I was recently struck with a wave of MTG nostalgia, I think in part by the incoming Khans of Tarkir, which set off a series of memories about when I began the game way back in 1994. I think it was seeing Orcs in the game again, and I remember cards like Ironclaw Orcs and so forth running about, and then I thought back to my first decks, and my favorite decks. Incidentally they never involved Orcs, because even back then I thought they sucked :P. But a deck that has always had a place in my heart was my first tournament winning deck, from late 1995. Mono-Black Aggro. So I hunted through my collection to see if I had what it took to recreate it. I have bought and sold around 4 collections since those days, so all my original cards are long gone (I miss my dual lands badly :(), but found I had most of what it took to recreate it, and filled in the rest as needed (which amounted to hunting down two more Hymn to Tourach)
Now back then we still had people playing with Moxes and Lotuses, restricted as they were if my admittedly swiss cheesy memory is at all accurate, and a particular player who was dominating with a Land Destruction deck with Lightning Bolts and Chain Lightnings, but I managed to blitz my competition and faced said LD player in the finals, and beat him in 3 games. On the back of Dark Ritual into a Vampire Bats with two Unholy Strength and a Bad Moon on turn 2. The match ended quickly, he didn't seem to have the two bolts he needed at the same time, and I put down a couple other creatures in the meantime that were within bolt range, but my bat carried me to victory. I was 15 and so happy. I thought I might play it again with my casual group, just for fun, even though it's very dated. My creatures were so cheap that as long as I stayed on those two lands it meant I could lay down other creatures, or hopefully just get there with my Buffed Up bat.
So, the question is, do any of you have a particular favorite deck that sticks out in your mind? Was it your first deck? Or the first one you felt successful with? And have you kept it or ever recreated it for fun? If so, post your lists, and when you played the deck originally.
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Decks
Commander
Ezuri, Renegade Leader (Aggro/Combo - Favorite) Skullbriar, the Walking Grave (Sac and Grave hijinks) Azusa, Lost but Seeking (Landfall hijinks) Kaalia of the Vast (Heavily modded)
My favorite deck of the past was a Boros deck I built back around Mirage & Tempest Standard. It was my first attempt to build a "competitive" deck. There is no exact list for it because I was making tweaks, but the core of the deck was as follows:
Believe it or not, I actually started designing the list with red aggro in mind, but I wanted to splash white for Disenchant (to kill Empyrial Armors on Soltari Priests). I made the following changes to the stock Sligh lists that were popular back then:
* I couldn't afford a set of Suq'Ata Lancers, so I used Bogardan Firefiends and a pair of Askaris instead
* I couldn't afford Cursed Scrolls, so I used Firewhip instead (repeatable direct damage)
* I couldn't afford Fireblast, so I used Rolling Thunder instead (finisher burn spell)
* I didn't want to take damage from Lava Hounds, so I used Lightning Elemental instead (hasty four-power creature for four mana)
Then I added the following cards because I had white in the deck
* Master Decoy made the cut because it could tap down Soltari Priests with Empyrial Armor on them
* Soltari Guerillas made the cut because it was a gold card, and I thought that was really cool
Without even realizing it I had built a midrange deck instead of an aggro deck. My list probably would have been better with more land, but back then everyone was running these 16-18 land weenie aggro decks and and 20 was considered plenty. In that metagame Incinerate and Kindle were very viable removal spells. Firefiends were 2-for-1 creatures in a meta full of weenie aggro, Mogg Fanatic and Firewhip gave me tons of virtual card advantage because my opponents couldn't play their 1-toughness creatures. Rolling Thunder frequently killed multiple creatures, and Soltari Guerillas would just abyss them until they had nothing and Lightning Elementals could finish them off.
Every now and then I would borrow a "top tier" aggro build someone copied from Inquest, and it was fine, but I never had as much fun when just attacking for the win. I liked grinding the opponent down to nothing, killing everything on his board and then only attacking his life total when he had nothing left. It's probably why I like GB/x midrange archetypes to this day. They come closest to capturing that "remove everything they put on the board" gameplay that I first experienved with Soltari Guerillas.
Two main ways to win, resurrect a fatty (cough Griselbrand cough), or use the curses. Worked pretty well in an era of Delver decks, believe it or not, probably thanks to Curse of Death's Hold and Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite...
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------------------------------------------------- "You will call them... Commander!":
This was the list I ran back then:
20 Swamp
Creatures (18)
4 Vampire Bats
4 Black Knight
4 Erg Raiders
2 Order of the Ebon Hand
4 Hypnotic Specter
4 Unholy Strength
2 Paralyze
4 Dark Ritual
4 Terror
4 Hymn to Tourach
4 Bad Moon
Now back then we still had people playing with Moxes and Lotuses, restricted as they were if my admittedly swiss cheesy memory is at all accurate, and a particular player who was dominating with a Land Destruction deck with Lightning Bolts and Chain Lightnings, but I managed to blitz my competition and faced said LD player in the finals, and beat him in 3 games. On the back of Dark Ritual into a Vampire Bats with two Unholy Strength and a Bad Moon on turn 2. The match ended quickly, he didn't seem to have the two bolts he needed at the same time, and I put down a couple other creatures in the meantime that were within bolt range, but my bat carried me to victory. I was 15 and so happy. I thought I might play it again with my casual group, just for fun, even though it's very dated. My creatures were so cheap that as long as I stayed on those two lands it meant I could lay down other creatures, or hopefully just get there with my Buffed Up bat.
So, the question is, do any of you have a particular favorite deck that sticks out in your mind? Was it your first deck? Or the first one you felt successful with? And have you kept it or ever recreated it for fun? If so, post your lists, and when you played the deck originally.
Commander
Ezuri, Renegade Leader (Aggro/Combo - Favorite)
Skullbriar, the Walking Grave (Sac and Grave hijinks)
Azusa, Lost but Seeking (Landfall hijinks)
Kaalia of the Vast (Heavily modded)
Standard
Waiting for Innistrad...
Extended
Hah!
Modern
Living End Cascade (RGB)
Legacy
Burn
Vintage
None
Casual
WB Aggro-Control
Green Stompy
Pink Floyd (UWr Wall Control)
Lunch Box (Fatty ramp)
D-Bag (White Control)
Level 13 Task Mage
4 Master Decoy
2 Bogardan Firefiend
1 Burning Shield Askari
1 Searing Spear Askari
4 Soltari Guerillas
4 Lightning Elemental
4 Incinerate
4 Kindle
4 Firewhip
4 Rolling Thunder
4 Disenchant
13 Mountain
7 Plains
Believe it or not, I actually started designing the list with red aggro in mind, but I wanted to splash white for Disenchant (to kill Empyrial Armors on Soltari Priests). I made the following changes to the stock Sligh lists that were popular back then:
* I couldn't afford a set of Suq'Ata Lancers, so I used Bogardan Firefiends and a pair of Askaris instead
* I couldn't afford Cursed Scrolls, so I used Firewhip instead (repeatable direct damage)
* I couldn't afford Fireblast, so I used Rolling Thunder instead (finisher burn spell)
* I didn't want to take damage from Lava Hounds, so I used Lightning Elemental instead (hasty four-power creature for four mana)
Then I added the following cards because I had white in the deck
* Master Decoy made the cut because it could tap down Soltari Priests with Empyrial Armor on them
* Soltari Guerillas made the cut because it was a gold card, and I thought that was really cool
Without even realizing it I had built a midrange deck instead of an aggro deck. My list probably would have been better with more land, but back then everyone was running these 16-18 land weenie aggro decks and and 20 was considered plenty. In that metagame Incinerate and Kindle were very viable removal spells. Firefiends were 2-for-1 creatures in a meta full of weenie aggro, Mogg Fanatic and Firewhip gave me tons of virtual card advantage because my opponents couldn't play their 1-toughness creatures. Rolling Thunder frequently killed multiple creatures, and Soltari Guerillas would just abyss them until they had nothing and Lightning Elementals could finish them off.
Every now and then I would borrow a "top tier" aggro build someone copied from Inquest, and it was fine, but I never had as much fun when just attacking for the win. I liked grinding the opponent down to nothing, killing everything on his board and then only attacking his life total when he had nothing left. It's probably why I like GB/x midrange archetypes to this day. They come closest to capturing that "remove everything they put on the board" gameplay that I first experienved with Soltari Guerillas.
2 Gisela, Blade of Goldnight
2 Griselbrand
2 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
2 Inferno Titan
3 Curse of Thirst
3 Curse of Death's Hold
4 Curse of the Pierced Heart
4 Faithless Looting
4 Unburial Rites
4 Slagstorm
Two main ways to win, resurrect a fatty (cough Griselbrand cough), or use the curses. Worked pretty well in an era of Delver decks, believe it or not, probably thanks to Curse of Death's Hold and Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite...
"You will call them... Commander!":
UGKruphix, God of Horizons
RGW Marath, Will of the Wild
RWB Kaalia of the Vast
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