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A Unique Piece of Magic History, A.K.A. The Minotaur Deck, or the Coolest Deck You'll Ever See!!!!!
Hello, Nation! After weeks of Mirrodin Besieged and equipment, I thought today would be a nice change of pace. I have a deck that I've never told anyone about (except for my playgroup). I have a deck that is interesting, unique, and very historical.
Normally, when someone says he has a special deck, he is referring to the combination of cards being really interesting, and the way it plays to be smooth and dangerous. That's not the case here.
What I'm referring to are the actual cards themselves. I have a sixty-card deck, and this actual deck, with these actual cards, are the ones that have a part in Magic history. Interested? Let's take a look at it!
Before it moved to an exclusive electronic format, the Magic Invitational was held with random formats each year. Sometimes, the formats would resemble real ones (Vintage) and sometimes they would resemble actual casual formats (Five-Color).
I want to talk about the 2001 Magic Invitational.
You can find coverage of the event here:
That was back when there was still a sideboard. Wow—that seems so long ago.
Anyway, at this Invitational, there were five major formats being played:
- Standard (with a twist being the new Standard before it became legal)
- Five-Color
- Duplicate Limited (with identical sealed pools; who could build and pilot the best deck?)
- Rotisserie Draft
- Auction of the People
In a previous Invitational, they had done an auction with the seventeen decks that had won Pro Tours. They used the rules from that with a slate of new decks. Here's how the auction worked.
Begin the auction by having a person (in a random order) choose a deck. They start bidding automatically with a bid of 7/20. In turn, people will have a chance to bid that deck down: 7/19 is a starting hand size of 7 and starting life of 19; 7/18 beats that; 6/20 beats 7/1; and 5/20 beats 6/1. Once the highest bid is out there, it goes around, and if everyone chooses not to bid further, you win with your highest bid (and cannot retract, or bid higher).
This year, instead of tournament-winning decks, they asked players to submit a deck around a creature type. The decks were seventeen tribal decks that were chosen out of 3,732 submissions by the people. Here are the decks that were in the auction pool.
Take a quick look, and see which decks you want! How much would you bid for the right deck?
Today is about the story of one of these decks. Let's take a closer look at this deck:
"4UGW (created by Edward Brown)"
- Creatures (24)
- 4 Anaba Spirit Crafter
- 4 Anaba Shaman
- 4 Labyrinth Minotaur
- 4 Minotaur Illusionist
- 4 Hurloon Wrangler
- 2 Talruum Champion
- 2 Tahngarth, Talruum Hero
- Spells (12)
- 4 Didgeridoo
- 1 Mana Maze
- 4 Tahngarth's Rage
- 3 Thran Turbine
- Lands (24)
- 6 Island
- 1 Maze of Ith
- 1 Maze of Shadows
- 12 Mountain
- 4 Volcanic Island
This is affectionately known by everyone I play with as the "Minotaur Deck."
When you look at the recap of the auction, you will discover an issue that I have as the owner of the Minotaur Deck. The auction recap includes all of the players, and what decks they picked and when, and how much they paid, but you won't notice this deck mentioned anywhere. The poor coverage fails to mention this deck, or its pilot, in the auction recap. Thus, I have no idea under what circumstances it was auctioned, who was bidding on it, and so forth.
What I do know is who won the auction for it.
Kamiel Cornelissen.
This Invitational is generally known for two things. It is the one where Kai Budde won best two out of three in Five-Color because the matches were decided based on who had the highest ante value, and he used Jeweled Bird to prevent his opponent from having a single chance at winning the game. This play gave the format a black eye, and really hurt it.
Second, it's known as the Invitational that Kai Budde won, leading to his card seeing print a bit later.
If you take a look at the standings of these sixteen Magic giants of the era, who came in fourth? Kamiel.
In fact, Kamiel was sailing until the auction.
After twelve rounds, he was tied for third place and just one game behind Clegg and Budde. The top two players would play in a five-format best-three-of-five finals. In third place, he was looking strong.
And then he ended up with the Minotaur Deck. He went 1-2 with it, with losses to Chris Pikula and Oliver Ruel, and a win over Dan Clegg, who would go on to play Kai Budde in the finals. Because Kamiel had Clegg in his sights, if he had gone 3-0 in the auction, he would have been in the finals against Kai. Who knows if the finals would have been different? Would Kamiel's card be with us today rather than Kai's?
Kamiel's submission was this:
Doomsday Clock
Artifact
At the beginning of your upkeep, put an omen counter on Doomsday Clock.
At the beginning of your upkeep, for each omen counter on Doomsday Clock, sacrifice a permanent and draw two cards.
What would it have looked like at the end?
The cards for the auction came from StarCityGames. Wizards doesn't own a bunch of specific cards, so SCG loaned them the cards to make decks. Each of these decks has every single card signed by the pro who piloted it. Thus, this deck has Kamiel's signature on every single card.
In order to make some money off the event, SCG put the decks up on eBay for sale. It was quite appropriate that decks that were created by the people for pros for an auction would themselves be auctioned to the people permanently.
I wanted to bid on one of them. A couple had gone very cheaply, and many were going to a high price. I decided to go with one of the cheaper ones.
On December 13, 2001, for eBay auction 1666395642, I purchased this deck. If memory serves, I paid $30 plus shipping and handling for it.
As a side note: How do you value this deck? It has four Volcanic Islands and a Maze of Ith, and those cards have a nice value to them. Do I value it based on that? What value does it have as a unique piece of Magic history? No clue.
I wonder if Edward Brown will read today's article. I wonder if he's even still playing Magic!
In fact, I wonder that about all of these decks. How many of these decks are in the hands of someone still playing? Who has them now? Are they together, or were they taken apart? It would be cool to find out where they are, and if they are still being played. If anyone has any info, post in the forums!
Anyway, I still have the deck in the plastic case it came in, with a price tag of $10 on the case. I have never broken up my deck to take pieces for other decks. I feel it is too important as a unit to do so. It would be totally cool to have its Maze of Ith in Abe's Deck of Happiness and Joy, or an EDH deck, but . . . nah. I can't bring myself to do it.
Now I have the Minotaur Deck, officially named "4UGW". I play it occasionally. Not every game night or anything, but occasionally. I've played it roughly seventy-to-eighty-ish times over the nine years I've had it, and others have played it probably twenty-five to thirty times total. Want to know how it plays?
It plays horribly, poorly, and not very well at all. The problem is that it has some really bad cards (Thran Turbine) to power out what? Just Didgeridoo. And while cards like Mana Maze might be flavorful, they suck in this deck.
Tahngarth's Rage is essentially removal in your colors and in your flavor. But it's awful! Look, I can kill X/1s at sorcery speed! Fear my Minotaur wrath! Rawr!
It is also missing some key Minotaurs. Where is Hurloon Minotaur, or, better yet, Talruum Minotaur? I'd much rather have the haste and 4-mana body of Talruum Minotaur than the 5-mana firstest-strike Talruum Champion. Would you really want Labyrinth Minotaur in your deck?
There are some good cards here, though. Minotaur Illusionist is fine, and Tahngarth is obviously a winner. The Anaba Spirit Crafter gives you a creature that resembles an actual lord. It's a 2/3 because it's a Minotaur, and then pumps your other dudes.
Anaba Shaman is obviously key in a deck with such a light creature component. Even spending 1 mana to tap it is worth it to take out the occasional small creature (or add to the kill of a Tahngarth's Rage).
The obviously missing card is Anaba Ancestor. At the time, it wasn't a Minotaur, but it did pump Minotaurs. It would give the deck a missing two-drop.
I think the reasons this deck got chosen were:
- the flavor of the mazes being in the deck (where's Dark Maze?)
- the crazy combo of Turbine and Didgeridoo
- the presence of Hurloon Wrangler
My deck has developed a bit of a reputation with my playgroup. They've often nicknamed it the Denimwalk Deck, or the Hurloon Wrangler Deck. The presence of the Un- card that will be unblockable if your foe is wearing jeans is funny. It has become the icon of the deck.
You can pump a Wrangler with Spirit Crafters and a Rage. Then swing and deal a ton of unblockable damage to some people. (I hadn't even owned a pair of jeans for years until I had to buy a pair for a Halloween costume a couple of years ago because I didn't have one.) (I dressed up as a character from The Road Warrior.) (And I didn't want to wear assless chaps.)
In the last nine years, since this deck was made, we've really lacked for Minotaurs. Since Odyssey, we've had:
And don't forget Mistform Ultimus, plus changelings!
In nine years, we've seen seven Minotaurs. Where's the Minotaur love?
If I were to build a modern version of this deck, here's what it would look like:
""
- Creatures (24)
- 4 Anaba Ancestor
- 4 Anaba Spirit Crafter
- 4 Anaba Shaman
- 4 Minotaur Illusionist
- 2 Tahngarth, Talruum Hero
- 2 Lord of Shatterskull Pass
- 4 Hurloon Wrangler
- Spells (8)
- 4 Didgeridoo
- 4 Tahngarth's Rage
- Lands (28)
- 2 Dark Maze
- 7 Mountain
- 6 Island
- 2 Shivan Reef
- 4 Steam Vents
- 2 Izzet Boilerworks
- 4 Mystifying Maze
- 1 Maze of Shadows
I began by pulling the expensive lands and replacing them with newer versions that cost a lot less mana. I kept the maze theme but added the new Maze from the base set, plus a pair of Dark Mazes. The maze theme is much stronger, and without Mana Maze, a bit better.
Since the first deck was happy using dual lands, I felt I could use Steam Vents, Shivan Reef, and the Izzet Boilerworks without having to worry about the theme of the deck.
I kept most the previous cards. The new Minotaurs don't intrigue me much. One is Green, another needs White mana, while most of the rest is weak. I did like a pair of Lord of Shatterskull Pass as a two-of in this deck. You make some extra mana from twenty-six lands, and I wanted to use it as your heavy hitter later in the game, since no Minotaur is larger than 4/4.
Anaba Ancestor is an obvious addition, since it is now a Minotaur. I had to keep the Hurloon Wranglers, and I upped the Rage count to 4.
While staying mostly on theme, I couldn't help but pull the Thran Turbines for cards that are more on-theme. Sorry. They sucked, and they weren't on-theme. Every nonland is on-theme, and many of the lands are on as well.
(The Izzet Boilerworks and Steam Vents are also on theme. What's the name for them in the Planechase cards? Izzet Steam Maze.)
I thought this article would look cool with some pictures of the actual deck, as it is today. Interested? Let's take a look!
Here is the deck in the original case I got it in from SCG:
And here is the deck spread out a bit:
Finally, here I am holding the deck up, happy as can be. The deck is awesome!
I hope that you enjoyed today's article. I know it's a bit different from my usual stuff, but often different is good.
See you next week,
Abe Sargent
