Subject: Team Stupid's: IA/ALL Pro-Tour Qualifying Deck "Harlequin's Folly" From: Jerry Sunkin Date: 1996/11/14 Team Stupid took this deck to 3 PTQ tournaments and we qualified 2 persons, we had 2 other persons make the top 8, and others were near misses (lost the tie breakers). We also made it to Huntsville, AL. 3 Team Stupid members played the deck but none qualified, also playing a slightly modified version were two members of Team Tallahasee (a.k.a. 5 Guys and a Peter), Pete Leiher and Josh Bradford. I believe that Pete and Josh made the final 8, it would be great if they (or Aziz) could post their results. Basic Concepts: 1) Only J-haups, Withering Wisps and Mudslide can wipeout/stop a hoard of creatures in one fell swoop. Pyroclasm only does two points of damage, this is important, as will be demonstrated by the creatures chosen. 2) The number of creature control cards is limited. Incinerate and STP being two of the best choices. Therefore; 1) Play creatures that are big enough to force your oponents to use his J-haups or Withering Wisps when you only have one creature is in play. 2) Play with STP and Incinerate. 3) Make sure that most of your creatures survive the incinerate. Harlequin's Folly: Creatures 3x Balduvian Horde 4x Goblin Mutant 4x Storm Shaman 3x Orcish Cannoneers 1x Ivory Gargoyle 2x Chaos Harlequin 2x Orcish Librarian Creature Control 2x Swords to Plowshares 4x Incinerates 2x Lava Bursts 1x Pyrokinesis Permanent Removal 4x Pillage 2x Discenchant 2x Jokulhaups Land 16x Mountains 4x Plains 4x Thawing Glaciers Sideboard (start with these as minimums) 4x Pyroblasts 2x Discenchants 2x Swords to Plowshares The above cards are givens to go in the board, the next seven will depend on your environment. 2x COP: Red 2x COP: Black 2x Lodestone Bauble 2x Jester's Cap 2x Burnout 1x Cold Snap 2x Pyroclasm Play strategy: 1) Hold the Pillages for the specialty lands, only use them on basic lands if your opponent is mana screwed early or post J-haups. 2) Lay the creatures in the following order when you hold more than one creature in you hand: 1) Storm Shaman 2) Chaos Harlequin 3) Orcish Cannoneers 4) Goblin Mutants 5) Balduvian Hordes The Orcish Librarians and the one Ivory Gargoyle are situational when they are played. 3) If you lay a Storm Shaman early, do damage with it! It is very tempting to play more creatures because they are so FAT! Force your opponent to kill the Storm Shaman. 4) Do not be afraid to trade creatures with your opponent in combat. You will probably have more creatures or at least bigger creatures than your opponent. 5) Only lay 4 lands if your opponent might J-haups, only lay 6 lands if your going to J-haups, and always know how many mountains and plains are in your library. Otherwise, T. Glacier away, the deck wins in the late game. If it's late game and your opponent Arcane Denial's one of your spells, celebrate, you will be drawing great cards! How the deck stacks up vs. specific cards/strategies: Kjeldoran Outpost, you have 4 pillages and 4 fat goblin mutants that trample. Blinky, your opponent will only have 4 of these, he cannot block the swarm (no Wrath of God) Gargoyle, 2 swords in the deck, 2 more in the board, Goblin Mutants think gargoyles are funny looking. Ashen Ghoul/Krovikan Horror decks, 2 STP in the deck/2 STP in the sideboard, enough non-creature permanent removal to put something other than a creature on top of the K. Horror. Browse, cannot keep up the swarm, only Taerthrum Bluett's (of Gainesville, FL) browse deck can handle the deck, Taer added Mudslide's to his Browse deck. So we added more anti-blue and discenchants to the board . Bugbind, eats bugbind for lunch, in dozens of matches vs. R/G decks (not just BBind) it has only lost 2 or 3 matches. Stormbind, you gain the card advantage as he throws his entire deck at your fat creatures. Deadly Insects, you always have a creature to block with, we originally had 2 then 1 pyroclasm in the main deck but they were not neccesary so we pulled them. And the answer to all the above when all else fails? (except IG and Ashen Ghouls) JUST HAUPS BABY!!!! Josh and Pete made some changes to the deck, they put the 4 swords in the deck, pulled one haups, added 3 Lodestone baubles and pulled at least one Harlequin. If anyone decides to play the deck please let me know how you did! If you have any questions post them or e-mail me and I will respond ASAP. This deck designed by the following Team Stupid Members: Jerry Sunkin Shane Myerscough Thanks to Ben Champion for help with the sideboard. Another TEAM STUPID production