Lands:
3
Bad River
4 Undiscovered Paradise
7 Forest
5 Island
6 Swamp
Creatures:
None
Other Spells:
4
Cadaverous Bloom
1 Drain Life
1 Elven Cache
1 Emerald Charm
4 Impulse
4 Infernal Contract
2 Memory Lapse
4 Natural Balance
1 Power Sink
4 Prosperity
4 Squandered Resources
1 Three Wishes
4 Vampiric Tutor
SIDEBOARD
3 City of Solitude
4 Elephant Grass
1 Elven Cache
3 Emerald Charm
1 Memory Lapse
1 Power Sink
2 Wall of Roots |
   Wishing
Well (ProsBloom).
Description of deck by someone @
www.wizards.com
(quoted):
 Mike
Long won PT Paris in 1997 with one of the most innovative decks in the
history of Magic. This deck taught us much about how to correctly build
decks of a particular plan, and its principles continue to guide design
today. If you don't know how Mike's deck works, its goal is to power out
a lethal Drain Life as the last spell. Typically this is done by having
a Cadaverous Bloom in play and enough cards in hand to make sufficient
black mana to kill the opponent. Cards in hand are fueled by Prosperity
and Infernal Contract. Cadaverous Bloom, for its part, gets in play as
early as turn three with the help of Squandered Resources and Natural
Balance. One of the pureset combinations in the deck, Squandered
Resources on turn two would imply the four mana necessary to cast
Natural Balance... as well as a full ten mana from the (first) Natural
Balance. This would be followed up by another Natural Balance (if
available), or just a move into the Cadaverous Bloom portion of the play
sequence.
Mike's deck differed from many later combo decks by its "engine" nature.
It started off with a Squandered Resources and moved on, sequence by
sequence, building mana, building card advantage and cards in hand,
until it reached a critical mass, often drawing through the entire
library with mana to spare. Because it didn't always have a perfect
draw, the Cadaverous Bloom deck had help moving from play to play. It
had Impulse and Vampiric Tutor to search up every necessary combination
piece along the way, and card drawing to ensure that the next component
would be available, all the way to the Drain Life at the end.
Cadaverous Bloom wasn't a particularly difficult deck to play, but it
rewarded many skills. Capable of "going off" as early as turn three
under pressure, the deck became more consistent as turns went by. The
best Bloom players could milk Natural Balance against control, resolving
it like a string of Thermokarsts on the opponent's developed mana base.
They knew what cards to fight over with their permission spells, and
when they had to push for a win against beatdown players.
Now Mike's deck was notorious because it required so many parts to
function. Most combinations work with just three components.
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