This is the
deck that I'll be playing at the
Magic: the Gathering Regionals Championships on
April 13th, 2002. I'm going to the
tournament held in
Chicago, IL. The tournament format is
Type 2.
This deck may change between
today and
then.
EDIT: Ok...here's a few comments about my performance at Regionals. I ended up at 4-3-0 after seven rounds, when I had to drop so that we could get home before 5am. There were 10 rounds to be played. I'm pretty sure that had I finished I would have ended up at 5-5-0, judging by a constant 2-2-0 in the 4 rounds at
FNM both times that I've played it. All in all, definitely not the best deck out there, but it was a lot of fun to play.
The idea of this deck is pretty straightforward. Play your threats (Longbow Archer, Flowstone Charger, Goblin Legionnaire, Goblin Trenches), and clear the way for them with your
burn spells(Rage, Firebolt, Flametongue Kavu, Goblin Legionnaire, Grim Lavamancer). Keep your guys alive (Devoted Caretaker), and make them bigger (Glorious Anthem).
Lands (23):
10
Plains
8
Mountain
4
Battlefield Forge
1
Keldon Necropolis
Creatures (21):
3
Grim Lavamancer
2
Devoted Caretaker
2
Patrol Hound
4
Goblin Legionnaire
4
Longbow Archer
3
Flametongue Kavu
3
Flowstone Charger
Spells (16):
4
Firebolt
4
Glorious Anthem
3
Goblin Trenches
4
Urza's Rage
1
Worship
Sideboard (15):
2
Worship
2
Serra Angel
1
Earthquake
1
Wrath of God
1
Rout
2
Order/
Chaos
3
Disenchant
3
Circle of Protection: Black
Ok, now for why I chose some of the cards that I did.
- Longbow Archer
- The Longbow Archer is an excellent creature in general. 2/2 with first strike is pretty good in the first place, but when you add the fact that he can block flyers, we have a solid creature for my deck's defense. Especially with Glorious Anthem. Pumped up first-strikers are bombs. This card worked very well. He is really, really good.
- Flowstone Charger
- The Flowstone Charger is here mainly as early beef on the fourth turn. A 2/5 blocker that only gets bigger (hopefully) in the late game is a solid defense. And when your opponent plays Mutilate on the fourth turn, you are gravy to attack the next turn. This was a surprise bomb (a good thing). No one was prepared for him, and there were two matches where he wasn't needed for defense and I was able to swing every turn, often for seven damage or more due to the Glorious Anthems. Very quick game finisher.
- Firebolt
- There are a few possible spells that I could swap in instead of this. Shock is instant speed. Fiery Temper is instant as well as three points of damage instead of two. But Fiery Temper is only good if you can play it for it's madness cost. The biggest advantage that Firebolt has over these two, is that it has Flashback, so I can play it from my Graveyard later to burn another creature. I wish that I'd been playing Engulfing Flames instead of this, but it was useful for killing Braids.
- Glorious Anthem
- This is one of the two keys of the deck. Simply put, all of my creatures get +1/+1. Period. Between this and the... This was HUGE. If I got 2 out, I won the game. With so many creatures, making them all bigger is a good thing.
- Goblin Trenches
- ...I will ideally have many solid creatures on the board, which can either be used to attack, or as instant speed blockers. The last game, I had all four of my Glorious Anthems in play, and this. I sac'ed a few lands and took him out with 5 5/5 creatures the next turn.
- Worship
- This card will be sided in against decks heavy with large creatures. Likely three Firebolts will come out for these. Alternatively, I'll take out a Firebolt and two Devoted Caretakers if they are playing Mono-black Control with Nantuko Shade. There were a few games where this saved my butt, but mostly it was disenchant bait against B/W decks.
- Earthquake
- This can destroy any small creature based deck (such as this one, or Frog) This is a reset button, and will ideally be played when I can follow it up with a creature. as expected, this was useful both as a board-clearing measure, and as a final kill card.
- Wrath of God and Rout
- See above, but this takes out Spiritmonger in a B/G Braids deck as well. I was very happy when I top-decked this against a rampaging Spiritmonger. Mass destruction is great.