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15-02-2001
 IBC U/W Stupid Life Gain Deck It’s been a while since I last submitted an article on a deck and with the introduction of Planeshift I have been trialling several different deck styles. One of the rogues that stand out is a simple U/W life gain combo that takes 3 cards to run. The deck I have been trialing is this: 4 x Absorb 4 x Escape Routes 4 x Shifting Sky 4 x Honorable Scout 4 x Obsidian Acolyte 4 x Voice of All 3 x Teferi’s Moat 3 x Rout 2 x Aura Blast 2 x Zanam Djinn 2 x Ruham Djinn 4 x Coastal Tower 10 x Islands 10 x PlainsThe idea for the deck came from my wife, who stumbled across the combo in a limited format. Since then I have also seen some other players test the idea of the combo. So I hope to break their tech here or improve on it. Explanation of the cards: Absorb: From all the counters in the block Absorb fits into this decks theme very well. Counter and gain life. This is to help keep your needed enchantments on the table in the medium to late game or to gain life when you need to. Escape Routes: The engine of the deck. Used to bounce back the creatures to gain you life, change your Voice of All and save your creatures in combat. Shifting Sky: All I can say for this card is say Black. Once every creature is black, life gain can begin. Also it is great with the Djinns. Honorable Scout: This card is the last of the combo. Play it and gain 2 life for all your opponents critters. Then return it to your hand and cast it again. It is also a helpful blocker too before you bounce him. Obsidian Acolyte: Every Critter is black so you want to give your critters as much protection as you can. Voice of All: Once you have your opponent locked down this is your main kill option with the Djinns. Also is a very handy creature early to block your opponent’s creatures before the Shifting Sky. After you play the Shifting Sky you can bounce him again and make him Pro Black. Teferi’s Moat: Stop all those nasty Black walking creatures. Or restrict your opponent’s attackers until the Shifting Sky is out. Rout: Normal addition to a U/W deck. I won’t harp on mass creature destruction. Only cast it if you really need to though. Think of that life your losing. Aura Blast: There are some enchantments out there that will wreck this deck. I would have 2 more in the sideboard for the added protection. It also lets us draw a card after destroying an enchantment. Djinn’s: The FAT in the deck. These also work real well with Shifting Sky ass all permanents are Black so they do not receive the restrictions for their colour. I have seen some players also trailing a U/W/B version with Ravenous Rats to add a discard Combo or Maggot Carrier to do a damage Combo. My testing has not really found this to be that useful and it adds to that mana-screw thing everyone dreads. Once again I arrive near the end of my article and I hope I have opened a new interesting deck to explore. In the games I have played with it I have turned around from 5 life to 85 life in 1 turn and that was against mainstream T2 decks. So happy life gaining and gaming Peter Allan |
