From: James R. [ramsus50@hotmail.com] Sent: Thursday, December 06, 2001 3:46 PM Subject: Wild Wurm by James Racine I've done a few single card strategies but never a deck so here goes. Ahh Odyessy, I believe that this set has some of the best play mechanics since urzas saga. My personal favorite is threshold. I remaid my mono green stompy/tangle deck with many threshold creatures like springing tiger, were bear, and metemorphic wurm. I've moved on, now i'm trying more of a control/combo deck. I have done this before but i never had much success. But a few days ago i put together a green/blue deck based on wild mongrel, roar of the wurm, and aboshan, cephalid emperor. I have tramuatize and haunting echoes but i'm sure that there are so many decks that will have that combo now. So, here is the original deck with just the cards i had at the time. Creatures: Wild Mongrel x4 Aboshan, Cephalid Emperor x1 Cephalid Looter x2 Cephalid Broker x1 Mystic Snake x2 Nantuko Disciple x2 Nimble Mongoose x2 Urborg Elf x2 Whirlpool Rider x2 Kavu Chameleon x1 Gaea's Skyfolk x2 Sorceries/Instances Roar of the Wurm x2 Temporal Spring x3 Prohibit x3 Opt x2 Lay of the Land x2 Harrow x2 Careful Study x2 Predict x2 Traumatize x1 Phantasmal Terrain x2 Lands: Island x7 Forest x6 Irrigation Ditch x4 I know, the creature numbering is all wrong but this is what I had at the time. My first test was at school the next day. My friend, who uses a green/red deck, is always ready to play. His deck is fairly good, his strategy is to get creatures like Blasterdorm, curd ape, and shivan wurm out quickly by playing timber wall and sacing it to add RR to his mana pool. He also had 4 incinerates, shocks, and a few others. Most of the time i lost b/c my green deck was not as fast, probably a medium ment for longer games. Anyway, I played him with my green/blue deck and I was pretty shocked. I beat him with 4 mana. I noticed that most of my creatures were very cheap, around 2 to 4 mana. What really gave me the advantage was the roar of the wurm. At a steep 6G, it is hard to cast early in the game. But, with the wild mongrels ability, i discarded both roar of the wurms to make it a +2/+2 and say black untill the end of the turn. He took the 4 damage, killed one or my mongrels and ended his turn. Three turns later i had 2 6/6 wurms, 2 nimble mongooses, and 3 wild mongrels with 4 cards in my hand. Well i won that one, but i still noticed some flaws. The games i played after that really showed me what this decks weaknesses were. Flying/counterspell and White protection decks would beat this deck into the ground. Though i could get out a few creatures, they werent enough to win the games. So i revised the deck a little more. Here is what i have now. Creatures: Wild Mongrel x4 Living Airship x4 Kavu Chameleon x4 Mystic Snake x4 Urborg Elf x2 Cephalid Broker x2 Cephalid Looter x2 Nimble Mongoose x2 Aboshan, Cephalid Emperor x2 Sorceries/Instances: Roar of the Wurm x4 Temporal Spring x2 Lay of the Land x3 Harrow x2 Repulse x2 Opt x2 Index x2 Counterspell or Jaded Response x4 Arifacts: Catalyst Stone x1 Lands: Island x7 Forest x6 Irrigation Ditch x4 I havent tried it out yet, but i think it will do better. The kavu chameleon helps vs counter and black decks. The nimble mongoose helps vs direct damage, bounce, and creature removal. With Aboshan and the other cephalids, i get enough "controll" to help with stompy decks. The living ariship gives my almost complete controll of the flying board with the ability to regenerate. And the wild mongrels and the roar of the wurms give me the power to break through a good amount of defense. Yes, the mana curve does seem a little low but i seem to have no problems getting enough out. I'm sure i could improve this deck but i'm going to try it out. There is nothing better to show you the right path than experience. Thanks and send coments( hopfully good ones :) and additions/replacements for some of the cards, keeping in mind i still want a blue/green deck. Cya! James Racine Ramsus50@hotmail.com _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp