------------------------------ Date: Mon, 16 Dec 1996 05:44:17 -0500 From: "Leonard D. Blado" Subject: Examining post-Jan Red/Green (warning: long, includes deck) Well, it wasn't asked, but I'm going to use a sample deck provided in response to the 'how do I trim my deck' question to examine red/green active decks post-Jan. 1. Preferred Selection vs. Sylvan Library. If you don't have a way to shuffle your deck, or you're not cheesing the various Sylvan Library tricks (Island Sanctuary, Mangara's Tome), then Preferred Selection is probably better, even at GG2 (difficult in a 3 color deck early in the game). With deck shuffling, Sylvan becomes much better. Since I'm going to advise Thawing Glaciers (due to X-direct damage) anyway, my vote would tilt towards the Sylvan Library. 2. Creatures. The Ernham Djinn is the big boy on the block, and there's a reason he's in virtually every green deck you see. However, he needs some buddies to help him along. Some good options include Whirling Dervish, Elvish Archers and Jolrael's Centaurs on the low end, and Nettletooth Djinn, Autumn Willow, and Maro on the high end. Deadly Insects is good, but only if you're going to regularly have a clear playing field. Kaysa tends to be weak in Constructed play since she's not intrinsically efficient (GG3 for a 3/4), and her ability is useless unless you manage to get multiple creatures in play and keep them there. 3. Mana. Generally, I don't like Birds of Paradise, since the 1-2 points of early game damage from an unused Elf can often mean the game, and the need for multi-color mana declines sharply outside of the opening of the game. Green's best creature mana is either the standard (Llanowar- style) elves, or the Wall of Roots. The Quirion Elves are weaker than either, and should be included only as a last resort (they're slower than either, and the ability to generate non-green mana is marginal at best, except in a very diffuse multicolor deck). 4. Land. Thawing Glaciers is a must for decks with X-damage, and remember not to count the Fetchlands as full lands. Generally, I consider a Fetchland to be the equivalent of 1/2 of a normal land, so long as I don't go over more than 6 or so in a deck. Creature/artifact mana is fine- but first you have to draw land to play it. That all being said, I'd like to present an example of what I believe is likely to be a fairly solid post-Jan, pre-Visions red/green deck: 26 red aside Creatures: (14) 1 Autumn Willow 3 Ernham Djinn 3 Jolrael's Centaur 3 Mishra's Factory 2 Reckless Embermage 2 Wildfire Emissary Philosophy: Creature damage is diversified between the two colors, and durability is a primary consideration. Speed is less of a consideration (cheapest creature weighs in at 3 mana- the Centaur), on the principle that an unchecked Djinn/Willow/Insect/Whatever can quickly close out the game. Disruption: (1) 1 Hall of Gemstone Philosophy: While this is an extremely light load of disruption, the Hall of Gemstone in the main deck confounds reactionary decks, and provides the needed mana to run through both the Embermage and the Emissary. Creature Removal: (8) 2 Earthquake 2 Hammer of Bogarden 3 Lightning Bolt 1 Whirling Catapult Philosophy: Again, light on the creature removal. Hopefully, the buildup to the useable level of mana for the Hammer should coincide with drawing it, and both the Hammer and the Earthquake serve as multi-kill cards. Also, the Embermage can serve as creature elimination. Against Prot. Red creatures, it's relatively difficult to destroy them, but since there are so few effective Prot. Red creatures, hopefully they won't appear, or will be expending blocking the green creatures in the deck. The Whirling Catapult serves three functions: removal of fliers, deck manipulation (with Sylvan Library), and an alternative damage source against players. Mana: (4) 1 Fire Diamond 1 Moss Diamond 2 Wall of Roots Philosophy: Since the deck is primarily large creatures, the mana is structured for the 3rd, rather than the 2nd turn. As a result, it's more durable than the Elf methodology. This deck should (hopefully) be able to deal well with Winter Orb, and be able to recover well from Armageddon. Card Advantage: (6) 1 Phyrexian Vault 1 Sylvan Library 2 Thawing Glaciers 1 Worldly Tutor 1 Final Fortune Philosophy: The Vault is simply a must for most creature decks- if you leave 2 mana lying around, it can recoup the loss you would otherwise suffer to an StP, or even recoup some of the loss to a Wrath of God. The Library and the Glaciers are fairly stock cards, and work particularly well together. The Worldly Tutor functions as an alternative deck manipulation scheme, primarily to concentrate the creatures near the beginning of the game, when they're most useful, and to draw out the particular creatures that are useful against a given deck. The Final Fortune is a good way to close out the game- since many of the threats are permanents, it's fairly easy to know whether or not you'll be able to kill an opponent within the next turn. While it's occaisionally a wasted draw, it's also a gamewinner of a card. Alternative Damage: (3) 1 Power Surge 2 Volcanic Geyser Philosophy: Both of these are game-ender cards, as well as being useful utility cards. The Geyser was chosen over the various other X-spells since the Earthquake/Hammer already take care of multiple creature threats, and it's versatility is well worth the extra red mana. The Power Surge works well with the large number of mana-sinks, deals a fair bit of damage in the end game, and is extremely disruptive against permission. Permanent Removal: (3) 2 Pillage 1 Tranquil Domain Philosophy: With only 4 enchantments, the Tranquil Domains can be very useful, and can be a game-breaker against many defensive decks, as well as rendering a number of sideboard options less attractive (CoP: Red, for example). Pillage, even with it's two colored mana casting cost, is a versatile and solid card. Additional artifact removal was not included on the premise that most post-Jan artifacts aren't truly dangerous to this deck, and the total number of artifacts in any given deck will decline with the banning of the Zuran Orb/Ivory Tower, and the disappearance of Icy Manipulator from the Type II set. Land: (22) 2 Mountain Valley 12 Mountain 8 Forest Philosophy: Mana is distributed by need. With 2 fetchlands, 2 glaciers, 2 diamonds, and 2 Walls, you should be able to consistently develop mana with only 20 land in a 61 card deck. Sideboard: (15) 2 Tranquil Domain 2 Pillage 2 Builder's Bane 3 Lodestone Bauble 4 Dragon Whelp 1 Lightning Bolt 1 Incinerate Philosophy: The Tranquil Domains, Pillages, Builder's Banes, extra Bolt and Incinerate are all 'tweak' maneuvers- if a deck has a few too many enchantments, artifacts, or fast weenies, then you can subtly shift the focus of the deck to accomodate. The Lodestone Bauble is a measure against Armageddon (and, if anyone should desire to play it, 1-1 LD). While more Diamonds is a more active method, the Bauble doesn't really occupy space in the deck, due it's cantrip nature, and can serve as late game disruption against Armageddon decks (by placing 4 land on top of their library when they have all the land they'll need). The Dragon Whelps are the 'surprise' maneuver- left out of the main deck due to the fact that they're generally suboptimal, they can be used to generate additional threats against Island Sanctuary/Flood, as well as being used to increase the creature count if a more aggressive strategy is called for. General Philosophy: This is a 'slow' red/green deck, and not ideally tuned- it has too little control for a control deck, but too much for a blitz deck. However, it is comparitively difficult to stop, since it attacks from all angles (it has damage from enchantments, artifacts, creatures, and spells), and many of the creatures are both durable and damaging. Obviously, this deck is a bit too mana intensive to be played as a tourney quality deck, but it is diverse enough to survive quite handily in casual play. Moreover, there are very few specific decks that can hose it entirely, and a number of cards in the main deck will force your opponent into a very reactionary mode (for example, Power Surge vs. Turbo Stasis, Centaur/Willow vs. creatureless, etc.). Also, it is extremely difficult to sideboard against- it has just enough enchantments to prevent folks from sideboarding out enchantment removal, and just enough artifacts to prevent removing anti-artifact destruction. Neither general (Wrath of God) nor specific (Swords to Plowshares) creature destruction can go, either. Even land destruction (with the Mishra's) is helpful against this deck. In any case, I'm using the example above as what I consider to be a 'jumping-off' point for aggressive Type II decks post-Jan. -Len Blado ------------------------------