Deck Name: Quick Silver Format: Type 1 Colors: Blue (U), Black (B), White (W) Cards: 61 Mana Base: 23 4 Tundra 4 Undergound Sea 4 Scrubland 2 City of Brass 3 Moxes (Jet, Saphire, Pearl) 0 1 Black Lotus 0 1 Tolarian Academy 1 Strip Mine 3 Mishra Factory Creatures: 9 3 Shadowmage Infiltraror 1UB 3 Serindib Efreet 2U 2 Hypnotic Specter 1BB 1 Morphling 3UU Other: 29 3 Force of Will 3UU or Remove U card in hand from game and pay 1 life 2 Counter Spell UU 2 Mana Drain UU 1 Ancestral Recall U 1 Time Twister 2U 1 Time Walk 1U 1 Stroke of Genius X2U 2 Swords to Plow Shares W 2 Disenchant 1W 1 Demonic Tutor 1B 2 Lim Dul's Vault UB 1 Mind Twist XB 1 Death Grasp XBW 1 Yawgmoth's Will 2B 1 Sol Ring 1 2 Powder Keg 2 1 Balance 1W 1 Zuran Orb 0 3 Gerrad's Verdict BW Standard Side Board 1 Force of Will 2 Counter Spell 2 Wrath of God 1 Fact or Fiction 3 Diabloic Edict 2 Warmth 2 Chill 2 Lobotomy Okay before I get into the Strategy about this deck lets talk about why I built it. At the time I was playing a Straight Black Discard deck that I had togeth for the last 5 Years since Tempest, and granted over those 5 years that little black deck proved to be one mean little bitch, but she had on problem, no staying power, no way to deal with someone who screwed with me. Thats where this deck was concieved, I was sick of loosing to boring, no brainer, I have 24 counterspells and a morphling BS. So I decided to take my Black Deck and give it the power it need. What came out was Quick Silver. Quick Silver is first and foremost a Control deck, but it is a control deck the likes of witch few people have ever seen. While most control oriented decks give you the early game to set up Quick Silver offers no such luxury to its opponents. The preasure is on from the moment the game starts. What Quick Silver does is apply the preasure early by slaming down cheep quality creatures turns 1-3 such as Mishra Factory, Hypnotic Specter, Shadowmage, or my favorite Serindib forcing your opponent to deal with it because it is a problem. Both Hypie and Finkle have built in evasion abilities and nasty special abilities. Factories fend off against weenies and are hard to kill since they are only creatures if activated. The Serindib Efreet is a big Beefy flyer for 3 and he's splashable. Quick Silver backs its self up with search and removal, swords to take care of attack/blockers, and disenchants to remove bother some permanents that hit the table. Balance is nothing but devestating when played properly, especially to even the odds, or balance with not creatures except for unactivated factories, and suddenly you have the advantage. The search component of the deck constist of some of the best draw cards in the game such as Ancestral Recall and Time Twister and Stroke of Genius, which can be fueled by a well placed Mana Drain. The Tutor and the Vaults find you the cards you need quickly and the Vaults can be played at the end of the turn. Unlike most control decks Quick Silver doesn't counterspell everything, its counter magic is used to stop big threats or maintain the advantage, so when playing this deck one must be semi conservative as to weather something absolutely needs to be countered Finally there is the last component to this deck, Discard. As if removal and counter were not enough Quick Silver is relentless in its effort to destroy whatever resources your opponent my be holding back. Gerrad's Verdict nails two important cards or nets you 3 to 6 life, and Mindstwist is a nasty card that can easly wreck someones carefully layed out hand. Finally we have the Misc. stuff such as the Powder Kegs for extra mass removal of artifacts and creatures. Also there is the Sol Ring for Mana Accelration. Last but not least is the Death Grasp, a spell that in the late game can turn the table upside down or outright finish off your opponent with unexpected direct Damage/Life gain. Time Twister and Yagmoth's will give the deck recursion ability. Another interesting fact about this deck is that while Morphling has been included, it is not the primary win condition. This was intentionally done since I was sick of seeing nothing but 30 differen't version of a deck built around a morph. The side board for Quick Silver is what makes the deck. After Game one Quick Silver can specialize itself to deal with almost any type of deck. A Gimme is the 3 extra counter spells. That you have identified you opponents deck you can better deal with countering all his threats. The Diabolic Edicts can be added to deal with pro/white, untargetable, or swarm decks to add to the creature removal almost gaurenteeing that if it hits the table it won't be there for long. The Wrath of Gods are used to stop heavy swarm decks by simply destroying all creatures, but like the balance will not affect you factories if the have yet to be activated The Fact or Fiction can be added to deal with a deck that you don't want drawing a new hand of seven cards by twistering or it can be used for an extra draw spell Finally there is the side board for two decks that can destroy Quick Silver. The most dangerous deck that one can face with this deck is Sligh. Sligh recks this deck without side board. So to deal with this add in 4 cards 2 Chills to make them pay for the spells and 2 Warms to cussion the blow from the red spells they play. Finally for combo decks Quick Silver uses Labotomy. this nasty card when cast at the right time can search through and destroy almost any combo deck by removing all copies of a non basic land card from the game. This is a general side broad for this deck the six slots left open for combo/sligh can be adjusted to deal as need be from tornament to tornament. When playing Quick Silver one thing I've learned is be Aggressive but don't over Extend. Make the enemy come to you and try to take away you advantage and stop them in their tracks with counter and removal. If they don't want to play your game force them into it by making them use there spell or discarding them. Remeber Quick Silver while a control deck is highly aggressive and it is the decks aggressive nature that gives it the edge in many situtations. Thanks Creator: Anthony Kane McCall