This issue of Christoph's Comment has been encouraged by the news, that there will be a Pro Tour Qualifier (PTQ) in a few weeks. Since I really want to get one of those slots, I decided to think about the decks, which are possible in Masques Block Constructed (MBC). At first, I didn't think about combos at all, only about mono weenie decks, and so there were only 3: Rebel, Mercenary and Stompy. All of these are fast weenie decks, Mercenary has Massacre, Stompy has Power ups and Trample, and White has Flyers, so they all have a chance to win against each other….
I would prefer Stompy, since it's easy to play (you don't have to think about activating abilities) and has power-ups. In addition it was better in play testing.
And here's a deck list of the Stompy, which I mentioned above:
Main Deck:
Mana: (22)
22 Forests
Power-Ups: (14)
4 Seal of Strength
4 Invigorate
4 Wild Might
2 Spidersilk Armor
Creatures: (24)
4 Stampede Driver
3 Horned Troll
4 Pygmy Razorback
4 Megatherium
2 Vine Dryad
4 Spore Frog
3 Blastoderm
Sideboard:
2 Vine Dryad
4 Rushwood Dryad
4 Marsh Boa
3 Rushwood Legate
2 Tranquility
Fast creatures and power-ups, than a Megatherium for only 3 Mana and Blastoderm for the final beatdown (you can also use the stampede driver's ability)
You could add Tangle Wire to slow down your enemy and kill him with the small creatures you played on turn 1 and 2, but I haven't got anytime to change the list, as I had to write this essay.
I don't want to list a mercenary deck, it's too simple, but wait a minute, there is a good black deck, created by a friend of mine:
Landdestruction:
4 Despoil
4 Rain of tears
Control:
3 Vendetta
3 Snuff Out
4 Massacre
3 Thrashing Wumpus
2 Ascendant Evincar
2 Avatar of Woe
Other:
2 Rhystic Tutor
4 Dark Ritual
and some white anti-enchantment-cards…
I can't remember exactly, I only had a short look at the list….
-Or what about a kind of a rebel control like this: (creating a 'normal' rebel deck seemed to be too boring)
4 Ramosian Sergeant
4 Steadfast Guard
4 Fresh Volunteers
4 Chimeric Idol
2 Mageta the Lion
1 Thermal Glider
1 Nightwind Glider
4 Parallax Wave
4 Reverent Mantra
4 Ramosian Rally
4 Seal of Cleansing
21 Plains
2 Kor Haven
1 Rath's Edge
Attack with flyers and either remove your opponent's creatures with parallax wave, or use it on your own creatures and use the Mageta…
But I almost forgot to think about all the other decks, which grew strong through prophecy:
I think that some of them can easily deal with stompy and the other weeniedecks....
First there is this card:
Citadel of Pain, 2R,
Enchantment, Uncommon
At the end of each player's turn, Citadel of Pain deals X damage to that player. X is equal to the number of untapped lands that player controls.
Combine it with troublesome spirit and/or Chimeric Idol and there you go!
Chimeric Idol, 3,
Artifact, Uncommon
0: Tap all lands you control. Chimeric Idol becomes a 3/3 artifact creature until end of turn.
Troublesome Spirit, 2UU,
Creature - Spirit 3/4, Rare
Flying
At the end of your turn, tap all yor lands.
Good combo, and you can add burn like Rhystic Lightning….
(You can play this deck with mana barbs in Type2, so that every player without either Idol or spirit gets one damage per turn for every land he or she controls…)
Then there is Rising Waters (The new winterorb):
Rising Waters, 3U
Enchantment, Rare
Each player may only untap one land during his or her upkeep
You can build a deck like this:
4 Rising Waters
4 Waterfront Bouncer
2 Seal of Removal
1 Withdraw
4 Stinging Barrier
4 Ribbon Snake
4 Thwart
3 Daze
2 Counterspell
1 Foil
4 Gush
4 Eye of Ramos
22 Island
1 Rath's Edge
This one is a mono blue and contains, of curse, counters and creatures with low casting cost. In addition there are many cards that return islands to your hand as an alternative casting cost:
Gush, Thwart, Daze. So Rising Waters does only affect your opponent.
The small bad side of the deck:
You need 4 Manas for Rising Waters, but you can counter and bounce against weenie decks…
And you could also add black and play snuff out/vendetta/massacre instead of the seals and boomerangs….
And finally, what about this:
A red/green burn/beatdown deck:
Burn:
4 Arc Mage
4 Seal of Fire
3 Kris Mage
4 Rhystic Lightning
4 Ancient Hydra
Beat down:
4 Saproling Burst
4 Silt Crawler
4 Blastoderm
Mana:
12 Forest
13 Mountain
4 Vine Trellis
These were all of the decks, which I had in mind, if I forgot any good MBC-deck, just post it. (You could also play a variation of Draw Go, so if you have a list…)
If you have any suggestions or questions, also post them.
I hope, this is a help for all players, that want to win a PTQ…
Thanks for your time,
Christoph
Btw, if you're interested in the type2 environment after the urza-block, read Christoph's Comment, July 4
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Post by Christoph,
the trader in Germany with the most refs: www.magictraders/reflists/Christoph.html
icq me: 77911616
[Edited 2 times, lastly by Christoph on July 11, 2000]