My Magic: The Gathering Decks
Magic The Gathering is a card game. It's become one of my main obsessions since people at college got me back into the game. I spend a lot of my time thinking about new decks to build, and how to make my existing ones better. It also uses up lots of my money. But I like collecting the cards too and not just playing them. If you ever try trading with me, you'll see. "Naw, I like that one too much to trade. That one's artwork's too cool to get rid of. That one could possible be useful for me..."
The game's been around since mid 1993. I've been playing since December 1995. I don't have any of the super valuable cards though, because they were only printed for about a year. I usually go play in the free tournaments on Fridays and Sundays. Sometimes I get stuck playing against ten year olds that use their parents money to build the latest internet deck and play expensive cards that were printed before they were born. But I've wasted so much money on good decks that I do well. I don't know what else to say.
Here are some of my better decks, sorted by age. The other less used decks are on a seperate page, link at the bottom.
Mono Black - Very old, Revised October 2002
This deck was originaly built some time in the first half of 1996. It remained relatively unchanged until Fall 2002 when I got back into playing the game seriously. Bill gave me a lot of suggestions for new ideas of it, but it's still pretty similar in concept and with many of the same cards.
It does better in multiplayer than two player, mostly because of all the defensive cards that ward off any attackers until I'm ready to start winning with big flyers and drain lifes.
19 Swamp, 2 Lake of the Dead, 1 Volraths Stronghold, 4 Dark Ritual
4 Will O The Wisp, 4 Nantuko Shade, 2 Royal Assassin, 2 Soul Collector, 3 Sengir Vampire, 2 Visara the Dreadful
3 Unholy Strength, 1 Bad Moon, 2 Shade's Form, 3 Icy Manipulator, 2 Nevinyrral's Disk, 2 Pestilence, 4 Drain Life
Pro-Black - December 2002
This was my main tournament deck for a while. It won back in June 2003 and has finished second a good number of times. The pro red creatures and worship worked great against the goblin decks that dominated for a while, and the burn decks that are still overly popular at Millennium.
First built after seeing the pestilence pro black combo in an old issue of Duelist in 1996, it ended up with a draw and the first time I killed my brother. Steve and I were both at 1, and I only had the mana to use the pestilence, but not to activate my cop black. He had me next turn, so I decided to take him with me. I dismissed the deck as a novelty until December 2002 when I brought it back and Bill said the concept had a lot of potential.
12 Plains, 7 Swamp, 4 Scrubland
4 Paladin enVec, 4 Mystic Crusader, 2 Order of the White Shield, 2 Wall of light, 3 Voice of All
4 Vindicate, 4 Death Grasp
4 Pestilence, 2 Sphere of Grace, 3 Darkest Hour, 4 Worship, 1 Enlightened Tutor
Three Color Discard - January 2003
A lot more control cards than I usually play. It's best in two player because most of the control is single card, but it can do okay in multiplayer because the threat of me terminating will keep people away. "Are you sure you want to do that?" It's a strategy I learned from Bill.
3 Swamp, 4 Badlands, 3 Tainted Peak, 4 Underground Sea, 3 Tainted Isle, 2 Volcanic Island, 3 Reflecting Pool, 1 Polluted Delta, 1 Bloodstained Mire
4 Hypnotic Specter, 2 Blazing Specter, 2 Gwendlyn Di Corci, 2 Nightscape Master, 3 Balshan Collaborator, 1 Sol'kanar the Swamp King, 1 Crosis the Purger
4 Terminate, 4 Recoil, 2 Crosis's Charm
4 Hymn to Tourach, 4 Duress, 1 The Rack, 2 Animate Dead
Birds Rule - Spring 2003
This one's simple. Just play the birds, attack with the birds. Then when you have enough birds, you can Airborne Aid and draw lots more. But then some people pick on the birds and say that birds suck. But birds rule. I've sometimes done hundreds and even thousands of dammage in one turn because of the Coat of Arms combined with all the draw cards.
13 Plains, 6 Island, 4 Tundra, 1 Seaside Haven
4 Suntail Hawk, 2 Mystic Familiar, 1 Gustcloak Harrier, 4 Keeper of the Nine Gales, 2 Lieutenant Kirtar, 2 Commander Eesha, 2 Major Toroh, 2 Battle Screech, 2 Gustcloak Savior, 1 Celestial Gatekeeper, 1 Aven Brigadier, 1 Crookclaw Elder
2 Swords to Plowshares, 2 Shared Triumph, 2 Soulcatchers Aerie, 3 Moat, 2 Airborne Aid, 1 Coat of Arms
And since I can't not say it, birds rule!
Berserk - Early Summer 2003
Sort of like a Fires deck without Fires. This deck is definitely fun to play, but it's a bit inconsistant. It takes a big hit against creature kill, since it involves getting one huge creature through. Trolls really fit well though. Never has a new card so perfectly fit into one of my existing decks. This deck sometimes will draw too many creature boosters but not enough creatures. Then it sucks. But you'd better block that BOP.
7 Forest, 4 Savannah, 4 Taiga, 1 Plateau, 1 Wooded Foothills, 1 Windswept Heath, 2 Mishras Factory, 4 Birds of Paradise, 3 Wild Growth
4 Troll Ascetic, 2 Flametongue Kavu, 4 Endless Wurm, 2 Silvos Rogue Elemental
4 Rancor, 4 Armadillo Cloak, 3 Might of Oaks, 4 Berserk, 2 Fling, 2 Seal of Cleansing, 2 Swords to Plowshares
"Drgns" (An obsure reference to old Final Fantasy games) - Summer 2003
Dragons are one of my favorite multiplayer decks right now. They're huge, they fly, and I can generate horrifyingly large ammounts of mana for a one hit kill fireball. This deck can actually become quite unstopable if allowed time to develop. Luckily earthquake kills all my opponents creatures and almost none of my own for some nice stalling.
12 Mountain, 4 Forest, 4 Taiga, 3 Explosive Vegitation, 4 Sol Ring, 4 Birds of Paradise, 2 Dragonspeaker Shaman
4 Dragon Whelp, 2 Lightning Dragon, 1 Shivan Dragon, 1 Two Headed Dragon, 2 Shivan Hellkite, 2 Kilnmouth Dragon
4 Lightning Bolt, 1 Disintegrate, 1 Fireball, 4 Earthquake, 2 Browbeat, 1 Wheel of Fortune, 2 Naturalize
Fog Mill - 10/8/2003
Probably the wackiest deck I've made so far. It still needs a lot of work. Pretty much it just uses Mesmeric Orbs to mill everyone, Gaeas Blessings to keep me from being decked out, and fogs to keep me alive long enough. It doesn't work in multiplayer because everyone teams up against me and I run out of fogs. It also sucks against direct damage, but that's easy to sideboard for. The deck has actually been pretty successful in tournaments. Terry loves playing this for some reason.
14 Forest, 5 Plains, 4 Savannah, 1 Skyshroud Claim
4 Mesmeric Orb, 3 Gaeas Blessing, 1 Sculpting Steel, 3 Grindstone
4 Isochron Scepter, 3 Naturalize, 2 Abeyance, 1 Orims Chant, 2 Gilded Light, 4 Moments Peace, 4 Fog, 2 Spore Frog, 1 Dawnstrider, 2 Spike Weaver
Phangel - Fall 2003
This deck's just stupid. Pretty much I just wanted to have a deck I could use Phage and Platinum Angel in. Then I put in some support cards for untargetability and unblockability, along with control, and then a bunch of stupid one-of cards I threw in because I couldn't figure out what else. It's easy to tutor for any of them.
7 Swamp, 4 Island, 4 Underground Sea, 4 Tainted Isle, 1 Volraths Stronghold, 4 Sol Ring
1 Phage the Untouchable, 1 Platinum Angel, 2 Cloak of Mists, 4 Lightning Greaves, 1 Whispersilk Cloak
3 Recoil, 4 Stifle, 4 Counterspell, 4 Demonic Tutor, 1 Lobotomy, 1 Braingeyser, 1 Isochron Scepter, 1 Force of Will, 1 Hurkyls Recall, 1 Chaos Orb
1 Scion of Darkness, 1 Visara the dreadful, 1 Bane of the Living, 1 Nightscape Master, 1 Synapse Sliver, 1 Eater of Days
Soul Foundry - February 2004
Put stupid creatures on it like faceless butcher, meddling mage, spike weaver... It used to be aweful, now it actually works reasonably well with the addition of the clones and all the card drawing walls.
3 Taiga, 3 Bayou, 3 Savannah, 4 Tropical Island, 3 Volcanic Island, 3 Underground Sea, 3 Tundra, 2 Darksteel Ingot
4 Soul Foundry, 2 Sculpting Steel, 1 Welding Jar, 4 Counterspell, 2 Naturalize, 1 Capsize
4 Wall of Blossoms, 4 Carven Caryatid, 4 Clone, 4 Faceless Butcher, 1 Flametongue Kavu, 2 Meddling Mage, 2 Seedborn Muse, 1 Spike Weaver
Classic Blue White Control - Fall 2004
I pretty much copied this deck off of Les, right down to the purple sleeves. But his rating is way higher than mine, and maybe the sleeves are the key. I made some changes though. He doesn't really like the moats, because they're useless against some decks, but when they do work, they work beautifully. Also I think power sink is much more versatile than his mana leak. And he doesn't like serra angel, but it's signed beta and too cool not to show off. My variety of finishers makes this slightly more fun. It's still horribly boring sitting behind a moat countering crap trying to draw a serra angel though. But this has been a very successful tournament deck for me.
8 Island, 7 Plains, 1 Karakas, 4 Tundra, 4 Flooded Strand
4 Counterspell, 4 Force of Will, 4 Power Sink, 3 Brainstorm, 1 Stroke of Genius, 4 Swords to Plowshares, 2 Disenchant, 2 Isochron Scepter, 1 Enlightened Tutor, 1 Mystical Tutor, 3 Moat, 3 Wrath of God
1 Eternal Dragon, 1 Exalted Angel, 1 Serra Angel, 1 Decree of Justice
Crappier/temporary decks
I have a bunch more decks which I don't think deserve to be on here. They're either temporary stupid fun decks, ideas I'm still working on, or some just plain suck. But here they are in case you feel like making fun of them or helping me with them.
Here they are.
My main page.