lol, that's fine. just got a little confused when you mentioned that blue-green deck being popular during the Urza Saga cause I wasn't playing for the majority of it. Tradewind Rider I remember though, cause it was from Tempest. Great card. My friend had an all blue bouncy deck with Tradewinds, Man-o-War's, etc. It was a fun deck. I had an equilibriam deck that was really good, but I never felt Tradewinds were necissary.
Nostalgia for MtG
- Thread starter Sultan Bhargash
- Start date
GerrardCapashen
Benalish Master-at-Arms
I love Man-o-War and Equilibrium. For a while I had a bounce deck with Warped Devotion, but I dismantled it because it was too slow.
Warped Devotion
2B Enchantment
Whenever a permanent is returned to a player's hand, that player discards a card.
Actually, I still have one of those bounce/discard decks collecting dust. Hymn, mind twist, recoil, temporal adept, barrin's spite, etc. and of course the devotions and megrims. Really sick if it can get working, but as you say, very slow. The avg. casting cost is pretty high, though familiars help a little. It was mostly designed for emperor because of that.
I think the most evil thing you can do is empty their hand and get out an elemental augury/pregognition/10 point sealed fate, so you never have to worry about them drawing anything good the rest of the game.
I think the most evil thing you can do is empty their hand and get out an elemental augury/pregognition/10 point sealed fate, so you never have to worry about them drawing anything good the rest of the game.
metalhead
Angry Bartender
- Joined
- Apr 15, 2002
- Messages
- 8,031
Man, I feel like a magic dinosaur 
The combos that ruled my day were Lich/Mirror Universe, Channel/Fireball, Icy/Royal Assassin, Howl From Beyond/Berserk, and many others I can't recall right now. Blue/White was my favorite color combo, I used to drive everyone crazy with my propensity for countering their spells and having 35 life.
We even used to play for ante, with the rule that you were allowed one re-ante if you didn't want to lose the first card you anted, and a basic land was an automatic re-ante. I remember playing against a guy with my useless artifact deck. His first ante was a Time Walk, but unfortunately for me his re-ante was some garbage card. I proceeded to beat him anyway.
The combos that ruled my day were Lich/Mirror Universe, Channel/Fireball, Icy/Royal Assassin, Howl From Beyond/Berserk, and many others I can't recall right now. Blue/White was my favorite color combo, I used to drive everyone crazy with my propensity for countering their spells and having 35 life.
We even used to play for ante, with the rule that you were allowed one re-ante if you didn't want to lose the first card you anted, and a basic land was an automatic re-ante. I remember playing against a guy with my useless artifact deck. His first ante was a Time Walk, but unfortunately for me his re-ante was some garbage card. I proceeded to beat him anyway.
Sultan Bhargash
Trickster Reincarnated
And in those days there was a black card that let you get to swap the ante card anyway whether you won or lose and I've heard tales of people making decks with 56 swamps and 4 of those and trading a swamp for a good card...
Channel fireball. It happened to me once at the begining of my play days. It had already been banned but I had an opponent who liked to use that and the Mind Twist and then when I finally got the cards he said "we should really play by the rules"...
Channel fireball. It happened to me once at the begining of my play days. It had already been banned but I had an opponent who liked to use that and the Mind Twist and then when I finally got the cards he said "we should really play by the rules"...
I took a look at my decks last night and thought I would share them with you. These ones are my main decks.
FREEZING PARADISE (Jesters Cap)
Keep your hand as small as possible, take out all of the threats with Jesters Cap, and then Grind them to death. This is a highly defensive deck with cards for basically every scenario. Birds of Paradise is included to speed things up; it is far faster then would be expected. It is named Freezing Paradise because of the cards having extremes of a cold or hot theme, and the effect of freezing your opponent.
4 Jesters Cap
3 Ensnaring Bridges
4 Crawlspace
2 Scroll Rack
1 Jesters Mask
1 Sol Ring
4 Reconstruction
4 Rootwater Diver
4 Fog Bank
2 Glacial Wall
2 Wall of Ice
3 Reclaim
4 Birds of Paradice
1 Tolarian Acadamy
4 Tropical Island
5 Islands
5 Forests
3 Maze of Shadows
PACICLYSM
This is the deck I would take to a tourny if I wanted to. This deck is highly dangerous and highly underated in my own mind. It is the most feared deck out of all of mine, but for some reason I just don't treat it like such. Use this deck right and you will be considered evil among your peers. Never put more then 5 land down. If you have Opal Archangel in your hand, play it the turn before you Cataclysm and hope that they don't cast a creature on their turn. Cast Cataclysm, keeping the untapped land, put down a new land, and cast Pacifism on their only creature. If you were able to get out Opal Archangel, then you will soon have a 5/5 flyer because they will be forced to play a creature. If not, your shadows or paladins will make them minsmeat in no time.
4 Cataclysm
4 Pacifism
2 Armageddon
2 Opal Archangel
4 Swords to Plowshears
4 Disenchant
2 Tragic Poet
3 Paladin en-Vec
3 Soltari Priest
3 Soltari Visionary
4 Master Decoy
3 Icy Manipulator
22 Plains
DENIED (Counterspell)
This is my baby. Ever since my first day of playing magic, when red and green dominated, I wanted to be a blue mage. Although I rarely play it, it does not need to be played. It has proven itself to be the deck I've always wanted. This deck took years of revising to make. Basically you deny everything your opponent throws at you. When you are ready, you activate Stalking Stones during their discard phase. This is the very end of their turn so you know you will not have to counter anything, and your land is untapped at the beginning of your turn. Now, you just beat on them with your Stones until they die. Slow and painful death.
4 Counterspell
4 Force Spike
4 Dismiss
4 Forbid
4 Rewind
2 Dissipate
4 Mana Leak
1 Memory Lapse
4 Brainstorm
2 Capsize
1 Stroke of Genius
1 Rainbow Efreet
4 Stalking Stones
4 Quicksand
17 Islands
FREEZING PARADISE (Jesters Cap)
Keep your hand as small as possible, take out all of the threats with Jesters Cap, and then Grind them to death. This is a highly defensive deck with cards for basically every scenario. Birds of Paradise is included to speed things up; it is far faster then would be expected. It is named Freezing Paradise because of the cards having extremes of a cold or hot theme, and the effect of freezing your opponent.
4 Jesters Cap
3 Ensnaring Bridges
4 Crawlspace
2 Scroll Rack
1 Jesters Mask
1 Sol Ring
4 Reconstruction
4 Rootwater Diver
4 Fog Bank
2 Glacial Wall
2 Wall of Ice
3 Reclaim
4 Birds of Paradice
1 Tolarian Acadamy
4 Tropical Island
5 Islands
5 Forests
3 Maze of Shadows
PACICLYSM
This is the deck I would take to a tourny if I wanted to. This deck is highly dangerous and highly underated in my own mind. It is the most feared deck out of all of mine, but for some reason I just don't treat it like such. Use this deck right and you will be considered evil among your peers. Never put more then 5 land down. If you have Opal Archangel in your hand, play it the turn before you Cataclysm and hope that they don't cast a creature on their turn. Cast Cataclysm, keeping the untapped land, put down a new land, and cast Pacifism on their only creature. If you were able to get out Opal Archangel, then you will soon have a 5/5 flyer because they will be forced to play a creature. If not, your shadows or paladins will make them minsmeat in no time.
4 Cataclysm
4 Pacifism
2 Armageddon
2 Opal Archangel
4 Swords to Plowshears
4 Disenchant
2 Tragic Poet
3 Paladin en-Vec
3 Soltari Priest
3 Soltari Visionary
4 Master Decoy
3 Icy Manipulator
22 Plains
DENIED (Counterspell)
This is my baby. Ever since my first day of playing magic, when red and green dominated, I wanted to be a blue mage. Although I rarely play it, it does not need to be played. It has proven itself to be the deck I've always wanted. This deck took years of revising to make. Basically you deny everything your opponent throws at you. When you are ready, you activate Stalking Stones during their discard phase. This is the very end of their turn so you know you will not have to counter anything, and your land is untapped at the beginning of your turn. Now, you just beat on them with your Stones until they die. Slow and painful death.
4 Counterspell
4 Force Spike
4 Dismiss
4 Forbid
4 Rewind
2 Dissipate
4 Mana Leak
1 Memory Lapse
4 Brainstorm
2 Capsize
1 Stroke of Genius
1 Rainbow Efreet
4 Stalking Stones
4 Quicksand
17 Islands
Sultan Bhargash
Trickster Reincarnated
Now you're talking! Here's my merfolk beatdown deck, the winningest of late...
Deep Blue Siege
LANDS:
20 Islands
1 Soldevi Excavations
BLUE CREATURES:
4 Lord of Atlantis
3 Man-O-War
4 Tidal Warrior
4 Manta Riders
4 Merfolk Traders
2 Rootwater Diver
1 Tradewind Rider
BLUE SPELLS:
4 Counterspell
4 Memory Lapse
1 Time warp
1 Twiddle
2 Impulse
1 Legacys Allure
ARTIFACTS:
3 Winter Orb
1 Zuran Orb
SIDEBOARD:
4 Propaganda
1 Psychic Purge
2 Chill
4 Hydroblast
1 Sea Sprite
3 Mind Bend
STRATEGY:
This is fast small creature beatdown with the addition of a defensive element the winter orbs and memory lapse slow the opponents development and an outflanking maneuver when the Tidal Warrior combos with the Lord of Atlantis. There are also small stratagem cards in the Twiddle and the Timewarp, while the Tradewind Rider can couple with the Orb to remove all of an opponents land.
Continuing the monocolor theme, this was my Green deck, lots of fun and capable of landing a body blow now and then:
Green Daze
LANDS:
20 Forest
GREEN CREATURES:
4 Fyndhorn Elves
3 Scryb Sprites
1 Force of Nature
3 Wall of Roots
1 Elvish Spirit Guide
3 River Boa
3 Whirling Dervish
3 Yavimaya Ants
2 Uktabi Orangutan
2 Stampeding Wildebeest
1 Uktabi Wildcats
GREEN SPELLS:
1 Sylvan Library
1 Emerald charm
3 Creeping Mold
1 Hurricane
3 Giant Growth
2 Overrun
ARTIFACTS:
1 Snake Basket
2 Nevinyrrals Disk
SIDEBOARD:
1 Whirling Dervish
3 Spectral Bears
1 River Boa
2 City of Solitude
2 Scragnoth
1 Uktabi Orangutan
3 Serrated Arrows
2 Primal Order
STRATEGY:
Fast, big and green. There are nice combos in this deck: the Wildebeest with the wall of roots, ants or orangutan. The River boa with the disk. The emerald charm can combo with the Elvish Spirit Guide to break out of a stasis lock.
The sideboard augments existing strategy: add the extra dervish and the bears against black, the boa, scragnoth and City of Solitude against blue. The serrated arrows will help shred a weenie army.
Finally, to show I can be polychromatic, here is my sliver deck:
Alien Predators
LANDS:
1 Trevas Ruins
7 Forest
3 Skyshroud Forest
6 Mountain
1 Island
1 Plains
1 Swamp
GOLD CREATURES:
1 Sliver Queen
1 Crystalline Sliver
3 Spined Sliver
GREEN CREATURES:
4 Muscle Sliver
1 Horned Sliver
GREEN SPELLS:
1 Gaeas Embrace
1 Giant Growth
1 Overrun
2 Harrow
RED CREATURES:
4 Heart Sliver
1 Barbed Sliver
RED SPELLS:
1 Bloodlust
4 Lightning Bolt
BLUE CREATURES:
4 Winged Sliver
BLUE SPELLS:
1 Arcane Denial
1 Unstable Mutation
1 Political Trickery
ARTIFACT CREATURES:
4 Metallic Slivers
ARTIFACTS:
1 Serrated Arrows
2 Mox Diamond
1 Mana Cylix
SIDEBOARD:
4 Blue Elemental Blast
2 Propaganda
3 Winter Orb
2 Primitive Justice
1 Shattering Pulse
3 Tranquility
STRATEGY:
The Slivers come out and augment each other, with only a few tricks for defense it is important to focus on quickly eliminating the opponent. There are several ways to get the mana you need to bring in the Sliver Queen (or a Coalition Victory if it is added). The sideboard includes the Winter Orb/Propaganda combo to trot out as a surprise transformation against opponents creatures.
Deep Blue Siege
LANDS:
20 Islands
1 Soldevi Excavations
BLUE CREATURES:
4 Lord of Atlantis
3 Man-O-War
4 Tidal Warrior
4 Manta Riders
4 Merfolk Traders
2 Rootwater Diver
1 Tradewind Rider
BLUE SPELLS:
4 Counterspell
4 Memory Lapse
1 Time warp
1 Twiddle
2 Impulse
1 Legacys Allure
ARTIFACTS:
3 Winter Orb
1 Zuran Orb
SIDEBOARD:
4 Propaganda
1 Psychic Purge
2 Chill
4 Hydroblast
1 Sea Sprite
3 Mind Bend
STRATEGY:
This is fast small creature beatdown with the addition of a defensive element the winter orbs and memory lapse slow the opponents development and an outflanking maneuver when the Tidal Warrior combos with the Lord of Atlantis. There are also small stratagem cards in the Twiddle and the Timewarp, while the Tradewind Rider can couple with the Orb to remove all of an opponents land.
Continuing the monocolor theme, this was my Green deck, lots of fun and capable of landing a body blow now and then:
Green Daze
LANDS:
20 Forest
GREEN CREATURES:
4 Fyndhorn Elves
3 Scryb Sprites
1 Force of Nature
3 Wall of Roots
1 Elvish Spirit Guide
3 River Boa
3 Whirling Dervish
3 Yavimaya Ants
2 Uktabi Orangutan
2 Stampeding Wildebeest
1 Uktabi Wildcats
GREEN SPELLS:
1 Sylvan Library
1 Emerald charm
3 Creeping Mold
1 Hurricane
3 Giant Growth
2 Overrun
ARTIFACTS:
1 Snake Basket
2 Nevinyrrals Disk
SIDEBOARD:
1 Whirling Dervish
3 Spectral Bears
1 River Boa
2 City of Solitude
2 Scragnoth
1 Uktabi Orangutan
3 Serrated Arrows
2 Primal Order
STRATEGY:
Fast, big and green. There are nice combos in this deck: the Wildebeest with the wall of roots, ants or orangutan. The River boa with the disk. The emerald charm can combo with the Elvish Spirit Guide to break out of a stasis lock.
The sideboard augments existing strategy: add the extra dervish and the bears against black, the boa, scragnoth and City of Solitude against blue. The serrated arrows will help shred a weenie army.
Finally, to show I can be polychromatic, here is my sliver deck:
Alien Predators
LANDS:
1 Trevas Ruins
7 Forest
3 Skyshroud Forest
6 Mountain
1 Island
1 Plains
1 Swamp
GOLD CREATURES:
1 Sliver Queen
1 Crystalline Sliver
3 Spined Sliver
GREEN CREATURES:
4 Muscle Sliver
1 Horned Sliver
GREEN SPELLS:
1 Gaeas Embrace
1 Giant Growth
1 Overrun
2 Harrow
RED CREATURES:
4 Heart Sliver
1 Barbed Sliver
RED SPELLS:
1 Bloodlust
4 Lightning Bolt
BLUE CREATURES:
4 Winged Sliver
BLUE SPELLS:
1 Arcane Denial
1 Unstable Mutation
1 Political Trickery
ARTIFACT CREATURES:
4 Metallic Slivers
ARTIFACTS:
1 Serrated Arrows
2 Mox Diamond
1 Mana Cylix
SIDEBOARD:
4 Blue Elemental Blast
2 Propaganda
3 Winter Orb
2 Primitive Justice
1 Shattering Pulse
3 Tranquility
STRATEGY:
The Slivers come out and augment each other, with only a few tricks for defense it is important to focus on quickly eliminating the opponent. There are several ways to get the mana you need to bring in the Sliver Queen (or a Coalition Victory if it is added). The sideboard includes the Winter Orb/Propaganda combo to trot out as a surprise transformation against opponents creatures.
Sultan Bhargash
Trickster Reincarnated
I came late to the patience necessary to run control properly... although that merfolk deck does become rather controling if the winter orb comes out. I have other decks but yes, I'm famous for my love of monochromatic weenie hordes.
40 card land destruction- it would have to be. In my experience land destruction is a nearly useless theme despite my hundreds of attempts to black/red, green/red, or straight black versions. It either hits right away or is immediately useless... "uh, thermokarst your island" "which one?" "the fourth one from the left" "okay, my turn, hit you again with the mahamoti..."
40 card land destruction- it would have to be. In my experience land destruction is a nearly useless theme despite my hundreds of attempts to black/red, green/red, or straight black versions. It either hits right away or is immediately useless... "uh, thermokarst your island" "which one?" "the fourth one from the left" "okay, my turn, hit you again with the mahamoti..."
Ok, since we're posting deck lists here, I'll sum up a few of my favorites. Keep in mind what I said earlier: these are mostly for fun/multi and not necessarily that good at winning duels.
Über burn deck:
This one is designed to sit there forever, then launch a 20pt fireball at someone's head. Red, w. a splash of white. For defense, it has maze of Ith, Kor haven, some walls (lava, walking, shifting), Chimeric staff, smoke, and a cpl crawlspaces. To nuke creatures, torrent of lava, rock slide, flowstone slide, shard phoenix, and rout. I also threw in a ton of nonbasic lands (it only has 5 plains, 2 mtns) Dwarven Ruins, Fountain of Cho, Mercadian Bazzars, City of Traitors, Scorched Ruins, &Tolarian Academy. As if that weren't enough mana, Thran Dynamo, Worn Powerstones, and 3 Mana Caches. Of course, the usual burn spells- Ghitu Fires, Rolling Thunders, Fireballs, Urza's Rage, &Energy Bolt. And, to round it out, some Orim's Thunders, Zuran Orbs, Scroll Racks, Reflect Dmg, Cptn's Maneuver, Ivory Tower, &Blessed Wind.
As you can tell, there's a lot of variety in the cards, because it's limited by what I have (not 4 of every rare..). It's very weak in early game, but the defenses are pretty effective, it gains mana fast, and it only needs 3 7pt spells or 2 10pt ones to kill someone. That can happen surprisingly quickly. The mana caches accumulate a large store in a hurry if your opponent can't use it on something expensive (best for after their hand is down in size). A friend of mine had a deck like this that was even faster, red/green with tons of elves, priestesses of titania, and Rofellos. Obscene the mana you can get with them, but they are just 1-toughness creatures.
The one I had high hopes for, but never got working just right was my land destruction deck:
For mana- 9 forests, 11 mtns, sandstone needle, hickory woodlot, Darigazzs Caldera, Shivan Oasis, 2 Fyndhorn elves, Burgeoning, Rofellos
Creatures- 2 horned Kavu, Flametongue Kavu, 3 Thresher Beasts, 4 Blastoderms, 2 Argothian Wurms
Land destruct- 2 Razes, 4 Stone Rains, Pillage, Thermokarst, Winters Grasp, Tectonic Break, 2 Wake of Destructions
Other- 3 Groundskeepers, 2 Seismic Assaults, 3 Hull Breaches, Revive, Regrowth, Defense of the Heart, Sylvan Library
Youre right that it has to hit early, but thats tough. I could mostly just hope for killing off all their land in the mid game, or weakening them enough for the creatures to finish the job. The groundskeepers are great for returning land to your hand, since it does call to sacrifice some, but they are also important for the decks combo. It was designed around them and Seismic Assault (also Lands Edge), to get a 1G - deal 2 dmg to anything combo. What I discovered in a tournament, though, was that it needed bolts very badly, to kill off all the elves green players had.
Corrupt deck:
26 swamps
Land destruct.- 4 Despoils, 4 Rain of Tears
Card advantage- Desperate Research, Diabolic Tutor, Yawgmoths Will, 3 Necropotences
Creature removal- 2 Fevered Convulsions, 2 No Mercy, 3 Nekrataals, 2 Tsabos Decrees, 2 Dark Hatchlings
Drain- Soul Feast, 4 Drain Life, 4 Corrupt
misc.- 2 Persecutes
This is a modified form of one of my brothers decks, after he ceded his cards to me. His favorite color was black, and this deck was his best. Its slow and takes some damage in the beginning, but it has just enough land destruction to slow you down as well. The large amt. of removal keeps creatures at bay, and as soon as it gets 6 mana, it starts corrupting. The added life makes it harder to kill, and is pumped through the necropotneces to make sure it always has the right cards. Very nasty, but it is vulnerable to control. Then again, what isnt? Control decks are no fun to play with or against, IMO.
Über burn deck:
This one is designed to sit there forever, then launch a 20pt fireball at someone's head. Red, w. a splash of white. For defense, it has maze of Ith, Kor haven, some walls (lava, walking, shifting), Chimeric staff, smoke, and a cpl crawlspaces. To nuke creatures, torrent of lava, rock slide, flowstone slide, shard phoenix, and rout. I also threw in a ton of nonbasic lands (it only has 5 plains, 2 mtns) Dwarven Ruins, Fountain of Cho, Mercadian Bazzars, City of Traitors, Scorched Ruins, &Tolarian Academy. As if that weren't enough mana, Thran Dynamo, Worn Powerstones, and 3 Mana Caches. Of course, the usual burn spells- Ghitu Fires, Rolling Thunders, Fireballs, Urza's Rage, &Energy Bolt. And, to round it out, some Orim's Thunders, Zuran Orbs, Scroll Racks, Reflect Dmg, Cptn's Maneuver, Ivory Tower, &Blessed Wind.
As you can tell, there's a lot of variety in the cards, because it's limited by what I have (not 4 of every rare..). It's very weak in early game, but the defenses are pretty effective, it gains mana fast, and it only needs 3 7pt spells or 2 10pt ones to kill someone. That can happen surprisingly quickly. The mana caches accumulate a large store in a hurry if your opponent can't use it on something expensive (best for after their hand is down in size). A friend of mine had a deck like this that was even faster, red/green with tons of elves, priestesses of titania, and Rofellos. Obscene the mana you can get with them, but they are just 1-toughness creatures.
The one I had high hopes for, but never got working just right was my land destruction deck:
For mana- 9 forests, 11 mtns, sandstone needle, hickory woodlot, Darigazzs Caldera, Shivan Oasis, 2 Fyndhorn elves, Burgeoning, Rofellos
Creatures- 2 horned Kavu, Flametongue Kavu, 3 Thresher Beasts, 4 Blastoderms, 2 Argothian Wurms
Land destruct- 2 Razes, 4 Stone Rains, Pillage, Thermokarst, Winters Grasp, Tectonic Break, 2 Wake of Destructions
Other- 3 Groundskeepers, 2 Seismic Assaults, 3 Hull Breaches, Revive, Regrowth, Defense of the Heart, Sylvan Library
Youre right that it has to hit early, but thats tough. I could mostly just hope for killing off all their land in the mid game, or weakening them enough for the creatures to finish the job. The groundskeepers are great for returning land to your hand, since it does call to sacrifice some, but they are also important for the decks combo. It was designed around them and Seismic Assault (also Lands Edge), to get a 1G - deal 2 dmg to anything combo. What I discovered in a tournament, though, was that it needed bolts very badly, to kill off all the elves green players had.
Corrupt deck:
26 swamps
Land destruct.- 4 Despoils, 4 Rain of Tears
Card advantage- Desperate Research, Diabolic Tutor, Yawgmoths Will, 3 Necropotences
Creature removal- 2 Fevered Convulsions, 2 No Mercy, 3 Nekrataals, 2 Tsabos Decrees, 2 Dark Hatchlings
Drain- Soul Feast, 4 Drain Life, 4 Corrupt
misc.- 2 Persecutes
This is a modified form of one of my brothers decks, after he ceded his cards to me. His favorite color was black, and this deck was his best. Its slow and takes some damage in the beginning, but it has just enough land destruction to slow you down as well. The large amt. of removal keeps creatures at bay, and as soon as it gets 6 mana, it starts corrupting. The added life makes it harder to kill, and is pumped through the necropotneces to make sure it always has the right cards. Very nasty, but it is vulnerable to control. Then again, what isnt? Control decks are no fun to play with or against, IMO.
Learning how to use a control deck doesn't take much time at all. Usually you just stumble across new ways of using them in mid-game. However, MAKING a perfect control deck takes alot of time, testing, and revising. It took me a very long time to get everything just right in my Cap deck, and it is nearly impenatrable except against counter-burn decks. Land ratio and every little detail is far more critical then most others. You get a bad first hand, and you're basically done for.
My land destruction deck was all red, it had that artifact that makes red spells cheaper (ruby medallion???), lotus vales, lotus peddles, tons of stuff to make it faster. the champion of the deck was Avalanche Riders. those things tore it up. also had some red wall with first strike in it just incase... wall of razors maybe? Funny you should mention Mahamoti 'cause I have an old-school deck made that I forgot all about. It's a nice deck. Mahamoti's, Millstones, Time Vault, you name it.
Sultan Bhargash
Trickster Reincarnated
Mahamotis and millstones? Sounds like you needed to sort out your paths to victory.
Ever have a stasis deck? My arch-nemesis was the first to make one, a Trade Caravan/Serra Angel/Kismet lockdown. Later I came up with a Chronatog stasis deck with tutors to speed it up that was cool when it worked: you just kept letting the Chronatog eat your next turn during your opponent's turn and the kismet/stasis took care of the rest.
The stasis lock, popular as an alternate course of action during the "black summer" of Ice Age necropotence decks, underscored the value of my "cutesy" Elvish spirit guide/emerald charm combo, which could untap a land without spending any mana from the board... um well I guess it was a ridiculous 4 or 5 card combo anyway...
Ever have a stasis deck? My arch-nemesis was the first to make one, a Trade Caravan/Serra Angel/Kismet lockdown. Later I came up with a Chronatog stasis deck with tutors to speed it up that was cool when it worked: you just kept letting the Chronatog eat your next turn during your opponent's turn and the kismet/stasis took care of the rest.
The stasis lock, popular as an alternate course of action during the "black summer" of Ice Age necropotence decks, underscored the value of my "cutesy" Elvish spirit guide/emerald charm combo, which could untap a land without spending any mana from the board... um well I guess it was a ridiculous 4 or 5 card combo anyway...
Whoah. You guys make me feel like a real newbie to Magic. I started playing about the time Fifth Edition came out and stopped buying at Urza's Legacy. I think i spent a grand total of $75 on the game as a whole. I began plaiying again a year later, against a dozen or so people from Boy Scouts (yes, I'm in Boy Scouts), but have not bought any cards since then, and am now down to 150-ish. They have an average of 750 cards each, yet I routinely defeat them. Go figure.
Anyway, on the subject of decks...
Green/Black:
15 Forests
11 Swamps
Enchatments:
1 Spidersilk Armor
1 Tainted Æther
Instants:
1 Dark Banishing
1 Lull
1 Transmutation
1 Snag
Sorceries:
1 Evincar's Justice
1 Lay of the Land
2 Coercion
1 Raise Dead
1 Alluring Scent
1 Hand of Death
1 Drain Life
1 Vengeance
1 Mind Rot
1 Touch of Death
1 Infernal Harvest
1 Monstrous Growth
1 Hush
Creatures:
1 Bog Wraith
1 Darkling Stalker
1 Elite Cat Warrior
1 Acridian
1 Jolrael's Centaur
1 Golden Bear
1 Drudge Skeletons
2 Rowan Treefolk
1 Panther Warriors
1 Python
1 Venomous Dragonfly
1 Wild Ox
1 Bog Imp
1 Stampede Driver
2 Silt Crawler
1 Folk of the Pines
It has no real strategy, and it certainly isn't coherent, but it SOMEHOW works. Again, go figure. Anyway... I don't know how the heck I beat these people, maybe it's because they have all new cards. *shrug* One of the kids has cards with abilities like "tap to gain 1 life for each elf in play"! They're common, cost 1 green, and he has 3! INCREDIBLY powerful abilities these days... Who said the new stuff wasn't broken?
Anyway, on the subject of decks...
Green/Black:
15 Forests
11 Swamps
Enchatments:
1 Spidersilk Armor
1 Tainted Æther
Instants:
1 Dark Banishing
1 Lull
1 Transmutation
1 Snag
Sorceries:
1 Evincar's Justice
1 Lay of the Land
2 Coercion
1 Raise Dead
1 Alluring Scent
1 Hand of Death
1 Drain Life
1 Vengeance
1 Mind Rot
1 Touch of Death
1 Infernal Harvest
1 Monstrous Growth
1 Hush
Creatures:
1 Bog Wraith
1 Darkling Stalker
1 Elite Cat Warrior
1 Acridian
1 Jolrael's Centaur
1 Golden Bear
1 Drudge Skeletons
2 Rowan Treefolk
1 Panther Warriors
1 Python
1 Venomous Dragonfly
1 Wild Ox
1 Bog Imp
1 Stampede Driver
2 Silt Crawler
1 Folk of the Pines
It has no real strategy, and it certainly isn't coherent, but it SOMEHOW works. Again, go figure. Anyway... I don't know how the heck I beat these people, maybe it's because they have all new cards. *shrug* One of the kids has cards with abilities like "tap to gain 1 life for each elf in play"! They're common, cost 1 green, and he has 3! INCREDIBLY powerful abilities these days... Who said the new stuff wasn't broken?
Lord_Vetinari
übermensch
Damn, all this talk about MtG really makes me wish I hadn't quit all those years ago, or that I had at least saved my winning deck 
In fact, y'all got me so nostalgic that I'm gonna bore you by telling you how all my tournaments I played went:
I only ever participated in 4 MtG tournaments, and only two of them would qualify as real tournament as the other two were just a bunch of friends pinching in some price money and playing for the fun of it.
The first tournament I played was like that, it was really small, only 6 players, and the first prize was something like 10$ (hey, we weren't even in High School yet, that kind of money was not to be sneezed at back then
) The only thing I remember from this tournament was that I won it, can't even remember what deck I played at the time.
The second tournament I entered was a little more serious - we were about 20 people that had booked a local pizza place for a few hours and decided to battle it out against each other in a type 1 tournament. This was still early on in my MtG perod so I didn't really have any good type 1 cards, but I decided to join in just for the fun of it. My deck was actually type 2, as I didn't use a single type 1 card. I just used a cheap all-black bad moon deck with lots of critters I'd pump up using my moons. There were some really skilled type 1 players in that tournament with some really expensive decks (quite a few moxes and even a black lotus, among others). I won that torunament, to everyones (including mine) surprise. Of course there was huge amounts of dumb luck involved, for example, I later found out that if I had met the guy with 4 moats in his deck, I would have lost without being able to do anything about it since none of my cards would have been able to remove his moat. After that win, I suddenly became semi-famous in our local MtG scene. I was the kid who'd one a type one tournament with type two cards, and beat a lot of the "heavy" players on my way to the win (I was only 13-14 years old back then, and many of my opponents were in their 20s or even older).
The next tournament was a serious type two torunament, organized by proffessionals, and there were about 50 players or something in it. By now I had gotten rather good at the game, and was playing with a kick-ass blue/white slow deck, full of counterspells and Sword to Ploughsares to get rid of everyghing my opponent threw at me, and crush him with my Serra Angels and Mamahoto Djins (I'm not even going to pretend I remember how to spell that). This was back when 50% of all players used Necropotence decks for tournaments, and my deck was the perfect Necro killer. I got all the way to the semi-finals with surprising ease, thinking I had a real chance at winning this thing. But it stopped there, as I met my first Armaggedon opponent in the semis. Of course I knew all about Armageddon decks, but the fact was that no one in my hometown had ever used one (I lived in a small town outside the bigger city where the tourny was held), so I had never actually gotten to practice against it. I could probably have won against my opponent, but I didn't and so that was the end of that tournament for me. However, my best friend at the time won it, and that kinda bothered me since I always used to beat him with my blue/white deck, and so I figured that if I had only made it to the finals, I would probably have won.
My last tournament was also my best one. It was held during a large annual role playing convention here in the city. There were a lot of really serious players in on the MtG tournament, I especially remember that there were 3 old guys (well they were only in their thirties, but that was very old in that place at that time) from Stockholm who were conscidered real pro's, one of them even wore a suit
. I was only fifteen back then, so I was still one of the younger players in the tournament.
Anyway, my deck that I used there was this excellent red/green deck with lot's of red damage spells and green creatures. There was nothing remarkable about the cards themselves, heck, I even used some cards that no one would conscider for torunaments (like Fire Elemental). What I did with the deck was to attack early and often with my green critters, bolt or incinerate everything my opponent threw at me, and finish him off with my heavy creatures (Ernham Djinn, Earthworm, and Fire Elemental) . What was really amazing was that it never failed me in providing a steady stream of creatures that grew stronger and stronger. I had gone through that deck so many times and knew every single card in it, and when I could excpect it.
Anyway, back to the tournament itself. I played myself to the playoffs with ease, and met two out of the three so-called pro's from Stockholm, one in the semis and one in the finals. I beat them both and won the whole thing, which felt amazing at the time (back then I lived for MtG with the passion that only a 15-year old by can summon). As mentioned earlier the first prize was a Mox Jet that I sold shortly after I'd won it as I didn't have anything resembling a type 1 deck and would not have gotten any use from it.
I quit playing shortly after the tournament, not because I was bored with the game, but because I was gonna start High School, and was afraid that I might be conscidered a nerd if I played MtG. Really stupid, I know, but that was how my mind worked at the time, so my "partner" bougth me out, and I quit, just like that.
Whew, that must have been my longest post ever here at CFC, hope I didn't bore you to death. It's just that I got so nostalgic and hade to share my tale
In fact, y'all got me so nostalgic that I'm gonna bore you by telling you how all my tournaments I played went:
I only ever participated in 4 MtG tournaments, and only two of them would qualify as real tournament as the other two were just a bunch of friends pinching in some price money and playing for the fun of it.
The first tournament I played was like that, it was really small, only 6 players, and the first prize was something like 10$ (hey, we weren't even in High School yet, that kind of money was not to be sneezed at back then
) The only thing I remember from this tournament was that I won it, can't even remember what deck I played at the time.The second tournament I entered was a little more serious - we were about 20 people that had booked a local pizza place for a few hours and decided to battle it out against each other in a type 1 tournament. This was still early on in my MtG perod so I didn't really have any good type 1 cards, but I decided to join in just for the fun of it. My deck was actually type 2, as I didn't use a single type 1 card. I just used a cheap all-black bad moon deck with lots of critters I'd pump up using my moons. There were some really skilled type 1 players in that tournament with some really expensive decks (quite a few moxes and even a black lotus, among others). I won that torunament, to everyones (including mine) surprise. Of course there was huge amounts of dumb luck involved, for example, I later found out that if I had met the guy with 4 moats in his deck, I would have lost without being able to do anything about it since none of my cards would have been able to remove his moat. After that win, I suddenly became semi-famous in our local MtG scene. I was the kid who'd one a type one tournament with type two cards, and beat a lot of the "heavy" players on my way to the win (I was only 13-14 years old back then, and many of my opponents were in their 20s or even older).
The next tournament was a serious type two torunament, organized by proffessionals, and there were about 50 players or something in it. By now I had gotten rather good at the game, and was playing with a kick-ass blue/white slow deck, full of counterspells and Sword to Ploughsares to get rid of everyghing my opponent threw at me, and crush him with my Serra Angels and Mamahoto Djins (I'm not even going to pretend I remember how to spell that). This was back when 50% of all players used Necropotence decks for tournaments, and my deck was the perfect Necro killer. I got all the way to the semi-finals with surprising ease, thinking I had a real chance at winning this thing. But it stopped there, as I met my first Armaggedon opponent in the semis. Of course I knew all about Armageddon decks, but the fact was that no one in my hometown had ever used one (I lived in a small town outside the bigger city where the tourny was held), so I had never actually gotten to practice against it. I could probably have won against my opponent, but I didn't and so that was the end of that tournament for me. However, my best friend at the time won it, and that kinda bothered me since I always used to beat him with my blue/white deck, and so I figured that if I had only made it to the finals, I would probably have won.
My last tournament was also my best one. It was held during a large annual role playing convention here in the city. There were a lot of really serious players in on the MtG tournament, I especially remember that there were 3 old guys (well they were only in their thirties, but that was very old in that place at that time) from Stockholm who were conscidered real pro's, one of them even wore a suit
. I was only fifteen back then, so I was still one of the younger players in the tournament. Anyway, my deck that I used there was this excellent red/green deck with lot's of red damage spells and green creatures. There was nothing remarkable about the cards themselves, heck, I even used some cards that no one would conscider for torunaments (like Fire Elemental). What I did with the deck was to attack early and often with my green critters, bolt or incinerate everything my opponent threw at me, and finish him off with my heavy creatures (Ernham Djinn, Earthworm, and Fire Elemental) . What was really amazing was that it never failed me in providing a steady stream of creatures that grew stronger and stronger. I had gone through that deck so many times and knew every single card in it, and when I could excpect it.
Anyway, back to the tournament itself. I played myself to the playoffs with ease, and met two out of the three so-called pro's from Stockholm, one in the semis and one in the finals. I beat them both and won the whole thing, which felt amazing at the time (back then I lived for MtG with the passion that only a 15-year old by can summon). As mentioned earlier the first prize was a Mox Jet that I sold shortly after I'd won it as I didn't have anything resembling a type 1 deck and would not have gotten any use from it.
I quit playing shortly after the tournament, not because I was bored with the game, but because I was gonna start High School, and was afraid that I might be conscidered a nerd if I played MtG. Really stupid, I know, but that was how my mind worked at the time, so my "partner" bougth me out, and I quit, just like that.
Whew, that must have been my longest post ever here at CFC, hope I didn't bore you to death. It's just that I got so nostalgic and hade to share my tale
metalhead
Angry Bartender
- Joined
- Apr 15, 2002
- Messages
- 8,031
Being an old-schooler, I'm going to show you how we kicked this deck out back in the day
Lands:
1 Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
1 Island of Wak-Wak
1 Maze of Ith
1 Karakas
1 Hammerheim
2 Dwarven Hold
2 Icatian Store
4 Urza's Mine
4 Urza's Tower
4 Urza's Power Plant
4 Plateau
Mountains/Plains
Artifacts:
1 Candelabra of Tawnos
1 Tawnos Coffin
1 Feldon's Cane
Red:
4 Fireball
4 Disintegrate
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Mana Flare
3 Dragon Whelp
2 Earth Elemental
2 Fire Elemental
2 Pyrotechnics
2 Earthquake
2 Shatter
1 Shivan Dragon
White:
4 White Knight
4 Alabaster Potion
4 Serra Angel
4 Mesa Pegasus
4 Wrath of God
4 Healing Salve
3 Northern Paladin
2 Divine Offering
Or something to this effect. The balance between direct damage and creatures in this deck makes it extremely effective, and if you have the means, I highly recommend putting it together. I've never had as much fun playing Magic as I did with this deck.
Sultan Bhargash
Trickster Reincarnated
Neat, red and white extreme old school. I did get a Maze of Ith (2 actually), but missed my chance to buy an Island of WakWak when they were 40 dollars...
Crimson Sunrise
Slaying tanks on turn 104
Meh. The new cards are good, but I respectfully disagree that that character you mentioned (I think he's called Wellwisher) is broken. I think some of the morph-trigger creatures are worse.
That's a pretty impressive set of cards. Sadly, I don't really have enough of the older ones to put something exactly like that together. I'd think the creatures in there would kind of conflict with the wraths and earthquakes, but whatever works.Originally posted by metalhead
Being an old-schooler, I'm going to show you how we kicked this deck out back in the day
On a side note, there's nothing quite like putting a Traveler's Cloak or something similar on a creature, to give it "Island of Wak-Wak-walk"
Crimson Sunrise
Slaying tanks on turn 104
Noldodan,
Bane of the Living is pretty vicious - his morph cost is two black mana plus X, and when he turns face up all creatures get -X/-X until end of turn. Can be devastating, especially against opponents who have bought mainly from the creature-heavy Onslaught and Legions.
There's been little fuss about another character, the Nantuko Vigilante. His morph cost is one green and one colorless, and when he turns face up you may destroy an artifact or enchantment. That ability isn't so useful in the Onslaught saga, but I think he could do a lot of damage if he ever finds himself in an artifact-heavy environment.
Weaver of Lies is a good one too - when he turns face up, he turns any number of morph creatures you wish face down! He lets you use your Nantuko Vigilante a second time.
(Mind you, I don't think any of these creatures are broken or unfair - just very good. )
Bane of the Living is pretty vicious - his morph cost is two black mana plus X, and when he turns face up all creatures get -X/-X until end of turn. Can be devastating, especially against opponents who have bought mainly from the creature-heavy Onslaught and Legions.
There's been little fuss about another character, the Nantuko Vigilante. His morph cost is one green and one colorless, and when he turns face up you may destroy an artifact or enchantment. That ability isn't so useful in the Onslaught saga, but I think he could do a lot of damage if he ever finds himself in an artifact-heavy environment.
Weaver of Lies is a good one too - when he turns face up, he turns any number of morph creatures you wish face down! He lets you use your Nantuko Vigilante a second time.
(Mind you, I don't think any of these creatures are broken or unfair - just very good.
)