TheDeck I

"The Deck", Chapter I: May '95 - Dec '95

Introdution

The basic concept of Weissman’s Deck is that defense wins games., i.e., if you can avoid dying, you will win. Most decks try to do both, e.g., they have defense and offense and play both actively. The Weissman deck plays defense, up until the point that the opponent has no way to stop a single Serra Angel or large Braingeyser. Once the environmental control of “The Deck” takes over, the game is won.

The defense of the “The Deck” is selected with card advantage, card efficiency, and flexibility in mind, along with large mana resources to ensure consistency. Defense in the first phase equates to the control of permanents. Creature removal, enchantment removal, land destruction and artifact removal are all represented. Permanent removal is complemented by counterspell ability, along with the second phase defense, card denial. Typically this leaves an opponent with no permanents except land on the board, and no cards in hand. Attention is paid to card advantage, where strong one-to-many relationships exist (i.e., Moat, Disrupting Scepter, Balance, etc.). “The Deck” is also built around a recursive engine that methodically grinds the opponent down.

“The Deck” is the one of the most difficult decks to play successfully. Game making and breaking decisions are made every turn, and revolve around keen insights into the way the deck is played, along with the assessed capabilities of the oppenents deck. This is certainly not a deck for the casual player. The intermediate player, though, must eventually master this deck type and understand its concepts thoroughly to advance to the ranks of the higher circles of Magic.

This version of the deck is the last of the versions to feature Mind Twist, which was banned in January of ‘96, and is the deck that most early discussion is still relevant to (an earlier verson with Chaos Orb existed, but has been ommited).

Weissman's "The Deck", Dec '95
2 Serra Angel 4 Mana Drain 2 Counterspell 1 Time Walk 1 Timetwister 1 Ancestral Recall 1 Braingeyser 1 Recall	4 Disenchant 4 Swords to Plowshares 2 Moat 1 Demonic Tutor 1 Mind Twist 1 Regrowth 2 Red Elemental Blast	2 Disrupting Scepter 1 Jayemdae Tome 1 Ivory Tower 5 Moxen 1 Black Lotus 1 Sol Ring
2 Strip Mine 1 Library of Alexandria 3 City of Brass 1 Plateau 1 Underground Sea 2 Volcanic Island 4 Tundra 3 Plains 4 Island	Sideboard: 1 Plains 1 Disrupting Scepter 1 Jayemdae Tome 1 Tormod's Crypt 2 Control Magic	Sideboard (cont): 1 Counterspell 2 Blood Moon 3 COP:Red 2 Divine Offering 1 Moat

To start the discussion of the Weissman Deck, here is a short essay by Brian Weissman written in May of 1995:

My original intent behind the construction of "the deck" was to build something that I could never cease to improve on playing, and that would win in direct proportion to how skillfully it was played. What began originally as a standard blue/white permission- big creature deck, gradually evolved into an entirely defensive/retroactive card efficiency/advantage machine. I argue incessantly with people on the net that despite their experience, speed is not what wins the game of magic; that is pure time-tested fact. What wins the game is simply more options and more cards. Since, under normal circumstances, the most important thing you do every turn is draw another card, every time that balance is offset, you gain the equivalent of a one turn advantage over your opponent. For this reason, ancestral recall in most circumstances is three times as powerful as timewalk: the former gives you three more cards, the latter only one. When you examine the contents of "the deck", you can see that nearly every card exploits the efficiency or card advantage principle to the fullest. If you can swords to plowshare a creature when your opponent has invested an enchantment or a giant growth or a blood lust in it, you have gained a two for one; the equivalent of an extra turn. When you cast a moat and nullify the attacking power of three creatures already in play as well as innumerable creatures still to be drawn, you have taken potentially dozens of extra turns. When you have nullified their draw for the turn by making them discard counterspell with the scepter, you have taken an extra turn. When you permission their wheel of fortune, mindtwist, braingeyser, or balance, you have saved numerous cards out of your hand or prevented their drawing numerous cards; many turns gained in the process. When you draw an extra card with the jayemdae tome, or prevent the attack of two of their creatures with your serra angel, you have taken an extra turn. And so on.

You get the idea; any non-rookie player would. Every card in the deck, provided it is used carefully and at a prudent time, has the potential to gain a many-to-one card advantage on your opponent. Since the entire focus of the deck is to do only this: not kill them quickly, not deplete their hand in three turns and do rack damage, not run them out of cards, not burn them to death with X spells or attack them with hordes of little creatures, etc. etc., it wins and wins. In its complete reactive passivity, it stands unique in the grand scope of competitive tournament decks. And unlike almost any deck in existence, it wins in direct proportion to how well it is played. When you examine the most commonly played and competitive decks in type I, the same theme reoccurs. All these decks are so straightforward in their means of attack that they leave their controller with almost no options during the course of the game. What does a land destruction deck do besides destroy your land? What does a card-denial deck do besides make you discard, what does a weenie deck do besides attack you with little creatures? All these decks could be played by trained chimpanzees, and all of these decks completely collapse if their cheap narrow tricks don't work right. "the deck" is a complete exception to this rule. Since it fundamentally doesn't do anything at all, their is nothing to go wrong. All I have to make sure is that I don't get killed, the rest is just a matter of time. Since so many of my cards gain an advantage on my opponent, they will pretty soon exhaust all their resources, and at that point, one serra will fly on over to clean up the shambles of their failed deck. Whenever I play the deck in tournaments, I always hear the same thing from people who lose to it "well, my friend's X (insert some standard type of deck here) would kill it." People swear up and down that their is no way I could beat a weenie deck, or a land destroyer, or a juzam/permission deck, and so on. The thing is, they say this because they have never really seen a deck like mine. In its absolute and fundamental passivity, it is a counter to everything. True it is not the best deck one can play against a weenie deck, or a land destroyer, or a fast juzam deck, or whatever. What it is is the best thing that one can play against EVERYTHING. And it is versatility and consistency that really wins a lot of tournaments, not much else. Though countless people in the bay area play with a near or exact copy of my deck, only I have been able to play it to the level where it truly can beat everything. I have won three sanctioned tournaments with it in the last eight months, and dozens of smaller ones. The only decks that I have lost to with it in type I competition in the last year or so have been copies of it played by friends of mine who learned from me. It completely dominates the Bay Area playing environment, as elite an environment as I have ever seen or heard of. Anyway, enough preaching and braggadocio, I am sure you are getting bored.

One of the most important things in the deck is its high(potentially 47%) mana percentage. This is to allow you to continue to do nothing as long as possible. It is invariably the high mana percentage that allows me to destroy other permission decks when I play them. I can continue to play a land or mox sometimes 15 turns into the match. They on the other hand, playing between 33 and 40% mana usually run out of land to play after five or six turns and have to do something. It's then when my deck has to deal with the threat, sometimes through a mana drain. Then in the interim, I play one of my key artifacts, a tome or scepter, and go back to waiting; only now, the waiting game is costing my opponent cards and is severely disrupting the balance between the two of us. Under this pressure, my opponent will begin to take action, and I will be able to counter it due to the extra card advantage I am gaining. All this time, their hand gradually disappears, and their position grows gradually weaker. Finally, when their resources are exhausted, it's as if they have just been mindtwisted for 7. They have no defense, and die from the single angel that comes for them. The cards in the sideboard are very strategy specific, and can be rotated in for very predetermined cards in the deck itself. I lost probably 5% of my duels following the use of the sideboard, and I believe it to be the strongest aspect of the deck in competition. Since playing the deck is much about decision making, it is something that you can always get better at doing. Counterspell decisions comprise only a small part of its overall playing, especially because you only have 6. Since you really don't have enough resources usually to deal with everything your opponent might be up to, you have to always pretend that you do. To make them believe you, it is of utmost importance to play in a totally unpredictable fashion, and to pay extremely close attention to every little thing they do. I used to play with glasses of urza a long time ago, but abandoned them because I realized that I had come to the point where I paid so much attention to my opponent's play habits and more importantly, their draw phase, that I could usually figure out what they had in hand. The bluffing involved in playing this deck goes eons beyond always keeping blue mana untapped. A great deal of the time it is important to let your opponent know things: that you don't have permission, that you just drew a land and did the turn before also, etc. All to make your play style unpredictable. That way, when you don't make this things obvious to your opponent, they really do have something to fear. It's of utmost importance that you don't always try to play the poker face: eventually your opponent will get bored of being fearful, and will kill you. I could go on forever about the subtleties of play that I incorporate when playing the deck; but I won't. It just has to be seen and played to be understood.
-weissman

Play Notes from Paul Pantera on the Weisman Deck written in June of 1995:

The first thing of note is the high percentage of mana producers, 28=47%. This helps insure against a bad draw. It's much easier to get a good draw with a Permission deck anyway. That's the problem playing direct damage or Land Destruction - sometimes you don't draw any of the right cards, and you lose. That's why permission is so much better - as long as you get two blue, you're set for a while.

You'll notice first off that this is a permission deck. Nine counterspells in all (some people replace a counterspell with Deflection.) The main cards in the deck are the Disrupting Scepters and the Moats.
Ed. Note-This is not, properly speaking, a permission deck. Perhaps it could be called a denial deck... but the major thrust is to deny cards in hand, as is stated below.

This is a lock deck - it wins by putting your opponent in a position where they're helpless. At the end of the game, you've got a handful of counterspells and a Serra Angel, your opponent has no creatures and no cards, and he's taking 4 points a round. Even if he draws something good, you just counter it.
Ed. Note- Weisman himself denies that the only time to play the Serra is under the lock. The Serra AND lock is certainly, however, the ideal.

The point of the deck is to get your opponent with no cards. DON'T CAST A SERRA UNLESS YOUR OPPONENT HAS NO CARDS AND YOU HAVE A COUNTERSPELL TO BACK IT UP. This is NOT a fast deck.

The secret to winning in Magic, and the thing that separates good Magic players from the not-so-good is:

1) Knowing which spells to counter
2) Knowing what to disenchant and when
3) Knowing which creatures to Swords
4) Knowing what to Tutor for
5) Knowing what to Regrowth/Recall

You'll notice that this deck is chock-full of these cards, which makes it hard to play. If you give a beginner this deck, they'll lose. The guy who designed it, Brian, can beat just about anyone, any time, even if they're playing the same deck. Here are a few pointers:

1) Don't counter creatures, especially non-flying ones. Let the Swords and Moats take care of them.
2) Counter card drawing and discarding effects like Hymn to Tourach and Mind Twist.
3) Don't counter artifacts inless you absolutely have to. I'd counter a Scepter if I didn't have a disenchant because it is the enemy of permission decks (and Card Advantage Decks also).
4) Don't disenchant moxes (unless you have Blood Moon out). Save your disenchants for important stuff.
5) Always counter Ancestral Recall, even if it's your last counterspell and you'll be tapped out.
6) Your opponent will try to bait you with spoilers. For example, he may play Time Walk hoping you'll counter it, so he can cast something really important. Don't be fooled.
7) If you draw good cards like Time Walk or Chaos Orb, don't cast them right away. Save them to bait your opponent later.
8) Save Strip Mines to strip islands to keep your opponent from countering. Strip mines are great because they can't be countered. ALWAYS use it to get rid of Library of Alexandria. You'll want to get rid of Mazes too. Remember to use them before you Timetwister, because then you can get them back.
9) Don't play too much land - hold it in your hand. It will help alleviate the effects of Mind Twist or Disrupting Scepter. Or Balance.
10) DON'T TAP OUT! It sounds corny to leave two islands untapped so your opponent will think you have a counterspell. IT WORKS! If you want to cast a Tome or a Scepter, wait until you counter something with Mana Drain, and use that extra mana to cast it. You'll still have plenty of untapped lands for countering (and bluffing).
11) If you're using the Library early in the game, you may have to discard. If you have a Serra, discard it. You won't need it until later.
12) Don't counter life-gaining effects. This is a lock deck - even if you're opponent has 100 life it doesn't matter - he's going to take 4 a round and there's nothing he can do.
13) If you have the Library, don't lose the use of it! It's the "I Win" card. Don't play stupid cards to get less than seven. Draw a card during your opponent's upkeep. This way, even if you have to counter 2 spells during your opponent's turn, your next draw will bring you back up to seven.
14) Don't just leave 2 blue untapped. Your opponent could have a Strip Mine and then you're helpless. Leave as much blue untapped as possible. Discard cards instead of playing them if you have to.

A lot of these tips can be used with any deck, and others are more specific to The Deck. Keep in mind, your purpose at the beginning of the game is to rid your opponent of cards. Don't worry about anything else. Then, when he has no cards, get the Serra out. It works every time.

The other important skill is knowing how to sideboard. You don't sideboard against a certain color, you sideboard against certain kinds of decks.

Land Destruction - You rarely see good land destruction decks in type I any more because it's hard with moxes and stuff. The best way to beat land destruction is to sideboard extra land. He will run out of cards, and he'll be helpless.

Creatureless - You rarely see true creatureless decks in Type I because they're so easy to sideboard against. Pull out the Moats and Swords, and replace with 6 useful cards!

Direct Damage - Put in the CoP: Red. If you get the Tutor, get the Ivory Tower (also called the Ivory Plower). Another good Sideboard card against Direct Damage is Zuran Orb.

No blue- Take out the REB and at least one Scepter. The Scepters work best against permission decks. They're less effective against Weenie and Direct Damage decks.

R/G Weenie - Take out at least one disenchant (these decks rarely use any good artifacts or enchantments). Put in the extra moat, and Balance.

White Weenie - Extra Moat. Ouch. and Balance.

Big Creature (Juzam, Juggernaut) - Control Magic.

Juzam - I love watching the Juzam player's face when I put down a Moat. It's great watching someone's creature kill them.

Permission - Put in the extra Tome against any slow deck, including permission decks. This will give you card advantage.

Discard - There are lots of card you can take out (usually Moat, Ivory Tower, Scepter, etc.) Put in the Tome and the counterspell. Balance also works well against these decks.

Of course decks with no basic land are victims. Sideboard in the Blood Moons instead of the Regrowth, Amnesia, and Tutor (or something else that's less useful against that particular deck). Use the Strip Mines to get rid of any Basic Land they do have before the Blood Moon comes out. Use the Dust to Dust and Disenchants to get rid of one-color moxes. Ed. Note- This type of sideboarding follows the tweaking theory and is set mostly against deck types. It is representative of good sideboarding theory and also illustrates why this deck is so strong, e.g., in it’s standard form it is already a good all around performer.

Some advice from Paul Pantera on playing against the deck:
Be patient, play slowly, giving it one thing at a time to deal with. I.E., if you get a first turn Black vise, don't do anything else until the deck gets rid of it. Just keep playing land. Once the deck handles one threat, introduce another threat. Perhaps play a creature and attack with it until the deck can get rid of it. In other words, keep on the offensive and don't give up Sente. If you play your hand too fast you're going to run out of steam and go headfirst into the lock.

-Paul Pantera

And more notes from Weissman, Nov '95:

When examining the contents of this deck, remember one very important thing: it is PLAY SKILL that allows one to win consistantly with this deck. In the course of its play, one has to make many game-determining decisions, and if enough of these situations are made correctly, it is almost impossible to lose. I have been playing this deck competitively and have won five sanctioned tournaments with it along with countless lesser ones. Obviously, like any deck in magic, it has weaknesses, but its great strength lies in its tremendous versatility, making it the best option to take into a type I tourney where one is certain to encounter the stereotypical variety of that environment's decks. The sideboard is very carefully set up to help against the nemisis of this deck. The Blood Moons alone are enough to destroy most land destruction and red/green/blue speed effeciency decks. The Deck's sideboard generates a lock I call the "Triple Threat" This lock consisting of blood moon/COP Red/Moat will reduce probably 80% of type I decks to nothing but moxes. The extra scepter and tome are vital against other slow decks, and the latter can be a savior against card denial as can that third counterspell. The basic plains gets switched for some other land when blood moon is added, and it is put in against land destruction to boost the mana ratio of the deck to 49% with 22 color-producing lands. The tormod's crypt is primarily included to destroy other versions of "The Deck", as these duals usually involve a large amount of positional Timetwisting. The extra artifact defense is extremely useful against a whole myriad of type I decks, escpecially "The Deck" itself, and can be switched for disenchant when facing a deck with no enchantments. Finally, the control magics are employed against decks with numerous flyers, where the quantity of creatures cannot be controlled by moat alone. Take care.
-weissman