Subject: Fine, here's a damn Rath deck Date: Fri, 31 Jul 1998 03:20:55 -0400 From: "eeyoo" Newsgroups: rec.games.trading-cards.magic.strategy Like many of us, I peruse these newsgroups a couple of times a week looking for something a little different, a little interesting. Usually in vain. So I'm posting my attempt to make a Rath cycle Oath of Scholars deck. Oath of scholars- during each players upkeep, if that player has fewer cards in hand than target opponent, the player may discard his hand and draw 3 cards. In other words, if you can guarantee always having less cards than your opponent, you get card drawing ability that makes ancestral recall look weak. But how to do this? This problem breaks down into 2 parts; getting rid of your own cards in hand, and forcing your opponent to have cards in his. Getting rid of your own cards is easy. Any dummy can play a bunch of cheap crap and a couple null brooches. But how to force your opponent into having cards? Well, blue is the bounce color, after all. Basic engine 4 Oath of Scholars - draw power! 4 Mana Breach- Stall power! 3 Mana Bond- Discard power! Ideally- turn 1 mana bond turn 2 wall of tears turn 3 mana breach turn 4 oath, discard your hand to mana bond turn 5 Serve The synergy of mana breach and mana bond is obvious. Returning one or more land to your hand isn't a big deal when you can simply play all of them during your discard phase, coincidentally discarding the rest of your hand. This ensures you have no cards in hand during your upkeep so the Oath works. Miscellaneous other stuff in the deck 4 Wall of tears- bounce is good 4 wall of blossoms- drawing cards is good, defense is good 2 intuition- instant demonic tutors are good. Missing a combo card? Go fetch 2 Reclaim-getting stuff back is helpful 2 null brooch- disenchant bad, very bad. Burn bad, very bad. Land 4 skyshroud forest 4 reflecting pool- boil= bad 7 forest 7 island 2 maze of shadows- Visionary=bad Oh, yeah. killing the other guy 2 Dirtcowl wurm- Phaaaat. Mana breach + Dirtcowl= good 2 tradewind rider- ok, I'll prolly go to 4 eventually. I'm just a little bored by 'em 2 Silver Wyvern- big. Big and annoying. And they fly. 2 Dominating Licid- Hey, they're hilarious. And I've read 'The Puppet Masters' about 9 times. 3 Rootwater hunter- default utility weenie. Looking for suggestions around that cc that are anywhere near as good. And that's how the deck developed. Hope some people found it interesting, and maybe I'll post another deck someday. alan webster has 4 mana leaks in every sideboard Yes, I always play blue. those other decks were fakes