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UB Reanimator

In a recent article posted on the magicthegathering.com website, the Dimir guild was spotlit in an anlysis of the viable blue-black strategies in standard. One of the more eye-catching decks was a reanimator deck that used Zombify, Vigor Mortis and Goryo's Vengeance to reanimate 1-of's that had been graveyarded by Compulsive Research and Gifts Ungiven. A decent deck, but all the 1-of's (and the use of creatures like Kira, Great Glass-Spinner and Kuro, Pitlord) made the deck seem unreliable.

Then came StarCity.

By trimming the non-UB cards, adding better card draw and focusing the win conditions, Shenanigans (not actual name) built a very convincingly consistent strategy. The turn-4 Kokusho makes for some pretty quick pacing for a UB deck. Here's the math:

UB Vengeance

4 Sleight of Hand
4 Mana Leak
4 Remand
4 Ideas Unbound
4 Compulsive Research
4 Zombify
4 Vigor Mortis

4 Keiga, the Tide Star
4 Kokusho, the Evening Star

9 Island
5 Swamp
4 Watery Grave
4 Underground River
2 Miren, the Moaning Well

I love the synergy and focus of this build. I read once that a great deck has no card that would be a bad draw on 3rd turn. All of these are card you'd love to see opening hand or mid-game, due to the flexibility allowed by cheap recursion and discard effects, as well as the protection of Miren, The Moaning Well.

Read The Wizards Article
Read The StarCity Post

RWG Creature Control - The Honden Effect

Fungus is good, Hondens are bad, right?
Maybe.
Using Hondens is usually bad deckbuilding; they're expensive enchantments with small-scale game effects. But they are a constant threat. So if you can have major large-scale effects already in place, they become a major annoyance. With some decent acceleration and solid removal, you can handle most threats. I love creaturless decks, and the Genjus make this a viable build. And having Searing Meditation available turns 2 hondens into 3 damage and 2 life every upkeep.

4 Wrath of God
4 Lightning Helix
4 Farseek
3 Genju of the Fields
3 Genju of the Spires
3 Honden of Cleansing Fire
2 Honden of Infinite Rage
1 Honden of Life's Web
3 Kodoma's Reach
2 Final Judgment
3 Pyroclasm
2 Searing Meditation
2 Mirror Gallery
1 Blaze
1 Worship

6 Forest
7 Plains
7 Mountains

Winning with this deck comes down to patience and control. With no targets for popular cards like Last Gasp (or Wrath of God), you can hold footing by picking and choosing targets until you clear the board. Blaze is usually the killer, but the green honden (post-wrath) is my favorite win condition for longer games. The effect is still small-scale, but by mid game a few other Hondens will have made their presence known and can get you a massive token army in just a few turns. And that works even without the Mirror Gallery in play.

RWG Control: Fungus Fires

RW control is pretty big right now, and I'm more than ready for that to end. I dont think RW really counts as control; burn and removal isnt a precision strategy to me. That being said, I had to give deserved props to a 3-color control deck that uses the colors that are usually dedicated to aggro: red, green, and white. The temptation arises in building a deck like this to use the incredible aggro weapons these colors have to offer. By not doing this, you throw most opponents off when they try to gauge your strategy by looking at your mana base or opening spells. This deck's first plays look like aggro or sligh, but after stabilizing, plays like GW control with red for burn. Check the list:

4 Vitu-Ghazi, the City-Tree
4 Forest
4 Plains
2 Mountain
3 Battlefield Forge
3 Karplusan Forest
3 Brushland

2 Firemane Angel
4 Sakura-Tribe Elder

3 Sensei's Divining Top
3 Sunforger
3 Kodama's Reach
4 Wrath of God
4 Lightning Helix
4 Faith's Fetters
4 Devouring Light
3 Char
3 Seed Spark

As far as the matchups, I'm not really clear on how the deck answers control, but it did pretty well (8th Place) in the Alabama Champs. I'd like to build smething similar to this when I get more of the tools.

Guildpact

The new logo is in, and damn does it look good. The whole guild idea is probably going to get kinda tired, but making card mechanincs that reflect the strengths of multiple colors is always great for deckbuilding. The Magic Arcana has also released the images for the following expansion and some great looking art for the new BR guild legend. Thanks to MTGNews for the update.

MTG.com: Forward Thinking

I have been drawn to the strategic side of MtG since I started playing in 5th. I dont think Ive ever read an article on the art of planning, the science of strategy, as it relates to Magic. Stephen Menendian gets historical on that ass with a well-written analysis of the thinker's perspective.

Read it Here

Glare of Subdual

I'm not a big fan of the whole token movement, and I hate convoke, but Glare of Subdual is some good. The casting cost is very reasonable for control, and even better for green. The Opposition decks of Urza's Destiny had the advantage of locking down lands, but lacked the synergy with green needed for acceleration and token generation. Now you have the makings of a GW Lock with green tokens and white removal. Here's one idea posted to the StarCity Forum:

Glare Control

Creature 23:
4x Birds of Paradise
4x Llanowar Elves
4x Loxodon Hierarch
4x Watchwolf
4x Selesnya Guildmage
3x Seedborn Muse

Spell: 15
4x Glare of Subdual
4x Devouring Light
4x Fists of Ironwood
3x Scatter the Seeds

Land: 22
4x Temple Garden
4x Brushland
6x Forest
5x Plains
3x Vitu-Ghazi, the City Tree

(Quoted from the Post)
I wouldve gone GWU for this build, but this seems pretty decent. I would add Loxodon Gatekeeper and Nature's Will, though. He's a walking soft lock by himself, and with Glare, he's even worse. Nature's Will has great synergy with your idea, allowing you to actually turn aggro into control.

A point on strategy: I think you should focusing on getting Glare out first, and maybe attacking some, defending some, but mostly getting to the point where you can tap blockers, attack unblocked, then tap lands with Nature's Will.

OnDeck: Gates

I was having some trouble thinking up an innovative deck idea for Rav, and I decided to go back to my favorite deck from Tempest; 3-color control. Actually it ended up being 5-colors back then, but mainly focused on blue hard counters, white creature-hate/burn-hate and green accel/beats/recursion, all of which are in Ravnica. Here's my idea.

lockdown

white-
3 ivory mask
2 story circle
2 loxodon gatekeeper
1 blazing archon

blue-
4 remand
4 thoughtbind
3 telling time
1 meloku, the clouded mirror

green
4 birds of paradise
4 naturalize
3 farseek
3 sakura, tribe elder
3 recollect

gold-
3 watchwolf

7 forest
5 plains
2 islands
4 adarkar wastes
4 brushland

ideally the deck would get going quickly thanks to accel and gets some creatures on the table. watchwolf throws your opponent off balance by creating an early threat, and a great weenie killer. i play ivory mask main deck because of the strength of ravnica's mill and burn spells. the first version of the deck tried to make use of convoke and transmute, but i think focusing on low-cost, easy-splash removal and solid disruption makes the deck very easy to play. of course, when a UW guild comes out, the deck will probably get a whole lot better, but the build plays pretty well so far.

OnDeck: Suicide

I said in an earlier post that mono-colored decks may not survive, but then i saw Oni Possesion and Golgari Thug. I have been searching for a decent suicide build, but getting strong acceleration solid beats is usually a huge problem. Along with confidant, you should be able to outrun just about anything. Toss in rats, hand and imp and out comes my idea:

Oni Black

4 oni possesion
4 raving oni slave
4 dark confidant
4 nezumi cutthroat
4 foul imp
4 zombify
3 hand of cruelty
3 wicked akuba
3 golgari thug
3 unholy strength
3 umezawa's jitte

1 tomb of urami
2 hall of the bandit lord
4 quicksand
10 swamp

The deck basically uses confidant to puke out creature after creature. possession makes you sac to keep things going, so i use creatures with lose-life sac effects, and golgari thug, the deck's all-star, negates the possession's downside by replacing itself and dredging.

As for match-ups, standard suicide rules apply. Outrun everything.

OnDeck: Migraines

I've reading a lot of the aggro, combo and control posts, and in my opinion, the mixing of colors is causing an interesting amalgamation of the archetypes (reminiscent of Mirage and Invasion). Mono-color is almost dead, yet some decks are still trying to be mono-archetype, which I think is too narrow to handle multiple colors.

My take on this trend is Aggro-Mill. The idea is too utilize the strongest possible mid-game aggro and blockage with early game control and mid-late game mill.

Migraines

4 moroii
4 drift of phantasm
4 glimpse the unthinkable
4 remand
4 mana leak
3 thoughtbind
3 umezawa's jitte
3 raving oni slave
3 hideous laughter
3 rend flesh/last gasp
2 induce paranoia
2 traumatize
2 halcyon glaze
2 twincast
1 scadek, lord of secrets

The deck is built around moroii and glimpse, with scadek as the killer. I stay alive by setting up a cheap, fast and (mostly)flying wall of defense with moroii, oni slave and drifts. if the rush isnt there, these creatures turn aggro, forcing your opponent to deal with them (and the jitte's)while you sit back and counter any serious threats.

Once you establish a small army, you can begin throwing glimpses and twincast over the wall. you decide whether to play aggro or control style based on your opponent, and the mill effects are strong enough to work in small doses. if you dont believe me: play it. if Scadek gets in just two hits, he mills for 15 and becomes a 15/15 flyer. If he sticks around for three attacks, thats 30 cards & 30/30. This alone can win, not to mention tossing in a twin-glimpse.

OnDeck: CellBlock Blue

For my first decklist, I chose the archetype nearest and dearest to my heart, control. And not just average joe control: this one is straight lockdown, no chaser. Countering spells is all well and good, but Cellblock makes sure anything that hits the board is mana wasted. Here's the List;

CellBlock Blue

4 kami of the crescent moon
4 drift of phantasms
4 temporal adept
1 kiega, tide star
4 exhaustion
4 remand
4 rewind
4 hinder
4 boomerang
2 reminisce
4 howling mine
4 icy manipulator

4 quicksand
16 island

My theory is that board control can be more devastating than a fistfull of counters. Once you get more than one permanent control threat on the board like Temporal Adept and Icy Manipulator, you can lock down anything that isnt an instant or sorcery, meaning you now can have a more fair fight.

The Adept is the deck's all-star, since he's your Tradewind Lock. He can even target your permanents to save them from removal, and himself to stay alive. That means the number of non-permanent spells you need to counter drops to include non-removal. Reminisce is MD, not just for mill, but so that you can get your stuff back and always have more counters than you need.

if you do get a lock going with Icy and Adept, you can even win by simply waiting for you opponent to deck himself. That shouldnt be hard if he's picking up 3-4 extra cards/turn.

Welcome to the Battlefield

I basically got tired of posting messages on everyone else's board. Here's my contribution to the world of Magic: The Gathering. Welcome to the Battlefield.