Summoner's Egg

09.13.04 

Hey all, and welcome back to another edition of the Magic Deck Garage!  I hope y’all are looking forward to the Champions of Kamigawa Pre-Release tourneys this coming weekend – I know I am.  Champions looks to be a promising set for a lot of new and interesting decks already, and that’s with minimal spoilers available.

This week’s deck was submitted by Trevor, who wants help with his Summoner’s Egg deck.  It abuses Summoner’s Egg by trying to imprint the card as fast as possible, followed by blowing it up just as fast.  Here is the e-mail I received:

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This deck is centered around the summoners egg, how to crack em and get
those big guys out. Also there are the fold into aether to get the
collosuss. I will most likely run 4 colosuss. My budget is pretty open just
not insane. I want to run this in type 2 with MD5 no 8th please. And still
trying to get a good decen sideboard.

Creatures

2 Bringer Of The White Dawn
2 Darksteel Collossus
4 Summoners Egg
4 Ornithopter
4 Sylvok Explorer

Other

4 Welding Jar
4 Chromatic Shperes
4 Pentad Prism
4 Electrostatic Bolt
4 Thirst For Knowledge
4 Fold Into Aether
11 Forest
6 Island
3 Mountain

Any help would be greatly appreciated thanks.

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Major props to Trevor on a unique and interesting deck.  The first thing I would like to do is up the count of Darksteel Colossus to four.  He’ll be the primary offensive weapon in this deck, and for good reason: who doesn’t want a cheap, 11/11 indestructible guy?

+2 Darksteel Colossus

Next, just on principle, I think a pair of Platinum Angels need to be hanging out in this deck as well.

+2 Platinum Angel

When I first began typing this Deck Garage up, I was positive Bringer of the White Dawn belonged in the deck, but the further I got along, the more I realized that it was unnecessary.  Instead, I swapped it out with Bringer of the Green Dawn.  BotGD can be played with the resources currently in the deck, and it works out better if Trevor just gets Summoner’s Egg and this card, as he develops blockers (and later, attackers) quickly.

-2 Bringer of the White Dawn
+2 Bringer of the Green Dawn

I’m not sure I like Ornithopter in this deck; it doesn’t seem to fit very well.  In its place, I would much rather have the uber-useful Viridian Shaman.  This will allow Trevor to blow up his opponent’s artifacts * or * have another way to detonate the Egg.

-4 Ornithopter
+4 Viridian Shaman

As with Ornithopter, I’m not to keen on the presence of Sylvok Explorer.  Aside from Bringer of the Green Dawn, Trevor really isn’t doing a lot with the different colors of mana.  Thus, let’s drop him in favor of Solemn Simulacrum, who can act as a deck-thinner as well as a way to draw a card or two.

-4 Sylvok Explorer
+4 Solemn Simulacrum

Moving out of creatures and into some useful, non-creature spells, I think we can stand to drop either Red or Blue entirely from this deck.  Since the only purpose of Red here is for Electrostatic Bolt, I think it has to go over blue.

-4 Electrostatic Bolt

I’m digging the use of Chromatic Spheres in this deck to help both fix mana and draw cards, so I’ll leave those be.  Welding Jar seems to be out of place at first glance, but having it in play can help prevent Trevor’s opponent from destroying his Summoner’s Egg with the imprint on the stack.

Pentad Prism is really unnecessary, especially with the loss of Red mana.  Yes, it allows Trevor to get a slight jump in his mana, but Turn 4 still seems acceptable for a Summoner’s Egg.

-4 Pentad Prism

Oxidize is another valuable asset for this deck, as it can be used offensively or defensively.  Opponent’s piloting Affinity really don’t want to see Oxidize across from them, but in the match-ups where the card would be useless (see: Goblins), Oxidize is just another tool to blow up Summoner’s Egg.

+4 Oxidize

The final two cards in Trevor’s deck were somewhat of a rough call.  I’m not sure I like the presence of Fold into the Aether, if only because it is really only useful when Trevor has a cheap spell, an expensive creature, Fold into the Aether, enough mana, and he is sure his opponent isn’t playing any form of counterspell.  Thus, I’m going to shove it in the direction of sideboard, and replace it with Condescend.  Between this, and Thirst for Knowledge (I dropped a copy to add a few land), Trevor should have a fairly easy time of hunting down all the pieces to his combo.

-4 Fold into the Aether
-1 Thirst for Knowledge
+3 Condescend

As far as Sideboard options go, Trevor’s worst match has to be any form of Astral Slide.  The ability to remove Summoner’s Egg or the men it churns out is just too much to handle, so I automatically throw in a full set of Naturalize.  These should come in handy against Affinity as well.

+4 Naturalize

Against Tooth and Nail and Affinity both, artifact creatures can be a huge issue.  As many of you may have already recognized, you cannot destroy all of them.  This problem has developed a nice solution in the form of Relic Barrier, which allows you to simply tap down the immediate threat.  Let’s start Trevor off with three.

+4 Relic Barrier

Against Blue-White control and Green-White Slide, the graveyard is an amazing resource, and playing a card against it can be vital.  This is where Scrabbling Claws comes in.  For the price of one colorless mana, Trevor is already on the road to victory by removing an asset that his opponents’ rely on.

+3 Scrabbling Claws

Keep in mind, Trevor’s sideboard is just a general guideline.  His local metagame should dictate which cards make the cut and which don’t, and I’m sure he’ll want to adjust from 4-4-4-3 in sideboard to a few 1-ofs and 2-ofs.

That about wraps the deck up, so let’s see how it turned out.

CREATURES (20):

2 Bringer of the Green Dawn
4 Darksteel Colossus
2 Platinum Angel
4 Solemn Simulacrum
4 Summoner’s Egg
4 Viridian Shaman [20]

OTHER SPELLS (18):

4 Chromatic Sphere
3 Condescend
4 Oxidize
3 Thirst for Knowledge
4 Welding Jar

LAND (22):

4 Grand Coliseum (Trevor said no 8th, meaning no City of Brass)
12 Forest
6 Island

SIDEBOARD (15):

4 Fold into the Aether
4 Naturalize
4 Relic Barrier
3 Scrabbling Claws

I hope that helps, Trevor, and good luck!

That about does it for this week.  Keep your e-mails coming to Hagan0001@aol.com, and I’ll get back with you as soon as possible!

See y’all next week.
 

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