About color, I was oringally thinking if this said no searching was possible, it'd probably be a green thing (green tends to not like the fancy magic and manipulation stuff, green prefer face smash...) Anyway, thinking about it more , 1R for this as a 1/1 seems to make more sense than I oringally thought. It's expensive enough to never become a 4 of in every red MD, and still rather fragile for building anything around. 

I can't believe youre making me ditch ancient flavor text... but yeah, any suggestions? I'll pull out my copy of Bartlett's again and see whatI can come up with.

Is that really a concern given one of the cards in this combo is a red creature, and the other is a 3cc green spell with not much other application? 

How about Orc Scholar as a creature type?  I'm not really familiar with all the 'job descriptions' that are already out there.

Orcish Tutor
 
Creature - Orc
1/1

Whenever a player would search their library for a card, that player shuffles their library and draws a card instead.

"Much learning does not teach understanding." - Heraclitus
--

So, despite not having played in months, I looked over the site today and thought, there are really three fundamental problems with Magic today:

1) Games take way too long.  Back in the day, my lunch period was a mere 42 minutes, and we never failed to fit in a full match in that time.  Now you'd be lucky to fit a single game by cutting the subsequent math class.

2) Tutors eliminate the influence of Lady Luck in this fine diversion, and she, being a cruel and vindictive mistress, has decided to take this out on me, leading to a rather disatrous run at the poker tables.
And,
3) No Orc has been printed since Weatherlight (to my knowledge.)

It also bothers me that the tutors, despite the name, aren't creatures of some sort.

So, to rectify this situation, I suggest the above card.  It's really just the beginnings of an idea, and I would like to see some feedback on this, especially since already a nubmer of compromises needed to be made (in my mind, not least of which was me not making this a Summon Orc. I decided that appropriately stodgy flavor text could offset this affront to my dignity.)

 Ideally, I'd like the card to remain a 1R casting cost (since it is a tutor, even if a red one. I orignally wanted the card to read 'Players cannot search their library,' but to put that on a stick seemed a bit too draconian, especially for an Orc.  (Draconic Tutor, perhaps? One thing is for sure, if that was the card text, it would have to be green. )

The reintroduction of randomness does essentially neutralize the tutor anyway, even if it still requires the time input of the shuffle beforehand. It is possible that this could instead simply stipulate the drawing of a card, without the shuffle, but that seemed to go against the whole red=chaos theme. I want to be careful this doesn't break in certain interactions (could be nasty with Land Tax...perhaps a clause to have it apply only to the opponent?)

Also difficult was choosing a P/T - I would ideally want this to be a 2/1 so it would actually get played, but the thouht of a tutor (let alone an Orcish one) taking down a Grizzly Bear is wrong, frankly.  1/2 or 1/3, perhaps, but that is sort of odd for a red card, and still seems a bit overcosted to me.  Maybe 1/2 with an additional R, Tap: Gamble ability?

Anyway, your thoughts?



P.S. Yes, I'm still alive.
--

Current Wording:

Orcish Tutor
 
Creature - Orc
1/1

Whenever a player would search their library for a card, that player shuffles their library and draws a card instead.

"Much learning does not teach understanding." - Heraclitus

Thanks everyone for your replies. I had some of the cards in NY, so in the process of collecting it, and I'll have a list to you once I get back to my apartment (early this week).

I'm not sure if this is the place to post this anymore, but I'm selling all of my cards, including Lotus, Moxen, Library, Workshops, Dual Lands, you get the idea.

I almost am embarassed to say it, becasue it sounds like a manufactured sob story, but I intend to give the proceeds to the mother of a friend of mine who used to help finance my cardboard crack habit when we were younger lads, but who is now very ill. I know I won't get as much as I would should I go on ebay, but I'd like to sell the whole thing as one, to someone who I'd know get good use out of them, and who wouldn't hoard them away somewhere with their other 5 sets of Moxes. If you are in the NY or Boston area, that would be ideal; I can deliver rather than deal with packing and shipping.

Please PM me if interested, I can give you a full rundown.

The price is a little high for the listed prize, but I'd like to make the trip for a chance to boost a new tournament scene. Unfortunately I can't make that weekend, but I am definitely interested if there are future events.

I cetainly dont' think psychology is a non-factor, simply it's less important, and I have limited resources to allocate.

I think more often than not, tournament results are as much a product of who made the fewest mistakes that particular day as who has the "best" deck.  Or more precisely, who loses the least by their mistakes and is able to capitalize the most on their opponent's mistakes, but I think that can be said for any sort of game.

Of course, psychology, when used effectively, often leads very directly to this goal of capitalizing on mistakes and forcing the opponent to make more errors.

However, speaking simply from experience, I feel that the time invested in deck design, concentrating on game state and trying to minimize my own mistakes has had a better return than time invested into staring my opponent down or trying to read into emotions, especially in the case where I don't know the oppoent well.

I rarely look at my opponent, and the intimidation thing I think detracts from the game. Even worse are the folks who will make snarky comments to try and throw you off.  It can work, certainly, but it's not something that makes me feel good, and ultimately, I still play the game more for fun than pure competition.

Incidentally, intimidating or angering people often makes them more motivated to beat you, whereas being friendly can often cause them to let down their guard somewhat. And who knows, you might even make a friend.


The whole trying to read other people I find a general waste of time, as it usually takes a while for me to get to know someone well enough. With my friends who I would play with on a weekly basis,  reading was certainly more a part of my tatic than nowadays, where I can at best remember a handful of the names of people I've played.

However, when I've played "simpler" decks, I have done things in game to affect the out of game state, bluffs and the like. I try to be as subtle as possible with that, but it includes things like attacking with a creature that looks like it shoudl just be blocked and die, but basically bluff a creature enchancer or direct damge spell or the like to get the damage through. It's simple stuff, but it gets your opponent to think, and I find it can even add to the game if done right and in the right spirit.

One of my favorite of this kind of play (a common one, I'm sure) was when playing Nether Void, to look through my graveyard when I had a spell I wanted to get through, to make the opponent think I was using my real spell that I wanted to resolve as bait for a Yawg Will.  I didn't do it often, but I found it to work with a relatively high rate of success, ceratinly more that I expected.

Of course, as has been said, better players tend to be less prey to these sorts of things, and tournament experience will do a lot to help you be prepared for the different tactics people will try.

These days, I play mostly more complex decks, with more control elements, and tutor effects, like Survival. This coupled with the general rise in complexity of opposing decks and the general increase in the significance of individual decisions when playing has caused me to focus almost entirely on the game itself, to the point of excluding all sorts of outside stimuli.  I've more than once missed out on some raffle prize I happened to be called for while in a match, or had no clue that all my friends has left to go find food. Though I certainly tend to be the sort of person who can't walk and chew gum at the same time.

I think the big thing though is that the atmosphere surrounding tournaments has changed quite a bit in the last 2 or 3 years, from a much more casual, where I might fool around with a few tricks, to a much more competitive one where the game becomes the sole focus.

I'm in.

Are you guys planning on having any more of these sometime soon?  I know I say a lot I intend to make it to one of these, but now that I'm living full time in MA and have a car, the likeihood of my attending has increased quite a bit. I'm also going to have to start really taking advantage of the proxy rule, since I had to sell off some power for enough capital to move out of my house. What's scary is just how much selling off a few pieces of power can pay for stuff.

Wood Elves really shoudl be dropped I feel, even if using the Symbiote. Taking forests out of your deck for 2G a turn is cute, but there are usually better things to do with that mana, and the real problem the Wood Elves are intended to help with (mana fixing) is more of a concern when you're stuck on a single land. Birds of Paradise or Llanowar Elf (if you really want an elf, perhaps even Quirion Ranger) seem superior choices, something Hyperion above already mentioned.

I would say, for the blue version, yes, though a somewhat reserved yes.  The Moxen and Lotus are not a huge deal, as we're not trying to quickly cast huge things, and the Time Walk and Ancestral are there becasue the deck has blue. However, I think, without the power blue, a splash red version (which I am currently trying to work on) would be better.

One concern I have with splashing a color in this deck is the resulting mana base. Let's say that you do add Land Grants; assuming that we take out 4 basic lands for them, we're left with a basic land count somewhere around 4 or 5 - something I feel rather uncomfortable with, especially since Land Grants are counterable and the deck really wants at least 3 green on the table. The problem is compounded when you bring your Back to Basics in from the SB. Have you tried a Land Grant version, and has there been any problems like what I'm mentioning?  For reference, I am working on a splash red version, to use Blood Moon as a slightly friendlier mana hoser. (As well as stuff like Artifact Mutation and Vishino Heretic, for dealing with artifact fat...still no true answer to Exalted Angel though)

Also...anyone think Multani's Acolyte is worth a look? Cheaper than Yavimaya Elder and an Elf to boot...

We used to do stuff like this all the time back in the day, though we just called it playing with Homelands.

Karplusan Forest + Ghazban Ogre power combo  seems like it belongs here somewhere.

You know, I had succesfully repressed those memories for like 15 years.

Sprite + Blood Lust + Giant Growth + Giant Growth + Berserk = GG

ACT is just a standardized thest they like using in the midwest/west of the US...it's more vocationaly based than the SAT (Ask you questions might be more realted to job skills, etc.)

GRE, I got 1520, 790 Math, 730 Verbal, and a 5.5 on the Analytical. But yeah, it doesn't matter as much as the LSATs or MCATs. All that's done for me so far is helped me get a spot teaching at Kaplan.

I do have a friend that studied for all of 3 days for the LSAT, and spend the entire night before doing nothing but playing Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3, and he managed to get a 178. Which is scary.

As far as the GPA thing vs LSAT scores, I'd think just in terms of numbers, it's much easier to get a 4.0 gpa then a 180 on your LSAT. Depending on which school, there may be from 10-15 students at nearly every school with such a high GPA, but I can't imagine there are too many more than 100 folks in the entire applicant pool with perfect LSAT scores.

Bar exam = yet another reason I'm not going to Law School

I think there's only one thing I need to say (or post, as it may be):



(That, and I'm still alive)

Kowal: Thanks for having me, and especial thanks for the Rootwalla, which I shall treasure forever as a souvenir.

If Jeff can give me a ride, I'll probably show up in Waterbury, especially if I can get a hold of my cards before then.

ill_dawg: Ben told me about your running of Efreets too, so I figured it can't be that off the wall if I'm not the only one trying it out. I only wish I had actually cast one during the tournament.

Redman's Return - March 20th-21st

Prologue:

Having finished my thesis and set my house somewhat in order, the time had come for me to end my over 6 month
hiatus from Magic.  Though my usual playtest partner Dan had since all but left the game, I had kept contact with
Jeff (Samite Healer) who was kind enough to offer me not only a ride, but a deck to play as well, being as my cards
were all in the posession of a friend of mine in another state.

And so it came to pass that Jeff, along with stalwart companions Jeff and Mike, drove me down to Ben Kowal's house,
where I was entertained as much of a celebrity. This did not prevent them from taking my money in a game of hold'em
however.  That aside, we began to construct a deck which would fit with my agressive tendencies, and decided upon
Stompy of the Oshawa variety.  I played a few test matches against Mike (in which Pentavus owned my sorry ass). I
resolved to follow through on a suggestion had in the car ride down about using an old favorite, Ifh-Biff Efreet as
a sideboard against lots of flyers such as Pentavus or EBA might produce.  Some other discussion was had, as I went
to all of the companions in turn to loan cards for the deck. In the end, what was decided upon was the following:



12 Forest
4 ESG
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Emerald
2 Treetop Village

4 Survival of the Fittest
4 Bazaar of Baghdad
4 Squee, Goblin Nabob
4 Basking Rootwalla
4 Wild Mongrel
2 Troll Ascetic
2 Viridian Zealot
4 Arrogant Wurm

4 Null Rod
3 Root Maze

SB:

4 Ground Seal
3 Tormod's Crypt
2 Viridian Zealot
2 Ifh-Biff Efreet

After a fitful and not at all sufficient night's rest, our party caravaned over to the tournament site, and in
spite of a late start, the cold, and shoddy directions, we arrived only somewhat late. I registered, and walked
around, meeting some folks, including Steve Menendian and Steve O'Connell (though it took a second for Z to
remember me from the last time the two of us were both in attendance at a tournament...something like 2 years ago)

So, with much optimism and enthusiasm, the first round was begun.

Round 1: Eli with UBGR Tog

Game 1:
Still unsure of my deck, and not yet fully returned from the off season, Eli manages to be patient with my bumbling
as I keep a hand with what would turn out to be not enough green mana.  I manage to get a Rootwalla and Zealot out,
he answers with a Psychatog and Pernicious Deed. I try to run through the Tog, and get my side of the board blown
to bits.  I get another Rootwalla down in the hopes of chumping, but Cunning Wish for Berserk says otherwise.

Eli 20 19 14 13 12 10 9
Me 20 19 0

SB: +3 Crypt +4 Gibbons, -2 Zealot -2 Ascetic -3 Null Rod

Game 2:
I throw away an initial hand with Gibbons, Survival, Bazaar, Wasteland, and no green mana aside from an ESG. Only
to receive another hand lacking a Forest. I decide to keep it though, as it has a Lotus and other good stuff. I go
Lotus-Mongrel-Survival-Wasteland, with no answer from my opponent.  I find a Bazaar and a Squee, and start digging
for a green mana source for Survival, while Eli does some funky card maniupulation whil taking a few hits from the
Mongrel and a Rootwalla I manage to cast (but still no green mana). Eli finally finds a Deed, and kils my side. I
keep digging with Bazaar, when I am forced to decide between Crypt and Wasteland.  I keep the Crypt, and play it.
Eli Intuitions for 3 Togs, and casts one of them. I don't use my Crypt properly at all (waited until he attacked
with Tog, but he can just respond with more activations) and Cunning Wish for Berserk again renders my Rootwalla
ineffective as a blocker.

Eli 20 17 14 13 8 3
Me  20 0

0-1, 0-2

What was thought to be Round 2: Ron, B/G with Forgotten Ancients and Underworld Dreams (oh no!)

Ron was a nice opponnent, and has been playing for a while, so we got to talk a bit about the old days and the huge
tournaments run by Neutral Ground back in the day, to which he took his young son (who still plays, and is here
today).  It's always sort of wierd but nice to meet folks like this, but there of a type I see less and less as the
format becomes more aggressively competitive, which is both a good and bad thing I suppose.

Anyway, the good stuff:

Game 1:
He goes Ritual-Lotus-Hymn-Forgotten Ancient. His Hymn misses the Squee and madness cards in my hand,
instead taking my mana sources. I manage to get a Survival out and throw a bunch of Rootwallas down while we trade
Strip Mines and Wastelands. We're both pretty land screwed (I have a forest though, thank goodness) so his
now fairly huge Ancient swings a few times at me, taking down my Rootwallas while I find an Ascetic to cast with
the Lotus I've drawn. The Troll and Ancient have a standoff on the table for a bit, as I get another Troll, a Wurm,
and a Zealot on the table to face his 10/10 or whatever it is by now. While still massing my forces however, he
finally finds the mana to Will with a couple of Rituals and a Tutor, bringing out a Hyppie or two. He next turn
moves all the counters from the Ancient to the Specters, and I die.

Ron 20 19 18 16 15
Me 20 18 11 0

SB: +2 Zealot +2 Efreet, -4 Null Rod

Game 2:
I mulligan a hand that would be good except for the total lack of green mana. Just when I'm trying to remember if I
put Forests in the deck, I find a 6 card hand with a good bit of land, but keep it, going land-go on the first
turn. He mulligans to 6 and goes Lotus-Ritual-Hymn-Hymn, taking all the useful cards out of my hand. I manage to
cast a Mongrel that I draw, which is forced to chump his Nantuko Shade that has been beating on me. I finally find
a Bazaar and a Squee, but he responds with an Underworld-freaking-Dreams. I dig anyway, but the Dreams+Shade combo
do me in.

Ron 20 19
Me 20 17 12 11 10 8 6 5 2 0

0-2, 0-4

Brief comment (that's already been said before): The mess up in rounds is somewhat understandable, but at the same time really inexcusable, especially for a tournament of
this size. While offerings of soda and refunds were appreciated, if you are going to charge folks money to play in this high profile a
tourney, you had better be fully prepared to run it well. I only hope this does not hurt future turnout in tournaments too badly.

Round 2 (The real round 2): Pete from Hadley, EBA

Game 1:
I resolve Survival Early and start pumping out guys. He first sees my Forest and names Ravenous Baloth with
Meddling Mage, and upon seeing Survival, names Illusionary Mask with a second mage. My Null Rod that follows
further obscures the issue, though the Rootwallas and Mongrels soon clarify.  We do some creature fighting, and
fly, until he drops a morph. I try to keep him off double white with Wastelands, but he
eventually draws another Plains to join the one already out and Exalted Angel joins the party. I then proceed to
lose while vainly trying to race the harbinger of death that also happens to have a Sprit Link on its back.

Pete 20 19 18 15 19 18 22 15 19
Me 20 18 14 10 6 8 4 0

SB: +4 Gibbons +2 Efreet, -4 Null Rod -2 Root Maze

Game 2:
I keep a wonderful hand with two Squees and a Mongrel, and (thank goodness) green mana. An early Wasteland mana
screws him but good, and when a third Squee joins the party, I am able to win quickly.

Pete 20 19 15 11 4 0
Me 20

Game 3:
On the second turn he's able to hardcast Exalted Angel off a Lotus, and my Mongrel proves quite ineffective against
it (and a few StPs for good measure). With no Survival, I am unable to dig up an Efreet in time.

Pete 20 18 22 26 19 23 14 18
Me 20 22 16 12 8 4 0

After the match I find out that to supplement the Angel beatz, Pete has sided in 3 Moats against me. I wonder what
I did to deserve this.

0-2, 1-3 (hey, an improvement)

Round 3: Steven, Scepter Keeper?
Steven was a pleasant, if quiet young kid, playing a deck that looked from what I saw to be mostly unpowered.  He
made a few errors in play, but nothing worse than what I've done, and I can't just pass it off on being young.
Overall he handled the games pretty well, and as he gets older will probably make an excellent control player. I
talked to him a little after the match about ways that either of us could have played differently and with luck I
didn't come off as too much of a jerk.

Game 1:
His first action upon seeing my Forest played is a Scepter imprinting Diabolic Edict. I respond on my turn with a
Null Rod, and on my next turn a Survival, neither of which is countered. He get out a Shaman, but doesn't have 5
mana before I start churning out Rootwallas. He ends up trading a Shaman for a Rootwalla, still shy of 5 mana. His
Mishra's further stall out until I get a Mongrel and some Squees to end things quickly.

Steve 20 19 18 17 16 13 12 4 0
Me 20

SB: +4 Gibbons +2 Zealot, -3 Maze -2 Ascetic

Game 2:
He gets an early Scepter with Counterspell, I play a Gibbons, and bait out an activation with a Rootwalla. I again
get the Counterspell activation with another Rootwalla, then cast a Zealot. I kill the Scepter, and lay Survival. I
play a Bazaar and fetch some Squees and a Mongrel to go with an Arrogant Wurm. He manages to get out another
Scepter imprinting Counterspell, but it is too late.

Steve 20 19 15 11 0
Me 20 19 18 17 15

1-2, 3-3 (still in it)

Round 4: Ryan, EBA

Game 1:
I get down a turn 1 Survival, courtesy of Elvish Spirit Guide. I pump out a bunch of Rootwallas and cast an Ascetic. My Wastelands and
Null Rod keep him too mana light to to terribly much, and once I get a Bazaar with Squee going, he can't recover in time. I'm still not
sure what his deck is. I've seen only U and W, but the possibility of Exalted Angels lead me to think hard about sideboarding in
Efreets.

Ryan 20 19 16 10 4 3 0
Me 20

SB: +4 Gibbons +1 Efreet, -1 Null Rod -2 Ascetic -2 Zealot

Game 2:
He plays a Lotus that sits on the table, and second turn gets a Meddling Mage down naming Survival. I hard cast a couple of Rootwallas
and follow with a Root Maze to slow him down. On his next turn he plays Disk, and I respond with a Null Rod on my turn, with his Lotus
still lying by unused. My creatures are able to go the rest of the way. After the game Ryan realizes he could have used the Lotus for
mana to counter the Null Rod.

Ryan 20 19 18 14 12 11 7 5 0
Me 20

2-2, 5-3 (clawing my way back)

Round 5: Jason, R/U Stax
Jason was a nice enough opponent, though at times gave side commentary that may have been funny, but I did not find so. Had it been
round one rather than round (effectively) 6, I may have been in a better humor, but as it was, I became mostly just annoyed. Hopefully
future meetings will go more favorably.

Also, a rules clarification for those who might read this: How much will Arrogant Wurm cost to play with madness if a Trinisphere is in
play? It never actually came up in play, but Jason was fairly convinced the Wurm would cost 6, while I was not sure why this would be so
(he said something about alternate play costs not counting towards Trinishpere).

Anyway, enough of my muttering, on to the game.

Game 1:
He plays an early Trinisphere, which is more of a annoyance than anything else, but the Tangle Wire which followed was quite
devastating. I resolve a Survival but by then he has a couple of Welders and a Smokestack I am helpless to do much against. I get in a
few more swings with a Mongrel, and try to play more land to get around the Stack, but with the Tangle Wire added in, I lose too many
permanents before being able to deal a killing blow, and choose a quick end and fresh start.

Jason 20 16 15 14 13 12 10 6 8 4
Me 20

SB: +3 Crypt +2 Zealot +4 Ground Seal, -3 Maze -2 Troll -4 Wurm

Game 2:
He gets out an early Sphere of Resistance, and I get in a few hits with a Rootwalla and lay a Crypt. He however gets out two welders and
a Pentavus, and is able to Weld around my Crypt to start making tokens. I have left out Efreets, unwisely it seems, and though I get
Bazaar, I foolishly use it at end of turn, and am forced to throw away a Ground Seal that at that point was my only hope.  My few
creatures are no match for the Pentavite hordes, and I die quickly afterward.

Jason 20 19 18 17
Me 20 18 17 15 9 0

2-3, 5-5

Round 6: Charles, U/W/R Landstill
Charles, like myself, was in the tournament now mostly ofr fun and extra playtime, so the match had a bit mroe relaxed atmosphere. IT
was however, as well fought a battle as any I had faced yet.

Game 1:
He gets turn 1 and turn 2 Standstills, each of which I am forced to break. My Survival is countered, as is my Rootwalla. He then
Ancestrals, and what creatures I have managed to get out he Disks or StPs away, and from there many Mishras serve as beats.

Charles 20 19 16 15
Me 20 17 20 18 16 15 13 10 6 2 0

SB: +4 Gibbons, -1 Rod -1 Maze -2 Zealot

Game 2:
I'm forced to throw away two consecutive no land hand, and he answers my five card land-go with a first turn Library. Fourtunately in my
four remaing cards was a Wasteland. Also in these cards was a Treetop Village, which proves useful when he lays a Standstill the
following turn.  The is eventually forced to StP the Treetop, breaking the Standstill, off which I get another Treetop and a Survival
(that ends up countered). I eventually get a Bazaar that leads into multiple Squees. I find a Mongrel, Wurm, and Rootwalla, and quickly
beat before he can recover.

Charles 20 17 14 12 9 6 3 2 0
Me 20

Game 3:
I'm forced to mulligan once again to 5, this time a 5 with two Treetops. The Villages beat for a while, soon joined by a Rootwalla.
Charles, after a few inital defensive moves,  unforunately gets mana flooded, and I go on to victory through no fault of my own.

3-3, 7-6

Round 7: Matt, with Sligh
Ah, the matchup I expect every tournament has finally arrived. However, at this point both he and I are exhausted, and after losing game
one quickly and not showing much intrest in the second, he concedes that match to me, at which point he pulls out his other deck to play
for fun.

So finish up on the day effectively 4-3, good enough for 45th place when all is said and done. After that, I hung around to watch the
Top 8 while Jeff finished his card dealing duties, Which proved to last until the finals were just underway. Bidding our farewells, we
embarked for home, a trip of which in my near comatose state I remember little aside froma stop at a very strange rest stop which had a
Country Kitchen at which we had a glorious meal of bacon, cheese, and chili Fries with greasy burgers. Thus laden, Jeff still managed to
get me and the others back just as the sun was rising. After all this, there was absolutely no difficulty in falling quickly asleep in
the pile of laundry I had not had time to fold in my haste to leave on Friday.

Overall, a less than triumphant return to the game, but not an entirely bad point from which to begin.  I thouroughly enjoyed playing
the deck, and with some modification, I think I will be able to do well with it (assuming I soon get my cards back). There is an obvious
weakness to other creatures, especially flyers and Welders, and Chalice for 2 is deadly (Oxidize?).  Green is notorious for lack of ways
to deal with creatures. Masticore is too slow here, and Powder Keg is both slow and hurts yourself. There are of course things like Pit Trap,
Maze of Ith and Quicksand (espeically nifty against Togs), but I don't know how effective they will be. Jacob Orlove has seemed to have
some success with Drop of Honey, though I think he runs more manlands to take advantage. THere is the obvious suggestion to add red, but
I have not heard of much success with that strategy, and that becomes essentially Madness anyway. Jeff Green had suggested splashing
white for Swords, and it might be worth a shot. Black also seems like a useful addition, and might even be tried with funny stuff like
Chains of Mephistopholes. However, I think more likely that the consitency bought by playing nearly all basic Forests is worth this
weakness that otherwise requires a fairly large workaround.

Also I wonder about Root Maze...I rarely saw them, but tended to be reluctant to cast them when I did, usually becasue I was behind to start. I'm thinking I just don't know how to use the card properly, and ended up siding it out more often than not.  Any suggestions on this?

Ah, yes, I see I was mistaken. I do remember Workshops along with the Chalices. However, Control Slaver's Pentavus recursion has also done nasty things to me.

Strangely enough, I've had some problems facing Control Slavery, mainly involving Pentavus recursion and Chalice for 2. Am I just unlucky, or do you have a strategy for dealing with these things?

Also, how do you play out against Tog? You mention that you've had success against it (At least with non-Dryad versions).

River Boas seem to be quite good these days, I wish I had run some in CT. What would you cut from MD to add them?

Lastly, why the removal of Root Maze?

Could Red be useful at all as an anti-artifact color?

After a little research, blue has things like Hurkyll's Recall and Energy Flux, that may be useful...just a thought.

It is somewhat like Hall of Gemstone, but can't be changed every turn and makes non-basics useless for anything but mana.

Here's perhaps a better description of the effect I'm imagining:

Player one casts it.

Player one chooses Plains, Player Two chooses Mountain. All Player One's lands become Plains (tappable only for W), all Player Two's lands become Mountains (tappable only for R).

If either of the players was playing mono-color, they pretty much would not be hurt by it, but if they're playing multicolored with all basics, the effect hurts, but doesn't totally paralyze them.

And Matt, nice post count. (666)

Reading the title of another proposed card gave me this idea. This title is really a white sounding name, and something like it could be attached to a white non-basic hoser. Sure, there are plenty of ways to hate non-basics now, but I was thinking of a very white way to so it, while not neccesarily crippling, messes with their plans a bit. As this is an enchantment, might be better to have a noun rather than verb, but I will leave that for you to offer suggestion about.

Impose Order
   
Enchantment
When ~this~ comes into play, each player chooses a color. All lands controlled by each player lose all abilites and can only be tapped for the chosen color of mana.

I'm not sure on the wording there, my other thought might be a bit simpler:

Enchantment
When ~this~ comes into play, each player chooses a basic land type. All lands controlled by each player become basic lands of the chosen type.

I leave it to the rules sticklers to figure out what might be the best way to put it; my basic idea from a flavor perspective is to limit both mages to picking a color and sticking with it. It's by no means a crippling effect like Blood Moon or B2B, so perhaps the 2W cost is even too much.

 Thoughts, suggestions?

----------------

Current Wording:

Impose Order
   
Enchantment
When ~this~ comes into play, each player chooses a color. All lands controlled by each player lose all abilities and can only be tapped for the chosen color of mana.

This cards looks very promising. Might be an excuse for me to drag out my EBA-like zooish deck - with more creatures than EBA and no ophidians, it's been looking for a way to draw cards for a while.  Even Savannah Kitty is a decently sized threat when this is equipped.  I just fear it being too slow, but then the deck is pretty much ventered around a mana cost of 3 anyway (Note, theres a reason I haven't been playing this deck for a while). I'll definitely be trying this card in a number of different configurations though.

A few thoughts:

 I agree Deed is a very good card in general for this deck, with the caveats mentioned by Matt, however, with the removal of Sinkhole, in an ideal world, I'd really like to fit Stifle in (in place of the green). The problem with that of course is it weakens you against aggro and artifact decks. Powder Keg perhaps, if it's not too slow? Is there any other argument besides Stifle (and Ancestral) for blue? Brainstorm is kind of weak here.  I suppose that might be just leading along a slippery slope towards Tog.  

Could an argument be made for an artifact beastie in place of Negator? You might even then be able to fit in some Workshops and still have the discard element. Masticore and Su-Chi  (or the War Beast you suggest) aren't that much worse than Negator (against aggro, they're probably better).

Of course it might be nice to _not_ catch all the artifact hate floating around for other decks.

This is an idea that has been tried numerous times, with more or less success, most recently by wasp with his U/R Iso-Sligh:

http://www.themanadrain.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=15381

And a tournament report:

http://www.themanadrain.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=15521

Keep in mind what adding colors to an deck like mono-r sligh does. It increases your options and makes the deck more controlling while decreasing your consistency somewhat; but also remember that Sligh is a deck traditionally built upon consistency.  I feel that if you start splashing colors, what you end up with really isn't Sligh, even though it may share basic Mountains and Lightning Bolts, and that is something you should keep in mind.

I'm categorizing according to agent more than severity, I believe.

I would categorize punctured organ under the same category as broken arm, which would be differentiated from influenza or syphilis or something.

But I don't know that this is the place for such semantic discussions. If you think it's a good name, go for it, I'm just offering a dissenting opinion you're free to ignore.

It isn't super intersting as a card; it's a fairly standard mechanic, but I don't tihnk that's a bad thing, all sets should have some staples. If you wanted to be a little more exciting, you could always reduce the cost and give it a Kudzu like effect.

However, I don't like the name at all. This has only changed <violent Verb> for <noun> <violent verb>. I also think of an "organ puncture" as something that would deal damage, rather than reduce p/t, not to mention a action rather than an enchantment. P/T reduction seems to me to be associated with enfeeblement/decay/poison/disease, etc. The concept of organ pucture also seems to me to be something that would never be the name of a magic card; I have a feeling the powers that be would change something like that to "crippling injury" at worst.

That said, do I have any suggestions? How about I like "vitiate" myself, but that's both something you don't want and would probably require the creature to be non-black for it to be on flavor.  Hmm. It's not terribly exciting, but what about "Destroy Strength"?