Type One Primer - Defining Cards

Matt The Great

Guest

« on: September 12, 2002, 12:22:28 am »

This is section two of my Type One Primer, up for review. I have not included cards such as Lightning Bolt or Disenchant in this list, because this is not a review of every Type One viable cards - only a quick rundown of the hurdles a new player can expect to have to jump. Bolt and Disenchant have a thousand variants, and work essentially the same in all formats, whereas stuff like Duress is much more essential in Type One due to the more powerful spells, and so on.

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

Format Defining Cards

All Magic formats are defined in a large part by speed, and the same is true of Type One. However, the speed that makes Type One distinctive is not the speed with which a player's threats kill but rather the speed of the answers that slow down that kill. Thus, despite the added acceleration from cards banned elsewhere, games themselves often take MORE turns to complete than some extended or Type Two games.

This is largely due to the power of the cards used - a single card can swing the balance (no pun intended) of the game one way or another. These drastic back-and-forth movements are often the most exciting, challenging aspects of the format, and many players find these characteristic shifts the most appealing aspect of Type One. So, just what are these environment-defining cards? Let's take a look.

Moxen - Absolutely the set of cards that most defines Type One. The raw speed boost of the five Moxen (Jet, Sapphire, Pearl, Ruby, Emerald) are what enables control decks to be fast enough to keep up with aggro decks. They interact well with a number of cards - Balance, Draw-7's (Wheel of Fortune, Windfall, Memory Jar, Timetwister), and so on. The Moxen are the sole reason anyone has ever taken notice of Gorilla Shaman, which is widely played as a cheap way to combat these cards. There are several decks that simply cannot be built without at least three Moxen, and always want to play five, if you can acquire them. Mox Sapphire and Jet are the two highest-valued, Pearl and Emerald the least. There are a number of spells that become exponentially better when coupled with Moxen, these will be noted where appropriate.

Ancestral Recall - no blue deck in Type One cannot be made better by the addition of this card. The best possible spell to include in a deck. Simply adding this to any deck increases its power by an order of magnitude. It cannot be underestimated how important this card is to any control deck - it makes otherwise ungainly cards like Merchant Scroll look positively stupendous. Accept no substitutes, if there is one Power card to own, this is it. A resolved Ancestral is a difficult blow to recover from for any deck.

Mind Twist - this spell spent the better part of a decade on the banned list, only to be granted a reprieve in recent years. Among the most powerful of spells, it is, like many, many cards, fiercest when coupled with Moxen or Black Lotus. Dark Ritual also works well.

Balance - as has been said a thousand times before this, and will be said a thousand times after, Balance is Armageddon, Wrath of God, and Mind Twist all in one. Most commonly this spell is played for its Wrath effect against aggro decks, but it also is important in control matchups as a way of negating card advantage. Also can kill a Morphling.

Yawgmoth's Will - the black Balance, this card has garnered the nickname "Yawgmoth's Win" for its ability to completely end games. It is most often used after a long war of attrition between both player's resources, when resolving Will lets you completely regain your strength, replaying any Moxen that were detroyed, possibly getting a land, and re-using Ancestral Recall, Time Walk, and other goodies, using Black Lotus to power the whole thing. The Will's true power is that it lets a player effectively double all his restricted goodies for only 2B. Also working well in mono-black decks, where Dark Rituals are absolutely sick, Yawgmoth's Will loses a great deal of its power when no mana acceleration or Power cards are present, though it is still a strong choice (it will just require a good deal more mana).

The Abyss - this, along with its Legends counterpart Moat, are the bane of nearly all creature-based strategies in Type One. The Abyss is the primary line of defense for many control decks, as it will not kill Morphling, because the effect targets.

Moat - the other fabulous creature-hosing enchantment from Legends. Moat actually puts a greater stop to creature-based assault than The Abyss, but is less often played because it is difficult to acquire the two white mana needed to cast it. Also, an opponent can simply play out a horde of creatures and then destroy the Moat, allowing a screaming horde of vicious killers swarm in. These two enchantments combine to form one of the primary reasons why aggressive strategies MUST be as fast as possible, or contain significant disruptive capabilities to be successful in Type One. These enchantments are examples of cards of such raw power that they must not be allowed on the board.

Duress/Hymn To Tourach/Sinkhole/Wasteland/Strip Mine/Null Rod - speaking of disruptive capabilities! These cards present the tour de force of disruption in Type One. The black spells are all cheap and brutaly efficient, horribly and effectively ripping an opposing strategy to shreds, and virtually every deck runs 3-5 of the land-killing lands. Null Rod is yet another common anti-Mox ploy, with the side benefit of shutting down Powder Keg, Cursed Scroll, Masticore, Illusionary Mask, and Scroll Rack, all of which see significant play.

Force of Will - The other means by which to halt an opponent's plans for domination is to outright counter the offending spell in the first place. Force of Will has been a staple of control decks everywhere since it first hit the scene in Alliances, and was on the Extended format's watchlist for much of its tenure there (it will be be rotating in November). Though it is card-disadvantagous, being able to counter any spell for zero mana is of such tremendous value that the is the most sought-after counterspell in deck construction. Force of Will has long been a spell used not only to protect against nasty opposing spells but also to literally force down a powerful permanent with which to win the game (extended saw a rash of decks which used Force of Will to get into play Morphling, Survival of the Fittest, Necropotence, or Illusions of Grandeur). Force of Will is also one of the only measures a lot of decks have against a first-turn Dark Ritual followed by Phyrexian Negator, Hypnotic Specter, or Hymn to Tourach in black, and it always nice to be able to stop an Ancestral Recall before you even get a turn.

Misdirection - ...but what is even better is taking that Ancestral for yourself! Misdirection never enjoyed immense popularity in Type Two or Extended, but in Type One it's pure gold due to the presence of more powefrul targeted effects. Look at the first two spells on this list - I do not know, and never want to find out whether it is worse to have your own Ancestral Recall misdirected, or your own Mind Twist. Misdirection is also blue's best defense against Sinkhole (gasp!) and Hymn to Tourach (horror!). Misdirection can also be used as Force of Wills in counterwars by changing the opponent's spell to target the Misdirection.

Mana Drain - One of the most definitive spells of Type One (and 1.5). Mana Drain is the final nail in the coffin of so-called "midrange" decks that use larger aggressive creatures, such as the Fires of Yavimaya decks that were all the rage in the Mercadian Masques/Invasion Type Two. Watching an opponent Drain your spell into a two-mana Morphling is a horrible thing to behold, and only the beginning of the limitless ways to spend free mana (Mind Twist for B is also especially brutal).

Demonic Tutor/Mystical Tutor - These two spells are the best Tutors ever printed. They are used to fetch situationally useful cards (many of which appear on this list), or just whatever is most needed at the time. Besides appearing to "un-restrict" several restricted cards, these tutors give decks using them the flexibility to easily find whatever, whenever. In other formats you can pretty much rely on your opponent to not topdeck the one card that would save him, but these cards make that certainty much less reliable.

Library of Alexandria - This land is one of the primary reasons that most decks run a Strip Mine and 3-4 Wastelands. Allowing this massively powerful, free drawing tool to go unchecked is tantamount to conceding the game. Combines well with the "Draw-7s," Wheel of Fortune and Timetwister.

The Dual Lands - As of November, 2002, Type One (and its smaller, weaker brother, 1.5) will be the last format in which these classic mana producers will be legal to play. Providing a key service to anyone who wants to play more than one color at a time, these lands originally were nearly strictly superior to basic lands. With time, however, there have been many nonbasic-punishing cards printed that give players a real reason to want at least a few basic lands in their decks. Their status as lands of their member types, originally intended to be a drawback, has turned out to be one of their strengths - they are fetchable with Tithe and Land Grant, and can be returned to hand with Gush, and so forth.

Mishra's Workshop - Since its unrestriction, this land has recently shown up to power a new-school horde of artifact-based decks, usually to bring a Juggernaut or Su-Chi into play on the first turn, hoping to ride that speed boost to victory. Previously, large creatures were something one did not really have to contend with in Type One, but even at the highest levels of competition that is changing due to this card.

Stroke of Genius/Braingeyser/Fact or Fiction - These three spells are the control player's way of refilling their hand after a series of tradeoffs. All three have been restricted in Type One while largely untouched elsewhere due to the sheer power level of the cards drawn. To use a modern example, a Type Two Fact or Fiction might turn up Repulse, land, land, Counterspell, and Circular Logic. A Type One Fact or Fiction too often turns up Black Lotus, Demonic Tutor, Regrowth, Mana Drain, Underground Sea. It is also worth noting that Braingeyser and Stroke of Genius are commonly used as the kill cards of several combo decks that aim to generate large amounts of mana.

Powder Keg - With all the talk of the ways a control deck has to put the hurt on slower aggressive decks, traditional decks like Stompy and Sligh have been forced into playing only the very cheapest, fastest creatures - and these are invariably all of the same casting cost, making Powder Keg the creature sweeper of choice. Kegging for one also clears out Cursed Scroll in Sligh. Powder Kegs are also effective, though less so, against black creatures. Kegs can also be used to clear out all the Moxen from a table, though this is not as good as using a Null Rod because you still allow the opponent a single use out of their precious Jewelry.

Back To Basics/Blood Moon - there are several dangerous decktypes that rely extensively on nonbasic land, and these two enchantments punish those decks like no other card. There's not a lot to say here except that Dwarven Miner also works very hard at killing nonbasic lands. Mana denial, as a theme, is a strong way to deny your opponent the opportunity to work his tricks.

Timetwister/Wheel of Fortune - the classic "Draw 7's". These spells are an excellent way to refill your hand after a war of attrition, or to recover from savage discard. These spells are not often played in control decks, however, as your opponent is likely to have fewer cards than you (thus benefitting more) and handing seven new cards to a Sligh or mono-blue deck is often going to get you killed.

Morphling - The kill method of choice for control decks. Morphling is the uncontested best creature in all of Magic. The ways to actually remove the wiley shapeshifter are few and far between (chief among them is Diabolic Edict). However, it is a common mistake of a new player to obsess over the card that actually killed him - Morphling - and to conclude that if he can kill Morphling, he can win the game. This is far from the truth. It is almost always better and easier to stop the Morphling from ever entering play via disruption, or by killing the opponent before he can muster the five mana (six, really - one does not cast a Morphling without a blue mana open except in the most dire of situations) necessary. It is wonderful to note that a Morphling can still function at full capacity under a simultaneous Moat, Abyss, Gravity Sphere, Meekstone, and Tangle Wire.

Phyrexian Negator/Hypnotic Specter - the tag team pair of Specter and Negator are a control deck's worst nightmare. Often coming out on turn one thanks to Dark Ritual, Negator demands an answer within four turns, while Specter ravages hands in an almost unethical way. I will quote Edward Paltzik's Suicide Black Primer (2002): "The oldest black menace, Hypnotic Specter remains outstanding even today. It is still a legitimate threat against control decks, while being anywhere from good to excellent against most everything else...Against any blue-based control deck, any combo deck, or any slow mid-range deck, Phyrexian Negator is great. Dark Ritual + Phyrexian Negator on the first turn will put your opponent on a frantic four-turn clock that will seem that much faster as you peel apart their hand and remove their mana sources."

* * *

Certain cards such as Lightning Bolt, Dark Ritual, and others were not included on this list despite their being widely-played, because they do not function very differently from the way they are played in other formats. Every format has a red direct damage spell, and anyone who's ever seen a Dark Ritual played knows exactly what its power is. This list is better thought of as a list of the most powerful cards in the format and the cards that oppose such game-altering effects. As a final word, not every restricted card belongs in a deck of the appropriate color - as powerful as many of these cards are, by and large they do not change the fundamental rules of deck construction. So before you go tossing Timetwister into your mono-blue deck, you still need to make sure it's the right card for the job.\n\n


	Logged

dandan

Guest