Guest Meddling: Upgrading the Coalition
I’m a fan of preconstructed decks, especially some of the non-intro products Wizards has been putting out. However, I take a different approach than Jay. I like to customize, tear apart, rebuild, refocus, and repurpose what I pull out of those boxes.
Sometimes I like to retool decks into easier-to-play, more-consistent versions of themselves, so that I can hand them to new players and explain them quickly. Other times I like to tinker with decks and fill them with bomby, splashy cards that make for lots of fun. Once in awhile I like to optimize for the kill. Either way, I feel like personalizing preconstructed decks is a great way to make them more interesting and more fun, utilizing some of the basic framework.
One of my favorite preconstructed decks in the past year was the Duel Decks: Phyrexia vs the Coalition set, because I loved that storyline and was thrilled to be able to play as Urza and Yawgmoth, re-enacting that climactic battle. Then I played the decks.
Ertai’s Meddling: Relic Breaker (Scars of Mirrodin)
It’s time for another installment of Lament’s most popular series, Ertai’s Meddling! This is the series where we take a preconstructed deck and have our way with it, gutting the cards that aren’t carrying their weight and packing in ones that will. Of course, it wouldn’t be sporting just to toss in a heaping cup full of Rares and Mythics, so we look to build within the resources of what a new or returning player might have. As such, we’ve developed the following two Rules:
Today we return to the Scars of Mirrodin precons, and it’s anti-artifact poison pill, Relic Breaker. Scars is an artifact block, absolutely crammed with them, so it was only natural to expect that one of the five decks might be dedicated to smashing things up! When we last visited Relic Breaker, we found it to be a bit of a one-trick pony. Here are the qualities we identified:
Ertai’s Meddling: Myr of Mirrodin (Scars of Mirrodin)
Welcome back once more to the second installment of Ertai’s Meddling for the Scars of Mirrodin! In today’s column we’ll be taking apart the mono-White Myr tribal deck, and reconstructing it in an improved form. Like the previous Meddling, there will also be a twist thrown in to boot, based on the feedback from the Phyrexian Poison article. We’ll get to that later, but for now let’s review the rules of Ertai’s Meddling.
There are two fundamental rules this series has adopted, and they are as follows:
The goal of Ertai’s Meddling isn’t to make the best possible deck regardless your collection or wallet. Rather, by leaving out Rares and Mythic Rares, we look to improve upon the deck with cards most players may already have, or at least have easy access to. It’s often bemoaned- and correctly so- that to compete in Standard today you need to have fairly deep pockets to be able to build most decks. For many players who don’t have Pro Tour aspirations, however, a preconstructed deck and a little bit of tuning will yield up a deck that’s perfectly competitive for casual, table-top play. That’s our goal- take what’s been give to us in the deck, strip out its weaknesses and then build up its strengths.
Contest: Ertai’s Meddling for Scars of Mirrodin!
As you’ll see below, today we’ve begun rolling out the Ertai’s Meddlings for the Scars of Mirrodin preconstructed decks! For those newer to the site, Meddlings are occasional features begun during M11, where after thoroughly reviewing a deck, we then look to build upon it and improve it with other cards. Having fast become one of our most popular features, we thought we’d go ahead and thank our readers by holding another giveaway.
Like past contests, we’ll be using the ‘raffle’ system to determine our winner, but unlike past contests there’s only one way to get your name in the hat: comments on each of the five Ertai’s Meddling for Scars decks. For each comment left, you’ll be entered to win. As always, comments don’t need to be the great American novel, but should at least show you’ve read the piece or are adding to any discussion around it. We’re quite lenient at what qualifies, but what we want to avoid is a post of “Looks great, I agree” and nothing more, just for the sake of entering.
And the prize? We’re glad you asked, because we’ve got a little twist there as well.
The lucky winner, drawn at random at the close of the contest, will recieve one Scars of Mirrodin Intro Pack of their choice. In addition, they will also get all of the singles needed to convert their deck into either one of the two Meddling decks featured in each article. If we add it to either version, you’ll win it.
We don’t have a close date yet as the Meddling articles are still in production, but we’ll set the deadline as three days after the final of the five SOM Meddlings is posted. Good luck to everyone, and thanks for all your enthusiasm around the Meddlings!
Ertai’s Meddling: Phyrexian Poison (Scars of Mirrodin)
Welcome back to another edition of Ertai’s Meddling, the ongoing series where we take a deck we’ve reviewed, strip out its weakest elements and look to rebuild it faster, better, stronger. It’s been awhile since we last Meddled (when M11 was new), so let’s take a moment to review the ground rules we’ve set down for the Meddling series:
Whoops! What our clumsily-rendered Goblin friends are trying to tell us there is that unlike past Meddlings, we’re throwing Rule #2 right out the window for Phyrexian Poison. Our first deck concept will be Scars and M11 only, as before. But the second- which is normally a mono-coloured version- will be something completely different: a Standard variant! There are two reasons for the change here. First, Infect is a new mechanic without a great deal of cards supporting it yet, and a mono-Black Infect deck would be a rather poor construct. And second, there are just so many great cards in the format right now that synergise well with Infect!
Ertai’s Meddling: Power of Prophecy (m11)
Welcome back to another edition of Ertai’s Meddling, a semi-regular feature which sees us take a preconstructed deck and use it as the basis for deckbuilding a new, enhanced version. For those unfamiliar with the series, the rules of Ertai’s Meddling are simple:
For many, the ‘Intro Packs’ are the first exposure they have to a deck of their own, and the next step is to modify and improve that deck. The designers of each precon deck are well aware of this, and kindly leave us lots of opportunities to tweak them.
Ertai’s Meddling: Stampede of Beasts (m11)
Welcome to another installment of Ertai’s Meddling, the occasional series where we take a preconstructed deck and use it to create a new, stronger casual/playable deck. For many, the “intro pack” is their introduction to deckbuilding, taking out cards they don’t like or that don’t seem to work, and replacing them with others from their collection. As always, there are two fundamental rules we’ll observe:
Today’s patient is Stampede of Beasts. A Green/Red deck from Magic 2011, it scored a 3.75/5.0 on account of some glaring weaknesses to the overall deck structure. Here’s the card list as you’d find it tight out of the box:
And before we begin here’s what we learned about the deck from our playtesting and analysis:
Today we’ll be making two versions of Stampede. The first will keep it’s colour scheme intact- unlike Reign of Vampirism, the off-colour here is an asset, not a liability. The second iteration of the deck will be full-on mono-Green, trading burn for rulership of the red zone. Let’s get started!
Ertai’s Meddling: Reign of Vampirism (m11)
For our first Ertai’s Meddling deconstruction, we’ve selected the popular M11 deck Reign of Vampirism. As discussed in the deck review, Reign is an intriguing but flawed Black-Green concoction that relies on a particular gimmick (the Captivating Vampire) as its most dangerous win condition. Here are the raw materials we are working with:
Now, let’s next examine the strengths and weaknesses we discovered through analysis and playtesting, so we know where to focus our attentions:
Today we’ll be building two versions of Reign of Vampirism– one keeping it a two-colour construction, and the other bringing its darker elements to the fore and stripping it down to be mono-Black. Remember the rules of Ertai’s Meddling: no Rares or Mythics will be added! In addition, we’ll be keeping the core content of the decks intact- we may have some recommendations for cards from other sets, but for the task at hand we’ll only be using M11 cards.
Coming Soon: Ertai’s Meddling
Ertai’s Lament is pleased to announce a forthcoming semi-regular series, the first installment of which should be on the site this week-end!
Since this site was started, we’ve found that one of the larger segments of our audience are players new to the game (or returning), who are using the Intro Decks as a starting point for their own building- a great place to begin! But often for the new player, deckbuilding can be a very unsteady thing (my own earliest efforts, for instance, were 120-card monstrosities), and a little guidance and suggestion can go a long way.
For those looking to build competitive Standard decks, there are plenty of resources online- just a few are in the ‘Links’ list in the right-hand margin. But for those players breaking into the game, regrettably there’s just not a lot out there. The Ertai’s Meddling series will deconstruct an Intro Pack deck and modify it into an improved version of itself. And along the way, we’ll be working off of one core assumption: you don’t need a ton of Rares and Mythics to make a fun, playable deck. The versions we tune will only have the Rares that came with the Intro Deck in the first place- all other tweaks will be with Commons and Uncommons, to keep them easy to build and affordable.
As always, feedback and testing is encouraged! If you like- or dislike- a change, say so, or make your own suggestions! Let us know what you’ve done to your own deck, and how that’s worked out for you. It’s our hope that the wisdom of the many can prove every bit as valuable as the wisdom of the few.
Thanks as always for reading, and look for the first installment of Ertai’s Meddling (on an M11 deck) coming soon!
Ertai's Lament 