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With all the PTQ-Chicago qualifiers being Virage-Light (Mirage-Visions-Weatherlight) obviously quite a bit of attention is being focused on the format. Having banned Squandered Resources DCI prevented these qualifiers from being a complete joke. I see quite a few strong decks, and over the last few qualifers a number of different decks have emerged. The whole Virage-Light environment is Red controlled , either beat red or die hideously to it. There is a huge amount of burn, and reports from qualifers are full of ... "end of your turn Incinerate, Thunderbolt", "my turn? I torch you for 6, Double Fireblast ... take 14 ...". This has led to a few solutions, Blue/White anti-red, Armored-Falcon, and Discard. Also some mono-blue decks have been having success against the red decks. Here are some virage-light decks and a discussion of their strengths and weaknesses. I'll start with the deck I designed and then list some others that i've observed.

[B/r Apply] * [Ertai's Familiar] * [Tuna] * [GWR] * [Mono-Red Celerity] * [U/w Anti-Red] * [Armored Falcon] * [Good Stuff] * [ Red / Blue Frenetic-Beat Down ] * [ Stalkers Dream ]

Apply (B/r)

Land (23)

  • 4 Rocky Tar Pit
  • 4 Mountain
  • 1 Undiscovered Paradise
  • 14 Swamp

Critters

  • 4 Urborg Stalker
  • 3 Nekrataal
  • 2 Necratog
  • 3 Serrated Biskelion
  • 4 Fallen Askari
  • 2 Shadow Guildmage
  • 1 Necrosavant

Other Spells

  • 4 Incinerate
  • 1 Kaerveck's Torch
  • 4 Stupor
  • 2 Necromancy
  • 4 Drain Life
  • 3 Dark Ritual
  • Total: 60 cards

Sideboard

  • 4 Choking Sands
  • 2 Spinning Darkness
  • 2 Thunderbolt
  • 2 Cone of Flame
  • 4 Sand Golem
  • 1 Ebony Charm
 As it's name implies this deck is designed to apply beatdown, using Askari early (often known as strip Askari for their tendancy to find quicksand), Taals and Stalkers in mid-game (Stalker is nasty) and Tog and Necrosavant late game. Removal is pretty hefty in red/black. The red side of the coin is 4 Incinerates (Puff daddy, opposing weenies , Sandstalker, opponent at little life), a Torch (normally a Finisher or take out opposing black critters or fatties), and Guildmage activation (sometimes teamed with an Incinerate). Nekrataals give great card economy , and smoke many popular critters. Bikes provide weenie kill, and nail Falcons and opposing Taals and Togs. The Stupors are disruption tactics and help versus counter magic and against burn decks, but beware of the mighty Sand Golem ... I often side them out for the Chokes. Drain Life is it's usual awesome self, providing critter-kill, player kill and life-gain all in one package. Necromancy is a great card allowing the re-use of Nekrataals and the abuse of the opponents critters (Sandstalkers become Fireblasts and Suq Ata Lancers are great targets) ... don't under estimate it's use as an instant. The board has 4 choking sands against slower decks, or decks with special lands, these usually swap in for the stupors. Some of the mono-red decks run only 20 or so mountains a few early chokes can often spell victory. Spinning Darkness is also for red decks and blue flyer decks. The instant nature and the life gain is perfect against reds celerity critters (Talruum, Lancer, and SandStalker) ... it's also perfect for Cloud Elementals, Drakes, and the dreaded Ophidian. The two thunderbolts are against Duskriders and Toilet Djinns, also the occasional Morifen (very hard to kill with black). Cone of Flame is good versus other black decks and against blue, You take one ... 2 to the Man-o-War, and 3 to the dreaded Ophidian. Sand Golem against Stupor and Elkin Lair. The charm is emergency measures against Hammer and Opposing Tog's.

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Tuna

Lands (21)

  • 17 Islands
  • 4 Quicksand

Critters (23)

  • 4 Man-o-War
  • 4 Ophidian
  • 4 Cloud Elementals
  • 2 Vodalian Illusionist
  • 2 Waterspout Djinn
  • 2 Merfolk Trader
  • 2 Sage Owl
  • 3 Serrated Biskelions

Other Spells

  • 3 Impulse
  • 4 Memory Lapse
  • 4 Power Sinks
  • 3 Boomerang
  • 1 Undo
  • 1 Thran Tome
  • Total: 60 cards

Sideboard

  • 1 Winding Canyon
  • 3 Abduction
  • 1 Serrated Biskelion
  • 2 Disrupt
  • 3 Dissipate
  • 2 Tidal Wave
  • 2 Floodgate
  • 1 Boomerang
 Mono-Blue serving it up is weird but play testing has revealed this as a fairly strong deck. The Ophidian is broken in this environment, using all the back to hand cheese to clear blockers then attacking and recouping the cards you just used to delay your opponent. They are often healing salves ... as they draw direct damage like you wouldn't believe. Cloud Elemental and 2 Big Djinns provide mid-game beat. Traders and Owls are great weenie who also help thin and sort the deck. Most of the removal actually consists of delaying it, the bikes help nail anything that hits the table. Illusionists (counter-spells with gills) can hamper an opponents critter supply as well as save your own from destruction ... they also *destroy* Armor Falcon , as you can phase out potential Armor targets and fizzle out the armor, also the 'Rangs , Jelly's and Undo provide the Armor-Falcon with much more then it can handle. The mono-red deck is tough , but you have a good weenie swarm which should draw some fire. Also the key card v. red is Power Sink, which often allows you to end a potential game winning turn for the red player. Don't hesistate to use Boomerangs on land early on especially against slower decks. Impulse helps dig up land and useful spells. The Thran Tome is late game card advantage. Other cards to consider for the main deck are Fog Elementals (ditching Biskelions and going more offensive). The sideboard is kind of haphazard at the moment. The Winding Canyon is incredible against other Blue decks. Abduction is good critter control versus black decks, but mind harness may be better overall. Disrupt is versus blue, Dissipate versus Hammers and for more control. Tidal Wave is versus Fat stuff and celerity. Floodgate and Biskelions stop weenies cold. Flood Gate / Illusionist is pretty nifty as well. The board definately needs some adjustments. That should come with play testing, so far it hasn't had a problem with the red decks ... the U/w control gives it the hardest time, and some say the version with white is better then the mono-version, that may well be the case. Honorable passage is strong but like I say the red decks don't do very well versus this. I thought about Sand Golem versus Stupor, so far I am gambling Stupor players will do as I do side them out after game 1.

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Better Lucky then Good

Land (22)

  • 1 Undiscovered Paradise
  • 11 Mountain
  • 9 Island
  • 2 Quicksand

Critters (18)

  • 4 Frenetic Efreet
  • 4 Man -o- War
  • 4 Ophidian
  • 2 Viashino Sandstalker
  • 4 Talruum Minotaur

Other Spells

  • 4 Mind Stone
  • 4 Memory Lapse
  • 2 Power Sink
  • 4 Incinerate
  • 2 Hammer of Bogardan
  • 1 Kaervecks Torch
  • 3 Impulse
  • Total: 60 cards

Sideboard

  • 4 Reign of Chaos
  • 3 Mind Harness
  • 2 Power Sink
  • 2 Dissipate
  • 4 Sand Golems
 A Red/Blue beat deck. Not to much to say except ... fast critters, and heat. The blue adds a bit of disruption and delay. The ophidians could be swapped for PSI-Blasts (... I mean Fog Elementals) ... for more offensive punch. Mind Stones speed up mana production and can thin the deck a little. I am not sure whether this is better then straight red , but it's a quick first stab at a R/u ... And serves as a test model.

Update: After reading Hovi's report he seems to have been pretty successful with a deck similar to this , with a little more offense (namely the afforementioned Fog Elementals). His report may provide some more insight to the viability of this deck type.

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Good Stuff

Land (23)

  • 3 Undiscovered Paradise
  • 4 Gemstone Mines
  • 3 Forest
  • 9 Swamp
  • 2 Mountain
  • 2 Island

Critters (17)

  • 3 Nekrataal
  • 4 Man-o-War
  • 2 Cadaverous Knights
  • 2 Uktabi Monkey
  • 3 Shadow Guildmage
  • 2 Odylic Wraith
  • 1 Gallowbraid

Other Spells (20)

  • 3 Rampant Growth
  • 4 Choking Sands
  • 4 Stone Rain
  • 4 Incinerate
  • 1 Cone of Flame
  • 4 Stupor
  • Total: 60 cards

Sideboard

  • 4 Dirtwater Wraith
  • 2 Kaerveck's Torch
  • 1 Reign of Chaos
  • 2 Afterlife
  • 2 Uktabi Monkey
  • 2 Memory Lapse
  • 1 City of Solitude
  • 1 Dark Banishing
 This is an idea for a rogue deck, land kill and tons of card adantage critters. Land destruction can be a fine delay/disruption tactic, especially when combined with Man-o-War, and the other advantage critters. The OD Wraiths are just an experiment (a guy at Origins was using them, and even though I kept killing them and then Necromancing them they may be worthwhile), they may well leave for some Snake-Books. Although a few hits from a Wraith will certainly hamper your opponents plans. Added to him a Stupor or two and you have a nasty Discard/Land Destruction theme. Guildmages can recurse useful C-A critters , and plink off weenies. I was trying to decide between Cone of Flame and Torch, although the cone requires I figured it wouldn't be used until mid/late game anyway ... But that's debatable. Rampant Growth really rocks , I am surprised it hasn't seen more action in this format ... but most people seem to be shying away from green. Anyway I haven't playtested this one yet so more comments should pop up.

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Stalkers Dream

Land

  • 20 Swamp
  • 2 Quicksand

Critters

  • 4 Sewer Rats
  • 2 Gallowbraid
  • 4 Fallen Askari
  • 4 Urborg Stalker
  • 3 Nekrataal
  • 1 Necrosavant
  • 3 Serrated Biskelion

Other Spells

  • 4 Drain Life
  • 3 Dark Ritual
  • 4 Stupor
  • 2 Necromancy
  • 3 Mind Stone
  • 1 Kaerveck's Spite
  • Total: 60 cards

Sideboard

  • 2 Dirtwater Wraith
  • 3 Enfeeblement
  • 3 Spinning Darkness
  • 4 Choking Sands
  • 1 Serrated Bike
  • 2 Reign of Terror
 This deck is an attempt to make the B/r deck from up above even more consistant. Moving toward mono-black gives drain life more punch and allows for the inclusion of 23 sources of black mana. The critter selection is similar in Stalkers Dream, starting with Sewer Rats at the one spot. With Stalkers and Taals providing mid-game punch. Urborg Stalker is proving through play to be really tough on non-black decks (even non mono-black). He is a threat even without attacking, he has killed people with Aether Flashes out ... Floodgates out , and forces more Fireblasts then you'll ever see. The Nekrataal serves as flexible removal and a decent critter. Necrosavant and Gallowbraid are late-game face-smash, and can turn late-game Sewer-Rats into decent draws. Serrated Bikes are a reasonable answer to opposing 'Togs, Falcons, and medium/small critters ... 4 Drain Lifes backed up by 20 swamps and 3 dark rituals is awesome, mid-game 10 pointers aren't uncommon. The Stupors are disruptive versus most deck and help against burn and permission. Mind Stone is a great mana producer allowing for fast Gallowbraids and Stalkers with no lost card advantage if they are man-o-cheesed. Necromancy is discussed in the B/R deck ... The Necrosavant and the Spite make great finishing cards ... Decks to watch out for are heavy enchantment based decks, most notable Ertai's Stairwell style decks ... after sideboarding these will usually get housed by Choking Sands, and Enfeeblements but in game one they are nasty , Drain the little Ertai Dorks as soon as possible. I played against the mono-red 300 damage in one turn decks and as long as I saw decent land and 1-2 Drain Life I won, it's tough to win without a Drain or 2 if they play smart and concentrate damage on you. After boarding in the Spinning Darkness I fared better, slurping the celerity critters before they had a chance to hit me.

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Anti-Red U/w Control

Land (26)

  • 4 Flood Plain
  • 4 Quicksand
  • 10 Island
  • 8 Plains

Critters (20)

  • 4 Waterspout Djinn
  • 4 Ophidian
  • 4 Hazerider Drake
  • 4 Man-o-War
  • 4 Serrated Biskelion

Other Spells

  • 4 Afterlife
  • 4 Power Sink
  • 1 Undo
  • 2 Honorable Passage
  • 3 Abduction
  • Total: 60 cards

Sideboard

  • 2 Honorable Passage
  • 2 Boomerang
  • 2 Disrupt
  • 2 Disenchant
  • 1 Serenity
  • 4 Tidal Wave
  • 2 Dajara Griffon
 Your basic control deck. This one is critter heavy only running 4 counter spells. The traditional Memory Lapses and Boomerangs are absent. In their place are Abductions and Bikes, these should control critters nicely, along with afterlife, and man-o-war. The problem for this deck, as with most blue decks is the dreaded Nekrataal. There isn't much except waiting to Power Sink it you can do about the damn things. The 4 Bikes, 4 Quicksands, and Abductions should hurt black, but it's still this decks toughest challenge. Red should die painfully, there is no way a red deck should win (don't even say mana-screw this deck shouldn't get mana-screwed). The board is set up to help against blacks critter barrage with Griffons and Tidal Waves. Disrupts rock against red and versus Drain Life. Boomerangs are good in on fights. The obligitory 2 Disenchant, 1 Serenity anti-Sands sideboard is also here, Power Sink or Disrupt those coercions though!

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The Bat-Belt

Land (22)

  • 4 Mountain Valley
  • 3 Grassland
  • 1 Mountain
  • 2 Undiscovered Paradise
  • 3 Plains
  • 9 Forest

Critters

  • 4 Wall of Roots
  • 4 Quirion Ranger
  • 4 Serrated Biskelion
  • 4 Jolreal's Centaur
  • 4 River Boa
  • 3 Scalebane Elite
  • 3 Maro
  • 2 Granger Guildmage

Other Spells

  • 2 Armor of Thorns
  • 3 Afterlife
  • 2 Honorable Passage
  • 2 Incinerate
  • 1 Preferred Selection
  • Total: 60 cards

Sideboard

  • 2 Honorable Passage
  • 2 Tariff
  • 1 Kaerveck's Torch
  • 2 Disenchant
  • 1 Serenity
  • 2 Roots of Life
  • 4 Karoo Meerkats
  • 1 Scalebane's Elite
 This is a basic "Utility" style deck with a great green non-Dystopiable critter base. Queer Rangers and Boas are great weenies. Centaurs are awesome in this format, can't be Nekrataaled or quicksanded. Once again the Ranger plays lots of tricks, Ranger Bike = Super Bike. Armor of Thorns is very flexible, played on a Boa or on a Bike (4 counters!) or used to stop damage. Maro and Elite provide the fat ... Granger mage is splashed for his flexibility and he's great with the Ranger. Afterlife and Incinerate supplement critter kill. Overall it's a good flexible deck that has a good shot against most of the field. The sideboard has answers to large critters (tariff the Spout) , additional anti-burn (passage ...). Black hosers- Roots and the 4th Elite. Anti Sands of Time measures (2 Chants and a Serenity) and the bounce-killing Meerkats.

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--------------------start type2.htm ----- Type 2 Madness

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For those of you living in a Cave the current Type II (standard ...) Environment Consists of

Ice Age, Homelands, Alliances, Mirage, Visions, Weatherlight, 5th Edition

This is by far the most diverse Standard Environment ever. With 4 expansions, 2 Stand alones and 5th edition there are a multitude of cards to choose from. Hopefully this will lead to some deck diversity and a less stagnant environment. These pages are a resource for decks. But please note, merely copying a deck will probably not get you any further in understanding this game. When you look at a deck carefully note it's contents, look at the casting costs (both color-wise and size-wise), look at the mana-sources (both land and non-land). Question why certain cards are included ("Why Stupor and not Coercion?"). Think about the decks potential strengths and weaknesses, and how to over come them. Once you can apply these skills to your own decks you'll begin to build better more consistent decks. Sometimes it takes an outside eye to notice something about a deck, giving your deck up for critique is sometimes frustrating but is often beneficial. And of course there's no real substitute for play testing, playing your deck against a variety of decks will do a number of things-
  1. Refine your actual playing skills, over time reducing your play-errors (playing against good players is the best way to do this)
  2. Allow you to get a better feel for the decks speed and consistency
  3. Often points out weaknesses and strengths v. other decks
  4. Gives you a chance to smooth out any mana problems
  5. Let's you win cards in ante ;)

Before we move on to the current deck listings, just a few general deck construction notes and some helpful links to documents which every magic player who doesn't like getting his or her teeth kicked in should read ...

  1. In *general* a tournament quality deck should have between 60-62 cards
  2. Your percentage of mana should range between 30% and 45%. Thirty percent mana decks are weenie style decks with few casting costs exceeding 1 or 2. 45% decks run larger casting cost spells, x-spells, heavy activation costs (Jayemdae Tomes, Browse, Hammer of Bogardan etc.). There are certain decks that break these mana rules and succeed but the above figures are decent rules of thumb.
  3. The vast majority of your mana sources should be plain old land. Example 22 Land, 3 Fellwar Stones, 4 Birds of Paradise, 2 Thawing Glaciers ... This is a typical mana distribution for a green/white Armageddon deck.
  4. There should be only one color of spells in your deck in which there are more then 1 colored mana in the casting cost. Example in a Black/red (B/r) I have Nekrataals (2) and Black Knights () and Incinerates (only one red in the casting cost 1) ... but no Pillage (1**) double red. Once again this is a rule of thumb and can be broken if your deck is carefully constructed with this in mind. An example would be a counter-hammer deck, which normally runs 10-12 each Islands and Mountains , and 3-4 thawing glaciers ... and it's double red spells aren't usually needed on turns 3-4 (Pillage, Hammer). Artifacts like diamonds, and barbed sextants, and critters like Birds of Paradise ... and Lands like Thawing Glaciers, City of Brass etc. help alleviate this problem, but the less colored mana in your deck the less Mana Screw.
  5. Take a look here at some of Robert Hahn's strategy material ... Quiz on Friday

[ Green/White Control ] * [ Red/White ] * [ Black/Blue/Red Orb ] * [ Five Color Mono-White ] * [ Death in the Trees ] * [ Lake of Agony ]

Decks

Green/White Control-Geddon

Land

  • 2 Thawing Glaciers
  • 4 Brushland
  • 9 Forest
  • 8 Plains
  • 1 Kjeldoran Outpost

Critters

  • 3 Maro
  • 1 Autumn Willow
  • 4 Spectral Bear
  • 2 Jolreal's Centaur
  • 2 Uktabi Orangutang
  • 2 Quirion Ranger
  • 3 Birds of Paradise

Other Spells

  • 1 Disrupting Scepter
  • 1 Sylvan Library
  • 2 Icy Manipulator
  • 3 Armageddon
  • 2 Serrated Arrows
  • 4 Swords to Plowshares
  • 3 Disenchant
  • 4 Fellwar Stones
  • Total: 61 cards

Sideboard

  • 2 Serrated Arrows
  • 3 Tranquil Grove
  • 2 Wrath of God
  • 1 Lhurgoyf
  • 3 Crumble
  • 2 Disrupting Scepters
  • 2 Whirling Dervish
 Looking at our G/w deck we see we are slanted toward the green side of the fence. The only double color spells in the deck are our double green. Green is used as our creature base. Whites last remaining decent large creature was removed from 5th edition. And greens best large critter with only one green in the casting cost left after Chronicles rotated out. Not wanting to use strictly large creatures, I added 4 Spectral Bears to the mix. An excellent casting cost to Power/Toughness ratio or 1 for a 3/3, their drawback is minimized through the Quirion Ranger, or if your opponent is playing black. Maro is a great creature if he's played properly. Hold back excess land (the deck needs about 4-5 to operate), and use the rangers to good effect. Attack before playing any sorceries or laying lands, this may seem obvious but you'd be surprised. Autumn Willow, and her Horsey pal were chosen for their resistance to that obnoxious plowshare thing. An Autumn Willow followed up by an Armageddon has spelled death for thousands of players around the world. The Bird's provide fast mana, and help out with color problems. The Uktabi Orangutang (often referred to as Sex Monkey) is included as a meta-game move on my part, I expect to see quite a few Serrated Arrows and Icy Manipulators around. An Armageddon deck doesn't appreciate opposing Diamonds, and also the Monkey can attack ... something a crumble cannot do. The deck has 24 land, and 7 non-land sources (10 if you count the crafty ranger), so it's running around 50% mana. The Disrupting Scepter is a move geared toward this decks possible weakness, a Permission deck ('Big Blue'). If the scepter hits the table it often spells doom for a mono-blue player. The arrows and plows serve as critter control. The flexible Icy Manipulator and Disenchant also help muster defense. And the Sylvan Library tops the deck off with some card selection and manipulation (helped out by the thawing glaciers). The side board is very dependant on your local area, but I'll explain why I selected these cards. Serrated Arrows - Flexible critter kill, good v. Pump-knights, boas, archers, falcons etc. Tranquil Grove - Hoses Stasis, Dream Tides, Dystopia, the Blue creature steal spells, circles etc. Wrath of God - needs little explaining, good v. any weenie deck. Lhurgoyf - Rocks Sligh decks (esp. after a wrath), another good fat critter. Crumble - Slip out from under those pesky orb locks. Scepters - Cut the blue deck down to size. Dervii - The standard v. black , if you see alot of black in your area bump these to 4 ... a Deck with Tranquil Groves, 4 Bears, and 4 Dervii should mean complete face-plant for most black decks. An Honorable Passage or two will serve nicely versus a burn deck (which normally an Armageddon or two will crunch).

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Red / White

Land

  • 1 City of Brass
  • 11 Mountain
  • 9 Plains
  • 2 Thawing Glaciers
  • 1 Balduvian Trading Post

Creatures

  • none

Other Spells

  • 4 Hammer of Bogardan
  • 4 Swords to Plowshares
  • 2 Aether Flash
  • 1 Earthquake
  • 1 Fireball
  • 1 Disintegrate
  • 1 Gerrard's Wisdom
  • 2 Pyroclasm
  • 3 Pillage
  • 3 Disenchant
  • 3 Fire Diamond
  • 2 Marble Diamond
  • 2 Fellwar Stone
  • 3 Icy Manipulator
  • 2 Disrupting Scepter
  • 1 Jayemdae Tome
  • 2 Phyrexian Furnace
  • Total: 61 cards

Sideboard

  • 4 Pyroblast
  • 1 Balduvian Trading Post
  • 2 Armageddon
  • 1 Divine Offering
  • 2 Gerrard's Wisdom
  • 3 Wrath of God
  • 1 Disenchant
  • 1 Pillage
 The Red/White deck, what used to be known as "The Sink". Red/White got this nickname due to the fact the combination of red and white can remove just about everything but the Kitchen Sink. Creatures, Artifacts, Enchantments, and Lands are all within the realm of red/whites destruction. This R/w is a control style deck, being slower ... relentlessly crushing permanent after permanent. Weenies fall to Hammers, Aether Flash Quakes, and 'Clasms. Plowshares and Icy Manipulators take care of Large creatures. Buried Alive is dead on arrival versus this deck, as the Flash is an almost hard lock. Damage is via a Hammer, Fireball, or Concession ;). The deck runs 26 lands, and 7 non-land sources. The biggest weakness of a deck like this will be global resource crunchers, specifically Armageddon and Jokulhaps. Both these can be carefully played around, v. Geddon play out your Diamonds and 3-4 land hold any excess, don't glacier excessively. Artifacts fall to 3 Disenchants, and 3 Pillage. The Trading Post is a great answer to Pump-Knights, Rainbow Efreets and Frenetic Efreets. One thing a deck like this one needs is direct card drawing, a Jayemdae Tome fits the bill, perhaps it could be slipped out for a Jalum Tome. Other possibility's for the deck include a few large critters Orgg/Wildfire, it's own Armageddons and main deck Wraths of God. This particular version was geared to slice up the two hot decks at Nationals, Buried Alive and Abeyance-Post, hence the Furnaces to kill all the recursion. If these two decks don't concern you pull the blast-furnaces and add some cards to combat your local meta-game. The sideboard attempts to combat some of the more popular deck types in the environment. The Pyroblasts (and possibly more Disrupting Scepters) are an effort against blue. The Geddons are useful v. Burn as well as the obnoxious Counter-Post deck. The extra Balduvian Post is great versus weenie, or Efreets. Divine Offering for artifact heavy decks, or lock decks. The Gerrard's Wisdom are an attempt to turn the Anarchy's in a Sligh/Direct Damage into dead cards, any COP:Red's would be easily removed via an Anarchy, and since we have no Sleights or Hydroblasts the Wisdom is a decent choice v. burn. The Wraths of God are for the multitude of weenie decks out there ... and the occasional Autumn Willow or Ishan's Shade. You could consider a complete creature swap in ... leaving them with few ways to kill your new found critters, kill with Hammer recursion or a Fireball. Gloom is another hoser , but the heavy red content of the deck should allow the deck to fight off a Gloom. Another interesting note about the deck is no Incinerates, I wanted 4 bolt-type spells and I decided for this deck (slower) that hammers were the best option, regenerators can go farm. Also the Hammers are a "must deal with" kind of card, if they can't stop it ... it can end the game within a few turns. The deck originally ran outposts but they have since evolved out of the deck (for the Flashes) since other decks started preparing for all the X-post, having one Tricked into thinking it doesn't belong to me is irritating.

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The Terminator

Land (21)

  • 4 Undiscovered Paradise
  • 3 Underground River
  • 3 Sulphurous Springs
  • 2 Gemstone Mines
  • 9 Swamps

Creatures (22)

  • 4 Nekrataal
  • 2 Shadow Guildmage
  • 1 Necratog
  • 4 Knights of Stromgald
  • 4 Man-o-War
  • 4 Black Knight
  • 2 Cloud Elemental
  • 1 Crypt Rat

Other Spells

  • 2 Memory Lapse
  • 1 Force Spike
  • 3 Winter Orb
  • 1 Vampiric Tutor
  • 1 Swords to Plowshares
  • 1 Kaerveck's Spite
  • 4 Barbed Sextant
  • 4 Incinerate
  • Total: 60 cards

Sideboard

  • 4 Dystopia
  • 3 Knights of the Mist
  • 3 Pyroblast
  • 2 Uktabi Orangutang
  • 1 Terror
  • 2 Tidal Wave
 This is a 3-Color deck which is similar to the much talked about "Forgotten Orb" or '187 decks. Relying on cost efficient "card-advantage" creatures (Nekrataal, Man-o-War, Guildmage). This version still eats it from Arrows and Pyroclasm like I believed most of the Orb decks would. The deck is fairly mana-light but it's peak casting cost is 4, with most spells being 2-3 mana. The decks beat-down consists of Cloud Elementals (Puffy), Black Knights, and the experimental Necratog. Jellyfish, Nekrataals, Incinerates, Guildmages, and a Terror dispose of opposing creatures. The 5 counterspells are used as a setup for an Orb , or a "Time Walk" under the Orb. Tutor's are pretty helpful in this deck, they serve as Winter Orbs number 4 and 5 or can help find the finishing blow. Key spells that pose problems are Serrated Arrows, Icy Manipulators, and the occasional Pyroclasm (just because it's so cheap (1)). By the time a wrath comes along you will probably have a counter and an orb (or a tutor for the orb) in hand ... Spike or Lapse the WoG then drop the Orb and continue beatdown. Other possibilities in the deck are Contagion (the current version with no Dark Rituals isn't sporting any), Uktabi Orangutans (beware the Monkey), and more artifact mana (Fellwar stones may prove better then Barbed Sextants). The sideboard for the deck is fairly flexible. The respective Blasts are great for forcing spells through, and for creature kill v. a Red or Blue (or both) deck. The Monkey's are necessary v. Diamonds, Icys, and Disks. Terror versus big green, blue flyers and angry red guys (orgg, sandstalker, wildfire). Tidal Waves are good v. pro-whatever, and more importantly un-targetables like the Centaur and Autumn Willow. Other possibilities include Mind Bends (v. Circles), more 'Blasts, Gloom (fearsome with an orb out), an Extra Orb, Ray of Command and Contagion.

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The Crusader

Land

  • 4 Undiscovered Paradise
  • 4 Gemstone Mine
  • 3 City of Brass
  • 10 Plains

Creatures

  • 4 White Knights
  • 2 Zhalfrin Crusaders
  • 4 Order of the White Shield
  • 2 Derelor
  • 2 Uktabi Orangutang
  • 4 Man-o-War

Other Spells

  • 3 Aura of Silence
  • 2 Swords to Plowshares
  • 1 Terror
  • 1 Stormbind
  • 1 Armageddon
  • 4 Incinerate
  • 3 Abeyance
  • 2 Arcane Denial
  • 4 Barbed Sextant
  • Total: 60 Cards

Sideboard

  • 1 Abeyance
  • 3 Winter Orb
  • 2 Swords to Plowshares
  • 2 Mind Bend
  • 4 Honorable Passage
  • 1 Aura of Silence
  • 2 Disenchant
 This deck is an attempt to take advantage of the multitude of "special" lands available in type II. It pulls spells from all colors and meshes them around an essentially white weenie critter base. It relies on fast creatures, and then delay and disruption tactics. Man-o-Wars, Terrors, Plows, Incinerates all slow or destroy opposing blockers. Abeyance provides a time walk when played during the opponents upkeep, and the cantrip effect tightens up the deck. Also abeyance provides a built in answer to a permission deck. Prison-style decks are *destroyed* by Aura of Silence, make sure to play the Aura when you have a target to sacrifice it on (usually a Diamond) v. a Prison, v. decks without disenchants play it ASAP to stop Arrows, Icy's, Disks, Diamonds etc. The Monkeys whack any artifacts that make it through the Aura and provide off-color beatdown. Red cannot deal with a Crusader ... he is a really great critter (and he Flanks). Derelor is a great 4 mana creature who can't be terrored or Nekrataaled or Incinerated. The Barbed Sextants help alleviate color screw and also help to tighten the deck up. A total of seven cantrips makes up for the light land count. The Arcane Denials are in there to stop any mass card advantage spell your opponent might use such as Wrath of God, or Pyroclasm. Main deck cards that are still receiving consideration are Tithe (huge card advantage, and nullifies land-screw). 4 Main deck Abeyance ... this card is just abusive. Longbow Archers or Order of the White Shield? I didn't like the Orders vulnerability to Granger Guildmage and Knight of the Mist, but if you expect few black decks by all means swap the Archers for Orders. I'd really like to swap them for Savannah Lions ;) Play with the Aura and you will see how it rules ... It takes some deciding to know whether or not to play it before seeing an artifact/enchantment ... the decision is easier second game. This particular 'board has another Abeyance and Winter Orbs for big blue (Rainbow ... Mana intense blue). Winter orb also against any mana-intensive deck. The honorable passages are aggressive awesome cards v. red decks, passaging a Fireblast is really harsh. The Swords are there for extra critter control. Mind Bend is a good flexible anti-color hoser card, stomping Anarchy and Dystopia as well as helping versus Wildfires and Pro-White critters. Mind Bend is also very usefull against mono-decks (esp. if you run the 8-pro-black Knight version) turning a Knight into an unstoppable creature. The extra artifact / enchantment kill is for lock type decks. Other cards which are worth toying with are Tariff ... and some X-Spells ... a Fireball coming out of this deck is a great surprise.

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Trippy-Post

Land

  • 4 Thawing Glaciers
  • 4 Adakar Wastes
  • 6 Plains
  • 9 Islands
  • 2 Kjeldoran Outpost

Critters

  • 1 Rainbow Efreet

Other Spells

  • 3 Brainstorm
  • 4 Abeyance
  • 4 Counterspell
  • 4 Dissipate
  • 3 Disenchant
  • 3 Swords to Plowshares
  • 2 Wrath of God
  • 1 Mystical Tutor
  • 1 Browse
  • 1 Soldevi Digger
  • 3 Impulse
  • 1 Gerrard's Wisdom
  • 3 Force of Will
  • 1 Nevinyrral's Disk
  • 1 Amber Prison
  • Total: 61 Cards

Sideboard

  • 2 Hydroblast
  • 2 COP: Red
  • 3 Disrupting Scepters
  • 3 Divine Offering
  • 3 Nevinyrral's Disk
  • 2 Political Trickery
 This Counter-Post is meant to be a tighter less defensive version, using the Abeyances to help establish land early on. Then using the deck manipulation (Brainstorm, Impulse, Mystical Tutor) and card drawing (Browse, Thawing Glaciers) to end up with the necessary victory cards in hand. The Brainstorm normally sucks rocks, but with 4 Glaciers, and 3 Impulses it usually assures less 'useless' cards in hand. So versus another counter-post Brainstorming then returning anti-critter cards to the top then glaciering. This particular version has 11 counterspells, which is a bit low ... the Nevinyrral's disk helps out with this, clearing the board it's especially usefull versus black. The Amber Prison is included mainly to combat other Outposts, but it's a little more flexible then a Political Trickery ... stopping Critters and Artifacts. A kill is achieved through two Outposts, a Rainbow Efreet or by decking the opponent. The digger recurses valuable spells back in the library, while the Browse tosses the trash. Gerrard is pretty good against burn , he usually nets about 10 or so life. This deck requires some practice , patience and personal modification to play correctly ... It was a force at nationals in various incarnations, some with no main deck Post defense, others with more counters, others with Icy's. I felt I couldn't ignore the Outpost, but at the same time Political Trickery is so damn useless versus other decks. So I settled for 1 Prison, and 1 Trick. The sideboard is slanted toward beating other counter-post decks. The three Beat-Sticks and 2 Tricks (might be Prisons) should do the trick. Another Rainbow might be a good side-in versus counter-post. Divine's versus decks with Orbs and Mana Webs. Disks versus permanent heavy decks. Hydroblasts and COP:Red versus Geeba and Counter-Hammer. I could see possible COP:Black, and also mind bend in the board. Gloom is bad but disks can handle it, Disks also off Centaurs and Willow/Shade. The deck has a very tight feel to it, with all the cantrip action ... it's runs a bit mana light but the trips usually solve that problem. Impulse is one of the best anti-land screw cards I have ever played with.

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Mono-Green Beat

Land (19)

  • 17 Forest
  • 2 Heart of Yavimaya

Critters (31 !!!)

  • 4 Ghazban Ogre
  • 4 Rogue Elephant
  • 4 Quirion Ranger
  • 4 Llanowar Elf
  • 2 Uktabi Monkey
  • 2 Stampeding Wildebeast
  • 4 River Boa
  • 4 Jolreal's Centaur
  • 2 Harvest Wurm
  • 1 Lhurgoyf

Other Spells (10)

  • 4 Winter Orb
  • 4 Giant Growth
  • 1 Stunted Growth
  • 1 Winter Blast
  • Total: 60 cards

Sideboard

  • 4 Whirling Dervish
  • 2 Tranquil Grove
  • 2 Sex-Monkey
  • 3 Serrated Biskelions
  • 4 Thermokarst
 Hmmm there's uh ... alot of strategy involved with this finely honed piece of machinery , or something. Not really, it's the most basic critter-rush decks around. Start the flow with elves (or hopefully a turn one OGRE). Follow up with mid-range beat down like Centaur and Harvest Wurm. There are a few tricks to this deck, most of them fundamental strategies. If your opponent is playing mass critter kill spells (i.e. Wrath or Quake ... disk???) play out a couple of creatures and force a Wrath/Whatever , then play your Orb and continue the beat. You should have enough critters to overcome 1-2 wraths ... Wildebeasts are great mid-game critters and are dope-style with a Funky-Monkey for spanking Icy's , Diamonds and Arrows. The Rogues and Hearts will put Forests in the tank for you to snatch up with the Harvest Wurm. One interesting note is the complete lack of direct creature kill in this deck, this is fairly standard in straight green. Your creatures (and to a greater extent Giant Growth) are your critter kill ... don't be afraid to send a horde over. The Winter Blast is intended as a possible game winning stalemate breaker ... It can clear out walls and other blockers and allow you to go for one big rush. The Stunted Growth provides a similar use, if your opponent is land slow, or hasn't drawn any destruction yet ... the SG is three more attack phases. This deck is very simple, and therefore highly modifiable. The critters can be swapped out according to local meta-game. Example, my local game is all black weenie and Buried Alive ... out 2 River Boa, out 2 Harvest Wurm, out 4 Rogue Elephants ... in 4 Whirling Dervish in 4 Spectral Bears. My local game is all Blue cheese-heads ... throw in Karoo Meerkats, red you say? Out go the Ghazban Ogres in with Maros. Green's critter selection is of course it's biggest asset, and they can be molded to any meta-game. This board is set-up to hose Black with domains and Dervii. Chunk artifacts with more Monkeys. And destroy glacier/outpost reliant decks with the Thermo Karsts. Biskelions provide critter kill (v. Armored Falcon) and provide morale for your Lhurgoyf. Other sideboard possibilities are the mighty Straw Golem, Emerald Charms ... and Sandstorms. Just remember to attack every turn , and you'll be fine with this deck.

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Turbo-Armor

Land (18)

  • 4 Adarkar Wastes
  • 4 Flood Plains
  • 1 Island
  • 9 Plains

Critters (20)

  • 4 White Knight
  • 4 Order of the White Shield
  • 4 Freewind Falcon
  • 4 Death Speaker
  • 4 Duskrider Falcon

Other Spells (22)

  • 4 Tithe
  • 4 Impulse
  • 4 Empyrial Armor
  • 3 Mind Bend
  • 4 Memory Lapse
  • 2 Swords to Plowshares
  • 1 Disenchant
  • Total: 60 Cards

Sideboard

  • 3 Spell Blast
  • 3 Hydroblast
  • 2 Swords to Plowshares
  • 3 Honorable Passage
  • 2 Disenchant
  • 2 Man -o- War
 This is a first shot at a 'Maro-Armor' deck. It seems worth a shot, although I still don't see it being as strong as a more traditional white weenie. This one takes a very direct route ... hoping to get an armored pro-X critter into play as soon as possible as often as possible. 4 Tithes, and 4 Impulses help filter and draw cards , as well as keep your hand size up. There are only 4 first turn critters but you also have 4 tithes to use on turn one. There are plenty of turn two critters ;) Then hopefully on turn three one of said-critters can become phat ... now here's the problem I have with the deck , the critter buys the proverbial farm. The red, green, or black deck eats Stuff and dies but the blue or white (or both) deck just Man-o-War's it or Plow's it, you could wait 2 more turns and be able to lapse their response and buy another 6-9 point hit but then you are slowed down. So basically I see this deck as a gamble. There will be those games in which your opponent just can't handle your 8/8 flying pro-whatever doom-bringer and you will perform the throat-rip, but expect just as many games where your opponent serves up two-for-one on a regular basis. I tried to at least compensate for this slightly by adding more critters then the usual maro-falcon. Perhaps some games can be salvaged purely through weenie-swarm. The sideboard sports 3 spell blasts to deal with it's biggest problem, STP. More anti-red stuff , notably Hydroblast to wank anarchy, and some Honorable Passages to make him think about those Fireblasts. Man-o-war's slow other critter decks, and serve versus other Falcon decks. The obligatory Swords and Chants reside in the board as well. It deserves some thought, and might make a good deck for someone in an area with alot of black/red, as you'll almost always take the first game.

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Lake of Agony

Land (22)

  • 18 Swamp
  • 2 Quicksand
  • 2 Lake of the Dead

Critters (8)

  • 4 Knight of Stromgald
  • 2 Steel Golem
  • 2 Ishan Shade

Other Spells (30)

  • 4 Dark Ritual
  • 4 Icequake
  • 3 Choking Sands
  • 3 Agonizing Memories
  • 4 Drain Life
  • 4 Necropotence
  • 2 Demonic Consultation
  • 2 Contagion
  • 4 Nevinyrral's Disk
  • Total: 60 Cards

Sideboard

  • 4 Dystopia
  • 1 Choking Sands
  • 2 Mind Warp
  • 2 Steel Golem
  • 1 Contagion
  • 2 Soul Burn
  • 2 Nekrataal
  • 1 Serrated Arrow
 This is a fine example of a meta-game deck. It has gained lots of popularity around the mid-atlantic region, and was seen at Nationals. It is designed to pick counter-post up and smash it , eat it and maim it. Tons of disruption (7 Land Kill, 3 Agonizing TimeWalks) and unplowable critters spell trouble for blue/white. If your quicksand just got wacked you have no choice but to Wrath the pesky pump-knight. The deck also maximizes it's use of Drain Life, using Lakes, 4 Rituals, and Consults (sometimes more then 2) to assure a Drain Life. The basic plan is early Land D along with a Knight or Golem, then a mid-game memory which will set up for the kill via large Drain or Shade of Death. This sideboard has quite a few cards to try to stop the card which wacks this deck, Whirling Dervish. 4 'Topes 2 more Golems, and a set of Arrows. The extra choke and the Mind Warps are good versus permission. Soul Burns are against the Mono-Red burn decks. Although this deck does do a great job against what I believe it was designed to crush, against a more balanced field I don't think it's all that strong. It shoots it's own hand and without a Potence to refill you are dead. Versus red it suffers badly, normally a win with this deck means Necro for 5-6 cards that takes you to 10-12, and versus red you die at 10 life.

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Alien

Land (23)

  • 1 Undiscovered Paradise
  • 2 City of Brass
  • 2 Thawing Glaciers
  • 7 Plains
  • 11 Mountain

Critters (6)

  • 4 Steel Golem
  • 2 Ogre Enforcer

Other Spells (32)

  • 4 Hammer of Bogardan
  • 4 Swords to Plowshares
  • 3 Aether Flash
  • 3 Disenchant
  • 1 Pillage
  • 4 Abeyance
  • 2 Chimeric Sphere
  • 1 Fireball
  • 1 Earthquake
  • 3 Fire Diamond
  • 3 Mind Stone
  • 1 Gerrards Wisdom
  • 2 Armageddon
  • Total: 61 Cards

Sideboard

  • 4 Wrath of God
  • 2 Honorable Passage
  • 2 Mana Web
  • 3 Disrupting Scepters
  • 2 Divine Offering
  • 1 Disenchant
  • 1 Balduvian Trading Post
 I normally don't post decks I am currently playing but this one is pretty neat. It follows many of the other R/w decks principles only this one is more offensive. I'll add more comments as I play it and test it more.