From: "Baker, James M" Subject: Flux card advantage green Deck Date: Fri, 15 Aug 1997 13:24:50 -0400 Hello fellow magic fans, players, etc, How many of you out there think that flux is a worthless card from the Weatherlight expansion? How many of you have tried Buried Alive? Try adding in a couple of Fluxes to the mix. Not only do you get to dump that hand of nethershadows and ghouls to the graveyard but you are also thinning your deck by drawing extra cards. Okay so your opponent can also use this to get cards. A. If they already have good cards they are not going to take advantage of the flux. B. If they do use the flux then is the time for any hand destruction you may be packing. C. Try to take advantage of anything they do flux, if they flux land, concentrate on mana sources, creatures? Concentrate on killing them. The flux works by causing your opponent to reveal where he is hurting if he takes advantage of it. I've tested Flux with the Buried Alive decks, it does a very good job of supplementing the buried alive. My personal favorite useage has been in a green weenie deck, no, not 5cg. 5cg loses to black far too often for my taste. This is the deck as I run it presently. GreenFlux is the name of the deck. 31 Creatures 3 Yavimaya Ants 3 Jorael's Centaur 2 Llanowar Sentinal 2 Barishi 2 Deadly Insect 4 River Boa 2 Harvest Wurm 2 Quirion Elves 4 Elvish Archers 4 Mtenda Lion 3 Rogue Elephant 8 Utility Spells (mostly the card draw engine) 4 Giant Growth 1 Flux 1 Elven Cache 1 Blossoming Wreath 1 Nature's Resurgence 22 Land 17 Forest 2 Island 2 Thawing Glaciers 1 Gemstone Mine Now for the explanation that will be needed. The Giant Growths either help you kill your opponent faster (after all this is a weenie deck from hell.) or they give you card parity, example I incinerate/hammer your Elephant, in response to that I giant growth it 1/1 and you still have the creature. Against burn decks this can a crucial advantage. I run the Blossoming wreath in the deck, just because in my area red is very prominant and with the return of Pyroclasm creatures go to the graveyard a lot more often and the extra life is needed, and I feel in this deck that Blossoming Wreath can actually be a game swing type of card. The Flux, Nature's Resurgance, Elven Cache, the 2 barisha, and the 2 Glaciers provide the engine for the card advantage. Just think about it for a moment and it should come to you. Example: I have 5 creatures, 2 land and Flux in my hand. I already have 10 creatures in the graveyard with 7 land in play. I cast Flux and dump my entire hand in to the graveyard, I then draw 8 more cards, at this point most of those cards should be creatures because of the ratio setup of the deck. Now I have 4 mana still free to cast creatures this turn and I might not have played a land yet. I now have 15 creatures in the graveyard (This would be great if this deck ran with LLurgofs but with swords back, it is rather pointless.) making the Nature's Resurgance or the Blossoming Wreath that more of a game swinging card when I do hit them. Now let's say two turns later I cast barishi, I now should have 9-10 lands in play with 2 lands in the graveyard, based on the deck design that is one half of the total land availible. My opponent kills barisi, now card advantage begins in full strength as I shuffle all 15 of those creatures back into the deck which has been thinned considerably at this point making the chance of drawing a creature every turn almost a guarantee. With the Elven cache you can reuse the Flux or blossoming Wreath twice making the advantage just that more usefull. Now most people are going to ask why I don't have Sylvan Library in the deck. I don't have them in because so much of the sideboard (Metagame for my area of course) is anti-enchantment and anti artifact. My sideboard as it stands at the moment. 2 Tranquil Domain 2 Tranquility 1 Tranquil Grove (Hey, I want to test it out, what can I say?) 2 Blossimg Wreath (Remember I said Burn is prevelent ijn my area) 3 Uktabi Orangutan 2 Serrated Biskelion (Ahh a reusable Serrated Arrows, remember the deck recyles creatures.) 1 Hurricane (Green Cheese) 1 Kaervek's Torch (Red Cheese) 1 Roots of Life (Rather useless, considering swapping Dervish back in.) This sideboard is of course, like I said, extremely metagame for my area, lots of burn, dystopia, blue flyers, counter-post, very little Buried Alive (Has to do with all the counter decks laughing with 4 swords in hand), some red/green decks, and a small sprinkling of 5cg and forotten orb. I'm actually considering changing the Hurricane and Tranquil grove for 2 Creeping Molds. Any thoughts on my theories about this deck and Flux in general? James M. Baker "Embermage Arcanus"