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by Gandalf
Deck Genesis: Gandalf's Strategy from 0 to 60 The tournament playing environment is more varied now than it has possibly ever been before, with the inclusion of Weatherlight to the card mix and the re-admission of Serrated Arr... I mean Homelands... and Ice Age to the environment. The tournament scene now consists of a large variety of cards, of roughly equal power, although you still hear some people croon ‘Ba-ROKEN!’ at Abeyance, Sage Owl, and Ophidian. Maybe they are right... but overall, there are no amazingly powerful or versatile cards that can and must be included into every deck, with the possible exclusion of the incredibly useful Thawing Glaciers. Control decks are fairly strong... for examples of these you need look no further than CounterPost, CounterHammer/CounterBurn, Squandered Stasis, and the ever-prevalent Winter Orb decks of various rainbows. Weenie decks are stronger than before, especially the Black Weenie deck, with the inclusion of Necropotence, Necratog, and the combo of Buried Alive and Ashen Ghoul/Nether Shadow. White Weenie decks are nothing to laugh at either, with Swords to Plowshares in the environment once again, Abeyance, Armageddon, Wrath of God, and solid Creatures. With that in mind, every player must make a choice based on their abilities as to what style of deck they will play. Me being a manipulative kind of guy, I’d like to stick with a control deck, as I have learned to play them fairly well. But, taking a cue from my Pro Tour-Chicago experience with the mono-Red Cheese Burn deck, there is potential in fast damage. That environment also taught me other things, especially about control decks and the strength of Blue in a limited environment such as Mirage-Visions-Weatherlight. Plus, I need a deck for the State Type II tournament here in New York. I don’t want to show up and embarrass myself, and an original yet efficient deck is often the best way to go. So... if I had to choose one of those two deck styles, I would have to stick with my strengths... in slow, methodical games, I tend to do better than a game in which the entire outcome may be based around the first three or four turns. Not an easy task, especially with high-level ( I think =) tournament deck construction. I’ve been looking at PhaselHaups for some time, as I think Teferi’s Veil gives the deck a new lease on life. Now, anyone can go to a site like MagicDojo or the Beyond Dominia Deck Mill and pull a PhaselHaups deck from a player, copy it, and play it. I have found, however, that most people ruin the deck by making it too combo-oriented and reliant when in fact just the Teferi’s Veil/Jokulhaups combo will be a hard thing to pull off against most players. No need to add Breezekeepers and Fog Elementals etc. ad nausiem until the deck is completely unworkable if your opponent is playing with either 1) Disenchants or 2) Counterspells. So... if you are willing to stick with me for a while, I am going to re-construct a PhaselHaups deck (although I won’t call it that in the end) from the bottom up, using the concepts of control and efficiency. Perhaps I will surprise you...
I was dissatisfied with its performance and the overall concept, so as strange as it might seem I decided to eliminate Red as my deck colors. Blue remained, as my solid creatures were all Blue. I shifted the deck to Blue/White, for several reasons. Blue/White has Aradakar Wastes to smooth the mana supply, which is definitely preferable to the Cities of Brass and Undiscovered Paradi I was forced to use as a blue/red player. Blue/White has a strong synergy of control between the colors, because White can undo whatever Blue counters may have missed. And White had a solid replacement for the Wildfire Emmisaries that I had in my main deck. Wildfire Emmisary and Teferi’s Veil is BAD news for any White player that is relying on the most popular spells for creature destruction, Wrath of God and Swords to Plowshares, because its Protection from White ability naturally evades the Plow, and phasing the Emmisary after combat evaded all chances of hitting it with the Wrath of God. All in all, Emmisary was the Big Bad Beast of the deck. White gives me Revered Unicorn, a solid, although modest sized, creature that also combines well with Teferi’s Veil, this time as a life-gaining effect.
Then, I added 4 Swords to Plowshares, for my point-source creature removal. The combination cards: 2 Teferi’s Veils (Playtesting showed 4 and even 3 to be unnecessary, with fetch and cycling effects) and 4 Wraths of God. Because my creatures will phase out, protecting them from the Wraths, I did not feel it necessary to add Icy Manipulators to make the Wraths more effective. Then, I considered splashing. I thought of adding a touch of Black, for 2 Vampiric Tutors, since Mystical Tutor wouldn’t fetch me a Teferi’s Veil and Enlightened Tutor is wholly pointless, the deck containing no Enchantments or Artifacts besides the Veils (from my early playtesting designs). My other option, as I saw it, was to use 3-4 Impulses, to achieve card cycling. To avoid mana complications, I saw this as the wiser choice, as I would need to add at least 4 Black sources to the deck to support them.
Now, time to pick and choose to add the ‘meat’ to the framework. By fleshing out certain concepts and combinations, the deck gains in synergy and flow. Hot on the heels of unprecedented popularity in the Pro Tour: Chicago Qualifiers, Ophidians and Man’o Wars will both make an appearance. Besides these and the Revered Unicorns, I don’t have a whole lot of space for creatures, and I need to put a fair-sized creature down to end the game at the appropriate time rather than just delay it futher. Air Elementals are, in this case, better than Waterspout Djinns, as for one higher casting cost you avoid the stunted mana development. Two of them fit, and they remind me just how much I miss Serra. Now, time to look it over and count cards:
37 spots used up altogether. To add all the Lands I want to without depriving myself of the needed resources, I should figure on 24 Lands, with 3 of those being Thawing Glaciers and one Outpost, just to keep the opponent guessing and as a slow, tactial ‘comeback’ card. While Teferi’s Veil/Kjeldoran Outpost appears to be a bad combination =), the ‘Post is there for when the Veil is not. The Outpost will keep my opponent worrying that I am playing a CounterPost deck, which in fact I am not (really), and should throw their game off during the first match if I manage to play it. For a smooth, even mana flow, I’d want 3x Thawing Glaciers, 4x Aradakar Wastes, 9x Islands, 7x Plains, and the Outpost. The Blue cards outnumber the White, and the double-colored CC spells are (speed-wise) more important in Blue than in White, so I need more Islands than Plains by a decent amount. In fact, the only reason I am using so many Plains is to support Outposts, because I want to use another in my Sideboard as well. To beat CounterPost... because if you can’t beat ‘em, you might as well join ‘em.
The play of this deck is a bit stylized, as it is a moderately slow deck with defense covering its back in the most formative turns via Swords to Plowshares and Man o’ War. An analysis of the post-07/97 Type II environment is needed before choosing sideboard cards. Black Weenie decks are both popular and strong now, with the Buried Alive deck. CounterPost is popular and STRONG, with the addition of StP, Abeyance, Serrated Arrows, and Icy Manipulator. Prison, or at least Winter Orb, is popular, though it has made many changes since it was last seen with the Icy Manipulator available... not to insult Forgotten Orb, one of my favorite decks over the last few months, but I just don’t think it will hold up to the environment, because there are obviously better choices for black-based decks. Stasis is gone but not forgotten for the most part, although Abeyance may bring it back from being played by just its diehard fans. New locks exist, if you are to believe all the hushed secrets around Brian Weissman’s Turbo-Abeyance recursion deck. Burn is probably rising in popularity, since Red has strong creatures and efficient spells, plus the return of Anarchy to sweep away pesky Circles. Overall, though, the Type II environment is strongly Weenie/Anti-Weenie at this crossroads. Most decks are creature-based, except for the obvious omission of the permission decks, which use Lands to the same purpose =). My sideboard should recognize that fact, as well as deal with my deck’s weaknesses. The most obvious thing to add is 3 Phyrexian Furnaces. This can be used to help hose Buried Alive decks, along with the Swords to Plowshares and Dissipates, as well as eliminate the Hammer. As an eventual cantrip, it is a great card for the one-mana casting cost it asks of you. I also wanted another Kjeldoran Outpost here, to side in against CounterPost decks. Another blatantly obvious addition is 3x Disenchant, to accentuate my control spells against decks using Artifacts and/or enchantments. 4x Honorable Passage should beat down on Sligh/Geeba and Burn/CounterBurn better than ‘just another Counterspell’ could. I enjoy turning my opponents’ final killing blow against them; I used 4 Passages in the Sideboard of the monored Burn MiViLite deck I played at a recent Pro Tour: Chicago qualifier to give me an advantage over other Burn decks. That leaves 4 spots, with which to adress the general weenie-Orb and weenie-Geddon based environment. To fill 2 of those spaces I will use Serrated Arrows, to eliminate the stray PumpKnight/Dervish etc. I would LOVE to add Pyroclasms, or even AEther Flashes, but it is just not meant to be... so Wall of Air it will have to be. It takes a beating, can block almost anything, and is cheap enough to slow my opponent before I truly gain board control. This sideboard is pretty much thrown together at the last minute... I would love to hear comments and opinions from you all about how you would do it instead; I am certain that it can be improved, and perhaps you’ve heard of a new strong deck type that I didn’t mention or account for above. Or you can think of what I could take out to fit in 2 Karmas... My email adress is [email protected], my real name is Sean... send me some mail if you get a chance. Until next month... shuffle them up and deal yourself a hand!
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