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by Kevin Hess
Arena When presented by the idea, at first I thought it was the second-worst thing that had ever happened to Magic; uncounterable play effects, messing with the life totals and hand size, and game environment altering? What a load of crap! Vanguard, I was sure, was a completely, totally bad idea. Then I played it. I did it for fun, at first; borrowed someone else's Maraxus and played against his deck. Then I tried Tahngarth. In each game, I noticed a different direction my deck's play took (which was my standard-play T2 R/G deck), how different cards were weighted differently with different Vangaurd characters; for instance, when Maraxus was out, my Suq'Ata Lancers were much stronger attackers(obviously), my River Boas made much stronger defenders, and my Llanowar Elves were gold material. On the other hand, with Tahngarth out, my Lancers were much less useful, having their major strength already compensated for; being now effectively, 2/2 flankers for 3 mana. Not that these things made serious differences (I won much more handily with Maraxus, though), but it occurred to me then that the main push for Vangaurd was this: in regular Magic, your type is the only environment that decks can be built around; 7 cards, 20 life, summoning sickness, concealed opponent's hand, vunerable creatures, etc.. and all decks are built around these precepts. However, by just changing one of the basic rules(look at opponent's hand, no summoning sickness, all artifacts are creatures, etc.), entirely new deck structures form. Is a feasible deck with Sunstones, Elkin Bottles, Whirling Catapults, and TelimTor's Darts possible? With Vangaurd, you bet! Not only that, but now these cards are, to put it in the words of a Magic veteran, 'maximally useful'. Although I haven't gotten the right distribution of cards for my Karn deck (who trades Sunstones?), here's what it looks like in completion, more or less:
The White Knights are in for basic creatures that are better than other 2/2 artifact creatures. Armageddon is to stop the opponent after gaining creature advantage which can be won quickly with 3/3 3 casting cost creatures and 4/4 4 casting cost creatures. Wrath of God is useful, for obvious reasons - like when you don't have creature advantage. StP is just generally strong. Serra's Blessing is to abuse the tapping abilities of some artifacts while attacking in the same round; Phyrexian Furnace, Telim Tor's Darts, and Pit Trap especially. Whirling Catapult is an awesome card in this deck, being (as far as you have to be concerned) a reusable Rocket Launcher. Karn's life advantage gives no worries against using this card with impunity, especially with the big mana provided with Urza's Lands. Elkin Bottle is feasible with Towers and such. Chimeric Sphere is an unexpected flier, or a 3/3 creature without activation. Pit Trap stops protection from white creatures. Nevinyrral's Disk blows everything up. :) The Furnace blows out graveyards that recycle, with Weatherlight this is really nice. Telim Tor's Darts is damage; use as potential blocker and also tap it during opponent's discard. With Serra's Blessing it can attack, defend, and poke all in one cycle of turns. The best thing to remember is that all of these artifacts are creatures with power and toughness equal to the casting cost. :) This deck is a lot of fun to play, and if I could get the rest of the cards, I'd be even happier. Anyone got any Pit Traps for trade? :) -- Kevin
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