(Editor's Note: Observant readers will note that last week this column was entitled "Chabot's Group #1" - which, considering that Jonathan is carrying out a very cool experiment to try and document the genesis and evolution of an actual playgroup, was my attempt to create a sort of chapter heading. However, apparently his playgroup darn near lynched him for 'daring' to name the column after himself, even if I did it... and so this becomes "Chaos in the Northeast." We thank you for your time. - The Ferrett)

Hello to the faithful (of Magic),

In last week's article, I wrote about creating decks for Chaos games. After the first very successful meeting of our group, yours truly can now give you some results and we can find out if I knew what I was talking about... or if I was talking out the wrong side of my [insert random bodily orifice here]. As this was the first meeting of this new play group, I'm very interested to see where the metagame of our group heads, as this week's results left some players aching, and others feeling victorious. Our group consists of ten players so far, with a variety of play levels and experience. Some have been playing since Legends and others have started within the last few weeks - but in the end, we seemed to form a balance. So from that standpoint, let's call it our gathering a success.

The first game kicked off well enough, with a Limited Resources hitting the table on the first turn, locking down most of the players completely. Myself (playing 5-Color Survival/Secret Force) and one other (Running Green Weenies), were able to function just fine under the Limit, as was the player who dropped the dreaded card. (He played White Weenie with Mox Diamonds and Empyreal Armor). However, this seemed to be locking out all of our other players, which included:
* A Black Control Deck (featuring Plague Spitter, Thrashing Wumpus, and the Ascendant Evincar)
* A Sneak Attack deck (which had not been able to drop the Sneak yet)
* A Sliver deck
* A bizarre Avatar deck that was basically helpless unless one of the five alternate casting-cost conditions were met (and since he was locked at one land, that was very unlikely)
* One other Black Control deck featuring some old-school cards, like Animate Dead and Siphon Soul.

However, with my three Birds of Paradise, one Wall of Roots opening hand, I was able to function just fine, and cast Natural Order on Turn 3, dropping a Verdant Force. While the Force looked to be game, our Green Weenies player (using Wild Growth and Llanowar Elves, as well as Joven's Ferrets - which just seems to be worth mentioning for some reason) (Ya think? - The Ferrett), decided to drop Nevinyrral's Disk, and I was unable to finish him off before it went boom. We reset the game, and everyone starts getting involved.

Your dedicated writer became the #1 target (even though I did not drop the Limited Resources - is that justice?) (Yes - The Ferrett) and was quickly eliminated by a Sliver Rush and some Plague Spitter damage. Everyone eventually got to try their tricks, with both black players casting Siphon Soul, (for a twenty-four point life swing each), the Sneak Deck flinging dragons onto the board and from the graveyard, and the Avatar player tossing down Caltrops and Propaganda, (and generally annoying everyone, which I'm pretty sure was his goal).

As players were knocked out, (at one point our most interesting player - let's call him Alan, who was running Slivers - insisted that our lovely White Weenie player - let's call her Erin - kill him on his next attack, or he would run her over on his next turn. The reason for this request is still in question, but he did keep the game more interesting, taking out both myself and the annoying Plague Spitter Deck, before suiciding against the white weenies) Eventually the game settled into the remaining black control player (who had stolen everyone else's creatures, still having none of his own) facing off against the Sneak Attacker, and the goofy Avatar deck. With a sudden move, the Sneak Player (Everett) cast Shallow Grave, bringing back Nicol Bolas, snuck out a Shivan and Teke's Dragon, paid for the Propaganda, and attacked, ready to crush the exposed Avatar deck. However, with a Belbe's Portal and three open mana, a "Hope" glimmered, and the Avatar of Hope came down to take one on the chin for the team. (With the Caltrops in play, plus the Sneak/Shallow Grave effects, he ended up taking no damage at all and killing all of the opposing field.) This allowed the Avatar of Might to clean up against everybody, and gave him a game that no one could believe. (He has tried this deck a number of other times, both before and since, but it has yet to win another game.)

Now after that long rambling play-by-play, the point that I want to illustrate is that, sometimes, no matter how much work you put into your deck, strange things happen in Chaos. (Actually, I suppose that is pretty much a textbook definition of Chaos.) The thing we noticed about the first game was how long it took: Well over two hours. It was a drawn-out game, slowed even more by the early Limited Resources and by some complex combat math at the end. However, nearly every other game took about thirty minutes or less.

The reason? Both another player and myself switched decks and started using Furnace of Rath.

A quick aside: The Furnace does not guarantee you a win by playing it - not even close - but it does make the game go incredibly fast. I'd almost recommend that every chaos group should have at least one player try this card out. The deck I pulled out keyed off the Pande-Burst combo from Extended play, but used Furnace of Rath and Cho-Manno, Revolutionary / Pariah to make it more palatable for Chaos games. I highly recommend this deck: When the night was over, I went and retuned it. You can find he enhanced decklist at the end of this article, and if your group does not mind combo decks too much, it's a ton of fun to play and keeps the games moving right along. Another player was also using the Furnace, but with Hasted red creatures in a standard S.R.B. set-up. Both decks helped keep the game moving along, but without really giving our decks an overwhelming advantage because of it.

The second game saw my Pariah/Cho-Manno lock get sent out to tend the fields, but the Furnace kept cooking away. The exotic Giselle, playing her Spitter/Wumps control deck, wrecked the board, and a truly massive Syphon Soul allowed her to take the game by giving her an unassailable life total. Our Avatar player (Geoff) had switched to his Repercussions deck, and with my Furnace of Rath out, a well-timed Fault Line cleared nearly half of the players in one shot. Alas, my Cho-Manno was busy plowing the fields, and I was then Wumped into oblivion, along with everyone else.

Game three saw our largest conglomeration of players, as a late-comer, Adam, joined up with the group and brought our total to nine active players. This game was a strange one, as I ended up winning this one without actually doing anything of my own. This game really should have been won by Jack. Jack was running a deck that had everyone at the table up in arms, as it used nearly every color-hosing spell in existence. He claimed it was based upon Sleight of Mind, so we let it go - some more grudgingly than others, but I, for one, am glad we did.

I'm going to put another aside here: Many groups ban cards outright, whether they be Congregate, Type 1 stuff, color hosers, and so on. My suggestion is to wait on banning anything until it becomes truly unbearable. If we had told Jack to switch decks, some of the best plays of the night would never have happened. It can suck on occasion, as a mono-black player might feel they're being screwed by an Order of the Sacred Torch, but to be fair about it, it's not that bad. It turned out that the card that got everyone the angriest was Wake of Destruction, calling swamps, and really crippling both black decks. Among the great plays made by this wacky Sleigh(t) deck, was Ray of Commanding a Lhurgoyf, killing the owner of the 'goyf with it, and Swording it to gain some ungodly amount of life. A turn or so later a rampaging angel deck came in for lethal damage on him, and he Sleighted his Justice to white, killing both players. This left me with a Furnace in play and a Hammer in my hand, and one other player, at one life and all mountains, but no cards in hand - neither of us believing that we are still alive. After a quick congrats to each other, I Hammer him for the kill. So I end up winning that game without ever seeing the blue mana I needed for Intuition and Attunement.

The Fourth game got a bit ugly, when the Limited Resources deck reared it's head again, this time forcing nearly everyone to concede in frustration, as it locked up everyone, including the L.R. player. Our one Blue Mage, dropping an Ivory Tower with his lonely Island, and all of us groaning at the fact that the L.R. player would be unable to deal out enough damage to actually race the Tower. She kept on trying, but to no avail. Several people gave up in frustration, some very nearly in tears. There are a couple of points to consider here. First, if you are playing a deck that you know will annoy and/or frustrate your opponents, make sure you have a good sense of humor. I have no problem, personally, with getting stuck in a tight lock situation (or putting others into it), but many people do. Expect some nasty comments from bitter players who forgot to build in mana support for their deck, and be as sweet as you can when you tell them to build a better deck next time.

Second, if you're stuck in a lock, and cannot get out of it, try not to be overly bitter about it. It's a game, it happens. If you feel you'll never get out of it, concede the game, politely, and get a side game started with anyone else who felt oppressed by the man. If you're not sure about the personalities involved with your group, try as hard as you can not to be nasty. On the other hand, if you're all-bitter, cynical, crusty old farts like myself, feel free to sling as much crap as you can at each other. You need to judge your group and act appropriately if you want everyone to keep meeting, having fun, and getting better at the game, patience and courtesy can carry you a long way. (Of course so can having enough seats for everyone, my butt is still sore) In the end, mister "spend one more" powersink mage, master of the Tower of Ivory, won the game due to his HUGE life totals, and a well-timed disk.

Our old-school black mage, Chris, gets the award here for toughest competitor. He never managed to win a game the whole night, but he really was the most consistent player, always looking to make everyone else's game more enjoyable. His sense of humor and understanding diffused many potentially explosive situations. I want to take a moment to thank him. (Thanks, Chris!) I hope your group has someone like him to keep the peace. That sort of presence among the players really can help make the game more fun, and, I hope, a longer lasting group.

The final game was rather anticlimactic, as my "Cheesy Combo Deck" finally went off around turn seven. With two Furnace of Raths, Two Pandemoniums, and two Saproling Bursts in the graveyard, I obliterated the whole group in one shot. With many calls of, "So THAT's what your deck does..." and several muttered threats of violence. In retrospect, I'm rather glad that was the final game of the night, as I was using Cho-Manno Revolutionary/Pariah as my only defense, and I think a concentrated effort by the other players would have put me down immediately. Oh well, that's for next week.

The host, Geoff, came up with a pretty good rating system, which I'd like to share with all of you. If you have any better ones, I'd love to hear about it.

Points are awarded based on order of elimination (first eliminated = 1 point, second eliminated = 2 points, and so on). The more players, the more points there are available. When multiple players leave the game at the same time, all of them get the highest points possible in the order (example: if the first three players are eliminated at the same time by an Earthquake, they would all get the three points). Four bonus points are awarded for a win. No bonus points are awarded if the game ends in a draw.

The nice thing about this system is that if players cannot show up for the day, they don't get too far behind, as there are less overall points to be had. We are going to try and maintain a "season" to determine an overall winner. As of my writing this article I'm in first place, but I'm sure that will change shortly.

Lastly, I promised all of you a decent deck for Chaos games - well, here you go.

Mana (Support)
4x Mox Diamond
4x Tithe
4x Plateau
4x Tundra
2x Savannah
4x Volcanic Island
2x Tropical Island
4x Flood Plain

As you can see, this is a pretty basic layout: Very land light, but with lots of searchers. The Mox Diamonds are golden in this match up

Enchantments
4x Furnace of Rath
3x Pandemonium (You can reverse these two if you want)
4x Saproling Burst
4x Attunement (Absolute gold; I'd play eight if I could)
2x Aura of Silence (To get rid of nasty Limited Resources and other stuff)
1x Angelic Chorus (Debated about Propaganda, but I couldn't find the slots for four, and two is simply not enough. The Chorus serves as a stall tactic if you can only kill one or two players and need another turn)

The Spells
4x Replenish ('Nuff said!)
4x Intuition (A mini-Attunement, very useful)
4x Impulse (A mini-mini-Attunement, but still very speedy)
2x Force of Will (Again, to stall for a turn or so.)

When all is said and done, you can usually combo out an unprepared board on about turn four to five. Which is the reason behind this configuration of the deck. I'm sure everyone has seen or tried a version of this deck. The one question mark on the night was whether or not Pandemoniums are cumulative if multiples are in play. Our assumption was yes, but if I'm wrong please let me know (The reason for four Furnaces and three Pandemoniums is that I'm assuming I was wrong; but if they do double up, reverse the order.) Your goal is to Attune or Intuition at least two Bursts, one to two Pandemoniums, and one to two Furnaces of Rath into play. With a double Furnace, you have 168 damage to spread around however you choose, and this is usually enough to kill up to eight people simultaneously. (Sometimes a ninth, if combat's already been spread around.) This version is very comboish, and is designed to be fast, fast, fast! Turn 4 kills are very doable, and if you can get the Chorus, you should be set up for the next turn. (Forty-two life is a nice buffer if you get both Bursts.) Obviously this deck gets hosed by Planar Void, and Carrion Beetles are no fun either, but if your opponents fail to realize how fast this deck really is...

Attunement looks very innocent just sitting there to the uninitiated (Maybe in YOUR group, Jon... - The Ferrett), but it's really what makes this deck hum. I've played more controllish versions of this deck that use a heavier Counterspell/Propaganda count, which works moderately well, but tends to get overrun by a concerted effort to kill it. I've made another version that uses Cho-Manno/Pariah to hold the game, but to be honest, I'd stay away from creatures as much as possible. I've also been testing a version using the Blue/White Replenish of Type II era, but throwing in Anhk of Mishra to really screw with everyone, but while it has more tricks it lacks the power of Pande-Burst.

Whatever you do, if you play this deck then bring something to hide behind, as a barrage of salted or chocolately snacks usually come flying your way when you call out Replenish.

My group had all been talking and laughing all night, but when I called
"Replenish!"?

Dead silence.

"What did you say?"

"Did I hear that right?" came the timid responses.

"Yuppers, any responses? Nope? Then I'll proceed to dish out 168 points of damage. Game."

Fun to play; not so fun to play against. Either way, keep it fast, and try not to bore everyone else. Oh yeah, and after playing this once, switch to something with lots of creatures and no enchantments or graveyard manipulation, if you can. Then a few matches later, quietly switch back to Pande-Burst and steal another win. Lots of fun, and it keeps groups on their toes.

That's all for this week - as always, feedback is appreciated,

Take care and keep having fun,
Jon Chabot