Subject: well, here it is... Date: Thu, 30 Apr 1998 19:45:22 +1200 From: "Simon Connell" To: "Frank Kusumoto" Well, I said earlier I'd been working on a few post-stronghold decks. I thought it was finally time to share the best of them. *The blue-black deck* also known as *the lobotomy deck* even though lobotomy is unimportant A bit of history... the deck was inspired by Sheryl [someone] who I played in some semifinal in Christchurch. I mean by her deck. She was playing blue black with lobotomy, stupor, ophidian, edicts, 'taals, manowars, counters and GRAVEDIGGER. Also firewalkers and gatekeepers. GRAVEDIGGERS? You say? No good. But they were. Backed up by counters, a late-game digger for a digger for a digger for an ophidian can mean end of story. Unfortunately for Sheryl, I was playing The Blue, which ruined her deck. Disrupting Scepter-Capsize ended both games, and ub is notorious for not being able to deal with arts/enchantments. So, I came up with version 1 of the ub deck The main (and significant) changes I made to the deck were: I took out the stupors and kept the lobotomys. Stupor/Lobotomy is bad synergy, you can make them discard a card at random you'd want to lobotomy. I took out the gatekeepers and firewalkers. I added disks. this I think was a good thing. And, because of the disks, I took out manos. I added a couple of bottle gnomes. they are good with disk, good blockers, and help with sligh, especially with recursion. I had 4 counterspell, 4 dismiss, 3 impulse, 2 whispers I think. Also an ice floe for steel golems. I had a bone dancer in there on trial, and it worked great so I added another. They work well with disk. Let me explain the gravedigger thing: they are mainly an anti-control card. Sure, you can do fun tricks with nekataal and gnomes, or have 1 in hand, 1 in play and get an infinite blocker, but if you cast one late game it can end it for control decks. The deck worked ok, it was great versus control, beat sligh more often than not (hydros and another gnomes in board helped). It did lose to necro, sometimes went well otherwise. It felt like it needed more counterspells, though. just 1 or 2 more... Then stronghold came out. My first change was to make the air elemental a silver wyvern, that was ok. Then I got some strongholds. That meant I could keep the recursion element, but free up a couple of card slots by removing gravediggers. I added a dissipate, and a rainbow efreet in case the stronghold was destroyed, as another path to victory. So, version 2.1 is: (this deck has been tuned a lot, and all the cards are there, in their quantities, for a reason) 4 Counterspell 4 Dismiss 2 Dissipate a solid base of 10 counterspells, more than enough for most. 4 Edict of course! edict is great post-disk to kill their creature 3 Disk great! 4 ophidian card drawing is important to make up for using the stronghold 2 Bottle Gnomes you should get 1 most games. Another in board versus fast decks 2 Bone Dancer this is a kill card, basically. Better than you think, underutilised. 2 Nekrataal cool with stronghold & disk, but not so cool against creatureless. any more than 2 is waaay too many. 1 Rainbow efreet with the hold, this thing is DAMN hard to get rid of. Also an alternative path to victory if your holds get wasted, or an anti-efreet. 1 Rootwater Diver Seriously, this is good. 1 is the right amount. hold for a diver for a disk has saved me more than once. They can also get gnomes, or serve as emergency blockers. 3 Impulse manipulation is good! 2 Whispers don't waste these against blue. They are great with the hold 2 Lobotomy sideboard out if you don't need them. Among other things, stops hammer/phoenix crap. 24 land -- because you need it! The land ratios have been tested a lot, it is good! 3 Bad River -- almost always get an island! 2 Underground River -- any more is unnecessary 2 Reflecting Pool - great with River 2 Volrath's Stronghold -- don't play too early unless discard/lobotomy 8 Island 5 Swamp 2 Wasteland. These are for getting rid of opponent's wasteland/stronghold sideboard should start: 4 hydroblast 1 Bottle Gnomes the rest is up to you! depends on metagame of course terrors for terrorables perish phyrexian furnace touchstone for winter orbs perhaps another lobo steal artifacts? The deck beats Sligh more often than sligh beats it. It beat sligh 2-0, comfotably, in every match up (version 1), including the sligh deck that won the last tourney. Disk away tongs/scrolls. Edict, gnomes, ophidiblocker all help. It is also great versus u or uw control-types. Save your counterspells for the worrying stuff (eg rainbows) anything else is fairly unimportant, as you can stronghold things back later. try to get a lobo through backed up by counters. geddon/orb is a worry. Save counters/board stones for these. Boil is not as bad as you might thing. I got boiled, and took about 2 turns to fully recover (pools help alot). This deck should do well against 5cu also. Lobotomy helps, and with only 1 less counterspell than the aforementioned deck, you should be most happy. Just use your wastelands wisely, and keep counters for BLESSINGS. wrath is not a problem. Wisdom is not a problem. Blessing is (and whispers, etc.). Try to force an efreet against 5cu if you can. The deck is also alot stronger against necro - the stronghold instead of digger helps a lot. Bone Dancers are a kill card. Get some critters, then beatdown. Or just beatdown. recurse gnomes to gain life if necessary. The synergy of drawing cards (phid, whispers) and hold is brilliant. phid/dancer protected after a disk can easily mean game, or huge card advantage...same thing ;) anyway, enjoy this is a nice rogue deck. It has more counters than you'd think, and other cool stuff, too. And it doesn't care about wrath, and creams traditional uw decks (come to think of it, what doesn't, these days!). It's good against sligh, and disks hurt pox. Just watch for worb and geddon. enjoy! please send me any feedback. I'll post a report if I go with this in the next tourney sHc [don't cast the rainbow to soon!)