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By: kalandine, Mike Mullins
Jan 07 2010 1:57pm
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This week I am going to expand these articles to include not only a deck and associated discussion, but also a section entitled Deck Divination that highlights a topic of consideration for deck construction.  The Deck Divination title comes from a series of strategy articles I wrote for another collectible card game I played: 7th Sea. 

So, before moving on, I am going to provide a bit of a biography about myself over the next few weeks.  Now that I am writing on a regular basis with the intention of connecting with you, it is only fair you have an idea of my background and perspective.  Since I don’t typically post results from drafts, tournaments, or queues, this can give everyone an idea of my background, skills, and perspective on the game.

I started playing Magic: The Gathering while in college when Unlimited was released.  I enjoyed the game greatly and played from Unlimited to Weatherlight.  During that time, I developed into a good player.  The national circuit of tournaments hadn’t started yet, but in the one large event I attended (a Visions prerelease in Orlando with over 120 participants), I placed in the top eight.  Many of the better local players traveled across Florida for cash tournaments, and I often played against them as they tuned their tournament decks and outplayed a few of them.

From Magic, I diversified and tried a number of other games: Star Trek, Legend of the Five Rings, Wyvern, Legend of the Burning Sands, Warhammer 40K ccg, Rage, Battletech, Netrunner, Magi-Nation, Warlord, Mythos, Call of Cthulhu, Star Wars (Decipher), Blood Wars, 7th Sea, Vampire: The Eternal Struggle, Versus, and probably a few I have fortunately forgotten along the way.  Of these, I played two of them very successfully at a national level: Warlord and Call of Cthulhu. In Warlord, I took a rogue deck and made it through the elimination rounds on day one of their World Championships at GenCon in 2003 and in 2004 I won the largest constructed and largest limited tournaments held at GenCon for Call of Cthulhu.

Now on to something about Magic...

Deck Divination: Synergy

The interaction of two or more agents or forces so that their combined effect is greater than the sum of their individual effects.

The term synergy comes up when discussing cards that work well together and concepts that form the basis of decks.  Mark Rosewater has an article that discusses synergy in terms of linear and modular design paradigms.  While the article provides a good background from a design point of view, this is not what I think of when I hear the term synergy applied to a deck.

Rather, I think the synergy between cards falls into one of the following categories (the names are mine, so feel free to suggest other terminology):

  • Enabling
  • Equivalent
  • Combinable
  • Escalating
  • Discrepant

Enabling cards are the cards that facilitate or optimize the use of other cards.  Every deck includes enablers and, in many decks, enablers will outnumber all of the other cards.  Enablers are important to every deck, but they are not the cards that will directly win a game.  Most disruptive cards are enablers in that they prevent an opponent from winning the game prior to you winning the game.

  • Forest enables Scryb Sprites - lands provide mana that allow you to cast your spells with a mana cost of greater than 0
     
  • Fog enables Millstone - the ability to prevent damage allows a player to survive long enough to reduce their opponent’s deck to zero cards
     
  • Enlightened Tutor enables Story Circle - search spells help get desired cards into a player’s hand

Equivalent cards are cards which fulfill the same role within a deck.  In any given deck, one of two cards with identical purposes might be preferable to the other, but they still provide similar impacts to the game.  The inclusion of equivalent cards in a deck increases the likelihood of drawing and playing one of those cards.

Combinable cards are those cards that, when used in conjunction, provide an impact greater than either of the cards alone.  Unlike escalating cards, cards working in combination do not build, but rather explode into a powerful effect.  When a set of combo cards comes together, the effect should provide a powerful effect that is difficult for an opponent to deal with.

   
   

Escalating cards build the power level of each other in an incremental impact to the game.  Slivers and Allies are the most obvious examples of escalating creatures in Magic, but the Merfolk, Elf, and Goblin lords also fit into this category.  From the design perspective, escalating cards are typically linear.

  • Stonebrow, Krosan Hero escalates Spawnwrithe - while a 2/2 creature with trample isn’t particularly scary, a 4/4 creature with trample that creates more 4/4 creatures with trample can change the dynamics of a game
     
  • Kobold Taskmaster escalates Kher Keep - this shows that the cards a lord enhances are not solely creatures, but cards that create creature tokens of the appropriate type
     
  • Soulcatchers' Aerie and Aven Augur escalate one another - not escalation relationships are unidirectional, some provide for the opportunity each card to increase the effectiveness of the other card
     

Discrepant cards are cards that do not interact or affect one another and do not share common qualities.  There is nothing wrong with a deck containing discrepant cards as they can build towards a singular goal, but interactions between the cards will be nonexistent in most cases.

   

When constructing a deck, thought should be given to determine the relationship between the cards in the deck.  Understanding how a card interacts with the rest of the deck helps answer the questions: “Why am I including this card?” and “Should this card be in my deck?”

There are numerous approaches to building a deck, but most decks will utilize the relationships between cards to craft a deck that is greater than the sum of its parts.  Sligh and Stompy are decks that were built almost solely on the concept of using equivalent creatures to produce too many threats for an opposing deck to deal with.  Red Deck Wins with its numerous burn spells often contains only enablers (land) and equivalents.  Sliver decks are built primarily from escalators while Merfolk decks often include a balance of escalators and enablers. 

Other decks are built primarily with a few copies of a win condition and then fill in the rest of the deck with cards that enable those win conditions.  These decks include Draw-Go and GoblinStorm.  Combination decks are similar to these two decks in that they often consist of enablers and the combo pieces in order to reach trigger the combo as early and as consistently as possible.

Now let’s apply these concepts to one of my decks...

Armory of the Righteous

In Mark Rosewater’s article referenced above, he addresses equipment as a modular mechanic but notes that there are white creatures that provide a linear avenue for an equipment deck.  What is relevant here is that five creatures (four white, one artifact) that benefit from equipment are pauper legal.  With plenty of equipment available at common, I have the starting point for a pauper deck.

The options for creatures start with Auriok Glaivemaster, Kor Outfitter, Leonin Den-Guard, Myr Adapter, and Skyhunter Cub.  Of these, four are very similar in that they gain additional bonuses from equipment with only Kor Outfitter interacting with equipment differently.  With converted casting costs of 1, 2, and 3, the creatures provide for an aggressive deck that ramps into higher quality creatures.  As such, I am going to take deck construction down the path of an aggressive deck that will take some lessons from White Weenie strategies.

  

   

All three white creatures (Auriok Glaivemaster, Leonin Den-Guard, and Skyhunter Cub) gain both additional power and toughness bonuses for being equipped as well as a valuable keyword.  The Myr Adapter only gains more and more bonuses.  The Kor Outfitter does little more than reduce the equip cost for an equipment to 0 as an “enters the battlefield effect”.  For an aggressive deck, this may not be enough to justify inclusion.

Also, if I am going to play an aggressive deck, I need more options for a first or second turn drop.  Basically, I can treat Leonin Den-Guard as equivalent to Auriok Glaivemaster or Skyhunter Cub, but the difference in converted cost really doesn’t allow the Auriok Glaivemaster and Skyhunter Cub to be considered as equivalent to each other.

What I really need is another creature with a converted mana cost of 1 that is going to be an acceptable replacement on turn 1 if I draw it instead of an Auriok Glaivemaster.  First, we need to decide what role Auriok Glaivemaster fills to establish a baseline for an equivalent creature.  Auriok Glaivemaster is a 1/1 white creature that gains +1/+1 and first strike when equipped in addition to the bonuses provided by the equipment.  Due to the first strike, the Auriok Glaivemaster will typically not be blocked when equipped with an artifact that provides +1 or +2 power.  Here are the white creatures costing W that may be considered to fill the same role as Auriok Glaivemaster:
 

  • Lantern Kami, Suntail Hawk, Soltari Foot Soldier - these creatures provide evasion with a 1/1 body but do not have inherent means to reach the 2 power of the Auriok Glaivemaster
     
  • Akrasan Squire - can become 2/2 when attacking alone but the bonus disappears with two or more attackers which should happen reasonably often in an aggressive deck
     
  • Court Homunculus - with an artifact in play, the Homunculus becomes a 2/2 but does not possess first strike or an evasive attribute
  • Deftblade Elite and Nomads en-Kor - can prevent/redirect damage providing a pseudo first strike but their abilities have costs that limit their usage and neither creature match the Glaivemaster’s 2 power
     
  • Devoted Retainer - reaches 2/2 when blocked, but I don’t want him blocked so he runs counter to the desired aggression of the deck
     
  • Mosquito Guard - has first strike and can act as a permanent +1/+1 pump through reinforce, but cannot reach 2 power
     
  • Mtenda Herder - flanking can have similar impacts on blocking as first strike, but the Herder cannot reach 2 power
     
  • Sidewinder Sliver - provides flanking like Mtenda Herder, but may provide it to my opponent’s creatures
     
  • Steppe Lynx - has the capability to reach 2 power on a regular basis, but not as consistently compared to a deck designed around landfall
     
  • Tundra Wolves - has first strike but cannot achieve the desired 2 power

As I identified the creatures that could work as equivalents to Auriok Glaivemaster, the quality that struck me as most important was the ability to inherently inflict 2 or more damage on the opponent.  If the deck ends up with a high land count or effects like Terramorphic Expanse, the Lynx may be a valid option, but the Lynx won’t as well in a deck attempting to minimize land like most white weenie decks.  The Devoted Retainer can reach 2 power, but not when it is inflicting damage on the opponent.  Court Homunculus, however, can reach 2 power if an equipment is in play making its boost compatible with all of the creatures in the deck while not competing with Auriok Glaivemaster, Leonin Den-Guard, or Skyhunter Cub to actually equip the equipment.

With sixteen creatures dependent on getting equipment into play to maximize their attack capabilities, the deck must contain enough equipment to draw it on a consistent basis.  As such, I plan to play somewhere between ten and sixteen equipment cards.  With the desire to keep the deck aggressive, the equipment needs to have a low casting cost and a low equip cost.  Limiting the equipment to having a casting cost of 1 or less and an equip cost of 1 or less provides these options:

  • Adventuring Gear - provides +2/+2 through landfall, but provides no bonus otherwise
     
  • Bone Saw - provides a static +1/+0 bonus
     
  • Bonesplitter - provides a static +2/+0 bonus
     
  • Explorer's Scope - provides no stat bonuses and doesn’t provide a benefit that will enhance the ability of the deck to deal damage quickly
     
  • Leonin Bola - provides no stat bonuses and its effect is mana intensive
     
  • Leonin Scimitar - provides a static +1/+1 bonus
     

Of these options, four of them provide equivalent effects that would enable a quick attack deck through bonuses to power.  Of these, Bone Saw, Bonesplitter, and Leonin Scimitar provide static bonuses while Adventuring Gear provides its bonus from landfall.  The choice here comes down to consistency versus power, and with the deck looking to be on the low end of land inclusion, Adventuring Gear seems the least palatable choice.
 

     

With an aggressive strategy, the creatures in this deck are likely to be targeted with removal.  In order to keep the pressure on an opponent, I will need to either increase the number of threats in the deck or provide for the protection of my creatures.  White has decent options for either option.

From a threat perspective, the deck could use another evasive creature.  After reviewing the options, and there are a ton of them, the best choices seem to be Kor Skyfisher for 1W and Aven Riftwatcher, Burrenton Bombardier, and Soltari Visionary for 2W.  Since I don’t see any cards I want to regularly return to my hand with Kor Skyfisher and it seems unlikely that I will want discard Burrenton Bombardier for its reinforce ability rather than bring another threat into play, my choice comes down to life gain with evasion through flying and enchantment control with evasion from shadow.  With one more toughness than Burrenton Bombardier and expecting life gain to be more significant than enchantment control, I select Aven Riftwatcher to fill out the last creature slot in the deck.

After a lot of trial and error with Oblivion Ring, Journey to Nowhere, Blessed Breath, Momentary Blink, and Shelter, I eventually settle on Journey to Nowhere and Shelter.  I suspect that swapping between Oblivion Ring and Journey to Nowhere will be a regulat exercise for this deck based on what non-creature threats are plaguing the casual room on a regular basis.  Shelter, however, has proven itself to me as an optimal choice for protecting my creatures from my opponent’s nefarious intentions.

That captures the spell selection for the deck, the land still needs to be identified.  I currently play this deck with only Plains, but there is a definite reason to include non-basic lands in the deck.  The most obvious substitution for a Plains is Ancient Den which comes into play untapped and provides an immediate boost for the Court Homunculus when equipment hasn’t entered the battlefield.  The danger is that there are some cheap artifact destruction cards that could cause problems for my mana base by destroying an Ancient Den as early as turn 2.  In over forty games with this deck, I have only once had a Court Homunculus in play after turn 1 without having played at least one equipment or another Court Homunculus.

The second option I have considered is Secluded Steppe to provide some card draw if the game is going smoothly.  The Secluded Steppe, however, enters the battlefield tapped and could slow down early momentum.  Lands that enter the battlefield tapped create hard mulligan decisions.  For instance, a deck that includes an Auriok Glaivemaster, Bonesplitter, Plains, and Secluded Steppe with no other land means that the ability to perform a turn 2 attack with a 4 power creature is dependent on a single, second turn draw if I play first.  If, however, all of the land in the deck were Plains, the opening provided by that hand would lead to a very aggressive start with a fast clock for my opponent.

In the end, I am running 20 Plains as my manabase, but I could see running 13 Plains, 4 Ancient Den, and 3 Secluded Steppe instead.  As such, here is the deck which runs $2.24 as of January 6, 2010.
 

 
 


 Armory of the Righteous

  Lands (20)
   20x Plains

 Creatures (20)
   4x Auriok Glaivemaster
   4x Court Homunculus
   4x Leonin Den-Guard
   4x Aven Riftwatcher
   4x Skyhunter Cub

 Non-Creatures (20)
   4x Bone Saw
   4x Bonesplitter
   4x Leonin Scimitar
   4x Journey to Nowhere
   4x Shelter

This deck is really straightforward with the primary goal of turning equipped creatures sideways to attack for 3 - 5 points of damage starting turn 2.  As such, the value of walking through games is nowhere near as important as discussing the tricks that make this deck overcome opposing decks.

The first key to this deck is the management of equipment.  On the first two or three turns, this deck will produce creatures that are signficantly better than the opposing creatures and can inflict a decent amount of damage when the opponent refuses to chump block.  As the proliferation of creatures leads to a stalemate, this deck can shift focus by equipping one creature with all of the equipment and attacking, either inflicting damage on the opponent, destroying a chump blocker, or trading 2-for-1 or better with multiple blockers.  Regardless of the outcome of the attack, this deck can the reallocate the equipment in play to set up its remaining creatures for a defense that will make an opponent's attack a risky endeavor.

For instance, with an Auriok Glaivemaster, Skyhunter Cub, Bonesplitter, and Leonin Scimitar in play, it is entirely reasonable to attach all of the equipment to the Skyhunter Cub and attack with an evasive 6/4 creature and after the attack shift all of the equipment to the (Auiok Glaivemaster) to have a 5/3 creature with first strike ready to block any attackers.

With more than forty games played with this deck, I am convinced that the most valuable card in this deck is Shelter.  In addition to replacing itself with another card, Shelter can provide both proactive and reactive plays that put enormous pressure on an opponent:

  • Effectively counter spells targeting a creature (especially Tendrils of Corruption)
  • Remove opposing enchantments restraining your creatures (e.g., Temporal Isolation
  • Provide an uneven trade during combat damage resolution, even protecting from deathtouch
  • Make a creature unblockable before your attack phase

One of the best plays with Shelter is to not use it when your creature is targeted by an enchantment like Pacifism, but instead wait until your turn and then use Shelter to provide protection from white, removing the Pacifism and making your creature virtually unblockable at the same time.

That is going to be it for this go around.  Sometime in the near future I will expand on synergy to move beyond the synergy between cards and dig into the evaluation of a card and its synergy with the overall deck concept.

Good luck and enjoy the game.