Math is my guide to Magic Harmony. And while it is flawed, as are all of humanity's attempts at communication, it is the least flawed when speaking of CCG Systems. Card systems are single-dimension systems; they grow in one direction, going from simple to complex with the occasional nasty restart thrown in (Jokulhaups players unite!). And in Magic, all our games start in one place: Seven cards in hand.

This is what I base my deck design numbers around. My decks tend to do as they are told - this does not mean they all win. They just run like I ask them too. A goofy fun deck isn't meant to triumph at all times, but it had better work or it isn't goofy or fun... Just dumb. The design structure that follows works well, that isn't because of me - brilliant and humble though I am - it is because the numbers work.

Deck Theory 101

When I first started this game, I saw a deck design model by George Baxter that was divided into three columns. It was nice, three columns of twenty cards each - but it wasn't beautiful. It was okay for a weenie horde deck. Sixteen land and four mana artifacts is a good base for this type of deck. The rest, however, was lacking in symmetry, and it made for a poor structure for a deck designer to start with. But, I decided I liked the idea of structuring my build thoughts and went about creating my own system.

Seven, right!?!? It must be based on seven. It isn't, but it relies on the opening hand number nonetheless. I use five even packets; five packets of twelve cards each. Or five packets of eight cards for Sealed and/or Draft. If those packets have a theme - and they usually do in my designs - then you will draw into one of each in your opening hand. Beautiful, see? Very nice for us and bad for the competition. Each packet can contain three sets of four of each card if you like, or four sets of three cards, or six of two... Or any number, that isn't important. The theme of the packet and the overall deck theory is the important thing. The five packets of twelve are important because it doesn't get in the way. I like that and believe that you will, too.

I lay my decks out before me when building like so:

1111 1111 1111
1111 1111 1111
1111 1111 1111

1111 1111
1111 1111
1111 1111

The top three packets are spells, while the bottom two are land packets, and sometimes have extra creatures if I am building a deck with a maximum spell cost under five, or if I am playing mana acceleration cards like Birds or Elves. Any large mana costs requires twenty-four land as a minimum. With really huge creatures, I place lands in the top three, especially in three-color or five-color decks.

Next, I name my packets. For a tourney deck, it is very simple: The first packet is always Removal/Control. I wish to hinder the opposing system as much as possible without slowing myself. A B/U Removal packet includes Counterspell, Undermine, Recoil, Terror, Dark Banishing, et cetera. A less intuitive example is the "Fires" deck's control, which may include anything from Urza's Rage, Assault/Battery, Wax/Wane, and Aura Mutation to some big critters, like Blastoderm or Mungha Wurm. This is really all the removal Green requires, usually, and with Green's speed it also becomes a form of discard because it forces the use of cards as chump blockers and the use of removal that might normally be needed later.

The next packet depends on the nature of the deck. A "Fires" deck, for example, would have a Theme packet of Fires of Yavimaya (d'oh!), Birds, and Elves, the last two representing another "less than obvious" support of theme: i.e. blazing speed. Other times, this packet may be more weenies, or it may be more control. Don't let anything restrain you; just use the structure for your initial build ideas.

The last packet is support, and usually includes things the first two packets require. In a "Fires" deck, it would be your Jade Leeches, Mungha Worms, Two Headed Dragons, Pangosaurs, Verdeloths, Riths, et. al. The Fires deck requires this because the first three packets build towards the support of a large creature onslaught. My Dancing Pet Deck required the Cauldron Dances and the Beefy Ballet Boys - Devouring Strossus and Draco. A weird and somewhat odd packet, but it was what was required.

Lobo Mage to Blitzkrieg

I would like to take the remaining space to discuss the packets of my favorite IBC deck so far. I will discuss its evolution and how the packets were used in its initial build, and how the packets tended to dissolve as the builds change.

Lobo Mage: The Initial Idea

Bounce Packet
4x Repulse
4x Recoil
4x Rushing River

Removal Packet
4x Lobotomy
4x Meddling Mage
4x Addle

The Support Packet
4x Ravenous Rat
3x Marsh Crocodile
1x Dromar, the Banisher
2x Yawgmoth's Agenda
2x Seer's Vision

7x Swamps
7x Islands
2x Plains
2x Salt Marsh
4x Coastal Tower
2x Dromar's Cavern

I wanted a deck that could outdo my initial Warped Devotion Deck without being as dangerous to play. So I went with a Rats and Croc deck, with Lobotomy and Meddling Mage as my tech. I was just experimenting, and wanted to see how the Mage would work. The Addle and Seer's Vision would be used to show me what to Mage, and then the bounce would clear the board for the Crocs. The Rats were too good not to use; they are an automatic for almost any black deck. I used Croc because I thought that I would need the fat for beatdown.

I was wrong about that. This deck hamstrung other decks. I won games with the Mages delivering beats! The key cards in the initial build were the Bounce cards, the Mage, Lobotomy, and the last-minute addition of Yawgmoth's Agenda. The Seer's Vision was really nice but too expensive; I hated having to choose between it and Lobotomy, and in the end it was never a choice. After Addle hit I always wanted to Lobotomy - so bye, bye Seer's Vision. I also disliked the two dual lands, so I wanted to try the Terminal Moraine in the next iteration.

Lobo 2

Bounce Packet (Unchanged)

Removal Packet (Unchanged)

The Support Packet
4x Ravenous Rat
3x Marsh Crocodile
1x Dromar, the Banisher
2x Yawgmoth's Agenda
2x Dromar's Charm

Lands (2 packets of 12)
7x Swamps
7x Islands
4x Plains
4x Terminal Moraine
2x Dromar's Cave

The land change was a huge step forward. The Moraine worked so nice with the Agenda, as you can play it out of your graveyard once it is used in the early game. The Dromar's Charm was also a nice addition as it, too, was a nice surprise out of the Graveyard. That seemed to be a nice theme: Abuse the Agenda. I went looking for a way to do so, and found Urborg Emissary. A change for the Bounce packet was coming. I was also growing tired of the Crocs. Terminate made them an annoyance the second time around, and I did like to play my own spells first before getting the Agenda out.

Lobo 3

Bounce Packet
4x Recoil
4x Rushing River
2x Repulse
2x Urborg Emissary

Removal Packet (Unchanged)

The Support Packet
4x Ravenous Rat
3x Doomsday Specters
1x Dromar, the Banisher
2x Yawgmoth's Agenda
2x Dromar's Charm

Lands (Unchanged)

Wow. The Specters are amazing in here. Bouncing the rats was always nice, but the Crocs were a pain in the ass. But the Doomsday Specters made my Rats just as useful, and it also made my bounce hideous. This is the reason the deck got its final name: Blitzkrieg. The Air Force takes out what the army (Bounce) drives out of hiding. What a combo! Recoil the power card in play and then attack with the Specter: That card is dead no matter what they do. That is the definition of efficiency: No matter what they do, you can undo it or rectify it. I was also thinking of Orim's Chant, but in the end I just don't need it. I want everything that I have in here.

Blitzkrieg 2001: IBC Tier 0 Killer

4x Recoil
4x Rushing River
2x Repulse
2x Urborg Emissary

4x Lobotomy
4x Meddling Mage
4x Addle

4x Ravenous Rat
3x Doomsday Specters
1x Dromar, the Banisher
2x Yawgmoth's Agenda
2x Dromar's Charm

7x Swamps
7x Islands
4x Plains
4x Terminal Moraine
2x Dromar's Cave

Sideboard:
Rout or Collective Restraint
Warped Devotion?
Crypt Angel!!!

Give me some ideas here! I would love to hear other opinions; I like this deck too much and am way too biased.

Anti Tech

I said I would work on a deck to defeat it, and the following deck has had some success! I built the first of these as a multiplayer Coalition Victory deck. I played a lot of stall and then enough weirdness as to not look too dangerous while I dug for my Coalition Victory. The weirdness is gone, along with the Coalition Victory, leaving a deck far more powerful than I expected.

Five Colors of Ruin

Tech Packet
4x Global Ruin
4x Collective Restraint
3x Questing Phelddagrif
1x Forest

Grab and Go Packet
3x Sterling Grove
2x Elfhame Sanctuary
3x Thornscape Familiar
3x Armadillo Cloak
1x Plains

Beats and Protection
4x Ancient Spider
1x Dromar, the Banisher
1x Rith, the Awakener
1x Crosis, the Purger
2x Darigaaz, the Destroyer
2x Crypt Angel
1x Island

Domain Land
3x Terminal Moraine
7x Forest
5x Island
3x Plains
3x Swamp
3x Mountain

Who'd of known? When you can drop a horde of fat on the table, the Blitz Deck gets all nervous - especially when a Lobotomy only nets you one card. And Global Ruin just ruins it. This deck also sports Huge Mana. You HAVE to get the right mana. If I have to go with four Sterling Groves to get that Elfhame Sanctuary, so be it. Once the Elfhame is out, life is good. Would Harrow be better? Nope, I want more mana than a Harrow can provide, and I can't search for Harrows. I WANT four turns of straight Mana drawing. I WANT to have all five lands out on the fifth turn. Harrow can't do that, and sometimes Harrow is just plain ruinous - as counters do exist, you know. Once the land is out, the fun rains down. Playing big critters is just as fun as it was when I started out. The Spider's keep the Specters away, and the Dragons do the same. The familiars make everyone cheaper, and the Angel brings my Dragons back. It all works so nice together. The surprise for me was how nice the Hippo is. He works with EVERYONE!!! Rith loves him, and the Restraint thinks his li'l green kin are a riot. And the Cloak fits so nice on him before the fourth-turn attack. Ahhh, synergy. Sometimes you win just because you have the Hip Hippo out and one white untapped for the Terminates of the world. I will tell you more as this deck evolves.

I am thinking about Tribal Flames and Terminate myself, although they probably belong in the Sideboard with the Decrees.

Big Bad Burn

3x Urza's Rage
3x Tribal Flames
3x Scorching Lava
3x Magma Burst

3x Flametongue Kavu
2x Sparkcaster
1x Darigaaz's Charm
3x Assault and Battery
3x Thornscape Battlemage

4x Terminate
3x Canopy Surge
3x Breath of Darigaaz
2x Yawgmoth's Agenda

10x Mountain
6x Forest
4x Swamp
4x Terminal Moraine

I was talking to Michael the other day and said that I thought Burn would be big. He agreed and we both built decks. They looked an awful lot alike. Big Bad Burn or BBB or B3 is a Stupid Burn deck with some brains. I haven't tested it much, but the sheer number of different spells that do damage has the Mage nervous as a kitten in a Dog Pound. If the Terminate don't get ya, the Kavu will. So much for Tier Zero.

And yet, one last deck is beginning to show promise. But before this is looked at, let me state that I am one person working on cards in his living room. I fully expect to see these decks in other people's articles and in other people's hands, because IBC is a very limited pool of cards. Heck, I already have, and some of the decks out there are way more polished to boot. I absolutely soil myself with laughter every time I hear someone talking about secret tech. It doesn't exist. There are NO SECRETS. We can all see the cards! And unless someone is hiding cards from me then the deck testing is coming to an end very soon. The decks you will see in Tokyo all follow these variants because these cards are the best in the block. Want to beat Black, Blue, and Red? Then the following is obvious: Want to beat Green and White? The above is a good place to start. Want to find the tech fast? You can't. You have to work the cards; you have to earn it by thinking. The fun is in the exploring and the discussing.

Also, it is an asinine habit of writers to describe decks by naming their authors. You want to know who invented "Sligh"? A kid in Sioux Falls did, as far as I know. After two weeks, the local stores were sold out of CoP: Reds and Reverse Damages - it was that good. Then one person does well, and the deck is attributed to him. No one else, it seems, is given credit for an obvious design. It makes deckbuilding seem dirty; you hear it all the time. "Oh... that's that deck from the Net..." Sigh.

Anyway. How do you ruin Blitzkrieg? How do you stop Terminate and Recoil and Rushing River? Lots of different spells and lots of untargetables. Welcome to the world of WGR.

Anyway. How do you ruin Blitzkreig? How do you stop Terminate and Recoil and Rushing River? Lots of different spells and lots of untargetables. Welcome to the world of WGR.

Don't Tread On Me!

The "Can't Touch This!" Packet
4x Yavimaya Barbarian
4x Llanowar Knight
4x Blurred Mongoose

The "Shouldn't be able to Touch This" Packet
3x Sabertooth Nishoba
3x Crimson Acolytes
3x Obsidian Acolyte
3x Glimmering Angel

The "When I think about you {Being unable to touch this) I Touch Myself" Packet
3x Armadillo Cloak
3x Gerrard's Command
3x Eldamari's Call
3x Assault / Battery

Finish it yourself. It built itself after Blitzkrieg was finished. Michael and I were talking about G/W and he mentioned Protection from Blue. End of conversation/start of building. The cards flew out of the binder, the greedy jerks... Shifting Sky wanted to play, too, but I said no; too many colors for a weenie deck. And it works well, dammit! Rout ruins it, but that is the last stage of decks I am exploring - and Rout is in the Blitzkrieg Sideboard, so no problems, right?

Next I look at lifegain and Rogue combo-itis... if I have the energy.

Have I mentioned the absolutely HUGE satisfaction I have gained just by testing and playing IBC? I feel sorry for all of you that are focused on Type 2. IBC has proven to be a true treat. See ya next time.