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25-12-2000
![]() Yet Another Deranged Deck
Sterling Grove. Enchantment Tutoring.
Now that sounds like an interesting concept, what happens when we combine it with some older phat?
4 Sterling Grove
4 Kavu Lair
4 Saproling Burst
4 Blastoderm
4 Keldon Vandals
4 Viashino Sandstalkers
4 Ball Lightning (Skizzik?)
4 Hammer of Bogarden
4 Mox Diamond
4 Taiga
12 Mountain
8 Forest
This looks like it would be a lot of fun to play.
But... I can't help myself... I want to add Survival of the Fittest, and as soon as I do that I want a Squee or three. And then there's that bad bad Fireblast... and Cursed Scrolls for Colourless damage... whooops, did we just blow out the budget? There are some alternatives to Mox Diamonds for instance, since we hope to be drawing more cards (and thus more land) than we can really handle, one of the pitch lands to do damage enchantments wouldn't hurt.
Sideboard
4 Cursed Scroll
4 Fireblast
4 Anarchy
2 Survival
1 Squee
We could take out the Ball Lightnings.
I'm desperately trying to leave out the card that is dominating type 2. Oh ok, just one.
4 Sterling Grove
1 Kavu Lair
1 Survival of the Fittest
1 Rancor
1 Fires of Yavimaya
1 Stormbind
1 Meteor Swarm
1 Squee
1 Keldon Vandals
1 Shivan Phoenix
1 Death Spark
1 Cursed Scroll
3 Hammer of Bogarden
4 Saproling Burst
4 Blastoderm
2 Viashino Sandstalkers
2 Ancient Hydra
2 Balduvian Horde
4 Fireblast
4 Taiga
12 Mountain
8 Forest
Drat, another one of everything kind of deck, how annoying. ;-) No thanks to those pesky kids and their tutors!
I stopped modifying the above list when I wanted to put a Deranged Hermit in it... it looks like it might just morph around into some kind of Tradewind/Survival deck or an Enchantress deck as that's another way it could go, it could morph into a kind of Turbo Land deck as well, with an Enchantress, a Kavu Lair and a Horn of Greed in play you would draw a card anytime you did anything (just strip out non creatures, lands or enchantments (which is the Death Spark, Cursed Scroll, Hammers, Fireblasts and Mox Diamonds on the above lists). It might be that Sterling Grove lets you build Recurring Nightmare Style Decks, ie one of everything, and then people just need to thrash out what an ideal list is and then tweak it for their local meta-game. Of course, that would only happen if the deck is good enough. Which raises an interesting question, which is that Saproling Burst is usually such a powerful card, when would you choose to ever go looking for one of the utility enchantments, when you could just tutor for the Burst and win? If you have two Sterling Groves, you could tutor for the Kavu Lair and then the Burst, so that you burst and draw three cards. One of which you lost through the tutor for it anyway... so its only a gain of two cards. Or you could go for a Fires, and instead of creating 3 4/4 tokens in their turn, create the tokens in your turn and hit them one turn earlier for an extra 12 points of damage, plus the 2 damage when you sack it after they declare blockers. Hmmm... an extra 14 points of damage... that's pretty hard to turn down. If you had a couple of Squees in hand, then Meteor Swarm could be quite hard to turn down, one Squee and Stormbind could hand out half as much smackdown. Squee, Death Spark and Stormbind is halfway between Meteor Swarm and Stormbind. But Squee and Death Spark could also work with Meteor Swarm. Rancor could push the damage over the top of a large defender, so the attacks would go 8, 7, 6 if you were only going to bring one token off the Burst. But then you might want to have Balduvian Hordes instead of Blastoderms. Rancor also works well with some of the more fragile creatures, eg the Keldon Vandals and Sandstalkers, and you get the Rancor back when they block your new Ball Lightning. Viashino Sandstalkers + Kavu lair is a similar combination to the Stampeding Wildebeast and Wall of Blossoms. Of course where the Wildebeest comboed with other green critters (sex monkeys!) the Kavu Lair combos with all your other creatures, turning them all into big nasty Wall of Blossoms. Other creatures that just can't say enough are the Weatherseed Treefolk and Viashino Cutthroat. That makes for a decklist that looks like this: Deck Name "Oops, I did it again"
4 Sterling Groves
4 Kavu Lairs
4 Rancors
4 Saproling Bursts
4 Verduran Enchantresses
4 Keldon Vandals
4 Viashino Sandstalkers
4 Viashino Cutthroats
4 Weatherseed Treefolks
4 Stampeding Wildebeasts
10 Forests
10 Mountains
That should be a lot cheaper to build, and quite a bit of fun (for you, no guarantees for your opponents enjoyment or lack thereof).
Rick AWOL from Paradise |