Magic Card A Day: DekTek

As you can probably tell, this deck is meant to go extremely fast and ruin my opponent's early game. Ideally, starting turn 2, I can keep my opponent from pretty much doing anything. I have 11 cards in the deck that force a double discard, which is very powerful and even moreso now since Treasure Cruise has been banned. I don't really need that many creatures either, since my opponent probably won't get the chance to play them. If necessary, I can swing for beats with my Factories and hastey Rats. The Cursed Scrolls are there for topdeck situations wherein my Racks or Afflictions aren't killing the opponent for some reason.

The sideboard is definitely something that catches people's attention, for two cards in particular. The first is the pair of Ashen Riders. A few people think that, because I have Deathrites in the sidebaord, I'm going to be stupid and attempt to hard cast them, but that will never happen. They are in there purely for two match-ups: Show and Tell and Dream Halls. Nothing is more satisfying in Game 2 to see the look on an opponent's face when I exile their Emrakul, the Aeons Torn with my Rider. The other odd card is the trio of Drown in Sorrows. I had Bile Blights in there originally, but I thought that it wasn't working out the way I wanted. It dealt with Young Pyromancer tokens, but not with the Pyromancer itself. Same with Elves and Goblins. Then I thought: what do I care about that has 3 toughness? Not much it turns out. Even though it's one turn slower, I think Drowns work better than Blights simply because, in the games that I bring them in, it's a 3 mana Damnation with a Scry 2 trigger.

So that's Thief's Punishment. It's probably my favourite of my current Legacy decks to run just because it's so consistent and has a decent win ratio. It presents my opponents with some tough decisions sometimes (especially control players) and it's just a fun deck to play.

Oh, if you didn't get the reference, thieves historically lost their hands in some Arabic countries. So there you go.

Wednesday, 7 January 2015

DekTek: The Sacred Order of Mana (EDH)

Here's a new segment where I talk about some of my own decks and share the list with you. So here's the first deck: The Sacred Order of Mana, my Seton, Krosan Protector EDH.

Creature (36)

1x Arbor Elf
1x Argothian Elder
1x Chameleon Colossus
1x Citanul Woodreaders
1x Civic Wayfinder
1x Craterhoof Behemoth
1x Dungrove Elder
1x Elvish Archdruid
1x Elvish Harbinger
1x Elvish Mystic
1x Eternal Witness
1x Farhaven Elf
1x Fyndhorn Elder
1x Fyndhorn Elves
1x Gilt-Leaf Archdruid
1x Greenweaver Druid
1x Juniper Order Druid
1x Kamahl, Fist of Krosa
1x Karametra's Acolyte
1x Krosan Restorer
1x Ley Druid
1x Llanowar Elves
1x Nylea, God of the Hunt
1x Omnath, Locus of Mana
1x Ondu Giant
1x Regal Force
1x Seedguide Ash
1x Seeker of Skybreak
1x Siege Behemoth
1x Solemn Simulacrum
1x Somberwald Sage
1x Soul of the Harvest
1x Treefolk Harbinger
1x Voyaging Satyr
1x Wolfbriar Elemental
1x Yavimaya Elder

Sorcery (13)

1x Collective Unconscious
1x Creeping Renaissance
1x Cultivate
1x Genesis Wave
1x Green Sun's Zenith
1x Kodama's Reach
1x Overwhelming Stampede
1x Praetor's Counsel
1x Reap and Sow
1x Regrowth
1x Skyshroud Claim
1x Sylvan Scrying
1x Tempt with Discovery

Artifact (7)

1x Akroma's Memorial
1x Emerald Medallion
1x Expedition Map
1x Lightning Greaves
1x Loreseeker's Stone
1x Staff of Domination
1x Thousand-Year Elixir

Planeswalker (3)

1x Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury
1x Garruk, Caller of Beasts
1x Garruk, Primal Hunter

Land (34)

1x Cavern of Souls
1x Deserted Temple
1x Dryad Arbor
24x Forest
1x Gaea's Cradle
1x Maze of Ith
1x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
1x Petrified Field
1x Reliquary Tower
1x Wirewood Lodge
1x Yavimaya Hollow

Enchantment (6)

1x Aluren

1x Concordant Crossroads

1x Helix Pinnacle

1x Mana Reflection

1x Mirri's Guile

1x Rowen

So, what does this deck do? It's basically mono green Storm. Ever seen how Legacy Elves plays? It's basically like that except I don't need to wait for 2 other Elves for Heritage Druid. My commander, Seton, allows all my Druids (which are basically all my creatures) to become Llanowar Elves the turn they come in, so I get a lot of mana early on. Once that happens, I can easily start stomping on my opponent and force them into panic mode before they have set-up.

Superstars (that aren't obvious):

This guy is probably the primo removal target in my deck. At least, during the second and subsequent games. As I said before, my commander lets my Druids tap for mana the turn they hit the field which means they can be used to cast more Druids. This card makes sure that I have that next Druid in my hand. If I fail to draw enough Druids, I can always just remove a player from the game by stealing all their lands.

This is a magic time machine that warps you from turn 4 to turn 6 (at least). That in itself doesn't make it very magical, but the fact that the Forests come in untapped, meaning I can follow this up with more ramp spells or more creatures (which are basically ramp spells in this deck).

Seeing as my commander only costs 3, playing him after a boardwipe is not that much of an issue (much easier if I have Aluren out). Even if I tap out in order to play both him and this, I can probably get most of my boardstate back in the following turn. If it happens again, this card has flashback and I can just recur my board a second time.

So yeah, this is one of my favourite EDH decks. It's not the cheapest to build due to cards like Gaea's Cradles and Regal Force (although I use a gold-bordered Cradle because no one here cares) but it is really fun and quite competitive. If you're looking for a mono-green competitive EDH deck, this one is a great place to start.

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Saturday, 24 January 2015

DekTek: Thief's Punishment