"The Joys of Bad Rares" - DECK CONSTRUCTION Article

I realize everyone is waiting for Exodus now that the regionals are over and overanalyzed. So I thought I'd try to liven things up a little until then, by bringing another few bad rares to everyone's attention. Most rares do something unique or powerful, even if they are often horribly overpriced. Ancestral Memories was a good example; it gave two cards of your choice for one and put five cards into your graveyard. My original ideas for it back during Mirage involved Hammer of Bogarden, Death Spark and/or the twelve black recursion creatures. I had a viable U/B Mirage Memories deck (with 4 Mystical Tutor to get them!) based around using them to mill half my deck and then drop Tombstone Stairwell. Once you start, you go seven cards with each one to find either the next one or the Mystical Tutor for the next one. Strong. But it always came down to blue not having good recursion cards, and the color requirements of both Memories and Hammer, for example, were too much to handle, especially without Reflecting Pool. Now I feel someone might want to try it again. Remember, this is not the TurboZvi deck, which I tuned for two weeks straight before posting, these are just ideas, like those from my old "Degeneracy" post. By the way, from that post, the Black deck needed 4 Wastelands to have enough mana, and the 5Cnecro was 58 Cards; I suggest 1 Scroll Rack and 1 Mulch. Not that they were that good, but I feel that five color necro is underused and Pox decks are not well built. I'd work on a Pox deck, but they're not my cup of tea. Think of it as practice tuning decks, to work around the "Dojo Effect." Anyway, here's a rough idea of what I'm aiming at with the R/U:

I have new email at zvi@sprintmail.com which I'll use to see what everyone thinks of these decks. Two responses I'm not interested in are "unworkable," which I pretty much suspect anyway, and "why not just build…" which is what I'm trying to get away from. This deck will defeat many counter decks, because it has six things to dissipate. It's literally all removal, so creature decks shouldn't be that much of a problem. Finkel's been trying something similar, but with standard utility spells. That's just no fun. Every deck should have at least one "priceless look" card, and it has to make some sense.

Next, I'd like to bring up the Power Wood Sage. They still don't believe me. For those who (quite understandably) don't know what Wood Sage does, I'll refresh everyone's memory: Wood Sage UG T: Name a creature card. Reveal the top four cards of your library to all players. Put any copies of that card into your hand and any other cards into your graveyard. 1/1 There are a few things you should notice right away. First, it's never used, which makes it a Bad Rare. Second, it's two colors, which makes it hard to use. Most people stopped there and said "forget it." In most Sealed Decks and Drafts, I'd agree. But you need to look carefully at this card because, Third, it's card economy. ANY card economy card that isn't strictly worse than another is worth looking at. (You can quote me on that, unless someone else said it first, in which case quote him). Look ten good reasons to play the Power Wood Sage: 1. You can name what you really want, so whenever it works you get a good card. 2. As you use it more, you see more cards, know what's left in your deck and your odds improve. 3. It fills your graveyard, which can be a really good thing. For example, Llurgoyf and Godzilla. 4. It mills from your library, which means it triggers Gaia's Blessing. 5. If you know what's on top, it mills what you don't want and gives you an extra card. 6. It's only one more mana than a normal 1/1. 7. It's a "priceless look" card. 8. It can be a deck's name, which can be really funny. For example, someone was playing a Kobold deck he said was good, and won an Extended tournament in Conn. After "I've got to get out of NYC more," I said, "I'll get my Wood Sage deck." Also works afterwards, as in "I beat you with my Power Wood Sage Deck! You'll never live that down!" 9. It creates funny and ironic situations and might-have-beens. Mill all your counters. Mill all your land. Get 3 Tradewinds at once. 10. It counts as a creature, which is actually important when you consider what U/G does well in combination. How can you pass up a card like that?

So the last time I need a deck for a tournament (TurboZvi is on break until Exodus), I put together my Power Wood Sage deck, which aside from the Sages was basically a Tradewind deck, and split first for 18 packs:

Some revisions I'd recommend would be choosing Maro or Llurgoyf, probably Llurgoyf, so you can Wood Sage for it, and local adjustments to the sideboard. To answer the most obvious question, I don't believe in removal (and I don't mean in general, I just mean that doing without it can work and allows you to, for example, absolutely demolish 5CU), although one firestorm isn't a horrible idea. One of the major problems with today's type II is that even when you use weird cards you end up building the same old deck types. Oh, well. This one is playable as is.

Jokulhaups. For a while I thought this was going to be my next TurboZvi, but I kept running into the "why don't I just drop Dream Halls?" syndrome that most players know better as "why not just play Bloom?": It's neat and all, but if you're going to all that trouble why not just win? One answer is that players nowadays don't take Jokulhaups into account at all. They could stair at Undiscovered Paradise, Mana Vault, Dwarven Ruins, Crystal Vein, Sylvan Library, Wall of Blossoms and Shard Phoenix, for example, and it still probably wouldn't dawn on them what you're up to. Only Squandered might give them a hint, but they'll be thinking Bloom if you disguise your mana properly. The key is to make Jokulhaups work more like Armageddon: Not the plan, just a good idea. For example, you might do something like this (and then again, you might think better of it):

Even with it on the Dojo, you'll get some surprises. You can also include different (and weirder) cards in the deck. The sideboard is wide open to having a lot of evil fun, with old standbys like Light of Day, Pyrboblast and Disenchant or weirder ones (maybe Maro?) to whatever you want. Also, the land ratio probably needs balancing, as does the land mix.

There is one more card I'd like to mention. Emessi Tomb, which is 4 to cast and 5T to draw 2 and discard one, is being overlooked because of Whispers of the Muse. Take another look, because this card is much more efficient in many positions and isn't blue.

As a final note, I'd like to list the "Good bad rares" we have so far, and call for more (do we have any Zur's Weirding fans tonight?), list the final pre-Exodus TurboZvi version, and let everyone know that I think GatheringNet (with Spells of the Ainchents) is a good system and a lot of fun; I'm under the name Zvi.

Good Bad Rares: Dream Halls Ancestral Memories Jokulhaups Wood Sage Emessi Tomb

Final TurboZvi:

Good luck, everyone!