with Fletcher Peatross

12.27.01  I'm at work and its very slow today. So slow that I actually have time to write again and thought of the loyal Pojo readers. Part of me wants to be at home with my mom who is visiting and I've been very short with my coworkers because of it. Well, that is mostly a lie, because all of me wants to be home. Christmas vacation was not short enough.

I hope that you and yours were safe and had a very happy holiday. I know I got everything I did not know that I wanted, and some other things. And not a single MTG gift. And that is fine with me.

I'm looking forward to Grand Prix Houston. It will be the last, or second to last, extended tournament I have to play in. I'm not a big fan of extended, never have been. I don't like variety. I don't like 10 different decks to choose from. I know what I'm playing in limited by just looking over my card pool. And in Constructed environments, I like knowing what the best deck is.

And there is no best deck right now. Donate, contrary to popular e-pinion, is not the best deck. It is good, but it can lose. I have played it at the PTQ's I've gone to, and if I had to play it again, this is the version I'd play:

4x Accumulated Knowledge
3x Donate
4x Illusions of Grandeur
3x Intuition
4x Sapphire Medallion
4x Force of Will
4x Counterspell
4x Arcane Denial
4x Merchant Scroll
3x Morphling
1x Capsize

13x Island
4x Volcanic Island
3x Mountain
2x Thawing Glaciers

Sideboard
1x Mystical Tutor
3x Ruination
1x Thawing Glaciers
1x Earthquake
4x Pyroblast
4x Submerge
1x Hibernation

You'll notice no Fire/Ice. Ok, that's probably not the first thing you noticed. Put this version on Apprentice, proxy it up, put it together, however you look at decks, and playtest it a few times. I think you'll like it. I lost two matches in the last PTQ with it. One to Miracle Grow (my sideboard did not have Submerges which I think might have been helpful and I also boarded wrong), and one to Wildfire. Admitedly I should not have lost to Wildfire and just played really dumb the third game. Getting double raged with kicker is NOT fun, especially when your opponent is playing Burnout and Pyroblast.

This extended season is Rock/Papper/Scissors. GP Houston will most likely be the most metagamed tournament I've ever played in. It will be my first constructed Grand Prix. I also don't plan on thinking very much either. I'd rather just kill my opponent on turn 3. Burn is so dumb.

4x Jackal Pup
4x Goblin Cadet
4x Mogg Fanatic
4x Goblin Patrol
4x Ball Lightning
4x Firebolt
4x Reckless Charge
4x Fireblast
4x Incinerate
2x Reckless Abandon
4x Barbarian Ring
14x Mountain
4x Wasteland

Sideboard
3x Anarchy
3x Phyrexian Furnace
4x Pyroblast
4x Price of Progress
1x Burnout

The reality of this deck is that I'm going to be flying in from Missouri to Austin, arrive at 4pm, driving 2 1/2 hours to Houston to make it to a draft that Event Horizons invited me to. I'm going to be VERY tired on Saturday and don't think I'll do well if I have to think much. I also have no byes so who knows what craziness I'll be playing against. And I like being done in 6 turns. Total.

Has anyone tried something like this?

4x Accumulated Knowledge
3x Donate
3x Illusions of Grandeur
3x Gaea's Blessing
3x Intuition
3x Oath of Druids
4x Force of Will
4x Counterspell
4x Arcane Denial
4x Merchant Scroll
1x Morphling
1x Spike Feeder
1x Spike Weaver
1x Capsize

13x Island
4x Tropical Island
3x Yavimaya Coast
2x Treetop Village

Obviously this is just a rough draft based on what I have for my previous Donate decklist. If anyone tries it out, tell me how it goes.

Good luck in the last few weeks of the season, hope to see you in Houston.

Until then,
Fletcher Peatross
The Biggest Ass in Texas
Magic Pojo Editor