CardShark Content - Marcus Anderson (2/3/2001)

Sometimes, you just need a vacation! Very few players can sustain a high amount of focus to a personal hobby for a long period of time. I consider anyone who is 100% dedicated to this game a true player; I, however cannot be. I currently teach at a middle school in Michigan, and have a deep passion for pounding electronic music. Magic fits in there somewhere, but not as much as I would like it to.

I had everything - now it's all gone. I took my entire collection and sold it off. Here’s the short list why:

1. I needed money to pay off debts
2. My friends weren’t INTO the game as much as I was
3. I just got my ´´power 9´´ and a full set of dual-lands, what else was there to collect?

My decks stagnated - too many variations on the same theme
I needed a reset switch

Boy, did that switch come quick. During the Gen-Con 1999, I got rid of everything. I even had someone to buy the piles of commons that I had stored away in my closet (thanks BC Hobby)! I was free to start all over again. Would the vicious cycle repeat? Would I end up buying all of the cards back and spending more money?

I hesitated. I didn’t build a single deck. My friends were playing type two and extended, and I could only join them in booster draft or sealed deck. I was a fixture at the tournaments I helped create! At one of the type B tournaments (yes, type B - Look it UP!), my friend Dave Andrews gave me an idea for a fun tournament format - COMMON DECKS!

Now I am not saying that Dave was the first to create the idea, but our gaming group did some massive brainstorming on what you could do with decks with only commons and the results were promising. We came up with these types to start: Goblin, Rebel, Black Control, Stompy Green, Burn, Elves, Pestilence

Pestilence
	Set: Revised Edition Cost: 4 Color: Black Type: Enchantment Rarity: C Artist: Jesper Myrfors Text: B: Do 1 damage to each creature and to both players.If there are no creatures in play at the end of any turn, Pestilence must be discarded.

Control, Fish, Capsize

Capsize
	Set: Tempest Cost: 3 Color: Blue Type: Instant Rarity: C Artist: Tom Wänerstrand Text: Buyback 3 (You may pay an additional 3 when you play this spell. If you do, put it into your hand instead of your graveyard as part of the spell's effect.) Return target permanent to owner's hand.

Blue, Suicide Shadow black, White Weenie, and other fun types. For example, we pondered the question ´´What would you need to cast a Crash of Rhinos

Crash of Rhinos
	Set: Mirage Cost: 8 Color: Green Type: Creature Sub Type: Rhinos Rarity: C Artist: Steve White Power: 8 Toughness: 4 Text: Trample

before turn five with all commons?´´

We built decks and had a commons tournament. It was FUN! How many times have you ever had a really fun time at a tournament? This was a blast. I made it my goal to explore common decks in depth.

STRATEGY
What would happen if I told you that you couldn’t play with your favorite rare? Could you build a deck that could hold its own? Analyze the field, find the most efficient route to victory, and build a tight sixty-card deck. It takes knowledge to enter this rogue field and make a deck to challenge an opponent. The best player built the best common deck.
COST
Commons - cheap and affordable ***! I was able to restart my collection and maintain a smaller card pool to build some really fun decks. Many of my students built common decks to play because they could all afford it. The winner wasn’t the richest kid in school anymore. As an added bonus you can usually get the commons you need for specific decks from friends for free.

CREATURES
Yeah! Would you rather make an opponent draw their deck in cards, or would you rather smash them with a Skittering Skirge

Skittering Skirge
	Set: Urza's Saga Cost: 2 Color: Black Type: Creature Sub Type: Imp Rarity: C Number: 158 Artist: Ron Spencer Power: 3 Toughness: 2 Text: Flying When you successfully cast a creature spell, sacrifice Skittering Skirge.

? Perhaps I take my plays from the Jamie Wakefield school of thought that attacking with a big fat creature is a lot more fun than seeing if you can combo a player to death (or boredom).

CARDS
There are so many older cards that we don’t play with anymore: Pump knight, Kird Ape

Kird Ape
	Set: Revised Edition Cost: 1 Color: Red Type: Creature Sub Type: Ape Rarity: C Artist: Ken Meyer, Jr. Power: 1 Toughness: 1 Text: While controller has forests in play, Kird Ape gains +1/+2.

, Hymn to Tourach

Hymn to Tourach
	Set: Fallen Empires Cost: 2 Color: Black Type: Sorcery Rarity: C Number: 12 Artist: Susan Van Camp Text: Target player discards two cards at random from his or her hand. If target player does not have enough cards, his or her entire hand is discarded.

, Lightning Bolt

Lightning Bolt
	Set: Revised Edition Cost: 1 Color: Red Type: Instant Rarity: C Artist: Christopher Rush Text: Lightning Bolt does 3 damage to one target.

, Man-o-War, Capsize

Capsize
	Set: Tempest Cost: 3 Color: Blue Type: Instant Rarity: C Artist: Tom Wänerstrand Text: Buyback 3 (You may pay an additional 3 when you play this spell. If you do, put it into your hand instead of your graveyard as part of the spell's effect.) Return target permanent to owner's hand.

, and Serrated Arrows

Serrated Arrows
	Set: Homelands Cost: 4 Color: Colorless Type: Artifact Rarity: C Artist: David A. Cherry Text: When Serrated Arrows comes into play, put three arrowhead counters on it.During your upkeep, bury Serrated Arrows if there are no arrowhead counters on it.T: Remove an arrowhead counter from Serrated Arrows to put a -1/-1 counter on target creature.

just to name a few. Some newer commons are fun also, including River Boa

River Boa
	Set: Classic Sixth Edition Cost: 2 Color: Green Type: Creature Sub Type: Snake Rarity: U Number: 249 Artist: Steve White Power: 2 Toughness: 1 Text: Islandwalk (This creature is unblockable if defending player controls an island.) G: Regenerate River Boa.

(common in Visions

Visions
	Set: Fourth Edition Cost: 1 Color: White Type: Sorcery Rarity: U Artist: NéNé Thomas Text: Look at the top five cards of any library. You may then shuffle that library.

) and Blastoderm

Blastoderm
	Set: Nemesis Cost: 4 Color: Green Type: Creature Sub Type: Beast Rarity: C Number: 102 Artist: Eric Peterson Power: 5 Toughness: 5 Text: Fading 3 (This creature comes into play with three fade counters on it. At the beginning of your upkeep, remove a fade counter from it. If you can't, sacrifice it.) Blastoderm can't be the target of spells or abilities.

. With Invasion and Planeshift expansions, the field is getting better and better. I can’t wait to get my Kavu deck tuned.

SLEEVES
Man, it was fun to play decks without sleeves. Shuffling made me feel like I was back in the days of Legends and The Dark. What fun!

WINNING
I took my common decks to Gen-Con 2000 to pass the time between booster drafts. I picked up some fun games and WON most of them. Many were playing extended and type two, but my creatures came though even against some type one players. Sometimes duress killed the combo player, or my stompy deck was too fast for them. Either way, I was playing with a deck that was less expensive than the Ultra-Pro sleeves that held my opponent’s deck!

At the end of Gen-Con, I felt better about my common deck conquests than my booster draft performance. The decks were proving that common cards are playable and fun. I was showing players that skill and strategy can be worth more than a foil Masticore

Masticore
	Set: Urza's Destiny Cost: 4 Color: Colorless Type: Artifact Creature Rarity: R Number: 134 Artist: Paolo Parente Power: 4 Toughness: 4 Text: At the beginning of your upkeep, you may choose and discard a card from your hand. If you don't, sacrifice Masticore.2: Masticore deals 1 damage to target creature.2: Regenerate Masticore.

. At the end of every match, people were either saying, ´´That’s a great deck!´´ or ´´Man, I wanna build a common deck too.´´

I have been building, playing, and testing common decks for over a year now. You will see a new deck in this section about once a week. You may want to make some of these decks from the piles of commons that you have in your closet. Give them to new players to learn the game or have fun with creature deck wars. Recapture the feeling of playing with a cheap, fast, and fun deck. Take a vacation to the land of fun decks and enjoy the stay!

*** If you want to make a deck with Rukh Egg

Rukh Egg
	Set: Arabian Nights Cost: 4 Color: Red Type: Creature Sub Type: Egg Rarity: C Artist: Christopher Rush Power: 0 Toughness: 3 Text: If Rukh Egg goes to the graveyard, a Rukha 4/4 red flying creaturecomes into play on your side at the end of that turn. Use a counter to represent Rukh. Rukh is treated exactly like a normal creature except that if it leaves play it is removed from the game entirely.

s and Sinkhole

Sinkhole
	Set: Alpha Cost: 2 Color: Black Type: Sorcery Rarity: C Artist: Sandra Everingham Text: Destroys any one land.

s, you might need to spend some dough...

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