Some cards in the environment just never get noticed, either because they appear to be sub par at first glance or they do not fit into an established archetype. I would like to examine two of these cards and see where they fit in today's Standard environment.

It is pretty much established now that THE deck to beat is Fires, which means that many people will be playing Fires at a Top 8 near you. So how do you, as a Fires player, ensure that you are one of the ones in the Top 8 and not Johnny Netdeck?

Well, as discussed by Mike Mason in his article Peace of Mind - Paranoia, Simoon is great in the mirror match, but it will not help against a Blastoderm or a 7/7 Shivan Wurm - and now that he has revealed it to everyone, it wouldn't really be secret tech, would it? Red/Green has an even better card that I have not noticed anyone discuss, so here it is:

Voracious Cobra
2RG, Creature - Snake 2/2, Invasion Uncommon
First strike
Whenever Voracious Cobra deals combat damage to a creature, destroy that creature.
"There's no known antidote for the cobra's venom . . . or its appetite."
Illus. Terese Nielsen

I know what you're thinking: "Hey, dummy, that's just a Thicket Basilisk. Thicket Basilisk sucked before and it sucks now." Well, you're right about Thicket Basilisk being less-than-stellar... But there are two important differences between this card and Thicket Basilisk. The first is that this card has First Strike and the Basilisk doesn't. By itself, the fact that this card has First Strike is not very important - but combined with the second point, it is HUGE. The second is what this card does not have that the Basilisk does; the words AT END OF COMBAT. That's right; the Basilisk will kill the creature at end of combat, which generally means that it will die as well, but Voracious Cobra doesn't have that restriction. AND it has First Strike. This makes the card WAY better than the Basilisk. Don't believe me? Here is an actual game situation.

I am at four life; I have in play two Llanowar Elves, My opponent has a Blastoderm and a Shivan Wurm. I play Voracious Cobra. On his turn, my opponent, not yet in tune with the ways of the Cobra, attacks with everything. I chump-block Blastoderm with an Elf and block the Wurm with the Cobra. The following conversation ensues:

Me: Resolve First Strike damage. Your Wurm takes two. Bury your Wurm.
Opponent (Jay): Assign two to the Cobra and five to you.
Me: No - bury your Wurm.
Jay: Huh? (grabs card and reads it) Lame.* (Buries Wurm)

The fact that he topdecked a Saproling Burst and won the next turn is irrelevant when considering the effectiveness of the Cobra. (Then why bring it up at all? Isn't that just useless, extraneous information? I brought it up because eventually I am going to use this fact to segue into the second part of my article, that's why.) People have been advocating Glacial Wall in control decks to stop Blastoderm and Jade Leech. Voracious Cobra not only stops these, but it kills them too. I have been told that Voracious Cobra is not as good as Glacial Wall because it can be Assaulted. That argument does not hold water though because Glacial Wall can also be Assaulted after they attack with the Blastoderm/Jade Leech, and it doesn't kill Blastoderm or Leech. Flametongue Kavu kills it - but he, you can't have it all. So if you are playing Fires at Regionals, try Voracious Cobra in the sideboard; it may win you the mirror match.

I said in my first article that there are two cards I always thought were begging to be broken. I have said enough about Dueling Grounds that any more would be like flogging a dead Tidal Kraken. The other card is Zur's Weirding.

I am really getting tired of losing games to "Mad Topdecking Skillz," and Weirding can assure me that my opponent will not topdeck the Saproling Burst to overrun my Voracious Cobra defense. (Notice the reference to that seemingly extraneous piece of information in the first part. I is a good righter. Okay, here is this weeks contest question: I will send a rare from my GP Detroit deck to a randomly selected person from all the people who can tell me what movie that a similar incident occurred in. I'll clarify; the characters in the Movie pointed out that a certain person gave out a lot of information for someone of his station, and then later on in the movie pointed out how fortunate it was that the person gave them that information. Confused? Good! The last two about Conan and Calvin and Hobbes were too easy.) Weirding is leaving Standard with 6th edition, 7so it's now or never. With that in mind I present Wayne's Weirding:

Decklist:

3x Zur's Weirding
3x Well of Life
2x Soothsaying
4x Chimeric Idol
3x Disenchant
4x Fact or Fiction
4x Counterspell
2x Absorb
4x Wrath of God
4x Rout
1x Air Elemental
14x Island
12x Plain

Sideboard:
1x Disenchant
3x Mana Maze
4x Cursed Totem
2x Absorb
2x Soothsaying
1x Zur's Weirding
1x Well of Life
1x Meddling Mage

Deck Explanation:

The Lock:
Zur's Weirding, Well of Life, and one of Soothsaying or Chimeric Idol is a Hard Lock. If you get that combo out (My God, does that make this a combo deck?), your opponent will never draw another card.

The Protection:

The Counterspells and the eight "Wrath of God" effects should give fits to most creature based decks. You may be wondering if eight Wraths are too many; it's not. If I could, I would include more. The Disenchants also protect you from evil cards like Fires of Yavimaya (which is more harmful to this deck than Saproling Burst).

The Search

Fact or Fiction and Soothsaying. A lot of more prominent people than I have explained the merit of Fact or Fiction, this deck just abuses it. Not only do you get the usual "draw five cards and make your opponent sweat bullets" decision, but you do not DRAW any cards, so Zur's Weirding cannot prevent it. That is HUGE in this deck. I put Soothsaying in the deck to allow me to set up my deck for a Fact or Fiction that will ensure me my kill card. I didn't realize it could replace Chimeric Idol in the Lock. Soothsaying is nothing short of AMAZING. When playing against Fires, it was the single most hated card in my deck; I played against discard, and I could pull a Wrath at will. It is the Ultimate Topdeck Assistant. I will modify the deck to include four of these main deck.

The Kill

Air Elemental and Chimeric Idol. Chimeric Idol is the best thing to come out of Prophecy, and it is a perfect fit in this deck. It is immune to my Wrath of Gods and Routs, and it helps me establish a card drawing lock. Air Elemental is good, but I can't wait for Fat-Moti to return.

Mana

26 Land. Seem like a lot? It may be one more than usual in a control deck but getting mana hosed in my area is known as "Getting Wayned,"** if that gives you any idea how often I get mana hosed

Testing.

I played this deck against Fires first, because one of the requirements for my Regionals Deck is that it has to handle Fires. I won four out of six games, losing one of the games because I didn't draw any creature control by turn 6. I lost another game because I saw three Islands and no other Mana until turn 7 (I got Wayned). However, when the cards were giving me something resembling cooperation, I won. If Soothsaying stayed on the board for any period of time, I won. If my opponent made the mistake of emptying his hand, I won. The matchup against Fires is good, 'cause I won.

There are some things to remember when playing against Fires. The first is that Fires of Yavimaya is BAD. Do not let Fires hit the table; if it does, Disenchant it. Hasted creatures get by the eight Wraths in the Deck (Unless you're up to seven land - but if that's true, you should almost be ready to apply the lock.) Get Soothsaying out ASAP. Soothsaying will win you games. Sideboard in the Disenchant against Fires and take out an Absorb or a Counterspell. Wrath early, Wrath often.

I have not playtested against many other decks, but I hope to this weekend in Detroit. Speaking of Detroit, I will be attending my first Grand Prix this weekend and only my second major tournament - the other being Canadian Nationals in 99, where I didn't do so great but had a great time anyway. I am also bringing a 5-Color deck, and may enter the 5-Color qualifiers depending on how I do at the main tourney. Have I mentioned that I have never played 5-Color before? So if you see me, come challenge me to a 5-Color game; I'll be an easy mark (Wait why am I telling you this?), I'll be the fat guy in the Blue Canadian Nationals '99 shirt.

If you have any comments or criticisms send them to me, and if you have any advice for GP: Detroit then PLEASE send it to me. I am not very good at responding to email (I try, I really do) but I do read everything and appreciate it all. Here is hoping I can ride my under 1600*** Flag to some cash in Detroit.

* - To Jay, everything that impacts his deck is Lame. Counterspells are Lame, Wrath of God is Lame. My entire Zur's Weirding deck is Lame.

** - I once made a deck with thirty-four land and thirty non-land card; it had cards like Nature's Revolt Exploration, Horn of Greed, Natural Affinity, Death Pit Offering and Eradicate. I got Mana Hosed three out of five games, not being able to see more than three land by turn 7. In one of those games, I mulliganed a NO-LAND HAND. (And I Eradicated Mountains from a Sligh deck in one of the other two games.)

*** - I know it is actually a 1700 or lower flag, but I is so good at Limited a gots a 1600 or under flag.