Super Lucky Guy gets to Spend $350 - and You can Watch!

Years and years ago, Jamie Wakefield was one of the web's best Magic writers. He wrote tournament reports. He also referred to himself as "Super Lucky Guy" when he drew just right or got a lucky pairing. I often use that phrase, when I topdeck the nutz for the win, or when my only out is having my opponent draw land for six straight turns - and he does. Or when I win the MTGOTraders.com drawing for an Xbox or a $350 gift cert. 

Super Lucky Guy!

MTGOTraders.com runs special promotions every month. Sometimes it is give-aways. Sometimes it is special discounts. Sometimes it is extra credits to use on their BOTs. This is the first time I have won a monthly drawing, but I have taken advantage of the various discounts over the years, and have spent many times what I won at MTGOTraders. MTGOTraders is a solid and reliable seller, and almost always has the cards I need, in stock, and they deliver quickly. Over time, I have probably bought cards from a thousand different retailers, counting both online and paper, and I keep coming back to two - StarCity Games for paper cards and MTGOTraders for online. I know I will get my cards quickly, with no hassle and no chance of being ripped off, and at a fair price. (I've said that before, several times, and that's before they handed me a small fortune just because.) <grin>  

Now I get to spend it. Yay!

The first question is whether I want to wait and spend some of it on M10. I should, but I am impatient. The virtual money is burning a virtual hole in my pocket. I'll see if I have enough current needs to use it up. I suspect I do. I'll start with Standard, then move on to other formats. Before that, though, a bit on where I am currently at.

I have been playing online since early Kamigawa block. (I would have started earlier, but telephone service in our rural area made it impossible before then.) I have been spending a monthly budget of $100, plus the credits I earn writing articles like this one. I have also won a lot of packs over that time. As a result, I have playsets of pretty much all the commons, and most uncommons, from Ravnica block forward. I have the sort of rares you get from draft and sealed leavings. I have also bought various rares, as needed. No surprise - I have more complete collections of sets that were more fun to draft.

I have also made a habit of not selling any cards unless I already have a playset. (In paper, I often keep multiple playsets, so I can have a couple casual decks together at the same time.) That can really save you some money. For example, I have a playset of Polymorphs already, from back in the days when they cost $0.10. (Okay - I guess they still do. Is no one else testing the Polymorph into Progenitus deck?) That habit does save a bunch of TIX when some bad/cheap card suddenly explodes in value, since I don't have to buy them at full cost. I paid a buck a peice for the Time Warps I have - and I'm wishing I had bought more, back then.  

Standard

For Standard, I have a favorite deck.  Typically, I play - and often build from scratch - a new deck every paper event. I simply like variety.  For the first time in a long, long time, I took the exact same deck to the weekly Standard event at Misty Mountain two weeks in a row.  I simply had too much fun a week ago - and last night was even better.  A week ago, I lost one match to some bad draws and a misplay or two on my part.  Last night, I won the 26 player event, and did not drop a single game all night.  Sweet.

The deck has a very simple idea - play cascade spells, and cascade into something interesting.  Better yet - cascade into another cascade spell.  Here's the deck I played.

I Love a Cascade!

Pre-M10 Standard deck inspired by Jesse Hawkins

Creatures 4 Kitchen Finks 4 Enlisted Wurm 4 Bloodbraid Elf 1 Enigma Sphinx 1 Lord of Extinction 14 cards Other Spells 4 Captured Sunlight 4 Incendiary Command 4 Wrath of God 3 Primal Command 2 Bituminous Blast 2 Maelstrom Pulse 19 cards

Lands 3 Vivid Grove 2 Vivid Crag 3 Vivid Meadow 2 Wooded Bastion 1 Rugged Prairie 1 Forest 1 Plains 4 Treetop Village 2 Fire-lit Thicket 1 Llanowar Wastes 1 Karplusan Forest 2 Graven Cairns 4 Reflecting Pool 27 cards Sideboard  3 Anathemancer 3 Cloudthresher 3 Volcanic Fallout 3 Fulminator Mage 3 Path to Exile 15 cards

Yes, I have - once - cast Enigma Sphinx, which cascaded into Enlisted Wurm, which cascaded into Bituminous Blast, which cascaded into Bloodbraid Elf, which cascaded into Path to Exile.  Yes, I won that game.

I also own this entire deck online.  (It's nice when a big chunk of a deck is all uncommons or two- and three- ofs, isn't it?)  I'm enjoying it there - and my online version varies slightly because I actually have 4 Maelstrom Pulses online.  In paper, Lord of Extinction is in the deck just because I don't own another paper Pulse.  Online - well, here's another super lucky guy story for you.  First, I won an Alara Reborn prerelease, then did well in a couple others, and some sealeds.  I also seemed to be one of the few players that knew how to draft triple Reborn - and by the time triple Reborn drafts stopped, I had playsets of all the commons and uncommons, and my collection had 3 packs of Shards, 1 Conflux and 50 reborn packs.  I also had exactly one Maelstrom Pulse, and the damned things were 32 TIX plus.  I decided to just open a pack, and see if I could get lucky.  (Yes, selling the packs would have been better, absent amazingly lucky opens, but everyone had Reborn packs, prices were low and I had no spare time to try to sell them.)

• Busting pack #1:  Maelstrom Pulse!
• Busting pack #2:  Filigree Angel
• Busting pack #3:  Maelstrom Pulse!!
• Busting pack #4:  Maelstrom Pulse!!!

Absolutely true story - and that probably means that I will never, ever be able complain about my luck in busting packs again. Super Lucky Guy. 

I will have to modify this deck once M10 arrives / becomes legal. For my paper tournaments, that happens next week. I will lose the painlands (Llanowar Wastes and Karplusan Forest.) I will also lose Wrath of God and Treetop Village. The painlands can probably be replaced with other lands - either the new duals or the Alara trilands. No problem.

Wrath of God is a huge loss, though. Wrath was my answer to token hoards. I need a replacement - and nothing like it exists at the four mana sweet spot. The next closest effect is Hallowed Burial. The interaction of Wrath and Kitchen Finks is different than the interaction of Finks and Hallowed Burial, but since my deck often cascades completely through several times, that's no biggie. Paying five instead of four is. It may be too late.

Nonetheless, I will have to test this - which means that filling up my playset of Hallowed Burials will be my first use of the $350.  

Losing Treetop Village is also a problem. This deck is really more of a control deck than anything else, but it still occasionally killed people with the Villages. I can replace some with multicolored lands, which should help smooth my mana a bit, but I probably need a new finisher. It can't be an X-spell, because I cascade a lot. One possibility might be Baneslayer Angel. I can cascade into her with a Wurm or hard cast her, and she should win games. Of course, I just suggested cutting a land for yet another 5 drop, so this may all change. Time will tell. 

Or I could just change over to the Elf combo decks, which also spends time bouncing lands with Primal Command. (Note to self - make sure you have five Primal Commands. The card is insane right now.)

I have lots of other Standard cards to consider. I am not going to buy much Lorwyn or Shadowmoor block at the moment - the prices will drop when we get closer to rotation, and there is nothing I really need right now. The exception might be anything that is really cheap, and might be useful in some strange combo sometime, or cards that do something no other cards do. Maralen of the Mornsong is an example - a quirky little card for 12 cents. I may complete my playset because, if a Maralen deck does suddenly appear in Extended, I won't have to spend the big bucks. In the deep, dark past, I spent $0.15 a card completing my playsets of Hypergenesis and Flash (long before Flash was restricted.) On the downside, Maralen is a creature, and I almost never buy creatures just before a rotation. Their prices almost always drop. For example, I don't have playsets of Galepowder Mage or Grimoire Thief, but I doubt I'll get them - the odds of needing to play them in Extended or Classic are pretty slim. A card like Fathom Trawl, on the other hand, might be worth considering. Preeminent Captain might be worth grabbing, simply because M10 has lots of soldiers (although Kithkin are still better.)

A few cards will be playable in future standard, Extended and possibly even wider formats, which makes them worth having. Bitterblossom, Cryptic Command, Mutavault, Thoughtseize, Windbrisk Heights, etc. will be playable after the rotation. The mono-colored planeswalkers are also worth having, since they are reprinted in M10. However, I will wait for closer to the rotation to buy other Lorwyn and Shadowmoor block cards. The one card I will buy now, however, is Doran, the Siege Tower. He is cheap enough (mana cost-wise) to be playable in Extended, and maybe even Classic, and while I have kept holding off and waiting for him to drop in price, he hasn't. I play Doran sorts of decks fairly often, so I might as well take the plunge.  

I also want to try out Sygg, River Cutthroat in RB and maybe a Pat Chapin style BR Blood, and I cut Sygg at the very end, last time I went shopping for bargains. Black Sygg was $0.15 or so back then. See why you need to buy the bargains when you can? The other bargain card I really thought hard about buying, and passed on, was Bloom Tender, which was also several for a buck. Of course, buying bargains can also backfire...

Normally, my first goal in buying staples for future play is to get the multicolored lands. I don't think I will do that now. I have 2-3 of all the filter lands. More importantly, Wizards is printing lots of good lands in set after set. Amazingly enough, cards like Fetid Heath may not be good enough for Extended, at least not enough to need playsets.

That seems so weird.  

Let's move on to Shards of Alara. I will buy bargains here. I will be filling in playsets of pretty much anything not obviously bad. Immortal Coil , for example, is obviously bad. Gather Specimens, OTOH, could be funny in a multiplayer game, especially in response to Hypergenesis, so I might drop a dime to get a copy or two- but not four. The same is true of expensive (mana-wise) cards like Cruel Ultimatum - I want a couple, but I can't see playing four in any deck, so three should suffice. My biggest question mark is with cards like Godsire. I have just one - and they are really cheap. Maybe I'll get one or two if I have a little bit left at the end - but probably not.

Actually, I'm a bit ahead of the game, here, since the order that won me the gift certificate was, itself, for $175 worth of gap-filling cards. I have my playsets of Sedraxis Specters and Broodmate Dragons already. Actually, I have drafted a ton of Alara block, so I'm pretty good on most things, but every so often I find some strange deck I want to try, and need some cards. For example, this is cute.

 

Shennanigans Esper Control

Pre-M10 Standard deck - Todd Godbersen

Creatures 4 Master Transmuter 4 Tidehollow Sculler 3 Ethersworn Shieldmage 3 Master of Etherium 2 Sharuum the Hegemon 2 Filigree Angel 2 Sphinx Sovereign 2 Ethersworn Canonist 1 Sphinx Summoner 1 Ethersworn Adjudicator 24 cards Other Spells 4 Cryptic Command 3 Agony Warp 2 Tezzeret the Seeker 2 Scourglass 2 Cave of Koilos 11 cards

Lands 4 Adarkar Wastes 4 Reflecting Pool 3 Mystic Gate 2 Sunken Ruins 2 Fetid Heath 2 Arcane Sanctum 1 Underground River 1 Island 1 Plains 1 Swamp 21 cards Sideboard 2 Meddling Mage 3 Path to Exile 3 Esper Charm 2 Runed Halo 2 Oblivion Ring 1 Sower of Temptation 13 cards

I want to try this, and I need a few random cards - 2 Master Transmuters, a Sphinx, etc.  Probably worth it, since I have the bucks, and the cards are pretty cheap.  As it stands, I can play the deck for a couple more weeks.  Once the new set arrives, I will have to fix the mana.  It will be tempting to try the Esper triland, Arcane Sanctum, but this deck does have a bunch of cards it wants to play on turn two.  Too many lands that come into play tapped may hurt. We will see.  Until then, however, it might be fun to try this out.

***

Argh! - I'm not always Super Lucky Guy.   I had nearly finished the article, with 6 more decklists and about 2k more words, all linked and formatted, and IE crashed.  I lost the whole thing.  My fault for not saving often enough, but - dammit.

Start again.

***

Another card that I will look for, to fill my playset, is Dauntless Escort.  Yes, it is not quite as good as it used to be, but it is still very good.  It is one of the cards that gives me the most problems when playing the Cascade deck.  It was the reason that I added Path to Exile to the sideboard - not that they actually killed it, but it was something that force the sacrifice EoT.

The good decks, in the upcoming Standard format, are going to be Kithkin, maybe RGb aggro, and probably some UW control deck built around (Reveilark) - but OBV not Seismic Assault, since that is leaving.  However, just for grins, I may try Elementals. 

Elementals

Frederico Bastos - Winner, Portuguese Nationals

Creatures 4 Bloom Tender 1 Cloudthresher 4 Flamekin Harbinger 1 Fulminator Mage 4 Horde of Notions 4 Incandescent Soulstoke 1 Mirror Entity 4 Mulldrifter 3 Ranger of Eos 4 Reveillark 4 Smokebraider 3 Soul Warden 37 cards Other Spells 1 Crib Swap 1 cards

Lands 4 Ancient Ziggurat 1 Battlefield Forge 1 Exotic Orchard 1 Forest 1 Island 1 Mountain 1 Plains 4 Primal Beyond 4 Reflecting Pool 3 Vivid Crag 1 Vivid Meadow 22 cards

I need a couple Primal Beyonds, but they are not too expensive.  I would also need the Bloom Tenders, but those might be something I want to pick up for future use.  They are not great, yet, but they seem like potential combo pieces.  This deck has a lot of fun creatures, and tutoring, which is the sort of thing I like to play.  I haven't tried it yet, in either paper or online, but I should.

Looking over the M10 spoiler, I see some interesting themes.  White is getting soldiers as a major subtheme.  It might be worthwhile getting a second Preeminent Captain.  Kithkin will be the most played deck initially, but soldiers might be better - the toughness-pumping common is a better answer to Infest than Wizened Cenn.

Early next week we should see some results from this weekend's M10 PTQs.  I have seen everything from Time Warp decks to TurboFog with actual Fogs being proposed.  Time will tell - but I may pick up a couple Savor the Moments on spec. 

Extended

Right now, I am playing a Zoo deck in Extended, when I play that format.  I also have a Trinket Mage control deck, although that could use some updating.  Looking at the most recent online Top 8s, I can't say that I am driven to buy anything. 

The winning deck was Astral Slide / Life from the Loam.  In three months, Slide rotates.  I have Slides, but not some of the other parts of a classic Slide deck.  I have little desire to get them.  However, this is not really a classic Slide deck

Loam Slide

oarsman - winner, Extended PE

Creatures 3 Eternal Witness 4 Kitchen Finks 4 Tarmogoyf 11 cards Other Spells 3 Astral Slide 2 Crime/Punishment 3 Darkblast 2 Engineered Explosives 3 Life from the Loam 4 Path to Exile 1 Raven's Crime 2 Thoughtseize 1 Worm Harvest 21 cards

Lands 4 Barren Moor 1 Bloodstained Mire 2 Forest 1 Ghost Quarter 1 Godless Shrine 2 Overgrown Tomb 2 Plains 3 Secluded Steppe 1 Swamp 2 Temple Garden 4 Tranquil Thicket 1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth 4 Windswept Heath 28 cards

OTOH, the cycling lands also cycle out come October, so as much as I love playing Eternal Witness, I'll pass. 

A couple Affinity decks also made Top 8.  I have pretty much all of the Affinity cards except the (Arcbound Ravagers).  I could get a playset for under $40, and they would be playable in Extended for a couple years, and in Classic.  I have been thinking about Affinity for a long time, but it isn't quite my style.  We'll see.

Tezzator

kerick - 5th , Extended PE

Creatures 4 Trinket Mage 3 Vendilion Clique 7 cards Other Spells 3 Chalice of the Void 4 Chrome Mox 2 Cryptic Command 2 Engineered Explosives 1 Ensnaring Bridge 3 Firespout 1 Pithing Needle 1 Relic of Progenitus 3 Spell Snare 3 Stifle 3 Tezzeret the Seeker 4 Thirst for Knowledge 2 Vedalken Shackles 32 cards

Lands 2 Academy Ruins 1 Breeding Pool 3 Flooded Strand 1 Great Furnace 6 Island 1 Miren, the Moaning Well 4 Polluted Delta 1 Riptide Laboratory 1 Seat of the Synod 2 Steam Vents 22 cards

This is more my style. I like mid-range control with tutors, and this is closer to that. I just bought my fourth Chrome Mox, a card which I expect will continue to see Extended play until Mirrodin rotates out. I need a couple cards for this deck: a couple Tezzeret the Seeker and some Stifles. I have the Chalices (bought on spec, at a quarter each, way back when), and the Engineered Explosives and Shackles. (The order which won me the gift certificate completed my playset of EE, etc.)

The final archetype for Extended, at least at the moment, is Hypergenesis. The idea is simple: cascade into Hypergenesis, then drop better creatures that your opponent. Here's one of the two Hypergenesis decks in the Top 8.

 

Hypergenesis

KwaaartzZ- 6th , Extended PE

Creatures 2 Akroma, Angel of Wrath 4 Bogardan Hellkite 4 Hellkite Overlord 1 Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund 1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker 4 Magister Sphinx 1 Rorix Bladewing 4 Simian Spirit Guide 3 Street Wraith 24 cards Other Spells 4 Ardent Plea 2 Demonic Dread 3 Hypergenesis 4 Serum Powder 4 Violent Outburst 17 cards

Lands 4 City of Brass 4 Forbidden Orchard 3 Gemstone Caverns 4 Gemstone Mine 4 Tendo Ice Bridge 19 cards

A couple notes. First, I have the Serum Powders already. Over a year ago, I was recommending them as a semi-long shot investment. I think I got mine for $0.12 each. I also have the Forbidden Orchards and Hypergenesiseseses (Hypergenesi?) because I never trade crap rares until after I have playsets. The problem would be the Hellkite Overlords and Magister Sphinxes. I don't have them, and I am not really excited about buying them right now, since they are in a chase deck. However, this does show why I'm wondering about cards like Godsire. If a deck involving, say, Elvish Piper, Godsire, (Thousand Year Elixir) and Pandemonium, just to throw an idea out there, were to be created, it would be better to but the cards now, while they are all cheap, than to wait until the price spikes. (Note - just checked prices on the Magister Sphinxes - not expensive.)

Classic

The first time I wrote this article, before the crash, I had talked a bit about the Classic metagame and added some decklists, but other writers on this very site do that a whole lot better.  I'll just reference them.  Read Walkerdog, especially his article on Merfolk (Look Out it's Fishface), anything and everything in Whiffy's Lunchbox, and the Scoop Phase articles by Motu, and - I think I'm missing someone.  I know I am, but I don't want to try to do an article search while working in the editor.  I have lost stuff that way before.  

Classic decks may change, but most use a basic toolbox.  Here's what I could consider necessities, assuming you don't or can't simply choose a single archetype and work solely on that deck.  

The Onslaught fetchlands:  It has taken me several years, but I now have playsets of everything: Polluted Delta through Flooded Strand to Windswept Heath - so fine.

The dual lands:  I have my playsets of Underground Sea, Tundra, Badlands, Taiga and Savannah.  Worth the effort and expense.

The mana control cards:  Chalice of the Void, Trinisphere, Blood Moon, Magus of the Moon, Pox, Smallpox etc.

The tutors:  Demonic Tutor, Vampiric Tutor, Demonic Consultation, Imperial Seal, Mystical Tutor, etc.

The essential counters:  Force of Will, Stifle, Daze, Spell Snare, etc.

The essential creatures:  Tarmogoyf, Trinket Mage, Dark Confidant, Tombstalker, assorted merfolk, etc.   

Hand destruction:  Thoughtseize, Duress, Hymn to Tourach, maybe Cabal Therapy, etc.

This is only a partial list, but I think I will aim for playsets of the non-restricted ones, and at least one copy of each of the restricted cards.

I could continue like this, but that list might become 200 cards long - and I would still have missed things. Instead, I'm going to walk through my shopping list, set by set.

Invasion

• Aura Shards:  so good in mutliplayer.  I believe that, someday, Wizards may repair multiplayer, and I may start playing it again.  I want to recreate some of my old decks - see below - or build interesting decks using cards like Aura Shards.  
• Artifact Mutation:  see the deck below
• Pernicious Deed:  I have a pair.  I want three, which is usually enough to fill sideboard slots.
• Vindicate:  I really want a playset.   I liked BK's deck from GP Chicago, and SInkhole may actually be in MED III.  Maybe.  If so, Vindicate is amazing.
• Orim's Chant:   even with $350 to spend, some things are just too expensive. 

Odyssey Block

• Burning Wish, Cunning Wish, Living Wish, etc.:  yes, they were nerfed, but they are still pretty good.  Burning Wish for sure, because it can be copies 5-7 of various combo pieces.    
• Devastating Dreams:  I forgot to list this in mana denial, above.  Great with Life from the Loam
• Terravore:  just for old times sake - I used to play a Terravore / Armageddon deck in paper.  It rocks in multiplayer.
• Solitary Confinement  very powerful effect - and it could be cute in a Zur the Enchanter deck
• Haunting Echoes  great spell, but I will wait for the M10 copies to drive the price way down.
• Grim Lavamancer & Sulfuric Vortex:  red staples.  I occassionally play red burn, and they work in that deck.  

Mirage Block

I have finished playing with my sealed decks in this format, and although I still have some draft sets, I doubt I'll play the format again.  It is time to fill in some of the holes in my collection.  (Some of them - when it comes to Mirage, it's big holes, small collection.)

• Lion's Eye Diamond:  It is so blasted expensive, but it is still amazingly good mana acceleration for the decks that can work around it's limitations.
• Phyrexian Dreadnought:  so big, so cheap - and so pricey!  I have one for Singleton, but I think that's enough. Classic appears to have moved beyond Stifle / Nought.
• Null Rod:  an insane hoser.  I'm amazed that this is so expensive, and Cursed Totem, the equivalent creature hoser,  is so cheap.
• Doomsday  This is a combo enabler.  Right now, it doesn't have a combo to enable, but that may change.  It might be worth buying on spec.
• Tithe, Firestorm, Helm of Awakening, City of Solitude, Serenity - all have their uses.  Helm + Sensei's Divining Top = draw your deck.
• Reflect Damage, Energy Bolt, Rashida Scalebane, Undiscovered Paradise, Tranquil Grove,  - all fun cards for multiplayer & casual
• Desertion: a "fun" counterspell.  I want at least one, for Singleton
• Natural Order:  I doubt these are really playable, but I would like to be able to play Secret Force online someday.   Here's that deck. 

Secret Force

Jamie Wakefield

Creatures 4 Llanowar Elves 4 Fyndhorn Elves 3 Elvish Lyrist 4 Wall of Roots 3 Uktabi Orangutan 4 Spike Feeder  2 Spike Weaver 3 Verdant Force 25 cards Other Spells 4 Creeping Mold 4 Natural Order 3 Overrun 11 cards

Lands 3 Wasteland 3 Gaea's Cradle 16 Forest 22 cards

Secret Force was just fun.  It's outdated, and the creatures printed today are so much better - but still.  Maybe, someday, we could find a way to play classic deck tournaments and decks from decades past could live again.  Until then, well, I can always just Natural Order out Progenitus.

MED I & II

• the duals, obviously, but I have those.
• Armageddon, Jokulhaups:  old school cards I might wish to reuse.  I'll probably wind up with 3 of each.
• Pox:  I don't have it, and if Sinkhole ever appears online, it will get a boost. 
• Illusions of Grandeur  I want to play Trix online, even if I have to play it in the anything goes room (Trix runs 4 Vampiric Tutors) 
• Thawing Glaciers  ditto - but this time I'm thinking about High Tide. 

Tempest Block

• Intuition  great card drawing, and will be broken when the Nemesis set arrives.  
• Time Warp  I was going to buy more, but wanted to finish opening the Tempest packs in drafts and sealed events.  As it happened, I could only find one Tempest event that fired when I was around, and now Time Warps are no longer a buck apiece.   
• Humility this used to be torture for judges - all the hard questions involved Humility and Opalescence and - well, online, the rules enforce themselves, and Humility is a fine card.   I'll play it with the new Crusade - M10's Honor of the Pure.  I think - I need to check the new layers rules.
• Earthcraft I'm short one, and it is used in combo Elves right now.
• Reflecting Pool  Just dreaming, here.  I really prefer the old art and card frame, but I doubt I would pay for that.  I can tap my two Shadowmoor copies just fine. 

There are probably other cards that I could list - for example, I have always wanted to play with some of the Mirrodin Block Bringers, or Ink Eyes, and so forth, but I'll close with a deck, instead. This is an all-time favorite of mine. It has some random creature control stuff in the early game, but eventually stabilizes behind some walls, then plays creature control. Any non-artifact creature can be turned into an artifact, then destroyed with either the Viashino Heretic (in which case the creature's controller takes damage) or Artifact Mutation on an Isochron Scepter (in which case I get lots of Saprolings). It is slow and indirect, but it is my favorite kind of multiplayer deck. It looks like I am doing nothing, until I suddenly have a dominating position. The fact that it is kinda tricky and cool doesn't hurt, either. In the paper version, the Savage Lands is a Mirrodin's Core, but 1) linking cards with hyphens is a trick, and 2) I'm making that change as soon as I remember, so...  

The Answer

a paper multiplayer deck I have been playing for over five years

Creatures 4 Viashino Heretic 1 Flowstone Overseer 1 Yavimaya Elder 4 Birds of Paradise 4 Wall of Roots 2 Seedborn Muse 2 Dwarven Miner 2 Eternal Witness 1 Flametongue Kavu 1 Silklash Spider 1 Genesis Other Spells 2 Tranquil Grove 3 Thran Forge 3 Isochron Scepter 2 Artifact Mutation 1 Terminate 1 Naturalize 2 Mind's Eye 1 Phyrexian Furnace 15 cards

Lands 4 Taiga 4 Wooded Foothills 4 Shivan Oasis 1 Swamp 1 Shivan Oasis  2 Savage Lands 4 Forest 3 Mountain 21 cards

Now the fun part - I have to fire up MTGO and double check that I am buying just the right amounts of everything.  I really don't want to pay for extra cards.  One of the best things about MTGO is that you never need more than 4 copies of anything (basic lands aside, of course).

I'm off to shop at MTGOTraders.com.  Come join me.  This week their special is a 2 TIX bot credit per $50 or 55 TIX worth of purchases.  That would mean that my $350 would generate an extra 14 TIX worth of BOT credit, if I were paying cash.  That's pretty sweet.     

PRJ

"one million words" on MTGO