daniel wickes wrote:

Thanks for the help with my blue deck!!!  I have been doing much better since I made the changes you advised.  One of my friends has just started up playing again and has a blue/black opposition deck, and wants to make it extended legal.  Here it is:

Lands:
12x Island
9x Swamp
1x Underground River

Creatures:
1x Black Knight
3x Blizzard Elemental
4x Cloud of Faeries
1x Fleeting Image
1x Mahamoti Djinn
2x Metathran Soldier
2x Nekrataal
2x Nightshade Stinger
1x Phantom Warrior
1x Sage Owl
4x Thornwind Faeries

Other Cards:
1x Attrition
3x Brainstorm
2x Mana Leak
1x Nameless Inversion
2x Opposition
2x Paralyze
1x Plagiarize
4x Terror

Anything in blue is illegal and has to go.  If possible, please use standard legal cards as replacements because that's how many sets back most of my friends and I started playing.  Please help.

Dan

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I get so many Standard decks, Dan, that I usually end up recommending Standard cards anyway.  I almost thought this deck was supposed to be Standard, and wasn't sure how to tell you that Opposition was no longer in Standard.

 

It's still in Extended, though, so it's a good thing I read the E-mail a second time!  Let's see if the new crop of cards can contribute to the Opposition strategy.

 

First of all, if this really is an Opposition deck, you need more than two copies of Opposition.  Bring it up to four copies.  And a third Mana Leak will help, so that covers your "other spells".

 

Now, you've got 14 creatures to replace.  But what with?  If you're running Opposition, it's a good idea to try to put more creatures on the board then your opponent, so you can tap down your opponent and still have something left to attack with.  Trouble is, this leaves you open to cards like Wrath of God, which will take your adantage from you and set you back.  The solution?  Bitterblossom.  It's being called one of the best two-mana spells available by tournament pros.  Not only will it put tokens out to match your opponent's creatures, it'll free up your actual creatures for attacking with, and the enchantment itself will survive a Wrath to allow you to rebuild your board for no mana and no extra cards.

 

Next, from the look of the deck as it stands, I think Blizzard Specter will fit in beautifully.  Flying, discard, and repeatable bounce in one easy package!

 

That's up to eight of fourteen slots covered.  What next?  Well, since you'll likely be tapping you creatures with Opposition, why not try some of the new untapping creatures from Shadowmoor?  Knacksaw Clique or Puresight Merrow would each be excellent cards for your deck: Tap them to tap a creature, untap them with their abilities, then tap another creature with them!  With enough mana, you can tap down an entire army with a single one of these creatures, and get the benefit of their abilities as well!  Puresight Merrow is probably the best choice out of them, since its ability only takes one mana, and it's a 2/2 for two.  Even before you get Opposition, you won't mind dropping it, swinging with it, and untapping it to help you dig for something good.  Silkbind Faerie ranks up there too.

 

Once you've updated the deck to Extended specifications, it should hum along nicely.  Good luck!

 

~BMoor