Subject: Bless This Mess (was Five Blessings) Date: Wed, 25 Mar 1998 10:09:03 -0400 From: Mitchell Okun Mitchell Okun@BCBSNJ 03/25/98 10:09 AM Okay. After Bas' postings of his deck, and subsequent comment that my 'control background' was showing, and discussion with both him and Anatoli, i decided to try to break my molding. I spent a couple of days grafting the sylvan/impulse/blessing/mulch engine onto a couple of different deck ideas... a) Heavy Mana/Heavy Counter/Wisdom b) PropaOrb/Soft Lock c) ManOWar/Sex Monkey creature control d) Burn recursion e) 'Geddon heavy. I eventually rejected the counter because it required more mana, and i didn't feel that Mulch was going to get me enough mana ON THE TABLE quickly enough. This decision started a domino-like effect... the PropaOrb, alone, would pretty much play stall game, and without enough counter, would eventually crumple. I did like the idea of using the WOrb alone as a stall tactic, and making the general CC of the deck cheaper. This decision helped eliminate white. While one the reasons i started on this road was because of Wisdom, and 'Geddon is a lovely tool.... the white itself only seemed to be a 'rounding out' color, and not do anything for the WIN. I replaced this with a bit o' burn, with the concept of soft lock/recursive burn. This was cheap enough for me to still use the WOrb, and by extension the Propaganda, as a general stalling devise, rather than the deck's win. My decision was the stay heavy on the blue/green, and splash red (though i am still considering some switching in of Wildfires, evening out the 3 colors). My need for various kinds of removal (permanents, artifacts, creatures) showed that i could do that with the 'creature control' types of Man O War, Uktabi Orangutan and Tradewind Rider. I am right now going with the Mana Leaks as my 'selective counter', and though i'm sure i will see the "its not a late game counter" argument, i think it can be b/c of the WOrb. Hopefully i can selectively kill game- affecting cards like Wrath. Therefore, my final first draft of the deck looks like this: "Bless This Mess" Engine: 4 Gaeas Blessing 4 Impulse 3 Mulch 2 Sylvan Library 2 Scroll Rack Control/Defense: 4 Mana Leak 3 Winter Orb 3 Propaganda Dmg: 4 Incinerate 2 Shock Creatures: 4 Man O War 3 Uktabi Orangutan 2 Tradewind Rider Land: 6 Islands 5 Forests 3 Mountains 2 Gemstone Mines 2 Undiscovered Paradise 2 Reflecting Pool Alright folks... let's pick it apart, shall we? - Mitch