Subject: Article on New stategies with Urza's Saga
Date: Tue, 29 Sep 1998 12:14:01 -0400
From: "Wayne Kvetkosky" 
To: webmaster@classicdojo.org

This deck uses several possible breakable cards from Ursa’s Sagaä, Windfall, (Sunder So good!!!), Umbilicus, Temperal Aperature, the Tolarian Acadamy (possibly the best Type I card from Ursa’s Sagaä ( first turn couterspell with two moxen in play), and outmanuver for surprise value (works well for the final attach against an awakened defense).

Tradewind Rider	Tradewind Rider	Tradewind Rider	Tradewind Rider
Windfall	Windfall	Windfall	Windfall
Sunder	Sunder	Sunder	Disenchant
Outmanuver	Bird of Paradise	Bird of Paradise	Bird of Paradise
Umbilicus	Keeper of Sky break	Keeper of Sky break	Keeper of Sky break
Wall of Blossoms	Wall of Blossoms	Wall of Blossoms	Wall of Blossoms
Llurgoyff	Llurgoyff	Llurgoyff	Scroll Rack
Capsize	Awakening	Awakening	Awakening
Capsize	Temporal Aperature	Scroll Rack	feldon’s Cane
feldon’s Cane	Citanul Flute	Phyrexian Collasus	Tolarian Acadamy
Plain	Plain	Island	Island
Forest	Forest	Forest	Forest
Forest	Forest	Forest	Skyshroud Forest
Skyshroud Forest	City of Brass	City of Brass	Island
Island	Island	Reflecting Pool	Reflecting Pool

Sideboard

Mana Leak	Mana Leak	Mana Leak	Mana Leak
All Creatures get Pro Red	All Creatures get Pro Red	All Creatures get Pro Black	Cataclysm
Cataclysm	Cloudcaser Momk 1cc name?	Cloudcaser Momk 1cc name?	Cloudcaser Momk 1cc name?

Cloudcaser Momk 1cc name?

Whirling Dervish

Whirling Dervish

Main Deck: Sideboard:
18 Creatures:
casting cost one: 6 4
casting cost two: 7 2
casting cost three:0
casting cost four: 7
casting cost seven: 1
6 Enchantments:
casting cost four: 3
casting cost two: 0 3

7 Sorceries:
casting cost four:0 2
casting cost three:4

Basic Deck Concept: One Sided Mana control, Win by large creatures with low casting cost, or by key card locks.

The deck works much like a traditional Ernhamgeddon deck with a twist of Sunder at end of turn followed by Windfall. Even without the Windfall, if you have the tradewind lock with an Awakening on board you can return two permanents on your turn and one on his/her turn. The Tradewind serves as the only creature control. There are 20 lands that produce manna not counting the Tolarian Acadamy and six manna producing creatures. The high casting cost creature selection work well with the Sunder Windfall theme of the deck. The Llurgoyf's get Buff when both yourself and opponent(s) discard Creatures from a windfall. The sideboard is not geared for any specific deck type since the new Type II environment hasn’t been defined. The buff creatures can sometimes beat a deck without the Sunder/wind combo's.

Early game strategies: cast manna producing creatures Cast Llurgoyf if you have an Sunder and Windfall in your hand. Otherwise, do not cast your big creatures unless your life position requires you to do so defensively.
The sideboard needs some serious reevaluation after the new metagame changes with Ursa’s Sagaä.

Drawbacks/Strenghts of Deck of the Deck:
Card Drawing Ability: Very high: Scroll Rack, Windfall, Umbilicus (works great with Wall of Blossoms, turns into a 2 mana activation cost jayendae tome, and possibly can serve the winning damage when your opponent is without permanents to return), Temperal Aperature (works great with scroll rack), the scroll rack allows you to protect certain cards prior to casting Windfall. It appears that there is good card synergy. The Citanul Flute is just broken when you need to search for that rider or Wall of Blossoms and to reshuffle your library after you scroll rack unwanted cards on the top of your library.
Life Gaining: Absent
Individual Creature Control: Tradewind/ Capsize
Marginally Vulnerable to flying decks (Four 1/4 fliers and three mana birds as blockers)
Vulnerable to shadow / Quick Kill Decks
Controls mana available for opponent. (with minimal impact to you)
can withstand other manna denying decks (deck heavy with creature mana)
Unsure how to handle Living Death Decks other than controlling mana supply, Maybe the deck should run Cataclysm in main deck? The Phyrexian Collasus is just for fun because noone else would use it, but the Awakening makes it viable ( the Phyrexian Collasus probaly should be a main deck Catyclism instead; will determine after play testing).

What enhancements can be made to make this deck tournament viable?
How can the weaknesses of the deck be strengthened?
Are any of the cards overkill (can you win with this deck concept without the "overkill cards, how often do these marginal cards really help?
Are there more cost effective cards for the task in type II?
Do you think the land mix/ types are sufficient for this multicolor color deck?
There are better sideboard cards?
What type of decks do you feel this deck would be weakest against?

Cards I considered that didn't make the deck:
the disk (It just didn't feel right, even though it probably would work in the deck)
Jokallhaups (like the disk, it didn't seem right for the deck, even though it probably would work in the deck) little red mana in deck
Jalom Tome (went with scroll rack other card drawing mechanisms)
Alter of dimentia (couldn't figure on what card to remove?) How many different ways can you design a deck to win? Deck out opponent with Windfall, with Gaes Blessing gone deck depletion may be viable again.
Time Warp (too expensive to cast)

Land Mix
13/21* lands can produce green
6/21 lands can produce white
12/21 lands can produce blue
4/21 lands can produce red
6/6 mana producing creatures can produce red/green/white
3/6 mana producing creatures can produce multicolor
4/21 lands are damage producing, could be an issue without a life gaining mechanism
* of the 21 lands two are reflecting pools with its drawbacks and advantages.
16/39 nonland spells are green in main deck with 6/16 requiring two green
11/39 nonland spells are blue in main deck with 5/11 requiring two blue
1/39 nonland spells are white in main deck with 0/1 requiring two white
1/39 nonland spells are red in main deck with 0/1 requiring two red
7/39 nonland spells are colorless