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03.22.04  -  Darksteel Release for MTGO

 

 

Hello to all my loyal readers and to all the new readers. I welcome you to the Jason’s Deck Garage. This weeks deck garage challenge comes to us from the virtual world of Magic Online. I received an email from a young man that is playing in a sealed deck format with his clan from Magic Online. He and his friends have been playing Mirrodin Sealed deck while Magic Online gets its code corrected to allow for online league play. The format they are using has the product set at one Mirrodin Tournament pack and two Darksteel booster packs. The format they are using is also the same as the San Diego Pro Tour Qualifier season. As a side note I would like to send out a big congratulations to my good friend Angela Ray Riley. She recently took a drive to Oklahoma City to attend a Pro Tour Qualifier and won the whole dang thing. She has been trying for several years to qualify and I so proud of her that I wanted to share it with all of you.

So before we get on to the deck fix I would like to share with you an additional email from one of our readers from Germany. Werner sent me this email in response to last weeks rant. The rant last week was about Skullclamp and the effect it has had on the type 2 or standard metagame. So remember when I share a rant with you and ask your opinion its not just for the fun of it. You could find you opinion reaching the loyal readers of pojo. So a special thanks goes out to Werner for his response to my skullclamp rant. Next weeks rant will have to do with building your own deck or getting it off the internet. If you have an opinion you would like to share with me on that issue, feel free to email me at pojojason@hotmail.com and I will get back with you. On to Werner’s email and then the deck fix.

Hello Jason,
My name is Werner and I am from Germany. I wasn't at the regionals, but I read several comments on them an I participated on several Type II tournaments. To my mind Skullclamp is good, a card that fits into any creature based deck, namely clerics, zombies, gobbos, elves and surely affinity. But it's not skullclamp that totally screwes up the environment at the moment (ok, maybe casting- and equip-cost of 1 1 is a bit too good, maybe 2 1 or 1 2 would have been better). Skullclamp on its own only brings back aggro decks into the environment. It just reduces the superiority of white control and slide. I think that the affinity engine is much worse.
We didn't (and if I am right, we won't) see gobbos or clerics rule the scene in regionals. Skullclamp only makes them competitive again. Affinity was really fast on its own, but with the fact that Skullclamp has an excellent synergy with affinity, it gains a little hilarious sometimes. Take away the clamp from affinity and it will still be competitive (in a built that includes blue).
Skullclamp does not change your sideboard more than other things sometimes do. Ok, today its: Kill the clamp or die. But same is true for mindslaver in white control, story circle, rotlung reanimate..... But if you look at today’s sideboards, you see artifact hate in bunches, but more for killing affinity (mostly by echoing ruining their lands) than for clamps. Heck! We even have decks that more or less are anti affinity decks (Big Red deck went pretty high in PTQ Kobe, by doing nothing but killing affinity). So my overall statement: No ban for clamp! Clamp is good! Clamp brings more deck variety! Go kill affinity ability or artifact lands instead!

Sincerely, Werner

Well I have to agree with Werner in that I don’t think that Skullclamp will kill the game. I don’t think that many people are considering that the card can be dealt with if you just put some thought behind how you play the game. But now its on to the deck fix. Here is the email that I received and the card list that he supplied.

Dear Sir

My clan and I online have been doing sealed deck and I red you article on building sealed decks. Could you look at my card list and help me build a deck from it. I usually play green and would like to play it but I also have aMemnarch so that would be cool to use also. Can you help me, help me, help me. I keep getting beat and that not any fun. We are startin this Saturday so could you send me the list soon.

White

Altar's Light

Auriok Transfixer

Hallow

Leonin Elder

Pteron Ghost

Ritual of Restoration

Skyhunter Patrol

Blue

Chormescale Drake

Hoverguard Observer

Inertia Bubble

Machinate

Neurok Familiar

Quicksilver Behemoth

Regress

Black

Burden of Greed

Chittering Rats

Consume Spirit

Hunger of the Nim

Nim Abomination

Wail of the Nim

Vermicullos

Woebearer

Wrench Mind

Red

Barbed Lightning

Forge Armor

Inflame

Krark-Clan Grunt

Krark-Clan Stoker

Ogre Leadfoot

Seething Song

Green

Creeping Mold

Deconstruct

Fangren Hunter

Groffskithur

Infested Roothold

Nourish

Tangle Spider

Tel-Jilad Exile

Tel-Jilad Wolf

Artifacts

Angel's Feather

Arcbound Hybrid x2

Arcbound Stinger

Blinkmoth Urn

Bonesplitter

Cathodion

Clockwork Beetle

Cobalt Golem

Darksteel Pendant

Dragon's Claw

Fireshrieker

Galvanic Key

Goblin Charbelcher

Goblin War Wagon

Great Furnace

Hematite Golem

Isochron Scepter

Leaden Myr

Leonin Bola

Lifespark Spellbomb

Memnarch

Mindstrom Crown

Mirror Golem

Myr Adapter

Myr Enforcer

Nim Replica

Oxidda Golem

Razor Golem

Scale of Chiss-Goria

Slagwurm Armor

Spawning Pit

Synod Sanctum

Tooth of Chiss-Goria

Vulshok Morningstar

Yotian Soldier

 

This is what I built with the cards provided.

I kept the green because he wanted to play the green and it is one of the better colors in the card pool. I also put in the blue for the evasion creatures and the Memnarch. The hardest decision was to use the red or not use the red. I decided against it because I was really only going to be doing it for three cards. If I was to use the red the three cards I would use are Ogre Leadfoot, Barbed Lightning, and Hematite Golem. That being said here is the list of cards I would use.

 

Blue

Regress

Hoverguard Observer

Neurok Familiar

Quicksilver behemoth

Green

Creeping Mold

Deconstruct

Fangren Hunter

Tangle Spider

Tel-Jilad Exile

Tel-Jilad Wolf

Artifacts

Bonesplitter

Darksteel Pendant

Fireshrieker

Goblin Charbelcher

Leonin Bola

Vulshok Morningstar

Arcbound Hybrid x2

Arcbound Stinger

Cobalt Golem

Leaden Myr

Memnarch

Mirror Golem

Myr Enforcer

Forest x9

Island x7

I like this build but would have like to have seen more removal. The Leonin Bola is really nice and can be really good if you remember that you can use it multiple times in a turn if you have extra guys. If you readers out there would like to supply some alternate build I will be more than glad to pass them along to this reader so that he can see other peoples opinions. I may even put you submission up next week. Don’t forget to send in your decklist and questions to me at pojojason@hotmail.com and I will see what we can do next week. I look forward to your submissions. Till next week this has been Jason of Jason’s Deck Garage.

 

 

 

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