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30-10-2000
 Return of Pali-flare in Extended -- is this Fact or Fiction?
After looking at the new set and trying to rework several of my older decks, I came across one which will benefit greatly from the drawing power of "Fact or Fiction". Pali-flare was unreliable in drawing cards, with limited choices. My older version contained Scroll Racks and Impulses. This is where "Fact or Fiction" will increase the decks ability: not only do you obtain a card advantage but you are able to remove the cards not required for the combo. The deck only requires one of each of the cards in its Combination to go off, so excess copies of each card are dead space until you reach the next part of the combo. I have played many games with part of the combo in hand, looking for my much needed Stroke or Hammer to finish the game. I can remember Capsizing a player's entire side of the board every turn to delay him before I made the final kill.
This deck has the ability to go off on the 5 turn but is most consistant of a 6 turn win.
Cards of the deck
The main cards for this deck are Palinchron, Mana Flare and Stroke of Genius. The idea is to drop a Mana Flare to be able to create an infinite loop of mana by playing your Palinchron and returning it to your hand, then Stroke of Genius your opponent to death.
The counter spells are to protect the combo against those annoying control decks.
Morphling is a great addition to the deck as it (1) becomes a target for your opponent to worry about while you continue to search for what your deck really does; (2) its power and toughness can be increased to any size, very helpful in tournaments with a side prizes of the biggest creature [Actually only its toughness is unbounded, it will die as a state-based effect if it is ever allowed to have 0 or less toughness -- Darryl]; (3) It provides the needed time delay to get your combo off. [I'd add: (4) you might accidentally win with it :-) -- Darryl]
Energy Field provides more protection for you until all of the land you require is out. Normally you need 4-6 land but I have done it with 3 land and 4 Mana Flares.
Capsize removes any annoying permanents on the board. With the mana combo in play, you can ask "Why does your oppenent need any of their permanents anyway?" and just Capsize them all.
The rest of the cards are for searching and completing the combo by turn 5-6. DECKLIST (My working version) CREATURES (6) 3 Palinchron (Must be in it) 3 Morphling (If you own none, use Fog Bank) SPELLS (31) 4 Counterspell 4 Force of Will 3 Energy Field 3 Stroke of Genius (Fireball, Hammer, etc) 3 Capsize (Fireball, Hammer, etc) 3 Intuition (Impulse, Scroll Rack) 3 Fact or Fiction 4 Brainstorm 4 Mana Flare (Must be in it) LAND (23) 5 Mountain 14 Island 4 Thawing Glaciers (Tropical Islands or extra basic lands, you need the mana)Personally if I wasn't playing a very, very consistent rogue deck at my next tournament, this is what I would be playing. This deck type is nearly forgotten and would add a suprise to the field. I might have just ruined it for someone though, like Dave Low did to me six months ago when he announced Anhk/Tide to Australia before the Nats! As you can see with the new card this deck will become more reliable, and who knows, you may get someone not knowing the power of Pali-Flare to put your Palinchron and Flare together in a pile.
PROS
CONS
Peter Allan |
