PRIMER -- Revised Draw Go / Forbiddian / Acc Blue

Beyond Dominia: The Type One Magic Mill: PRIMER -- Revised Draw Go / Forbiddian / Acc Blue

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By Rakso, Patriarch & Rules Ayatollah (Rakso) on Tuesday, October 09, 2001 - 02:21 am:

DRAW-GO PRIMER
Oscar Tan aka Rakso
Type I Maintainer
www.bdominia.com
Manila, Philippines
June 8, 2000 (revised February 26, 2001)

(note: This is a casual deck Primer and sets before Revised and Fallen Empires are not emphasized, though Ancestral Recall and Library of Alexandria would automatically be in the deck. The main purpose of this Primer is to demonstrate the intelligent use of counters to newer players… never a simple task.)

CUNEO BLUE, TEMPEST-ERA STANDARD, ANDREW CUNEO
Counters (14)
4 Counterspell
4 Dissipate
4 Dismiss
2 Power sink

Card Drawing/Manipulation (8)
4 Impulse
4 Whispers of the Muse

Creatures (6)
4 Steel Golem
2 Dancing Scimitar

Others (8)
2 Argivian Restoration
2 Capsize
4 Nevinyrral's Disk

Land (25)
4 Quicksand
4 Sylvanite temple
3 Reflecting pool
14 Island


CMU BLUE, AUGUST 1998, ERIK LAUER
Land (26):
4 Stalking Stones
4 Quicksand
18 Island

Permission (21):
4 Force Spike
4 Counterspell
1 Memory Lapse
3 Mana Leak
3 Forbid
2 Dissipate
4 Dismiss

Other (13):
4 Nevinyrral's Disk
4 Impulse
4 Whispers of the Muse
1 Rainbow Efreet

Sideboard (15):
4 Hyrdoblast
4 Sea Sprite
2 Capsize
4 Wasteland
1 Grindstone


DRAW-GO, PRE-MERCADIAN MASQUES STANDARD
Randy Buehler, World Championships ’99 (6-0 in Standard)
Counters (17)
4 Counterspell
4 Mana Leak
1 Miscalculation
4 Forbid
4 Dismiss

Creatures (3)
3 Masticore

Others (12)
4 Whispers of the Muse
4 Powder Keg
4 Treachery

Land (28)
4 Faerie Conclave
4 Stalking Stones
4 Wasteland
16 Island


INTRODUCTION
Blue decks have come a long way from when I first began playing. Years back, if the ordinary player wanted to build a counterspell deck, all he had was Counterspell and Power Sink (excluding Mana Drain), and had to stretch the list with picks such as Force Spike, Flash Counter, Remove Soul and Spell Blast. Even with the printing of Force of Will in Alliances, counters were always paired with another theme and were well-played in blue/white and blue/red control decks. As more and more counters were created, and especially with the printing of Forbid (which allowed a player to use weaker counters to good effect in the early game but still keep them as discard fuel later in the game), a deck that was mostly counters became possible. With the only non-land and non-counter cards (aside from Whispers and Impulse) being a creature or two and Nevinyrral’s Disks, these decks often played nothing in their own turns, earning them the nickname, “Draw-Go”.

Similar in structure to but at the opposite extreme of the burn decks, Draw-Go plays like a wall of countermagic. It requires great patience and skill as one can never afford to counter every spell played by the opponent but must appear to be able to. They excel in matches against slower decks where they can pick out one component of the deck and disrupt it, such as one part of a combo deck, or the victory conditions in a deck with very few of them such as a Wildfire deck. Their greatest nightmares, however, come against fast, aggressive and redundant decks which can overwhelm them with threats cheaper than the counters. At the height of their popularity, Draw-Go decks had difficulty facing red decks with cheap but potent cards such as Jackal Pup and Cursed Scroll.

This kind of deck works quite well in Type I because counters are never an incorrect solution to a problem that has yet to be cast. Excluding the power, however, the Type I casual Draw-Go regains many old friends to cover the Type II versions’ weaknesses. For example:


RAKSO’S CASUAL TYPE I DRAW-GO (excluding Ancestral and Library)

Counters (18)
4 Force of Will
4 Force Spike
4 Counterspell
4 Mana Leak / Mana Drain
2 Forbid

Card Drawing/Manipulation (7)
3 Impulse
4 Fact or Fiction

Others (8)
4 Powder Keg
2 Nevinyrral’s Disk
3 Morphling

Land (26)
4 Thawing Glaciers
1 Strip Mine
4 Wasteland
2 Dust Bowl
15 Island

(Note: Some versions of this Type I deck use Ophidians and less counters, and is commonly known as Forbiddian, though it has less Forbids than its Extended counterpart. Other versions use artifact mana and 4 Morphlings and are Type I adaptations of the Urza-era Accelerated Blue or PatrickJ decks. Other versions splash colors. This primer discusses the “pure” near-creatureless Draw-Go deck, which a player should familiarize himself with before eyeing less homogenous blue decks.)


THE ART OF COUNTERING SOMETHING
Since you cannot counter everything, regardless of the deck you are playing against, you will have to make decisions on what to focus on. This becomes obvious when playing against a combo deck, for example, but the weak spot of a deck is not always easy to spot. In general, however, there are things you never counter.

Do not bother with cards that have no direct effect on the game, especially on the board. This is especially true of life gain, for example, such as Zuran Orb or a Lightning Bolt aimed at you while you are at 18 life. Do not bother with mana producers (unless there is a good reason). Do not counter cards you can play around, especially creatures that will later die to Disk, Keg or the Morphling you are about to cast. Note, however, that you have to counter them if they will deal enough damage before the Disk, Keg or Morphling stops them, and that it takes some practice to discern what “enough” is.

Do counter things that will give the opponent card advantage such as Ancestral Recall and MOST ESPECIALLY Necropotence (but do not Force of Will Hymn to Tourach unless you need to save a key card since you still end up with two cards less). Do counter things that you cannot kill (such as a Rainbow Efreet) and especially permanent sources of damage you do not expect to remove with Disk or Keg. Do counter things that disrupt your counters (such as City of Solitude and Null Brooch, and if you actually can, first-turn Hypnotic Specters). Do counter things that reuse spells such as Gaea’s Blessing if you expect a slower game (you do not want to play a long game knowing he may draw up to three more counters, for example).

It takes a lot of skill because you have to know both your deck and your opponents’ just by observing closely and making intelligent guesses (without using things such as Jester’s Cap, Lobotomy, Telepathy and Urza’s Glasses), but you will never be able to play a control deck without this knowledge. This can be very confusing; against older Type II Replenish decks, for example, where various spells can be good or bad depending on its cards in hand. Players will play spells to bait you and hope you counter to deplete your counters, and sometimes, they play spells you have no choice but to counter.

One example of confusion is that you might want to counter the early mana producers of an opponent, especially a Birds of Paradise, to keep mana parity to allow you to counter all his spells if necessary until you can safely play a Disk or Keg. You might not bother with a first-turn 1/1, but you might want to play Force Spike to counter first-turn Jackal Pups, Goblin Patrols or Goblin Cadets as these quickly add up. Again, things like this take a certain knowledge of both decks.

Here, is the commentary of Erik Lauer for his 1998 deck in the introduction (at a time when blue had a whole range of counters, unlike the Urza Type II where the dearth of good counters forced the creation of Accelerated Blue):

“When playing the deck, the early strategy involves countering almost any spell you can. For example, a Wall of Roots or a Bird of Paradise is a card I almost always counter in the early going ; if my opponent has more mana available than I do, I will become unable to counter all the threats he can present in one turn.

“After I build up to about 4 mana, I will often use Quicksands for creature control, trying to hold off on playing a Disk when possible (since I have to tap my mana, letting my opponent cast any spells he wishes). When under severe pressure I cast a Disk as soon as possible. I try to gain a little card advantage using Dismiss, then eventually gain total control via Whispers of the Muse.

“Even when sideboarding against a very agressive deck, I tend to leave all my Whispers in (since my main midgame plan is still to gain control through Whispers). If I am bringing in either the Sea Sprites or the Capsizes I tend to take the Rainbow out. The Sea Sprites give me enough ways to win (and the Rainbow is too slow against most red decks).

“When I bring the Capsizes in, I don't want to draw Capsizes and Rainbow in my opening hand (since they are both rather slow), and I know that eventually I can protect a Stalking Stone with a Capsize. While this deck is rather homogenous (just lots and lots of land and counters), I still find it rather enjoyable to play. I don't think this style of deck takes nearly as long to win with as a deck that uses Gaea's recursion to win; a Rainbow or a Stalking Stone typically just takes 7 turns to win with after you have established control.”

As a general rule, always leave mana open even if you have nothing but land in your hand. This is also known as bluffing, and you win the psychological game when your opponent automatically assumes you have a counter in hand whenever he casts a spell.

As a final note, your skills in countering will be sorely tested when playing against another permission deck, and you will generally be caught in counter wars where counters fly back and forth over one spell. When these happen, try to see whether or not you want to (or can) win and count mana available and both of your cards in hand. Counter wars can be bluffs, of course, and some decks can start these wars during the opponents’ end phases (with cards like Fact or Fiction, Whispers of the Muse, Turnabout and Mana Short, for example) to clear the way for their main phases.


A SAMPLE PUZZLE

The difficult judgment calls in using counters are well highlighted by Zvi Mowshowitz in his discussion of the Urza-era Type II Replenish deck. This dangerous deck could overwhelm the blue decks of the time simply by playing more spells than they could counter and tempting them into wasting precious counters on unnecessary spells.

This is the decklist of the theoretical opponent taken from “Matchup Analysis: Replenish vs. Accelerated Blue”, published on Mindripper last April 25, 2000:

REPLENISH, ZVI MOWSHOWITZ, US NATIONALS 2000
11 Island
8 Plains
4 Adarkar Wastes
2 Marble Diamond
1 Sky Diamond
3 Brainstorm
4 Replenish
4 Attunement
4 Parallax Wave
4 Parallax Tide
4 Opalescence
3 Seal of Cleansing
1 Energy Field
4 Enlightened Tutor
3 Counterspell

SB
3 Wrath of God
3 Erase
1 Seal of Cleansing
1 Circle of Protection: Black
1 Circle of Protection: Red
1 Meekstone
1 Phyrexian Processor
1 Ring of Gix
1 Marble Diamond
1 Cursed Totem
1 Chill


Players more familiar with Type I and Extended versions of Replenish might think that this deck tried to play Attunement on turn 3, used it to discard key enchantments, then played Replenish on turn 4. Thus, they might think that they must concern themselves only with the Replenishes and the Counterspells.

This, was not the case. The individual cards were threatening enough on their own. Parallax Tide (and Back to Basics in some versions) disrupted one’s mana, and consequently, one’s defenses. Opalescence did nothing on its own, but turned every succeeding enchantment into a serious threat. Depleting the few counters available in Urza-era Type II only left one open to a Replenish that brought back countered enchantments.

Thus, if the Replenish player had a good hand with a Replenish and several threats, he could simply play the threats from least dangerous to most dangerous. Parallax Tide would be left for last since it was the most dangerous threat. Once the opponent used up his counters (and he would be forced to), Replenish sealed the victory.

However, Zvi continued: “That was what to do with a good, threat heavy draw. When you get the opposite hand it's more problematic… Here, you're doing exactly the opposite of what you did above. There you're trying to cast the weakest spell they'll counter. Here you want the strongest spell that will work. Probably the best enchantment here is Opalescence, since most players will let it through. Use Parallax Wave, Attunement and Seal of Cleansing as your pressure, all spells that don't normally get countered. Make sure to play around Treachery, since that would make their life easy, and save your real threat. If they're not being careful they'll be forced to tap out. Then you have them if you drew anything at all. Also note that drawing a lot of land can give you a chance to cast two threats and play around Miscalculation. You'll draw more threats later on.”

Attunement alone highlighted the blue player’s dilemma. If the opponent’s hand had many threats, it would only hurt the Replenish player if used because he would draw three cards but discard four. If, however, the opponent’s hand was weaker, Attunement would exchange excess land and Enlightened Tutors for threats and overwhelm the blue player.

Zvi concluded his analysis with the opinion that the Replenish player would be very happy to play the blue decks of the time.


RUNDOWN OF PLAYABLE COUNTERS

(1 MANA)

FORCE SPIKE
Cost: U
Rarity: Common
Set: Legends
Errata: Counter target spell unless its controller pays {1}. [Oracle 99/09/03]

Used in the early game, especially against potent first-turn creatures such as Kird Ape and Jackal Pup, and larger threats played with acceleration. Plays a psychological game by forcing an opponent to hold an extra mana open every time he plays a spell, slowing him down, or by tempting an opponent into having one less mana to counter with on your turn. Can still be discarded to Force of Will, Misdirection or Forbid later in the game.


DISRUPT
Cost: U
Rarity: Common
Set: Weatherlight
Card Text: Counter target instant, interrupt, or sorcery unless its caster pays an additional 1. Draw a card.
Flavor Text: Oh, I'm sorry - did I break your concentration?

Similar to Force Spike, it can affect only non-permanents but replaces itself. It is stronger against decks with early non-permanents, such as discard decks and Hymn to Tourach, though these are weaker now that Necropotence is restricted. Remember that you draw the card whether or not the cost is paid and you can let Disrupt resolve, hopefully draw a better counter, then counter the original spell. Or, you can simply pay 2 mana to “cycle” this by targeting your own spell.


ANNUL
Cost: U
Rarity: Common
Set: Urza's Saga
Card Text: Counter target artifact or enchantment spell.
Flavor Text: The most effective way to destroy a spell is to ensure it was never cast in the first place.

Far better than Force Spike when you know your opponent packs must-counter artifacts and enchantments. A top sideboard card.


HYDROBLAST
Cost: U
Rarity: Common
Set: Ice Age
Errata: Choose one - Counter target spell if it's red; or destroy target permanent if it's red.

Flavor Text: Heed the lessons of our time: the forms of water may move the land itself and hold captive the fires within." --Gustha Ebbasdotter, Kjeldoran Royal Mage
Rulings: You can target any spell or permanent, it need not be red. It just does not do anything unless the color matches. [D'Angelo 95/06/09]

The second standard anti-red sideboard (after Chill, because Draw-Go generally wins a slow game, which mono red avoids like the plague) card, it is better than its cousin Blue Elemental Blast because it can be discarded (target a land) when needed (against Black Vise, for example, a bane of Draw-Go decks). This is only weaker than BEB when used against a control deck that can use Misdirection to deflect Hydroblast from its Pyroblast.


(2 MANA)

MANA DRAIN
Cost: UU
Rarity: UnCommon
Set: Legends
Errata: Counter target spell. At the beginning of your next main phase, add X to your mana pool, where X is that spell's converted mana cost. [Oracle 99/09/03]

Rulings: The mana gain is done as a beginning of main phase triggered ability and not as a mana ability or such. [D'Angelo 00/03/03]

Voted third most powerful Magic card by Inquest, this often results in mana burn in the wrong deck. Used in the sample deck to play Nevinyrral’s Disk, Fact or Fiction and Morphling earlier. When paired with Mishra’s Factory, excess mana can be sunk here. Remember that you can still use this to gain mana when needed from “cannot be countered” spells (Obliterate, for example), and that buyback and kicker are not part of X.


COUNTERSPELL
Cost: UU
Rarity: UnCommon
Set: Alpha/Beta/Unlimited
Card Text: Counters target spell as it is being cast.

The solid original. No frills and no drawbacks.


MANA LEAK
Cost: 1U
Rarity: Common
Set: Stronghold
Errata: Counter target spell unless its controller pays {3}. [Oracle 99/05/01]

The third best 2-mana counter and used after Mana Drain and Counterspell slots are exhausted. Use in the early game to conserve Counterspells and in the tail end of counter wars, and discard to Force of Will or Forbid later. Outside pure blue, this is the best splashable counterspell, incidentally, with Arcane Denial a distant second.


TEFERI'S RESPONSE
Cost: 1U
Rarity: Rare
Set: Invasion

Card Text: Counter target spell or ability an opponent controls that targets a land you control. If a permanent's ability is countered this way, destroy that permanent. Draw two cards.
Rulings: Remember that a spell only targets something if it uses the word "target" in its text. For example, Armageddon is not targeted. [D'Angelo 00/10/14]

A sideboard card unless everyone has Wastelands or you have man lands, this is an Ancestral Recall against land destruction and the pesky Rishadan Ports of Type II decks that insist on tapping one of your two untapped Islands. Quite fun when you use Mishra’s Factory or Faerie Conclave. The worthier successor of Interdict in casual decks based around Kjeldoran Outpost, incidentally.


(“FREE”)

FORCE OF WILL
Cost: 3UU
Rarity: UnCommon
Set: Alliances
Errata: You may pay 1 life and remove a blue card in your hand from the game instead of paying ~this~'s mana cost. ; Counter target spell. [Oracle 99/07/23]

This card is not a “free” spell since you lose an extra card when you play this. However, you gain the ability to counter even when you have no mana, an ability that must be used with discretion. This spell is extremely good for counter wars early in the game or when desperate (which is all the time).
In a deck with nothing but blue spells and a lot of card drawing, incidentally, you can always find a weaker card to sacrifice such as Force Spike or Impulse.


MISDIRECTION
Cost: 3UU
Rarity: Rare
Set: Mercadian Masques

Errata: You may remove a blue card in your hand from the game instead of paying ~this~'s mana cost. ; Change the target of target spell with a single target. [Oracle 00/10/24]
Rulings: You choose the spell to target on announcement, but you pick the new target for that spell on resolution. [bethmo 99/11/30]; If there is no other legal target for the spell, Misdirection does not change the target. [D'Angelo 00/07/24]

This spell is better than Force of Will in high-power environments with Ancestral Recall, Mind Twist and Stroke of Genius. Lethal when used against an early Hymn to Tourach. Always remember that while one cannot Misdirect a counter onto itself, one can legally Misdirect it to Misdirection and cause it to fizzle, which achieves the same thing.


(3 MANA)

FORBID
Cost: 1UU
Rarity: UnCommon
Set: Exodus

Errata: Buyback-Discard two cards. ; Counter target spell. [Oracle 99/05/01]
Rulings: You actually have to discard the cards if you want to pay the buyback (see Rule A.9). [D'Angelo 98/06/18]

3-mana counters are rarely used with all the 2-mana and “free” counters available, but Forbid is the best one as it can reuse itself if one holds back weaker counters or spare land. It has weakened since all interrupts became instants (Sixth Edition rules allowed other instants to be cast in response to Forbid and before Forbid returned to its owner’s hand), but it is still potent (and can still be paired with Arcane Lab).
Use it with buyback generally if it is your last counter in hand, and be wary of using buyback in a counterwar. Also, hold back excess land to fuel the buyback.
Paired with a card drawer, Forbid allows a player to counter one spell each turn for “free” (discarding the card drawn normally and the extra card). Some players added Arcane Laboratory to their decks to turn the “Forbid lock” into a permanent one, though this is too narrow for general competitive play.


DISSIPATE
Cost: 1UU
Rarity: UnCommon
Set: Mirage

Errata: Counter target spell. Remove that spell card from the game instead of putting it into its owner's graveyard. [Oracle 99/09/03]
Flavor Text: If you weren't born with it, you don't need it." --Grahilah, former trader of Amiqat
Rulings: The card does not go to the graveyard before being removed from the game. [DeLaney 99/01/04]

The only other reasonable 3-mana spell, this is used over Forbid when recurring spells or creatures are expected. In more casual environments, this prevents Draw-Go from losing to Hammer of Bogardan, Shard Phoenix, Ashen Ghoul, Nether Shadow, and the like.


MANA SHORT
Cost: 2U
Rarity: Rare
Set: Alpha/Beta/Unlimited
Errata: Tap all lands target player controls and empty his or her mana pool. [Oracle 00/10/24] Rulings:
· If you play Mana Short in response to a spell, it will have no effect on that spell since the mana has already been paid. [D'Angelo 96/11/08]
· Since this is an instant, your opponent may use instants in response to the casting of this spell. Note that such spells and abilities will be resolved before the mana pool is emptied by the Mana Short. [bethmo 94/06/01] This makes it useless as a countermeasure for spells. To use it effectively, you need to use it during Upkeep and even then it will not prevent the use of instant spells and abilities.
· It even taps lands that do not produce mana. [Oracle 00/10/24] (REVERSAL)


A classic sideboard against counters, it forces a counter war during your opponent’s turn which creates an opening during your own. Works better than Flash and a Morphling for baiting the opponent and forcing him to tap out, and is lethal in combo decks because they can set up the kill in the following turn. Turnabout served the same purpose against blue decks in Urza-era Type II.


RUNDOWN OF OTHER COUNTERS

MISCALCULATION
Cost: 1U
Rarity: Common
Set: Urza's Legacy
Errata: Counter target spell unless its controller pays {2}. ; Cycling {2}. [Oracle 99/05/01]

1 mana makes a big difference and this makes it weaker than Mana Leak, but some players prefer this since it cycles after the early game.


FLASH COUNTER
Cost: 1U
Rarity: Common
Set: Legends
Errata: Counter target instant spell. [Oracle 99/09/03]

One of the earlier counters, this card can be useful in most environments. An extra counter against other counter decks that can be sideboarded by players who want more. The much newer Gainsay can be used for similar purposes, but Flash Counter counters more spells, making for a more flexible sideboard. Against another Draw-Go deck, the most important spell it cannot counter is Morphling, but this is unimportant since it can counter the counters that defend the opponent’s Morphling anyway.


DISMISS
Cost: 2UU
Rarity: UnCommon
Set: Tempest

Card Text: Counter target spell. Draw a card.
Flavor Text: There is nothing you can do that I cannot simply deny." --Ertai, wizard adept

One of the last choices in a counter deck due to its cost and despite the cantrip ability, this is usually played only when little else is available. It used to be filler in its time when one wanted about 20 counters, but the Draw-Go bench has deepened since then.


QUASH
Cost: 2UU
Rarity: UnCommon

Set: Urza's Destiny
Errata: Counter target instant or sorcery spell. Search its controller's graveyard, hand, and library for all cards with the same name as that card and remove them from the game. That player then shuffles his or her library. [Oracle 99/11/01]
Rulings: It removes the countered spell from the game. This is because the first sentence puts the spell into the graveyard before you continue to the second sentence. [Urza's Destiny FAQ 99/05/25]

This “super Dissipate” looks powerful, but is really too awkward to be played, and unless it removes a key spell such as a set of counters or Disenchant.
It remains extremely fun in casual play, and can strip a careless Keeper player of half of his counters if it catches a Mana Drain or Force of Will. Remember to memorize your opponent’s library, by the way.


DESERTION
Cost: 3UU
Rarity: Rare
Set: Visions

Card Text: Counter target spell. If that spell is an artifact or summon spell, put that card into play under your control as though it were just played.
Flavor Text: First the insult, then the injury.

Rulings:
· This spell includes a replacement effect. If the target is an artifact or creature, it never goes to the graveyard. [D'Angelo 99/05/01]
· The card enters play as if just cast and you get to make all necessary decisions from scratch. [Duelist Magazine #17, Page 28]
· Any X in the casting cost is zero since it is not actually being cast. [DeLaney 97/02/02]
· The card is put into play, but any effects that check if the original card was "played from your hand" (such as with Cloud of Faeries) will not trigger or otherwise consider the card to have been played from your hand. The card was put into play by the effect of Desertion instead. [bethmo 99/11/30]

The control magic counterspell is rarely played except as a surprise card due to its cost.
In casual games, it is extremely fun, extremely annoying, and has cool flavor text and Richard Kane-Ferguson art.


POWER SINK
Cost: XU
Rarity: Common
Set: Alpha/Beta/Unlimited

Errata: Counter target spell unless its controller pays {X}. If he or she doesn't, that player taps all lands he or she controls and empties his or her mana pool. [Oracle 00/10/24]
Rulings:
· When this spell resolves, you either pay X mana or let all your mana producing lands become tapped. The lands that become tapped are not "tapped for mana". [bethmo 97/10/09] If you choose to pay, you may pay the X mana using whatever mana abilities you want to use.
· Special lands which do not provide mana are also tapped by this card. [D'Angelo 00/11/06] (REVERSAL)
· If the land provides mana only for specific purposes (like Mishra's Workshop), it cannot be used to pay the X mana (unless that purpose is being filled). Mishra's Workshop, like most purposed mana, could not be used to pay for Power Sink. [WotC Rules Team 94/09/30]
· Does not increase the casting cost of the spell. It just requires a separate expenditure in order for it to succeed. [bethmo 94/05/05]

One of the “original” counterspells, it has weakened after Sixth Edition because an opponent can respond to it with other instants. It is used mainly when a player wants to Power Sink a spell (even a useless spell) during his opponent’s turn, tapping him out.
Like Dismiss, it has simply been passed over after more cheap counters were printed.


SPELL BLAST
Cost: XU
Rarity: Common
Set: Alpha/Beta/Unlimited
Errata: Counter target spell with converted mana X. [Oracle 00/02/01]

A mediocre counter from the original set, it is now practically unplayable many expansions later.


ERTAI'S MEDDLING
Cost: XU
Rarity: Rare
Set: Tempest

Errata: X can't be 0. ; The first time target spell would resolve, put X delay counters on it and remove it from the game instead. ; At the beginning of the upkeep of the removed spell's controller, as long as the spell is removed from the game, remove a delay counter from it. If the card has no delay counters on it, it goes on the stack as a copy of the original spell. [Oracle 00/02/01]
Rulings:
· Note that a delayed Counterspell will be countered when it resolves since the Counterspell will no longer find that its target is on the stack, which is a requirement for countering a spell. [D'Angelo 97/10/29]
· If a spell is targeted by more than one Ertai's Meddling, when the spell tries to resolve the first time, only one of the Ertai's Meddlings will be applied to it (by the choice of the caster of the spell being affected). The other Meddlings will fail since the spell will no longer be on the stack. [D'Angelo 00/02/15]
· A targeted spell which is delayed will still succeed even if its target has phased out and back in again. [bethmo 97/11/19]
· Once it is put back on the stack, it is a "new" spell again and can be countered or even targeted by another Ertai's Meddling. [D'Angelo 99/08/18]

It just had to be mentioned. As ridiculous as this spell may seem, this actually saw use as an additional counter in its day.

Incidentally… it is the only blue spell capable of stopping Obliterate.


RUNDOWN OF OUTRIGHT BAD COUNTERS

ARCANE DENIAL
Cost: 1U
Rarity: Common
Set: Alliances

Errata: Counter target spell. Its controller may draw up to two cards at the beginning of the next turn's upkeep. ; You draw a card at the beginning of the next turn's upkeep. [Oracle 99/11/01]
Rulings: The player does not choose how many cards to draw until the beginning of the appropriate upkeep. [Duelist Magazine #13, Page 26] They choose how many before drawing the first one. [D'Angelo 96/11/11]


DO NOT EVER, EVER, * * * E V E R * * * PLAY ARCANE DENIAL.
ARCANE DENIAL GIVES YOUR OPPONENT CARDS, AND THAT IS * * * B A D * * *.
IT IS ONLY USEFUL IN COMBO DECKS OR AS A DESPERATE SPLASH COUNTER.
THIS IS THE SINGLE MOST COMMON BEGINNER’S MISTAKE ON BEYOND DOMINIA.


MEMORY LAPSE
Rarity: Common
Set: Homelands

Card Text: Counter target spell. Put that spell on top of its owner's library.
Flavor Text: Um... oh... what was I saying?" -Reveka, Wizard Savant---AND---"Oh, I had a conscience once, but alas, I seem to have forgotten where I put it." -Chandler
Rulings: The card does not go to the graveyard before being put on the library. [bethmo 97/10/19]

Memory Lapse is not really a counter. It is an excellent stall card for aggressive blue weenie decks such as Merfolk-based ones, and is hilarious in these paired with Winter Orb. Draw-Go, however, is a much slower deck where one does not really accomplish anything in the time gained before the opponent replays the spell.
It was reprinted, but with the lame flavor text.


SCENT OF BRINE
Cost: 1U
Rarity: Common
Set: Urza's Destiny
Card Text: Reveal any number of blue cards in your hand. Counter target spell unless its controller pays 1 for each card revealed this way.

Beginning players might try to play with this. Don’t, since it is a bad Mana Leak that reveals your hand.


PROHIBIT
Cost: 1U
Rarity: Common
Set: Invasion
Card Text: Kicker 2 (You may pay an additional 2 as you play this spell.) Counter target spell if its converted mana cost is 2 or less. If you paid the kicker cost, counter that spell if its converted mana cost is 4 or less instead.

Though this works against most key spells, it is worse than others because you do look strange when going second and the opponent plays a 3-mana spell when you have only two Islands in play.


REWIND
Cost: 2UU
Rarity: Common
Set: Urza's Saga

Card Text: Counter target spell. Untap up to 4 lands.
Flavor Text: Time flows like a river. In Tolaria we practice the art of building dams." -Barrin, master wizard
Rulings:
· You can untap from 0 to 4 lands. [DeLaney 98/10/05]
· Does not target the lands. [DeLaney 98/10/05]
· Can be used on already untapped lands (with no effect). [DeLaney 98/10/05]
· Can be used on another player's lands. [DeLaney 98/10/05]

This looks good, but is just too awkward, and can be countered in a counter war to keep your land tapped. The free counterspell is not usually very useful except when an opponent is trying to cast a lot of cheap permanents past your counters.
The Sixth Edition rules changing this to an instant mean that you can respond to it before the lands untap, further weakening it.


THWART
Cost: 2UU
Rarity: UnCommon
Set: Mercadian Masques
Card Text: You may return three islands you control to their owner's hand instead of paying Thwart's mana cost. Counter target spell.

You will rarely need more than 4 Force of Will against must-counter permanents, and can add up to 4 Misdirection against certain other spells. Returning Islands hurts you in the following turns, so this card looks much worse than it is, unless you really intend to use those cards to pay for Masticore’s upkeep or something similar.
Keep this one in your Stasis variants. (And note Foil is usually just as unnecessary since it trades 3 of your cards for 1 of his. Misdirection is simply sufficient if one needs more Force of Wills.)


(Type II note: Rishadan Port was a popular card in the Urza-era Type II, making it better for decks to use the Port early on instead of holding back mana to counter because they prevent the opponent from casting nastier spells earlier. This does not work in Type I.)


CARD DRAWING AND MANIPULATION
Card drawing is essential to most blue decks, and Draw-Go does not use the top blue card drawing permanent (Ophidian; the top permanent drawer is, of course, Library of Alexandria) because it keeps few permanents to maximize its artifact removal. This is also why it does not use the alternatives such as Treasure Trove and Jayemdae Tome.

Instead of Ophidian, it uses the latest (and possibly last) word in card drawing: the unbelievable Fact or Fiction.

FACT OR FICTION
Cost: 3U
Rarity: UnCommon
Type: Instant
Set: Invasion

Card Text: Reveal the top five cards of your library. An opponent separates those cards into two face-up piles. Put one pile into your hand and the other into your graveyard.
Rulings: You choose which pile to put into your hand. [D'Angelo 10/14/00]

This unbelievable card takes a little imagination, but it allows you to filter through your next five cards, and pick up a key card such as Morphling, Nevinyrral’s Disk, Powder Keg or Strip Mine, or pick up three to four extra cards. It is also an instant, and can be used as bait to draw counters during the end of your opponent’s turn. (Beware of tapping out at this time if you expect your opponent might have something nasty, such as Boil. If you do not want it countered, use it when you reach at least 6 mana which allows you to either defend Fact or Fiction or start a counter war that will leave an opening during your turn.) In his Sideboard article, “Separating Fact from Fiction,” Darwin Kastle said, “The card is so powerful that there is now a commonly used acronym referring to it: EOTFOFYL. End of Turn Fact or Fiction You Lose!”

Fact or Fiction greatly increases the consistency of Draw-Go and other control decks since it is card drawing and deck manipulation all in one.

When using Fact or Fiction, one has to be conscious of how an opponent creates his piles. Some choices are straightforward. When faced with a Powder Keg or Morphling when crucial separated from four other spells, take the four cards (especially when you already have a Keg or Morphling in hand, unknown to your opponent) unless the spell is indeed crucial.

Fact or Fiction, however, leaves a lot to the opponent’s skill—or lack of it. In the same article, Darwin discussed what an opponent may do when faced with more difficult choices: “It's when there are three or more meaningful cards that it starts to get really difficult. The board/life situation and what you have in your hand are the main ways to decide which cards are meaningful… The better your position, the fewer cards will be meaningful.”

“There are two main methods: make the piles as close to identical as possible, or try to fool your opponent. The first method is easier and safer. When you're not sure what to do, it is probably the way to go. The second method is harder and riskier, but the potential rewards are greater.

“The key to fooling your opponent is to convince them that your hand gives you important information that they don't have. One approach is to make the piles quickly and confidently. Put a normally powerful card that because of your hand you're not afraid of (I will call this the decoy) in a pile with something of little importance, maybe an excess land. Then the other pile will be composed of the three remaining cards, including the card you're actually most afraid of. Hopefully your opponent will become convinced that the decoy in the smaller pile scares the living daylights out of you and take it. I don't recommend overdoing this. Try to balance the piles enough that if your strategy backfires you might still have a chance to win. Of course if you're desperate enough you can take whatever risks you think necessary.”

He added, “A Fact or Fiction immediately when your opponent reaches four mana can be quite interesting, especially if they didn't arrive at four mana promptly. In this situation I like to put all the land in one pile and the spells in the other. Now you are often guaranteeing a reasonable outcome. Either he is able to have some land to go with the spells he already had, or now he has some extra spells but often without enough mana to exploit this. Its important to separate the cards your opponent wants from those they need. While you should try not to be too greedy when making the separation, you should try and punish your opponent for being greedy.

“For example, when there is another Fact or Fiction among the five cards I'm separating, I often like to put it with the decoy pile. The other pile sometimes contains something so scary that I want to take my chances and another entire turn of my opponent's on a new Fact or Fiction. This is a trap many opponents fall for, since they are playing with Fact or Fiction they are usually a big fan of casting them whenever possible. As powerful as cards like Fact or Fiction are, it's usually dangerous to take too many turns for searching and card drawing and not actually doing anything that affects the board.”

In more competitive Type I, however, note that mana can develop faster. Also, while Type II decks using Fact or Fiction can end up running out of cards if not careful, this is far less relevant in Type I because Morphling can be forced onto the board and win the game in only four turns.

Before Fact or Fiction, Whispers of the Muse was the card drawer of choice for decks that intend to play out long games of control (other decks used Opportunity and Stroke of Genius, for example), but it was too slow and expensive to use outside Type II. If you use it, the two things to remember are: 1) When you have four Whispers, do not be afraid to cast one early (when it is useless) without buyback to cycle through your library; and 2) When you reach 6 mana, a clever aggressive deck will try to cast something every turn to force you to counter in an attempt to stop you from drawing more cards.


Card manipulation has to be examined carefully in terms of net card gain. Frantic Search, for example, uses one card to draw two cards and discard two more for a net loss of one card (and it was used in Type II mainly to combat Tangle Wire, not to draw cards). The same goes for Attunement. Cards like Scroll Rack and Soothsaying also draw no cards and their manipulation ability is limited in a deck that is very redundant (and again, Fact or Fiction is simply faster).

Manipulation is necessary in Draw-Go to increase flexibility, and allow a player to filter into land if needed in the early game, or a key Disk, Keg or Morphling. The manipulation cards of choice are often Impulse and Brainstorm, which have a zero net loss. Impulse is the classic card as it cycles through four cards (“deeper” than similar cards); play it early before you untap to smooth out the land and counters in your hand. (Impulse was also arguably the most memorable card of the Mirage block, and it spawned endless bad “Impulse like a…” humor articles on The Dojo that nevertheless defined an era.)

Brainstorm only digs through two cards but it is more useful in some situations due to the tricks it can perform. In Type I, it is easily cast in response to a discard spell to “hide” key spells on top of your library. With Thawing Glaciers, one can also draw three cards and return two weaker cards (excess land, for example), which will them be reshuffled away.


BLUE’S BEST FRIENDS: DISK AND KEG
This deck type would not be possible without Nevinyrral’s Disk. The reset button gains you several cards because you can neutralize the entire board with it, destroying many of your opponent’s cards with just one of yours. This is the reason why you can afford not to counter some of your opponent’s spells and then begin countering more aggressively after you use the Disk. The loss of the Disk severely weakened mono blue in Type II, forcing them to seek faster wins partly because they could no longer clear the board.

A fun spell to use with the Disk in casual play is Capsize, as one can Capsize the Disk in response to its ability (it does not say “sacrifice” so the Disk will return to your hand to be used again). Some more serious decks use Capsize to return permanents that were not countered when they were first cast, especially regenerating creatures that do not die to Disk. Early on, they can be used as a desperation move to break the tempo of an aggressive attacking deck. (Note that in more competitive play, this combo is too slow and expensive, and a good player should be able to take control after the first use of Nevinyrral’s Disk.)

The Urza Block brought Powder Keg, the popular Disk alternative, and this has become more important in Draw-Go because it can be played earlier. However, it does not sweep the board like its ancestor and does not affect enchantments. Nevertheless, it selectively kills opposing creatures, and can be used even when Morphling is already in play.

Disk is often held until needed because one does not want to avoid tapping out. Against some decks, however, you will want to play Keg as soon as you can instead of holding mana open to counter. The best example is Sligh, where you will want to destroy Jackal Pups, Goblin Cadets and Cursed Scrolls before you have to counter burn spells.

When using Keg, pay close attention to the number of counters. The number to maintain requires close observation of the opponent’s deck. The general rule is to keep the counters at one less than the desired level, and add the last counter during your next upkeep. Against Sligh for example, one can add no counters (which kills man lands and Moxen) until one sees a Jackal Pup, or one can keep Keg at one counter for the weenies with the option to go to two counters if a 2-mana creature is seen. Against another Draw-Go deck, on the other hand, one will want to go to four counters and wait for the Morphling.


THE FINER POINTS OF MORPHLING
Draw-Go contains just a few creatures because when it plays a creature, it expects to win.
Morphling is the best finisher available in the game and is not nicknamed “Superman” for nothing. For the benefit of beginners, though, the Morphling rules are described in this Primer as well.

(The classic choice was Mahamoti Djinn and was followed by other big creatures such as Waterspout Djinn and Silver Wyvern, but even the classic Serra Angel has been displaced by the mighty Morphling. There are alternatives, however, which survive the Disk unlike Morphling: Palinchron with its “free” casting and return-to-hand ability, and Masticore which is strong against weenies and regenerates after Disk.

Rainbow Efreet has become stronger after Sixth as it can now phase out after dealing damage, and can evade the Disk as well. Before Morphling, Draw-Go decks killed with only Stalking Stones and a lone Efreet.)

MORPHLING
Cost: 3UU
Rarity: Rare
Type: Creature - Summon Shapeshifter
Set: Urza's Saga

Errata: 3/3. ; {U}: Untap ~this~. ; {U}: ~this~ gains flying until end of turn. ; {U}: ~this~ can't be the target of spells or abilities until end of turn. ; {1}: ~this~ gets +1/-1 until end of turn. ; {1}: ~this~ gets -1/+1 until end of turn. [Oracle 99/05/01]


First, never play Morphling unless you have at least six mana (the sixth is to activate the “cannot be the target of…” ability to protect the Morphling); in Draw-Go, it is better to wait until you are in complete control. Always use this ability in response to spells and effects that target Morphling to cause them to fizzle, but note that if you have only two or three blue mana open, your opponent can attempt to unload a barrage of spells during the end of your turn to force you to tap out (you can try to conserve blue mana by instead increasing the toughness with colorless mana, if you have to). Once you can protect Morphling, play it immediately, do nothing else but keep mana open, and win in four turns.

Second, remember that if you want to fly past blockers, you have to give Morphling flying before blockers are declared.

Third, remember that Morphling untaps, so attack with it and untap it when you need a blocker.

Fourth, turn Morphling into a 5/1 for a faster kill or to kill a larger creature. The latter is done by using the reverse ability and pumping the Morphling’s toughness after damage is assigned. The Morphling will deal damage based on its original power, but damage will be applied to its new toughness. Thus, to kill a Juzam Djinn, one only has to spend two mana to turn the Morphling into a 5/1, assign damage, then spend five mana to turn it into a 0/6.

Finally, against “power” Type I decks, remember that Morphling gets past both Moat and The Abyss, but dies to Balance, Wrath of God, Nevinyrral’s Disk, Diabolic Edict and Tsabo’s Decree as these are not targeted.

There are so many other little tricks to Morphling that one picks up as one goes. One responds to Abeyance by making Morphling untargetable. One gets past Ensnaring Bridge by turning Morphling into a 0/6 creature then to a 5/1. Note that a Replenished Treachery can legally be placed on Morphling because it is not considered a spell and does not need to target. Also note that Obliterate is used by some sadistic players as an anti-Morphling spell, and the Draw-Go player’s only defense is to hold extra land in hand. Finally, some players sideboard Flash to allow Morphling to be cast as an instant and used as bait to force a counter war during the opponent's turn and create an opening for a second Morphling in the Draw-Go player’s turn. (The Weatherlight land Winding Canyons does the same thing, though for more mana.)

In today’s environment, Draw-Go decks usually cannot just pack one kill card such as the lone Rainbow Efreet of old because decks are faster, making it harder to maintain complete control and encouraging one to end the game faster. (Rainbow Efreet, however, is still used by some players in some situations despite its mana intensiveness because it and not Morphling slips past Oath of Druids.)

(As a final note, while Control Magic and Treachery do not affect Morphling, note that your opponent’s random Bribery and Desertion become very good if they manage to get Morphling, so beware in casual play lest you become the laughingstock of your play group!)


MASTICORE
Cost: 4
Rarity: Rare
Type: Artifact Creature
Set: Urza's Destiny
Errata: 4/4. ; At the beginning of your upkeep, you may discard a card from your hand. If you don't, sacrifice ~this~. ; {2}: ~this~ deals 1 damage to target creature. ; {2}: Regenerate ~this~. [Oracle 99/07/21]

In weenie heavy environments, one will probably want to replace Morphling with Masticore. It has a brutal upkeep, but it can make up by killing weenies, surviving Disk and being able to defeat an opponent in 5 turns. It is also hard to kill when an opponent does not have Swords to Plowshares (or something like Pillage or Treachery), though it is still not as easy as Morphling to protect. One should know when to stop paying the upkeep (for example, when the ground stalls). Note that you can use Fact or Fiction in response to the upkeep to gain some breathing room (when you Impulse for it at the end of your opponent’s turn, for example).

Be especially wary of playing Masticore against a discard deck, though, as you have to keep at least one card in hand for the beginning of the next turn, and a single discard spell can indirectly kill Masticore by emptying your hand.

Note that in addition to creatures, some Draw-Go decks use Treachery, and this can be competitive when creatures such as Ophidians are expected. Generally, however, these are bad (though fun) because an opponent may have no creatures, or no worthwhile creatures. When using it against a weenie deck with nothing worth stealing, steal a creature anyway if you have nothing else to do, to use as a sacrificial blocker.

Bribery, however, is a bad card (unless your opponent has only one Morphling, like some Keeper decks). Treachery costs a card and gains you one of your opponent’s cards, for a net gain of one card in your favor. Bribery costs a card and gains you a card that was not in play, for no net gain. And, your opponent might still have nothing worthwhile.


LAND
Before going into individual card choices, one has to note that Draw-Go has to use a lot of mana. When a control deck faces a similar deck, the one with more mana in play often wins, and many old Type II decks used as many as 30 lands. One has to be very conscious of this when creating a Draw-Go deck. In addition, one also has to pay attention to the number of blue mana sources in the deck and make sure that it consistently gets two blue sources by turn 2 so it can begin countering immediately.

Mana development is very important for the Draw-Go deck, which is why cards like Thwart and Daze can be very bad for it and why cards like Quicksand and Maze of Ith can hurt it more than they seem to.

Aside from Library of Alexandria, there is no land stronger in Draw-Go than Thawing Glaciers. It gives you the mana to win the counter war and thins your deck, improving your draws. However, it is a slow card that many players leave out in competitive play. When using this, make sure to drop at least two Islands first unless you are sure your opponent will play nothing you need to counter. Also note that if you went second, you may end up with nine cards in hand after using Thaw and be forced to discard a card. (Thawing Glaciers’ effect is not felt until the midgame, which may make it too slow for more competitive play. As shown by the casual deck at the start of the article, however, it is fun in casual play and brutal with Dust Bowl.)

Mishra’s Factory is a classic utility land, and gives a backup win option as well as a powerful early blocker (remember that in Sixth, tapped blockers deal damage but a Mishra’s Factory just played still cannot tap itself and give itself +1/+1). Against an opposing counter deck, remember that Mishra’s Factory is uncounterable. One must choose when playing one’s first land, however, as playing Mishra’s Factory in the first turn will remove its summoning sickness for the next turn but disallows you from playing Counterspell.

Faerie Conclave and Stalking Stones are other alternatives, though Faerie Conclave has the problem of coming into play tapped. If you like man-lands, you may also enjoy Trade Routes. While its main purpose is to convert excess land into spells, it bounces man lands (especially after combat damage goes on the stack) and doubles as defense against land destruction.

Land destruction is necessary in any deck and especially against opposing man-lands and Libraries of Alexandia that cannot be countered. The pinpoint land destruction of choice are Strip Mine and 4 Wastelands. Dust Bowl can be added to supplement the deck because Draw-Go plays long games where the Bowl’s ability can come into play and offset the high land count Draw-Go has to run.

Remote Isle is a good Type II choice as it can be cycled if drawn late, but note that Thawing Glaciers is simply more powerful.

Finally, some old decklists contained Quicksand as a creature removal spell. It has to be sacrificed and stunts your development, however. If you like this, however, my personal favorite is the Desert of Arabian Nights. Another old favorite is Maze of Ith, is actually bad because it slows mana development, but can be fun in casual play because it forces an opponent to overextend and lose more cards to Nevinyrral’s Disk.


APPENDIX I: FORBIDDIAN

As mentioned earlier, the best blue permanent card drawer is the innocent-looking Ophidian. With its ability to draw a card each turn for practically no cost, it was soon paired with Forbid when it was printed, a combination that allowed a player to counter one spell each turn for “free” (using the card drawn by Ophidian and the card drawn normally). In addition, Powder Keg was a great boost because it has more synergy with Ophidian than the traditional Nevinyrral’s Disk.

OPHIDIAN
Cost: 2U
Rarity: Common
Type: Creature - Summon Snake
Set: Weatherlight

Errata: 1/3. ; Whenever ~this~ attacks and isn't blocked, you may draw a card. If you do, ~this~ deals no combat damage this turn. [Oracle 99/07/30]
Rulings: See Is Not Blocked Ability, Rule E.6


Forbiddian has become a “trademark deck” of many fine players from Jon Finkel to Beyond Dominia’s Michael Bower aka mikephoen:


CHRIS PIKULA, SECOND PLACE, GRAND PRIX KANSAS CITY (EXTENDED), MARCH 1999

Land (26)
14 Island
4 Thawing Glacier
4 Wasteland
4 Mishra's Factory

Creatures (6)
4 Ophidian
2 Morphling

Counters (15)
4 Force Spike
4 Counterspell
3 Forbid
4 Force of Will

Removal (3)
3 Nevinyrral's Disk

Utility (10)
4 Impulse
4 Brainstorm
2 Arcane Laboratory


MARK LE PINE, TOP 8, 1999 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS, EXTENDED PORTION
Counters (14)
3 Force Spike
4 Counterspell
3 Forbid
4 Force of Will

Creatures (10)
2 Morphling
4 Ophidian
4 Sea Sprite

Removal (4)
4 Powder Keg

Utility (7)
4 Brainstorm
3 Impulse

Land (25)
4 Mishra's Factory
4 Wasteland
4 Thawing Glaciers
13 Island

Sideboard:
1 Nevinyrral's Disk
4 Hydroblast
2 Blue Elemental Blast
1 Arcane Laboratory
3 Tormod's Crypt
3 Whispers of the Muse
1 Rainbow Efreet


JON FINKEL, FIRST MASTERS TOURNAMENT (EXTENDED), SEPTEMBER 2000
Counters (14)
4 Counterspell
4 Force of Will
3 Forbid
3 Annul

Removal (6)
4 Powder Keg
2 Nevinyrral's Disk

Creatures (7)
4 Ophidian
3 Morphling

Utility (8)
4 Brainstorm
4 Impulse

Land (25)
4 Thawing Glaciers
4 Wasteland
2 Dust Bowl
15 Island

Sideboard:
1 Annul
2 Treachery
4 Flash
4 Hydroblast
4 Back to Basics


MICHAEL BOWER AKA MIKEPHOEN, CHAMPION, FIRST BEYOND DOMINIA TYPE I TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS, 2000

Mana (25)
17 Island
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring

Counters (17)
4 Counterspell
4 Mana Drain
2 Forbid
4 Force of Will
3 Misdirection

Removal (6)
4 Powder Keg
2 Nevinyrral's Disk

Creatures (6)
4 Ophidian
2 Morphling

Utility (6)
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
2 Soothsaying
1 Zuran Orb


PAT CHAPIN, 2000 MAGIC INVITATIONAL, TYPE I PORTION
Counters (11)
4 Mana Drain
4 Force of Will
2 Misdirection
1 Pyroblast

Creatures (7)
4 Ophidian
2 Morphling
1 Gorilla Shaman

Utility (14)
4 Brainstorm
4 Impulse
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Stroke of Genius
1 Braingeyser
2 Blood Moon

Mana (28)
2 Mishra's Factory
1 Library of Alexandria
1 Strip Mine
1 Bad River
2 Thawing Glaciers
4 Wasteland
4 Volcanic Island
6 Island
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Pearl
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring

Sideboard
1 Timetwister
1 Windfall
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Blue Elemental Blast
1 Treachery
2 Blood Moon
2 Red Elemental Blast
1 Fireblast
1 Wheel of Fortune
2 Pyroblast
1 Lightning Bolt
1 Pyroclasm


Studying the Extended decks, one notes that Forbiddian was more successful and more consistent in a faster environment with a broader card pool. Ophidian made all the difference, before Fact or Fiction. It was more difficult to overrun, yet still lethal against slower control and combo decks. Nevertheless, it still had the same fundamental weaknesses as Draw-Go. As Chris Pikula put it in his Grand Prix Kansas City Dojo report: “The deck was built for 2 reasons: 1) it should beat the crap out of High Tide and Jar; 2) Most of us had 3 byes. This is definitely a 3 bye deck, it was not built to beat beatdown decks. The sideboard still needed a lot of work, and we knew that if we wanted to beat Sligh and Jank after boarding it would take up many slots.”

In fact, note the Sea Sprites in Mark LePine’s deck, which act as main deck speed bumps against red. Alex Shvartsman retold a story by Ken Krouner on the Sideboard: “At the 1999 World Championships, Mark Le Pine was playing an Extended monoblue deck, in contention for Top 8. He was facing a Sligh deck, and had to mulligan. His new hand included two Hydroblasts and two Sea Sprites, but no land. Despite having no land, and despite having chosen to play first, Le Pine kept this hand. He felt that his chances to win would be greater if he took the risk on drawing some land, than if he took a mulligan down to five.

“Le Pine's risky play paid off, as he ended up winning the match, and finishing 2nd overall in the tournament, losing the finals match to Kai Budde.”

Forbiddian differs from Draw-Go mainly because Ophidian replaces some counters, but this is actually a very big difference. Forbiddian’s early strategy now revolves around Ophidian, which has more nuances than initially obvious.

First, Ophidian presents a key 3-mana spell that cannot be played during the opponent’s turn. One choose when to play it very carefully. Against certain decks (or when desperate against certain decks), one will want to play it almost immediately, as its 3 toughness allows it to act as a wall in the early game. Against other decks, this would be suicide because it leaves the Forbiddian player too vulnerable to the opponent’s counterattack, or will lead to Ophidian’s quick death. A player should generally try to play Ophidian when he can reasonably protect it, but even then he may be forced to tap out during the end of his turn in the face of an opponent’s instant removal.

Note that because Ophidian presents the difficulty of having to play a 3 mana spell on your own turn, Fact or Fiction presents a more convenient alternative since it is an instant and drawing 2-3 cards immediately from it can be enough to take the lead in a game. Many players have decided to exchange Fact or Fiction for Ophidian, while other Forbiddian players have simply decided to use both cards.

Second, as can be inferred from the above, the Forbiddian player no longer has the luxury of ignoring the opponent’s creature removal, unlike the Draw-Go player. (Incidentally, some Type I players have joked that Urza’s Rage actually reads, “Destroy target Ophidian.”) One has to defend the Ophidian with counters, though the snake replaces the cards used to protect it with new ones. Of course, this seeming disadvantage may be an advantage over Draw-Go after the first game in competitive play: the opponent simply cannot replace all creature removal with more lethal cards from the sideboard as he would with normal Draw-Go.

Finally, the Forbiddian player has fewer counters than the Draw-Go player, although this becomes less relevant if Ophidian enters play and begins drawing cards.

Thus, Forbiddian plays very similarly to Draw-Go, except one has to pay attention to one’s 4 extra creatures. One still uses Impulse and its cousins to smooth one’s draws, Powder Keg to remove threats on the board, and gain control by eventually playing Morphling. One just fits Ophidian into all this to speed up the process with broken card drawing. Of course, if an opponent focuses all his resources on eliminating or countering Ophidian and creates an opening, do not hesitate to stop defending the snake, take the opening and drop Morphling.

Because adding Ophidian adds creatures to Draw-Go, some Tempest-era decks went further and added more creatures and Mishra’s Factory to use Tradewind Rider. This is a fun strategy especially when two Tradewinds give one the option of bouncing all the opponent’s land, although it forces the Forbiddian player to use even fewer counters. However, the printing of Morphling and a much faster kill and one-card combo has made this strategy obsolete.


Some casual players prefer to use Thieving Magpie, Ophidian’s younger cousin. In general, Ophidian is far better because of its cheaper cost. In Urza-era Type II, some blue players did not even use Magpie despite its similarity to Ophidian because they would either have to tap out early (and risk Treachery, among other nasty things) or play it much later when they could defend it but when it would no longer have a significant impact on the game. A difference is that Magpie deals damage while Ophidian does not, but this is insignificant in a deck that concerns itself with dealing damage only when in control of the game. Magpie’s only advantage is that it is much more difficult to block, and this is important for players in environments where there are more creatures.

THIEVING MAGPIE
Cost: 2UU
Rarity: UnCommon
Type: Creature - Bird
Set: Urza's Destiny

Errata: 1/3, Flying. ; Whenever ~this~ deals damage to an opponent, you draw a card. [Oracle 99/07/21]
Flavor Text: Rayne once made several unkind comparisons between the bird's naked opportunism and Urza's.


APPENDIX II: TYPE I ACCELERATED BLUE

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON STAR CITY IN THE “YOU CAN PLAY TYPE I” COLUMN BY OSCAR TAN aka RAKSO

(note: This article replaces the earlier guide written by Legend and Oscar Tan aka Rakso.)

It’s about time to get to Odyssey, but I figured I’d finish up a topic I’ve been putting off for too long: MONO BLUE.

When even my fellow Star City writers (hello, Israel!) start writing that mono blue is the most powerful deck in Type I right now, I know it’s not just the clueless kids on other Type I forums who got caught up in the hype.

Some time ago, (http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/expandnews.php?Article=1742) I wrote about a deck that was nothing but counters, Morphling, Powder Keg, and Fact or Fiction.

A Type I deck so boring even the control players loathed it.

BRITNEY SPEARS’ BOOBS, OSCAR TAN, OCTOBER 2001
Counters (14)
4 Mana Drain
4 Mana Leak
4 Force of Will
2 Misdirection

Card Drawing/Manipulation (9)
1 Ancestral Recall
4 Impulse
4 Fact or Fiction

Others (10)
1 Time Walk
3 Powder Keg
4 Morphling
2 Back to Basics

Mana (27)
1 Black Lotus
5 Moxen
1 Sol Ring
1 Library of Alexandria
1 Strip Mine
2 Wasteland
16 Island

(The deck is labeled B.S.B. because the more popular nickname—Blue Bull Sh*t—is less pleasant to use in public. Besides, B.S.B. better reflects this pile’s lower IQ level.)

Honestly, though, I really think it’s a solid deck, but as hyped as Alex Shvartsman’s inter-continental card trading skills (okay, maybe not, but the blue deck really IS hype). Like I said in that last article, all it does is counter—and it can’t even counter everything.

Maybe you didn’t believe me the first time, so maybe you’ll believe the guy who unveiled the mono blue deck at the last Invitational.

(I really put this off because I had this conversation AUGUST, but oh, well…)

Zvi Mowshowitz on the mono blue deck (on #mtgwacky)
Mind if I ask you about Acc Blue in Type I?

just flood it in here
Can kill Keeper with Back to Basics but it's inflexible as hell

Really overrated, though

Imagine how kids look at it

So you're not impressed?

well...

I'm not saying I'm not impressed

just that it only does what it does

one thing I found was that trying to play a deck based around turbo-Morphling is quite risky when people maindeck 4 diabolic edicts ;)

Who do that? :)

Darwin Kastle... :)

Oh...

beat him but I got damn lucky :)

other thing is this build has some gaping weaknesses
What kind of weaknesses?

stuff like...
game 1 turn 1 Oath is basically game :)

That's been the foil of choice on my website.

Took guys a while

But their control decks just stuffed Oath, Blessings and a Spike

Morphling with 20 +1/+1 counters

same principle at work here

you're basing the entire deck on Morphling

and the creature is far from immune to attack :)

You think you could've nailed the Keeper decks at the Invitational?

oh sure, np :)

but as a Keeper player aware of the issue

you would want to deal with the threats

They weren't boarded for you, right?

not really, no

except for the Edicts

:)

which are a bitch :)

your problems are BtB and Morphling basically

And everything but Keg is a must-counter

and the threat of FoF into card advantage

red blasts deal with all 3

Fof radically transforms the T1 match

Forces you to counter in your turn

I noticed that Keeper vs mono blue turns into a slugging match

You deplete both sides of counters and threats

I would prefer to maximize the REB/Pyro count

your plan is simple, keep the game winners off the table while setting up Yawgmoth’s Will

Yeah...

Then the mono blue player, playing 3 more Morphlings, topdecks one while you have nothing

Play a few Edicts to deal with that problem :)

But that isn't all that simple to execute? :)

didn't say it was

that's the PLAN


Why bad players are scared of B.S.B.
What is this blue deck’s claim to fame? If it cheats and pre-sideboards 4 Back to Basics, it hoses practically every control deck in Type I. (Of course, if the lazy blue player scouts wrong, he gets creamed by beatdown decks.)

Here’s the last control deck I played online. It’s pre-Odyssey and is a tad untuned, but it’s a good enough example:

KEEPER, OSCAR TAN, OCTOBER 2001
Blue (19)
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain
1 Mystical Tutor
3 Impulse
4 Fact or Fiction
1 Morphling

Black (6)
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
1 Mind Twist
1 The Abyss
1 Diabolic Edict
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor

White (3)
1 Balance
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Dismantling Blow

Red (1)
1 Gorilla Shaman

Green (1)
1 Regrowth

Others (2)
1 Masticore (stuck in for a Moat, explaining the Tundras)
1 Zuran Orb

Mana (28)
1 Black Lotus
5 Moxen
1 Sol Ring
1 Library of Alexandria
1 Strip Mine
3 Wasteland
1 Tolarian Academy
4 City of Brass
1 Undiscovered Paradise
4 Underground Sea
3 Tundra
3 Volcanic Island

Sideboard (15)
4 Red Elemental Blast
4 Rootwater Thief
1 Circle of Protection: Red
1 Compost
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Aura Fracture
1 Masticore
1 Pernicious Deed
1 Misdirection

Obviously, if Back to Basics hits the table (and if the other guy has 4), this deck is dead.

A less experienced player would think that Keeper is at a disadvantage because it only has 8 counters. B.S.B. usually has at least 14, and has those nasty Back to Basics.

Let me tell you a story, first.

Last week, a guy who called himself “Random-Miser” began posting a so-called “Invincible Counter Troll” deck on my website, challenging all comers to Apprentice. That was his theory, too, since he had 12 counter main deck and 6 more in the side.

It was getting a bit annoying, so I used the rough deck above and beat him soundly, despite my 8 counters to his 12.

I boarded in just 3 REBs to go up to 11 counters. He boarded in 3 REBs and 3 Pyroblasts to go up to EIGHTEEN counters, and had boarded in a total of FIFTEEN cards against me.

He STILL lost, and was completely OUT-COUNTERED in almost every turn.

What gives?

(Well, obviously, he never used the word “invincible” again, and toned down the spam.)


Back to Magic for Beginners 101: Card advantage
Too many beginners think they’ve made it when they can say “card advantage” like a new MBA who looked up “corporate restructuring” and “strategic downsizing” in some textbook.

Yes, card advantage. If I play a card and draw 2 cards, that’s card advantage. Drawing more than you lose. Simple. Stuff my deck with everything that says “draw!” Bring Zvi on!

Wait a minute… not quite. Everyone knows that you also get card advantage from making your opponent lose cards, too. Cast 1 Hymn to Tourach, other guy discards 2 cards. Card advantage!

Some of the most powerful card advantage cards in Type I follow this second description, and they’re so powerful they can shut down entire strategies on their own. Such as:

Burn? Cast Demonic Tutor and fetch… Circle of Protection: Red! (Pay 1 mana and you prevent all damage from one red source!)

Discard? Cast Demonic Tutor and fetch… Compost! (Every time a black card enters the other guy’s graveyard, draw a card!)

Counters? Cast Demonic Tutor and fetch… Disrupting Scepter! (Pay 3 mana a turn to make target opponent choose and discard a card.)

Creatures? Cast Demonic Tutor and fetch… The Abyss! (Each player sacrifices a target non-artifact creature during his upkeep!)

Some other random thing? Cast Demonic Tutor and fetch… Morphling! (Your favorite untargettable creature that wins the game by itself!)

This is all very nice, but what does this have to do with B.S.B.?

Well, too many inexperienced Type I players get fixated on these individual cards. It gets worse if the other guys in their local store play simpler decks that get shut down after a tutor for (insert “silver bullet” game breaker here) resolves.

What happens when they face off against B.S.B.? “Mana Leak your Disrupting Scepter!” “Your Abyss doesn’t hurt me!” “Misdirect your Ancestral Recall!” “Mana Drain your Morphling!” “Play my own Morphling… you lose!”

In short, no matter how much card advantage a card gives, it does squat if it gets countered. And when Mr. Power Cards can’t win with just one gamebreaker, he gets scared and forgets how to play Magic. Even Disrupting Scepter doesn’t really help him anymore, because Fact or Fiction just draws cards too quickly.
Worse, Mr. Power Cards stops and tries to think. He tries to hang on to his Morphling and wait until he has 7 counters in hand before making his next move. Of course, this plays right into B.S.B.’s hands, since it has twice the counters and twice the Morphlings, and he’s sure to lose without knowing why.

His conclusion: Damn, B.S.B. is the best deck in Type I!

This is the common reaction of more casual Type I players who just haven’t played a guy with a deck full of counters since Tempest Block (counters began to suck with the Urza Block). B.S.B. isn’t unbeatable; it’s just that Mr. Power Cards doesn’t know what he’s doing.

In my story above, how did I possibly win when I had less counters than that other guy I mentioned? I had less counters, but more broken cards. Back to B.S.B., it may have 4 Mana Leaks over Keeper, but Keeper has a Yawgmoth’s Will, a Mind Twist, a Balance and a bunch of other things to make up. He only has 14-16 counters; the moment he can’t counter a spell, something very broken gets played.

Again: 14-16 counters. In a 60-card deck, this just means he draws about 2 in the opening hand, and about 1 counter every 4 turns. Count how many broken and/or restricted cards Keeper is packing.

The correct approach is to use something I like to call “volume.” In a control vs control game, it doesn’t matter who has the more powerful cards. It matters who has MORE of them. Every card counts, and the first guy to miss a beat loses, by just a one card difference. If I have broken 3 cards and you have only 2 counters, you’re in trouble. If you don’t counter the first or second, I gain some kind of advantage. If you do, the third kills you.

Simple: More cards in hand = you win. It’s just the basic card advantage everyone keeps forgetting when they play against blue. Incidentally, this is what I meant in the above conversation when I talked about “slugging matches.” This is what Zvi meant when he said to set up Yawgmoth’s Will. This is what Brian Weissman meant when he kept telling me to just force a Mind Twist in control vs control.

It’s not as hard as it sounds after you get over your beginner’s fear of counters. A full hand is ALWAYS better than a counter!

Sometimes, it’s just not obvious. Vampiric Tutor, for example, can be the WORST card you can play in Keeper vs B.S.B. It fetches any card in the game, but remember, unless it’s Library of Alexandria, that card is going to get countered anyway. Unlike Demonic Tutor, Vampiric puts it on top of your library so you lose your next draw, so when the card is countered, you lose 2 cards to 1 of the opponent’s counters.
Volume, remember? The first guy to lose one card loses the game?

(If you’re not so familiar with Type I, just think about how bad you feel when you tap out to play a creature in IBC, and it gets Excluded… It’s the same thing.)

Get the picture now?

Once that one extra card tips the scales against B.S.B.—usually Yawgmoth’s Will, Mind Twist or a card drawer—it’s reduced to topdecking, and since it draws almost nothing but more mana or more counters, it’s usually in trouble the moment it begins topdecking. It wants to FoF like crazy, not topdeck.

Playing another control deck properly, this is what should happen so long as Back to Basics is kept off the table. Even when B.S.B. sideboards up to 4 B2Bs, the other guy sideboards his choice of hate, especially Red Elemental Blasts that kill anything B.S.B. can throw for just 1 mana.

Like Zvi said (and as long as the other guy isn’t cheating with 4 maindecked B2B), it’s not so simple to do, but it’s one very solid plan.

If B.S.B. has a problem, it’s that it has only one plan, while its opponents can do a lot of funny things.


How to build B.S.B.
There’s a mini-primer to building this deck in the “Revised Draw-Go Primer” of Beyond Dominia’s Type I Mill, but I’ve never been satisfied with all the vague points in there. But let me try to run you through the deck myself.

If you’ve played a mono blue Draw-Go deck, you won’t find B.S.B. very different. It’s just more difficult to categorize because it’s far, far more aggressive. In the early game, it plays like Draw-Go. It counters threats it can’t deal with, or early creatures it has to slow down such as first and second-turn Jackal Pups. It Powder Kegs whatever it has to early.

If B.S.B. has a stable life total and hand size by midgame—and usually, this is as soon as B.S.B. hits 4 mana—then it’s in a good position. Early on, it trades counters 1-for-1 with the opponent’s cards, but edges ahead once the drawing power of Fact or Fiction enters the game.

What makes B.S.B. different from more conventional control strategies such as Keeper and the ancient Draw-Go decks of Tempest Block and before then is that it doesn’t aim to take complete control. The game sped up a lot since 1997, and it just can’t do this. Instead, it just drops Morphling, and lets Morphling clean up by itself.

When Morphling (or Masticore) drops, the game completely changes, and this is what more traditional players have to understand. From a CONTROL deck, it becomes an AGGRO-CONTROL deck. The B.S.B. player has to counter for only 4-5 more turns, and then he wins.

In practical terms, don’t be afraid to drop Morphling at the first opportunity. Even if you have just one counter left but can guess that the opponent is out of counters, go for it. Even if the opponent manages to tutor up a Diabolic Edict or play 3 Bolts when you only have 2 blue mana, he will use up too many cards just killing the first Morphling, allowing you to win with the next one. Be aggressive, and don’t bother to wait for a full hand of counters.

The strategy is as simple as it sounds, but there are a lot of nuances to building the deck itself. To help demonstrate, I’ve taken my build of the deck, plus the test builds of two veteran Beyond Dominia control players (Darren diBattista aka Azhrei and Matt D’Avanzo) and the regular decks of two B.S.B. aficionados (Acolytec and Deranged Parrot).

(You’ll notice that the decks are very close to each other. Another thing annoying about B.S.B. is that it’s almost impossible to personalize, unlike Keeper. In my last article, I tried just that, using more solid Counterspells and additions such as Grim Monolith. I had to remove all of these experiments, eventually, because they just don’t work.)

Rakso Azhrei Matt Acolytec Parrot
TOTAL 60 60 60 60 60
Counters 14 12 14 17 17
Force of Will 4 4 4 4 4
Misdirection 2 2 3 3 3
Mana Drain 4 4 4 4 4
Mana Leak 4 0 3 4 4
Counterspell 0 2 0 2 2
Draw/Manipulation 9 7 9 5 7
Ancestral Recall 1 1 1 1 1
Fact or Fiction 4 4 4 4 4
Impulse 4 0 4 0 2
Merchant Scroll 0 2 0 0 0
Stroke of Genius 0 1 0 0 0
Others 6 8 6 6 5
Time Walk 1 1 1 1 1
Powder Keg 3 3 3 3 2
Back to Basics 2 2 2 2 2
Capsize 0 1 0 0 0
Creatures 4 6 3 6 4
Morphling 4 4 3 4 4
Masticore 0 2 0 2 0
Mana Base 27 27 28 26 27
Lotus/Sol Ring/Moxen 7 7 7 7 7
Library of Alexandria 1 1 1 1 1
Strip Mine 1 1 1 1 1
Wasteland 2 3 4 1 3
Tolarian Academy 1 1 1 0 0
Island 15 14 14 16 15
Sideboard 15 15 - 15 15
Back to Basics 2 2 - 2 2
Powder Keg 1 0 - 0 0
Misdirection 2 0 - 0 0
Flash Counter 2 0 - 0 0
Gainsay 0 2 - 0 0
Counterspell 0 0 - 1 0
Hydroblast 0 0 - 2 0
Mana Short 0 2 - 0 0
Rootwater Thief 4 0 - 0 4
Black Vise 0 *0 - 1 0
Control Magic 2 3 - 4 0
Psionic Blast 0 0 - 0 4
Capsize 2 0 - 0 0
Nevinyrral’s Disk 0 3 - 0 0
Grindstone 0 0 - 3 3
Masticore 0 2 - 2 2
Timetwister 0 1 - 0 0


Card by card: Counters
Force of Will—Self-explanatory. An emergency counter, wins early counter wars, and can be hard cast later on.

Misdirection—Serve as additional Force of Wills to push Morphlings past opponents’ counters, if necessary. Also play an important role against Ancestral Recall and Mind Twist, and against black decks’ Hymn to Tourachs and Sinkholes. A Misdirected early Ancestral Recall or Hymn to Tourach is very hard to recover from. Whenever applicable, incidentally, pitch Force of Will to Misdirection instead to save 1 life.

Mana Drain—Also self-explanatory, but it needs to be well-timed in this deck. The ideal scenario is to Drain an opponent’s 3-mana play—something like Hypnotic Specter or Phyrexian Negator—then drop a third Island on your own third turn and play Fact or Fiction or Morphling. A common mistake is for an opponent to play an expensive spell when he already has two creatures attacking, and Mana Drain turns the game around here.

Mana Leak—This is the counter that deserves more explanation. Strangely, this deck tries to stay away from UU mana costs, even though it’s a mono blue deck. This is because it has to use a lot of colorless mana sources, especially the Moxen. UU is usually not a problem, but UUUU to counter twice OFTEN is. Mana Leak is meant to be used to disrupt an opponent early—and gives the bonus of first-turn counter ability with a Mox—or at the tail end of a counter war, but it hurts if topdecked with a depleted hand late in the game.

Counterspell—The traditional counter is actually used as extra Mana Leaks in this specific deck.


Card by card: Draw and manipulation

Ancestral Recall—The second most broken card drawer in the game (after Necropotence) is blue.

Fact or Fiction—This powerful, new unrestricted card drawer is the only thing that makes this deck type possible. It adds power and consistency, but costs 4 mana, which is why the deck runs a lot of mana and fast mana. In addition, it is cast at the end of an opponent’s turn, forcing him to counter and possibly leave himself vulnerable to a Morphling in your turn. If an opponent might counter an FoF, try to save it until it can be used to draw fire from Morphling this way.

Impulse—This is the controversial card, and only Matt D’Avanzo and myself (along with Zvi) would use 4. Matt put it nicely: “If Fact or Fiction is Necropotence, then Impulse is Demonic Consultation, and what Necrodecks don’t run Demonic Consultation?” Basically, it’s instant-speed manipulation that replaces itself with the best of the next 4 cards (and maintains “volume”). It makes the deck more consistent by picking up Powder Kegs and Fact or Fictions earlier, or controlling land draws when needed. It doesn’t matter if good cards are moved to the bottom of the library because of the redundancy of the deck (but be careful about moving all 4 Morphlings to the bottom!).

Again, this deck is weakest when topdecking, and Impulse helps avoid that.

Merchant Scroll—Impulse is controversial because some players feel it just dilutes the deck. “Why pay 2 mana when I can just add more counters?” is the usual objection. Merchant Scroll is the other tutor that does not lose “volume,” and fetches Ancestral Recall early. After Ancestral, it fetches Fact or Fiction or any counter. Drawback: It’s a less flexible sorcery.

Mystical Tutor—Does the same thing as Merchant Scroll, but loses “volume.” Useless in this deck.
Stroke of Genius—Very powerful card drawer, but useful only late in the game or with amazing Mana Drains. Hardly used because it’s considered overkill and too slow.


Card by card: Others
Time Walk—This deck needs to get to 4 mana as quickly as possible, and a one-turn mana boost from an early Time Walk is more powerful than it looks. Later on, Time Walk allows a player to tap out, cast spells, then untap without fear. At worst, it replaces itself, and is rarely countered by an opponent.

Powder Keg—Both the strongest and weakest point of this deck. Keg allows this deck to kill weenie swarms to stabilize the life total until Morphling can drop and start blocking. However, if Keg can be dealt with, then Morphling may not come in before you are overrun. This isn’t uncommon: Null Rod (which also shuts down Masticore and artifact mana), Meddling Mage, normal artifact destruction, or simply creatures with unequal casting costs such as Sarcomancy tokens and Carnophage.

It takes knowledge of the opponent’s deck to set correctly. For Zoo, Sligh, Stompy and White Weenie, you set it at 1 counter (to deal with Jackal Pups, Goblin Cadets, Savannah Lions, Wild Dogs, etc., and easily move up to 2 for the other creatures). For black creature decks it gets trickier because the best number might be zero (Sarcomancy tokens, move up to 1 for Carnophage), two (pump knights and Flesh Reaver, move up to 3 for Phyrexian Negator and Hypnotic Specter), or three (Negator and Specter, move up to 4 for Juzam Djinn and Phyrexian Scuta).

Against creatureless decks, it is less useful and destroys early Moxen or, at worst, is set at 5 to kill Morphlings that get through. After sideboarding, though, it might be kept in case of opposing creatures.
Back to Basics—Played up by Acolytec and Deranged Parrot in the earliest Beyond Dominia builds, Acolytec joked that this actually reads, “Target 5-color deck loses game.” Use it as bait to draw counters away from Morphling, or just play it exactly as you would Morphling. (Beware Aura Fracture and Seal of Cleansing, though.) Against mono color decks, this is Force of Will fodder and is boarded out.

Capsize—Enchantments are the death knell of this deck, most notably Oath of Druids (which comes with a Morphling that beats other Morphlings with Spike Feeder counters) which is a cheap enchantment that is an automatic loss for this deck. Blue has only three ways (Capsize, Wash Out, Nevinyrral’s Disk) of dealing with enchantments. None of them are particularly good, but Capsize is the most flexible.

Others—You usually see a lot of randomness in initial builds of this deck. Usually, it doesn’t work. In fact, no pre-Odyssey card not listed here has been proven to work in this very rigid deck, and no Odyssey card is likely to make it except possibly Divert. (Standstill is better in aggro with cheap threats.)


Card by card: Creatures
Morphling—Untargettable, flies over chump blockers and Moat, does insane combat tricks, and deals 5 a turn. The only common threats to Morphling are Diabolic Edict and Balance. There is an entire section in the Draw-Go Primer on the use of Morphling, and only one more thing needs to be said: Don’t be afraid to pitch the Morphling in your opening hand if necessary. Early on, you’d rather lose a Morphling that may not be played immediately than a counter or Fact or Fiction, even an Impulse or Merchant Scroll.

Masticore—Dies to Swords to Plowshares but is otherwise as difficult to kill. Masticore provides an alternative to Powder Keg against weenies, and still provides a viable kill against creatureless decks. The upkeep can be bearable because it can kill a control deck quickly; just learn to let it go when needed. Fact or Fiction helps fuel the upkeep (you can pick the bigger over the better pile), but be wary of Duress, Hymn and Mind Twist.

Ophidian—Ophidian is the pre-Fact or Fiction mainstay, but Fact or Fiction is just faster. Bringing Ophidian back in creates a different deck because, although it replaces itself and is a strong card advantage engine, it also creates the problem of playing a 3-mana spell on your turn and defending it. This forces a different game and is not the explosive, aggressive game B.S.B. forces.


Card by card: Mana
Black Lotus, Moxen, Sol Ring—These make Type I Accelerated Blue accelerate; without them the 4 Morphling and 4 Fact or Fiction strategy is not viable. Fact or Fiction, for example, is considered too slow in Extended because there are no Moxen. (Check: http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/expandnews.php?Article=1946) The addition of colorless mana, however, gives the deck it’s unique mana issues that lead to the use of Mana Leak, and make topdecks weaker and make manipulation cards more important.

Library of Alexandria—Despite this deck’s hunger for blue mana, Library of Alexandria is indispensable because it wins against any control deck if left on the table, and Fact or Fiction helps it activate. It is dead under Back to Basics, but it makes sure B2B gets played when it counts.

Strip Mine—Another land that is never dead, this helps remove opposing Libraries, disrupt the opponent’s mana to create an opening, and hits basic land unaffected by B2B. Under B2B, it still trades for the land of your choice.

Wasteland—The second controversy in this deck after Impulse. Wasteland is very good in a deck that needs 26-28 mana, but it is a luxury that is difficult to work in given the deck’s hunger for blue mana. Against other control decks, the additional pinpoint disruption and Library kill is invaluable, but both Wasteland and Wasteland targets are dead under B2B. The difficulty comes against decks that run only half nonbasic lands, since this is where you want Wasteland but not Back to Basics. 2 is the usual compromise, and Wasteland is sometimes sided out against mono color opponents.

Tolarian Academy—The third controversy. This card is powerful. With two Moxen out early, this fuels FoF and Morphling and provides enough mana to overpower an opponent’s counter wall much earlier than usual. The main complaint is that it can be erratic. Lesser complaints: It is another Wasteland target in a deck that should not have them, is dead under B2B, and has less broken cards to fuel in this deck unlike Keeper.
Grim Monolith, Mana Vault, Mana Crypt—Useless in this deck, because they are good sometimes and dead draws in others. Mana Crypt can be suicidal, and Mana Vault forces a player to tap out during his upkeep. Grim Monolith is the most stable, and is still not as good as a plain Island.

Island—This deck needs 26-28 mana including the Moxen to be viable, but some players make the mistake of including too little actual blue mana. The minimum is 14 Islands plus Mox Sapphire and Black Lotus, but 16 Islands or more is ideal.


Card by card: Sideboard cards
Flash Counter/Gainsay—Flexible counter against other control decks with the advantage of the U1 mana cost. Flash Counter can deal with Red Elemental Blast and is more flexible, while Gainsay can counter opposing Morphlings and sideboarded Rootwater Thieves directly, which is useful if both sides are topdecking.

Counterspell—Solid additional counter whose only drawback is its mana cost.

Hydroblast—Slightly better than Blue Elemental Blast because it can be discarded to avoid Black Vise, this can kill red weenies faster than Powder Keg and double as an anti-Keeper card, against sideboarded Red Elemental Blasts.

Mana Short—A traditional anti-control card that forces decks to tap out at the end of their turns, leaving them open and unable to counter.

Rootwater Thief—The latest anti-control sideboard that is this deck’s equivalent of the place of the venerable Dwarven Miner. Zvi’s criticism is that you have to tap a good part of early mana to fuel this, and if the opponent already has his Morphling or key threat in hand, he will draw enough counters to force it through while you’re busy removing cards that the other guy hasn’t drawn yet. Initial playtesting, however, has shown that this can be forced first turn with a Mox, and is easily activated with a Sol Ring or two Moxen and still leave mana to counter. Against some threat-light control decks, Mike Long is like cheating, and this card is a fitting tribute to such a noteworthy Type I deckbuilder.

Black Vise—An ancient anti-control card, take care that some decks have an easier time squirming out of it nowadays.

Control Magic/Psionic Blast—These are key anti-creature cards against decks with larger creatures, usually black creature decks. Control Magic is used over Treachery because the 1-mana difference is crucial. Psionic Blast is an instant and is more flexible, and it can cripple a black deck that plays a Phyrexian Negator with only three land in play. However, Blast does not kill Juzam and Scuta, and cannot kill Negator later in the game.

Wash Out/Nevinyrral’s Disk—These are the deck’s only other means of dealing with enchantments, and the mass kill is usually brought in against the Parfait and Enchantress decks that play out cheap noncreature threats such as Land Tax, Scroll Rack and Argothian Enchantress. Note that Nevinyrral’s Disk comes into play tapped and cannot defeat a Seal of Cleansing already on the board. Wash Out can be played after a Morphling, but does not take Argothian Enchantress with the key white permanents of Parfait decks.

Grindstone—An experimental alternative against Parfait-type decks to avoid having to deal with so many enchantments, and takes advantage of the opponent’s deck thinning with Land Tax. Using this means having to counter Seal of Cleansing and Soldevi Digger, though.

Timetwister—The original anti-discard sideboard that also adds emergency recursion.


Matchups: Control
Parfait/Enchantress—As implied by the above sideboard cards, this is the NIGHTMARE matchup of a deck that cannot deal with enchantments, and cannot counter the many cheap noncreature threats. Its best bet is to selectively counter. Let Land Tax, Sterling Grove and Zuran Orb go through, and let the Parfait player Tax. Do not, under any circumstances, let Scroll Rack, Argothian Enchantress, Story Circle (unless playing Masticore), and Sacred Mesa (which hoses Morphling) go through because only Capsize can deal with them. Even if you counter these, beware of the instant Argivian Finds. As a general rule, set Powder Keg to 2.

Keeper—This matchup depends on the decks and more importantly, the sideboards. Depending on the number of dead cards (Disenchant and creaturekill cards) the Keeper deck has, Game 1 can be favorable or about even. Again, be wary of all sorts of tricks from Sylvan Library to Mind Twist and Yawgmoth’s Will. After game 1, Keeper can bring in anything from Rootwater Thief to Diabolic Edict to Obliterate (which is not really good against you), but always expect sideboarded Red Elemental Blasts which counter anything in your deck for 1 mana. Quite a lot depends on the players’ skill, but because Keeper is the more flexible deck, the opponent has more leeway to outplay you or shoot himself in the foot by not knowing how to play against counters.

A good player with a good sideboard may even have the advantage despite Back to Basics (and can force Aura Fracture to neutralize these). Again, pay close attention to everything Zvi said.

Black creature decks—A lot depend on the speed of the black deck and the opening hands. (Specifically a lot comes down to whether the black deck draws a Duress and whether the blue deck draws a Misdirection.) If the black deck gets a Hymn to Tourach or Sinkhole through second turn, B.S.B. can have trouble, but if it gets Misdirection, it builds a strong lead.
Faster versions can use Sarcomancy, Carnophage and Flesh Reaver, which cannot be killed by a single Powder Keg, while a Phyrexian Negator is almost impossible to deal with after a barrage of discard. If the initial disruption is dealt with (or Misdirected), Fact or Fiction is a strong recovery, and Morphling deals with every non-shadow creature as long as counters can be held against Diabolic Edict.

Straight creature decks backed by Edicts are the most difficult to deal with, and unbeatable if they open with a perfect hand of Duress then Hymn then Negator. Nether Void decks are easier if the initial land destruction is dealt with, but B.S.B. has almost no answer to 4 Rishadan Ports except to draw more land. Pox decks are slowest and Mana Drain with Fact or Fiction allows for sudden recoveries. Note that Pox decks’ Racks and Cursed Scrolls can both be Kegged away to slow them down greatly.

The consolation is that straight black decks do not really sideboard anything significant against blue.

Teletubbies—This is more favorable to you than black decks but this sort of aggro-control strategy is difficult to deal with because Kegs are ineffective. Blue versions have counters of their own that can, if used properly, force their 4/4 monstrosities into play when they have more mana in the early game. Red Stacker versions will have Goblin Welders that have to be Forced or Kegged early because they turn every artifact into a potential uncounterable 4/4. The red versions will also bring in Red Blasts after boarding but play aggro-control far better than Sligh.

The key to winning is that you can play Draw-Go better, and will win the longer the game drags on. Counter the early fat (or better yet, Mana Drain into Fact or Fiction or even Morphling) and reduce him to topdecking.

Sligh and Stompy—This is a very favorable matchup because these decks are forced to rely almost exclusively on 1-mana creatures that are easily Kegged away, and the rest of either deck cannot deal with the Morphling that follows. Sligh will mainly sideboard in Red Elemental Blast and Pyroblast, but these will be to try to buy time for the creatures since it cannot win in a counter game, lacking card drawing. Stompy brings in Rushwood Legates that are 2/1 creatures that can be played for free if you have an Island, and these may overrun you if he gets a good draw, so do not be afraid to use even Force of Will if you know Keg will never catch up. They will have a hard time even after sideboarding, but stay alert and watch for other tricks like Null Rod and Winter Orb.

White Weenie—This is another favorable matchup. Straight white weenie creatures are slower because only Savannah Lions is a threatening 1-drop. Because they cost 2 mana, though, they take longer to Keg, and can play Seal of Cleansing or Disenchant to counter Keg, so be careful about letting weenies slip past. Usually, though, Morphling will enter play before your life total is critical, and you Keg any shadow creatures that Morphling cannot handle. Land Tax/Scroll Rack versions are even easier to deal with because they are slower. Sideboarding may bring in Abeyance and Orim’s Chant for an aggro-control twist, or disruption such as Winter Orb or Null Rod, and these may cause problems. Watch for a blue splash, because a Meddling Mage that slips past and names Powder Keg is difficult to recover from.

Zoo/Power Sligh—This is even more favorable than the mono color matchup because these are vulnerable to Back to Basics. Game 1 should be easy because you have the same Keg advantage against normal Sligh unless they are also using 2-mana creatures (Blurred Mongoose!), and their lower amount of burn is not a threat. Be sure to counter Keeper-like brokenness right down to Yawgmoth’s Will, however. Post-sideboarding is more difficult because these decks can bring in any of the sideboard tricks discussed for the above decks. You win if Keg and Back to Basics kill them, but may have trouble against decks with basic land and disruption. Remember that the sideboard cards of these decks against Keeper usually work against you, too.

Combo decks—These are far more favorable matchups than Parfait and Enchantress decks because, unlike these two types, you can counter key components only. Depending on how much cheap disruption they have, especially Duress and maindecked Red Elemental Blasts, and defense, the game should be favorable to incredibly easy. The easiest strategy is usually to let all their fast mana go through and let them stall once you counter card drawing engines. After sideboarding, just watch out for sudden transformations, such as the appearance of Phyrexian Negators from out of nowhere.

Random hate—A few Beyond Dominia players hated mono blue decks SO much that they indulged in a spree of hate deck making. Most notable was Nargot, with his FUB (F*ck U Blue) deck that maindecked Choke and other unpleasant things. Some of these are effective (especially if they use Oath of Druids), while others just don’t understand how blue works.

Remember “volume”. Hate is NOT the way to handle blue from a control perspective, because even City of Solitude can be countered, and Scragnoth is too slow to race Morphling. You can actually have fun surprising less clever “hate” players.


A brief history of B.S.B.
When Urza’s Saga rotated in, blue players suddenly realized that the best counterspells left in the pool were Counterspell and Miscalculation. This was partly why Zvi Mowshowitz felt Replenish could not be defeated by a counterspell strategy (as discussed in the first section of the Draw-Go Primer.) Draw-Go adapted by becoming more aggressive, and sought to play its greatest weapon, Morphling, much earlier than it ever had. Grim Monoliths made a curious appearance in the era’s Draw-Go equivalents, leading to the curious evolution known as Accelerated Blue or PatrickJ (after Patrick Johnson, one of the players who made the deck type popular).


PATJ.TECH, PATRICK JOHNSON, FIRST ROUGH DECK FROM DOJO ARTICLE
Counters (11)
4 Counterspell
3 Miscalculation
2 Power Sink
2 Rewind

Creatures (6)
4 Morphling
2 Masticore

Removal (8)
4 Treachery
4 Powder Keg

Card drawing (5)
3 Inspiration
2 Opportunity

Mana (30)
17 Island
4 Faerie Conclave
3 Dust Bowl
2 Blasted Landscape
4 Grim Monolith


ACCELERATED BLUE, ZVI MOWSHOWITZ, SAMPLE DECK FROM MINDRIPPER ARTICLE
Counters (9)
4 Counterspell
4 Miscalculation
1 Rewind

Creatures (8)
3 Morphling
3 Masticore
2 Palinchron

Removal (8)
4 Treachery
4 Powder Keg

Card drawing (3)
3 Stroke of Genius

Mana (32)
15 Island
4 Faerie Conclave
4 Rishadan Port
4 Dust Bowl
1 Blasted Landscape
4 Grim Monolith

Sideboard:
2 Arcane Laboratory
3 Unsummon
1 Submerge
1 Temporal Adept
3 Scrying Glass
4 Annul
1 Masticore

According to Patrick: “Since the earliest days of magic, deckbuilders have realized the power of accelerating your mana. The rules state that you can only play one land per turn, but players have long used artifacts or other spells to increase the amount of mana available to them in the early game. Obviously, the increased supply of mana gives the accelerated player more powerful options and can often allow them to present an overwhelming threat before the opponent can react.

“In 1995-96 Brian Weissman and Chip Hogan were Mana Draining spells and using the colorless mana boost to accelerate out Jayemdae Tome + Disrupting Scepter or Icy Manipulator + Winter Orb. The concept of blue acceleration is therefore not totally new. However, the printing of an ultra-efficient control creature (who also happens to be a four turn clock) in Saga, new artifact mana in Legacy, and superb board control spells in Destiny breathed new life into this archetype.”

Zvi’s version differed mainly because it used Stroke of Genius to flexibly draw just 1 or 2 cards or more than 4 later on or with Grim Monolith, a debated issue of the time. It also showed how the high mana count was crucial to the deck, and how the deck compensated by trying to make the lands as flexible as possible. Dust Bowl used surplus land to attack the opponent’s mana, and Rishadan Port was used as early as the second turn (instead of holding open mana for countering) to slow the opponent.

Acc Blue thus played very differently compared to earlier Type II Draw-Go decks. It had very few counters and used these only to slow the opponent enough for a Morphling to enter play and clean up. Its best defense was its own offense.

Despite the restriction of Grim Monolith in Type I (and note that Mana Vault works differently since it can only be untapped during upkeep, which either leaves the Acc Blue player vulnerable for 1 turn or with several points of damage), Moxen allowed the idea to be viable, especially considering that Type I Acc Blue was no longer limited to the weak counters of its Type II ancestor.

Zvi played a deck with 4 Ophidian and 3 Morphling in the previous Invitational. The following year, Fact or Fiction gave the Type I version a consistency the original Accelerated Blue decks never had. As Beyond Dominia regular Matt D’Avanzo commented to the author in private e-mail, “Morphling made this deck style possible and Fact or Fiction turned it into a tier 1 deck...”


ORIGINAL TYPE I ACCELERATED BLUE, ZVI MOWSHOWITZ, 2000 MAGIC INVITATIONAL
Counters (14)
4 Mana Drain
1 Counterspell
3 Mana Leak
4 Force of Will
2 Misdirection

Utility (14)
4 Brainstorm
4 Impulse
4 Fact or Fiction
1 Time Walk
1 Ancestral Recall

Creatures (3)
3 Morphling

Removal (2)
2 Powder Keg

Mana (27)
14 Island
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
1 Library of Alexandria
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Grim Monolith

Sideboard:
2 Scrying Glass
2 Masticore
2 Powder Keg
2 Hydroblast
2 Annul
2 Back to Basics
3 Treachery


After the Invitational, in Beyond Dominia’s second Type I Tournament of Champions (Elrond’s Revenge), some regulars developed and refined the deck semi-independently after seeing how powerful and more consistent mono blue got after Fact or Fiction (it could more reliably fetch its Powder Kegs, for example).

TYPE I ACCELERATED BLUE, ACOLYTEC, BEYOND DOMINIA TYPE I TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS II
Counters (18)
4 Mana Drain
4 Counterspell
4 Force of Will
3 Misdirection
3 Mana Leak

Utility (8)
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
4 Fact or Fiction
2 Back to Basics

Creatures (4)
4 Morphling

Removal (4)
4 Powder Keg

Mana (26)
19 Island
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
5 Moxen

Sideboard:
3 Masticore
2 Back to Basics
3 Control Magic
3 Blue Elemental Blast
2 Flash Counter
2 Gainsay


TYPE I ACCELERATED BLUE, REFINED BY DERANGED PARROT DURING THE TOURNAMENT
Counters (19)
4 Mana Drain
4 Mana Leak
3 Counterspell
4 Force of Will
4 Misdirection

Utility (8)
4 Fact or Fiction
2 Back to Basics
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk

Creatures (4)
4 Morphling

Removal (4)
4 Powder Keg

Mana (25)
1 Black Lotus
5 Moxen
1 Sol Ring
18 Island

Sideboard:
4 Flash Counter
4 Control Magic
4 Masticore
2 Back to Basics
1 Counterspell

The Keeper (5-color control) players were a target of the Accelerated Blue decks which had twice as many counters and could easily force a quick Morphling or Back to Basics against them. Strategies specifically against Accelerated Blue were floated by Keeper players. JP “Polluted” Meyer, for example, proposed focusing one’s counters on forcing his sideboarded Jester’s Cap through and removing 3 Morphlings, then waiting to use Obliterate once the last Morphling was played. Accelerated Blue would then run out of cards earlier due to its own Fact or Fictions. Others stuck to the more conventional anti-blue strategy (advocated by many players, even including “The Deck” creator Brian Weissman) of starting a counter war in the Acc Blue player’s turn and following-up with a Mind Twist.

As was discussed, a lot of funky ideas based on individual cards were tried, until people remembered basic card advantage and “volume.”


Rakso
a***o@o***o.com
rakso on #BDChat on Newnet
Manila, Philippines
Type I, Extended and Casual Maintainer, Beyond Dominia (http://www.bdominia.com/discus/messages/9/9.shtml)
Featured writer, Star City Games (http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/archive.php?Article=Oscar Tan)
Proud member of the Casual Player's Alliance (http://www.casualplayers.org)


APPENDIX III: BLUE/WHITE CONTROL

(You guys think I need to add this since we get enough inquiries? It basically differs because white adds removal meaning there is less pressure on the blue player to counter everything, but there is a trade-off since the white removal can be dead against various decks to various degrees. – Rakso)


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