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BMoor's Magic The Gathering Deck Garage
Mindbendingly Fun

Sept 25, 2006

HI, my name is Brendan. This was a deck i made a long time ago, and i want to see if i can update it. Its more of a casual deck then for serious play, but it has annoyed the hell out of my friends. I want to see if it can be updated with any new cards (since all of them are old)
 
Lands
------------------------
12 Islands
10 Plains
 
Blue Instants/Interrupts
------------------------
4 Counterspells
2 Power Sinks
2 Blue Elemental Blasts
4 Mind Bend
1x Magical Hack
1x Sleight of Mind
 
White Instants
------------------------
2 Healing Salves
 
Blue Enchantments
------------------------
3 Douses
2 Lifetaps
1 Wrath of Marit Lage
 
White Enchantments
-------------------------
2x Conversion
2x Karma
 
Blue Sorceries
-------------------------
2x Acid Rain
 
Artifacts
------------------------
2x Sunglasses of urza
 
White Creatures
-----------------------
2x Tundra Wolves
2x Pikemen
2x Benalish Hero
4x Mesa Pegasus

Well, Brendan, this seems like a solid deck with a simple strategy-- use Mind Bend and similar techniques to change your color hoser cards into whichever color hoser you need.  I admit that many of these cards are coming out of cold storage-- I had to look up quite a few of them to see what they did-- but luckily the strategy of the deck is still with us.  Mind Bend itself was reprinted in 9th Edition, so let's give it a shot.  it's really just a matter of finding new color hosers, right?
 
Well, 9th Edition gave each color two hosers, one for each of its enemy colors.  Blue got Baleful Stare and Withering Gaze, which draw cards based on what's in your opponent's hand.  Each of these spells uses a color word AND a basic land type, so you may have a little trouble guessing which one to change.  While card draw is always crucial in a combo deck, there are better ways of drawing cards.  The white color hosers this core set are the appropriate Circles of Protection-- red and black.  These are nice, and could work as well as Douse or Lifetap anyway, but are limited in that you need to have mana open to use them and they only slow down your opponent-- they don't really help you win.  They'd probably be good, and I'd certainly endorse their use in this deck, but I'll keep looking.
I just noticed something-- why do you have Sunglasses of Urza?  They turn white mana into red mana.  You have no use for red mana.  And I hate to be the one to break this to you, but neither Mind Bend nor Magical Hack nor Sleight of Mind will change the color of mana the Sunglasses provides-- it uses mana symbols, not color words.
 
But fear not.  I have for you a whole class of color hosers you haven't even touched on yet-- creatures with protection.  The ultimate example here is Kamigawa legend Eight-and-a-Half-Tails, who is Mind Bend and White Knight all in one.  He'll stop your opponent cold without a Mind Bend at all, but Mind Bend will help you save mana by changing the color ol' 8.5 protects from, instead of 8.5 changing the color of everything and then protecting it.  But with Mind Bend at the ready, you can use any creature with protection-- Paladin en-Vec comes to mind, as does White Shield Crusader, Silver Knight, Hand of Honor, and any other creature with protection from (color) you can think of.
 
That ought to do it.  Actually, the deck looked fine as is, but I understand wanting to bring it into the new age of Magic.  It makes newer players more comfortable with playing against you.  It also allows you to sell your older cards-- I imagine some of them would go for quite a pretty penny.  Good luck!
 
~BMoor
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