Hello readers and friends! This is the column with articles regularly for the casual player in all of us. Whether flipping cards at the kitchen table or between rounds at a tournament, whether finding matches online or on an airplane, we all play games casually. This column is dedicated to bringing you articles and formats and variants and decks and insight to that casual side of all of us.
Today is the 4th article in a series that goes into an old 1997 PC computer game called Magic: the Gathering with a campaign entitled Shandalar. This series has been focused on finding the decks of the foes you have been facing, and modifying them for that game. After that, I have been updating these old decks for a modern card pool and style.
If you’ve played the game, you know how fantastically awesome it was, and these article are a great trip down memory lane. If you haven’t, then these articles are a great chance to see some of the classics of deckbuilding from the first few years of the game, when the cards were new and fresh. This is when you had cards like Raging Bull and Aladdin and Wormwood Treefolk.
There were a large number of decks in the game that reflect the deckbuilding skills of the day, or rather, the lack thereof. This is before people knew about the usefulness of consistency, before the mana curve, when many decks were still operating on a 40/20 principle — 40 cards, 20 lands. You can see some really crappy cards included in some of these decks and laugh.
This was an era of underpowered creatures and overpowered spells. When creatures like Sengir Vampire and Mahamoti Djinn were flying while Ancestral Recall, Library of Alexandria and even Strip Mine were getting play. This is where adequate or poor creatures met good to amazing spells, artifacts, and lands.
The cards were hit and miss. For every Land Tax there is a Great Wall. For every Mishra’s Workshop, there is a Cathedral of Serra. For every Mana Drain, there is a Sea King’s Blessing. For every Bazaar of Baghdad, there is an Elephant Graveyard. For every Demonic Tutor, there is a Sacrifice.
This series gives these old decks a chance to shine. In here we’ve seen Lord of the Pit and The Hive, Tawnos’s Wand and Murk Dwellers, Circle of Protection: Green and Hurricane, Verduran Enchantress and enchantments, Lure and Regeneration on Thicket Basilisks, and more. This gives all readers an opportunity to see these old decks, appreciate them as the thing of art they are, laugh at how far we’ve come, and then see an updated version of that deck using a larger cardpool and modern deck building techniques.
Today we are looking at the henchmen employed by the Blue Archmagi, and then we will finish with the actual deck of the Astral Visionary itself.
The Conjurer
This is one of the first Blue foes you may face.
I guarantee you that everyone has seen this deck at one point in time or another. In fact, most of you have probably built this deck. Building this deck, which at first seems so powerful, sometimes seems so ubiquitous that it may be one of the fundamental decks of magic, along with Lure + Basilisk.
Initial Conjurer Deck
22 Island
4 Prodigal Sorcerer
4 Pirate Ship
2 Wall of Water
2 Wall of Air
4 Apprentice Wizard
3 Giant Tortoise
2 Steal Artifact
2 Animate Artifact
2 Counterspell
2 Unsummon
2 Fellwar Stone
4 Rod of Ruin
2 Aladdin’s Ring
3 Jayemdae Tome
Yes, this is the Tim deck. Now, at the time there were not a whole heap of Tims, so they included what they could, including Aladdin’s Ring (in a deck with 22 Islands and 4 Apprentice Wizard).
It addition to maximum Timmage, the deck sports some defensive creatures like walls and Giant Tortoises in order to keep opposing creatures at bay while the Tims do their work.
Then the deck has this weird Animate Artifact/Steal Artifact subtheme. There is an artifact friendly deck later (The Shapeshifter) , so I don’t want to push that theme too much. The problem here is that there are not too many cards to take the place of the crappier cards here.
One problem with this deck is simple. Too many creatures don’t attack. The deck features 19 creatures plus two Animate Artifacts which can make creatures. Of those, 4 cannot attack, 4 have no power, and 7 are just 1/1s when they attack, and 4 cannot attack unless the opponent has an island. This is not a powerful offense.
Therefore, the deck only wins through Timming, whether by Rod or Ring, or whether by tapping the Sorcerer and Ship. Therefore, you really only need to kill the Tims, and you have plenty of time to take out this foe.
I think the deck needs a couple more cards to punish you for going the long game. What this needs is to push the theme and add some threats.
-2 Steal Artifact
-2 Animate Artifact
+2 Triskelion
+2 Psionic Blast
This gives us a beater that can also supplement the Tims as needed. Similarly, the Blast is creature removal or a way of killing the bigger creatures that might normally be out of range of Tims, or a player finisher if needed.
-2 Fellwar Stone. Why is this even here?
+2 Islands. This deck needs the mana.
-2 Unsummon
+2 Rocket Launcher
I have no idea if the AI will use the Launcher correctly or not, but it’s a great way to deal some extra damage. It’s much better than Unsummon.
-2 Counterspell
+2 Drafna’s Restoration
Although Counterspell is absolutely great, this deck is not that hot on it with just two copies. It would rather have two Restorations than counters. With additions of Triskelion and Rocket Launcher plus Rod, Ring and Tome, you have some value in a Restoration, so it still has a pair of minor artifact helpers, keeping it closer to the original theme.
Modified Conjurer Deck
24 Island
4 Prodigal Sorcerer
4 Pirate Ship
2 Wall of Water
2 Wall of Air
4 Apprentice Wizard
3 Giant Tortoise
2 Triskelion
2 Psionic Blast
2 Counterspell
2 Rocket Launcher
4 Rod of Ruin
2 Aladdin’s Ring
3 Jayemdae Tome
Updated Conjurer Deck
24 Island
4 Prodigal Sorcerer
2 Pirate Ship
4 Rootwater Hunter
4 Zuran Spellcaster
2 Reveka, Wizard Savant
4 Fledgling Mawcor
4 Mawcor
4 Stinging Barrier
4 Thornwind Faeries
4 Suq’ata Firewalker
This is the deck that everyone builds. 24 lands (or near that) and then 36 Tims (or near that). Fear my Gatling gun sorcerers! (And ships, faeries, beasts, walls, merfolk, etc)
Now, you might want to take a few Tims out and add some other cards. Countermagic, card drawing and removal might be things that interest you. On the other hand, you can just stay with the pure Tim deck. Real men play with just Tims.
The Seer
Initial Seer Deck
22 Island
4 Zephyr Falcon
4 Ghost Ship
2 Time Elemental
4 Unstable Mutation
3 Drain Power
2 Counterspell
4 Unsummon
2 Hurkyl’s Recall
4 Crystal Rod
3 Tetravus
3 Triskelion
3 Ornithopter
This deck makes me wonder. What is the theme here? At first, it looks like cheap creatures with speed added, like Unstable Mutation. You’ve got the Falcons and Mutations and Thopter and then what? Hurkyl’s Recall? Tetravus? Triskelion? Time Elemental? Ghost Ship? Drain Power? What is the theme here? It honestly looks like a random selection of Blue cards.
The Seer is supposed to be one of the earlier foes that you face. I have no clue what the theme is. It’s got early plays, late plays, some Recall abuse, some big creatures, and random cards like Drain Power and Time Elemental. I understand the desire to have Lucky Charms in each color, but why is Crystal Rod in with the deck that has 13 artifacts (that number includes the Rods)?
Without knowing what the exact theme is, it gets hard to specifically make modifications or updates. I look at the list again. What is the connection? Flavor? Power level? Casting Cost? Type? Instants, Interrupts, Sorceries, Enchantments, Lands, Artifacts and Creatures are all in the deck. Zero, one, two, three, four, and six are represented in the casting costs. We have counters, bounce, flyers, utility creatures, life gain, mana production, regeneration, zero power creatures, and enchant creatures. However, we do not have any of those in high numbers.
It looks like this deck’s only theme is being a Cuisinart deck that features a ton of different things but does not focus on any. Okay then, let’s push that.
-2 Unstable Mutation
+2 Psionic Blast
Let’s add burn!
-1 Drain Power
-1 Unsummon
+2 Jayemdae Tome
Let’s add card drawing!
-1 Zephyr Falcon
-1 Ghost Ship
+1 Control Magic
+1 Steal Artifact
And let’s add stealing!
Okay, now we have a modified deck. I mean, if you really want to have a bunch of themes, let’s push that to its natural conclusion.
Modified Seer Deck
22 Island
4 Zephyr Falcon
4 Ghost Ship
2 Time Elemental
2 Unstable Mutation
2 Psionic Blast
3 Drain Power
2 Counterspell
4 Unsummon
2 Hurkyl’s Recall
4 Crystal Rod
3 Tetravus
3 Triskelion
3 Ornithopter
Updated Seer Deck
24 Island
4 Fact or Fiction
4 Counterspell
2 Tidings
2 Dissipate
4 Capsize
2 Deep-Sea Kraken
2 Stinging Barrier
4 Ghost Ship
2 Persuasion
2 Psionic Blast
2 Triskelion
2 Pentavus
2 Temporal Adept
2 Arcanis, the Omnipotent
What I did here was to simply make a modern day deck based around the Cuisinart style of deck the Seer is, only with better cards. I retained some cards as homages, such as Counterspell and Ghost Ship and Triskelion and, of course, I retained Island.
I added some counters, some card drawing, some bounce, some stealing, some burn, some offensive creatures and some defensive creatures.
The result is a deck that has a lot of different cards aimed at different levels. From removal to bounce, from counters to beaters, this deck has it all. Enjoy!
The Merfolk Shaman
You knew this foe was coming. Let’s take a look at the Blue tribal foe that the Blue Archmagi will send at you.
Initial Merfolk Shaman Deck
23 Island
4 Merfolk of the Pearl Trident
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Segovian Leviathan
3 Pirate Ship
3 Sea Serpent
2 Island Fish Jasconius
4 Unstable Mutation
4 Phantasmal Terrain
3 Lifetap
3 Sunken City
3 Magical Hack
This decklist does almost everything you want with the initial cards, but it does not add another level. I mean, you could have pulled some of the crappy cards for Ankh of Mishra or Winter Orb. That would have made this a much better deck. Since they did not go that direction, I cannot in my deck either.
There are two problems with this deck. The first is that the AI is horrible with Phantasmal Terrain. It will almost never turn one of my lands into an Island. Let’s suppose I’m playing White/Red. I have out a Plateau and two Mountains. It will turn my Plateau into a third Mountain in order to cut off my White. As a result, they aren’t that useful in the deck.
The second issue is the large amount of crappy giant creatures in the deck. There are two problems with that. Firstly, this is trying to be an agro deck, and secondly, this is the theme of the next deck, the Sea Serpent. It is kind of like this deck is crowding in on another deck’s territory.
Let’s begin some modification.
-2 Island Fish Jasconius
-3 Sea Serpent
+1 Sunken City
+4 Merfolk Assassin
We can add to our Merfolk count while also upping our Sunken City count to four. Cutting crap like The Island Fish and Sea Serpents can only help.
-4 Segovian Leviathan
+4 War Barge
War Barge and Merfolk Assassin were an old, old, old combo from The Dark years. You could also use Sandals of Abdallah. War Barge fits the theme as well as helps with the Assassin. The Sandals tap and cost two to use, The War barge can be used again and again and costs 3 to use. I went with the Barge, but the Sandals work too.
-3 Pirate Ship
+3 Psionic Blast
This is an aggro deck, let’s add some burn.
-3 Lifetap
+1 Magical Hack
+2 Mana Short
I like these cards for the agro deck better than the Lifetap. Magical Hack is just as good as Phantasmal Terrain for getting people through, and the AI does know how to use that.
Modified Merfolk Shaman Deck
23 Island
4 Merfolk of the Pearl Trident
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 War Barge
3 Psionic Blast
4 Merfolk Assassin
4 Unstable Mutation
4 Phantasmal Terrain
3 Mana Short
4 Sunken City
4 Magical Hack
Updated Merfolk Shaman Deck
24 Island
4 River Merfolk
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 War Barge
4 Merfolk Assassin
4 Sunken City
4 Psionic Blast
4 Vodalian Soldiers
4 Phantasmal Terrain
4 Merfolk of the Pearl Trident
Instead of building a modern merfolk deck around sets like Lorwyn or using merfolk like Ambassador Laquatus or Jolting Merfolk, I decided to give the deck a very old school feel. This only adds cards from Fallen Empires to the mix, and does not add things like Seasinger or Vodalian Knights or such. It’s just Lord, four Merfolk, Sunken City, Phantasmal Terrain and four Blasts plus the War Barge combo.
I liked keeping it simple and old school, because we’ve seen modern merfolk decks sporting Summon the School and Drowner of Secrets. Here we have just some beaters. You could also pull some of the supporting cards for Winter Orb, pull the Terrains for Tidal Warrior, and go to town that way.
The Sea Dragon
I discussed this foe a few paragraphs above. It is based on the Sea Serpent, although called the Sea Dragon. This is the deck with the expensive creatures and the islandhome stuff.
Initial Sea Dragon Deck
22 Island
2 Island Fish Jasconius
2 Water Elemental
4 Sea Serpent
4 Segovian Leviathan
4 Giant Tortoise
1 Leviathan
4 Creature Bond
4 Phantasmal Terrain
3 Counterspell
4 Siren’s Call
4 Jump
2 Mana Vault
Let’s be honest, the theme of this deck is lousy. Even if you could guarantee your opponent would always have an Island out, Island Fish Jasconius still sucks. Sea Serpent is still expensive for a 5/5 creature with a disadvantage.
Look at the lousy mana for this deck. 22 Islands and 2 Mana Vaults. Ugh. Why is jank like Siren’s Call and Creature Bond cluttering an already bad deck with even worse cards?
This is old school bad. You just don’t see decks this bad anymore. This opponent is laughable.
Here are the good cards in the deck: Giant Tortoise, Counterspell, Water Elemental, Mana Vault. Understanding the theme, here are the cards on point: Sea Serpent, Island Fish, both Leviathans, Phantasmal Terrain.
We have to try and bring some respectability to this deck.
Not in this deck. There is a Leviathan deck later with Twiddles and such. This is not the right time or place for Leviathan.
-4 Jump
+1 Counterspell
+3 Power Sink
If you are this big and able to attack freely, you don’t need to Jump in the air.
-4 Siren’s Call
+3 Island
+1 Power Sink
Siren’s Call? Seriously? This deck needs mana badly.
-4 Creature Bond
+4 Azure Drake
The theme of the deck is Sea Dragon, and the Drake is a small draconic creature. Drakes are closer than Sea Serpents. This gives you a more reliable creature to play.
Modified Sea Dragon Deck
26 Island
2 Island Fish Jasconius
2 Water Elemental
4 Sea Serpent
4 Segovian Leviathan
4 Azure Drake
4 Giant Tortoise
4 Phantasmal Terrain
4 Counterspell
4 Power Sink
2 Mana Vault
Updated Sea Dragon Deck
28 Island
4 Sea Serpent
2 Sea’s Claim
2 Keiga, the Tide Star
2 Mist Dragon
4 Kukemssa Serpent
2 Seasinger
2 Azure Drake
2 Vigilant Drake
4 Counterspell
4 Dismiss
2 Tidings
1 Braingeyser
1 Island Fish Jasconius
I decided to stay close to the theme. I added more Islands, then followed by tossing in four actual dragons plus four more drakes. Between the eight serpents and a token Island Fish, plus a pair of Seasingers, the deck rounded itself nicely. These 19 creatures really hold down the fort well.
Rounding out the deck are a pair of Sea’s Claim, some counter magic, and a smattering of card drawing.
The result is a deck that may be a little uneven, but has some surprises from Keiga and Mist Dragon to Seasinger and Kukemssa Serpent.
The Shapeshifter
Of the five main minions of the Blue Archmagi, the final one is the roughest, before you lead to the main henchman, and then finally the Astral Visionary itself. This is also my favorite deck in the color. Here we go.
Initial Shapeshifter Deck
20 Island
4 Mishra’s Factory
1 Mishra’s Workshop
3 Apprentice Wizard
2 Power Struggle
2 Backfire
4 Unstable Mutation
4 Unsummon
4 Hurkyl’s Recall
3 Shapeshifter
4 Primal Clay
3 Mana Vault
2 Fellwar Stone
1 Ivory Tower
3 Urza’s Avenger
I like the artifact friendly deck that this provides. Blue is merely a backdrop to the power of this deck. Frankly, you could pull Blue out altogether and just substitute some other pieces.
However, since one of the expansions gave us some great cards for this deck, I can make some significant modifications both in terms of flavor and in terms of power.
Before we begin, we need to touch upon Power Struggle, one of the Astral cards. Here is what it does
Power Struggle
Enchantment
2UUU
At the beginning of each player’s upkeep, that player exchanges control of random target artifact, creature or land he or she controls with random permanent of that type that an opponent controls.
The effect of this is that virtually every turn, you swap lands. It is single handedly one of the most annoying experiences you will ever face in Magic. In here, the value is that the new lands you get can still fuel artifacts, I suppose, but after my modifications, this is not going to fit as much. You’ll see.
For now:
-2 Power Struggle
+2 Clone
This deck is the Shapeshifter deck after all. Let’s add some shifters!
-2 Backfire
+2 Vesuvan Doppelganger
And more shifters here too!
We’ve already made this deck better right there.
A lot of decks this level have one or two restricted cards in the deck, but none of the power ones. This is not the place for Ancestral Recall and Time Walk. You’ll note that the deck has Mishra’s Workshop and Ivory Tower, both great choices for the deck. I want to add Copy Artifact. It is the only cards that is both suitable mechanically and flavor-wise. However, I do not want to push the restricted card envelope too much.
-1 Ivory Tower
+1 Copy Artifact
I think the Tower is fine in this deck, but the Copy Artifact is just flat out better.
-2 Fellwar Stone
+2 Basalt Monolith
I don’t know how the AI will treat the Basalt Monolith, but unlike Mana Vaults, it won’t kill the AI.
-2 Urza’s Avenger
+1 Triskelion
+1 Transmute Artifact
I have no idea how well the AI would handle this, but it would be fun to find out. Triskelion makes a lot of sense here as a one of.
There is a ton of mana acceleration in this deck. 25 lands, including one that taps for three mana, two Basalt Monoliths, 3 Mana Vaults and 3 Apprentice Wizards. I feel three Wizards might be a bit too much.
We see Unstable Mutations in way too many decks, and they don’t make that much sense here, so I want to pull them.
-4 Unstable Mutation
-1 Apprentice Wizard
+1 Clockwork Avian
+1 Clockwork Beast
+1 Tawnos’s Coffin
+1 Tetravus
+1 Drafna’s Restoration
These cards add flavor and strength to the deck while also adding options for the AI.
Modified Shapeshifter Deck
20 Island
4 Mishra’s Factory
1 Mishra’s Workshop
2 Apprentice Wizard
2 Clone
2 Vesuvan Doppelganger
4 Unsummon
4 Hurkyl’s Recall
3 Shapeshifter
4 Primal Clay
3 Mana Vault
2 Basalt Monolith
1 Copy Artifact
1 Urza’s Avenger
1 Triskelion
1 Transmute Artifact
1 Clockwork Avian
1 Clockwork Beast
1 Tawnos’s Coffin
1 Tetravus
1 Drafna’s Restoration
Updated Shapeshifter Deck
20 Island
4 Mishra’s Factory
1 Mishra’s Workshop
1 Sol Ring
2 Clone
2 Vesuvan Doppelganger
4 Juggernaut
4 Su-Chi
2 Hurkyl’s Recall
2 Shapeshifter
2 Primal Clay
1 Timetwister
1 Time Walk
1 Ancestral Recall
2 Mana Vault
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Sapphire
2 Basalt Monolith
1 Copy Artifact
1 Triskelion
1 Transmute Artifact
1 Clockwork Avian
1 Clockwork Beast
1 Tetravus
1 Drafna’s Restoration
I liked where the original deck was. I like that it did not have any of the modern cards like March of the Machines or Academy Ruins or Mindslaver. I like that it had Primal Clay and Drafna’s Restoration instead of Tinker and Chalice of the Void.
What I decided to do was make modifications based on cards in Shandalar already. I added power, Juggs and Su-Chis to the mix, and pulled out most of the jank, leaving in the cards that give this flavor. What is the result? Fun!
The Thought Invoker
This is the main henchman for the Blue Archmagi. This is supposed to be the second most powerful deck in Blue’s arsenal and so powerful and nasty, you don’t even get an ante if you win. Let’s take a look at the big and powerful Thought Invoker.
Initial Thought Invoker Deck
22 Island
4 Giant Tortoise
4 Ghost Ship
4 Phantom Monster
2 Time Elemental
1 Mahamoti Djinn
4 Psychic Venom
2 Control Magic
3 Power Leak
2 Energy Flux
3 Drain Power
3 Power Sink
3 Mana Short
3 Twiddle
I like the Giant Tortoises, Phantom Monster, Mahamoti Djinn, Control Magic, Time Elemental and even Ghost Ships. What I think is jank is the whole Psychic Venom your land and then Drain Power, Power Sink, Twiddle and Mana Short you for damage. The worst offender here is Power Sink.
-3 Power Leak
+1 Ancestral Recall
+1 Mox Sapphire
+1 Sol Ring
While the other two themes work (good creatures and the Venom + tapping), Power Leak does not work for me. This deck lacks good mana as well as power, so I added some mana and a Recall. Now it has some power.
The one good thing about the deck is that is does have a bit of an Aggro-Tempo feel with its Creatures and Tapping elements. Mana Short and Power Sink can lock down a player’s mana and keep them from doing things. Time Elemental can lock a player’s mana for the game until the Elemental is killed.
The two elements are not as disparate as they might, at first, appear. I’ve lost games to a Phantom Monster that I can’t answer because my spells get Power Sinked and then when I drop a Serra it gets stolen or tapped and I lose.
I think the above deck is better, but that’s the way it goes sometimes. Here is the lightly modified deck.
Modified Thought Invoker Deck
22 Island
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Sol Ring
1 Ancestral Recall
4 Giant Tortoise
4 Ghost Ship
4 Phantom Monster
2 Time Elemental
1 Mahamoti Djinn
4 Psychic Venom
2 Control Magic
2 Energy Flux
3 Drain Power
3 Power Sink
3 Mana Short
3 Twiddle
Updated Thought Invoker Deck
26 Island
2 Mahamoti Djinn
4 Possessed Aven
4 Serendib Efreet
4 Mana Short
4 Psychic Venom
4 Power Sink
4 Control Magic
4 Wall of Tears
4 Capsize
Here is the updated deck. Play some critters, and swing, with a bit of tapping backup. Psychic Venom isn’t going to get you many kills in real life, so I just stick with what we have initially.
I add some bounce in Capsize to keep the tempo element alive and kicking. You could look at things like Frozen AEther, Remand, Memory Lapse, Jolting Merfolk, Man-o’-War, and so forth.
Now let’s look at the final Blue foe.
The Astral Visionary
This is supposed to be the most threatening Blue deck out there. Get ready to laugh.
Initial Astral Visionary Deck
24 Island
4 Leviathan
4 Zephyr Falcon
1 Copy Artifact
4 Stasis
3 Unstable Mutation
1 Time Walk
1 Timetwister
3 Drain Power
4 Counterspell
1 Ancestral Recall
2 Twiddle
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Black Lotus
4 Yotian Soldier
4 Howling Mine
Yup, it’s a Leviathan deck. It’s also a Stasis deck too. I’m not sure how that works out, exactly.
It’s funny to see Leviathan and Black Lotus in the same deck, but there you are.
The vigilance creatures are obvious choices to work along with Stasis. Howling Mine and Stasis work to keep people locked while you draw tons of mana. Zephyr Falcon and Yotian Solder make nice attackers.
The problems with this deck are twofold:
A). The most powerful Blue deck, in an era of Ancestral Recall and Time Walk, is a Leviathan deck at all;
B). This deck really needs to add White.
Here is a nasty deck you could build for the AV:
12 Islands
8 Plains
4 Tundra
4 Stasis
2 Kismet
4 Howling Mine
4 Serra Angel
4 Swords to Plowshares
2 Disenchant
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Pearl
1 Sol Ring
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Balance
1 Time Walk
1 Ivory Tower
4 Black Vise
2 Moat
2 Island Sanctuary
That’s a powerful deck. That’s a deck you don’t want to cross. That would be a deck worthy of the Archmagi. Remember that the Red Archmagi, the Dragon Lord, had more colors. The Summoner, the main Green henchman, splashed White for a few cards. It would not be unreasonable to do that for this deck.
However, as much as I would like to do this for the Astral Visionary, this is not the deck I was handed. I was handed a TurboStasis/Leviathan deck. That’s what I have to build around. Yuck.
The one good thing here is that you can sac two islands to untap the Leviathan, so you can untap in while you are under a Stasis and swing with it. You can also Twiddle it to untap it, and swing. You’ll likely need to hit three times to win because the player often has a starting life total well over 20 by this time in the game. You can’t rely on the Falcon and Solider to help.
How does this deck win against Moat? There are no Boomerangs, and if you don’t have a Counterspell when I drop my Moat, you are losing. I guarantee you I won’t get decked (Feldon’s Cane) before you do. Your falcons aren’t going to kill me either.
-3 Unstable Mutation
+2 Boomerang
+1 Feldon’s Cane
Perhaps the AI will be good enough to know when to bounce a land or the Stasis. I doubt it, but you never know. Remember what I said about there being too many Unstable Mutations out there? This is a lousy deck for those, and yet here they are. Feldon’s Cane can get you a deck win and recycle those used Islands back to your deck to keep drawing and playing.
-3 Drain Power
+1 Mana Short
+2 Power Leak
Now this is the chance for Power Leak to start dealing some damage. Well tuned decks may sport Land Tax, Sylvan Library, Moat, and other good enchantments like Bad Moon or Crusade. Besides, Drain Power does not do what you want it to here.
-1 Timetwister
+1 Ivory Tower
This is not the right deck for Timetwister. This deck may win by decking the opponent, and you do not want to delay that at all.
-4 Zephyr Falcon
+4 Black Vise
You have to admit, the Vises are likely to kill a lot sooner than the Falcons will. They also are a powerful tool in making the deck a harder as an opponent. Now the Astral Visionary can just get lucky Vise kills.
Modified Astral Visionary Deck
24 Island
4 Leviathan
4 Black Vise
1 Copy Artifact
4 Stasis
2 Boomerang
1 Feldon’s Cane
1 Time Walk
1 Ivory Tower
1 Mana Short
2 Power Leak
4 Counterspell
1 Ancestral Recall
2 Twiddle
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Black Lotus
4 Yotian Soldier
4 Howling Mine
Updated Astral Visionary Deck
28 Islands
4 Leviathan
4 Black Vise
4 Stasis
2 Copy Artifact
2 Feldon’s Cane
1 Ivory Tower
4 Howling Mine
3 Twiddle
2 Boomerang
2 Frozen AEther
4 Counterspell
This is not a very good Turbo-Stasis deck. There’s no pitch counter, no Gush, no White, and there’s um, a full set Leviathans in the deck. Crazy, I know. We also have Black Vises, Twiddles, and other accoutrements.
Still, the deck gives you a lot of power, even if it isn’t fully teched out. Normally, people hate seeing Stasis casually, but opponents simply cannot complain and have to respect a Stasis deck that kills with Leviathan!
And that brings us to the close of another entry in this series. Thanks for reading, and as always, I’ll catch you in the forums.
Until later…