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by Aaron Benanav
Deck Design 101 #1 In the current environment it seems that control has lost all of its main components. Thawing Glaciers, Kjeldoran Outpost, Arcane Denial, Swords to Plowshares, and other great cards have left us for that big shoe box in the sky. As I have been a control player for quite a while I started looking for any form of control in Tempest, and I found a few things. Capsize, Propaganda, and Static Orb all popped up. I quickly let go of Static Orb as I found no way to tap it and create a lock. Capsize then over took my mind. Capsize, as we have probably already heard about, can be used with Sapphire Medallion to boomerang every permanent your opponent controls back to his or her hand. Then you can easily kill with Air Elementals and Suq'Ata Firewalkers or deck your opponent with some form of recursion such as Gaea's Blessing or Padigram Shift. I did end up making a deck with that idea but that's for another article. Propaganda seemed to have endless possibilities, Armageddon, Winter Orb, and the already rejected Static Orb could create a virtual lock on your opponents creatures. Armageddon would require two colors, so there is a loss of speed. And I have tested Capsize against Armageddon and found that the capsize player could simply boomerang back a number of land to his or her hand and then play it again later. Also, any weenie deck that top-decks a bunch of land would quickly over come me. I decided that Winter Orb was the way to go as it allowed more flexibility then Static Orb. Okay, now I have the main creature stopper of my deck which doesn't need more than one color. I will try to keep it this way as it is faster and more reliable. Now I just need some way to stall until I can get the virtual lock out and lay an Air Elemental, which I decided would be my prime source of beat down. Blue has way too many stall cards. I know right away that I can throw in four Man-o-War as they provide a stall and a blocker or attacker. Next I look at what types of decks I might be seeing at tournaments. Weenie decks and 5 Color Mono Green seem to be taking over everything. I noticed that these decks all have something in common. All of the creatures have very low toughness and their power is usually around 1 or 2. So if I can get out something that can repeatedly dish out enough damage to kill the little guys that has a toughness of three or more I'll live long enough to lock down my opponent. I noticed that I forgot about Jolreal's Centuar and Maro, but I'll get to them later as they are basically the only exception. Suq'Ata Firewalker can kill most of Sligh's little guys and also take down Birds of Paradise and River Boas and such. I'll throw in four of those. Since most creatures have low power I can throw in four Ophidians because of their high toughness and great ability. Now I have a basic defense that looks like:
That should hold off my opponent for a while. I decided on four of each of the lock cards to allow me to get them on the table faster. Propagandas can build up anyway. Next I need some form of defense against the early Centaur and the later Maro. As I search through piles of card I notice a very interesting creature. It has a very high toughness and has a great ability. Tradewind Rider is a 1/4 creature, and when I tap it and two other creatures it produces an effect like hand of justice. It gets any permanent out of play, in this case by returning it to its owner's hand. This, along with my Air Elementals can block Centaurs, and the Tradewinds and Man-o-Wars can keep Maro bouncing in and out. Even if theses creatures deal me some damage you have to remember that all I have to do is stall to get out my lock, and I'm probably going to put four Dream Tides in my sideboard. I'm going to play four Tradewinds and two Air Elementals, as I usually only need the elementals to finish off my opponent. Now I have a great defense and I throw in 4 Impulse for added speed. Because this is mono blue my next easy way to deal with cards I don't like is counterspells. I'll throw in four Counterspells and four Memory Lapse. After play testing the deck I found that I need a little more, so I throw in two Power Sink in place of a Tradewind Rider, as they have a high casting cost and need quite a few creatures out to power, and a Memory Lapse as it is more of a stall counter. With four Quicksands I have room for 18 Islands which should pull me through the game as I only need about 7 land after 20-30 turns. The final deck looks like:
Now for all of your tournament players, we need a sideboard. As I mentioned before, four Dream Tides are great for getting rid of green creatures. They could even take the place of the Winter Orbs. I want four Steal Artifact because it is nice to take sapphire medallions and disks. Next, four Red Elemental Blasts can be used for pesky Boils and such. And a few extra counters may help against Prosperous Bloom, and anything else that is interesting. That makes the Sideboard look like:
That’s about it for now. A quick strategy run may be helpful though... What this deck is intended to do is use most of the creatures for stall tactics and the Ophidians and Impulses for added speed. Throw a Propaganda or two and a Winter Orb on the table while leaving mana for counterspells to create a virtual creature lock. A third turn Propaganda and fourth turn Winter Orb is fine against decks without artifact/enchantment control (such as Sligh). Also remember that this being a control deck, once you can create that card advantage where your opponent has nothing much useful on the table and a very small to non-existent hand, you have won. Just play smart and carefully, and remember to have fun. Next month I will probably post a finished version of a 4 Color Black Deck. Any comments, questions, and suggestions can be directed to s***a@m***a.com . Happy gaming!
Aaron Benanav (Spacecows on the net)
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