4 Uba Mask
3 Rackling
3 Avatar Of Will
4 Daring Apprentice
4 Fog Bank
4 Willbender
4 Propaganda
3 Brainstorm
3 Impulse
4 Wheel And Deal
3 Portent
21 Island |
 Uba
Mask.
Description of deck by it's author
(quoted):
Uba Mask. It replaces the draw step - so once
the Mask goes down, hand sizes will never increase until the Mask goes
away. Cards like The Rack become quite useful... But the Rack can only
target one opponent, which leaves everyone else at the table free to
pummel the heck out of you.
Fixing this in a multiplayer game requires something a bit more fragile,
but far more useful: a Rackling. This damages all of your opponents
during their upkeeps, rather than just a measly "target opponent." You
may also want something somewhat less fragile that you can use as a
bigger beatstick. Avatar of Will is a wonderful choice. Eventually,
someone will use up all the cards in their hand, no matter how many they
draw under the Mask. (Their hand size will become zero.... or naught.
Get the clever deck title now?) When that happens, your Avatar will go
from 6UU to UU to cast. You like that, don't you?
To make the Rackling more effective requires a card that I was told was
"the most useless card ever printed:" Wheel and Deal. (This comment was
made before One With Nothing came out.) With the Mask out, Wheel and
Deal essentially reads, "All opponents discard their hands. Remove the
top seven cards of their library from the game. Draw a card." Now
everyone has a hand size of zero. Suddenly, each Rackling you have is
hitting everyone for three points during their upkeep. Multiple
Racklings make it extra good. If you're still looking for a Mask, just
cast it and don't target any of your opponents; at least you still get
to draw a card.
Because you will be target boy once Uba Mask hits, you'll need some
protection for your guys. The first time I played this deck, the Mask
was immediately Shattered by one of my opponents who very wisely said,
"I don't know why that's in there, but there must be a reason. Get rid
of it." With the Uba Mask out, you won't have much use for normal
counterspells, since they'll be gone by the time your next turn comes
around. However, blue can also take care of this with both Daring
Apprentice and Willbender. Nothing says "Screw You" more than unmorphing
the Willbender to deflect a game-ending fireball back to its caster. In
case something does get out, use Temporal Adept to bounce it.
Now to get all of this stuff out, you will need some good defense. Blue
has this in Fog Bank and Propaganda. With one of each of these out, your
opponents will have to pay four to sneak one of their creatures through.
With multiples of either, things get very ugly, very fast.
Ensnaring Bridge will also work here. Once your hand is empty, creatures
with a power of greater than zero can't attack you. Unless your opponent
is playing with Carrion Ants or a Firebreathing Ornithopter, you should
be safe from critters.
Finally, to get all of this stuff in your hand will require some library
manipulation. Portent, Brainstorm, and Impulse are all good here.
They're cheap. Brainstorm followed by either one of the others is gravy.
Impulse puts a card directly into your hand. Portent replaces itself and
lets you dig three cards down in your library. If you've already got
everything you need, just go ahead and check out what your opponent is
getting and mess with their next draws.
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