Subject: Waffle on ProspBloom Date: Mon, 01 Dec 1997 16:23:40 +0000 From: Jim Monk Newsgroups: uk.games.trading-cards.misc Warning : This is a right load of waffle and probably won't make any sense, but thats what happens when a scrub tries to write theory ;-) Ok. I've been thinking about PB quite alot (and playtesting, no real tornies yet, still need some cards). When it comes down to it the whole deck revolves around two principles firstly having the right cards at the right time and secondly the exchange of resources (Cards/turns/mana/life) for Mana. If you have the Bloom down a card in hand is worth 2 mana. With the resources down a land in play is worth 2 mana. So Nat Balance (with Sq in play) costs 6 mana (2 for the card and 4 cc) and nets you 10 mana (5 lands in play). A gain of 4. While Mediate/Infernal Contract cost 5 mana (+drawback) to net 8 mana. A gain of 3 Prosperity for X nets you XX mana and costs 3+X mana X Cost nets Gain 1 4 2 -2 2 5 4 -1 3 6 6 0 4 7 8 +1 5 8 10 2 6 9 12 3 7 10 14 4 Thus for a prosperity to be as good as a Nat Balance you must prosperity for 7 (U7 cc) And even the Mediate/Infernal are better till 6 (U6) Also look at Lotus Petal cost to play 2 (loose a card in hand) gain -1, so why use it ? Because it can give you U not just B or G. So you can discard your hand to prosperity for x and use the petal you draw to start the next prosperity that you draw. Also I've been thinking about land. The Multi land is not really worth it in most cases. Sure you need some source of U, but I would not play more than 6 multi lands. Why, the Nat Balance. It nets you the greatest gain in mana, and thins your deck, but if you are playing 12 multi lands + 14 basic the chances are that you can only NB twice. Say its turn 4 you have 4 land on the table and 7 cards in hand the chances are that you are holding a couple more basic land thats 6/14. NB once 11/14 that means that the next NB will only net you 3 land or no increase in mana... Further more usually the 2nd / 3rd NB comes after a small prosperity which just decreases the number of basic land in your library. So why play with non basic lands. You need to be able to sack for U to start the Prosperity (and mediate), and you need to ensure that you have B and G by turn 4/5, but remember what NB does, you get to pick the lands, thus I always pick 2xSwamp 2xForest 1X Island. With the SqRes down this gives BBB for a Contract, GG for a balance and U for a Prosp/Mediate. OK so here is what I would play (Pre Sideboard) 4 Prosperity 4 Bloom 4 SqRes 4 Nat Balance (the real power of the combo) 4 Contract (B is somuch easier than U) 2 Meditate 4 Vamp Tutor 4 Lotus Petal 2 Drain life (hell you only need one) 4 Gemstone Mines 2 City O Brass 2 Islands 10 Forest 10 Swamp The Side board is still under construction, but I would like oppinions on both the "theory" and the deck. Jim Monk