"Wasted Youth"

    by James A. Greenwell

         Well, hello boys and girls! Looks like it's that time again. Yup, you guessed it: time for my newest deck of the month. Again this month I have chosen a type II legal deck which is a good representation of what seems to be emerging as a popular, and deadly type II deck style. What, you ask, is this amazing new deck? Well, I'm glad you asked.

         With the passing of the Zuran Orb from type II play, quick direct damage decks are becoming more popular, and with the introduction of Mirage into type II there comes a card which makes that deck style much more effective. Forsaken Wastes, yup you heard it here first! This new enchant world from Mirage is trying it's best to carve out it's own deck type.

         With all the excitement these days about getting and keeping card advantage, little has been said about the other areas of the game, one of which is advantage in life totals. Just as it is possible to manipulate the environment to help gain and maintain card advantage, you can also now, with Forsaken Wastes, begin to manipulate the environment surrounding life totals. Previous to the release of Mirage, there were two basic ways to gain a life advantage over your opponent. First, of course, was to do more damage to your opponent than they do to you, and the second, lesser known or acknowledged was gaining more life than your opponent can deal. The primary bane of a highly offensive deck is to "run out of steam" just before your opponent dies, allowing them either to set up their lock or gain an advantage of cards. This gives them more choices and also may allow them to rebound and ultimately come back and win. With the new Forsaken Wastes, you can limit the life total environment to a race to see who deals more damage faster. By eliminating the option of gaining life, you have effectively changed the environment of the game and if you plan your deck around exploiting that new environment, you can gain a distinct advantage over your opponent. "Wasted Youth", this month's featured deck, uses this idea. Starting with the main card, Forsaken Wastes, and adding to its advantage with a combination of small fast creatures and direct damage to bring your opponent down so that the Wastes can finish them off. There are really two sides of this deck, sheer offense and more sheer offense. The sideboard should contain cards to slow down fast damage decks so that you can keep your life total higher than your opponent's. The specifics of how to do this I will leave up to you. The main deck is listed below and is played as quickly as possible. Of course, always hold one or two bolts in your hand to eliminate threats. Other than this it is full tilt! Now go out and stomp some opponents into those Forsaken Wastes!!!

    "Wasted Youth"
    Red
    2 Earthquake
    4 Guerrilla Tactics
    4 Incinerate
    2 Kaervek's Torch
    4 Lightning Bolts
    2 Shatter
    2 Storm Shaman
    2 Volcanic Geyser
    2 Wildfire Emissary
     
    Black
    2 Dark Banishing
    4 Dark Rituals
    2 Delirium
    2 Dirtwater Wraith        
    3 Forsaken Wastes
    2 Gloom
    2 Vampire Bats
     
    11 Mountains
    11 Swamps
     
    (63 cards)       

    P.S. : If you have a deck you love that just isn't quite right send me a copy at J0***e@l***u.edu and I'll see what damage I can do with it. See you next month, same bat time, same bat channel.

    James A. Greenwell
    Email: J0***e@l***u.edu

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