Kudos to Chad Ellis, Peter Jahn, and others who also took up the issue of the distribution of power amongst the colors of Magic. I found it heartening that people were paying attention, especially in light of Randy's responses Friday on Magicthegathering.com and Monday on Star City. In those two articles, the general gist was"you all misunderstood what I was saying" and"back off, trust us - we know what we're doing." I don't know if Randy realized just how patronizing and unsatisfying those responses were...

From Magicthegathering.com:
"I did say to enjoy Wild Mongrel while you still can because we aren't going to print any more green weenies that good. Several of you misread that as 'we aren't going to print any more good green weenies.' Like I said in the previous paragraph, R&D believes green should get the second best crop of small guys and that will include plenty that are good enough to play, even in cutthroat tournament decks."

First off, there was no misreading of what you said, you were very clear about it - in the previous paragraph, you stated that green would get the best fatties, and white would get the best weenies; there was nothing about green getting"second-best" weenies. And it was the sentence right after the"enjoy your Wild Mongrels while you can" statement that we were worried about. You stated"For two mana, green isn't going to do much better than good old Grizzly Bears and the only really good one-drops green should get are fatty-enablers."

Now, maybe you misstated your intentions, and I sincerely hope that's the case. If you really, truly intend on giving green good weenies (just not the best), then that's great.

But.

Don't expect us to just sit back on our laurels and just take what you guys dish out. This isn't your game; this is our game. We're the consumer, the customer, and it's in our interest to keep an eye on what we're buying. You're kind enough to give us glimpses into the future of the game, just don't be surprised when we get excited about issues that concern us.

From StarCity:
"I guess I think you should trust us. If you look at R&D's track record for the last few years, I'd like to think we've earned that trust."

I'll be the first to step up to the plate and say R&D has done a great job these past few years. Invasion and Odyssey block are two of the best-designed sets I've ever seen. I hope the excellence continues! But a track record of excellence doesn't mean you're infallible, you may all be great designers but you're still human and, most importantly... you are no longer the Consumer. You can draw upon your experiences as players, but ultimately you operate in an artificial environment quite different from the"real world" of Magic. To continue cranking out excellent expansions, you need feedback from us here in the real world, and not just pats on the back and"attaboys," but constructive criticism. Chad Ellis and Peter Jahn give some real good reasons for why blue is overpowered (or at least overshadowing the other colors); listen to them. I don't think the solution is necessarily powering down blue dramatically, but rather to spread around the"cleverness" to the other colors too.

Anyway, enough of that. On to the topic of exploring monogreen for OBC. For reference, this is the deck I'd posted previously for testing:

OBC Monogreen, 5/8/02
3 Deserted Temple
20 Forest
4 Millikin
4 Werebear
4 Basking Rootwalla
2 Sylvan Safekeeper
4 Wild Mongrel
3 Spellbane Centaur
3 Phantom Centaur
1 Genesis
4 Elephant Guide
4 Squirrel Nest
4 Living Wish

Sideboard:
1 Deserted Temple
1 Spellbane Centaur
1 Phantom Centaur
1 Genesis
4 Leaf Dancer
2 Seedtime
3 Still Life
2 Druid Lyrist

This past weekend, I finally got the chance to log in some matches and get a feel for the overall strength of the deck. I was generally impressed by its performance.

What Worked:
Phantom Centaur is a hoss. I mean, he is all I'd hoped he'd be. He really is the next Blastoderm, even better in many ways.

Elephant Guide is incredibly good. Against monoblack, I got a Guide on a Phantom Centaur and just crushed him. In fact, the"combo" of Phantom Centaur and Elephant Guide feels positively unfair - and unfair often means game wins.

Squirrel Nest is still really, really good. Between Nests and Temples, I was making five squirrels a turn one game. That's some serious problems for my opponent.

Living Wish was decent - but strangely, I didn't draw it enough to really be able to gauge its strength. I never got land screwed early so I'm not sure about it's"Impulse" value early on yet. Jury's still out, but I still like it.

What Didn't Work:
Millikin, as much as I like him, is getting the boot for now. The deck as it stands doesn't have any flashback and cares little about threshold to warrant his"drawback." I milled one too many Guides and Nests into my graveyard.

Seedtime, I love ya - but I don't know if it's worth running in OBC. Sure, blue decks still fear it and may board out counters in the second game and third game... But right now, it seems like dead weight in the board. And running Wishes in the main deck means board space is at a premium.

Still Lifes never seemed needed, and I decided I'd rather run with Blightcutters to be able to fetch with the Wishes. Monoblack is a lot less scary with Guides, Phantom Centaurs and Genesis in the mix.

So with all that in mind, here's the changes I've made to the deck:

OBC Monogreen, 5/20/02
3 Deserted Temple
20 Forest
4 Basking Rootwalla
3 Sylvan Safekeeper
4 Werebear
4 Wild Mongrel
4 Call of the Herd
3 Spellbane Centaur
3 Phantom Centaur
1 Genesis
3 Living Wish
4 Elephant Guide
4 Squirrel Nest

Sideboard:
1 Deserted Temple
1 Spellbane Centaur
1 Phantom Centaur
1 Genesis
4 Leaf Dancer
4 Moment's Peace
2 Nantuko Blightcutter
1 Druid Lyrist

I wanted to increase my one-drops to make sure I had some early board position to dissuade an early Standstill from hitting the board, thus the extra Safekeeper. It also seemed foolish not to run Calls of the Herd to increase my threat density. In the board, it seemed to me that in matchups against green/x decks, the win comes from racing Leafdancers, so Moment's Peace seems a natural fit to help win that race. I'm keeping the one random Lyrist as a nod towards potential Solitary Confinement decks - I have no idea if a good one exists in this environment, but I don't want to be caught with my pants down if I run across one.

I'd like to conclude on a fun announcement: Anna Marie, my 17-month-old daughter, destroyed her very first Magic card this weekend! I imagine this will be the first of many.

I was in the family room when I heard my wife in the other room say,"What do you have there?" Pause."Um... take that to Daddy..."

So Anna Marie comes running into the room with a big grin on her face, and something clutched in her little fists. I hold out my hand and in drops a balled-up Magic card. She laughs and runs off.

The card? Epicenter. Apparently she had threshold, so there you go. :)

What do YOU think? Share your opinion with the community and you just may walk away with some FREE Magic cards... courtesy of your friends at StarCityGames.com!