Subject: Card Date: Sun, 12 Oct 1997 22:15:56 -0700 From: Taylors The Static Orb seems like an interesting card to me, that you could base a deck around. It's sort of like a souped-up Winter Orb, but the extra abilities it has call for different strategies than those based on the Winter Orb. Since you are only allowed to untap 1 permanent each turn, Mana Elves and Birds (as in a 5cg deck) are much less useful, and mana stones are not good for much either. The Quirion Ranger is still great, however, along with Undiscovered Paradise. Once you get this far with a deck, it's obvious that a library-depletion theme will probably never work. Millstone, Grindstone require a continuous supply of mana, which will probably not be evident, and green is not exactly a standard color for Millstone decks. It would be nice to have a good non-tapping attacker, but I can't think of any good ones right now (that are still in print) :( But the Quirion Ranger can be made to work, I think, in conjunction with the Dirtcowl Wurm. You opponent will probably play every land every turn, and be happy to continuously replay a UParadise if they have one, making the Dirtcowl a big creature. Furthermore, it is a good mana-sink which I will need later, since I plan to add Pygmy Hippos. And, what do you know? I got a free Dirtcowl Wurm at the Prerelease Tournament, so I don't even have to trade for the beast. Rounding out the deck with some defense, library manipulation, countermagic, and land, this is what I came up with. 3 Static Orb 4 Quirion Ranger 2 Pygmy Hippos 2 Man-o'-War 3 River Boas 4 Wall of Roots 1 Hurricane 1 Dirtcowl Wurm 1 Mirri's Guile 2 Enlightened Tutor 2 Gaea's Blessing 3 Impulse 1 Disenchant 1 Aura of Silence 3 Mana Chains 2 Memory Lapse 2 Powersink 4 Undiscovered Paradise 11 Forests 2 Islands 4 U/W Depletion Lands-forget what they're called 2 U/G Tempest Lands-forgot them too I'd like to explain a few card choices. First, would be the white. The Tutors are great, but it's really the Disenchant/Aura of Silence that makes me want to play white. Green can kill artifacts and enchantments, but it's so inefficient. The Hurricane is a great finisher, and a mana-dump if I need it. I don't figure I'll need more than one mana dump, as getting a Pygmy through will cripple them for the rest of the game. Mirri's Guile I like better than the Sylvan. I am allowed to play it on the first turn, and it does essentially what the Sylvan does, but it allows you to see all three cards, and then reshuffle before you draw phase if you want to. It doesn't let you draw the extra cards, but I so rarely use that ability that I doubt I will miss it. The Powersinks will let me drain their mana, and it can protect my Orb. I'm using Mana Chains instead of Pacifism because I can recycle the Mana Chains with the Blessings. You might say that the Mana Chains is inefficient, but I think that it will do the job, and if it takes some of their mana, so much the better. Also, I have a pretty solid creature defense, so I might not take any hits at all before the creature is killed. Any thoughts would be welcomed, any at all.