At the Pro Tour this weekend there was an informative seminar about how to do your taxes as a professional Magic player. Apparently there are a number of players having trouble with how they need to report the income they receive from the tour and what expenses can be itemized and used to reduce tax burden. While I was unable to attend the rather informative lecture I did decide to go over the rules with my Tax Preparer. Boy did I learn a lot. Here is a list of Magic related tax issues.

• Planewalkers do not count as dependents. Nor does the cost to summon a Planeswalker count as a Travel expense. To top it all off Planeswalker isn't even a recognized profession.
• Having basic lands in play does not qualify you for the Farmstead Act.
• Lightning Greaves, Whispersilk Cloak, and Coat of Arms are not considered Clothing expenses.
• Donate does not force you to pay Gift Tax.
• Items given away by Bazaar Trader are not charitable donations.
• Everflowing Chalice's kicker cost does not entitle you to a donation credit either.
• Orzhov is not a recognized bank.
• Comet Storm does not constitute property damage.
• Having Poison Counters does not qualify you for Disability Income.
• Even though it only counted for part of the year taking "mana burn" does not qualify you for medical leave.
• Pacifism is not a recognized religion.
• Creature lands are not Mobile Homes so therefore don't require property tax.
• Broodmate Dragon is not a legitimate Daycare provider.
• Platinum Angel does not make you tax exempt
• Islandwalk is not a vacation expense.
• Thought Hemorrhage is not a medical Expense.
• Your DCI number is not you Social Security number.
• April 15th is the Day of Judgment so remember to Sign in Blood your forms because not even Gwafa Hazid, Profiteer can bribe the IRS.

Naya Fog?

While watching coverage of Pro Tour San Diego I noticed something. The format is very full of turning creatures sideways for the win. Combo effects that combine together to deal lethal damage or loss of life just aren't around. When this occurs there is a brief opening for decks that deny the opportunity for combat damage. The best card for this is Fog.

Good 'ol fog. The coolness of Fog is its ability to offset the combat Math and if used right can really make things go your way. The downfall of Fog is the fact that its effect does nothing to the current field. Even though is buys you an extra turn it cost you a card that could have been used for more of a permanent advantage.

Every once in a while the game is poised to where a player could pick up multiple fog effects and build a deck out of them. Last summer there were a handful of top 8's earned by Turbo Fog. Turbo Fog was a deck that used Fog effects (though no love for the real Fog) and Jace Beleren and Cryptic Command.

Like I said every once in a while the meta is poised for a Fog type of deck. I really feel that time is now. So I started tinkering with a Fog deck of my own.

In standard right now we have 4 different Fog type of cards. Fog, Tanglesap, Angelsong, and Safe Passage. That's quite a selection for us to use. In fact I'm going to use all 4. That's 16 cards that stop combat damage in one deck. You would think it impossible to get hit by combat but not even all four of these together can stand on their own.

Even if I could have 40 copies of fog and 20 forest in a deck I still wouldn't be able to always stop combat. In order to stay unmolested by combat I would need to play a Fog every turn. That takes away a card and I only draw one per turn. Sure I'm very likely to draw another but eventually I will draw lands instead of Fogs. When I've had enough land draws instead of fog draws I'll be open for attack. So I need some way to reliably insure myself of a Fog every turn. To assist with this endeavor I'm bringing in the "Turbo" package. Howling Mine and Font of Mythos insure increased draws which maximizes our odds of drawing a Fog effect for every turn. This is especially true later in the game when we should have multiple card drawing artifacts on the table and our opponent will probably have lethal combat ready.

So now we've decided 24 of our 60 card deck. Notice we still don't have a win condition. Sure we can sit by and wait for the mill win since our opponents will get the extra draws from Mine and Font first but that would preclude us from using many fetch lands and/or Terramorphic Expanses. Also, in tournament play, we run into the issue of time. To find the win condition I decided to go Naya and add some Red to the deck. With all the cards we're giving our opponent Runeflare Trap is rather easy to activate and it has the potential to deal double digit damage for 1 mana. But we don't want multiples of this card in our opener and really we don't need it until mid to late game so I'll only include 3 copies in our deck.

For now lets just say we are going to run 22 land for this deck. The proper balance of fetches, ETB tapped, and creature lands may take some tinkering but for simplicity let's say 22 for now. That leaves us with 11 card slots left in our 60 card deck. And that leads well into our homework today. I want you to post in the comments what 11 you would chose. You are limited to Red, Green and White for mana and the 49 cards I've mentioned so far have to stay intact. I'm really curious to see what the student body will do with this one. I'm going to go over some ideas that I've had but you are not restricted to just these.

Burn package: My first thought with this deck was to use the remaining slots full up with burn. The main idea would be to save Fog mana open and burn to my opponents dome. With an active draw engine I should be able to quickly put my opponent within Runeflare range. Lightning Bolt, Burst Lightning, Searing Blaze, and even Unstable Footing are some of the possible contenders.

Solutions package: In theory I should be able to avoid any unwanted combat damage but there are still other issues out there. Ajani Vengeant, Chandra Nalaar, and Sorin Morkov stand out right away. All of these Walkers can deal damage without combat and so can win the game despite us having a hand full of fogs. Also mono red decks pack plenty of direct burn as well so we have to contend with that. Oblivion Ring, Kor Firewalker, Rest for the Weary, and Perimeter Captain can be useful in those situations. Naya Charm can also go in here since it can give me options if my opponent destroys my card drawing artifacts.

Walker package: Since the inception of Planeswalkers I've noticed two things. First is that most common way to get rid of Walkers is by combat damage. We have that covered. Second is that when a Walker is allowed to live for a long time it spells doom for your opponent. All of the Red, Green and White based walkers should be considered here but Garruk and Nissa are probably the lamest since their abilities interact with the deck the least. Who needs to Overrun if you have no creatures and our elf count is a little limited.

Big Fatties package: We are in Naya color right? Nothing says that we can't do a little combat of our own even if we're preventing our opponents. A better opponent will wait to build up his army of combatants and force the fog while leaving blockers for our big'ens but we may have times where just having a large threat will buy us time without using a Fog effect. Woolly Thoctar, Spellbreaker Behemoth, and even Baneslayer Angel fit in our color base.

Ascension Package: Looking at all the Fog effects Luminarch Ascension looks like it would be easy to get activated. The end result of producing a bunch of instant speed angels is pretty cool. The subtle Ascension is Pyromancer Ascension. The time that our Fog effects buy us make it pretty common to gain the counters. While doing double Fog is totally irrelevant doing double Runeflare can win the game. Also we can slip Naya Charm in here as well allowing us to recoup extra cards over and over again. As long as I have a Charm in the graveyard I can cast a Charm in return card mode. Pyro Ascension copies it netting two cards from my graveyard. One card of choice and the second Naya. Rinse and repeat as often as needed.

More Fogs package: This is a section for cards that indirectly cause a Fog effect. For example, casting Day of Judgment creates a next turn Fog unless they have some Thrinax type tricks. (DOJ with an active Pyro handles that as well). And we can do the whole tap out thing with Naya Charm. Beginning of our opponents turn just tap all their dudes and viola we have a Fog.

Those of course are just a few ideas. Remember you're choosing 11 cards. They have to be in color. It would also be appreciated if you explain why you picked that exact 11. I'm really looking forward to seeing your homework on this one.

There's the bell. Remember to post your homework. Late work is unacceptable.