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BMoor's Magic The Gathering Deck Garage
Panopia!
January 26, 2007

Hi,

Sorry to clutter your inbox (this is my second deck i'm sending in for evaluation), but this time I think i'm on to something.  Now, when I think of multiplayer decks, I think of FUN.  Who really wants to play a 8 player chaos game when 6 out of the 8 players are sitting on blue decks with counterspells up their (excuse my french) ass?  Naw, not me.  When I want to play multiplayer, I want to play fun exciting games, and these new time spiral suspend cards are perfect.  With my other kaervek deck, i could change my enemies into allies and mess up the whole board with living end.  But what card is better than living end?  Why, hypergenesis of course!  Who wouldn't want to see bad boy come out: its basically "lets throw down what we have and lets see whos got the best meat".  I'm sure you know that already, but up until now I couldn't think about how to go about creating a useful and hilariously fun hypergenesis deck.  After reading one of your articles where someone suggested using izzet guildmage to copy a wheel of fate, one card in mind stuck out: panoptic mirror!  Use it to copy wheel of fate EVERY TURN to renew EVERYONES hand!  But wait...why not be able to use it on a wheel of fate AND hypergenesis!!  The deck basically plays out like this, imprint the hypergenesis AND wheel of fate onto the mirror for NO CASTING COST (hurray!), and during your upkeep, either draw 7 new cards to play with your hypergenesis or hypergenesis your entire hand and wheel of fate your little to nothing hand for a full new hand!  Its genius! AND everyone can participate too!!  How fun is that, eh?  And the game kickin winner is that you bring out the beef to the table.  And this is where i'm asking you for help.  How can I make this deck survivable until the combo, and are these big bad creatures good enough, or are there even better? 

Lands:
       4 Steam Vents
       4 Izzet Boilerworks
       14 Island

Creatures:
        1 Verdant Force
        1 Akroma, Angel of Wrath
        1 Hypnox
        1 Avatar of Might
        1 Spectral Force
        1 Panglacial Wurm
        1 Darksteel Colossus
        1 Autochthon Wurm
        4 Vedalken Engineer
        4 Aphetto Alchemist
       
Other Spells:
        4 Counterspell
        4 Mana Leak
        2 Fabricate
        4 Hypergenesis
        4 Wheel of Fate
        4 Panoptic Mirror

Quick note on how/why i chose some of these cards.  Steam vents and boilerworks are mana just in case I need the wheel of fate if i don't get a mirror or fabricate or enough lands etc.  The engineer is obviously just something i can 2 drop card and helps get out the mirror faster.  The alchemist lets you imprint hypergenesis and wheel of fate on the same turn and is also another 2 drop (although can't you just imprint something else on the mirror before your next upkeep right after the untap?  I've never been sure about it, so i put it in there just in case).  I hate control decks, but I had to put in the counterspells just to make sure I survive early game and to stop game breaking moves (like mine...but I like my combo better than other peoples).  People keep telling me this is a stupid idea.  Please help me to make this the greatest, most hilariously fun multiplayer deck of all time!

Ryan

(ps, thanks in advance if you're reading both my emails)
Ah, Hypergenesis shenanigans in multiplayer.  You've got to love it, don't you?  Well, before we start, I need to point out one thing-- Ryan contacted me in a later E-mail to explain that Panoptic Mirror doesn't function exactly as he thought it did here; each upkeep you are given a copy of ONE of the imprinted spells, not all of them.  So you can't get a Wheel of Fate and a Hypergenesis on the same turn...or can you?
Ahh, but let's not give away the ending.  Let's look at your strategy step by step:
 
Step 1: Play (and protect) a Panoptic Mirror.
Step 2: Imprint Hypergenesis and/or Wheel of Fate on said Mirror.
Step 3: On each of your turns, each player either gets a brand new hand, or gets to dump all their permanents straight into play.
Step 4: Savage beatings ensue.
 
So, the first step here is to get out the Mirror.  You've got the Engineers and reshape for that, so you're looking good there.  Maybe a few Sensei's Divining Top to get to the combo faster?  I'm just concerned because if the Mirror breaks, you don't really have any other win conditions.  Theoretically you could hardcast Darksteel Colossus, but it's a tad sketchy.  So, those Counterspells you're packing are going to be quite useful.  We'll look for ways to protect your looking glass as we progress.
 
Step two: the imprinting.  Well, there's a little trick you can do with Panoptic Mirror to help keep it safe.  See, a lot of people try to kill your Mirror, so you lose the Mirror and whatever you imprinted on it.  But here's what you do: wait to imprint something.  The Mirror's upkeep trigger will go on the stack regardless of whether or not there's anything imprinted, so respond to the ability by imprinting something.  If somebody does happen to have a Naturalize they were sitting on, they've got a choice to make.  If they respond to the imprinting with it, then you keep the card you were going to imprint in your hand.  If they let the imprint resolve and destroy the Mirror in response to the copy ability, that ability uses last-known information to find what card you imprinted, and then it still gives you a copy of it.  So either way, you at least get your spell to resolve (either by Mirror or by keeping the card and playing it later).  But hopefully, that won't happen.  All you need to worry about now is finding the cards to imprint.  With 4 copies of each, you shouldn't have much trouble.
 
Step three: The stuff you put into play for freesies.  Currently you've got eight heavy-hitting creatures, and not much else.  A Hypergenesis deck should have more permanents, honestly, or else your opponent's stuff will run you into the ground.  Currently you have 22 lands and 16 creatures, only half of which are worth a second look.  And one thing I think you're overlooking is that Hypergenesis works on artifacts, enchantments, and lands as well.  So, let's go through the list, shall we?  For notable artifacts, there's Darksteel Forge to protect your mirror, Phyrexian Colossus for a notable combo with Aphetto Alchemist, Summoning Station to provide an endless swarm of Pinchers (who could be useful for chump blocking whatever freaks your opponent Hypergenerates out) and of course Platinum Angel.  You could also enhance the 'genesis idea with Gate to the AEther.
 
Then there's enchantments.  Worship is the obvious choice here.  The next, less obvious choice is Genju of the Realm.  An 8/12 with trample?  Yes, please.  Then there's Privileged Position, as more Mirror support.  Since everybody's going to be dumping their biggest, best creatures into play, a Yavimaya's Embrace couldn't hurt.  Debtor's Knell could also be good at turning your opponents' games against them, and Mythic Proportions is a crowd favorite.  Don't go too heavy on the Auras, though, they really need you to have something appropriate in play to be any good.  Unless they're Enchant Players, like the card some of you may have guessed I was going to suggest, Paradox Haze.  Enchant yourself to give yourself two upkeeps per turn, and you'll get two Mirror triggers!  And if you have multiple Mirrors....
And finally the lands.  Twenty-two is a good amount, but I don't think you need 4 Steam Vents.  Honestly, I recommend replacing the 4 Vents and 4 Boilerworks with two each of the half-blue Ravnica bouncelands (Dimir Aquaduct, Izzet Boilerowrks, Simic Growth Chamber, Azorius Chancery).  One bounceland is like two lands in one slot, so this can really enhance your mana development.  And having all five colors represented means that if someone shatters your Mirrors and your hopes, you might actually hardcast some of these pipedreams.  A good rule of thumb in reanimator and other "cheatyface" strategies is that you shouldn't have more than 10 cards your mana base can't cast, and so I don't expect you to include more than 10 of the off-color cards I've suggested, but with these bouncelands you can even cheat that rule.
 
Finally, two "oddball" issues I have to address.  One, if your opponent drops something into play that makes it impossible for you to win, like Worship for example, then my solution is Temporal Adept to bounce it followed closely by a Wheel of Fate.  Reweave could supply an alternate solution, but I prefer a permanent-based solution.  And two, with all these Wheels of Fate spinning out of control, you may end up decking yourself if the game runs long.  Try Reminisce to save yourself, or Mnemonic Nexus to save everyone if you're just interested in prolonging the insanity, which it sounds like you might be.  Have fun!
 
~BMoor


 

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