Subject: musings on the new standard format Date: Wed, 17 Sep 1997 13:12:27 -0400 From: Bennie Smith Newsgroups: rec.games.trading-cards.magic.strategy THE COMING STANDARD/TYPE 2 ROTATION Tempest and Buy-back spells, some thoughts... I was wondering what people were thinking about the fate of some of the popular decks out there with the Ice Age block of cards being replaced by Tempest in the not too distant future. Obviously, we cannot discuss specific cards that will be coming into Standard, but we can discuss the impact the loss of certain cards will have on deck content. We can also think about the concept of buy-back spells, which I imagine will have an impact on the tournament scene much like the pitch spells did. Who can deny the impact of Force of Will on the game? Buyback spells have built in card advantage, which has proven to be vital to many winning strategies. Assuming that most buyback spells will have a mana cost to return the card to your hand (which the red DD spell and the counterspell that has been hinted about seems to indicate), the buyback spells are liable to make the biggest impact in the mid- to late-game, similar to the Hammer of Bogardan. It will also cause the game to focus in on mana production and limitation. I expect fast mana like Elves, Birds, Diamonds, Mana Vaults and such to grow in importance, and things like Armageddon and Winter Orb to become critical to stifling the buy backs. Since the history of Type 2 tends to suggest that most of the winning deck archetypes remain the same, with slight adjustments for the environment, let's look at some of the strongest decks out there right now, and what may become of them. COUNTER/CONTROL DECKS Counterpost; CounterHammer; Big Blue. These decks are the bastard children of the old prison style decks that used environmental control to win. The spell that allowed the old prison (Icys, Millstones, etc) to metamorph into the newer aggressive models (Outposts, Rainbow Efreets, Air Elementals) was Force of Will, and the threat of Force of Will. Now, the control player could tap out to summon a creature or launch a direct damage spell and still be able to counter a threat while tapped out. With the fantastic board control available to W/U (Wrath, Plows, Icys, Disks, and numerous counterspells), and the means to go get them (Browse, Excavations, Impulse), these decks have been at the top of the tournaments for the past year. These decks are also going to take an awesome blow with the loss of the Ice Age block. Gone along with the keystone Force of Will will be Arcane Denial, Browse, Soldevi Excavations, Soldevi Digger, Icy Manipulator, Swords to Plows, Kjeldoran Outpost, Thawing Glaciers and Serrated Arrows. It is unlikely Tempest will provide a suitable replacement for Force of Will, so control decks like these will liable to have to step back to being painfully slow, reactive decks. Perhaps the Millstone and its cousin the Vision Charm will make a comeback, or maybe there will be something in Tempest that will allow the control player another path to victory. Either that, or control decks will have to rely on the sometimes unreliable aggressive color of red to provide board control. CounterHammer decks will not be losing too much other than Force and Arcane. X-GEDDON DECKS First, it was Erhnamgeddon, then Willowgeddon, now Marogeddon. All of them featured fat nasty creatures with the resource restrictive Armageddon to make it that much harder to get rid of the Erhnie/Willow/Maro breathing down your neck. While Erhnies have and Willows will be retiring to the realm of Extended, Maros are alive and well and feeling good about the loss of Swords to Plowshares, along with other fat nasty green creatures like Wildebeasts, Jungle Wurms, Fungus Elementals, and whatever else pops up out of Tempest. Added to that will be the growing power of Armageddon in restricting the buyback spells, I expect the X-geddon decks to make a strong bid for being the strongest deck out there. While the deck will miss packing its own Swords to Plowshares, it can find a suitable replacement in the very useful Spirit Link. X-geddon decks will not lose much and stand to gain alot from the new rotation. BLACK WEENIE Necro, Buried Alive, the black weenies have always done well. Ice age leaving will nueter Buried Alive decks with the loss of Ashen Ghoul and Krovikan Horror unless Tempest provides suitable replacements. Other than that, only Lake of the Dead and Contagion will truly be missed by these decks. With Swords to Plowshares leaving, the protection from white ability of the knights will be negligible, and many will look towards other weenies with more useful abilities (for instance, I imagine decks features Pox, Brood of Cockroaches, and Necrosavant may become popular). In my humble opinion, the Cockroaches may become the new weenie of choice, fueling the power of the Savant, the Fallen Angel, Infernal Tribute, Skull Catapult, Hecatomb, and Abyssal Gatekeeper for the measly cost of 1 life (Soul Net, anyone?). Drain Life, Infernal Harvest, Nekrataal, Terror and Dark Banishing are still there for creature control, and there's still Choking Sands, Agonizing Memories, and Mind Warp for disruption. And of course Necropotence is still there looking to worm its way back into power. Black Weenie will survive and liable thrive in the new environment. RED WEENIE Sligh, burn, et al. Red weenie took a hit when Honerable Passage came onto the scene, and with the loss of Anarchy, red again will have a hard time dealing with Circles of Protection. Will Tempest bring some way to deal with CoPs? That question alone will probably decide whether mono-red will be able to stay up in the top tier decks or whether they will need other color support to stay strong. Red weenie will also be losing the versitile Death Spark and Pyrokinesis. My hunch is that Honerable Passage and CoPs will relegate red to being a partner color or splash color. The old Sligh and its varients will probably have to morph beyond recognition or move down into the 2nd tier/meta-game realm. IN CONCLUSION, I think that the fall of W/U control decks will allow an even greater array of decks to step up to competitive level. Maybe the much anticipated creature renaissance will finally come about? The weakening of red means that slower decks may have a better chance to survive and thrive. And what about the weenie madness of the slivers, or creatures with shadow? And how about those freaky licids? When Standard settles into Tempest, it oughta be great fun flailing around in the chaos to find the next power deck! -- --Bennie, Richmond Task Mages "It's all about the Withering Boon." ====>NOTE: To reply, remove NOSPAM from return ------------------------------------------------------ Subject: Re: musings on the new standard format Date: 17 Sep 1997 20:32:44 GMT From: gaudry@kamloops.net (Jeff Gaudry) Organization: Okanagan Internet Junction Newsgroups: rec.games.trading-cards.magic.strategy >THE COMING STANDARD/TYPE 2 ROTATION >Tempest and Buy-back spells, some thoughts... Some good thoughts, but I think you missed one VERY significant observation, not knowing what Tempest brings but taking a look at what's leaving/staying, Five Color Green looks VERY good. The environment loses Serrated Arrows, Stormbind, Dystopia, Contagion, Pyrokinesis, Guerilla Tactics, Pyroclasm and others, all of which caused the weenie mana sources trouble, "I Contagion your Bird and Ranger and Choking Sands your Undiscovered Paradise" usually was game over. Now taking a look at the "original" Five Color Green decks the deck only loses ONE card, Arcane Denial. Albeit that's a substantial lock, but Memory Lapse could make an interesting replacement with both WOrbs and 'geddons in the deck, and the deck gains some nice spells from Weatherlight, things like Tithe, Tranquil Grove and Llanowar Sentinel and the only spells that cause the deck real trouble in WL are Festering Evil (does anybody play this?) and Aether Flash. (read: Emerald Charms) Anyways, it's certainly something to think about...