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BMoor's Magic The
Gathering
Deck Garage Today we have our third winner in the Five Colors, Six Choices contest: the Fusion Elemental division! Let’s see what my loyal readers were able to do with such a seemingly simple card. Today’s first contestant is David Fanany, of CotD fame.
Creatures:
I
must admit I'm not good at designing combo decks. I'm not
bad at playing them, but usually someone else invents them.
Unfortunately, most of the Alara block's five-color
cards are a little combo-ish. However, one thing I am good
at is
knowing when one number is bigger than another, and it
became clear to me that eight is greater
Maelstrom Pulse deals with any stray Sowers of Temptation or planeswalkers. Firespout and Pernicious Deed hopefully give you game against fast creatures. The latter is possibly my favorite Wrath of God variant of all time, and will hopefully serve well in the casual multiplayer games you mentioned in the contest description. Designing decks for multiplayer isn't my specialty, but I suggest that your strategy in group games will probably be something along the lines of using the flexible removal spells against early threats, and trying to assemble a one- or two-attack kill on one or two players. Fusion Elemental is a pretty good blocker, if you can find the required mana early enough. -------------- Next up is Craig.
Hello Bmoor, ----------------
And finally, here’s Cody’s entry.
Good day BMoor! This is my deck using Fusion Elemental. The explanation is on the bottom of the deck. The deck barely uses any rares and only comes from the Alara block. It is suppose to work fast at getting land out before your opponent knocks you out. If you have a partner, he can take some hits and you can build to a giant creature to take your opponents out within a few turn. Chances are, their removal been slapping your friend. In single player, the removal won't be big enough to take Fusion Elemental out. Fusion Elemental; Alara's Reality or F.E.A.R. Creatures [22] [4] Fusion Elemental
[4] Knight of New Alara
[4] Spellbreaker Behemoth [2] Sanctum Plowbeast [2] Igneous Pouncer [2] Pale Recluse
Fear's Weapons (Spells) [15] [2] Mask of Riddles [2] Shield of the Righteous [4] Exploding Borders [4] Colossal Might [3] Mage Slayer
Lands of Alara [23] [4] Plains [4] Island [3] Swamp [6] Mountain [6] Forest
Total [60]
Fusion Elemental is the key component of this deck. The idea of using Fusion Elemental was that I wanted to have a creature ready to smack the opponent and win. If that fails to occur, then I can get more Fusion Elementals out, or pump him bigger and scarier... heck, if I saw Fusion Elemental myself, I'd pee my pants. He's scary! Anyways, I could use Maelstrom Archangel because it flies and spams but the Archangel does not pay for equipping cost, nor do I have any creatures to throw out that would be a benefit. Now, Child of Alara could be used because it tramples and it is 6/6, but it cannot spam itself and it would wreck my equipments. The equipments are too important for this deck. Lastly, Progenitus is far too expensive and anti-equipment. The equipments are the important part of the deck without them, and then Fusion Elemental is nothing more than a big vanilla beat-stick with 8/8. I want Fusion Elemental to be a scary chocolate beat-stick with 10/10 or better. Mask of Riddles makes Fusion Elemental become scary; Fusion Elemental now has Fear and nets me a card. Shield of the Righteous give him vigilance and makes him hard to kill and I would say blocked, but I think the creature that blocked Fusion Elemental died. The Shield would also allow Fusion Elemental to get blocking anything that the opponent created that is fairly big. Mage Slayer allows Fusion Elemental to get blocked yet force his damage on the opponent. So, how do we get Fusion Elemental to hit harder than 10? Colossal Might will give Fusion Elemental trample and will make Fusion Elemental 12/10. That is huge! Knight of New Alara will get Fusion Elemental to 13/13, which is even bigger, but with Colossal Might, Fusion Elemental becomes 17/15 with Trample. Now give him some equipment like Mage Slayer or Mask of Riddles and he becomes unstoppable.
-------
Okay, so our contestants have shown us their stuff, so it’s time to separate the wheat from the chaff. 1: How does each deck win? Oddly enough, each of these three decks wants to give Fusion Elemental some kind of power-up. For David, it’s Mage Slayer, for Craig it’s Clout/Runes/Steel of the Dominus/Deus/Godhead, and for Cory it’s any one of Mage Slayer, Mask of Riddles, or Shield of the Righteous. From there, it’s as simple as “I attack you.” (Incidentally, I mentioned in the initial rules that if too many people submitted the same idea, all submissions using that idea would be disqualified. Well, no one card got more than three submissions, so I won’t be disqualifying anyone on those grounds—hence why David and Cory get a pass for both leaning on Mage Slayer.) 2: What are the flaws of each deck? I don’t see any real “flaws” in anyone’s deck—after all, how do you screw up building a deck around a vanilla 8/8?—but in all three decks, it seems like replacing the Elemental with any other random card would be an improvement to it. I’ll count that as an aspect of the card itself. Let’s face it, if you’re going five colors, it’s not because you want to play an 8/8. 3: You never draw Fusion Elemental. Now what? David’s Putrid Leeches and Maelstrom Pulses can probably hold ‘em off until you get the mana to bring Dragonsoul Knight online and beating face. Craig has Rafiq and Finks beatdown, and a Rafiq with a Steel of the Godhead on is a scary thing indeed. And Cory can drop Spellbreaker Behemoth, hardcast a Pale Recluse, and give either one a Mage Slayer or Mask of Riddles and swing for the win that way. All three of today’s contestants deserve praise for being willing to take up the banner of the most boring of the six cards in the contest. But one must emerge a victor, and today, that one is Craig, for finally finding a good use for Clout of the Dominus. Congratulations, Craig! Your mailing address has been noted, and your promo Path to Exiles and Hellspark Elementals are on their way! And now, for my own twist. The only notable feature of Fusion Elemental besides “8/8 for [WUBRG]” is its creature type: Elemental. As David noted, Smokebraider and Incandescent Soulstoke are banned for being monocolored. But the Elementals do have a champion from Lorwyn block we can use: Horde of Notions. I’m convinced the only reason nobody did this in the contest is because they all assumed everyone else would. And so, nobody did. Which means I get to! Creatures: 4 Fusion Elemental 4 Horde of Notions
3 Igneous Pouncer 3 Morselhoarder 3 Spitemare 3Doomgape 3 Lord of Extinction Spells: 4 Firespout 4 Repel Intruders 4 Jund Charm 2 Unmake Lands: 4 Primal Beyond 4 Terramorphic Expanse 3 Plains 3 Island 3 Swamp 3 Mountain 3 Forest The idea here is to stall with Firespout and such, landcycle a Pouncer or two, and then get a Fusion Elemental out with Horde of Notions to replay it from the graveyard if it dies. Doomgape and Igneous Pouncer both work well when you can replay any Elementals that die, and Spitemare can scare an opponent out of attacking you until you get rolling. That’s it for this week. On Monday, we’ll pick up with the next card in the contest, Maelstrom Archangel. You won’t want to miss it! ~BMoor
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