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BMoor's Magic The Gathering Deck Garage
Darksteel Reactor Deck
May 14, 2007

This deck that I’m designing is based around stalling until Darksteel Reactor wins the game. Naturally it won’t be a very fast deck, but I’m trying to make it plausible. At 80+ cards, this deck is far too large to do anything but lose. If you could, please help make
it viable. Thanks for your time.

Creatures (28)

4 Myr Servitor
4 Silent Arbiter
4 Ornithopter
4 Myr Retriever

4 Arcbound Worker
4 Kami of False Hope
4 Myr Coretapper

Instants (12)
4 Holy Day
4 Fog
4 Moment’s Peace

Enchantments (7)
2 Doubling Season
1 Privileged Position
4 Pacifism

Artifacts (14)
4 Darksteel Reactor
4 Horn of Deafening
2 Icy Manipulator
4 Nuisance Engine

Lands (21)
4 Cloudpost
9 Plains
9 Forest
Eighty plus cards, eh?  Well, you're in luck.  As a player who played vehemently through the Mirrodin block, I've seen a few Darksteel Reactor builds in my time, and I think I can help.  Most of the decks that get sent in to me are Standard legal, and while I'm pretty good at fixing those, I can certainly make a Mirrodin-block deck run like a well-oiled machine as well.

First things first: before I can get to the fun part of all the cards you should add in, there's a lot of cards to be cut.  First of all, what's up with your creatures?  Coretapper and Ornithopter I can understand, but Myr Servitor?  Silent Arbiter?  Arcbound Worker?  It looks like you put in every artifact creature you had that looked like they would make good chump blockers.  Take out them all, except Coretapper and Ornithopter.


Speaking of Kami of False Hope, what's with all the Fogs and Holy Days?  Is this your plan for staying alive long enough for the Reactor to go critical?  That's just about guaranteed to make all your friends hate you, and not win much either.  Drop all 12 of your instants.

What else can we-- Horn of Deafening?  You're actually running that?  You're just terrified of losing any life whatsoever, aren't you?  Trust me, you'll be fine without it.  You can afford to lose a few life points.  When I'm done, your deck will be able to win in less than twenty turns.  I promise.

Now, what can we put in to help you?  Well, when I first saw you were using Darksteel Reactor, I wondered, "why is his deck green and white?".  Back in the day, most Reactor decks were red, to take advantage of the interaction between it and Dismantle.  These days, I think you'll find better tools in blue.  We'll keep your green for Doubling Season, but take out all the white (I'll let you decide if that includes Privileged Position) and replace your Plains with Islands.

Now, what are we left with?  21 lands, 10 artifacts, 3 enchantments, and 8 creatures: 42 cards in all.  Okay, let's start with some of blue's counter technology.  And I don't mean countering spells this time.  4 Paradox Haze and 4 Clockspinning will bring us up to 50 cards and really speed up your clock.  A Paradox Haze and a Doubling Season turns your Reactor into a five-turn win condition, not even counting the occasional Clockspinning. 


Now, you've got ten more slots.  Two of them should go to two more Doubling Seasons if you can get them.  Four more can become Carven Caryatid, an excellent blocker that helps you dig for that Reactor.  And the last four slots should go to a good, powerful card drawing spell.  Tidings, Concentrate, Harmonize, Thirst for Knowledge, Petals of Insight, or Foresee strike me as your best options.  If you'd prefer a cheap to cast filter like Serum Visions or Sleight of Hand, that's fine too.  Mostly, I just want you to be able to draw that Reactor as soon as possible.  Whether that's accomplished by sheer numbers of cards drawn or how early a turn you can draw it on, I'll let you choose.

Good luck, and don't let a few bad games make you melt down!

~BMoor

 
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