My friends has recently returned to Magic after a very, very long absence. He would like me to build him 2-3 decks from his card collection so that he can get kitchen table games with us, and a few other friends.
His collection is quite large, but limited to the following sets: Revised Edition, Fallen Empires, Ice Age, Homelands, 4th Edition, Chronicles, and Alliances.
What general deck types would people suggest I try and construct given the cards that were around in that era?
Obviously I cannot list his entire library, I'm just looking for some tips about what type of decks would be successful given a healthy library of cards from those sets.
I'd like to be able to throw together a few decks for him that can be enjoyably played against some of the weaker 'standard' constructed decks of today, so as to get some casual games in using current cards.
Suggestions?
Already checked, BTW, and he has a handful of duel lands (no complete playsets of any 1 land, but looks like at least 1 of nearly each and 2 of a few). Yup, 2 gem mint Force of Wills. Me = jealous.
Seriously, that was the deck to beat during the time. Deck to beat as in ravager affinity of the era. And, the good news is the components are very easy to find/cheap. I think necropotence itself would be the most expensive card (5th ed is like $3.5, in case he doesn't have ice age necros).
Sligh, stasis, and counterpost get honorable mentions, so would 4 color zoo (expensive, though, due to all the dual lands it needs, unless your friend has sets of revised duals) and rg land destruction type decks. All of these decks were playable during the era. "Pile of b***" was also a popular deck at the time (basically, white weenie from fallen empires and 4th edition plus aeolipile)).
Best part is, this is a darn cheap deck and not too bad.
This is just one of about 30 deck ideas I could come up with from 4th alone. Add in Ice Age, Empires, Chronicles (some great reprints including the Urza's lands) and deck ideas are numerous.
Give me some time and I'll come up with more if you need. I have to run out for a bit now.
You could try to set him up with a control deck with Counterspell, Arcane Denial, Unsummon and then beats face with Deep Spawn!
All hail the big blue lobster.
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I have a batch of decks permanently made up from exactly this era (counting Alliances). I have carefully tuned them to play well against one another and they make great kitchen table decks and such, just an absolute blast for anyone with MTG nostalgia. Here's the mix of decks, and I'll admit outright you're going to need more Forces of Will but the rest should be doable:
1. Big blue control. Win condition is two Mahamoti Djinn, four Control Magic, four Mishra's Factory. (Oh, and can morph to Fish out of the sideboard.)
2. Control Necro, mono-black with Nevinyrral's Disks, Dystopias, Infernal Darkness out of the board, Icequakes, Demonic Consultations, etc.
3. Aggro Necro, black splashing red, no disks, no Icequakes, but add 4 Lightning Bolts, two Fireballs, 4 Demonic Consultations, and access to Shatters out of the board
4. Classic Sligh - the mono-red deck with the perfect mana curve, as Paul Sligh originally piloted it, with a few upgrades from Alliances and 4 x Anarchy boarded.
5. Turbo Stasis - with only two Kismet for the hard lock, but everything else more or less standard
6. Ernhageddon - white/green, plays 4x each of Wrath, Geddon, Birds, and Elves. Lestree's original deck had some crud that ended up getting cut.
7. White-blue Millstone control, like Loconto's but add 4 x FOW, morphable into CounterPost out of the sideboard when Aggro Necro or Sligh board in their Shatters. Sligh's and the next deck's Pillages are rough, though.
8. Green-red Erhnam & Burn-em with the full rack of Pillages, Thermokarsts, Stone Rains, a Strip Mine, and 4 x Forgotten Lore that are just sick in this deck.
9. Prison, almost mono-white splashing green for Titania's Song and boarded Crumbles. Full rack of Winter Orbs, Icy Manipulators, Wraths, and Fellwar Stones, plus two Sol Grails and a Jeweled Amulet to ensure artifact mana.
10. Full rogue: the blue-green control Ritual of Subdual deck that I took a $500 Type II tournament at the time with. Uses Birds of Paradise and Cities of Brass to splash access to some Lightning Bolts main and Terrors out of the board (many of the other decks had pump knights). Win condition was an Autumn Willow one turn after Subdual -- the format had no colorless answer to her.
Just about every deck has one of each restricted card from the era: Strip Mine, Black Vise, Thawing Glaciers, Ivory Tower, in the two Necros there is Hymn to Tourach, etc. Hope these deck types are helpful for you! Also sideboards were 20-25 cards, because who cares this is supposed to be fun, not a tournament.
I have a batch of decks permanently made up from exactly this era (counting Alliances). I have carefully tuned them to play well against one another and they make great kitchen table decks and such, just an absolute blast for anyone with MTG nostalgia. Here's the mix of decks, and I'll admit outright you're going to need more Forces of Will but the rest should be doable:
1. Big blue control. Win condition is two Mahamoti Djinn, four Control Magic, four Mishra's Factory. (Oh, and can morph to Fish out of the sideboard.)
2. Control Necro, mono-black with Nevinyrral's Disks, Dystopias, Infernal Darkness out of the board, Icequakes, Demonic Consultations, etc.
3. Aggro Necro, black splashing red, no disks, no Icequakes, but add 4 Lightning Bolts, two Fireballs, 4 Demonic Consultations, and access to Shatters out of the board
4. Classic Sligh - the mono-red deck with the perfect mana curve, as Paul Sligh originally piloted it, with a few upgrades from Alliances and 4 x Anarchy boarded.
5. Turbo Stasis - with only two Kismet for the hard lock, but everything else more or less standard
6. Ernhageddon - white/green, plays 4x each of Wrath, Geddon, Birds, and Elves. Lestree's original deck had some crud that ended up getting cut.
7. White-blue Millstone control, like Loconto's but add 4 x FOW, morphable into CounterPost out of the sideboard when Aggro Necro or Sligh board in their Shatters. Sligh's and the next deck's Pillages are rough, though.
8. Green-red Erhnam & Burn-em with the full rack of Pillages, Thermokarsts, Stone Rains, a Strip Mine, and 4 x Forgotten Lore that are just sick in this deck.
9. Prison, almost mono-white splashing green for Titania's Song and boarded Crumbles. Full rack of Winter Orbs, Icy Manipulators, Wraths, and Fellwar Stones, plus two Sol Grails and a Jeweled Amulet to ensure artifact mana.
10. Full rogue: the blue-green control Ritual of Subdual deck that I took a $500 Type II tournament at the time with. Uses Birds of Paradise and Cities of Brass to splash access to some Lightning Bolts main and Terrors out of the board (many of the other decks had pump knights). Win condition was an Autumn Willow one turn after Subdual -- the format had no colorless answer to her.
Just about every deck has one of each restricted card from the era: Strip Mine, Black Vise, Thawing Glaciers, Ivory Tower, in the two Necros there is Hymn to Tourach, etc. Hope these deck types are helpful for you! Also sideboards were 20-25 cards, because who cares this is supposed to be fun, not a tournament.
Great list Ross. Thanks, you saved me a lot of trouble. I remember these well.
FYI, if you look at the latest Vintage restricted list, some of those cards are no longer restricted. In fact, I think Strip Mine is the only one still on the list. So if he wants, he can play multiples of the rest. My LD deck of the era had 4 Black Vise until I recently took it apart. Of course over time I also made some changes to it, but for the most part, it was Ice Age and Fourth.
I have a batch of decks permanently made up from exactly this era (counting Alliances). I have carefully tuned them to play well against one another and they make great kitchen table decks and such, just an absolute blast for anyone with MTG nostalgia. Here's the mix of decks, and I'll admit outright you're going to need more Forces of Will but the rest should be doable:
1. Big blue control. Win condition is two Mahamoti Djinn, four Control Magic, four Mishra's Factory. (Oh, and can morph to Fish out of the sideboard.)
2. Control Necro, mono-black with Nevinyrral's Disks, Dystopias, Infernal Darkness out of the board, Icequakes, Demonic Consultations, etc.
3. Aggro Necro, black splashing red, no disks, no Icequakes, but add 4 Lightning Bolts, two Fireballs, 4 Demonic Consultations, and access to Shatters out of the board
4. Classic Sligh - the mono-red deck with the perfect mana curve, as Paul Sligh originally piloted it, with a few upgrades from Alliances and 4 x Anarchy boarded.
5. Turbo Stasis - with only two Kismet for the hard lock, but everything else more or less standard
6. Ernhageddon - white/green, plays 4x each of Wrath, Geddon, Birds, and Elves. Lestree's original deck had some crud that ended up getting cut.
7. White-blue Millstone control, like Loconto's but add 4 x FOW, morphable into CounterPost out of the sideboard when Aggro Necro or Sligh board in their Shatters. Sligh's and the next deck's Pillages are rough, though.
8. Green-red Erhnam & Burn-em with the full rack of Pillages, Thermokarsts, Stone Rains, a Strip Mine, and 4 x Forgotten Lore that are just sick in this deck.
9. Prison, almost mono-white splashing green for Titania's Song and boarded Crumbles. Full rack of Winter Orbs, Icy Manipulators, Wraths, and Fellwar Stones, plus two Sol Grails and a Jeweled Amulet to ensure artifact mana.
10. Full rogue: the blue-green control Ritual of Subdual deck that I took a $500 Type II tournament at the time with. Uses Birds of Paradise and Cities of Brass to splash access to some Lightning Bolts main and Terrors out of the board (many of the other decks had pump knights). Win condition was an Autumn Willow one turn after Subdual -- the format had no colorless answer to her.
Just about every deck has one of each restricted card from the era: Strip Mine, Black Vise, Thawing Glaciers, Ivory Tower, in the two Necros there is Hymn to Tourach, etc. Hope these deck types are helpful for you! Also sideboards were 20-25 cards, because who cares this is supposed to be fun, not a tournament.
Haha, wow, this takes me back... Great list.
My favorite decks to play from this era were Ernhamgeddon (seriously, that deck was amazing at the time), Black Weenie Necropotence (efficient creatures like pump knights and Erg Raiders; you could splash red for some burn if needed), and my homebrewed 4-color Zoo that I could never actually afford to build. It was basically a WRG Kird Ape/Savannah Lions/Whirling Dervish beatdown deck that splashed blue for power, Psionic Blast, and Serendib Efreet.
I have heard vague rumors of a moustache-dispensing vending machine in a distant laundromat, across the street from a tattoo parlor. However, this information is shaky, and time is of the essence.
Already checked, BTW, and he has a handful of duel lands (no complete playsets of any 1 land, but looks like at least 1 of nearly each and 2 of a few). Yup, 2 gem mint Force of Wills. Me = jealous.
As a friend, I hope you told him how valuable his cards are.
His collection is quite large, but limited to the following sets: Revised Edition, Fallen Empires, Ice Age, Homelands, 4th Edition, Chronicles, and Alliances.
What general deck types would people suggest I try and construct given the cards that were around in that era?
Obviously I cannot list his entire library, I'm just looking for some tips about what type of decks would be successful given a healthy library of cards from those sets.
I'd like to be able to throw together a few decks for him that can be enjoyably played against some of the weaker 'standard' constructed decks of today, so as to get some casual games in using current cards.
Suggestions?
Already checked, BTW, and he has a handful of duel lands (no complete playsets of any 1 land, but looks like at least 1 of nearly each and 2 of a few). Yup, 2 gem mint Force of Wills. Me = jealous.
How To Keep Your FOIL Cards From Curling: http://youtu.be/QTmubrS8VnI
The Best Deck Boxes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEwgLph_Pjk
The Best Binders: http://youtu.be/H5IauASYWjk
Seriously, that was the deck to beat during the time. Deck to beat as in ravager affinity of the era. And, the good news is the components are very easy to find/cheap. I think necropotence itself would be the most expensive card (5th ed is like $3.5, in case he doesn't have ice age necros).
Sligh, stasis, and counterpost get honorable mentions, so would 4 color zoo (expensive, though, due to all the dual lands it needs, unless your friend has sets of revised duals) and rg land destruction type decks. All of these decks were playable during the era. "Pile of b***" was also a popular deck at the time (basically, white weenie from fallen empires and 4th edition plus aeolipile)).
"Sometimes, the situation is outracing a threat, sometimes it's ignoring it, and sometimes it involves sideboarding in 4x Hope//Pray." --Doug Linn
White Weenie is solid too.
Serra Angel
Mesa Pegasus
Crusade
Savannah Lions
Swords To Plowshares
Healing Salve
Circle Of Protections
Toss in a Library Of Leng and Ivory Tower and you can gain some ridiculous life.
Best part is, this is a darn cheap deck and not too bad.
This is just one of about 30 deck ideas I could come up with from 4th alone. Add in Ice Age, Empires, Chronicles (some great reprints including the Urza's lands) and deck ideas are numerous.
Give me some time and I'll come up with more if you need. I have to run out for a bit now.
All hail the big blue lobster.
Big Game Coin Roll Hunting : My Blog Where I Get Free Silver From Banks Just for Asking and YOU can, too!
or some sort of stompy deck, you've got ghazban ogre ernham djinn bounty of the hunt etc
1. Big blue control. Win condition is two Mahamoti Djinn, four Control Magic, four Mishra's Factory. (Oh, and can morph to Fish out of the sideboard.)
2. Control Necro, mono-black with Nevinyrral's Disks, Dystopias, Infernal Darkness out of the board, Icequakes, Demonic Consultations, etc.
3. Aggro Necro, black splashing red, no disks, no Icequakes, but add 4 Lightning Bolts, two Fireballs, 4 Demonic Consultations, and access to Shatters out of the board
4. Classic Sligh - the mono-red deck with the perfect mana curve, as Paul Sligh originally piloted it, with a few upgrades from Alliances and 4 x Anarchy boarded.
5. Turbo Stasis - with only two Kismet for the hard lock, but everything else more or less standard
6. Ernhageddon - white/green, plays 4x each of Wrath, Geddon, Birds, and Elves. Lestree's original deck had some crud that ended up getting cut.
7. White-blue Millstone control, like Loconto's but add 4 x FOW, morphable into CounterPost out of the sideboard when Aggro Necro or Sligh board in their Shatters. Sligh's and the next deck's Pillages are rough, though.
8. Green-red Erhnam & Burn-em with the full rack of Pillages, Thermokarsts, Stone Rains, a Strip Mine, and 4 x Forgotten Lore that are just sick in this deck.
9. Prison, almost mono-white splashing green for Titania's Song and boarded Crumbles. Full rack of Winter Orbs, Icy Manipulators, Wraths, and Fellwar Stones, plus two Sol Grails and a Jeweled Amulet to ensure artifact mana.
10. Full rogue: the blue-green control Ritual of Subdual deck that I took a $500 Type II tournament at the time with. Uses Birds of Paradise and Cities of Brass to splash access to some Lightning Bolts main and Terrors out of the board (many of the other decks had pump knights). Win condition was an Autumn Willow one turn after Subdual -- the format had no colorless answer to her.
Just about every deck has one of each restricted card from the era: Strip Mine, Black Vise, Thawing Glaciers, Ivory Tower, in the two Necros there is Hymn to Tourach, etc. Hope these deck types are helpful for you! Also sideboards were 20-25 cards, because who cares this is supposed to be fun, not a tournament.
Great list Ross. Thanks, you saved me a lot of trouble. I remember these well.
FYI, if you look at the latest Vintage restricted list, some of those cards are no longer restricted. In fact, I think Strip Mine is the only one still on the list. So if he wants, he can play multiples of the rest. My LD deck of the era had 4 Black Vise until I recently took it apart. Of course over time I also made some changes to it, but for the most part, it was Ice Age and Fourth.
Man, you just brought me back about 17 years.
Now I REALLY feel old.
Haha, wow, this takes me back... Great list.
My favorite decks to play from this era were Ernhamgeddon (seriously, that deck was amazing at the time), Black Weenie Necropotence (efficient creatures like pump knights and Erg Raiders; you could splash red for some burn if needed), and my homebrewed 4-color Zoo that I could never actually afford to build. It was basically a WRG Kird Ape/Savannah Lions/Whirling Dervish beatdown deck that splashed blue for power, Psionic Blast, and Serendib Efreet.
Anything with black weenies and hymn's will get you pretty far very quickly, especially if you have necropotence. Black summer!
My Kamigawa cube.
My Mirage Cube
This was an incredible fun event. If you allow him proxies, he could easily make "The Deck".
Also, I bought these at some point, they have some fun information.
ISBN# 1560251999
ISBN#1560251565
As a friend, I hope you told him how valuable his cards are.
BUWGRChilds PlayGRWUB
BUWGR Highlander GRWUB
UBSquee's Shapeshifting PetBU
BW Multiplayer Control WB
RG Changeling GR
UR Mana FlareRU
UMerfolkU
B MBMC B
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=519290