The Twelve-Step Program for the Strategy Impaired
with Scott Gerhardt

Dech Mech 101

     You know, it's been an awful long time since I've done this, but it's time to shake off some of  that 'ole mechanic rust and get my hands under the hood again.  I guess it was time for me to give a little back.  Who knows.  Maybe my motives will forever remain a secret, locked away inside my head never for anyone to know why I'm picking up doing this again.

     In the end, do you really care?  No?  I didn't think so.  I should stop blabbering to get with a fix, right?  Right.  Okay.

     I need to open with a few ground rules.  I want to make sure everyone understands these before we go any farther.

#1 - I will be fixing an average of 2 decks a week.  I'm pretty sure I will get more than 2 a week.  This means that there are a lot of decks that I will not fix.  For this, I apologize in advance.  Will I be responding to e-mails?  Probably not.  Honestly, I get so bombed with e-mails daily that I barely can answer what I already get.  So, if you send in a deck I should get it and it will be there as a possibility to review.  Please don't write asking "Did you get my deck and will you review it."  I consider this spam, and it REALLY hurts your deck's chance of getting looked at.

#2 - Tell me what format your deck is.  If you fail to tell me what format your deck is, I will guess.  If I don't feel I can accurately guess, I will not review the deck.  The following formats are available:

• Type 1
• Type 1.5
• Extended
• Type 2
• Block Constructed (Please specify which block)
• RVD (the catch phrase "Whatever" meaning any card in the game no restrictions.  I don't recommend this format since cards out of your price range may be recommended in multiples)

Okay - I have to get in my gratuitous wrestling analogy for the night.  Just got back from the Pond in Anaheim after having pretty damn good seats for WWE Raw and getting my sign RIGHT on TV.  It was cool. :)  Anyway, back to the rules

#3 - Don't give me a card pool to work with.  Don't say "Well, I only have *these* cards to build a deck with.  You can tell me all commons, mostly commons, no rares, a few rares - these are all acceptible.  If you give me a card pool, I will not review your deck.

#4 - If you need cards for your deck, there are many on-line vendors willing to help you with your purchase.  I'd personally like to recommend , but that's just because my wife and I own the joint, and darnit, I think we're pretty helpful people with some exceptionally competitive pricing.  Yes, this was a cheap plug.

#5 - I will not be posting real names, e-mail addresses, or any other affiliated information of that type with the deck.  They are going to remain somewhat anonymous.  If it's your deck, you'll know it.

This pretty much covers the ground rules.  Now, on to this week's first fix:

Creatures:
4 Hallowed Healers
2 Devoted Caretaker
1 Mystic Crusader
1 Serra Angel
1 Lieutenant Kirtar
1 Commander Eesha
1 Nomad Mythmaker
4 Were Bear
1 Phantom Nantuko
1 Genesis
2 Phantom Centaur
3 Mystic Enforcer
1 Anurid Brushhopper

Spells:
4 Life Bursts
2 Floating Shield
2 Disenchant
2 Reverse damage
1 Unquestioned Authority
1 Vengeful Dreams
1 Solitary Confinement
4 Moment's Peace
2 Armadillo Cloak
3 Mirari's Wake
1 Eladamri's Call

Lands:
10 Plains
10 Forests
2 Krosan Verge
1 Elfhame Palace
1 Nantuko Monastery

None Provided 

I wanted to start with this deck for so many reasons.  For one, there is so much wrong with it I almost don't know where to start.  Secondly, I feel like it can go many different directions based on how you want to look at it.  There is a lot of versatile potential, that some of you at home may completely agree, and some may completely disagree with the route I take.  That's cool - if you're disagreeing, then you're thinking about it and it's making you better.  I'm a good player, but my last name isn't Budde, so I guess I'm not the best by any stretch.

For starters, remember the following:  "More than two is good for you."  This means simply that in most (not all) decks, you want the majority of your cards to be 3's and 4's of things.  This improves you odds of drawing that important card when you need to.  A lot of 1's and 2's make the game a lot more random than it already is, and can often lead to defeat.  

So, this all said, let's find some areas to focus on here.  Well, the majority of the deck seems offensively minded.  This said, let's focus on some of the more offensive areas of the deck and lose some of the more defensive.

We're gonna start by cutting.  The following cards get cut immedaitely:

Hallowed Healer - too defensive
Nomad Mythmaker - too janky
Life Burst - Life gain is mostly unimportant here
Floating Shield - might be good in Mythmaker.dec, but this is NOT it
Disenchant - play 'em in the board
Reverse Damage - too defensive and not generally needed
Unquestioned Authority - see Floating Shield
Solitary Confinement. - nice combo with Genesis, but not at 1 & 1
Moment's Peace - board 'em up

This removes 21 spells, leaving us with 25.  The deck originally was running 70 cards.  This brings me to rule #6:

#6 - The closer your deck is to 60 cards, the closer I will be to reviewing it.  61-63 is cool.  I build 'em a wee bit large from time to time, but if you're going over 63, you better have a really good reason and 4x Battle of Wits in there somewhere.  This, of course leads me to rule #7

#7 - I'm not reviewing a Battle of Wits deck.  Maybe one day I'll ask you guys for one, but not right now.  I don't feel like utterly punishing myself.

Anyway, back to the deck (did I ever mention I was ADD?).  Looking to make this deck 60 cards, you're gonna be looking at a spell/mana ratio of anywhere from 39:21 to 36:24 depending on what you're left with.  That said, we have 11-14 slots to play with for now.  

This card is missing something ridiculously vital to decks of this style - Wild Mongrel.  Simple, common, and undoubtedly a kick in the nuts - sure, I'll take 4.

I'm a big fan of the Brushhopper.  It's good even without the "phasing" ability - go to 4.  

Phantom Nantuko is one of those creatures that can be offensive or defensive.  It goes both ways pretty easily.  I'm a fan of the card.  Let's take it up to 3.

Of course, if you're gonna add in more Nantukos, you add in more Centaurs and take them to 4.

Following the trend, Armadillo Cloak is pretty silly with those cards, and honestly, silly on just about anything it touches.  We like that card times 4 as well.  

At this time we're at 38 cards.  Let's do some more cutting.

Vengeful Dreams - random and only good when you're losing, which means you'll probably lose in the end.

Serra Angel - too expensive bait for Flametongue Kavu

Mystic Crusader - what for?  Double white at 3 is scary as well.

Lieutenant Kirtar - seldom useful, and again, double white at 3 mana.  Not good.

We're now at 34 spells.  We need 2-5.  

Let's streamline a little.  Add in 2x more Eladamri's Call.  I know the rest of the world doesn't seem to like it, but I have a hard time with a creature tutor at instant speed for 2 mana that puts it in hand.

That said, add 1x Glory.  This card can just win you games.  You really only need 1, especially with 3x Eladamri's Call in the deck.  At 5 mana you can Call, get Glory, pitch to Mongrel, and activate for the win, or at least a really nasty surprise.

This puts us at 37 spells.  At this point, I'm gonna get "Timmy" with it.  We are running 3x Mirari Wake and 4x Werebear with a 37/23 ratio.  This might sound a little goofy, but I like goofy, especially when it bascially ends the game.

Replace 1x Devoted Caretaker (leaving one in to tutor for it against targetted removal, land destruction, etc...) with 1x Crush of Wurms.  It's so expensive you should probably not play more than 1x  copy of it, but good god if it goes off, I wanna your opponent deal with it.

For lands let's do this:

1x Nantuko Monestary (good late, but I don't trust this deck with Threshold)
2 x Krosan Verge (A GREAT thinner for land, but don't go overboard)
4x Elfhame Palace (Without the 1-drops, this is greatness)
2x Brushland (You do NOT want to get color-hosed)
8 Forests
6 Plains

This should give enough mana and provide color when needed.

I'd like to note something:  At this point, I seem to be missing a card.  I'm not sure where it went - maybe I just lost it somewhere.  At any point, we have the deck at 59.  I'm going to add in a very weird card here:

Hurricane

No, this has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that he an Kane won the Tag Belts tonight.  It does some really interesting things in the this deck:

#1 - Absolutely annihilates a deck with a Wonder in the grave.
#2 - With Wake can be a realistic finisher if it comes down to it.

You should be up on life points more times than not.  This card can just punch it home, and well, we're just running 1 in the main for random factor - we can pack more in the board.

So, let's see where we ended up:

1x Devoted Caretaker
4x Werebear
3x Phantom Nantuko
1x Genesis
4x Phantom Centaur
3x Mystic Enforcer
4x Anurid Brushhopper
4x Wild Mongrel
1x Crush of Wurms
1x Glory

4x Armadillo Cloak
3x Mirari's Wake
3x Eladamri's Call
1x Hurricane

1x Nantuko Monestary
2x Krosan Verge
4x Elfhame Palace
2x Brushland
8x Forest
6x Plains

(Remember to adjust this regionally.
This one is simply a few decent cards)

2x Hurricane
4x Moment's Peace
3x Disenchant
2x Crush of Wurms
4x Something Else

Is this the end all - be all fix?  Nope.  It's a better deck, I can say that.  You all probably either agree or disagree with my choices, but then again, I'm not here to help you win a Pro Tour.  I'm here to give your deck a punch.

If you want to submit a deck, do so at .  Please make sure it follows the submission guidelines and we're good to go.  Who knows - maybe your deck will be the next one I review.

Thanks for taking the time to listen to a bored editor ramble.  If you want to commend on my ramblings, will do for that as well.  Lemme know if you like, hate, don't care about, or anything else pertaining to this article, or anything on this site for that matter.

Until next time, keep playing!

Scott Gerhardt
Editor, Pojo.com