Subject: Re: Winter Rain (deck submission) Date: Sat, 13 Jun 1998 23:27:26 -0400 From: Johann Loke To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com Hi Frank, there truly has been a glut of new ideas, even rehashed versions of old ones currently dominating the environment, what with everybody playing cursed variants of speed decks, animator-zilla decks, and tradewind-x decks. Land destruction/deprivation remains one of my favorite themes, and I'd thought for awhile that with the arrival of Exodus and the deliciously anticipated Groundbreaker precon deck, WotC might yet introduce some more new cards to give LD decks of a monochrome color a boost. Unfortunately, all that's on offer's for red, that crummy color better devoted to SRB, DD, sligh etc. Red LD decks are kinda lame, depending on a lot of burn to back up the lack of celerity in that kind of deck. Along comes Exodus with that new land card Traitors to fix the problem. Now red magi can Stone by turn 2, and there are rumours abound Pillage's not entirely dead yet. I, for one, still have my doubts about Traitors. To ensure drawing one in the opening hand, you'd be inclined to putting 3 or 4 into your deck, and if you ever get 2 in your first 3 rounds, you're dead. Hence, no point getting stuck in a catch-22. Decks these days depend a lot on speed. LD is not SRB, and if your opponent doesn't play a critter-heavy deck, all those support burn cards in your hand just in case LD's slow won't be of help. To LD as quickly as that Fanatic or Elf drops, the key is playing the two fastest colors in M:tG. Ergo, black and green. Black has Rituals and Green, in this instance, is excellently served with Birds. The key in LD is mana advantage; you don't have to watch him discarding coz he has absolutely no mana to play (though that's a great scenario :P), you just have to ensure you can do more than he can. Looking around Exodus cards, Reclaim appears to have rather some potential in a LD deck. For a measly G, you can redraw that crucial LD card and make him drop 2 lands. Just like that. It didn't take long before I plopped 2 into my B/G LD deck, aptly named Winter Rain. Black offers Rain of Tears and Choking Sands, the latter always working great against multi-color players. As further backup, I also employ Coercion, where you can take out that land card before it's even cast (cool) or just something nasty you'd rather not have on the table. Green obviously has Winter's Grasp and the utilitarian Creeping Mold. Throw in a coupla Wastelands and you've a barrage of LD power. But what happens after you succeed in depriving him land? Simple. Phat. For personal reasons, I employ one of every B/G workable phat, as well as a Stronghold for some recursion. Oh yes, there's more recursion with the aid of a Blessing or two, and you'll always get what you want when you have out a Guile. Hence, the deck: 4 Winter's Grasp 4 Creeping Mold 4 Rain of Tears 2 Choking Sands 3 Coercion 4 BoP 1 Dirtcowl Wurm 1 Carnassid 1 Gallowbraid 1 Morinfen whaddya know? the brothers grimm!! 1 Lhurgoyf not necessarily a brill choice since you don't have too many critters of your own, but I just can't miss its parasitical potential when it feeds off your opponent's graveyard :) 1 Kezzerdrix 4 Paralyze the ultimo anti-critter card for LD, works in tandem with Kezzerdrix 2 Dark Ritual 2 Mirri's Guile 2 Gaea's Blessing 2 Reclaim 3 Wasteland 1 Volrath's Stronghold 9 Forest 8 Swamp SB to taste. Comments or flames always welcome at czene@pacific.net.sg