Welcome to another great Precon Recon here at Pojo.com! This week I did up two Precon Recons, the other one being Grab for Power! Since I just celebrated an awesome birthday, I thought back to the first deck I ever actually purchased and played, and ultimately reconstructed. Now I have been collecting longer than I have been playing, but I won’t try telling you all that I’m an Alpha guy, cause I wasn’t. I have been collecting since Urza’s Saga, but didn’t actually begin playing until Prophecy. And the first deck I ever actually purchased to play with regularly was the Pummel deck from Prophecy. You can check out the original decklist here: http://www.wizards.com/magic/tcg/productarticle.aspx?x=mtg_tcg_prophecy_themedeck#deck1.  

#	Rarity	Cost	Card Name
20			Forest*
2	C		Hickory Woodlot*
2	C		Deepwood Wolverine*
2	C		Spore Frog
1	U		Stampede Driver**
2	C		Pygmy Razorback
2	C		Vine Trellis*
2	U		Darba
2	U		Hunted Wumpus*
2	C		Blastoderm**
1	U		Lumbering Satyr*
1	C		Silverglade Elemental*
1	C		Vintara Elephant
1	U		Spitting Spider
3	C		Thresher Beast
1	R		Avatar of Might
2	U		Animate Land**
1	C		Seal of Strength**
1	C		Jolreal's Favor
1	C		Treetop Bracers**
2	C		Wild Might
1	C		Invigorate*
1	C		Tranquility*
1	C		Skyshroud Claim**
2	U		Snag
2	U		Living Terrain
1	R		Vitalizing Wind

      Now so much of the game has changed since Prophecy that there are hundreds of ways that I could go with reconstructing this deck. Obviously the deck will never be able to be made back up to Standard grade because the entire deck would be replaced. I will edit this one to a vintage style.

       The purpose of this deck is overwhelming your opponent with large creatures. The original deck had some nice sized creatures, but most of them came with a drawback, such as Blastoderm. The main focus of the deck is going to be bringing out some big creatures as fast as possible, and then truly Pummel the opponent.

      So let’s get on with some things to remove. Since there have really been some amazing creatures in the past few sets, we will focus on upgrading things. I think that the first thing needed to be removed would be the Blastoderms and Hunted Wumpus’. The vanishing on Blastoderm is just annoying unless you are using a proliferate based deck, and the Hunted Wumpus’ drawback could MAJORLY backfire these days. While back in the day, the Deepwood Wolverine and Stampede Driver would have been ok, now, they are sorely unnecessary. Pygmy Razorback was a good card when this deck first came out, but now there exists a better option that we will get to, so pull the Pygmy Razorback’s out. The Darba is another card who had a new replacement for a similar ability, so pull the Darbas. Lumbering Satyr is one of those cards that is amazing IF you are matched up against another player using green. You would then hold it until you had a big enough army to kill your opponent, drop it, and walk in for the kill. But if you are not against another green player, you could kill yourself by playing it! Pull it, sideboard it if you think up a good sideboard to combine with this deck. Silverglade Elemental was a good way to search for a land back then, now there is another way that we should use instead. Pull the Silverglade Elemental. Vintara Elephant was a pretty decent creaturem but the “Rhystic Ability” was it’s drawback. If any player paid three generic mana, it would lose trample. These days, why leave it to chance, pull the elephant! Spitting Spider was fun, but again, there would be a better option, so pull the spider.

     Now to the spell part of the deck! I will leave most of the original spells alone, but I will change some of them. Like Wild Might should be pulled in favor of some better pump spells. Invigorate is another card that should be replaced. Same goes for Skyshroud Claim, Tranquility and Snag.

     That is a grand total of twenty cards to be replaced. Not all that bad considering that the deck is so old. There was a decent base, it just needs to be updated. So what newer cards are going in? Well, with all that space, we have lots of options. Let’s look at the rarer cards that could be added in for starters. If possible, adding in a Khalni Hydra is an excellent choice. Stomper Cub is another great creature for the mana. Spearbreaker Behemoth is an amazing creature that is indestructible and can make any of your creature’s power 5 or greater indestructible until end of turn for only one generic mana. Engulfing Slagwurm is an amazing creature that whenever it blocks or becomes blocked, it destroys the creature and gains you life equal to that creature’s toughness. I would definitely try and get my hands on Overwhelming Stampede’s. It gives all your creatures trample and pumps them all equal to the biggest creature you have out’s power. If unable to get your hands on an Overwhelming Stampede or two, go with Overrun. Out of Dark Ascension, the Predator Ooze is a great option for just three mana.

      For some of the other add ins, Blunt the Assault or Fog should replace the Snags. Harrow’s should replace the Skyshroud Claim’s and the Silvergalde Elemental. I would add in a couple Leatherback Baloths to cover some of the lower cost creatures removed, and Garruk’s Companion should replace the Pygmy Razorbacks. Any of the more recent pumps are fun and useful, such as Might of the Masses or Primal Bellow. A couple more Treetop Bracers also help out the punch of the deck.

     Balance out these additions to your liking, and perhaps add in some more fun ones as you see fit. The main emphases is to get out some big creatures fast, and Pummel your opponent.

     And there we have it! If there are any decks you would like to see reconstructed, just shoot me an e-mail with the deck name, and what format you would like to see it reconstructed to, and I will be happy to look into it! Also, should you just want to have a deck redesigned, feel free to submit one, and I’ll have a look at what I might be able to do for it.

      So until next time when I should begin reviewing the Dark Ascension decks, keep safe, and keep gaming!