Subject: Stronghold deck
Date: Mon, 9 Mar 1998 20:13:06 +0100
From: Haugen family <haugenw@SilynNet.de>
To: "'fkusumot@ix.netcom.com'" <fkusumot@ix.netcom.com>

        I've been working on this for quite some time since the release
Stronghold, so I've already seen some versions of this.  The difference is
mine uses Steel Golem.  Steel Golem has been used in many of my decks for
several reasons.

1.  It reflects the speed of the deck.  A deck that uses Steel Golem is geared
for a slower, drawn out game, where you take advantage, and turn the tide to
win late game.
2.  It draws the focus off of you.  With a Steel Golem in play (or any other
fairly big creature) your opponent's focus turns to what appears as a threat.
3.  It stops weenies cold.  Your opponent certainly won't attack with their
weenie unless they are holding on to direct damage or creature removal, and
you gladly net card advantage when your opponent chump blocks to hold back
damage for a turn.
4.  It makes for some interesting fun to be able to play creatures that can
enter play with the Golem in play (i.e. Lab Rats, Chimeric Sphere, Snake
Basket).

        It plays very similar to Counter Post, counter the key cards of your
opponent's deck (i.e. winter orb, armageddon), stalling as long as possible,
then drop a Steel Golem followed by some Lab Rats and Snake Basket tokens.

"Laboratory of Steel"

4 Steel Golem
4 Nevinyraal's Disk
1 Snake Basket

4 Mana Leak
4 Counter Spell
4 Dissipate
2 Disrupt
4 Impulse

4 Lab Rats
4 Diabolic Edict

2 Lobotomy

2 Sky Diamond
4 Quicksand
4 Bad River
1 Underground River
7 Islands
5 Swamps

Sideboard:
4 Bottle Gnomes
4 Hydro Blast
2 Perish
3 Propaganda
1 Stalking Stones

Possible additions:
Whispers of the Muse (create a larger card drawing engine)
Bottle Gnomes (put these in main deck over golems or in some combination)
Fevered Convulsions (pinpoint creature hindrance and removal and reusable)
Stalking Stones (main deck)
Stupor (card removal and hand destruction is good)
Mind Peel (reusable hand destruction is better, maybe Disrupting Scepter)
Coercion (pinpoint card removal)
Bad Moon (this deck doesn't have much trouble with creature removal, so why
not pump up the rats.

Please e-mail any thoughts, comments, suggestions, or questions.

                                                        Justin Haugen
                                        (adolescents, a force in magic)