Subject: T2 DECK: Counter-Fetch Date: Wed, 8 Jul 1998 20:27:13 -0400 (EDT) From: Jay Claude Salazar To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com Below is my contribution to the horde of "Oath of Druids" decks you are surely receiving. I had been working on the following deck since the Exodus Pre-release, and then I wasn't able to go to Origins. Sigh. So now, since I have seen quite a few similar decks pop up, I thought there was no harm in listing my version. Decklist: COUNTER-FETCH 1 Spirit of the Night 1 Archangel 4 Spike Feeder 2 Forbid 3 Propaganda 4 Counterspell 3 Gaea's Blessing 2 Hesitation 4 Impulse 4 Mana Leak 4 Oath of Druids 2 Sylvan Library 2 Brainstorm 2 Force Spike 2 City of Brass 2 Gemstone Mine 2 Skyshroud Forest 6 Forest 12 Island Sideboard: 2 Dissipate 1 Propaganda 2 Verdigris 1 Gaea's Blessing 3 Verdant Touch 2 Force Spike 4 Hydroblast Commentary: The "Fetch" card is obviously the Oath of Druids. Against most decks, the object is the get the Oath out as soon possible, and then start fishing for one of your six creatures. Most often, you will end of getting a Spike Feeder, which is used to block and sacrifice for 4 life, or just to sacrifice at the end of your opponent's turn (ensuring you can play fetch again). The end result is that any life you lost waiting for the Oath of Druids to come out is quickly replaced and surpassed. When the Spike Feeders are coming every turn, you get just a ridiculous amount of life. The other two creatures are the finishers. Both the Spirit of the Night and the Archangel have the potential to end a game quickly. The other part of the "fetch-engine" are the Gaea's Blessings. Probably an obvious point, but as you are searching through your deck for creatures via the Oath of Druids, a Gaea's will usually show up in your graveyard, allowing you to recurse all of your spells back into your library. This is especially important since your Spike Feeders are being sacrificed early and often as described above. Since the entire deck usually needs the Oath of Druids to win (Spike Feeders are castable, but with 4 castable creatures, you're in trouble without the Oath), there are a number of search cards. Impulse is, of course, the best. Sylvan Library is good too, and once you get the Oath-Feeder-Gaea's machine going, you can even afford to pay the 4 life for a card or two when needed. I also include 2 Brainstorms, for those first-turn Islands (I personally don't like the Brainstorms, but they playtested better than Portents). With 8 search cards, it is very likely that an Oath of Druids will show up within the first few turns. The 3 Propagandas also slow down your opponent's initial attack, buying you time for to find the Oath. The rest of the deck is counterspells. 14 of them, actually. The Mana Leaks and Force Spikes are for early threats, and the Counterspells are obvious choices. Forbid allows you to pitch any creatures that show up in your hand, as well possibly a Gaea's Blessing. Hesitation drops once you have control of the board, since drawing creatures from the Oath doesn't set the Hesitation off, and can also be cast to buy you time to look for the Oath. The counters are all meant to protect you while you get an Oath of Druids out, and then to protect the Oath once it's out. Since all of your counterspells recurse into the library, you should be able to continually collect counters as the game goes on, keeping you (and your Oath) relatively untouchable. Playing the deck is relatively easy, though the pace takes a little while to get used to since your upkeep can take so long. Often, after you have fetched a creature, found a Gaea's and reshuffled your library, your opponent will say "Are you done?" to which you reply, "No, now I start my draw phase." The other part of the deck that is a little strange is continually watching the creature count. If your opponent has a 1, 2 or even sometimes 3-power creature on the board, you often don't want to kill it, since it lets you sac-and-fetch Spike Feeders every turn. Just always keep fewer creatures than your opponent, allowing you to reap the benefits of the Oath and your opponent not to. When you have stabilized the board with fewer creatures and an ability to gain more life than damage you take, start the flying Angel/Spirit beatdown. By that time, you should have a gazillion counters in your hand ready to fire. I found this deck to be tremendously effective against most of the common decks out today, especially suicide black and sligh. White weenie can be a bit troubling with the amount of fast shadow creatures, but with a decent draw, it shouldn't be a problem. Any deck that relies on pseudo high-casting cost spells, such as Living Death, Wrath of God, Armageddon, etc. are usually pretty easy to counter once you figure out what the key card is. In all honesty, I haven't had the chance to play against a Tradewind Rider-based deck, so I don't know how it would fare against bounce if the Tradwinds couldn't be countered. The most difficult kind of deck to play against has been anything creatureless, including Scroll-Bridge and Burn-Bridge. The Spike Feeders have to carry you then, which is no fun until you can sideboard. The sideboard is rough. The Verdant Touches are a must against creatureless or other decks with self-sacrificing creatures. The Hydroblasts replace the Mana Leaks against red. The extra Force Spikes get added against Hatred, the Propaganda against creature-heavy, and the extra Gaea's against Jester's Cap. The Dissipates are for... well, anything you don't want in the graveyard. And the Verdigris shows up because I couldn't think of the last 2 slots. The City of Brass and Gemstone Mines allow for off-color cards to show up in the sideboard, though I haven't included any here. In any case, so ends the sordid tale of the Counter-Fetch. Frankly, I'm glad to get it out of my head so that I can make room for some of the other strange things lurking up there. Best wishes and continued success on the Dojo, -jay moldenhauer-salazar jsalazar@umich.edu *********************************************************************** Jay Moldenhauer-Salazar, Ph.D. Organizational Psychology Phone (734) 763-3292 University of Michigan ***********************************************************************