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BMoor's Magic The Gathering Deck Garage
Honden Deck
September 20, 2007

Readers of my Deck Garage must really like Kamigawa and Mirrodin block.  Or they don't know I fix decks with other cards.  (For the record, no I am not just now getting to decks I received during Mirrodim/Kamigawa Standard.)
 
Oh well.  I liked those blocks too.
Hello BMoor,


This is a honden deck i have been working on. It's only a theory. I am just checking if the idea is good. It is BASICALLY an all enchantment deck.
 
Artifacts and Enchantments
3 Honden (red)                                                                                              
3 Honden (black)                     Magic: The Gathering
3 Honden (green)
3 Honden (white)                                                         
3 Mirror Gallery                                                                      
2 Myr (blue)                                                                            
2 Myr (black)                                                              
2 Myr (white)
2 Myr (green)                                                         
3 Darksteel Ingot                                                         
3 Megrim                                                                    
3 Paradox Haze
2 Darksteel Reactor
2 Wheel of Torture
3 Pestilence 
4 Gaea's Anthem
4 Priveleged Position
3 Feldon's Cane
 
Creatures
 
4 Wall of Souls
 
Instants/Sorceries
 
4 Enlightened Tutor
 
Lands
 
2 Swamp
2 Plains
2 Forest
2 Mountain
2 Island
2 Rakdos Carnarium
2 Boros Garrison
2 Simic Growth Chamber
 

 
I don't really care what cards you take out or put in. I think 75 cards is a little too many cards. The deck this deck is supposed to beat: mono-red burn, white-blue pinker, and a white-red angel beatdown deck. Any suggestions will be taken.

 
Thanks,
George G.
So, what's wrong with this deck?  Actually, quite a few things I'm afraid.
 
One: Your mana base is all wrong.  Sixteen lands in a 75-card deck?  Sixteen lands isn't enough for a 60-card deck!
 
Two: You're relying on Myr for your color fixing.  Myr are 1/1 creatures that are also artifacts, and thus prone to Shatter.  They will not live long enough, especially not if "white-blue pinker" is a common opponent for you.
 
Three: You've got a lot of cards in here that do nothing on their own unless you draw other cards.  In an already-fragile decklist like that, that's a big problem.
 
Four: You don't have nearly enough defense.  Wall of Souls, Myr, and 1/1 Spirit tokens will not come out fast enough to hold off your opponent while you set up, or hold off enough.
 
So, how do we go about fixing these problems?  Well, since you're about 15 cards heavy, let's start by pulling on the gardening gloves and weeding out some things.
 
We'll start with Mirror Gallery.  Yes, the Hondens are legendary, but Mirror Gallery does nothing unless you draw a second copy of a Honden you already have in play.  And I'll tell you what else: if the Gallery gets destroyed, any Hondens you have duplicates of go with it.  Mirror Gallery just invites your opponent to kill three or more cards with a simple Shatter, Disenchant, or even Boomerang (a card most blue decks consider running anyway).  Take out Mirror Gallery.  If you draw a second copy of a Honden, what you're supposed to do is hold onto it until your opponent wastes his enchantment destruction on the first one.
 
Since you've already got so many enchantments, let's drop all the nonessential ones so a Tempest of Light doesn't break your back even further.  Paradox Haze is cute, but not cute enough.  Megrim also does nothing until you see Honden of Night's Reach, and Honden of Night's Reach itself suffers from the problem that the opponent can play out his hand and have nothing to discard on your upkeep.  But since you're not even that likely to draw Night's Reach, Wheel of Torture can also go.  Even if you've got your opponent's hand empty, Honden of Infinite Rage is better at the same job anyway.  Without Paradox Haze, Darksteel Reactor can go too-- it was never really contributing much anyway.  Feldon's Cane is strictly for the sideboard against milling decks (or in some infinite combo decks).  You don't have enough creatures to get the most out of Gaea's Anthem so it can come out.  And Pestilence?  Almost all your creatures are 1/1's, and you need some of them for mana!  And Pestilence needs a lot fo black mana to work properly, but you're 5-color!  Pestilence is a powerful card, but this deck can't use it.
 
Okay, that's 23 cards gone.  Before I start replacing them, I want to replace the Myr with something a bit more robust, so they come out too for a total of 31 cards dropped.
 
Now that we're down to 44 cards, now what?  Well, the first and most important addition is the Blue Honden, Seeing Winds.  It's easily the most powerful of the Hondens, simply because with it out, even if your opponent can kill everything else of yours, you'll draw more.  Since you've got 3 each of the other Hondens, add three Blue ones.
 
Next, you need more than 16 lands.  I'm not convinced that the Ravnica bouncelands are your best choice of dual, but I suppose they're as good as anything else until further testing proves otherwise.  Add one more of each basic land, for a total of 21 lands.  That and the fourth Darksteel Ingot you need to add should be a stark improvement.
 
You've still got 7 open slots, and I pulled most of your creatures.  Actually, I'm pulling all of them: replace Wall of Souls with Steel Wall.  Steel Wall can't throw damage back to its source, but it comes down faster and it's colorless.  As a 5-color deck player, you must appreciate the ability to use any color of mana.
 
That's the same reason I recommend Solemn Simulacrum if you can afford a few copies.  It's not only a colorless blocker, it's also land fixing and card advantage.  Dancing Scimitar, Junktroller, Bottle Gnomes, or Yotian Soldier could easily fill similar roles.
 
And also, since your deck is so reliant on keeping your enchantments in play (hence the presence of Privileged Position), try a few copies of Rebull the Wicked to counter opposing Disenchants.  This is even mroe potent since I mentioned the fragility of artifact creatures and then recommended a few, but Myr were also so fragile because of their one toughness.  Junktroller and the others can easily withstand a Prodigal ping, and even an Incinerate.  And Bottle Gnomes turns any kill spell into 3 extra life anyway.
 
This should do wonders for your deck, George.  The fixed mana/spell ratio and the extra draw power of the Blue Honden alone should provide you with the firepower to give your opponents a fight at least, and the added resiliency of extra high-toughness creatures should buy you time to amass Shrines and ride their advantages to victory.
 
Good luck!
 
~BMoor



 

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