on second glance - of course you are right ! i was just thinking maybe theres a way to push the scry rule to make it a strategic alternative ? i like your original idea anyway.
how about icatian javelineers ? ... he can kill delver, birds, noble hierarch, dark confidant, lavamancer, ball lightning, and survive to chump block or even attack
if we are spending our dough on magic cards at the pre - release, why arent we allowed to draft with them?
havent wizards heard the saying " the man who pays the piper calls the tune ? "
Feature: Who Wants to Live Forever?
Tim Willoughby
19 October 2012
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Tim Willoughby Archive
From the dawn of time we came; moving silently down through the centuries, living many secret lives, struggling to reach the time of the Gathering; when the few who remain will battle to the last. No one has ever known we were among you... until now.
There can be only one Frank Karsten. The Hall of Fame member has a mischievous streak, and a wicked skill when it comes to deck-building. In the past, he's built the best versions of decks through a complicated aggregation of the different well performing versions, and number crunched his way to the 'best deck'. This time, there was a different method to Karsten's madness. Frank has set himself a new goal, one that was tipped off by a late night tweet as follows:
It turns out that there was a very simple explanation: Frank wanted to play the most diverse 75 he could, and be the first player to make Top 8 at a Pro Tour with a "Highlander" deck (a deck using the rule that there can be only one of any card that isn't a basic land). Initially Frank was inclined to try to build something with Mystical Teachings and Gifts Ungiven, but soon he discovered that playing a deck such as this left his opponents with too much time, in which the overall quality divide between his deck and those of opponents would become too apparent. Frank had decided that he needed to do something a little faster, and this was his answer.
Frank Karstan's Mono-Red Highlander
Pro Tour Return to Ravnica - Modern
View a sample hand of this deck
Download a .dek file for use in Magic Online
1 Arc Trail
1 Blood Moon
1 Brimstone Volley
1 Burst Lightning
1 Flame Javelin
1 Forked Bolt
1 Genju of the Spires
1 Incinerate
1 Lightning Bolt
1 Magma Jet
1 Molten Rain
1 Pillar of Flame
1 Rift Bolt
1 Searing Blaze
1 Shrine of Burning Rage
1 Staggershock
16 other spells
1 Koth of the Hammer
1 planeswalker
Sideboard
1 Cryoclasm
1 Damping Matrix
1 Flames of the Blood Hand
1 Forge Devil
1 Fulminator Mage
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Relic of Progenitus
1 Shattering Spree
1 Shatterstorm
1 Smash to Smithereens
1 Sowing Salt
1 Sulfur Elemental
1 Thorn of Amethyst
1 Torpor Orb
1 Zo-Zu the Punisher
15 sideboard cards
Frank built his mono-red aggro deck according to a carefully figured out pattern. While it might look like a big pile of different cards, he has in fact positioned it to be collections of cards that fulfil particular roles (like "aggressive one cost creature, or burn spell) and kept both the ratio of those cards, and the mana curve for them, completely in line with traditionally accepted patterns of red deck building.
top player Frank Karsten made a modern singleton red deck (only one copy of each card) and played it in a tournament. ive made it up too, good fun. im hoping he repeats with another colour !
sounds like a typical comment you would hear at a magic tournament, to be fair
.
.
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" Everything the wise woman learned she wrote in a book,
and when the pages were black with ink,
she took white ink and began again "
.
havent wizards heard the saying " the man who pays the piper calls the tune ? "
Tim Willoughby
19 October 2012
PrintAuthor Image
More Event Coverage
Tim Willoughby Archive
From the dawn of time we came; moving silently down through the centuries, living many secret lives, struggling to reach the time of the Gathering; when the few who remain will battle to the last. No one has ever known we were among you... until now.
There can be only one Frank Karsten. The Hall of Fame member has a mischievous streak, and a wicked skill when it comes to deck-building. In the past, he's built the best versions of decks through a complicated aggregation of the different well performing versions, and number crunched his way to the 'best deck'. This time, there was a different method to Karsten's madness. Frank has set himself a new goal, one that was tipped off by a late night tweet as follows:
It turns out that there was a very simple explanation: Frank wanted to play the most diverse 75 he could, and be the first player to make Top 8 at a Pro Tour with a "Highlander" deck (a deck using the rule that there can be only one of any card that isn't a basic land). Initially Frank was inclined to try to build something with Mystical Teachings and Gifts Ungiven, but soon he discovered that playing a deck such as this left his opponents with too much time, in which the overall quality divide between his deck and those of opponents would become too apparent. Frank had decided that he needed to do something a little faster, and this was his answer.
Frank Karstan's Mono-Red Highlander
Pro Tour Return to Ravnica - Modern
View a sample hand of this deck
Download a .dek file for use in Magic Online
Main Deck
60 cards
1 Arid Mesa
1 Ghitu Encampment
17 Mountain
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Shinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep
1 Smoldering Spires
1 Teetering Peaks
23 lands
1 Ash Zealot
1 Boggart Ram-Gang
1 Figure of Destiny
1 Flamekin Harbinger
1 Goblin Guide
1 Grim Lavamancer
1 Hell's Thunder
1 Hellspark Elemental
1 Kargan Dragonlord
1 Keldon Marauders
1 Kiln Fiend
1 Magus of the Moon
1 Magus of the Scroll
1 Mogg Fanatic
1 Rakdos Cackler
1 Spikeshot Elder
1 Stormblood Berserker
1 Stromkirk Noble
1 Tattermunge Maniac
1 Tunnel Ignus
20 creatures
1 Arc Trail
1 Blood Moon
1 Brimstone Volley
1 Burst Lightning
1 Flame Javelin
1 Forked Bolt
1 Genju of the Spires
1 Incinerate
1 Lightning Bolt
1 Magma Jet
1 Molten Rain
1 Pillar of Flame
1 Rift Bolt
1 Searing Blaze
1 Shrine of Burning Rage
1 Staggershock
16 other spells
1 Koth of the Hammer
1 planeswalker
Sideboard
1 Cryoclasm
1 Damping Matrix
1 Flames of the Blood Hand
1 Forge Devil
1 Fulminator Mage
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Relic of Progenitus
1 Shattering Spree
1 Shatterstorm
1 Smash to Smithereens
1 Sowing Salt
1 Sulfur Elemental
1 Thorn of Amethyst
1 Torpor Orb
1 Zo-Zu the Punisher
15 sideboard cards
Frank built his mono-red aggro deck according to a carefully figured out pattern. While it might look like a big pile of different cards, he has in fact positioned it to be collections of cards that fulfil particular roles (like "aggressive one cost creature, or burn spell) and kept both the ratio of those cards, and the mana curve for them, completely in line with traditionally accepted patterns of red deck building.