Subject: Chimera Renewal deck Date: Thu,27 Nov 97 13:29 GMT From: Jacob Busby To: The Chimerae are back. ====================== Artifact White -------- ----- 4 Brass Talon Chimera 2 Aura of Silence 4 Iron Heart Chimera 3 Enduring Renwal 4 Lead Belly Chimera 3 Enlightened Tutor 4 Tin Wing Chimera 2 Miraculous Recovery 3 Pacifism Land 2 Relic Ward ---- 2 Resistance Fighter 12 Plains 3 Vigilant Martyr 4 Urza's Tower 4 Urza's Power Plant 4 Uza's Mine How this deck works? ==================== This deck focuses on the much ignored Chimerae from the Visions set. It is none-too-serious and would probably go out in the first round in a tournament. Still it's quite and fun little deck to play. The primary lock in this deck is to get out a few Chimerae, drop an Enduring Renewal and then start making a few super-monsters that can Flight, Trample, not tap when they attack, Strike First and make a damn good cup of tea at the same time (OK I lied about that last bit) then pound your opponent(s) into the ground. Why is card "X" in this deck? ============================= The Chimerae: All four Chimerae are used to maximise the probability of drawing several of them. Each has its own special abilities which can prove potent in itself, however when combined the Chimerae become a dangerous foe. The Winged and Iron-Heart Chimerae, for instance, become a Serra Angel. Enduring Renewal: Once the Renewal hits the deck your opponent is in trouble. Now you can sacrifice one or more Chimerae per turn in order to build up your super-monster(s) and recover the Chimera you sacrificed back to your hand. Enlightened Tutor: In a deck where the major combination is based around Artifacts and Enchantments this card is very useful in setting up the key combination. Enlightened Tutor is also help for grabbing handy cards like Aura of Silence and Pacifism. Aura of Silence/Pacifism: Pacifism is just plain useful for tying up your opponents creatures. The Aura is selected for its second ability (as its first hoses this deck) Both are enchantments and hence can be collected by the tutor at will. Relic Ward: Relic Ward is usually used as a Counterspell against any nasty effect that might target a big Chimera but can also be used to "cement your position" once you have a reasonably large creature. Remember that Relic Ward doesn't allow target artifact to be the target of spells or effects so it can be used to sidestep nasty devices like the Maze of Ith or Icy Manipulator. Resistance Fighter: A moderate white creature whose abilities come to the fore once Enduring Renewal is in play. He can block one attacker and deny damage from another (saving you from twice the damage) - and then you can replay him for W to do exactly the same next turn. Vigilant Martyr: Surely this card was made for Enduring Renewal. Whilst his ability to regenerate creatures can be useful, it is more his ability to counter any spell targetting the Renewal for WW which is of interest to us. Once the Renewal is out then your opponent HAS to kill the martyr and the Renewal in the same turn. Miraculous Recovery: A nice surprise but more useful to get a creature out of the graveyard once Renewal enters play. How to play this deck. ====================== In general this deck is fairly straightforward to play. It works best in small multi-player games where you can keep your head low until you get the combo out. Ideally you want to play Renewal once you have all four Chimera and a Vigilant Martyr in play. At the very least do not play Enduring Renewal until you have at least two Chimera out. Most of the creatures in this deck can sacrifice themselves. Make the most of this. If you creature is toasted sacrifice it as a fast effect to gain some benefit. Due to the sacrificial nature of your creatures decks that use Control Magic against this deck are in for a tough time. Even if you have no other Chimera in play you can sacrifice a Chimera to itself. This may not seem particularly elegant but it does save your Chimera from being removed from the game with a Disintegrate or used against you by Control Magic. Until the Renewal comes out try to avoid creature trades. Once Renewal enters play all trades are in your favour and you shouldn't hesitate to take them. If you are forced to use a Chimera as a speed bump sacrifice it to another Chimera and get the benefit from it. Building up the Chimerae is a key skill in this deck. You have to recognise when it is better to have one large creature and when it is preferential to have several medium sized ones instead. If in doubt go for several medium sized Chimera over one excessively massive creature. Remember you can sacrifice Chimera during combat to increase each others strengths. For instance if you attack an opponent with 7 life with four Chimera and three of them are blocked you can sacrifice them all to the unblocked one and deal eight damage to your opponent to win (presuming he doesn't pull Reverse Damage or somesuch) Type II ======= Get Real! There is no Type II replacment for Enduring Renewal - the closest you'll come is Living Death - which requires a major recalibartion of the deck to incorperate Black instead of White. If you do take this route you'll could either phase out your creature when the Death strikes or you could build large creatures and when the board gets a bit cluttered drop a Death. In any case you'll probably want a Fallen Angel or two and maybe a few Mindstab Thrulls or Dauthi Mindripper Improvements ============ Apart from the "Living Death" variant on this deck you might want to add an Island Sanctuary after the Renewal drops for defense. Elkin Bottle or Phyrexian Grimoire might be a couple of ways to get creatures out of the graveyard once the Renewal hits play. The other thing to consider is the mana spread. You might not find the Urza lands work too well for you in which case try using 4 Mishra's Factory (Ba-roken and very cheesy card!!!), 4 Quicksand and 4 Scorched Ruins. Another possibility that has been suggested is to use Helms of Awakening to speed up the deck. Obviously the risk has to be justified, but with 32 of the 36 spells in this deck using one or more colourless mana then the Helm may well prove more valuable to you than to your foe. Additionally in the very rare and unlikely circumstance that you got 4 in play all Chimerae would become free to play - forming the basis of an infinity combo. Alternatively the Helms could be replaced with Stone Calendar or Marble Diamonds, as per your sentiments. As usual I'm more than happy to solicit any mail I get about this deck. You can mail me at: itdcjb@hants.gov.uk ^ _________ __ ___ ____ _____ ______ _______ ________ /__ __/ /__ __ ___ ____ _____ ______ _______ ________ __/ / / . / __ ___ ____ _____ ______ _______ ________ /___/ /____/ __ ___ ____ _____ ______ _______ ________