(Editor's Note: Frequently we will get submissions that try to tell us how good a"bad deck" is. Sometimes they are right, and sometimes they are completely off-base. With that in mind, I'm starting a new article tag called"Food For Thought." These articles will still be published as strategy, but when you read them you should recognize that they are testing wild, rogue ideas that work according to the author, or the decks that are discussed provide interesting builds that may not be rigorously tested, but perhaps exhibit a decent foundation for future decks.

(Doing this allows us to continue publishing crazy decks like the one below while acknowledging that they may not be ready for primetime. After all, you never know when the next Trix deck will be discovered, or when Dream's Grip and Twiddle will become the catalysts for the latest rendition of Mind's Desire decks.)

The Intro
In almost 10 years of playing Magic on and off I've had a handful of Top 8s and a fistful of Top 16s. Always the bridesmaid's bridesmaid. I have played in one Pro Tour. New York 2001. Yep that's a Team PT. I rode a Spiritmonger, two Serpentine Kavus, an Armadillo Cloak, and my teammates to a 6-1 record at the PTQ.

At the PT, my team - SKG (forcibly redacted by Wizards goons from the silly yet apparently R rated"Sofa King Good") was 3-0! Then 3-2. Then 4-3. That last loss was for Day 2. We played Slay Pillage Massacre. Yep those guys for elimination. Sad day. The other two matches were split.

My match was last and in game 3, I had control with a Meteor Storm in play and some fatties holding down the ground. I had two lands in hand and for some unknown reason, I decided to chuck them at my opponent's head when he was at seventeen. Next turn I draw a huge monster - Penumbra Wurm. Wiping the drool from my chin, I look down to start a'tappin, but I am one land short. I remember having lands in my hand... WTF? Oh, I threw them at my opponent for absolutely no reason. Okay... Frown.

My opponent proceeds to play a Faerie Squadron, then a Razorfoot Griffin, then a Shackles on my only attacker. Potential Day 2 and possible thousands of dollars down the drain. Oh well. You live, you learn, you die. Since then I have played less and less frequently. I have a"not-horrible-but-not-all-that" 1700+ rating in Magic Online from the odd draft. The last sanctioned event I played was the Eighth Edition Prerelease, where I lost in the Top 8 to Blaze, Shivan Dragon, Pyrotechnics shenanigans. Since then I have still kept up with the Magic scene, followed the story that is called PT: Tinker and played some digitally enabled games on Magic Workstation. So this is my story. I'm bad, but determined not to be.

The Problem
Extended is Standard's Evil Twin, pinstripe moustache and all. The format is pure evil and out to kill the game. It's tried. Oh yeah, it has. Remember the Trix fiasco? When gaining twenty life and casting Donate actually happened in sanctioned games of Magic? Yeah, I've tried to forget too.

How about multiple sets of High Tide (a bad Fallen Empires card) gumming up Top 8 decklists? Now Metalworker tapping for eight mana, untapping and tapping for eight more, Bosh, Iron Golem, Tangle Wire, Stroke of Genius for five cards. On the third turn! I'm not an expert, but in Magic lingo I'm pretty sure that's about as close to signs of the apocalypse as we are gonna get. Tinker isn't just a card it's a verb and it's what Extended is doing to our game. Trying to sacrifice this beautiful little game for a huge Juggernaut of pure combo.

As Adrian Sullivan suggested in his recent article, the mana is a bigger problem than the scapegoat of a sorcery. Tinker is the fall guy. The Lee Harvey Oswald of Extended, if you will. The real problems in Extended are Grim Monolith, Ancient Tomb, and the Proletariat (Metalworker). These guys are the money and the power. Tinker is a patsy. Oh, he's not innocent. Not altogether, but without the backing of the mana, he's just a good card - damn good... but not the assassin of Pro Tour dreams he is today.

The Setup (Let's Get Serious)
So my idea is crazy. I'm a wack job and my deck is a pile. See, I have a genetic disorder. No, not the bad kind. Well, it's actually a matter of opinion. I have a propensity to not want to conform. Why do I do it? I don't know. I know what I need to do to win. I know what will give me the best chances. But I don't want a netdeck. I want to go"Old Blue Eyes" on people. Unfortunately, my way apparently sucks. Sucks Bad.

So the other day, I was trying to not conform some more and wanted to come up with something dominant that would crush Tinker and the Clock. And I think to myself, Rune of Protection: Artifact. That card wrecks Belcher. And ooh look, Isochron Scepter plus Orim's Chant seems pretty funny. Hey what's that? Enlightened Tutor can fetch both Scepter and the Rune? Well, by golly we got ourselves a lee-jitimit idee-er here folks!

I then tossed in a couple other silver bullets and suddenly I had the makings of a deck that could defend itself pretty well against Tinker, but had zero win conditions. So I tossed some in and viola! The deck was born. I considered Blue for while after seeing that was the consensus"other color" in this deck, but adding all those cards would kill the consistency and finesse. It just feels right. Here is the deck, followed by some highlights from testing. You'll have to forgive my non-scientific, poorly documented results. All I can say is, to my recollection, this is a pretty accurate portrayal of what occurred. Take it or leave it.

4 Weathered Wayfarer
4 True Believer
4 Enlightened Tutor
4 Isochron Scepter
4 Orim's Chant
4 Raise the Alarm
3 Decree of Justice
3 Disenchant
2 Seal of Cleansing
1 Rune of Protection: Artifact
1 Damping Matrix
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Worship
4 Rishadan Port
4 Chrome Mox
4 Cloudpost
1 Dustbowl
1 Kor Haven
10 Plains

Sideboard
4 Exalted Angel
4 Silver Knight
2 Damping Matrix
1 Seal of Cleansing
1 Rune of Protection: Artifacts
2 COP Red
1 Grindstone

Tinker
Basically you want to see Enlightened Tutor and a Disenchant in your opening hand. If you don't get either or a silver bullet, it's probably mulligan time. Obviously, the exception to this is a first-turn Scepter with Chant in hand. Anyhow, in a large number (more than twenty) of games vs Tinker-like decks on Magic Workstation and in real life, I won three of every four games.

There are so many cards that are good in this matchup. A cool trick is to let them float some mana, Upheaval, then chant. If they don't have a sink they're gonna burn. It happens often. The only way they beat me the vast majority of the time was after they knew my deck and played a Chalice of the Void for 2. This wrecks me. The other two losses I specifically remember not due to cards named"Chalice" were due to me not having a Chant when they cast Upheaval.

The Clock
The Clock was almost a bye. In ten games, I only lost once. A Duress caught my Rune and I didn't draw a tutor for the Damping Matrix, one of my five artifact kill cards, or a True Believer and I died on turn 4. Probably should have mulliganned that game... The Believer gives you an extra turn, and it may be enough when you have five artifact removal spells in the maindeck. The added bonus here is that the Believer stops any Mindslaver shenanigans. To be fair, I didn't play any sideboarded games vs this deck. I looked over a couple of lists and didn't see anything too scary or interesting. Adding some more bounce may curve the matchup slightly towards their favor, but more Matrices should cancel that out.

Goblins
I played a lot of games vs. Goblins both before and after sideboard. I can say with a good deal of assurance that they don't have a chance once you add in your critters and Circles of Protection. In the first game though, it's almost impossible to stop their assault. It's so bad that I want to add a Rune of Protection: Red to the main but haven't gotten around to testing it and seeing whether it makes a difference. Games 2 and 3 are just the opposite. Being able to tutor for a Circle of Protection: Red and a boatload of solid critters to put up a good fight, equals a very good post-sideboard match-up vs Goblins.

Sideboarding gets tricky here, but I found the following to be a good way to handle it:

Take out three Disenchants, Damping Matrix, ROP Artifact, two Isochron Scepters, and the three Decrees. Side in the four Exalted Angels, four Silver Knights, and two COPs.

You need Seal of Cleansing vs random lethal artifacts/enchantments. Namely Ensnaring Bridge, if they side it in, which they probably won't. The Decrees are too slow to keep. Because of the increase in early drops and decrease in Iso-Instants, the Scepter isn't as big in this matchup after board. The thing is, if you get it first or second turn, it's good. Otherwise, you'd rather it be an Angel, Knight, or the COP, whereas the sideboard cards are never bad. Plus if they see one game 1, they will definitely add artifact removal after boarding. The Scepter was the toughest cut, but I feel everything else is essential.

I also sided out two Weathered Wayfarers to keep the Scepters in a couple of games, but I like to gum the ground vs Goblins and you can never have too many creatures. They have no answer to turn 1 Silver Knight. They might have an out though for turn 2 Scepter. Nevertheless, I could see you sideboarding the Wayfarers instead of Scepters.

Tog/Oath
Tog and Oath. Also Known As Problem and Problemer. I can put up a fight. Well maybe you wouldn't call it a fight. It's more like dropping on your back and flailing your legs around trying to get a lucky hit against a guy with a gun. Some people call that a death wish... I choose to think of it as creative tactics.

Crazy as it sounds, I actually have the advantage late-late game because I can power a huge Decree and kill me opponent in one turn. Unfortunately, they can usually kill me, Stifle my Decree, or Iso-lock me well before that point. After sideboarding, I bring in all the men and the Matrices for the Scepters (because theirs are much better), Tutors, ROP, and one Raise the Alarm and go for broke. Although I can squeak out a win here and there with a uber-draw, both these matchups sucks for me.

I am almost a lock to play this at the local pre-banning Extended PTQ. I would suggest any non-conformers test a couple of games against Tinker at the very least just to get a feel for something new. I would like to invite anyone who has any suggestions or feedback, hate mail or love letters to please post them in the forums. As it stands I have two issues I would like to open discussion up with.

How can I stop Chalice? I have considered a couple of options, like Abolish replacing a Disenchant in the maindeck, but I'm keeping an open mind. What do you think?

How can I help my match-up against Control? This is the deck's kryptonite. How can I deal with this? I designed the deck to deal with the onslaught of Tinker decks, and it handles that admirably, but I'm at a loss as to how to fix these match-ups.

Well that's it. Hope you enjoyed the read.

Eugene Charron