I had a crazy idea when I was playtesting Draco Explosion for Extended: Why not add Black? Of course, this seemed stupid to my team mates... And one of them had played the deck for over a month and had done okay with it, but nothing amazing. (He did lose to Sol Malka in Atlanta, so we don't count that.)

I used to run that hack site CCGPrime - but for some reason, I have sold my soul to Pete and decided to finally get off my butt and try and write again. Things have been busy, as it appears I am expecting a little one and am currently in England on vacation. Hopefully I can sneak into Manchester for back-to-back Qs this coming weekend and smack some of the Brits around.

Don't worry about Prime, though (like any of you would) - it will have some stuff up soon. No articles, though, as many of the writers jumped ship to other sites (like StarCity; hey they get paid over here). But we will have information about this year's Central Coast Championships which was a smashing success last year.

And we will probably do the Writer's War again as well, since so many people hate it and it is a good advertisement for StarCity... And yes, just to bug some of you, Rizzo will be listed again this year, as he did write a States report.

But on with the article.

I reasoned that adding black would handle a few problems that I had seen with the deck. The first thing was that the metagame has evolved so it contains a lot of non-basic hate. The second is that black can do a lot of things that Red and Blue were having problems with. And three, I just love the color.

To cover the first problem of all the non-basic hate I figured I had to lose as many as I could, as the original build sports four Lonely Sandbar and four Shivan Reef, that was a problem. Then add Fairie Conclave and almost half of your land base is susceptible to disruption.

So first off, I lost the painlands and added a swamp as well as some of the new fetch lands. The Reefs usually gave you pain - so why not trade them in for a one-time shot and suffer no more?

So the new land base looks as such:

2 Polluted Delta
3 Bloodstained Mire
1 Crosis's Catacombs
2 Dust Bowl
1 Swamp
10 Island
6 Mountain

I also went up to twenty-four lands. The Crosis Catacomb is good as in it gives you your black and bounces a land to help with Scroll Rack in the mid and late game. Some people may not like it, but I do. The Dustbowls are primarily for the biggest problem, Tree top Villages. But when not facing them, just use as regular lands, or use in conjunction with Brainstorms and/or Scroll Racks. With 5 fetch lands, shuffling them away is easy as pie. It also can win you games against other non-basic heavy decks, this happened more than once with me.

After testing with maindeck black I found that the maindeck itself was primarily solid and that the gold of black was in the board. So I will list my maindeck and break it down from there.

4 Counterspell
4 Accumulated Knowledge
4 Brainstorm
4 Fire / Ice
4 Mana Leak
3 Draco
3 Erratic Explosion
3 Scroll Rack
3 Intuition
4 Cunning Wish

I played this deck for the first time at a Q in Highpoint NC on 12/21 and went 3-3 - yes, it's a none too impressive record, but I lost my games because of misplays. And considering I built and played this deck in under a week....

So now on to the Sideboard and the money shot:

3 Slice and Dice
1 Turnabout
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Terminate
1 Crosis's Charm
1 Sonic Burst
1 Starstorm
1 Coffin Purge
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Dominate
1 Hibernation

1 Urza's Rage

The first comment I have to make is that I played seventeen games and got my Swamp every game. Except for game 3 of my first match, I had all three colors every game. I won a game in all three match losses - and they were all close. I must admit I lost a lot because I misplayed a lot.

Round 1 - Oath
The first game was rather awkward, being my first real match and me being unaware of how to play against it. I got the combo off once, but Treetop Villages did me in while Spike Feeders boosted the life total.

The second game was much better as I got out the Dust Bowl and destroyed three Treetops while en route to victory.

The third game was mine; I had control for most of it and my opponent tapped out three times to swing with two Treetops. I never saw my Dust Bowl... But a better player would have Wished for the Sonic Burst early and done the four points, knowing they were needed anyway, I did not. On the turn before I died I Explosioned him and died with him at four life - though I had three chances to Burst him.

Round 2 - Sligh
The first game is almost an auto loss. He got out little Goblins and Goblin Piledrivers and caved my head in.

I sided in three Slice and Dice for a Brainstorm, a Catacomb, and an Accumulated Knowledge (playtesting revealed Wishing for these is a good thing). The Slice and Dices were amazing; I got two off, along with a couple of Fire / Ice. He played the Fetchland version, so one Draco was enough.

Game three was almost all me. At one point he tapped five mana and attacked. I said,"Burn for five?" He did, and was at fifteen.

All I needed was red. I had the combo - twice! - in my hand. I was Scrolling for seven and was not able to get a mountain. Mana screw happens.

Round 3 - B/w Land Destruction
Game one saw turn 3 through turn 6 land destruction. I managed not to keep any blue on the board, but got out a Scroll Rack and finished what the Caves of Koilos started.

Game 2 was the same; I was stuck at three land, but one of each color. I was staring down a Laquatus's Champion when I finished him off. The biggest problem with this guy's deck was his Spawning Pool action was all he had for a few tuns.

Round 4 - The Rock
Game 1 was perfect: Turn 2 Brainstorm, turn 3 Explosion. His Llanowar Wastes and a Vampiric Tutor were the setup.

Game 2 was the Llanowar elf/Yavimaya Elder Beatdown. A treetop joined in and I was toast.

Game 3 was much better after I added three Slice and Dice. I cycled it turn 3, killing two Birds, an Elf, and an Elder. From there he dropped out a Spiritmonger and he finally saw what the Black was for when I Terminated the big guy. In the search for a threat (I had countered two Spike Feeders) he Tutored by using a Llanowar Wastes (already taking damage from the land) - and I finished the match by exposing the beast from the top of my deck.

Round 5 - Reanimator
Game one was almost a route as my opponent got the first-turn Duress and then stalled for a couple of turns, but he did manage to get a Verdant Force and Petradon in the yard. I tutored for the Coffin Purge and got rid of the land grabber; he then Exhumed, and I realized another benefit of having Black in the deck. I had an Intuition in hand and went for my Dracos in response, realizing that I could get a 9/9 flier into play. I had an Island, Mountain and Swamp out along with a Dust Bowl, so Draco's upkeep was four. So I swung with him twice; an early Tutor had done the other two.

Yes, I had an Exhumed Draco out and won with him; go figure.

Game 2 was not a game, turn 2 Petradon. I scooped.

Game three was all about the Purge. He went for the Contamination lock and I purged the Nether Spirit in response. I just sat back, hid some cards with my active Scroll Rack when discard came, and eventually finished him off.

Round 6 - U/G/w
Game one was all him, as he had a turn 1 Nimble Mongoose, turn 2 Wild Mongrel and just crushed me. In went Slice and Dice. At this point, I thought it was just a U/G Madness running the Mongeese to combat the Sligh-heavy metagame.

Game 2 I saw the white... And a Mystic Enforcer. I managed a good Starstorm early and a Hibernation and eventually comboed for the win, with the four fetchlands he played being my MVP next to Draco.

Game 3 was close. He dropped three dudes in one turn (I countered about four earlier). I went and set up the combo; he played the AK for about five at that point and I died to rather large Mongrels. Upon review, I realized I had enough to cycle a Slice and Dice for one point to all, and then Wish for a Starstorm and kill about three of his guys to live another turn and win. But I was playing like crap by this point.

I used Crosis's Charm twice on the day in a not-so-lifesaving fashion to kill a dude and bounce a land against a mana hosed opponent... But the point of that card was I had all three colors sixteen out of seventeen games and it came in handy. A card as versatile as that needs to be in the board, especially when you can play it.

So there is a different take on a solid deck. Play at your own risk.

Daniel Rowland
Level 1 Judge
Web Master CCGPrime.com (HAH!!!)
Earl of Scrub
Soon to be daddy
CCGPrime@aol.com