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by Christopher Askwith Strategy of the Deckmaster Part Four : Type II Decks The current Type II environment has changed drastically since the one we remembered in January. Homelands, Fallen Empires and Ice Age have left, replaced by Alliances, Mirage, Visions, and now Weatherlight. In addition, Fourth Edition is gone, replaced by Fifth Edition, which leaves out cards many people would have preferred stay in the Type II environment: Lighting Bolt, Serra Angel, Sengir Vampire, among others. And of course, for the T2 tournament, there is no Restricted list. You can either have four cards with the same name in your deck, or you can't have any cards of a specific name. As always, basic lands are an exception. For a T2 tournament, unlike the previous article of this name, the object is not to have fun. It is to win. And so, decks must be lethal and quick. Very quick. So I present a direct damage deck which, though it may not win you the tournament (as there are never any guarantees), should at least get you past the preliminaries (but then again, maybe not). 1.        The Main Theme of the deck is Direct Damage. 2.        The Secondary Themes are Creature Destruction and Enchantment Destruction. 3.        The lands are mountains and swamps. 4.        There are no other mana sources. 5.        The spells which complement the Main Theme are Incinerate, Thunderbolt,            Disintegrate, Kaervek's Torch, Fireball, Volcanic Geyser and Kaervek's Purge 6.        The spells which complement the secondary themes are Dark Banishing,            Nevinyrral's Disk and Feast or Famine* *Terror would be a better choice, but I'm having trouble remembering if it made it into 5th Edition. If it did, replace Feast or Famine with Terror. If Terror has been removed from the T2 environment, don't make the substitution. So the deck will look something like: Land 12 Mountains 8 Swamps Gold 4 Kaervek's Purge Artifacts 4 Nevinyrral's Disk Black 4 Feast or Famine (or Terror) 4 Dark Banishing Red 4 Thunderbolt 4 Incinerate 4 Kaerek's Torch 4 Fireball 4 Disintegrate 4 Volcanic Geyser [ Back to August 1997 Table of Contents ] [ Back to Beyond Dominia ] Magic: the Gathering is a Registered Trademark of Wizards of the Coast