Outline of the Standard ProsBloom deck (MI/VI), Apr '97 (PT Paris):

ProsBloom Deck - MI/VI, PT Paris '97 (Outline)
4 Cadaverous Bloom 4 Squandered Resources 4 Natural Balance 2 Elven Cache	4 Impulse 4 Prosperity 3 Memory Lapse 1 Power Sink	4 Vampiric Tutor 3 Infernal Contract 2 Drain Life
4 Undiscoverd Paradise 6 Island 8 Forest 8 Swamp	Sideboard: 3 Wall of Roots 3 City of Solitude 4 Emerald Charm	Sideboard (cont):

This deck is so powerful in the MI/VI environment because it:
1. Gets unlimited mana (Squandered, N Balance, Bloom)
2. Gets unlimited cards (Prosperity, Impulse, Infernal)

It gets mana to draw cards so it can get mana to draw cards to get mana to draw cards to get mana to draw cards to get mana to draw cards.... It is a neverending cycle, ending with the death of the opponent. It's focus on the two most important resources in the game (mana available and cards in hand) plus the cards which enable a positive growth by passing between mana and cards several times is the strength of the deck.

It ignores any threat posed by the opponent that does not directly disrupt the strategy. In order to beat P-B, you must throw a monkey wrench in it's strategy. Either stop the growth of cards in hand or stop the growth of mana available. This means an obvious counter-strategy is discard and counter, since almost all of the cards are high CC Scorceries and Enchantments (thus immune to DD and most other defensive cards). A fast Elkin Lair would be a major problem, as is an Ankh of Mishra, or Kismet. Because of City of Solitude (excellent defense disruptor card) counterspells and Disenchants are rendered impotent when they are necessary. Library of Leng is excellent vs discard in P-B, since both abilities are useful. In Type I/1.5, a Presence of the Master will end the P-B deck's attempts. Null Chamber can do this in Type II. Forsaken Wastes works like a focused Armageddon Clock. P-B dies fast to a B/R burn deck (especially if it has Fireblast). Hall of Gemstone can almost completely kill P-B, since it is so difficult to drop the Bloom and Prosperity on the same turn. You cannot get 3 colors of mana anymore. Wall of Roots helps, but not much.

The weaknesess of the deck are: the reliance on a combination of cards (hence the Tutors and Impulse), reliance on 2-3 cards to win (Drain), reliance on an opponent's inablity to impede your progress to victory, causing the opponent to draw almost their entire deck, general inability to disrupt the opponent's offensive strategy (CoS only stops defensive strategy, although WoRoots & A Denial are in some vairants), being a 3 color deck (B/G/u) yet still needing to maintain over half lands as basic lands. Likely more. Biggest difficulty lies in MIVI, where this deck almost runs rampant.

If one deck type is consistently defeating every deck you play you need to rethink your entire game strategy, because all your deck strategies just became obselete. Like taking a Clone/Doppelganger/Moti deck to a Type I tournament, you've lost sight of the abilities of other cards and other strategies. Don;t get me wrong. This is a good deck. But it should still die after sideboarding. Win game 1, lose 2 & 3. A lot like LD and DD.

III. Gameplay

The PBD is an oddity in the Standard environment in that it is capable of winning within the fist six turns fo a duel, consistently. Indeed, if it takes longer, it usually finds itself on the brink of death. Many PBD players have tales of coming back from large life deficits to win games, often depending on the Drain Life to bring them back from a negative life total while doing in their opponent. The quintessential "Goldfish" deck, the pure PBD initially has no real defense outside of its Cities of Solitude, relying on its uncannily quick "critical mass" to win games. Though this may be difficult against ultra-efficient decks (Sligh, Crusader White Weenie) and heavy permission decks (anything with upwards of 16 countermagic spells), the PBD is still such a novelty that it is worth trying it, particularly in a tournament environment.

An ideal duel beginning (PBD plays):

T1 - Swamp
T2 - Forest, Squandered Resources
T3 - (tap, sac both lands to SR) Natural Balance (for Swamp x 2, Forest x 2, Island) (tap all lands) Cadaverous Bloom (sac all lands to SR, sac 3 cards to CB), Prosperity for 10 (sac 2 cards to CB for 4B), Vampiric Tutor for Prosperity, Infernal Contract, play an Island, Prosperity for 16, (assuming Drain Life is drawn) (sac 15 cards to CB) Drain Life for 28.

IV. Variants

There are few true "variants" for the PBD, owing to the fact that its "main engine" needs to be intact for it to maintain its speed and whatever reliability it has. Some PBDs, though, use Walls of Roots or River Boas to serve as blockers early on. Others use Mystical Tutors vice the Impulses (not the best substitution), and occasionally Elven Caches or Coercions are found in the PBD main deck (the latter two cards are popular sideboard cards). Still, the "pure" form of the PBD seems to be the most effective.

A glance at the PBD in Standard play shows that few changes can be made, and it's probably best to leave most of it alone. Cities of Brass are definite additions, but aside from that, no card from 5th Edition or Alliances truly strengthens the PBD. (Some have tried using Arcane Denial, but the problem of the PBD in managing its limited blue mana intensifies with AD in the deck.)

V. Sideboard

As mentioned, popular sideboard cards are Coercion (for use against permission decks) and Elven Cache (to retrieve countered or discarded card from the graveyard). Elephant Grass is used to buy time against black weenie decks, and it also works relatively well against other creature-heavy speed decks. Emerald Charm removes enchantments that are deadly to the PBD, including Null Chamber and Forsaken Wastes. The cards that are taken out of the main deck most often are the Impulses and the lone Emerald Charm. If the opponent has no visible method of disruption, perhaps some of the Cities of Solitude may be sided out.

VI. How to beat it

"Fragile" has been used to describe the PBD, and despite its elegant, speedy system, fragile it is. The PBD relies on its ability to draw cards - take that away from it and it will lose. In particular, preventing the Prosperity from going off is critical, and the most common way to do this is via countermagic (the various blue counters, Pyroblast). Lacking those cards, disruption of the PBD's mana engine is also effective. White must rely on Disenchant or Arenson's Aura, Black on Dystopia, and Green on Tranquil Domain, Tranquility or Emerald Charm to remove Squandered Resources and Cadaverous Bloom from play. Perhaps the most dangerous gambit is to stop the killing Drain Life. Shadowbane, Honorable Passage, CoP Black, Reverse Damage and Reflect Damage are some of the ways to do this, but it is almost certain that the PBD player will have a City of Solitude in play by then, rendering those cards useless. An alternative to disruption would be to use black's discard spells (Coercion, Stupor, Funeral Charm, Abyssal Specter) to reduce the PBD player's hand and place his key cards in the graveyard. Finally, the most direct approach to this matter would be to defeat the PBD before it defeats you. Chancy, yes, but impossible, definitely not.

VII. Conclusion

The Prosperous Bloom Deck is one of the more interesting and powerful decks to emerge from the Mirage/Visions sets. From the way the design is sweeping the world, we should not be surprised to see it at the various Regional and National Championships that will be held around the globe. If you are not inclined to play this deck, then at least be prepared to play against it. Good luck!

-Rick Laig (The Steel Dragon), druid@cnl.net or steeldragon@geocities.com
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