Sent: Friday, December 07, 2001 2:54 AM

Subject: Re:Urborg Stalker(by Bob Pittman)

 the Urborg Stalker Deck

Urborg Stalker;
During each players upkeep, if that player controls any non-land permanents
that are not black, Urborg Stalker deal 1 damage to that player.


Urborg Stalker has always been one of my favorite Black creatures. I've
built several different Stalker decks but this one is my favorite. I must
worn you though, most of my decks are built for Casual play and Multi-player.
This one is no different. I wouldn't even attempt to build an Extended or
Type One Stalker deck. I do however, try to build the best deck that I can,
using the cards that I have. I'm not trying to say that this is the best
Stalker deck around nor am I suggesting that I a good deckbuilder but I am
happy with this build.

Here is my Stalker deck and explaination of a few card choice's.

4 Wall of Souls
4 Highway Robber
4 Urborg Stalker
4 Maggot Carrier
3 Shadow Guildmage
1 Ascendant Evincar

4 Expunge
3 Feast or Famine
2 Spite/Malice
1 Forsaken Waste
1 Caustic Tar
1 Living Death
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Diabolic Tutor
1 Kaervek's Spite
1 Nevinyrral's Disk

17 Swamp
4 Salt Marsh
2 Cabal Pit
1 Volrath's Stronghold


Wall of Souls: Its a pretty good deterrent. In a Multi-player game it tends
make your opponent choose someone else to attack.

Highway Robber: This guys fits into the overall theme of the deck. You opponent
loses 2 life so that helps to get around things like Worship and Story Circle.
The life gain is nice too.

Salt Marsh: The Marsh is in the deck to power the Shadow Guildmage and on
occasion cast the blue side of Spite/Malice. If you have few Duals or
pain-lands those can be used instead. If I had the Duals, I'd be playing with
them so I could use both of Shadow Guildmage's abilities. 

Shadow Guildmage: This little guy helps me recur Highway Robber. Of course, he
puts the card back ontop of my library and I lose a draw. But after recasting
the Robber my opponent is two points closer to death. Like I said before, it
would be nice to be able to use both of his abilities but I just don't have
the non-basic's to support it. I always carry two Crosis's Catacombs for
those MP game, though.

Expunge & Feast or Famine: These are never dead cards. Expunge cycles and
Feast or Famine can produce a 2/2 Zombie token at instant speed. Some of the
other black removal is cheaper but I like using these cards because they can
be useful when something like Vendetta sets in my hand.

The one of's: This is a Casual/MP deck and having a few options is a good idea.
As a general rule, I can Tutor for the card that will put me in a better
position. I do want to mention one card, though. Caustic Tar just seemed like
a fun card. Most enchantments are not worthy of constructed play and this one's
no different. But it fits into the basic idea behind the deck. I had to include
one. I used to have Urza's Guilt in that slot so if you are interested in
playing the deck UG is an option.

Thanks,

Bob Pittman
pittman@blueriver.net