Date: Mon, 30 Jun 1997 11:14:18 -0400 From: "Thomas F. Guevin" Subject: Mirage/Visions/Weatherlight constructed discussion Going into the Paris Pro Tour most analysts thought there would be four main decks to worry about - the four B's - bloom, burn, blue and black. And of the top 10 decks, there were 4 bloom decks, 2 burn decks, 2 blue deck, 1 burn/black deck and 1 burn/blue/black deck. Absent was any trace of a green or white creature - though green and white were both used as support colors. Note that several top players (like Hacker and Baxter) did employ white/green decks mostly for Scalebane's Elite and white damage prevention. Enter weatherlight, and the sealed deck resurgence of white and green. Can these good sealed cards shift the environment balance of constructed deck? To see I will quickly analyze what cards each deck type benefits from with the addition of weatherlight and what cards each deck type suffers from with the addition. Bloom - loses Squandered (and hence Natural Balance isn't very useful). gains Well of Knowledge, Gemstone Mine and potentially Abeyance suffers from glut of white and green anti-enchantment (serenity, aura of silence, tranquil grove) Burn - gains Lava Hounds, Thunderbolt and Aether Flash and potentially Fire Whip, Firestorm, Thundermare, Orcish Settlers suffers from Bubble Matrix, Dense Foliage, Disrupt, Empyrial Armor, Gerrard's Wisdom Blue - gains Abduction, Disrupt suffers from Abeyance, Orcish Settlers Black - gains Serrated Biskelion, Necratog, Odylic Wraith and potentially black legends, Bubble Matrix suffers from Aether Flash (no Stairwell!), Disrupt (for hand discard) White/Green - gains Dense Foliage, Empyrial Armor, Abeyance, Gerrard's Wisdom suffers from Aether Flash Based on the above discussion it looks like Bloom is greatly weakened losing eight key cards, while the other four deck types gain and lose. In Weatherlight everything has a counter - a red deck can totally shut down a black weenie stairwell deck with one Aether Flash, unless a bubble matrix hits, then the red deck is greatly hosed. My question (or challenge) - is this a classic rock/paper/scissors problem or is there a deck out there that with sideboarding can take on everything else? -Tom Guevin