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BMoor's Magic The Gathering Deck Garage
"I have been playing Magic
since about 1996. I only
played casual until about a
year ago, when a friend of
mine invited me to a
tournament. Little did I
know it would change how I
played the game forever. I
used to strive for those
colossal creatures with
painful casting costs just
because they were cool. My
wake-up call came when I
entered this tournament and
lost my first game to a deck
using mesmiric orb and
millstones. I couldn't
believe it. My defeat
brought me to an epiphany:
milling is a viable
strategy! You can possibly
imagine my joy when the
Dimir appeared. Since then,
my limited budget has
afforded me this deck...if
you want to call it that.
When played it works out
about 30% of the time. Here
it is.
"Very confused deck builder"
is right; it's not easy to
see what's going on in this
mishmash of single copies,
but there do appear to be
several strategies
available. Milling,
Discard, Countering,
Copy/Stealing Opponents'
Cards, Ninjas, and Rats are
all represented here, but
you said you wanted a
milling deck, so that's what
we'll stick to. You also
said you wanted to keep
Patron of the Nezumi, so we
can make that happen too,
and that'll probably
predispose us towards
leaving in a few choice
Rats.
The first thing we need to
do is take care of all these
single copies, and the most
efficient way to do that is
to pull out all but the best
cards to make room for more
copies of what's left. So
what can you do without?
1 Phantom Warrior (you
said yourself you wanted
to drop it)
1 Throat Slitter (if you
got through unblocked,
what do they have worth
destroying?)
1 Ravenous Rats (good,
but we can do better)
1 Okiba-Gang Shinobi (ninjutsu's
nice once, but what
then?)
1 Mindleech Mass (Szadek
and the Patron satisfies
our "big creature"
quota)
2 Hand of Cruelty
(powerful, but doesn't
fit the strategy)
1 Perplex (1UB is a
tricky casting cost for
a counter)
1 Choice of Damnations
(letting your opponent
make decisions is a bad
idea)
1 Demon's Horn (just not
important enough)
1 Neko-Te (it's so out
of place)
1 Quash (four mana and
it can't even counter
everything? no thank
you)
So, what does that leave
us with?
1 Dimir Doppleganger
1 Szadek, Lord of
Secrets
1 Circu, Dimir
Lobotomist
1 Belltower Sphinx
1 Patron of the
Nezumi
2 Stinkweed Imp
2 Induce Paranoia
2 Millstone
1 Eradicate
1 Dark Banishing
1 Last Gasp
2 Ribbons of Night
1 Mana Leak
1 Honden of Night's
Reach
1 Glimpse the
Unthinkable (you
know how hard these
are to get on a
limited budget)
1 Remand
2 Psychic Drain
1 Cranial Extraction
1 Jester's Cap
1 Reminisce
1 Dampen Thought
1 Mimeofacture
(we'll do the lands
later)
That actually left
in more cards than
I'd hoped. I
thought about
dropping
Mimeofacture and
Dimir Doppelganger
because they don't
work with your
strategy, but they
are very good cards,
and they can both
destroy Legendary
creatures. Plus,
Mimeofacture sort of
helps mill your
opponent. Cranial
Extraction can
be kind of tricky if
you don't know what
your opponent has,
but more importantly
it reeks of
expensive, cutthroat
tournament
strategies. Then
again, there's a
reason for that.
It's insanely
powerful if you know
what you're doing.
Dampen thought is a
pretty powerful
milling vehicle, IF
you have enough
copies and lots of
Arcane spells to
Splice them on.
Since you don't drop
the Dampen. And as
for your counters,
Remand is too
temporary and Induce
Paranoia requires
you leave a lot of
mana open. I'd say
replace all of them
with more Mana Leak,
giving you 4 of
them. And as for
your
creature-killing
spells, Last Gasp
can be potent, but
in this case I'm
going to recommend
cutting it and Dark
Banishing in favor
of two more
Eradicate, for that
extra library
destruction. Though
you could add in a
few Last Gasp on top
of that to be on the
safe side; it's a
real good removal
card and tough
creatures are gonna
be, well, tough for
you to deal with.
Speaking of your
opponents' offense,
you'll definitely
want three more
Belltower Sphinx.
With one of these
guys out, either
your opponent gets
milled fairly
quickly, or he stops
attacking. And
speaking of milling
creatures that can
hold off attackers
as well, four
Vedalken Entrancer
are also in order.
These
Millstones-with-legs
have formed the
backbone of many
Dimir milling decks,
especially in
Limited. Next,
please try to get
those other three
Glimpse the
Unthinkable. I know
they're expensive,
but then again, so
are Cranial
Extraction, Dimir
Doppelganger, and
Mimeofacture. If
you wanted to drop
them, you
could trade them to
a card shop or the
Pojo message boards
for those three
Glimpses. I suppose
a few more Jester's
Caps would be nice
too, but I believe
those are also
expensive. You
should also put in a
few Dimir Signet, to
help make sure you
can actually play
these cards and
don't get
manascrewed or roll
over against a fast
weenie rush. And
some Twincast would
help as utility
cards, letting you
snake your
opponent's cards as
well as get extra
mileage out of your
own. Oh, and add a
Honden of Seeing
Winds to compliment
the Honden of
Night's Reach
there. Also, I just
remembered I said
I'd give you a Rat
or two to Offer to
the Patron. So add
in four copies of
Gnat Miser- he gives
you something to
play on Turn One,
and if you manage to
do so, then your
opponent will have
to play something
quick. Plus, it
sort of helps with
the discard theme,
by hurting players
who play cards like
Tidings or Howling
Mine.
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