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04-06-2001
 The Rebel Mechanic
Shuffling and whatnot I was despairing over my crappy UW deck the other day, which had involved a number of Tims (Prodigal Sorcerer) and Energy Arc. So I
tore it apart and tried to make a decent deck using the colour combination.
All over the net UW is touted as being one of the original colour combinations with synergy, but I suspect that is more due to the off colour Wrath of God than
anything else. Since I don't have any, I can't go down that path. And then I thought of rebels.
I put together a rebel bear chain (Ramosian Sergeant, Steadfast Guard and Fresh Volunteers) and it's pretty cool in conjunction with Power Sink, Empyrial Armor
and particularly Brainstorm. Playtesting had me chuckling with glee for a while as I built up my own little horde time and time again.
But one thing really sucked. Shuffling after each search. This is very bad in multi-player, because the little things you do that aren't directly a facet of the card game
per se (like taunting, or excessive reading of 100% of every card's text) can cause people to make in-game decisions (like thinking that the game would run much
more smoothly if you were dead).
Searching and shuffling every turn, even in a half assed manner, has that effect also. So I had a think about it (because searching was such fun!) and the point of this
article is to outline a way to overcome the deficiencies of search/shuffle.
I will use the example of rebel bears. Preparation You will need to physically number each rebel in your deck, like so: Ramosian Sergeant 1 Ramosian Sergeant 2 Ramosian Sergeant 3 Ramosian Sergeant 4 Steadfast Guard 1 Steadfast Guard 2 Steadfast Guard 3 Steadfast Guard 4 Fresh Volunteers 1 Fresh Volunteers 2 Fresh Volunteers 3 Fresh Volunteers 4You will also need a duplicate (or second) set of these cards, numbered as well. Shuffle the first set into your deck.
You will have two additional areas, that do not normally exist in a magic game: At the start of the game, set the duplicate set of rebels in Area A. Play 1. Every time you play a rebel from your hand, move the corresponding rebel from Area A to Area B. e.g. On turn 1, you play a Ramosian Sergeant, on which you have written #1). Then take the Ramosian Sergeant #1 from Area A and put it in Area B. 2. Every time you 'search' your library for a rebel, take it instead from Area A. e.g. On turn 3, you search with Ramosian Sergeant #1 for Ramosian Sergeant #2. Instead of looking through your library, just take Ramosian Sergeant #2 from Area A and put it into play. Since your deck has already been shuffled, there's no need to shuffle after a 'search' unless the library has been altered in some way (via a Brainstorm). 3. If you draw a rebel which is already in play or the graveyard (or has been removed from the game), you simply reveal the draw card, put it in Area B, and draw another card from your library. e.g. On turn 4, you draw Ramosian Sergeant #2 (which you searched out on the previous turn). This card should not be in your library, so you remove it from the game by putting it in Area B. This is the area for cards that have already been played. End Game At the end of the game, you can take all of the rebels who were in play (or the graveyard etc) and put them in Area A, and shuffle the rebels in Area B back into your deck. This method relies on a certain level of personal integrity when playing the game (it's possible to search out rebels which are actually in your hand, for example). But barring ethical considerations, this speeds up the game considerably, and makes it much more fun for everyone. It also annoys people less and thus increases your own chances of survival. Thanks for reading this far.
Mark Wilson |
