Sylvan Games
 

Articles

 
You are: Home -> Articles -> Columns -> The Usual Rant with Stephen Kok | Email the author Editor: Michael Mason. Wednesday 12th October 2004.

The Usual Rant with Stephen Kok

Seriously Fun - Synergy

Fashion.
Yes, fashion.
How does fashion fit into Magic the Gathering?

The better you look the more distracted your opponent will be?
Maybe.

The worse you dress the more repulsed your opponent will be?
Perhaps.

Actually fashion or more specifically good fashion sense usually has the notion that one article of clothing matches another article of clothing (or accessory) to create a better overall image. A snazzy dresser will know which combination of colours or design work and which don't.

What do you consider when selecting what cards should be included in your decklist?

Have you noticed that some of the best decks are the decks that have components which work together. This is a certain concept focus which achieves its win through card interactions. Each component builds upon another and the strength is not in the individual cards but in the deck as a whole.

The difference between this and a combo deck, is that a combo deck needs all the pieces before it can "go" off. Synergistic decks work together and the deck can still work very efficiently without drawing all its pieces. Cranial Extraction against a combo deck is usually enough to spell game but a synergistic deck will shrug it off and keep going.

Type 2

Raffinity, one of the most powerful current T2 decks is probably also the most synergistic. With mostly artifacts in the deck it can power out a quick Frogmite or Myr Enforcer. Cranial Plating and Ravager both benefit from the large amounts of artifacts in play.

Even its "coloured" components play very well like Shrapnel Blast and Thoughtcast. Big Red is NOT a synergistic deck, the parts on the whole do not work with each other all that much. It has a focused strategy of efficient creatures and quick burn but the cards themselves do not have that much interaction.

Extended

Madness in Extended is a deck that plays well with itself. It can setup multiple small combos such as +1/+1 to the Wild Mongrel before flashing back the Roar of the Wurm. As you keep discarding cards it makes your Circular Logic a more potent counter. The idea is the same, a selection of cards that work together to either gain tempo, card advantage or in the best case scenario both.

Champions of Kamigawa Example

It hasn't been too long since the first set of the Kamigawa block has been released and there's an obvious synergy between Spirits and Arcane. So to further illustrate the point of synergistic decks further please consider the below CHK example.

Synergistic Champions - Stephen Kok
Maindeck
Sideboard
4 Thief of Hope
2 Kokusho, the Evening Star
4 Sakura-Tribe Elder
4 Hana Kami
14 Creatures

3 Distress
4 Rend Flesh/Spirit
2 Swallowing Plague
4 Glacial Ray
4 Lava Spike
17 Control / Removal

3 Long-Forgotten Gohei
3 Artifacts
4 Kodama's Reach
4 Mana Accelerants

8 Swamp
8 Forest
6 Mountain
22 Land
4 Electrostatic Bolt
3 Oxidize
4 Naturalize
4 Cranial Extraction

Helper Cards

Thief of Hope
It doesn't do much on its own but like Disciple of the Vault, a lot of little life loss can eventually add up.

Long-Forgotten Gohei
With a deck full of arcane and spirits, this card is definitely in. The ultimate in synergy makes your spells cheaper and your spirits bigger.

Burn Cards

Glacial Ray / Lava Spike
Glacial Ray is an efficient removal and can easily splice onto the Spike for a little bit of extra burn. Glacial Ray can become quite a card advantage.

Arcane and Spirit Spells

Distress / Swallowing Plague
While probably not the most efficient for their mana cost, the fact that there are arcane is great for either splice fodder and to trigger Thief of Hope's ability.

Hana Kami
A decent G for 1/1 made better by its ability to return an arcane spell when needed.

Mana Acceleration

Kodama's Reach
Running three colours is a slightly risky prospect, however running Kodama's Reach makes the chance of colour screw less.

Sakura, Tribe Elder
Rampant Growth of a body is always good. Can be considered almost strictly better.

Why only 22 Lands?
With 8 sources of mana acceleration, 22 lands should be sufficiently to keep up the tempo.

How to play the deck

Firstly this deck is not Tier 1, it's just to illustrate the concept of synergy in a deck construction. (Although it can be tweaked e.g. maindecking Oxidize) There is a sideboard included for completeness, however this article focuses on synergy and will not delve into sideboard choices against other decks.

If you notice there's a lot of mini combos in the deck e.g. using Lava Spike and splicing on Glacial Ray - or when your Hana Kami is going to die, sacrificing it to bring back a Spike for more Glacial action.

Also don't to forget that when a Thief of Hope dies, it can Soulshift a Hana Kami to do it all over again. Even the Evening Star is a spirit (so it will trigger Thief of Hope) and you can always summon a second Evening Star to deal 10 life loss to your opponent (and gain 10 life of course) for the final blow.

Points to note

A first round Mountain - Lava Spike is an exceedingly bad play. Lava Spike is more cheap splice fodder than anything else. Doing 3 damage for a card disadvantage is never good. (Except in a certain burn decks)

Don't forget with Thief of Hope in play, every arcane or spirit spell becomes a 1 point drain life. It may not seem like much but it can very quickly add up for a decisive advantage against your opponent.

Conclusion

This is a different approach to deck construction. Whilst certain builds like burn or control focus more a dedicated strategy, synergistic decks focus on using the interactions between their components to gain every little advantage they can get.

Remember to make sure everything works together and always remember to dress well.

"This goes with that at . . . "

[ Email the Author | Discuss this Article ]

[an error occurred while processing this directive]