The Dictionary Deck-O-Pedia This thread is designed as an easy, quick-reference guide to decks from all formats - online and paper, casual and competitive. Many of these entries simply provide a brief overview/history of the deck, a sample decklist or two, variants (where applicable), and sometimes basic matchup information. If you're looking for a more in-depth primer, please check to see if there are any links at the end of the mini-primer. These are not intended to be full, in-depth primers (though some of the entries go more in-depth than others).
First and Foremost: This thread is *NOT* a "Post your decklists here" thread. The DDOP is designed as an informative reference for successful, tournament-caliber, famous, or popular decks. I don't mean to sound harsh, but this isn't where you go to post the "Cool Sliver Deck" you play in your casual group or the deck you win with at your local FNM.
There are a few more guidelines that I would like to go through: 1. Please sign up to do one or more primers by posting in the thread, or by sending me a Private Message. This way, we can avoid having people do individual primers of the same deck... in the event that multiple primers of the same deck are recieved, I will either consolidate them into one primer, or I will take the more descriptive/accurate primer. 2. If you wish to submit a primer to a deck, send the primer to me in a Private Message. Even though I'll be linking to each decktype from the Index Post, I'd rather not have the thread unneccessarily long due to duplicate versions (sumbissions plus final versions) of each primer. 3. Please, for the love of all things holy (or all things unholy, if you prefer), USE AUTOCARD. I have neither the time nor the patience to edit each primer as it is sent to me. If you can take the time to do a decent primer on the deck, you can take the time to stick [card] tags on the decklists. 4. Updated 8-31-2006 -- Deck tag guidelines included: I would appreciate it if you could try to use the following format: Spoiler:Show
I'm really trying to get these formats standardized; I plan on going back and reformatting the older primeres to suit this format (as best as possible), and I'd rather not do additional mundane work that could easily have been averted.
Without further ado, I present to you the Dictionary Deck-O-Pedia.
**Unlinked decks either do not have primers, or are included in a more general primer (such as BBS in Mono Blue Control)** **Decks such as "The Clock" are listed in the T section** **Decks defined by colors will be listed according to the text abbreviation for the lead color. (UG Aggro, for example, is listed under U.)**
The Basics: Channelball is a combo deck from Magic's earliest days. Originally, you could use any number of copies of a card in your deck, and there was no deck minimum. It won on turn 1. This made people cry. Then Magic stopped having moronic rules (or rather, a lack of rules to keep the game from being moronic). The 4-of rule was created and the deck minimum became 40 cards (later raised to 60). But the Channel/Fireball combo still randomly won games, causing Channel to be banned from tournament play.
Other Notes, Matchup Info, etc.: Channelball was never really a good deck after the 4-card rule and 40-card minimum came about, but it was still infamous, and it still made people mad. To this day, people think of Channelball when they think of turn 1 wins, even though the deck is a horrible example of a turn 1 win. People often refer to Type 1 as the format in which Channel + Fireball exists, even though the combo isn't viable in Type 1 at all, and wouldn't be even if the deck was allowed to run 4 Channel and 4 Black Lotus. Channelball may be a crappy deck using today's rules, but it remains an example of why we have the deckbuilding rules that we have.
Desire and TwiddleDesire By Zerg0nator and Skankhair
The Basics: Desire is a combo deck based around Minds Desire. It's playable in extended and used to be playable in T2. In type 1, desire was restricted even before it came out, but the type 1 version has enough brokeness to go straight for the kill - Tendrils of Agony without building up to a preliminary desire.
The ideal play for a type 2 version of desire would result in a turn 2 kill, which may sound amazing, and it was amazing once in a blue moon, but overall the deck was terribly inconsistent and got stomped by anything faster than it. Even control decks, weak as they were during Mirrodin-Onslaught type 2 could easily deal with desire by countering a crucial piece of the combo. Plus, there's always the sideboarded Stifle that wrecks the deck in one shot.
Desire (Extended) and TwiddleDesire (old Extended, old T2) decks both try to play several spells in one turn thanks to untappers (cards than untap lands after you play them like Snap in Desire, or cards like Twiddle and Dreams Grip in Twiddle Desire) to fuel a Minds Desire with a decent Storm count. Then, you use use Mind's Desire to play a bunch more spells for free to get up to a Storm of 9 to play a lethal Tendrils of Agony.
TwiddleDesire was popular in Extended for a while, but Extended Desire decks no longer use Twiddle and Dream's Grip.
The Basics: Back in the day there was a combo deck called Doomsday, and it was powerful enough to go and get its bad self restricted. It was based around playing Doomsday with two cards in hand, and getting a stack of the following: Timetwister Regrowth Black Lotus Lion's Eye Diamond Stroke of Genius Of course, you had to have two cards in hand, or the combo wouldn't work. To get the combo up and running, you play Doomsday, getting the aforementioned stack. You must have two cards in hand and 3 mana to do so. Pass the turn and draw into Timetwister. Play it, leaving it as the only card left in your graveyard, and then play Black Lotus and Lion's Eye Diamond. Break (sacrifice) the Black Lotus to play Regrowth, and in response to the Regrowth, break Lion's Eye Diamond for blue mana. Timetwister comes back into your hand and you have 4 mana, 3 with which to play the Timetwister, and 1 left over. Keep repeating this loop until you have enough mana to kill your opponent.
Other Notes, Matchup Info, etc.: After the bannings, nothing was to be heard of Doomsday for years. Along comes September of 2004. The B/R announcement comes with a mild shock; Doomsday is to be unrestricted, effective the 20th. Many teams begin working on breaking Doomsday again. Many focus on the Helm of Awakening/Ancestral Recall/Conjurers Bauble/Disciple of the Vault combo. But, like many times before, Team Meandeck plans to break the mold. Early in october their stack is leaked: Ancestral Recall Black Lotus Dark Ritual Mind's Desire Beacon of Destruction For this combo, play Doomsday and pass the turn if you have (UB). Play Ancestral Recall into Black Lotus, Dark Ritual, and Mind's Desire, and then play Dark Ritual and Black Lotus to play Mind's Desire with a Storm count of 4. 1 Mind's Desire resolves revealing Beacon of Destruction, and then you play Beacon of Destruction, dealing 5 damage to your opponent, and shuffling it back in to be revealed by Mind's Desire 3 more times. Up to this point, the team had been planning to play the deck at SCG's Power Nine II, but since the stack had been leaked, only Steve Menendian played the deck. He went to top 8. Many people thought the deck would replace TPS, but because of the deck's fragility, it hasn't been used as often as expected..
The Basics: Originally designed by Tooru Maegawa before Scourge came out, Gobvantage is based on the Goblin Recruiter/Goblin Ringleader draw engine, along with Goblin Matron to help fetch the Goblin Recruiter and Goblin Lackey to power out the massive amounts of Goblins that are drawn. At the time, the deck didn't quite work so well. But once Goblin Warchief, and Siege-Gang Commander were printed, the deck took off. A Japanese team called Fireball Pro updated the deck with the new Goblins and took Extended by storm. The deck's power in Extended and T1.5 caused Goblin Lackey and Goblin Recruiter to be banned in Extended and later Goblin Recruiter to be banned in T1.5. The deck was especially problematic once Goblin Charbelcher was printed, as it has obvious synergy with the Goblin Recruiter. “Seething Gobvantage” was a variant that used Seething Song and was popular in T1.5 before Goblin Recruiter was banned.
The Decklist: Jin Okamoto’s Old Extended GobvantageShow
Other Notes, Matchup Info, etc.: Gobvantage is similar to Food Chain Goblins (See Food Chain Goblins), and is sort of the precursor to that deck. Gobvantage and FCG shared play in Extended and T1.5 before the bannings took them both out. In Type 1, however, Gobvantage is pretty much strictly inferior to Food Chain Goblins, and is now just a deck for casual players who like to relive history, or cannot afford the mana fixing and acceleration required to properly run FCG.
The Basics: Machine Head is a Black/Red Aggro/control deck which Tom van de Logt drove to a first place finish in the Type 2 World Championship of 2001. The deck uses early control then drops large beatdown creatures, often with the help of Dark Ritual. This allows it to slow faster decks down, and then start playing bigger creatures than the other deck can handle. This archtype never saw much play in other formats but remains a fan favorite of players who played T2 during its era.
The Decklist: Tom van De Logt’s Worlds 2001 1st Place Machine HeadShow
The Basics: Generally, a ninja deck, no matter if it is blue, black, or blue and black, will use cheap creatures, which are used to Ninjutsu out the ninjas, who all have abilities that trigger when they deal combat damage to a player. Therefore, the cheap creatures used often have evasion, like flying (blue) or fear (black). Since they will go in and out of play often, creatures with “comes into play” abilities are often used. Examples of cheap, evasive creatures include: Sage Owl, Ravenous Rats, Nezumi Cutthroat, Spiketail Hatchling, Teardrop Kami, and Thalakos Seer. Of course, Ornithopter has to be mentioned. Its casting cost of zero means that it is free to cast after a Ninjutsu, which may have eaten all your mana. Plus, it even has evasion! Late game, when you have Higure, the Still Wind, Ornithopter is usually a dead card, however. After you gotten some ninjas out and gained/are gaining card/board advantage (midgame), one of the Lords (Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni or Higure, the Still Wind) will aid you, and with Higure, the Still Wind making your ninjas unblockable, you therefore gain better/more card/board advantage (also because he fetches more ninjas to swarm with). Support cards for the ninjas vary, but most often they will be creature kill or counterspells to protect your ninjas.
Other Notes, Matchup Info, etc.: Ninja decks are generally acknowledged as weak. The main reason for this is that they are weenie decks, but are unable to swarm before the mid/late game, which is too late. What the deck tries to do is also very mana-consuming, so you cannot always do everything you want to do in a turn. If ninjas were to ever be competitive, it would likely be in block. It is possible to replace Ornithopter with Nezumi Cutthroat, and the Sage Owl with Soratami Cloudskater or Teardrop Kami.
The Basics: Replenish uses cards like Frantic Search, Careful Study, and Attunement to draw and discard a lot of cards, then Replenish to put all of the discarded Enchantments into play at the same time. The deck was popular in Urza's Block Constructed and in T2. When Masques came out, T2 Replenish picked up some neat tools in Parallax Wave and Parallax Tide. The classic win came from Opalescence, then using your army of Enchantments to attack for the win (controlling the board with the Parallax cards and stalling with Energy Field). Later (in other formats) Pandemonium/Saproling Burst (Pandeburst) became the standard kill.
The Decklist: Tom van de Logt’s Worlds 2000 5th Place ReplenishShow
The Basics: Samurai is variant of the classic White Weenie archetype that focuses on Samurai creature type from Kamigawa block. It's mostly for flavour reasons, but samurai also have some tribal synergy. If you're looking to play competitive magic, an unconstrained white weenie deck would be more practical, but nonetheless Samurai enjoy a great popularity among casual players.
Since samurai are a creature type specific to Kamigawa block (and it's quite likely to stay that way) a Samurai deck is most competitive when opponents are restricted to Kamigawa block as well. Despite the fact that Samurai are also present in [card=nezumi ronin]black[/card], [card=fumiko]red[/card], [card=isao]green[/card] and even [card=mistform ultimus]blue[/card], the decks built around them tend to be mono-white.
For more information on how the deck should play, check the White Weenie description.
Here's a sample of a mono-white samurai deck, legal in Kamigawa Block. Other colors can easily be splashed by adding 4x Kentaro, the Smiling Cat and a few lands of the appropriate colors (just to make sure)
