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By: blandestk, K.R.S.S.
Apr 02 2009 11:20am
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When I first started playing Magic, gold cards were exciting mysteries, cards so awesome that one color could not contain them.  The fact that they were few and far between only added to that sense.  People loved Invasion Block because it explored gold cards and Ravnica brought the multicolor goodness back and made it even better.  It seems these days that gold cards are losing a bit of their sheen, since seemingly a billion multicolor cards have been released within the past several years, with many more to follow soon.  The final set of Alara Block allegedly will feature all multicolor cards.  Five-Color-Control decks are about as common as Squire was in my Timeshifted slot.  Now Wizards gives us Kaleidoscope, the format of all gold cards, all the time (and lands).  While the gold and multi-color decks have lost a bit of shimmer in my mind in recent years, Kaleidoscope does seem a bit intriguing.  Let's take a look at some of the more important cards for the format and sketch out some deck ideas.

The format will use the Extended card pool (minus Glittering Wish, which was immedia-banned), which gives us a significant subset of cards to explore, but also excludes the wonderful dual lands from Masters Edition 2.  Nothing says, "cast this card easily," like dual lands.  Obviously in Kaleidoscope, your mana base will be important.  Also, just as obviously, artifacts, you will find no home here (unless of course you're a multi-color member of Esper).

The Necessary Cogs

There they are in all their glory.  Sure, these photos might seem to take up a bit too much space in this article, but it's for a reason.  These dual lands are integral to Extended success, but they will be crucial, irreplacable assets to a Kaleidoscope deck.  In a format where all your cards will be harder to cast than most, you can't simply wait around to hit all your basics.  The mathematics are clear: lands that provide more than one color will make your early casting significantly more probable.  Remember when you needed to spend hundreds of dollars to make your mana base sufficient?  Well, hopefully you still have all the cards, because Kaleidoscope will demand these lands.

Though these fetch lands will rotate out of Extended before we know it, these lands are also nearly as important.  While the dual lands make multicolor casting possible, coupled with fetch lands, they can make it nearly easy.  They're expensive, but you'll need them as well.

 


Mark it down: the biggest price increase in a card due to the inception of Kaleidoscope will come in the form of Pillar of the Paruns.  (Note: this article was originally written immediately following the announcement of Kaleidoscope; this card did indeed rocket!) A decent card for decks that relied on many multi-color cards, Pillar of the Paruns is downright nasty in Kaleidoscope.  It becomes City of Brass without the damage.  It is a free Birds of Paradise that can't be killed, short of land destruction.  Get them now if you want to play the format because the price will surely rise.  At the time of this writing, they already seem scarce around the online world.

Of course, the powerhouses in the current five-color decks will also be huge in the new format.  That means keep a hold of your copies of Reflecting Pool, the Vivid lands, and even Exotic Orchard, as your opponents will no doubt be chock full of many-colored goodness. Though less appealing, you can even use Forbidden Orchard to hit any color you need.

Other options for a consistent mana base include the pain lands, such as Brushland or Shivan ReefGemstone Mine can give you all the colors, but doesn't stick around forever.  If you have an Elemental theme, Primal Beyond can become copies five through eight of Pillar of the Paruns.  You can also stack your deck with Lorwyn's tribal dual lands or dual lands that come into play tapped from Coldsnap.  Don't forget the Karoo lands from Ravnica.  The more recent dual lands, such as Flooded Grove from Eventide can also smooth things out.  Exploring all these options can easily show you how much Wizards has pushed multi-color play recently.

And that's not even going through the tri-lands from Alara, Terramorphic Expanse, or various other fixers.  Your mana base will be important; and there are myriad options for your budget.

 

 

Superstar in the making

 

The Utilities

When building a deck for Kaleidoscope, you might want to focus on specific colors or even some sort of theme.  These colors and themes might push you to choose cards that would not find a home in common decks outside of the format.  But there are many multi-colored cards in the Extended pool that are excellent tools used in various decks in various formats.  These cards are just plain good at what they do.  The biggest example of this card is Lightning Helix.

The Helix finds play in Extended and sometimes even Classic or Legacy.  It can be burn or it can be creature kill.  And it gains you life to boot.  With a good mana base, you can even play Helix in a card that usually stays out of one or both colors.

Other examples of these utility cards include Putrefy, Mortify, and Unmake.  These cards are not going to win you the game, but what they do, they do extremely well.  Putrefy might not have the utility it does in most formats, since any artifacts you come across will most likely be creatures as well.  You are probably unlikely to see many enchantments, but probably more so than artifacts.  Still, creature removal is not the most common function of multi-colored cards, so these examples could be necessities.  Electrolyze is another card that can nip creatures or hit straight to the face.  Branching Bolt might be able to nab two creatures.  Also, Firespout just happens to be two colors.

Although gold cards do not often feature removal, the few examples that do can often be extremely potent.  You might want to grab these pieces for your decks.  Don't forget, there is also a nice board sweeper that prefers gold:

The Planeswalkers

Though the mana bases might make the format quicker than it might seem possible at first, I could easily see Kaleidoscope being a decently slow format.  Thus, Planeswalkers could be extremely viable.  Luckily for us, several of the big baddies are multi-colored:

Obviously these cards are powerful once they hit the board.  They can often win the game on their own.  You could potentially base decks around these cards, staying in their colors, or even splashing five colors just for the Planeswalkers.

I won't cover the best creatures in this article, since multi-color creatures tend to be extremely tasty.  They are often huge and impactful.  There is certainly no shortage of them.

When it comes to deckbuilding, several strategies will most likely be viable.  You can stick to specific colors.  You can improve your consistency by going the guild-route and staying in two colors; or you can branch out slightly and move into a three-colored shard (or make up your own shard!).  Certainly, five-color strategies will be out there.  The mana base can certainly handle it.  One of my favorite decks from the recent past was The Masterpiece, which dipped into four colors.  The possibilities are many.  Let's take a look at a couple potential decks.

Note: I have not tested any of these decks, as the pool of people playing Kaleidoscope at the moment is....shallow.  These ideas are mere sketches off the top of my head, so forgive the nascent form and power levels.  I am sure they can be greatly improved. 

 

The idea behind this deck was to pack it full of as many power cards as possible.  The creatures are some of the best and most-efficient multi-color cards.  A curve of Watchwolf into Doran, the Siege Tower into Loxodon Hierarch is pretty damn formidable.  Substitute Kitchen Finks or Knight of the Reliquary if you miss the black mana and you're still in for some serious beats.  The Knight has the potential to get big, thanks to the fetch lands.  Once you have your threats on the board, you have a suite filled with removal.  Unmake and Mortify take creatures of the board, while Lightning Helix can do the same or singe your opponent's scalp.  The Planeswalkers can clear the road, steal anything in the way, or bolster your own horde.  The mana base is only a first shot in the dark for the multi-colored abstract.  With the fetch lands, Reflecting Pool, and Pillar of the Paruns, you should be able to access all four colors with ease.  The sideboard is also a shaky guess based on what could be in the metagame.  Guttural Reponse for blue, Mystic Enforcer powers through black-based decks, Gaddock Teeg for potential Savage Twisters or Ultimatums.  The Twister itself is there for any weenie decks you might encounter; Firespout can do the same thing or hit only fliers.  This deck could be a blast to play and potentially very powerful.


The aim of this deck is to make things tough on the opponent and to control the board.  The Grand Arbiter can make playing spells a living hell for your enemy, while boosting your ability to make things happen.  Tidehollow Sculler can come down early to deny key cards to the opponent's hand, whild Shadowmage Infiltrator should be able to draw you extra cards each turn.  If a troublesome creature makes it to the board, you have Mortify and Agony Warp to mop things up.  Meanwhile, Teferi's Moat will keep most creatures at bay, while you have a few counterspells to punish the magic-maker on the other side of your table.  Wydwen can often come into play by surprise and beat down while you maintain control.  Once you have control of the board, you can unload one of several enormous monsters that should win you the game.  Oona, Queen of the Fae, Godhead of Awe, and Ethersworn Adjudicator all bring the power.

The sideboard packs hate against fast decks.  Batwing Brume can keep damage off the table, while packing some beats in the other direction.  Plumeveil can handle most creatures, while the Pillory can shut a creature down and peck away at the enemy.  Memory Plunder can be amazing against the right deck.  Countered Ultimatums never looked so good.  Hindering Light can also be great card advantage against burn-heavy decks.

Closing Time

Kaleidoscope is still a way down the road, but it's never too early to start getting excited.  These decks are just sketches and undoubtedly could be better, but you can easily see the potential power all multi-color decks can contain.  The key cards to obtain are obviously the lands.  While costly, it really is necessary.  The fetch lands from Onslaught will not be part of Extended for much longer, so you could hold off on those cards if your budget does not fit the bill.  Awesome utility cards and blazing creatures are all at the core of the format, so things should be very interesting.  I hope you enjoyed a quick look at what we have to look forward to.  I know this article did not contain any sort of testing or the most extensive analysis, but we have just started to scratch the surface of this new format.  Feel free to leave deck ideas and other tips in the comments.

17 Comments

Nice article by Uberferret (not verified) at Thu, 04/02/2009 - 12:52
Uberferret's picture

The biggest issue I see is that you're using mortify when a strictly better choice of Pure is available. Pure kills anything but lands. Also how do you plan to deal with Oversoul of Dusk?

Pure is not strictly better; by Anonymous (not verified) at Thu, 04/02/2009 - 14:18
Anonymous's picture

Pure is not strictly better; it's a sorcery where Mortify is an instant. It's better if you need to kill something that's not a creature or enchantment, or has protection from white or black, but worse if you need to kill a creature or enchantment other than in your main phase with an empty stack, or of course if the permanent in question has pro red or pro green. There are situations where each is better than the other, and I think both will see lots of play. Rumor has it a certain cheap red/black removal spell is going to be reprinted in Alara Reborn, and I'm sure that one will see lots of play as well.

Agreed. In this format, by tumultuous (not verified) at Thu, 04/02/2009 - 14:35
tumultuous's picture

Agreed. In this format, Mortify is ALMOST strictly better than Pure actually. The only thing Pure has going for it over Mortify is that it can kill Planewalkers. Other than that, there is nothing Pure can kill than Mortify cannot (other than various pro-color stuff).

Good article, but you forgot by tumultuous (not verified) at Thu, 04/02/2009 - 12:54
tumultuous's picture

Good article, but you forgot a few crucial, format-defining cards:

Pure/Simple: Vindicate for non-lands.
Trial/Error: Counterspell
Supply Demand: Demonic Tutor (the other half is pretty good, too)

Ethersworn Adjudicator ? by ArchGenius at Thu, 04/02/2009 - 14:13
ArchGenius's picture

A good article. I'm really looking forward to seeing some Kaleidscope games in action.

Also isn't Ethersworn Adjudicator banned due to it being a mono-blue card, even though it has an off-color activaction ability.

My gut reaction is that a bigger Esper emphasis would be good for your Tri-Hue Control deck. Sphinx Summoner, Sharuum the Hegemon, and Tower Gargoyle seem pretty good to me.

Agreed - Writing about a by Anonymous (not verified) at Fri, 04/03/2009 - 13:30
Anonymous's picture

Agreed - Writing about a format you don't even understand the rules of seems subpar.

Adjudicator is not multicolored.

You said these decklists are by Sensei at Thu, 04/02/2009 - 18:30
Sensei's picture

You said these decklists are rough and I agree wholeheartedly. A deck needs at least one basic land to fetch for those times when you just need a colorless mana to cast your spell. I'd probably feel more comfortable running three-four basics.

Wydwen and Augustin are legends. Playing four of them is a mistake.

4 wyden may be a mistake but by Tim (not verified) at Thu, 04/02/2009 - 19:48
Tim's picture

4 wyden may be a mistake but I doubt Augustin is. He seems really good

Kscope Decklist. by Ravarshi (not verified) at Thu, 04/02/2009 - 23:11
Ravarshi's picture
4

I was thinking about a deck list and your article helped me put it to paper, so thank you much for that. the origin of my decklist was to look at all that was good in Naya, and splash Black for Terminate and Mortify :D

Here's my decklist (i dont know how to use Decktags, so build it yourself if you wish. :)

Lands:

4 Pillar of the Paruns
4 Stomping Ground
4 Temple Garden
4 Godless Shrine
4 Sacred Foundry
2 Fetid Heath

Creatures:
4 Watchwolf
(4) Knight of the New Alara
3 Woolly Thoctar
4 Figure of Destiny
3 Sprouting Thrinax

Other Spells:
4 Lightning Helix
3 Mortify
4 Terminate
3 Sarkhan Vol
3 Ajani Vengent
3 Naya Charm

I've been tinkerin with alot by Josthoalemar1322 (not verified) at Fri, 04/03/2009 - 05:39
Josthoalemar1322's picture

I've been tinkerin with alot of decks, but there are lots of cards you left out of the must haves. Most of them have been hit on already. Here's my curret trial run at Grixis Control

4 Agony Warp
2 Hit/Run
2 Ajani Vengeant
1 Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker
4 Esper Charm
3 Blightning (Good discard)
4 Rise/Fall
2 Countersquall
4 Trial/Error
3 Cruel Ultimatum
1 Garza Zol, Plague Queen
4 Shadowmage Infiltrator
1 Oona, Queen of the Fae
2 Dimir Aqueduct
2 Island
1 Izzet Boilerworks
2 Mountain
4 Pillar of the Paruns
1 Rakdos Carnarium
4 Reflecting Pool
3 Rupture Spire
2 Swamp
4 Vesuva

3 Stillmoon Cavalier
3 Firespout
4 Guttural Response
3 Electrolyze
2 Void

too early by Anonymous (not verified) at Fri, 04/03/2009 - 12:26
Anonymous's picture
1

i didnt learn so much in this article and speaking again about Kaleiodoscope format before Reborn release is def too early

A few comments about the by Lord Erman at Fri, 04/03/2009 - 14:34
Lord Erman's picture
4

A few comments about the decks shown:

As some mentioned, the artifact creature isn't legal in the format and you have 5 Agony Warps shown in the deck but they aren't big issues for me. But I would replace those Punish Ignorances with Trial/Error as the format is WAY too fast for a 4 mana counterspell. Trial/Error is the one and only good counterspell there is at the moment.

Also I wouldn't play most of the creatures you have in deck. Simic Sky Swallower is all you need to win and instead you need more removal. Like Lightning Helix for example. That's a lifesaver against aggro decks.

And 4x Arbiter is totally okay as you will need him out as soon as possible (a little help from Supply/Demand wouldn't hurt).

As for the second deck, I think that you have to decide between really fast aggro beatdown and midgame aggro. I personally wouldn't play Figure of Destiny and Teneb in the same deck. Figure of Destiny is better with Woolly Thoctar and Tattermunge Maniac. Just add Lightning Helix, Assault Battery and Double Cleave and you'll do fine.

With Teneb I would play Doran, Vhati il-Dal (exellent with Doran) and Sapling of Colfenor and a lots of removal.

Just my thoughts.

LE

Some of the decks were messed by blandestk at Fri, 04/03/2009 - 18:47
blandestk's picture
5

Some of the decks were messed up, as was the title. Obviously the Adjudicator isn't legal; I'm not sure what happened. Apologies on that.

This article was meant to be a mere launching point for the format. Sure, Alara reborn will have a lot to add to the format, but it's not like the set is going to make or break Kaleidoscope. There is plenty to discern from the multicolored cards that are available at the moment.

I thought this article was a by Steve (not verified) at Sun, 04/05/2009 - 19:26
Steve's picture
5

I thought this article was a great primer/intro to people (like me) who have no clue where to start with Kaleidoscope.

Agreed, loved this article. by Jesse (not verified) at Mon, 04/06/2009 - 15:37
Jesse's picture
5

Agreed, loved this article.

whatelse ? by Anonymous (not verified) at Wed, 04/08/2009 - 03:41
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1

nothing really new here and definitely not enough analysis
sorry for that, i am sure the next article would be better

the topic is nice but the by Anonymous (not verified) at Wed, 04/08/2009 - 04:48
Anonymous's picture
2

the topic is nice but the article looks like a catalog ... what a pity !