I’ve only been playing Magic for about 2 months, so forgive my inexperience and (probable) interpretation errors.

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5x Island

5x Forest

4x Seat of the Synod

4x Tree of Tales

4x Prismatic Lens

4x Intruder Alarm

4x Awakening

4x Thirst for Knowledge

2x Vitalize

2x Twitch

1x Transmute Artifact

1x Tinker

4x Stuffy Doll

4x Seeker of Skybreak

3x Teardrop Kami

3x Trickster Mage

3x Ornithopter

3x Shield Sphere

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When I read the article I figured most people writing in for this would be trying to find effects to deal damage to Stuffy Doll, since that seems to be the most efficient way of using it. I really think something could be made exclusively out of its tap ability, however. One damage per turn isn’t stellar, but if you combo it with a couple cards, I think that you can get a fairly decent game plan running.

The main combo here, at least as far as I see it, is Awakening, Intruder Alarm, and Stuffy Doll. Awakening practically counteracts Intruder Alarm’s negative effect since you get to untap during your upkeep, and since you untap any time a creature is put into play, you will be able to untap Stuffy Doll plenty of times.

That’s also what the 0 cost artifacts are for, as well as being free blockers. Teardrop Kami and Trickster Mage are one drops with the ability to untap your dolls. They’re basically quick drops with abilities that work towards the deck’s goal. Finally, there’s Seeker of Skybreaker. Tap it to untap a creature. Keeping in mind that with the combo mentioned above the card will be untapping during the upkeep of every player’s turn and whenever a creature is put into play, it’s basically doubling your ability to damage with a single Stuffy Doll. It can also work as a stall while you’re waiting for your deck to build up if you tap attacking creatures.

As far as the rest of the cards go, Vitalize is a one cost untap spell at instant speed. No real explanation needed. Twitch is for untapping and a little draw power. Thirst for Knowledge is, obviously, only for draw power. Transmute Artifact and Tinker are for searching for Stuffy Dolls.

There’s 18 lands in there, 8 of them being artifact lands. The artifact lands are in there for two reasons. First of all, they can be discarded for Thirst for Knowledge if you have plenty of mana. Second of all, they can be used with Tinker and Transmute Artifact if you have nothing else. There are 4 Prismatic Lenses to speed up the deck as well as being potential fodder for Tinker, Transmute Artifact, and Thirst for Knowledge.

Anyway, that’s what I came up with. I know it’s not so great, but it was fun to come up with, and it kept me entertained between my classes. Have fun (with this deck and with all the other ones you’re going to end up getting).

-          Gracie

I’m kind of amazed that Gracie here was able to do so well with this “between classes”.  I guess sometimes inspiration just hits you.  Admittedly, Gracie wasn’t the only one to think of “untapping Stuffy Doll” in general, but I was impressed by her use of Awakening and Intruder Alarm.  Awakening does effectively “undo” the drawback of Intruder Alarm quite nicely, although it also has its own downside of giving your opponents a free untap as well.  Of course, Intruder Alarm was a symmetrical effect as well, so this may not be a big problem as long as you and your opponent are still untapping equally as often.  The only real issue is if your opponent happens to have a large amount of creatures with tap effects, but you do have Seeker of Skybreak to help break the symmetry.

So, how well is Gracie’s deck built?  Well, the deck is quite focused on its goal: it has Tinker and Transmute Artfact to get Stuffy out ASAP, it has plenty of cheap creatures to maximize Intruder Alarm’s effectiveness (Shield Sphere and Ornithopter were also good choices for early defense and assuring you don’t lose before the combo goes off), and it has Vitalize and Twitch for extra untapping power.  Twitch was a wise choice: since Trickster Mage can effectively turn any card in your hand into a Twiddle, choosing Twitch over Twiddle helps give the deck more versatility and more potential for card advantage.  This is good, since you’ll probably want some extra cards to discard to a Trickster Mage.

How creative is Gracie’s deck?  Well, surprising as it may seem, nobody else submitted a deck with Intruder Alarm in it.  This makes me think Gracie just has a fondness for quirky combos, as Intruder Alarm is just one of those cards that spawned a thousand of them.  Perhaps she plays an Intruder Alarm deck herself.  One other person used Awakening in a deck, but not with any other sort of untap mechanism.  The use of Mirrodin cards like Thirst for Knowledge and the artifact lands was also fairly uncommon, as was Twitch and its ilk.  In fact, Awakening and the basic lands may have been the only cards in Gracie’s deck that other people used.  Not counting Stuffy Doll, of course.

Will Gracie’s victory be unexpected and humorous?  Well, humorous to be sure—every creature that comes into play will mean another damage, every upkeep will mean another damage, and every Seeker of Skybreak, Vitalize, and Trickster Mage will only multiply the pain.  I expect this deck to win after three or four turns of copious tapping and untapping.  But unlike some combo decks, which play solitaire for five minutes while everyone else watches, this one will win in increments.  A few taps and untaps, then your opponent plays a spell, a few more taps and untaps, et cetera.  More importantly, this deck will not make the game un-fun for your opponent, because it doesn’t lock them out of the game.  They can still play their game while you play yours.  They can also disrupt your combo, to an extent, since you are fairly reliant on a pair of enchantments and several 1-toughness creatures.  Your opponent can still draw an answer, but because all these cards do so little besides untap Stuffy Doll, killing any card other than Stuffy Doll itself will only buy a player time.  So, a player may see the victory coming a mile away, but he or she will be able to enjoy watching it all play out because he or she will be able to act and react while it happens.

Can Gracie actually win at all with this deck?  The combo is powerful, but everything I just said about it being easy to react to also makes it easy to disrupt.  There is plenty of card draw and tutoring, and you can turn your Trickster Mages to the job of tapping down your opponent’s threats if necessary.  Shield Sphere will be hard to break through, at least for a few turns.  But my biggest concern, as I mentioned above, is that you’ll be allowing your opponent extra untaps as well.  If your opponent has a Prodigal Pyromancer, it’s big trouble.  If I could make but one change to this deck, it would be to replace Awakening with Seedborn Muse.  For one more mana, you get a 2/4 (which will trigger Intruder Alarm when it comes into play) and you get all your permanents to untap during your opponent’s untap step while your opponent is still just stuck under the Intruder Alarm.  That break of symmetry will give you a serious advantage, but even without it I think this deck could win fairly often.  Often enough to get it into third place, anyway.

That leaves only second and first place.  Will the Number One deck rely on untapping Stuffy Doll or damaging it?  Only one way to find out!

~BMoor