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This article is about one of the most detested deck archetypes available in Free-For-All, a casual format found on Magic Online. Obviously, many of you have played six-player chaos Magic with actual cards - but this article is mostly about playing online, where decks can often be more competitive and tightly focused on multiplayer only.
Generally, an FFA deck is only successful if it can pull out some card or combo that simply wins the game, even against five other people. Precons and aggro decks usually don't cut it. In order to win, you have to have a weapon so powerful that your opponents will do everything they can to destroy you before you can use it.
And out of all the archetypes that see frequent play in FFA, few are as hated as the vile "thief deck." The deck revolves around one seven-mana card: Blatant Thievery. Resolving Blatant Thievery with five other players in the game nets you the best permanent each player has to offer. It also nets you five instant enemies. With five opponents, Blatant Thievery generates a card advantage of +9: -1 for the spell itself, +5 for each permanent you take, and -1 for each opponent. If you can't win the game with that, you really need to try harder.
By no means was I the first to use Blatant Thievery in a six-player game, and my decklist consists of ideas I have stolen from other Thief players. Many card choices are due to a lot of practice with this deck, while others are simply personal preference.
| Blatant Thievery Featured by K Lindsay on 2005-09-18 | ||
Artifacts 1 Oblivion Stone 4 Wayfarer's Bauble Artifact Creatures 2 Duplicant Creatures 3 Clone 4 Riptide Mangler 1 Wonder Enchantments 1 Confiscate 1 Standstill Instants 1 Boomerang 4 Counterspell 2 Cunning Wish 1 Echoing Truth 1 Gifts Ungiven 1 Twincast |
Legendary Creatures 1 Sakashima the Impostor Sorceries 4 Blatant Thievery 1 Bribery 1 Concentrate 1 Deep Analysis 1 Rush of Knowledge 1 Serum Visions Artifact Lands 1 Seat of the Synod Basic Lands 8 Island Lands 1 Blinkmoth Nexus 4 Cloudpost 4 Lonely Sandbar 2 Temple of the False God Legendary Lands 1 Mikokoro, Center of the Sea 1 Minamo, School at Water's Edge 1 Oboro, Palace in the Clouds | 1 Annul 1 Boomerang 1 Condescend 1 Disrupt 1 Disrupting Shoal 1 Echoing Truth 1 Evacuation 1 Hinder 1 Inspiration 1 Mana Leak 1 Quash 1 Rewind 1 Stifle 1 Time Stop 1 Twincast |
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Playing the Deck:
The Thief deck can be particularly difficult to play, but it can also be very enjoyable. Your win condition is whatever your opponents' win conditions happen to be. One match you'll win with foiled Spiritmongers, in another you might win with Kokusho, the Evening Star. Half the fun of playing this deck (aside from the simple fun of stealing other people's toys) is that you'll get to play with a wide range of permanents in each game, including a lot of cards that you've never played with before.
Although the ultimate goal of the deck is to get to seven mana (three of them blue), and resolve Blatant Thievery, the deck has a lot of resilience and versatility, enabling you to survive until you cast your game-breaking sorcery, and in some cases to win without it.
The Land:
I personally feel that every multiplayer deck should run four Cloudposts if it can support them (often two-color decks don't have the room and three-color decks definitely can't afford non-colored mana). As FFA games generally last one or two hours, you will get most (if not all) of your Cloudposts into play over the course of the game. Often an opponent will also be playing with Cloudposts and you can both benefit.
The other lands are fairly self-explanatory; personally I prefer a surplus of non-basic blue sources, as Boil tends to rear its ugly head from time-to-time. Boil is no means a 'gg' in your case, as you will usually have enough blue in the form of non-basics to continue the good fight.
Teh Cr34ture5!:
Riptide Mangler is your #1 foot soldier, and will protect your ass from roving bands of Goblins, Myr and random fatties alike. Due to his ability to permanently match the power of any creature in play of your choice for only 1U, your opponents will be leery of attacking you with anything that doesn't take better than it dishes out.
And speaking of Riptide Mangler, if you can get (read: steal) a piece of equipment that will pump him up, slap it on to the Mangler and activate his ability, targeting himself. Nothing changes. But if you reequip the equipment to him, his power will increase, since he "remembers" what his old power was! With infinite mana, you can create an infinite/3 Mangler.
Although I like to save 1U open until my right-hand opponent's end of turn phase and then change Mangler's power to whatever is fattest on the table, stay on your toes and watch for creatures that may be temporarily huge thanks to instant bonuses or other abilities. Also keep in mind that when someone is about to Terror the 5/5 beatstick, target him with Mangler before he dies.
Generally, you'll want to drop your Manglers early to prevent opponents with faster decks from taking advantage of your comparatively weaker defenses. In FFA, many aggressive players will simply attack whoever doesn't have a blocker. Play the middle ground, appearing neither too helpless nor too aggressive.
Clone (and his little brother, Sakashima) are mini-Thieveries in their own way in that they will often give you a copy of the best creature currently in play. Duplicant provides you with a form of removal, and it can decimate the board in conjunction with Clone and a little bounce. Wonder should be obvious, and can often give you the upper hand while enabling your Manglers and other creatures to block fliers.
The Non-Creature Spells:
Most of this should be obvious, but I'd like to take time to discuss three key cards: Bribery, Confiscate and Counterspell. Bribery is an excellent card and can often net you the best fatty in an opponent's library. As a general rule, target the guy with the biggest library; he'll often have Akroma, Angel of Wrath, or less powerful (but more fun) creatures like Quicksilver Dragon or Copperhoof Vorrac (the biggest fatty available in FFA).
You'll have to be cautious, however, as casting Bribery can often result in the jig being up (see "The Jig Is Up!" below). Confiscate functions in a similar fashion, but you're limited to what's already in play; the benefit is that you aren't limited to creatures and can steal other bombs like Loxodon Warhammer. But as an enchantment, Confiscate, can often be Disenchanted or Naturalized right when you need the permanent the most.
Counterspell, in my opinion, is a prerequisite for any control deck that can support double blue. You may be tempted to play this deck like a permission deck, with four-Counterspell plus all the goodies in the sideboard to be fetched with Cunning Wish. You must realize, however; that your Counterspells are far more precious than any other card in your library with the exception of the Thievery itself, and you should hoard them as such. Counterspell should only be used to stop something that you have no other way of stopping - some spell that will almost definitely prevent you from winning or will enable your opponent to win.
The Sideboard:
As this deck is obviously built for FFA (which consists of only a single game), there is no sideboarding. All fifteen cards act as Cunning Wish targets, and I've tried to include a number of instants that give me a range of options. None are particularly noteworthy, but I've tried to include a Counterspell at each converted casting cost from zero (Disrupting Shoal, which isn't 0cc but can be cast for zero mana, if I don't have enough for another Counterspell) to six (Time Stop).
Tips!
The Jig Is Up:
The two best weapons of this deck are secrecy and surprise. Many people will turn on you the moment they discover that you're a thief. People don't like losing their toys, and they like being beaten by their own possessions even less. Some people will assume you're playing a Thief deck simply because you're mono-U, and may attack you based on this assumption... But for the most part, if you play it cool, people won't know what you're up to until you've cast your seven-mana sorcery.
Bribery, Confiscate, and obviously Blatant Thievery all give away the design and purpose of your deck, so don't go bragging about how "that fatty will be mine, you know." Never discard Thievery unless people already know you run it. Don't let people see your hand. Don't make enemies needlessly. Preserve your secret at all costs and you'll reap a richer reward.
Primo Thievery Targets:
Obviously you'll want some fatties with sweet abilities, but there are other permanents that can be just as juicy. One of the strongest cards in Free-For-All is Sun Droplet, which can generate six life a turn (or one life per opponent's upkeep). After casting Thievery, having a Sun Droplet (especially if it already has counters on it) can be a way to stem the impending aggression pointed in your direction. Another extremely strong card is Loxodon Warhammer, which can give you a lot of life in a short period of time (especially when combined with the Riptide Mangler re-equipping trick).
Wellwisher is also usually a great pick, as someone runs that elf to combo with his other elves. Take it, and you can reap the benefits of a large elf gang on the table.
Sword of Light and Shadow and Sword of Fire and Ice are also quite useful, and keep in mind that the Swords don't have to be equipped to your creatures for you to reap the benefit. If you control the equipment, you get the benefits when it attacks. Just keep in mind that if a creature is equipped with Sword of Fire and Ice, you will be unable to target the creature with Blatant Thievery.
Furthermore, you'll often want to steal things that are not useful to you, but are very useful to your opponents. Various combo pieces are good targets, and may not help you at all but can slow down or stop an opponent. Even small things like Skeleton Shard can be a good target, even if you have no artifact creatures, simply to prevent your opponent from recurring his own artifact creatures. Another good example would be Cabal Coffers, which can provide your opponent with a boatload of black mana (often used to do nasty things like Consume Spirit for AWholeBunch). Taking this won't help you directly, but it can definitely cramp your opponent's style.
Beware Of...:
Certain cards can be very difficult for your deck to handle. One of the worst is Plated Slagwurm, because you don't run anything big enough to trade with it, Riptide Mangler can't target it and worst of all you can't target it with Blatant Thievery. Permanents like Slagwurm are why this deck runs Oblivion Stone.
Generally, lots of weenies or tokens can also be disastrous, as you will rarely have a particularly large army (this deck is usually about quality, not quantity) and can overrun your defenses if unchecked, which is why this deck runs Echoing Truth and has access to Evacuation in the sideboard.
Aside from weenies, the other big problem is tramplers. This deck can afford to chump block for a few turns until you draw an answer, but tramplers get around this and can often lead to an early death (which is why you should be especially careful when something like Loxodon Warhammer hits the table). Although your deck has answers to both types of threats, simply keep in mind that a big horde or a few trampling fatties can destroy you, given the chance.
Other Decks:
One of the fun and enjoyable parts of FFA on MTGO is that many of the decks you'll encounter are unique and interesting to play against. However; some FFA decks will crop up every few games or so, simply due to their power, so you'll have to be on your toes.
One of the most common is Kokusho-recursion. Kokusho is a beast in FFA and can give a player twenty-five life when the dragon dies (or fifty if an opponent's dropped two of them and they both die to the Legend rule). Luckily, your other opponents will try (if they have half a brain) to stop the recursion before it starts, as soon as they see Kokusho. Usually whoever has the most life is enemy #1 in the game. Some decks will try to pull off four Kokushos in one turn using various tricks such as Iname + Myojin. Generally, someone playing Heartbeat of Spring is a good indication of a mana-intensive combo coming down the pipe.
Another nasty deck combines Crypt Rats with spells like Soul Link or equipment such as Loxodon Warhammer or Scythe of the Wretched. Crypt Rats has the potential to clear the board, steal all the creatures in play, or simply kill all of one's opponents outright. Cunning Wish for Stifle has saved me from this nasty creature more than once. Whatever you do, don't let your opponent use it.
Finally, when playing against other decks that run Blatant Thievery, try to resolve your Thievery first. You will get the top permanent from each player, whereas the other thief will get the 2nd best permanent from each of your opponents and the best permanent that you have. This would obviously be another example of a good Counterspell target (or Twincast, if it is in your hand). Assume that if someone is playing mono-U, they are running Blatant Thievery until you're proven otherwise - but remember that he might have a counter waiting for you, too.
One Final Tip:
decide who your strongest opponent is and go after him, not the weak guy with the precon. Although I despise bullies on Magic Online who like to go after the weak, if you want to win you really have to go after whichever opponent is the strongest in the game. Look for combo pieces, a lack of creatures despite a mitt full of cards and a ton of mana, or enablers such as Heartbeat of Spring or Mirari's Wake.
All that being said, good luck with this deck, and have fun stealing other people's toys!
K Lindsay
