Champions Block - G/R Shaman Queen The next deck archetype in Champions is a particularly nasty one I think, but the best part about it is: it's cheap! (Costs, BTW) Land: 22 4 Mountains 17 Forest 1 Okina, Temple of the Grandfathers Creatures: 24 4 Orochi Leafcaller 4 Orochi Sustainer 4 Sakura-Tribe Elder 4 Sachi, Daughter of Seishiro 2 Kodama of the North Tree 3 Myojin of Life's Web 2 Myojin of Infinite Fury 1 Myojin of Cleansing Fire Spells: 12 4 Time of Need 4 Commune with Nature 4 Kodama's Reach Artifacts: 2 2 Sensei's Divining Top Okay, so I lied a little. North Tree isn't exactly a common find in the 50-cent bin. However, he is just a bomb, so others like Jugan the Rising Star will fit in nicely as well. Whatever's big and cheap, just replace. Alright, so as you can see, these are shamans summoning large spirits. Most creatures are shamans, all designed to work with the land. Sachi's the star of them all, allowing them to produce GG each. Using creature filters like Time of Need and Commune with Nature, the main focus is to get out Sachi and some of her shaman army. Don't sacrifice Sakura-Tribe Elder the moment you have the chance, do it when you ABSOLUTELY need to. He's a shaman as well, meaning he can produce mana when Sachi's out. All in all, with green's specialty of producing and mana- searching, 9 mana should easily be achieved. First turn: Land, Sakura Second turn: Land, Sustainer Third turn: Land, Sachi (Okay, sac Sakura if you have land in hand I guess) Fourth turn: Land, Myojin of Life's Web There you have it. By fourth turn or so, a Myojin. It's big and indestructible (Man, I HATE that mechanic. I wish WotC would just scrap it already). That's right, we're using the overcosted, crap rare Myojin. Alright, so now you have an 8/8 indestructible. That alone should be very nasty, but say you pop the counter, drop more shamans for more mana production, and say another Myojin with indestructible; only this time, it be the red one. With a built-in Armageddon. Seriously, with all the major land searching green decks tote in this block, imagine the scene when it's all gone. I've gone through that experience. Hated it. With no land, the opponent is staring down at an 8/8 and a 7/4 with whatever he's got on the board. Oh, and with all those shamans, you shouldn't have to worry about land now, right? Just in case something goes wrong, you still have the Leafcaller to filter out the mana to be of other colors for the other Myojin. Even then, large indestructible creatures are something unexpected and practically impossible to get rid of in Kamigawa. Greatest weakness of this deck? Sachi. Knock her off and it slows down dramatically. Therefore, black has the greatest advantage against such a deck. Cranial Extraction for anyone who can afford it shuts down this combo machine easily. Rend Flesh/Spirit are cheap and useful for knocking off the Myojin or Sachi. Discard should be fast enough to stop it in its tracks as well. Red has the same properties as black. Burn Sachi the moment you get the chance. Blue needs to save their counters for the Myojin. Sachi's fine if she's out, but without the Myojin, the deck can do nothing more than produce land. Green can't really outrace its own mana production, especially if all they're running are Sakura-Tribe Elders and Kodama's Reach. Quickly kill and overrun with things like Kami of the Hunt and Soilshaper should do the trick. White can actually use this deck to their advantage. White Weenie (WW)'s the only viable white deck in Kamigawa and WW's key ingredient in the past has always and will be Armageddon. A quick swarm and horde should hopefully do the trick before Sachi calls out the Myojin of Cleansing Fire. A pity that's the Wrath of God in Kamigawa. - 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