The Maysonet Rack Balance Deck (MRB) , June '94

What you are about to see will allow you to win countless tournaments, give you fame, fortune, and a deeper understanding of the game. I've worked hard on this deck, spending over a year on it, constantly modifying it as new cards were added, old ones removed, and strategies amongst players changed.

MRB, June '94
4 Balance 3 Disenchant 2 Consecrate Land 3 Sylvan Library 1 Regrowth	4 Lightning Bolt 4 Chain Lightning 3 Fireball (Earthquake/Atog)	4 The Rack 3 Library of Leng 1 Chaos Orb 1 Candelabra of Tawnos 2 Relic barrier 1 Mox Emerald 1 Mox Ruby 1 Mox Pearl 1 Black Lotus
4 Bazaar of Baghdad 4 Mishra's Factory 1 Maze of Ith 4 Savanna 4 Taiga 4 Plateau	Sideboard: 2 Relic Barrier 1 Disenchant 3 Red Elemental Blast 2 Consecrate Land	Sideboard (cont): 2 Tranquility 2 COP: Red 3 Swords to Plowshares

Why is the MRB one of the best around?

Well, you see, there are just tons of advantages that this deck has that others you play will not. Your opponent will be amazed as you destroy him or her without breaking a sweat. Not only that, it is going to attract a lot of attention when you play it, as it is like almost no other deck out there.

The MRB has LOW casting cost

No spell in the deck has a casting cost greater than 2. Also, for those spells that cost 2 mana, one of those mana will be colorless, which means it is extremely easy to get your cards out onto the playing field, and you need little land to function.

The MRB needs very little land

Because of the low casting costs of the spells in this deck, there is no need for tons of land. You can easily run the entire deck on 2 land if needed, which gives it a good resistance vs. land destruction decks. "Oh, you destroy one of my lands? Thanks, I didn't even need it."

The MRB acts as a "limited" demonic tutor

You can cycle through this deck at amazing speeds and find the card you need very quickly using the cards correctly in the deck. This way almost any card is at your disposal at almost any time you need it.

The MRB uses NO creatures

Yes folks, having no creatures is an advantage. It means that all those spells your opponent put in his or her deck specifically made to take care of your creatures becomes USELESS. It also means that you don't have to worry about keeping your creatures alive and out of the hands of your nasty opponent.

The MRB is NON-reactive

You don't need to hold cards and wait for your opponent to do something before you can act, but instead you can simply play your cards at whim. And getting cards out of your hand, as you will soon see, is a main goal to winning when using this deck.

Now I will list the cards and how they should be used in the deck, or at least their purpose, and why they are there:

Rack

These will obviously do damage to the opponent. Everyone ends up with a low amount of cards in their hand usually some time or another, and if not, you'll make sure they do. It also will slow them down, as they will avoid taking damage by not playing as many cards.

Library of Leng & Bazaar of Bagdag

The libraries main purpose, you see, is to be used with the Bazaar of bagdag. When you have the library out, and you tap the Bazaar, you must draw 2 cards, and then discard 3. However, since you have the library of leng out, you can choose to discard to the TOP of the deck. This means you can throw out the cards you don't need at the time, such as land, moxen, etc, and this allows you to find the cards you need at the moment much faster. The best time to do this is when you have no cards in your hand, because then you end up drawing 2 cards, and discarding only 2 cards. Now you can do whatever you want to with these 2 cards. If they are useless, toss them to the graveyard, but if one is good, put it ontop and toss the other. Both might be good cards, so you put them ontop of the deck in any order you please. Then you get to the draw phase, and if you put any cards ontop, you'll know what you are drawing, and if not, you got rid of 2 turns of useless cards and get to see a card that would have taken you 3 turns to reach. And thats only ONE Bazaar. Imagine if you had TWO out, or even THREE. Even without the library of leng, it allows you to cycle through your deck fast, getting rid of bad cards while you get more and more good cards in your hand.

Black Lotus & Moxes

This is fast mana, and it doesn't count as a land, which will be to your advantage when you balance.

Chaos Orb

I have become such an expert with it that it is basically "Destroy at least any one card on the table, possibly more". Nothing can beat that. Its a 2 mana artifact to bring out, and 1 to use. And when your good with it, ist MUCH better than a desert twister.

Candelabra of Tawnos

Believe it or not, this can make or break a game for you. It has so many uses. The obvious ones are to give you access to more of a mana color that you are short of by allowing you to untap a land using 1 mana of any color. Its more subtle and more dangerous uses are to let you use the maze of Ith twice by untapping it for the price of 1 mana. It can also be used to untap your Bazaar of Bagdag so that you can search through even more cards. Lastly, you can use this to let your Mishra Factories do more damage. How? you ask. Simple. Let me explain this though.

Once you tap a creature to attack (in this case a Mishra Factory), its considered attacking, unless a card specifically says that it does not attack, does not do damage, etc.(like a Maze of Ith). Untapping a creature after it has tapped to attack by normal means (such as twiddle) will not make it NOT attack. So if you attack with a Mishra, then untap it with the candelabra of Tawnos, you can tap it to give itself a +1/+1 ( as this is one of its special abilities). So that means each Mishra can effectively have a 3 toughness and power, or more if you have more than one Mishra out. This can allow it to block lesser power creatures with the suprise factor (they won't expect this), and your factories might survive the "lightning bolt" test by boosting its toughness greater than 3.

Relic Barrier

A nice, easy, and colorless way to take care of most artifacts, like other racks, vices, Mishra factories (yes they are artifacts soon as they turn into a creature and you can tap your opponents when they do this).

Balance

Now here is one of the key cards in the deck. It is SUCH a useful card I use it in every non-creature deck I make. It is a MIND TWIST, a WRATH OF GOD, and LAND DESTRUCTION all packed into one card that costs 1 white and 1 colorless mana. This is the card your searching for when you use your bazaars, sylvan libraries, etc. You notice that when you use the Bazaar of Bagdag, its draw 2 and then discard 3 cards. Well, eventually its going to empty your hand of all your cards, which is perfect. If you have 2 cards in your hand, and you tap the Bazaar to draw 2 more, and one happens to be a balance, you simply discard 3 cards (and if any of these happen to be good, put them ontop of your library to draw next turn) and play balance. Well now, lets see. You have NO cards in your hand, so they are MIND TWISTED and lose their entire hand (unless you still have cards in hand). You have NO creature in play, so they get the effects of a WRATH OF GOD and lose their creatures. And since this deck uses very little mana, more likely than not they will experience a bit of LAND DESTRUCTION as they must lose lands to equal the amount you have. Now the racks become more important, because they have no cards so they take rack damage, and of course they will hold onto their cards for 3 turns as to avoid taking damage, and in the meantime you are whizzing through your deck finding more cards to kill them with.

Disenchant

One of the most useful cards in the game, it can get rid of artifacts and enchantments at instant speed for a very low casting cost. I use it to get rid of almost anything (especially those nasty Underworld Dreams).

Consecrate Land

These are used to make your land indestructable against your opponents land destruction cards, and it makes your Mishra factories immune to EVERYTHING except a select few cards, like Swords to Plowshares, Cyclopeon Tomb, and Gaea's Leige, and perhaps another card or so. You can block your opponents mighty Juzam Djinn and watch them take 1 point of damage a round, since your factory can't die (no need to fear those lightning bolts killing them anymore).

Lightning Bolt & Chain Lightning

These are fast damage spells, cheap to use and get out of your hand, and can kill troublesome creatures on the board. The best spells that can be used to save your life (ie kill their creatures) and can be used to kill them faster (ie kill them)

Fireball

Its more damage, and if you have spare lands out, you can use it to inflict more damage on your opponent or their creatures. Its also REAL easy to get out of your hand if you need to balance very fast. Just cast a ZERO point fireball on something, which costs 1 red mana to do. Its also punishment when they cast Bloodmoon and make all your bazaars and maze of Ith produce mana. This card is in here mainly as a spare card to sideboard out to put in other cards, or even to add other nifty spells.

Regrowth

This is obvious. You can get anything out of your grave-yard, and that includes balances, chaos orb, lightning bolts, and even a Mishra factory.

Sylvan Library

You think the deck is fast? Well get one of these out with a Bazaar of Bagdag and you'll be looking through five cards a turn if needed. The Bazaar acts as a garbage disposal for the Sylvan Library. You see, the Sylvan Library is nice, for it lets you look at an extra 2 cards a turn, but soon you always know what the next 2 cards are and it gives very little advantage since those are cards you don't really want. You tap the Bazaar and you draw 2, the extra 2 that have been clogging up your Sylvan Library, and then you discard 3, 2 of which are the garbage cards. Now next draw, you look at a totally new THREE cards (that is unless you put one back ontop with the Bazaar and the library of leng). Multiple Sylvan libraries won't help you much at all (except if they disenchant one, you'll have another) but you want to have a good chance of drawing one, hence putting 3 in the deck.

Sideboard Cards

There are also some modifications you can make to the MRB.

Replace the fireballs with earthquakes, so that you can handle weenie creatures by spending only a few mana.

Remove the fireballs and replace them with atogs. This givesyou much versitality. Here are a few reasons why:

• You can "eat" artifacts before your opponent steals them.
• The atog can do A LOT of damage in one round, ending a game fast.
• It works just fine with bloodmoon out, since the atog is red and artifacts are colorless.
• You have many artifacts in the deck, and when you pull an artifact that is not useful at the time, it can be used for damage. Ex. Your extra Library of Leng becomes 2 extra damage.
• It makes your opponent not sideboard all his anti-creature cards, and instead keep them in, thus preventing them from totally loading their deck with anti-artifact and other nasty cards.
• Worse comes to worse, you can use the atog to block a creature or even kill one.
• You can usually suicide your atog and make your opponent block and thus kill him, so that you can balance, but if worse comes to worse and your opponent won't do that, then no matter, since your atog will probably end up doing more damage than their creature can.

The MRB II, April '95

Adam Maysonet
Aladeptus