[mailto:fortran_man@hotmail.com] Champions Block Deck - Rats Rats have invaded into Kamigawa and introduced a new tribal type. Something I somewhat disapprove of, increasing the number of tribal themes, but it's something that can't be helped I guess: Land: 22 21 Swamp 1 Shizo, Death's Storehouse Creatures: 16 4 Nezumi Shortfang 4 Nezumi Graverobber 4 Nezumi Ronin 2 Nezumi Bone-Reader 2 Marrow-Gnawer Spells: 20 4 Distress 4 Soulless Revival 4 Waking Nightmare 4 Rend Flesh 2 Swallowing Plague 2 Honden of Night's Reach Artifacts: 2 2 Konda's Banner Another very straightforward deck, the whole thing revolves around.rats. The one major asset rats hold is that they're quick. A Nezumi Graverobber can change very easily, given an early Distress. The Nezumi Shortfang controls the hand, and with the new discard spells and effects, should quickly flip as well. The Nezumi Ronin is a pretty decent 3/1 for 3, let alone becoming a 4/2 when blocked. Either way, he'll be taking out a creature most likely in battle. Nezumi Bone-Reader are more rat fodder for Marrow-Gnawer to start the cycle to multiply like.rabbits (what? They're both rodentia). Otherwise, a simple deck, with hand destruction and point kill to help control the board. Soulless Revival brings back any rats dead especially those sacrificed by Marrow-Gnawer. Like any deck that revolves around creatures, creature kill reigns supreme. Black seems to enjoy killing itself. Hideous Laughter just decimates the rat's low toughness, even with a Konda's Banner out. The more popularly used Rend Flesh hits rats easily and Night's Betrayal weakens this deck severely. Red's pin-point damage does the same effect, and red's new Tremor, Yamabushi's Storm makes Soulless Revival useless. Green and white are easy swarm colors, and rats can be considered pretty much a swarm deck. The rats' low toughness makes it un-appealing to block with them, so as long as there's someone on the defensive, one can swarm with minimal defenses, guaranteeing that any combat will trade an eye for an eye. Blue's bounce can help slow the deck down a notch. Bouncing flipped rats will undermine all the hard work done to change them. Marrow-Gnawer can't do much if he can't tap. Also, all the rats except Marrow-Gnawer are 3-drops or less, making them subtle targets for Thoughtbind, and Marrow-Gnawer is no good if he doesn't have rats to sacrifice for more. - Natsume NOTE: This is just my version of what the deck should be, as well as my thoughts on playing with the deck and against it, although I think playing with it is self-explanatory. Should there be any concerns or better ideas, feel free to tell me so at FORTRAN_MAN@hotmail.com