I decided to start a new weekly/bi-weekly/whenever thing on the blog where I post an absolutely terrible card and anyone who wants to tries to make a deck based around it or even just a combo.  As we were eating dinner tonight William came up with a good one after I mentioned that I found one and tore it up because I goddamn fucking hate it.

Enjoy.

Make a combo.

Yeah, it is dumb. You’ll all live.

Creatures:
4x Bogardan Helkite
4x Kokoshu, The Evening Star

Spells:
4x Cabal Ritual
4x Dark Ritual
4x Footsteps of the Goryo
4x Buried Alive
4x Dread Return
4x Living Death
4x Burnt Offering
4x Infernal Contract

Enchantments:
4x Gravestorm

Lands:
16x Swamp

Best card in the deck? Burnt Offering.

Well, I finally decided to write a real article for the blog instead of just posting nonsense and complaining about stuff. Sure the article about the dumb Reanimator deck is still on its way, but how about something with a little more substance?

It seems the gang has been playing a lot more often as of late, and since Jake got another box of Planar Chaos and Ben decided to start building more decks, I’ve seen a lot of interesting things going down.

I suppose to begin this article, since its about a word and what that word means for Magic and is partially responsible for how much fun you can have with the decks you play and even play against, I might start by defining that word:

syn·er·gy (sĭn’ər-jē)
n. pl. syn·er·gies

1. The interaction of two or more agents or forces so that their combined effect is greater than the sum of their individual effects.
2. Cooperative interaction among groups, especially among the acquired subsidiaries or merged parts of a corporation, that creates an enhanced combined effect.

It’s important to note that synergy doesn’t necessarily imply combo in the Magic sense of the word, it is more closely related to how well cards go together and work towards the overall flow of the deck. Sure I can play Sliver Queen, Heartstone, and Ashnod’s Altar to litter the board with an infinite amount of tokens, but thats more of an exploit than synergy. While closely related, synergy and combos are completely different in the game.

While playing a game (multiplayer or one-on-one) I’d much rather see a deck that worked well with itself, or with a certain type of deck that an opponent was playing rather than one that crushes me immediately with some off the wall, rare-laden combo. There are a tremendous amount of cards available to build decks with, competitive decks. For example, one of our friends, Curt, has a deck that shall be referred to as “The Land Deck” (or Mana Screw in my decks section) that is the perfect example of synergy. The concept is simple: play lands, bounce lands, play lands again. Its a fun deck that can win games without being super aggro or super control. Using Azusa and Budoku Gardener to drop additional lands each turn allows you to return lands to your hand freely to utilize Meloku, Uyo, and all the other Moonfolk’s abilities. Throwing in Lifegift just sweetens the whole deal.

Derrick refers to many of my decks as ‘janky’. I’ve now adopted this ‘word’ as a synonym for synergy within a deck. It’s not that my decks are particularly ridiculous, or really good, or combo decks, instead they are more of a jumbling of cards that happen to work together. From my Discard/Megrim deck to Faeries to Hasty Shadow, the decks flow with themselves nicely. I use Propaganda and Wall of Tears to stop attacks while waiting for the Windfalls and Wheel and Deals in my Megrim deck. Cheap flyers (Cloud of Faeries anyone?), cheap bounce (Snap?), and Unstable Mutation to turn the blue weenies into huge, angry faeries. Reckless Charge helps me get the most out of my attacks in the Shadow deck while I block non-Shadow attacks with Wall of Junk and blow up larger threats with Dauthi Trapper and Dauthi Cutthroat. Not to mention Ben using Immobilizing Ink and Quicksilver Dagger to ping people to death as I sit across the table and smile because…well…because that shouldn’t happen but the fact that it works and is decent without being overly ridiculous is what Magic is about for me.

To sum it all up: synergy is an important part of the game. It keeps things fun, interesting, and often times a lot less frustrating for players. Next time you build that crazy deck think Retract + Affinity + Brain Freeze* instead of that boring Dragonstorm deck you were going to make.

*more on this later.

Due to the constant reminders and tales of how awesome it is, I have finally given up and wrote the deck plan for DD’s discard Rack deck.  It basically runs straight discard, a touch of reanimation, and of course DD’s favorite current beat stick…Calciderm!  If anyone has comments about the deck then address them to Derrick since this is his idea.

23 Land: 1 Godless Shrine, 9 Plains, 13 Swamps

14 Creatures: 4 Ravenous Rats, 4 Shrieking Grotesque, 4 Calciderm, 2 Akroma Angel of Wrath

23 Spells: 4 The Rack, 4 Funeral Charm, 4 Cry of Contrition, 4 Smallpox, 4 Castigate, 3 Zombify

Personally I think the deck may have potenial or just be a pain in the ass.  I envision the deck to be the same as the ultimate gayness of Teferi Flood Strategie so I probably wont make the deck.  There Derrick, its designed, now fix it and GET OFF MY DICK!

So since I’m in a bit of conflict over some cards in this idea of a deck.  The basic idea is to blow up as many lands in play as possible, including my own.  To counter act my own loss of lands, I’m playing Crucible, but I’m just wondering if Avalanche Riders have a place in the deck or not.  The best option to take out of the deck is the 2 Reality Acid for Avalanche Riders.  Acid is there for annoying enchantments, artifacts, huge creatures, or other lands.  Help me out guys, looking at you Brainasium and Nick the Nerd.

Land Devestator
————————
3 Terramorphic Expanse
3 Gemstone Mine
7 Mountain
7 Island
3 Plains

4 Boros Signet
3 Crucible of Worlds
4 Stone Rain
3 Boom//Bust
3 Raze
4 Electrolyze
2 Reality Acid
4 Mana Tithe
2 Compulsive Research

3 Numot the Devestator
3 Lightning Angel
3 Shivan Wumpus

So its approximately 1:30am and I just started rattling off stupid things to do with Kokushu and Bogardan Hellkite to Bill while he typed crap into Magic Workstation. Lets put it this way, dumb dumb dumb. We both decided we are going to build this crazy deck and while I desparately want to let everyone in on the secret, I can’t.

This is one of those times where you ramble off a jumble of cards. Throw them together and get a solid, 4 turn skull beating deck that would make even a grown man cry tears of joy. So, while not giving too much away, think mana accel + graveyard dumping + big nasties and see how that tastes.

I’ll report on the actual mass beatings after we get this together with real cards.

(click for larger images)

When reading the comments on my last article “The Deal with Crovax” and after talking to Nick the Nerd, I have a few more questions about the targets of “nonwhite questions”. This one deals with Oros the Avenger. When Oros damages an opponent and you activate his white wrath ability, how does it target?

Does it go by if a creature is white or has white in its multicolor casting cost, or does it go by if the creature has nonwhite colors in its casting cost? To put it simply, does Oros burn creatures like Firemane Angel, Angel of Despair, or Grand Arbiter Augustin IV?

(Click to enlarge images)

Well I was in my local shop talking with some of the local guys that play in a lot of the larger tournaments, and when we were talking about the Extended season coming up I asked about the best decks and what not. Turns out that the best deck in Extended right now IMO is an Astral Slide deck that is pretty much the same as the original but runs green for Life of the Loam, Eteranl Witness, and Loxodon Hierarch. Now this is not the first time that old decks that rocked people in the head have come back. I want to know why every time I talk to someone about new decks that they tote some old deck that I was around when it was created are so damn good!

Also makes me think about getting back into Extended as it is all my style.

Ascendent Evincar and his Planar Chaos opposite Crovax Ascendent Hero. Both give +1/+1 bonus to the other creatures of their color and both give a -1/-1 reduction to other creatures that are not their color. So out of curiousity what happens when they are both in play and you have a multicolor (black/white) Angel of Despair in play. Does the Angel get both bonuses, both reductions, or stay exactly the same. I can see that a white or black creature would stay the same with both Ascendents in play because they get a bonus and a reduction from the Ascendents but what about a multicolor creature? Answer me fellow guru’s of zomfg MTG

Pre Story:

Recently, last night, myself and two other guys from my dorm went downstairs for a little late magic action. The first game ended with a nice hurricane for 7 that killed all but the caster (who stopped collecting around Ice Age J). Then another guy came down and wanted to play so we went four way free for all, worst play of the night. The new guy ran straight burn and grafted skullcap/ensnaring bridge, that stopped my zombies, Bills madness, and Cody’s green beats. Ironically the game finally ended by yet another hurricane (I new I had no chance because anything that might have helped, ie shepherd of the rot, just got fried so with my one forest in the deck I imprinted it to extraplanar lens allowing Cody to stream of life and hurricane for 18+). All this to say that it was an amazingly boring game with the lock on turn 4 it lasted 45 minutes…. So I said to myself if games are going to be played this way I might as well use cards that nobody is prepared for, enter in you. Clicking through your old articles often inspire interesting deck designs. First I thought hey yeah banding that will get some rule books pulled out but then as I was reading though it in the comprehensive rules I realized it would just be too much work to convince people how it works/worked.

Almost to the Question:

Then I came to your article from April 17 2003, in which you made a completely phasing deck, and I though yeah what deck doesn’t need phasing? Then I read the comprehensive rules and said yeah this is complex without being too much to handle. It would be fine except if I play blue it means that I play with other peoples cards. I cant help it blue steals so may things, I mean come on only blue could house a card named “Blatant Thievery”. That’s where the phasing line got a little fuzzy.

The Question in all its Glory:

So finally here it is:
What happens with a temporary steal like Chamber of Manipulation Enchant Land 2UU, Odyssey, Enchanted land has “Tap, Discard a card from your hand: Gain control of target creature until end of turn.”

And then you Vodalian Illusionist Summon – Merfolk [2/2] 2U, Weatherlight, UU, tap: Target creature phases out.

I am stuck because of the interaction between 502.15g which says that “Effects with limited duration and delayed triggered abilities that specifically reference a permanent will be unable to further affect that permanent if it phases out” (sorry quoting rules to the rules manager). So I thought hey yeah cool I can get a creature phase it and the end of turn wont affect it. But then I read 502.15h which says “…They also “remember” who controlled them when they phased out, although they may phase in under the control of a different player if a control effect with limited duration has expired.”

I thought that the effect could no longer affect it and it would only remember being under my control when it left and the whole until end of turn thing would just, you know, go away or something. So I did the responsible thing and tried to look up such instances in rulings and got this:

From Saturday School #77 by Rune Horvik, Saturday, May 8, 2004:

Q: I cast a Reins of Power while my Teferi’s Veil is in play, and attack with all of the recently reined in creatures. Under whose control are they when they phase back in? If they remain under my control, must I continue to attack with them each combat phase in order to retain control?
– Clay Doss

A: They phase back in under your opponent’s control in your untap step. Rule 502.15b says that they return in the untap step of the player who controlled them when they phased out, but rule 502.15g says that effects with limited duration (such as until end of turn) are unable to affect the permanents when they are phased out, so you won’t control the creatures when they return.
Phasing in only looks at who controlled the creatures when the left play, not who will control them when they return.

Maybe my logical skills have been fried from trying to grasp both phasing and banding (as well as bands with others) all in one sitting but the answer to me doesn’t make much sense. I like part “b” it fits what I want to do but it seems that part “g” is just trying to mess with me. It says that they wont be affected and yet the ruling made it seem like it did. So now I just don’t know what to think and for some reason now need to make out a time line.

Some phase of the game: gain control of creature (my control)
Some phase of the same turn: phase creature out (my control)
End of my turn: (my control)
My next untap: Things I control phase in (not my control)

Seeing as it was the rules Q/A that got me really confused I decided to go to the top to see what in the holy wombat is going on.

-Ben