From: Sean McKeown Topic: Reply to Steve ; Sandsipoise Sbowler@netcom.ca wrote: > We all know the Sands of Time/Equipose creature lock, what I've done > is come up with a fresh twist. Use manavault! This allows the lock to come > down quicker, and the Sands of Time will untap the vault for free; is this > broken or what? Use tutors, impulse, arcanes, abeyance to scan the deck > quickly and lay the combo. It's been a few months since I played my Sandsipoise deck, and the Mana Vaults were the KEY card to the deck I had, as well as the Mishra's Factories I miss so much ;(... If you've been reading the MiViLite Sandsipoise deck reports, the ones that use Dark Rits and sucky Lands to speed up mana production for a fast lock, you can guess how crucial this card is to the deck if you want a fast lock. Using Vaults I have taken board control on turn 3, by filling up the Sands/Equipoise lock, offing my own Lands at my own leisure. The strategy is solid, but there are the inevitable kinks to the master plan ;). The biggest are the scads of creatures 'Poise WON'T kill in the Type II environment, from small(er) threats like Black Knight/Knight of Stromgald to big, evil threats like Deadly Insects. Worst of all, that I have played against, is Wildfire Emmisary...because it is a mana-sink before the 'Poise, and your chief source of punishment afterwards. In case you don't know what I am referring to by mana-sink, it is something that allows the opponent to have as many untapped lands/mana sources per turn by allowing you to safely tap out, for a nearly full untap under the Sands. That's what Mishra's was for... use all my mana every turn, if I need to. "Next step is to geddon while you have diamonds and vaults in play. You're opponent can never have more than one land at any given time, and the only creature threats are those that can attack immediately. For this reason, I suggest main deck CoP: Red. The only problem left is finishing off your helpless opponent. Air Elementals, Sandbar Crocodiles, or artifact creatures in particular seem like the best canidates. Of course, the other option is to run your opponent out of cards. In this case, island sanctuary, soldevi digger strike me as the obvious canidates." Wrong; do both at once ;) Use Taniwha. I wouldn't make a Sands deck without Tani, because it just wouldn't win without everyone's favorite "What the heck is THAT??" card, which has been conspicuously absent from the tournament scene :). It 'Geddons, it hurts like hell (7/7 Trampler..), and it can be played with 2 Blue mana and the Vault. If I may be so bold as to suggest a possible deck framework, try to flesh out this deck with your choice of Tutors, creatures, browsers, etc.... 4x Taniwha 4x Sands of Time 4x Equipoise 3x Mana Vault 4-6 Mana Diamonds of your choice 2x StP 4x Arcane Denial 4x Counterspell -- 4x Undiscovered Paradise 4x Aradakar Wastes Miser's Cage is another solid damage source, and Impulses/Enlightened Tutors are solid for card-drawing. It's a combo deck, and it's supposed to be fast, which is why I like the Arcanes. Swing the game towards your favor (although not card advantage...) and draw another card, possibly the one card you wanted most to draw to fill out the combo.. Anyway, have fun, play around with the idea... hope I could help :) --Sean McKeown --Gandalf@BDominia.com "Look up into the bright blue sky, Can't you feel life passing by? If you could, wouldn't you, Try to soar over everything? All the pain this world can bring, Once I flew now I've lost my wings..." --White Town, "Once I Flew" by Jyoti Mishra