WI

Eau Claire: Tabletop Games (used to be Fountain of Youth Hobbies)
3188 London Road
Eau Claire, WI 54701

MN

Morris: John's Total Entertainment
510 Atlantic Avenue
Morris, MN 56267
ph: 320-589-3875

marytr (aka Evan M) is @ Tabletop in WI during the summer, and @ John's in MN during school.

Ok, so I just registered on mIRC, but I can't seem to find any of these thriving magic forums that are out there. I've tried the basic install instructions, and also looking around on the net, but I was wondering if someone would be willing to walk me through it (ie, tell me which servers to go on, which channels, how to set up a basic friends list or whatever).

I'd really appreciate it, guys. I'm AIM-able as neomanceristaken, and my mIRC name is evanmartyr (but obviously that's a bad way to get ahold of me right now).

Amen. Perhaps, as stores come out with their own proxies (as I'm certain they are wont to do, now), SCG TOs could approve sets of them. Right now, as far as I know, the only "good" proxies are the Gamingetc ones, so those would be legal as would any proxie made out of a basic land.

For those of you interested in pretty proxies, check this out: http://gamingetc.safeshopper.com/1607/cat1607.htm?39

I will be buying a set, and hopefully just trading off the foil.

I think 10-12 proxies is good, probably 12 because, as someone pointed out, decks generally have either 4x Mana Drain, 4x Bazaar, or 4x Mishra's Workshop in addition to some power. If you want to play the uber-powered decks (like turbo-combo or 4cc), it's not asking too much to drop some extra cash, but 12 proxies gives you a LOT of options.

I think Wizards needs to smell the bacon. This site is profiting off their game when they could be doing the same.

Please try Contagion. It doesn't help WTF if they Vial in a Mongrel to block your Negator so much (They have to ditch more cards if they want to wreck your board), but it DOES kill Mongrel, because the counters stick. It also makes your FCG games a lot less one-sided. I very rarely play black decks that don't have 4x Contagion, at least in the board.

I'm thinking it would be a good idea to mix the power of the new Vial/Chalice build of Fish with the more newer, but still more traditional White/Blue running Meddling Mage and Weathered Wayfarer. Discussion about which version is "better" (Null Rod/Curiousity/Cloud of Faeries or Chalice/Vial/Ninja) aside, there are some significant advantages to using Vial in conjunction with Wayfarer.

#1: The early drop of Wayfarer provides disruption that is compatible with Vial: Vial allows development without significant hindering of searching out Strips.
#2: Wayfarer is (arguably, but definitely in my opinion) more powerful than Flying Men or whatever crummy 1-drop you're currently using (assuming a UW build).
#3: With Vial, you can develop your board continuously even whiile Ninjitsu'ing things all over the place, even under a Standstill...this is a little more relevant in a Wayfarer build because you can get a Strip soft lock with a Standstill out and still take advantage of it during it, whereas before you generally had to wait until they broke the Standstill to have anything more than a 1/1 in play (and for a while, it's busy taking out lands, and can't attack).
#4: Curiousity, while bitchin'-cool, is still a creature enchantment, and is certainly worth replacing. The card disadvantage is fairly costed at an extra 2 colorless mana (on average, taking in the 1 extra from Ninja of the Deep Hours and the cc on Aether Vial.

These points are all considering conflicting UW builds, not taking into consideration other colors. I'm not arguing in #2 that Wayfarer is better than Grim Lavamancer...overall, it is nowhere near as powerful.

I'm not seeing any definitive answer to the Null Rod vs. Vial conundrum, but I do see a lot of promise in the exploration of synergies between the components of Vial builds and mini-strategies that other decks are employing. Here's just a tentative, theoretical build...

4x Weathered Wayfarer
4x Meddling Mage
3-4x Ninja of the Deep Hours
3-4x ...???
2x...???
4x Aether Vial
4x Chalice of the Void
4x Force of Will
4x Standstill
1x Ancestral Recall
1x Time Walk
2x Swords to Plowshares

1x Mox Pearl
1x Mox Sapphire
4x Wasteland
1x Strip Mine
2x Faerie Conclave
4x Mishra's Factory
4x Tundra
4x Flooded Strand
2x Island
1x Plains

I don't have a whole lot of experience with UW builds of Fish; I generally play Landstill, so I'm not really all that clear on exact card counts and, as I said earlier, this is just a theoretical build, but it seems that it can really hinder the development of another deck in the early game almost too much for it to realistically be in the game. I doubt it would have a lot of oomph if your disruption hiccoughed, though. The creatures are too small, and unless those slots go to more Swords, you're really vulnerable to just getting locked out on the ground vs. small creatures. Factories definitely help, but it just seems that if you don't take control early on you can really get bogged down in a crappy war of attrition.

Cigarettes?

I'm in the habit of snagging some really nappy, cheap Dutch Masters "President" cigars before a tourney (it's like 3$ for a pack of 5) and working my way through those in between rounds in the winter. While it's tempting to scamper around trying to trade and watch other matches and order food that won't be eaten by the beginning of your next round, it's really your best bet just to get out of the jungle hell that most venues become and nurse something warm out in the cold.

As for eating, DO NOT eat bagels unless they have peanut butter or meat on them. I, being vegetarian and not liking peanut butter, am screwed in that respect, but the carbs in bagels aren't that complex, and your blood sugar will spike and crash really fast. One bagel is like eating a candy bar, only slightly better.

Water is tech, and I actually have gotten into the habit of diluting about 1/4 a Nalgene of some juice with the rest water: it's kind of like Gatorade, but it tastes better (note: doing this with apple juice will smell really wierd).

If I can't find cheap-ass cigars, try some Djarum Blacks or Djarum Originals (clove cigarettes). Even if you don't smoke, just rolling the smoke around in your mouth is extremely satisfying, and black cigarettes look really badass. Who knows, maybe you'll intimidate someone.

First off, play power.

Second off, play Mystical Tutor to get power.

Third, play another Crucible to cover your ass/screw with opponent's mana.

Lastly, I have never been anything but soundly dissapointed with Voidmage Prodigy. I would much prefer Waterfront Bounce in his stead, OR Razorfin Hunter, which would really allow you to run Sigil of Sleep in the board, too. That, combined with 'Mancer, combined with Bouncer, gives you a really good game against Oath. The Meddling Mages, early disruption, and Null Rods will help against Combo, the Swords/Cheap bounce will be golden against Workshop Aggro, and splashing white means you get to play with Serenity in the board, which is patent hotness.

@Kowal: good point. +2x Moxen

@Ender: Sheesh. Yet another scrubby mistake made late in the throes of semi-conciousness. Yes, I meant to have the Strips in. Hmm.

However, the Burning Wish was included because right after Crucible entered the meta I was playing UR Landstill with four Cunning Wishes and was having a blast, but I figured that it'd be better to have something cheaper. You have a good point though. With Balance main-decked there's not a whole lot to do with it...How about Mystical Tutor instead?

How about:

3x Decree of Justice

4x Mana Drain
4x Force of Will
4x Standstill
3x Brainstorm
1x Ancestral Recall
1x Time Walk

2x Cunning Wish
1x Teferi's Response
1x Mystical Tutor
1x Balance
3x Fire/Ice
2x Seal of Cleansing
1x Disenchant

3x Crucible of Worlds
2x Powder Keg

1x Mox Sapphire
1x Mox Pearl
1x Mox Ruby
1x Mox Emerald
1x Mox Jet
1x Library of Alexandria
4x Wasteland
1x Strip Mine
4x Flooded Strand
4x Volcanic Island
4x Tundra
3x Island
1x Plains [/b]

Ok, so that post was made VERY late at night, with some glaring errors.

Nevynirral's Disk is probably not the best choice. It might be, but the deck has the Seals to help with Workshop Aggro, and as such Powder Keg might be the best call here, because of its synergy (or at least lack of dyssynergy) with Crucible.

Obviously, the blue power should go in, and probably Burning Wish, Balance, and such as well. So the list gets changed to...

3x Decree of Justice

4x Mana Drain
4x Force of Will
4x Standstill
3x Brainstorm
1x Ancestral Recall
1x Time Walk

2x Cunning Wish
1x Teferi's Response
1x Burning Wish
1x Balance
3x Fire/Ice
3x Seal of Cleansing

3x Crucible of Worlds
2x Powder Keg

1x Mox Sapphire
1x Mox Pearl
1x Mox Ruby
1x Library of Alexandria
4x Flooded Strand
4x Volcanic Island
4x Tundra
1x Plateau
5x Island
1x Plains
1x Mountain

Sorry for that wanton scrubbiness. Shan't happen again...

I was reading through the 1.5 lists and I saw that Landstill down there has mutated into some three color monstrosity. It gives them really powerful answers to creatures and artifacts, but it makes them suck against disruption.

Well, that might be some good for that format, and it sounds good, but there's too much non-basic hate going around to be able to consistently cast everything if you have three colors plus the 10 colorless lands usually included in Landstill (5 strip effects, four mishra's factory, 1x library of alexandria).

So...the newer versions of Landstill have been using Decree of Justice (it's still good in 1.5, even without Mana Drain). This would conveniently give us a win condition that isn't hated out AND works around Standstill.

So:

3x Decree of Justice

4x Mana Drain
4x Force of Will
4x Standstill
4x Brainstorm

2x Cunning Wish
2x Teferi's Response
4x Fire/Ice
3x Seal of Cleansing

3x Crucible of Worlds
3x Nevynirral's Disk

1x Mox Sapphire
1x Mox Pearl
1x Mox Ruby
1x Library of Alexandria
4x Flooded Strand
4x Volcanic Island
4x Tundra
1x Plateau
5x Island
1x Plains
1x Mountain

I don't have any match-up info or anything because this is all just ideas, but I'ma give it a whirl and see how it goes.

Couple thoughts:

Engineered Explosives might be a good replacement for a few of the Disks, but you can't really use Mana Drain mana for them, so maybe not.

I'm not sure, but some Annuls might be a good call, too. All the disruption starts at 2 mana, which is BAD. Obviously, that opens you up to some pretty heavy risk from Trinisphere and such, but I haven't played enough T1 recently to know if that'd be the best call.

Comments and ideas would be appreciated!

Wow. My bad.  I believe I wrote that late at night, on finals week. Sheesh.

Yes, fetches are slightly poor with Ankh. Wossname's got a point: Ankh is poo. Play two more Isochrons and some more burn. Or actually....just play Goblins.

Here's what I see wrong with the deck:

#1: No fetch lands. You're playing Grim Lavamancer. In a SLIGH deck. Fetch lands will give you anywhere from 1-3 extra shots with this mutha, as well as thinning your deck out. I would play the full complement of 8.

#2: No Barbarian Ring. This smacks Silver Knight, as well as being uncounterable damage. This is the kind of card that Sligh's all about: squeezing the last little bit of damage out of every resource you have.

#3: 4x Gorilla Shaman. I'd rather play 2x and then something cool, but if this works for you, then whatever.

#4: Wheel of Fortune. You know what I love doing? Spending my third turn doing nothing! It just puts a smile on my face! And gosh-darned if I don't cream my shorts if I can get my opponent to draw a bunch of cards while I'm at it!

#5: Mono-Red. This is best for Goldfishing, but you'll run into problems when you start actually playing against people. I would suggest Green or White (Green for Naturalize/Elvish Lyrist and Artifact Mutation, and White for Disenchant/Serenity/Seal of Cleansing/Reprisal). This'll be especially easy when you throw in those 8x Fetch lands

#6: You're not playing with Goblins. Goblins gives you better creatures, and cheaper, more effective burn. Hate to say it, but your build has nothing over Goblins unless you want a slightly better game against decks that play excessive amounts of lands, all the time.

Living Wish, +1x Mana (tapping the well), +2x mana (activation cost) = 5 total mana to tap down a Trinisphere for a turn.

I, for one, would rather just side in Oxidizes. It's a decent 1-of in the sideboard, and it might save your ass sometimes, but not TOO frequently. If you need the room for something else, I wouldn't be too bothered to cut it.

Good thought, though. Now I have a use for that previously useless Foil Well I've been stuck with for God knows how long.

You're not losing "some" tempo to the tutors, you are losing almost an entire turn. This deck is not combo, and it relies on tempo. There is only a miniscule chance of milling enough of your deck to make a difference as long as you're going after cards that are present in multiples. The most common targets would be Titan, 'Core, and Crucible...and sometimes Will (but that's more of a desparation play).

Enlightened Tutor is NOT more powerful and it will NEVER be as good in any other deck that runs little-no card drawing as this one does.

I mean, whatever, you can play Enlightened Tutor, but I think you underestimate the difference between the two.

"i would in this list change demonic consultation for enlightened tutor. "

...why? Enlightened Tutor is nowhere near Consultation in terms of power level. It slows you down.


"My biggest problem with this list is the tolarian academy."

I figured it would be good w. Will and killing other people's academies and dumping turn 2-3 Sundering Titans, but you've got a point. The on-color mana needs help as it is.

"city does a lot of dmg to you either way"

I am perfectly alright with that. Remember, we were considering Ancient Tomb. City is awesome.

"I would add an entomb"

I dunno...it relies on having the Welders/Crucible in play and active to be anything less than card disadvantage...but it's worth a try.

"Phyrexian war beast is a bit smaller, but is equally tough to kill, and has a MUCH smaller drawback (what with COW and all)"

Now that Welders are in, Su Chi really should stay. Sacrificing a land is a huge drawback, whether it seems like it or not, and Su Chi will trade with other Su Chis and Arrogant Worms: Warbeast will not.

There should definitely be 3-4 Chains of Mephistopheles in the sideboard.

HAHAHAH!!!

That's lovely:

"I sac Ashnod's Transmorgant, making Spirit of the Night bigger and Artifact-ey."

"mm...kay...?"

"Artifact Mutation. Swing for 8. GG."

I neglected to include the tutors because I'm generally wary of them in Sui-Black...and the original list was too functionally close. But the new list warrants a new look at them.

@Veru_: Well, the general rule to consistently have another blue spell with a Force of Will, consistently, in the early game is 17. We can use this number with Shop, and (excluding Shops, as having double shops isn't useful while double Force is), we have (also, exluding Plague Spitters):

3x Razormane Masticore
4x Juggernaut
4x ??? (Arti-Threat
4x Trinisphere
3x Crucible of Worlds

...which is 18, which is enough. Obviously, it would be more consistent with more like 20-21, and that's something to shoot for, but it's def worth it.

With Plague Spitters, though, you're right. I'm leery of Ancient Tomb, as Spitter deals damage, and it really cuts down on the number of early 3sphere's you're going to drop. I would probably just keep the Workshops in there, actually, as they add too much to the deck to be dropped, but that statement doesn't have the benefit of testing. Ancient Tomb is probably the best way to go, IF you don't play something kewl instead of Su Chi and just go the Spitter route.  Perhaps Null Rod would be a good replacement for 3sphere, with Tomb?

For the time being, I wouldn't change the list. Su Chi's mana is useless for right now, but it's a HUGE body. You might want to try Synod Centurion or maybe even (shudder) Complex Automaton in it's place.

Red might be a good color to consider for support. The big colored spells in the deck are Swords to Plowshares and Duress, and Goblin Welder would add a lot of oomph to the deck without unduly stressing its lands.

It's funny, but we started with MBC, and what I'm suggesting looks like a funky version of the Man Show. So, here's a tentative list:

3x Razormane Masticore
4x Su Chi
4x Juggernaut
2x Sundering Titan

2x Swords to Plowshares
2x Duress
4x Goblin Welder

1x Burning Wish
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Demonic Consultation
1x Yawgmoth's Will

4x Trinishpere
3x Crucible of Worlds

4x Dark Ritual
1x Black Lotus
1x Mox Ruby
1x Mox Jet
1x Mox Pearl
4x City of Brass
4x Gemstone Mine
2x Glimmervoid
4x Mishra's Workshop
4x Wasteland
1x Strip Mine
1x Tolarian Academy

SB: 1x Balance

That looks pretty good.

Good point about the Su Chi. Perhaps maindeck Plague Spitters, or a more solid beatstick depending on the meta.

The mana base I gave is likely to be quite stable. You might have issues with an early Crucible/Wasteland combination, but most decks do.

You're going to hate me for suggesting this, but perhaps you should play Mishra's Workshop in this? If you're going to play Trinisphere and Crucible in such numbers, you might as well, and then you could replace Negator and friends with more solid artifact threats, like Razormane Masticore, Su Chi and Juggernaut. Keeping the ridiculous black disruption and the versatility that White gives you is easy, as the majority of the best spells in each color (with the exception of Hymn and possibly Sinkhole) have only single colored mana costs. Perhaps something along the lines of...

3x Razormane Masticore
4x Su Chi
4x Juggernaut

3x Swords to Plowshares
3x Seal of Cleansing
4x Duress
2x Vindicate

1x Demonic Tutor
1x Demonic Consultation
1x Balance
1x Yawgmoth's Will

4x Trinisphere
3x Crucible of Worlds

4x Dark Ritual
1x Black Lotus
1x Mox Pearl
1x Mox Jet
4x Mishra's Workshop
4x Caves of Koilos
4x Scrubland
1x Strip Mine
4x Wasteland
1x City of Brass

This way your threats are large enough that you can side in Plague Spitters against bs like Fish, and you have white's excellent sb'ing options.

Man, Trinisphere looks hot in that list.

Plague Spitter kills most of your other creatures, causes you to sacrifice a creature/land/whatever if you have negator at the same time, is a mana sink with Nantuko Shade, and is generally anti-synergistic with the whole deck. However, it is really powerful, and you coulld probably heavily modify the deck to take more advantage of it.

I played MBC in T2 when it was Mercadian Masques block and Invasion, and  Plague Spitter was sick. It took out mana from fires and was as close to an auto-win against standard builds of Blue Skies (which is very similar to Fish).

Plaguebearer, however, still hoses man-lands. w00t for 'bearer.

I would say that there probably is a niche for the Rats, but it's very narrow. Generally, you don't want to spend mana just to sacrifice permanents, especially when you can generally play something else that actually gives you something for it (Phyrexian Tower, Ravager, etc).

Generally the cards that are truly amazing when broken are ones that don't break quality rules but do break basic rules of the game. I'd say the #1 breakable-but-not-yet-broken card on my list is Holistic Wisdom.

Holistic Wisdom
1GG
Enchantment
2, remove a card in your hand from the game: Return a card that shares a type with the removed card from your graveyard to your hand.

Obviously, this becomes a solid engine with cards like Accumulated Knowledge, and courts broken-ness in a hypothetical combo/control build that can build up its mana before it goes off.

Sure he was. We were debating whether Witness for Will would be better for the original decklist than Rector for Bargain; a question I think still needs debate.

I don't think you intended it as such, but I find your comment about Salvager quite interesting. While you can't sac it to Cabal Therapy, and it's effect is very vulnerable to Swords to Plowshares, Salvager could be a very cool win condition in a deck like this.

I don't think it's a good idea, but it's an idea.

I REALLY don't like Krosan Reclamation in this deck, though. It generally needs the two mana provided to go off, and Gaea's Blessing is just as solid. Why play Reclamation?

Also, for God's sake, why wouldn't you play Crop Rotation? That thing has been kicking ass in my build.

Force of Will is a good idea, but I only see 14 blue spells...four of which are FOWs. While they may help you while going off, they won't frequently help you resolve an Oath any sooner, so I'd either put in more blue, or ditch it completely.

Finally, Burning Wish is ridiculous in this deck, and I can understand that you might want to forgo its inclusion when you have access to Reclamation, but if you ditch those, then you really do need it in there. It helps you go off in a "normal" Tendrils fashion, anyway.

Well, the advantage to using Steelshaper is that you're forcing your mana base to be able to handle Steelshaper's gift, which gives you 8 Skullclamps. Good luck getting a dead draw due to not having access to Skullclamp with that.

@Mr. Channel-Fireball: At very, very best the Slaver version is a turn 3 lock, as you must wait until your third upkeep to activate the bringer.

@Kasuras: Gray Ninja was referring to the updated version of the original, which does run blue.

also @Kasuras: You realize you just said that drawing 19 cards is less than amazing, right? With all the card drawing and tutors in the deck, I wouldn't worry too much about not winning after you draw those cards.

@ Ultima: Rector seems to be the better option because of two reasons.

#1: With Witness, there is no way to guarantee that Will hits the yard when you're milling your way to the Witness. This is a major problem, and can be solved, somewhat, by Brainstorm and Vampiric Tutor, but only to a certain extent.

#2: Rector can, clunkily, avoid the problem of accidentally dumping Bargain in the yard by running more Gaea's Blessings.

Is that more consistent, though? With Rector, after Oathing you don't have to spend any mana to draw up to 19 cards, while with Witness you rely on Will having hit the g-yard...if it doesn't, you've just been set back a turn or two, which can be crucial. I think if the issue with a sacrifice engine can be resolved, Rector would remain the better option.

Because if people are reduced to playing in proxy tournaments and not non-proxy tournaments, they're going to want proxies.

Chronicles was a poor example, because the only card in Chronicles that's any good was City of Brass. It might not have raised the prices, but it didn't hurt them, that's for sure.

JP's got a point though, this has gotten off-topic. I guess I just think it's silly to have an obvious rise in participation (a very positive thing, it would seem) with the increase in proxy-tourneys, and Wizards NOT take advantage of that with a set or old, powerful cards.

BTW, the Foil Balance is NOT worth more than a Beta one, sorry. And the Foil FNM AK is not worth as much as a foil normal Accumulated Knowledge. Comparing promotional foil cards to cards long out of print is kind of silly, because there are all sort of mitigating factors that we're not taking into account.

Quite a while ago JHaggs came up with a deck that used Oath of Druids to fuel Tendrils combo. The original thread and what amounts to a mini-primer can be found at:

http://www.themanadrain.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=15398

With the printing of Forbidden Orchard, and with the rapid advances T1 has seemed to make in tech, it would seem that perhaps the deck could be a contender.

You'll have to forgive me for not explaining too far in depth the workings of the deck; it was done quite exhaustively in the original thread, and you can reference there if you need to.

For quick reference, here is the original deck:

MANA 23
1 Sol Ring
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
4 City of Brass
4 Gemstone Mine
1 Glimmervoid
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Lion’s Eye Diamond
2 Chromatic Sphere

ENGINE 6
4 Oath of Druids
1 Academy Rector
1 Gaea's Blessing

ACCELERATION 5
4 Dark Ritual
1 Fastbond

DRAW 7's 7
1 Necropotence
1 Yawgmoth's Bargain
1 Mind's Desire
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Timetwister
1 Memory Jar
1 Windfall

ANTI-CONTROL 6
4 Cabal Therapy
2 Duress

DRAW AND SEARCH 11
1 Ancestral Recall
4 Brainstorm
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Time Walk
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Tinker
1 Windfall

KILL 2
1 Death/Burning Wish
1 Tendrils of Agony

Side Board 15
1 Morphling
4 Xantid Swarm
1 Verdant Force
4 Force of Will
2 Stifle
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Diminishing Returns

A couple new cards warrant taking a new look at this decklist, the first and most obvious being Forbidden Orchard.

Not only does Forbidden Orchard give this deck a more consistent, multi-color mana source than Gemstone Mine, it allows it to consistently go off earlier against control and other combo decks.

With the inclusion of Forbidden Orchard, and with the deck wanting large amounts of mana when it attempts to win, it seems a logical next step to include Crop Rotation. Rotation not only allows you to fetch an early Orchard and activate Oath of Druids, it also tutors up Tolarian Academy.

I have two concerns with the deck, though, that I'd like help addressing, one of which is actually a carry-over from the original thread.

#1: With only one Blessing, what happens when you Oath a Rector into play and mill Bargain but not Blessing? Obviously, Necropotence is the "next best thing" but it might be simpler just to play more Blessings.

However (#2), what happens when your Blessing shuffles key cards back in but you have no Cabal Therapy to sacrifice Rector to? Is there another, viable, sacrifice outlet for Rector, in order to avoid this at least some of the time? Perhaps Phyrexian Tower (which would add further utility to Crop Rotation)?

So, the theoretical "new" list is:

MANA 23
1 Sol Ring
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
4 City of Brass
1 Gemstone Mine(/Phyrexian Tower?)
4 Forbidden Orchard
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Lion’s Eye Diamond
2 Chromatic Sphere

ENGINE 6
4 Oath of Druids
1 Academy Rector
2 Gaea's Blessing

ACCELERATION 5
4 Dark Ritual
1 Fastbond

DRAW 7's 7
1 Necropotence
1 Yawgmoth's Bargain
1 Mind's Desire
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Timetwister
1 Memory Jar
1 Windfall

ANTI-CONTROL 6
4 Cabal Therapy

DRAW AND SEARCH 11
1 Ancestral Recall
4 Brainstorm
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Time Walk
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Tinker
1 Windfall
1 Crop Rotation

KILL 2
1 Death/Burning Wish
1 Tendrils of Agony

Side Board 15
1 Morphling
4 Xantid Swarm
1 Verdant Force
4 Force of Will
2 Stifle
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Diminishing Returns

Any ideas?

In the past, reprinting old cards made the originals more valuable. People like black border cards, and they like being pimped out. You people with power will always find buyers, and probably at roughly the price power is at now.

However, Wizards could profit from reprinting the old power-cards. I believe an article was very well-written about it a long time ago, perhaps on SCG, where someone (Bleiweiss?) said that if Wizards reprinted Moxes, it would signal the end of Magic...you know, once Magic eventually goes down in value, and people leave the game, and it goes the way of Spellfire, Wizard's death-rattle will be a set of all the fave cards, Power included.

While I didn't agree with his reasoning, he might have a point: Wizards might just never do it.

However, the opinion that Wizards printing "proxy" versions of power isn't viable, but them sanctioning proxy tournaments is...that makes no sense. If you make available Power that doesn't look like the old power, people will buy it, but it won't be close to as valuable as the old stuff, and it won't decrease the value of the old stuff, at least not much.

What about a T4 set? The best, coolest, most broken cards ever, split equally along the color pie and with lands and artifacts, offered as boosters? People would draft that to no end, and none of them would break the prices that T2 singles do (at the VERY WORST, Power from this set would be worth 20.00).

You'll still find collectors that want an original piece of power, or you can easily dump it onto a store who'll do the finding for you. I think this would solve most of the "common man's" problems, with regards to this format and it's supply/demand dynamic, as well as generate more interest in the more complex, intensive game-play T1 involves.