------- 2-CC R1 Havoc 4-CC R3 Boil Environment -------------- 3-CC R2 No Quarter R2 Hand to Hand 4-CC RRR1 Furnace of Rath 5-CC RRR2 Apocalypse Direct Damage --------------- 1-CC ----- R Mogg Fanatic R(4) Searing Touch 2-CC ------- R1 Fireslinger R1 Goblin Bombardment R1 Kindle 3-CC ----- R2 Ancient Ruins 4-CC ------ R3 Sudden Impact R3 Lightning Blast RRR1 Furnace of Rath (kind of) 5-CC -------- RR3 Magmasaur X-CC ------ RRX Rolling Thunder Creature Removal ------------------ (see also Direct Damage) 1-CC -------- R Shadowstorm R Tahngarths Rage (for X/1) 2-CC ----- R1 Blood Frenzy (kind of...) 3-CC ------ RR1 Starke of Rath 4-CC ------- R3 Deadshot RR2 Aftershock 5-CC ------ RRR2 Apocalypse RR3 Magmasaur Creature Enhancers ------------------- 1-CC R Tahngarths Rage R Crown Of Flames 2-CC R1 Blood Frenzy RR Giant Strength 4-CC RRR1 Furnace of Rath (kind of) Utility --------- 2-CC ------- R1 Shatter R1 Stun 3-CC ------- RR1 Starke of Rath R2 Stone Rain 4-CC -------- RR2 Aftershock 5-CC ----- RRR2 Apocalypse X-CC ----- RX Scorched Earth Creature Production --------------------- 4-CC ----- R3 Tooth and Claw Analysis: Red ------------------- If you look at these cards you see that red has gotten great weenies this time, mediocre direct damage, great fatties, mucho land and artifact destruction plus some mediocre to good sideboard cards. Sideboardable: ------------------ Havoc, Boil ofcourse, Shadowstorm against Shadow, Hand To Hand against Weenies and Ancient Ruins against Artifact Decks. Sudden Impact could be possible against control or Static Orb decks... Land Destruction: -------------------- With Wastelands, Stone Rain, Aftershock and Scorched Earth you have the possibility of a LD deck. I am not sure about scorched Earth though. To abuse it you need many lands out but to use it you need many lands in hand, a contradiction... Artifact Destruction: ------------------------ You have Shatter, Aftershock, which is viable only against some decks, Starke of rath and Apocalypse. I don't know if you can abuse Apocalypse though it is certainly no Jokulhaups... Fatties --------- Lowland Giant, Rathi Dragon, Magmasaur are all very good. Lightning Elemental, Flowstone Wyvern and Flowstone Giant are also not bad. Weenies -------- I think Starke of Rath is going to make an appearence here as well as Pallimud, red has too little in the 3-CC slot otherwise. The Real weenies with Jackal Pup, Fireslinger and Mogg Fanatic round it out. Jackal Pup is much better in this format than in Type II, I think, Canyon Wildcat and Mogg Conscripts might also be usable. Direct Damage ---------------- A lot of people are going to pack Kindles, which is going to open up the big question, "Who has to Kindle first?" Control decks will use Rolling Thunder while the speed decks will turn to Cursed Scroll to provide their late game damage. Therefore I don't expect so many Lightning Blasts. Goblin Bombardment should also make a showing in some decks. welcome to the final installment, this was much more work than I originally thought when I made my first written notes. I hope you will get some use out of this so that my work was not for nought. Well thats not exactly true, writing it down helped. I now know the card pool much better than before. Creatures: ----------------- 1-CC ------ W 1/1 Sacred Guide - lib. manip., replaces itself W 1/1 Soltari Foot Soldier - shadow 2-CC ------ W1 1/1 Advance Scout - first strike, gives first strike for W W1 1/2 Armored Pegasus - flies W1 1/2 Auratog - sac. ench. gets +2/+2 until end of turn W1 1/1 Clergy en Vec - sammie W1 1/2 Master Decoy - creature Icy for W W1 1/1 Oracle en Vec - affects attack phase W1 1/1 Quickening Licid - blocker, pot. first strike ench. W1 2/1 Soltari Emissary - can gain shadow for W WW 2/1 Soltari Monk - prot. from black, shadow WW 2/1 Soltari Priest - prot. from red, shadow W1 1/1 Soltari Trooper - 2/2 when attacking, shadow W1 1/1 Talon Sliver - first strike, sliver 3-CC ------ W2 2/2 Armor Sliver - all slivers gain 2, pump +0/+1 W2 2/2 Elite Javelineer - ping attacker when it blocks WW1 2/2 Knight of Dawn - WW: Protection from color of choice WW1 1/3 Orim, Samite Healer - sammie *3, legend W2 2/1 Soltari Crusader - shadow, pump. for W1, +1/0 W2 2/2 Soltari Lancer - first strike when attack., shadow 4-CC ------ W3 2/2 Angelic Protector- if target, gains 0/+3, ie. non-scroll or kindle or blastable W3 2/2 Cloudchaser Eagle - 187 for ench. W3 3/3 Marble Titan - Meekstone W3 2/3 Mounted Archers - can block fliers, and for W add. creat. 5-CC -------- WW3 3/3 Avenging Angel - flies non-killable WW3 3/4 Staunch defenders - gain 4 life when it comes into play Creature Producers -------------------- 4-CC ----- WW2 Field of Souls - if a non-token creat. dies receive a 1/1 white flying token creature WW2 Spirit Mirror - produces one 2/2 creature if you have no other like it.during your upkeep. W3 Pegasus Refuge - produce a 1/1 white flying creature for 2 mana and a card of your choice. Sideboardable --------------- 1-CC W Gerrads Battle Cry - anti-Humility 2-CC W1 Cops W1 Cop Shadow W1 Warmth 4-CC W3 Light of Day W3 Marble Titan Environment -------------- 3-CC W2 Hannas Custody 4-CC W3 Marble Titan Damage Prevention/Life Gain ----------------------------- 1-CC ----- W(2) Worthy Cause W(3) Annoint 2-CC ------- W1 Clergy en Vec W1(3) Invulnerability 3-CC ----- WW1 Orim, Samite Healer 5-CC ------ WW3 Safeguard WW3 Staunch Defenders Creature Control ------------------ (See also Damage Prevention) 2-CC ----- W1 Pacifism 3-CC ------ WW1 Orims Prayer W2 Repentence 4-CC ------- WW2 Humility 5-CC ------ WW3 Winds of Rath Creature Enhancers ------------------- 1-CC W Flickering Ward W Gerrads Battle Cry 2-CC W1 Heroes Resolve W1 Gallantry Utility --------- 2-CC ------- W1 Disenchant W1 Serene Offering 4-CC ------ W3 Cloudchaser Eagle Analysis: White ------------------- White is the home of the two casting cost weenies it also has the best Utility spell inform of disenchant and with the Cops the best general sideboard cards. White has also some storng control elements and with Orims Prayer - Humility a one color creature lock. Sideboardable: ------------------ Which Cops to sideboard will depend on the exact metagame. I do think that Cop Red and Light of Day will be prominent in sideboards as fail safes. Gerrads Battle Cry could be an intrestig sideboard card should Humility decks prove popular. I am not sure about Warmth though, it does not really stop the creature rush. Cop Shadow could become popular, if there is a viable shadow weenie. Weenies ------------ White has several good weenies. The two Clerics, Knight of Dawn, Master Decoy, and the Soltari Emissary are all good. The Sacred Guide, the Soltari Lancer and the Soltari Crusader are borderline. White probably needs a second color to provide continous beatdown. Either red for the 1-CC slot or green for a medium creature rush with more stuff in the 3-cc slot. Ofcourse a white weenie, red fat deck could also be viable, but that would have to be coupled with control elements. Speaking of control... Control --------- With Avenging Angel white has the control creature in Tempoest IMO. Spirit Mirror does not quite qualify, as you can only have one out even with 2 Spirit Mirrors and an opponent spirit mirror neutralizes both. I would run one Spirit Mirror in White though, but not more than one. Orim, the Samite Healer is another very good control card. Master Decoy is also very good control but the toughness 2 hurts. In the non-creature control department white has Orims Prayer and Humility both of which are strong by themselves against a creature rush (unlike Hand to Hand Propaganda for instance...) Winds of Rath is also very strong but slow in a non-speed mana deck. Ofcourse mono or near mono-white control could run Pearl Medaillons while G/W can run the green speed mana. I don't know if the Flickering Ward-Winds of Rath combo is worth it. I don't think so unless we see more mono-color weenie decks. Multicolor Cards -------------------- I will go by the multi-color cards one by one... Dracoplasm --- anybody see a viable combo with this thing otherwise not worth it... Lobotomy -- Lobotomy is very strong as it can often force a discard of two cards, add to that the potential to ruin combo decks and you have a very good if expensive card (manawise). Ranger en Vec - is very good for his casting cost! First Strike and regeneration only for G instead of the now standard 1G. Fits great into a G/W weenie. Segmented Wurm - I think R/G has better Fatties than this... Selenia Dark Angel -- if she weren't a legend she would be better than Avenging Angel. But that little factor plus the life cost you can't always pay in a control deck make her good but not as good. Sky Spirit: see Ranger en Vec. I don't see many U/W weenies though. Soltari Guerillas --- I originally loved these guys, If they were 2/3 I would love them still. As they are 3/2 I think that they are probably too easily removed for the casting cost. Spontaneous Combustion. This thing is not only instant, it takes care of those creatures you can't scroll. Vhati-il Dal-- Hmmh, he could help you deal with higher toughness creatures or act as a Rathi stopper probably not bad... Wood Sage-- Great combo with Scroll Rack I would try him out in a U/G deck. Lands -------- Maze of Shadow--- probably a good sideboard card for many decks or a potential main deck card in mono-color decks Ghost Town-- Good with Static Orb otherwise pretty useless... Reflecting Pool --- I think this card is overrated. If it could provide colorless mana when you have no other lands out it would be great but so I would never run more than 2. Damage Lands--- The come into play tapped is a big draw back as if the pain wasn't enough in a beatdown and Wasteland environment... I don't expect to see too many of these... Depletion Lands--- The fixed Depletion lands should work well in control decks which do mostly nothing or need much colorless mana. Ancient Tomb--- useless (probably my biggest mistake) Stalking Stones --- I love these! They can't be countered and they can be surprise blocker or attackers. If you have enough room for colorless mana I would fit them in. Wasteland --- I think enough people are going to use enough multilands to make these viable as disruption. I don't think they are going to make a huge impact though... So this is it. I hoped you enjoyed the ride. Feedback and comments are appreciated. Letters of gratitude will be read eagerly ;) Friendly Greetings Daniel Team Highway to Hell, Team Captain Team Legion, Advisor