Returning to M:TG and T1

[abra_volta]

Hello there. I'm returning to the game after taking a few years off. I sold my collection and have not stayed up to date with any of the last 9 or so sets.

That's kinda why i'm posting here in the Newbie forums.

I was down at the old shop where I used to play and saw that they are having a Type 1 tournament in July for a Time Walk. Needless to say, the bug has bitten again.

Now, since I don't anymore cards i'm in the position of trying to find-build-play a somewhat competitive deck in a very short time.

Here's the info I can remember. The metagame should be around 20-24 people and I would guess that it is about 60% Control, 30% Aggro, 10% Combo. This was a couple years ago though.

I am allowed to proxy up to 10 cards if needed. I was thinking something simple and cheap. Was toying around with the ideas of mono-colored decks, namely Sligh, Mono-U Control, Fish, or maybe my old favorite, Mono-Black discard/control.

I'm asking here for any advice for cheap/competitive builds. Thanks.

[Bram]

Welcome back to the format!

This is more of a community thread though, so I'm gonna have to move it.

- Bram

[normalbrains]

i think if you want a cheap, competive deck that fish is the way to go. unfortunately mono black discard decks arent that strong right now with all the stuff being played out of graveyards. theres a black fish deck on the newbie forum that people seem to think is ok, but the days black suicide are long gone:( welcome back...mirrodin block brought many new strong cards to type 1 and the format is experiencing a rennaisance of sorts. time walk is still good

[Nantuko Rice]

how much are you willing to spend to "get back in the game"

there's a few staples you must buy (that are now very expensive when compared to just two years ago)

Force of Wills
Now: $20 each
2 years ago: $20 each playset

Duals (Volc, Trop, or Tundra)
Now: $40 each (right?)
2 Years ago: $15 each

Anyway... fish is the deck you wanna play. The cheapest build of fish is probably the blue/green one with madness creatures. However, my personal favorite is blue/white... But that one has meddling mage, which means shelling out another $40 for a playset. 

[normalbrains]

where did you pull those prices from? i havent been buying much lately but im gonna be a rich man if those prices are correct. there is no way that revised duals go for $40.

abra: dont fear, this kids smoking crack.

[Killertree]

They sell duals for $20 each at the shop I go to.  Lowest is $18, highest is $22 for Underground sea.

[normalbrains]

thats a mighty fair price for a sea especially at a shop. i think they go for that or a bit higher on ebay but i havent been in the market for duals in a long while.

[Revvik]

Ok, ok - dual lands (the blue ones) you should expect to pay an average of $22 for, depending on where you go.  The shop I work at sells Undergrounds for $30, and Tundras for $25, but I honestly don't expect those to sell until this time next year at that price 

What you can play all depends on how much you want to spend.  For a solid budget deck, I would build Lam Phan's Bird Shit deck, and make a couple of adjustments. 

http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/article/9419.html
Josh Silvestri has written a pretty in-depth article on it here, and since it's been a couple years since you played you probably remember combat math and tricks better than most of us 

You would have to worry about running a terrible manabase, but one of my friends plays this deck often and does incredibly well with it.
I can't advise running the 4 Ancient Tomb / 4 Energy Flux in the sideboard, though - but it's entirely up to you what you want to tweak.

Your 10 proxies could honestly be the Sapphire, Walk, Ancestral, and duals.
What's more preferrable to you, though - aggro, combo, or control?

[JACO]

The various Fish builds are all very competitive right now, and your main investment in those will be 4x Force of Will ($20 each), U/x fetchlands ($5-6 each), and at least 4x Blue/x duals (Tundras, Tropicals, and Volcanics go for about $20 each, Undergrounds are about $25-29 each).

Other 10-proxy viable options are various incarnations of Oath, including DOA, where you could proxy 4 Mana Drains, 1 Ancestral Recall, 1 Time Walk, 1 Black Lotus, 1 Mox Sapphire, 1 Mox Emerald, and 1 Mox Jet, and after investing in 3 Dual lands and 4x Force of Wills be highly competitive. For another very budget but very competitive deck you could play Food Chain Goblins, which Mike Zaun used to win the 05-21-2005 SCG Power 9 event with. There is a somewhat long and outdated primer here, but it does offer quite a bit of good information in regards to how to play the deck and stack goblins. With this deck you should be able to proxy 1 Black Lotus, 1 Mox Ruby, 4 Taigas, and have room left over for things like Goblin Piledriver or Null Rod to proxy.

Good luck!

[Killertree]

The various Fish builds are all very competitive right now, and your main investment in those will be 4x Force of Will ($20 each), U/x fetchlands ($5-6 each), and at least 4x Blue/x duals (Tundras, Tropicals, and Volcanics go for about $20 each, Undergrounds are about $25-29 each).

Other 10-proxy viable options are various incarnations of Oath, including DOA, where you could proxy 4 Mana Drains, 1 Ancestral Recall, 1 Time Walk, 1 Black Lotus, 1 Mox Sapphire, 1 Mox Emerald, and 1 Mox Jet, and after investing in 3 Dual lands and 4x Force of Wills be highly competitive. For another very budget but very competitive deck you could play Food Chain Goblins, which Mike Zaun used to win the 05-21-2005 SCG Power 9 event with. There is a somewhat long and outdated primer here, but it does offer quite a bit of good information in regards to how to play the deck and stack goblins. With this deck you should be able to proxy 1 Black Lotus, 1 Mox Ruby, 4 Taigas, and have room left over for things like Goblin Piledriver or Null Rod to proxy.

Good luck!

And maybe Old man at sea if you are going to have him in the deck.

[abra_volta]

It seems to be a consensus that Fish decks are the way to go. But i'm also interested in the Goblin deck. I imagine that in my area a couple might bring fish decks, how would the goblins stack up against them?

The goblin deck would probably be a cheaper build for me.

Any thoughts on this? Are there a couple decklists I could look at to see some sideboard choices?

[Revvik]

Depending on the Fish decks, Goblin Food Chain should run right through them.

[JACO]

Depending on the Fish decks, Goblin Food Chain should run right through them.

Yeah, if you build Food Chain correctly (like 3-4 Gempalm Incinerators main if you expect aggro), then you should run over Fish decks. Goblin Piledriver has protection from Blue, and gets huge quick. Kiki-Jiki Mirror Breaker is nutty in that deck.

[abra_volta]

Well, I went down to my local card shop to see what I could scrounge up in the commons and uncommons boxes, so far nothing. But then I saw some people playing so I meandered over to take a look.

I watched the first player drop a USea and a Mox Sapphire. He flashed me his hand and I just smiled. God I miss Type 1.

Then the other player went and I saw that he was playing some sort of Oath deck. I smiled again.

The something disturbing happened. Maybe i've been outta the game for too long, but this just seemed wrong to me.

The Oath player started his oath on his upkeep. Dumped a bunch of cards in his graveyard, along with an abnormal amount of Enchant Creature spells. I thought that was weird. Then some white critter came into play and all of a sudden he took all te Enchant Creature cards out of his graveyard and put them on the white critter. I was like WHOA!

He said that all of Enchante Creature cards have the text "When "this critter" comes into play, move enchantment onto critter"....or something like that. I thought wow! Playing cards outta the graveyard for free.

Now, the old player in me is screaming that this is wrong. But the newb player in me (since i'm returning to the game) is saying, rules have changed.

Now, I want to know what the heck happened? Can someone fill me in on this please?

[abra_volta]

Ok, found something interesting for info on helping me find a build a decent deck.

http://www.themanadrain.com/forums/index.php?topic=22324.0

http://www.themanadrain.com/forums/index.php?topic=21893.0

This is the meta i'll be playing in.