Hi, I'm a guy who works 7 days a week and has little time to play Magic, but I love the game so much I just end up thinking about it all the time.  I often have difficulty making decks because I want to use so many different cards.  I think of a combo and want to make a deck using it, or I'll trip over a card interaction while playing in a draft and I'll want to add that to an exsisting deck. 

Basically my deck ideas come from Chaos.

In order to bring a little order to my life I like to peruse spoilers and The Gatherer to better understand an enviorment.  This can become tedious when an enviorment is very large, like say Vintage or something, so I tend to regulate myself to Standard and Block formats.  Standard recently pissed me off (frakking Tarmagoyf killed the radio star) so now I focus on Block.  This block season is shaping up to be one of the most exciting, , , ever.

It's also one of the largest block formats ever.  Timespiral block consisted of 752 cards (751 of which didn't really matter, and yes, I'm bitter)  and Lorwyn Block currently consist of 717 cards with one more small set to go.  By the end Eventide (should've been called Eveningtide, those pretentious bastiches and their Ye Olde English crap) will've given us 180 more cards for a total of 897 cards.  That is ginormous.

Currently though we have a massive trove of cards to sort through.  Conventional wisdom says Faeries and RG will be the dominant decks.  Conventional wisdom also thought Tarmawreckyourfaceandruinyourlifegoyf was a bad card.  Hence why I feel that going down that slippery slope is bad form.

The simplest way to do this is figure out what the "power" cards are.  These cards usually stand out as cards that are stronger than other cards like them that already exsist.  Planeswalkers are powerful.  They tend to stand out and have made an impact in every enviorment that isn't Vintage.  Faeries are already strong in standard, but this is largely due to the standard only cards like Ancestral Visions which help support it.  This has made Vexing Shusher a very valuable card and hence RG is considered a powerhouse (a resolved Firespout might have something to do with this too).

This makes Lorwyn block look pretty cut and dry as a format, , , if your vapid and lack imagination (I bet you thought I was going to say retarded).

So here's where I start getting numerically on you all.  First we're going to play a little Jepordy.  What are your Answers?

  Ashling the Pilgrim Austere Command Boggart Arsonists Boggart Loggers Briarhorn Broken Ambitions Cloudthresher Consign to Dream Counterbore Crib Swap Cryptic Command Cursecatcher Declaration of Naught Deus of Calamity Dewdrop Spy Disperse Dread Earwig Squad Elvish Hexhunter Epic Proportions Eyeblight's Ending Faerie Harbinger Faerie Macabre Faerie Trickery Familiar's Ruse Faultgrinder Festercreep Final-Sting Faerie Fracturing Gust Fulminator Mage Furystoke Giant Galepowder Mage Ghastlord of Fugue Gilt-Leaf Ambush Glamer Spinners Gleeful Sabotage Gloomlance Gloomwidow's Feast Grim Poppet Grimoire Thief Guttural Response Heap Doll Hunter of Eyeblights Incendiary Command Ingot Chewer Inquisitor's Snare Inspired Sprite Lace with Moonglove Last Breath Lightning Crafter Makeshift Mannequin Mass Calcify Mistbind Clique Mistmeadow Witch Moonglove Changeling Moonglove Winnower Murderous Redcap Neck Snap Negate Oblivion Ring Offalsnout Oona, Queen of the Fae Pestermite Plumeveil Poison the Well Prismwake Merrow Profane Command Puppeteer Clique Put Away Reach of Branches Reaper King Release the Ants River's Grasp Rootgrapple Sage's Dousing Scarblade Elite Scattering Stroke Scion of Oona Sentinels of Glen Elendra Shinewend Shriekmaw Smash to Smithereens Spell Syphon Spellstutter Sprite Spring Cleaning Stingmoggie Strip Bare Surgespanner Thistledown Liege Titan's Revenge Torpor Dust Triclopean Sight Turn to Mist Turn to Mist Vendilion Clique Violet Pall Weed Strangle Weight of Conscience Whirlpool Whelm Wild Swing Wispmare Woodfall Primus Wydwen, the Biting Gale Zealous Guardian
Answers.  It will look like a strange list to the naked eye, but I'll explain.  You know that an Answer is a card that deals with another card.  Did you know that creatures with Flash are technically answers?  Since they can block (favorably for you) an attacker when you seemingly have no way to defend yourself?  You did?  Oh, well, that's awkward.

Many people are just trying to transplant Faeries into Block as is without much on thought on the decks build.  You really have to ask what your deck is trying to accomplish each turn (yes, WIN, hardy har har fattie).  In the case of Faeries it's more than just "control what your opponent plays", because in block the amount of counter magic available is quite limited.  Cryptic will be your friend, but really, Sage's Dousing, Spell Syphon and Negate (in a creature based enviorment)?  This means your opponent is going to get some spells through and they're going to try to attack you with them (since most of said spells will be of the summoning variety).  With this in mind Wydwen can not only block and kill that Boggart Ram-Gang, but return to your hand wither free and come back again on following turns.  Just something to keep in mind.  I tire of seeing Faerie decks without her.

Obviously not every card on that list is a good answer (Torpor Dust, I'm sorry but you may never see play), but it puts things in perspective when you realize about 14 - 15% of the set consist of ways of dealing with other cards (I probably even missed a few potential answers).  It's also important to note what answers we have available, since the next part of this little exercise is to ask the Question.

Basically, if it mills or deals damage it's a Question.  So now we have to ask the Ultimate Question, the question whose only answer is 42 and you have no idea why.

FACT: Anything with a 3 or less toughness that cost more than 2 mana will die within 2 turns of being in play.

FACT: Gaddock Teeg shuts down Flame Javelin (it cost six).

FACT:  I forgot to add Sickle Ripper, Kulrath Knight and Midnight Banshee to the above list.

Questions

Bitterblosom - I really can't say anything about this card you don't already know.  The answers for this are few and far between.  I say treat it like Necropotence and let it kill them, just focus on what their deck is doing because if you can deal with a swarm of 1/1 fliers then you've beaten this card.

Oversoul of Dusk - Amazing.  There's very little that can effectively deal with this.  Black only has Midnight Banshee, Dread, and Earwig Squad.  Red has nothing and  Blue can counter it.  This is one of the many reasons why Grim Poppet will be seeing alot of play (another card I should add to the list).

Grim Poppet - Speaking of which.  The 7 cost should be a hinderance, but tends not to be.  This is not a slow enviorment by any means, but then again Kitchen Finks, Steel of the Godhead and Faeries have a way of bringing things to a grinding halt, which gives My Little Poppet time to get online and swing a game into your favor.  Any removal spell will be too late to stop his destructive dance.  Countering him and having untargetable creatures would be best.

Drove of Elves - Dies to Fire Spout, unless Shield of the Oversoul is on it.

Cloak and Dagger - Now this is interesting.  If the other guy has instant speed removal at the time of you playing the creature then you'll just have to try again the next turn.  However if they have Fire Spout then you're up crap creek minus the TP.  One interesting thing of note, Slinking Giant is a rogue (go ahead and look him up HERE).  This gives you a creature that is 6/4, untargetable, only dies to Flame Javelin and Enders Eyeblight at the time of casting and is still a 3/4 with Wither if blocked.  Is this worth building a deck around?  YES!  More on that later.

Chameleon Colossus - Another great card that dies to Javelin, but not much else.  Heck, even Claok and Dagger likes this guy.

ANSWER ALERT:  Trip Noose

Yeah, it actually can stop anything, but green has many ways to get rid of it.  The best thing to do here is not play this with scarecrows (don't play them at all actually) or have two out.  That way green can't conspire a two for one out of this.  Incidentally, Mine Excavation,


effectively counters greens ability to destroy multiple Trip Nooses and both of those cards share color with Oversoul of Dusk.

This deck is something I'm currently testing.

Shield Bash
1 Chameleon Colossus
4 Devoted Druid
2 Doran, the Siege Tower
4 Kitchen Finks
1 Nath of the Gilt-Leaf
3 Oversoul of Dusk
4 Safehold Elite
2 Seedcradle Witch
1 Twilight Shepherd
4 Wilt-Leaf Liege

1 Mine Excavation
3 Primal Command
2 Safewright Quest
3 Shield of the Oversoul
3 Trip Noose

5 Forest
1 Mistveil Plains
4 Murmuring Bosk
3 Plains
2 Reflecting Pool
2 Rustic Clachan
1 Sapseep Forest
4 Wooded Bastion
1 Cloudthresher
2 Firespout
2 Gaddock Teeg
3 Gleeful Sabotage
1 Grim Poppet
2 Guttural Response
1 Mine Excavation
3 Oblivion Ring
 

You can test it out yourself at the following URL.
http://magic.tcgplayer.com/db/deck.asp?Deck_ID=303437

Obviously I'll need some imput to better flesh this out, this is roughly the form I believe GW could take.

Going with my idea for Cloak and Dagger on a Slinking Giant I've constructed this.

3 Ashenmoor Gouger
4 Dusk Urchins
4 Slinking Giant
4 Taurean Mauler

2 Blowfly Infestation
3 Cloak and Dagger
2 Flame Javelin
3 Nameless Inversion
3 Puncture Bolt
4 Scarscale Ritual
4 Thoughtseize
3 Trip Noose

4 Auntie's Hovel
4 Graven Cairns
5 Mountain
2 Reflecting Pool
6 Swamp
2 Festercreep
4 Firespout
2 Flame Javelin
3 Shriekmaw
4 Vexing Shusher
 
Test it out yourself at this URL.  http://magic.tcgplayer.com/db/deck.asp?Deck_ID=303491

This is not nearly perfected, but I believe I might be onto something here.  Any suggestions are welcome.

-

That is certainly a mad pile of thoughts, but that's how I think and it helps me get through the nightmares.  Happy building and feel free to share your imput.  Remember, figure out the answers first, then ask the Question.  Thanx for reading!

Shane

P.S: next time I'll share my thoughts on where I believe Faeries and RG will be going (hint, it involves always having mana open to return Wydwen in response to a Firespout).

Tags: Lorwyn Morningtide Shadowmoor Block Constructed Magic Gathering Awes

Related to: Magic: the Gathering

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