From: quiff@conan.ids.net (Cathy Nicoloff) Newsgroups: rec.games.trading-cards.magic.strategy Subject: For your consumption... my 3 best decks Date: 20 Nov 1995 05:26:31 GMT I've grown a little tired of the unfriendly atmosphere surrounding most of these newsgroups. Too many people are too secretive about their best combos and decks and are unwilling to help anybody else. I play Type II. I play Type II because it's a challenge with few spoilers, and it's not so cutthroat competitive. I've got my Lotus and other things, but I'd sooner sell the Lotus than stick it into a deck and be forced to play against Mr. Suitcase in a Type I. So, because there's an actual dearth of senses of humor and charity, I've decided that I'll go ahead and post the contents of my 3 best Type II decks. I hope they're useful to you. Simple concepts, and I've no reason to hide my ideas. Perhaps if you take and mangle one, you'll see fit to tell me why yours is better. If there are any newbies, I hope you'll find these deck ideas sufficiently cheap enough to make on your own. ----- Red/White Direct damage. The main flaw of red direct damage is that it comes out strong and then runs out of damage. This is my attempt to remedy that. White - 3 Disenchant (for those COP:Reds your opponent has!) 4 COP:Red Red - 4 Orcish Artillery 4 Orcish Cannoneers (tap to do 2 damage to any target and 3 to you) 7 1 mana goblins of your choice. I use 4 Goblin Balloon Brigades and 3 Goblins of the Flarg 3 Goblin Grenades 4 Lightning Bolts 4 Incinerates 2 Disintegrate 2 Fireball 1 Feldon's Cane (optional) Land - 15 Mountains 8 Plains Theme : Orcs provide continual direct damage capacity. Use COP:Red to keep from hurting yourself. Goblins are fast and can attack, and when they're useless, grenade them. Feldon's Cane is my 1 mana panic button - if I'm running low on direct damage or I need a reshuffle _bad_, I'll activate it. It's optional. The above deck is 61 cards. ----- Black/Green speed deck. The biggest strengths of black and green are the smaller critters and the massive mana potential. I use both. Black - 2 Vampire Bats 4 Unholy Strength 3 Dark Ritual 2 Howl From Beyond Green - 4 Llanowar Elves 3 Fyndhorn Elves 4 War Mammoth 2 Scryb Sprites 3 Willow Faerie 4 Giant Growth 3 Winter Blast (Rare... if you cannot find them, replace with Word of Binding in black) 2 Spectral Bears 1 Erhnam Djinn 1 Whirling Dervish 1 Autumn Willow 2 Elvish Archers Land - 10 Forest 10 Swamp Theme: Small creatures blow up by surprise. Create a horde, and then tap all your opponent's creatures and run over, doing all your damage in one round. Autumn Willow, Winter Blast, Whirling Dervish and Erhnam Djinn will be the hardest cards to come by. Autumn Willow can be replaced by Durkwood Boars or something 4/4, Winter Blast can be replaced by Word of Binding, WHirling Dervish can be a Spectral Bear or a Grizzly Bear, and Erhnam Djinn can be something big. The concept is just a certain ratio of small to large critters, as well as mana ratios (helped by the elves) and creature enchantments necessary. 60 cards ----- Red/Green sacrificial deck. This deck takes one mana critters and turns them into two colorless with Ashnod's Altar, doubling your investment and letting you get out rather large creatures. A small group of 5 1/1 creatures becomes fodder for a 10 point fireball. Artifact - 4 Ashnod's Altar 1 Zuran Orb 1 Shield of the Ages 2 Clockwork Beast Red - 4 Orcish Lumberjack 2 Fireball 2 Disintegrate 2 Earthquake 2 Primordial Ooze 2 Shivan Dragon Green - 3 Llanowar Elves 3 Fyndhorn Elves 2 Giant Spider 3 Scryb Sprites 1 Bird of Paradise 3 Tinder Wall 2 Hurricane 2 Scaled Wurm 1 Craw Wurm Land - 10 Mountain 10 Forest 62 cards. Theme : With an Altar out, a lumberjack is worth 6 mana. Tap forest for 1, sacrifice forest for 3, sacrifice lumberjack for 2. Good for a turn 3 Scaled Wurm, a 7/6 behemoth. Tinder Walls are good for color specific mana. Of all my deck ideas, this will be the trickiest one to get cards for. Replacements : I will replace the Craw Wurm with a Scaled Wurm, some of the Sprites with Birds of Paradise, and maybe add another CLockwork Beast and a Feldon's Cane (because you're bound to run low on expendable critters!). This deck has severe mana potential. The Zuran Orb is good for when you're getting your ass whipped and all you have is an earthquake in your hand... maybe you can save yourself. Besides being mana to summon creatures, all creatures in play when the altar is out become fodder for that game-ending X mana direct damage spell, of which this deck has 8...The SHield is iffy, but sacrificing a 1/1 will keep you in the game by one point... it might make a difference. An Orgg or two certainly couldn't hurt this deck. If you go above 65 cards, add a few more mana. There's a very low mana ratio in the deck because the game-winning mana isn't from land after a few rounds... ----- I hope you enjoy these deck ideas. Feel free to mangle them. Send questions, comments, or flames to my e-mail address. Good night, and God bless. -Cathy