Thought you guys might like to read this -- Rakso, Maintainer of the Type I Mills

From: d***e@h***h.edu
Date: Mon, 1 May 2000 10:10:03 -0400 (EDT)
X-Sender: d***t@h***u.edu
To: s***o@p***i.com
cc: g***m@r***e.com
Subject: Re: "The Deck" vs post-Urza block combos

On Sat, 29 Apr 2000 s***o@p***i.com wrote:

> I'm getting some doubts about "The Deck" philosophy in Type I since I tried
> my Moxless version against some combo decks there. What happened was that I
> picked out something to counter (for example, Academy Rectors and Goblin
> Bombardments for Pebbles) and focused there. It worked when I had counters
> or tutors, but didn't when I didn't.

"The Deck" philosophy is as valid as it ever has been.

The only thing is, you have to boil down just what is exactly is that
philosophy. I think if you read the very early articles by Brian Weissman
about the deck you will find out what they are.

"The Deck" is about 2 things: 1) defense, 2) card advantage.

If you have a great defense, you can last the first few turns. Once you
live past the first few turns, card advantage will allow you to win the
game.

Notice has a deck like stompy normally wins with the first 7 cards in
hand. It doesn't rely on card advantage. However, any deck which has a
longer ranged plan of winning, for instance, a deck like Recur/Survival,
must have card advantage plans built in. In the case of rec/surv it is
squee + survival of the fittest.

Back in the day, you could rely on the Moat, the Abyss, swords to
plowshares, and a jaemdae tome to win the game. Well, those ideas don't
work anymore. Why? Because the old type 1 cards are too weak. The Moat
is too weak. By the time you get to 4 mana, stompy has already killed you
or has an active lyrist (even if you could play moat in extended).
Likewise with the abyss. The jaemdae tome is ok in type 1, where you have
a lot of colorless mana, but in extended by the time you get to 4, you
can't just tap out to play a tome.

Luckily there are replacements for these spells in extended.


First of all, your card advantage engine.

Thawing glaciers. This card is just incredible. You draw effectively 1
card every 2 turns. You want to use it with brainstorm, so you can
brainstorm back any land you draw into the deck, and use your thawing
glaciers as the only land you normally play each turn. Thawing glaciers
is very fast, when you compare it to the alternatives, like jaemdae tome,
browse, or whispers of the muse.

Next let's look at all the white defensive cards. You have stuff like,
humility, wrath of god, disenchant, swords to plowshares. Humility
doesn't work against rancor, and while Wrath of god remains effective in
extended there are just so many creatureless decks it's a risk to play
this one main deck. Disenchant is not terribly effective against
Necropotence or a Replenish deck, while swords to plowshares remains an
effective anti-creature spell.

As far as I can see there's no point to playing the white anymore. Thus,
what remains of "The Deck" philosophy is in fact a deck archetype which is
viable right now in extended, one which placed a deck in the top 8 of Pro
Tour Chicago recently and has had several good finishes in the ptqs. That
deck of course is monoblue draw go, the heir to "The Deck" legacy.

It has a very solid defense, but it needs to run a silly amount of
counterspells to do so, more than "The Deck" ever needed to. It has a
great card drawing engine with Thawing Glaciers.

The only place where it differs from the old philosophy is that the modern
draw go in extended has a ton of victory conditions. Typically you will
run a couple faery conclave, 2-4 masticores, and 2-4 morphlings, much more
than the 2 Serra Angels in the olden days. The main reason for this is
that the power level of the creatues is just far higher than the old days.
Imagine if you had a morphling back in the days of "The Deck." Morphling
laughs at The Abyss he laughes at the Moat he laughts at swords to
plowshares, he blocks and kill Serra Angel, he defeats Icy Manipulator, he
can block a Juzam Djinn kill it and survive. Masticore too, just an
incredibly powerful creature. So many powerful creatures have been
printed since arabian nights, creatures much stronger than the old kird
ape and juzam djinn. Negator is stronger than juzam djinn, while the
drawback is appreciable, only 3 mana for a 5/5 trampler is better than 4
mana for a 5/5. Kird ape has been dethrowned a half dozen times since it
was originally printed. Wild dogs, Skyshroud Elite, Goblin Lacky, there
are just so many choices now for power creatures at every casting cost
that overshadow the old creatures. So the main reason you have so many
creatures (victory conditions) in drawgo with "The Deck" philosophy is
that the creatures you play in the deck are stronger than any other card
you could play.

Another defensive deck you can play in Extended is Oath of Druids, but
here I think the philosophy has been much expanded from the original ideas
particular in the Oath of Druids reliance in "Find the Hoser, cast it to
win," which while it is virtual card advantage in making many spells in
your opponent's deck useless, its not the real card advantage, that
drawing of actual cards which typified "The Deck" strategy (and which if
you think about it properly, thawing glaciers in combination with scroll
rack or brain storm does in fact do -- draw you cards).

Anyplace you find a deck that relies on 1) defense 2) card advantage you
will see a deck which relies on the same first principles as "The Deck."

--- edt