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by Jaybie Cantey Card Spotlight Meekstone Hello, sports fans, and welcome to the May issue of Card Spotlight. In the past two months, we've covered both Type I and Type II, so now it's time to move on. The final tournament type sanctioned by the DCI that involves constructed decks is Type 1.5, and it is this area that we will focus on today. What, you're asking, is the key to Type 1.5? Simple. In a type with no broken, underpriced cards, weenies reign supreme. From White Knights to Kird Apes to Stone-Throwing Devils, every color has cheap hard hitters. This being the case, enter our primary focus this month: Meekstone. MEEKSTONE -- 1 Colorless. Artifact : No creatures with power greater than 2 untap during their controller's untap phase. Although playing with Meekstone prevents the use of spectrum pumpers like Bad Moon or Crusade, weenies can still pack a powerful punch in Type 1.5. Heavy hitting creatures become single use, and Kismet makes them zero-use. There's nothing worse than having a Lord of the Pit out and not being able to use it. The Abyss, anyone? This is not to say, however, that your weenies can't be pumped up. Two of the finest cards in the game, Blood Lust and Giant Growth, enable a lot of damage to be dealt by a weenie, and red-green is always a popular combo in decks with Kird Apes. As if being a big creature against a Meekstone wasn't enough, don't forget such powerful cards as Reprisal and Retribution of the Meek. By the way, those Blood Lusts and Giant Growths can be used with Reprisal or Retribution to knock off some of your opponent's weenies. Finally, if your opponent uses strength-enchantments like Aspect of Wolf, Divine Transformation, etc, they render their very own weenies useless. That spells card-nullification, and card-nullification spells victory. Top 5 Combos with Meekstone 5). Howl from Beyond, Giant Growth, Blood Lust - Ping your opponent for a bunch and don't worry about your creature untapping.   4). Icy Manipulator - Tap his creatures when they come into play and he'll never get to use them! Kismet works the same way...   3). 3. Mightstone - If you're not playing with creatures, two of these will lock down all creatures in the game!   2). 2. Serras, Zephyrs, Archangels - You can still use big creatures...just make sure they don't tap.   1). 1. And now, what you've all been waiting for with bated breath, this month's Killer Deck: The Meek Shall Inherit the Earth Red 4 Kird Apes 4 Ironclaw Orcs 4 Blood Lusts 2 Ball Lightnings 3 Lightning Bolts 3 Fireballs Green 4 Wyluli Wolves 4 Giant Growths 4 Quirion Elves Black 1 Vampiric Tutor 2 Howl from Beyonds White 1 Land Tax Lands 4 Taigas 2 Badlands 2 Bayous 1 Plateau 1 Savannah 1 Scrubland 3 Mountains 3 Forests 1 Plain 2 Swamps Artifact 4 Meekstones Side Note: Feel free to trade basic land for the dual lands, and, of course, add Moxes/Lotuses, Beserk, Fork, Wheel of Fortune if you have them and want to play this deck in Type 1. Don't worry about taking four or five points of damage a shot from a big creature...just make sure he can't use it again. Use cheese and speed to keep your opponent off balance, then finish him with a bloodlusted, giant growthed, wyluli wolfed 17/5 Ball Lightning. Then send me a picture of the look on his face. Well, that's it for this month. If you have any suggestions or comments, drop me a line at [email protected]. Until June, keep it clean and come out tapping.        Jaybie Cantey [ Back to May 1997 Table of Contents ] [ Back to Beyond Dominia ] Magic: the Gathering is a Registered Trademark of Wizards of the Coast