Glimpse the Unthinkable

This would be my 2nd time to join a large legacy event (Large=30+ participants) and before I unassumingly misled some people, let me say this first: I didn’t win. A couple of weeks before this tournament, I have been bragging to my MTG buddies that I have “perfected” my Kamehame Wave deck by adding Staff of Domination. Now, when I say perfected, what I mean is that I have achieved the consistency that I’ve been looking for this combo deck. The goal that I’ve been working on since Manila GP is to be able to win consistently on turn 3 and with endless mix-match of cards, I found the correct combination/number of cards. Here’s what the deck looks like:

Creatures:

4 Llanowar Elves

4 Fyndhorn Elves

4 Heritage Druid

4 Arbor Elves

4 Quirion Ranger

3 Birchlore Rangers

4 Priest of Titania

4 Elvish Archdruid

3 Joraga Warcaller

2 Wirewood Channeler

1 Immaculate Magistrate

1 Ezuri, Renegade Leader

Spells

4 Genesis Wave

4 Staff of Domination

1 Concordant Crossroads

Lands

12 Forests

1 Gaea’s Cradle

Sideboard

4 Faerie Macabre

4 Thorn of Amethyst

2 Beast Within

2 Naturalize

2 Choke

1 City of Solitude

For those unaware of how this deck wins on turn 3:

Turn 1: Play Forest, Play 1cc Mana dork

Turn 2: Play Forest, tap both Forests, tap 1cc mana dork, cast Elvish Archdruid (or Priest of Titania and another 1cc elf)

Turn 3: Tap 2 Forests to play 2 more 1cc elves, tap Archdruid to float 4 mana, cast either Heritage druid or Quirion Ranger, use remaining 3 mana to cast Staff of Domination.

OR

Turn 3: Tap Elvish Archruid for mana and cast Genesis Wave; If it hits Staff of Domination, total of 5 elves in a play and a way to untap Archruid, it’s game over as well.

Note: Any turn 3 (or any turn for that matter) wherein I have 4 elves + active Elvish Archdruid, Priest of Titania or Wirewood Channeler and a Staff of Domination in play and spare 3 mana to untap EA, PT or WC, then it’s game over. I would have infinite mana to be used for Staff’s other ability. Either I cast Concordant Crossroads so that all elves can attack on the same turn or I cast Ezuri and do the infinite pump effect on my non-summoning sickness elves.

The deck can win on turn 3. Of course, as a non-blue combo deck, it is susceptible to disruption (counterspells, discard effects etc.). It is also a bit weak against removal (e.g. Burn, black creature kill spells etc.). I say a “bit weak” because most creatures that I have are 4-ofs so I have the leisure of drawing a 2nd Priest of Titania or Elvish Archdruid or one of my 2 copies of Wirewood Channeler.

So, you may ask, why do I play this deck in a format full of disruption and removal?

Simple.

- It’s a deck that I designed and edited on my own

- It’s not a net deck

- I enjoy playing elves

Moving on, here are the summary of the 5 rounds that I played before dropping out (it was 7 rounds and I was at 2-3)

Round 1: vs Glimpse-Elves

Game 1

As we’re both elves, both our T1 started with a 1cc elf. If I remember correctly, I was able to cast Archdruid (or Priest?) on turn 2 while he played lots of elves without casting any Glimpse of Nature. I was relieved and eventually I was able to combo off on 4th turn.

Game 2

I had no SB that would be effective for Glimpse Elves so I kept my main deck intact.

Turn 1 was pretty much the same. He was able to cast PoT on Turn 2 and I cast EA on my turn 2. On turn 3, he played two or 3cc elves before playing Glimpse of Nature. He played more elves, draw more cards and the moment he played mirror entity (with wirewood symbiote in play), I stopped him and asked him to perform a shortcut as to what he needs to draw to finish the game. He showed me Ezuri and Emrakul. Nuff said.

Game 3

Turn 1 is again the same. Turn 2 for him didn’t include PoT while I was able to cast EA on Turn 2. Turn 3 I cast a couple of other elves and I was able to cast Genesis Wave for 6 which got 2 Forest, 1 Elf that I can’t remember,1 Staff of Domination, 1 Pot and Concordant Crossroads.

Round 2: vs Dredge

Game 1

I have read about Dredge but this was my first time playing against it in a tournament. I have a pretty good idea of how this deck can win on turn 1 and I was expecting that on our first game.

It didn’t happen on first turn.

However, since I don’t have the combo pieces that I needed, he was able to finish me off on 3rd or 4 turn via a dozen or so 2/2 zombies.

Game 2

SB: + 4 Faerie Macabre

Out: – 1 Joraga Warcaller, -1 Birchlore Ranger, 1 Wirewood Channeler, -1 Arbor Elf

He was able to delay my game plan early on as he cast Firestorm on my elves.My opponent was able to dredge 1 Narcomeaba and 1 Bridge from Below on Turn 2. Good thing was I had 1 FM on my opening hand and I was able to remove both cards from his graveyard. This stalled the game long enough for me to accumulate enough elves (via normal casting and via Genesis wave) and after making life computations on turn x, he conceded and we proceeded on our 3rd game.

Game 3

This was a long game that had him casting 2 or 3 Firestorm on my creatures. That was more than enough to keep me from pulling my combo. He finished me off with zombies and 2 Ichorids.

Note: The result of this matchup might have been different if I had Dense Foliage in my SB.

Round 3: vs Nic-Fit

This is my worst round of the entire event.

Game 1

I had Joraga Warcaller on my opening hand so I thought of going the aggro route when I played it on turn 3 with 1 +1/+1 counter. I decided to attack with my 3 2/2 elves to his lone Veteran Explorer. I didn’t know better.

He blocked one of my elves which killed off his Veteran Explorer, prompting us to find 2 basic lands from our decks. This is one of Nic Fit’s game plan to ramp up so they can cast their better, high cc spells. He then cast Garruk Relentless and killed Joraga Warcaller. Afterwards, he played Pernicious Deed which killed all my elves then it was his win from that point onwards.

Game 2

I can’t remember the exact cards I got from my SB but I’m sure it included two copies of Beast Within.

I had a good hand (2 EAs and enough forest and 1cc elves). I cast Beast Within on one of his lands hoping that this would delay him. But I was wrong and he was able to recover by playing a land on succeeding turns. He was able to cast enough creatures while I struggle in finding either a Genesis wave or Staff of Domination. On the turn where he killed me, I think he got 1 3/3 Beast token (courtesy of my Beast Within), 1 Thragtusk and 1 1/1 Wolf token with Deathtouch (from Garruk, Relentless).

Round 3: vs Burn

Disclaimer: I am all for women playing Magic. As a longtime MTG player, I am willing to teach and guide them in playing MTG the correct way. I think it would benefit the MTG community if there are more female players.

However, I personally won’t let any condescension be directed at me if it’s not from a friend of mine. This rule of mine will apply to all regardless of gender.

Game 1

I was up against the lone female player of this legacy event. I knew she was playing RDW/Burn because I got a look at when she played against another opponent on an earlier round. I kept an open mind and didn’t had any preconceived notions that other rude male players have against female opponents.

Then our game began.

She asked meticuluously for every spell that I played and always backing it up with “it should be done one at a time” or something to that effect. I wouldn’t really mind hearing something like this but then again if it’s with a condescending tone that makes me look like I’m the newbie (though clearly it was the other way around), it’s something I can’t look past into. She even had the nerve to announce that she’s a trainee judge.

By the way, did I mention that this was a pretty long game?

I’m not sure if she was bad at math, or I was bad at math or we’re both predicting each other’s moves wrongly that made this first game a pretty long one. She had 2 Goblin Guides on her side and I had a few elves (but no PoT, EA or WC) with 1 Staff of Domination. Facing an RDW opponent, I knew I could extend the game by gaining life here and there. It did extend the game and I thought I had a good chance of racing her until she finished me off with a Fireblast and Guttersnipe’s trigger.

Game 2

SB in: +4 Thorn of Amethyst

Out: – 1 Joraga Warcaller, -1 Birchlore Ranger, 1 Wirewood Channeler, -1 Arbor Elf

My opening hand showed a Thorn of Amethyst which I played on my Turn 2. When it was her turn, it became obvious that she kept a one-land hand. She was not able to play any spell and any lands on succeeding turns. I combed  off on Turn 4 or 5 in front of a Judge in case she had any questions. I explained it to her in my most non-threatening voice and the Judge confirmed the validity of my combo.

Game 3

I made no changes in my SB and still  had 4 Thorn of Amethyst in my deck.

She was on play and on her third turn, she decided to play Sulfuric Vortex then ended her turn without killing my PoT. When it was my turn, she didn’t do anything on her upkeep. when it was my main phase, I played Staff and she let it resolved. I had 5 elves in play at that time (including 1 Quirion Ranger). IT’S COMBO TIME!!!!!

Nope. With an antagonist like this, you think I’ll have it easy??

She wanted me to backtrack on the actions that I took after Staff resolved. I did. She was tapped out so I knew that the only card she can use is Fireblast. She did have Fireblast. So the stack looked something like this:

1. SoD untap ability, targeting Elvish Archdruid

2. Fireblast, targeting EA

I had enough mana to activate SoD’s self untap and activate Quirion’s Ranger’s untap ability (targeting EA) so if I do any of these two, the stack would look like this:

1. SoD untap ability, targeting Elvish Archdruid

2. Fireblast, targeting EA

3. SoD self-untap Ability (if this resolves, I still had enough mana to activate SoD’s untap ability for the 2nd time)

OR

1. SoD untap ability, targeting Elvish Archdruid

2. Fireblast, targeting EA

3. Activate Quirion’s ability, targeting Elvish Archdruid (if this resolves, then I have more than enough mana to untap SoD and untap EA again using SoD’s untap ability

To make it short for those who have a better understanding of stack, I had enough mana to put another ability on stack after she played Fireblast. That being said, I still had the combo on and I’m able to perform unlimited mana and unlimited card draw before Fireblast resolves. One of her friends was sitting right next to her and explained what happened as well as other onlookers that understood what happened. She conceded but everyone can tell that she was not at all pleased at how it turned out. My friend even heard her talking to their play group after our match was done.

Yes, she was still complaining at that time.

Round 5: vs Affinity

Game 1

I have a friend who plays affinity (but not the exact net deck version) so I kinda knew the cards to lookout for: Cranial Plating and Arcbound Ravager.

I forgot that there’s another trump card for Affinity: Etched Champion

He defeated me on 4th or 5th turn with a lethal attack from EC equipped with Cranial Plating.

Game 2

SB in: 4 Thorn of Amethyst (What the hell was I thinking??), 2 Naturalize, 1 Beast Within

Out: – 2 Joraga Warcaller, -2 Birchlore Ranger, 1 Wirewood Channeler, -1 Arbor Elf, 1 Immaculate Magistrate

I’m not sure if I was just tired or I became temporarily stupid when I boarded ToA. It didn’t had any impact at all. I was up against an AGGRO deck. In fact, it was my plan that was delayed because of ToA in play (my Staff costs 1 more to play). In the end, I was able to kill Master of Etherium with Beast Within when he swung for lethal. However, he still had Arcbound Ravager to which he sacrificed all of his other artifacts and he sacrified AR to its ability so that it’s +1/+1 counters be be put on an unblocked Ornithopter.

I got served.

At this point, I was at 2-3 and thought that it still didn’t matter standings-wise if I won the remaining 2 rounds (I would be a 4-3 standing then). The only friend that was with me had dropped off earlier and it was getting pretty late. I came over to the Judge’s table and informed him that I would be dropping off.

To be honest, I was expecting a better performance. But then again, no matter how much I read about legacy articles, I’m still lacking in tournament experience. My sideboard could do some improvement as well. Overall, I’d say it was still a pretty good experience which taught me a few things about my deck and MTG in general:

- Joraga Warcaller was useless almost all the time. I put him on my deck hoping that he would provide the aggro back-up plan that is needed in case the combo is disrupted. I thought he can be the spell where I can dump all my excess mana in case the combo plan isn’t feasible. He didn’t win any games for me.

- Much like my previous assessment of my deck’s predecessor, this deck is also weak against aggro. It lost to Affinity and the zombie tokens of Dredge. I had previous tourneys where I lost to Mono-Green Stompy and Legacy Infect decks. If I don’t get my hands on Elephant Grass, I’m seriously considering putting Fog on my sideboard (or it’s buyback cousin Constant Mists)

- I’m considering putting back Elvish Visionary to help out on those situations where I don’t have the needed combo pieces.

- If you’re planning on playing a 2 color (or more) deck, make sure you have the right amount of dual-color producing lands. No one likes losing but to lose because your deck doesn’t have the correct amount/type of lands is saying something else.

Until next time.

Untap, Upkeep, Draw

Hi everyone.

Let me try to take in a few deep breaths before I begin writing down all the things I’ve been meaning to share.  I have to do this (deep breaths) to calm myself. I can’t remember the last time I’ve been so excited to write an article. To provide you with a better insight, picture yourself during those times of triumph (e.g. graduating from college, getting a promotion, being hired by your dream employer etc.). Then, imagine not having anyone to talk to about it. Your family went on a vacation. Your friends are still at work. Your cell phones’ battery went out and your charger is broken. To top it off, you don’t have internet connection. That is almost how it felt for me. Almost. I was able to share my story with my wife. She can relate, to some extent, because I’ve taught her MTG basic game play. However, there are a thousand details that I needed to get off my chest. Details of what I have learned during the 9 hour course of the first big legacy event that I’ve attended.

Yes, I’m talking about the recent Grand Prix Manila in SMX convention.

Before I begin, let me re-introduce myself as it has been more than a year since my last article.

-          I’m a big fan of Green Magic and I love summoning hordes of elves at my side.

-          I’m not a pro MTG player and I don’t claim to be an expert on it.

-          I usually play Legacy because of variety of decks that I can play against.

-          I play Legacy because I feel that it’s worth investing money into cards that don’t usually rotate out.

-          I read a lot of MTG articles from Wizards.com, Starcitygames.com and Channelfireball.com. I also browse popular forums from websites like mtgsalvation.com. Because of this, I am familiar with many different legacy decks and how they work (how to play and win against most of these decks is another matter that I’m still trying to study and explore)

-          I have been tweaking my home brew elf ball for the past 2 years. I have built my elf deck around Genesis wave. The most recent version that I played at GP Manila includes 4 copies of Soul of the Harvest. The basic idea is to produce lots of mana via Priest of Titania or Elvish Archdruid and Gaea’s Cradle then use it for Wave. Soul of the Harvest is the card I would want to hit every time I’d resolved a Wave so that it enables me to draw cards, cast another wave until I hit/draw Concordant Crossroads. Initially, I had tried using Regal Force but before the event, I decided not to use it and play 4 SOTH instead.

Now that that’s out of the way, let’s get this show on the road. I will divide this article into two parts. The first part would include the lessons I’ve learned during the different matches. These are the small things that might be helpful to other players on their first tournament. The second part would cover other important stuff that I’ve seen/done/experienced on that day.

In-game Lesson 1:

“Use your sideboard cards in Game 2 even if you won Game 1”

I know what you might be thinking. Most probably, it’s the same thought that I had when I realized this stupid but costly mistake on later rounds (the event was 7 rounds). For some idiotic reason, my confidence went up a million fold every time I won Game 1 that I didn’t bother sideboarding on Game 2. It was a wrong theory that I had that day. Don’t ask me why I came up with it. The wrong theory was, since I won Game 1, I don’t want to change anything on my deck that will compromise its main build and its so-called “consistency”. I cannot be more incorrect in this line of thinking. If you won Game 1 and you have the necessary hate cards in your SB then for Pete’s sake, use it on Game 2. Your opponent will be using be using his own set of hate against you so you should do the same on your end. Just do it. No questions asked. Even if you have a good matchup against a particular deck, you would want to win as quickly as possible (aiming for 2-0 instead of 2-1) and using your SB cards will help a lot in achieving this goal. Out of the 7 matches that I had, I think 3 or 4 of those might have had a different outcome (won with a 2-0 instead of a 2-1, 1-2 score) if I was thinking straight. I learned that there is a very thin line between confidence and foolishness. Unfortunately, I crossed it during said event.

In-game Lesson 2:

“Be very mindful of your MTG Kitchen table habits”

Pro-player or not, I think it’s safe to say that all of us have our own “habit(s)” that we often do during our kitchen table games (non-sanctioned, casual games). I’m certain that a lot of you are guilty of what I would call “auto-Scry 1” syndrome. Simply put, this is when you look at the top card of your library after seeing your opening hand. I’m guessing it’s to check if it’s the 1^st/2^nd land that you need to ensure that your opening hand will get you somewhere. Or if you’re running a combo deck, you do this move to check if the top card is your 2^nd/3^rd combo piece. Whatever the reason behind it, “auto-Scry 1” is not allowed during proper tournaments. You may announce “mulligan” first then look at the top card but not the other way around.

After reading Lesson 1, you might be assuming that I’m guilty of the Auto-Scry 1 syndrome. I’m happy to negate that assumption and tell you point black “No”. What I’m guilty of is one of my kitchen table habits that I unassumingly developed while playing against my friends’ decks that run Path to Exile. The habit is that I would always pick my deck up to look for a basic land whenever I would see a white instant 1cc removal spell from my opponent. I always assumed its PTE when at times it’s Swords to Plowshares (which would have me gain life instead). During the course of GP, I have encountered STP 3 or 4 times. Every single time my opponents would cast it, I would automatically pick up my deck. I would realize a second later that it’s STP so I would sheepishly apologize to my opponent and put back my deck as it is. I was fortunate that my opponents were not that strict about it. It might be because of two things: Either they are just kind enough to let it go or they saw that the order of the cards in my deck remained unchanged so they just allow me to put it back. It would have been okay and all if not for the last match that I had on round 7. It was game 2 and I made the same mistake while a judge was nearby and was watching us. I got a warning for it. Yup, it happened on round 7. The last round. It happened during the time of the event where the outcome of the match won’t matter much to me as I was already at 2-6. From that point onwards, I have made a mental note that I will always check if the spell is STP or PTE regardless if I’m just playing casually with friends or another sanctioned tournament.

In-Game Lesson 3:

“There is a reason why you rarely see a 5cc and up card in legacy”

In my opinion, almost all cards are good. Good in a sense that if you’re able to cast Spell A in any part of the game, the board impact it brings would either fall under the category of acceptable or insanely awesome. Yes, I’m serious with that statement. Think of the most vanilla creatures you know and if you’ve successfully cast those creatures in a game, it nets you a.) a creature that can attack and/or block b.) a creature that can be utilize for other effect (e.g. sacrifice to net another gain). As for non-creature spells, we may have a longer list of “bad” cards (bad cards=not playable even in casual because there other cards that give you the same type of effect or better). Now, if we talk about competitive legacy cards and how they are considered “competitive”, the first and obvious criteria is that the spell’s effect should have a good and immediate impact in favor of the caster. For black mages out there, you might be thinking this is not always the case (as Black magic, in general, will sacrifice/give up anything for power) but then the drawbacks that you get on staple cards like Dark Confidant, Ad Nauseum, Reanimate etc. are always outweighed by the benefits that you get.  The second, much stricter criteria, is that the spell has to have a low casting cost. This usually means having a cc of 0, 1, 2 or 3.  Yes, you read that right. Zero cc. Force of Will, Daze, Misdirection, Lion’s Eye Diamond and Lotus Petal are some of the few legacy staples that can give you a lot of tempo advantage because of the free cc.

Tempo.

Legacy is a brutal and fast format. It allows players to use decks that can win on turn 1 or 2. To lose tempo in such a format would almost always put you in a bad place. Oftentimes, it quite difficult to recover once you’ve lost tempo. Unless you’re opponent became unlucky with his draws, losing tempo would usually cost you the game. Let’s compare two cards to further elaborate the importance of tempo:

• Counterspell versus Force of Will

The former is a great card. It has been an integral component of decks of past and in recent months, I’ve seen it being used in a few blue-based decks (in place of Spell Snare, I suppose). However, the main gripe with Counterspell is that you have to have two blue mana sources available. In casual games, this is probably fine but in legacy, not all the time. You see, most decks have a turn 1 and turn 2 play. It’s not always considered an optimal play to do nothing on your 2^nd turn just to have 2 open blue mana on an opponent’s turn. Yes, you may say that it’s almost always a “1 is to 1” scenario. But why settle for this if you have FoW (and its li’l brother Daze)? These two cards would allow you to cast spells on your turn while maintaining the option of disrupting whatever your opponent does on his turn. If you’ve battled with a legacy merfolk deck, you would have seen this first hand.

Let’s go back now to what happened in the event and how I learned the importance of tempo. As you’ve read above, I played Soul of the Harvest (full set) which complements the decks’ theme greatly. I had this idea that even if my combo won’t go off, a 3^rd turn 6/6 trampler is not a bad deal. It did happen during the event. I was able to cast SOTH during my 3^rd turn numerous times. The wait for my 4^th turn seems like an eternity as my hands are filled with overflowing chakra to be utilize in turning SOTH sideways.

But there was always a removal courtesy of my opponent.

Every. Single. Time.

No kidding.

If you now have the slightest idea how my deck works, you would understand how detrimental it is for my deck’s plan to have SOTH be destroyed/exiled/countered. I lost tempo (a lot of it) during those times. But that is not the end of the story. Since I packed 4 copies of this card, the other non-ideal scenario did come up a couple of times and it made me lose tempo as well.

I had SOTH in my opening hand but I wasn’t able to cast it on 3^rd, 4^th or 5^th turn.

Now we just made a full circle back to the title of this third bullet point. You don’t want to have spells that cost 5 or more because:

-          You lose a lot of tempo if the spell is countered or destroyed. The 5 mana (or more) could have been used to cast a spell or two on your turn and still have available mana left to interact with an opponent on their turn.

-          You lose a lot of tempo if you are unable to cast the spell as early as possible.

There are exceptions to these guidelines, though. Reanimator and Show and Tell decks can pack huge creatures and can “cheat” them into play consistently. These creatures are usually good enough to win games by themselves. These decks are also able to “protect” their creatures by way of their counterspells.

That sums up the important lessons I’ve learned from this event. I hope I was able to impart some knowledge (no matter how simple they are) to whoever reads this article. I will try to write Part 2 next week which would cover other stuff that I’ve learned.

Until then, Untap, Upkeep, Draw.

Yes, it’s a title of a famous song back then, and I can’t think of a more apt moniker for this article so I’m using that famous phrase (or sentence?). I have a lot of invalid/lame excuses on why it took so long for me to post yet I’m hoping that this time around, I could churn out an article every two weeks.

Moving on, I’d like to give an overview of how the current legacy metagame looks like. As much as I’d like to give a report based on local data (I’m from the Philippines), I don’t have enough type 1.5 tournaments under my belt to justify what I would write. With that said, I’ll write about the information that I have read from different MTG websites like channelfireball.com and starcitygames.com. I’m a big fan of the articles written on both sites and my main goal for today is to introduce everyone to recent deck archetypes that have been making Top 8′s in large legacy events in the US.

First off the list is:

Hive Mind

- took 1st place in recent Starcitygames Seattle Legacy Open last July 24, 2011, as piloted by Ben Swartz

Decklist:

Artifacts
3 Grim Monolith

Enchantments
4 Hive Mind

Instants
4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
4 Intuition
4 Pact of Negation
3 Pact of the Titan
2 Slaughter Pact
2 Summoner’s Pact

Legendary Creatures
3 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn

Sorceries
4 Ponder
4 Show and Tell

Basic Lands
3 Island

Lands
3 Ancient Tomb
3 City of Traitors
2 Flooded Strand
1 Misty Rainforest
2 Polluted Delta
1 Scalding Tarn
2 Underground Sea
2 Volcanic Island

Sideboard:
4 Leyline of Sanctity
4 Mental Misstep
1 Slaughter Pact
3 Spell Pierce
3 Firespout

The first time I saw this deck making Top 8 (Top 6 in Starcity games Cincinnati Open last July 17, 2011), the legacy novice in me thought “How the fuck does this combo deck win with a key spell that has a cmc of 6″?? Of course, this was before I took a good look at the list and found a couple of things that make this deck so freaking awesome. Let’s state all the win conditions that this deck has:

1. Resolving Hive Mind, then casting one of the “Pact” spells; this in turn would cause the opponent to copy said pact and when it’s their turn, they’re unable to pay for the upkeep cost which makes them lose the game
2. Cheating Emrakul, Aeons Torn into play via Show and Tell
3. Cheating Hive Mind into play (if I’m not mistaken, as early as Turn 2 , thanks to Ancient Tomb) via Show and Tell then casting one of the “Pact” spells

Damn, those are sweet win conditions! Seeing that there are 3 Hive Mind decks that are Top 8 in Seattle Open (event after the Cincinnati Open), I can safely say that this deck could be the new “boogeyman” in Legacy.

A few days ago, I got hold of a bunch of slivers and I decided to build one of my dream decks. Guess what it is?

Duh! Slivers of course!

I actually used to have a sliver deck but it wasn’t out wasn’t fast enough. It was the time of the Weatherlight block. It couldn’t keep up with most aggro decks in its time. At least, not without investing (monetarily) a lot in mana. Well, adding that I was a novice back then and the only mana source I could think of were lands. I had difficulty fixing the mana colors, while I wanted to build my very first five-color deck.

Fastforward to 14 years later, I still fancied the slivers. I kept my old deck intact, I didn’t actively work on it but I always kept my eyes peeled for whatever I could do to make it better. In fact, the mana base I used for my original sliver deck turned out wonderful for my Sunburst deck.

With a few tweaks, it could pull any color of mana I needed. But even though it could do that, it still lacked the speed and couldn’t refill my hand.

I lost touch with the subsequent sliver incarnations but when I came upon a dude selling a bunch, I grabbed the opportunity. I then realized what I really needed was the Gemhide and Dormant Sliver (plus the Heart Sliver for haste) and I had an engine going to keep drawing and casting Slivers almost at will.

It feels funny going aggro after such a long while, in fact my colleague actually calls me “boy control” because every one of my decks was a control deck of some sort. It’s only now that I came back to making an aggro deck after so many years. And I’m so excited!!!

For lack of better term, I think it’s called “Nerd-gasm”.

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