Type I

There is no more utter a defeat than to be killed by running out of cards in one's draw pile. To be made so completely impotent has got to be humiliating. The cruel part is that this deck runs you out of cards with Howling Mines more than Millstones, so you get to draw and play a whole bunch of cards and flail about as you die slowly without having taken any damage.

The deck isn't as hard to play as you might think. The first thing is to survive long enough to get control. I like to get a Howling Mine out early. I trust the deck to have the right card to get me out of any situation, a Howling Mine helps me get to that card sooner. As soon as you can, hunker down behind an Island Sactuary or Moat. The Sanctuary is good because it will let you draw less cards. A Moat is less of a hassle to maintain, but costs a lot more to cast. Once you have yourself protected from the land based creatures use the Swords, Wraths, and Icy Manipulators to deal with their fliers. Save your Disenchants for Disks if they might have one. Protect your lock-down with counterspells, but only as much reasonable. Go ahead and counterspell a flying creature if you're holding an extra Moat/Sanctuary or have more than one Mine/Millstone in play, you can afford to let them slip a disenchant through. The important thing is to maintain control.

posted by Nils T. Devine  # Tuesday, November 30, 2004