Welcome to Precon Recon, where I take reconstructed decks and reconstruct them into more usable decks. This week, since I missed out on my Precon Recon, I will be submitting two similar decks, starting with retooling Power of Prophecy extended style for Timothy Liberty, and then I’ll be working on the Spectral Legions deck in another article, because it gives people that like what Power of Prophecy has to offer a standard option. But for now, let’s look into Power of Prophecy! For the original deck list, check here:

http://www.wizards.com/magic/tcg/productarticle.aspx?x=mtg/tcg/magic2011/themedeck#deck2

Main Deck

16 Island
9 Plains

2 Aether Adept
2 Air Servant
1 Armored Cancrix
2 Augury Owl
1 Azure Drake
1 Blinding Mage
2 Cloud Elemental
1 Conundrum Sphinx
1 Harbor Serpent
2 Maritime Guard
1 Scroll Thief
1 Stormtide Leviathan
1 Wall of Frost
2 Water Servant

1 Condemn
1 Crystal Ball
2 Foresee
2 Jace's Ingenuity
1 Mighty Leap
1 Mind Control
2 Negate
1 Pacifism
1 Safe Passage
2 Sleep
1 Solemn Offering

      The Power of Prophecy deck’s strategy is very straightforward. It wants to control what your opponent casts, while dominating the air. While the strategy is sound, it lacks the necessary punch to do it effectively. The main problem lies in the fact that there just isn’t that many air forces in the deck. So from what I tell from looking at the deck, is it is relying too heavily on dropping Stormtide Leviathan, yet offers no protection for it beyond waiting the game out to have the extra mana. The main problem of trying to stall, is eventually there will be an opening, and that could well be the win or lose moment.

      We will try and beef the fliers, and edit how the deck controls they tempo. This should open up the proper channels for this deck to be successful.

      The place I always begin is with pulling unnecessary pieces from the deck. In this reconstruction, there will be a quite a few of things pulled, and then similar yet better options put back in. I begin by pulling out the Cloud Elementals. I find anything that has a blocking restriction useless. Why should anything you play be restricted to what it can block? Since we will be dominating that skies, it should be focusing on blocking the things on the ground. Another easy pull for me looking at this deck was the Armored Cancrix. Five mana for only a 2/5, way too little and certainly way too late. I would also remove the Water Servants, Scroll Thief, Maritime Guards, Harbor Serpent, Blinding Mage, and Azure Drake. I originally would have kept the Drake, but really there is better things we could do with that one space, so I decided to remove it. For spells, any counter spell that restricts what it can counter is not a good counter spell. I say this because if you drew Negate, but a huge creature gets cast, you are powerless. Had it been just counter target spell, you would be able to respond, no matter the type of spell. So that means that the Negates get negated from this deck. I would remove the Solemn Offering, since we will be able to get rid of the enchantment while casting instead of after if necessary. Other spells I would pull are the Sleeps, Mind Control, Mighty Leap, and Jace’s Ingenuity. Since we will have means of getting through easier, the Mighty Leap becomes almost silly to have, though for reasons I will explain later on, you may feel like adding it back in. The Jace’s Ingenuity cost too much for only three cards. We don’t need to draw cards in this deck as much as we just need to know what is on top for our Conundrum Sphinx. And Mind Control will be useless compared to what we have lined up. In order to make room for some more changes, we should also just pull out the Aether adept and Air Servant as well.

      All of the pulls we made gives us access to adding in a whopping twenty-four cards! But those twenty-four spots will quickly fill. For starters, let’s handle what you should add if you have access to some rares. For starters, add in a couple copies of Grand Abolisher if you can get them. This guy simply shuts down counter spells, and grants you a certain freedom to do what you want on your own turn. This is the kind of card you need out to safely drop your Stormtide Leviathan as quickly as possible. And Nevermore could be a great way to stop your opponent from casting something altogether, though I feel that should be a sideboard card.

       The main attack focuses on getting through. That’s why in a small degree I changed up what the deck will accomplish. I think that while flying is a sound strategy, if you want to “control” it comes from telling your opponent what they cannot do, such as blocking. So therefore I found what I feel that best unblockable cards out there are. For me, they are Invisible Stalker from Innistrad, and Blighted Agent from New Phyrexia. These guys say they cannot be blocked, the Stalker has hex proof, and the Agent has infect. These things make it a waiting game still, but definitely puts your opponent on a timer, and since we are controlling tempo and what is hitting the board, you should win the game of waiting, especially since the Blighted Agent only needs to hit for 10. That is one reason why I said you may choose to add in the Mighty Leap, and in fact add more of them in. This means that if you have the Grand Abolisher in the deck and out, you can safely cast the Mighty Leap on your Blighted Agent, and get in for some quick poison counters. We should look at the spell portion for a brief second. Let’s be honest, four copies of Mana Leak, and four copies of Dissipate. Mana Leak is the best early game counter spell in standard or extended, and Dissipate should be the best counter spell printed in a long time. These should help you gain some early game advantage. I would go ahead and add in four Gideon’s Lawkeeper’s, which take the place of the Blinding Mage, only cheaper and better. Keeping things that you need cheap in the early game frees up mana mid-late game for you counter spells, when you’ll really need them. Another great card from Innistrad is Feeling of Dread, which for one white and one generic mana taps two creatures, and then has flashback for one blue and one generic mana. This means for four mana, you could tap four creatures. I would add a couple copies of this four sure. And Fiend Hunter is another great Innistrad card that could easily fit well in this deck, exiling a creature for as long as he is on the board, for just two white and one generic mana. Another great Innistrad card is the Trepanation Blade. Equipped onto one of your Blighted Agents early on could mean game over quickly. Even on Invisible Stalker, it could be very discouraging, and end the game before long. Plus, it is a control based card by causing your opponent to lose cards from their deck. And late game, putting this one the Stormtide Leviathan will almost certainly end the game before long. The Blade is another four copier.

      So if you focus on the unblockable part, and the Trepanation Blade, with counter spells, that puts you to twenty cards. Then you will have to choose how you handle the last four slots. Either four Gideon’s Lawkeeper or four Feeling of Dread, or any combination of the two. There is still a healthy degree of cards making this deck extended, not standard, including the rares. But that could be changed if absolutely necessary. The cards that would no longer be standard are Conundrum Sphinx, Stormtide Leviathan, Wall of Frost, Augury Owl, Condemn, Crystal Ball, and Foresee. If you really want this deck up to standard, there is what would need to be replaced.

       But there you have it! This deck is all about playing keep away from your opponent. You’ll have a decent chance of getting control quickly, since so much of your deck is low cost, you should free up the mana necessary to keep late game threats at bay. Use the cards that did through the deck to make sure you stay a step ahead of your opponent.

      Also this week I will be looking at another deck that is similar to what this one is, but does it oh so much better, the Spectral Legions deck form Innistrad! Now that deck can lock down the air, and slam in hard and fast! And that is before we work it over!

      So until next time, keep safe and keep gaming!