Locations
This week in the Classroom I would like to spotlight a deck designed by a reader. Those of you who read my articles regularly know that I like to spotlight someone else's creation every once in a while. I'm a writer for the average Joe so I feel inclined to give Joe some props every now and then. Most of the time I spotlight a student at the High School where I teach Geometry but this year has not been a good year for Magic at my school. First, many of my regular players graduated last spring and are now doing windmill slams at dorms across the nation. Second, we have a new administration along with a new Internet policy that makes for a lot of roadblocks to any gamers.
So this week I want to spotlight a player at my local store. When I can find time I play at Edict Games in Pittsburg, Kansas. Edict players fit into many different categories like most other stores. We have judge types, trader types, net-deckers, and combo crazies just like everybody else. Everyone is comfortable with each other and game losses never grow into bitter feelings. Because of this atmosphere players like Blake and me really flourish.
Blake is a really strong skilled player but has no PTQ aspirations. He almost never plays anything that would be a predictable deck yet he frequents the finals table quite often. I personally really like the way Blake plays. You can almost see the numbers go through his head as he plans his moves. In an honest moment I would say he does more math at the table than I do. And that's saying a lot.
Last week Blake showed me a deck he had built. When I saw the first card I almost discounted the whole thing. He must have anticipated my reaction since he went into his justification of the card immediately. Turns out he was on to something. In fact, the more I thought about the deck the more I liked it so I asked him if I could write about it. He was amicable so here it is.
The Quest
Blake's deck is mostly a SCS (Single Card Strategy) design. It does have some other outs but it is predominantly based around a Quest card. I'm not saying which Quest yet. I want you to guess.
Did you guess this one? I would have. Halloween is this weekend after all. The problem is I've seen this one before. Builds for this guy go in two different directions. You can play massive amounts of removal and use the death of your opponent's critters to feed the Gravelord until he gives you a Zombie to wipe up the life points. Or you can play a Black wienie style deck where you achieve the 5/5 by using your own dudes as fodder. Bloodthrone Vampire and Pawn of Ulamog go a long way in this style. I've even seen decks that sac a Tuktuk the Explorer to gain two 5/5's at once. But that isn't surprising enough for Blake.
How about the Gemblades? If you stop and think about it I wouldn't be writing about a deck right now unless it used something from Scars or M11. An active Gemblades would go great with a surprise Putrefax for the win. Or maybe a Chimeric Mass played cheap early and then enlarged later. I would give some thought to Protean Hydra as well. Or maybe even some kind of Spikeshot Elder type of combo. There are possibilities out there but Blake's is even better and abuses a Scars card to its maximum potential so we aren't going on that Quest this week.
Cute, Maybe……Nah. There is a lot of cheap discard out there and this does make it reasonable to make your opponent Hellbent. Most of the time having a discard spell in hand with an empty handed opponent is bad. But what in Scars makes this card viable?
Burn, Burn, and more Burn. Get in top deck mode and finish them with some crazy kicked Burst Lightning for 10 or something. While this does sound like fun it isn't as lively as Blake's Quest Deck.
I guess I've left you hanging long enough.
The Winner Is……
That's right. The Equipment Quest. Your first reaction is probably like mine. What makes this Quest special now? The secret is Argentum Armor. The Armor might be the biggest game changing equipment out there. Targeted Annihilator with a +6/+6 body is pretty good. Having it attached and swinging on turn 2 is AWESOME. Don't believe it? I'll show you some sample hands after the list. It doesn't happen consistently but it can happen. In fact, starting hands with the Quest in them usually destroy a permanent on turn four at the latest.
That's why I said it was a Single Card Strategy earlier. The Quest makes the deck tick. It does have some alternate win cons. Stoneforge Mystic helps to equip some cool effects onto Kor Duelist. Have you ever tried to face down a Double Strike, Deathtouch, Lifelink. How about we add +2/+0 Vigilance, Trample, and Haste? I honestly didn't have my notebook with me so I didn't write down Blake's exact equipment list but it had these bombs along with some cheap and effective ones like Darksteel Axe and Trusty Machete.
Even with cheap one drops you still aren't going to get to swing with an armored dude on turn 2. Not unless you also play with some even cheaper zero drop dudes. Ornithopter and Memnite both put counters on the Quest in a hurry. Mix in Glint Hawk and Kor Skyfisher and the counters start to flood. The rest of the cards I don't recall but I think it had Kor Outfitter and maybe a Squadron Hawk.
Here's Blake's list. Or at least pretty close. I couldn't memorize the whole thing. Sorry if I'm off a few cards.
"Blake’s Quest"
Sample Hands
Best Ever: Plains, Plains, Quest for the Holy Relic, Ornithopter, Memnite, Glint Hawk, Kor Duelist. On the play. This is the turn 2 destruction. I played Plains, Quest, Thopter, Memnite on turn one. My opponent played a Refuge of some color. I played Hawk, replayed Memnite, played Plains, then Duelist. Equiped the Armor on Thopter making it officially a "Pornothopter" and attacked. Ouch.
Worst Ever: Almost the same only double Hawk instead of the Duelist. Why is this the worst hand ever? My opponent played Mountain and when I went to equip he bolted my target. Next turn saw a Pyroclasm and you get the picture.
Average start: Plains, Plains, Plains, Quest, Mystic, Skyfisher, Duelist. With nothing to really speed up the Quest I thought about mulling this one. But I decided to keep and see what prevailed. Turn one saw Plains and Quest. Two drew a Hawk and played a Plains and a Mystic which fetched a Machete figuring to equip to the Duelist and use Fisher to replay the Mystic for something with more meat later. Turn three drew Plains and played Plains, Duelist, and Fisher which returned Mystic. Turn four drew a Memnite and a smile since my opponent had tapped out for a Cultivate.
A non-Quest hand: Plains, Plains, Duelist, Ornithopter, Mystic, Outfitter, Fisher. This one made for a turn 4 Armored Thopter. The risk is having your Mystic destroyed before it can tap. If that happens you're not likely to get the armor into play. Without the armor in play the Outfitter is ineffective.
There maybe some improvements to this list but I like it. Hope you do as well.
Class dismissed.
