Magic : the Gathering - Theme Decks

                       by Dave Booth.

Some of these combos I gleaned from the Net, others are of my own
design, and a few come with the Spells of the Ancients expansion -
so may be useful to non-SoTA owners, as you don't need the extra
SoTA cards to make them work.

"Khabal Pump" (black)
(The Pestilence version, a variant on the Pump with Diamond
Valleys in my Manalink review.)
You need the Spells of the Ancients expansion for this one. Khabal
Ghoul is a 1/1 black critter that gains 1/1 for each creature put
into the graveyard.  So, play a black weenie deck and get KG out
soon and slap an Unholy Strength on him to make him 2/3.  Then
bring Pestilence into play.  Bang away with the Pestilence to beat
down your opponent's weenies, all the time feeding that Ghoul.
After a few rounds hit your opponent with your Super Ghoul.
CoP:Black to save yourself from hits is a useful add-on.  If you
like Green, add style with one or two Fungusaurs.  As you tickle
them with Pestilence, they'll get stronger.

"Paladin Poke" (white/blue)
Northern Paladin is a 3/3 white critter with the ability to
destroy black permanents. Sleight of Mind is a blue enchantment
that will change this to any colour you like, making it and
Northern Paladin a sure fire combo against mono creature decks.  A
further advantage can be had by protecting him using Wards, which
again Sleight of Mind can tune to beat off attacks from burns and
Swords to Plowshares.

"Tealeaf" (blue)
Uses early Counterspells and Unsummons to hold back your opponent
whilst you build up mana.  Before long you will be in a position
to Control Magic any creatures he flings at you, which can be a
real annoyance to... Black Death for instance. :) Beware of


players using the Duels expansion, as this has Boomerang - a spell
that bounces a Controlled creature back to the original owner's
hand.  For finesse, cast Clone or Vesuvan Doppelganger on every
big creature you nick.  Two for the price of one.

"You don't wanna do that!" (black/green/blue)
Another control deck, with a flair.  It revolves around getting
Lifeforce or Deathgrip, which are enchantments that act as
reuseable Counterspells against Black and Green respectively (!).
Use early Birds of Paradise, Llanowar Elves, or Dark Rituals to
bring the enchantments into play quickly. (Or for real finesse,
use an early Fastbond to throw out lots of Forests for a little
pain.) If necessary you can tweak the colour with Sleight of Mind,
and with luck you'll be able to cakewalk over non-artifact
opponents.  Of course, if you throw in a few Energy Fluxes (each
upkeep, player pays 2 per artifact or sacrifice it) you should
cover all the bases.  Oh, and watch out for Disenchant and
Tranquillity...


"Black Death" (black)
This works well in a 40-card deck in particular.  Spells of the
Ancients provides you with Juzam Djinn, who costs BBB to cast and
for the penalty of 1 life to you per upkeep, is a meaty 5/5.
Stack your deck with Dark Rituals to get the early mana to bring
Juzams out, and before long you'll be smacking your opponent every
turn.  Like all big critter mono decks, this can suffer if your
opponent gets out early Meekstones or CoP:Blacks, but speed is of
the essence, hence the low card count.

"Stasis Birds" (Green/blue/white)
This is a hard combo to pull off but is an absolutely 100%
lockdown deck.  It's difficult to get going against a savvy
opponent, because you have to get out the following, in sequence :
Birds of Paradise, Instil Energy, Stasis, and finally Kismet.
Each round, Instil Energy your Birds, pay the Stasis cost, draw a
card, and plough onwards.  Any cards your opponent plays are
locked down by Kismet.  You then relentlessly Millstone him, or if
you have it, Karma (duly tweaked with Magical Hack) will slice him
up.

"Disco Inferno" (Red)
One of the many cheesy burn decks... Lightning Bolts, Fireball,
Incinerate, Inferno, and some Mana Flares to power it all up.
Burn, let it burn.

"Damned if you do..." (Red/Artifact)
Take a bunch of artifact creatures.  Add mana-producing critters
(Sisters of the Flame for example) and artifacts (lots of them).
Pour on a Manabarbs and Power Surge.  What do you get?  A deck
that hurts players for land they either use or don't use!  Say
bye-bye to cheesy burns and blue controls.  Maybe add a bit of
green to get the Elves and Birds out.

"Don't mess with TimE" (blue)
Time Elemental and Prodigal Sorcerer ("Tim" after the Monty Python
character) are the key to this control deck.  Four Tims, backed up
with Rods of Ruin, provide the poke to keep weenies at bay.  Time
Elemental is used to throw big critters and enchantments back at
their caster.  When you've got the control in play, poke away with
Tim and co at your opponent.  Annoying in the extreme to play
against.

"Upkeep Hurts" (Green/black/white)
Critters, who needs them?  The key to this deck is to enchant
everything your opponent has with hurt cards :  Warp Artifacts,
Cursed Land and Psychic Venom on land, Backfire and Wanderlust for
the critters.  Not surprisingly, burn decks are your nemesis here,
so CoP:Red your back.  A twist in this theme is to beef it up by
land destruction (Armageddon, Desert Twister and Strip Mines
feeding a Dingus Egg).

"Reanimator" (Black/Artifact)
Another nasty black deck.  Get a bunch of REALLY big creatures,
black and artifact ones, and don't cast them...  just churn them
into your graveyard and use Animate Dead to bring 'em back at a
fraction of the normal cost. (Snicker snicker!) Howling Mines work
well at filling that graveyard.  The other advantage of Animate
Dead of course is that it allows you to nick your opponent's dead
creatures.

"Urza's Engine" (Artifact)
A peculiar, but effective deck that I had the misfortune to
encounter on Manalink.  This uses the three land cards Urza's
Mine, Urza's Power Plant and Urza's Tower, each of which can be
tapped for 1 mana, but if all three are in play each produces *3*
uncoloured mana. Add Candelabra of Tawnos (X : untap X lands) and
you can produce ridiculous amounts of uncoloured mana in short
order.  This is used to generate Colossus of Sardias and
Shapeshifters very quickly.  Mind you, I *did* manage to win one
game against it using...

"Winged Stallion" (White/Blue)
...which uses a variety of flyers (to get past the big but
earthbound hitters from the Engine) and a combo of Howling Mines
and Island Sanctuary.  Island Sanctuary requires you to miss
drawing a card, in exchange for which you can only be attacked by
islandwalk and flying critters.  But with a Mine in play, you only
miss one card, so you still get to draw another.  Very fragile
against counter-magic decks and Tranquillity though.

"Twisted" (Blue/Red)
This is included in the Spells of the Ancients deck set, but
merits mention because most of the facilities are available to
non-SoTA owners.  This is the single most destructive, controlling
deck I've ever seen.  Fill your hand with Moxes, Lotuses, Mana
Vaults and burn stuff like Fireballs.  Top it all off with
Timetwister and Wheel of Fortune.  Even if you don't get first
play, you'll have so much mana-generating ability that the burns
will begin to happen in turn one, and Timetwister will
conveniently bounce your burn cards back into your library.  A
phenomenal deck, even when the computer AI is handling it.
Totally tournament illegal though.  Awww...  Just hope your
opponent doesn't drop Energy Flux on his first go though!





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