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Main » Articles » A Fly in Amber: The Theme Decks of Tempest

A Fly in Amber: The Theme Decks of Tempest

Jay Kirkman
Posted on September 21, 2016
 Reddit

Metallic Sliver
And so, with Kaladesh just around the corner, we have arrived at the end of an era in Preconstructed Magic. The Intro Pack, which has been a staple of Magic’s product lines since 2008, have been phased out, to be replaced by the Planeswalker Decks. The Planeswalker Decks will have new cards printed in them, and a new Planeswalker deck designed with the more casual player in mind.

Indeed, the Intro Packs themselves evolved from their earliest incarnation. Introduced with Shards of Alara, the Preconstructed deck was comprised of 41 cards — about the same size as a Limited deck. By the time Magic 2011 rolled around, however, Wizards abandoned that strategy, moving to the 60-card Constructed standard.

Intro Packs didn’t form in a vacuum, either. Just as Planeswalker Decks are supplanting the Intro Packs, the Intro Packs themselves rose from the ashes of the Theme Deck. First introduced with Tempest in October of 1997, Theme Decks would go on to become the longest-running Preconstructed product, a record that still endures. Today we’ll be looking at those four Tempest decks, for while it wasn’t the first time Wizards had put together a deck of cards for consumers to buy (that honor goes to the Rivals Quick Start Set released in June of 1996), it ushered in an era of Preconstructed releases we’re still enjoying to this day.

Tempest arrived with four different Theme Decks to choose from, a number which would remain in place for almost the entirely of the product line’s life. Exceptions were rare — 2006’s Guildpact and Dissension only came with three, since Wizards tied each deck to a specific guild, and there were only three guilds in each of the two smaller sets. For similar reasons, Lorwyn arrived with five decks, in keeping with the set’s tribal theme. Shadowmoor and Eventide would follow suit, though, curiously, Lorwyn’s small set Morningtide only offered four.

Tempest’s decks not only showcased a variety of different mechanical themes present in the set, but they also illustrated a number of different strategies to the game. The U/W deck, Deep Freeze, was very much of the permission and control archetype, while The Swarm, as the name implied, went with a creature-heavy overwhelm approach.

What also sets the early Theme Decks apart from their modern-day counterparts was the target demographic. Intro Packs are, by not only name but their very design, aimed at newer players — though of course that doesn’t preclude advanced players from enjoying them, either. But the Theme Decks were simply as advertised — decks built around a particular theme from their set of origin. Not only that, but the ‘Strategy Guide’ booklet each arrived with had an “Advanced Deck List” which offered you the opportunity to craft a higher-powered version of the deck, for “tournament play.”

The Slivers

Thanks to being reprinted in multiple sets throughout the years, as recently as Magic 2015, one of the most iconic and enduring creations of Tempest resonates with many players who were not playing the game in 1997 — or possibly even alive.

Although present in all five colors (and in colorless, thanks to the Metallic Sliver), for the sake of balance Wizards made the interesting step of placing the Slivers deck in Blue and Black.

The Slivers ? Tempest Theme Deck | Wizards of the Coast

The Slivers Advanced ? Tempest Theme Deck | Wizards of the Coast

The Slivers makes the expected choices to fill up its creatures, but it’s noteworthy just how few of them there are. Slivers, after all, are best used in a swarm strategy, since (almost) every Sliver you summon has something to offer the others, and certainly benefits in kind. Subsequent Sliver-themed Theme Decks would see this number creep up, from a full twenty in Legions’ Sliver Shivers, to an astonishing twenty-nine in Sliver Evolution from Time Spiral.

Here, though, the sixteen Slivers take on the role of a control finisher more than an aggro swarm. With removal like Fevered Convulsions (one of the deck’s three rares, normal at the time) and Evincar's Justice, The Slivers clearly didn’t have the ambition to win most of its games by turn five.

The “tournament version” is interesting, in the way we look at practices of the past and say, “my, isn’t that quaint?” Filled with singletons and two-ofs, we’d look at this now and perhaps think it resembles more of a Duel Deck than the tighter competitive build structures we’re used to.

It’s worth looking over the sideboard to see what the threats of the day were, and what tools were available to counter them. One thing that jumps out is the presence of “color hosers,” cards that very narrowly target a specific color, but have a strong effect if they happen to hit. Chill would give a Mono-Red player nausea, while Gloom would be brutal against a White Weenie build. In a world where multicolored creatures are more common to see at the top level, Perish punches well above its weight as well.

That isn’t to say we don’t see the occasional color-specific card, but Wizards has scaled them back tremendously. Certainly Dark Betrayal found its way into a number of sideboards in the Standard of the day, but that shuts off one creature — not an entire deck.

Next up, Flames of Rath!

Flames of Rath ? Tempest Theme Deck | Wizards of the Coast

Flames of Rath Advanced ? Tempest Theme Deck | Wizards of the Coast

Veteran players will remember the era when damage went on the stack. That means that you could activate an ability of a creature in response to damage being declared, and the poster child of this interaction was surely the mighty Mogg Fanatic. Time and tide have humbled him, but you can imagine an age when a 2-toughness creature might live in fear of the little 1-drop, which could deal combat damage and then be sacrificed for the extra point. The Goblin Bombardment found here effectively granted that ability to all of your creatures. Ahh, what a time to be alive.

It’s also noteworthy that the deck carries four copies of Kindle. This is a subtle difference between the Theme Deck and the Intro Pack. If a Theme Deck needed four copies of a card, it often would give it to you. Intro Packs, however, with their “guide to build” philosophy, typically applied the brakes at three. Note the Eldritch Moon Intro Pack, Dangerous Knowledge, which only gave you three each of Galvanic Bombardment and Take Inventory.

Stuffed with spells and with only nine creatures in the deck, the Advanced option is a hell-bent-for-leather deck that goes nearly all-in on burn. Of course, the very next set, Stronghold, would famously give us a Theme Deck with only three creatures, but the idea of creatures taking a back seat or supplemental role was more viable at the time of Tempest, due to a general underpowering of the creature card type.

Deep Freeze ? Tempest Theme Deck | Wizards of the Coast

Advanced Deep Freeze ? Tempest Theme Deck | Wizards of the Coast

A slow and grindy control deck, the absence of a large finisher here means that once your opponent gets you more or less locked in, you don’t even get the mercy of a quick death. Instead, you have to deal with your beast creatures being repeatedly tapped down (or eventually stolen, thanks to Legacy's Allure). A healthy dose of removal and countermagic meant you were in for a long day at the office.

The Advanced build looks a little more like the control deck we all know and love. While there’s no large closer, you could still experience the singular joy of getting pinged to death from the Suq'Ata Firewalker as your opponent Wrathed away your field. Good times had by all!

Although the last three Theme Decks have been lighter on creatures than many of us may be accustomed to seeing out of our preconstructed products, the last deck addresses the imbalance.

The Swarm ? Tempest Theme Deck | Wizards of the Coast

The Swarm Advanced ? Tempest Theme Deck | Wizards of the Coast

Holy Maloney! Filled to the brim with creatures, The Swarm looks to get past your opponent’s creature management suite by playing more threats than you could possibly have answers to. And while it does retain one of the tapping options we saw in Deep Freeze, the Master Decoy, it also packs some real muscle in the form of the Krakilin, Trained Armodons, and full playset of Muscle Slivers.

Things get even more menacing in the Advanced build, where it adds a serious ramp suite with Llanowar Elves, Birds of Paradise, and Skyshroud Elves, to get its threats on the board even faster. Appearing here as well is the Force of Nature, a creature that had long been smashing faces as the largest creature in the original release of the game, just a few years prior.

Note, too, the three mainboard Armageddons (with a fourth in the board), which tied in a popular strategy of the time. Made best-known by the “Erhnamgeddon” deck, the idea was to drop a significant threat, then nuke all the lands. Left to rebuild, your opponent would fall to your beater(s) before being able to recover.

I’ve often called vintage precon decks “flies in amber,” because they offer us a glimpse of the game as it was at a particular time. The Magic of Limited Edition: Alpha is a distant ancestor to a set like Kaladesh, in some ways more simple but still filled with wonders and surprises. And for the veterans, perhaps even a little nostalgia too.

Were you playing during Tempest? Any memories you’d like to share? I’d love to hear them, leave them in the comments below. Thanks for joining me on this trip back in time!

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TAGS articles, list, history, editorial, constructed, casual, deck list, preconstructed, jay kirkman, ertai's lament, theme deck, tempest

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