Subject: Stronghold Limited Date: Tue, 24 Feb 1998 08:33:13 +0100 From: Gregor Wernet Hi again. Several discussions about Stronghold in Type II have begun as soon as the spoiler lists hit the net. I (being a Booster Draft fan) will now discuss itīs impact on the TE Limited field. As Limited is about commons, I will not talk about rares or uncommons(well, okay, but only once). Letīs look at the colors: Black Once again, Black gets good buyback spells and a nice removal, and it gets some nice weenies, although not as good as in TE. Serpent Warrior is more of a fatty; Foul Imp might be playable, even with two B in the CC.Rabid Rats are just a very weak pinger and the Thrull is worse than useless. The flying shade is a decent finisher in a black-heavy deck. In genereral, the lack of shadow diminishes the effectiveness of black weenies in TE Limited. Blue Blue got some nice flyers, ending the lack of flying in TE. It got some nice creatures (Dream Prowler is a steady source of damage and brutal with Endless Scream) and a great counter, plus card-drawing and Mind Games, giving you an expensive Icy(not as good as Capsize, but still...) Green Green got what it always gets: Fatties(including the Spikes for the mathematically challenged blockers among you). Green also got what it never got before: Creature Removal. Although Provoke can only get rid of the Utility creatures or flyers, it still is a great help. Of course other cards against flyers are in the set (as usual). Mulch can provide extra land and the Basilisk is good, great if enhanced with enchantments. The Endangered Don is really bad; you canīt play only fatties. Red Nothing Special here. Nice DD, good offensive creatures and a good buyback spell make Red still an excellent Limited color in TE/SH. By the way, Flowstone Blade is REALLY bad compared to Crown of Flames. White White got some good defensive cards, strengthening itīs ability for passive creature control(no attack, good blockers). The Kors in particular can help to build up an impenetrable creature wall. The two creature enchantments also fall in this category. AND white got a great (in Limited at least) removal spell. Multicolor The Slivers might be played individually for being 2/2 for 2 mana, but sliver decks still suck.The problem is that your opponent can burn/remove the good ones(like Muscle S.) and youīll be stuck with a lot of 1/1īs that will be pinged. Donīt even try it in Limited. And NEVER EVER play that Sliver Queen (well, at least not without 2 Harrows and 3 Rampant Growths). How does Stronghold affect the usual strategies used in TE-Limited ? Well, the Control Deck got a big boost,as white got a lot of defensive cards and the Kors and Spikes can frustrate a contemplating opponent into making mistakes, while the weenie and fatty decks can still provide a road to victory; the weenies in SH however lack the punch of TEīs weenies, especially the lack of shadow makes it vulnerable. This is only partially equalized by the now greater number of flyers. This and the bigger number of defensive cards and big creatures shifts TE Limited away from fast creature races to the creature stalemate well known from MiViWe. This is in my oppinion a bad thing, as I liked TEīs different style, as it really sucks to be in one standoff after another. But with only a small percentage of SH (like 2TE/1SH-Drafts), it might still be interesting. But time will tell if my scepticism is justified. Iīll have to see, I havenīt even seen a SH card yet ... -- Gregor Wernet grwernet@med.uni-tuebingen.de