With the IBC tournament scene revving up I thought I would share a few decklists with everyone. I do tend to build only casual decks now but I love block formats - and I think IBC lends itself to somewhat of a rogue deckbuilder’s mentality. Not that these three decks are all that rogue; in fact they focus on one of the most powerful spells in the format - Eladamri’s Call. Instant tutoring ability ain’t too shabby.

Obviously with the Call being the building block all of these decks are base GW. Still that gives us two"arcs" and a"wedge" to play with. Let me hit the highlights of each deck first. All of the decks contain these cards:

1 Noble Panther
1 Charging Troll
1 Kavu Titan
2 Restock
1 Sabertooth Nishoba
1 Voice of All
1 Coalition Honor Guard
1 Fleetfoot Panther
3 Llanowar Knight
4 Armadillo Cloak
4 Eladamri's Call

The Call is essential and so is the Cloak. It can provide such a swing in the game that it has to be considered. Regardless of the loss of card advantage that is inherent in using creature enchantments the Cloak is too tough to ignore. The creatures follow a bit of a curve and all of them are great targets for the Cloak once they’ve been called into your hand. The reason there are three Knights is because sometimes it’s just nice to drop one second turn and Cloak it up next turn and start winning. Hey if your opponent Flametongues it away chances are you’ve got a solution in hand by way of the Call. After sideboarding you’re bringing in Acolytes or against black Dodecapods. The fun never ends.

Using this GW as a base I’ve concocted three separate decks the best of which is the GWR version:

1 Skizzik
1 Thornscape Battlemage
1 Noble Panther
1 Charging Troll
1 Tahngarth Talruum Hero
1 Shivan Wurm
1 Flametongue Kavu
1 Kavu Titan
1 Flowstone Charger
2 Goblin Legionnaire
2 Restock
1 Rith the Awakener
1 Sabertooth Nishoba
1 Voice of All
1 Coalition Honor Guard
1 Fleetfoot Panther
3 Yavimaya Barbarian
3 Llanowar Knight
4 Squee's Embrace
4 Armadillo Cloak
4 Eladamri's Call
4 Mountain
6 Plains
4 Forest
4 Battlefield Forge
3 Shivan Oasis
3 Elfhame Palace

Most of the creature choices are self-explanatory but let me explain the Squee’s Embrace. Besides the fact that I love this card the simple fact remains — in a creature-based deck it’s nice to get your creatures back. The Embrace is also reminiscent of the Coalition Honor Guard. Nobody targets critters while Squee’s giving them a hug. Why bother? (By the way doesn’t everyone else also love the Coalition Honor Guard? That big galoot just sticks his big ol’ fanny in there and your Nishoba and Troll can just go to work knowing that the Guard is taking one for the team.)

The most questionable choice in my mind might be the Flowstone Charger. He makes the final cut over Ancient Spider and Desolation Giant. Why? Even though the latter two cards are superior the Flowstone Charger is more of a beatdown-style creature that fits in with the curve and the use of the Cloak and the Embrace. (That said he’s still the first one headed for the door when sideboarding occurs probably for one of the aforementioned cards.) I also went for only three each of the"duals" for a similar reason. I want this to be more beatdown and I get tired of waiting around for my lands to untap. Besides one of the nice side effects of the call is the deck thinning usually assuring you have little or no problem getting the mana you want.

The next"arc" is GWU which plainly has a more midrange control thing going on as opposed to the aggression of the GWR:

1 Noble Panther
1 Charging Troll
1 Ancient Spider
1 Kavu Titan
3 Fact or Fiction
1 Sunscape Battlemage
2 Restock
1 Treva the Renewer
1 Sabertooth Nishoba
1 Jungle Barrier
1 Voice of All
1 Coalition Honor Guard
1 Mystic Snake
1 Fleetfoot Panther
1 Questing Phelddagrif
2 Meddling Mage
2 Gaea's Skyfolk
3 Galina's Knight
3 Llanowar Knight
4 Armadillo Cloak
4 Eladamri's Call
3 Forest
3 Island
6 Plains
4 Yavimaya Coast
4 Coastal Tower
4 Elfhame Palace

Some card choice explanations:

The only reason I went two-and-two on the Skyfolk/Meddling Mage is because of the tempo of this deck. This is a slightly slower version of the first so I didn’t feel the need to have as many quick creatures. In the red version I wanted a target for my Cloak or Embrace right away. Without the Embrace I don’t have a need for a target quite as quickly. Fact or Fiction replaces the Embraces in this deck and I don’t believe that requires a lot of explanation. Either way with FoF or the Call you’re getting what you need right away.

The"wedge" version of this deck is GWB and it starts veering toward a Necra Sanctuary build... But that’s for next week so we’ll have to see what this nifty color combination has to offer:

1 Phyrexian Gargantua
3 Phyrexian Rager
1 Spectral Lynx
1 Desolation Angel
1 Necravolver
1 Spiritmonger
2 Urborg Uprising
1 Noble Panther
1 Charging Troll
1 Ancient Spider
1 Kavu Titan
2 Restock
1 Sabertooth Nishoba
1 Voice of All
1 Coalition Honor Guard
1 Fleetfoot Panther
2 Putrid Warrior
2 Llanowar Dead
4 Llanowar Knight
4 Armadillo Cloak
4 Eladamri's Call
4 Caves of Koilos
4 Llanowar Wastes
3 Swamp
3 Forest
6 Plains
4 Elfhame Palace

The big changes in this deck lie with the inclusion of multiple Ragers and Urborg Uprisings. The card drawing is too nice to pass up and the Uprising is soooo good after a few of your early drops have been offed. The Restocks in all the other versions have to decide if they want to go after used Calls Cloaks or critters. With the Uprising the Restock is used primarily for Calls... Although using them on Uprisings is fun too!

Some card choices I’m not particularly thrilled with: The Llanowar Dead and the Putrid Warrior. I love Invasion block I really do - but am I the only one out there that thinks they screwed up on the opposing-color bears in Apocalypse? Explain to me the logic of a merfolk-elf hybrid water-based and earth-based lifeforms respectively being able to fly? Why are all the creatures in this cycle 2/2s with the exception of the Razorfin Hunter? What did he do to deserve the ignominy of being a 1/1? Just because all the other Tims are? I can hear the Hunter muttering to himself:"Well what about Mawcor or Stinging Barrier?"

Quite frankly the Goblin Legionnaire should have had first strike instead of having the two cool abilities he has now. Yes he wouldn’t be as cool but he wouldn’t have to die to use first strike either! The Llanowar Dead should have been"Pay 1 life: Regenerate Llanowar Dead." I don’t know what the heck the Putrid Warrior should have been but I would have voted for a Gravebane Zombie/Avenging Angel-kind of thing. And let’s face it having a flying Grizzly Bear is cool but shouldn’t the Gaea’s"Skyfolk" been untargettable like Autumn Willow where they’re only targetable when you want them to be? Here’s a wacky idea: Have each of the opposing-color bears have a landwalk ability that corresponds with the color that each of them share: The Putrid Warrior would have had... Islandwalk. Never mind.

Oops did I just go off on a tangent? Sorry about that. I suppose there are better creatures than the two bears but I haven’t thought of them yet. Oh yeah I guess Nomadic Elf would have been good. Quirion Sentinel? Not bad. Wait who asked you?

I was really looking for something in Black if you must know.

There you have it: Three Eladamri’s Call decks for your approval. I think a deck of this nature has a real chance at being successful in the format because it has the ability to tutor for solutions to specific problems deck-thinning recursion (with the Restocks) card-drawing (with the FoF or Ragers) and plain ol’ beatdown goodness with the Cloak.

I know this is off the subject but I want to throw out one more tutor-based deck for IBC then I’ll shut up...for a week. I didn’t submit this for Mr. Alongi’s contest because... Well quite frankly I forgot about it. Still this is an IBC deck that makes use of Guided Passage:

1 Quirion Dryad
1 Nemata Grove Guardian
1 Waterspout Elemental
1 Minotaur Illusionist
1 Illuminate
1 Bloodfire Kavu
1 Ceta Sanctuary
1 Obliterate
1 Bloodfire Colossus
1 Wash Out
1 Cetavolver
1 Tahngarth Talruum Hero
1 Skizzik
1 Kavu Chameleon
1 Kavu Titan
1 Blurred Mongoose
1 Fire/Ice
1 Prophetic Bolt
1 Flametongue Kavu
1 Ghitu Fire
1 Urza's Rage
1 Jungle Barrier
4 Fact or Fiction
4 Restock
4 Guided Passage
5 Island
4 Mountain
5 Forest
4 Shivan Reef
4 Yavimaya Coast
4 Shivan Oasis

I like the idea of opponents having to pick their own poison. The big problem with this deck is in order to maximize the power of the Passage there aren’t too many early plays. Still plenty of land and powerful cards can make for a quick comeback.

I hope everyone enjoyed reading this. If you have any questions comments criticisms etc. email me at croyalporter@hotmail.com. Thanks for reading.

Chris