magic: the gathering

This section is devoted to Magic: The Gathering. I have been playing this CCG since early '99 and have developed greatly my skills both constructing and using decks. This part of the Pleasuredarium is to share what I have learned along the way.

Emperor format notes can be seen here!

To check out my new favourite spell, Fork, click here!

I constantly change about my decks with a whim on a day, but I have a few long standing champions and some hopeful-looking upcomers. Here's the best.

Mind over Matter - U/G combo deck -(DECEASED)-

This deck is illegal under all but the loosest regulations, but, as I play casually, I don't care. It contains some of the most powerful U/G combos I have come up with and has serious multiplayer strength. In duels it is slightly weaker against speed decks, but if the game goes on or the speed-ups crop up, its excellent control systems can put a brick wall in front of the opponent's chances of victory. Look out for Mine Mine Mine!, Mind Over Matter and Incoming! for your victory cards, and Douse with Sleight of Mind to bring on the control. Hermetic Study is for Marsh Viper and Lowland Basilisk, Mind over Matter using the stack of cards granted by Mine Mine Mine! to untap them. Also, Keldon Battlewagon taps to double its own power, and then at a discard it untaps again, giving excellent potential for some trampling classic creature kills. The Decklist:

        1 Incoming!
        1 Mine, Mine, Mine!
        2 Mind over Matter
        1 Lowland Basilisk
        1 Marsh Viper
        1 Academy Researchers
        1 Stronghold Machinist
        1 Stronghold Biologist
        1 Viseling
        1 Walking Sponge
        1 Keldon Battlewagon
        2 Sleight of Mind
        1 Constant Mists
        1 Douse
        1 Rebound
        2 Hoodwink
        2 Counterspell
        2 Quash
        1 Snap
        1 Abduction
        1 Stream of Life
        2 Overgrowth
        1 Tormod's Crypt
        2 Fertile Ground
        3 Hermetic Study
        1 Giant Fan
        1 Crown of the Ages
        11 Island
        9 Forest
        1 Slippery Karst
        1 Faerie Conclave

Channelball - R/G Combo Duel deck

This deck is one of my oldest decks, and is the oldest deck I still run. It is best described as a "suicide R/G duel deck", as it has a snowball's chance in hell of winning a multiplayer of any size, and often secures 2nd-3rd turn kills in duels, but places itself on 1 life. This is done in the most direct route possible - the Channelstrike. What this is is simply Channel (GG sorcery - until end of turn you gain "pay 1 life: add 1 to your mana pool") with a red x-direct damage spell such as Blaze or Kaervek's Torch. Some cheap first-turn direct damage and some mana acceleration allow 2nd turn kills. An Elvish Spirit Guide I had (if in your hand, you can remove it from the game to add G to your mana pool) was great in this deck, but I lost it. After the addition of 4 Forks it now has some ability in multiplayer (play channelball, fork it at you), and has achieved a second turn kill on two opponents in a team game. It will average a 2-3 turn kill. The Decklist:

        4 Channel
        1 Kaerveck's Torch
        4 Blaze
        4 Kindle
        4 Fork
        4 Shock
	2 Orcish Lumberjack
	4 Lotus Petal
        7 Mountain
        6 Forest

Return of Ramos - R Mass Destruction deck -(DECEASED)-

This deck is so named after the flavour text on the MM Stone Rain - "The Return of Ramos was foretold by devastating natural disasters and unnatural storms." This aptly fits the style of the deck - destroy absolutely everything and everyone. This tends to include myself, but my opponents moreso. Spells like Flame Rift and Sizzle are my main forms of attack, but also Repercussion gives me a powerful line of assault. Spells such as Jokulhaups, Wildfire and Inferno wipe the board of threats, and the mana-heavy deck can recover into Flame Rift and Sizzle range quicker than most opponents can reestablish themselves. Fanning the Flames Lets me finish off problem opponents, and coupled with Furnace of Rath I can throw about 60+ damage with buyback! As you can probably tell from the Decklist, this deck is a high proportion of rare and valuable cards, so I haven't yet finished it (Oh yes you have... - ED). I am after some Subterranean Spirits for some creatures and some more big destruction spells such as Inferno. The Decklist:

        2 Repercussion
        2 Furnace of Rath
        2 Jokulhaups
        1 Inferno
        1 Nevinyrral's Disc
        1 Wildfire
        2 Flame Wave
        3 Anarchist
        2 Wake of Destruction
        1 Shatterstorm
        1 Fault Line
        1 Aether Flash
        1 Meekstone
        1 Crawlspace
        1 Thran Dynamo
        1 Sisay's Ring
        2 Steam Blast
        3 Sizzle
        3 Flame Rift
        1 Lava Burst
        1 Fanning the Flames
        1 Heat Ray
        1 Scorched Ruins
        1 Shivan Gorge
        18 Mountain

I have only bought a few PCDs to date, but I know how they work and play. Although preconstructed they can be alright. Here's what they're like so you can think about buying them yourself.

Rebel's Call - W Merc. Masques Rebel Rush

The first precon I bought. It doesn't have much going for it as it stands, but if you're building a Rebel deck it's £7 well spent. Otherwise, it cannot really compete with non-preconstructed, so only get it if you're short of rebels. You don't get any of the best rebels and the best rare creature you get is Ramosian Sky Marshall, the other rare being Cho Manno, Revolutionary, which is okay, but not as good as the other rare rebels (despite that Pariah thing).

Replicator - G/B Nemesis Weenies-with-friends

Basically this is a deck which is sold to show off the new mechanic in Masques block - the creatures who come with friends. The only problem is that it is built around creatures which are just too expensive for what they are. About the only playable one of these creatures is Howling Wolf, which still sucks, it's just moderate when compared to the others. It then includes spellshapers and a Saproling Cluster to put the card advantage to use. Sadly, this doesn't work at all well, and I would ward you away from buying this precon.

Slither - R/G Prophecy Tap-Out

I went to the shops to buy a Pummel deck. Like many of us, I found they had unsurprisingly sold out. Unwilling to go home empty handed, I bought Slither. This deck is a Prophecy R/G precon which has one goal: tap out! It achieves this in several ways - Latulla, Keldon Overseer, War Cadence and Chimeric Idol being the best. It makes use of cards which are some of the worst cards ever in a way which makes them useful (esp. Silt Crawler and Mungha Wurm). Once tapped, it benefits through Citadel of Pain and creatures which get bigger, Scoria Cat being the best. Despite noble intentions, however, this just doesn't work in the current cycle. The main problem is that you need untapped lands to play spells and, more importantly, to keep an eye out for rhystic cards. It does have promise, but it will need a lot of work. Some cards I have bookmarked for addition: Mana Cache, Pandemonium, Avatar of Fury and, most importantly, mana-producing artifacts! Also, I will replace Reverent Silence with the new Calming Verse and I'll put in Keldon Battlewagon (having green, Vitalize will rule with this. If you get the timing of the Vitalize right, it can do some serious damage!). It's a tactical style of deck which flies in the face of Prophecy as a whole. The biggest problem for it will be rhystic spells which will almost always go unhindered. Although reasonable, it's not the best of Prophecy's precons (though it's far from the worst!), so I would recommend getting a different one; Pummel, for example! The strength of the deck is in the commons, which can be acquired slightly more cheaply through boosters. Not a great use of £6.99, but I can think of worse uses.

The one thing that I really like about this pre-con is that it has a strong earlyish game (3-6 turns) as that's when it is really getting oversized creatures early, and also has a very strong end-game (15+ turns) as it has Latulla and Kyren Negotiations to take away the creature stalemate that the Scoria Cats and Spur Grapplers set up, leaving only the middle game and very early game as weak points. It gives you some cheap or alternate CC direct damage spells for the early game (Flame Shots and Seals of fire) so you can cope there, and the only thing left is mid-game (6-15 turns). To help here, mid-CC (3-6) power cards are needed, and when you consider that this is Prophecy - the home of power cards, and you have green to make the power cards mid-CC, you can see that the weaknesses in Slither can be sewn up easily, unlike the other prophecy pre-cons which might struggle to become more than slightly developed preconstructed decks. This one's unique in that it can really develop to become a winner!

Note that most of my comments below regarding the spells with alternative playing costs are based on the card, not the place in this deck, and alternate cost spells are usually better in this theme than their regular counterparts. When you think about modifying this deck bear in mind that you will tap out! The unmodified decklist:

After many alterations, here is my list of essential add-ins and replacements:

Another direction you could take this in is a third colour - white. Add some birds and harrows and you have your mana curve, but it allows one important addition: Armageddon. What this will do is let you get out oversized creatures in your early game and then 'geddon before they can get down their responses. This serves to a) leave the board firmly under your control as you have bigger creatures than them, and b)ensure your tap-out checks succeed as you have no untappped lands.