Archive for the ‘Deck Lists’ Category
“Tribal” decks are certainly not a new concept in Magic. In fact, since the very inception of the game, various groups of creatures have been designed to work with cards of their own type. Though the synergies and viable cards supporting tribal decks — such as Merfolk and Goblins — have changed over time, and have benefited from years of R&D, the prospect of a tribal deck has always appealed to me.
As with a lot of my decks, this list is inspired by long-running themes in the Magic landscape. Just as “white weenie” decks have seemingly always had their place in the game, the green decks built around fast mana (or or “ramping” as it is often called) and gigantic creatures have also been a mainstay of the game since time immemorial. I have many fond memories of tapping my Llanowar Elves and Fyndhorn Elder on turn 4, to cast Force of Nature. As an 11 year-old kid, that was pretty damn awesome!
Ever since the early days of Magic, mono-white decks have been the de facto configuration for assembling a critical mass of small creatures and trying to snag an early win. Although we are far removed from the days of trying to land a Savannah Lions, White Knight and a Crusade before slamming Armageddon and crossing your fingers, the basic concept remains the same. Simply put, you want to aggressively beat your opponents down, beginning on the second turn — the longer the game progresses, the less impressive your creatures become.
Since the inception of Magic, zombies have always been a “tribe” — with a varying quality of cards. As a player of the game since the release of Revised, I’ve been trying to fashion all manner of zombie decks. This has not always been an easy task, considering that once upon a time Wizards of the Coast saw fit to print zombies, ghouls, and various other zombie-esque creatures with non-zombie creature types. By the time Ashen Ghoul was errata’ed to be an actual “zombie” it was well beyond its time as a playable card; the same with other lovable oldies like The Fallen, or Walking Dead. None of this matters now, but as an 11-year-old trying desperately to get value out of Zombie Master, times were rough man!
Since I really do not indulge in very much competitive play, I have been able to find a reasonably large group of people to play casual Magic games with. With a few exceptions, most of our games are free-for-all multiplayer games. Since the only constraints we place on deck-building is an adherence to the Vintage Banned & Restricted list, this provides a very diverse environment for decks. The following is my black / blue / green deck, based off the Legacy Vengevine deck that was very prominent before the banning of Survival of the Fittest.
As it stands, this is nowhere near the “final” version I am working towards; this is, however, what I am currently playing. So far I have had mixed results; sticking with a single colour in Commander is generally not the wisest move, as the strengths and weaknesses of the colour are greatly magnified. In green’s case, this means that blue mages stealing your giant creatures are generally a pain; and you’re pretty much useless when it comes to creature removal. However, I pack a fair bit of removal for non-creature permanents, so it somewhat evens out.
