'Lo, all...

The holidays have came and gone, and one thing is for sure...if anything should be banned, it should be hangovers (Captain Morgan is bah-ROken).

Couple things I'll tackle before I get into the serious stuff:

I'd like to thank everyone who wrote me concerning my three-piece on 7th Edition, both the good and (for the most part, naturally), the bad. I'm usually good at replying to individual email, but I received so much in such a short amount of time (plus the fact I get about fifty to sixty emails a day as is), that I'll just make a quick reply to everyone about the two most popular debates.

First, the "reprint policy" I followed in designing my 7th Edition was one of my doing; I understand perfectly how WotC's reprint policy actually works, but nowhere did I say that I was following WotC's reprint policy. I was just trying to make things a little interesting, and I apologize if the wording or whatnot was confusing.

Second, I DID make a Big Ol' Goof (tm): In reprinting the man-lands, I conveniently neglected the fact that Treetop Village has trample, which would eliminate it from an Advanced set. In an earlier draft I had corrected this but when I was re-doing it I overlooked it the second time and left it in. So there; I'm human.

Hope that won't affect my credibility any. *snicker*

Hey, at least I WAS light-years ahead of Alongi as far as Coalition Victory and Shyft. *poke*

"Patented Side Rant That Is Actually More Of An Observation Than A Side Rant #2: Has anyone made a bona fide effort to try Coalition Victory in Extended yet?" "...It might be at the least playable, if not dominant *cough* Shyft *cough* Natural Balance..."

-Rounding Out a Perfect Environment, Part Two, November 16th, 2000.

Hey, I have to pat myself on the back whenever I get a chance these days. Don't take that from me.

Anyhoo...

The current field (I hate using the word "metagame" these days) of competitive decks in Standard has been cemented for the most part, and, to my surprise as well as the surprise of many, the R/B "ZombieHammer/MachineHead/Insert Name Here" control deck has slid into - and I'm being generous here - Tier Two status.

Why? It's simple. Most multicolor decks are primarily based in one color and use the secondary splash color(s) to shore up the weakness of the base color. However (and here's your Obvious Strategy Tip For The Day), neither black nor red can deal with enchantments effectively. That's a shock, I know.

I won't really get into building B/R or any strategies behind playing the actual deck as a whole, since that has been pretty much done. For example's sake, I'll stir up a small debate at the end of this article, as well as an example of what *I* would play. This article is going to be mostly dedicated to a card that everyone would pretty much say is one of the more powerful cards in Invasion, yet I still think its various uses are still misunderstood: Void.

Hence the title.

Void
3BR
Sorcery

Choose a number. Destroy all artifacts and creatures with converted mana cost equal to that number. Then target player reveals his or her hand and discards all nonland cards with converted mana cost equal to the number.

Void is, first and foremost, a board control card, and should be used as such. It kills Blastoderm, blah blah, and that's great. The trick to getting the most out of Void though is to read the second part of Void's effect. Void can't touch enchantments in play, but anything in the hand is fair game. Void, then, can often serve as proactive enchantment removal a la Duress or other discard spells (although it's not nearly as mana efficient as straight discard, obviously).

The trick to this is something I'll call "Aggro-Voiding," where you attempt to cast Void as early as possible in the game in an attempt to proactively remove any permanents that your deck would have a difficult time removing.

Naturally, the hard part is knowing what to Void for when the board is in a neutral position. Knowing the field, then, is huge, which brings me to a card every deck running Void HAS to use for maximum impact:

Addle
1B
Sorcery
Name a color. Target player reveals his or her hand, then you choose a card of that color from it. That player discards that card.

Addle is also no Duress thanks to the doubled mana cost, but in many cases is actually better than Duress in the creature-heavy format that is Type Two. Also, and I've said this before in my report from States, but Addle is also excellent for many of the same reasons Void is; If you know the field and know what you're up against, the quality of cards you will grab with Addle will skyrocket. In many ways, Addle is more of a black Disenchant than anything; remember this.

So, here's a concept for you to dig into. The Aggro-Void usually occurs on turn 3 with help of a Dark Ritual. The Aggro-Void is usually set up in some manner with a Vampiric Tutor on turns one or two, and anything that lets the Aggro-Voider look at the opponent's hand prior to the Aggro-Void naturally makes the Void more effective.

This is where Addle fits in perfectly in the two-slot. Presented with the opportunity to do so, things usually go first-turn Tutor for the missing piece, second-turn Addle to view the opponent's hand (and hopefully grab a good card in the process), third-turn Void for whatever is appropriate.

Of course, during the course of a game this situation doesn't always present itself, and in many match-ups, you really need to Aggro-Void ASAP. Being forced to do a "blind" Aggro-Void, then, makes it absolutely crucial to understand the field and how your deck interacts with other matchups.

First, let's look at the "best deck in the format": the R/G Fires of Yavimaya deck. All of the following analyses are dependant on different versions of the deck, but for reference I will include cards that are "must-haves"... cards that appear in every popular version of a certain decktype. I will also list some possible inclusions, but please keep this in mind:

8-12 1cc cards: Birds, Elves, possibly Earthquake, possibly Seal of Fire
0-4 2cc cards: possibly Vine Trellis or (more likely) River Boa
8 3cc cards: Chimeric Idol, Fires
4-8 4cc cards: Blastoderm, possibly Jade Leech
8-12 5cc cards: Saproling Burst, Assault/Battery (split cards count as the total combined casting cost as far as converted mana goes), possibly Kavu Chameleon
0-4 6cc cards: possibly Two-Headed Dragon, possibly Rith in a 3-color version

Since many of the Fires deck's heavy-hitters are in the 5cc range and up, the chance of an Aggro-Void being effective is excellent, especially considering that one of the culprits is Saproling Burst - a must-get-rid-of card for B/R. Even if you use green for Tranquility (more on this later), Fires will let them get in some damage first. So, in a perfect situation, you Addle away a Blastoderm on turn two, then Aggro-Void away the Burst on turn 3. Fires isn't a must-Void, although it certainly makes life more difficult for you. The consensus here then would be to Aggro-Void for five in a blind situation; if you have an answer for Blastoderm handy, all the better. Also keep in mind that Aggro-Voiding for five will become even stronger against Fires once the deck is able to incorporate Shivan Wurm (and boy, is that a rant waiting to happen... but that's for next time).

Now for Rebels, either in the mono-white or G/W designs:

4-6 1cc cards: Sergeant, possibly Enlightened Tutor
2-16 2cc cards: Lieutenant, possibly (and more likely than the Lieutenant these days) Defiant Falcon, Seal of Cleansing/Disenchant, possibly Aura Mutation, possibly Wax/Wane, possibly Longbow Archer, Steadfast Guard, possibly Fresh Volunteers
4-12 3cc cards: Lin Sivvi, possibly either Glider, possibly Chimeric Idol, possibly Noble Panther, possibly Defiant Vanguard, possibly Tangle Wire, possibly Story Circle
4-9 4cc cards: Parallax Wave, possibly Armageddon, possibly Rappelling Scouts, possibly Reverent Mantra, possibly Ramosian Rally
0-1 5cc cards: possibly Ramosian Sky Marshal (even though Rappelling Scouts is infinitely better :P)
0-1 6cc cards: possibly Jhovall Queen

I didn't include any possibilities concerning the Counter-Rebel design since, while a good deck, you will see the beatdown designs far more often if you see Rebels. I will address the deck briefly though...

Patented Side Rant: Seriously, could Counter-Rebel become the most despised deck ever? I hate white, and my fellow writers' hate for it has been well documented. I hate white weenie even more. I despise counterspell decks. A permission deck with white weenies involved? Could you hand me that axe over there on the wall, please?

Even though the majority of the cards here fall into the two-drop range, your true enemies in this match-up are in the four-drop range - and to a lesser extent, the three-drop range with Lin-Sivvi. The three-drop slots gain a bigger bullseye, as do the two-drop slots if you are facing Counter-Rebel (since there will be Counterspells and Absorbs to get rid of), but Parallax Wave and Armageddon are not your friends. The problem here though is the rebel chain itself. You would think that Void would be excellent against rebels... but you would be wrong unless you're playing against Grizzly Rebels, since working up the chain is a natural deterrent to a devastating board-Void. If you are forced to do a blind Aggro-Void, go for four and hope you can draw into answers for Sivvi. In this situation, second-turn Addle is your friend even more than usual. Aggro-Void for four also becomes stronger after they side in Light of Day.

Finally, a look at where Aggro-Voiding becomes most valuable: the creatureless (or near-creatureless) permission deck:

4-6 1cc cards: Brainstorm, possibly Opt, possibly Power Sink, possibly a Tutor
4-12 2cc cards: Counterspell, possibly Accumulated Knowledge, possibly Millstone
4-9 3cc cards: possibly Absorb, possibly Undermine, possibly Nether Spirit, possibly Dominate, possibly Story Circle
2-8 4cc cards: possibly Foil, possibly Thwart, possibly Wrath of God, possibly Massacre
2-6 5cc cards: possibly Jeweled Spirit, possibly Blinding Angel, possibly Bribery, possibly Teferi's Moat, possibly Misdirection

The blind Aggro-Void almost certainly goes for two here, especially if the deck is the creatureless Millstone design. Due to the nature of R/B's creatures (Idol, Pyre Zombie), Void for four is generally weak since the only thing you'd get of real value would be Thwart or Foil, in which case you'd almost WANT them to have to ACC Thwart or Foil early in the game. Aggro-Void for three against Nether-Go is pretty weak unless you are able to Addle beforehand, but Aggro-Voiding for three against B/W can have its merits. In any case, this is where the Aggro-Void becomes strongest, since the board position is almost always neutral or slightly in your favor against a creature-light control deck, so you can afford to give up the board control aspect of Void in favor of attempting a Mind Twist or whatnot. In the case of B/W Millstone, you can get the best of both worlds should they drop a Millstone early.

So there's a look at how the art of Aggro-Voiding applies to the three most successful designs currently in Type Two. Remember, especially after sideboarding, enchantments are NOT your friend... go for them first, and your deck can usually do an admirable job dealing with the creature threats. I'll end this article with a look at how I would build MachineHead these days:

3x Pyre Zombie
3x Abyssal Specter
4x Chimeric Idol
1x Thrashing Wumpus
4x Void
4x Dark Ritual
4x Addle
3x Urza's Rage
4x Seal of Fire
4x Vampiric Tutor
1x Tranquility

11x Swamp
4x Mountain
4x Urborg Volcano
2x Shivan Oasis
2x Karplusan Forest
1x Dust Bowl
1x Rath's Edge

I'll also say something I said before in my States report: I think B/R is an excellent deck, but even with the Aggro-Voiding, I would still strongly recommend running just a splash of green for Tranquility either in the maindeck (one at most) or in the sideboard. Why more people aren't considering this just boggles me; the Vampiric Tutor element of the deck shores this strategy up, and using the R/G lands lets you do so without taking away from the recursive element of Pyre Zombie.

Anyways, there's my three cents; keep the change.

May the forces of evil become confused on the way to your house,

Carl J.
Zeke2517 on IRC
The Prince of Parentheses