Extended is the newest format from our friends at the DCI. It is designed to give the poor bastards who started playing near the tail end of revised, dark, fallen empires ... something to do with the cards the DCI won't let them play with in Standard. This is a new format (Started July 1st 1997) and I have personally never played in an Extended tourney, although I plan to at Origins, and I believe one of the upcoming Arena seasons will be "Extended". I think the format is a fine idea except for it's banning of Serendib Efreet, and more sadly Kird Ape, and Juggernaut ... Why a Juggernaut is worthy of restriction I just don't see but after accepting these restrictions it can still be a decent format. Although taking out creatures in this format has caused some to believe it will end up being limited to burn decks (seeing as how 4 forks are available) or just another Necro-Format (with 4 Hymns being available), hopefully it will take off ... I see it as a pleasant medium between Standard and the Classic formats that should bring many players under it's fold. So as stated above I have never played extended so i'll just throw some ideas out there. Most "standard" archtype decks can be fit into the extended format let's look at a few and see what they gain (from their current Standard position)
Gains, Preacher strong control ... Gets Fallen Empire weenies (notably Orders and Icatian Javlineers) back , and a great weenie killer in Aeoliopile (which they should have reprinted instead of Infinate Hourglass). Multi's and Tithe allow for smooth integration of other colors ... Tithing for a Plateau and a Scrubland is *scary* ... Land Tax is unrestricted and unbanned in this format , that certainly promises to improve White.
Land (19 Land hee hee)
- 10 Plains
- 4 Tundra
- 4 Adakar Wastes
- 1 Kjeldoran Outpost
Critters (22 Critters)
- 4 White Knights
- 4 Order of Leitbur
- 4 Ice-Knights
- 4 Preacher
- 4 Infantry Veteran
- 2 Freewind Falcon
Other Spells
- 4 Swords to Plowshares
- 3 Aeoliopile
- 3 Tithe (2 Tundra's anyone?)
- 3 Disenchant
- 1 Honorable Passage (sigh)
- 2 Armageddon
- 1 Reinforcements
- 2 Abeyance
Gains, Amnesia for those with a heavy blue component. Other then that and the aforementioned Duel-lands I don't see too much ... It didn't lose much in revised, the fact that a U/W can use factories again is much offset by the fact that they must once again cope with them. Overall I don't see U/w gaining all that much.
Land (25 total)
- 4 Tundra
- 2 Adakar Wastes
- 2 Flood Plain
- 1 Kjeldoran Outpost
- 6 Islands
- 6 Plains
- 3 Mishra's Factory
- 1 Quicksand
Critters (3)
- 1 Serra Angel
- 2 Mahamoti Djinn
Other Spells
- 4 Swords to Plowshares
- 4 Disenchant
- 1 Control Magic
- 2 Wrath of God
- 3 Aeoliopile (meta-Necro move)
- 4 Fellwar Stones
- 4 Counterspell
- 1 Disrupting Scepter
- 3 Dissipate
- 1 Soldevi Digger
- 1 Political Trickery
- 1 COP: Red (sigh)
- 2 Icy Manipulator
- 1 Jayemdae Tome
To sum it up Black is pretty yummy in Extended. It gains 4 Hymn's, 4 Hypnotic Specters, and 4 Nameless Ra... nevermind. The return of the dreaded Specter and the 'Broken' Hymn to Tourach means Necro is back to almost full strength (no Strips ... but 8 Land-Kill if needed). You laugh at Demonic Hordes but you won't when they are nuking your world. Disk stays along with Mishra, Dark doesn't add much of anything (which is the case for Dark in most instances), Coumbajj Witches return, as do Orders (don't play both together without Bad Moons ;) ). Fallen also brings the 'Pile to wank opposing pro-black scrubs.
Land (23)
- 18 Swamp
- 1 Lake of the Dead
- 4 Mishra's Factory
Critters (15)
- 4 Order of the Ebon Hand
- 4 Black Knights
- 4 Hypnotic Specter
- 2 Sengir Vampire
- 1 Ishan Shade
Other Spells
- 4 Hymn to Tourach (all hail mighty Tourach!)
- 4 Dark Rituals
- 4 Drain Life
- 2 Necropotence
- 1 Demonic Consultation
- 3 Nevinyrral's Disk
- 2 Contagion
- 2 Aeoliopile
Ow quit bolting me ... ow quit Fireblast-Forking me ... Oh Double Forked-Goblin-Grenade I guess I am dead. 4 Lightning Bolts, 4 Incinerates, 4 Thunderbolt, 4 Fireblast, 4 Fork, 4 Guerilla Tactics, 4 Hammers, add Goblins to taste. Should win about 98% of the first games barring a 6 mountain 1 Goblin of the Flarg draw. As for Slighish decks, I don't really see the point of playing anything but Goblin .... Maybe 4 Orc Gunners to the mix. Chronicles/Dark brings Blood Moon back into the frey. Perhaps a Bolt-Celerity deck (with Lancer, Sandstalker, Minotaur, Ball (puke) Lightning) could provide some 'variety' ;)
Land
- 18 Mountains
Critters (17)
- 4 Goblin Ballon Brigade
- 4 Goblin of the Flarg
- 4 Goblin Vandal
- 2 Goblin Elite Infantry
- 2 Viashino Sanstalker
- 1 Orcish Librarian
Other Spells
- 4 Lightning Bolts
- 4 Incinerates
- 3 Thunderbolt
- 2 Guerilla Tactics
- 3 Fireblast
- 3 Goblin Grenade
- 4 Fork
- 2 Lodestone Bauble
This seems pretty viable with all the Multi-Lands, and Nature's Lore being available again. The only stopper will be the discard festival ... All the pieces are intact and there's room for 8 (!!!) red blasts in the sideboard ;) Drop the City of Solitude and begin the cheese.
Land (26)
- 4 Bayou
- 4 Gemstone Mine
- 4 Undiscovered Paradise
- 2 City of Brass
- 7 Swamp
- 3 Forest
- 2 Islands
Critters
- Yeah Right
Other Spells
- 4 City of Solitude
- 4 Squandered Resources
- 4 Natural Balance
- 4 Prosperity
- 4 Vampiric Tutor
- 4 Cadaverous Bloom
- 2 Drain Life
- 4 Infernal Contract
- 4 Memory Lapse
- 2 Elvish Spirit Guide
Well ... It gains 4 Volcanic Islands , which doesn't seem like much but , this is a deck that relies heavily on double colors. It also gains Mishra's Factory , Bolt, Fork (take that Hymn cheeser) Fat-Moti and Control Magic.
Land (22)
- 4 Volcanic Island
- 1 City of Brass
- 4 Tundra
- 3 Plateau
- 5 Island
- 3 Mountain
- 2 Plains
- 3 Thawing Glaciers
Critters (7)
- 4 Frenetic Efreet
- 1 Mahamoti Djinn
- 2 Rainbow Efreet
Other Spells
- 1 Disintigrate
- 3 Fireball
- 2 Disenchant
- 2 Swords to Plowshares
- 1 Recall
- 3 Nevinyrral's Disk
- 4 Lightning Bolt
- 2 Earthquake
- 4 Counterspell
- 2 Dissipate
- 1 Force of Will
- 2 Hammer of Bogardan
- 1 Control Magic