Introduction
Ever since the first player said,"End of turn, tap my Winter Orb with my Icy Manipulator," Prison decks have been a feature in the Magic landscape. In its various forms, the basic idea was to stop the opponent from playing spells by imprisoning them in a savage lock. The Achilles' heel of prison decks is that they have multiple components whose parts must often interlock to maximize their abuse. As a result, they generally have to be extremely powerful and rather consistent to be any good.

No format sanctioned by the DCI is as fast, brutal, and ruthless as Competitive Type One Magic. You think winning the die roll is important in Type Two? You could be dead before you get a turn in Type One! For a prison deck to be one of the very best decks in such a format, it must be frighteningly powerful - and $T4KS is as highly powered as the format will permit, abusing more restricted cards than most combo decks. $T4KS is incredibly explosive, jumping out to affect the board immediately. Relatively similar to Extended Tinker decks with its heavy artifact base, $T4KS prevents the opponent from playing while directly attacking the source of the threats: The mana base.

Like Stasis, $T4KS is a"combo" based deck with many mini-combos within it... But this combo's resilience flows from the mere fact that each element used in the lock is effective taken separately; it isn't necessary to play all the parts to win the game. Yet, they each fulfill a distinct and unique purpose that when taken together compose a smooth engine of destruction.

It deserves an explanation on why a Prison deck, a concept inherently difficult to achieve, would suddenly appear in the Type One metagame and appear so good. Most of this article is spent answering this question.

Where did this deck come from? Like most of the best decks there has been an evolution. As far as type one is concerned, it has its roots in creator David Wee's (Psyduck on The Mana Drain)"Ducktape." Although the lock is Smokestack, Tangle Wire, Goblin Welder, and Meditate-based, that is as far as the similarities go. The most distinct difference is that David uses Time Vault as his win condition, giving his opponent sixty turns to suck up a Smokestack and die to a Black Vise - a strategy we find seriously lacking in tournament merit. (Although Steve thinks that there are merits to using the Vault for other purposes.) The underlying philosophy of this $T4KS is vastly different. For example, Psyduck's deck features zero to two Spheres of Resistance in the maindeck. We feel that Sphere is the most important card in the deck, outside of the mana base: It defines this deck. There are numerous other card choices that we take issue with, but we will defer until a later section of this article to go into any more detail.

For reference, here is David's most recent list:

Ducktape:

// The lands
1 Tolarian Academy
2 Island
3 Shivan Reef
4 Volcanic Island
4 Mishra's Workshop
1 Mana Crypt
1 Lotus Petal
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Diamond
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Emerald
1 Candelabra of Tawnos
1 Mana Vault

// Throw the book at them
1 Trade Secrets
1 Tinker
1 Memory Jar
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Careful Study
1 Frantic Search
1 Windfall
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Timetwister
1 Metalworker
1 Oath of Scholars
1 Tsabo's Web
1 Brainstorm

// A little help
1 Black Vise
1 Gorilla Shaman
1 Time Vault
2 Urza's Bauble
2 Sphere of Resistance

// The weapons
3 Goblin Welder
4 Meditate
4 Tangle Wire
4 Smokestack

Some creative souls at the monthly Dülmen noticed David's deck and performed radical surgery. The Dülmen had been dominated in the months of February and before by Roland Bode's contribution to Miracle Gro: GroAtog. In February, one of the authors of this article wrote"Gardening In Vintage: How To Gro-A-Tog And Clip A Lotus," which was a lengthy article introducing this archetype to the Star City audience. The following month, March 2003, Sebastion Kaul slaughtered a top 8 of GroAtog to take 1^st place with an early $T4KS build. That is where the story begins.

For reference, here is Kaul's List:

// Mana base
1 Badlands
4 Mishra's Workshop
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Tundra
1 Underground Sea
3 Volcanic Island
1 Plateau
2 Flooded Strand
2 Polluted Delta
1 Strip Mine
2 Wasteland
1 Black Lotus
1 Grim Monolith
1 Mana Crypt
2 Metalworker
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Sol Ring

// Draw and tutors
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Ancestral Recall
3 Meditate
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Time Walk
1 Timetwister
1 Tinker
1 Memory Jar
1 Wheel of Fortune

// The lock
4 Smokestack
4 Sphere of Resistance
4 Tangle Wire
4 Goblin Welder

// Broken
1 Balance

// Kill
2 Karn, Silver Golem
1 Triskelion

// Sideboard
3 Blood Moon
3 Bottle Gnomes
3 Fire / Ice
3 Rack and Ruin
3 Red Elemental Blast

You might be surprised by the conspicuous absence of Mana Vault or Windfall. We certainly were.

T1 Test partner and Five-Color Guru Kevin Cron on The Mana Drain built up this deck with some mana base alterations which have remained today. Kevin has been an integral part of the testing and tuning of this deck with the authors of this article. The interim months have been spent testing and tuning a final product, which we present today, three months later.

(Just in case you missed it - T$4KS is an acronym for The Four Thousand Dollar Solution. Switch the $ and the T and you have Stax).

$T4KS (The Four Thousand Dollar Solution)
4 Mishra's Workshop
1 Tolarian Academy
4 Volcanic Island
1 Badlands
4 Polluted Delta
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Strip Mine
1 Island
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Diamond
1 Black Lotus
1 Lotus Petal
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Grim Monolith
4 Sphere of Resistance
4 Tangle Wire
4 Smokestack
4 Goblin Welder
4 Meditate
1 Timetwister
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Memory Jar
1 Tinker
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Windfall
1 Time Walk
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Karn, Silver Golem
1 Triskelion

Part I: Card-By-Card Analysis

A. The Lock:
Sphere Of Resistance
This card changes the rules of the game. Besides Mishra's Workshop, if you remove any spell from the deck, the one spell that absolutely makes this deck unviable in its absence is Sphere. If you aren't playing four, then you just don't understand this deck. Type One is about many things - but when Type One is competitive, it is about efficiency. And what screws over efficiency more than Spheres?

Spheres are much less effective against a deck with massive spells than a deck that plans on casting multiple cheap spells each turn, like Gro-Atog, or a deck that relies on a really low curve, like Sligh. Mana bases are falling and modern decks are lean, mean machines and Sphere plays a part in taking advantage of that.

Often you'll find yourself with the chance to play this first or second on turn 1. Planning on when to play Sphere is much more difficult than deciding how many to play. There is always a risk that a Wasteland will make the Sphere more symmetrical than you'd like. Against certain decks, Sphere is not really something you want to see countered, and you may have to delay their use and cast lesser spells beforehand to bait for first-turn Force of Will. We'll discuss on when to play the Sphere later.

Quite frankly, out of the Tier One, there is not one deck that it isn't great against. And if Keeper wrecks your mana with Wastelands, then you still have at least parity against a slow control deck. When you have all the artifact mana and/or Academy/Workshops that this deck has and more, the drawback that your opponent suffers is many times worse than what you experience.

Tangle Wire
This is the intermediate card between Smokestack and Sphere. The Sphere immediately slows the game, changing the rules of the game. The Tangle Wire sets the stage for the main act, Smokestack, while simultaneously making it impossible for them to counter or play threats. It limits their use of spells to their upkeep/draw step. This card has such a massive effect with four counters on it that it can slow down many of the opponent's creatures, and wrecks decks that play a few number of permanents. The effect is not symmetrical due to the way you stack your upkeep - making sure that the fading occurs before tapping. Additionally, $T4KS is all about permanents, and will have lots of stuff to tap to Tangle Wire before being forced to tap mana sources.

The integral part of achieving the hard lock, if one so desired, is bouncing this card back and forth with Welders until Smokestack, one by one, eats up the opponents' board.

Smokestack
This card is incredibly versatile. It is an all-purpose, all-weather answer to so many problems, such as, oh, say, Moat or the person who thinks they are clever using Circle of Protection: Artifacts. It can be ramped up to multiple counters quite easily to try and stabilize a losing situation, and is asymmetrical with Welders. This card is an integral part of the combo, but obviously weaker than Tangle Wire and Sphere when it's played alone - unless it is on turn 1 against a deck that is unlikely to unload multiple permanents on his first turn.

Goblin Welder
This is a key component to obtaining a hard lock. You Weld out Smokestack with counters on it on during the end step, then Weld it back in so that you don't have to sac anything on your upkeep. Once your opponent has no permanents in play and you have Spheres down, the only way they can get out is if they have Elvish Spirit Guide.

But you can win without Welders resolving or surviving; the plan is simply to abuse the draw-sevens as much as possible and play far more permanents than your opponent. Then you draw Karn and"That's Game, Boys."

$T4KS can win without drawing Welders, but they offer a large safety net and are important to making this deck as broken as possible. Welder makes countering artifacts a moot endeavor... And also abuses the hell out of Memory Jar or Black Lotus.

B. Stock
The plan of this deck is obviously to lock down the opponent. But doing that requires a massive source of card advantage - a well to draw upon from which to continuously pile on the Spheres, Wires, and Smokestacks. Equally importantly, in order to make the most advantage of the symmetrical cards, you need to get permanent advantage, meaning you need to play more permanents than your opponent does, even with active Welders. This has the function of alleviating the pressure of the Smokestacks and Tangle Wires, but also of the pressure of the Spheres. More mana than your opponent means you can cast spells when they can't.

Meditate
Maybe we could say that this is to $TAKS what Gush is to GroAtog - but the comparison isn't completely accurate, even if it is appropriate. Gush is played in GroAtog after a Psychatog or a Quirion Dryad has been played. By the same token, you Meditate after Tangle Wire or Smokestack becomes active. Meditate is an amazing card in this deck, but it should be used with some caution and consideration. It is obviously strongest when a Smokestack is in play with counters on it, or in a lesser extent with a Tangle Wire and four counters on it. You'll often like to use Meditate at your opponent's end of turn; they had been planning and preparing their board to deal with the lock and then, surprise! Meditate."Oh crap," they think,"I get another turn."

Additionally, Meditate can often draw you into spells you need as a desperation move when you have nothing useful in hand, especially if you have large mana quantities available. Such a move is pretty risky but often pays, thanks to the deck's high redundancy. It really is a very important part of what makes this deck work. One strong play is turn 1 Tangle Wire, followed up on turn 2 by playing Meditate with Tangle Wire at 3. It's one of those cards that you basically don't side out. It's a lock component.

The Draw-Sevens: Wheel of Fortune, Timetwister, Windfall, and Memory Jar
Each of these cards has very important roles within $T4KS. Wheel itself can dump spells into your grave, as does Windfall and Memory Jar. But each of these spells can also generate card advantage when cast early and neuter the opponent's hand, leaving them with few spells - or worse, no mana. Memory Jar performs the far more specialized role of providing card advantage solely to you while being able to recur the Jar again and again to refuel it with Welders. Timetwister can be important as recursion, but must be used more carefully than the others.

One important question in using these cards is timing: If you have four cards, a decision to use one of these cards may draw you into a weaker hand of seven than your remaining three cards. It requires a focus on what you are trying to accomplish and an understanding of how the deck operates as well as some experience to make correct decisions under such circumstances.

For example: If you are holding Sphere, Smokestack, Meditate and you have just played Workshop, Lotus and Sol Ring while holding Wheel. Playing the Wheel before laying the Sphere and the Smokestack might be silly. It depends on what you are playing against and a realization that Spheres are critical against most decks. Additionally, it requires consideration of how effective Smokestack will be (for example, Smokestack is not that great against TNT).

Tinker
This card mostly is a fetch for Memory Jar. However, this isn't Merchant Scroll circa 2001... Against any deck packing Welders, Triskelion can also be a good potential Tinker target, because Welders are the key in this matchup. In certain situations, Tangle Wire may be the card you're looking for. This isn't an auto-tutor for Jar, but you better have a damn good reason not to get it.

Ancestral Recall
No explanation is needed on why this card is included.

Time Walk
This card is like Timetwister in Keeper circa 2000-2001. It is an incredibly time-dependant card and must be played at the appropriate time. There are few plays that are as innocuous as Mox, Land, Time Walk - but yet few are as strong at setting this deck up. Additionally, playing Time Walk from within a Memory Jar is very strong.

Many argue for its exclusion from this deck. While it doesn't fit very synergistically within this concept, its meager casting cost and powerful affect suggest that it needs to remain. While the arguments against it are strong, certain changes we have made to the deck make it much stronger.

Yawgmoth's Will
Depending on the build, in the opening hand it is effectively a forced mulligan as you are required to hold this card until you are able to Draw-Seven it away. In the late game, it will almost always be a game winner, allowing you to return all the Moxen and artifacts sacrificed to the Smokestack or the Smothered Welders into play. It's greatest potency comes in the mirror-match draw, decks that play for the long game like Keeper, or against TNT in which both decks will have moved many cards into the graveyard due to multiple Memory Jarring or Smokestacks.

All agreed in early testing that this card does not belong in the maindeck. However, changes we have made to this deck have pushed this card into the must-use category. In particular, Lotus Petal and Time Walk have made this card far more potent.

Demonic Tutor
This card is an amazing addition to this deck and worth the third-color splash. For such a cheap price, the capacity to access any card is invaluable. This was one of the first changes we made to the Dülmen list; they used Mystical Tutor.

Most of the time, I will tutor up Tolarian Academy to generate massive amounts of mana to fuel broken things. You can't Mystical for Academy, and putting the card directly into your hand is a great benefit. Being able to Demonic for Karn or Triskelion is also a boon.

Time Vault
This is an interesting card. Like Meditate, it is basically most useful when you have a lock component going, like a Tangle Wire or a Smokestack to steal some turns or to make your opponent sacrifice more permanents. But unlike Meditate, you don't get four cards into your hand as part of the deal. Instead, you get to modestly give a Welder haste, or something to that effect. This card isn't necessarily a bad choice, and could imaginably get the nod over the Windfall, but this isn't the powerhouse - and certainly not the win condition that David Wee believes it to be.

Intuition
Intuition is a theoretically good card. It's a fine non-card disadvantage tutor that puts stuff into the graveyard, allowing Welder tricks pretty easily. Nevertheless, due to its casting cost of three or more (with Spheres in play), it's a little bit underpowered for the deck due to the tremendous tempo loss. For three mana, you want to play a Meditate, a Draw-Seven, or a Tangle Wire - not an Intuition.

Scroll Rack
This essentially functioned like a good Brainstorm. To be sure, there is a slight tempo loss - but the idea is that the card quality can actually outweigh it. The two artifact mana cost is actually easier to achieve, and better for avoiding tempo loss, than the one blue - because with Moxen, you can cast this and a Sphere on turn 1.

Additionally, you can save key cards with draw sevens. It is a card of note, but in the end, it can't make the cut with such a brutal maindeck.

Black Vise
This card is at least worth an explanation on why it is absent. While it would seem natural to fit this card into $T4KS as it would into Stasis, it simply doesn't function as one would like. There are several reasons.

Most prominently is that this isn't a hard lock in the traditional sense of the term - and if it is, it is achieved from basically a soft lock position in which the game is essentially won anyway. Thus, placing this card in the deck serves no real purpose. At least Karn is a great blocker, kills Moxen and other zero casting-cost permanents, and functions as a one-turn kill with a board full of artifacts. By contrast, this card does nothing but function as a forced mulligan in the opening hand that will do upwards of twelve damage until the lock is achieved.

The difficult part of this deck is achieving the lock. Thus, all cards should assist in that goal.

Finally, keep in mind what the opponent is going to be trying to do. They are going to do their damndest to try and play permanents to get around your lock. That means they are working hard against the Vise to being with. Not an optimal card. Not bad for a sideboard slot, though.

Brainstorm
Conceptually, we understand the impulse to want to play with this card. It is a powerful card whose stature has increased as a result of the fetchlands. However, in this deck, Brainstorm is only theoretically a good card. The reasons to consider Brainstorm are that it can smooth mana, and help optimize draws, a function that at first blush might fit nicely into a clunky deck like $TAKS. Unfortunately, this deck runs light on colored sources, and each time you spend your first turn going"Volcanic Island, Brainstorm, Go" is a tremendous tempo loss. An alternative is playing Brainstorm at the end of turn, but that is arguably worse in consideration of $T4KS' desire to play spells on its own turn. That's mainly why Brainstorm isn't worth a slot.

Frantic Search and Careful Study
We are convinced that the only reason people would run these cards is that they have a ill-conceived mana base, and it is a way to discard excess land. Both cards are not only tempo loss, but also painful card disadvantage. Getting artifacts into the graveyard by all means is not something the deck wants. Let Smokestacks and Draw-Sevens do this job for you.

C. The Two Smoking Barrels
In most ways, the Win Condition is the most important consideration in deck design. Karn, Silver Golem is a monster that summons all of the Lock Parts to do his dirty work. He can be Welded into play, is a 0/8 wall for a Tog to climb over, and facilitates lockdown by destroying opponents' Moxen.

How can that be compared to Time Vault, which requires you to win over many turns, is dead without a Smokestack with counters in play and Spheres, and does nothing by itself? Triskelion is primarily here to wipe out weenies and opponents' Welders, but has the secondary function of serving as an alternative win condition. Its versatility and power warrant its inclusion of a more redundant, but never to be underestimated second, or even third Karn. Once Karn hits play after a while of establishing the lock, you are often able to serve for twenty immediately without Karn attacking; and if not, it should be able to finish the job on the following turn. A turn 1 Karn is also a threat that must be dealt with. In the worst case, Welders can also be used as a win condition once the opponent is locked if Karn and the Triskelion were removed from the game.

D. Mana Base
The mana base is perhaps the second most misunderstood element of this deck. It is also the area in which we have tuned and changed the most. To be as potent as possible, this deck requires an efficiency on par with Gro-Atog. Land is both the bane of this deck and the feature that makes it possible. With upwards of 50% of this deck consisting of mana sources, it is the biggest source of frustration as you are likely to draw anywhere from two to six mana sources in any given hand. As such, it must be carefully tested and tuned. It must be explosive, fast, efficient, and brutal. There is no room for hesitation, no room for stalling. The idea must be to deposit a mad amount of artifacts into play as quickly as possible, with preference on Sphere. The way to minimize the disadvantage of Sphere is to utilize a mana base that is capable of generating insane amounts of mana.

The Broken Stuff
As a result, Workshops and Academy are automatic inclusions. Additionally, the standard five Moxen, Sol Ring, and Black Lotus are no-brainers. Beyond that most are obvious, but require some explanation. Mana Vault is one of the strongest mana sources you can use; it can be tapped and then Welded away, while Black Lotus cannot. The more controversial additions are Mox Diamond, which fits well within the Draw-Seven Model and efficiency idea and Lotus Petal, whose utility must be witnessed first hand and also fits within the Efficiency/Explosiveness parameters of the deck.

The only argument against Mox Diamond is that it can stink up an opening hand. This might seem to be true in theory, but in practice it rarely does as you almost always have spare lands or fetchlands.

The Lotus Petal can help in many ways; first of all, it supplies all colors (and is an additional black source). Second, it can be Welded into play to help get that third or fourth mana source (depending if a Sphere is in play) to play a three casting cost spell. The late inclusion of Yawgmoth's Will in the deck makes the Petal even better.

The Non-Broken Lands
Be wary of anyone who advocates less than four Volcanic Islands. They may be good at Magic, but they lack experience with this deck. The incredible number of colorless sources places stress on the alternative sources of mana so that each other source must be as productive as possible. Volcanic Island is just that - it's a workhorse. This deck wants both red and blue in the first turns. Beyond that, the next question becomes: What else? Since Black is the third color, the question narrows down to:"Underground Sea, Badlands, or both?" In an effort to minimize the number of non-broken lands, we decided to run only one black-producing land, with fetchlands to get it.

In the first turns of the games, you will need red for Welders more often than you'll need blue for draw-sevens, or Meditates, so Badlands is the land to use. Additionally, what number of fetchlands? We have settled comfortably on four Volcanic Islands, one Badlands, and five fetchlands. The lone basic Island is obviously here to support the blue spells with Blood Moon in play.

When combined with four Workshops, and Academy, this is somewhat reminiscent of GAT. One of the worst mistakes people make is to have eight or more non-broken lands; this kind of deck design is not suitable at all to the explosive might and critical efficiency needed to be able to play around Mana Drain and Force of Will. Lands cluttering up your hand is just as lethal as not drawing enough or being the target of multiple Wastelands.

We won't give our personal sideboards, as those are really metagame-dependent. Blood Moon is a logical inclusion, as it fits very nicely into the concept as a mana hoser. It isn't free, though, because it does damage your mana base, too - but the price is trivial, considering it is almost always game for your opponent. Red Elemental Blast will stop opposing Hurkyl's Recall and Force of Will very nicely, and can kill Psychatog. It is a great tempo card, countering spells like Time Walk or an opposing draw-seven in an Academy deck. A sideboard filled with Blood Moons and Red Elemental Blasts is the key to beat Combo after sideboard. Rack and Ruin is a great weapon against Workshop-based decks such as TNT or $TAKS itself, and pretty useful against MaskNought. If you face a lot of Sligh or other burn-based decks like R/G Beats, Bottle Gnomes and Fire / Ice are good inclusions, as is the old Mirror Universe.

Part Ii: So How Do I Play The Deck?

A. The Guidelines
We've repeatedly emphasized the centrality of Sphere of Resistance and the conceptual premise of the deck as a prison deck. Generally, the idea of the deck is to 1) play more permanents than your opponent, and then 2) lock them down, or near as necessary, then 3) get Karn into play and swing for the kill within the space of a turn or two. With all lock or quasi-lock decks, the trick is achieving the lock. Once it is achieved and control is established, winning is usually a formality (however that doesn't justify using suboptimal cards such as Time Vault or Black Vise for reasons described in Part One).

Specifically, the ideal plan is to play a lock spell on turn 1, two key spells on turn 2 (Welder, draw-seven, or another lock part), and then a draw spell and another lock spell on turn 3 - or just another lock part, since you will likely feel the effects of your own Wires and Spheres. Spheres give you a permanent advantage, which you milk with Tangle Wires until you can complete the lock with a Smokestack and then a complete lock with active Welders. Once you have a Tangle Wire in play or an active Smokestack - try and cast Meditates as soon as possible to get your card advantage now. As a caveat, any weak or underpowered deck that you might face should constitute no threat. Most of the analysis that follows is based upon the assumption that the opponent is competent and the deck is strong.

Because of the high mana count, this deck can - but shouldn't - rely on topdecking. As a result, any player using $T4KS should place the most reliance on the opening hand for success.

The first step in every match is figuring out what you are playing against. If you don't know, then based upon the environment, and how well you have been doing in the tournament, take a guess at the general power level. If you are in the upper brackets of a fairly competitive tournament, play conservatively. If you are in round one of a tournament and your sit down across from a little kid, play liberally.

B. Taking The Opponent's Threats Into Account
Once you have chosen a hand, the next step is to simply decide the order... And you will see from an explanation of this aspect of the deck why going first is so important. There are a few cards that you always want to consider the impact of on your game plan.

First, Duress. If you are going first, the impact of Duress is dramatically lessened, because you'll have the possibility to play your key spells before they get Duressed, or to drop a first-turn Sphere. The first point to make is that you need to consider what a turn 1 Duress might do to your hand. If you are facing Suicide, it isn't ideal to keep a hand that is all land and one business spell, even if it could drive to broken things. As a function of having a very high mana base, an efficiently built deck, and a narrow pool of critical cards, Duress is a threat. It's probably less of a threat, for those very reasons, in a lesser version of this deck, such as something like Ducktape.

Another card that affects the early development and play of this deck is Force of Will. Similarly to dealing with Duress, the best solution is simply overwhelming the opponent by playing more spells than they can deal with very quickly. However, Force of Will comes out at you even if you play first! As a result, explosiveness and efficiency become more important. If you suspect that your opponent might have a Force of Will in their hand, either due to the deck they are playing (four Forces in a sixty-card deck means a 40% chance of having one in the opening hand), or because they just Brainstormed (increasing those odds to 46%), the advice is to stop and think. Look at your hand and decide which spells are the most important, the order that different cards might be played in, and how efficiently you might do so (meaning are you wasting mana or maximizing its use?).

What you need to do is some cost/benefit decisions. You need to 1) look at what you are playing against, 2) decide how good or effective certain cards are versus that deck, and 3) assuming you have the mana to cast several cards, but only enough to cast one, decide which of the spells are most likely to be countered - and then play a spell that must be countered, but is less important.

Let's walk through an example.

Suppose you have Workshop, a Mox, Volcanic Island, Smokestack, Sphere, Tangle Wire, and a Meditate in your opening hand. Assume with 100% certainty that your opponent is playing GroAtog and has a Force of Will in hand. What spell do you cast?

This a tough call. I could see playing the Wire to bait out Force of Will; if they don't counter it, outside of the Force they may be unable to counter things in the future. However, your Workshop will be tapped down the next turn. However, you will go, Volcanic Island, Mox, Sphere - which they will surely then Force. The Smokestack seems like the best play because if they Force of Will it, fine - next turn you have Tangle Wire and Sphere! If it isn't countered, you have that next turn anyway and they will start losing permanents.

One more factor that needs to enter your analysis is how well you have been doing so far. If you are up a game, you would probably play the Sphere because the risk is worth sealing the deal right there. No one said playing this deck was easy. And it is rare that you'll play a deck that doesn't have Force of Will in it, but the explosive power of this deck outweighs the risk.

There is little point for us to go into detail with such decisions as this, as you will be able to make them better by using your knowledge and common sense, rather than by adhering to a rigid rule. Particularly, with the matchup analysis described in the next Part you should be well equipped to make those decisions. The important point is to remember that consideration of whether the opponent has a Force of Will should not be ignored and we have provided some guidelines. Just remember, that Sphere plus Tangle Wire can effectively shut out your opponent's ability to play Force of Will; then you can play spells without fear of it.

While Force of Will and Duress are harmful for $T4KS, they only hurt in that they stop one spell; Mana Drain is far more devastating. It actively helps your opponent break free of your lock and cast multiple spells. This suggests that more cost/benefit analysis needs to be employed. So play smart and carefully, and you will succeed. Knowledge is half the battle.

Aggro is a different situation, but generally easier. The disruption you will face from aggro decks is likely to come from mana denial (Wasteland) and hand destruction (Duress), and possibly even artifact destruction with cards like Gorilla Shaman and Naturalize. Sphere of Resistance is just as strong, even more so with a Tangle Wire in play. Smokestack is certainly slower, but recall that these decks are less deadly (with the exception of MaskNaught), plopping down weenies who will nip and peck at you... But in the end, Smokestack and friends will clean them up even if it costs you a bit of your life total. Most of the decisions are relatively straightforward: Play the lock spells, and then use the draw sevens aggressively in order to maximize your permanent advantage and your lock spells. One of the worst things that an aggro deck can do is harm the mana base and prevent you from playing your spells.

One additional point worth mentioning is this deck's flexibility. If, for some reason, Karn has been Swords to Plowshared, that is hardly a problem. The Triskelion is an excellent win condition, and using Memory Jar to deck your opponent is equally viable and simple once the lock has been achieved.

C. Rule Note: How To Deal With The Stack And Upkeep
You will be amazed to find out that the rules of Magic help make this deck more broken and make the lock cards more of a burden on your opponent while less of a burden for you! Provided you know them, that is. Here is a good summary of the really important rules you have to know.

1) You Control How Your Lock Parts Resolve On Your Upkeep
You can manipulate the Smokestacks and the Tangle Wires so that you have to sack less permanents, while you do the opposite for your opponent so that they lose access to more permanents.

At the beginning of each player's upkeep, several effects will be triggered: The sacrifice to Smokestack, tapping permanents to Tangle Wire, as well as the Fading of Tangle Wire at your upkeep. The rule governing this is the following:

"If multiple abilities have triggered since the last time a player received priority, pseudospells controlled by the active player go on the stack first, in any order he or she chooses, then those controlled by the opponent go on the stack in any order that opponent chooses." (Comprehensive Rules, 410.3)

Remember this rule! It means, that, during either our turn, or our opponent's one, we are always responsible for the way effects will be put on the stack! The best thing to do is obviously to maximize the effects of our Tangle Wire and Smokestack for our opponent, and to minimize them for us. During our turn, you'll stack the effects as shown above:

TOP
Fade of Tangle Wire
Tap a permanent by counter on Tangle Wire
Sacrifice a permanent from the counter on Smokestack
Add a counter on Smokestack
BOTTOM

We resolve following the last-in,"first-out" rule, with number 4. The reason fading goes on the stack last is because we only want to have to tap down as few permanents on our turn as possible. However, you put fading on the stack first if there are zero counters on Tangle Wire - that way you can sac it to Smokestack while fading is on the stack. In this precise case, it is more interesting to stack like this:

TOP
Sacrifice a permanent by counter on Smokestack
Tap a permanent by counter on Tangle Wire
Fade of the depleted Tangle Wire
Add a counter on Smokestack
BOTTOM

And we can sacrifice the useless Tangle Wire to Smokestack before it is destroyed by its own Fading.

Another benefit of stacking the triggered effects like this is that you only sacrifice tapped permanents.

So in summary:

• You should only sacrifice tapped permanents if possible
• Stack fading first if you have zero counters on a Tangle Wire
• Otherwise stack fading last so that you will tap as few permanents as possible
• Always put"adding a Smokestack counter" on the stack first so that you won't have to sacrifice another permanent of your own unless you choose to.

2) You Stack Your Lock Parts On Your Opponents Upkeep
Remember, Rule 410.3 says that you control the order in which your lock parts go on the stack on your opponent's turn. On their upkeep, declare that you are first going to put your Wires on the stack first, then your Smokestack. More precisely, it will look like this:

TOP
Sacrifice a permanent by counter on Smokestack
Tap a permanent by counter on Tangle Wire
BOTTOM

That way it will resolve like this, if nothing else is added to the stack:
Smokestack resolves: Your opponent sacrifices a permanent.
Tangle Wire Resolves: Your opponent then taps their permanents.

This way, they cannot tap permanents to Wire and then sacrifice them to Smokestack!!

So the point to remember is that your opponent will sacrifice permanents before tapping to Tangle Wires.

Stacking the effects correctly is a gymnastics which can prove sometimes delicate (I am at the beginning of my upkeep, I have two Smokestack and three Tangle Wire on board; that is ten effects to stack in the right order); it is thus essential to master this step correctly. But it is much easier than it looks. Just remember, again, to stack the Wires first, and the Smokestack last during their turn so that the Smokestack resolves first.

Part III: Matchup Analysis

A. AGGRO

Sligh or R/G Beatz
The best thing these decks can do is throw burn at you at instant speed, playing around Tangle Wire, and Waste your mana base... But Sphere of Resistance will shut them down. Because of the Wastelanding and Gorilla Shaman, Yawgmoth's Will will prove potent, replenishing your effort with more mana and possibly lock components hit by Naturalize. Even if they pack burn, don't hesitate to drop an early Goblin Welder: You don't really rely on a Goblin in the first turns, and they'll have to burn it, giving you some additional time to build the lock. Most of the time, they'll be able to drop some cheap critters before you settle a first lock, but Triskelion is very strong here.

If you face a lot of Sligh, make room for Bottle Gnomes in your sideboard, as a comfortable life buffer should anything go awry.

Suicide Black
Again, Null Rod can be a pain in the ass, but Suicide is something like GroAtog, except with discard instead of counterspells and land destruction instead of cantrips. It has a very light mana base and some cheap, efficient creatures, meaning that an early Sphere will be really good, as will Tangle Wire, as Suicide only packs sorcery-speed spells, giving you time to play the Smokestack. Getting a Welder on the board quickly is nice, because it will nullify Suicide's most potent weapons: Hymn to Tourach and Hypnotic Specter (which they will probably side out in Games 2 and 3 if they are smart). The maindeck is fine to deal with Suicide, so there should be no Suicide hoser in the sideboard.

Masknaught
This deck is very interesting because it can play Illusionary Mask, which effectively negates the Spheres when they're playing critters. However, your Goblin Welders are an utter wrecking ball, which in combination with Karns or draw-sevens (thus depositing Moxen in their graveyard) provide you with a relatively easy win. Don't forget that if they have a Phyrexian Dreadnought in the graveyard, you can Weld it into any artifact and effectively kill that artifact. The only danger is if they have already been able to beat you for twelve, and then they only have a little ways to go with Phyrexian Negators to finish you off.

However, once you've taken the combo from them, winning is much easier. There are a few cards you need to watch out for besides the Mask: Yawgmoth's Will will eliminate their graveyard and thus Welder tricks. Rack and Ruin is a good sideboard card, effectively speeding up the usage of Welders and shutting down multiple cards for one - also denying them mana.

TNT (Tools and Tubbies)
This is one of the more interesting matchups. There has been a fragmentation of this archetype into variant forms; some versions use Tangle Wires, while others do not. But one thing is certain: Triskelion is key because getting more permanents into play is the solution to winning this matchup, and dealing with opponent's Welder is crucial. Karn is nice as a big wall against fatties and as mana denial, speeding up your Welders and denying them Welder tricks with Survival of the Fittest. Your Welders are also significant threats to their deck. Even with Tangle Wire and Sphere in play they can abuse Survival, but they may not be able to get any permanent advantage on the board out of it without their little 1/1s.

B. Control

Nether Void
They can Duress and Hymn to Tourach you, but you'll be interested to know that this is just a very weak Suicide Black deck against you. Sure, the Sinkholes hurt and the Wastelands are rude, but the only card you have to realistically worry about is Nantuko Shade, since they get around Spheres once in play and then the Void player can try to cast Nether Void.

Triskelion is very strong, and it is matchups like this that remind us how nice it is not to have to face Force of Will. Additionally, it is very interesting to see how they may not Hymn to Tourach you or attack with Hypnotic Specter if you have an active Welder in play (at least if they're smart), which is something you should try to do as soon as possible even if it's not needed.

Parfait
Aura of Silence is really painful - but this, in addition to some Duress in the Evil Parfait and some Seal of Cleansing, are the only weapons Parfait has to deal with $T4KS Game 1. Parfait runs maindecked Swords to Plowshares, Moat, Humility, and Wrath of God... And all those cards have little-to-no impact on $T4KS. After sideboarding, the worst things Parfait can bring in are Sacred Grounds, nullifying your Smokestacks, and additional artifact hate in the form of Abolish, but you should be able to play around this. At least you have time to settle your mana base and your lock, as Parfait is really slow. Play carefully and try to negate their ability to abuse Land Tax.

Keeper
Against most decks, Smokestack is the weaker link. Against this deck it is at least on par with the other lock parts. Keeper will Wasteland the hell out of you and Plow your Welders. Just expect that. Because of the Wastelands and the importance of Smokestack, you'll really get a huge boost out of Yawgmoth's Will - often bringing back Academy and a tremendous number of other permanents. This is one deck that you won't get to use your Welders early on, but dropping a Welder is useful because Keeper will waste cards to deal with it most of the time. Advantage becomes important, as you'll be racing against numerous land drops. This deck can't Force as frequently as Rector Trix does however, but you'll have to play around Mana Drain, as feeding a Cunning Wish for Shattering Pulse is pain.

Hulk Smash
The card to worry about here is Mana Drain - because they Drain into more broken stuff than Keeper, considering that Keeper has lowered its count of Drain sinks - and Cunning Wish, with broken targets against us. Hulk Smash is a pretty good matchup for $T4KS, but Hulk can win games, mostly drawing into both Force of Will and Duress into their opening hand. The good thing is that Hurkyll's Recall hurts really less in this matchup than against GAT, because it won't really set Hulk up to keep what it needs off the board. After sideboarding, Blood Moon, in conjunction with active Welders and Smokestack, is a real problem for Hulk. However, Pernicious Deed is quite Pernicious if they manage enough luck to resolve it.

Mono-U And UrPhidian
Mono-U has little to no way to deal with your permanents on the board, except the really slow Powder Keg. Tangle Wire and Sphere of Resistance will prevent Mono-U from using his hard and pitch counters or tap his Ophidians, and so are really strong. UrPhidian has good weapons to deal with your threats (Fire/Ice and Cunning Wish for Rack and Ruin or Shattering Pulse), but you still should manage to win pretty easily thanks to your brokenness and your high threat density, overwhelming their counters.

C. Combo
Perhaps the biggest turn-off to this deck early on in testing was how poorly it performed against our combo gauntlet. We have fixed that problem thanks to our sideboard choices.

Academy
Playing second against Academy spelled doom for this deck. However, our adjustments to the sideboard have dramatically altered this matchup to a very favorable matchup, with four Blood Moon and four Red Elemental Blast. When playing first, a first turn Sphere is as akin to a resolved Sphere against GroAtog: Auto-Win.

Rector Trix
This was an equally disappointing matchup. We have tested cards as narrow as Chains of Mephistopholes specifically as an answer to Yawgmoth's Bargain, and cards such as Tormod's Crypt or Phyrexian Furnace to act as a Stifle on the Rector. In the end, the most potent strategy has been to up the Blood Moon count in the sideboard to turn this match around.

Conclusion
$T4KS is likely to be the choice of deck for Gencon, or any other Type One tournament, if it is likely to be unprepared for. This deck's true flaw is that there are many single-card strategies where a few sideboard slots can devastate this deck's chances. However, the removal of Gush from the environment will pull and tug T1 into different directions and create uncertainty. In the end, $T4KS' two worst matchups turned out to be GATr and Rector Trix... And one of those decks is leaving the environment. But even in a field of hate, cards like Divert can redirect critical non-blue hosers. $T4KS is definitely a contender and an incredibly strong deck, demoralizing the opponent while you are winning. Abuse it or be prepared.

Stephen Menendian (Smmenen on The Mana Drain)
Smmenen@Lycos.com
I'd like to thank Kevin Cron, and Matthieu who have been invaluable to this deck's development and this article. I'd also like to thank everyone else who tested: Jameson, and Chris Stevenson. Thanks Guys.

If you haven't checked it out yet, check out my Masknaught article and the GAT article.

Matthieu Durand (Toad on The Mana Drain)
Toad95@free.fr
I'd like to thank Kevin Cron and Jameson Orndorff (Team Mean-Deck) for their help during the tuning of the deck; Benoit"Pumpking" Foucard, Alexandre"ShivanKnight" Ly, Christian"Festen" Margris and Sébastien"Sagoth" Pedrini (French T1 players) for IRL and online testing; and Stefan"Womprax" Iwasienko for general discussions about the Type One decks and metagame.