Subject: Silver Horde Date: 06 Mar 1998 23:48:57 -0600 From: David Hanna To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com Hi My play group has been putting togther various decks togther using stronghold cards to improve various deck arch types. Than I decided to try a new deck, and I just had to see how the Silvers worked. BTW: I think Stronghold is good set, very fun. Here is the deck we made Mana: 4 City of Brass 3 Gem stone mines (i almost always blow these, the deck is very fast) 13 Forests Land: 20 4 Mana Birds Mana: 24 Creatures: 4 Muscle Silvers (very key) 4 Winged Silvers (better than trample, makes the horde almost unblockable, avoids earthquakes etc.) 4 Metallic Silvers (hey, at 1 colorless how can you not) 4 Crystaline Silvers (the one you hope to play on the 2nd turn) 4 Acidic Silvers (a good end gamer, takes away prop and bridges) 2 Menomic Silvers (the ones that return silvers to your hand, good to save some guys from a God or Disk) 2 Silver Queens (just to easy to get out with this deck) 24 Silvers in all (28 creatures in all counting the birds) Spells: 4 Mana leaks (very good at one U. good way to protect key silvers) 2 Incinerates 2 Edicts ( i mix red and black removal in case of white weenie) 2 Disenchants (only various artifacts or enchantements really hurt this deck) 2 Mox Diamonds (yes, i do think they are good, you don't mind tossing a mine away to pay for it. also, you can put a land and the mox out if you have it, so you get 2 mana out. you could by the 3rd turn have the Queen out.) Spells: 12 Total Cards: 60 This deck is a killer. I would be shocked if some kind of Silver deck does not make it to the Final rounds. In play testing against Sligh, Blue counter, White weenie, Pit, stompy and Black grave yard decks the deck rocked. Why? Speed: You have to play it to see how fast the guys come out. Yes, you can be stuck with just forests, and those were the games it lost. However, just one mana bird was usually enough to start the beat down. The white weenie deck we use to play test is one of the best I have seen and this deck totally out races it. It is not uncommon with this deck to have 5 different mana sources avaible on turn 3. Crystaline Silver: This is what makes a Silver deck tourny worthy. Once out, you are almost assured to win. Most control decks have now way to remove him from the game, and any other Silve now for that matter. Only very few cards can take out the silvers now. ADD IN Winged Silver: and your almost immune to most creatures. those walls? no problem. Beat Down: Take in what I just wrote, and you can see that the beatdown starts early and does not let up. Muscle Silvers make one mana Metallic Silvers 2/2, your guys are flying and immune to direct damage. Play it, you will see. Spells: Really a perference of taste. I think mana leak is great. Against blue, you are able to cast out early, key silvers and protect them with a leak. Once you have the crystal one out, maybe a muscle or a winged, blue was hard pressed to catch up. The creature removal is solid too. Early creatures are taken away and the beat down can go un challenged. This deck many times ended with only life lose due to a city of brass. The disenchants are there to take away all those locks decks have. Prop decks, Winter orb, bloom, pits, crused scroll etc. can be dealt with the chants or the leaks. Combo decks can not get there locks in. Either you are to fast or you take away one of the cards needed. What can stop this deck? Blue: Very tough, unless you get a fast start, the counter deck will win back control. very, very important to get a crystaline silver out, stops man o wars, sourcers and capsize. Mana screw of course can stop any deck. I have seen other silver decks with different mana choices. So far this distribution has worked. You got 4 birds, 4 cities, 3 stones, 2 moxs, that is 13 sources of any color. Mass removal. You can stop this 2 ways. Spells or slow play. If you keep a mana leak in reserve, it takes 7 mana to cast an Armeggedon. By than, your opponenet should be Silver food. Combo/Locks: again, your speed and spells offer you a good defense. Against a bridge, you can use the Acidic silver to sack and your guys and win that way. Remember the Queen helps this combo out very well. Other choices Crused scroll seems like a good one, but i rather hold some leaks or removal if something goes astry. Spined Silvers. Maybe, but against all these creaturless decks not as useful as the other ones. Disk: good reset if you get mana screwed. Headstone: if you went with more silvers requiring an activation cost, this might be a good idea. The Red silvers i like too, I might try them out and see how that goes. As any deck builder will tell you, you are never done with your deck (grin) Dave comments welcomed.