So I made the preposterous suggestion that the rise of Psychatog in tournament play was due to the subconscious desire of the pros to play with super-creatures.
Sadly, this time I'm going to have to criticise the pros. The fact of the matter is, pro Magic isn't cool or interesting enough to be mainstream. Granted, I'm not sure if it ever could be... But it's certainly not living up to its potential.
Sure, it's improving. With the rise of Sideboard Online, us peons of the world are getting a great deal more tournament coverage. We know what's going on in the tournament scene.
Sure, that's good - but what the game needs is variation. At the moment, it's all about the metagame. You need to be playing the deck that beats whatever everyone else is playing. Wouldn't it be cooler if Kai Budde always played goblins? If Alex Shvartsman always finished with Hypnox? (Nothing makes me more happy than the fact that"Jon Finkel loved Ophidian" seems to be general knowledge in the Magic community) Of course, this isn't going to happen... Not if Kai Budde or Alex Shvartsman want to win any matches, anyway.
Go on, drop them a line. See if they want to improve their popularity. I'm not holding up much hope, though.
This mist of stagnation in the pro scene has led to some pro players making impulsive maneuvers to retain their individuality. I mean, what else could explain Peter Szigeti's coat (if that is indeed what it was)?
Magic's pro scene needs to be more interesting. It needs more variation in the decks that are used.
Now, I don't know how to fix this - frankly, I don't know if it can be fixed. I'm sure you could change card restrictions so that you couldn't play four copies of each card, but even in my radical opinion that's not an option.
I guess the fun of bizarre theme decks will have to be left for casual play. Plus, some of them can be pretty good. Rebels was the key a few years back, and I've encountered variations of Trenches that are pretty close to being theme decks.
I'm not just talking about creature type theme decks here. You can run almost any kind of theme deck, no matter how bizarre. Every other week I run a theme deck (or rather, try to) for the current theme week on Magicthegathering.com. Over the past few months, I've had a common theme deck, land destruction theme deck, cephalid theme deck, and many more.
Creature Type
The creature type theme deck is probably the most common and best supported by Wizards. Throw in a few dozen creatures, some spells that complement those creatures, then shuffle and go.
There are a hefty number of cards out there supporting this kind of deck. The lords are perfect and pretty sick in multiplayer. Goblin King is legendary, and everyone loves Lord of Atlantis. Newer entries in this category include both Balthors (although neither makes the cut to be as good as Goblin King or Lord of Atlantis), who does his funky thing for Barbarians and Minions.
The envoys from Apocalypse are pretty fiendish, though fairly rubbish when not in their respective theme deck. Searching the top few cards of your deck and gaining two or three cards is pretty neat. Brass Herald does effectively the same thing, fitting into any creature based theme deck for some extra whoomph.
A more recent and particularly interesting example of a cycle of cards are the three mono-colour casting cost creatures from Odyssey Block that require you to tap a creature of their supported type for an effect.
Creature themes will always be supported by Wizards and you can anticipate meeting a lot of goblin, merfolk, elf, soldier, zombie, cephalid or squirrel decks in your casual play games.
So what could we be seeing that would boost creature theme decks in Magic?
These are a bunch of creatures I devised originally as a suggestion of how to handle super-creatures, but they fit in better here.
Mob of Goblins
1R
Creature - Goblin
1/1
Tap, Sacrifice a Goblin : Put X +1/+1 counters on Mob of Goblins, where X is the power of the sacrificed Goblin.
Horde of Zombies
3B
Creature - Zombie
2/2
1B: Regenerate
Tap, Sacrifice a Zombie : Put X +1/+1 counters on Horde of Zombies, where X is the power of the sacrificed Zombie.
Army of Soldiers
3W
Creature - Soldier
1/3
Army of Soldiers doesn't tap to attack.
Tap, Sacrifice a Soldier : Put X +1/+1 counters on Army of Soldiers, where X is the power of the sacrificed Soldier.
Flock of Birds
2UU
Creature - Bird
2/2
Flying
Tap, Sacrifice a Bird : Put X +1/+1 counters on Flock of Birds, where X is the power of the sacrificed Bird.
Mass of Wurms
4GG
Creature - Wurm
5/5
Tap, Sacrifice a Wurm : Put X +1/+1 counters on Mass of Wurms, where X is the power of the sacrificed Wurm.
Mechanic Themes
Any mechanic will do. Land destruction, life gain, creature removal. For me, mechanics like these prove the most interesting ones. Exactly how do you build a win condition into a land destruction deck while keeping the theme? Steam Vines, while admittedly rubbish, does deal damage, and Dwarven Driller is a pretty nifty land destruction creature that fits with the theme. While mechanic theme decks are generally unsupported, and admittedly difficult to do, they can be made to work. Just not very well.
Of course, you can do it with things like flashback (probably one of the few supported mechanic themes - Quiet Speculation anyone?) because you can abuse your graveyard, threshold for the same reason, and madness because you can abuse discard. These are examples of mechanic themes that can be easily abused and made to work. Domain fits into pretty much the same category. Other things, like Haste, Trample, and Kicker costs just work (it is pretty difficult to abuse some of the mechanics to the extent of flashback/threshold) because these all provide some sort of win conditions.
Cantrips fit somewhere in between; I've used a cantrip theme deck that's pretty nasty, but found it difficult to win with (things like Aven Fisher I count as following the cantrip theme and provide some strength to the deck). Life gain has been boosted by the introduction of Test of Endurance, so more life gain theme decks are possible.
What I'd like to see is Wizards supporting these kinds of decks with something like the following (yes, I know, this kind of thing has already been done).
Circle of Life
1W
Enchantment
Whenever you gain life, you may pay 1W. If you do so, you gain an additional 3 life. You may use this ability only once per turn.
Circle of Fire
2R
Enchantment
Whenever a land is put into any graveyard from play, you may pay 1RR. If you do so, destroy target land. You may use this ability only once per turn.
Circle of Growth
GG
Enchantment
Whenever you search your library for a land to put that land into play, you may pay 2G. If you do so, search your library for an additional land and put that land into play tapped. You may use this ability only once per turn.
Circle of Knowledge
3U
Enchantment
Whenever you draw a card, you may pay 2U. If you do so, draw an additional card. You may use this ability only once per turn. You may not use this ability during your draw phase.
Circle of Death
3BB
Enchantment
Whenever a creature is put into any graveyard from play, you may pay 4B. If you do so, destroy target creature. You may use this ability only once per turn.
Quote Theme Decks
This is an interesting possibility to me. They're basically decks built around a character or figure in the Magic plot line. You use any cards that have flavor text quoted by the character, art featuring the character, a name referring to the character, or cards related to the character by the plot. For instance, a Laquatus deck could utilise Laquatus' Champion, Envelop, Keep Watch, or Laquatus's Disdain. You have to admit, this type of deck does have some pretty interesting possibilities. I'm still struggling to base one around the unsung hero of Odyssey Block - The Cabal Grave Robber.
Remember, with a theme, the sky's the limit. The theme can be as simple, complicated, obvious, obscure, sane or wacky as you like. Generally, as with everything in life, the stranger the better. The suggestions I've mentioned here are just the tip of the iceberg, anything goes as long as you can explain the theme.
As usual, send your opinions, thoughts and complaints to thesimproject@hotmail.com.
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