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by Gandalf
Deck Genesis: Gandalf's Strategy from 0 to 60 My current Erhnamgeddon deck is of the brainless sort right now, closer to a white/green weenie Armageddon deck. I am planning on entering the local Pro Tour, Paris, Qualifiers at New York's own Neutral Ground, and the tournament style is Type II (Restricted) by November, 1996 rulings, which restricts Hymn to Tourach, Land Tax, Balance, Strip Mine, Zuran Orb, Ivory Tower, and Black Vice. Ice Age and Fallen Empires are both legal sets, and Visions is not a legal set. There are several strategically important cards that are again available for use that will give Erhnamgeddon its bite back, and while my current deck is an empty-hand swarm theory deck to provide the kill with only mediocre control capabilities, Erhnamgeddon is at its strongest as a lock/control deck. Because of the change in the banned/restricted list, I will definitely use: Strip Mine, Zuran Orb, Ivory Tower, Icy Manipulator, Serrated Arrows, Brushlands, Land Tax, and Autumn Willow. I will also consider adding Order of Leitbur / Order of the White Shield and Thermokarsts, while the following cards will be removed from my deck: Any and all Visions cards must be removed, most of the white weenie cards will be removed, such as Mtenda Herder, City of Brass will be replaced with Brushlands, and a Thawing Glaciers will be added. With these fundamental changes in idea it is time to reiterate the point of the Erhnamgeddon deck and the reasons behind its apparent success (or if you ask Bertrand Lestree, near success). The Erhnamgeddon deck is designed to cripple an opponent's mana sources, disrupt their gameplay with control and removal spells, and eventually win through creature attacks. It is as successful as it is because it is often very defensive without lacking in a sufficient offense, or in other words it hacks through defenses to kill a helpless opponent. While it does not always succeed exactly as stated, that is more often than not the case. It is designed to handle other decks, take their challenges in stride, and still succeed at its appointed goal, 20 damage or more dealt to an opponent before 20 life is lost. I want to have some swarming abilities as well as a possible comeback from either Nevinyrral's Disk or Wrath of God, so I plan to use Kjeldoran Outposts as in my current Erhnamgeddon deck. Two Outposts seems ideal with Strip Mine restricted and my using Armageddon; less would be a mistake and more would cause serious mana difficulties. Untargetable creatures like Autumn Willow and Jolrael's Centaur are good anti-Plow, Lightning Bolt, etc. creatures but will make either me or Erhnam Djinn lightning rods, which he would be in most cases anyway. My main strategy is Armageddon, but I don't want to tote more than 3 to prevent drawing useless cards. Winter Orb would seem to be a good compliment to shut or slow down mana productions after an Armageddon, especially since I plan on using Icy Manipulator, a possible override to protect myself. The Orb would require me to use artifact or creature mana sources also, which would increase my deck speed. I will definitely use 1x Serrated Arrows to prevent knight / lion swarms as well as hold off Necro / swarm decks. For the same reasons I will use this card I won't be using Savannah / Mtenda Lions or Orders, especially noting their weakness towards flankers. I also don't want to be too vulnerable to Pyroclasm / Earthquakes, so the weakest creature I plan on using will be Jolrael's Centaur, with a toughness of 2. White control spells are a strong part of the Erhnamgeddon deck's versatility and support, so I definitely plan on using 4x Disenchant, 4x Swords to Plowshares, Balance, and 3x Armageddon. I currently use 1x Wrath of God in my Armageddon deck, but as this will be using fewer creatures, 2x Wrath is better. Armageddon will require Land Tax, and Zuran Orb will be a great asset to Balance as well as a strong life-gaining effect. With 2x Wrath of God and Balance, artifact mana will be preferable to creature mana. The only green non-creature spells I would want to use would be Thermokarsts and Sylvan Library. With the Land Tax and Thawing Glaciers as shuffle effects, I will definitely be using 1x Sylvan Library. As I have a Strip Mine, 3x Armageddon, and Zuran Orb / Balance, I wouldn't want to run with more than 2 Thermokarsts in my deck. If I use them, it will be against Outposts and Glaciers. I will keep them for now and drop them later if the deck becomes oversized. Now.... the creature base. I want to only have about 9 creatures, so I must choose carefully. 1x Autumn Willow and 4x Erhnam Djinn are shoe-ins, so I have 4 slots. I have eliminated anything with power lower than 2, so my best choices would be: White Knight, Jolrael's Centaur, Serra Angel, Spectral Bears, Ivory Gargoyle, Blinking Spirit, Kaysa, and Lhurgoyf. Keeping with my hard-to-kill creature base, I would use 3x Jolrael's Centaur and 1x Spectral Bears. Blinking Spirit is too mana-intensive, as is Ivory Gargoyle. Spectral Bears are good and cheap, great against Necrodecks, and Jolrael's Centaur completely fit the criteria. That brings the deck so far, without lands, to look like:
32 cards, so far. I want 2x Fellwar Stone, 1x Moss Diamond, and 1x Marble Diamond as additional mana sources. That makes 36 cards. My lands so far are: 4x Brushland, 1x Strip Mine, 2x Kjeldoran Outpost. 1x Thawing Glaciers as a land-fetcher other than Land Tax, to be used sparingly. I consider Kjeldoran Outpost as ½ a mana source now because of the errata reversal saying you can't tap it for mana and allow it to bury itself, so I am up to 44 cards with only 6 mana sources so far. 8x Plains and 8x Forest gives me 23 mana sources in 60 cards. Not very good. Another Plains is needed, and I would like to add Ivory Tower for consistent life-gaining effects, especially with Land Tax and Thawing Glaciers thickening up my hand and my slow, controlling playing style. I will remove the Marble Diamond and a Thermokarst to bring me down to 60 cards again after the additions. Now it is time for statistics and demographics:
Pretty good. I have 11 artifacts and enchantments, so I would consider either going to 61 cards and adding an Enlightened Tutor, or dropping the last Thermokarst and adding the Tutor. I think the second idea is better, as 1x Thermokarst has no real use with Armageddon, Winter Orb, Icy Manipulators, and Strip Mine; while the Tutor can grab me any of 11 useful spells. The mana balance is high, but in an Armageddon deck it will be useful and will ensure I can get out my more expensive spells quickly. That makes the final deck:
The next step is sideboarding. I can expect to see the following deck types: Erhnam / Willowgeddon, Counterpost, Counterhammer, Hammerpost, White Weenie, speed-Necro, Sligh, Turbo-Stasis, Winter Orb, Land Destruction, Erhnam-Burn'Em, Gargoyle / Phaselhaups. My main problems would be with Counterspells, red Direct Damage, weenie swarms in Red, Black (ouch) and White, Mana denial, mass creature / permanentkill (Wrath of God, Nevinyrral's Disk, Jokulhaups). Examining these problems will give me an idea of what I will want in my sideboard. Counterspell decks can be taken down by careful playing strategy, mana denial, and a strong offensive driving the counter player to mistakes. I will need something to deal with low-casting-cost direct damage spells, and mana denial techniques to hold off the Hammer and X-spells. Earthquakes and Pyroclasms could be problematic to my offensive front; although Earthquakes should be held off by mana denial. My deck is based upon mana denial and is designed to work around mana denial; the Winter Orb should be a clutch card as well as Wrath of God and Land Tax. Consider using Lodestone Bauble. Turbo-Stasis is a special case and should be specifically considered as it is a strange mix of mana denial and counterspell capabilities. Consider Tranquility or Tranquil Domain. Of the mass-creaturekill possibilities, Jokulhaups poses the greatest problem. The higher mana distribution coupled with Winter Orb should be able to hold off the Haups. Wrath and another Arrows should help against weenie decks. Consider something else for speed/Necrodecks, they will require specific attention. My sideboard so far:
I believe that covers just about everything I can anticipate before the Pro Tour Qualifier. I will now try to get a feel for how my deck works and how to sideboard against what, and possibly reconsider my choices so far. I have 2 weeks until my local November '96 Pro-Tour, Paris, qualifier tournament. In a future Deck Genesis, I will list my final sideboard after scouting the tournament.
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