This article was originally published on 5/24/05 and was in fact one of the first ten articles on Magic Deck Vortex.  In the spirit of Evil Combo Week, and considering the combos this article entails, I thought it was a perfect reprint for this week.  Just ignore some of the comments about the Kamigawa Block and Standard Legal-ness and read up on the decks and combos.  Thanks.  ~Streetz~

Since the release of Betrayers, my Johnny mind has been running non-stop. Mostly, because I have listened to the endless whining from Spikes who say that the Kamigawa block is “so underpowered” or “waste of cardboard.” In a never ending effort to prove those tourney goers wrong, I have taken a well known combo, Myr Landshaper and Splinter, and exploited it to both sides of the effect. Admittedly, I was ecstatic to see this cycle of cards reprinted. Sure, dual lands are interesting, and offer a benefit. However, few cards can be a Johnnies best friend, or worst enemy, all by themselves. One card could be the total focus of your winning combination, or the destroyer of your decks win condition. In regards to this particular pairing, my online persona has spoken out widely at every opportunity, because of its sheer strength. Below, are the pair of deck lists that I have come up with, Type two legal only because my collection and understanding is strongest there. First, a look at the combo itself (if you already understand the combo, feel free to move past this paragraph).

In order for this combo to work, you need at least four mana sources available, the Myr Landshaper in play untapped, and of course, Splinter in hand. First off, choose a land of a basic type that you would find annoying. Target it with the Myr Landshaper, overlapping its type with Artifact, in addition to Basic. From there, cast the Splinter, targeting the land that your Myr just reshaped for you. If it isn’t countered (a Johnnies annoyance), then target land will be removed from game. Following that, you pick up the library of the player who controlled the land, and proceed to remove all copies of that land from play. In addition, you do the same to their hand, and then their graveyard. Essentially, you have just removed there primary mana source from their deck, leaving them with whatever they have in play, and any other lands they had, including lands of basic types other then the one you target.

Now, back to the deck lists. With this particular combo, there is the obvious choice of targeting your opponents lands. In “So You Hate Me,” a Blue/Green deck that was a collaboration between several posters of the Wizards boards, particularly DragonKngt, who offered the deck concept, and myself. Through this, the deck was slowly shifted to the point of forcing the opponent to concede, in the condition where all of their lands have been removed from play, and whatever is left keep getting bounced back into their hands. Aside from the combo, this deck utilizes deck manipulation in the forms of Sakura-Tribe Elder, Wayfarers Bauble and Sensei’s Divining Top. Sakura-Tribe Elder and Wayfarers Bauble are mostly around to draw the land from your deck and into play, thus increasing the chance of drawing useful spells. Sensei’s Divining top, offers top-deck prevention, and will help you get to the other key parts of your deck rather than the annoying land flooding. For the control aspect, the deck provides Mana Leak and Boomerang, either of which can be tagged on to the Isochron Scepter. The Scepter, or “stick”, offers almost unlimited card advantage. Costs two cards, and an investment of two mana. Once you have used the stick three times, you will have pure advantage for every consecutive use, with only the loss of the mana investment. Now, to help with the deck survive, there is my favorite chump blocker, Steel Wall, one mana for a 0/4 blocker. To help return those spent cards to the hand, Miss Eternal Witness is around to return spent cards to your hand. The suggested sideboard that I have included, offers enough to add more control versus various threats.

So, we have seen the obvious application of the combo, but here is a little fun. The notion was revealed when DragonKngt complained about having faced a deck running Goblin Charbelcher, and getting burned after running the combo. Obviously, you want to take out the Charbelcher before hitting the land. Then there was epiphany. If Charbelcher can cause you that many problems, why not incorporate it into the combo. Now, the point is to target your own lands, and then Charbelcher your deck. The deck, appropriately titled “Why on earth?” is designed do that with using as little of the deck as possible. It only uses 20 basic lands, all forests. In doing so, it takes only one use of the Splinter to shoot off the deck. To help with the matter, our friends Sakura-Tribe Elder, Eternal Witness and Steel wall return from “So do you hate me?”, for the same reasons that they earned their spots there. To be honest, the only drastic change from the previous deck is the addition of Welding Jar and Naturalize. The former, to protect the vital parts of the combination, for free, and the latter to add a method of control to the deck, given the loss of blue. Vine Trellis makes a visit to help protect us, and offer an additional mana source.

A general thought on both decks, is my sheer inattention to the Sideboards, and again the fact that they are strictly type 2. The thing is, there is no way I can appropriately judge the condition of the meta that everyone plays in. They are composed of just a few cards that I thought might be needed to help protect the combo from a given threat. As for the type two thing, they are the cards I have. While my collection drifts back towards Ice Age, I found the interactions (and my own recollection) better suited to stay close to the current. Also, why should I list off a bunch of cards that many people haven’t seen. In all, this is only meant to be a general outline of a combo that I have fallen in love with. Hopefully, some of you will enjoy the beauty as well. If you do, then feel free to look me up on the Wizards boards. Name is Lone_Tracker, and that’s the deal.

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Articles Spotlights from 2008:
How to Win with Milling: A Guide to a Slow Painful Death
Memories of an Old Magic Player 10: The Outsiders Journal #3.
The Apprentice Magician, Part Three.
Class-Wars Deckbuilding Contest Results!
Tribal Coffee: The Smaller Tribes.
[Mini-Article] Controlling the Game: Without Blue.
Raiding the Dollar Bins: Return of the Vault Ninja.
A Fresh Perspective: Stasis - Part One.
More Evil Than Evil.
Memories of a Jarhead.

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