Subject: Rath Cycle Deck Date: Thu, 5 Feb 1998 13:48:12 -0600 From: ROLAND SCHAER This will be my lasts post for a while. I am going to start a new job next week and it will take me some time to re-position the e-mails. I will try to catch up by reading the digests... Since the NY PTQ's are sealed, there isn't much goping on with deck construction, so I have focused my attention to Rath Cycle Constructed which will most likely be the next Pro Tour (or possibly Nationals) qualifying format. I was trying to figure out a way to abuse Static Orb in a prison fashion (ala the Worb Icy combos of the past) and I came up with an Idea. The deck goes something like this. OverCrowded Prison 4 Tradewind Rider 4 Bottle Gnome 4 Seeker of Skybreak 4 Rootwalla 4 Propaganda 4 Counterspell 3 Static Orb 2 Puppet Strings 2 Capsize 2 Dirtcowl Wurm 4 Other cards I can't remember... 37 Cards 9 Forest 6 Island 2 Skyshroud Forest 2 Reflecting Pool 4 Ghost Town 23 Land The Strategy is pretty simple get a good creature base down, propaganda to slow your opponent down, drop a tradewind, then an orb. At the end of opponents turn, bounce the orb back into your hand and then re-cast during your turn. Use the seekers ti untap the tradewind several times. Use the puppet strings for the same purpose or defense. The kill comes through either a large (or maybe not so large) dircowl or a creature swarm after bouncing everything back into your opponents hand. I think that most of the cards, with the exception of the Static Orbs will work well on their own, but the Proaganda and Orb combo could slow the game way down long enough to get the bounce going. Does this seem like a good deck concept? Sideboard is yet to be determined. This is the first draft I came up with last night. I am hoping to get some play testing in this weekend and I will let you know how it goes. Some of my concerns are as follows: 1) UU Counterspell may not work with only 8 Primary U Mana Sources. 2) It could be very possible that I draw 1 Ghost and 1 Reflector for opening Mana. This could be bad, but with as many artifacts as I have, it may not be too bad. 3) What About Shadow? Maybe take care of that with sideboard. Comments Welcome. RTS