Subject: {Deck} and {Issue} Date: Tue, 14 Jul 1998 18:08:58 -0400 From: Michael Siciliano To: Magic Dojo The following is a deck idea I came up with several weeks ago. It is not a tournament level deck-yet. But it is fun. Maniacquake ---------------- 4 x Mogg Maniac 3 x Earthquake 4 x Incinerate 3 x Suq'Ata Lancer 3 x Ball Lightning 2 x Shattering Pulse 4 x Wall of Souls 4 x Binding Agony 3 x Terror 3 x Nekrataal 3 x Black Knight 2 x Recurring Nightmare 3 x Sulfurous Springs 2 x Volrath's Stonghold 9 x Swamp 9 x Mountain Total: 61 cards The creature removal and Walls are to buy you time while you get the cards you need to pull off the combo. The Recurring Nightmares and Volrath's Stonghold ensure that you have sufficient blockers to stall. The idea is this: If you can successfully cast a 5 point Earthquake while you have 2 Mogg Maniac and a Binding Agony on an opponent's non-flying creature-you have done 20 points of damage to your opponent (5 from the Earthquake, 10 from the two Moggs and an additional 5 from the creature enchanted with Binding Agony). You won't always need to do 20 points of damage, obviously, but this gives you an idea how the Earthquakes work with the Moggs. It is a nasty combo and aside from my playtesting I have never seen it done before. I That's the deck-here's the issue. The above deck was recreated from memory. It may not be exact but it is close enough. I can't look at the deck I made because last Wednesday it was stolen. I was playing at a local shop with this and several other decks when I strolled over to socialize with the owner of the shop who has been good enough to let us play in the back tables. My decks were in plastic holders and stored in a closed backpack under one of the tables. I thought this was safe enough. During the summer months a great many children come to the shop to play. They are all of the same mold-loud, obnoxious and completely clueless. However, I didn't know they were also thieves. While I was socializing with the owner (at that point I was craving an adult conversation), one of the little @#%& reached into my backpack and stole the above deck. As you can see from the card list it's not a huge tragedy. The kid didn't snag a single Cursed Scroll, Mox Diamond, Undiscovered Paradise or Tradewind Rider. I was lucky in that respect. I brought the best of my decks to the shop to play and the other decks had those cards in them. Cards we all covet because we want them in most of our decks. I didn't notice that the deck was missing until later that night. I was crushed. That deck was an original. I have memories of playing my friends with it and killing my opponent with an Earthquake and he didn't see it coming. They learned to fear the Mogg Maniac. It was so much fun that I kept the deck around even though I knew it was slow and flawed. Now, everytime I go to make a new deck I always seem to want the cards that I lost to that little brat at the comic book shop. It's very discouraging. I have no proof the kid took it, but I'm pretty sure which one did it. I alerted the owner of the shop and he said there's been a series of lost decks and vanishing cards since these kids have come to play there. I'm going to be much more careful in the future. I hope you're reading this post you little thief-If I EVER catch you trying something like that again you will wish your mother and father had never met. To the rest of the little thieves out there-stop it now, don't ruin a fun game because mommy and daddy didn't give you enough allowance money to buy the cards you want. Magic is supposed to be fun let's try and keep it that way. Michael Siciliano