2009)

And I’m back again. This time I’ve decided to take a more analytical approach to a deck evolution. Or perhaps analytical isn’t the best word. I’m going to go into more depth when it comes to the WHY aspect of the various changes. Sound good to you? Since I wrote this way before you read that question, let’s not rip any holes in the space-time continuum and I’ll assume you said yes. This time up, it’s my trusty Unblockable Deck. I’ve already written an article that covers the first two decklists you’ll see here, but bear with me. It’s important to see where the deck started to better understand where it is going. I’m not sure if that sounds more like a history teacher or a philosophy professor.

When I started playing Magic again in Onslaught, I saw the Covert Operative and thought he was pretty cool. A bit expensive, but still cool. Then I discovered all the unblockable guys I had missed since I stopped playing back during the beginnings of the Weatherlight Saga (Phantom Warrior? Sweet!). I decided to make a deck built around guys that couldn’t be blocked. The best way to exploit unblockable guys is to have some way to make them bigger, right? So away I went into the tank, and here’s what I came up with.

Unblockables 12-04
Creatures (18)
2: Escape Artist
1: Ferropede
4: Cephalid Pathmage
3: Phantom Warrior
3: Covert Operative
1: Tornado Elemental
2: Thorn Elemental
2: Tidal Kraken

Pump (12)
4: Giant Growth
4: Echoing Courage
1: Might of Oaks
1: Stand Together
1: Decree of Savagery
1: Sword of Fire and Ice

Utility (12)
3: Isochron Scepter
2: Teferi’s Puzzle Box
2: Moment’s Peace
1: Coastal Piracy
2: Counterspell
2: Naturalize

Land (22)
11: Forest
11: Island

Pretty cool, huh? Unblockable guys form the basis for the deck, ranging from weenies to the Kraken. Thorn Elementals make people uncomfortable, and the Tornado Elemental knocks out lots of flying threats from Falcons to Shivans. The other half of the deck involves instant-speed pump effects and Isochron Scepter. This card was all the rage back in the day. With it, my Giant Growth, Echoing Courage, Counterspell, and Naturalize could be reusable utility. Coastal Piracy is there to keep cards in my hand, and apparently the Puzzle Box is for making sure I have instants to use. Not sure what I meant by that, but whatever, it’s what I said in the really old article.

The problem with the deck was the lack of reach. If I blew my pump to kill one guy, usually the next guy would take out my Scepter, leaving me with nothing especially threatening. I needed lots of cards in hand to be a serious threat, and usually I could only crush one person before dying. After playing a few months with this deck list, I decided to go with something a little more permanent. Thank goodness for Equipment. Betrayers of Kamigawa introduced the Shuko and the dreaded Umezawa’s Jitte, and the deck took a turn. Here’s what happened.

Unblockable 2-05
Creatures (23)
1: Metathran Soldier
2: Escape Artist
2: Ferropede
3: Cephalid Pathmage
3: Phantom Warrior
2: Covert Operative
2: Tornado Elemental
2: Thorn Elemental
2: Tidal Kraken
1: Sakiko, Mother of Summer
1: Genesis
2: Forgotten Ancient

Pump (13)
1: Rancor
1: Decree of Savagery
1: Sword of Fire and Ice
1: Sword of Light and Shadow
2: Shuko
2: Bonesplitter
1: Cranial Plating
1: Umezawa’s Jitte
1: Loxodon Warhammer
1: Banshee’s Blade
1: Fireshrieker

Utility (6)
2: Moment’s Peace
2: Coastal Piracy
1: Reminisce
1: Sway of the Stars

Land (22)
11: Forest
11: Island

As you can see, I completely dropped the Pump on a Stick idea. I went for full-on permanent power boosting. Rancor of course is just sick and might as well be equipment. The Jitte, as everyone knows nowadays, is completely wrong. And the Fireshrieker is essentially supposed to combine with another equipment to destroy someone’s day. With the addition of two Forgotten Ancients, I started a small +1/+1 counter theme that will be important shortly.

Please just ignore the singleton copies of Sway of the Stars and Sakiko, Mother of Summer. I was young and kind of dumb. Neither of those cards lasted terribly long in the deck, but when I wrote the initial article (and thus had a record of how the deck was evolving), they were in there. Apparently the Sakiko supplied mana to move equipment around or cast something big after my attack. That’s another one of those neat tricks that usually go into my decks and then, sooner or later, come right back out again.

Now, I went along with the deck in this form for quite some time. The lineup of equipment changed around from time to time, and the weird cards mentioned above got replaced for stuff that actually made sense. Then came Ravnica. Actually, Ravnica didn’t do much for the deck. It was Dissension that changed everything. The Simic Combine changed everything, to be more specific. Here was a guild based in blue and green that was completely built around +1/+1 counters! Holy crap! The deck took yet another turn, and the equipment took a slight backseat to the counters. Here’s the only recorded version of the deck from this time, which is just after Time Spiral came out.

Unblockable 1-08
Unblockable Creatures (17)
2: Escape Artist
2: Cephalid Pathmage
2: Ferropede
1: Metathran Soldier
4: Phantom Warrior
2: Covert Operative
1: Tornado Elemental
1: Thorn Elemental
1: Tidal Kraken
1: Deep-Sea Kraken

Pump (19)
2: Vigean Hydropon
2: Plaxcaster Frogling
1: Experiment Kraj
1: Fungal Behemoth
2: Forgotten Ancient
2: Decree of Savagery
2: Thrive
2: Rancor
2: Umezawa's Jitte
1: Fireshrieker
1: Sword of Fire & Ice
1: Sword of Light & Shadow

Utility (6)
4: Coiling Oracle
2: Moment's Peace

Land (22)
10: Island
9: Forest
2: Simic Growth Chamber
1: Treva's Ruins

As you can see, I went heavily into the Simic lifestyle. Vigean Hydropon, or Wall of Hats, could pump up my unblockable guys as soon as they hit the field. The Frogling could protect my “countered” creatures. Experiment Kraj and the Ancient manufactured more counters, and the Behemoth just fed off of them. Thrive could pump up my entire army. This was great. Now I didn’t have to worry quite so much about my equipment getting blown up, because I wasn’t relying solely on equipment to pump up my guys. Coiling Oracle and the Growth Chambers helped out with the mana issues. Life was good.

Roughly a month after that idea had been jotted down with the intention of writing an article, Lorwyn came out, bringing its +1/+1 counter theme with it. Really this just meant that Incremental Growth replaced Thrive. Not only that, but I had picked up two copies of Novijen Sages here on Cardshark to add some more card draw to the deck, so out came the single Rancor and the Fireshrieker to make room for them.

But then came Morningtide. And with it came the Sage of Fables. Wow, this made all wizards come into play with a +1/+1 counter automatically, and it was more efficient counter-based card drawing than the Sages. If only there were unblockable wizards. Wait a minute. Let me look at something.

Holy crap! There are unblockable wizards! Covert Operative is a wizard! So is Escape Artist! Cephalid Pathmage! This deck has got to go through yet another round of changes to take full advantage of this Sage of Fables thing. And here it is.

Unblockable 2-08
Unblockable Creatures (14)
4: Escape Artist
4: Cephalid Pathmage
4: Covert Operative
1: Tornado Elemental
1: Deep-Sea Kraken

Pump (22)
2: Vigean Hydropon
2: Plaxcaster Frogling
1: Experiment Kraj
2: Fungal Behemoth
2: Forgotten Ancient
1: Dirtcowl Wurm
4: Sage of Fables
2: Incremental Growth
2: Decree of Savagery
2: Umezawa's Jitte
1: Sword of Fire & Ice
1: Sword of Light & Shadow

Utility (6)
2: Moment's Peace
4: Stonybrook Banneret

Land (22)
10: Island
5: Forest
4: Llanowar Reborn
2: Simic Growth Chamber
1: Treva's Ruins

As you can see, the unblockable wizards came in hard, with each one going to a full four-of. In addition to the Sage of Fables, the Stonybrook Banneret came in to make them cheaper. I found an old copy of Dirtcowl Wurm in my binder and threw him in the deck as another source of +1/+1 counters. The only other real change was to the mana base. Llanowar Reborn is a land with Graft, so I brought in a set of those for their counters. The Growth Chamber and Treva’s Ruins help me bounce them back to my hand for more Graft shenanigans.

I have to admit something. I played this deck twice like this. It really sucked. I don’t know why, but it just never amounted to much. Once I was mana-screwed and only a Stonybrook Banneret allowed me to play any thing at all. The other time I always seemed to be a turn or two behind on mana. I always needed just one more. So I decided to make more changes. The deck needed acceleration. I loved the wizard subtheme, but it really just wasn’t worth it. So here’s the next idea, after lots of sitting around and thinking and pondering and making changes and unmaking changes.

Unblockable 6-08
Unblockable Creatures (14)
4: Cephalid Pathmage
4: Covert Operative
4: Escape Artist
2: Deep-Sea Kraken

Pump (18)
4: Sage of Fables
2: Vigean Hydropon
2: Forgotten Ancient
2: Fungal Behemoth
2: Incremental Growth
2: Decree of Savagery
1: Sword of Light & Shadow
1: Sword of Fire & Ice
2: Umezawa’s Jitte

Utility (6)
4: Fertilid
2: Moment’s Peace

Land (22)
4: Llanowar Reborn
4: Simic Growth Chamber
1: Treva’s Ruins
4: Forest
9: Island

The first big step was adding in acceleration. The Stonybrook Bannerets were switched one-for-one with Fertilid. Not only is he acceleration, but he also works very well with the +1/+1 counter theme of the deck. The lone Tornado Elemental came out too, because although it is cool, it’s just a single copy that can’t be tutored for. The chances of drawing it when I really need it are really miserably low. Plus it doesn’t have honest-to-goodness unblockability, just that Thorn Elemental-style damage redirection. So out he went in favor of a second Deep-Sea Kraken, who can come out really early in a multiplayer game and who is honestly unblockable. You’ll notice that the Sage of Fables component stayed put. With all the +1/+1 counters running around, I really wanted to be able to draw some cards. Plus most of the unblockable guys are Wizards, so why not keep them in? And then one last change. To make better use of Llanowar Reborn, I went up to a full set of Simic Growth Chamber. Now I can get more +1/+1 counters for essentially free.

Not to be stuck with just making silly changes that I think might be cool, I also decided that I’m sick of having a freakin’ 64 card deck. I put in some acceleration, now I’m hurting my chances of drawing it. This is a big step for me you guys. I try to stay at 62 or so. Talking things over with Mike though, I decided to go for the 60-card deck. Out came the Plaxcaster Froglings, because they’re really neat but I never seem to be able to keep the mana open to use their ability, especially in this deck that seems to constantly need more mana. Then the Dirtcowl Wurm came back out. As a one-of, he really wasn’t worth it. That and I think he might have a spot in another deck that’s running around in my head. The final cut was Experiment Kraj. He’s another one of those “nifty” cards. He works really well for pumping up my guys. It is theoretically possible to use him against my opponents’ creatures with useful activated abilities. But really, if I wanted to tap a creature to add counters, I’d throw in a couple Immaculate Magistrates because they’re cheaper. I considered throwing in a couple Fate Transfers just because of the Forgotten Ancients, but I decided I’d rather just stick with 60 cards.

So there you have it. From an Isochron Scepter deck to an equipment deck to +1/+1 counters to Wizards and now to here, this deck has definitely been through a lot. I’d like to think that it’s gotten just a little bit better with each update, but I’m biased. If you guys have any thoughts, ideas, or comments, then please hit the forums and let me know what you think. Oh yeah, and obligatory self-promotion, be sure to listen to The Mana Pool. There's a link on the main page of Cardshark, and one on the Content page. Thanks for reading!

Rate Article

5 (best) 4 3 2 1

Discuss Article

Click here to discuss this article in forum or leave comments for the author.

RSS Feed

This article is provided to you by CardShark.com - A Better Way to Buy and Sell Collectable Games Online. Please check out the rest of our site - you won't be disappointed.

View More Articles