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Ice Age Pre-Con Competition
By Michael Howell.

If you are reading this article, I imagine it is likely you also read the articles produced by Wizards of the Coasts over at www.wizards.com . In any case, the Mirage set is being released on Magic: The Gathering Online (the earliest expansion set that launched with this platform was Invasion to the best of my knowledge). Back when Mirage was released, there was no such thing as a pre-constructed deck. However, Wizards decided to create some for the online world.

I thought this was a great opportunity to tie in with our own challenge. Mirage was chosen as the first older expansion for MTGO because Mirage was the first set to follow the block structure. I see Ice Age as another noticeable landmark. Ice Age was the first expansion set to be released as a stand-alone entity. It had all the staples you might find in the basic set (a number of reprints, functional reprints and tweaks can be found throughout the set) as well as introducing new mechanics and cards to the environment.

The basic concept here is to design a pre-constructed deck using only cards from the Ice Age expansion. Before we begin, we have to ask ourselves a few questions:

• What is the purpose of a pre-constructed deck?
• What are the deck building restrictions and guidelines?
• How is the deck being judged?

The purpose of a pre-constructed deck is to provide a complete deck that a player can simply open up, shuffle and play. They are generally more useful for newer players to showcase new and different mechanics and effects that are central to that Magic expansion's theme. They also teach deck building skills to some extent, by showing players synergy or combos between certain cards. They can also highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the color(s) that comprise the deck.

A pre-constructed deck is a 60 card deck that has the following restrictions:

• 2 rares; one copy each of two different rares.
• 13 uncommons; A maximum of two of any uncommon.
• The remainder of cards to be made up of commons and basic land. With the exception of basic lands , there should be no more than 3 of any common, and only a few cards should be a ‘3-of'.
• Only Ice Age Cards. Remember that your deck can have as many Snow-covered lands as you like – they still count as basic lands! (Try not to go overboard in having too many Snow-covered lands though, unless having them is central to the pre-constructed deck's theme. Against some decks they might be a liability!)

Now that the strict rules have been set down, let's cover some looser guidelines. Your deck should be aiming towards a certain style of play, or have a central theme. Any smaller themes should support the major theme. While the deck does not need to be super-competitive (and in fact, probably should not be), it must have a reasonable way of winning. We are not looking for the most powerful deck, we are looking for the best designed deck. Flavour is generally a bigger part of a pre-constructed deck than usual, and this will also be taken into account.

The rare and uncommon restrictions make card choices interesting. You could either choose a deck archetype you might like to design and add cards that would fit the archetype. Alternatively, you might like to choose a couple of rares you like, and then flesh out your deck around them. I would suggest using splashy rares, as these would often be most interesting for newer players. Using the two rare slots for Ice Age painlands might make the deck more consistent, but would probably make the deck less fun (save the color fixing for the common and uncommon spots). Also remember that if you choose a splashy rare, make sure it either fits the deck, or you can design a deck around it. There's no point having Polar Kraken as one of your rares if you are never going to hit 11 mana, or have ways to reanimate it consistently (which would be difficult as reanimation is usually rare or uncommon). Likewise, either of your rares should not be your major kill condition or key combo piece. While Zur's Weirding is an interesting card, it probably does not fit into a pre-con due to its inconsistency to turn up each game with only one copy in the deck (feel free to challenge me on this one of course).

You could also choose certain mechanics that appear in the set. Cumulative Upkeep is hard to showcase, as a deck with a lot of these cards will often require a lot of mana. You can also showcase Ice Age's cantrips; these can be a teaching tool to teach players about thinning their decks (it draws you into your cool rares sooner!), or simply realising when a card is bad, even when card draw is attached to it.

Also, name your deck! The name of your deck should fit thematically, like other pre-cons.

What will be the judging criteria? These are the sorts of questions we will be asking when looking at the decks:

• Would I give this deck to a new player if I wanted to teach them the game?
• Does this deck have an intuitive path to victory?
• Do the cards all fit an easily identified central theme? Do any of the cards stray from this theme to the detriment of the deck?
• Does the deck have subtle ways of teaching players about the game? My definition of a ‘subtle' card is one that does not share all its information straight away; it usually requires several games to decipher how good (or bad) it is or how much it helps you. These are excellent teaching tools. Orcish Lumberjack is an excellent Ice Age example of a subtle card.
• Are there enough mana sources? There should be a minimum of 23 lands in the 60 card deck. Your deck must have very good reason to go under this number and must still function well if it will be considered.

Ian Seet (ianinozzie) and myself will be going through the entries, picking out the best ones and discussing their strengths and weaknesses until we narrow it down to 4 finalists. To stay true to the pre-constructed deck feel, we will be looking for those 4 decks to all be different with all of the colours represented among the finalists. These finalists will be listed for your perusal, and be put up for a public poll to determine the best designed Ice Age pre-constructed deck.

Prizes

The winner will receive their choice of the following:

• Free trip to Disneyland, all airfares included from any capital city in Australia . Conditions apply*; or
• A free Ravnica pre-constructed deck; or
• $20 credit from Scott Hunstad's (ssteven) sales thread.

All prizes courtesy of Scott Hunstad.

So it's time to get building! Your entries are due by 07/11/2005 . Please send all entries to grmich@chariot.net.au. Feel free to discuss your deck, or just general card choices in the thread for this article. Happy pre-con building!

Michael Howell, edits and contributions by Ian Seet

Bacchus and Ianinozzie respectively on forums

* Accomodation is a shared package. You will have the privilege of staying with a small regiment of the elusive secret syndicate of Boros Dwarves (they will be visiting their cousins in Disneyland , commonly referred to as ‘The Seven Dwarfs'). This prize is only available to members of the Boros Legion. If you attempt to claim this prize and do not present a Boros-certified ‘Licence to kill, maim and destroy', you will be killed, maimed and generally destroyed by those who do. Michael Howell, Ian Seet, and the staff of MTG Paradise remove themselves from all responsibility regarding any deaths relating to your attempt to claim this prize.

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