Subject: For the Deck Workshop Date: 27 Jul 98 15:37:01 +0000 From: Nathan Donovan To: Hi Frank! I thought I would send along the blue deck I have been playing around with since just before regionals. I have made a quite a few changes to the deck since early May, mainly to the main deck creatures, and to the sideboard. This came partly due to the strength of Finkel's awesome blue deck, as well as going through a process, on my part, of retrofitting some older blue cards that really haven't lost their strength in the current environment. This is a defensive blue deck. It is extremely annoying to lose against, and very hard to beat straight out, unless the mana has gone on vacation. My main goal with this deck is to get a strong anti weenie environment going, then lock with capsize & air strike. The biggest changes I see from other mono blue decks out there is my use of Suq 'Ata firewalkers and Floodgates. The firewalkers generally come out against tradewind/wall decks, but maindeck they allow me to crush WW, Sligh/SRB, and Black Weenie. The Floodgates are maindeck for the same reason, as well as their firestorm-like effect should they "accidentally" leave play =P. In general my experience has been utter annoyance when playing against Oath of Druid decks, because the Man O war becomes a detriment, so I cut him down to 3. I also wanted a lot of counters - at least 12, so I could have a reasonable arsenal of permission for early game, mid game, and complete "forbid-ness" by the time a couple fliers hit the table. **just a side note, but at the exodus pre-release I remember the band of PT wannabes sitting next to me saying how bad Forbid sucked...hahahahahaha... WHATEVER... This is an incredibly strong addition to blue countermagic, because it makes all that excessive card drawing power even more dangerous. The sideboard is intended to deal with cursed scroll, scragnoth, gaea's blessing, oath of druids, null brooch, and some additional help against red. I haven't had too many run-ins with choke/boil, so i have not really addressed those cards in my SB. I call this deck: "Meta-Blue" Lands: 22 18 Island 3 Quicksand 1 Stalking Stones Artifacts: 4 4 Sapphire Medallion Spells: 19 4 Whispers of the Muse 3 Capsize 4 Counterspell 2 Dissipate 2 Dismiss 2 Forbid 1 Force Spike 1 Disrupt Creatures: 15 3 Azure Drake 3 Ophidian (aka "the Book-mobile") 3 Man O War 4 Suq 'Ata FirePimp 2 Floodgate Sideboard: 15 4 Chill 2 Meekstone 2 Null Rod 2 Legacy's Allure 3 Phyrexian Furnace 1 Rainbow Efreet 1 Dissipate //******************************* Nathan Donovan nated@greatwave.com *******************************//