Subject: Up and coming deck type Date: Fri, 05 Jun 98 14:02:32 -0500 From: jason_mogavero@frontiercorp.com To: I'd like to discuss a blue creature that is being highly overlooked in its staying power. The Giant Crab. First off, here's the contents of the "Counter-Crab" deck. Creatures --------- 4 Giant Crab 4 Wall of Tears Counters ------------- 4 Counterspell 4 Dismiss 2 Mana Leak 3 Power Sink 2 Dissipate Control ------- 4 Nevvy's Disk 4 Capsize 2 Legacy's Allure Card Drawing ------------ 4 Whispers of the Muse 1 Scroll Rack Land ---- 4 Stalking Stones 2 Quicksand 16 Island = 60 Cards SB -- 4 Chill (Hose Sligh) 2 Energy Flux (Hose Cursed Sligh, or any other janky artifact deck) 2 Propaganda (For really creature heavy decks) 3 Force Spike (Win those crazy counter battles, or counter first turn Pups/Fanatics) 4 HydroBlast (damn we hate sligh) The premise behind this deck is simple, yet amazingly effective.....counter every threat that comes out early in the game, especially against ugly combo decks. (ProsBloom, HermitMisery, Comerzilla, Zvi, etc) If you're getting swarmed with weenies, or need to tap out to cast a few spells, that's what the disks are for. The disks work wonders if your opponent gets cute and starts dropping scragnoths, too. Eventually, you'll drop a crab or two, activate a stalking stones or two, then protect them with counters. The crabs are VERY hard to get rid of, as they can be made untargettable. The only real threats to them are Wrath, Extinction, Crypt Rats, etc. Then you use counters to save them. Keep whispering for cards and you'll be assured of a hand full of counters late in the game. If your opponent manages to sneak a propganda, dream tides, walls, or something else that stops your crab assault, that's where the capsizes fit in. Send it back to their hand at the end of their turn, then counter it when it comes back out. Note that this also works well against reaminator decks. There's a couple people running around the local shop with decks that consistently get turn 1 and 2 verdant forces and sliver queens out. A quick capsize sends these hard to cast cards back to their hand where they belong. (As opposed to in their library or graveyard where they can yank them out again with a Natural Order or Necromancy) I have yet to lose to a deck of this type. The only real weakness I've found in this deck is against a good merfolk deck...still working on a way around that. Propganda, maybe. An early shadow critter kinda hurts too...capsize is a good slowdown, and gets that double unholy strength off of them. The force spikes in the SB really help with this too. Notice the distinct lack of impulses....I had them in the deck before Wall of Tears, but a conversation with the local store owner got me thinking.... what do I ever impulse for? Once in a while, if I have a bad land start, I'll impulse for land...but it's mono-color, so that's usually not the issue. 9 times out of 10, I'm impulsing for a counterspell. So why not just make the impulses counters? (then replace the counters with walls of tears to help slow sligh and suicide black) So anyway....I have yet to enter this deck in a Type II tourney, but from general play around the store, it has done very well. And it's always fun to laugh at your opponent when they realize they are about to be killed by a crab. -Jason