As most players and writers scramble to break the next set, or at very least figure out what cards will be played, the "rogue" builder is allowed to shine. You can be sure to see W/G decks featuring the awesome power of Armadillo Cloak, Rebels, Waters, and four- and five-color Green decks. But what about exploring all that R/B has to offer right now? What about B/U? The message from WotC seems to be, "no more U/G or B/W decks," so we are being coerced into building aligned multi-color decks. Most likely, the hopes for a W/R Jank remix will be flushed down the toilet along with the U/G synergy decks of the past two years. In the face of all this history being washed away, we are very hopefully awaiting the return of 20 land Blue (a la Turbo Xerox), Five Color Green (and possibly even 5cBlack), R/G aggro decks, and in general, creature battles galore. Empyrial Armor has been reprinted to cover lands rather than cards in Strength of Unity; and Rancor, Holy Armor, and Spirit Link are now all on one card - Armadillo Cloak -which dominated the prereleases. Looks like Enlightened Tutor will be working overtime grabbing the usual Bursts, Waves, Tides, Waters, and Diamonds in addition to the new bombs. Bring on the Aura Mutations.

These seemingly random connotations do actually lead to a point: Build something focused, give yourself a fluid sideboard and about five slots maindeck, and wreck all those people who built something off the web and goldfished it twice. Net decks usually represent the strongest threads of convergent evolution - but in a young system it is very easy to overlook some competitors. Rebels could be great if you throw in a few Armadillo Cloaks, Bursts, Waves and Tutors to go with some splash critters like Kavu Titan or Kavu Chameleon. Or you might take that Red Control deck you worked so hard on for MBC, then spice it up with some Black or Green to toss in a Djinn for finish, or the utility that either color affords. Your Trinity/Son of Hermit deck just might throw in some Frenzied Tillings and Fires of Yavimaya, or go all-Elf with the new Elf knights and the Elf Lord being fetched up by your Poachers. Or you can go a whole new direction with B/U control, sporting Lobotomy, Recoil, and possibly getting that tricky Parallax Nexus/Avatar of Will combo to work. In short, now is the best chance you have to make those pet combos work out. Saproling Negotiations may actually work now!

However you decide to approach this special season of innovation, there are very important cards to consider. Perish will absolutely dominate the metagame the way Wasteland used to dominate Extended. Do you play it, play around it, or ignore it? Foil is a good option, especially with some sort of Squee abuse, but a heavy Green creature base is hard to justify while playing so many control elements. Fact or Fiction is absolutely amazing, with the caster able to get three or four cards for four mana, AND stacking the graveyard, AND seeing the top five cards, AND being able to use it like a super-Impulse! This should have been at least 2UU or a sorcery; expect this to be a huge weapon in Extended, and possibly even restricted in T1. Armageddon will most likely be wrecking a lot of well-laid plans, and Blue control has rarely been stronger with all the good counterspells still Standard legal, and most of the good anti-Blue threats gone. You know there has been a dramatic shift in the metagame when Blue has to go from fearing turn one Negator to fearing turn two Brawlers or Blurred Mongoose. Nether Spirit will either make its way back into the spotlight for a moment, or fade away until someone else realizes that Foiling away a Nether Spirit is pretty cool. Blastoderm will continue to be a force - and without Replenish, Bargain and Tinker, midrange control decks may actually come back, featuring some creatures and strategies that have been relegated to casual decks for being to slow. Seismic Mage, Alexi, and Evil Eye of Orm's-By-Gore may actually see play. For a while people thought Tradewind Rider was dead, but look at the Masters series from this weekend. Slow is a relative concept.

In closing, raking your opponents over the coals will rarely be accomplished by looking for a replacement to Masticore. Look to the synergies of the new set, but don't forget that MBC gave us a lot of cards that didn't get played due to the environment's restrictiveness. We still have Dark Ritual and depletion lands, and pitch spells could be what break a lot of hearts these first few weeks. Fight the temptation to be infatuated with Invasion; a Ritualed Wumpus can still wreck the opponent as easily as a Coalition Victory.

Good luck and have fun,
Erik Berg
galtwish@hotmail.com