In 1924, a Dutch designer did something that no one else had ever done before: He made a two-legged chair, which would be called a"cantilever" chair. This was based on engineering concept used to build bridges, where one side of a structure supports a plank or platform (think of a diving board as a cantilever). The chair was first shown at that year's world's fair and it was the star of the fair. For the first time in the history of the world a chair was built without back legs. Imagine people's stunned expressions when they realized that this chair actually worked. They started at them. They walked all the way around them. Then, slowly, cautiously, people sat in these crazy things. Surprisingly they were able to sit down, and even more incredible, the chairs were comfortable.

The trick was that this Dutch designer had taken two pieces of tubing and bent them into two parallel shapes that were kind of like an"S" without the top. The front"legs" curved under the seat to support the weight. The effect is a chair that looks something like a sled with runners. (If you're having problems visualizing, as I did, check a picture at http://www.users.on.net/harveyd/quor_cl.html -- The Ferrett, who immediately went,"Oh! That!") Everyone has seen these chairs, in the dentist's office and other places. They are usually made of chromed metal with a back plate and a seat. Sometimes the metal frame is all one piece (the truly high quality ones are). But back in 1924 this was amazing.

The point is to be innovative. Before 1923, the simple chair was thought to be a finished thing. Sure, some more doodads and fancy things could be added, but nothing more could be essentially changed. The chair was, by all accounts, a done deal. But in 1924, a creative mind took what was at hand and contorted and twisted, until voila! — a chair with half as many legs. The result was a beautiful piece of design, something more efficient, cheaper to make and lighter. All in all a tremendous success — an improvement on something that was thought to be unimprovable: The four-legged chair.

What does this have to do with the game we all love so much? Simple — deckbuilding is not so much a game of chance, but a game of innovation. Over a long period of time, the randomness of the shuffle falls away and the power of a deck rests on how innovative it is. In short, being creative pays. But this statement is something that everyone hears. What does it mean? How can this directly effect someone's deckbuilding skills? That is what I propose to examine.

As a matter of evidence I should offer the reader a great historical example. At PT: Chicago, when Standard was the name of the game, an enormously powerful decktype was entirely missed. There were supposedly the greatest minds in Magic at work for the big money... And they missed Netherhaups entirely. How is this possible? What happened?

It seems to me that Magic has followed two major trends recently that have made innovation extremely hard, and therefore extremely rewarding. The first trend is one that sprang up when the Net was bringing its influence to bear on the Magic world. The Dojo and other websites published decks, and these decks soon appeared at local tournaments largely unmodified. The problem was that the regular Joe, namely you and me (provided you are a non-Pro), did not have the time and/or the brainpower to spot the"best cards" and put them together in the best form to make the"best deck." Result: Every two-bit moron with an allowance made a Prison deck EXACTLY like Robert Hahn's slick, nearly mono-white control masterpiece.

The second trend, it seems to me, is a little more insidious. Look back over the past expansions, the wonderful block that is Invasion. We have Terminate, Void, Blazing Specter, Pyre Zombie. We get Fires and Shivan

Wurm. In Apocalypse it has reached the point that we almost have a premade deck with Arena, Death Grasp, Verdict, Vindicate or Spiritmonger, Ebony Treefolk, and Pernicious Deed. The point is that WotC is making cards for decks, not cards as independent units. We have lost the good stuff — the cheap creatures and the highly flexible utility spells.

These two trends make it harder to make truly inspired decks. We rapidly winnow away the chaff and new deck archetypes are found. While tweaking does takes place, for the most part, we have fundamentally the same decks: Fires, U/W control, Rebels, NetherGo, and Skies. Now we can add Arena Decks and Snuff-o-Derm 2.0 to the list.

But I think this is a very superficial look at the game. I was pretty sure about these facts — until I recently played a game with a local Pro Tour player, and he solidified the virtues of innovation in my mind. Now I cannot reveal the deck, for in all honesty he beat me into the ground too fast to get anything other than counterspells out him... But suffice it to say that this deck, like Netherhaups, was possible in a basic form in MBC and most certainly legal in its complete form at Chicago, and it was AMAZING.

In other words, this guy sitting across from me had reinvented the chair.

I wish I could say,"Go out there and make a revolutionary deck!" — or better yet,"I have made a revolutionary deck!" — but truth be told, I am not that good of a player. Face it, most of us are not. But what I am capable of doing is putting a deck out there that is new, that is relatively innovative and does stand a chance against the field.

The first lesson is to be creative; think of dormant strategies or unused cards. In so far as cards are concerned look for cards that have symmetrical global effects (Wrath's"Bury all creatures"), cards that trade one type of resource for another (Spontaneous Generation"Put a creature into play for each card in hand"), effects that can be utilized repeatedly (Bargain or Necro's Draw effects), cards with high"costs" (like Shivan Wurm or Gush, where the cost can be made into a benefit), or effects that target in a narrow but globally fashion (Engineered Plague's -1/-1).

The deck I am going to focus on uses the first principle, that of a dormant strategy. When Extended first came into existence, a White deck with Blue and Red was very good and very popular. It was designed to exploit the good Protection creatures in white with red's cheap burn and blue's deck manipulation. The two supercards of the deck were the Kjeldoran Outposts and the Frenetic Efreets; these two powerhouses combined with a cheap efficient base of creatures and removal made Jank quite successful. Eventually, the deck was neutered by faster, more focused strategies based on cards from Saga — but the principles that it was based on survived in the Sliver decks and the B/W/G creature decks from last season. In Type II, with the explosion of multilands and the rise of a highly varied field, Jank-style utility/cheap creature decks seem poised for a return. Black affords you a good discard tool in Duress (and maybe in Verdict), red gives you great, versatile removal with Seal of Fire and Flametongue Kavu. And White, again, provides the base with good solid guys. The minor Rebel Chain (4 Sergeants and 4 Volunteers) replaces the pump knights and the Lynx does overtime as the best blocker in T2, neutralizing all sorts of beasts. Finally the sideboard uses some unconventional cards to punish problematic strategies in opposing decks. All in all, not the innovative beast I played a couple of days ago, but it seems to be pretty solid.

(Deck Title Missing)

4 Spectral Lynx
4 Duress
4 Seal of Fire
4 Ramosian Sergeant
4 Fresh Volunteers
2 Seal of Cleansing
2 Flametongue Kavu
2 Serra Angel
3 Terminate
4 Parallax Wave
4 Goblin Legionnaires
8 Plains
4 W/B Painland
4 W/R Painland
4 Sulfurous Springs
4 Port

Sideboard:
4 Squee's Embrace
3 Boil
2 Tsabo's Decree
2 Rebel Informer
2 Cremate
2 Urza's Rage

In detail, the whole idea of the deck is to beat Fires out of the gate. This is accomplished with the Lynxes, Terminates, Flametongue Kavus, Goblin Legionnaires (Bird and Elf snipers), the Seals and the Duresses (to drop the Burst and the Fires). Rebels (monocolor) will be a good fight, but this deck has some punch of its own with the plethora of cheap burn. The sideboard is designed to punish control. After the Waves and the Flametongue Kavus are removed and some other minor swaps made, the Embraces punish Wrath and Rout-based removal, and the Boils and the Rages work other weak points in the control deck's strategy. As far as the new decks are concerned, the Lynx is a problem for any Spiritmonger decks in that they block the new creature of week and survive a Deed explosion. As far as the B/W control decks go, well... I am not sure how this deck will hold up. It all depends on how good that deck is. If it turns out to be a real bear, then maybe some Dodecapods in the sideboard will help, but maybe this deck just rolls to B/W. It is simply too early to say. I have only played this deck out on Apprentice and once or twice in real life, and it does pretty well. It is really fast, with the Serras being much more aggressive than the have traditionally been.

Hopefully I have given you something to think about, maybe even a deck idea or two. Hey, at the very least you know when the cantilever chair was invented now (as well as what it is). If that is your million-dollar question on"Who Wants to be a Millionaire?", I get a cut. But the basic idea is to look at things that are old and make them new. Look at old cards from Masques block (those crazy rares that looked good but you have forgotten), or remember old strategies and old metagames and what worked then. Bottom line: Keep thinking. Build decks in your mind while on the can, at the DMV, anywhere you have some spare time to yourself. At least it is a defense against talking to crazy people on public transportation; they won't bother you if you look pensive and deep in thought.

Finally if anyone reading this is looking for someone to playtest with in the Boston area, drop me an email. I am looking for some people to try out new decks on.

----------------------

Anthony Sculimbrene
sculimbr@bc.edu
Boston College