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Main » Articles » Crazy Decks from the Astral Set

Crazy Decks from the Astral Set

Abe Sargent
Posted on December 6, 2011
 Reddit

Hello, Nation! After building some fun decks last week, I was really in the deck mood, so I wrote up another dash of decks for you. However, these decks have a crazy twist, which I’ll reveal in a bit. I have never built a deck with these cards, so today will be extra special.

Before we move on, I want to talk a bit more about Waypoint, since it’s tangentially connected to today’s article. As many of you may recall, I wrote an article about the world and cards I created for an assignment. That article can be found here. In that article, I explained the small plane that is an intersection for many different races, people, and travelers. Based on a comment on that article, one of the cards was changed to be a reverse Flicker, rather than a Zombify for the exile zone, which was a much better flavor for the card while still keeping the graveyard and exile zones separate. I liked the suggestion of a reverse Flicker mechanic so much that I moved it onto two more cards in the set.

I mentioned that if it was popular, I might reveal some secrets later. Today, I want to reveal one of these secrets. As a place for merchants, explorers, warriors, sages, and thieves, Waypoint is a calling port for many. I wanted to print a card for Waypoint that has already seen print, but not really. You see, one of the cards, which I put as an uncommon in the set, was from Magic: The Gathering, the PC game often referred to as Shandalar.

It’s actually better than a land that just taps for a random color of mana, bit it’s a bit clunky, and I admit that. However, it has perfect flavor. I also love the artwork from Shandalar, and I wish I could include it.

It has a good representation of a nice concept, and I thought it would be an interesting card to print. I am unsure of the term . . . Is it really a reprint? It was never printed or legal in any set. Maybe it’s a post-print, a side-print, or even a pseudo-print.

The twelve Shandalar cards are distinguished in that each has a random element. I’ve always thought that some were very printable. Until Infectious Rage was printed, I thought none of these cards were printable outside of a silver border. Now? I think Gem Bazaar and some others have a good shot at printability if anyone were ever interested.

Today, we are building decks that use the random cards from Shandalar. They are technically referred to as the Astral Set.

A while ago, for Christmas holiday time, a writer for the Wizards website wrote up some articles with the holiday promos. A few posts in the forums pointed out that reading an article with decks built around cards that most players could not acquire was not something these players enjoyed. We’ll be doing that today, but I have two solutions for you if you feel that way.

  1. It’s fun. After all, that’s why we read, write, and talk about a game instead of merely playing it and moving on. I don’t spend hours a week thinking about Ticket to Ride when I’m not playing it, but I do with Magic. This is a fun experiment.

  2. Use proxies for these cards. Shh! Don’t tell WotC, but you can just print out the images of these cards, slap them on Plains, and you are good to go.

All right, here are the twelve Astral cards from Shandalar.

For the record, the ones I think are printable are Gem Bazaar, Rainbow Knights, Prismatic Dragon, Necropolis of Azar, Call from the Grave, and Orcish Catapult. However, Orcish Catapult’s -0/-1 counters and use of the word “random” three times likely prevent it from being printed because of the current rules in R&D.

" Attack of the Azarites"

My favorite Astral card is Necropolis of Azar. The key thing to know is that it only triggers when something non-Black dies, so in a mono-Black deck, it won’t trigger for your creatures unless they are colorless artifact creatures. That also prevents the Spawn of Azar tokens from triggering the Necropolis when they die.

In Shandalar, I love this in decks that splash Black for the power cards of the era: Contract from Below, Mind Twist, Demonic Tutor, and perhaps others like Hypnotic Specter and Terror. Throw this in so that your Serra Angels, Doppelgangers, Shivan Dragons, and others will trigger it.

Here, I simply put it in a deck with a lot of Blue cards. You could trick it out by playing things to change the color of Spawn of Azar tokens or whatnot. However, I think it just works best in a deck like this—in which you can turn every dead non-Black creature into a swampwalker in the 1–3/1–3 range.

Since you want guys to die, I included a full set of Rend Flesh, a pair of Syphon Flesh, and a pair of the nasty Hex. Hex sucks in duels and rocks in multiplayer; it’s like the Decimate of Black. It should put a ton of counters on a Necropolis of Azar.

With all of these swampwalking Azarites running around, I went with Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth to break them in half. I could have looked at Phantasmal Terrain, but the deck was already thick with good stuff, and I wanted to make use of the lands.

What Blue creatures should I run? I went with Doppelgangers, Sphinxes of various sorts, the quick defense of Fog Bank, the countering ability of Draining Whelk, and the card drawing of both Mulldrifter and Aeon Chronicler. Let’s talk about these in turn.

I knew we needed card drawing. My Sphinxes will help, and Mulldrifter is always a strong card. It’s proven itself worthy of inclusion in decks again and again. Aeon Chronicler is a card that was once used a lot, but I’ve been seeing it a lot less over the last two years. I wanted to give it a spit and a shine today. These eight cards will fit in different places in the curve. Note that an evoked Mulldrifter will trigger the Necropolis.

With four Counterspells in the deck and little room for others, I just slid into one of my old standbys: Draining Whelk. I’m always happy to include a pair in my decks. It has massive strength both as an extra counter and as a big ol’ beater.

This deck needs a quick defense with all of its cards costing a lot of mana. It’s meant for multiplayer wherein you can get away with being a little slower but you still want something to keep away the hordes—and Fog Bank will do a solid job of that. Don’t be afraid of using counters and removal early just to keep away the dogs until you’ve set up your mana. To help you with that is Thran Dynamo, which can accelerate a fifth-turn play into a massively suspended Aeon Chronicler or Sphinx of Uthuun.

I hope that you enjoyed the first of these decks. Let’s hit the next one!

 

" Pandora’s Death Machine"

Here’s how I would play Pandora’s Box in Casual Land. Each player cuts his deck and then reveals the top card of the middle of his library. If one creature is flipped, that’s the random one; if not, each player flips one card at a time until just one creature is revealed. (So, everybody flips at the same time, one card at a time. Do you have just one creature revealed? No? Then do it again. Do you have just one creature this time? Then everybody flips a third time and so on.) When that creature is revealed, that will be the creature copied by the token if each player wins the flip. This way, the top cards stay the same for the purpose of cards like Sealed Fate and Scroll Rack.

After that, I just want anti-token methods of ensuring that you are the only one with the token creatures. Simple bounce and flicker effects seem obvious. I also want a handful of creatures that are vulnerable to your own bounce in case someone else has a token but can win the game—in case you are facing a creatureless deck. We went with a pair of Goliath Sphinx. It’s nice, big, and so French vanilla that you can’t stand it. Your opponent will receive no value from it at all—no cards drawn from Consecrated Sphinx or enters-the-battlefield trigger from Sphinx of Uthuun, and so forth. Goliath Sphinx is perfect here.

For bounce, I went chose lot of options. Capsize was crucial. I also tossed in Crystal Shard to help the team. Finally, Tawnos's Coffin is great here because it will permanently end the life of any token creature; plus, you can use it as creature control for other things that are tossed your way. For tricks and fun, I also included a single copy of Krark's Thumb. If you can get it out, that’s great—it should really help you out. If you can’t, that’s okay, too. There’s no pressure . . . Not like with a deck below that also uses Krark's Thumb.

I tossed in Brainstorm to put a drawn Sphinx back into your deck in case you are playing against Mister I Play No Creatures. I also have counters and card drawing to round out the deck.

Finally, with eleven artifacts already in the deck, I threw in Tezzeret the Seeker and some more artifacts. He can tutor for that one Krark's Thumb when you have out Pandora’s Box. He can also pull off a lot of counters for a Crystal Shard or Pandora’s Box. I added a Tormod's Crypt to give you some graveyard removal and two Sensei's Divining Tops to help you out. Finally, I made two lands Seat of the Synod. I didn’t want to expose you too much to land destruction by way of artifact removal, but I like two with Tez.

Flip coins, make tokens, and play a random crazy card from a long gone era? That sounds like a winner to me!

 

" Kitty Kat Attack"

This deck is based around actual cats—not cat people. We’ve cheetahs, jaguars, leopards, lions, tigers, lynxes, plus whatever wildcats are. With so many 1-drops with high power, this has a real aggressive feel. Let’s do another aggro deck next.

Here is how I would play Aswan Jaguar in Casual Land: Target opponent cuts his deck and then flips over a card until he reveals a creature. Aswan Jaguar can tap to destroy, without regeneration, any creature that has any of the revealed creature’s types. So, if you flip three cards and run into a Wild Mongrel, Aswan Jaguar is hunting Hounds. I can spend mana and tap it to destroy any Hound.

Uktabi Wildcats demands a boring mana base. I originally wanted Cycling lands and a Yavimaya Hollow plus perhaps a Mosswort Bridge, but you want enough Forests to play a 1-drop on the first turn.

Cats don’t have a real lord, so I didn’t want to add Adaptive Automaton. It’s didn’t feel right here. With so many cheap and midrange kitties, I knew that I wanted a higher number to support the theme. I even tossed in a pair of Overrun to enforce your kitty-cat goodness on your foes. Remind them how powerful a simple aggro deck with Overrun backup can be.

I originally had four Harmonize, but I swapped two for Nature's Resurgence. I expect Cats to die. After a control deck has killed kitties and put them into your graveyard, play Nature's Resurgence to draw a ton of cards and play more Cats. With your deck having so many creatures, you should naturally outdraw your foes by a lot, and that can lead to a whole new table of feline goodness.

Finally, I threw in a pair of Krosan Grip to round out the deck a bit and to give you the option to take out artifacts and enchantments. Your color is good at that; I didn’t want to ignore it.

 

" Rainbow in my Pocket, Circa 1997"

I think Rainbow Knights are great for the era in which they saw print. Every one of these aggressive 2-drops has Protection from Black except for the Rainbow Knights. When playing against a random deck, Order of Leitbur and similar cards have roughly a 30% chance of that Protection being useful. (I figure that if half of opposing decks are mono-colored and half are two-colored, an average of 20% and 40% makes 30% . . . it’s just a rough estimate.) Rainbow Knights have a similar chance of being useful, but they can be useful in every single game and matchup, as opposed to the others that only work against certain foes.

This is a simple little aggro deck to show off one of the era’s better tournament decks and what Rainbow Knights could add to it.

 

" Polka Catapults"

This is just a crazy, random deck for Red. While it has some traditional coin flip cards—Krark's Thumb, Fiery Gambit, Goblin Bookie, Chance Encounter, and Karplusan Minotaur—the rest are just fun. Plus, it doesn’t have the good cards in the proper numbers that you would want in a “real” coin-flip deck.

Here is how I would resolve Orcish Catapult:

Suppose you pay xx5. You are distributing five -0/-1 counters. On how many creatures? Roll randomly. The result of 1–5 on a die determines how many target creatures are hit. If you have put 8 mana into the spell, roll 1d8. Once you’ve done that, choose targets. Suppose that you have eight -0/-1 counters to distribute. You roll and discover that you have four targets. Now, roll randomly among the creatures to select the targets.

You have rolled four targets. You have eight counters to distribute. How do you do it? Assign each target one -0/-1 counter. You have four left. Now roll for each counter on one of your four targets. The first counter is on Creature 2, the second on Creature 4, the third on Creature 2, and the fourth on Creature 3. Now you have randomly distributed a random number of counters to a random number of creatures.

Remember, if you decide that this process counts as rolling dice, Goblin Bookie can reroll one die throw. There are players out there who are salivating over this. Not many, but they are out there right now imaging the chaos!

For Goblin Polka Band, I would simply determine a random creature for each r spent in addition to the cost, and that creature taps. I tried to reduce the number of Goblins in this deck because the joy of the polka sound entices them too much. I still rock a few here and there, but nothing too serious.

 

Adding these cards to the crazy cards already in decks can make for fun events. Magic is very eventful. Now you have more ammunition. See also Power Struggle for more crazy, random, cool ideas.

Crazy decks, right? When you start with crazy cards, that’s what you get!

I hope that today’s article was a lot of fun for you to read . . . and who knows? Perhaps tonight, you’ll proxy up a few of the Astral cards for play in your decks.

See you next week,

Abe Sargent

P.S. As a reminder, all submissions for the Core Set Challenge need to be received by December 9 at my e-mail addy: euplatious at hotmail dot com. Thanks, thanks!

TAGS uncategorized, casual, deck lists, kitchen table, abe sargent, shandalar

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