Even though I don't play magic anymore, I will happily help anyone who wants to learn how to play Underworld Dreams decks, and I'm glad to see that people are still interested.

In fact, since people are still using this article, I might even try and update it a little this summer, as I dont think what is posted here was the final incarnation of my deck.

Slim.
May 7th 2003
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Introduction

Underworld Dreams...my favorite card. It seems that most T1 players with the cards to do so have at least toyed with constructing this deck at one time or another. Even casual T1 players tend to love Dreams for its sheer "cool" value, and tendency to infuriate your opponents in multiplayer games.

Unfortunately, despite the kind of cult following Underworld Dreams has inspired, good, solid decklists are depressingly scarce, especially where pros are concerned. In fact, I don’t believe I have ever seen an Underworld Dreams deck crafted by the likes of Jon Finkle or Zvi.

Most likely, the reason for this lies in the fact that Dreams is really only a viable deck in T1, a format which is generally ignored...at least in the vogue world of internet magic. Be that as it may, I see no need for there to continue to be a drought of good Underworld Dreams decks available for those who choose to play such a deck.

Underworld Dreams was my pet project deck for nearly 6 months. I have never tested another deck so long or so thoroughly. Below is posted the most recent (never say "final" ) decklist, sideboard, and explanations of all the cards.

Some Background Information:

Before I post the decklist, however, I think I should write a bit about the theory behind the deck.

Underworld Dreams is a unique deck. A strange hybrid of Combo/Control, it is difficult to classify, and therefore can be confusing to play for the inexperienced. As a result, I have seen all manner of Underworld Dreams decks, using many different methods of kill.

I have seen Academy Rector Dreams, Intuition-Replenish Dreams, 5 color "Keeper-Dreams", Black/Red Aggro Burn Dreams, Black/Blue Counter Dreams, Green / Black Land Destruction Dreams with City of Solitude, Barbecue Dreams, Fried Dreams, Dreams soup, and more.

Most of these decks, despite how good they look on paper, are terrible. After much rigorous testing against and with almost all of these decktypes, I have come to the conclusion that the optimum Underworld Dreams deck should be kept at a core of two colors - Black and Blue, with a TINY splash of Red (Wheel of Fortune, Winds of Change) and / or Green (Regrowth, Fastbond). White is unnecessary.

The Decklists:

Below are listed some Underworld Dreams decklists. These include:

1.) My Ideal Decklist
2.) An Aggro-Dreams Decklist
3.) A Powered Down Decklist

I hope you find these useful in constructing your own Underworld Dreams deck given the card pool available to you.

First - My Ideal Decklist.

Believe me, I’ve had to give this one a lot of thought. I build this deck imagining I would have all the P9 at my disposal. Given the availability of a full compliment of P9, the deck should be able to go off very quickly and kill within a few turns, if played properly.

After much thought I have decided that my "Ideal" decklist would indeed include green for Fastbond and Regrowth - two very powerful cards that are extremely abusive in Underworld Dreams (especially Fastbond).

My Ideal Decklist is the following:

Underworld Dreams
Designed by John Sexton – 2000-2001.

Land

4 Underground Sea
4 Underground River
4 Gemstone Mine
4 City of Brass
3 Tropical Island
1 Library of Alexandria

Artifact

1 Memory Jar
1 Sol Ring
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Jet

Green

1 Regrowth
1 Fastbond

Black

4 Underworld Dreams
4 Dark Ritual
4 Duress
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor

Blue

4 Force of Will
3 Mana Drain
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Timetwister
1 Time Spiral
1 Time Walk
1 Windfall
1 Impulse
1 Tinker

Red

1 Wheel of Fortune

Sideboard:

4 Phyrexian Negator
3 Powder Keg
3 Red Elemental Blast
2 Chill
2 Misdirection
1 Tormod’s Crypt

Card Choices and explanations:

As I said before, Dreams is kind of a mix between Combo and Control. It doesn’t give you that Dirty Combo Feeling, and yet it can go off in a single turn, doing upwards of 50 points of damage easily. The objective of the deck is to "go off," and go off quickly. Yet at the same time, the Dreams player needs to be careful and protect his resources and kill card. To this end...the cards:

"Draw 7s" - These are your engine. They kill your opponent, refill your hand, and let you keep the madness going. Without a large number of these cards and a way to search them out effectively, this deck will fail...very quickly.

· Windfall - The weakest of the bunch, still a strong spell. On average, it nets about 4 cards, which often times leads you into something else you can do. When directly following another Draw 7, this card is devistating.

· Memory Jar - While expensive, the power of this card cannot be ignored. With the possibility to draw 7 new cards for zero mana (the turn after its played), this card is often the one that sets the ball rolling on the "big turn" during which you destroy your opponant. This card is a perfect sink for Mana Drain, and can be ritualed out as well. If there were more artifacts in the deck, I might consider adding a Tinker, but without the full compliment of jewelry and a flower, I dont think Tinker is worth it.

· Wheel of Fortune - The only red card in the deck. Its worth it. 7 cards, 7 damage for 3 mana is a wonderful bargain, and Wheel, too, often leads into another Draw 7. Although it destabilizes the mana base somewhat, its definately worth it for the speed and versitility this cards offers the deck.

· Time Spiral - Ah...this card is a monster. Like Memory Jar, it is expensive to cast, but is a perfect place to dump Mana Drain mana. If it resolves with a Dreams on the table, its usually game. 7 Free cards and 7 damage to them is unbeatable. You can only use it once, but once is all it takes.

· Timetwister - Well, Time Spiral is unbeatable, except for Timetwister. Underworld Dreams simply cannot function to its full potential without this card. A 3 mana Draw 7 in your primary color that refreshes your entire deck. Hmm, thats pretty good...maybe thats why it costs $100. Its worth it. If you plan to play Dreams, get a Timetwister. They are the cheapest of the P9, and can often be had for under $100 on ebay. Get one.

Control: This is a Combo/Control deck, as I said. So, in order to get your Combo rolling, you need to be able to ensure it against those nasty T1 counter decks.

· Duress - The "pre-emptive" counter, this card is a great first turn play, but is often best saved until right before you play a Dreams or a Draw 7. Make sure you are in the clear, then have at them.

· Force of Will - Everyone's favorite counterspell, this card is essential. It lets you backup a first turn Dreams via Ritual, or force through that game-sealing Draw 7.

· Mana Drain - Everyone's other favorite counterspell. Rarely will the mana gained from this card go to waste. Many of the spells in the deck use 1-2 colorless mana, and often help you find more spells on which to use Mana Drain paydirt. First turn Dreams, Second turn Drain, Third turn 3cc Draw 7 off Drain mana, is often game. And it happens more often than you'd think.

Kill - These cards are necessary to win the game.

· Underworld Dreams - Make them draw, they die.

Search and Recursion: Get what you need and use it. And reuse it. And reuse it.

· Vampiric Tutor – It’s a tutor…it gets you the card you want. Has good synergy with Draw 7s.

· Demonic Tutor – The original tutor is still my favorite. Any card to your hand, no questions asked.

· Yawgmoth's Will – Abusive enough as it is, this card really gets disgusting when you have a Dreams in play and your graveyard is packed with a Timewalk, Timetwister, and Wheel of Fortune. Ill let you do the math.

· Impulse – Cheap, fast, and the card goes to your hand. I chose this over Fact or Fiction (after much testing), for several reasons, but, most importantly, Impulse is faster. Impulse costs half as much, and most of the time with Fact or Fiction they are going to put the card you really need to kill them in a pile by itself anyway. The cards going to the bottom of your library has almost a null effect due to all the shuffling that goes on with this deck. At 2 mana, this can also help you get out of a land screw at the beginning.

· Mystical Tutor – Gets you your kill cards. Almost better than Vampiric Tutor in this deck due to pitchability and no loss of life.

· Ancestral Recall – 3 cards for one mana…seems pretty good to me. Also, it may serve to bolt or deck your opponent in a pinch to win the game. I’ve used it for both.

Misc: All the other goodies that make the deck purr.

· Dark Ritual – First turn Dreams is pretty good in this deck.

· Moxen - This deck is all about speed. Luckily, 0 casting cost artifacts which produce mana generally speed you up.

· Black Lotus – Can function as a 5th Ritual, or get you RRR or UUU to cast one of the many 3cc Draw 7s in the deck. This card is extremely powerful in this deck.

· Time Walk – Sometimes all it takes with this deck is one more untap. This gives it to you, cheap.

· Tinker – Basically, Tinker gets you Memory Jar. That’s a good enough reason to play it.

Land: The land in this deck is pretty self-explanatory.

· Library of Alexandria – With all the Draw 7s in this deck, this card should be the second Power card you go for. It is completely and utterly abusive.

Sideboard Card Choices:

Phyrexian Negator Go into beatdown mode vs. Monoblue. You are already sporting
rituals, and a first turn Negator can really throw anyone for a loop,
especially with counter backup.

Powder Keg Vs. Aggressive decks – Stompy, WW, etc.

Red Elemental Blast Vs. Monoblue.

Chill Vs Burn. Burn can be a big problem, especially with you refilling their
hand regularly.

Misdirection Vs. Burn and Discard

Tormod’s Crypt Vs. Combo, Graveyard recursion

Aggro-Dreams Decklist:

Land

4 Underground Sea
4 Badlands
4 City of Brass
4 Volcanic Island
3 Gemstone Mine
1 Library of Alexandria

Artifact

1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Jet
1 Black Vise
1 Black Lotus
1 Memory Jar

Black

4 Dark Ritual
4 Underworld Dreams
3 Duress
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Yawgmoth's Will

Blue

2 Impulse
1 Windfall
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Time Spiral
1 Timetwister

Red

4 Winds of Change
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Chain Lightning
1 Wheel of Fortune

Sideboard:

4 Phyrexian Negator
3 Powder Keg
3 Red Elemental Blast
2 Misdirection
1 Tormod’s Crypt
1 Duress

This version of the deck is far more Red-heavy that the other version, and opts to forego any form of countermagic for straight burn and Winds of Change. When playing against a non-blue opponent, this version can be extremely effective, but beware of running out of steam. One advantage this version has over the previous, more blue heavy version, is that this version is far better at controlling creatures. With 7 different bolt spells, most troublesome creatures such as Negator, Hyppie, and even Morphling (hey, it could happen) can be burned away with a well-placed bolt.

Also in this version, Fastbond and Regrowth are removed in favor of more burn spells, solidifying the URB mana base.

Black Vise also makes an appearance here, in the hopes that it will be able to squeeze in an extra few damage at the beginning of the game or after a Draw 7.

Finally, this deck uses 2 Impulse to help dig for the kill cards more quickly.

Powered-Down Decklist:

Land

4 Underground Sea
4 Badlands
4 City of Brass
4 Volcanic Island
4 Gemstone Mine

Artifact

1 Mox Diamond
1 Lotus Petal
1 Black Vise
1 Memory Jar
1 Sol Ring

Black

4 Dark Ritual
4 Underworld Dreams
4 Duress
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Yawgmoth's Will

Blue

3 Impulse
1 Morphling
1 Windfall
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Time Spiral
1 Tinker

Red

4 Winds of Change
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Chain Lightning
1 Wheel of Fortune

Sideboard:

4 Phyrexian Negator
4 Red Elemental Blast
3 Powder Keg
2 Misdirection
1 Tormod’s Crypt
1 Morphling

To be honest, its very difficult to build a strong, competitive Underworld Dreams deck without P9. The difference that a Timetwister alone makes is phenomenal. Moxen and Black Lotus speed the deck up to ridiculous rates, and Ancestral and Timewalk can buy you the extra time or get you the extra cards you need to tip the scales in a game. As I said, it often only takes 1 turn with this deck to completely demolish your opponent.

That said, a cheaper version of Dreams is possible, but it is much slower, and less stable.
The removal of Timetwister eliminates the majority of your recursion, and therefore you have to be much more careful about the order in which you play your spells. Even so, this deck still has the potential to do massive amounts of damage through the 4 Winds of change, Wheel, Jar, Windfall, Spiral, and burn.

Tinker is still necessary to play in this deck because it gets you Jar. Jar gets you other things, and will often get the ball rolling on the final turn of the game – i.e., the turn in which you win.

And, since this deck has even less power, it needs more search. A 3rd Impulse is added to help you get your kill cards more quickly.

This powered-down version also includes Morphling, which can be another path to victory if your Dreams don’t quite do the trick, or you can’t get the combo off fast enough.

Now, even more importantly, cards that are not in the deck, and why:

I see many of the following cards either in or suggested to be in almost every single Underworld Dreams decklist I’ve ever seen posted online. It makes me sad, because, quite honestly, I have tested most of them, and they are bad.

Teferi’s Puzzle Box – I see this card suggested more than any other for Underworld Dreams decks, and, it seems, it is also the worst. There are several reasons I dislike this card. First of all, it costs 4 mana, must be cast on your turn, and yields you absolutely NO immediate advantage. Unless your opponent’s hand is full of 6 or 7 cards, the damage it inflicts is also negligible, making this card an even bigger waste. By the same token, if your opponents hand IS full, they will be drawing a lot of cards, and taking a lot of damage – for one turn. In those cards they draw, they are most likely going to draw a land, and one or two spells they can cast, emptying their hand and putting pressure on you. All the while, you can do nothing about it because you had to tap out to cast the Box.

Another aspect about this card I severely dislike is that it takes away your control of the game. You never know what you are going to draw, and you may lose several valuable game-ending cards to the Puzzle Box, only to have them replaced by lands or other sub-optimal cards.
This card does not belong in a seriously competitive Underworld Dreams deck.

Howling Mine – While less bad than Teferi’s Puzzle Box, this card is still a sub-optimal choice for this deck. Ideally, you want to cast it early, and you may have to tap out to do so. Admittedly, it can be easily cast with mana from a Drain, it is still not worth it. The extra card you give your opponent each turn is NOT worth the extra damage point they suffer. Most people don’t mind trading life points for extra cards. I think there is a card called “Necropotence,” or something like that, that gives a similar effect. I seem to remember it being powerful. Why give your opponent a Necropotence-like effect? Chances are the extra card they draw each turn will be a threat or an answer to your threats. It is not a good deal.

Anvil of Bogardin – Same deal as above, except this time you have to discard too. Forget it.

Megrim – I see people suggest this card over and over again, but, to me, its absolutely pointless. There are basically 3 cards in this deck that make your opponant discard enough cards for Megrim to be worthwhile - Mind Twist, Wheel of Fortune, and Memory Jar. Of those 3, usually only from Memory Jar will Megrim be fatal, and that’s if you have a Dreams in play as well. Don’t waste your time with this one.

Chains of Mephistopheles – This is another wasted slot. It’ll get both you and your opponent down to no cards in hand if you cast a single Draw 7. No cards in hand is not where a control deck wants to be. There are much better cards to play than this.

Prosperity – This card is a sorcery, and it lets your opponent draw lots of cards. Unless you can kill them with this, which is rare, you tap yourself out to give your opponent a new hand. To make matters worse, you are tapped out, so you cant use those cards you just drew. Definitely not worth it.

Braingeyser – Generally, this card suffers from the same drawbacks as prosperity. I found in testing that I never once wanted to cast this on my opponent, but instead used it to refill my own hand. Even so, in order to get the kind of card advantage that you want from something like this, it became necessary to tap out or nearly so do.

Stroke of Genius – Same as Braingeyser. Its expensive, and as nice as it sounds, you are probably never going to kill your opponent with this. More likely, you will draw a couple cards with it, wishing it were something else.

Winds of Change – Now these, these can be good. I didn’t include them in the deck because it would require further weakening the U/B core of the deck, and, while that could be done easily enough with more duals, I didn’t feel like it was the best idea. Don’t get me wrong – Winds of change after a Twister, Wheel or Spiral often says “game over,” and it is extremely easy to do so with the bargain price of one red mana. Nevertheless, I didn’t find them necessary to my deck.
If you are going for a more aggressive-oriented deck design, try replacing the Mind Twist, Abyss, and Zuran Orb with 3 of these, and reconfiguring the mana base accordingly.

Arcane Denial – I see Arcane Denial suggested a lot, and I can see why. Counter a spell, draw an extra card, and shock them all at once, right? Well, not always. As with Howling Mine, those two cards they draw are generally more of a threat than the 2 points of damage are worth. I playtested these for a long time, and eventually replaced them with Duress. Its cheaper, its better, and they don’t get to draw cards.

Fork - Ive tried this card as well, but I found RR just way too difficult to reliably pull off. When you can get it, its wonderful, but how often will that be? To Fork a Winds of Change will cost you RRR....Wheel 2RRR, etc. Those are very difficult mana requirments unless you have a Lotus out. Occasionally spectacular, usually a dead card.

Necropotence - This seems like it would be awfully good in here, helping you get your combo cards and whatnot, but the truth is, you really don’t need it. There is plenty of other card drawing in this deck, and Cities of Brass, Painlands, and Weenies usually take you down a fair amount before you win the game. Why kill yourself even faster?

I believe those are the most prominent “no-no” cards that come to mind.

How to play Underworld Dreams:

Now that you have the logic behind the card choices and decklists, I think its time to provide what I feel is the correct way to play Underworld Dreams. A skeletal outline of the basic order in which to play your spells is the following:

Play Underworld Dreams / Fastbond
Cast Wheel of Fortune / Windfall, or get Memory Jar into play as soon as possible
Timetwister
Time Spiral
Recast all the other draw 7s.

Often times your opponent will be dead long before you get halfway down this list – but you may find yourself wanting to keep going anyway, just to “see how much I can do in one turn.”
If you have multiple Dreams in play, it gets even more ridiculous. I’ve done over 100 points of damage in a single turn, easily

There are as many different ways to play Underworld Dreams as there are builds of the deck. It can be confusing what to tutor for, when to cast it, and what to hold your counters for against your opponents.

As you know by now, Underworld Dreams is as much aggressive as it is control. There are a lot of mind games involved in playing this deck, and it can be very stressful to decide what to play at any given time. So, I will provide some general tips for when the best times to use key cards are:

Duress – While a great first turn play, sometimes these are best saved until you have something you need to force through. It largely depends on what kind of deck you are playing against.
Suppose your opening hand contains an Underground Sea, Dark Ritual, Underworld Dreams, Duress, and other stuff. Its very tempting to lay that first turn Dreams, and often times that is the correct play. Against control, however, it may be more beneficial to consider the rest of your hand before deciding. If you have a Force of Will to back up your 1st turn Dreams vs. Control, you should be fine. If you don’t, I would recommend Duressing, and going from there. The sooner Dreams comes out the better, but 3rd turn is better than a countered first turn dreams.

Mystical Tutor - This is a tricky one. Mystical tutor can be used to solve many problems in the deck, from finding the Dark Ritual you need to play Dreams within the first 3 turns, to grabbing that last big spell you need to end the game. The most common mistake with this card is to blindly grab Ancestral Recall or Timetwister. While this is not a “bad” thing to do, it is not always the most beneficial. If you have a Dreams in play, depending on the number of cards in your and your opponents, hand, you should almost always get either Windfall or Wheel of Fortune, depending. If you are low on cards and your opponent has a bunch, Windfall. If its more even, Wheel. Often, your mana may not be able to support Wheel when you need it, so go with Windfall. Timetwister is great, but if you use it to early, you run the risk of not being able to re-draw your other killer spells. Trust me – Wheel of Fortune into a Timetwister is MUCH better than a Timetwister into a Wheel of Fortune.

Timetwister – As I was saying above, Timetwister should usually only be played when you have other Draw 7s in the graveyard. You want to get them back and increase the likelihood that you will be able to use them again.

Time Spiral – As with Timetwister, you generally want to use this one later in the game. The fact that it untaps your lands as well should be an even bigger benefit when your deck is thinned of lands and such, and your Draw 7’s – even Timetwister if you can manage it, are back in your deck after having been used. Use this after Timetwister and Wheel if possible.

Memory Jar – Memory Jar can be an absolute beast in this deck. However, it can also screw you up royally if you use it at the wrong time. Ideally, you want to get the jar into play as fast as possible AFTER you have a dreams in play. If you are having trouble getting a Dreams, and you have Jar available, go ahead and use it to dig, but I would recommend holding out as long as you can. The biggest temptation with this card is to use it right after you cast it for a quick 7 damage. That’s fine, if you can kill them with it, or if you have a lot of spare mana, but usually, it is best to wait a turn until you are COMPLETELY untapped to use the Jar. Instead of 7 damage, you can often inflict 20 or more in a single turn once you draw 7 off the Jar with freshly untapped mana. Resist temptation, and be smart about the Jar. It will win you games if you play it correctly.

Analysis of Opening Draws:

An ideal (not perfect, but good) hand for this deck would be roughly as follows:

Underground Sea
City of Brass
Dark Ritual
Underworld Dreams
Mana Drain
Wheel of Fortune / Windfall / Timetwister
Force of Will

With this hand, you could safely play a first turn Dreams backed by FoW. If it gets through uncountered, you are all set to Drain their 2nd turn spell to fuel Wheel of Fortune. With the wheel, you should draw into more land, and possibly some mana acceleration. It just keeps going from there.

A hand you may want to Mulligan would look like this:

Badlands
Stripmine
Dark Ritual
Underworld Dreams
Force of Will
Impulse
Memory Jar

This may look alright – first turn Dreams is very desirable, after all. And, since you have an Impulse, it looks like you may be able to draw yourself into more mana. Plus, you have the FoW to counter things if you have to. This is a pretty tempting hand for the brave…”if I can just draw…” Sometimes that works, sometimes it doesn’t. I would recommend mulliganing this hand in a tournament. For casual play, keep it and see how things pan out. I just don’t like taking the chance that you will get that first turn dreams, then run out of steam, or get land screwed, and die defenseless.

Generally, “Keep” hands will contain at least 2 lands, possibly a Mox or Sol Ring, a card drawer corresponding to the color of mana you are holding, be it Impulse, a tutor, or a draw 7, and some aggressive card – either a Duress, Underworld Dreams, etc. Hopefully, Mana Drain or Force of Will will be present also.

As you become more familiar with the deck, you will be able to tell what hands to keep and what not to. You will become better at guessing probabilities of drawing a ritual, the right kind of mana, a tutor or draw 7 that you need, and the deck will run smoother for you. In the beginning, stick to the safer hands, or try to play through the really lousy ones. You will learn either way, but you might lose a lot if you aren’t careful. But hey, that’s why we playtest!

Some Matchup Information:

Vs. Monoblue, or other Heavy Permission Decks (keeper):

This can be a very tough or fairly easy matchup, largely depending on your initial draw. In this matchup, it is important to mulligan aggressively to make sure you get your Dreams out ASAP with counter backup. 1st turn backed by a FoW is ideal. Once your Dreams hits play, there usually isn’t much they can do if you counter the disenchant or bounce type spells. Often, the card drawing engines of these control decks ends up killing them for you. Its fun to watch that. Make sure you counter their Disks, or Capsizes, and they will usually draw themselves to death. If you can sneak by one draw 7, that’s usually all it takes – IF You can get a dreams out. If you cant…well, keep trying, and try to get that Morphling out as well.

You probably want to SB in Factories and Negators to speed this matchup a bit and increase your odds.

Vs. Sligh / Burn / Stupid Red

Again, this can be very tough or quite easy. After sideboarding, Chills make things a LOT easier. Don’t worry so much about the quick Dreams in this matchup. Go for Zuran Orb, Morphling, and then Dreams. I hear filling up a Burn Deck’s hand with 7 new cards isn’t the greatest idea.

Vs. Stompy /Zoo/ Critters

Try to get your Abyss out and protect it. You will probably need to SB in Kegs, and might have to hunt for the Z-orb, but generally you can pretty much ignore what they are doing, and just try to get your combo setup. Play Dreams, protect it, and try to go off in one turn. Its not a good idea to play your Draw 7 spells spaced out – they will get more creatures and most likely overrun you.

Vs. Discard / Land Destruction / MonoBlack / Nether Void.

This is a very difficult matchup. An untimely Hymn can really throw you off track, but since they have no counters, if you manage to pull off a Draw 7 you should be fine. Abyss shuts down Hyppies and Negators if they have them. Watch out for Wastelands and Ports in Nether Void decks. They can be serious trouble. If you get a decent hand with some Duress and countermagic, as well as 2-3 good lands, you should be fine. Just don’t let them get the jump on you. If you can Drain into a MindTwist, that can buy you some nice time to get setup and kill them in one shot.

Vs. White Weenie

You shouldn’t have much problem with this matchup. Pro-black creatures won’t die to Abyss, but you should be able to kill them before they kill you. Watch out for Disenchant, Seal of Cleansing and Armageddon / Cataclysm. If you counter those, you should be fine.
Powder kegs and Mishra’s Factories help this matchup after Sideboarding.

Vs. Deck Parfait

Parfait is pretty slow compared to Dreams. Aura of Silence is a real pain, but it can usually be countered before they can play it. This isn’t a difficult matchup. My friend has a Parfait deck and I have tested against it several times. Dreams very rarely loses to Parfait.

That should be most of the archetypes you will face…if I forgot anything major, let me know and I will add a section for it.

Underworld Dreams is an incredibly fun deck to play. It is a lot of fun to constantly shuffle up your deck and draw lots of new cards each game. The deck can be very solid, or it can be terrible, depending on how you play it and how you construct it. Hopefully this Primer will get you started on the right foot in constructing an Underworld Dreams deck in the proper vein. Remember, this is like a slow combo deck, and should aim to kill your opponent in one or two turns, even if those turns aren’t the first two turns. Try to “go off” all in one shot – don’t give them a chance to use all those cards you are making them draw. If they are tapped out, and you Wheel, Twister, Windfall, they basically get to look at a lot of their cards while they are dying. It takes a lot of practice to master the timing of this deck, knowing what to bait out counterspells with, when to Duress, when to Counter, when to cast that Timetwister. Once you master the deck, you may never want to put it down - it is seriously that fun to play.

If you have any questions, comments, or want to give me some advice or an earful, I would love to hear from anyone interested in Underworld Dreams decks. Contact me for some playtesting or strategy talk.

- John Sexton (Slim) – Self-proclaimed Underworld Dreams Guru.
- ICQ: 6146369
- AIM: SlimDGoon
- Email – sexja@rhodes.edu

I will delete the other one.

quote:

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Originally posted by JEFFMAN:
myself being only 14, im a very good long laster magic player that knows what hes doing. I have been playing for about 8 years or since revised. My personal opinion is do not waste the room in the deck with too much massive artifact power 9 mana. Instead fill that room with good free counterspells like rewind and fow's, this way the underworld dreams will not die. Also, being that you probably will be drawing about 3 cards a turn a library of leng is a wonderful idea

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take out the moxes? what?
library of leng? who?
what is this kid suggesting. i play a deck so similar to your first posted decklist that its scary. i run 4 moxes, and a lotus... and if i took em out how would i wreck people first turn? 1 fow is enough to stop your opponents fow first turn. rewind blows chunks also. 7 counters is plenty in this deck.

can you think of a good decklist using just 2 underworlds.i made my own deck but it just dosnt have the "Oumph" to kill other decks out there.

if you would take the time post a pore mans underworld dreams deck.

I copied it to word so i could have it off line and I realized that your post is 11 pages long.

Awesome dude.

quote:

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Originally posted by BongMan:
Wow great write up.

I copied it to word so i could have it off line and I realized that your post is 11 pages long.

Awesome dude.

Now I know what I need to do.

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Uh, you've got to be kidding, right? This post is a good 1 and a half years old... I don't think Slim is even here anymore... Sigh.