[Budget Deck] Wizard.dec

[bablo]

Though the name for this thread seems to suggest otherwise, this deck has nothing to do with other extended or vintage wizard decks, which mostly run shadowmage as a carddrawing engine. Why? you ask. Well, I wanted to avoid black as a 3rd main color and run as little nonbasic lands as possible. It's because... wasteland / crucible... just hate it. hate it!

It's a budget deck, so don't reply to this message with useless remarks like :
'Bwahaha, TPS will own this deck' or 'Look at this sheit, at least replace <random card> for timewalk, ancestral, mox dollar' and stuff.

DRAWING /  FETCHING
4 Land Tax
2 Scroll Rack
4 Brainstorm
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor
(12)

DISRUPTING
4 Force of Will
4 Mana Leak
2 Misdirection
4 Swords to Plowshares
2 Disenchant
(16)

KILLING
4 Meddling Mage
2 Voidmage Prodigy
3 Grim Lavamancer
1 Goblin Charbelcher
(10)

MANA
1 Mox Diamond
1 Chrome Mox
1 Lotus Petal
1 Sol Ring
4 Flooded Strand
2 Vulcanic Island
6 Island
5 Plains
1 Mountain
(22)

SIDEBOARD
1 Moat
2 Back to Basics
3 Stifle
3 Energy Flux
1 Blue Elemental Blast
1 Balance
4 Chalice of the Void

 
The deck is UW with a tiny red splash for the lavamancers and the sporadical double charbelcher damage. Though Blue has the most cards, obviously for control reasons, White is equally important because of the Land Tax and Swords. That makes 5 plains.

Some card explanations :

- Land Tax / Scroll Rack : Card drawing engine. Better than any budget blue engine, besides from Standstill. But we aren't playing Fish or Landstill, are we?

- Misdirection : Will help you avoid early creature or enchantment kills. Could be replaced with Mana Drain in a slightly less budget version.

- Swords to Plowshares : Need reason? C.O.L.O.S.S.U.S! That, and obviously welders, angels, ophidians,  psychatogs, ...

- Meddling Mage : Much has been said about this card. I still think this card can be crucial to any player who has some knowledge about the decks being played. Call it 'metagame' if you want, but that word always seems to cause stomach problems for me. This mage CAN single handedly stall you games by forcing your opponent to look for his alternative win condition.

- Goblin Charbelcher : Speaking of alternative win conditions. This is the one. No! This deck doesn't want to BE 'charbelcher', it uses a single charbelcher for reasons of surprise and beacuse creatures won't always do the trick. The 9 critters in this deck will do the job most of the times, because they operate in a 'Fish-like way'.

- The mana : Well, that's the major reason I'm posting here. Im not all that sure I should go for  basic land only, some nonbasics (the opted sollution)  or even +4 wasteland and 1 Strip Mine. Any suggestions?

[TylerEss]

The Good:

I don't care what everyone seems to say, Meddling Mage is Teh Awesome. Yes, a deck needs to be found for him to have a home in, but naming a card and not letting your opponent play it is great. This guy really needs a good sort of deck built around him. Maybe you'll be the one to do it? Keep working, and keep reading. Test a lot.

The Bad:

Land Tax/Scroll Rack isn't a draw engine anymore. It doesn't get working until the turn after you play the tax, and only if you've missed more land drops than your opponent. Ideal case, you Tax first turn, going second, and you get to pick out some lands on your second upkeep--but now you've got to play the scroll rack with your second turn mana... and your tempo falls onto it's face. Besides, after one tax/rack, you've traded four mana and two cards for three cards--the same as Inspiration.

When Parfait ran Tax/Rack as a draw engine (way back when), it ran 3 land tax and 4 scroll rack, plus probably about 3 Argivian Find, to get the rack back. This was because, assuming youv'e got the time to get the tax/rack engine working, every good player is going to gun for your rack with everything they've got.

Also, Moat won't come out until after you've lost vs. Workshop Aggro. :-/

The Indifferent:
Where do you plan on playing this thing to win? If everybody's playing such slow decks that this whole works can come online, you'd own them up with something like Slax or Ami's budget control-madness build.