Land Destruction Deck

Not just death to land but death by land? are you kidding me? OH NO…IM NOT!!!!!  Early in my upbringing in the school of wizardry, I happened upon a deck that really got me thinking.  It was a great concept, one I had never seen.  Sure, everyone at some point during oldschool magic ran a mono red land destruction/burn deck with Stone Rain, Fissure, wussy goblins, and Goblin Grenades on top of Lightning Bolt, Fireball, and Disintegrate; but that just wasn’t creative enough.

This was a blue/red combo that destroyed and bounced land as well as creatures.  Using cards like Unsummon and Counterspell and later Capsize and Tradewind Riders.  Bounce a creature, destroy a land and they can’t play it causing them to hold on to all their cards being unable to play anything large and if they did, you would just burn it or bounce it.  Should they get something worthy, you just take it with Control Magic and for giggles Clone it.  Decks like this are very fun to play with, but its a combination to be used lightly as it causes frustration if your opponent can’t play anything and the second they finally play a land its back in their hand or gone for good, so I decided to improve upon this combo and made a few “fun” changes…

First, I eliminated blue as it was fun but not mean enough and replaced it with black.  That’s right, Death and Destruction has never sounded sweeter than those two working together for greater evil! Sure you lose the control and manipulation provided by blue, but you gain browing capabilities with Demonic Tutor, Vampiric Tutor, as well as creature removal, etc. This three or four card combo is brutal and unexpected and when you drop it like its hot, your opponent will have nothing to do but congratulate you because at this point your Kung-fu is the greatest! Seismic Assault (Exodus) and Blanket of Night (Visions).  Ok, I know what you are thinking, big whoop, what’s so special about these two cards together and you know what…. so will your opponent because with only 6 land, 4R 2B, game over and you wont even need the 4th “bonus” card to make this combo even MORE fun!!!!  Furnace of Rath  (Tempest) makes any direct damage deck a kick in the pants and although it is not required to make this combo work, its just plain fun.  Okay, you have been patient enough but are you as excited as I am….

Picture this with me…. Turn six, you have a couple creatures on the board, your opponent has a couple creatures on the board… you have Blanket of Night and Seismic Assault already in play and you are at a stalemate as far as attacking with your creatures because your opponent has good defences…. you draw the Furnace of Rath cast it with 4R now you just smile because Check-Mate… during your pre-combat sorcery phase you cast Infermal Harvest with your remaining 2B, return all 6 of your swamps thanks to Blanket of Night, dealing 12 damage (6 doubled due to the Furnace) to be spread amungst your opponents creatures, now you can either mass attack for double damage OR you can now discard your 6 lands and destroy your opponent for 24 damage(12 doubled due to the Furnace).  That my fellow wizards is oldschool magic at its finest!  I remember when I pulled this off in a friendly tournament with some family and friends and they couldn’t believe it!  Not only did I win the tournament, but I received “honorable mention” for most creative deck concept and the best part….it was original.  Nobody had seen this combination before… they didnt read about it in Scrye or Duelist magazines, just me thumbing through my cards and a lightbulb went off!  Style is Everything! Until next time…

~Don’t Tap Out

Attack Without Tapping

Now this was such a fun concept to run back in the day.  Red/White deck with emphasis on attacking without tapping allowing you to deal damage and still have creatures able to defend.  I tried it a time or two but always felt that it was missing something to really make it a solid theme for a deck, and then it happened.  That’s right, another great addition from the Weatherlight set.  Finaly, you are no longer requred to rely on the presence of Serra Angel to be your creature who can attack without tapping. At this point, the only question became, how much burn do you really need, which is the correct question when this combo gets going with Smoke because more often then not, when this gets going, you end up with a stalemate because your opponent wont attack you with only one creature, and you must be smart about your attacks… so what do you do???  You force your opponent to attack…or… you eliminate his creatures. 

Enter Fireball and Bullwhip and for added fun, Bloodlust is just plain fun giving you the ability to take any creature with a toughness up to 5 and kill it for only 1R 4C (5 mana). You can use your fireball and eliminate his stash of creatures, reducing his chances of warding off your attacks…or… If you dont think that is mean enough, you can pull the ULTIMATE magic trick… your opponent will get so frustrated when you whip that creature and then kill it turn after turn after turn that they will lose and do an all-out assault and THAT is where you have them beat.

This magic trick only costs you 6 mana, 9 if you wanna put insult to injury, but here goes…Allow your opponents wimpy 1/1 creature to get through, slap a double Blood Lust on him, and lay your oppenent to rest with Eye for an Eye.  The insult to injury is to THEN use the Bullwhip dealing 1 point of damage, killing their 9/1 creature as well as dealing 9 damage to them.  Yes you are going to take damage as well, but at this point in the game, if your opponent can actually survive the 9 damage, guess what… you are holding on to a Lightning Bolt or a Fireball.  The question becomes, how awesome do you want your victory to be because face it… its not JUST about winning, its how you go about destroying the wizard in front of you.  Remember fellow wizards, style is everything!  Until next time!

~Don’t Tap Out

Creature Theme Decks

I remember when the Exodus set came out, it offered so many new cards and concepts but not all of them were good. The funny thing is anyone who remembers this set almost instantly thinks of the Survival of the Fittest, Recurring Nightmare combo that ended up winning the tournament that year. It was a very great combo because it wasnt just a green/black combo deck, lots of other cards of other colors were incorporated into that deck, you should google it sometime.  But that is a whole different topic for discussion…

In my humble opinion the game was forever changed for the worst when this card came out!  That’s right my fellow wizards, the creation of creature based theme decks begins here.  Sure we attempted to do this back in the day, but it was very problematic as there wasn’t much support for them.  When I opened my booster pack to reveal this card, at first, I thought it was a great thing and it was.  So many times have I wanted to put together an ALL-rat deck or bring back the Zombie deck and actually have the high casting cost of the creatures worth it.  But to throw this card in with the slivers ( a creature type that was worse than the Homelands set) put an unfair balance on the game.  Now every new-school set is released with pre-contructed decks, mostly creature themed.  Yes I think it is a good concept to give a bonus to every creature that shares the same creature type, but the developers just took it WAY too far.  This is yet again, the reason I remain an Old-School MTG player. 

Let’s stick to the old school and put good solid decks together with combinations that are unexpected and when you drop it on your opponet their only reaction is to drop their jaw and give you props.  Until next time!

~Don’t Tap Out

Old School Revisited

Greetings my fellow magicians,

I have returned yet again to bring you more quality combos from the old school MTG sets.  I have not been able to play with my buddies in quite some time, so many things have been going on, it is crazy how fast the time just slips by.  We have been discussing a game night to get back into the swing of things and then Halloween came and that is when I decided to get back into it! 🙂

Here is my costume.  I intend to post at least one combo per week and hopefully a card of the week with multiple color combos for that card.  Thank you to all who have read and supported this blog… your efforts are greatly appreciated.  Until next time!

~Dont Tap Out